Sustainable cooking for the sustainable farm
The beginning of being a sustainable, low impact person is to start cooking from scratch in your own kitchen. At first you may need to buy ingredients from elsewhere, but eventually you may find you can produce much of what you use to cook. It doesn't matter, just get started. You will be amazed at the flavor and variety you can produce in your own kitchen!
Over time we have learned how to substitute ingredients and cook with fresh, unprocessed food. We try to grow as much as we can ourselves, but we do buy some of what we eat. When possible, we try to buy what we do not produce from local producers and try to buy things in their most natural, unprocessed form. Some things can not be produced locally, like coffee. We try to support organic free trade organizations that support farmers that farm in a sustainable manner and get paid fair market value for their produce.
We have found that using whole grains enhances the nutritional value and taste of most foods. We use white whole wheat flour for our baked goods. The white wheat does not have the bitter tannins that red wheat has. This makes the flour sweet and flavorful, light in color, but with all the full nutritional value and fiber of whole wheat.
We also substitute butter for shortening or margarine in all recipes. Although we can make goat butter, it doesn't yield much, so we do buy cow butter from the store. Of all processed dairy products, butter is usually the highest quality. This is because it is the one dairy product producers can make a profit on. It also is not subjected to homogenization or other unnatural processing. Our definition of over-processing is that if you cannot do it in your home kitchen, it is over-processed. Homogenization falls into that category, but technically pasteurization does not.
Otherwise, we strive to use ingredients that are fresh and as close to their natural form as possible. When we do have to buy any produce, we try to find organic produce. This is simply because we want to avoid pesticide residues. If we cannot find organic produce, we just scrub it or peel it to avoid pesticide residue.