Ancestral Kitchen

In this episode, Andrea and Alison talk about the cookbook that has healed the way they view, cook and eat food, THE ancestral cookbook, Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions.

Technical Note: Andrea's microphone cord was touching part of the microphone stand, so you can hear a subtle metallic brushing every so often. This unusual issue has been resolved for future recordings. Our apologies for this audio interruption!

“If Alison the raw vegan could see me now she would see someone who is a lot happier, more content, and more in touch with things than I was back then. A lot of it comes with taking a journey and embracing it, stepping forward into the unknown, even though it's scary, and changing. That’s what Nourishing Traditions helped me to do.” - Alison

What we cover:

09:30 The upcoming Nourishing Traditions Zoom cook-up!

11:10 What is Nourishing Traditions?

16:45 When Andrea got the book and what it changed for her

20:30 When Alison got the book and how it helped guide her journey to restored fertility

34:30 The contents of the book

39:30 Andrea’s favourite recipes

41:20 Alison’s favourite recipes

48:00 A dive into the footnotes

57:00 Recipes we want to cook from it!

1:01:20 The importance of rhythm in ancestral cooking

1:03:50 Sally’s other books

Resources mentioned:

Nourishing Traditions blog: https://nourishingtraditions.com/

Andrea's old blog

In Bibi's Kitchen by Hawa Hassan and Julia Turshen

Nourished Kitchen - Natural Whole Foods Recipes

The "sparks of light" quote from Nourishing Traditions that Andrea read came from page 401

Les aliments fermentés traditionnels : Une richesse méconnue by Claude Aubert

Ageless Remedies from Mother's Kitchen - Hannah Kroeger

We love Nourishing Traditions so much, we’ve decided to host a live cook-up on zoom of three of its recipes. This interactive event is available free to Patrons of Ancestral Kitchen Podcast - they can come on live or download it (in audio or video format) at any time in the future by accessing our exclusive-to-patrons conent feed. If you would like to come join, check below for more details:

If you love what we're doing, we'd love you to be part of our Patreon community!

For $9 a month (or equivalent in your currency) you'll be helping us with the costs of recording, editing and putting this work into the world. And you'll get to be part of our world on a deeper level - we've got a monthly intimate patron-exclusive podcast called Kitchen Table Chats and we're also sharing cooking classes, extra interviews and much more.

Check out www.patreon.com/ancestralkitchenpodcast for all the details!

Let's continue the conversation. Come find us on Instagram!

Andrea is at Farm and Hearth

Alison is at Ancestral Kitchen

The podcast is at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast

Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay

"You can make really, really good bread using simple methods"

We're so excited to welcome our first guest - Elly from Elly's Everyday to talk about sourdough-baking and soap-making!

"My bread-making methods were developed when I was working full time in really difficult jobs and I needed it to be a no-brainer...I didn’t want to plan out my whole week around bread-making"

What we cover:

15:26 How we met Elly

18:55 Elly talking about being a bread new-comer

20:35 How Elly got into sourdough

26:00 How to tell if your sourdough starter is healthy

31:00 The problems that stop people baking sourdough

33:10 Feeding a sourdough starter

35:40 Elly’s starter maintenance method

44:20 Elly doesn’t ever make the same bread twice

45:23 The breads Elly regularly makes at home

47:15 Elly’s milling process

49:45 Gluten-free sourdough

1:00:25 Soap-making

1:06:40 How to get started with soap-making

1:08:20 How to find Elly’s recipes, videos and online homes

"There’s always an easier way to do it!"

Links:

Elly’s *new* website!

Elly’s IG account

Elly’s FB account

The 100% whole wheat video of Elly's that Alison cooked up.

www.thefreshloaf.com

Elly’s Everyday Whole Grain Sourdough You Tube channel

Elly’s Everyday Soap-Making You Tube Channel

Elly’s Hot Cross Bun recipe

The Natural Tucker Bread Book - John Downes

Chris Stafferton (the gluten-free bread maker, author of Promise and Fulfillment

Mock Mill (Elly’s affiliate link)

Elly's Split Pea Soup recipe (described 13:49)

11/2-2 cups yellow split peas

1 potato

1 onion

1 carrot

1 large ripe tomato

little bit of salt

Pot with water or stock

If you love what we're doing, we'd love you to be part of our Patreon community!

For $9 a month (or equivalent in your currency) you'll be helping us with the costs of recording, editing and putting this work into the world. And you'll get to be part of our world on a deeper level - we've got a monthly intimate patron-exclusive podcast called Kitchen Table Chats and we're also going to share cooking classes, extra interviews and much more.

Check out www.patreon.com/ancestralkitchenpodcast for all the details!

Want to share your thoughts on this episode, or talk about your experience with sourdough or soap?

Let's continue the conversation. Come find us on Instagram:

Andrea is at Farm and Hearth

Alison is at Ancestral Kitchen

The podcast is at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast

Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay

I spent a lot of my time researching and making connections with people to find my sources of food, and that takes time. - Alison

Not like I really knew what I was doing, I never know what I’m doing. - Andrea

Once it is ready, the bouza course we referred to will be loaded to the courses page on Alison's blog, Ancestral Kitchen

"The chocolate book" we alluded to is The Secret Life of Chocolate by Marcos Patchett

In this podcast, Alison is asking us to help hold her accountable to leaving the super market! Feel free to leave comments on Instagram and ask us (both!) how it's going!

I think I’m on a soapbox right now. - Andrea

Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes for more fascinating information on the strategy and science behind supermarkets.

Radical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes

Here's an idea that we didn't mention on this episode but you will hear more about later - share your farm and farmer's market and direct market hauls with the hashtag #bringbackhighstreet !

Podcast with Ruth Layton

Once we change the habit it becomes easy to maintain it, it’s the actual push of the switch that requires more impetus. - Alison

A Few Resources 46:37

Eat Wild

Real Milk (WAPF Project)

Weston A. Price Foundation "Find Food/Local Chapter" tab

WAPF 50% Pledge

Shannon Hayes interview on a podcast where she talked about shoppers at the farmer's market

(Shannon Hayes also has her own podcast, The Hearth of Sap Bush Hollow)

For my journey, the basics aren’t more expensive if you change what you expect and your habits. Bulk grains are cheaper than bread, offal is cheaper than meat. - Alison

To see how we changed some of our habits to accommodate eating better on a budget, check out this past episode: 5 Most Expensive (and yet, the cheapest!) Foods!

By talking about this I’m not trying to browbeat somebody into making a decision or a choice, what I’m trying to do is reveal to them what perhaps they weren’t aware of. - Andrea

Do you know how to leave us a review? Obviously as you heard at the end of this episode, neither of us have it figured out yet. If you know how to leave a review, we appreciate it!!!! (Also can you tell us how it's done?!)

We'd love to continue the conversation. Come find us on Instagram:

Andrea is at Farm and Hearth

Alison is at Ancestral Kitchen

The podcast is at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast

If you love what we're doing, please do leave us a review or check out our new Patreon community here.

Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay

www.robertmichaelkay.com

"Admire and respect what you're doing." Andrea

As soon as a listener suggested this topic, we both knew we had to cover it. Burnout is something we've both experienced and our kitchen management rituals have often been painfully won.

"My biggest problem is that I get ridiculously enthusiastic and I take on too much at once" Alison

Join us as we talk about subjects including clarity, delegation, enthusiasm overload, work groups, managing your 'team', routine, ritualizing, organization, the spectre of comparison and the importance of valuing your contribution.

"If it really means something to you, and it really needs to be done, you will get to it" Alison

A Slob Comes Clean podcast (mentioned by Andrea)

How do you manage your kitchen? What helps maintain your energy? We'd love to know. Come find us on Instagram:

Alison's at www.instagram.com/ancestral_kitchen

Andrea's at www.instagram.com/farmandhearth

If you love what we're doing, please do leave us a review or check out our new Patreon community here.

"That led to bakers yeast, which was a household item by 1900... Then we just seem to have gone completely downhill from there, to this place where on the shelves are these loaves made in a process that, if you showed a baker from three or four hundred years ago, they just wouldn't recognize, with all these additives in it... And people just think that's bread." - Alison, in Episode 7, Sourdough

"You basically need to be able to stir a spoon in a bowl. That's about the skill level that's needed." - Andrea

Mentioned in the podcast:

Fare la scapetta

The Fresh Loaf forum

"There's about 18 million ways to do this, it can't be that hard." - Andrea

A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry blog - Bread: Part I

The History of Food Podcast on Apple

Sourdough Recipes on Alison's blog, Ancestral Kitchen

"Spelt has a tendency to go stale quite quickly, also the crumb can be a bit hard; and the scald helps with both those things." Alison

Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart

"Each thing along the line has grabbed me and pulled me in more. Each step I've taken away from that 9 to 5 life slowly slowly slowly to intentionally build something else had rewarded me in ways that tell I'm on the right path. This feels in accordance with my nature far more than what I used to do and how I used to live." - Alison

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell

Bread flour sourced from Azure Standard

EInkorn flour sourced from Young Living

"If we could just awaken everybody to the idea that their food is playing a role -- I don't have to tell you to make sourdough or how to make sourdough once you have the idea that food is affecting everything about your life you will begin to seek out and the things will come to you." - Andrea

Tara Couture of Slow Down Farmstead

Andrea mentioned she was posting Charlotte Mason quotes online. You can see them here: instagram.com/charlottemasoncommonplace

Alison's beloved Emile Henry loaf pan

"I took my own journey and proved them wrong. Once you get a little taste of that, once you see what's possible, then you just can't stop." - Alison

Alison can be found at instagram.com/ancestral_kitchen

Andrea can be found at instagram.com/farmandhearth

We can both be found at instagram.com/ancestralkitchenpodcast

Thank you for listening, reviewing and commenting!!!

"The best books are ones that spin you off on a path; imbue you with passion"

Words. Pictures. Beauty. Comfort. Connection. Guidance. Inspiration. Joy. Support.

Books bring us so much.

In this episode, Andrea and Alison talk about six books they love!

You'll share in a radical chocolate book, two fermentation bibles, a recipe book using simple, locally-sourced food, an alternative bread book and a masterpiece that calls and inspires us to create the world we want to live in.

Here are the publications we cover:

Wild Fermentation - Sandor Ellix Katz (12:07)

12 Months of Monastery Soups - Victor D’Avila-Latourrette (25:00)

Naturally Fermented Bread - Paul Barker (31:34)

The Art of Fermentation - Sandor Ellix Katz (45:00)

The Secret Life of Chocolate - Marcos Patchett (49:35)

Radical Homemakers - Shannon Hayes (1:05:16)

Resources mentioned:

Kobo Fermentary (the Instgram Pongal fermenter)

Irina Georgescu

Tiffany (who did the #veryfarmish challenge)

An example of Posole

And author's social media:

Sandor Katz

Paul Barker's London Bakery

Marcos Patchett

Shannon Hayes

We'd love to continue the conversation. Come join us on Instagram. Alison's at @ancestral_kitchen and Andrea's at @farmandhearth

"Fermenting is an adventure!"

In this episode, we give a snapshot of what's bubbling in our kitchens right now.

You'll hear about:

Vegetable ferments such as sauerkraut, ginger carrots, purple onions, jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), mustard and the all-powerful garlic.

Carbohydrate ferments including oatmeal, millet porridge, sowans, boza and sourdough starters.

Drinks (including the sowans and boza above) like fire cider, hard cider and water kefir.

Our conversation also works its way to wild v inoculated ferments and regular fermenting as a way to make meals in minutes. There are lots of breakfast options covered and you'll get a dose of Turkish and Scottish fermenting history as well as learning about a non-dairy, gluten-free, lectin-free fun alternative to dairy kefir.

Keep an eye on www.instagram.com/ancestralkitchenpodcast over the next week or so - we hope to share some of the fermentation recipes mentioned in this episode!

We'd love to continue the conversation. Come find us on Instagram:

Andrea is at Farm and Hearth

Alison is at Ancestral Kitchen

The podcast is at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast

Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay

www.robertmichaelkay.com

"We make our bone broth almost exclusively out of garbage."

What if eating real food didn't have to be prohibitively expensive? The most nutritious, real, nourishing foods have traditionally been the cheapest and simplest - conversely, the expensive, rich meals of the wealthy were often laborious productions involving sweets and refined foods.

It's time to take back our ancestral wisdom and reclaim foods and skills that once belonged to the people, and have now been relegated to super-expensive and elite grocery stores at staggering prices.

In this episode, Andrea and Alison will discuss five of the most expensive "healthy" foods you can buy - which also happen to be five of the cheapest foods you can make at home!

It should be noted these cost assessments all assume you will be purchasing the ingredients - many of these can be easily raised at home OR obtained for free through invested relationships with farmers.

We will briefly cover the cost of purchasing versus making at home, processes for making, and our favorite resources for each of the following:

Bone broth (12:05)

Sourdough bread* (24:22)

*For a full episode discussing sourdough, there will be a later episode on the podcast!

Kombucha & Water Kefir (35:14)

Kefir & Yoghurt (48:40)

Sauerkraut (1:04:30)

Resources mentioned, in approximate order of appearance:

Andrea quoted from the Radical Homemakers book by Shannon Hayes

Frequently mentioned: The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

Bone Broth Resources

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

Nourishing Broth by Sally Fallon Morell

Bone broth and boullion cubes on Andrea's blog

Sourdough Bread Resources

The Rye Baker

Alison’s Blog

How to Create a Sourdough Starter by Alison

The Fresh Loaf online forum

Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart (with sourdough pizza crust recipe)

How to restart a sourdough

Traditional Cooking School sourdough posts

Briefly mentioned

GAPS diet mentioned offhand by Andrea

Kombucha Resources

Kombucha recipes on Andrea’s blog

Kombucha flavorings on Andrea’s blog

Fruit scrap vinegar on Andrea's blog

Kombucha Revolution by Stephen Lee and Ken Koopman

The Organic green tea and organic black tea Andrea uses

Cultures for Health kombucha scobys

Kefir & Yoghurt Resources

Wise Traditions podcast kefir episode

Alison’s DIY proofing box post

Beyond the North Wind by Darra Goldstein – the Russian cookbook Alison mentioned

Cultures for Health kefir grains

Sauerkraut & Kimchi Resources

Super Simple Sauerkraut on Alison's Blog

Andrea’s sauerkraut class packet/recipe download

The Healthy Home Economist sauerkraut

Traditional Cooking School sauerkraut

Alison’s Instagram Post about Sauerkraut

Asian Pickles by Karen Solomon

Keeping Food Fresh by The Gardeners & Farmers of Terre Vivante (I found this book by following the footnotes in Nourishing Traditions)

Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

Bonus Resources

Long Way on a Little by Shannon Hayes

Easy Beans by Jackie Freeman

Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourette

We'd love to continue the conversation. Come find us on Instagram:

Andrea is at Farm and Hearth

Alison is at Ancestral Kitchen

The podcast is at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast

Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay

www.robertmichaelkay.com

"I follow the river of joy, curiosity and passion. That's what has moved me into a place where cooking ancestrally is part of my life"

Why do we cook ancestrally?

We try to answer that question in this, our third episode.

We cover:

• What cooking ancestrally means to us.
• Why we cook ancestrally.
• What cooking ancestrally looks like in our kitchens.

Our conversation touches on sourcing/growing, what we eat, industrialisation, organ meat, preparing meals at home, 'fast' ancestral cooking, soaking and fermenting, drawing on multiple ancestors' traditions and our seasonal eating/preserving patterns.

Useful links from this episode:

What are Paraprobiotics and Postbiotics?

www.eatwild.com

Raw Milk Finder (US)

Raw Milk Finder (outside US)

We'd love to continue the conversation. Come find us on Instagram:

Andrea is at Farm and Hearth

Alison is at Ancestral Kitchen

The podcast is at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast

Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay

www.robertmichaelkay.com

"For ages, I thought cooking wasn't creativity, that creativity was art; it was music - that kind of thing. It took many gentle, soft words from my husband, Rob, and much experimenting and changing for me to realise that what I was doing in the kitchen was just as creative as writing music."

Come meet Alison, the European half of Ancestral Kitchen, in this second 'meet' episode of our podcast.

You'll hear about the life she's created in Italy with her husband and 6-year old son. We cover her health journey, including her 10-stone (140lb) weight loss, carving a different path from the environment you grew up in, her kitchen set up, the joy ancestral food brings her, changing the food system and why connection is central to her life and cooking.

Alison's website:

www.ancestralkitchen.com

We'd love to continue the conversation. Come find us on Instagram:

Andrea is at Farm and Hearth

Alison is at Ancestral Kitchen

The podcast is at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast

Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay

www.robertmichaelkay.com