So I’m a lot calmer today. (Sorry for the last couple of posts Aunt Hilda.) The colonoscopy I had yesterday has a way of focusing one’s concentration. I’m so calm I can ignore the fact that one of the things I had to do in preparation for the procedure was fill a one gallon plastic jug, containing an electrolyte powder, full of water, drink half of it, and throw the other half away. After getting rotor-rootered, the minor screwing I got from Braintree Laboratories (Pharmaceuticals for Brain Dead Consumers), the manufacturer of said powder, doesn’t bother me half as much today as it did two days ago. I’m trying to get back in touch with my inner Wytheness. Who knows? Maybe one day I too will be content, roaring down the road in my F-150 on my way to McDonald’s, beer in one hand, cell phone in the other, radio blasting so loud I can ignore the trash flying off the bed in back. The ambulance behind me with a dying patient on board trying to get around will just have to wait. I’m texting my sweetie about the free-roaming cat I just ran over.

Sarcasm aside, I really do want to talk about the Healthy Foods Foundation Conference last Saturday sponsored by The Mansion at Fort Chiswell and Key Ingredients for Life.

The Mansion at Fort Chiswell

The Conference was the brainchild of Chris Disibbio, founder and president of Key Ingredients For Life, Inc. and owner of The Mansion. Key Ingredients’ website is still under construction, but if you register on The Mansion’s site, you’ll be notified when it’s up and running. Chris, like me, believes you really are what you eat. We share the same concerns that we are in danger of losing 300 years of food history in one generation because not only do a lot of younger folks not know how to cook from scratch, they don’t know how to eat. Processed and fast foods have made us one of the most obese nations on earth.

I wish we had been able to spend the whole day there, but Anne had a previous commitment and by the time she dropped me off and I was able to get back, I had missed a lot. I was very pleased with some of the networking I was able to do though. It was a real pleasure to meet Debi Anderson of Anderson Grass Fed Beef in Bland, and Suzanne Capone (276-686-5843) of Omega Lane Farm in Rural Retreat. I visited both farms earlier this week, and I highly recommend both. Debi and her husband RB, and Suzanne and her husband Bill Perry, are hard working small producers who care enough to go the extra mile.

Debi Anderson with a display of the maple syrup they also produce

Thanks to a package of the Andersons’ ground beef, I was able to enjoy a cheeseburger last night for the first time in a very long time.

Suzanne Capone

I plan to do a more in depth article about the organic produce from Omega Lane Farm a little later in the growing season, but I have to show you a couple of shots of the solar powered greenhouse (the first in the state) that Bill designed and had built, much of it using recycled materials.

Bill Perry, hard at it inside the greenhouse

Though we only had a few minutes to chat, I’m looking forward to visiting with Gary Mitchell of Grayson Natural Foods in Independence. Gary provided the ground beef for the burgers at the conference.

If you value your health and those of your loved ones, you need to listen to what these folks are preaching. This morning CNN reported a 23 state recall of romaine lettuce contaminated with e coli, sold in Virginia by Kroger’s. Please take the time to read the article on meat processing from Sustainable Table.
Your life could depend on it.