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| Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Our real food journey began about 2 years ago. Although I had an interest in healthy food before that, I never put anything into practice and I was still one of those poor people whose definition of healthy eating was buying low-fat salad dressing. Yikes.
Back then, cheap food was my #1 priority. What we ate then makes me cringe…
Anyway, after doing a lot of reading and research, I began to change the way I cooked and what we ate. It was slow at first. Little things, like buying blocks of cheddar instead of “Pasteurized Cheese Product” and cutting out the Ramen noodles and Spam *cringe*.
Then came homemade bread and purging the kitchen of margarine and shortenings. The biggest leap came in April 2010 when we came home with 2 pregnant dairy goats. The typical conversation went like this:
Random Friend/Family Member: “You have goats now?? Well, they will be fun pets”
Us: “Actually, we are planning on milking them.”
Random Friend/Family Member: “Oh… well goat milk is good for baby animals.”
Us: “Actually, we are going to be drinking the milk ourselves”
Random Friend/Family Member: “Oh my goodness! How do you pasteurize it?”
Us: “Actually, we will be drinking it raw and unpasteurized”
*dead silence*
So… they might think we are crazy, but at least it makes for a great conversation starter!
We’ve come a long way. We no longer have any industrial fats/oils in the house.
We eat homegrown eggs and drink our own raw milk.
Our freezer is full of grassfed beef and wild game.
I make nearly all of our own bread products with properly prepared whole wheat flours.
We grow vegetables and try to buy from our local farmer’s market.
I learned to can and was able to put up salsa, pickles, jam, and tomato sauce last year.
Although I’m very pleased with how far we have come, I definitely still have my eye on things we still need to change!
My advice to anyone looking to change their way of eating? Take one thing at a time.
If at the beginning you find yourself pouring pasteurized milk on your homemade granola- that’s ok.
Do what you can and feel confident that the changes you are making are helping your family bit by bit. After all, nobody goes from Ramen noodles to milking goats overnight. 
Coming soon: Part Two: Our Real Food Philosophy
It's inspiring to read about the process of someone making the change to real food. Typically, a lot of blogs are about people already firmly established in this lifestyle and it leaves those of us still living in a McDonald's world feeling like there's an impossible divide.
I have been READING about whole foods and nutrition for over 2 years now. My husband and I are enablers for each other to continue eating what's convenient and pleasing to the taste buds which means a bunch of over processed dead food that would probably cause me to be ex-communicated from the real food blog world if I were to ever reveal what we typically eat in a day.
It's good to read that not so long ago, you were in a similar place.
By the way, I'm planning on making your whipped cranberry carrots for this Thanksgiving. I'll let you know how it goes. =)
Mama Bee-
Yes, it is definitely a journey! My husband and I were "discussing" today how hard it can be to make the changes sometimes- even when you know what is good for you, sometimes the taste buds still crave junk!
But, baby steps are definitely the most important part. I'm pretty sure if anyone tried to do it all at once they would go crazy!
I am glad you stopped by, let me know how those carrots turn out!!
I echo Mama Bee – it is refreshing to read a blog on someone who is not a seasoned vet in "real food". We still have some boxes of mac and cheese and frozen pizza but we're making progress. We are also first time parents of a 4-month old so there have been days when my husband and I flipped a coin as to who was going to get the pizza out of the freezer so making a "real meal" was a dream for the well-rested future!
I look forward to following your journey and picking up some tips/ideas for my own!
Blessings!
THANK YOU so much for sharing this!!! My husband and I have felt that we have needed to make some changes in our diet. After watching Food,INC. and reading tons of literature on the internet, I’m realizing that these changes are drastic from what we are doing now. And I thought I was SO ‘healthy!’ HAHA! This post is encouraging as it is super overwhelming for a person who has just had the light come on
We are hoping to purchase some land and have our own chickens, goats and maybe a cow? We’re very excited about this new journey! Thanks again for posting!!! You’re awesome! 
Congrats on your new journey! It IS so exciting, just makes me giddy to think about it!
This is fantastic and soooo encouraging.
I am an urban dweller, so the goats will have to wait (although I’d love to learn how you did that and what it takes to get your own goat milk). Here in Europe, we’re far more used to ‘raw’ dairy products, especially French cheeses. Yum!
I never got why people buy store-bought salad dressings. We always make our own. It’s so simple and so much healthier/cheaper!
Do you slaughter your own meat? Or purchase organic meat from a local butcher?
I’ve just started on this journey myself and am trying to explore my options as an urban homesteader (wanna be
) so this has been a great post. In fact, I just blogged about something similar myself. Feel free to take a peak and leave some sage advice if you are so inclined 
Best wishes,
This Good Life
This Good Life recently posted..Preliminary Thoughts on Food and Sustainability
I’m glad this was encouraging to you.
Last year we purchased a steer from the ranch down the road and had a “slaughtering” party. We hope to start raising our own grassfed beef this year, and we also hunt and eat a lot of game meat.
Hi Jill! Love your site! We purchased 18 acres over 2 years ago and love it! I’ve been thinking we are going “primal” here, but it really is about getting back to our roots! We are interested in starting to hunt for our meat, since we can’t raise hooved animals on our high water table. We have chickens and ducks right now. Butchered our first muscovy and was best meat I ever ate! There are plenty of deer, turkey and grouse around to get other protein needs taken care of. Can’t stand thought of store bought meat anymore! For now, local free-range meat is available until I butcher my own birds. Kudos to you on your journey! We are right behind you! Living in paradise in Ontario, Canada.
So lovely to hear from other like-minded folks Shelley! Sounds like you guys are definitely on the right track. And yes, store-bought meat is hard to stomach after eating farm-fresh, huh? Keep up the great work!