The real reason that pasteurization is key to dairy industry profits

I actually had a moment recently to open my email update from the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and came across this article. It puts a really interesting perspective on why legally enforced pasteurization of milk is so critical to keeping the dairy industry profitable.


The upshot is this: butterfat (cream) is where the money is, since it's this part of milk that is made into high-value-added products like cheese, ice cream, and butter. In order to take out the cream without making the milk look watery and worthless (which would be evidenced by the very thin layer of cream on top) homogenization became key (homogenization is the even distribution of fat throughout the milk). But alas, homogenized milk that is unpasteurized will go rancid very quickly. Therefore pasteurization became necessary to extend the shelf life of homogenized milk.

Wow.

No wonder the USDA doesn't want Americans seeing gallons of 1/3-cream raw milk from grass-based farms, like the ones we get from our secret "illegal" sources!

Please note: I have highlighted a few important lines in bold and have added one comment in parentheses.


FDA and USDA: Cheese is Serious!
By Steve Bemis, Esq. | November 22, 2010

I've been wondering, why does one part of the USDA promote cheese consumption while another says it's an unhealthy source of too much fat? As I ponder, I assume USDA has thought about the conflict at a policy level (maybe too generous, but safer than assuming they don't think), and I imagine the decision: "Hell, promoting more cheese on pizzas means megabucks to big dairy, so go for it. Never mind the health impacts which we also warn about, since anyone eating this kind of cheese-thick food won't change their behavior anyway. Sure, foodies will jump on us for the conflict, but that noise will blow over and the megabucks will still roll in for the industry."

And, what may this focus on cheese have to do with raw milk? Is there any connection between this exuberant USDA cheese marketing and recent FDA crackdowns on artisanal cheese makers?

Cheese is made from milk; milk's fractioning, in turn, is the foundation of this country's dairy industry. Milk, milkfat and other fractions of milk are processed into cheese, butter, ice cream, yoghurt, kefir and other industrial components which are ubiquitous in processed and ultra-processed foods. "Skimming the cream" from milk is extremely important economically. Since different cows produce milk with different portions of milkfat, standardized portions of the removed cream are dialed back in (or not, in the case of the aptly named skim milk), and 1/2%, 1%, 2% and "whole" milk products are created. The rest of the cream goes into premium milk products.

At this point a bit of history may help: Michigan was the first state to require milk pasteurization in1948. The story of pasteurization is typically told as a rush during the 40's and 50's to adopt a pathogen-destroying, health-preserving technology; it was not, however, that new. Pasteur had discovered the process (initially for wine) more than 80 years earlier, and it had been feasible for milk for more than 60 years. Was there some other compelling reason for this sudden rush to pasteurize, which overwhelmed the Medical Milk Commissioners' certified raw milk? I submit there was more to the story than the campaign waged by the wealthy Nathan Straus and others, to adopt the technology.

There are, as we've seen, powerful economic incentives to industrialize milk and its constituent fractions. Those old enough, will remember the years prior to and after WWII with retail milk competition based on the "cream line"—the more cream your milk had, the better. The cream line permitted customers to see how “rich” your milk was in comparison to the competition. Marketing had intensified - even the narrow-neck shape of old milk bottles forced the cream up and made it look like there was more cream. This kind of competition wasn't good: producers were being forced to supply more of the most economically valuable portion which was being wasted, compared to what the cream could bring in premium products.

Homogenization, which effectively removes the cream line, solved this problem. First the cream is removed, and some is dialed back in to create the familiar milkfat "grades" (1/2%, 1%, etc.). Then, the milk is homogenized, so that even these adjusted grades have no cream line to show the consumer how little remains. (and might I interject in here: remember that the cream (fat) of milk is where the important fat-soluble vitamins reside!) Technically, what happens during homogenization: the milk is forced through tiny orifices at thousands of PSI, which knocks down the size of milk's fat globules; when these globules are broken down so small that they cannot re-coalesce, the cream no longer rises and the cream line disappears. An additional benefit of homogenizing was to extend shelf life by preventing the cream from congealing and clumping after several days on the shelf. Thus, marketing appealed to consumers' distaste for clumpy milk, to their wish for longer shelf life, and of course it emphasized the supposedly healthy aspects of these new “low fat” products.

The catch is that homogenized milk with no further processing will go rancid within a matter of hours. The much smaller fat globules have many times the surface area of the larger globules. If left untreated, the enzymes in the liquid phase of homogenized milk will immediately start breaking down the now-very-tiny fat globules because the protective elements which were sufficient to cover the large globules, are spread too thin to adequately protect the vastly increased surface area with the many small globules created by homogenizing.

How to fix this and save the economic benefit realized by "skimming the cream" and then homogenizing? The answer is to pasteurize the milk, since pasteurizing kills off the milk's liquid phase enzymes so the milk won't go rancid.

Hence, once the dairy industry took the homogenizing step to follow the dollars, it HAD to pasteurize. And the industry will have to stick with the gospel of pasteurizing, since their current economic structure requires it.

(It is important to note that the opposite is not true: once pasteurized, milk does not then need to be homogenized. Pasteurized milk is obviously no longer raw, but the few dairies which are not afraid to compete on cream line should also be supported whenever possible - it's where I go if I can't get raw milk. There is some argument that homogenization—which subjects the milk to extreme pressure and heat—is itself very damaging to milk; thus non-homogenized milk is more nutritious and less damaged, even if it has been pasteurized).

Although all this is not news to some, nevertheless I think it fleshes out how economics undergirds the gospel of pasteurization. Does raw milk have risk if contaminated? Sure, as does any contaminated food. Is contamination of raw milk a huge red herring keeping our eyes off a far more important reason for pasteurizing milk? I'm beginning to think so.

It is now clear that FDA's current campaign against artisanal cheese makers, together with USDA's considerable interest in supporting cheese (a keystone product in the industrialized dairy pantheon), signal an important new emphasis in the government's anti-raw-milk dogma. During recent years FDA has beat the drums of fear about pathogen contamination in raw milk. Essentially a campaign of fear, FDA's focus on fluid raw milk can only be viewed as a failure: Raw milk consumption continues to surge; FDA's interstate ban is under legal attack; and FDA's dogma is regularly being shown to be inconsistent, illogical and unscientific—an embarrassing and ever-deepening quandary in which the agency finds itself due to its steadfast refusal even to dialogue on the subject.

Block cheddar cheese is a principal USDA baseline for pricing and dairy support in a byzantine system riddled by lack of transparency, scandals and even litigation among market players. FDA tactics now emphasizing cheese can mean only one thing: The ante is upped; we're talking many millions of dollars simply for more cheese on pizza, in a total milk market measured in multiple billions. For an industry built on the altar of fractionalizing and homogenization, requiring pasteurization, the bottom line is simple: cheese is serious, and must be protected at all costs from the ravages of raw products that thumb their noses not just at homogenization, but at the economic lynchpin, pasteurization.

Click here for the link to the article.

It's also interesting to me to note that despite our national obsession with low-fat foods, Americans will still shell out a lot for some good old-fashioned butterfat, whether in the form of premium ice cream or a take-out cheese-laden and cheese-stuffed pizza! Like it or not, we still instinctively crave dairy fats, which in their unprocessed raw state, from healthy pastured animals, are incredibly nourishing and satisfying.

Hardened criminals

Article here!

For the record

I was interviewed recently for the Brooklyn Paper about raw milk and the club we belong to, and was quite upset to see the online version of the article (click here) and the copy-cat version on Gothamist.

Perhaps it was all written as a joke, but if so I am not accustomed to journalism of this nature, so all I can do is assume it was meant seriously. The main problem with the article is that it is just brimming with words from the drug-dealers' lexicon, words like traffic, smuggle, contraband, runner, clandestine, etc. I am described as "climbing the ranks," and "controlling" drop-off sites, as well as being referred to as Public Enemy Number 1. Now I am the first person to jump at the chance to actually be a Public Enemy Number 1 for the cause of real food, but for God's sake please let it be because I've actually done something illegal!

I am also described as "weeding out applications who want to 'tear the group apart from the inside,'" a blatant misquote. I said that we screen applicants before giving out sensitive information about the farmers and delivery locations. After all, it is imperative that we protect these farmers who are some of the best, most honest and hardworking people anyone could ever hope to meet. They are the ones taking a brave personal risk, not me as the consumer! It doesn't matter that they are doing nothing illegal by allowing us to purchase delicious raw milk products on their farms. Farms have been investigated and shut down all too often because big companies have made false claims about customers getting sick from using the small farms' raw milk products. It's terrible that this happens, but unfortunately it happens every day somewhere in this country. Even small-scale family farmers who are barely keeping body and soul together are somehow seen as a threat to the grip that the food industry has on the American market. I cannot fathom this level of greed.

To set the record straight, I did not learn about raw milk from the Omnivore's Dilemma; Michael Pollan really dropped the ball by not discussing it. I first became interested in ORGANIC foods from reading OD, but that was many years ago. It was after I had Oliver, and had been taking thyroid medication for a year (which interfered with my labor and delivery), that I picked up The Garden of Fertility and learned about the Weston A. Price Foundation and the traditional, nutrient-dense way of eating that includes raw dairy and other whole, unprocessed foods. This started me on my quest to find a good source of local raw dairy and other foods. The mention of my thyroid condition developing as a result of pregnancy was also incorrect; I developed hypothyroidism as a result of eating a soy-heavy mostly vegetarian diet and taking birth control pills for several years. Fortunately the article did mention that I no longer have to take thyroid medications due to dietary changes, but soy- and hormone-avoidance are also quite important and should be mentioned as well.

I must be allowed to restore the full meaning to the quote at the top about "This goes beyond organic." I was talking about the milk being beyond organic because it is from cows eating grass. Grass-based farming is incredibly important for the environment, the health of the animals, and the health of the people eating the products. This cannot be overemphasized. Everyone is stuck on the word "organic" which is almost devoid of meaning in today's industrial food system and means only that animals are fed grains grown without certain pesticides (137 different types of chemicals are still allowed on industrial organic plantations). We need to get back to small, local family farms that are biodiverse (i.e. growing many kinds of plant foods and animals) in order to have any hope of restoring environmental balance, soil health, the economies of local communities, food security, and health of the people, children especially. Kids are really getting a bad deal in this system -- they are living shorter, sicker lives than their parents, which is incredibly sad. I see kids everywhere with so many health and daily functioning problems it just takes my breath away. There is hope for these children, but it lies in real food, something incredibly hard to come by.

I never had any problem digesting milk as this article claims (I don't know where Stephen came up with this), but when I learned about how milk is produced, the conditions the animals are in, the hormones they receive, etc. and also about how milk is a delicate living food (just like human breastmilk) and highly damaged nutritionally by pasteurization and homogenization I simply couldn't continue using regular supermarket dairy. Even organic dairy is mainly from cows that are in confinement and aren't permitted to graze on pasture, so their milk is of dubious nutritional quality. It's the cow eating grass that makes milk high in vitamin A, and being outdoors in sunshine that makes it rich in vitamin D. "Fortification" is unnecessary when the cows are allowed to live like cows should live! And yes, these wonderful fat-soluble vitamins are found -- you guessed it -- in the FAT.

This story generates a dangerous misconception that it is illegal to consume raw milk. Have I mentioned yet that it is NOT ILLEGAL TO CONSUME RAW MILK, even in New York State? This is the only thing we have to be thankful for in this whole situation: that as hard as the government and the corporations controlling the government have made it, many of us can actually still obtain good foods that are brimming with nutrients and flavor and are still in their natural state of unprocessed perfection. If we were to live a few miles to the northeast in the state of Connecticut, we could purchase raw milk in stores -- but alas, we live here. The arbitrary rules around raw milk that vary according to slight differences in geographic location are rather ridiculous, which is why this entire story feels to me like a made-up issue on a slow news week.

It is time for the U.S. to wake up to the fact that in most of the world people are eating real foods, produced on their own land or relatively close by on small farms (or of course harvested from the ocean), mostly unprocessed, and not sterilized out of all useful nutritional value. We need to get over this fear of dirt and germs and bacteria and all that other real stuff that makes us squirm and reach for the hand sanitizer. Did you know that kids who are around dirt (i.e. living on farms or allowed to play in the dirt) have stronger immune systems? We need dirt! We need microorganisms! Our sanitation obsession is killing us, from our insides out. People rely on raw dairy and raw cultured dairy in many countries as an important source of nourishment, beneficial bacteria, live enzymes, rich fat-soluble vitamins, digestible proteins, and so much more -- and they are all the healthier for it. A lot of immigrants come to Brooklyn from countries where it is totally the norm to get local raw dairy and other great farm products (like lard for example, and eggs from chickens who are actually running around in clover and eating worms), and are extremely disconcerted at the complete lack of good food in our neighborhood grocery stores. It is no wonder Americans are sick, sick, sick, and getting sicker every day. We simply cannot be well on the food that is readily available in most stores, and that's even leaving fast-food and restaurants out of the equation. I don't care how good your health plan is or how "good" your genes are, the most important factor comes down to what you are putting in your body every day. And yes, it takes a lot of time and effort to seek out good real foods and prepare them for our families -- but we can be grateful we aren't required to do the hardest part which is growing the plants and raising the animals, because then it would be difficult indeed.

This article presents me as someone with questionable (even bad) motives who is trying to get people hooked on an illicit substance. In fact, I very rarely even discuss raw dairy with people I meet, and I certainly get no benefit out of others switching to raw other than the satisfaction of seeing their family's health improve and knowing both they and some sustainable small farms are benefiting a little rather than the medical industry and the giant food corporations. Does this whole situation seem surreal to anyone else? All joking and sarcasm aside (if that's what this article is) it actually truly is the state of affairs in this country. The drugs are right out on the counter and on the shelves at every store in town (and I'm talking about legal stimulants like sugar, white flour, alcohol, and caffeine, not pharmaceuticals), while the wholesome foods have to be smuggled in. It would make an entertaining graphic novel or B movie if it weren't so damn depressing. Again, maybe this whole article is supposed to be a spoof...I can only hope so, or that at least readers will overlook the sensationalistic language and focus instead on the important points: eat better, go to the doctor less. End of story.

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. :)

There is truth in color...

...if only you pay attention!



After running out of our unbelievably fabulous truly yellow raw butter (this picture does not do it justice -- it is really a sunny bright yellow color) from cows on grass, I was forced to pick up the next best from Whole Foods: Natural by Nature grass-fed high-CLA butter. Not only did this prove to be a big compromise on flavor, but the COLOR--! Or, I should say, the utter LACK of color, even from a butter purported to be from cows on grass, was shocking. This butter should be yellow, which shows the high levels of vitamin A from the cows eating green grass but alas! it looks pale and pasty in comparison. And at $4.99 for 8 oz. of the whipped variety, it is not exactly a bargain. (We pay $9 for a whole pound of the good stuff, plus a 15% delivery fee -- definitely a better deal.)

It just reminded me yet again of how what's available even in the best stores is sub-par. I would have been better off buying Kerry Gold butter from Ireland I suppose, but the carbon footprint on that product is ridiculous and definitely doesn't justify buying it on a regular basis. I should add that I have been very happy with the special "summer" pastured butter from Organic Valley; it is actually quite delicious and has a fairly good yellow color. At Whole Foods it is $3.69, so definitely not cheap, but if you are looking for something good, have a great selection to choose from, and don't have access to local butter, this is what I would recommend.

The biggest dairy haul yet

Thanks to Viktoria, a wonderful neighborhood friend with a large vehicle (who was also ordering), I was able to pick up our biweekly delivery of raw dairy, pastured meats, and other foods without making Hugo carry everything up and down the subway stairs. I also was able to get some items for (ahem) five other families -- which is why between the two of us, Viktoria and I had some 4 boxes filled with food, plus several bags!

Here's what I got (*starred items are for other people):
-2 gallons milk
-1 half gallon milk*
-1 quart buttermilk
-5 quarts yogurt
-2 lbs. cultured butter
-3 lbs. cultured butter*
-1 pint sour cream
-1 pint cottage cheese
-1 quart fermented grape juice
-1 quart fermented grape juice*
-1 quart sauerkraut*
-1 GIANT cabbage
-4 dozen brown eggs*
-2 quarts lard*
-1 ham hock
-1 package goat bones (for stock)*
-1 package chicken livers
-1 package chicken livers*
-1 whole fresh chicken
-1 whole fresh chicken*
-1 package ground beef with all the organs

Everything came from A---'s farm in Pennsylvania. Both he and his wife were there -- I had never seen her before (she seemed extremely sweet and nice, and was very cute). A--- went out of his way to get chicken livers for me even though they weren't on the ordering list. Thank you, Mr. & Mrs. A---! You guys are the best!!! (I cannot mention names in case they were traced and somehow got in trouble for selling us all this wonderful real food. Sigh.)

Night-time soother

There is nothing so comforting as sipping this ambrosial drink from your favorite mug, cuddled in your warmest robe, after everyone is in bed. Ah, peace! This is a twist on traditional egg nog, but suitable even for those individuals who don't like eggs...or milk for that matter. I promise no eggy taste! The near-raw yolk will provide wonderful beneficial enzymes, fully-available nutrients, and will help restore the natural mucus lining to your digestive tract (trust me, this is a good thing). I must mention for those of you haunted by visions of salmonella that you should only consume raw or under-cooked eggs from pasture-raised chickens from a reliable source -- no $1/dozen eggs for this recipe, please! Eggs from healthy, properly-raised chickens do not carry salmonella and will pose no threat to your health.

Simply whisk one egg yolk (you may use the whole egg, but uncooked whites are sometimes difficult to digest, so I leave them out) in a bowl, then pour in about 10 oz. of the most natural milk you can find (raw from grass-fed cows is best, next best is grass-fed pasteurized but unhomogenized -- if you can't find these but still enjoy having milk in your diet, then use regular organic whole milk, never ultra-pasteurized). Add 1 tsp. maple syrup, a spoonful of butter, and warm very gently just past lukewarm in a small pot (the butter should just be partly melted). Pour into your mug and top with a sprinkling of nutmeg. Sip, relax, and text message your best friend if you like -- and I promise you will have found a wonderful way to feel both young and old (in a good way!) at the same time.

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!

Margarine deception

"Discover the simple goodness of Land O'Lakes. Fresh, wholesome and real, Land O'Lakes provides pure, fresh taste for people who strive to keep life uncomplicated and appreciate life's simple pleasures."

I laughed out loud when I first read this phony baloney description in my in-laws' fridge. It still shocks me how food companies can get away with writing complete BS on their packages. I haven't yet figured out what people think they're gaining by eating margarine (or similar products) instead of butter. This margarine actually has the same number of calories, the same total grams of fat, and only four grams less of saturated fat than regular butter (which is actually a very bad thing, not good the way we have been taught). Not to mention NO NUTRIENTS (the added vitamin A is synthetic and completely useless to our bodies if not actually harmful). All you have to do to realize what's really in this sorry excuse for a buttery spread is to look at the list of ingredients: soybean oil processed in three different evil ways makes up the first FOUR ingredients, along with water. By now we know that the words "hydrogenated" and "partially hydrogenated" are a big clue that this is not a health food, yet they appear THREE times on this one small package. (To add insult to injury, the oil is extracted through a less-than-natural process from genetically modified beans. These are beans that even animals know not to touch.)

If you're wondering what really goes into the stuff you are putting on your toast every morning and on your mashed potatoes every night, read on (and keep in mind that pretty much the same holds true for all the fake "butter-y" spreads out there):

This excerpt is from the article, Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry.

"Manufacturers cannot use liquid oils in baked goods or frying, and they are not spreadable. So to harden the liquid vegetable oils to make margarine and shortening, they put the oils through a process called partial hydrogenation. To make margarine or shortening, first the oil is extracted under high temperature and pressure, and the remaining fraction of oil is removed with hexane solvents. Then the oils are steam cleaned, a process that removes all the vitamins and anti-oxidants, but of course, the solvents and the pesticides remain. These oils are then mixed with a nickel catalyst and put into a huge high-pressure, high-temperature reactor. What goes into the reactor is a liquid, but what comes out of that reactor is a semi-solid that looks like grey cottage cheese and smells terrible. Emulsifiers are mixed in to smooth out the lumps. The product is then steam cleaned a second time to get rid of the horrible smell. Then it is bleached to get rid of the grey color. At this point, the product can be used as vegetable shortening. To make margarine, they add artificial flavors and synthetic vitamins. You may be comforted to know that manufacturers are not allowed to add a synthetic color to margarine. So they add annatto or some other natural coloring. It is then packaged in blocks and tubs. Advertising promotes this garbage as a health food."

And yet, they're calling the results of this extremely complicated, unnatural process "simple goodness" and claiming that it's "pure and fresh"! In my opinion, using the words FRESH, WHOLESOME and REAL within 10 miles of this product is an absolute outrage. Of course it isn't only advertisers promoting this "garbage" as a health food -- doctors push it all the time. That's why my in-laws stopped using butter and started using margarine about 30 years ago when they moved to the U.S. from Mexico. And it wasn't long before they switched from lard to corn oil. Maybe next time we'll talk about how corn oil is made -- it will have you looking for a pig in no time.

In the meantime, let's take a look at all the fabulous health-supporting stuff found in old-fashioned raw or cultured butter from grass-fed cows:

Nutrients in Grass-Fed Butter

Fat-Soluble Vitamins: These include true vitamin A or retinol, vitamin D, vitamin K and vitamin E as well as all their naturally occurring cofactors needed to obtain maximum effect. Vitamin A is more easily absorbed from butter than from any other source, and provides a wonderful bright color without the use of dyes. Fortunately, these vitamins survive pasteurization. They are needed for:
⁃ proper growth
⁃ healthy bones
⁃ brain/nervous system
⁃ reproduction
The Wulzen factor ("anti-stiffness" factor) - Ever wonder how people used to continue working on their farms, cooking, knitting, and stoking the fire until they died in their 80s or 90s? By eating butter!
⁃ found in raw butter, cream, whole milk (and raw animal fats)
⁃ protects us from degenerative arthritis
⁃ protects against hardening of arteries
⁃ protects us from cataracts
Activator X
⁃ powerful catalyst that helps the body absorb and utilize minerals
⁃ found in organ meats from grazing animals and some sea food
⁃ especially good source is butter from cows eating green grass
⁃ disappears from the butter when cows are fed cottonseed meal or soy
Fatty acids
⁃ perfect balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids
⁃ antimicrobial, anti-tumor, and immune-system-supporting properties
⁃ lauric acid is highly protective (found also in breastmilk)
⁃ butyric acid unique to butter - anti-fungal properties
⁃ these saturated fats are absorbed directly from the small intestine to
the liver and provide quick energy for the body (NOT STORED AS FAT!)
Conjugated Linoleic Acid
⁃ strong anti-cancer properties
⁃ encourages buildup of muscle
⁃ prevents weight gain
⁃ disappears when cows are fed dry hay or processed feed
Lecithin
⁃ natural component of butter
⁃ helps our bodies absorb and metabolize cholesterol and other fats from
butter
Cholesterol
⁃ cholesterol is needed for our bodies to produce a variety of steroids
that protect against cancer, heart disease, and mental illness
⁃ our bodies manufacture hormones from cholesterol using vitamin A
⁃ breastmilk is also naturally high in cholesterol because it's
essential for growth & development
Glycosphingolipids
⁃ protects against gastrointestinal infections, especially in babies &
the elderly
Trace minerals
⁃ many trace minerals from the earth, such as manganese, zinc, chromium,
iodine (butter is a wonderful thyroid-supporting food for people
without access to seafood!)
⁃ extremely rich in selenium (a trace mineral with antioxidant
properties), containing more per gram than herring or wheat germ!

MARGARINE -- Ingredients: liquid soybean oil, water, hydrogenated soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, buttermilk, salt, contains less than 2% of: hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, sodium benzoate (preservative), vegetable mono & diglycerides, artifical flavors, beta carotene (color), vitamin A palmitate.
Price tag: $6.29/lb.
Externalized costs: nearly-irreversible damage to the earth from growing huge monocultures of genetically modified soybeans (loss of topsoil, soil depletion, poisoning of the air, land & water supply by chemical pesticides and fertilizers, destruction of wildlife and ecosystems); irreversible genetic pollution from GM seeds spreading and inter-mixing with regular crops as well as getting into the water supply; potential allergic reactions (possibly fatal) from eating GM soy; pollution from farming machines, refining, processing, and shipping the product; heavy use of fossil fuels; poor health; tax dollars used to support huge soy agribusinesses and monoculture-raising farmers.
Benefits: food corporations get richer & contribute more money to the campaigns of people who will perpetuate this system.


REAL BUTTER FROM LOCAL GRASS-FED COWS -- Ingredients: cream.
Price tag: $10/lb. & 16% delivery charge.
Externalized costs: pollution caused by driving a small truck for two hours to deliver to the consumers.
Benefits: land that is well-protected, fertilized naturally, and properly used & cared for; happy cattle; small, thriving family farms; healthy, delighted customers!

Peach ice cream

This batch came out great! The perfect proportions seem to be:

2 cups cream (we use raw cream -- whole milk will also work)
2 egg yolks (from pasture-raised chickens which don't have salmonella like the factory-raised ones)
1/4 cup unprocessed maple syrup (grade B)
2 lbs. ripe peaches (skinned, pitted, and chopped very small)

Freeze the inner crock of the ice cream maker for several days for best results. Then assemble it, plug it in, turn it on, mix all the ingredients together & pour them in. Add the stirring blade and lid, and let it work its magic for about 20 minutes. If you freeze the crock sufficiently long, the ice cream will come out perfectly. We transfer the churned ice cream to shallow plastic containers for freezing, but you can eat it right away if you like (though it will be very soft).

Making ice cream using only fresh ingredients and seasonal fruit has taught me two important lessons:

1) it's really important to use plenty of fruit! I've learned this the hard way.
2) what we've come to think of as "ice cream" (i.e. the kind you get from a carton or on your cone at the store) actually bears very little resemblance to the real thing.

It's a little like how we've come to think of the creations at McDonald's as hamburgers, whereas a real hamburger made from actual ground beef will taste very different. Even when you use plenty of fruit, homemade ice cream just isn't going to have that uniform "fruit" flavor we've come to expect. It's absolutely delicious - but in a different, more wholesome, less overwhelming way. I now realize that even the more natural kinds of commercial ice cream have got to be chock full of flavorings or they simply wouldn't taste like much of anything (after all, when was the last time you found fruit listed as the first ingredient on the side of your carton?). Ice cream made the way I've described would come at a very premium price. These ingredients (all sourced from local farms) cost us about $12 ($5 for the cream, $6 for the peaches, $1 for the maple syrup & eggs) and make about a quart of ice cream which lasts us usually 2-3 weeks (when you're eating nutrient-dense meals you don't feel the need for as much dessert). With the standard markup found in stores, and factoring in all the costs of the factory, workers, power, packaging, shipping, advertising, stocking, checkout, and the plastic bag to carry it home in, it is a wonder to me that we can buy some very cheap brands of ice cream at the store for $1.99! In fact, when you consider all the costs I've just mentioned, doesn't it kind of make you wonder about the quality of the ingredients going into your family's mouths at dessert? They are probably of extremely inferior quality, but made to taste delicious with lots of flavorings (and don't forget, natural flavorings are allowed by law to be 49% MSG, a potent neurotoxin). Doesn't it make you feel a little creeped out to think that what you're experiencing as "strawberry" or "vanilla bean" is actually just your brain sensing a chemical compound concocted in a laboratory?

I don't usually advocate buying lots of gadgets or consumer goods, but if your family eats a lot of ice cream it is definitely more than worth it to invest $50 in a good ice cream maker and find a local source of raw milk or cream. Ice cream made this way is a dream come true: dessert that's actually good for you!

oh the dreaded milk pick up

Posted by Hugo:

Of the many things that have changed the most in my life, I would like to address one today.
the dreaded milk pick up.
we are,as of late, part of a raw milk club. local farmers make raw milk and raw milk products and then sell them through a mediator. neat: local food, 'green' food, sustainability, etc. except for a minor detail- I have to go pick it up. so what's the big deal, right? get a bag, pick up some dairy and ride the train home badabingbadaboom? ha!
behold! the milk pick up!




it doesn't even fit on the kitchen table! dear readers, I implore you, does this seem like a 'run by the store and pick up some milk' scenario?!?
ok this particular day was an extreme version. but, believe me, it's only by two gallons and a few quarts that it is beyond normal.
however, I must say that using the pure butter has really improved the taste of my favorites: toast! pancakes! potatoes! (cereal! but dont tell hannah;) ) and Ollie loves his fish milk (milk and cod liver oil [CLO]).




it's worth it in the end-everyone is happy. what's a hundred pounds of dairy on this healthy burro's back every couple of weeks?
:>
-- Posted by Hugo

"But I'm afraid of butter!"

Hil just posted the following comment on my protein entry: "I still feel afraid of butter!" I have to respond to this.

If it's any comfort, Hilary, people used to eat a LOT of raw butter, cream, milk, buttermilk, etc. in the U.S. up until just 50 years ago. These products were staples and important sources of fat and many nutrients in the American diet. However, we were hoodwinked into thinking butter and cream in general were dangerous for our health by industry and interest groups that wanted to sell cheap oil-derived substitutes (margarine) and take business away from the farmers who were still selling small quantities of high-quality butter and dairy to people in the towns & cities. Things went downhill from there, which was around the same time we started employing modern production methods for growing crops and raising animals (like CAFOs, etc.). I have seen a diagram that showed a dramatic rise in obesity at the same time that people dramatically lowered butter consumption. Not that they are directly related, but clearly substituting other things for butter is not making anyone thin! I usually eat anywhere from 2-4 tbsp. of butter daily, as well as things like cream, sour cream, yogurt & kefir, a little cheese, about 8 oz. of milk, etc. (all raw, all unprocessed, all full-fat). Ever since I increased my fat consumption to about 50% of daily calories I have experienced only positive changes in my health and still fit all my old pre-pregnancy clothes. Butter (esp. raw, from pastured cattle) contains so many wonderful health benefits. Dentist & researcher Weston Price actually found that the heart attack rate was inversely proportional to the level of vitamins available in the butter; during the spring and fall months, when people were consuming butter from cattle grazing on fast-growing green grass, rates were lowest (see http://westonaprice.org/farming/splendor.html). This butter is very rich in vitamins K2 and D which are crucial for heart health, among other things. It is also a wonderful source of true vitamin A which is very important for eye health. [It is no coincidence that our modern diet which is low in natural sources of true vitamin A, D, and K2 also brings us things like cavities, poor dental development (so that everyone needs braces), and poor vision (so that 2/3 of the population needs corrective lenses). More on this in another post.] Trust me, Hilary, butter is your FRIEND! Before everyone became paranoid about saturated fats people considered butterfat (cream) to be desirable -- some cultures more or less worshiped it! They recognized its life-giving power for fertility, for children's development, and for daily health and vitality. Fat truly does not make people fat. While it is important to listen to your body and figure out the right amount of fat that feels good for you, it's also important to keep in mind that responsibly-produced animal fats are deeply satisfying and nutritious. It is sugar in all its forms (white flour, white sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, etc.), processed vegetable oils, and modern methods of produce, dairy & meat production that are truly causing illness and obesity on a mass scale. So go out there and EAT YOUR BUTTER!

A further note about raw vs. pasteurized dairy: Until pasteurization was enforced people ate mainly raw dairy products which were life-giving, as compared to the homogenized, pasteurized, hormone-laden, pesticide- and pus-filled products sold in supermarkets today. Not only is raw milk, cream, and butter from pastured happy cows clean and delicious, these things also provide vitamins, enzymes, and various compounds we don't see much of anymore in the American diet, which are all destroyed or diminished when pasteurized: like B6 (important for preventing depression) and the Wulzen factor (which protects against stiff joints and muscles). Even calcium can't be absorbed without its accompanying enzyme, phosphophatase, which is only present in raw milk. Did you get that the first time? All this talk of drinking lots of milk for calcium and osteoporosis-prevention is a lot of nonsense when the human body cannot actually absorb calcium properly without the enzyme phosphophatase, which is DESTROYED DURING PASTEURIZATION! Raw dairy is also far less likely to cause allergies or intolerances than regular pasteurized dairy because pasteurization warps the proteins in milk which renders it very hard to digest and absorb properly. If you want to get access to certified, clean raw dairy near you please email me (Hannah@EarthBodyBalance.com) and I will help you out. If you're concerned about cost, rest assured this stuff is a much better price than organic dairy at Whole Foods or most other stores, and it's far better. (I pay about $7 for a gallon for milk and $10 for a pound of butter, which is equivalent to 4 sticks.) Please see my article on butter at http://www.earthbodybalance.com/traditional_foods.

Protein

The issue of protein is hotly debated these days, with advocates of different diets all claiming that their particular way of eating is best for people and/or for the environment. Some people think they can get all the protein their bodies need entirely from plants (like whole grains, beans, and nuts), others believe you should include eggs and dairy, and others think they must eat a steak a day for optimal health. So what is really the truth?

To begin this discussion, I must first say that everyone is different. As I have reiterated in other posts, we are all different people with unique traits and physiological needs. So I always encourage people to experiment with different types and amounts of protein. With all that said, however, there are some guidelines we need to consider:

1) humans are omnivores. There is no shame in this! Many people experience strong cravings for high-protein animal foods like meat and eggs. This is totally normal. When we deny our need for this type of basic nourishment we open up a whole Pandora's box of problems: weight gain, depression/anxiety, dramatic tooth decay, sugar cravings, lethargy, infertility, chronic hunger (i.e. not being able to get full)...the list goes on. I have noticed that many issues of Vegetarian Times (which I love for the veggie recipes!) tends to include main-dish recipes that are basically carb-on-carb because they are simply replacing the usual meat dish with carbohydrates (worse yet, these are generally "white" carbs like a curry-potato dish on top of white rice!). Because this is the natural tendency of people who "go veg" they can end up gaining weight on a diet that seems quite spartan. It is easy to forget that meat is uniquely filling and energizing for many people, and allows them to eat less of other foods because it fills so many requirements. Think of it this way: if you were to eat a good 4-8 oz. of meat at a dinner out would you also feel the need to fill up on the bread basket?

2) high-quality animal fats (such as those in grass-fat meats, small oily wild fish, pastured egg yolks, fish eggs, butterfat from grass-fed cows, organ meats, lard from pastured pigs, etc.) are essential for proper growth, fertility, strong teeth & bones, resistance to disease, mental health, and many other things because of their high levels of vitamins A, D, and K. They generally come along with plenty of protein (not in the case of fat or lard, though, obviously), so when people are trying to avoid fat they often end up avoiding protein which is bad news.

3) for people recovering from depression and other mental disorders it is sometimes quite effective to eat about 30 grams of animal protein at each meal. This sounds crazy, but it works. Tryptophan is an amino acid required to form serotonin. So a diet low in protein, and therefore low in tryptophan (think: the typical dieter's diet, a high-carb/low-protein diet, or a diet of candy, coffee, and other stimulating junk which many people try to live on) can actually set us up for depression and mental illness.

4) keep in mind that your body needs fat in order to absorb protein! So eating low-fat or fat-free yogurt, for example, is pretty pointless. (Not only will you not absorb the protein, but you also won't absorb the nutrients either.) Fat and protein go hand-in-hand. Also many people need saturated fats to feel full, and since large amounts of saturated fats are found only in animal protein, dairy & eggs (with the exception of coconuts) many people need to eat these foods on a regular basis. Have you ever had the experience of eating a serving of salmon or lean skinless chicken breast and then feeling hungry afterward? This is your body telling you it needs something more. And the "something more" isn't dessert or extra pasta, it's probably fat. Since we need fat to absorb protein and nutrients AND to feel full and satisfied, and since the most satisfying nutritious fats come attached to meat, yogurt, eggs, etc. then it follows that we need to eat these things. Again, not everyone does, but many people do. In traditional "primitive" cultures, people would go far out of their way for the chance to eat fat, and they would even throw away lean meat in times of plenty, and always consume the fattiest parts first. This is a fascinating article that shows the types of fat that Native Americans ate and how it affected their health: http://westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/native_americans.html

5) protein from grains, beans, and nuts/seeds is harder to absorb, and these foods are much harder to digest as well. This is really true. Animals that exist solely on plants have more than one stomach so they can digest them properly and absorb the nutrients. Humans have only one stomach, so we have to be smart about how we prepare our food. If you are getting a lot of your protein from things like whole grains, beans, and nuts it is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to prepare them properly. This means soaking or sprouting, or (in the case of bread) eating sourdough whole wheat that has been made the traditional way with a sourdough culture. Also, if you make any type of baked good at home like pancakes or biscuits, it is essential to use whole wheat flour and soak it overnight in an acidic medium. Grains (including flour), beans, and nuts are high in phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors which really must be neutralized or they will have a demineralizing effect on the body (including bones & teeth). This problem is very real. Check out this story by a vegetarian mother -- it's quite illuminating re: the effect of diet on dental health (scroll halfway down the page to "Vegetarianism and Cavities"): http://westonaprice.org/letters/letters-2007fa.html

6) what about protein bars and shakes? Forget them. They are not real food and have no place in your diet.

7) so how much protein to eat? If pregnant you need 80-100 grams of good-quality (easily-absorbed) protein, like that found in meat, eggs, raw dairy, and properly-prepared beans, nuts & whole grains. Otherwise, there is no hard-and-fast rule for the rest of us. Personally, I have found that IN THE WINTER I generally need the equivalent of the following in one day: 2 eggs, 4 oz. yogurt or kefir, 2 oz. cheese or a glass of raw milk, 4-6 oz. meat/chicken/fish, 1-2 servings whole grain (oatmeal, quinoa, etc.). I will also sometimes have crispy nuts (which have simply been soaked overnight in salted water, then dried in a warm oven) on a salad or for a snack, and properly-prepared beans instead of meat maybe 2 times a week. This makes for a rough estimate of about 80 or more grams of protein per day; however, there will be days (maybe 2-3 days a week) when I eat very light and choose beans instead of animal protein. I have found that I need this much to be energetic and have no "bad" cravings, and I am a small person (5'2" 115 lbs.) and getting only moderate daily exercise (though considerably more than the average American as I walk to many of the places I go and run around after a small child all day). I am, however, breastfeeding so this raises my requirements. ALSO the seasons affect my protein needs quite a lot. In the winter I need more meat and heavy foods whereas in the summer I would be satisfied with a meal of raw cottage cheese and lots of fruit, or a big salad with a sliced egg, some nuts, and sourdough croutons. Exercise also affects protein requirements. When experimenting with different kinds of foods and protein keep these things in consideration: pregnant/nursing/menstruating, time of year, daily exercise, stress, cravings. Strong sugar cravings can be a sign that you need more meat (or, if you are already eating a big steak every day and craving sweets then this is a sign you need to cut way back on the meat). For me, if I go several days without red meat I usually begin having very strong cravings for things like cheese fries and fried chicken! Then if I have a small amount (maybe 4 oz.) of pot roast, for example, with accompanying veggies & butter, the cravings disappear.

8) many traditional cultures rely largely on carbohydrates for their nourishment, like beans, corn, or starchy roots. These people also have a way of preparing these foods to maximize their nutritional value (such as soaking). In addition, they use small quantities of high-quality animal fats (like lard) to make the food more nutritious and the nutrients more easily-absorbed. These traditional methods of preparation are used intuitively.

9) soy is a special topic so I will discuss it more in another post. Suffice it to say, for now, that modern soy products should be avoided as they depress thyroid function, harm fertility, and are high in phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors (not destroyed by modern production methods). Use small amounts of traditionally-fermented soy sauce or natto and tempeh if you wish. Soy milks, protein powders, soy "meat" and soy "cheese," and modern tofu are highly processed and not nourishing (in fact, they are quite the opposite!).

10) A little more about grass-fed vs. typical animal foods: Eggs & meat from grass-fed (pastured) animals contain a proper balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, which is extremely important for human health. For example, the typical supermarket egg contains a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats of 20:1 as compared to a pastured egg which is 1.5:1! It's the same deal with grass-fed beef. Since many health problems are due to the extreme imbalance of omega-6 to omega-3 fats in the Western diet it is wisest, tastiest, and healthiest to choose local meats, dairy, and eggs from small farms that raise animals the right way: on pasture. Grass-fed beef and raw butterfat are also high in CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), which protects us from cancer, diabetes, immune disorders, and OBESITY. There you go: you truly can eat fat to be thin.

*One final note: it is really best to avoid any types of products from animals who were raised in misery. There are many other options available besides eating factory-farmed dairy, eggs, or poultry/meat/fish. If you are on a limited budget you can eat small amounts of sustainably-raised and harvested meat and fish and emphasize things like eggs & properly-prepared whole grains, beans, and legumes cooked with good-quality animal fats (such as lard from pigs raised on pasture). Cooking your grains and beans with homemade gelatin-rich bone broths is also a great way to stretch a small quantity of meat; these broths are extremely nutritious and "protein-sparing," which means they make a small amount of protein go farther in the body.

For an interesting article on protein & osteoporosis, click here:
http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtbones.html

Operation: Lacto-fermented Cukes

What to do with a 1.5-foot-long cucumber from a greenhouse vendor at the Greenmarket? You can always enjoy it fresh of course...or slave away making a pointlessly small quantity of pickles...or create a Kramer-style pizza...

OR you can transform it into lacto-fermented sliced cucumbers! I had never had anything like this in my life until I opened my first jar tonight...

It all started Friday evening when I was feeling pretty ambitious in the kitchen. I realized I had all the ingredients necessary to try my hand at lacto-fermenting for the first time, but since I didn't have a meat hammer I would have to go with cukes since they don't require any pounding or pressing to release the juices. I washed and sliced the cucumber, then placed it in a one-quart jar with:

• 1 tbsp. mustard seeds,
  
• 2 tbsp. dried dill (since I didn't have fresh),
  
• 1 tbsp. Celtic sea salt,
  
• 4 tbsp. whey,
  
• and 1 cup filtered water.

I made sure the cucumber slices were covered with liquid, and that the top of the liquid was at least 1" below the top of the jar. Then I closed the jar tightly and let it sit on the counter until this evening when I put it in the fridge (whole cukes will need 3 days on the counter at normal room temperature before transferring to cold storage, but the sliced ones only need 2 days). Lacto-fermented products are supposedly better the more they age (to a certain extent), but I'm not that patient so tonight I decided to try my LF cucumbers. They were very soft, not crisp like pickles, but with this amazing salty-fizzy-dill flavor. They are actually really delicious and leave a refreshingly-effervescent feeling in the mouth, with a pleasant after-taste. They're hard to describe -- you really should try this for yourself. We eat lacto-fermented sauerkraut in our house, and kim chee, but the cucumbers are totally different.

This was so incredibly easy -- seriously anyone can do it. If you hate lifting a hand in the kitchen this is for you since there is nothing more rewarding that spending about 5-10 minutes preparing something and then sitting back and letting lactobacilli do the work for you and produce a completely different product than you started with! Lactobacilli are found on and in every raw veggie and fruit (if I understand correctly), and this process of fermenting creates an environment in which these bacteria can reproduce and preserve the veggie/fruit in question. Whey is needed for preserving fruits in this way, while whey and/or sea salt is needed for preserving veggies. These bacteria are extremely helpful to humans, providing help with digestion (read: less burping, less gas, improved "transit" time, and easy digestion that you don't have to notice or think about), creating a stronger immune system (since our gut is the most important part of our immunity), and actually increasing the nutritional value of the food and your body's ability to absorb the nutrients. Plus they taste great!

If you're still hesitating, consider this:

• in classic French cuisine, lacto-fermented cucumbers were always served with sausages and other preserved meats -- not only a delicious practice, but a wise one as well since "this vegetable is able to dissolve precipitates of uric acid and thus prevents the formation of stones, often caused by meats and sausages, foods rich in uric acid." -Claude Aubert, Les Aliments Fermentes Traditionnels
• a 1999 Lancet study found that Swedish children who ate lacto-fermented veggies had lower rates of asthma, autoimmune disorders, and skin problems; drinking raw milk and avoiding vaccinations provided additional protection
  

Of course, obtaining natural old-fashioned whey might be a problem (unless you belong to the TNG like we do), so I will post about how to make your own whey from a container of yogurt. Soon, I promise.

In praise of spring butter

Hugo picked up our raw dairy from Abner Lapp tonight. The milk is SO rich and creamy this time - even more so than usual. And the butter is so yellow! [This picture doesn't do it justice -- it is really a vivid yellow-orange color.] It must be that renowned spring grass everyone is always talking about, which makes the butter extra-rich in vitamin A. Traditional Swiss villagers in the valley of Loetschental considered spring butter to be a sacred food, with special traditions and ceremonies built around it. They made sure to give this special butter to the women of childbearing age, and to the babies and children because they recognized that this was a fantastic source of healthy nutrients for fertility and for developing bodies.

Spring butter is extra-rich in A & D, but also high in CLA (conjugated linoleic acid, in case you're wondering), which protects against cancer, helps build lean muscle rather than fat, and encourages plentiful milk production (great for us breastfeeding Mamas!). And of course this butter (like all raw butter) contains the special Wulzen Factor, known for reducing joint stiffness. Spring butter does amazing things, and it does them so deliciously, I might add. Sacrificing taste for "health" is so passe. If you've been following this blog at all, by now you know that many of the foods that taste the best to us and are the most satisfying are actually also the most nutritious.

Ice Cream!

Last Thursday Sharon and I made ice cream at her apartment. Of course we can hardly be said to have really "made" anything at all since the ice cream maker did all the work, but still, we had a hand in it I suppose (even if this mainly consisted of lugging our farm-fresh booty to her place after the TNG pick-up). We used 3 cups of raw light cream, 1/4 cup maple syrup, and 3 egg yolks, plus 1 tbsp. vanilla and 1 tbsp. arrowroot powder (optional, though it's said to prevent ice crystals from forming). These ingredients were mixed for about 25 minutes in the machine, and then frozen; I should add that the results were predictably delicious! Hugo and I are sold -- we will be purchasing our own ice cream maker sometime this spring so that we can enjoy homemade ice cream all summer long. We plan to use raw whole milk and fresh seasonal fruit for a lighter hot-weather version.

Shouldn't we be fat by now?

If you've been following this blog at all you know how much I love cooking with butter and eating things like eggs, cheese, and ice cream. So you may be wondering by now why we aren't fat. We have all been told that fats in food (particularly animal fats) are what make people sick and overweight. However, while we won't touch trans fats at our house with a ten-foot pole, we are eating plenty of animal fats and some natural plant fats as well (such as those in things like nuts and olives) -- AND enjoying excellent health. Oliver and I also take daily high-vitamin cod liver oil (from Radiant Life) which provides excellent amounts of vitamins A and D, as well as the all-important omega 3 fats. [I take 2 tsp. daily, or 2500 IUs of D and 25,000 IUs of A, plus 1.6 grams omega 3 fatty acids in the form of EPA and DHA; Oliver receives about 1/2 tsp. which is important for his health since vitamin D does not come through in breastmilk. We both drink it mixed with raw milk - Oliver relishes his but I gulp mine quickly while holding my breath. Vitamins A and D are crucial for pretty much all types of development and for healthy immune function.]

It is my firm belief that refined carbs and processed foods (which are largely made of refined carbs) are what cause weight gain and innumerable health problems. At our house we try to avoid processed foods as much as possible. The most processed we get is occasional organic whole wheat pasta, Amy's canned refried beans (the black-bean version is eat-from-the-can delicious!), blue-corn taco shells from Whole Foods, and my favorite whole-grain Kavli crackers. And yes, now and then we eat things like potato chips or shortbread cookies, but these are few and far between and always the best quality (which are usually better for you). All these great high-quality fats are curing my hypothyroidism and long-time hypoglycemia, and making me even-tempered and consistently happy for the first time in my life. Plus they make for incredibly rich breastmilk and a happy, well-behaved baby. I have also noticed that since eating this nutrient-dense, high-fat diet I have totally stopped craving sweets and carbs.

When people look askance (or even shocked) at my suggestion that they eat things like (gasp!) butter or whole milk, I like to mention the Masai of Africa, who are reported to consume up to 400 grams of fat on a daily basis, mainly from meat and raw cultured milk. Granted these people are living a more or less traditional existence with plenty of daily exercise, but they are effortlessly slim and healthy - something most Americans cannot claim to be. Until the past century, in this country we ate plentiful amounts of butter, lard, eggs, raw full-fat dairy, liver, and fatty meats and enjoyed far better health, high fertility rates, and much smaller waistlines than the average American does today -- as well as enviably low rates of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

All this is to say, as long as we keep seeing positive effects of our new way of eating at our house, we will continue! Of course, I also believe firmly that we should buy the best quality we can possibly afford, and limit consumption of conventionally-produced animal foods and fats. Farmers' markets and local buying clubs are the best way to do this.

Brown rice for breakfast?!

The past few days I have been eating leftover brown rice (from the salmon-bok choy stir-fry of Wednesday night) as a hot breakfast cereal. Besides oatmeal this is my favorite weekday breakfast. I cook the leftover rice with raw honey, butter, and milk, plus golden ground flaxseed, dried shredded coconut, and the final touch: cinnamon.

Tonight I spent about 5 minutes getting some stuff ready for tomorrow. I put spelt and kamut (two great whole grains) on to soak -- they will be going in my turkey soup; also combined soured milk with flour for what will be Yorkshire pudding for tomorrow's dinner (to go with chicken livers & shallots); and washed three Greenmarket apples to be baked with cinnamon in the morning. I plan to eat them over the next few days with raw cream...or maybe some of the ice cream we made last night! YUM

Note on soured milk: raw milk/cream etc. go sour very gently. In fact, I find that the first few days of souring are still pleasant-tasting enough to continue drinking them. Once the milk or cream (or even sour cream) have become too soured and fermented to consume, use them in baking. They are a great source of leavening power and work well in any of the baking recipes I offer here that require soaking flour ahead of time. If you cannot obtain raw dairy, you can still use regular soured dairy products for these purposes, but raw dairy from a certified small farm will provide amazing nutrition and support your local farm economy.

Have I told you lately...

...that I LOVE raw dairy? Yesterday was the monthly pick-up night through our local buyers' club. I had ordered the following (all raw of course) - keep in mind this will last us about 4 weeks. The total cost (with 16% delivery charge) was about $180:

• 3 gallons milk (this is always whole milk, no nasty low-fat variations allowed! whole milk not only tastes better, it's actually really good for you unlike low-fat dairy)
• 3 lbs. butter
• 2 pints cottage cheese
• 1 pint sour cream (Hugo says this is like the sour cream in Mexico!)
• 2 quarts yogurt
• 1 quart light cream (for making ice cream)
• 1 quart kefir (an effervescent, tart drinkable yogurt)
• 1 lb. cheddar and 1 lb. monterey jack
• 1 lb. pork breakfast sausage links (pasture-fed, like all Abner's meats)
• 1 lb. ground goat meat (tastier than beef!)
• 1 dozen pastured eggs (for my friend Sarah who was delighted last time by the deep orange color of the yolks)
• unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
• 1 pint kim chee
• 1 quart maple syrup
• 2 large sweet potatoes (Oliver LOVES them)

As always, it was an adventure getting all this booty home! First I went to Sharon's with Ollie to make ice cream (more on that later). Hugo came to pick us up and carry the food home. Of course the whole way back he was wondering why he married me... In case you're wondering, yes, that entire rolling cart is filled with raw dairy and farm products and weighs well over 60 lbs. Aren't husbands great? :)

*Note added 1/19/10: our requirements have grown with Oliver -- we now need about $150 worth of these foods every two weeks! Gone are the days when Ollie drank only tiny amounts of raw milk.

Baby Food Extravaganza

Here Oliver is enjoying some mashed d'Anjou pears with raw milk yogurt this morning. He seems to forget he likes them at first, then gradually becomes accustomed. At this point he can eat about 1/8th of a pear -- an incredibly tiny amount! I core and peel the sliver of pear of course, then mash it in a little bowl with a baby spoonful of yogurt. The rest of the pear waits in the fridge for following days.

Today has been a day of many foods for the Popper: he started with 3 oz. of raw milk mixed with 1/2 tsp. high-vitamin cod liver oil (from Radiant Life) in his little bottle. I like to give him this while I'm preparing my breakfast - he can hold the bottle on his own and is quite content, despite the fishy taste, which never ceases to amaze me (I still have to take mine while holding my breath). Later he had the pears, and then he filched some of my carrots at lunch time (mashed of course). Dark orange veggies seem to be a big favorite of his - he opens his mouth wide for sweet potatoes and carrots (always mixed with butter, of course, so that he can absorb all the vitamins). This evening he had his first "square" meal: pureed turkey from last night with mashed potatoes and carrots - all mixed together into an enticing orange-ish...mush I guess, is the only way to describe it really. Hugo put the remaining blended food into an ice cube tray for freezing (covered with plastic wrap). Other parents claim it is easy as pie to defrost one cube for dinner any time! We will see how that goes.

To top it all off he tried some lacto-fermented sauerkraut, which I was enjoying before dinner (because it's tasty and to guarantee good digestion). I was shocked that he actually seemed to really like this! He even seemed to eat it with some relish - after making lots of dubious faces first of course.