Ah the fabulously glamorous life of a "cottage food" law abider. Besides being able to keep horses (4) but not dwarf goats, just to be clear, not even a one, for those "accountant-brained" people, who NEED to see numbers, that is equivalent to 0. We then move into IF you have designs on hand making delicious delicacies out of your own home and then sharing them with the world, but charging a minimal fee to do so, (one that basically affords you to be able to just keep making them. period.) you must first adhere to many many many many rules. There are even rules about the rules. It is all so... in-organic? I dunno, call me old fashioned... because I am TRYING TO BE.
Why is it that "old fashioned" has for the most part a negative "connotation"? For example, "I gave my dad an ipad for Christmas and he is just too stubbornly old fashioned to use it". (do yourself a favor and click the link on "dad") In fact, the only time I have really ever heard this term used for good is when referring to an adult beverage of the same name. However, there is definitely something to be said for "being old fashioned" at least when it comes to how you do food.
To me, old fashioned means retreating back to the days of the "cotton gin". Raw, REAL food that requires a more "hands" on approach rather than a "sprayed" on one. Sure it's "harder" labor. I mean, have you ever de-shelled and then de-SKINNED a raw peanut before? Seriously, this takes hours, and pretty much ALL of your sanity and restraint not to kill (or at least seriously maim) the first person that begs your attention thus breaking the serious concentration needed in order to complete the task. I digress, with that being said. It is a lot more rewarding and comforting to know EXACTLY what is in the food that you and your family are enjoying, because YOUR hands are the ones that very carefully fashioned it together.
I will say that I do understand the "fairytale" of pesticides and chemicals. They make life easier and the finished "product" more predictable? I remember when I first heard the term "organic". There was an apparently news worthy story about a woman who, after purchasing an organic head of lettuce, upon taking it home and beginning to prepare it, found a live frog inside. While that story in and of itself is pretty amazing and apparently not uncommon, it is not the "glue" that made it stick in my mind. It was a comment that one of the news anchors made tailing the "exclusive" that held it in place for this long. "Well, I guess that's what to expect if you buy organic."I nodded and chuckled and went on about my life. But, IT stuck. For some unknown reason, it filed itself in the "forefront" file cabinet of my brain I guess, and it crosses my mind at random, quite often when I think back, actually.
A FROG. Nesting in MY FOOD. How dare it!? Or... is it the only "safe" place, (touched, but not sprayed) by human hands, perfect in it's "old fashioned" form? Now I am most definitely NOT saying that all we consume here in this house is organic. I am however saying, that it was this very"food" for thought, literally, that was the initial spark in igniting the adventure that I am now finding myself upon.
And, I am quickly learning that there are a tremendous amount of hoops and red tape one must jump through making it quite the opposite of old fashioned, in trying to simply get back to simple. Bringing me to the recent realization that I think I would rather have a frog in my lettuce, than 0 defects in the "twinkie" of the vegetable world, the genetically engineered corn that has proven to be so pumped full of chemicals not only could it totally beat Lance Armstrong at a Tour De France, but also withstand a nuclear fall out if one should happen to occur. Now if only they could begin working on a butter to go with.
I don't know about you but YUM.
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