Page 14 - Spring2015

Letters

INTOXICATING SMELL wake up to that most intoxicating smell. LARD FOR WEIGHT LOSS
I am a sixty-nine-year-old master Mike Ward Here is a true story an Amish
carpenter who was conceived and raised Longmont, Colorado friend told me today about lard. He has
on raw milk and nutrient-dense food, as a non-Amish friend who weighed about
were all of the farmers before me. HEALTHY ANCESTOR GALLERY four hundred pounds whose doctor was
When I was five or six, a supermarket How about an ancestor gallery always on him to eat healthier foods.
came to the area, and things seemed to so this generation knows what people Problem is this guy was into fishing and
change overnight. People who refused used to look like? This is a photo of hunting, and he deep-fried all the food
to switch to the industrial food were my parents, Catherine and Del Wilson, he ate—meat, fish and vegetables—and
called “old-fashioned.” My parents had (Dad once published an article in the he was not going to change.
a difficult time getting me to eat the new Wise Traditions journal about the farm Last year he bought a hog and asked
food, particularly the pasteurized milk, my Amish friend to fatten it and then
which I still dislike. I literally lived for butcher it, which he did. The guy was
the times I could eat food that tasted going to throw the back fat away but my
good at my grandparents’ house. friend asked if he could render it. In turn
It was a time when most of our he gave the large friend enough lard to
people had either forty or eighty acres, replace the vegetable oil in his fryer.
before they bought into the mantra “ Get That was last June. Come October
Big or Get Out.” Neighbors shared and the guy goes to his doctor who com-
helped with planting and harvesting, and mends him for finally taking his advice
took up the slack to keep things going if and changing his diet because his cho-
a farmer died or was incapacitated. lesterol was the best it had been in over
The most intoxicating smell I have ten years! However he told the doctor he
known was the rich Midwestern humus had not changed his diet except swap-
as it warmed in the morning sun. By the ping the vegetable oil for lard. And not
time I was eight or nine, those smells only had he not cut back on his fried
were gone. After reading The Unsettling food, he was eating more since the food
Of America by Wendell Berry, it became food) taken in 1951 when Mother was tasted so much better when fried in lard.
clear what I had lived through. pregnant with my younger brother. He had also lost sixty pounds!
About eight years ago I was begin- I love to see their radiance, beau- Jim Fiedler
ning to have knee pain and stiffness tiful smiles and beautiful teeth. Both Rome, Indiana
(even though I ate organically), and were raised on farm food and Dad was MEAT, EGGS AND BROTH
considered giving up carpentry. About a farmer. No orthodonics here, no make- My husband and I have been watch-
that time I was introduced to WAPF, up but lipstick, and no hair dye, unlike ing this melodramatic period series
and began drinking at least two cups of today's crowd. This picture always (1900s), “Gran Hotel,” produced in
bone broth a day. In a little more than six makes me happy. Spain 2011-2013. In episode sixteen the
months, all of my joint problems were Janice Curtin young maid Belen gives birth to twins
gone, and today I enjoy hard work more Alexandria, Virginia and almost dies, losing lots of blood. The
than ever. doctor examines her and says, "She's
If you have the capacity, please get This is a great idea! Please send your very weak. She needs meat, eggs and
out on the farms, pitch in and stand be- ancestor photos with caption to us at broth." Loved that! Would like to know
side real heroes. In the time I have left, liz@westonaprice.org the screenwriter who put that line in!
my purpose is to do everything I can to Lynn Wright
help build a future where more children Tucson, AZ and Fort Jones, CA
12 Wise Traditions SPRING 2015 Wise Traditions

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