reflections on Wise Traditions 2010...

So I've been home 6 days...and this is my first chance to write about my experience at the Weston A. Price Foundation's Wise Traditions Conference in King of Prussia PA. What a wonderful conference! The FOOD! The FOOD! The FOOD! (did I say "the FOOD"?!) Unbelievable. Don't know how they did it. (Actually, I do know, having been an event planner, conference manager and catering company owner in the not so distant past. ) It was  QUITE A FEAT, and pulled off quite well by the staff of the WAPF and PTF Associates. Over 1500 people registered before the conference began, and I am guessing another hundred or so on-site. All those people. All those happy people...people IN SEARCH OF something more, something REAL...real information about FOOD, FARMING and the HEALING ARTS. This year's conference was focused upon THE POLITICS OF FOOD...and if you don't think food is political, think again.

One of the most basic things, one of the most primal things, is to eat. All of us do it. Everyone must eat to live. We are challenged, though, in this day and this age to EAT TO THRIVE. The food at this conference, the basis of the teachings of Weston A. Price and the foundation that Sally Fallon Morell began over 12 years ago is about EATING TO THRIVE.

Eating is a political act. What one chooses to eat, where one purchases one's food is a political act. Every day we are voting with our pocketbooks...do you support family farms or factory farms? "Animals expressing their animal-ness" (as Joel Salatin has said it), or CAFOs? Do you support small enterprises or big business? REAL food or processed food? Surviving or THRIVING for yourself and your family?

Every meal we ate at the conference was REAL food: meat and turkey and eggs and produce and cheese, butter and milk from sustainable farms. REAL milk...raw milk. Delicious, nutritious, FULL of live enzymes and vitamins and good health.   Soaked oatmeal or quinoa every morning for breakfast. Hand-made sausages on soaked flour biscuits. (Only my fermented KETCHUP or mustard would have made them better!) REAL butter. Lots of it. 170 pounds per meal served! The ferments. The FERMENTS! Cortido, chutneys, salsas, red cabbage, garlic flowers...The BREAD! Soaked or sourdough...easy to digest, covered with real BUTTER or coconut ghee if you preferred. NOTHING PROCESSED. NO REFINED SUGAR. NO COFFEE.  Can you believe it?! 1500+ people on no processed food, sugar or coffee for 4 days! And the food was plentiful. Our bodies were in FOOD HEAVEN, and our minds worked well through the packed conference days because of it. No late afternoon blood sugar crashes sending us off for a chocolate or coffee fix; focused minds.  Thanks to all the farmers and organizations that contributed!!

Eating is a political act. If you care about small farms and your right to continue to purchase from them, as well as your right to nutrient-dense food, GET INVOLVED.  The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund is a great source of information and can keep you up to date on what is happening. Support the Fund and the Foundation so that they can continue to support and protect the farms you want to purchase from...through farmer's markets, CSAs and on-farm purchases. It matters now more than ever. See FTCLDF's info on S. 510 HERE.

One week ago today, I taught an all-day session on Pulling It All Together: Fitting Nourishing, Traditional Food into Your Busy Life to a room of over 85 people. A veritable tour de force! Seven of my normally two and a half hour classes in less than 5.5 hours...and hand-outs to boot! Lots of information and lots of fun. What wonderful folks attended. Sandy in the front row...Marie who doesn't like her beans mushy...the lady who has a thing about plastic! I so enjoyed their questions and our dialog. THANKS to everyone that attended, and especially to the two gals without whom it could not have happened: Susan Lucas and Amy Berger. The session was filmed...thanks, Steve!...and I am GREAT ON CAMERA, if I do say so myself! If you would like to order a copy of the session, you may do so HERE.  (Check back with Fleetwood Onsite for individual session recordings.) I will also have DVDs of the session for purchase in the near future.  More on that later. :))

So, just a few reflections on a wonderful conference.  I am sure I will write more in the days to come. I encourage you to attend next year...for information...resources...and connections. If you love nutrient-dense food, cooked in a way that is delicious AND good for you, come and be with your tribe. I know I will. The FOOD ALONE is worth it.

Notes: The people of Pennsylvania and several other states in the U.S.  are blessed to be able to purchase raw milk in stores in their state. If you want to know more about raw milk and your rights to it, see www.realmilk.com,and support the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, HERE.