Real Food Kitchen Tour: Radically Natural Living

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Gabi, author of the Radically Natural Living blog.

What’s a Real Foodie?

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Gabi, Radically Natural Living

This week I’m featuring Gabi, author of the Radically Natural Living blog. Gabi and her family live in Sandpoint, Idaho.

I think you’re all going to love seeing Gabi’s homestead with its amazing garden, goats and chickens. Not to mention her cute little helper!

“My sous chef… nearly two years old and loves to “Stir, mama, stir!” Yes, she does know Hot and Burn.”

Blog Name: Radically Natural Living
Blog Author: Gabi (herbalistmama)
How Long Blogging: Since April 2011; have been writing/consulting independently as nutritional therapist/herbalist for 10-ish years.
Location: Currently Sandpoint, Idaho, by way of southern CA (mentally packing for northern CA, one of our former locations). We left manicured but uber-crowded condo-ville for the more disheveled “northern woods” so we could begin to grow/raise our own Real Food and give our children freedom to roam nature. The grand experiment is providing great life lessons; we hope to move back to year-long greener pastures in the near future.
House or Apartment: Rental “house”…more like a hunting cabin in the woods!
Size of Kitchen: Not a kitchen as much as a corner in the “main room;” kitchen is roughly 7 ft. by 10 ft.
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: My Messermeister knives (that hubby keeps razor-sharp with Japanese wet stones), my pottery, having a dishwasher that actually works, that the range is gas.
Things You Would Change: Ah, I shouldn’t go there…I’ll be positive and say that this situation has helped me learn to work creatively within frustrating boundaries. (And if anyone wonders from a photo, yes, it is a microwave, and NO, I never use it…not even plugged in.)
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: Sharp German and Japanese knives, Blendtec blender, Omega VRT juicer, large crock pot, mason jars!
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: 1) Space…trying to fit large soup pot(s) and family-sized saute pans on small stove/in small sink can be comical; counter space is limited, so I often use floor or kitchen table for working. 2) Keeping my crew fed…satisfied…it’s constant food prep, LOL! 3) Daily baking (squash, “bread,” etc) and soup making in summer heat with no ventilation, opening window or A/C.
Current Family Favorite Meal: (We’re segueing out of GAPS Intro) “Broth and egg” Omelettes; broiled salmon (topped with Himalayan salt, ground pepper, garden dill and garlic); and caramelized onions and ghee-sauteed garden veggies (seasoned with more real salt and pepper, garlic, fresh garden basil and thyme)
Favorite Cookbooks: Oh, that’s a trick question! OK, it’s a bit of an obsession, LOL…I have 120+ cookbooks. I used to read them for fun when I was in my “gourmet chef-in-training” phase. I love cookbooks and recipes as inspirations. Unless I’m baking, I rarely follow a recipe exactly. I love kitchen creativity and flavor blending! Hmmm…but, like the rest of the Real Food crowd, Nourishing Traditions is a reference standby…especially for ferments; I like Bittman’s How to Cook Everything for quick info; I love Hoffman’s The Olive and the Caper for old-world Greek food and culture; adore Alford and Duguid’s Hot,Sour,Salty,Sweet for authentic, traditional Asian cuisine (and the photos are wonderful); Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Kamman’s The New Making of a Cook for technique; well, I won’t blather on about the rest…..

Here are some photos of Gabi’s kitchen:

“The essentials that make my kitchen go: pots and pans, knives, and pretty pottery.”

I love your pot rack and how organized your knives are.

“Fresh raw goat’s milk (from our doe) waiting to become kefir; whey-fermented sauerkraut and pickled beets.”

“Pantry shelves downstairs house necessities… olive oils, coconut oil/milk/flakes/flour, ACV, my EveryWiseWoman herbal tinctures, etc.”

What an awesome pantry!

“First fruits from our organic, pastured, happy, free-range flock.”

“Squash, cukes, peas, lettuces, spinach, beets, carrots, radishes, kale, chard…with landlord permission, we battled the shrubby jungle to put in a garden.”

Wow! I love your garden design!

“Marrow bones for stock, stock, stock.”

“What would I do without my crock pot? On the stove and on the side… soup’s on all the time.”

Haha! I can relate!

“The dairy herd… time to move the group to fresh browse!”

“Happy kids get to live naturally with mama…”

“I could write an ode to the egg yolk… how I love thee… how I love your succulent, choline-rich, bright amber pouch of cholesterol goodness.”

“Tomatoes and peppers…s tarted in a cold frame to get a jump on our northern short-season climate.”

“Waiting to grow up… hang in there, guys, you can make it before the frost comes!”

“My daily workhorses… Omega VRT keeps us happily in carrot/pineapple juice; Blendtec masters our GAPS squash soup.”

“My solution to a kitchen that lacks adequate cabinet space.”

I have shelves like these back in LA and I love them! I plan to move them to our new house in Las Vegas.

“Medicinal herb and cruciferous garden.”

Absolutely gorgeous!

Please email me at annmarie AT realfoodmedia dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.

Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).

As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.

Some ideas for photos:

• Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
• Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
• Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
• How about a lovely herb garden?
• Kids or pets are always cute!
• Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen

And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.