Food Shortages

As many doom and gloomers are arguing about the scarcity of food worldwide, we in the developed nations continue to over-consume both our planets resources and it's food supplies. We're feeling our pennies pinched by ever increasing prices at the grocery store for staples such as bread, flour, rice and we watch as the price of meat goes up accordingly (since the price of grains to raise animals goes up too).

But I want you to think about your total income for last year. Not what you reported on your taxes...what actually came into your house as income. Now figure out how much you spend on groceries in a year including snacks and eating out. Is it 10% of you income? 20%? 50%? On average in the developed nations it's under 15% and yet the country complaining the loudest in the US which spends a paltry 7% on food. I think this number is probably higher because of the food stamps program but I don't know how they came up with the results in the info I'll post in a moment. I do know that in our family it's about 25% on average but that will change as the kids grow up and leave home and as our income increases. Other large families are in the same boat as us, and we're not worse off simply because of good shopping habits and growing some of our own food. Once the farm is up and running again our food bills will be much less. Hooray!

Here's the information I'm referring to. It shows selected countries income to food dollars.

I know that cost of food isn't the whole story. These numbers don't take into account that maybe people in developed countries are spending 40% of their income on shelter as opposed to other countries where it's lower. What it DOES show though is the inequality of calories consumed. I'm guessing that the higher the number of calories, the higher the consumption of fat and sugar in junk foods. I wonder if we'll ever be able to strike a balance? Well...my diet continues. All I can do is my part.

I do believe that food shortages are something to prepare for. So today I'm planning my seed shopping for next years garden. I usually have a storage of seeds from one year to the next but since moving we're starting over again with many things. Seeds included. It's time to add them back into my food storage plans. I'll let you know what we're growing next year.

Polar Bear Swim in Nova Scotia

We've decided to start a new refreshing tradition in our family... the Faires Frigid Dip Polar Bear Swim on New Years Day. Sound like fun? It's gonna take me a month to get psyched up about it as the air and water temps will both be below freezing but I think it'll be a bracing way to start the New Year. There are some dips already organized in the area and we'll probably join one of those as a family or maybe just head down to the local beach. For those of you who don't know, a polar bear swim is traditionally held on New Years Day and people go swimming in the ocean or lakes (you break the ice off first) but since it's freezing up here in Canada it's usually more of a quick in and out thing than an actual swim. And only for the crazy or hardiest of souls. We're Canadian...we know about hypothermia :)

Here's a funny video for all you Canadians who know who Rick Mercer is :



The average water temperature in summer is 8-12c and in winter below 4c in the Bay of Fundy. For Last Years Dip the water temperature in the Bay of Fundy was recorded as -3c (26f), cold enough to form sea ice. Brrr! Suddenly Parksville with it's year round 12c (54f) is looking nicer!

The kids are all up now (it's Wednesday morning at 7 am) and so far the idea of the polar bear swim is having mixed reviews. Chris is just leaving to get his bus and the girls are packing a lunch. There's the most beautiful sunrise this morning and the sky is pink and blue. I envy Steve getting to see the sunrise every morning and that's one thing about teaching early morning Seminary that I miss. Also speaking to our son John and our friend Vicki yesterday has made me a little homesick because we miss them and their families, yes, even you Garry! Happy 60th!! It's very weird for Steve who has never lived away from the kids much before. Sure they've moved to Montana and back or Vancouver but this is the first time he's moved away from the West Coast and it's a long drive for us to get back there. We could maybe do it in a 4 day drive if we barely stopped to sleep and went directly there with no detours, if we drive through the US it's the same mileage but gas would be cheaper and the roads are faster so we could shave off a day or we could fly which is much faster, but that's expensive. Actually, I guess it's cheaper than gas for the van if it's only one person going. Our van would likely cost about $1000 each way whereas a flight even with taxes is that much for both ways. If I ever get enough money together I'd like to send Steve back for a visit, maybe Westjet will have a really good sale sometime. Well enough melancholy, I've got to get the last 3 kids off to the bus so I've got to go. Have a great day!

Warm and Cloudy today.

It got over 15 degrees today and it's currently partly cloudy and windy. So as you can imagine the snow is melting and the roads are dry. The snow on the roofs of the houses is pretty well all gone and it's hard to imagine that just a few short days ago we had 17 inches of heavy wet snow come down in 24 hours (more like 8 hours really). We haven't had the fire on again since yesterday morning when we burned 3 logs, so our firewood supply is looking pretty good if this keeps up and it's supposed to for a day or two more. It just helps buy us some more log drying time. The log pile in the trailer and on the driveway were covered with tarps but still got a little wet so we have to get it loaded inside now, and this wind is a good way of getting it dry.

Christmas recipes

FOr those of you not familiar with the BBC tv show Victorian Farm (and others they made) I thought I'd post a link for you. Here are some ideas of how the Victorians would have made gifts, decorated a tree and celebrated. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p71fz

Compared to their ancestors, the Victorians really went all out with Christmas. But nothing at all like the commercialization of today. There were no Walmart's open 24 hours a day, and frankly children expected less. Ah how nice it would be to go back to that time when friendship and love for fellow men trumped all the gift buying we see today.

But we don't live then, we live now. SO instead of wishing for something that can never be, we just try to instill in our children the importance of remembering the REAL reason for Christmas and we do things with them to have family time and make memories rather than just buy expensive gifts that are quickly forgotten.

But good food has always been, and remains an integral part of our celebrations. From Auntie Tessa's Fruitcake to the fizzy drinks, sharing food and visiting is central to our enjoyment and happiness at the Christmas Season.

Later I'm going to post some of our favourite recipes, but now I'm off to church. TTYL

And The Winners Are:

We decided to give a book to each person who left a comment, since only 3 people did. I have Helga, Vicki, and Nick on the list. If there is anyone else, just let me know. SO Congrats to you 3, you'll each be receiving a book in the mail just in time to read it and re-gift it for Christmas.

And thanks for your support you guys, I really appreciate it.

Elizabeth

Free Book / Restaurant review Kellocks in Berwick

Today is the last chance to leave a comment and be entered to win a free copy of "The Long Bridge" by Nancy Kopoulos. So leave a comment now!

It's 7am, Saturday morning. Steve's quietly breathing away, asleep, and wrapped up like a burrito in the blankets.



We went out last night to Kellocks at 160 Commercial St in Berwick for dinner. Knowing that he might be late and that the restauants around here are busy early, we had reservations for 7:30 and just made it in time but by then it was fairly quiet. We had Steak and thai curry with bruschetta to start. So here's the review. Pretty good food for the valley, the service was very good, and it's a pub also so if you want a drink you can get one. The curry Steve ordered was medium/mild and he ordered a medium so it's apparently not overwhelmingly hot. The chicken in it was in large chunks, boneless and well cooked. The noodles were plentiful and a bit doughy but all in all it was a nice meal. I had the steak cooked medium rare. It could have used some trimming but otherwise was properly cooked and seasoned. It also came with mashed potatoes that were bland and gluey and roasted veggies that were very nice, carrots, parsnip strips and baby tomatoes all pan roasted and seasoned. The bruschetta was a nice diversion, slices of french bread toasted with garlic butter and the bruschetta was finely chopped onions, tomatoes etc and with feta cheese mixed in. Mild on the cilantro and garlic, we ate the entire plate and found it quite agreeable. Will we go there again? Yes, when it's 2 can dine for $30 or maybe for the prime rib buffet on a Wednesday. It's nice for a special occasion but more expensive than other local restaurants. One thing, the kitchen was pretty fast and that was nice. We were in and out in under 90 minutes even after a long chat. The menu isn't overly large and offers something for everyone. It's right on the main street in Berwick, has it's own parking lot, and we would recommend it. All together with drinks, food, taxes and tip we paid $65 which is WAY more than we'd usually pay however since it's our Anniversary and we're not giving gifts, this seemed like a nice way to celebrate and it's cheap compared to big cities. The breakfast and lunch menus are very reasonably priced! They are open for breakfast & lunch and have an upstairs private dining room that can seat up to 18. One thing, try and be seated away from the bathroom, maybe in the main pub or near the side door, because the bathroom opens right out onto the side dining area, you can see the toilet from a couple of the seats, YUM!

After this nice dinner together we drove back to Greenwood Zellers for midnight madness and madness it was. I've never seen the store so full of people and there was stuff piled everywhere. We got some shopping done for Christmas, just a little, and got the girls snowpants too. Meghan insisted on pink and as it turns out the pair I got her are a bit big. I've still got to get Kate to try hers, hopefully we have better luck. The boys insist they won't need snow pants so I got them new pj's instead. Here comes Kate....and YES they fit! Woo Hoo! Hopefully those pants will fit her for a while yet. She sounds funny swishing as she walks around the house in snow pants.

Well, time to get going. We have Kung Fu this morning then there are lots of things around the house I'd like to get done including fixing the snowblower and clearing more of the snow off the driveway so we can find the wood pile. Hope you're all having a good day.

Update: Kung Fu was really fun. The kids went and got a nice workout, Chris stayed home (after having a really bad start to his morning) for some personal time, and Steve and I discovered that nobody had shoveled any of the walks at the chapel so we did it along with Sherry who helped out too. The snow blower was Steve's job and I did the scraping of the sidewalks to remove any more slush and chunks. It was a nice day for working outside, sunny and 10 celcius (50 f) so we enjoyed it. Here'a a picture of a snow blower for those around the world who may never have seen one. The snow enters the front, gets chewed up by the rotating blades the sent up the shoot and out the top. Pretty nice compared to using a shovel.

Elizabeth

Top 3 In The News this week Environmental Change, Community for Farmers and Optimism

I said I'd post some interesting things I read in the news this week. So here are my top 3. The first one I think is really relevant to all farmers. Stephen and I genuinely like working together and don't suffer the extent of isolation that many other farmers do simply because we have a larger family and we are actively involved in our Church community. That feeling of belonging and friendship really helps us to combat the sense of being outside looking in that many of us kooky and weird farmers have. We're growing animals on organic pastures and growing our crops in different ways than our neighbours. To some of our neighbours they can't decide who we are. For example, we sound like hippies but we don't smoke pot and we're neat and clean shaven, we attend church but we're LDS and not Anglican or Baptist, we are farmers but also run a small business and work in town, we really don't fit in anywhere. We're just us, the Faires Family, and there's really not much to gossip about as we lead fairly simple lives devoid of intrigue. This is probably why we have such a mix of friends. Both old and young, intelligent, funny, easy-going, you name it. Preppers, intellectuals, welders, DJ's, military officers, janitors, I think it doesn't matter what your outside is like, it's your heart. So will you be my friend?
http://www.grist.org/food/2011-11-23-farmers-need-community?mid=539

This second one could have been a real downer to watch. It's about how the weather has affected farmers, particularly in England. More rain in the Spring, not enough in the Summer, too warm in the Autumn but rather than dwelling in his problems with filling his water storage for irrigating his crops, he sees it as a challenge and is optimistic. What a good way to live your life.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15869905

And finally, the Earth Summit happened 20 years ago. And out of it came the real beginnings of public awareness and change towards the environment. Some good and some bad. This article points out 20 ways the world has changed over the past 20 years. The pictures show how things were then and now. Use the arrow keys below the China Pearl River Delta to see more photos and slide the margin in the centre of the picture back and forth to compare the differences.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/11/02/pol-environment-earth-summit-changes.html