Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Forager

For a long time now, I’ve been wanting to do a Real Food Kitchen Tour series. I was so inspired by the Kitchen Tour on Use Real Butter, I thought it would be neat to do a kitchen tour with real foodies.

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.

The Real Food Kitchen Tour

In the coming months, I’m doing a series of posts touring real food kitchens. We’re currently looking for a new house to move into and I want to get inspired by your kitchens.

I’m also just curious. Don’t you love seeing other people’s kitchens? I do!

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour:  Jill, The Real Food Forager

Jill, author of the Real Food Forager blog, is a new Real Food Media blogger from Long Island, New York. She’s only been blogging for only 4 months — can you believe it? Her blog looks awesome!

In addition to being a blogger, Jill is a nutritionist/chiropractor, and she’s a veteran of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) Diet.

I love Jill’s passion for traditional food. And I love how naturally she communicates it on her blog.

I almost got a chance to meet her this summer when I was on Long Island visiting my in-laws. Hopefully I can meet her when I am there again in the fall.

Blog Name: Real Food Forager
Blog Author: Dr. Jill Tieman
How Long Blogging: 4 months
Location: Suffolk County, Long Island New York
House or Apartment: House
Size of Kitchen: 22 x 12 (includes eating area)
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: I actually love that it is a galley style kitchen. It makes all the appliances and counters within easy reach. There is a large window over the table and that brings in a lot of light. There is also an inside window by the sink that looks into the great room. This was very handy to have when my son was young as I could keep an eye on him as I worked in the kitchen.
Things You Would Change: This kitchen is 17 years old and I would certainly do things differently if I were to remodel. I would rearrange things so I could completely break through to the great room with an island with stools. I would try to have 2 sinks and I would certainly make a space for a very large refrigerator. (As it is I have another refrigerator downstairs as well as a full size freezer). I would probably get cherry Shaker style cabinets and a granite counter top as well. The corian counter I have now is nice but you cannot put a hot pot on it and with granite you can. As you can see, I have thought a great deal about a kitchen wish list.
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: Immersion blender, dehydrator, Le Cruset enamel coated pots and pans, food processor, glass mason jars with the plastic lids that you can purchase on line.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: Learning how to cook grass-fed beef and pastured poultry so that it is not dry. There’s a large learning curve there. Also, just keeping up with ordering the products and ingredients from the various suppliers I have come to know and trust. Coming to this point is huge, because while I want to try new things, I do not want to waste money so figuring out who to order what from takes a while. The WAPF shoppers guide is very helpful for that.
Current Family Favorite Meal: Sugar-free grassfed franks and grassfed tri tip roast and of course pastured eggs.
Favorite Cookbooks: Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon-Morell, Primal Blueprint Cookbook, Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals both by Mark Sisson and Jennifer Meier.I also get a lot of recipes from the wonderful real food bloggers on line. Some I easily convert to grain-free dairy-free versions.

Here are some photos of Jill’s “real food” kitchen and her beautiful garden:

As you can see, Jill loves to garden.  I love the artful display.

Isn’t her backyard lovely?

When you live in New York, you really appreciate the spring and summer months when you’re not inundated with snow, and you can be outside and enjoy your yard. We tend to take it for granted here in L.A.

Jill also grows a lot of food in her garden.

I’m not sure but I think these are tomatoes.

Lots of mason jars and an Excalibur dehydrator. This looks a lot like my kitchen.

I love the retro ’50s look!

And the light wood…

Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts

Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Leftover Queen
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Health Home & Happiness

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.