Defining Unprocessed

October 1st--the start of the unprocessed challenge.  The unprocessed experiment has already sparked a wave of interest and controversy.  How do we define processed food?  A favorite of mine is "any food that you can buy in a liquor store or 7-11."  Hmm...the exception to this rule occurred once on St.Patrick's day in Ireland, when I concocted a fantastic meal of real cheese, freshly baked bread, Nutella, local rutabega and apples all from a gas station, the only open source of food in a tiny coastal Irish town where all the rest of the residents were celebrating happily in the single pub. 

Traditional methods of food processing like soaking, sun-drying, and fermenting, generally increase the digestibility and nutritional value of food, while modern ones, such as making high fructose corn syrup from sugar cane and making packaged foods largely out of derivatives of wheat, corn and soy, usually dramatically decrease food's nutritional value.  As one commenter put it "I want to avoid factory-processed food." 

Difficulty may arise in evaluating artisinal foods, and foods made industrially, but on a small scale.  I would say that a Clif bar is processed food, while an 18 Rabbits bar (locally made with a short list of real food ingredients) is not.  Yes, it would be better to make your own fruit and nut bars, or just go with trail mix (the kind that only contains real food, not yogurt-covered peanuts and the like), but finding a local, small scale packaged food might be a great way to meet your goals of best nutrition, sustainability, and the pressures of your busy lifestyle.  Andrew Wilder, originator of the Unprocessed October idea, has a great, detailed post on his blog that defines unprocessed here. 

In a great example of gastronicity, October has also been declared non GMO month. Choosing unprocessed foods goes a long way toward avoiding GMO's as almost all factory-processed food in the US which is not labeled "organic" contains GMO's, usually in the form of soy, corn or canola.  Funny, I remember a previous October which was declared an Eat Local challenge.  October is an easy month to focus on eating fresh, local and organic food as it is the peak of harvest time in most areas.  An upcoming post will cover the health effects of GMO foods--scary! 

Last night's dinner was  unprocessed, or rather processed only in the old-school sense. It started with my first harvest of tomatoes and tomatillos of the year (finally!), and a pork shoulder roast from local Clark Summit Farm.  After dissatisfaction with my last batch of crock pot carnitas, I stumbled upon a method that retains the flavor of the taqueria-style, lard cooked version while letting me save my precious home-rendered lard for another use.  You allow the pork to cook in its own fat rather than substituting stock or beer as is commonly done.  I found the luscious recipe here on Serious Eats and was delighted that it includes using the leftover cooking juices as a base for salsa.  The bone in the middle of the roast went straight into the crock pot with some pork neck bones and vinegar to be made into bone broth for soup on another day.   I roasted my tomatoes, onions, garlic and tomatillos in the oven alongside the pork and also put in some apples to bake, so I felt like I was making good and thrifty use of the oven heat.  We served the tacos with a recent batch of homemade curtido (Salvadoran style fermented cabbage slaw) and locally made Primavera corn tortillas (traditionally processed with lime which liberates nutrients) and a side of Romano beans.  Local, organic, non-GMO, traditionally processed and satisfying!

UPCOMING CLASS: Learn the art of fermentation, a traditional, health-enhancing way to process foods, with me at Biofuel Oasis on October 17th.  We'll cover kraut, kombucha and beyond, including brewing your own bubbles!  Visit the Biofuel Oasis site to sign up.