Ethical Eating

Ok, I know this is a home ed blog, so this might seem like a somewhat off topic post, but given that we as a family are firmly of the belief that learning is just part of life, not a separate entity, it's really not.

There are quite a few home edders who have converted to a paleo way of eating in recent years; I was introduced to this lifestyle by my very good friend Lisa of renegade parent a couple of years ago. This was a pretty big transition for me, given I was a vegetarian for over 20 years. I wrote about why I started eating meat again here.

To begin with I was the only person in the family who embraced this way of eating, but over time my eldest two decided that they wanted to give it a shot too, and found huge benefits to their health, then the youngest two joined in and so the husband just had to go along for the ride ;-)

 We prefer to eat organic as much as possible, but this can be ridiculously expensive, particularly when it comes to meat, so we buy responsibly when we don't buy organic. Grass fed is vitally important, and if you buy locally then you can see for yourself how a farmer treats and raises his animals. It's a win win situation really as you get quality assured produce and the farmer gets a decent return, so often this is not the case when buying from supermarkets.

 Paleo is still a relatively new thing in the UK, but it is growing quickly - the internet is largely responsible for this as more products become available to people via online shops, but also information sharing is so quick and widespread. Still, much of the paleo material is US based, and it can be frustrating at times to find that ingredients that look so delicious aren't generally available over here.

Take Spaghetti Squash for instance! This is actually the reason for this post because I am beyond excited to be able say that I have found a supplier of organic spaghetti squash here in the UK! I cannot wait to try out some of the recipes that I have drooled over for the past couple of years! I am also very excited to have found Big Barn - there is a little search box in the side bar over there - which is a community interest company that enables small scale producers of quality food to be able to sell their products to a wider audience. I think this is very exciting! I have ordered a 10kg box of spaghetti squash to start with, though I was very tempted by an offer on organic mince but I had just purchased some elsewhere, damn, but if the squash order goes through well, I can see that I will be using this site more and more!

You can keep it local or you can purchase from suppliers further afield for more unusual products. It seems like an excellent way of shopping to me - what do you think?