Real Food Kitchen Tour: Life From Scratch

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Jodi Lee, author of Life From Scratch.

What’s a Real Foodie?

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Life From Scratch

If this week’s entry doesn’t inspire you, I don’t know what will. I’m in love with this Canadian kitchen, this garden, and this family. And I know you will be, too!

Jodi -- Happiest in the dirt

Blog Name: Life From Scratch
Blog Author: Jodi Lee
How Long Blogging: year and a half
Location: Manitoba, Canada
House or Apartment: 1400 sq ft bungalow
Size of Kitchen: big? It doesn’t have edges so hard to say where it ends.
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: The island is my favorite space. It’s right in the centre of the kitchen but because there are no walls it also feels like the centre of the whole living space. There are windows all around so it’s bright all year round – essential in a climate that boasts 6 months of winter! I love the openness and there is a decent amount of cupboard space.
Things You Would Change: I wish I had a corner. There is no spot to tuck all those appliances into – they just take up the counter and feels a bit cluttered to me. I will always want my cupboard space!
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: I am in LOVE with my kitchen aid stand mixer. We debated for quite a while about getting it due to price (I had just bought a vita mix) but we’d had enough flops trying gluten-free bread and pizza we felt it was almost a medical expense. It’s been the best addition to our kitchen and I make the best gluten free bread, ever! Of course I do love the vitamix too. Crockpot gets a workout for broth.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: We have exceptionally long winters that do not lend themselves to fresh market produce year round. Access is an issue. We are working around that with our garden and preserving/freezing what we grow. We’re also looking into methods to have fresh greens year round. I have no raw milk source which frustrates me. It takes a lot of time to source our meats from farmers but it is definitely worth it. We are soy-free and gluten-free by necessity but also work hard at being chemical free, processed food free, and refined sugar free. Finding adequate replacements can be a challenge. I usually just make it myself if I can’t find a store substitute and then the challenge is simply time.
Current Family Favorite Meal: We have an amazing pig farmer, who is certified by our animal humane society, and our kids love this pork! We visited the farm last year too and these are truly free, happy piggies. We’re really into our lacto-fermented coleslaw, and lettuce wraps. I have also just started making my own chocolate bars. They are soy-free for my daughter, sugar-free, and healthy too! They vanish pretty quickly.
Favorite Cookbooks: [easyazon-link asin=”0740778137″ locale=”us”]The Gluten Free Chef[/easyazon-link] has been a lifesaver for us. Other faves are [easyazon-link asin=”0967089735″ locale=”us”]Nourishing Traditions[/easyazon-link], [easyazon-link asin=”1931498237″ locale=”us”]Wild Fermentation[/easyazon-link], Twelve, [easyazon-link asin=”0968063152″ locale=”us”]The Looneyspoons[/easyazon-link], [easyazon-link asin=”1845335732″ locale=”us”]Plenty[/easyazon-link], [easyazon-link asin=”1580174647″ locale=”us”]Cheesemaking[/easyazon-link]. And what would we do without all those amazing food bloggers??

My beloved island. Ready to bake something pumpkin

View of whole kitchen

Dining room

Stove and fridge

Another view of the whole kitchen and dining room

Another view of the island. Kombucha at the ready

Free range eggs from friends

Making mozza

Spice drawer beside the stove

Raw local honey, real salt, ACV, coconut oil, evoo, homemade coconut butter

Hopefully this view is coming soon

Massaging the coleslaw to be fermented

Kefir, creme fraiche, broccoli sprouts, gf bread

Water kefir

From our garden

A five year old can make cheese

Part of our garden

Pantry in the kitchen

Preserved harvest

Gluten-free baguettes

March view out the living room window

Our park-like Setting

Harvesting potatoes

Ferments

How to cook with a clingy, tired kid

Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?

Please email me at annmarie AT realfoodmedia dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.

Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).

As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.

Some ideas for photos:

Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
How about a lovely herb garden?
Kids or pets are always cute!
Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen

And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.