I am so convicted..

[Amy]

To get us started eating whole traditional foods, but I don't know how to reconcile that with the expense. We can't afford locally grown free range meats/poultry as much as I would love it. I might be able to swing some cheaper cuts of meat at our local health food store, we just wouldn't be able to as much of it. And that would be find. I guess I'm just at a loss with where to start. I'm a sahm but I really don't have a lot of time to make our own breads and I keep seeing things about sprouting flour and oats and I'm like . It just all seems so overwhelming and so nothing changes. I'm going to work on my menu planning tonight for next weeks dinners so I'll try to change some things up and maybe tomorrow I'll look into coming up with nutritional breakfast meals for next week. I wish this could come easy for me.

[homesteadmama]

Do you have a way to get pastured eggs? I'd look on Craigslist too. Eggs are key for us. If they're healthy, that's a great start. There's lots of yummy dishes you can make with eggs too.

Do you have Nourishing Traditions? I'd start reading that if it's knowledge you need.

Also look on the Weston A Price Foundation's website to find a local chapter. When we started going to chapter meetings and taking whole foods cooking classes, that's when our knowledge and confidence for cooking TF took off. We also met lots of people who shared their info on local sources for healthy food. Many times the local, healthier option was cheaper than buying at the store. You just have to know where to look.

And coconut oil is cheap on vitacost.com. I buy the 54 oz tubs of Nutiva, and they last us about a month. They're only like $22.

Can you have chickens or a garden where you live? That's also a great way to start. TBH, I find that I just have to do it myself if I really want healthy, affordable food. Makes it challenging, but it's also so rewarding when you feed your family a meal that you grew and prepared with your own hands.

You can do this!

[rebecuna]

If your cash flow is okay right now, look into buying a share of a cow or pig... it ends up being much cheaper per pound than the HFS meats, but it is a big chunk to pay up front. A lot of farms that do shares of cows will just give you some of the stuff that they don't get much demand for, so you can get more for your money that way, too. For example, the farm I buy from gave me a huge bag of chicken feet for $10... I've been adding them to stock I make for about 7 months now and still have more than half. They also gave me beef fat for free-- as much as I wanted, I just had to ask before they slaughtered so they could save it for me. I have 30ish pounds in my freezer that someday I'll get around to rendering into tallow. When you buy a share of an animal, you can usually ask for anything you want from it-- organs, bones, etc.-- that they wouldn't normally give b/c no one wants it.

In general, I would suggest going heavy on homemade stocks-- both meat broth and bone broth (http://www.lovingourguts.com/the-dif...roth-or-stock/) They are so nourishing and can stretch your limited good meat budget much further than just eating the meat. Besides soup, you can add broth into all kinds of things to get more of it into your diet-- eggs, pasta sauce, ketchup, even smoothies!

[Amy]

Thank you both! I've got 20 something pots of tomato and pepper seedlings going, but they're not doing well. I was going to buy some fertilizer to see if that would help them out. We're working on fencing in an area for chickens. We can't have free range due to animals and hawks in our area. I'm hoping this summer we'll get to have some chickens. I do know the price per pound for pork and poultry is more expensive that what we can afford at our local farm, but I don't know about the beef, so I'll check on that tomorrow. We use to make our own broth, but haven't done it in a while. I'll definitely work on that this week. I was going to try to go to our local Earths Fair so maybe I'll pick up a whole chicken. There is a house near us that has a sign for eggs, maybe I'll try knocking on their door this week, although that seems awkward to me . I think a local farmers market might be opening this week so I'll go see what they have to offer. The milk I buy is hormone free, but not organic. I think I'll stick with that for now. Maybe once I get our breakfasts junk free it'll free me up to explore more. I will definitely check out Nourishing traditions and coconut oil. Actually I think I may have some already. I just never use it. I mostly use ev olive oil. Thank you both for the encouragement, it's definitely gotten me excited to get my menu planning done today.

[rebecuna]

Glad you're feeling encouraged! Remember that any steps you can take will be helpful for your family's health and well-being-- you can start small!

A lady selling eggs from her house is probably cheaper than most places that sell pastured eggs (at the HFS, pastured eggs are $6/doz but I can get them for $3 from a local lady). And since she's your neighbor, maybe you can barter something for eggs. Craigslist is a good place to check for eggs, too, in the farm/garden section.

AFA chickens, have you considered a chicken tractor? I don't know what your yard space is like, but a tractor allows you to free-range in an enclosed area by moving their enclosure around every few days. The chickens sleep in the top part, and hang out "downstairs" where they have access to fresh pasture. I'm building one right now, although it's a lot bigger than most so I hope it will be moveable!!

Nourishing Traditions will help a lot with understanding things like sprouting. Or check out some WAPF-type blogs if you don't have access to the book.