18 Reasons to Do It Yourself

Why making it at home from scratch is worth the time and trouble.

1. Do it better. Homemade everything almost always tastes better (once you get the knack).
2. Do it to your taste. Please your own palate.
3. Do it healthier. Make it whole grain, use sea salt instead of refined salt, soak grains and beans before cooking, sprout grains and beans before cooking, improve the fatty acid profile, use sourdough instead of commercial yeast, upgrade to cultured or raw or organic dairy, or any of those other ways to make your own food more nutritious.
4. Do it without preservatives, additives, artificial flavor, color, and all those other ingredients no one can pronounce.
5. Do it like your grandmother (or great-grandmother, or great-great-grandmother) did.
6. Do it traditionally. Keep ancient human knowledge, such as fermentation and preserving, alive.
7. Do it organic. Protect the environment and avoid ingesting pesticide residues.
8. Do it low carbon. DIY shrinks your food miles.
9. Do it local. Or locally, as the English major in me wants to write. Support farmers and producers in your community, or become one.
10. Do it together. Connect with family and friends over food preparation tasks. There’s nothing like shelling beans or jam making to bring people together.
11. Do it like a farmer. Culinary arts such as fermentation require the care and feeding of thousands of microorganisms.
12. Do it the right way. The food industry takes shortcuts that generally decrease production time, increase shelf life, and dramatically decrease nutritional value. You won’t.
13. Do it slow. What’s the rush?
14. Do it with what you’ve got. Creativity shines when you do without.
15. Do it by hand. That said, the right appliance is sometimes what makes it possible to DIY.
16. Do it for your loved ones. Doing it yourself really says “I care.”
17. Do it against the machine. It’s no surprise that punk has embraced DIY so thoroughly. There’s no better antidote to alienation than doing it yourself.
18. Do it now! What can you make yourself, today?
BONUS: Do it in season, of course!

Ghee, I made it myself.
Yesterday I made ghee for the first time. I knew it was easy, but had never gotten around to it. I simply melted a pound of unsalted organic grassfed butter (from the Straus family in this case) slowly, turned the heat to medium when it was molten, and brought it to a boil. Then I turned the heat down again and let it boil, stirring at times, until after about 10 minutes it turned a light gold, smelled wonderful and seemed to clarify. I skimmed some milk solids from the top (saving them to slip into pancake batter) and poured the golden liquid into a clean glass jar, noting the light brown crust of milk solids on the bottom of the pan, to be scraped out and enjoyed by the cook. There are so many tiny culinary pleasures that no one but the cook knows about, usually involving carmelized something-or-other at the bottom of a pan. I might have cooked it a little too long (as usual I wasn’t hovering by the stove), so my ghee has a deep golden color and a taste almost of brown butter, which is fabulous. I’ve put it on porridge and green beans so far, both to great effect. It keeps forever. I am empowered. For an overblown but inspiring account of ghee’s health benefits, and the recipe I followed, try this link http://www.womens-natural-health.com/gheerecipe.html.

SPEAKING of doing it yourself, I'll be teaching a class on Monday, Sept. 20th at 18 Reasons, the educational arm of the wonderful Bi Rite grocery in San Francisco's Mission District, on brewing your own bubbles. You will learn to brew sustainable sodas and ales from seasonal and local ingredients. Vanessa Barrington (http://vanessabarrington.com/) and I will demonstrate and discuss many ways to get your bubbles on: yeast and lacto-fermenation, whey, ginger "bug" and other starters. You'll put together a batch of soda to ferment at home, and sample a variety of homemade bubblies. Bring: a mason jar with lid. For more info, visit http://18reasons.org/calendar.phpTo reserve your spot, purchase tickets here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/124651.