Happy New Year! - Shirley

With all the holiday preparations for our own family’s get-togethers once our catering parties were over we were unable to make the last week’s blog. It amazes me how much preparation there is leading up to what is pretty much a one day event! Some people celebrate on Christmas Eve, which we do very privately by ourselves, then Christmas Day with some of our family and then on into Boxing Day to ensure everyone is able to visit or be visited. During this period presents are given and received and enormous amounts of food are consumed and the wine flows.

Our holiday celebration has followed this pattern for many years, as I am sure most of yours have too. This year we wanted to change things in the spirit of our new sustainable life style. This proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated.

At home we thought it would be simpler, we just told each other no “unnecessary” gifts, only things that are needed, sustainable, fair trade, no animal cruelty, no excess packaging. With little time Roger and I had only one afternoon/evening together to achieve this. When it came to giving to others gift certificates were a hit in our book. As long as we felt the store, spa etc were selling/using products we agreed with it would be ok. Not as easy as we thought, having to call spas and quiz them on their products was quite difficult, many will not give you the information or just don’t know. Larger stores have a multitude of products so it would depend what our recipients bought with their certificates as to whether it would be considered a sustainable gift or not. Hmmm could we put stipulation on redeeming on the cards? A sincere thank you goes out to The Body Shop, who not only have fair trade, no cruelty to animal products they also took a donation to stop sex trafficking of young girls and women from third world countries, a good way to end our shopping marathon.

One of the best successes; to cook gifts for our friends and family with ingredients that we were comfortable with, organic local milled flour, free range eggs, organic butter, fair trade coffee. Giving cookies, cakes, puddings, tarts etc., did take a bit of time but was cost effective and a big hit. Note to self, start this preparation much earlier next year!

All in all we had a fab Christmas, thank you this year to Found Family Farm for the most outstanding free range turkey ever, also the beautiful free range eggs and chicken as well. Swain Beef for ground beef and steak in our yummy pastries and beef bourguignon. Maple Wind Farm (working on their new site for now producing lamb) for their bacon in my sausages, stuffing and brussel sprouts. Tyrone Mills for their flour in my bread, cakes and pastry. Yellowlees Family Farm for their ground lamb in my mini pies, meatballs and burgers. Algoma Orchards for apples. The Beekeeper for honey, propolis and bee pollen. Prestonvale Tree Farm for our beautiful Christmas tree. Ocala Winery for their outstanding wines and hospitality throughout the year. The Brickworks Farmers Market, for so many amazing suppliers. Oshawa Farmers Market on so many beautiful sunny Friday afternoons. Our great friend Dennis Brown for his continued support and keeping us on track through difficult times. To Russ Beverley for getting Roger back into the gym and enjoying every minute of it.

Lastly thank you to my amazing family for not only embracing this change but continuously raising the bar and converting all who will listen. Thank you 2010, hello 2011 I know we are going to be great friends. Happy New Year!

Holiday Magic - Shirley

I cannot believe we are in the final run up to Christmas. We have all been so busy looking after our clients and ensuring their parties are successful we have not had time to consider our own plans. We have our turkey ordered from Found Family Farm and are very happy with our purchase, not only are they free range, as much as they can be in the winter, but the quality is outstanding. We recently held a party for someone who wanted free range turkey, so purchased from Found, and we got to make the most amazing stock out of the carcass as well as Lizzie enjoying the scraps for a week.

Quality is not only the key to food, it is also the key to life. The quality of your everyday life is what makes it sustainable. Michaela has been working on several school projects over the past couple of weeks and we really enjoy discussing and debating with her. One of the recent studies was on the difference between men and women and their workplace habits including their feeling s on promotion. We discussed how important it is to enjoy what you do for work as you spend approximately 80% of your life working, if you are unhappy on a day to day basis that is an awful waste of your life. The things we enjoy doing we tend to be good at as there is no effort. This I believe is the way of the future workforce. The word “work” will soon become obsolete as we all choose what works for us, rather than what we feel we have to do to make ends meet.

Back to my theme of holiday magic, this I believe lies in the beautiful statement “Peace to all Men” that is the holiday magic, that is the line that makes us all go weak at the knees and wonder if this is ever attainable. We have the power, what do you want for Christmas?

Life is Always an Adventure - Shirley

Michaela and Roger are both taking courses currently and deep into end of year assignments, so I have been tasked with keeping up the blog for the next couple of weeks.

We had snow today while I walked our dog, Lizzie and the park grew quiet. The only sound was a gentle tinkling of frozen droplets as they gathered in number, turning the world pristine white. Lately I have heard so many people complaining about the coming of winter, of the cold and damp, of the dark mornings and evenings and the need to wear coats, scarves and gloves. They are all looking forward to the next summer when no doubt they will complain about the heat and stay indoors with the air conditioning on full blast. To turn away from any one of our beautiful seasons is to turn away from nature itself. How could anyone feel disappointment when witnessing the magic of the changing seasons? What makes a seed grow? How does it know when to come up? How does it know when to reach full bloom? How does it know when to drop its seeds or offer its pollen to the birds and bees to ensure its survival? How does it know when to draw its nourishment back down into the ground and lay dormant until the next spring? How does it know all this?

The changing seasons are very important to us. We all enjoy different sports and pastimes that we pursue dependant on the weather. We have a deep sense of contentment as one season draws to a close and a feeling of excitement when we look forward to the new season and all it will bring. Life is also cyclical, constantly moving and changing, offering opportunities to those who seek them.

Where does all this fit into our sustainable life? Right at the heart of it. You can change your diet, your exercise habits, your job and the people you hang out with, but if you don’t change, then no real change has taken place. Change comes from within, before it can realized externally. The emotion I am referring to is joy. When was the last time you felt real joy? When was the last time the world stopped for you and grew quiet? My world stopped today while I appreciated life. Life is a desire, an emotion, something to be engaged in. If the desire for life is not met, then life will not be desirable and unsustainable. Life is meant to be embraced, loved, enjoyed to the fullest and most of all, always an adventure.

Striving for Sustainability - Shirley

Over the past few weeks I feel we have learned a lot, not just from reading and studying, but from each other too.

Last week Roger wrote about overall body fitness and the need to keep moving, especially as you get older. I saw an article on Michelle Obama’s initiative to fight child obesity in the US, one of her first aims is to have unhealthy processed foods removed from school cafeterias. Educating children on healthy eating as early as possible is paramount to stop bad habits forming, which will ultimately lead to ill health and possibly diabetes.

Michaela talked about making decisions and our Locus of control. Do we accept that our decisions have an effect on the world? Now that we have been following a whole food diet for over a month and only eating meat if it is free range, we have found ourselves more committed to ensuring our decisions do not encourage inhumane farming of animals and that whenever available only choose local produce to ensure we are supporting local producers. It has actually been a lot easier than we first thought. The phase “You are what you eat” has a lot more meaning to us now, and processed, artificial food is not what we want to be.

An old song that has been going around inside my head over the past week, “Proud” by Heather Small. What have you done today to make you feel proud? I know what I’ve done; what have you done?

Keep Moving - Roger

It has been over a month since we have been practising a whole food diet and we have all felt the benefits. Lighter and more energy are the most notable effects along with some weight loss.

We recently joined a local gym, Body Boomers, with the membership came some personal training. I have never used a personal trainer before so was curious to find out what it would be like.

The trainer that was assigned to us was the perfect match for us in terms of his approach to fitness. Russ completed his training at the C.H.E.K. Institute in California. At the C.H.E.K. Institute they look at attaining a healthy body and mind, by performing exercises that utilize a large number of muscles. Movement is used in the exercises which replicate movements in the real world; this “functional strength” helps in carrying out tasks in everyday life easily, keeps you healthy and helps you remain injury free.

Most gyms with all their machines isolate muscles in order to gain size. This approach started in the 60’s as body building gained prominence and was seen as the epitome of fitness.

However the body does not act in isolated manner. There is a chain of events that happens every time there is movement, which involves your whole muscular and nervous system. The key to longevity is movement, something we take for granted until we are afflicted with immobility through disease or accident. Movement maybe sounds simplistic but this is exactly what it is, keeping moving, whether you are motivated or not, holds the key to your personal wellbeing and overall health and happiness.

The C.H.E.K. Institute also takes into account nutrition, psychology and spirituality when looking at overall health. As I learn more about these aspects I will keep you informed.

Making Connections - Michaela

This is about You, Your life.
I’m not talking about the connections we make like new clients or business partners through networking. I’m talking about the connections we make between what we learn and how we relate it back to our own lives and the choices we make. Accepting that every decision we make has an effect is the first step to becoming “conscience”.

We make hundreds of decisions every day that affect millions of people we have never met or even thought about. Does that make you feel powerful or scared? Do you take responsibility for that? It is important to understand the effect we have on the world, to live life believing we are only one person and we can’t change the way things are, is naive.

Every time we buy something we are using our purchasing power, supporting a business. Do you think about that business and what they stand for when you buy their products? A main concern for me within this issue is what we choose to eat. This includes which restaurants to dine at and where do they get their food products from? If you are planning to dine in the grocery store is one of the hardest places to find dinner. It is full of marketing schemes by companies competing against each other to confuse you into buying their products. There is a never ending list of products and concerning questions.

Do you realize the cause and effect you have on the world? The world economy is driven by supply and demand. We fit into this by our Locus of Control. If you believe you are responsible for the things that happen in your life, you have an internal locus of control. If you believe that forces beyond your control such as powerful people, fate, or chance are responsible for what happens to you, you have an external locus of control. For example when you purchase something you know is wrong, what do you say? “It’s here anyway, it doesn’t make a difference if I buy it or not. They make it, not me.” Or, “if there is no demand for it, they will not supply it. Therefore I will not buy it. I will encourage others not to but it. They will not supply it.”

We all have a right to choose, but we should understand what we are supporting, where the things we buy come from, and be comfortable with our decisions. Life can be much more fulfilling if we take what we learn, relate it to our own lives, make conscious decisions based on that knowledge, and are aware that those decisions have an effect on you, others, and the world.

Week One and Still Going Strong - Shirley

Well the first blog has fallen to me, Shirley, so here is the account of my week. Last weekend we had been to a couple of markets so were pretty well stocked with local and organic ingredients so this week did not pose too much difficulty. Try the Brickworks in Toronto for local organic vegetables and frozen meat. I know as the winter sets in the menu will become more of a challenge but we are determined not to fall back into global eating when we know there are good winter fruits and vegetables available fresh and from cold storage. Being organized is the key and with all three of us on the lookout for produce we should be OK. We have also stocked up our freezer with local, free range meat, chicken, turkey, beef and lamb, farm names are at the end of this blog. As the evenings draw in we find ourselves with less to do outside after 5pm. Embrace this season, really get into the spirit of it and enjoy cosy evenings by the fire or sitting down to dinner with candles lighting up your table and the sound of family chatter. Slow cooked food not only tastes better but the oven warms the house, and the delicious aromas warm our hearts. We had a very interesting day in St Jacobs yesterday at their indoor/outdoor market where we purchased “propolis” and “bee pollen” both of which are renowned for their healing properties, propolis for its natural antibiotic and anti-inflammatory qualities and bee pollen for its energy value and natural anti-histamines. Google the information on them, very interesting. We started taking them today, so will let you know our views next weekend. Salute!
Found Family Farm, Swain Beef, Yellowlees Family Farm, all can be found on the Durham Farm Fresh Website.

Welcome to a Window on Sustainable Life

Here we are on the cusp of our adventure into a completely sustainable diet. According to the Oxford Dictionary sustainable is; “conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources”. This is exactly what we wish to reflect here on our Cuisine ‘n’ Green page. We are sure you are already thinking “What does this mean to me?” Simply put, eating local food not only gives you more nutrition and tastes so much better it also reduces our carbon footprint on this planet.

We know through our personal experience that finding local sustainable food, ideally organic, is not an easy task. Therefore we have made connections and where possible partnerships with local farmers who practice humane procedures which include minimal if any antibiotics, roaming grass fed livestock and no animal bi-products in their feed. We have also engaged many local fruit and vegetable suppliers mostly organic which not only gives us produce that has been ripened or matured naturally, but also encourages us to eat seasonally which complements our diet. The changing seasons and the corresponding nature’s bounty is no accident. We are offered by nature the correct types of food that are needed for our environmental climate change to ensure our continued health.

As a family you can expect a weekly update of our progress, taking turns with reporting which we hope will give you a wider perspective. We will also be posting monthly recipes onto our Cuisine in Motion page to give you great ideas to utilize local produce and we will share our sources for ingredients. In closing, welcome to our family, you will know us as well as we know ourselves, very soon.

Salute!