Welcome to Scratch!

Food from scratch might have a variety of connotations. It might be part of the slow food movement, it might be organic, it might be local. It should definitely be sustainable.

You may have heard of the 100 mile diet, the essence of a local food experience in Vancouver, BC, by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. A well-known variation (and book) is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by the Kingsolver/Hopp family of Virginia.

This blog is not about them. It's not about a stringent set of rules, no matter how well thought out and how well executed. It's not about denying ourselves every food that comes from somewhere else.

It's about awareness of where the food we consume comes from. It's about choosing fresh, local food when possible. It's about planning ahead...but mostly it is about doing.

We own a 40-acre farm in the fertile Creston Valley on which we currently grow a few cows and the hay to feed them, as well as a large garden with which to feed us. We've dabbled in sheep and chickens and pigs over the years, and who knows, some of those might come around again. We have a few plum trees, an apricot that blooms gorgeously but doesn't produce, a walnut, and a hazelnut. We're looking at a few other options as well, and decided that a new blog to record our journey might be fun for us and, perhaps, fun for you as well.

We're long-time do-it-yourselfers. Both of us were raised in families where bread came from the oven, not the grocery store. Where vegetables came from the garden and were frozen or canned for winter consumption. Where meat came from animals not far from the door. We're not strangers to this way of life as many of our generation are.

But with the newest version of the *back to the land movement* all around us, we've been challenged once again to think about what we're eating that could have come from our farm and garden and neighborhood.

Welcome to Food from Scratch. We hope you bookmark us or subscribe to our blog feed and enjoy the journey with us.