Butter update and confessions of a crap parent

Butter update: Since starting the kids on a no-sugar, no-refined grains, a la Nourishing Traditions,  just in time for the holidays seems ill-judged, I'm reigning in the butter consumption in the Pitkin-Kennedy household.

However, I'm fired up for January. Since I do have some trust issues with the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, I was very happy to find a source for similar information that appears more credible: http://www.traditional-foods.com/ It all seems a bit more scientifically and common sensically grounded.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking long and hard about homeschooling. In theory, I think it would be great for Forest.

Life looks different through doom colored glasses. (See this post to understand why I'm sporting a pair.) Glasses of doom do not, as one might expect, have drab depressing tints. In fact, they are rather psychedelic, intensifying perceptions and emotions. Especially when you first start wearing them, especially when what is doomed is Life As We Know It and involves lots of people dying. (Of course, the numbers of people who die depends on how quickly we can get our act together on cutting emissions. And even if we all stop driving and switch off our computers right now there will be more "extreme weather events" that will kill people. The longer we keep the devices, the cars, and the appliances on, the more people will die.) Whatever the case, these glasses are so intense most people shut their eyes and/or perform all manner of mental tricks to get them off. That response is

Two important things about eating lots of butter

All butters are not created equal, and I have been on a grueling quest to find the right butter for my family. Of course I want butter from raw milk, but I also want the best quality fats available. This means butter made out of grass.

Here are some of the butters to be found in our fridge:

As you can see, the large block of butter in the back is much yellower than the other two butters.

When we started getting eggs from our chickens, we were amazed by the color of the yolks. Our chickens roam around all day eating whatever they can find. The eggs that

Our Goose is Cooked II

Same basic idea as my post, just more comprehensive: Tom Zeller Jr. on the Huffington Post. Highly recommended reading.

Our goose is cooked

One of the three geese in our freezer is now cooked, and it was tasty--more like roast beef than chicken--but leathery. There is a real learning curve to cooking wild game. But I'm glad to be getting my kids used to tough, gamey meat because barring a radical, geopolitical shift, it looks like our collective goose is cooked. It is entirely possible that someday they may have to rely on hunting to feed themselves.

I used to think my future grand kids

I like it raw, baby.

I haven’t had my cholesterol checked, but my butter & cream diet is working for me in one regard: my clothes are fitting better*. Eating such rich food is so sating. In part, I think there is an Atkins-esque effect which dampens my appetite so that

Per-week butter consumption in my family = several pounds

So, why the butter and cream diet? Well, this is phase one of a new restrictive diet we are rolling out in our house. We also have reduced added sugars to almost none and switched our dairy to raw and non-homogenized. I’m putting off rolling out the next phase: no refined grains, since I'm not ready to say goodbye to pie crust. That, and all the extra work I anticipate.

Why this new diet? Primarily for the kids’ health, but also for ours. The reasoning behind this new dietary experiment follows.