Still choosing margarine over butter?

A couple of things to consider:

How margarine is made:
Manufacturers begin with the cheapest oils - soy, corn, cottonseed, or canola, already rancid from the extraction process - and mix them with tiny metal particles - usually nickel oxide.  The oil with its nickel catalyst is then subjected to hydrogen gas in a high-pressure, high-temperature reactor.  Next, soap-like emulsifiers and starch are squeezed into the mixture to give it a better consistency: the oil is yet again subjected to high temperatures when it is steam-cleaned.  This removes its unpleasant odor.  Margarine's natural color, an unappetizing grey, is removed by bleach.  Dyes and strong flavors must then be added to make it resemble butter.  Finally, the mixture is compressed and packaged in blocks or tubs and sold as health food. (taken from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon) 

How butter is made:
Whip/beat double heavy cream until it separates into butter and buttermilk.  Shape butter into a cube. (taken from my brain)

I would recommend choosing butter and eating it often :)

Abel Tasman

Hey there - I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving back at home and are not too annoyed by the ever increasing Christmas hype.  Thanksgiving passed like any other day here.  I did see all my friends and family celebrating, from posts on facebook, that made me miss it.  But to be honest it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving here so I didn't miss it that much.  It is funny how much you associate things with seasons and weather.  It is the end of spring here and pretty sunny and hot most days so it doesn't have the same effect that Thanksgiving has in Washington when it is cold, rainy, and dark.  Celebrating the holidays in WA is like a distraction from the terrible weather outside.  But since it is spring right now I don't really need that.  We did have a chicken for dinner though.  I am grateful for this opportunity to travel and spend time in New Zealand.  To get the time to really think about what I want to do with my life.  I am thankful for my friends and family who will be with me next year to celebrate.

Since I came over from the North Island at the beginning of November, I have only been at one farm.  I was planning on moving to another one after a couple of weeks but then I got stuck here.  I am at a really beautiful farm that is at the entrance of Abel Tasman National Park.  My hosts are very knowledgeable about organic gardening/farming but also about healthy living.  I mainly work on the veggie garden, getting it ready for summer time.  Since it is spring we have been enjoying strawberries and nettle soup.  Not together of course.  When I arrived a cow had just had twin calves and the mother rejected one of them.  Seems to happen a lot.  She is being bottle fed and is quite tame, so she will come and let you pet her and suck on your fingers, it's a funny feeling.  Their son leads horse tracks down at the beach so he took me on a horse ride one day.  My host Rhonie is a really good cook - my new nutrition bible(s) are two books - one called Nourishing Traditions and the other one called Eat Fat, Lose Fat.  The theory basically is, we aren't getting enough of the right kinds of fats so we try to fill up on sugar and processed foods.  Therefore if you eat fat you lose fat.  It is more complicated than that but I recommend checking out those books, if you are interested.

My hosts are flexible and gave me time off to do the Abel Tasman Coast Track which is another one of the Great Walks in New Zealand.  I am not sure how many km's the track was because it was different depending on high tide and low tide tracks, and some of the trail had been washed out this past winter but I think I probably did around 45 -50 kilometers in 4 days.  I had a nice time - there is something about having everything you need on your back that I really like.  But the experience was a little different from backpacking I am used to.  Because it is a coast track and everything is accessible by boat, heaps of tourists just get boated in and do day hikes around portions of the track that they want to do.  There are also kayakers that stay at the campsites as well.  So I was never really alone.  On my last night after I had set up my tent and sleeping equipment a school group of 30 middle school kids got dropped off on a boat and started setting up camp right next to my tent.  I was a little irritated but it ended up being quite funny to watch all the middle school kid dynamics.
The park is a very beautiful place - people are drawn there by the stunning beaches, clear blue water, and untouched estuaries.  I don't have much else to say except I am having a lovely time.  Here are some pictures I have taken from area around the farm and from the park.

The view from the farm

The shower - don't worry there is hot water

A view of the estuary

A bird at the estuary

I got to ride a horse!!

A beach on the coast track

A view from the coast track

some interesting trees

Night time on the estuary

Sunny day on the coast track

One of the estuaries

Estuary plants

A sunrise

From one of the high points on the trail

Two Books You Have to Read

#1 Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

This book is a really inspiring story about people who run ultra marathons. It is also a huge pitch for barefoot running. It starts off describing a tribe in Mexico called the Tarahumara, who are known for being able to run huge distances, seemingly effortlessly. There is an ultra marathon raced planned to take place in a canyon near where they live and the book takes you through the journey of the idea for the race, who is invited, and then the race itself. It made me want to start running again. It also made me want to start running barefoot or with really minimal shoes. I did a couple of hikes on my days off and during each of them I took off my shoes/chacos and did some barefoot. It was fun and felt nice. Some people looked at me like I was crazy. Just a warning, I might become one of those crazy town people that never wears shoes.  But you should read the book and maybe you will understand.

#2 Folks This Just Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin is the owner and operator of Polyface Farms. If you have read Michael Pollen's famous book Omnivore's Dilemma, Polyface Farm was the organic farm featured in that book. Folk's This Just Ain't Normal talks about how the way food is grown and processed isn't normal and how that affects our health and the health of the environment. It is really well written and has some great tips on how to eat a more healthy diet, buy locally grown food, and how to start to grow your own food.  It also talks about the tragedy of how local food producers are blocked from the market and how we as consumers can make a difference.  My favorite quote from the book was “I'm waiting for the day when environmental sciences majors realize that the most valuable thing they can do is actually cover thier hands in calluses growing ecological food”, I read that and thought, hey that's me!! He also has one called Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal is supposed to be really enjoyable as well.

Again - two books you HAVE to read!!

Reflection Times

If you haven't been keeping track - I have been away from Olympia for 7 months now.  Honestly the time has, for the most part, gone by pretty quickly.  When I left I had bought a one way ticket with not really any solid plans for when I was coming back.  Recently,  I have decided to come home when my visa in in New Zealand runs out, in April.  The major reasons that made that decision are 1) my sister, who is now about 3 and 1/2 months pregnant, is due in April, 2) I don't really want to spend the money on plane tickets and visas to go to Australia, and 3) I think the real kicker is that I feel like I have done what I set out to do.  When I was in Olympia I felt in a real dead end with what I was doing with my life.  I couldn't see myself at the job I was currently at for 30 years.  The idea of that felt scary and wrong.  Now I feel like my life is full of possibilities.  I could become a certified permaculturalist, I could own and run a farm, I could educate people about eating local and growing their own food.  I could work outside.  So many options and all of them sound awesome to me.  But right now, I miss home.  I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss having a kitchen, I miss my bike.  If it were summer in Washington I would probably come home and continue to WWOOF there.  But considering it is just becoming summer here and just turning to winter I am going to stay.  I think despite my homesickness it will actually be a lot of fun.  So far the south island is beautiful and my wwoofing jobs continue to change with the seasons.  I have also planned a Christmas with a Kiwi family of a friend I met at Wilderland.  There is this really cool festival I have been planning to go to in January called Luminate with music every night and healthy living classes during the day.  I hope everyone back home is having a lovely fall.  I will do more updates when I can.  Much love.   

My October

It looks like I haven't done a blog post in over a month. I want to do a quick one about my month of October, with the promise of more posts to come. During October I stayed at two different farms, I will call them farm 7 and 8.

Farm 7 was in Dannevirke, which is a small, agricultural town just a couple hours away from Wellington, which is the southern most city on the North Island. I had a really good time at this farm.  My host had a lot of knowledge, not only about organic farming and gardening but about the world in general. Her husband ran a dairy farm, so it was all the raw milk I could drink – yum. But I worked with Lynn who produced most of the food supply for the household. There was a veggie garden, fruit trees, and heaps of animals – cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, dogs, cat, and two types of ducks. My favorite part of being there was, for some days I was completely responsible for taking care of the animals in the morning and afternoon. The pig just had six piglets which were super cute – my favorite was this little ginger one. While I was there a sheep had two lambs but rejected one, it almost died it's first night but we rescued it and brought it in the house and started to bottle feed it. That was cool – except I was worried it wouldn't make it, in the end it survived but she gave it to a neighbor because he already had one that he was bottle feeding. There also was this big goofy dog named Tangy. She was a year old Leonberger with heaps of energy.  Always up for a walk in the bush.  I learned a lot during my two weeks there.

Farm 8 was in Lower Hutt, which is a small town near Wellington. This farm was completely different than #7. It wasn't really a farm more of an urban garden.  One thing that was a first for me was there were two young kids a girl of 7 and boy of 10.  I am never really around kids so it was quite fun.  I played a lot of Monopoly.  The family also owned and operated an organic coffee caravan which had a permanent location during the week but went to markets on the weekends. Sometimes I would help out and work in the caravan taking coffee orders. Most days I was just doing odds and ends in the veggie garden. One day I got to attempt milking a goat (they were milk sitting). It was much more difficult than a cow because their teats are a different shape, hard to grab a hold of. I am sure with some practice I would get the hang of it. But while we were there we also got to hang out with some baby goats and that was fun too. A tragic story happened while I was at Farm #8. When I arrived their duck was sitting on 6 eggs. One day one of them hatched (for some reason none of the other eggs did). So we had this cute little duckling for about 3 or 4 days. Then on Saturday while I was helping in the coffee caravan, the little girl opened the door to check on the duckling and a cat ran in and grabbed it. It was a sad day. Farm #8 was cool because I got to visit Wellington on my days off and Wellington is everyone's favorite city in New Zealand. It is a nice city with a lot of free museums and good food, coffee, and beer. While in Wellington I got my hair cut for the first time since being in New Zealand. It was at an academy and cost $9.50. I don't really like it and can no longer put all my hair in a pony tail. But I can't really complain about a hair cut for less than ten dollars.

On the first of November I took the ferry from Wellington to Picton, on the south island. It is a three hour ferry ride, which for most of it is just open water but the last hour is through the Queen Charlotte Sound, which is quite beautiful. I didn't have to be at my next farm for a couple of days so I took my time getting there and spent a couple of nights at a campground. I heard they filmed part of the Hobbit there. It was quite beautiful next to a river.

I arrived at my new farm on the 3^rd of November. It is near Abel Tasman National Park and I am hoping to do a little backpacking after my two weeks here.

From a hike I took out of Dannevirke

View of the Ruahines

Ginger piglet!!

View in Wellington from the Ferry

Queen Charlotte Sound from the Ferry

Queen Charlotte Sound from the Ferry

Queen Charlotte Sound from a hike out of Picton

Pelorus Bridge campground

Pelorus Bridge campground

Sorry for the mirror shot but wanted to show my new haircut.  I guess I don't hate it that much