Patrick and Jillian Dempsey have 60 chickens. Several mini-donkeys. A pond filled with fish. One rescue tortoise named Clover. A large, organic garden.

And, a worm factory.

The family’s house outside Los Angeles is an unexpected slice of country and home to healthy eating.

“As a matter of fact, I’m making zucchini bread today (from fresh-picked zucchinis),” Jillian Dempsey said in a phone interview last week.

Fresh eggs are a regular staple for the couple and their children, Talula, 9, and 4-year-old twin boys Darby and Sullivan. So is garden-grown Tomatillo Chipotle Salsa — tossed on eggs, spread on fish or mixed in chicken stew. (She shared the recipe with us.) Herbs are picked as needed.

Jillian’s favorite juice is homemade from beets, kale, cucumber, apple, lemon and ginger — that’s all together — with a bunch of those fruits and veggies picked on their property. Her husband, she said, slams it back like it’s a vitamin.

“I’ve been obsessed with organic for my children,” said Dempsey. “It’s really great, too, for the kids to have the garden experience. It kind of ties into Patrick and how he was raised in Maine.”

They get help from a groundskeeper and a gardener who stops by twice a week, but the family also rolls up its sleeves and takes to the dirt.

“Each child has their own little gardening vibe,” Dempsey said. “Right now, (Talula) is working on blending a lot of lavender and mixing it with a tiny bit of organic olive oil. She wants to turn it into a mask and she put a cucumber from the garden in there. She’s getting creative, which I love, especially being a makeup artist.

“(One son) loves to go up there and pick flowers and hang out by the fish. I call him my little gardener because he definitely loves to help prune. My other guy will help me harvest.”

They take turns gathering eggs a few times a day from their hen house, which is part hen sanctuary.

“We inherited chickens when we purchased this property,” she said. “I call them my ‘senior girls.’ They’re beyond their prime days of laying eggs. Patrick is like, ‘Let’s just take them (away).’ I’m like, ‘No!’ I’m a huge animal lover.”

The kids have varying attitudes toward eating vegetables, so she’s adept at mincing and secretly blending in, like zucchini or broccoli into turkey meatloaf. Dempsey’s also mastered an easy dessert slight-of-hand.

“A friend of mine tipped me off and said just freeze bananas without the peel the night before and then push those through your juicer,” she said. “It’s frozen, it’s banana, my kids think it’s ice cream.” Add a little ice, or don’t.

Banana peels, juicer leftovers and other discarded food gets composted, where the “worm factory” comes in.

The household is fast food-free, and healthier choices are seamlessly substituted in, when possible, she said, like brown rice tortillas instead of white flour tortillas.

“If I need to sweeten things, I’ll substitute agave (a plant sweetener),” Dempsey said. “I got Patrick off of sugar. He just does a little squirt of agave in his coffee in the morning.”

There is room, still, for a dietary splurge. That happens more when the family visits their lake house in Texas and leaves the big garden behind.

“Chicken nuggets and waffle fries at Chick-fil-A — that would be our hidden pleasure,” Dempsey said.

Before a major workout like the Dempsey Challenge, which will have thousands bicycling all over this L-A in two weeks, she’d opt for something light. Turkey bacon. Egg whites scrambled with spinach and cheese.

“I would just stick with the protein,” Dempsey said. “Something that’s not really heavy and not going to wear you down.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

Recipes

White Truffle Oil Kale

Time: Less than 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups kale — stemmed and chopped into roughly 2-inch pieces

White truffle oil

Himalayan salt

1/2 Meyer lemon (optional)

Lightly coat a baking sheet with truffle oil. Spread kale evenly onto pan. Drizzle more oil and salt over kale. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes or until crunchy. Squeeze a little lemon on top and enjoy!

Tomatillo Chipotle Salsa

(from Saveur Magazine)

Makes about 1 1/4 cups

Ingredients

8 ounces tomatillos, husked and rinsed

6 cloves of garlic, peeled

3 dried chipotle chiles, stemmed

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Place tomatillos on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast, turning halfway through cooking, until blackened in spots and cooked through, about 20 minutes; let cool.

Meanwhile, heat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat; add garlic and chiles, and toast, turning, until chiles and garlic are blistered and blackened in spots, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender along with tomatillos, salt, and 1/2 cup water; blend until smooth. Let cool.

Copy the Story Link