{"id":29073,"date":"2013-01-06T00:09:40","date_gmt":"2013-01-06T08:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=29073"},"modified":"2013-01-06T00:09:40","modified_gmt":"2013-01-06T08:09:40","slug":"know-your-food-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/29073","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Food, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/a>, now with 4,690 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20146,500 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ<\/span><\/p>\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n

For Step 2 of this beginner Know Your Food Merit Badge<\/a>, I went to the library and checked out a copy of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle<\/em>, by Barbra Kingsolver. Usually, I\u2019m not much of a reader if there isn\u2019t any romance involved, but I was surprised at how much Ms. Kingsolver pulled me in. Talk about a page turner. Maybe I\u2019m having a romance with organic food \u2026 don\u2019t tell Mr. Wonderful …<\/p>\n

My eyes were opened to things in our food that I never even knew they were closed to. I resolved to stop wasting food, stop buying bad-for-me food (if it can even be logically considered food), and keeping things as local as possible. Perseverance, I think, will be the name of the game with this one. It\u2019s easy enough to do it once while grocery shopping, but to keep it up for a lifetime, well, that\u2019s a whole other kettle of fish, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Speaking of fish, I found a package of frozen fish with the brand name “Fresh From the Sea.” And lo and behold, what did I see in small letters? \u201cFarm raised.\u201d\u00a0Eh? Whaa? I cry shenanigans, girls, yes I do.<\/p>\n

I settled down with a slice of homemade bread and local honey for some more reading. It\u2019s a large tome of information and I didn\u2019t want to miss a thing, so I always keep snacks nearby. Blood sugar can dip, causing the letters to jumble right before my eyes, so I like to be prepared. Plus, when you\u2019re reading about food, you\u2019re going to get munchy. It\u2019s like watching the Food Network without any nourishment, a no-no of epic proportions. I\u2019ve nearly short-circuited the television with my drooling before. Not a pretty sight.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The key to changing your eating habits is not to go completely cold turkey.<\/p>\n

Mm, turkey\u2026<\/p>\n

Sorry. I\u2019m back.<\/p>\n

One small change at a time is best. The first few small changes I\u2019ve made this month are:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. Buying local wheat from my town\u2019s own mill (how cool is that?)<\/p>\n

2. Splurging for real maple syrup instead of that nasty, artificially flavored plastic bottle of goo I used to buy<\/p>\n

3. Local honey from happy bees (also a boon for my allergies!)<\/p>\n

4. Fresh eggs from my chickens<\/p>\n

5. Local sheep cheese from my neighbor (Well, from my neighbor\u2019s sheep. Not my neighbor. He\u2019s not a sheep.)<\/p>\n

6. Saving up for purchasing a quarter of a cow from a local rancher (it may take me a few months, but my piggy bank is getting full)<\/p>\n

7. Buying organic chicken (this means buying it less and savoring it more)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty happy with my choices, and I know even more good ones will follow. For instance, my food journal I started when I started this badge is showing me all sorts of things about my eating habits. Like, all those little no-nos I cheat on occasionally aren\u2019t nearly as occasional as I once believed! A sample\u2014or five\u2014at the big supermarket \u2026 a sucker from the bank \u2026 the leftover Halloween candy sitting in my desk \u2026 yeah, now I know why my jeans keep mysteriously shrinking. I thought my closet had magical denim reduction powers, but perhaps not. I threw away what was left of the candy, firmly told the bank teller “no” to Blue Raspberry, and avoided the big supermarket. Turns out, I like the local farmers’ market better anyway! And they give samples too \u2026 who knew a slice of summer\u2019s peach or a sliver of fresh basil could be so delish? Put ’em together, and …<\/p>\n

well, I\u2019m drooling again.<\/p>\n

Out of all my badges, this may be my favorite. And it\u2019s not just cuz I look better in my jeans, either. Although it is nice to zip ’em up without holding my breath, laying on my back, zipping them up, and then walking with giant strides and exaggeration to s-t-r-e-t-c-h them so they aren’t “too” skin-tight. (What a girl won’t do.)<\/p>\n

 \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 4,690 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20146,500 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ Wondering … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[363,548],"class_list":["post-29073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters","tag-gladsome-sisters","tag-maryjanesfarm-farmgirl-sisterhood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}