This is an entry for the the @livesustainably Cook It Fresh Contest.

I wanted to make something that had super low food miles. This meal has been a staple diet this winter as most of it’s grown on our homestead and we have a lot of it!

The ingredients:

• Sweet Potatoes
• Deer
• Garlic
• Cultivated Greens
• Watercress
• Sage infused vinegar I made in summer.
• Fermented Seed cheese Ini made
• Quinoa
• Kelp, Dulse
• Salt
• Curry spice

The first 6 ingredients are superbly local. We grew many lbs of sweet potatoes this year, purple and orange.

We stored them under our kitchen cabinet and though they have been through a few freezes, most of them are doing just fine (a few softies here and there). The garlic we also had a huge crop of this season (anyone want to buy garlic with Steem next summer?!) and it is storing really well. I left all of the ingredients whole for the picture for better effect.

The greens are from our high tunnel and include, endive, fennel, cilantro, spinach and chickweed. We haven’t gotten as many greens as I would have liked this winter. It has been quite cold often and we don’t heat the high tunnel in any way at this point.

Ini also stopped on his way home and got watercress from a huge spring about 10 miles from our house. Great nutritious surprise!

The deer Ini killed about 20 miles from our homestead on a friend’s land. We give thanks for the life of the deer. We got 2.5 deer this year (split one with a friend) so we have a lot of meat. This is our first winter with a freezer (and with power) so it continually feels really awesome to have tons of meat and other things we put away during summer.

The seed cheese Ini makes and it includes sprouted sunflower seeds, generous amount of garlic, salt, curry powder, and yogurt for starter culture.

The rest of the ingredients are from the local health food store. Except for salt, the meal would still be complete without them, but this isn’t a rigid contest and honestly this is how I like to eat! A balance of raising as much as we can locally with supplementing for things we like from the store. All of it is whole, unadulterated foods and I left it whole for the picture so people could see.

This is how all of our meals are. Not this completely local, but all whole foods.

I couldn’t do without seaweed (kelp and dulse) lately as I feel I need these wonderful nutrients from the sea in my diet! Sometimes it’s like that and people have always traded and bartered for things local to them for things from far away.

This recipe was really easy and included:

• marinating deer overnight in sage vinegar while it defrosted.
• Putting a bit of water, kelp, spices and garlic in a pot with the defrosted deer and bringing it to a boil.
• Adding the rest of the ingredients and moving the pot to the wood stove (which I had going all day as it was a chilly day!)
• Cooking for about 8 hours.
• Picking the greens and adding fresh!
• Voila! Eat!

Food miles are something that is ever on our minds, as well as food security. It’s something dear enough to our hearts and beings that I can say it’s a major reason why we Homestead and grow our own food.

There is nothing like fresh food you grew yourself!

The taste, the flavor and nutrition... the assurance....

Brings new meaning to cooking from scratch.

I know there are no pesticides or chemicals in it, that the soil it comes from is taken care of and fed to give more life in future seasons, that there are bees on site for increased pollination and that it didn’t drive thousands of miles to get to me.

It’s my hope through Steemit we can spread the good word about how satisfying and easy it is to grow one’s own food! Local food revolution!

It is so satisfying to feed ourselves, our friends and family! Can’t wait until our vineyard starts producing and we can wash it all down with some wine!