I’m Karina, a Danish Australian, living in Scotland for the past 10 years with my hairy-highlander husband and two gorgeous sons aged 1 and 3.
I have been keenly interested in food and nutrition for all my adult life (I’m now 34) and have been down many different paths - vegetarianism, low-carb, low-fat, high-protein bla bla bla and most recently I was a complete vegan. It was while I was a vegan that I started to feel very unwell and searched for another answer - and I found it! I have a book by Katie Singer called Honoring Our Cycles which teaches natural family planning using the fertility awareness method. In it she describes the optimum diet for strong and healthy menstrual cycles and recommends Sally Fallon’s book. I did a lot of reading on the Weston Price website and decided I would buy the book.
I was so excited when it came in the post and as I read it I kept nodding and sighing and exclaiming YES YES! It was just what I’ve been looking for - a way to keep myself and my family healthy and nourished in a no-nonsense, practical, no-gimmicks, tried and proven way.
I have only had the book for a couple of weeks but so far we have had eggs or soaked porridge for breakfast nearly day. When I say “we” I mean my husband and I - so far the children are not too interested in either of those! So to keep them happy, yesterday I made buckwheat pancakes and they very happily munched away on them. I was just so thrilled that I could feed them something like pancakes and feel so good that I was giving them something so nutritious!
So, yes, I’m really excited about my new discovery and hope for a long and healthy relationship with this way of living!
I also look forward to meeting other people from Nourished Magazine!
Jan 7th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Welcome Karina. I resonate with the Scottish side of my ancestry mostly - although there is Irish also and other unknown breeds. The Scots seem most like me and I certainly prefer their style of eating. I’m looking forward to reading your recipes and experiences with traditional Scottish foods. I’ll have to just drool and wish, however. Living in sub tropical heat makes it near impossible for me to indulge in such warming foods without having symptoms of heat (exploding pimples, rashes and crankiness). Maybe I can follow your recipes in mid winter.
Jan 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Thank you so much Joanne I am very excited to be here! It’s funny, I have spoken at length with my inlaws, who are Scottish as far back as they can trace, and they say they can remember their grandmothers and even great grandmother (on my MIL’s side) always soaking the porridge the night before, making their own curds and whey, always giving the babies and children the cream off the top of the milk and throwing out any watery milk or giving it to the cat! I was so thrilled to hear that - and they are very thrilled that I am no longer a vegan! When I told my grandmother-in-law she said “Oh what a shame for you dear”!
I have trouble with hot weather - particularly because I love warm food so much! We have about 3 weeks of summer a year (if we’re lucky!) so you’ll get lots of warm-food reports from me all year round.
Jan 8th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Karina,
That’s exactly how I reacted when I got my NT cookbook. I was so excited! As I read through it I felt my whole body sigh with relief as I realized that all the foods my body has been craving; whole milk, eggs, honey, full fat foods, were exactly what I needed to be nourished and healthy. It’s just such common sense and I am so glad I have been ’saved’ from the wretched ‘diet’ world. Good to see you have joined the site, I look forward to hearing more about your journey!
Jan 9th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Karina,
Keep up your wonderful breakfasts and try encouraging your beautiful boys to just have a taste of mum or dad’s breakfast. At least you have your husband on your side supporting you (and by that I mean eating the food you’ve lovingly cooked and prepared!) in your attempts to change your family’s diets for the better. The boys will soon come around, especially if dad appears to enjoy his!
I have Scottish ancestry as well and can remember as a child my Scottish grandfather telling me how his porridge used to be cooked with bits of meat in it when he was a child. At the time it made me go “ewww yuck”. But now I’m thinking “Yum” (if only it wasn’t so hot here at the moment). I’m sure it was also soaked over night too.
I have plans to experiment with a crock pot this coming winter and play around with using ‘groats’ (cracked whole oats, soaked overnight) to make “breakfast stews” with some cheaper cuts of organic meat.
When I tell my clients (well comand them actually) that they must soak their grains overnight, so many of them come back and tell me “Oh my grandmother told me that she used to soak her porridge over night too”.