Luke Mahoney

If you’ve been to any of the local farmers’ markets, you’ll know you’ve found Brookford Farm when you see the table with the longest queue.  Folks line up with coolers, crates and containers for their organic raw milk, cheese, meat, vegetables and locally grown and baked bread.

I decided to skip the lines and go straight to the source and take a tour of their new farm in Canterbury.  My daughter and Romeo Danais from General Butler Farm joined me.

Brookford moved to Canterbury last spring, but luckily for their loyal customers, they’re still delivering their wholesome food to the seacoast on Thursday afternoons in Exeter.  (3-6pm in Exeter, 9 Newfields Road) They also deliver to local restaurants (Blue Moon Evolution, Black Trumpet,and  Moxy to name a few).

With the support of Gary & Meg Hirshberg  (Gary is Chairman of Stonyfield Farm) and the NH Community Loan Fund, Luke and his wife Caterina bought the 613-acre  sod farm,  which they and their 15-member staff, maintain integrating the biodynamic farming practices they learned on farms in Russia and Germany.

They grow their own heirloom wheat and rye, and grind their own flour.  Luke’s cousin Damon ferments the flour with a sourdough culture and bakes it in their own wood fired brick oven!  (The cinnamon rolls are outrageous!)

They  offer a variety of community supported agriculture (CSA) shares and their store is open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. They’re located north of Concord, just a few minutes off 93N.

The farm is home to 40 milking cows, and 1000 new chickens which arrived just a few minutes before we did via the U.S. Postal System. They also raise pastured pigs and cattle.

We were fortunate enough to see the chickens welcomed to their new toasty home, watch the cows get milked and also see Dane fire up the brick oven for the next day’s bread.  All in a day’s work.

I found this recipe on Food52 a few weeks ago and loved it!  The anchovies offer a nice punch. The dressing is similar to a Caesar Salad, but without the raw egg.  The only thing I would do differently here is double the dressing…the kale really soaks it up.  It holds up in the frig for 2-3 days.

Ingredients:

• 1 small garlic clove, smashed

• 2 anchovies

• Kosher salt

• 1/2 Meyer (or regular) lemon

• 4 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/4 small red onion, very thinly sliced

• 1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

• 6 cups packed dinosaur (lacinato) kale, ribs removed, and torn into smallish pieces before measuring

1. In a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and anchovy with a pinch of salt to a paste. Blend in the juice from half a Meyer lemon. Then beat in the olive oil. It should semi-emulsify; don’t worry if it doesn’t.
2. In a small bowl, combine the onion and thyme leaves with a large pinch of salt, then rub the salt into the onions using your hands. Let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Put the kale in a large bowl. Add the onion and thyme. Pour in half the dressing and using your hands, mix the greens — really get in there and work the salad; you should almost knead the greens so they break down a bit and the dressing fully coats the leaves. Taste and add more salt, lemon juice, or dressing, as needed. Let the salad sit for 15-20 minutes. Taste and adjust once more. Then spread on a platter and serve. Serves 4.

Here are a few of my other favorite kale recipes: Kale Saute,  and Kale and Sausage Soup.

To help you take better care of YOU, Kath Gallant and I, my partner in the Food and Health Forum, put together a month of menu plans with recipes for breakfast, lunch dinner, snacks as part of our 30-Day Wellness Challenge. It’s a whole cookbook of recipes from the Blue Moon Evolution, Tracey Miller and our favorite chefs.

Good, clean, fun…with food, for you. 30 days, with more than 30 ways to improve your health!

When you register you also be entered to win one of two gift baskets of wellness treats to nourish yourself with yoga, massage, spa treatments and more!  See all the raffle prizes below! Thank you to our wellness community who wants to support you through your 30-day challenge!

So, for only $60, this is what we’ll send you when you sign up for the 30-Day Wellness Challenge:

• 4 weekly menu planners with new recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks including salads, soups. smoothies and more.
• Daily health and motivational tips
• Goal setting sheets to help you set your intentions and make a commitment to yourself
• Food and mood journal to help you discover the power of food

You will also receive discounts on Blue Moon Evolution Smoothies and we invite you to two community exercise events. Click here to see more details.

This is not a “diet” just a great way to “clean up” you up and help you feel great. It starts April 30th so register now and take the plunge!

All these materials will be sent to you electronically several days before the event starts so you have time to plan.  We’ll be the guide you be the conductor!

If you want to get some ideas for spring greens and how to really cleanse your system, join us for our “Spring Greens Cleanse” class on April 30th.  Click here for more details.

Sign up for both the wellness challenge and the class for only $95.

Raffle Prizes

$50 Gift Certificate from Blue Moon Evolution

Free 60-Minute Massage from Peg Gaillard

Free 60-Minute Traditional Thai Massage from Anne Perry

4 Passes for Infrared “Healing Heat” Spa at Good Karma Cafe

5 Free Yoga Classes and a free t-shirt at Seacoast Power Yoga

Free Month Pass at Zev Yoga for You and  Friend

Free Month Pass at Thrive Women’s Health Club for You and a Friend

3 Free PMX Lunch Passes with Personal Fitness Trainer Luke Gullick

Three Free Passes to Food and Health Forum Cooking & Wellness Classes

Free Health Consultation and Pantry Cleanse from Tracey Miller

Free 1.5 Hour “EFT” Session with Licensed Family Therapist Julie Farrell

More to come so keep an eye out!

9

I had a client who said she didn’t have a lot of time to make changes to her diet, she really just wanted “one thing she could do” to improve her health.  She wanted a quick fix.

Well, there surely are a lot of quick fixes out there. Diet plans, protein-packed smoothies, prepared “100 calorie” meals, expensive supplements, and even prescription pills to help you do everything from lose weight, to lower your cholesterol, thin your blood, or relieve your depression. Food companies and pharmaceutical companies are great at making you believe that their product will “cure” everything that ails you or make you the most popular person in the room.

The  problem is that these temporary solutions, along with new year’s resolutions, aren’t want your body is looking and craving for. You’ve got to tune in to the right station and listen to your body talk.

Your sixth sense

When you start listening to your bodies’ signals – it will tell you what you need. What’s missing from our modern day diet is intuition.  A sixth sense of what is good for your body and what’s not.  Your body sends subtle signals every day, you’ve just got to pay attention.

If you’re fatigued during the day, your body is telling you something. If you wake up with achy joints, maybe something’s wrong that an Advil won’t fix. If you’re not sleeping well, what’s keeping you awake?  What is your indigestion trying to tell you? Maybe you’re eating when you’re stressed or your body isn’t getting what it needs.

Taking an antacid to get rid of heartburn after a meal, isn’t listening to your body. Heartburn is your body’s way of telling you not to ever eat that food again, or maybe not to eat when you’re stressed out.

Don’t ignore your bodies signals. Disease doesn’t just happen overnight. You don’t just wake up one day with cancer, or an overactive thyroid, or kidney disease. Your body tells you in subtle ways and what you eat day in and day out, is just information.

Trust your gut

There is no “quick fix” and if that’s what someone is selling you, tell them you ain’t buying.  You know what you need. You just need to stop, get quiet and listen.

Build your knowledge of what your body needs and strengthen the connection between what you eat, how it makes you feel.   Get healthy before you get sick. Contact me if you’re looking to change your life and not just your diet:  tracey@traceymillerwellness.com

Classes at Zev include:

Nourishing Women’s Retreat: April 13, 1:30 – 3:30 with one of my favorite health practitioners Lesley Cambell.

Lunch Lifts -to jump start your day!

Tuesday, April 16: The Power of Greens: Join Tracey to find out ways to incorporate spring greens like chard, kale and dandelion greens into your diet including, smoothies, snacks and more. Features demo and taste tests!

Tuesday, April 30: Worrying About Your Weight?  Find out how and why our bodies gain weight and how you can stop gaining it (and lose it).  Tracey give you some simple tips for losing weight and quick and easy menu plans to help you get on track.

Tuesday, May 14: Sugar Blues: Do you have a sweet tooth? Crave sweets all the time? Sugar is a powerful drug that affects your digestion, your brain, and your risk for disease. Find out how to break your “sugar” habit, and get some recipes for food that satisfies, but doesn’t harm your body.

Tuesday, May 28: How to Sprout Sprouts! I will show you how to grow sprouts including wheat grass, pea sprouts and other microgreens! These foods are the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat. They improve digestion, detoxify your blood and are rich with nutrients and minerals!

Register at Zev Yoga at 175 Water Street or walk ins welcome.  The fee is $12.

As a health coach, I will help you find your own “best” diet and understand how what you eat affects your energy level, weight, skin, hormonal balance, mental health, risk for disease and your overall attitude!

Contact me for a free 45-minute health consultation! Call 603-380-1080 or email me at tracey@traceymillerwellness.com.

I love all food, but it doesn’t all love me.  Unfortunately this one food happens to be everywhere and in just about everything we eat!  It’s not just wheat, but the protein in wheat, barley and rye – gluten.

Many people don’t associate low-grade chronic health conditions  with a specific food, but the problem is that a sensitivity to gluten is insidious.  Its sinister symptoms like headaches, brain fog, constipation, joint pain, and even depression, don’t appear immediately after you eat it so it’s hard to pin point their cause.  Some research shows that up to 50 percent of the population may have a sensitivity to gluten!

If you have been diagnosed with celiac disease, or you just feel better off of gluten, you know what I’m talking about. If not, you may want to take a 7-day elimination challenge to find out if your body is happier without it.  All you need to do is avoid gluten for at least a week, then add it back into your diet and see how you feel over the next few days.

If you’re adjusting to a gluten free diet, or exploring one, join Kath Gallant, owner of the Blue Moon Evolution, and I for a cooking and wellness class on March 4th from 7 pm to 9 pm to unravel all the health issues around gluten and learn how to enjoy a hassle-free gluten-free diet.

You’ll learn:

• What the difference is between celiac, gluten sensitivity, and gluten intolerance.
• How to make gluten free snacks and breads.
• The secret recipe for Blue Moon Evolution’s “flour blend” which they use for all their delicious baked goods.
• Flour alternatives that are low on the glycemic index.
• Our favorite gluten free products.
• Tips for eating a gluten-free while dining out and traveling.

We’ll also give you the low-down on the industrial wheat that has been perfected over the last few decades that is great for making bread, but not so great for our belly.

This class is hosted by the Food and Health Forum, a eating, cooking and learning adventure to help revolutionize our food system from the ground up. We want to inspire and educate communities, get folks into the kitchen, and help reestablish the link between what we eat, where our food comes from, and how it affects our health and our environment. The class fee is $45. The Blue Moon Evolution is located at 8 Clifford Street.

For more events and how to register go to www.foodandhealthforum.com.

Many of the recipes are from my family’s head chef, my father (Bob, Billy or Ozzie), depending on who you are. His recipes always need a little interpretation and are not for the faint at heart as he makes a lot of assumptions on measurements and ingredients so you sometimes have to fill in the blanks. He is definitely a cook that does not measure. The good thing is he can almost always be reached for clarification.

This cookbook is crude, hand bound with way too many typos because I pulled an all nighter at my office (on a boat in the Boston Harbor) to get it done.  It doesn’t even have page numbers, but for 20 years I’ve used it and the recipes are precious.  My dad was the illustrator for the very limited black and white artwork.

“Tried and True,” is filled with family recipes like “Nancy’s Tuna Fish Casserole” which I must confess I never liked, or Roberto’s (Tomato) Sauces with Vermicelli (with 7 variations), the  ”No You Can’t Have My Recipe, Butterhorn Biscuits” which my step sister finally handed over after years of secrecy, my mom’s chocolate chip cookie recipe given to me by my Aunt June, and even my grandma’s  Brussels Sprout recipe which my Aunt Terrie contributed that ends with, “best when thrown out.” (My grandma always overcooked them.)

Here is my father’s recipe for what he calls:

Senate Bean Soup

(This gives the senate it what it run on!) (hot air)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb dry navy beans
• ham bone (or ham hock)
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 celery sticks with greens1/4 cup parsley
• salt
• pepper
• 1 t nutmeg
• 1 t oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 quarts chicken stock

1 cup mashed potatoes (My dad uses this at the end to thicken the recipe (we don’t always do this, but it does make it really smooth.)

(Notes:  Carrots were not listed, but I’m pretty sure my dad always adds them and so do we.)Directions:

1.        Bring beans to a boil for two minutes and let stand for 1-2 hours. (Better yet, soak beans over night and simmer for about an hour.)

2.        Add chicken stock and ham bone (to the beans). Simmer 1 1/2 hours.

3.        Add remaining ingredients.  Simmer 30 minutes (or longer to make it thicker and to let the beans break down .)

4.        You can add the mash potatoes here if you want to thicken them.

5.        Serve with a splash of sherry. (very optional – we never do!)

(If you have any questions, you can call me dad….)

A final touch:

Okay, I don’t add sugar to anything, but my husband’s family sprinkles a little sugar on their bean soup and I must admit, it really finishes if off!)

As a chef and environmentalist, Seaver believes that truly recognizing the process of food production and consumption can drastically improve the environment. He was named a National Geographic Fellow for his tireless work and initiatives to preserve depleted seafood specimens by suggesting substitutes.

As a Fellow with the Explorer Program at the National Geographic  Society, Barton has used his position to explore the confluence of human and ecological health. Barton has traveled the globe and gained deep insight into the human and economic systems that govern our relationship with nature. A main focus of his work as been in helping to develop the Seafood Decision Guide, a decision tool which helps to inform consumers by consolidating sustainability, mercury, and Omega-3 data in one convenient location.

For more details about the Food and Health Forum or to register for the dinner seminar go to www.foodandhealthforum.com. See you at the Moon!

2013 Event Schedule

• One-Pot Meals: Easy Meals Cooking & Wellness Class (January 14)
• Healthy Aging Cooking & Wellness Class (January 28)
• Standing Up for Our Food Industry: An “Authentic” Look at our American Food Economy Dinner Seminar (Feb 11)
• Going Gluten Free Cooking & Wellness: How, Why and When (March 4)
• Seacoast Sustainable Food Symposium Dinner Seminar: What Have We Done? What Have We Learned? Where Can We Go? (March 18)
• Living Local, Living Green: How to Eat Healthier, Save Money and Save Time Cooking & Wellness Class (April 1)
• Spring Cleaning: Cooking & Wellness Class and Launch of 30-Day Spring Cleanse (April 29)