Goodbye, corn syrup, sugar, shortening, glucose, monoglycerides, diglycerides, Polysorbate 60 (commonly found in cosmetics, derived from petroleum), cellulose gum (used in hair gel and laxatives), “natural flavors” (not!), artificial flavors (no surprise here!), and yellow and red food dye.
R.I.P.
We really won’t miss you!
I planted sweet potatoes for the first time ever this year. Put them directly into the ground … which I don’t do with many of my edibles, since the Florida dirt is so sandy where I live. But I read that sweet potatoes thrive in poor soil and don’t need fertilizer. So I planted them (I did mix a bit of my chicken poop compost into the dirt first), mulched them, watered them lightly approximately every other day (unless it rained, which it does a lot this time of year here), and that’s it.
I’m a little bit obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder. Not the semi-fictitious character in her “Little House” books as much as the author herself, as farm wife and neighbor and mentor and friend. I’ve been reading her articles that were published regularly in the Missouri Ruralist newspaper for about a decade, starting around 1913. So cool to read her thoughts from 100 years ago that sound so similar to some of my thoughts these days … living close to the land, being kind and neighborly, raising chickens and a garden, doing your best to keep your home nice, taking time for yourself when life gets super-busy.
Author Laura Ingalls Wilder
Mrs. Wilder visited the 1915 World’s Fair in San Francisco … a big trip from her home in the Ozarks where she lived with husband “Manly.” Continue reading
Ever thought about the foods our pioneer ancestors ate, and ancient people before them? Foods from 100+ years ago. Or long before that. Foods that have been on our earth for centuries. Compare that to the “food” we put into our bodies for decades before we woke up to the idea of eating real food.
Sketch by Sidney E. King
Meals in the past Continue reading
Our backyard chickens recently began laying eggs, and this is the recipe we used with their very first eggs and some bounty from our container garden. Delicious! Continue reading
This has been my best year yet for my container veggie-and-herb garden. At least it started out great.
Container garden in the spring.
Here in Florida, the soil is super-sandy. Hard to grow anything in it and hard to improve it. I tried for three years, then gave up and went almost 100% to containers. Continue reading
Let’s step back in time and see exactly how we became a society where fast, high-fat, processed food is so popular.
Nathan’s original restaurant, circa 1920
Coney Island, New York
Trans fats were invented in the 1890s and entered the food supply in the 1910s. Some processed foods became available as early as the 1910s:
Let’s continue exploring our journey from real food to processed food and (hopefully) back to real food!
The ’60s focused on radical change and experimentation, even in the culinary arena: Julia Child taught us how to make the perfect French omelet; ethnic foods were hot; 
vegetarianism was catching on; fondue parties were all the rage; and we returned to the outdoor cooking of our ancestors – on the backyard barbecue grill. Continue reading
Just in time for the 4th of July celebration, here’s my infamous Turkey Burger recipe.
I should probably call them Poultry Burgers, because they are half ground turkey, half ground chicken. The chicken does something to the flavor that’s spectacular, along with the parmesan cheese and fresh herbs. 
Continue reading
Modern Pioneer Mom 