Ground Rules

Now that we have talked about why I am here, let me lay the ground rules.

My vision for this blog is as follows: For one year I will write about my family's experience with food. I want to expand what we buy that is organic and sustainable and local. I would love to be completely off processed foods at the end of this experiment. Right now I am not holding out a lot of hope that this will be possible. My life is hectic, and partially prepared foods fill a void on days like Wednesday and Thursday when the stuff I cooked on the weekend is either all consumed or gone bad. I also have to stick to my budget. I feel that it is worth it to pay the extra money for organic items. And if I HAD extra money that would be where it would go. But after mortgage payments and maintenance, child care and pre-school tuition, metrocards and car insurance, there is a finite amount leftover. And Now that Thing 2 is eating real food, we are buying more than ever.

I have no more resources than a computer and a group of friends with the same mindset. I am not a scientist. I have had no experience with real science since my high school physics class other than the fact that I like to watch Nova. I am not a nutritionist and do not have a background in nutrition. I have however been overweight at certain points in my life and have lost weight by eating healthy.
I LOVE food. I think that a few hours spent worshipping at the alter of food is a really worthy use of your time. But I do not have a particularly sophisticated palate. I have eaten at some very fine restaurants in my day, but I am more at home in my own kitchen or in a casual restaurant. And I really don't like fancy foods. Beef cheek and saffron foam should never be on the plate in front of me. Perhaps on your plate, but mine should be filled with more recognizable and less complicated fare.
But the simple things, vegetables that have been raised by people with addresses as opposed to major corporations, a chunk of red meat that has a crust of salt and pepper on it, olive oil in which you can taste an underlying fruitiness, butter that is straight up yellow not off-white, all these things bring a tear to my eye.

So for the next year I will write at least two times a week. I will try to keep those days to Sunday and Thursday evening so you can check the blog on Monday and Friday mornings. If I am so moved I will post more, but I am promising to keep to this schedule.
My hope is to relate our experiences tackling the task of becoming more healthful. Great books have been written about this kind of experiment. But I feel that they are always written by people who have loads of free time or older (and more well behaved) children. What about how to integrate this lifestyle choice into a modern American life? I am not going to come to a point anytime soon where I can stay home with my kids and cook all day long. But I don't feel that that is a strong enough reason to not tackle this challenge. And I am not sure that we can afford NOT to.
I will also try to impart some of the knowledge I discover on this journey. If I find out information about a particular food or health topic, I want to share it with you. I don't see this as just an opportunity to wax on about my life. This can be a platform for sharing information that has been consolidated into what is meaningful for our modern lives.

I want you to follow my blog! I want you to leave comments whether anonymous or not. I am curious about your thoughts! On that note, the most important thing about my viewpoint is that there is no judgement. There will be times in life when we will be presented with non-organic food, perhaps in a social setting. Or presented with the choice of local conventional produce versus the organic trucked-in variety. This blog should be a place where we can discuss the navigation of such choices.

Here we go on our adventure!