Southern Cuisine, Fitness, and Nutrition

February 18, 2013 Hunter Wallace Alabama, American South, Culture 178

Alabama

The posts have been sparse here lately because I have been spending so much of my time researching and learning more about the interplay between exercise and nutrition. I have really cranked up the intensity of my gym sessions this month and have become much more conscious of my diet in order to maximize my results.

Needless to say, the White Southern lifestyle of binge drinking, barbecuing on the weekends, and eating too much pork and fried foods can have a disastrous effect on your health over an extended period of time, especially in the automobile age when most people don’t get nearly as much exercise as they used to.

With that in mind, I would like to probe the OD audience here and start a discussion about exercise and nutrition. What foods are staples of your diet? What foods do you avoid eating? Does anyone here prep their meals in advance? How regularly do you exercise? What supplements do you use?

Does anyone here use an exercise program like CrossFit, P90x, or Zumba? Is anyone here on “the paleo diet”? Are you “counting your macros”? This is an inexhaustible subject.

About Hunter Wallace 12392 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

50 Comments

  1. It’s what you make of it. High intensity, balls to the wall work out produce visible results in three months.
    I take very short rest times. Two minutes max and I try to stick with 90 seconds. Thus makes a power lifting routine and makes it a cardio workout as well.
    You don’t need a year at all, unless you wander around the gym and waste time.
    Get in there, bust your ass and leave

  2. Re: Silver

    There’s nothing stopping a diet being high calorie and low fat or low calories and high fat.

    Fatty foods are calorie dense. They are often low in satiety. If you eat the right proportions of low fat foods which are higher in satiety (such as apples and broccoli which are high in fiber and digest slowly), it just makes it easier to maintain your calorie deficit at the end of the day, especially if you are doing intense cardio and weightlifting which requires a lot of energy.

    You’ll gain strength more quickly.

    Good points … right now, I am doing weightlifting mostly to regain some strength, rebuild my habit, elevate my metabolism, and to prevent my calorie deficit from eating away any further at the muscle that I already got.

    It does seem like it would make more sense to switch over to a full body routine given that my immediate goal is still weight loss. Not for much longer though.

  3. It’s what you make of it. High intensity, balls to the wall work out produce visible results in three months.

    There is an Asian guy on YouTube named Mike Chang who says basically the same thing about high intensity workouts:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/sixpackshortcuts/videos

    I follow Mike Chang and JR Barthel:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/barthelfitness?feature=watch

    There are hundreds of videos that cover all kinds of topics on their channels. I’ve been watching a few videos every night.

  6. It works, Hunter. Believe me. Check out that link I left. He has blog too. Nutrition and every aspect of successful power lifting is there. Another good one is bodybuilding.com.
    I throw in different work outs in my weekly split just to throw myself off. Trick is to stress the muscles and shock them.
    The typical start low weight and work up will achieve nothing. The whole point is to force your muscles to adapt to heavy weights. In short, if you leave the gym and you don’t feel like you just went through a killer workout, you just wasted time.
    Anyway, good luck on it. Intensity, intensity.
    You should be in the gym no more than one hour. Short rests, heavy weight. No more than 8 to ten reps per set. And you should be burning out in your last rep or your wasting time.
    If you can do ten reps, increase the weight so the tenth you are barely able to complete the rep.

  8. As I said above, I have been keeping a meticulous food journal for well over a year now, and now I am keeping a workout journal and I have also recently started “counting my macros” (carbs, fats, and protein).

    The typical adult male needs around 56 grams of protein a day. I weigh 155 pounds. I usually eat anywhere from 70 to 120 grams of protein (egg whites, skim milk, chicken breast, turkey, lean ground beef, tilapia, peanut butter, steak, some protein in carb sources) on a daily basis in my diet.

    I’ve seen websites which say that athletes need 0.6 to 0.8 grams of protein for every pound of body weight. The conventional wisdom is that you need 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight. I just assume that I am eating enough protein in light of what I am doing right now which is exercising and maintaining a calorie deficit for weight loss with a low fat/low calorie diet.

    That’s coming to an end soon though. I’m going to be shifting over to mostly weightlifting. I will have to adjust everything from my diet to the my protein intake to the amount of cardio and style of weightlifting that I am doing.

    Here’s a good video on protein:

  12. I used to use the stair stepper machine pre workout to literally, warm up.
    The point of warm up is to keep it light so you don’t tire out. Your first set is where you really go all out. Adjust your workout so your first exercise is your priority. This is where you push it.
    When I do bi’s, I warm up with olympic bar and quarters(25). Set of ten, clean the cob webs out and mentally get into it.

  13. Right from low weight I jump up to 45’s and do as many as I can. I totally blow everything I have on that first set. I then take a 90 second rest and put 35’s up and go for broke.
    Some call these pyramids, working down, or reps to muscle failure.
    I never put weight on that I can rep more than 4 times first set. Increase reps by two and decrease weight to what you can do six. Then eight, then ten. Always go to failure.

  14. When doing a rep, shoot the weight up like you are throwing a punch breathing out. Then slowly return the weight breathing in.

  15. I’m eating better quality food than I was when I was 285 pounds, and of course much less of it, and I’ve lost around 80-100 pounds. Probably the biggest cut was HFC, very rarely do I drink any softdrinks anymore. Likewise I’ve got a pair of 20 pound dumbbells that I exercise with. There is no specific plan other than trying to spread out muscle mass gains and find muscles I’m not exercising however.

  16. Hunter, your first month will be a mess. You will actually decrease the amount you can lift for the first two weeks. Don’t start light, beat the hell out of yourself for these two weeks. Do push ups till failure as soon as you get out if bed and before you sleep.
    If you stay consistent for the first month, not going for a light workout, not even once.
    Second month in you will feel it and see it. You will see your self lifting higher weight and getting big.
    When you hit a plateau at around three months scrap your split and completely change up your exercises.
    Alright, I’m done…

  17. If you eat the right proportions of low fat foods which are higher in satiety (such as apples and broccoli which are high in fiber and digest slowly), it just makes it easier to maintain your calorie deficit at the end of the day, ……

    But they don’t stop hunger from setting in, especially when you are still addicted to sugar of very regular feedings.

  18. First you have to determine what you want. To get pumped up muscles is one thing. To be fit is another. If you’ve noticed Navy Seals are big pumped up monoliths but look at the British SAS and SBS. Most are wiry little fucks, fit. I’m American , ra, ra and all that but I believe the SAS would whip the shit out of the seals.
    NASA studied fitness EXTENSIVELY back in the 60’s for the space program. Complete balls to the walls effort for small amounts of time make you most fit. Like Lions. All out kill something then relax. The Canadians also studied the same thing for aircrews that were stuck in snowed in bases with small spaces and no equipment. Here’s the results.
    WIKI
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5BX
    Here’s a free copy, you can also find on Amazon but pricy.
    http://gregsadetsky.com/_files/5bx-plan.pdf

    Now don’t laugh. This is a super kill exercise book. I know it sounds poofie.

    Miss Craig’s 21-Day Shape-Up Program for Men and Women: A Plan of Natural Movement Exercises for Anyone in Search of a Trim and Healthy Body

    Low cost used on Amazon
    http://www.amazon.com/Craigs-21-Day-Shape-Up-Program-Women/dp/0394409930
    Millions and millions have been sold. Using these exercises/stretches you move all your body parts through their motions. I did these and one day realized I had perfect “book” posture. The stretches and movements MAKE you have good posture. Can’t be helped. If you slouch in a chair you’ll feel uncomfortable til you straighten up. Great book.

    Don’t know about weight lifting but these work with VERY little time. 11min. for 5BX a day and 30 min. for Mrs. Craig. Slower when you start. The 5bx is tough not for sissys. Maybe best to alternate days and just do one a day. Better to have a little quick plan you’ll always do than a big gym, barbell, whirlwind, superdupe that you do once and find takes too much time so you put it off.

    Diet. Don’t eat so much bread. Juice. More meat. No cokes (I’m from Atlanta Southerners will understand)

    and no I don’t follow all these prescriptions right now. I could lose 25 lbs. , unfortunately. There’s always tomorrow.
    My 2 cents worth.

  19. Oops… forgot some stuff. This is such a big topic. Here’s a great site from a science guy who looks at the science of eating and breaks it down so you can understand it.

    http://stan-heretic.blogspot.com/

    Here’s a link to video explaining a HUGE study at Stanford Univ. on what’s the healthiest diet. A cheat. Adkins won. Well worth watching.

    “The Battle of the Diets: Is Anyone Winning (At Losing?)”

  20. Such dedication stuns the mind. I eat about 50% real food – fruit, veg, nuts, lean meat – and 50% garbage – right now I’m enjoying a large bag of FritoLay Limon potato chips and two (2) 12 oz Dr. Pepper “amazingly smooth” cherry colas. YUM!! Exercise is the key: one hour of Canadian AF-style motion exercises before breakfast (paleo bowl of twigs and rocks), c. 1-hour fast bike ride before dinner, and a light 20″ workout before bed. Generally feel, and look, about 1/3 my actual age. Part of this is probably genetics tho: mom lived to be 95, father 99 and still going strong.

  21. Oops.. One more. This may help someone. I used to get VERY depressed. Very. By accident I found flax seed oil would lift it. I now mix a couple tablespoons of fresh, from the health food store refrigerated flax seed oil with three or four tablespoons of cottage cheese and a half cup of milk , to liquify a little. Blend in blender. It works for me. The mixture is called the Budwick diet. Supposed to cure cancer. I don’t have cancer, I think, I hope, but I figure as long as I’m taking the flax seed oil a little cottage cheese can’t hurt.

  23. Your diet looks pretty good to me Hunter. Don’t listen to people who tell you to go ultra low-carb and not eat fruit, etc. All because a cave-man did it. Dangerous and unnecessary. You already know what works. The only thing I might add would be some more healthy-fats. And by that I mean animal-fats, especially grass-fed and pastured animal fats.

  24. I’m on a sorta-kinda paleo diet. Meat, leafy vegetables, dairy products, no more than one large or two small potatoes per day. Default meal when I’m in a hurry is steamed broccoli, and some chicken fried in its own fat or in its own skin (this works really good for cooking it). (Also never any soft drinks or anything of the sort – I put just the tip of a spoon’s worth of sugar in my tea in the morning; the only other sweets I tend to eat are fruits (for example a couple apples in any given day, if that). Doing this for the better part of a decade now. I was getting chubby before I started this; the extra weight melted off immediately and stayed off when I did. I eat as much bacon and eggs as I want in the morning, still have plenty of energy in the evening. That was never the case back in my burgers’n’fries’n’pizza days.

    Basically, be really really wary of the carbs.

  25. The paleo diet allows fruit. Cavemen ate seasonal fruit. Apes live on it. The problem people have with fruit is the sugar content due to centuries of cultivation for sweet varieties. Not sure what others have said, but the reason I abstain from fruit is due to hypoglycemia not paleo-diet rules.

  27. Too bad for you folks, I’m 49 6.1 and 190lbs built like a nfl cornerback (for a white man) and its my metabolism, I have a good one that I have honed with weights and cardio by backpacking miles with a weighted pack.

    Honestly from the pics I have seen of you young guys it was pretty soft looking, “Oh I’m an intellectual a human above physical exertion.” But its good to read that the ancient Greek exhortation of sound body has taken hold, so its not 5000 word essays on minutae from an author fueled by french fries and sugar.

  28. Alabama is full of triathlons and duathlons.

    http://www.trifind.com/

    Nothing to stop you or a handful of pro-Dixie guys from forming a club and being sponsored by likeminded folks on the net and local businesses. 99% white; bicycles and bodies of water rival burning crosses as Negro repellent.

    Your diet seems like hospital food, Hunter Wallace. That could lead to cravings. Keep it interesting.

  29. I think people carry adaptations to the foods their ancestors ate so there’s no one right way – although the Paleo one may be a lot closer to it than the modern diet for lowest common denominator reasons. Before i retired i mostly lived on beef and milk with some fruit for snacks and i was pretty monstrous on that with very little effort. Since i retired i can’t afford beef as often so have to work at it more. That may be true for anyone with a lot of NW Euro ancestry or it may just be a fluke of my metabolism.

    Personally i think the main thing is to avoid the really recent stuff like processed flour and sugar which no-one is adapted to and then experiment to find out how other things effect you but start with ancestral food first whatever that may be.

    For exercise i use “convict conditioning” now, mainly because it appeals to my sense of humor. It seems to work okay.

  30. I do weightlifting five days a week for about 45 to 60 minutes: Monday (biceps/triceps), Tuesday (shoulders/traps), Wednesday (back), Thursday (legs/core), Friday (chest). I just started back weightlifting three weeks ago. Never should have stopped.

    Once you get more into weights, you might want to consider doubling up so you can work each muscle group twice a week. It requires adding a sixth day of weights and each workout takes longer, but the payoffs should make it worthwhile. Here’s what I do:

    Day 1: chest/arms
    Day 2: legs/core
    Day 3: shoulders/back
    Day 4: chest/arms
    Day 5: legs/core
    Day 6: shoulders/back
    Day 7: rest

    I do three sets each. To avoid platueing, days 4-6 are different exercises than days 1-3 and the exercises are changed out every three months, but I keep the same schedule. Total time is about 75 minutes.

  31. The book Eating 4 Your Type is the way to go.

    Also, lift weights after you run. When doing weights do 3 sets of 20’s – high reps with low weight so you don’t injury yourself or bulk-up.

  33. Also, lift weights after you run. When doing weights do 3 sets of 20?s – high reps with low weight so you don’t injury yourself or bulk-up.

    Conversely, if you do want to bulk up, then lift weights before you run and aim for 5-8 reps with heavy weights.

    I should have mentioned in my earlier post that warm-up sets are important. I do two warm-up sets for each muscle group. The first is six reps at 50% weight and the second is four reps at 75% weight.

  34. I lost a lot of weight by restricting my diet to lean meat and veggies. Lettuce leaves wrapped around lean meat, with a bit of mayo and some low calorie dressing were the staple, but I ate whatever i wanted for dinner (seriously, whatever I wanted, though I didn’t go in for fried chicken and heavy cream, or anything).

    Calorie counting did it for me, that and light exercise daily. As soon as you create a calorie budget, you start looking at the labels for everything, and you become conscious of how many calories you’re ingesting. If you do your budget right you’ll lose weight without exercising.

    You do have to get used to being hungry, though, and eating smaller amounts, if you’re mildly gluttonous, like I was. Soon your stomach shrinks and you’re full with smaller portions.

    Personally, I think calorie counting is the way to diet.

  35. Fatty foods are calorie dense. They are often low in satiety. If you eat the right proportions of low fat foods which are higher in satiety (such as apples and broccoli which are high in fiber and digest slowly), it just makes it easier to maintain your calorie deficit at the end of the day, especially if you are doing intense cardio and weightlifting which requires a lot of energy.

    Satiety is a personal matter. I find fatty foods very satiating and so do many people. Performing intense exercise while carb-depleted is very challenging (to the point of apparent impossibility) but after an adjustment period (two weeks-one month, perhaps more) the difference becomes insignificant for general purposes.

  36. As far as bulking goes, there is a guy on YouTube named Kyle Leon who claims that bulking only creates lots of fat cells which makes it harder for you to strip away the fat with each new cycle:

    It doesn’t matter whether you call it “bulking” or not. To gain size you have to consume more calories than you expend. Some people go way overboard with this and end up with tremendous amounts of fat that they’re left to strip away. Nonetheless, gaining size almost always requires gaining some degree of fat as well as muscle. But if you don’t go overboard, it doesn’t require very much to cut the fat again. If you commence “bulking” at 10% body fat and continue over say three months until you reach 14% it’d take no more than two or three months to get back to 10%. (I don’t know anything about it becoming more difficult to cut fat with each cycle. Sounds dubious. Pro bodybuilders, who constantly seek out the most efficient methods, and who are free to utilize whatever method they wish, universally use bulk/cut.)

    Say you start at 160lb and 10% body fat. You train for three months, maintaining a daily caloric surplus, until you reach 175lb, say, at 14% body fat. Your body fat has gone from 16lb to 24.5lb, meaning a lean mass gain of 6.5lb. You cut again for two months, shedding a pound a week or so (more at the start, less towards the end) and you’re back at 10%, with maybe only 1.5lb of the lean mass gained lost, so 165lb, 10%.

    Five pound gain over 5 months? So just over 10lbs in a year? Sounds puny doesn’t it. That’s where genetic realities come into play. The average person just isn’t going to gain huge slabs of muscle. And it gets worse. 10-20lb is what you can expect in your first year, and that represents about 50% of your potential lifetime gain. With each passing year, as you get nearer to your genetic potential, the gains become smaller, reducing by about 50% from the previous year. Eg, 15lb, 7.5lb, 3.75lb etc. (All this is assuming proper training and nutrition, otherwise one could have been training for five years, but in terms of doing this properly still be in his ‘first’ year.)

  37. Sean,

    Thus makes a power lifting routine and makes it a cardio workout as well.

    None of the lifting routines or techniques you have described in this thread have anything to do with power lifting. I mean, pyramiding to failure, you call that power lifting training? Run that by actual power lifters and if you don’t get a “Da fuk?” response I’ll eat my hat.

  38. I gotta kinda agree with Silver. Powerlifters and strongmen will only rarely use set/rep schemes like pyramids.

    Pyramids quickly take a muscle to exhaustion and failure and constantly taking a muscle to exhaustion breaks down the contractile proteins and what gets rebuilt in it’s place is sarcoplasm. Sarcoplasm is what stores the muscles glycogen and having more glycogen increases the muscles endurance but because it doesn’t contract it’s not really going to give you more strength and power which is what strongmen need.

  39. LOL, reading the posts here, my own diet would be considered terrible! I eat just about everything they say not to. But fortunately I have a pretty good bod and have never gained much weight. I’m about 5′ 11″and weigh in at 205. I’m pretty solid muscular and have only a slight “beer belly,” though I quit drinking about a year ago. I’ve always been pretty strong all my life. And I’m pretty fast but it would take some doing to get back to running long distances. Oh well, don’t require much long distance running anyway, lol.

    But frankly, I’d rather be dead than to only eat what is considered “health food” for the rest of my life. God! Such a sentence! Whew!

    But do what you like. I figure I will just enjoy what few pleasures remain in this life. And as a kid in one of my grade school classes once said when someone asked about his smoking, “I’ll live all my life.” LOL.

  40. Sanity in the manner of Eating, Exercising, and supplementation is absolutely necessary, especially in a country that Purposefully makes people obese.

    I’ve been a nutritional consultant, worked in health food stores, and have friends in body work, and the nutriceutical fields.

    Here’s the skinny.

    Americans have some of the worst diets in the world.

    We allow GMO in our corn, soy, and now Wheat.
    We allow animals to be inhumanely raised, sitting/eating in their own excrement ofttimes, and those that don’t die en route, are surfeited with hormones- including Bovine estrogen- dangerous to both men and women.

    We consume far too many calories, and all the wrong kinds.
    We have removed the concept of fasting, due to protestantism’s fear/avoidance of the seasons of fasting proposed by the Church, for the last 2000 years. Christ said, not “If’
    you fast, but “When” you fast. It’s a command, folks.

    Our water is filled with toxic chemicals, including fluouride.

    How to overcome all this?

    First, get a water purification system. Get OFF THE FEDGOV drug of Fluoride. It renders you lazy, complacent, and unwilling to resist a maniacal gov’t. Use it to fill ALL jugs, Jars, etc. It’s not so important to drink 10-8oz. glasses a day, unless you are working a road crew, playing tennis, or picking cotton. But you DO need to be hydrated.

    Secondly, get on a supplementation plan that is as grounded in REAL science as you can. I know a very decent man/wife team who are Shaklee distributors. This company coined the term ‘vitamin’ back in 1915, has numerous (over 50+) patents on their proprietary processes, and allows people to have a secondary income, should they desire to do so. NO OTHER supplement company comes close, imho. I’ve watched my children’s excema disappear, mood swings, irregular heartbeat, and a whole host of other problems, go away, because people started taking Shaklee.

    Thirdly, increase the use of fresh fruits, veggies, salads, nuts, and such.
    Fourthly, decrease the use of flesh meat portion sizes (you don’t REALLY need 12-16 oz. of porterhouse… ever. Also, BUY ORGANIC MEATS- grass-fed, hormone-free beef, lamb, pork.

    As an example, pigs fed chestnuts (yes, “…roasting on an open fire” – those guys) in the last six weeks of their lives, change the hormonal content of their fat from Omega- bad, to Omega-good fats! That’s why that sort of pork over in Europe (where they KNOW good food!) is much more expensive. Not only does it taste better, but it’s better for you!

    That’s just one example of healthy meats.

    Avoid carbonated sodas (aspartame is an exitotoxin- an ADDICTIVE, central nervous system killer), sugar, and alcohol – except (like the French do) having a good wine with a meal, actually helps the body.

    More later.

  41. Avoid carbonated sodas (aspartame is an exitotoxin- an ADDICTIVE, central nervous system killer), sugar, and alcohol . . ..

    Avoid alcohol? Europeans have been drinking alcohol since time immemorial.

  43. I had suffered a gardening related injury years ago. I bruised a disc on my back, when pulling weeds. This annoyance flares up occasionally, and I just had a bout, one of the worst in years, since last Wednesday. I’d been slacking off on moving about, this long cold Winter. I’ve barely been able to move over the past few days – so it’s been a Perfectly Annoying Storm of having to be EXTREMELY careful in simply getting out of a chair, and really cutting back on foodage. We have loads of Farmer Folk round here, and you can get good, simple Peasant Food, that makes you want to devour anything that can’t run away fast enough. The Hubster is super active; he moves like a whippet. He can and does eat everything, and doesn’t gain an ounce. . Alas; I have a metabolism that just loves every bit of food I’ve ever eaten, and never ever ever wants to say good bye, and burn a single calorie off – so I really have to watch it. I’ve had to really cut back, since I’ve been semi-immobilized. Svigor is right. When you cut portions you get used to smaller portions. Even after a few days, little bitty bits are very satisfying.

    The Hubster had a lot of food tonight. I had a bowl of healthy, very home-made fresh veggie soup, heavy on the lovely tomatoes, and a bit (not even a full slice) of “artisan” sourdough bread, and I’m dandy.

  44. Fr John is right. Get as much natural, healthy fresh food as you can. Your local small farmer is your very best friend. You will taste the difference in the food. I will not ever be able to eat commercial eggs again.

  45. Brutus – you sound like a great bg healthy man. You do’t have to eat that tasteless “brownricecardboard” crap. Really good organic fruits and veggies are delicious. Try to get as much ORGANIC food as you can. I know a fellow who makes his own wine, and mead. Last Fall, a farmer pal was able to get us some apple cider, made from locally grown apples, and pressed on an old family-owned wooden press Farmers re not allowed to sell juices made this wayt, as it’s not “homogenized” and chemicalled up. I’ve had some of this cider before, bestowed as a gift. I’ve never been a huge fan of apple anything, until I began getting the real stuff. I told my pal about this cider. I socred him a few jugs. He gave be a list of acceptable chemical additives, and un-acceptable ones. I told him that there were no additives at all – just..ya know..apple cider. I tasted the cider when he came to pick it up, and he said, “This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life!”. Cause it IS. The farmer thatm akes the cider is an old guy, and he makes small batches he bestows on friends. I call this “Crack cider”, cause it’s FABULOUS. Addictive. You can’t beleive how good this cider is, made with fresh, organic apples, on an old wooden press, with no chemicals. It’s so fresh and clean and sparkling! It’s the taste of Autum! It’s Bliss.

    It’s just simple things like that. I score fresh organic farmer peaches, last year, for my brother-in-law. He raved about the taste. Simple, not terribly pretty peaches. A lot of organic fruit is not fahion layout pretty. Fruit can be small, and uneven – and it’s Heaven in your mouth. This fellow is a world traveller, he’s a real foody, and he’s tasted the best cuisine on the planet – and I could ot get him to shut up about the peaches.

    It’s the same for organic meats. Or if you find some old Farmer gal, who makes baked goods from scratch (I am great with meats, but I am a terrible baker) – well – healthy food is anything but tasteless. I don’t knw where you live – but look around for local farmers. Find them. Patronize them. Love them.

  47. Slightly hard cider, and homemade root beer are alright, though. We make the root beer in the summer, outdoors in the sun, with yeast.

  48. Stuka – I love food. Healthy food, as well as junk. My favorite junk food right now is Special K Sour Cream and Onion chips. OMG Fabulous! They are not greasy. Most “chip” stuff is too greasy. These are NOT. Yay!

    I like “crunchy salty” stuff at times. I think it’s a throwback craving to the days of crunching yummy, bloody bones, this the Tribe, around a fire. My true Dark God, though, is the fruit of the cocoa bean. When I eat chocolate, I eat GOOD chocolate. Not commercial crap. And I don’t mean that stale flakey “heath food” store Fair Trade crap. I mean Perugina, Linders, and local producers.

  49. Got a start of “Mara des Bois” strawberries last year — taste and aroma like Fragaria vesca alpina (a European wild strawberry species) but larger — but still smaller than commercial strawberries.

  50. Won’t be long now until the dandelion greens are ready. Big bowls of wild dandelion greens, eaten plain or with homemade Pennsylvania German bacon dressing and hardboiled eggs.

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