Liz Wolfe of CaveGirlEats.com has just published a new book: Eat the Yolks – Discover Paleo, Fight Food Lies, and Reclaim Your Health. Check out my review of the book HERE. I gave it the Real Food Carolyn “seal of approval”!
Liz has good-naturedly agreed to a little Q & A session with me. Enjoy!
Carolyn: Congratulations on the release of your new book, Liz! I love your appreciation of Dr. Weston A. Price and his research on the health and nutrition of isolated cultures around the world. If you could go back in time and travel with him on one of his excursions, which village or region would you choose to visit?
Liz: This is such a hard question! I would love to answer all of them. What incredible perspective that would lend! If I had to choose, I think I would most like to have seen the Gaelic cultures he visited in the Hebrides. This is odd, but I’m fascinated not just by the ruggedness of the region, the sheep and the moors (that’s my literary background talking), but also by how they used peat! I once heard of some kind of incredible and unexpected way that peat supplied some kind of vital nutrient; perhaps to the soil? – something having to do with health or nutrition that was totally unexpected and fascinating – but I can’t seem to locate the source of the information, and can no longer remember what exactly I read. (If that rings a bell with anyone, please let me know!)*
Carolyn: As fellow nutrient-seekers, you and I share an affinity for sardines and raw liver. What would you add to create a veritable triple crown of nourishment?
Liz: What a great question! With sardines and liver, you’ve got your DHA and your arachidonic acid; your fat-soluble vitamins D and A; and certainly lots of B vitamins and minerals. Of course, the temptation is to say egg yolks; but I might throw a curveball and say some kind of home-fermented food, to keep the good “bugs” happy. Even better, raw milk kefir from grass-fed cows – extra vitamins AND probiotics!
Carolyn: We also agree on the importance of nose-to-tail eating. There are a lot of interesting choices between the front end and the back end. <ahem> So … where do you draw the line on offal?
Liz: Now, this might be why I’d like to go to the Hebrides. Because, when I studied abroad in Scotland, I did NOT try haggis! I had the opportunity, but I turned it down because I was squeamish. I regret that now. Honestly think I’d try just about anything, as long as it wasn’t still alive as I ate it.
Carolyn: How exactly do you spell the sound that a guineafowl makes?
Liz: Oh my goodness. I don’t think letters can do it justice. I think it’d have to be symbols, all bold and italic: !?#@!?! Just one guinea can make the worst racket I’ve ever heard; we’ve got sixteen and they all roost in our barn. It’s what I imagine purgatory sounds like.
Carolyn: I once tossed out an obscure movie reference and you totally nailed it. (“Chad? Who’s Chad?” from That Thing You Do – certainly the BEST film ever.) Just how many movies have you watched?
Liz: Funny enough, probably not as many as other folks. I stick to my favorites, and rarely deviate. I’d rather re-watch an old favorite than try something new. (That’s probably not good, is it?) On my DVR: The Princess Bride, Sixteen Candles, Parenthood, Blazing Saddles, The Birdcage, Little Miss Sunshine, Young Frankenstein. I’d drop everything to watch To Kill a Mockingbird. I’ll watch anything with Katharine Hepburn and/or Jimmy Stewart. The challenge is getting someone to watch these with me!
Carolyn: Thanks, Liz, for sharing a little of your homesteading life with us! I wish you the best with Eat the Yolks – Discover Paleo, Fight Food Lies, and Reclaim Your Health!
*Note about question #1: Curious about the use of peat by traditional cultures of the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland? I’m guessing Liz read of this phenomenon in Dr. Price’s book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, in which he details his research conducted around the world. According to Dr. Price, the Gaelics of the Isle of Lewis burned abundantly-available, mineral-rich peat in their homes and the resulting smoke “smudged” their thatch roofs. As they replaced their roofs each Fall, the old thatch was used to amend garden soil. Dr. Price reported that the smudged thatch was high in “nitrogen and other chemicals” which “doubled the growth of plants and yield of grain.”
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