I want to talk about food.

I don’t consider myself a foodie as my interest in food is not intended, but rather incidental.  I do however hold certain beliefs about food which have guided me to embrace a whole food diet and inspired me to be more intentional about food.  Also, I love eating.

So, I’m feeling like I want to kick off a bit of a food series on THE SLOW DOWN FAMILY to extend my food journey from the kitchen to this online space.  It is just that, a journey.  So let’s start at the beginning (or just somewhere and call it a beginning).

If you follow me on Instagram or on my blog, you will know that we make food for a living.  This began in 2015 when we started our food stand at a local market.  We then opened our full time restaurant in December 2016.   The past two years have been all about food for us.  This was new for me.  Having to produce a food offering (and continually re-invent it) has given me a purposeful interest in defining my personal food values. I have researched, experimented and discovered a honing in, a natural move towards a way of eating that suits us, that makes sense to us.

To put it most simply, we strive to eat only whole food – food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances.  Food that is nothing but food.  We are also totally okay with cheating on a whole food diet if the situation calls for it.  I recently took stock of our kitchen at home and was pleased to discover that apart from some tomato sauce in the fridge, we don’t currently have any processed foods in our home.

How did we get here?  It didn’t happen suddenly.  It even didn’t happen on purpose.  I just began to believe that food in it’s most natural form has got to be the best.  I started to let this belief lead me and I began to read labels.  The more I believed and the more I read, the less processed foods I brought home.  Less, not none.  I didn’t have set rules, I just had a real conviction.

For me, it’s been a two year process.  I started out by training my mind towards a new way of eating.  I became conscious about what I put into my body and fed to my children.  I found that over time, the choices became more natural.  I found myself standing in the grocery store, staring at food labels and thinking how easy it would be to make the convenient purchase.  This is the stuff my kids willingly eat, this is the stuff that takes less time to make.  But it’s not the stuff that we feel good about eating.

After two years, I find myself choosing inconvenience more often.  I also like to call it choosing slow.  And right here I would like to take a moment to say that it’s a process, there is no shame allowed on this journey.  There is no room for criticism for another’s choices when it comes to food and certainly no room for thinking of oneself as better based on what one eats.  I am where I am on my food journey because I have been allowed the space to apply myself to creating room for inconvenient food, slow food.

There is a movement called slow food which takes a clean approach to food even further.  It’s all about sourcing food from local producers who adhere to whole food principles, producers who are offering an alternative to mass-produced and packaged foods found in the grocery stores.  These are the producers who are actual local pioneers and entrepreneurs who desperately need local support to continue.

To shop this way, to eat this way we need to be prompted an various levels.  Again, there’s a process here and there is also a price to pay.  This way of eating is inconvenient and more expensive.  I have chosen to journey on this road because of my convictions about what I believe to be good for my body, good for my community and good for the environment.

I am passionate about doing my part to make this way of eating and consuming more accessible and sustainable.  That is why we do our best to partner with local suppliers at Frederick & Son, with a heart to be part of pursuing and grow a sustainable local food system.

That’s me and my food journey and I am looking forward to sharing more.  Expect simple, whole food recipes and tips and ideas on how to create and sustain a whole food kitchen and lifestyle.