Fresh Nutrient Dense Dinner

Max here... I want to write about the dinner I cooked tonight.

Not because it was some fabulous recipe.  I want to mention it because it came from a mentality shift I am going through.  We have been so busy lately between the Olive Harvest, and getting lots of new plants in the ground.  Then, a few weeks ago, our two kids got sick, and the cold hung on for several days before clearing up.  Eventually I got it too -- no fun, especially when there's so much to get done.  I can't call in sick and just tell the plants and weeds to stop growing for a few days.

My thought was "Why are we getting sick?  Don't we lead a pretty healthy lifestyle and fresh diet?"  Of course, I realize even the healthiest among us will get sick to some degree from time to time, but nonetheless it made me stop and rethink about what we've been eating lately.  I didn't like what I saw.

Can the farmer be too busy to eat his own food?  Sounds silly.  But I realized we were sliding down that slope.  Amidst all the to-do, we found we were eating more and more "quick foods."  Not your typical "quick food."  But things like more sandwiches made with Ezechiel bread, and a lot of eggs, since they cook up quickly.  I'm not saying that those are bad things to eat, but we weren't eating according to our dietary goals inspired by Weston A. Price, and the Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions.

We have a freezer full of our very own chickens, but we weren't finding time to make stock and chicken.  We do eat salads from our farm every day, but not as much kale, cilantro and parsley as we could be -- all green super foods that should be nourishing our bodies!

So today, I pulled one of those chickens out, and some extra chicken feet we had, and put it in the stock pot to simmer.  I walked the farm to see what I could pick fresh for tonight's dinner.  I took home Romaine Lettuce, Kale, Green Onions, Ripe Tomatoes, Parsley, Cilantro.  Tonight we enjoyed a large salad dressed with our own new olive oil (blog post on that coming soon!!).  We had rice cooked in nourishing chicken stock, with kale, cilantro, parsley, garlic and green onion.  We added the chicken to the rice, and at last we felt like we were once again eating a traditional, nourishing, delicious meal.  And we knew the story behind where it all came from.

​And we're going to do it again tomorrow!  Here's to picking up wherever you are, and doing one thing to put healthier, fresher food in our bodies, and connect with the story of that food and who grew it!

Fresh green onions and orchard raised chicken

Simmering chicken stock

Our own garlic

For those of you that want the "recipe", here it is:

Rice Cooked in Chicken Stock

2 cups rice (we use organic long grain brown)
4 cups chicken stock
Any amount of chicken meat (we use the meat from the carcass used to make stock)
2 Onions
4-6 cloves garlic
A little Butter
Several generous three-finger pinches of salt (we use Celtic Sea Salt.)

Saute the onions in butter until cooked, and salt them well.  Add the garlic and cook another couple minutes.  Add the rice, stock, salt and chicken, and bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 1-2 hours until the rice has soaked up all the stock.

Once the rice is done, add freshly chopped green onion, cilantro and parsley and serve.  Adding some lemon and butter or olive oil also helps.  Add salt if needed.