I went to a “Meat Free Monday” dinner as a guest speaker and talked about the Yellowbird community to about 30 people. They were not all vegan or even vegetarian (nor am I), just folks that are trying to make positive lifestyle changes.
I called our winter group, the “Hard-Core Locavores”.
My dad always told me, "Wisdom is learning from someone else's experience."
This is difficult for a few reasons.
We rarely learn from our own experiences, so how can we be expected to learn from someone else's?
Even when we learn from our own experience, it is difficult to make changes that lead us away from comfort...from knowing, into what might actually be harder for us, but also lead to healing.
I just sat down after being at Newark High School all morning.
They have a home economics teacher (yes, they still exist), and she convinced her 2nd, 3rd, and 4th period classes to take the @1803eatingchallenge that we set up. The 1803 eating challenge is simply this…”if it ain't grown in Ohio, then we ain't eatin’ it.” For the month of January, every last ingredient that I’m eating will be grown in Ohio.
Friday January 3rd, 2020!!
I didn't make it to midnight on New Year's Eve
My challenge for 2019 was to jump rope 500,000 times. I made it to 75,350 before I got a really bad case of poison ivy, my arches got tight, and I got off rhythm and didn't pick it back up again.
I yelled at my kids when I should have been patient.
I ate too much at lunch and it killed the rest of my day...and I knew I was doing it as it went down.
I judged people.
Welcome to 2020.
Wow, what a statement. If I were watching a movie, and the screen said, “OHIO: 2020”, I would assume they meant that was some time in the future. Nope. It’s today.
And TODAY we find ourselves in the middle of the 1803 Eating Challenge.
This time of year comes LOADED with lots of emotions, memories, and significance.
Stay in each moment.
If you are joyful, rejoice.
If you are mourning, mourn with fervor.
Remember that this year holds its own events and a chance to create or add to holiday traditions.
Give yourself the grace you deserve in this time, to be who you are, and in doing so freeing others to be who they are...together.
Navy Beans Part Deux:
I’ve never made homemade refried beans. I’m not even sure what the “typical” refried bean is…kidney? It doesn’t matter, because what I did know on Saturday was that I had an entire bag of Shagbark Navy Beans.
I loosely followed the instructions on the back, and poured a bunch into some water. I let that sit overnight on the counter and then I drained them and poured 8 cups of water over the top of the beans in a dish that I put on the stove to bring to a boil.
Each Thursday night, my wife takes a living sourdough "starter", and creates between 15-20 loaves of amazing dough. That dough sits around our kitchen overnight and then she gets up at 5:30am and begins to bake this wondrous bread.
I don’t know where to start...do I start every newsletter with that line?...maybe just in my own head.
First, Navy Beans. Over the next couple of weeks every box size will get them. These are Ohio grown (of course), Organic (of course), from Shagbark. Coolest part? WE ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT HAVE THEM! We bought them ALL, FOR YA’LL! That’s the kind of cool stuff that is happening for YB’ers now. Do you understand that you are changing the food system for growers, purveyors, AND eaters?
HAPPY FRIDAY!
After taking a couple months off, I now have a backlogged catalog of things I want to show you.
I have a bit of a Santa Claus complex (finding fun surprises for people that I think they will enjoy), so this is a way to use up some of that energy. What I don't use here, we use each week when we go out and find the best food to bring to our Yellowbird customers.
What a fun week it was...Thanksgiving this year, more than anytime before, was such a restful week with the family. I hope that you each had time to reflect, be thankful, and eat good food. If you had a stressful or mournful holiday because of various circumstances, then peace be with you this holiday season.
As we transition into our “WINTER” months, we get to do some unusual things with our boxes. We begin to include some products that might not make it during our other seasons.
If you'd like to opt into our texting program for box pick up reminders, simply text the code associated with your location to 95577. We recommend also setting a personal reminder as technology does occasionally go awry.
If you previously picked up elsewhere please text STOP to 95577 and then text your new code found below to 95577. You need to make sure you have texted your NEW locations correct code in order to get the reminder at the correct time.
Hot Diggity Dog it feels good to be back in the saddle.
Taking a couple months off has proven to be a great time to recharge the batteries, revamp the vision, and CONSUME MORE CONTENT. It has been hard to not just jump right back in and start writing again, but I wanted to let my proverbial "pot" get a nice rolling boil before adding the the Friday 5 back into my weekly rituals.
Well folks...the time to celebrate is before us. Thanksgiving has been the traditional “ending” of our year at YB. This year is slightly different as we will be coming right back to keep the fun rolling ALL WINTER! However, we will be taking next week off to celebrate with family and friends so it still has that same celebratory, “WE DID IT!” feeling.
We consider it all joy to be gathered with you in spirit around your various tables and layouts.Well folks...the time to celebrate is before us. Thanksgiving has been the traditional “ending” of our year at YB. This year is slightly different as we will be coming right back to keep the fun rolling ALL WINTER! However, we will be taking next week off to celebrate with family and friends so it still has that same celebratory, “WE DID IT!” feeling.
We consider it all joy to be gathered with you in spirit around your various tables and layouts.
I don’t know the first thing about KimChi. Here is what I do know…
It’s good for your gut.
Therefore hipster’s love it
Therefore I love it
ALSO…this batch is made by Krazy Kraut which is
An Ohio company
Using Ohio grown produce
And they gave us a great deal on it because we have such cool members
This week, ONLY THE MINI boxes will be getting it. NEXT WEEK THE BASES AND FULLS will get it.
Asian P’s make a curtain call but bring a poncho to this party because the juice is loose. Good golly, I bit into one just now and I felt like I was sitting front row at a Gallager show. The flavor is somewhere between cotton candy and John Candy.
There is so much happening right now that I’m not sure where to begin...let’s just use bullet points as those seem to be a good way to make some sense out of my ramblings.
BLACK RADISH!!
Seems like every week we have one “show stopper” type product and this week we are blown away by the black radishes. Mile Creek Farm over in New Lebanon, OH has been a new partner with us this year for many of your great products and this is one of their beauties.
My house is going through a kitchen remodel and we’ve been sans a functional kitchen for awhile. My current kitchen consists of a hotplate, Instant pot, and a what I think may now a broken toaster oven. The instant pot has become increasingly helpful since it’s also a slow cooker, can saute things, and of course, is a pressure cooker. Jack Lalanne would have been in his element on this one.
Knowing that the instant pot is not something that all Yellowbirders have, I finally found a cookbook that shares recipes that can either be made in the Instant pot OR a slow cooker. I made this dish last night and it is delicious and super healthy.
2 things coming in your box this week on card stock…
-A recipe for Acorn Squash and Apples that you can use this week, and then add to your recipe box...you do have your grandma’s old recipe box right?
-A card with a promo code on it for the online store...use promo code “GROCERY” at checkout to get $5 off an order of $50 or more...and YES, YOUR BOX COUNTS TOWARDS THE TOTAL!
Spigariello or “Broccoli Leaves” have made their way back around for the second time into our boxes.
My FAVORITE item of the year is finally here…
The very first year of building the Yellowbird I tried many things that I had never tried before. Because we get a lot of the same item over and over, I had to keep it fun for myself and for the customer by trying things that I had never had before...OR...trying to cook things in ways I had never tried before.
