Tag: The Hive Food Network

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How to Multiply Coconut Milk, Part One

How to Multiply Coconut Milk, Part One

I began working on The Plenty Method in 2008 when I was a planning commissioner for the city of Wilsonville, Oregon. I specialized in food and water because they are so fundamental to life. Slowly, I began to worry that accessing uncontaminated/unadulterated food would become more difficult and more expensive over time. Eating well was a priority, yet a healthful diet consisting solely of organic and humanely food was already cost-prohibitive.

Now, ten years later, I’ve finished articulating The Plenty Method. I’d like to help you learn how to access – and afford – the best food on the planet. Then you can have radiant health and experience more pleasure in life, too. The following is an example of how you can multiply your food dollars when you use The Plenty Method.

Lately, there’s been a lot of mention about how livestock contributes to greenhouse gases. So I’m trying to find non-dairy alternatives for milk. Coconut milk makes a surprisingly good substitute for cow’s milk and cream. The unsweetened concentrate comes in a can and when diluted with water in a one to one ratio, it has the consistency of milk. Use less water and it’s like cream. Coconut milk is creamier and silkier than cow’s milk. When mixed with other foods, the coconut flavor becomes mild or even diminishes. So far, I’ve tried it in my favorite creamy vegetable soup and a béchamel sauce (that I poured over roasted cauliflower). It’s fabulous in hot chocolate!  Use it in curry and smoothies. Feel free to experiment, substituting it in recipes that call for milk or cream.

A 13.5 ounce can of organic coconut milk retails for around $3.59, or just shy of .27 cents per ounce.  At the local wholesale restaurant supply store (where anyone can shop, no license required) a 98 ounce can sells for $9.59, or just shy of ten cents an ounce.  When I buy it wholesale, I multiply my food dollars by almost three times. Multiplying your food dollars will make you feel quite wealthy. Having plentiful amounts of coconut milk on hand feels quite luxurious. Contributing to planetary health by reducing the use of dairy and increasing your purchases of organic food can make you feel happy, too. By the way, the “E” in The “Plenty” Method stands for “Easy-to-find-food-sources”. Our book, “The Joy of Plenty”, will show you how to find non-grocery store food sources so you can easily multiply your food dollars. And if you wonder what to do with that all that coconut milk, stay tuned for the next blog.

The Plenty Method helps you learn how to multiply your food dollars
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Introducing the Hive Food Network

The first question I get asked about The Joy of Plenty is “If I’m not going to the grocery store to get food, where do I go?” 

Where you go is The Hive Food Network. It answers that question, and I guarantee it will make the whole subject of buying food much more fun. And you’ll look back someday and wonder how you ever got along without it.

The Hive Food Network is:

  • The Joy of Plenty pantry partners and groups connecting with wholesale and  farm-direct food suppliers.
  • A way for farmers to tap directly into organic food markets.
  • A community based on respecting others and sharing connections,        knowledge, and kindness.
  • A way to improve pollinator health by increasing the demand for organic food and decreasing the need for toxic pesticides.
  • An avenue of creative reform for the current food system.

The Hive gives you the ability to leapfrog over intermediaries, and this increases your purchasing power. Buying food via The Hive stretches your food dollars by about 40 percent, so you can afford to buy more organic food. If you are already eating mostly organic, you can use the money you save for something else – or you can just save it! In some cases, the food won’t cost less, but the quality will be much higher. And it’s like going on a treasure hunt – you can sometimes find items that seldom appear in grocery stores. 

When you’re in The Hive, you’ll be able to eat as if you are dining at a five-star restaurant because you will be buying the same kind of food famous chefs buy. Except by doing it yourself, you can kick up your eating experience from five stars to six stars. Think six-star cooking and six-star kitchen. Why not? I have done it – I know you can do it, too. 

Over time, we have experienced inflation in the cost of food. This is the result not only of higher prices, but also of the lowering of the quality of food. Many of us don’t even know what we are missing – that incredible sensual pleasure of extraordinarily high-quality, “high-vibe” food. The kind of food that not only tastes utterly fabulous, but also feels good to eat. The kind of food that has an aura, which puts a whole other spin on the idea of soul food. And you can be free from worry that the animal you are eating was treated inhumanely and raised in slavery. You can be free from worry that the produce you are eating was heavily sprayed with pesticides that are weakening the bees and that those residues are accumulating in your body.

Protecting the bees is probably the best reason to participate in The Hive. Overuse of agricultural pesticides has been linked to the decline in the bee population, so the sooner we can reduce our society’s dependence on pesticides, the better. The more organic food we buy, the greater the likelihood that there will be bees around to pollinate food for future generations. Or, as Elise B.C. says, “We once grew food without chemicals. We never grew food without bees.”

The Hive Food Network will be built by everyone who participates, friends joining with friends and friends joining with farmers, in a spontaneous and creative uprising. The blueprint for The Hive is in my book, The Joy of Plenty. 

In The Hive Food Network, food is love. What could be better?