Back To Nature, Back to Basics
Healthy Eating Takes Hold
By Bernadette Suski-Harding
I
remember how when I was a kid, if my mom needed bread, she sent
me to the neighborhood bakery for a loaf still warm from the oven.
Vegetables came from our backyard garden, cherries from the trees
my dad planted when my big sister was little, and chicken from a
poultry shop not too far away.
Food didn’t get any fresher than that.
And, I admit, sometimes I hated it. Sometimes, I just wanted the foods
my friends ate: bologna on Wonder bread with plastic-wrapped cheese, TV
dinners, and chocolate pudding made from a box mix, or better yet, packaged in a plastic cup. Once in a while my mom gave in, but usually dinners
were made-from-scratch affairs: cabbage stuffed with rice and ground beef
and baked in tomato sauce; soup made from garden-grown beets, flavored
with beet leaves and sour cream; crepes filled with farmer’s cheese; and
pierogies with dough so tender, they melted in your mouth.
Food made almost completely with ingredients that were whole, natural and in season.
Now that I’m a mom, and a working one at that, I get what my mom,
who also worked, was trying to do. And I can hear her telling me, “Someday, when you’re a mother, you will understand.”
And, as mothers usually are, she was right. Now, I understand.
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Finding what’s right for you
I had a sneaking suspicion, from things my friends said in passing, that
many of them faced the same battles. So, I asked, and what I discovered
is this: Despite the many short cuts and conveniences available to today’s
home cook (like processed foods and take-out), these women usually
eschew them in favor of preparing wholesome meals that are as simple
and nutrient-dense as possible.
Gina Scialla, a music teacher, feeds her family as many whole foods as
possible. When company’s coming or it’s the weekend, she cooks multiple batches of food – meals that are easy to freeze like soups and stews,
sauces and casseroles. It takes planning and extra work, but it means that
“on really busy evenings I can take something from the freezer rather
than resorting to processed foods.”
Michele Downie, a special needs teacher, belongs to an organic farm in
Pennington. Once a week, she spends the better part of an afternoon there,
picking produce and berries in the fields; at home, she blanches and freezes
the excess. It’s a lot of work, yes, and rounding out the winter menus with
store-bought organics can get expensive, but she’s “driven by the fact that
it is best for my family, me and the environment.” And it’s become second
nature to shop for foods that are as close to their origin as possible – “Ap-
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OPPOSITE PAGE: STEVE TOMLINSON AMID A FRESH CROP OF
CELERIAC (CELERY ROOT) AT GREAT ROAD FARMS IN SKILLMAN.
PHOTO: SAMUEL JOSEPH
THIS PAGE; ROOT VEGETABLES, BEANS AND SNOW PEAS ARE
AMONG THE SEASON’S BOUNTY AT GREAT ROAD FARMS.
ples instead of Apple Jacks!” she tells her two young children.
Adrienne Leighton, an IT professional, started a backyard garden with
her husband to teach her four children “The beauty of how our food
comes from the earth.” That it cut costs was a nice perk (feeding six
is expensive!” she said), as were the lessons she learned along the way,
thanks to a new favorite app, MyFitnessPal, which opened her eyes to
some less-than-optimal eating habits.
“I’ve tried to bring some of that learning to my kids,” she said. “It’s basic stuff that I should have known all along, but didn’t– like replacing a
bagel in the a.m. with a cup of yogurt...much healthier and significantly
fewer carbs. I think I lost 10 pounds for that reason alone.”
Hilary Trought Morris, a PR professional with three young children,
takes time on Sunday to plan out the week’s meals. Until recently, she
thought she was making healthy choices with foods that were whole
grain and low fat, but changed her shopping patterns after a supermarket tour with a nutritionist who “pointed out ingredients in boxed foods
and brand-name breads that were there just for filler.” Her takeaway?
“The fewer the ingredients the better, and ones you actually recognize
and can pronounce are the best. I spend more at the store, but I FEEL
better about what I’m eating and feeding my family.”
Amy Wagner, who works in medical billing, began on her current path
of mostly organic eating when she was first diagnosed with, and beat,
thyroid cancer more than 10 years ago. Her first step, joining an organic farm, was soon followed with locally-produced honey, raw cow
and goat’s milk, and pasture-fed meats, each from a different local farm.
She stocks up regularly at Trader Joe’s (it’s a good month if she can
avoid a traditional supermarket), raises her own chickens for eggs and is
contemplating goats.
When Amy started making these dietary changes, she was a stay-athome mom with the time to travel from one place to the next. Now she
works full time, but hasn’t sacrificed the organics.
Bring on the organic kale.
Getting back to basics – in a big way
What each of these women is tapping into, said Jill Kwasny, the dietitian at McCaffrey’s Markets, is a growing trend of getting back to basics
– cooking like our parents and grandparents did, using ingredients fresh
from the garden, a farm or the nearby farmer’s market – with a modernday twist made possible by technology and social media.
“I see a significant number of people utilizing technology when shopping,” says Jill. “Food applications like Fooducate help shoppers identify healthy options.
“Social media has a huge influence on food choices,” she notes.” “If
a questionable food additive is identified in a product, it can have a tremendous negative impact for that company very quickly.”
“I do believe that as women become
more educated on the benefits of eating
organic, local or raw, there does seem
to be a progression.”
They’re using common sense, like the women I mentioned earlier, by taking the time to closely examine labels and packaging, considering both
ingredients and nutrition composition, and planning meals in advance to
avoid consuming highly processed convenience items. They’re also trying
new items, “particularly those that can contribute to quick and nutritious
meals and snacks, and loading up on fresh produce, often organic,” Jill says.
One of the best-selling items is kale, and Tony Mirack, McCaffrey’s
produce director, couldn’t be more surprised. “Five years ago, I couldn’t
give kale away,” he said. “Now, I have five types in stock and sales are
up 300 percent.” He credits the media’s portrayal of kale as a superfood, and the resulting proliferation of online recipes, for the boost in
the leafy green’s popularity. Same thing for avocado. Outrageous health
benefits aside, shoppers used to steer clear of avocados because of their
fat content. Today, avocado sales are climbing higher than anything else
in McCaffrey’s produce section.
When Jill takes customers on market tours at one of McCaffrey’s four
locations, she has the chance to chat about what’s motivating their
dietary changes. Usually the catalyst is a health matter, she says, like
weight management, heart disease or cancer prevention; sometimes it
goes beyond that, like when shoppers want foods from companies that
support important causes, or are environmentally conscious.
Baby steps are OK
Lindsay Vastola, founder of Body Project Boutique Fitness & Lifestyle
in Robbinsville, loves empowering women with the tools they need to
succeed. Many of her clients are success-driven professionals trying to
balance busy work and personal schedules, so Lindsay focuses on everyday eating; how to save time with the shopping, cooking and prepping,
and how to stop over-thinking what’s healthy and what’s not.
“I do believe that as women become more educated on the benefits
of eating organic, local or raw, there does seem to be a progression,”
Lindsay explains. “Maybe they start buying organic milk and eggs, then
more organic, local produce, then grass-fed beef and organic meats, then
raw cheese.
“While I believe that more people are looking to buy local and organic,
I still think the health-conscious and health-educated individual weighs
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BC
is that people “can shake the hand of the farmer who picked the produce
and learn the best way to prepare it -- ways to create delicious meals that
best retain the food’s nutritional value.”
It’s a feel-good situation too: shoppers bring home nutritious, locally
grown foods, which allows “farmers who sell directly to the community
to focus on growing and harvesting food when its flavor and nutritional
value peaks, instead of worrying about packing or shipping crops across
the country,” she says.
the cost and benefit, eating as healthy as possible with cost and time being the biggest factors influencing how ‘far’ they go into the lifestyle,”
Lindsay said.
Farm to table to you
Steve Tomlinson was an artist and designer working in wood shops
in Brooklyn. Then the economy crashed, he lost his job and he found
himself reinventing his life.
He knew he wanted to keep designing, but in a way that would have
minimal negative impact on the environment, and as he ran through the
options, he kept circling back to farming.
Today, he runs the Great Road Farms in Skillman, a 112-acre spread
that supplies Agricola restaurant in Princeton with produce and freerange eggs, and sells the extra through its own CSA (community-supported agriculture) and at the West Windsor Farmers Market. Steve farmed
3.5 acres last year; this year, crops cover about six acres and focus on
items Agricola uses most, like kale, Swiss chard, tomatoes, zucchini and
radishes. There are also 200 laying hens, and plans in the works for a
25-tree orchard featuring apples, Asian pears and plums.
One perk of Steve’s job, aside from living on the farm with his wife
and their infant son, is that he gets to collaborate with the executive and
sous chefs. They work together to plan the next season’s crops – a tall
order for a restaurant that serves 500 diners on a Friday night – working
from a binder Steve has filled with vegetable varieties. And, he’s invited
to bring new ideas to the table, and gets to sample them before they’re
added to the menu.
“One time I went out to eat and I had a beet dish made with red and
white beets. They all turned pink. I thought it was delicious,” said Steve,
who shared his find with the chefs. The next time beets showed up on
the menu at Agricola, it was in a dish featuring apples stained with beet
juice, which made them spicy.
I asked Steve what he thought was driving this back-to-the-land approach.
“I don’t know what it is, but there’s definitely something in the air.
Farms are popping up all over,” he said. “People are changing their lives,
reassessing their values. My grandparents grew their own vegetables.
They had their own chickens. My parents’ generation – things came in
cans, frozen dinners. Now we’re going back to basics.”
Even if they’re not eating at farm-to-table restaurants like Agricola,
they are practicing farm to table at home.
There’s a farmers’ market at the historic Dvoor Farm in Flemington
that attracts a steadily increasing clientele every Sunday that it’s open.
Last year, readers of the Hunterdon County Democrat voted it their favorite farmers’ market.
Patricia Ruby is executive director of the Hunterdon Land Trust, which
manages the Farmers’ Market. Part of the market’s appeal, she believes,
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If you build it, they will come
Look around, the next time you’re out driving. Chances are, you’ll
happen on at least one farm-to-table restaurant, or a new farmers’ market, or perhaps a specialized bakery like the Wild Flour Café, a glutenfree bakery that opened in Lawrenceville last May.
Canadian-born Marilyn Besner, its founder, long dreamed of opening
her own place. She spent years honing her skills as an amateur cook, and
when she attained a work permit, took a job at Whole Earth Center. She’s
also trained at The Natural Gourmet and the French Culinary Institute.
Her bakers use the kitchen as a laboratory, experimenting with an array of flours – everything from amaranth to quinoa – until they find
just the right blends for baguettes, pumpernickel, cheese sticks, challah,
sandwich loafs, flat bread, biscotti, cream puffs, cupcakes, whoopee pies
and tartlets. Birthday and wedding cakes, and full-size pies, are available
by special order.
“Everything we sell has the right crust and crumb combination. Our
cookies have a balanced ratio of crunch to moistness. Our muffins are
loaded with flavor,” Marilyn said.
I asked why Marilyn decided on a gluten-free bakery. “There wasn’t
one around, and there’s demand,” she said. “What’s available is not always that desirable. You can find frozen at grocery store, but not fresh.
We bake fresh every day.”
True to its café billing, Wild Flour serves breakfast and lunch (for example,
cauliflower red lentil soup and a baguette with eggplant tapenade and mozzarella cheese), and in February, hosted a special Valentine’s Day dinner.
Clearly, we’ve evolved from the notion that the food we eat must
taste bad if it’s good for us. (Remember all those commercials of kids
turning their noses up at vegetables on their plates?) The combination
of old-fashioned, hands-on farming with newer technologies that make
it easier and more efficient brings us a cornucopia of tasty options for
a healthful diet. MW
What’s cooking for 2014?
Each year, the National Restaurant
Association (www.restaurant.org) surveys
its chefs on hot restaurant trends.
Watch for:
• Locally sourced meats and seafood
• Locally grown produce
• Environmental sustainability
• Healthful kids’ meals
• Gluten-free cuisine
• Hyper-local sourcing
(e.g. restaurant gardens)
• Children’s nutrition
• Non-wheat noodles/pasta
(e.g. quinoa, rice, buckwheat)
• Sustainable seafood
• Farm/estate branded items
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