We really look to nature.

We really look to using our food as medicine, to really help our bodies be healthy.

Trying to get people connected back to the food, back to the land.

Plant food that you desire, things that you like.

I'm Maggie Keith and I'm the farmer.

And I'm Lindsey McClave and I'm the foodie.

And this is...

The Farmer and the Foodie.

Funding for this program is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

█ █ █ █ In this episode we decided to explore the concept of food as medicine.

And I wanted to look into this because I've seen how eating fresh, local food, raised with love and care, has really given my body vitality and energy.

Symbiotic relationship.

Yeah.

Sarah Teeple is an integrative health practitioner and she gives really practical advice to people on how to heal our bodies with food.

Meeting Sarah was such a wonderful experience.

I think for me the biggest takeaway is it's not, don't eat this, this food is bad.

It's all about your individual body and what is good for your system and how food speaks to you and makes you feel good.

█ █ █ █ So, I'm a women's integrative health practitioner, and by integrative, I mean that I blend Eastern and Western medicine.

So I blend functional medicine, which is a Western system of medicine where we're really looking to the root causes of conditions and symptoms.

So, not just kind of slapping a Band-Aid on a symptom, a pill for an ill, but we're looking at the root causes, so what's going on in your body that's driving your symptoms.

And then the Eastern medicine portion of what I do with my clients is an Indian system of medicine called Ayurveda.

And in Ayurveda, we really look to nature.

We really look to using our food as medicine.

We can use simple teas and herbs that all grow naturally to really help our bodies be healthy.

So with this, how have you found your connection with the outdoors and the farmland or your backyard...

Yes.

..integrating into these practices?

Humans are creatures of nature, right?

You know, that's where we come from.

And when we're in more natural environments around grass and dirt and sky and wind and water, that's when our bodies can really come into alignment and balance and find harmony and when we are our healthiest.

So the importance of being outside is just crucial.

Yeah, I've been looking into the nutrient density of our beef at Foxhollow Farm and I have realized there's such a correlation between the soil health and the gut health.

Absolutely.

And the nutrient density of the soil, the different biodiversity in your gut.

And how have you found that?

Are people open to having those sort of discussions?

Yes, now more than ever.

So I think even in the past five or ten years, the discussion about the gut microbiome has come into popular culture a little bit more.

And this is a really good thing.

And like you said, we don't only have microbes and bacteria in soil, but we've got bacteria and microbes in our bodies.

And that's just another great example of the connection between humans and nature.

Yes.

Now, when we talk about food as medicine, I'm always like, what are we actually trying when we're eating these herbs or having the teas?

Like, what are we trying to feel?

Is it more energy?

Is it longevity?

Like, what are the goals?

Yes, that is such a good question, and that really ties back to dosha in constitution, because it's a little different for everyone in what they're trying to accomplish with their health.

So that's why health and wellness doesn't necessarily need to be one size fits all.

It's like, depending on maybe your age, or for women, if you're pregnant, you're going to be working on different things than maybe if you're an overweight male with high cholesterol, that person and a pregnant woman are going to have really different goals.

And so that's why it's really cool to understand how different herbs have different properties.

Certain herbs can help us with respiratory issues, you know, if we have a cough or sinus congestion.

Other herbs are really nourishing and grounding, and those might be really good for pregnant women or people who are kind of depleted and undernourished.

So we can accomplish different things with different herbs and teas.

But then also, many herbs are just really great for lots of things and very safe to take, especially in small dosages that would be the amount that you would consume in a tea.

Yes, and how do you incorporate this in your cooking, your eating?

We eat a lot of natural foods in my family.

I have two young kids.

I know we all have young kiddos.

And so we do our best to help them eat really healthily.

And we try to see every meal as an opportunity, not necessarily to be perfect, but to incorporate natural foods.

So, vegetables, some whole grains, some kind of protein, whether it's beans or organic or pasture-raised animal protein.

Food is something that we put in our body, usually at least three times a day.

So we can really use it as an opportunity to fuel our body with wonderful things that are going to energize us and support our organ systems and our life, instead of depleting us like lots of processed foods might.

Yes.

What are some of the initial foods or teas, herbs that you started to introduce into your diet when you began to learn about Ayurveda?

Well, one thing that I did immediately, especially once I learned about my digestive style and just how human digestion works, is we started doing a lot more warm cooked foods.

Now, raw foods and fresh foods can be really wonderful, especially if it's the summertime and lots of raw foods are growing out of the ground.

But cooked warm foods tend to be a little bit easier on the gut microbiome and on your digestion.

So we started doing soups, stews, cooked meats and vegetables, whole grains like rice and quinoa, and just incorporating lots of wonderful digestive teas, simple teas like ginger tea or peppermint tea.

They not only taste great, but they're really excellent for your digestion.

You mentioned temperatures, is there something for time of year, too?

Yes.

Like I think about soups, I think winter.

So does that, the seasons, play into this?

Absolutely.

Because Ayurveda is so tied into living in alignment with nature, seasonality plays a really big role.

So, just like you said, Lindsey, in the winter and fall, we're going to be eating some more soups and stews, and we often naturally crave those things during that time of year.

So this is a healthy craving.

Sometimes we crave unhealthy things like [laughs] potato chips or whatever.

But craving soups and stews, more warming foods and teas in the fall and winter, and then some more light, fresh foods in the spring and summer.

Again, when those foods are growing out of the ground, when they're readily available to us, that actually also is when our body is better equipped to digest those things.

In Ayurveda, we're supposed to eat our biggest meal of the day around lunchtime.

And that's when the sun is highest in the sky.

There's just kind of the most energy, solar energy, energy of the day.

It's the most active time of day for most people.

Yet this is when so many of us, especially us busy moms or working people are kind of just snacking through lunch.

They're not having a sit-down lunch.

They're skipping that meal.

But this is the time of day where we really need to sit down and nourish our body with, at least a satisfying meal of healthy food.

Digestion and metabolism are two sides of the same coin.

So, if we want nice, healthy metabolism and great energy, we have to really eat with our digestive health in mind.

When I was first starting out and hadn't yet incorporated the concept of food as medicine into my life, I thought it was really intimidating.

Like, food as medicine meant that every single thing I ate had to be expensive, perfect, some kind of designer food, and that I couldn't eat, like, fun, delicious, normal things anymore.

I thought it really meant, like, perfection and something that felt very unattainable.

But as I learned more about incorporating food as medicine, I realized that by just incorporating more natural foods, more simple foods, more kind of the basics, healthy fats, vegetables, ethically raised meats, whole grains, that using food as medicine could be a really easy, every day very approachable thing that can be sustainable and simple and that you can even do if you have a busy family.

So, as I moved through my journey with it, I learned that it wasn't as complicated as I was at first making it.

It's very, very doable.

█ █ █ █ We decided to invit Von Barnes with Kentuckiana Backyard Farms.

When I met him, I saw that he had a niche of knowing how to make it approachable for city folks to grow these nutrient-rich foods.

If you were gardening with this bucket, █ █ █ █ If you were gardening with this bucket, one of the things, just like if you're gardening outside in a raised bed or if you're growing in the ground, soil, drainage, watering, those are all things you got to think about.

We're going to start with this bucket.

First thing I would look at is, how can we get holes in there so we can get proper drainage?

You don't want to have root rot.

You don't want things like that to happen to your plants.

Once you drill a couple holes, fill it up with dirt, start with things that you know that you want to eat.

An easy win for me in my salads was radishes.

Radishes take anywhere between 25 to 40 days.

So, within a month, you can go from seed to something edible.

Pretty quick gratification there.

Yes.

I think it's important for the start.

[laughs] You got to get some early wins.

You don't want to start off like, ah, yeah, I'm going to get a pumpkin.

Yeah.

[laughs] Now, so we need to put some holes in this bucket.

How do you go about doing that?

I got our trusty drill right here.

All right, all right.

Be generous with the amount of holes.

Okay.

[driller whirring] So, a couple holes around.

[driller whirring] You want to get a couple holes in here, maybe somewhere between 10 and 12.

Okay.

It could probably drain.

Lindsey, you want to drill?

Oh!

[laughs] I feel like anyone like that.

Exactly.

[laughs] Look at that instinct.

I know, I know.

I feel so powerful.

But that's exactly it.

When you look at the bucket from the bottom, it's like, all right, does this look like it'll drain properly?

It's not going to send all my soil down, but it's also not going to keep on watering down.

So, now that you have a container that's going to drain, then let's go with soil.

Okay.

And we'll bring our soil up to about the rim right here.

Okay.

Sweet.

All right.

We get to this part.

You're up here at the top.

Now it's just picking out what you want to plant in there.

We can go from cuttings if you want to use a basil.

So you get two ways you can do it.

If you can go straight from seed.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, there's the seeds.

All your dry pods right here.

Okay.

Do you like pulling them off like that?

Yeah, that's super satisfying.

Hey, you do slower.

I know, I think I want to try.

[laughs] Yes, and then just pull it all into your hand just like that.

Yes.

That is very satisfying.

Look at it -- isn't it?

So we just identify where the seeds are.

They're in these pods.

And then, now what I would do is like plant them.

Knowing that basil's going to get yay big, you don't want to have too many, but sprinkle them in there.

You're just putting all, like I don't need to pluck each and every seed.

Okay, okay.

Sprinkle them in there.

Because you can thin out whatever.

Yeah, essentially that's what's going to end up happening.

You'll get to a point to where, all right, you'll see a couple of them come up.

Like now that they're in there... Yeah, okay.

..just dust a little of this over.

That's as much as you need.

I mean they'll just work their way down on their own.

You don't have to -- Yeah, I don't try to poke holes in them.

Like basil, those seeds are so small.

Once they start to grow, I'll thin, maybe keep two in here.

So, they're like, they would grow this way.

As they come up, they would grow this way.

I like to spread radishes based on my fingers.

So, like this is where I would do something like that to know like alright.

One-two, one-two, one-two.

So you put like two inches, okay.

Yeah, and that's exactly it.

I like how you did that, that was a good just -- Knowing that the radishes are going to grow bigger, I space my fingers out like that.

It's like a natural spacing.

I like that.

Finger length apart.

And obviously you can thin them later.

And you're planting radishes in the bucket.

You get an easy win.

Like for people that are first time gardeners or container gardening, you want to feel like you're doing something and it's happening for you.

So you can be excited about wanting to do more.

It's the gateway to getting into like a bigger garden.

You figure you have to stay with.

Yeah.

Okay, well I'm going to take this home.

[laughs] No, you got radishes to start with.

Radishes, basil.

This is great.

█ █ █ █ So Lindsey, we're going to kick this off with a tea.

I love to make teas all year long.

This is going to be a sweet serenity tea.

We're going to take the calming, cooling effects of the holy basil and the lemon balm.

We're going to add some coriander seeds for our digestion.

And then, we have this amazing ginger we're going to use.

But we're going to actually put some of these leaves in.

I'm really excited about this because I really enjoy tea, but I've really shied away from making fresh tea like this in the garden and it's been so enjoyable to walk around with both Sarah and Von and talk about the different herbs in the garden.

How they see them and approach them.

The wonderful qualities each one has.

Especially the lemon balm.

That was one just to touch right away.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

This lemon balm, it definitely smells so fresh.

I love it.

So what we're gonna do just, if you want to help me out, pluck some leaves.

And one thing when making tea, try never to get the flower.

Tell me again about the holy basil.

It's an adaptogen.

So it's really, if we're really like hot and a little upset or something, it might calm us down, cool us down.

But if we're feeling kind of chill and we need a little boost, it might boost us up.

So, that's what I love about holy basil is that it does adapt to what your needs are.

We're just going to take our boiling water.

And you see it kind of breaks down.

And you really do want to pour it on top.

Those herbs are starting to really boil.

And how long would you let this steep?

This can be anywhere from 5 minutes to 24 hours.

Wonderful.

I've so enjoyed learning from both Sarah and Von their perspectives and approaches to food as medicine.

I mean, for me, when I started to think of food as medicine, my body feels the best when I'm eating seasonally.

Local, seasonal.

I mean, I feel like you've made it your lifestyle on the farm.

Well, how has that changed your life?

Yeah, I would say I started off with I need to heal the soil.

And I was really interested in making sure that our soil was full of diversity, but then it made me look at myself and my gut and my body and how can I make sure that I have that biodiversity in my body as well.

And that is eating different foods, eating seasonally, incorporating herbs and spices into my meals.

Liver is sort of playing a theme throughout our meal today.

And that's because, Sarah mentioned it and it's true, it is one of the most nutritious ingredients in the world.

It doesn't get much more nutritious than liver.

And so we're going to have it as dust in powder form.

[laughs] And we're also going to have it in this really great soup that we're going to make and meatballs.

We're using this ground beef, but also has organ meats in there, including liver and heart.

So you don't taste it so much, but it is a wonderful way, an approachable way to add liver.

We're going to have it in some meatballs in a soup and then we're also going to really own the liver and have some beef liver pate, which is -- This will be my first beef liver pate experience, so I'm excited to try that.

I really enjoy it and I hope you do, too.

So, while we start getting everything ready, first we're going to start with the stock for our soup.

I would love to sip on this tea, but as we go I think it will just energize us and yet also calm us and cool us down.

And you're going to add what makes it the sweet serenity, a little honey.

Yeah, I'm going to add a little honey and then we're going to add a little bit of this liver dust.

And so, that's going to add a lot of iron, vitamin B, vitamin A and just sprinkle a little on top and so we're getting that boost of energy from the iron as well.

Cheers!

[laughs] Well, that's really, really good.

Yeah, the lemon is so refreshing.

It's very refreshing.

I've almost got like a mint vibe going on, like that refreshed cooling.

Maybe that's a little bit of the ginger, too.

I felt the same way.

Yeah, light sweetness from the honey and to be honest, I don't really think like, oh my gosh, there's liver in this tea, which is wonderful.

You would never know.

That's exactly right.

[laughter] Wonderful.

Well, I'm going to keep sipping, but I think while we're doing that, let's start making our soup.

When I'm thinking literally food is medicine, like I have a cold, like I want some warm chicken broth or vegetable broth and so that's what we're making here and that's where you can really infuse like tons of nutrients and we're going to make a soup.

So to start the base of our stock, we want to infuse as much flavor as possible, so I like to really roast some of my vegetables at the start and I've thrown a couple different types of mushrooms in here.

Mushrooms have tons of umami flavor, not to mention nutritional value.

So this is lion's mane.

We've got some shiitakes in here for different flavor, onions, carrots, great storage, vegetables and we're just going to do a little bit of olive oil on there.

Some black pepper.

And when you roast these, it's going to have that wonderful like lightly charring effect that we're going to scrape directly into our stock, so we'll just further add some depth of flavor to the stock.

So, we'll pop this in the oven like 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

We just want them to get nice and brown.

We don't want them to be like super charred, but just enough to go into our stockpot.

Wonderful.

All right.

█ █ █ █ Okay, so these are all the vegetables that we gathered earlier from the garden, so they're going to go in our soup, but also in our stock.

So, the stock's so easy.

We're just going to take the ends and the extras, throw them in the pot.

They're going to be cooked down with our roasted vegetables, with some water, and just they become rich and fantastic.

So, yeah, we want to go ahead and for our peppers, we'll just take the tops off.

Literally, they go in there.

And then we'll just do a little dice for the soup, and we'll continue on with our celery, our beans, we've got some carrots, a whole head of garlic.

Just a chopping party now.

I like to add some parsley, some, we've got a little thyme here.

We can go ahead, again, you just throw it in.

[laughs] Just the whole thing?

I think so.

Okay.

Yep.

In it goes.

Maybe we'll give it one, just to make it fit better.

There we go.

And then, we will add a few seeds, too.

Whole peppercorns are great.

I think we should continue the coriander thyme.

Yes, yes.

Some of those coriander seeds.

We'll put those in.

We'll do a really healthy spritz of salt.

And once our roasted vegetables are done, in they go.

And simmer away.

This goes.

█ █ █ █ Okay.

So, we have one pound of your ancestral grind grass-fed beef here.

And this is going to be the meatballs for our soup.

So, I'm just going to keep it really simple.

We're going to enhance the flavor here, but there's so much great nutrients and flavor.

So it's not just enhancing the flavor, it's adding a few other nutritious elements, like some garlic, some onion, lemon zest.

And I'm actually just going to grate everything right into the meat.

That's what I like it.

Yes.

This is a simple meatball.

We're not going to add any breadcrumbs or egg or anything.

It will hold up.

We're going to make them really tiny.

And we just want it to be about the nutritious elements and qualities that it inherently has.

And do you find anything different in the flavor?

I mean, I know I've had it a few times, and to me, it just is beefier, for lack of a better word, which means more flavor.

Yeah, it's richer in flavor.

I find the texture is similar when it's cooked, but when it's raw like this, and I'm making a meatball or something, I can definitely feel that there's something a little different.

It's not just the muscle and the fat.

It also has those organs in it.

Wonderful.

All right.

Well, we have added a few lovely flavors.

We're going to do just a little bit of salt, some black pepper, and I think it needs just like maybe a little bit of warmth and heat.

So, maybe some red pepper flakes.

Yeah.

Do you want to add some of those for me?

I love that.

This is fresh this season.

You can see how red they are.

Oh my gosh, that is so red.

That's fantastic.

I know.

And I will imagine that also indicates spice level is... Yeah, on point.

Okay.

So, we don't want to overmix the beef because it's very tender to that, right?

Like you don't want to overprocess it.

So, I'm just going to use my hand to just kind of bring these ingredients into the meat, and then we're going to make our meatballs.

So, certainly you can make these any size you prefer, but going into a soup, I really like them to be a little bit smaller.

We have these little ice cream scoops that are so cute and so handy, and I think a really great way to just kind of keep everything consistent, then it cooks consistently too.

And you can certainly roast these to use anyway.

I like to start them and cook them in the same pot we're going to make the soup in.

That way it gets nice and blackened or browned on the bottom of the pan.

So, when we add our stock, it just deglazes the pan and that flavor and the nutrients goes right back in.

We're cooking our meatballs in beef tallow.

So, we've added about two tablespoons of that fat, and then we're searing the meatballs for two minutes on each side until they start to get nice and brown and caramelized.

Then we take those out of the pan and right away add in all of those great veggies that we chopped up.

Let those saute and soften for 5 to 10 minutes.

Then you're going to add your garlic and your ginger, let that get nice and fragrant, and then in goes this amazing vegetable broth that we've made.

Pour that straight in, add your meatballs back along with any accumulated juices, and they're just going to warm and everything's going to get happy and cozy together in the pot.

█ █ █ █ While our soup is simmering on the stove, we are going to make some beef liver pates.

I feel like we've progressed in our liver consumption.

We started with powder, we have it incorporated into the ancestral grind in our meatballs, and now we're just going straight to the source, the beef liver.

I like to soak my beef liver in milk for like 30 minutes to an hour.

It just helps remove any bitterness and just tenderizes it a little bit.

So, this is just whole milk, and to me, it's an opportunity for flavor, too.

So, within the milk, I threw in some peppercorns, a couple of chunks of onion that I had on hand, and some smashed garlic, some thyme.

It's just like, why not continue the flavor?

And those are flavors we're going to continue into our pate.

Pate, I think it's nice to include as an appetizer or on a charcuterie or cheese board as an accompaniment.

We'll just kind of keep it patted dry.

And one little tip that I've picked up a lot when it comes to cooking liver is you want to add salt at the end.

You don't want to add it during the cooking... Wow, I didn't know that.

..which is sort of counter.

Yeah, so we're going to go ahead and start by we've got a cast iron over here.

We'll add a little bit of beef tallow for our cooking fat, and we'll start by just getting our onions and our garlic nice and seared.

Then into the pot the beef liver will go.

This is nice because they're all about the same thickness.

So, I would cook this, you want it right at medium.

You don't want to overcook it.

Definitely will like enhance the flavors that maybe people aren't as crazy about in beef liver.

But certainly you want to not undercook it either.

So, about two minutes aside is a sweet spot there.

Oh, this is perfect.

You can tell it's just like so tender as I cut into this.

Yes, it definitely is.

And you can eat it right now.

You can eat it just like this.

But we're going for pate, schmear, fancy.

Mm-mm.

Fancy yet so simple.

Yes.

Very, very simple.

I love anything that you just throw into a blender, like any soup or, and that does give you that like warm comforting belly feeling.

Definitely.

█ █ █ █ All right, so juice from half a lemon.

Great.

█ █ █ █ A nice healthy pinch of salt.

And as always when you're blending hot ingredients, you want to make sure there's a little air hole left open and a towel.

So I'm going to leave just a little pocket for some steam to escape.

Off we go.

Yeah.

[grinder whirring] And I think on our toasted sourdough, this is going to be absolutely wonderful.

I think with that our soup is just about ready.

The only thing I wanted to add to the soup is just some sort of green.

So this is some beet greens that you had and thought we'd just chop these up real quick, throw them into the warm soup.

They'll wilt down quickly and maybe a little bit of fresh herbs and we're ready to eat.

Perfect.

█ █ █ █ Let's dig in.

Yes.

Mm.

This is the most comforting yet light summery soup.

And letting it sit for a little while and get to like more room temperature than boiling hot is perfect.

Absolutely.

I'm loving the pate as well.

It's really lovely, especially on the sourdough.

And I like it as a standalone, but you can see how nice it would be like on a charcuterie board with some marmalade, some jam, just other things that you might find.

Wow.

Cheers to a beautiful night and to using food to nourish our bodies.

Yes, I can feel it deep within the soul.

[laughter] Mm.

█ █ █ █ Funding for this program is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

█ █ █ █