S4E149 Can We Homestead In Upstate New York And Still Follow The Mediterranean Diet?

For awhile, I really struggled with whether or not we could follow the Mediterranean Diet and still be homesteaders.  After all, we don't live in the Mediterranean.  And there are a lot of common ingredients to the Mediterranean Diet, that we cannot grow here in upstate NY. 
A. We can't produce olive oil
B. We are 100s of miles away from the ocean and fresh seafood
C. We can't grow citrus, artichokes, olives, capers, figs and pomegranates, all things found in many Mediterranean diet dishes.
D. Because we have smaller acreage, we can't grow lots of whole grains or nuts. 

But, eventually I realized that I was focused on the wrong things.  Instead of being focused on what I COULD do, I was focused on what I COULDN'T do. 
A. I can grow LOTS of vegetables. 
B. I can grow LOTS of herbs. 
C. I can raise a lot of meat.
D.  Even Ma and Pa Ingalls bought stuff at the store.
E.  The principles of the Mediterranean Diet are universal.

Enjoy!!
Brian
Food Rules By Michael Pollen

Transcript

Brian: 0:00

on today's episode, I really want to dive into answering this question. Can we homestead and follow the Mediterranean diet? Can we. Brian and Bonnie Wells who live in beautiful upstate New York, which as we discussed on last week's episode, is not in the Mediterranean but can we follow the Mediterranean diet and still be homesteaders? I am your host, Brian Wells, and I'm a fourth generation homesteader Since 2008, my family and I have been homesteading here in beautiful upstate New York. In 2019, I launched the Homestead Journey Podcast to help people just like you get started and find success on their journey towards self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and sustain. This is the Homestead Journey, and this is season four. I'm your host, Brian Wells, and I'm a fourth generation home. Since 2008, my family and I have been homesteading here in beautiful upstate New York. In 2019, I launched the Homestead Journey Podcast to help people just like you get started and find success on their journey towards self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and sustainability. This is the Homestead journey, and this is season four. Well, welcome, welcome, welcome everyone to another episode of the Homestead Journey podcast. I am your host, Brian Wells. I am coming to you from three B from and Homestead here in beautiful upstate New York. This is episode number 149 of the Homestead Journey Podcast and this is season four, and I thank you so much for joining. If you are a long time listener, thank you so much and if you're brand new to the podcast, well I am so glad that you have found us, and thank you so much for spending part of your day with me here on the podcast. Now today I am flying solo here in. Homestead Journey Podcast Studios once again by myself. Bonnie is not here right now. In fact, she and Brian Jay are on their way to the accepted students day at the college that he has chosen to attend. So we are very, very excited about that. Obviously, we understand a lot is going to change here on the homestead as a result, and we are gonna be talking. That more in depth a little later on in the season. But right now, we are going to continue our deep dive into the Mediterranean diet, today we're actually going to talk about whether or not we are going to be able to continue the homesteading lifestyle. eating the Mediterranean diet. And of course the short answer to that is, yes, spoiler alert, but that's where we're at. Certainly we're going to be able to keep homesteading even though this is not the Mediterranean we are in beautiful upstate New York. But we're gonna dive into all of that here in a little bit. But before we get there, let's jump on over to this week's homestead happenings, and I'll bring you up to speed with what we've been doing here on three B Farm and Home. So it is that time of year where things are starting to pick up here on the homestead. In fact, those of you who consume this podcast on YouTube, Odyssey Rumble, you know the visual, uh, places, Those of you who want to see my ugly mug will realize that there is something a little bit different here with your. Handsome host and that is that this week was the first day of spring and as is my tradition, the facial hair is gone. And it is always funny to get the reactions of people when I shave that off. Some people love it, some people hate it. Um, but it is what it is. Since I think about 2014, I have been doing kind of this November ember kind of a thing where I will grow out my mustache. or this year I was rocking a. Rather fierce Van Dyke. And if you're not familiar with the Van Dyke, it's the handlebar mustache with kind of a pointy, um, goatee, kind of think Colonel Sanders. And now that I'm starting to get the gray in the beard, I started getting a lot of Colonel Sanders references this year. So I, I don't know if I'm going to do the Van Dyke anymore. who knows? I, we have a lot of fun with it, but any. The first day of spring was this week, and so that means not that our, our minds weren't already tuned or, or maybe we were turning in that direction, but certainly that official demarcation of the first day of spring certainly has brought about some changes here on the home. Both from a tangible perspective, a visual perspective, as well as. You know, the snow's starting to melt and I finally got my seed order in. I'm only probably a month late doing that compared to where I wanted to be, but better late than ever. Right? So I got the seed order in and my dad and I spent some time this week working on a project that I'm very excited about in the past, my seed starting, uh, system has been here in the studio, we'll call it in our office, and normally it would've been off to my right hand side, but because of doing the podcast and you know, the new way that I'm doing the podcast, I really needed the room. And so I had taken that out of here. Now those of you who have listened to this podcast for any length of time, you'll remember there have been times when I've taken the seed starting system out of the office and put it in other parts of our house, but this year, for a number of different reasons I wanted to move that seed starting system downstairs to our basement, but our basement is, An unheated basement, and so I wasn't quite sure what the germination rates would be in an unheated basement. So what my dad and I spent some time doing yesterday is actually taking that shelving unit and building kind of a frame off the front of it. And we are encasing it with some styrofoam insulation. You know, the, the sheets that have kind of that silver paper on it. And then what we're doing is putting the, the grow lights in there. We'll be putting the seeds in there. I have an ink bird and if you're not familiar with what an ink bird did it, what, what an ink bird is. It's a device that will. On devices or off devices based on temperature and humidity, re uh, readings. And so you can kind of set it to do that. So if the lights that we have in there aren't warm enough to create kind of that nice germination temperature, uh, will have. A small space heater in there that we'll be able to turn on and off using this ink bird. And fingers crossed we'll be able to do some good seed germination in an unheated basement. So I'll be diving into that a little bit more once I've proven it out. I don't wanna kind of give you a how to build a seed starting system in your unheated basement thing until I'm sure that it works. That's one of the things that drives. Is people will put up these YouTube videos and they never really follow up as to whether or not their hair-brained idea worked. And I've kind of gotten caught at times where I've started or maybe I followed somebody's directions and it didn't work out. And then I reached out to them and they were like, Oh yeah. By the way, that didn't really work out, but they never did a follow up video to say, Hey, it didn't work out. So I'm just gonna avoid all of that and I'm, I'm telling you what I'm doing, but I'm not really gonna dive too much into it until I'm sure that the system works. I have all the kinks worked out of it, and then if it works out well, I'll be putting together maybe some plans and a parts list and I'll, I'll put it out probably and adjust the basics guide, and then you'll be able to download it and do it yourself. But it's certainly not rocket science I think it's gonna work out. I'm hoping it'll work out and more to come on that. But that certainly was, uh, a big project that my, my dad and I worked on this. Another thing that I've been doing this week is I've been reading this book, it's called Food Rules an Eater's Manual. It's by a guy by the name of Michael Pollen, I think P O L L A N, and it's actually a book that Amy Dingman over at a Farish kind of life recommended, and she actually did a podcast about, and I, I was very intrigued because as you know, we are going, you know, kind of switching over to the Mediterranean style of eating, the Mediterranean way of eating. And so I wanted to kind of see how this lined up with what we are doing. You know, always like to kind of get confirmation or maybe some. Maybe not confirmation, but a little bit of a kick in the seat of the pants to say, maybe you're barking up the wrong tree, so to speak. And so I've been reading through this book, and really what this book has done is it's really, for me confirmed that we are heading in the right direction. one of the things that he says in the, in the preface, and this is, uh, a little bit of a different version than I think what Amy had. This is a newer version which has some additional rules that she didn't have, but it's got some really nice artwork in it and in the, I dunno what you call it, the, the preface because there was kind of two, uh, introductions in this. Um, one I think's the original introduction and then kind of one that's why am I doing an extended version of this? But anyhow, One of the things that jumped out at me was this, and it simply was a statement and this awesome picture here that says, people who get off the Western diet see dramatic improvements in their health. And I, I, I'm really enjoying this. I would recommend you, you take a look at it. I, I think there's a lot of great stuff in here, whether or not you wanna adopt the Mediterranean way of eating or not, but I think there's just some really great. Great stuff here that really is applicable to homesteading. Uh, it's really applicable to homestead eating in a very, very solid way. But the reason why I bring that up is because we got some great news, and that is that Bonnie went to the doctor, she had some blood work drawn, and her A1C levels have dropped back into the normal range as a result of us switching. Well, I'm gonna make the declaration that it's as a result of the Mediterranean style of eating to the Mediterranean way of eating that we've adopted. And it's so great to kind of get that payoff that you are affecting your health because you're making healthier and wiser food choices and that the extra expense. Not that I, you know, not that I regret that, or not that I hold that over Bonnie's head. I, I mean, I joke with her about it, but, uh, I, you know, I wanna, I wanna keep her around. I'm the one that's kind of pushed this even maybe harder than she would've wanted to be pushed, simply because I wanna keep her around. I kind of like her, uh, you know? So, um, but to see that this is actually working, Was just, it, it was so exciting to me. And again, it was just that confirmation that we are heading in the right direction. Certainly it's a journey just like the, you know, the homestead journey, um, this whole diet thing, this whole way of eating thing is, is a journey for us, and we've not fully embraced it. We're not a hundred percent compliant. They're still growing edges for us. We talked about all of that on last week's episode, but certainly to get that confirmation from the doctor that things are, are normalizing what was was great news. And then not just that, not that I'm trying to throw my shoulder out here, patting myself on the back, but the doctor did kinda gave me some kudos for. Joining Bonnie on this journey and you know how important that is to have that level of support. And that's certainly something that we talked about. Uh, back on, I think it was episode 1 47. So all of that, to simply say, I'm very, very happy that this hasn't been all in vain. Um, But that this is working, and I simply wanna say to you that if you're having, uh, you know, health problems, I certainly recommend that you look at your way of eating. If you eat a traditional Western style diet, whether or not you end up becoming a, a full-time homesteader, a full-fledged homesteader, whether or not you raise and grow your own food or not, you certainly can make better food choices whether or not you decide to adopt the Mediterranean, way of. You still can make better food choices, and so I would highly recommend you check out this book, food Rules and Eaters Manual, Michael Pollen. I've got this from the library. I'll try to put a link in the, in the show notes if I can find, I'm sure that book's for sale, maybe on Amazon or whatnot. I'll put a, I'll put a link in the show notes and in the description just so that you can, check it out. If you can get it through your library and you read it that way, I think that's a better way to do it, but certainly I highly recommend it. And beyond that, I highly recommend this idea of changing your diet for better health results. The last thing I want to talk about is the home setting festival that is going to be coming up here, the end of May, the Southern Adirondack Homestead Festival. I, I'm so excited about it and this week we really started to get some feedback from people with regards to this festival and, and I've had some really great conversations with people that are, are friends of mine, people that are just acquaintances of mine. But around this, the need for this. Why are we doing it? You know, what are we hoping to accomplish? but people that are just genuinely excited about this conference, about this festival. And that really has been very, very encouraging to me because you kind of come up with this idea and then it's a matter of, okay, is it going to work in this area? Now we had great success with the homesteaders of New England, uh, fall gathering last year with, uh, Jack Poner from the Mindful Homestead. Gonna be doing another one of those this year. And so, You're in the Northeast and the may date doesn't work for you. Definitely check that out if you can do both of them. Do both of'em, I think it's gonna be great. Because one of the things I shared with some friends of mine today is it's not just about people coming in learning new things or learning new skills or being taught, but it's about community. It's about establishing those relationships with people, those like-minded people, the fact is there are people just like you that are wanting to take greater control over. Food supply and there are people just like you who are want, wanting to learn how to do some of the, maybe the, the things that have been lost over time. They may might remember grandma and grandpa having a large garden, canning the produce, and then their parents didn't really follow through on that, and so they're wanting to return to those roots and other people. That's a totally foreign concept. They never saw grandma and grandpa do anything like, but they've heard about it, they're interested in it. So there's just a whole wide range of individuals that are interested in pursuing this lifestyle, but sometimes being able to make those connections is a little bit difficult. And so I've had some great conversations with people around this idea this week, and so I'm very, very excited about it. If you are interested in this at all, head on over to my website, theHomesteadjourney.net/festival, and there you'll find more information and a link to the website for the Southern Adirondack Homestead Festival, but that's gonna be taking place in May 19th, 20th, and 21st. And certainly I am very, very excited about that. Well, folks, that's what we've been up to here on three B Farm and Homestead Spring is in the air. I'm so excited to start just getting things underway and I hope things are well underway, wherever you might be. Alright, let's jump on over to this week's charting the course. So this week we are going to be continuing our discussion on the Mediterranean diet and the Mediterranean way of eating, as we like to call it here on the Homestead Journey podcast. And on today's episode, I really want to dive into answering this question. Can we homestead and follow the Mediterranean diet? Can we. Brian and Bonnie Wells who live in beautiful upstate New York, which as we discussed on last week's episode, is not in the Mediterranean but can we follow the Mediterranean diet and still be homesteaders? Now, honestly, when we first started jumping into this whole thing, I really struggle with that, and I shared that with you on a couple of episodes ago. Kind of put me in a little bit of a funk because there, for a while I kind of was thinking, have I been misleading? People saying that virtually anybody can be a homesteader, and yet now all of a sudden I was having second thoughts or I was kind of rethinking all of this because there's a lot of stuff that we were running across, you know, kind of staple ingredients in the Mediterranean. That we cannot raise, grow, produce, or process here in the great Northeast. For example, we can't produce olive oil and olive oil is the main fat in the Mediterranean diet. We are hundreds of miles away from the ocean, and seafood is a huge part of the Mediterranean diet and certainly, uh, fresh seafood is much. And when you are hundreds, uh, of miles away from the coast, that's a bit of a challenge. And even if I did live on the coast, would I be able to raise my own seafood? You know, there's a lot of questions about the quality of farmed seafood anyhow, and I don't know if anybody even does farmed salmon, for example, on a small scale, I don. all of that. To simply say though, on my two acres here in beautiful upstate New York, I'm certainly not raising salmon and clams and oysters and other kinds of fish and other kinds of seafood like shrimp and whatever, scallops, you know, all the things, A few other things that we kind of kept running across as major ingredients in Mediterranean style cooking were things like artichokes and citrus and olives and capers and figs and pomegranates, and the list could go on and on and on. And these are all things that without some kind of specialized infrastructure here in beautiful upstate New York are. The possibilities of me being able to rage, grow, produce, process, you know, it, it's just not going to happen because we have small acreage. Being able to grow grains, like whole grains in the quantities that we would need to be able to make it through the year, and even things like beans. I'm not sure we have enough land to be able to do that and still be able to do other things. Nuts are another component of a healthy, Mediterranean diet approach. We do have some nuts here on our property. We have some shag bar hickory trees, and so we could harvest the hickory nuts, but you, that'd kind of get boring after a while and you kind of want some almond, you might want some walnuts and things like that. And well, we could probably raise a lot of those things here on our property. Number one, it's gonna take a long time for those trees to get to the spot where they're gonna be able. Produce any kind of nuts. And number two, I really don't have the land to be able to do that in such a way where I'm gonna be able to get those things in the quantity that we would want for an entire year. And so it really put me in a bit of a quandary here. I'm, I'm trying to think, okay, we're having to buy all of these things. Uh, are we really homesteading at this point or are we just back to becoming a part of the commercial food supply once again? Eventually I realized. I was focused on the wrong things. Instead of being focused on what I can do, what I can raise, grow, produce, and process here on the homestead. I was focused on the maybe 10 things that I can't raise, grow, produce, and process. I was focused on the wrong things. I was focused on what I couldn't do instead of what I can do. And maybe it was about time that I started taking my own advice and doing the best I can with what I've got to work with. And so I started thinking about the things that I can do here on the homestead as it relates to the Mediterranean. Now the Mediterranean diet is very plant-based. We talked about the Mediterranean diet, plate diagram on last episode, and how one half of your plate, 50% of your plate should be vegetables. A quarter of it should be grains, pasta, starch, those kinds of things, but. Whole grains and lentils and beans should be eaten more than starchy things. And then one quarter should be either seafood or lean proteins. Well, 50% vegetables. I can grow a lot of vegetables here on the homestead. I have been growing a lot of vegetables here on the homestead. I preserve a lot of vegetables here on the homestead, so I, I'm already doing the things like I'm already halfway there, so to speak. Another part of the Mediterranean diet, is that it's. Reliant on herbs and using herbs for flavoring instead of just using salt for flavoring. Well, the vast majority of herbs that are popular in Mediterranean style cooking. I can grow here in beautiful upstate New York, and a lot of them I have dabbled. I've not really ever had a great herb garden, but I've grown a lot of herbs here in beautiful upstate New York. And we're gonna talk on a future episode about herbs, specifically doing an episode about herbs. But the fact is I can do that. I can do that here in beautiful upstate non Mediterranean, New York. I can raise a lot of. I have been raising a lot of meat. Now. Some of it does not necessarily fit within the Mediterranean style of eating, and we'll talk about that on another episode. But yeah, maybe I can't. Raise seafood here on three B Farm and Homestead. Maybe I am not going to be an oyster or a scallops farmer or a salmon farmer or anything like that, but I can raise a lot of meat here on three B Farm and Homestead. That would be Mediterranean Diet compliant if I was worried about those things. Okay. I'm already doing the things. but there's another important thing that I was overlooking. Now, a lot of people, when they think of the quintessential homesteaders, they think of man pa Engles from the Little House on the Prairie Series, even Ma and Pa Ingles. Went to the store and bought things that they themselves couldn't raise, grow, produce, or process like. It's not a bad thing to go to the store and buy stuff and here, all of a sudden I was acting like we never went to the store and bought anything. And how dare I go to the store and buy something like olive oil when we go to the store and buy stuff all the time? I don't think twice about buying pectin. To make jams and jellies or to buy sugar to make jams and jellies, although we're gonna be changing that approach and that's a topic for another day. But I don't think twice about doing that. I don't think twice about going to the supermarket and buying a roll of paper towels. Probably I should, but I don't. You know, there's a lot of things that we go to the store and we buy toilet paper. God, love all of you who love Mother Earth so much that you will use reusable toilet paper. I'm not that guy. I'm not that guy. I don't see myself ever being that guy. I like my Charmin. All right? It's just how it is. Maybe I'm a little, getting a little too personal here, but I like to enjoy the go. And I'm not about to be washing reusable toilet paper. So we go to the store and we buy the things. You know, again, we don't think anything about buying sugar, flour, pasta, canyon lids. The list could go on and on and on. So, so what if I'm buying olive oil? So what if I'm buying whole grains? So what if I'm buying some kind of funky pasta that's made from lentil? So what? Focus on the things that I can raise, grow, produce, and process here on the homestead. And the other things I, I just buy them now. We're trying to be smarter about how we buy them, So we're probably gonna be looking at buying some whole grains in bulk. Now, I'm not gonna go out and buy a 50 pound sack of Pharaoh until I know that we like Pharaoh, so we'll buy that in smaller quantities. But eventually we'll probably start buying some of those things and larger quantities, and we're gonna try to be smart about how we source it and all of that. We've been testing out some olive oil from various places because we've learned that not all olive oils are created equal. And not every extra virgin olive oil is actually extra virgin. But yeah, we're trying to be responsible in that and, and, you know, look for good sources for those kinds of things. But if I've gotta buy that so, It's really not the end of the world. And does that mean I'm not a homesteader? Well, if that's the case, I wasn't a homesteader before. Right? And again, it's all a part of the journey. I've said before on this podcast, we're on a journey towards self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and sustainability. None of us are ever gonna reach that goal. And guess what? Brian Wells, you need to take the advice of that marvelous, handsome host of the Homestead Journey podcast to. Yeah, I need to look at myself in the mirror and say, Brian, no, you're not gonna be fully self-sufficient. No, you're not gonna be fully self-reliant. No, you're not gonna be fully sustainable. And that's okay. Do the best you can with what you got, and that's what we're gonna do. That's simply what we're gonna do here on three B Farm and Homestead. But the last thing I wanted to say is, The principles of the Mediterranean diet are universal, plant-based, eaten moderation, minimize processed foods, and instead prepare meals from scratch. Live an active lifestyle. Eat in the context of community. Anybody, anywhere can do that. Even Brian and Bonnie, well. Here in beautiful upstate New York. Well, folks, that is it for this episode. I hope you've enjoyed it. if you have any questions or comments with regards to anything I've said, you can reach out to me, brian@thehomesteadjourney.net is my email address. You can also catch us on all of the socials, I would love to hear from you, and until next time, everybody, keep up the good work