Weston loves sauerkraut!

Weston turned 4 months on April 3rd and though that's still very young I just can't resist giving him some samples of healthy and digestible traditional foods.

So far he has tried tiny tastes of raw sour cream, raw kefir, homemade chicken liver pâté, beef broth, trotter (pig's foot) broth, chicken broth, and lactofermented pickles and sauerkraut. Sauerkraut and pickles are the clear winners! Of course he doesn't actually eat either, but he loves sucking on them and seems to relish the sour flavor.

Both are rich in lactobacilli (lactic-acid producing bacteria) which are essential for gut health--the basis for good digestion and absorption of nutrients, as well as immune function. These bacteria even aid in decreasing the permeability of the intestinal lining, which is important in preventing food sensitivities and intolerances due to "leaky gut." Babies have a naturally leaky gut which is why it's a good idea to emphasize bone broths and lactofermented foods (or liquids) when introducing solids.

Does your toddler need a multivitamin?

A friend of mine texted this question to me recently. She said sometimes her 3.5-year-old barely eats anything in a given day and that even though her daughter is getting cod liver oil and some desiccated liver she is worried that maybe she should add a food-based multivitamin or multivitamin beverage of some sort.

I am very anti-multi so I never recommend them or other laboratory-made concoctions (even the supposedly best ones that are "food-based"), since supplements are not well absorbed and may actually upset the delicate balance of minerals and vitamins in the body. For example, supplementing calcium will negatively affect magnesium levels, whereas if we get our nutrition from high-quality foods grown or grazed on fertile soil we will get the nutrients we need in the correct balance.

I consider high-quality fermented cod liver oil to be the best multivitamin you can give your kids, along with a nourishing traditional-foods diet, that includes foods like the following:
-raw cultured dairy from grass-fed/pastured animals
-natural animal fats (like raw butter & cream, pastured lard, tallow, and chicken fat)
-grass-fed/pastured meats always eaten with the fat (skin, pan juices, etc.)
-eggs from pastured organically-raised chickens
-organ meats from grass-fed animals (VERY important!)
-wild-caught seafood of all kinds (depending on your child's preferences)
-bone broths made at home the traditional way
-high-quality plant oils (coconut oil and extra-virgin cold-pressed unfiltered olive oil)
-lactofermented vegetables and beverage tonics (like sauerkraut and beet kvass)
-vegetables of all kinds, prepared in ways that maximize digestibility (avocados are especially good)
-limited fruit (emphasizing high-enzyme ones like papaya and very ripe banana when possible)
-and nuts/seeds/beans/whole grains according to the child's needs and digestive capacity

(As parents we are always told that fruits and vegetables are the best sources of nutrients for our kids, but they lack the fat-soluble vitamins A & D needed to ensure proper absorption and assimilation of the minerals in our diet. Think of it this way: a cow needs to consume 50 lbs. of grass to produce 1 cup of raw milk -- so which is more nutrient-dense: raw milk or plant matter? Think of all the gardens full of salads we would have to chew our way through to get the nutrition found in, say, a few ounces of liver!)

But even if you're following these dietary principles, what happens when your child's appetite or eating patterns just aren't giving her everything she needs? Here is a simple way of dealing with this problem:

1) Cut the grains. Most kids will willingly eat grain-based foods before the more filling and nutritious meat or eggs on their plate. Even whole grains provide a real spike in blood sugar (not a good thing), and gluten-containing grains that are poorly digested (a very common occurrence in our current generation of kids with compromised gut flora) can actually have an effect on the brain similar to morphine! For these reasons grains tend to be highly addictive, for kids and adults alike.

The same goes for fruit, potatoes/sweet potatoes, and milk (yes, even plain grass-fed raw milk). Children will happily fill up on fruit, potatoes, milk, and other naturally sweet and starchy things if given the choice. (Obviously foods like chocolate milk, juice, and any other sweet foods and beverages should be OUT as well.) Some kids will even fill up on nuts, seeds, and trail mixes, so just watch your child's eating patterns and be aware that these "healthy" foods can be difficult to digest and high in phytates, which can chelate minerals out of the body. For a child who isn't eating very much, high-quality animal foods are the ones to really emphasize since they provide nutrients that are easily absorbed, along with enzymes when they raw or lightly cooked (like runny egg yolks or rare steak).

It may take a few days of cutting out grains, potatoes, unfermented milk, and fruit before your toddler's appetite for the really nourishing foods returns, but that's okay -- rest assured it will happen!

2) Once you've followed step one, you need to focus more on behavioral adjustments to your toddler-feeding style. Here are a few things to try:

• KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL -- this way you can keep track of what your child is actually consuming, as well as improvements and daily progress
• SET REGULAR MEAL TIMES -- if possible, focus on when your child is hungriest and capitalize on those opportunities! If he isn't hungry until 10, have breakfast then. If she really works up an appetite at the playground, have a quick and nourishing dinner ready at home. If your schedule requires that you set meal times at less-than-optimal hours then just be consistent, follow the last step listed here, and your child will gradually adjust.
• BE THE ADULT -- Remember that YOU are the parent! Therefore you get to decide ultimately what your child will be allowed to eat and in what order. Offer the smoked beef sausage first, then the organic apple slices, not both at the same time. Make rules about eating times, and stick to them. If your child wants to play instead of eating, make it a requirement that she first eat something. To get your little one to take cod liver oil, offer it as a prequisite to dessert, which should ideally be somewhat nourishing as well (like 1/2 apple baked with cinnamon and served with raw cream, or 1/2 banana sliced into raw cream, or a simple butternut squash custard).
• NO SNACKING -- including beverages! This is an important thing to remember since many kids can eat small snacks throughout the day and never really get hungry enough for a full meal.

3) If all else fails, or even if you just want to add a really nourishing and appealing daily snack or meal replacement, try a Super Smoothie! I use some combination of the following, always making a conscious effort to emphasize the cream and egg yolks:

• raw milk kefir (1/3 cup)
• raw milk yogurt (1/3 cup)
• raw fresh or cultured cream (1/4 cup)
• 2 or more raw egg yolks (from pastured hens)
• 1-2 tbsp. prepared coconut cream (optional--I like Let's Do Organic brand, which I prepare by mixing thoroughly with hot water, then store in a glass jar in the fridge so I can easily scoop some out)
• a little fresh fruit, like half a banana (should have lots of brown freckles so the starch has been converted to sugar) or some super-ripe mango flesh; if your child is used to more sweetness you can start with more fruit and then gradually decrease the amount you use
• and of course if your child tolerates it you can even add ripe avocado, bee pollen, cod liver oil, or any other super-foods you like! (please no protein powders or other non-foods, though)

4) Special cases -- for a child who is eating a balanced diet like I have described here and simply not thriving the solution is not to add a bunch of supplements, but to work on restoring digestive health so that food is properly digested and nutrients are absorbed. I highly recommend reading the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome to really understand your child's digestion and how best to feed him or her, as well as effective ways to balance and restore digestive health and gut microflora.

Rice cereal: a good first food for baby?

A recent question on an online parents' discussion board was about which brand of rice cereal to introduce to a 5 month old son exclusively on breast milk. I answered with the following response:

Contrary to current practices and ideas in the U.S., rice cereal is generally not a good first food for babies as they cannot digest it properly. For starters, it causes a spike in blood sugar that is very unhealthy for babies (even the brown rice varieties). But even more problematic is the fact that little ones don't produce salivary amylase for digesting starches until their 18-month molars come in -- and sometimes teething is delayed, so it is actually best to wait until 2 years to introduce starchy foods and complex sugars. It may seem like poor digestion of starches is not a huge deal, but it is because improperly digested starches and sugars will hang around in the baby's gut, providing excellent food for pathogenic microorganisms. This can greatly upset the delicate balance of digestive microflora in the baby's system, which can cause many problems either immediately or down the road. The proper balance of digestive microflora is crucial for 1) good digestion, 2) proper absorption (and synthesis) of nutrients, 3) healthy immune function (including combating pathogens that come into the body via the mouth), and 4) elimination of toxins. Starting babies on rice cereal is a good way of getting them on a pattern of expecting blood-sugar spikes, and will often lead to cravings for refined carbohydrate-heavy foods (pasta, bagels, cereal, bread, crackers, etc.).

If baby is satisfied and growing well on breastmilk there is no need to introduce any other food until about 6 months, when it's a very good idea to add some iron-rich easily-digested foods to baby's diet (breastmilk is low in iron and baby might need some more around 6 months -- however, some babies' iron stores will be fine until 9 months or even longer on a diet of nourishing breastmilk from a healthy mother). An excellent example, which traditional cultures from around the world have taught us, is a small amount of pastured/organic liver from chicken or beef. This can be simmered gently in broth and mashed with a little unrefined sea salt (high-quality unrefined sea salt aids the formation of glial cells in the baby's brain! look for Eden, Remond, Celtic, and Himalayan brands at the health food store or co-op). Liver is a traditional food eaten by cultures around the world for a very long time indeed, and has the benefit of being easily-digested by little ones since they are equipped to handle nutrients that more or less mimic the nutrient profile of breastmilk: animal-based fats, cholesterol, protein, and the milk sugar galactose (found in breastmilk and in properly-cultured yogurt). It is richer than any other commonly-consumed food in many nutrients important for baby's growth and development (vitamin A, vitamin C, easily-assimilated iron, all of the B vitamins including folic acid, CoQ10, trace minerals, etc.). It is important to get high-quality liver; the co-op carries pastured chicken liver, and Whole Foods has organic. Let me know if you need more help sourcing. I should also mention that it worked well for us to introduce small bites of pre-chewed food at around 9 months (which is when our son was finally interested), which has the benefit of already being slightly digested. Many animals/birds, etc. (and of course humans from other cultures) use this method and it works quite well -- easy, quick, much less work, and better for the baby. Again, you would simply focus on foods that are highly digestible for the child: animal protein, well-cooked non-starchy non-fibrous veggies (such as winter squash, zucchini w/no seeds or skin, etc.), bone broths, etc.

Another highly nourishing first food is gently-cooked egg yolk (soft, but not runny) from a pastured/organically-raised chicken, also seasoned with a small amount of unrefined sea salt. The special long-chain fatty acids in the yolk will be highly nourishing for babies and aid in brain and neurological development. The whites should not be introduced until after the age of 1. As with all new foods, go very slow and introduce only a taste at first, then a little more each day. Many babies need time to adjust.

There are other excellent first foods I could recommend, but will leave it at this for now. Good luck with your feeding adventure!

Salmon roe gems

I recently discovered that Whole Foods sells wild salmon roe in small jars for $11. When we consider how important fish eggs were in traditional cultures for children and pregnant/lactating women, I feel the expense is justified though it's hard to swallow the environmental implications of eating anything from as far away as Alaska. A small jar can last a few weeks, and we will not be eating this regularly, though I hope in the next few weeks to find some good sources of wild roe from local anglers/fishmongers, and save it in some way to last throughout the year. (Traditionally, it was dried for preservation. It can also be frozen or canned.)

I enjoy mine on crackers with raw milk sour cream, while Oliver eats his mixed with sour cream, from a small bowl using his very own little spoon. He eats this with great gusto!

The saturated fat in the cream works synergistically with the mono-unsaturated fats in the fish eggs to allow for optimal absorption of all the available nutrients (we see this instinctive wisdom in traditional dishes, like the Greek spread taramosalata, which uses cream and roe). Just the color alone is a feast for the eyes -- in more ways than one!

Yogurt success!

Oliver LOVES yogurt. In fact, he loves it so much that he will happily eat 4-8 oz. every day. Since each quart costs $4-5, when we factor in my own desire to eat yogurt regularly, plus the fact that now that he insists on feeding himself much of the yogurt ends up decorating his face or even his lap, the weekly price is getting up there with the cost of butter. I am willing to pay $10 a week for good butter, but not for yogurt!


After discussing home yogurt-making with several people, and feeling guilty about the $17 candy thermometer I purchased at Whole Foods way last year in the throes of yogurt-making ambition, I finally decided to just take the plunge. I made sure I had some extra raw milk on hand and followed the fairly easy instructions. However, I messed up and the yogurt came out tasting mild and good, but with an unpleasant mucousy consistency. Oliver ate it without complaint, but I was pretty sure I could do better.

Last night, armed with 2 gallons of fresh raw milk, I decided to give it another try. This time: complete success! And at $1.73 (the price of 4 cups of raw milk) this quart is quite a bargain. Hurrah!

Here's how:

To make one quart, you will need:
-4 cups whole milk (preferably raw and unhomogenized -- NEVER ultra-pasteurized! However, if all you can buy is pasteurized milk, making it into yogurt will help restore some of the beneficial properties lost during pasteurization.)
-1/4 cup high-quality plain full-fat yogurt for starter (I used Seven Stars plain which is the best kind available in stores, but you could also use another brand, or even the yogurt starter culture which is available in freeze-dried form.)
-ceramic or glass bowl
-candy thermometer
-a warm place to keep the milk around 95-105 degrees

First, heat the milk in a saucepan until it reaches approximately 110-120 degrees. It's okay if it gets hotter; my mother has even had milk boil and then turn into yogurt just fine, and sometimes I lose track of time and it reaches the point where it begins to form a skin. But if you are using raw milk and you want to preserve all the "raw" qualities, try to catch it when it's still relatively cool (if using pasteurized, it should be heated to 185).


Next, let it cool to around 100-105 degrees. You can remove the pot lid and cool it in the refrigerator for a little while if it's very hot. If the milk has gotten warm enough to form a skin, these may keep forming on top while it's cooling, so you may want to remove them before adding the yogurt so that there is no unnecessary extra thickening.

Then, pour the milk into the bowl and add the 1/4 cup yogurt to serve as a starter. Mix this together very thoroughly. (I made the mistake of adding the yogurt to the hot milk, which killed the bugs the first time around. Don't do this -- wait til it's cool.)

Next, wrap the bowl in a blanket or sweater and put it in a warm place. This could be one of the following scenarios:
-in an oven with a pilot light,
-in an oven with a light bulb (light on) and a warming stone (first heat the oven so the warming stone gets warm, then turn it off),
-over an electric burner set on the lowest possible setting (this worked for my mother),
-on top of a heater,
-or (as I did) over the rear right burner of a stove with the oven set to 200-250 degrees (this will work as long as the heat from the stove comes up through this burner -- you should know which burner it is on your particular model, though I think this may be gas stoves only). I finally found the perfect use for the tea cozy my mother brought me from Scotland, and filled in the gaps at the bottom with dish towels.


Don't obsess over the exact temperature. I was told it had to stay at 105 degrees and was pulling my hair out the first time trying to get things just right. Even with this final set-up, I could only manage about 95 degrees or maybe a little more, but it worked JUST FINE. Just get your milk and yogurt starter to around 100 degrees, find a warm spot, wrap the bowl warmly, and leave it alone for several hours. (If you are concerned it isn't remaining at the correct temperature, feel free to go in and test it with the thermometer, then adjust the location or setup accordingly.)

I left the milk overnight (about 7 hours) and by morning we had this:


Absolutely delicious, thick yogurt with a pleasing custard-like consistency. The added boon: the taste is extremely mild with just the right hint of tartness. (The yellow layer on top is the final milk skin, which can be mixed in or removed with a spoon.)

Don't be discouraged if the first batch doesn't come out perfectly; chances are it will still be quite edible. Once you find the way that works in your home, with your equipment and available warm spots, you will be able to repeat these steps and get the same results every time. Final note: if the yogurt seems a bit liquidy, never fear -- it will firm up in the fridge. And PLEASE, if it gets too hot and separates, don't throw it away! Simply strain the curds from the whey, let the curds drain well and dry out a little, then season with herbs and sea salt, or make a sweet cheese with honey and walnuts. Directions forthcoming!

As for cost savings, it breaks down like this:

If I bought 2 quarts weekly (which is how much we can eat easily):

$4/qt x 8 qts = $32 monthly
$4.80 delivery charge (15%)
__________
$36.80 (what we were spending before on yogurt)

I will now be spending the following:

$6/gallon x 2 gal = $12 monthly
$1.80 delivery charge (15%)
__________
$13.80 (monthly expenses for buying the milk to make yogurt)

This makes a total savings of $23! Plus we will not be using and wasting plastic containers all the time, which makes me very happy. :)

Food diary

In case you have ever felt curious to know exactly what I might eat in any given day, I am going to share my food diary with you today (not that I actually keep a food diary, I am just writing everything down here for once). I didn't really cook much today, just did a fair amount of snacking on little bits of things here and there, making meals out of what I had on hand. Here is the rundown (now you will see how weird I really am!):

oatmeal w/butter, coconut oil, maple syrup & milk
kombucha (b/c my stomach felt slightly unsettled)
chicken liver pate and butter on crackers (was out of ww. sourdough)
chicken broth
leftover stuffed pepper w/brown rice & ground beef w/organs
pinto beans refried in lard, w/salsa, sour cream & blue corn chips
beef tongue (from a friend -- delicious!)
jalapeno sauerkraut
raw milk w/raw egg yolk and 1/2 tsp. maple syrup
homemade apple muffin w/butter & salame rosa (Italian cured salami)
high-vitamin cod liver oil

Most of these things were very small portions, just a few bites in some cases. I am quite amazed at the variety here! If you were to look in our refrigerator you wouldn't think there was much of anything there, and the pantry only has things like dry beans, but somehow there was enough to eat.

Oliver had:

raw milk & cod liver oil
cheddar cheese
chicken liver pate (he kept eating more and more! I couldn't hold him back)
pumpkin custard (home-cooked pumpkin w/eggs, milk, maple syrup & spices)
refried black beans w/salsa and sour cream
beef tongue
scrambled egg
boiled carrots w/butter

Depressing enlightenment

Signs like this make me so mad -- but I can't help but find it ironic and slightly humorous, too. It's just so ridiculous to think of all the people trying to feed their kids right when this is the best mainstream information out there -- not to mention the budgetary sacrifices that are often necessary to afford these "organic" and "natural" processed foods. If you haven't done so lately, try visiting the food department of a baby store. There is no better way of seeing just how firmly our entire food system is rooted in grains. On these shelves you will find almost no fat, and basically no quality protein. Instead, there will be only carbs, carbs, and more carbs -- most in the form of cereals, some in the form of processed-beyond-recognition starchy veggies and fruits. Since babies really only digest protein and fat well up until 1-2 years of age, this is truly a sad state of affairs. Fat is especially important -- even more so than protein, but yet there is NO FAT TO BE FOUND. Except the soybean oil in the formulas (which is an oil, not a fat, and harmful to boot in more ways than I care to discuss right now).

On this same big box-baby-store visit I picked up some Gerber's mashed bananas in a jar. The bananas have since been washed down the drain, but I felt the expenditure justified so I could get my hands on another small jar to add to our collection (for packing Ollie's meals to-go).

I sniffed the contents first and got only a chemical whiff of preservatives -- not even a banana-like smell! The label proved very enlightening. One jar of this "food" (which is one serving) contains 37 grams of carbs and 30 grams of sugars. HELLO?!?! How can a little person be expected to start life out eating this quantity of sweetness? This serving is equivalent to 7.5 teaspoons of sugar. And the amount of carbs is about half of what many adults should have in a day. So sad to think that this is a healthier food than many babies are starting out with. To add insult to injury, the label even proclaims the food to be microwavable. (Groan)

The ingredients are bananas, citric acid (a preservative), and ascorbic acid (vitamin C). One serving is supposed to provide 45% of the child's daily need for vitamin C. The label proved to be further enlightening (and hilarious):

"3rd Foods Bananas from Gerber is an excellent source of vitamin C, which helps your infant's body absorb iron when eaten with iron rich foods such as Gerber infant cereal."

So...basically the bananas are a vehicle for vitamin C (which has been ADDED), and the cereal is a vehicle for iron (which has also been ADDED), and while you're feeding your child these healthful foods which any pediatrician will recommend, you can rest assured they are also enjoying approximately 50 grams of carbohydrates. What was I just saying about how many adults would do well to limit carb intake to only 65-70 grams a day?

The nutrition facts on these labels might as well read "Juvenile diabetes and childhood food allergies with a side of synthetic vitamin compounds."

What Oliver eats now: an update

Thursday lunch: "juice" from roasted chicken, lacto-fermented pickles, raw goat's milk Havarti, cured sausage, baby pear

At his current age of about a year (13.5 months to be exact), Oliver still gets most of his nourishment from breastmilk. Some kids show an early interest in solid foods while others are content to continue nursing for the most part, with supplemental solids, and Oliver is one of the latter. He loves eating and trying new things, he has his favorite and his not-so-favorite foods, but for the most part he seems to still be getting a lot from breastmilk. As someone put it to me recently, "They nurse until they feel complete." I would add to this and say that in my own opinion (based on observation and study), since the quality of the mother's breastmilk depends largely on the quality of her diet (particularly whether she has enough fat-soluble vitamins available), this will affect the child's interest in solid foods. Some babies reach for food early and seem to have a huge appetite because they know they aren't getting all that they need from nursing alone. There are many people who would be up in arms at this idea, but if we acknowledge that diet does affect breastmilk quality (which has been proven), then it really does make sense.

All of Oliver's food is from small, local family farmers (or fishers) who follow sustainable, humane, and ecologically-friendly practices. So from the raw milk in his bottle to the scallops at dinner, Ollie is getting a completely nutrient-dense and natural diet. Usually he has three small meals daily and about two bottles of raw milk yogurt (which is pretty liquidy and drinkable) and/or raw milk, with some supplemental raw cream, and/or raw egg yolk added as extra fortification. He also gets about 1/2 tsp. of high-vitamin cod liver oil daily added to one of his bottles.

For his solid foods, I generally offer them mashed or pre-chewed (unless he can gum them easily, like cheese), and try to emphasize the following:
-seafood (especially mollusks and oily fish),
-meat (all kinds, but especially my creamy liver paté),
-eggs,
-mineral-rich bone broths (all homemade, usually fish, chicken, or beef),
-raw milk cheese, and
-lacto-fermented veggies.

He really likes the cheese, raw fish, and broths, adores raw pasture butter from a spoon, and absolutely LOVES the lacto-fermented things I have offered so far, including sauerkraut, pickles, lacto-fermented cucumbers, American kim chee, and dilly beans. For some beverage variety, he loves my homemade lacto-fermented ginger ale, and also kombucha and kefir. And of course he also eats some cooked vegetables, beans (always properly prepared), and tiny tastes of fruit. I make it a point to offer a variety of foods that he is currently able to digest (so no grains yet), and emphasize foods rich in enzymes and beneficial bacteria (thus the lacto-fermentation, raw dairy of all kinds, raw egg yolk, and raw fish (marinated 7 hrs. in whey or lime juice to make it safe).

As of right now, we don't really offer Oliver much by way of sweet foods. I feel very strongly that it is critical that he not get used to eating sweet things on a regular basis. We don't eat much by way of sweets in our house anymore (which has been a huge benefit for all of us!), and I hope to keep it this way as Oliver gets older, with sweets for special occasions and as natural as possible. We will see how it goes! Already of course if he sees Hugo eating corn chips or a piece of bread or something else that we don't want him to have yet, he will want some and cry if he doesn't get it. So it's actually of benefit to us, too, because we have to eat more or less the way we want Oliver to eat.

Of course, when it comes to his predilection for gnawing on bones (a great source of minerals!), I'm not sure where he picked that up...it certainly wasn't something we had to teach him!

Easiest-ever chicken liver paté

Liver is not something many of us eat on a regular basis, and most of us have some bad memories of being force-fed it as children (I had a particularly fraught relationship with liverwurst). Like it or not, though, liver is hands-down the most nutritious commonly-known food we have here in the U.S., practically dirt-cheap, and, as demonstrated by the sumptuous creaminess of French patés, it is definitely something that can please the gourmet as well as the nutritionista! This recipe is easy to make, requires very few ingredients, and can be enjoyed by you and your little one for a snack any time. When sourcing your livers, keep in mind that the liver stores toxins as well as nutrients, so be sure to get organic! Or buy from your local farmers' market or through another reputable vendor (farmer with pastured chickens). Small-scale local farmers are happy to do custom organ meat orders as well, but they may need to be placed a little in advance. Chicken liver has the flavor most of us are accustomed to, but you can also try other varieties.

You will need:

-1 lb. thawed chicken livers
-1 medium chopped onion
-1/2 cup red cooking wine (or a red wine of your choice)
-several tablespoons butter
-fresh or dry herbs to taste (such as dry mustard, dry dill, rosemary, and thyme)
-unrefined sea salt & black pepper


First, melt a large pat of butter in a hot pan and sauté the chopped onions until glossy (you may use shallots instead, and add chopped garlic if you like). While they are cooking, remove any connective tissue attached to the livers (try to be delicate while separating - liver tears easily). Add the wine and the livers, then simmer til most of the liquid is evaporated. The livers should still be quite pink inside -- the longer they cook the more "liver-y" they taste! If they are cooking too fast don't worry if all the liquid hasn't evaporated, but go ahead and remove from heat (if you're concerned, you can taste the liquid at this point to ensure that the alcohol has boiled away). Add generous dashes of dry mustard, dill, and rosemary, a large pinch of sea salt, and plenty of fresh pepper. Then pour everything into a food processor or blender (if lots of liquid is left, leave most of it out until you are sure about the consistency). Blend until smooth, then add several more tablespoons of butter, blend, and season to taste. The mixture will be fairly liquidy, but it will firm up in the fridge.


Refrigerate in a tightly sealed glass container (such as Pyrex). Paté is still good until it smells off or grows mold -- so about 2 weeks. You can also freeze half for later in a glass dish. Enjoy on toasted whole wheat sourdough, but be sure to butter the bread first. Since we use unsalted butter, my ritual is: toast bread, spread thickly with butter, add a sprinkle of sea salt, and spread thickly with paté, then slice in half. This makes a fabulous lunch with some fresh or fermented veggies and a glass of raw milk kefir. Babies enjoy eating it warm from a spoon. Bon appetit!

Microwave dinners for toddlers

Here I go picking on the Graduates line again again from Gerber (here is the last attack). I don't have anything against Gerber, per se. They are a normal company trying to turn a big profit. Unfortunately the way they're doing it is by selling pseudo food to trusting parents who will feed it to their small children (and babies), so I feel justified in attacking them.

These toddler meals, which offer only about 150 calories per tray, have very little nutritional value and include as much as 430 mg of sodium. This is more than 1/6th of what an over-salted American adult is permitted to have in a day (and by the way, our USDA-allowed limit of 2400 mg. is WAY higher than the UK limit of 1600 daily). Considering that each serving contains only about 140-150 calories, and toddlers are supposed to have around 1000 calories daily, the price tag of $2.99 is definitely not a good deal.

This is what is included in the Beef Ravioli in Tomato Sauce with Green Beans Lil' Entrees dish:

Ingredients
WATER, GREEN BEANS, BEEF TOMATO RAVIOLI (ENRICHED DURUM FLOUR [DURUM WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID], WATER, SEASONED BEEF [BEEF, WATER, SEASONING {DEXTROSE, SALT, ONION}], WHOLE EGG, BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, PART SKIM RICOTTA CHEESE [WHEY, CREAM, VINEGAR, CARRAGEENAN], SALT, SOYBEAN OIL, DRIED EGG WHITES, BEEF STOCK FLAVOR [SALT, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, POWDERED COOKED BEEF, BEEF FAT, GUAR GUM, CARAMEL COLOR, BEEF STOCK, XANTHAN GUM, LACTIC ACID, BEEF FLAVOR, BEEF EXTRACT, NATURAL FLAVOR], TOMATO POWDER, DEHYDRATED ONION, SUGAR, NATURAL TOMATO FLAVOR [MALTODEXTRIN, NATURAL FLAVOR, MODIFIED CORN STARCH], EXTRACTIVES OF ANNATTO [COLOR], GARLIC POWDER), TOMATO PUREE, TOMATO PASTE, COOKED SEASONED BEEF (BEEF, WATER, SALT), MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, SUGAR, ONIONS, OLIVE OIL, GARLIC, SALT, CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), WHEY, NATURAL FLAVOR.

Salt and flavorings abound in these concoctions to disguise the fact that the overprocessed, ground, bleached, pureed, dehydrated, and "enriched" food remnants underneath have no real flavors of their own. If you're tempted to point out that at least this meal has no artificial flavors, you might be interested to know that so-called "natural" flavors are allowed by law to be up to 49% MSG, which we all know is bad, bad, bad.

For a fraction of the cost even the most culinarily-challenged parent can cook up some ground beef, add canned tomato sauce, serve it over pasta along with frozen or canned green beans on the side, and while this will not be the healthiest or most natural of meals, at least it will be far better than what we have here. Plus there will be leftovers.

Easy stock

Making stock is quite easy; all you need is all the leftover stuff (bones, skin, bits of meat) from making (and eating) a roast chicken (or just a piece of chicken on the bone), a bone-in steak, short ribs, or a ham. You can make a small quantity if you only have a little left over, or make a larger amount. The point is to let nothing go to waste! Bone broth is a fantastic source of calcium and many other minerals in the form of electrolytes which are easy to absorb. Here is how I do it:

Easy Stock:
Place leftover bones & skin from roast chicken, short ribs, or whatever in a large pot; OR you can buy about 3 lbs. of soup bones and use them for this. Cover with water and add 1-2 tbsp. of vinegar (or just a splash if you are only making a few cups of stock - this is essential as it will help draw the minerals out of the bone, marrow, and cartilage and into the broth). Bring to a boil and skim off the foam. Turn down to low heat and simmer for 6 hours or more. Add sea salt to taste. Remove the bones and strain the liquid into leftover plastic containers like this. Label and freeze each container. When you're ready, you can simply remove a container from the freezer and use it in a recipe! It thaws quickly in a hot pot. Of course, if you have veggies and fresh herbs on hand, as well as a little more time, it adds even greater nutritional benefit and delicious flavoring to include celery, carrots, onions, and fresh thyme while simmering the bones.

Today I made about 2-3 cups of broth from the leg bones of last night's roast chicken. I made a super-speedy version by covering the bones with water and a splash of vinegar, then simmering for about an hour; I added sea salt for the final touch, then strained out the bones and skin and enjoyed a little with Oliver. This afternoon I gave Ollie part of the neck from the roast chicken, which I read the other day in Real Food for Mother and Baby makes a good teething toy/treat for babies! This sounds pretty barbaric, but Oliver took to it very naturally. It's great for babies, pets, and anyone in general to gnaw on bones because they are such a good source of minerals. Of course, it's always best to make sure the bones are from an animal that was raised responsibly and happily on a clean, sustainable farm.

Oliver update

Feeding the Popper solids got off to a very slow start, but he is at last showing marked interest in our food. (On a side note, I have noticed a big increase in my own milk production over the past couple of months since he has been getting 90% of his nourishment from me and is growing so big, and since I have been eating so well!). We tried the pureeing thing, and freezing mashed food in little ice cube trays and then thawing them out, etc. The food really doesn't taste good like this, a little sawdusty no matter how good it tasted fresh, and I can't blame Ollie for not being too into it.

The newest thing, though, (which seems to work really well) is to chew a bite of food for Oliver and then put it in a special little bowl for him and feed it to him with a baby spoon while I eat my own meal. This is not the most elegant dinner-table practice, but it does allow for easy preparation of an appropriately-small quantity of food and also provides a digestive boost in the form of enzymes from the parental saliva. Oliver shows a marked preference for animal protein at this point, and has recently enjoyed pork breakfast sausage links, smoked venison sausage, breaded water buffalo cutlets, and artisanal raw milk cheeses (all from our local Greenmarkets or Abner Lapp's farm). He also likes soft egg yolks which I share with him when I make poached or fried eggs, and various fermented & cultured foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, olives, and kim chee. He enjoys cooked apple with cream on occasion, and sometimes mashed potato with butter or gravy or some other orange veggie with butter (carrots, yams, etc.). He will also eagerly eat sour cream from a spoon all by itself! Hugo and I attended Nina Planck's talk this week on 'Real Food for Mother & Baby' where we learned about an interesting experiment done several decades ago where older babies were allowed to feed themselves anything they wanted, as much as they wanted. The babies seemed to know intuitively what they needed: one drank cod liver oil until he was cured of rickets; another ate large quantities of sea salt and then stopped when he no longer needed it. It was quite interesting to learn this. Of course babies also have natural appetites for unhealthy sweet foods which we can't really indulge in this way since they don't realize these foods are bad for them (they were not available in the experiment), but since Oliver shows a preference for certain healthy foods I am allowing him to eat them. He enjoyed asparagus-ramp-spinach quiche this week, and some asparagus-white bean soup; he always likes having a little raw milk ice cream occasionally, and of course he still has the daily high-vitamin cod liver oil in raw milk.

At our 9-month-old checkup on Friday we found out that Mr. Popper now weighs 19 lbs. 6 oz. and is 28.2" long! He has also never been sick (one episode of teething fevers aside) and is a strong, happy, and hearty little boy. We are very proud. :) And also very glad that our efforts to keep him healthy and well are paying off so far...

Oliver decides what's for lunch

After deliberating for a few minutes Oliver decided he would go with two butter-fried eggs dressed simply with Celtic sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper, some ends of olive-rosemary whole wheat sourdough toasted with raw butter (alas! all out of sourdough now), two breakfast sausage links, and a cup of Mama's special turkey-spelt-fava bean soup. Actually Mama ended up eating pretty much everything, but Oliver enjoyed some delicious bright-orange egg yolk and even some cooled turkey broth in his little bottle shaken vigorously with pureed chicken liver! He was having so much fun drinking from the bottle that he didn't even realize he was getting lots of great nutrients and minerals, particularly iron and calcium.

On to the soup...

Remember how I was soaking spelt and kamut the other day? Well, first I simmered our turkey remnants (bones, skin, etc. from 3 drumsticks) for an entire afternoon (about 6 hours) in a potfull of water with 1 tbsp. apple-cider vinegar. This (apparently) is how you make stock, though of course usually you would want to add veggies to flavor the broth. I prefer to add vegetables later. In the early evening I removed all the bones and pulled off all remaining meat to return to the pot, then added the pre-soaked whole grains to the broth and allowed them to simmer several more hours to get nice and soft and a little puffy. I also added celery (w/leaves), onions, carrots, and a can of fava beans, plus some frozen peas that had been hanging around too long, and a good amount of seasoning (sea salt, rosemary, thyme, etc.). I let this simmer again the second day so the flavors could incorporate well and the broth could gel properly. Bone broth (as this might be called) that is properly made will become a bit gelatinous in the fridge, which is a good thing -- it's a sign that it is full of minerals. Broths and stocks made from bones of conventionally-raised animals will sometimes not even form gelatin at all, which is not a good sign. Of course, when you re-heat the soup the consistency returns to liquid. Broths are especially good for sick persons because they are so incredibly rich in minerals and absorbed very easily.

Lunch guests

Sarah and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch yesterday with Baby Lilah and Baby Oliver. I made one of my favorite super-easy dishes, Two-Cheese Pudding:

combine 4 eggs, 1/4 cup shredded cheddar, 1 cup cottage cheese, 1/8 tsp. sea salt, and 1/2 tsp. paprika; pour into a buttered glass dish (1-qt) and bake at 350 degrees until set (about 30 min.). This recipe can easily be halved and baked in a tiny casserole for a single serving.

We also had sauteed red swiss chard, and sourdough croutons I made by tossing small chunks of sourdough with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, sea salt, and dried oregano, then toasting in the oven with the pudding. Sarah proclaimed the meal to be delicious!

Lilah and Ollie enjoyed some raw milk yogurt which they ate with gusto (sweetened ever-so-slightly with some baked apple juice).