"You've got to begin at the beginning...

... when spinning a story or a prayer ."

I can't remember much more of that song from an elementary school cantata from way back. But it's a good rule, as is the Good Samaritan parable it introduces. I've thought often about how our family has made food choices. That has intensified with our move to a different region of Indiana, a weekend with Norman Wirzba, and trying to eat on a budget in an apartment.

Lets get to the meat of the matter, first. I'm planning to document the source of one food item we eat each day. The goal has two influences. First, I like sharing our sources for most of the food we eat. But, also, by knowing I will need to track down the source of some of our food, I'll cheat and look at sources in advance. The goal isn't to eat local, but to know whose labor and love has gone into making our meals possible.

So, for this first day, I present lunch for myself and the boys.

This is chicken and noodles. The noodles and carrots are bagged and canned. Just raiding the pantry there. The chicken is another story. The last two nights' dinners have featured parts of this chicken from Hawkins Family Farm. Wednesday, I carved away the thighs and wings to bake on a bed of wild rice and condensed chicken noodle soup. Last night, the other meaty bits were pan fried. This morning I took the left over carcass and made a quick stock, removed the bones and meat, added some elbow macaroni and added the meaty bits back in with left over canned carrots. For me, it was too peppery, but the boys loved it. Above, you see Tristan hovering over Duncan's second helping with joy.

But, the chicken... It was a Cornish Cross from the Hawkins Family Farm CSA. We trucked a good portion of last year's share to the apartment and a new, small, chest freezer. This bird was on the small side, weighing around 4 pounds. It was raised by Jeff Hawkins in a pen called a Chicken Tractor. This bottomless cage houses 50 birds without a bottom. Hanging from the partly open roof are a waterer and feeder. Each morning, the tractors are moved one length through pasture, giving the birds access to fresh bugs and grass (yes, they're omnivores).After something like 7 weeks, Jeff takes them to a USDA poultry packer which takes care of the messier bits. Last year our CSA share included 20 of the tastey birds.

So back to why I'm trying to do this. Way up top, I said that this comes from a move, a visit and a budget. We are in transition from Fort Wayne, a place I've lived for 5 years and my wife for 15 plus other years of childhood, to Columbus, Indiana. Columbus is familiar because it is close enough to Bloomington, where Deborah's mom is and Deborah went to High School. But it's not home, yet. We'll need to carve out our niche over time, but also quickly to make a good transition for our boys, 18 months and 3 years old. Getting food similar to the way we did in Fort Wayne could be an important part of that.

But I also spent some valuable time with Norman Wirzba last week. Norman talked briefly about his new book, Food & Faith, A theology of eating, as part of Plymouth UCC's Parry Lecture series. I was key in making it happen and got some extra time with Norman through that. Norman's talk about both Sabbath and Food made something clear to me. When I first connected with the Hawkins Family, I was in search of local food that supported an economy. What I crave most now is a connection, not so much with the food or terroir, but with the people and the ecology of place. Hopefully, I can make that clearer as I go along.

And so I close this edition with a photo of Norman Wirzba at the Hawkins Family Farm and the hen house.