We arrived at the Rethinking Everything conference hotel Thursday afternoon, August 30.  I hadn’t heard about this conference until I was asked to speak on the two panels, but Rethinking Everything is exactly what its name implies–they encourage everyone to question, debate, discover, engage, and enjoy everything.

In addition to speaking at the conference, my husband and I volunteered to promote nutrition and health education for the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF).  We set up a table early Friday morning with booklets, brochures, buttons, bumper stickers, and other information.  During the conference we spoke to many interested people, some who already knew about real food and its importance to health and others who wanted to learn more about how to feel better.

Kimberly Hartke, publicist for the WAPF, spoke to a group on Friday about Real Food, Better Health.  She told her story about the WAPF nutrition principles and how much she and her husband have benefitted from eating traditional, nutrient-dense food.  They both lost weight and are significantly healthier.

The bloggers panel spoke on Saturday about Blogging Your Passion.  Karen McFarland was the moderator and the bloggers were Kimberly Hartke, www.HartkeIsOnline.com; Kelly Battaglia, www.healthyhappyeater.com; and myself, Carolyn Biggerstaff, www.RealFoodHouston.com.  We discussed why we began blogging and the potential for earning money.  The attendees had some really good questions about blogging in general and also some specific questions about using WordPress, whether or not to obtain domain names, and practical ways to earn money.

Kimberly Hartke’s Sunday afternoon presentation was especially popular–The Real Deal about Raw Milk AND Homemade Ice Cream, Butter & Kefir.  She demonstrated making real, nutritious ice cream using all healthy ingredients.  Everyone got to sample all three flavors–blueberry, vanilla, and mocha.  While the ice cream makers were churning away, Kimberly presented the real facts about healthy raw milk vs. damaged processed milk. The milk and cream for the ice cream was provided by Mill-King Market & Creamery, located just outside of Waco, TX.  They are a Texas licensed raw cow milk dairy and also sell low-temperature pasteurized milk and cream.  Due to Texas restrictions, the milk and cream used for the demonstration was low-temp pasteurized, unhomogenized.  The dairy had samples of their cheese, which were all quite good.  I was fortunate to be able to take home a package of their cheddar, which I have been enjoying all week.

I also spoke on the retirement panel.  There was a good discussion about how to enjoy and enrich the years following retirement.  As my readers know, I have heartily and joyfully embraced my new career as a blogger and nutrition educator.

We really enjoyed our experience at the conference.  The people were friendly and open to new ideas about health and nutrition.  There were lots of children there, including nursing babies, toddlers, up to teens.  They all seemed to have a good time.

By the way, what do food bloggers do, wherever they are?  Well, we’re always on the lookout for good, healthy food.  Here’s what we found.  One evening at the conference, Kimberly Hartke, Brice, and I ate dinner with my daughter and her husband [who live in Fort Worth], and they introduced us to a local ‘from farm to fork’ restaurant: The Ranch at Las Colinas.  The food was well prepared and tasty, and the portions were generous.  Their claim “Proudly serving up a locally sourced menu”  is backed up by a listing on their menu that gives the Texas location for their foods.  They serve “homegrown, made-from-scratch food.”  Most of their food sources are close to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but they list Galveston as their source of crab, Palacios for redfish, and Brownsville as their shrimp source.  Please note that they do not claim their foods are organic or that the beef is grassfed, and they do use cottonseed oil for frying. [Cotton isn’t even a food, but I guess the oil is cheap.]  I had the redfish with asparagus and green beans, Brice had steak fajitas, and Kimberly had the beef ribs with sweet potato corn hash.  My daughter and son-in-law had ribeye and fried chicken.  We thoroughly enjoyed our meal.  Here are a few photos of the good food: Click on each photo to get a better look at the food.