All the Very Best for a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Fall Farm

GoodFood World

Good food is everybody's business!

Welcome to GoodFood WorldJanuary 5, 2014

The new year... It's the time of year when we look back at what we've accomplished and look forward to what is yet to come. Three years of commitment to - and focus on - the people producing good healthy food has led us on a winding and rewarding path.  

 

Ken was born into a family lead by a woman dedicated to feeding her children the healthiest food she could find. She grew fruits and vegetables on their organic farm long before "organic" was fashionable, milled grain, squeezed vegetable juice, baked bread, and put fresh, minimally processed food on the table day after day.

 

On the other hand, I came to good, healthy food at Ken's gentle urging and, occasionally, firm insistence. While my mother and grandmother had gardens, and we visited local farms for fresh fruit and vegetables, neither was a particularly inspired cook. My childhood memories are mostly of heavily processed foods like tins of peas and beans, powdered breakfast drink (Tang), and brilliant orange cheese (Velveeta) oozing from toasted slices of fluffy white bread.

 

We have put thousands of miles on our old Honda going from farm to ranch and processor to retailer, with a stop here and there to dig a little deeper into an area of special interest. For example, we explored the Bread Lab at Washington State University (WSU), Mount Vernon WA, to understand more about grain grown west of the Cascades - "grain out of place." And attended the International Quinoa Research Symposium at WSU, Pullman WA, where we met scientists, researchers, and growers from around the world, and learned more about "the Mother Grain."  

Organic Beef Ranch, Livingston MT

Along the way our team of dedicated writers, who have been generous in sharing their feelings, opinions, experiences, photos, and recipes, kept a flow of inspiring and informative words coming. They got married, had babies, marched in protests, traveled the world, and overcame illness.

 

Special thanks and our love and appreciation go to Kate McLean (nee Hilmer), Ina Denburg, Lea McEvilly, Nico Parkinson, and Laura Zera; all talented writers and each committed to the sometimes tenuous discussion of healthy, affordable, and accessible food.

 

What Kate Did

A wedding in August and a trek east took Kate McLean - and husband Ian - through Pennsylvania to Vermont to settle for the winter on Taft Hill Farm as WWOOFers (WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms). While Ian is still farming, Kate is now cooking and baking up a storm at the West Townshend Country Store Caf�.  

 

Read Kate's tale of Winter in Vermont: the WWOOFing Way. She sends a fabulous recipe for maple-glazed nuts for our readers to try. And don't forget to use real Vermont maple syrup!

 

Ina's In the Kitchen - and on the Picket Line

Our anti-GMO hero, Ina Denburg, spent a lot of time last year speaking out on the risks of GMOs and the value of organic products. And in support of good food, Ina's Meatless Monday classes grew and grew, and now she's cooking and teaching in the most interesting venues, including cooking for a holiday luncheon at a nearby synagogue.  

 

Starting this month you will be able to find Ina teaching Meatless Monday classes at the King's Supermarket in Short Hills NJ. Read all of her GoodFood World articles here, and try a few of her recipes. We especially recommend Ina's Unmeatloaf.

 

Nico's Excellent Adventure

It takes someone young and adventurous to pack so much into a single year: a new job, a move from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Monvrovia, Liberia, a wedding, a globetrotting pregnancy, and a new baby!  

 

Our "world food" contributor Nicholas Parkinson gave us a close-up view of the first organic CSA in Liberia. And don't miss Nico's moving tribute to his wife Ignacia and new daughter Elisa here

 

Talking Sheep 

Lea McEvilly, our Voice From the Farm, had a year of ups and downs. The ups? In March, Lea was honored as the Southeast Minnesota Land Manager of the Year by Quail Forever; she was one of the first farmers in southeast Minnesota to enroll acreage in a conservation program to protect quail habitat on farms. Another high note: in September, Lea celebrated her 87th birthday!  

 

The downs? She had to take a brief sabbatical from her writing duties in early summer to battle - and overcome - Lyme's disease; just one of the hazards of living on a farm in Minnesota! Don't miss any of her Farm Talk articles!

 

Eating Around the World With Laura

Laura Zera, sometimes with and sometimes without her husband Francis, eats her way around the world. In early 2013, Laura visited Suriname, which is on the northern coast of South America, and explored Village Farming in the Amazon Jungle. There she found a variety of plants unique to the region, including the ice cream bean.  

 

On a year-end trip (this time with Francis), to Antigua - nearly due east of Puerto Rico - Laura discovered that locally grown food was hard to find; it seemed like "... everything is flown in from Miami or Minnesota!"

 

What Will 2014 Bring? 

At GoodFood World, we truly believe that organic farmers on small and moderate-sized operations are our best hope for health and sustainability. Those farms may be run by families who have lived there for generations, by immigrant farmers new to their land, or by farmers who grow food on land they don't own, but lease. Good food is grown with respect for the land, the animals, and the people who care for, harvest, and deliver it. (Read our mission statement here.)  

Jubilee Biodynamic Farm, Carnation WA

We don't limit our view of "good food providers" to farmers alone, we also tip our hats to millers, bakers, retailers, chefs, and others along the good food value chain. Those who prepare and process the products our farmers contribute are as important; they help get our food from farm to fork. In the coming year, we will dig deeper to uncover the true value of organic food and differentiate local and regional sources from imported organics.  

 

We will also investigate food value according to scale of operation, ecological base, and environmental stewardship, and we will connect hidden costs of soil and water conservation to the true value of food. We will study food at the source, both to help you make decisions that support our local farms, and to help small and moderate-sized organic farmers compete better against Big Ag and conventional production methods.

 

In addition, we will look behind the marketing hype and show how you're being fooled about the food you eat. We will research and report what labels to look for and look out for, what is phony and fake, what real fisherman and farmers are harvesting, how the best meat is raised, and more. All to help you get the very highest quality and most nutritious products. 

 

Stay with us, keep reading, and join the conversation as we deliver the information, sources, and resources you need to eat well and be well.   

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It Takes a Village -- And You! 

GoodFood World is an important platform to help re-establish the missing connection with our food and our farmers, fishermen, millers, and bakers - all the people who grow and prepare it. We've sought out sources of local or regional, whole or minimally-processed meat, fish, produce, grain, dairy, and more. We introduce producers who are growing and harvesting good food. We promote food products that we believe are not only good food, but are food produced in a way that is environmentally sensitive and socially responsible.   

 

In October 2013, we celebrated the third anniversary of GoodFood World! And today we can proudly say that we have published over 1000 articles, book summaries, and videos - of which more than 60 percent are original and exclusive content. We've also issued nearly 100 newsletters to thousands of subscribers. We now have more than a dozen contributing writers, five of whom are regular columnists from across the US and as far away as Liberia.  

 

Publishing an online magazine, particularly one dedicated to deep research and careful coverage - the "long read" - takes a team. It takes writers, editors, and committed readers like you.  

 

We are counting on you to be our partner to keep good food on our tables and grocery shelves so we can all eat better and be healthier!

 

Whether you consider it an investment, a donation, or a contribution,  

please make it here.  

 

As part of our team, your contribution of $25, $50, $100, or more, will keep GoodFood World online and on the road, working one-on-one with creative, dedicated, and tireless good food producers so they can succeed and thrive; and we never lose our connection with the sources of our food! 

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Contribute Content, Advice, Input

We welcome photos, tips, observations, and links to stories about the world of good food. Send us stories about what you've seen or heard. Tell us what we're doing right. We like "atta boys!" Got a beef? Send it on... we need to know! Here's the place to do it.   

 

Take care, eat well, and be well!

 

Gail Nickel-Kailing and Ken Kailing

Co-Publishers/Editors

 

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