eat small + grow your own

the big barn and pasture

I attended a lecture offered by the Michigan Land Use Institute last night on the topic of safe food handling procedures on farms.  It was a fascinating topic, and while I applied it to producing cheese here on my tiny farm, there was so much to learn about how all of us eat, handle food, and the farm to table journey that all  of our food makes.  We learned staggering facts about food poisoning, how bacteria make their way from the farm into our bodies, and what we can do about it.  A lot of the information pertained to produce growers or farms who have both livestock and crops, but here are some of the biggest impressions I came away with:

• Buy and eat as locally as you can; grow what you can, keep the road from farm to table short
• Be fastidiously clean:  wash your hands a lot, wash the food, keep it cold, clean the kitchen
• Try to know where the food you are feeding your family came from as much as possible

There is so much in the media about this subject so you've heard all of these things before, but it's all really true.  The Federal Government is really turning the screws this year and next on food safety regulations, which is good news.  Most all food recalls in this country are from large-scale Ag producers, which is all the more reason to try to buy your produce and food locally, from small producers.  Eat small - eat locally - grow your own - cook at home - wash your hands!