About that freezer.....

With the largest beef recall in U.S. history in the news today, it seems like an appropriate time to discuss my reasons for getting a chest freezer.

I'm not sure how to make it a neat and tidy little paragraph, because it has been a several-year journey to get to the point of taking action on my convictions (therefore, it will be neither neat nor tidy). But I can probably trace it back to Colorado, where I moved there specifically to adopt a healthier lifestyle and to experience the mountains. I very quickly fell in love and got married to a man who is extremely health conscious - bonus! He also happened to have grown up on a farm, where they raised cattle, chickens, pigs, and rabbits, and grew every vegetable imaginable. He hunted truly for food and not for pleasure (what a concept!), and his stories have captured me.

Fast forward a couple of years.... we're now living in Boulder, and the talk of the town is organic this and home-grown that. I started to listen and become interested, but did not really change one thing about my lifestyle, because some of those Boulderites were just plain weird. I was struck by the thought that I really don't know where the food that I buy comes from, or how it is grown.

Fast forward a couple more years... now we live in Apex, North Carolina. We are homeowners and we decide to make a portion of our backyard a vegetable garden. I am a complete newbie and don't know what I'm doing, but that first year we somehow had a successful crop of tomatoes and zucchini. Each year we've added more vegetables and tried different things. The garden is still very much a work in progress, but it's fun to get my hands dirty, and I swear home-grown veggies taste WAY better than store-bought veggies! And the really cool thing to me is that I now know exactly how these vegetables are grown. Prior to our little garden I could not for the life of me have told you how broccoli, cantaloupe, zucchini, squash, peppers, etc. were grown. I really, really like understanding the process.

I've since supplemented my home-grown vegetables with many trips to the local farmer's markets. There is something about not only supporting the little guy, but buying fresh and local organic foods that is very appealing. The idea of an additional freezer was borne a few years ago out of a conversation discussing how nice it would be to either grow or buy enough vegetables to freeze and store so that I don't have to buy canned goods from the grocery store in the winter. The idea of storing meats in the freezer was also borne several years ago, from a discussion of "how cool would it be to actually buy a cow and store the meat?" (My sister Julie's in-laws raise cattle on a ranch in Oklahoma and generously give Julie and Daron a lot of meat. Their freezer is always stocked - again, very cool to me.)

I couldn't help but also be influenced by Supersize Me, the documentary about the guy who ate McDonald's every day for a month and became overweight and sluggish in no time. It was revealed that the hamburger we buy from McDonald's could come from dozens or even hundreds of cows. And these cows may or may not be fed a healthy diet, and may be abused, etc. (see article at the beginning of this post!). So I'm eating little bits of cow from a whole lot of cows... that just seems gross. Wouldn't it be healthier if you know the meat you ate was from ONE cow that ate a healthy diet? The same goes with chicken, pork, etc. Here's an article on the benefits of grass-fed beef, in case you're interested.

So... in 2008, I have decided to finally get off my butt and take some action on the freezer thing. Now that I have one, I've been researching where I can buy beef, pork, and chicken from local farms.

In some ways, it's also a spiritual thing. I feel very strongly about taking care of my body, and this is one of many ways that I can do that. If I KNOW there's a healthier way to eat, shouldn't I do that? (I have a long way to go, I realize, as not everything I put in my body is healthy, but let me start slow, okay??)

So, there's my attempt at explaining the freezer. It's all cleaned out and ready to go... it's just waiting for some meat and vegetables!