The Food Roots are in the kitchen

Of course we are, some of us never leave the kitchen! I've fallen behind on my blogging again. I wouldn't even have fun pics to post if Daniel hadn't made pasta this weekend and asked me to take a few pictures of the process. The pasta was great especially for a first attempt. I think Daniel thought it was a lot of work to make it a regular task.

I went to Clinton last week and had a great market. Thanks to my friends in Clinton for coming to see me and for buying my bread and other goods. I can't even express completely how grateful I am to people who actually spend their hard earned money on my handiwork. You make it possible for me to play in my kitchen all the time.

I will be at the Belhaven market this Saturday. I'm looking forward to it, I really do miss all my friends there. I hate that I have missed so many Belhaven markets. Daniel and I have this crazy dream of having an "urban farm", more space to have a little garden, a shop for him, fruit trees, and a few chickens. And to do this we have to get this house sellable. Unfortunately some home renovation projects are not good for my business. I think we're set for awhile now, we shouldn't have anything as major as redoing floors for some time.

Beach Bums

  Daniel, Barley, and I went to the MS coast last weekend. We had a wonderful trip. Pet friendly hotels are great. However if you don't have pets you probably don't want to stay in one; Barley decided to bark at one of our neighbors in the wee hours of the morning. Otherwise he behaved and we had a great trip.

By the way to make this a more business like post I have a restaurant review. Schooners in Biloxi is awesome! I should have taken pictures, by the time we got our food we wanted to eat and weren't thinking about digitally capturing our food. Daniel had a half oyster, half shrimp po-boy that was wonderful. I had a crab & cheese po-boy which would have been wonderful if not for the processed yucky American cheese. McElroy's in Ocean Springs had an ok po-boy; slightly overcooked shrimp, not as hot, plus more expensive. We had supper at Al Fresco in Ocean Springs, great homemade Caesar salad. I got a good deal on enough food for 2 people, Daniel wasn't as happy with his slightly overcooked fish. I'm definitely going back to Schooners, but I could pass up McElroy's and Al Fresco. I know I'm a restaurant snob, but you might as well enjoy what you pay for.

Oh business, I'm missing another market this week, I know pitiful. Our house is still not back in order at all. I'm hoping I can help Daniel finish up the baseboards & quarter-round so we can get things back in order. If I do the market I will have no time to help and my china will remain all over the guest bedroom, where my market supplies are burried. It's probably good I didn't realize how out of sorts our house would be for almost a month now! I'll be in Clinton next week, hope to see you there.

Carpet bye, bye

I haven't seen my market friends in two weeks. I'm definitely in withdrawal. Don't worry I haven't been too lazy in my "time off". As you can see in these pictures our carpet is gone and in it's place is nice faux "wood" laminate floors. The pictures are obviously of different rooms.

For those out there trying to sell an old home with out-dated floors there is hope! Before we covered the ugly linoleum with the new laminate my dad told me he still like the linoleum in our foyer. Blah, different strokes for different folks I guess. We do think the laminate looks much better than nasty carpet and outdated linoleum. Daniel and I had a hard time deciding what to put in. Real hardwood is our ideal, but we're trying to fix up the house to sell it's not our dream home. These floors are somewhat realistic, they feel good to walk on and seem to clean easily.

So after pulling up carpet, ripping out tack strip, cleaning up the mess, going to get floor samples, buying the wood, hauling it home, moving all the furniture out of half of the house, and moving some of the furniture back we are exhausted. We are taking a mini-vacation this weekend. We are going to the Mississippi Gulf Coast with Barley. He snaps at the waves in our kayak, so it should be fun to see him on the beach.

I will be back at the market next week, more than likely Clinton. I'm looking forward to getting back into the kitchen.

Clinton & Carpet Removal

I will be at the Clinton Market this Saturday, July 26th. I hope the weather will be nice. I should have some wonderful whole grain breads, my delicious cultured butter, fig cakes, and blueberry muffins.

Next week Daniel and I are going to do some home renovation that has been overdue for 2 years! We are going to pull up our yucky carpet, really who wants carpet in the dining room. Blah! So I'm sorry to my Belhaven friends, I will not be back for 3 weeks! Only if I could have a mini me baker to do all my baking work so I could do everything I want to.

Soak those grains

So my friend Amber was so kind to send me a gift, a cookbook entitled Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Since I'm working this week I haven't had enough time to read and digest much of it. Ms. Fallon presents a lot of interesting ideas, some are new to me(canola oil is a man-made danger), some are now commonly held by the nutrition field (eat much less sugar and refined flour), and some I know something about but feel like I could research some more. By the way I have never heard that canola oil is dangerous before and there definitely needs to be research done on this.

One of these ideas that I knew a little about has to do with the phytates in whole grains. In nutrition school we were taught that whole grains contain phytates and in your GI these phytates can bind up minerals like iron and calcium and prevent you from digesting them. What I didn't know is you can do things to inactivate some or most of the phytates! And because I am sceptical of one person coming up with new information I did some research. Here's a few abstracts I found on the subject: here and here.

The most effective technique is to soak the grains or flour in an acidic medium at room temp before cooking. Hmm sounds like a bread starter to me. Most of my breads are actually prepared with a starter, because this improves the flavor and makes them easier to knead. And now it sounds like starters are good for another reason too!

I am going to start soaking my add in grains, like the oats and spelt berries overnight before I cook them, with a little lemon juice or buttermilk in the water. If I can just remember to do this I'll be doing good. If you want to try this at home it would be easy & your grains would cook quicker. I'm thinking of oatmeal in specific, and this technique is fine for whole, rolled, cracked, or completely milled (flour) grains. Another benefit of this is your grains will cook quicker in the morning!

Pictures finally

So Daniel did an awesome job on these pictures! I apologize for not having more pictures of my products. Clinton was great, there were many people out shopping in spite of the heat. A big thanks to everyone that came by my stand and visited with me, it was great to meet new people. I saw some of my old customers, I'm glad ya'll came to Clinton. And of course thanks to everyone that bought bread or something else from me. I really do appreciate all my dedicated customers, I couldn't be working at my dream job without you.

I'll be at Belhaven this Saturday, I hope you'll come & see me.

Saturday July 12th!

I will be at the Clinton Market this Saturday from 8- 12. It is on the beautiful, picturesque Jefferson St. behind MC. I will have breads, cookies, cakes, biscotti, & muffins. Come & see me.

Did I wait late enough to tell everyone where I'll be this weekend? Sorry ya'll know I'm not a good blogger, I seem to do a better job reading other people's!

A frugal housewife & her helper

So we all know it is costing more to live these days. Being I handle balancing our checking account, plus costing all my bread I am very aware of how prices our increasing. Daniel and I have made some changes to try to be more frugal...

- My wonderful clothesline: I think I love this because I'm so sentimental & it reminds me of going to my Granny's house where she hung out her clothes. Also I get to go outside for a few minutes to retrieve clothes. Follow the link to get supplies to set up your own line, or go to your local hardware store. We have started pretty basic, just a short retractable line.

- making full use of fresh local veggies: My dear Granny & PopPop have a garden out in the country in Jones county. They have so generously supplied us with more than enough fresh & free produce.

- grow your own veggies: We'll be attempting this next year. I'm anticipating some frustrations along with the harvest:)

- preserve surplus veggies & fruits: I made bluberry peach honey jam a few weeks back and this week Daniel & I made salsa.

This picture is my wonderful husband helping me make salsa. I never would have gotten that done without him. He cut a bunch of onions for me with his saran wrap onion guard to protect him!

Let me caution you canning isn't hard but you must follow the rules (check government sites for proper canning technique). It takes some time, but what better way to make use of seasonal produce to enjoy for later.

Freshening things up

I know I'm not the only person that craves change, new things. My customers seem to like new items and I enjoy making new items. Unfortunately adding new items to my lineup can be very time consuming.

I have added a few fun new things for this weekend, more than anything I have freshened up some of my old favorites.

- My bran muffins will be at the Belhaven Market this weekend. I have decided to add some shredded apple into the batter to help lighten up the texture of this super hearty muffin!

- I'm going to add some blueberries into my summery Just Peachy Cakes. Blueberries & peaches are a great combination.

- I have made cultured butter. Ta da! If you're interested in trying it yourself the link is to the website I got my recipe. Pretty website. It wasn't too hard to do, lots of fun, definitely some time involved in cleanup. From experience if you have trouble whipping it up your cream may not be cold enough.

I started with Luvel whipping cream (local yeah!) and my fresh homemade yogurt (so, so good). And I followed the instructions and when I finished I decided to spice up the yummy butter. To half of the batch I added garlic and zataar (a delicious Lebanese spice blend) and to the other half I added organic sugar & Penzey's cinnamon. I did blend in some canola oil to make it more spreadable, but no preservatives, coloring, weirdo chemicals. If you're asking yourself at this point "Why is Elizabeth , the health nut, promoting butter?" see this post.

So Saturday I will have some revamped treats, awesome breads, and wonderful homemade butter spreads to freshen your palette. Please come & see me.

Ahh food prices

Ok so this isn't good news for me or you. My ingredient prices are still going up. AHHHH!

I am doing what I can to keep prices reasonable: trying to get bulk breaks, make smaller loaves (many people seem to prefer this anyway), and trim out unnecessary expenses. It is a tough time to be in the food industry. Since December my dairy prices increased 60% and my flour prices have more than doubled.

I really really dread having to raise my prices. I didn't start this business to rip people off, and I know I won't be getting rich anytime soon. I know many restaurant owners, farmers, and other food people are having to make some changes to avoid losing their businesses. The point is I'm raising my prices because I have to and I apologize.

I hope & pray that these price increases will level out soon. I'm not planning on quitting my business anytime soon and I'm not planning on switching to inferior, cheap ingredients. I'll quit before I sell a product that I wouldn't want my family to buy.

Communications Tool

So I had a good friend & customer suggest to me that I start an email list to send out my selling locations & weekly specials to my customers. So if you would like to receive an email weekly about what I'm selling & where I'll be just click the "send us email" button on the left side of the screen. I will keep your email confidential & definitely not share it with spammers:)

Busy year for the Roots

I am finally back in town, done with graduations & weddings for awhile anyway, and ready to work!

Unfortunately I will not be at Belhaven market this week. I am planning on being at Belhaven next week, July 5th and in Clinton, July 12th. Come see me if you want some delicious whole grain bread!

There's good in all vegetables

The poor poor vegetables we've blacklisted: potatoes, carrots, celery, corn, and iceberg lettuce. And what have they done to deserve this ill treatment? Well nothing, they're just being themselves. Seriously this is a great article I read on these blacklisted veggies. I hope that we start seeing more information like this come out. What a concept, instead of only eating expensive "superfoods" maybe we should eat a well balanced variety of foods. Even non- superfoods have wonderful nutrients to offer us. Just a thought.

Where in the world is Elizabeth Root?

Did anyone else watch that show?

I have to apologize to all my awesome, loyal Belhaven market customers. I have missed the market for 3 straight weeks. I have had 2 graduations (1 out of state) and my husband's 30th birthday party at our house! It has been a very busy month. I do feel like I've caught up on my housework, as much as I can anyway. I'm ready to come back to the market & I'll be at Belhaven June 7th.

The food industry is misleading us again...

This article was shocking to me. I personally have checked restaurants online menus to find the healthier selections before I eat out. And working in the food industry myself I am always honest with customers. If you are going to make something that is high in fat & calories you need to tell people. The thought occured to me, if they are going to lie about the "healthy options" how much are they lying about the "traditional meals". Shame on those restaurants.

Yet another reason to cook & eat at home.
-If you prepare the food then you know what is in it.
-If you eat at home you are less likely to overeat.
-Plus I've mentioned before the spiritual connection I believe exists from preparing your own food.

Environmentally Friendly

Now don't we hear a lot about this subject these days. And it is a complex one. I'm not an expert on the environment by any means, nor am I ready to leave all my modern conveniences behind, but I am trying to do my part to be more aware & responsible. Recently some bad news has come out concerning plastics, especially when they are heated. And it does make sense to me if you take a bunch of chemicals and form a product, some of those chemicals could be harmful. But I know firsthand in a medical setting plastics are necessary. More research should be done for sure.

Well I'm also trying to make more environmentally friendly decisions with my business. In addition to buying my ingredients from local sources and using some organic ingredients, I try to use biodegradable, natural materials for my packaging. I use paper plates for my cake, 100% cotton string, and cellophane bags. Here is more information on cellophane.
I try to make responsible decisions and right now it seems like cellophane bags are safer for the earth & safer for my customers. My labels are not biodegradable, but I'd like to find some that are. I also print my brochures up on 100% recycled paper.

I have spent some time & more trying to use more earth friendly goods. And I'll continue to research & be aware of products I use in my business.

Pollan makes Sense

Ok, it's Friday! and I should be baking. I really am going to be up till like midnight & get up at 4:30 to get ready for the market.

So I'm only posting this b/c I was so inspired. We all have times in our careers where we get tired and discouraged, even those of us blessed to do what we love. I've kinda been having one of those times. I don't have time to do what I need to do. I don't have the facility that I would like to have.

But when I came upon this article today I remembered why I'm struggling to bake healthy goods. I wanted a job that would allow me to have time to feed my family healthy food, and I wanted to help other families eat healthy foods. When my dream of becoming a registered dietician became too difficult to obtain Daniel supported me in my desire to sell healthier baked goods to the public. I wanted to provide healthy baked goods that were fun: Sourdough & Peach Cakes should be available in whole grains too!

When we both had real jobs we ate out much more often & ate many more convenience foods. And now that business is so busy for me I am struggling to continue to provide healthy meals for our family. But the struggle is worth it! I know first hand from working in the transplant lab the consequences of an unhealthy diet: overweight... diabetes... losing a kidney.

So I ran upon this article this morning about Michael Pollan's books

In general, I'm inclined to stick with the tried and true when it comes to food," he said. "And let the novelties be tested for a while. I think we need to begin to spend more on food, both in terms of money and in time. I know that's not a popular message. People like their convenience foods. But this experiment of outsourcing our food preparation to corporations has failed us. I mean, it's left us really unhealthy, really unsatisfied. And I think it's undermined the family life and undermined the community.

This article was really the inspiration I needed. Daniel & I both work hard, and sometimes we fall asleep bone tired. But I can rest easier knowing that I'm doing all I can for the health of my family. Food is not all there is to the health of our family, our faith comes first. But there is a spiritual element in food preparation. Preparing our meals makes me more appreciative of the blessings we have. God has blessed me to be able to do something that I believe in so much. I pray that I will have a positive effect on other's health.

New happenings!

This spring has been very exciting for me!

The market has been hopping, the weather is gorgeous & we have had some wonderful entertainment. Thanks to all my loyal customers & to my new customers willing to try out my whole grain goods.

I was featured in the Madison County herald; here is a link for anyone that missed it & is so bored they want to read about me:) I don't know how long they'll leave it up. Thanks to the market director, Kay for putting the paper in touch with me.

Also I am now selling some bread & goodies to Negazio. This is a wonderful import & specialty store located on Pear Orchard across from Indian Cycle. It is family run and they have a wonderful selection of imported meats & cheeses, pasta, olives... So if you're dying for a ginger chewie during the week or you need some fresh bread stop in and see Lisa and Jay.

Grocery $ are too high!

Everytime I hear about how high groceries are I cringe. I buy groceries for our family & I buy ingredients to bake for the market. And with gas up and medical expenses up we don't need anything else to go up.

Until now I haven't been very affected by price increases. My organic stone-ground flour has stayed about the same (at this point anyway). The dried fruits I use have always been fairly high, I buy unsulfured because sulfur present in most dried fruits inhibits the yeast. I use other higher end ingredients because they taste better, such as fresh ginger in my cookies and aged Asiago cheese in my Asiago bread. I figure if my customers want a run of the mill cookie they'll buy it at Sam's where it is cheaper.

But egg prices going up is starting to be problematic for me. Also milk prices have gone up 30- 40%. This is frustrating to me; I really want to offer the best prices I can to my customers but still bake quality healthy goods. My bread prices range from $4- $7. More expensive than the grocery perhaps but my bread is homemade, fresh, and delicious. And buying more expensive groceries is still cheaper than eating out!

So what are some tips for saving money on groceries:

• be like my Granny & PopPop shop the sales , having a deep freezer would be helpful
• buy in bulk: you can get healthy grains, fruits, sweeteners, ect at our local coop Rainbow for far cheaper than buying them individually packaged (the items are sold in bulk bins but you get as much as you want)
• buy less packaged drinks: I love my new aluminum water bottle as soon as I drink the water from it I refill it and stick it in the fridge. I grab it on my way out the door if I'm going to be gone for awhile. Although it was $20, I'll save that and more since I'm not buying bottled drinks.
  
• buy seasonal produce: La strawberries are in season and can be found for reasonable prices at farmers markets.
  

I pray that these grocery price increases do not continue. But our economy is strong and we are still far better off than many people in the world.

Oatmeal Pecan Bread

I try to cater my bread to different tastes. I realize that everyone doesn’t like a hearty robust whole wheat. Last market season I had a Honey Oat, 100% whole grain of course. This was my version of a milder whole grain bread. I have improved on that bread & am introducing the new Oatmeal Pecan. It is creamier than my honey oat, but still mild and lightly sweetened with MS honey. Roasted pecan add a nutty richness to the creamy mildness. This bread has something yummy for everyone!

Ingredients: organic stone-ground white whole wheat flour, organic stone-ground whole wheat flour, MS honey, organic thick rolled oats, roasted pecans, dried milk powder, orange juice, canola oil, egg whites, salt, yeast