Food Resolutions for 2016

Happy New Year!

In an interesting twist, all of my new year’s resolutions for 2016 had to do with food; my “Food Resolutions for 2016”, and thereby being healthier; Waste Less Food, Eat and Shop Locally, and Eliminate Sugar.

Food Resolutions for 2016

Eliminate Sugar

To be more exacting; cut out 90% of the sugar in my diet.

The primary focus of this resolution is to cut out sugar that is unnecessarily added to most processed foods. No more high fructose or fructose corn syrups in this diet. Natural sugars from honey and those which you get from eating fruit are fine.

I should preface this resolution by saying that I am not a big fan of sweets or sugar. When I announced this resolution to my family I was met with sarcasm and reactions of “oh, like that will be hard.” But this goes much deeper than the occasional cookie or ice cream- this is about paying attention to every ingredient and enjoying food naturally- without all the added sugars. I just recently finished reading Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub and am starting on David Gillespie’s Sweet Poison – both of which are huge wake up calls about how much sugar we as a society are truly ingesting.

There are a few allowances I’ll make for this resolution. The first is for restaurants. I am not going to make wait staff run back and forth from the kitchen to try and figure out if there is sugar on menu items. Instead I will use common sense and work towards ordering items that would seem to have little to no sugar in them. Obviously staying away from fast food establishments and processed food at restaurants will be a given.

The second allowance is for my condiments. Did you know that the habanero Tabasco sauce has sugar in it? Or Worcestershire sauce? I love my condiments- hot sauces, all types of mustards, horseradish sauces… Although in all honesty the salt content is probably the ingredient with which I should be more concerned several of them do contain sugar as well. (Follow up goal should be to learn how to make my own of all these- with less salt and zero sugar. Maybe I’ll start with this “Sriracha” sauce recipe from Steamy Kitchen)

Eat and Shop Locally

Have at least 75% of my food grown within a 100 mile radius of my home.

I love to support my local economy and food is such an important part of that economy. Plus food tastes so much better when it is “farm to table” fresh. Straight out of the garden and into my belly, just the way I like it. Not to mention how much better it is for the environment to not be shipping produce clear across the country, causing who knows how much food waste and even more pollution, especially when you can get it right “next door”.

I live in Minnesota, so to be honest, January is probably the worst possible month in which to start a goal/resolution of this kind. While I am set on canned and frozen tomatoes, and various other root cellar vegetables, there is not nearly enough to get me by for the next five months. So, I will start with small steps- as with all my resolutions awareness is key. If I need lettuce between now and May I will buy it- but first I will pay attention to where it came from, how far it had to travel. How long ago was it harvested and other questions that I normally would have completely ignored.

As of now I am purchasing (or hunting) all of my meat locally- either direct from the farmer, like Compart Duroc Pork or from my local meat butcher. I am also looking for a local dried bean supplier and am about to begin buying all my flour and grains locally, but everything else is in a bit of a holding pattern.

Due to the timing at this point the resolution is geared towards planning. How much do I need to can/pickle, dehydrate and freeze this summer so that I can be successful in this resolution by the end of the year? How much time and energy will that entail? What do I need to plant to make this a reality versus what can I buy at the farmer’s markets? And how do I keep track of it all?

Of all the resolutions I’m making in 2016 I believe that this one will prove to be the most difficult, but also the one that will reap the most rewards in the long run.

Waste Zero Food

I was tempted to title this resolution “Waste Less Food”, but how do you put quantify less? Zero makes more sense, so zero waste is my goal. Keep everything but the twice cooked bones out of the dump.

While this resolution is much easier to explain- zero food waste, it’s much more difficult to achieve. Once again, it’s about awareness. Only purchase what I know I can use. If I grow a garden that means I have to use EVERYTHING from the garden. I need to make sure that I use all the apples off my apple trees and that the raspberries all get picked. It’s about rethinking usage. Even the scraps off my onions and carrots can be used to make vegetable or chicken broth.

There is a bit of a buffer on this resolution in case I can’t as I will share expired dairy products with our cats. If there happens to be leftover meat scraps (not fat) I will share them with my dog as one of his treats.

The second buffer is that I started a compost pile this past fall. So if I can’t get to all the apples on my apple trees this year at least I will know that they will be going towards making a beautiful compost for the garden in 2017, and therefore still not entirely wasted.

I’ve set myself up for a difficult food year with these food resolutions. Have you ever done any of these? Do you have any hints of suggestions? I’d love to hear them. Leave me a comment below or connect with me on Twitter.