Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Steve and Paula Runyan, authors of the Bubbling Brook Farm blog.
What’s a Real Foodie?
A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.
We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.
We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.
This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Bubbling Brook Farm
Paula and Steve with Baby Buniq
This week we travel to snowy Alaska to meet Steve and Paula and their adopted baby girl, Buniq.
Buniq is the Eskimo (Alaskan Yup’ik) word for “sweet daughter”. Steve and Paula are blessed to have Buniq and she is just as blessed to have such caring parents who feed her so well. She gets the WAPF raw milk formula, fermented cod liver oil, and plenty of liver.
You can read on their blog about how they healed her underbite with food.
I think you’ll enjoy their blog as much as I do. There are lots of great recipes for organ meats and you can look at photos of their family processing moose. And of course, the baby pictures are adorable!
Baby Buniq Eating Dinner
Blog Name: Bubbling Brook Farm
Blog Authors: Steve and Paula Runyan
How Long Blogging: 4 years, though in the last year, we have let it lapse a bit, as we have a private family blog we focus on more.
Location: South Central Alaska. More specifically, we are in the Matanuska, Susitna valley, about 1.5 hours north of Anchorage.
House or Apartment: We own a house.
Size of kitchen: working area is about 9×18, though with the area that is past the U shaped counter it is double that.
Things you love about your kitchen: That I have one!
Things you would change: The kitchen is very cramped. We dream of ripping out part of the counter, and installing a large island with a large rack for hanging all our pots, pans and utensils. Adding one more oven in the island would also be nice.I spent many years working in commercial kitchens, and so often find home kitchens to be lacking, lol!
Favorite Tools and Gadgets: Bosch mixer, cast iron pans and Cutco knives.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: Not enough space for dishes, pots and pans. And certainly not enough room for more then one person to cook at one time.
Current Family favorite Meal: Stew, that contains moose, carrots, rutabagas, onions, tomato sauce, salt, pepper and rosemary.
Favorite Cookbooks: Nourishing Traditions, Joy of Cooking, Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1912 edition and The Victory Garden Cookbook.
Mama and Baby in the Snow
How cute is that photo? Paula didn’t send me this one; I went and snagged it from her blog. It was just too precious not to include!
Main area of the kitchen
Looking into the main area. See the canned moose stew meat?
Breakfast nook
I love all the cast iron!
The Runyans hard at work in the kitchen
Father in law helping get stew meat packed into jars for the canner
Road kill
Moose heart from the road kill moose we were selected to get this summer
Yum! I’ve never had moose. I’ve had elk and venison, though, and I love them both!
Hot smoker
Smoke house we rigged up to better utilize the small hot smoker. Summer and Andouille sausage can be seen hanging from above.
Oh, my goodness! I’m so envious of this smoker!
What's in the fridge?
In the fridge we have zucchini pickles, cream and milk from the dairy farm goat milk from our farm, produce from our garden, fish from a local stream and salmon roe thawing to make caviar, grass fed lard, and home made birch syrup, as well as a few leftovers.
Some of our chickens eating breakfast
Our goats
Quackless duck
Bulk tea and WAPF baby formula ingredients
Bottled goodness and more!
Ferments-Water kefir, goak milk kefir, Lacto fermented garlic, basket of eggs and oats soaking for baked oatmeal in the morning.
Fermenting...
Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Taste is Trump
Real Food Kitchen Tour: CHEESESLAVE
Real Food Kitchen Tour: GAPS Diet Kitchen
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Holistic Mom
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Radically Natural Living
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Amanda Brown
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Pamela Montazeri
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Cracking an Egg with One Hand
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Yolks, Kefir & Gristle
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Okparaeke Family
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Holistic Kid
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Artistta
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Nourished & Nurtured
Real Food Kitchen Tour: May All Seasons Be Sweet to Thee
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Horting Family
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Hybrid Rasta Mama
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Granola Mom 4 God
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Devotee
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Forager
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Leftover Queen
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Health Home & Happiness
Let Us Tour Your Kitchen
Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?
Please email me at annmarie AT realfoodmedia dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.
Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).
As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.
Some ideas for photos:
- Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
- Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
- Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
- How about a lovely herb garden?
- Kids or pets are always cute!
- Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen
And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.
Photo credit: A warm welcome Project365(3) Day 10 by Keith Williamson, on Flickr
Disclosure:cmp.ly/4 and cmp.ly/5
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Beautiful kitchen and family!
that was SOME moose heart!
love it!!
How cool!! I had NO idea a moose heart was that large. I wish I was there – the scientist in me would dissect it. Then the foodie in me would put it in a stew and eat it
Hey, Paula! Good to see you here. Cute kitchen!
Baby Buniq is so precious! It is cool to find real foodies everywhere.
Just thought I would mention that “Buniq” is not her name. We have given her a screen nickname for privacy, and also due to the fact we are still processing through her adoption.
Oh thank you Paula!
That is a good idea!
I hope you don’t mind me including the photos from your blog (the ones you didn’t send me). She is just so adorable.
No problem. I did send you the kuspik pic though. Did it not go through?
And what do think of the transformation Buniq has gone through since the day we brought her home?
Its hard to believe she is the same baby!
Oh now I recall that you did. And then it must have gotten buried in my inbox.
Oh well. LOL! Great minds think alike. I saw that pic and said to myself, I GOTTA post THAT one!
The transformation of Buniq is stunning! She does not look like the same baby.
Behold the power of real food and fat soluble activators!
She sure is…one of cute granddaughters!!!!!
O.k. Paula, we really must meet… so close to one another and I know NO other person who eats like we do. Plus I’m pretty sure I could learn a thing or two from you!
Oh, there are many more!
In fact, MatSu Midwifery has a new NP that is the local Chapter leader, and she has the whole practice turned around now, in what they teach and how they treat.
They see women and children, besides birthing babies, and are now selling Blue Ice FCLO as well.
They have asked me to consider teaching classes and showing off Buniq. I told them once I had a better handle on my health I would do so.
Wow, good to know… Mat-Su Midwifery assisted with the births of our last three babies, all at home. It’s been a while, my youngest is 12 now! I see Judy from time to time, I’ll have to engage her in conversation about this.
Yep, trying to get a better handle on my own health… Four children in 6 years, and I was almost 42 when I had the last one, really did a number on my thyroid and adrenals.
I have Cutco knives too, and love them! But I hear very few people mentioning Cutco knives. I wonder how they compare to other knives? Alaska seems like an entirely different culture from the rest of the US. The way of life is so different, by necessity, of course. I think this has been my favorite of all the kitchen tours!
I have Cutco knives too Naomi but they were really never on my radar until one of my daughters got a job selling them. The table knives, cheese slicer and spatula/spreader are my favorites… what are yours?
I also have Forschner, Victorinox, Wustof, Henckels and Rapala… love my knives!
I live in Alaska (actually quite near Paula, though we have yet to meet) and while city life here is mostly like city life anywhere, once you get off the beaten path the way of life IS different… but that’s exactly why many people decide to make Alaska their home. Glad you enjoyed the glimpse.
Steve used to sell Cutco, so we have quite a selection.
I wish the handles were a wee bit fatter, but other then that, they are tops.
Love that fact that they have free sharpening and lifetime replacement as well.
Hey, I need to re-register here so our new blog addy shows up, lol!
I sold Cutco knives for a little while when I was in college, so I have mine and love them! I’ve augmented my sales set over the years, with secondhand Cutco from various places, and have found that some of the older knives have the slightly fatter handles, and I like them better, too. I have 2 chef knives, one with each handle style, and the older-style handle has become my go-to, even though I’ve had the newer handle style knife much longer. I also love that Cutco is absolutely NOT kidding about their warranty! If they made the knife, the warranty applies, and no nonsense about it.
I love the meat grinding and packing department, Paula!
Yeah for the roadkill list… glad you got one! I’ve seen way too many this year… probably saw yours, lol!
Lovely kitchen and farmstead. Nice collection of cast iron, too. Thanks for sharing a glimpse into your lives Paula. It was a joy.
We have been called out 4 times ever since we hit a full grown cow almost a year ago.
Course, the last two were hit by semis, and most of them became chicken feed.
Super yucky to process!
You live you near Wasilla?
Yes, just off Park’s and Vine. I tried to find a contact button on your blog page… how do I reach you?
Just leave me a comment. They are set to moderation, so it will not publish.
We are across from Nancy Lake, so about 20 minutes north.
Paula, I left a couple comments on your blog. Let’s try this… my e-mail is: 57bebe at gmail dot com.
Paula, I LOVE your blog and your kitchen! I live on the Kenai Peninsula and it’s wonderful to see a WAPF family that knows the trials and benefits of farming in Alaska! My mother doesn’t like goat milk so I have cows! We too have chickens, and we also have turkeys.
WooHoo…….Glad to see my daughter and son in laws kitchen and all their Nourishing Traditions goodness featured here. Thanks for featuring them Ann Marie!!
You are welcome! It was such a pleasure. This was one of my very favorite kitchen tours.
What a great place! I never knew there was a Redwall cookbook! I’ll have to get a copy of that for my kids. They love Brian Jacques.
They have “The Redwall Cookbook!” Awesome!
Yes! Isn’t that such a fun cookbook for kids? My daughter received it for Christmas last year and has had a lot of fun trying new recipes. Good recipes and beautiful illustrations.
This was a really fun kitchen tour. That precious baby is just beautiful. I love to see all the homesteading type activities included in with the real food cooking. They go hand-in-hand!
I am fairly new to reading the kitchen tours, but must say that of the ones I have seen my favorites are the small kitchens. It is empowering to see others making it work in teeny tiny kitchens.
Awesome! I loved seeing the processing of the game meat.
This is great! I am so checking out their blog!
Wow! When I first saw the picture of you, your husband, & daughter I thought “they look familiar”….imagine my surprise when I scrolled down to see you are here in AK!
Do you do the Farmer’s Markets at all? The name of your farm sounds familiar. I loved the tour of your kitchen. We also love moose stew…it’s one of our families’ favorite winter meals. Although, I’ve not eaten any of the the moose organ meats, mainly because my husband goes hunting out in Galena (& doesn’t bring them home). He’s eaten them though & says the heart is very good. 
Blessings to you and your family this Christmas!
Jenny, I have visited the Market in Wasilla once or twice. Any chance you attend Wasilla Bible Church? We used to go there.
Or been to North Star Bible Camp several years ago?
I was the Head cook there for several years.
Our farm is not much. Chickens, goats and gardens for us on one acre. I do know there is a Babbling Brook Farm in the Fairview Loop area.
Hey! You have the Redwall Cookbook! How is it? I read those books as a teen and wondered how good the recipes in the cookbook were.
I can’t find their website, wah! Love the baby and want to see how they fixed her underbite. Thanks
i am impressed by you site, will surely put up like yours soon
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