Farm Fresh Start

Healthy living is an effort. Let’s be honest, it is much easier to just grab a frozen meal from the freezer aisle. I’ll be the first to say, we do that at least once a week.

Lately though, with intention, we’ve started some small steps toward more conscious connected-to-the-earth living. A friend of mine moved to a few acres, got a few dozen hens, and started selling a few boxes of eggs each week. So $20.00 a month later and the PDH family is only consuming fresh eggs. It doesn’t seem like much on the surface. Sure, we’ve been buying organic meat and dairy for years ( a great starting point for us budget conscious families by the way) but now starting another intentional step makes sense.

Being in tune with your life, recognizing the availability of space to pursue being better is important. We aren’t perfect, we’re living life and growing a family around here. I mean look at that pan, a decade plus has been lived here at PDH. Life is about give and take for us. Some months we consume an unholy amount of pizza or take out. Others though, we press in, we cook at home, listen to the oil sizzle in the pan while the wind whistles through the trees. We actively seek conversations with people we love about better living.

Our farm fresh start is tiny, minuscule, in comparison to others. But for us its a beginning and I’m in love with it. A few years ago we did a farm share box with a friend. But our season didn’t have much space for it. At the time, all I could muster was a yummy Sausage Kale Soup with the continous weekly supply of kale. Mr. PDH still has food fantasies of that glory. Now though, maybe that’s another way to press in and keep beginning? Every time I crack an egg and listen to it sputter back at me the ideas flood into my heart. How about a small kitchen garden? At 7,300 feet of elevation with an almost entirely shady slice of forest to work with…Oookaayy lets just start with some research shall we?

That’s the point friends just begin, just dream.

Drink more water

Walk more

Start by cooking from scratch one more time each week.

If you don’t do anything see if you can carve it out in your budget and get organic milk, eggs, or meat. We started with milk when the PDH big kids were small kids. Then we added eggs, then we added meat (you get the idea).

Go to the farmers market. In our town this is a seasonal delight. Our farmers market is quaint and homespun. Just the way I like it. Our easy small step this year will be to go as much as possible during the 6 months that it’s open.

Be inspired by others

Did you know buying a box of wine has 1/2 the carbon footprint of a bottle? Just sayin.

Start the high elevation kitchen garden research.

Shop at businesses that support local growers and providers whenever you can.

Mr. PDH always encourages me to begin small, don’t over commit, don’t over promise, and don’t over do. Just start easy and small. He’s brilliant like that.

So tell me, how can we have a farm fresh start?

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