Baby-led weaning is the practice of trusting your baby’s innate sense of hunger, of want, of self-knowledge and of self-limitation. Baby-led weaning offers parents and their children a natural, relaxed approach to the introduction of solid foods and the eventual cessation of breastfeeding. Instead of relying on prepared, commercial baby foods or even homemade purees, mothers and fathers simply introduce their babies to natural, wholesome real food from the start – relying on their babies to self-regulate and lead the way.  In her book Real Food for Mother …

Organic dark chocolate – sweet but not too sweet and almost lustful in its intensity.  There’s no treat that quite fulfills the essence of Valentine’s Day like a good, organic dark chocolate.  Serve it as it suits: in a mousse, in hot chocolate or in a beautiful bar of chocolate.  Organic dark chocolate is a special treat – especially when shared with your loved one on Valentine’s Day.
Why Choose Organic Dark Chocolate
Chocolate is a potent source of antioxidants – and some research indicates that chocolate benefits the circulatory system and …

Olive oil.  There is nothing quite like a fruity, complexly flavored olive oil – teeming with antioxidants, polyphenols and vitamin E.  It’s sacred, mystical – weaving its way in and out of Mediterranean
folklore and myth. Homer referred to it as “liquid gold,” and rightly so – it imparts a beauty to foods and supports wellness with its wholesome serving of m
onounsaturated fats paired with other micronutrients and antioxidants.  Too often, though, olive oil is never given the opportunity to shine in its own right – to revel in its own …

Baked garlic, savory and sweet, finds its way into our kitchen more often than it should – weaving its way in and out of sauces, breads and soups.  And, without a doubt, we enjoy it in its own right – unctuous and smooth, intensely garlicky and scented with fresh thyme.  Garlic, mellowed but simultaneously made richer by roasting, provides a lovely, but mild sweetness to savory dishes.
Garlic, like leeks, onions and most alliums, is a potent food – rich in nutrients including sulfur-compounds which account for its strong odor, vitamins …

Hi, folks, this is Ren from Edible Aria, covering for Jenny as she winds up a much-deserved vacation.
Local, pastured pork is pan-seared then braised until tender in a thin paste of red chilies, garlic, Mexican oregano and pineapple juice before being served on top of fresh corn tortillas, silky guacamole and fresh pineapple habanero salsa..

For the Salsa
2/3 cup fresh pineapple, diced, juice reserved
1 orange or red habanero, stemmed, seeded and minced
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh cilantro
1/2 teaspoon piloncillo (substitute demerara or other coarse, unrefinded sugar)
fine sea salt …

This is a guest post from Katie at Kitchen Stewardship.
I’d like to think of myself as a yogurt diva, if you’ll indulge me a moment.  Jenny has me beat in all other things probiotic, and I’ll gladly crown her Get Cultured Queen if she’ll allow me to be the Yogurt Fairy here at Nourished Kitchen.
I make a gallon of yogurt in each batch, about every week and a half or so.  My family is absolutely lost if we run out.  We eat it at breakfast, lunch, and snacks constantly as …

Hi there! I’m Peggy, guest blogging for Jenny. I blog over at Local Nourishment, where I’m learning the art of Slow and SOLE food. Jenny’s on a beach eating tropical fruit with a cool coconut water in her hand right about now, and has asked me to guest blog a post. We had two inches of snow in our Southeastern U.S. state this week, but Jenny’s trip to the warm sands has made me yearn for salad.
For many seasonal eaters, the word “salad” takes a rest from our vocabulary when …

Rendering lard is a lost art – a worthwhile technique forgotten in a fat-phobic, Lean Cuisine-centered culture.  Many cooks, seeking out local foods and forgotten traditions, have rediscovered how to render lard in their homes. Learning how to render lard needn’t be a difficult task; it requires clean fat, clean water, a good stock pot and a quiet afternoon in the kitchen.  The reward of a beautiful, creamy white jar full of freshly rendered, pastured lard is worth the minimal effort.
Pastured lard is a remarkably good source of vitamin D …

1. Give up refined foods: sugars, oils and flours.
The single most effective thing you can do for your health in the new year is simple: remove all refined foods from your cupboards.  Give them up.  Just like that.  Yes, you may have paid good money for that bag of sugar, the gallon of vegetable oil or that bag of flour.  Sure, you may think to yourself, “I only use flour (or sugar or canola oil) occasionally.”  But, occasionally is still too often. Refined foods can leach micronutrients from your body, …

Winter greens, teeming with micronutrients, nourish my family during the darkest days of the season when the fields offer little else but stored apples and pumpkin.  As days grow shorter, spinach, Swiss chard and other winter greens slowly replace the tender mesclun lettuces of spring and summer before the cycle begins anew.  At the height of the winter season, when snow blankets our little ski town and gingerly encroaches on the farmland to the west, winter greens make their appearance on the supper table every evening.
While a winter filled with …