Where can you find nutritious food when it's not in your neighborhood grocery store?

I've been on a journey towards traditional foods for the past three years, and finding healthy foods is one of the biggest hurdles I've encountered during this process. I would read about the benefits of raw milk or grass-fed beef, but then I wasn't sure where to buy them. I live in a suburb of Philadelphia, and we don't have dairy farms or chickens in our backyards. With a little investigation, I've discovered raw milk, grass-fed beef, pastured poultry and eggs, and raw honey within a 20 minute drive of my home. During a typical week, I may purchase food from 3-4 sources, so it's definitely not as convenient as one-stop shopping at the local grocery store. However, I know I'm buying fresh, healthy food, and I'm directly supporting local farmers. Here are some of my sources, and I'll continue to add more to the list as I find them.


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Butter from grass-fed cows: 

1. Your Family Farmer

2. Trader Joes or Wholefoods  - I buy Kerrygold butter.

3. Local health food store.

4. My local milk co-op (see raw milk section) has found a source of raw butter and raw cream. It's not always available, but I was really excited about the option.

Coconut Oil:

1. Trader Joe's or your local grocery store
2.  Tropical Traditions - also has coconut flour, coconut milk, and tomato products in glass jars instead of cans
3. Vitacost

Organic Produce:

1. CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) - We have been part of Red Hill Farm and Red Earth Farm. Red Earth Farm has delivery points throughout the Philadelphia area. 

2. Indian Orchard - A tiny, hundred-year-old family farm where you can pick peaches, blueberries, pears, and apples. It's located near Linvilla Orchard in Media, PA.
3. Farmer's Markets - Ridley Park (Thurs. 4-7pm), Swarthmore (Sat. 9:30am-1:30pm), and Media (Thurs. 3-7pm). Here's a link to information about many farmer's markets in the Philadelphia region. 
4. Your Family Farmer
5. Door to Door Organics
6. BJ's Wholesale and Costco often sell organic produce

Raw milk and pastured eggs: 

1. The most affordable milk I've found ($4/gallon!) is through a local milk co-op. We pick up from Green Ridge Farm in Parkesburg, PA. You can find many more farms that sell raw milk in PA at the www.realmilk.com.
2. My local health food store Martindale's sells raw milk, cheese, pastured eggs, grass-fed beef, and organic produce.
3. Your Family Farmer is a group of farmers that sell raw milk, raw cheese, pastured poultry and eggs, woodland pork, and grass-fed beef. They deliver every 2 weeks to drop-off points throughout Pennsylvania.
4. When I've traveled, I've found sources of raw milk in CT, FL, and NH through the website www.realmilk.com. It has a "real milk finder" with information about each state in the United States. One of our favorite vacation memories was meeting a three day old calf at a dairy farm in NH when we stopped to buy raw milk and cheese.

Pastured Chickens and Grass-fed beef:
1. Canter Hill Farm in Malvern, PA. They sell at local farmer's markets, and they sell retail in Wolff's Apple House in Media, PA.
2. Forks Farm in Orangeville, PA. They also sell at local farmer's markets, and they have a monthly drop-off in Media. There is a Facebook group you can join if you are interested in their drop-off.
3. Your Family Farmer - They have weekly drop-offs in Media, and they have weekly or bi-weekly deliveries all over the state of PA.
4. Farmer's markets - Ridley Park (Thurs. 4-7pm), Swarthmore (Sat. 9:30am-1:30pm), and Media (Thurs. 3-7pm). Here's a link to information about many farmer's markets in the Philadelphia region.

The Weston A. Price Foundation produces an annual "Shopping Guide" with 'Best, Good, and Avoid' categories for all kinds of food.  I have several copies of this guide if you would like one, and you can get more information or request one at www.westonaprice.org. 

The Chicken Roast-off

My mom is an amazing cook, and she's always willing to try a new recipe. When I was growing up, my parents begged me to learn how to cook with my mom. Unfortunately, I was always too busy and uninterested. When I was in college, I got my first apartment with my friends, and I needed to do some basic cooking. I emptied a bag of rice into a cute jar, and then I threw the bag away. When I needed to cook rice with a meal, I sheepishly called my mom and asked, "How do you cook rice?" (Obviously, those were pre-Google days.) My cooking skills grew with practice, but I was still intimidated by large cuts of meat. I didn't know any recipes for them, and I wasn't sure what to do with the extra meat after the meal.
In 2008, I read an article in Guideposts Magazine about a young woman who used her grandmother's recipe to roast a whole chicken. I was very impressed, and I thought the recipe didn't look too hard. I acquired my first whole chicken, and I set about washing the bird and trying to get out the innards. My only problem was that I only noticed an opening on one end of the bird. The opening was so small that I could only get one finger in. How was I supposed to get the innards out? I tried as hard as I could, but I kept thinking, "There must be a better way to do this." How I laughed at myself when I realized a flap of skin was covering the larger opening! Chicken lesson #1: There are two openings in a chicken, and only one is big enough for the giblets. To my shame, I still didn't now what to do with the giblets, so I just threw them away.
I was watching Oprah one afternoon, and a chef named Cristina Ferrare was talking about roasted chicken. She suggested roasting two at once, and then you can dice up the chicken to use in other recipes. I started storing and freezing two cup portions of roasted chicken, and I tried them in several of her recipes. I haven't adapted the recipes for traditional cooking yet, but her pesto chicken recipe is one of my favorite ways to use homemade pesto.
When I entered Nourishing Traditions land, I realized that how the chicken is raised is important, and you can make wonderful, healthy chicken stock from the innards and bones. (I'll do a future post on making stock). I started buying pastured chickens from www.yourfamilycow.com, and then I roasted two birds at once, saved the extra meat for other meals, and then made broth with the bones. Unfortunately, my regular chicken supplier has run out for this season, and I'm looking for other sources of organic chickens. Out of convenience, I bought two "organic, free-range" chickens from Trader Joe's, and I was really disappointed when I read the fine print at home. The chickens are fed corn and soy, so I'll keep looking for another chicken supplier.
This week I found the Nourishing Traditions recipe for Roast Chicken. I decided to try it with one chicken, and then compare it to a chicken with my usual recipe called "Mo's Sunday Roast Chicken." I had some left-over gravy in the freezer, so I didn't try the gravy portion of the recipe.  Here are the results of my chicken roast-off.

Nourishing Traditions' Roast Chicken 

The Nourishing Tradition's chicken was moist with great crunchy skin. I've never turned a chicken over half-way through cooking, and it really did make a difference. The caramelized onions on the bottom of the pan were amazing and flavorful. My family does not prefer large amounts of garlic, so I only added one head of garlic instead of two. I didn't peel the garlic, and I wish I had. The peels were slimy, and it wasn't always easy to pop out the cloves. If I make this recipe again, I'll probably just add a few peeled or chopped cloves. The meat was tender, but I didn't think it had much flavor. 

Mo's Sunday Roast Chicken

The chicken with my regular recipe is moist and the skin has delicious flavors from lemon and Herbes de Provence. The skin on the top is crunchy, but the skin on the bottom of the bird is wet and limp. I think I'll try turning over the bird the next time.  I love the roasted sweetness and zesty flavors in the potatoes, celery, onions, and carrots. 

Bottom Line: Even though the Nourishing Tradition's chicken was crispy and the onions were incredible, I'm planning on sticking with my regular recipe in the future. I love the Herbes de Provence and lemon flavors in the skin and vegetables. 

Mo's Sunday Roast Chicken

Ingredients: 

• 1 large fryer chicken, 4-5 lbs. 
• 1 Tblsp. Herbes de Provence
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 lemon
• 1/2 c. olive oil (I used grass-fed butter)
• 1 teaspoon salt (I used 3/4 tsp. sea salt)
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 5 carrots, cut in half
• 6-8 red potatoes
• 1 onion, cut in eighths
• 5 stalks celery, cut in half 

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Wash chicken; remove innards. Pat dry inside and out. Mix herbs, garlic, juice of 1/2 lemon, oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Rub chicken inside with remaining half of lemon and sprinkling of salt and pepper. Rub chicken outside with some of the herb-lemon-oil mixture. Place chicken in a large roasting pan. Truss the bird, or just tie the legs with kitchen twine. Toss vegetables in remaining herb-lemon-oil mixture. Set aside to marinate. Roast chicken for 20 minutes. Remove vegetables from marinade and add to roasting pan. Continue to roast chicken with vegetables for about one hour, or until done. Baste with pan juices every 20 minutes. 

From Guideposts Magazine, October 2008, page 22.