Day 54 of my 365 blogs. Yesterday is kind of a blur which is why this did not get written yesterday. Let me do a quick recap. Chores in the morning, followed by a good breakfast. Completed filling all the cracks in the molding around the doorway going into the hall. That eyesore is finally covered. We figure is we work on one small part of the trim and stairs and walls a few times a week, they will eventually get done. We have been waiting for a large period of time to work on it all and that is not going to happen. Slow and steady. I know that and must keep telling myself that.
I go everyday to our neighbor to talk with her each day for an hour. It gives her a female companion and gives her husband a chance to run errands. What else did we do? Oh yes, we balanced the checkbook which was long overdue, paid the bills and had lunch. We got everything ready for the pig processing later in the day. Jim set up the gambrel and all the tools needed. We went to the hardware store to buy a new saw blade for his receival saw to help with the processing. We ran to Aldi’s to get a few things for dinner because we were fortunate enough to have two guys come to help with the processing and we wanted to feed them first since they were both coming straight from work.
I prepared the meal and they walked through the door. We wanted to show them a couple videos of how to the process goes so asked if it would bother their meal. So we are, the four of us eating dinner and watching how to process a pig. True hearty people. The processing went so well with three men. They skinned instead of scalding and it was so much easier. We are still not fast like a butcher but it was 2 hours start to finish and that is pretty great. It was 25 degrees and we were in the loafing barn where we park our truck so the wind was not a bother, but the water freezing in the hose was a nuisance but we managed. Thank you to good friends.
Nutritional Education
We all need to know the difference between a food desert and an area of food plenty. Try to determine where you live. In the dictionary, the definition of a food dessert is, “an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. “many poor people live in food deserts—where they have plenty of food but none of it healthy”
When we moved to Missouri almost four years ago it was most definitely a food desert. We had a small group of people who sell at the farmer’s market but to find a good store that sells healthy food was not possible. In many respects it is still not. There is no Whole Foods, Sprouts, Trader Joes and often those stores only look like they sell healthy food but don’t. Whole foods do not, however, sell any meat with nitrates. At least that is what they told me. We have a store in Springfield called Mama Jeans but we have not been to it yet because it is 30 miles away. One of the changes I have seen is more organic food sold in Aldi’s and grass-fed beef and nitrate free bacon is available in Aldi’s and Walmart. There are also more people moving here to have the country lifestyle and grow their own food. The more people that come, the more people that will make a difference in the healthy quality of the food and the availability of the food and compost and organic.
Thanks to the people who are trying to make a difference, one person at a time.