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The UPS man came by the other day. Here’s what he brought me:
From VitaminShoppe.com -
KAL Nutritional Yeast Tablets – a food source of vitamin B. Bs are beneficial for lots of reasons, but for me they reduce stress, keep me from being as irritable (my kids appreciate that), and keep me upbeat. You can read more about nutritional yeast here.
Concentrace Minerals – minerals are vital to health. I add a few drops of this to each glass of water I drink. It makes my water taste so good. Click here to read a primer on minerals.
Magnesium Capsules – I started taking these after researching adrenal fatigue. I’m still taking them to be proactive. The above mineral primer includes information on Magnesium.
Garden of Life Primal Defense Ultra – fabulous probiotic! You really get what you pay for. I decided to save a little a while back and bought a cheaper brand. They did not do for me what these do. When I was still dealing with dermatitis, and after I used up all the cheap probiotics, I ordered these. After taking one pill I noticed a difference in my hand. I don’t even think we fully understand the role of probiotics in our body. They aid digestion and help with intestinal issues, but beyond that, many, many issues are rooted in intestinal health. When our gut is out of whack, the rest of our body is. Probiotics help heal your gut. Dr. McBride has discovered that autism and even dyslexia are rooted in gut health. Click here for a great article about probiotics.
Maca Capsules – I have heard great things about this herb. Click here to read more. I have heard that it is great for your adrenals and even though I have been healed, I want to be proactive and prevent future flare-ups. I have been extra tired lately and am hoping these will give me energy. I have been taking them four days now and am feeling pretty great. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence. I’ll have to see if it lasts. Click here to read one woman’s experience with maca and click here for more information.
Papaya Chewable Enzyme Tablets – I take an enzyme supplement because a few months ago I had a few episodes of intense intestinal discomfort. It happened three times and was horrible. They would last about an hour, but then I was still weak for a while afterwards. My husband discovered years ago that enzymes cured his IBS, so I figured they would help me for whatever this issue was. I bought these chewable ones for the kids. My son has had a few of those episodes like I had in his little life. So he is really the one I bought them for. (On a side note, as I write this I am thinking that I do not recall him having any stomach aches while I gave him coconut oil regularly. I haven’t been giving him any the last couple months and he has had two stomach aches. I am going to start giving it to him consistently again.) You can read about enzymes here.
From Green Pastures –
Blue Ice Cod Liver Oil – this is the best source of vitamins A and D you can get. Amazingly, this cod liver oil doesn’t taste bad and I’m not just saying that. :) Since I have been taking cod liver oil, I have noticed that I don’t ever really get sick and when I do, it’s incredibly mild and doesn’t even slow me down. Cod liver oil is a preventative measure and coconut oil is for fighting sickness when it hits (among other things). Read more about cod liver oil here.
Virgin Coconut Oil (for friends, I still have about a gallon) – You can read about my experience with coconut oil here.
Hippocrates (460BC – 377BC) said, “Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food.” I really try to keep in line with this. However, our modern food supply is very, very deficient, supplements are sometimes needed. The best supplements to buy are those that are from food. Not just natural, but an actual food item, like the yeast tablets and cod liver oil. These are called superfoods. They are food items that are packed with nutrition. As always, remember My Motto. This holds true for vitamins. If it is a chemical version of a vitamin, our bodies won’t absorb it. If it is a compound taken from food, it still isn’t very good, it’s missing all the other parts. The best is in it’s whole food form, with all of its cofactors and such present. There are things that scientists still haven’t even discovered about vitamins, but God knows just what your body needs.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Well, I didn’t pick a peck of peppers, but I did pickle them. I have six quart jars full of jalapenos, lots of garlic, some onion, and some mustard seeds. I have never done this before, so I hope they turn out good. As you can see some of them have turned red. I love the color they add to the jars. I followed my basic sour pickle recipe, with the changes noted above. I also ran out of celtic sea salt and had to use some of my kosher salt for the brine.
Since I won’t be canning (heat processing) these peppers, they will remain alive. They will be full of life-giving probiotics. If you want to learn more about that, check out the book I recommended recently.
Look for my garden update coming soon.
If you haven’t noticed already, I highly recommend Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, with Mary Enig. This book is available at my local library, it just might be available at yours.
This book opened my eyes to a lot of things. But I must say that the first time I checked it out, I was overwhelmed and didn’t even read it. It is so thick. Then I learned that it is mostly recipes. The portion on nutrition is only the first little bit, maybe 60 pages. That was doable to me. I have read that portion, now, over and over, each time gleaning new information.
The authors cover everything you need to know on the subject of fats, carbs, protein, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, and more.
This is a general resource that everyone should check out, whether you’re just starting to eat healthy, or you grind your own wheat and make your own bread. 
I grew these pickling cucumbers this year specifically to make homemade pickles. I’ve been making them for a couple years now, but I always bought cucumbers from Conrad’s in the past. These are so easy to make and SO good for you. Looking for more ways to get probiotics in your diet? These are for you.
These are naturally fermented pickles. They will not be canned. Canning is a way to preserve your garden bounty, but the process of heating will kill all the beneficial enzymes, vitamins, and friendly bacteria.
If you’re new to naturally fermented foods, you may be thinking, “Ewww, I don’t want to eat something fermented!” But lots of food you already enjoy is fermented–vinegar, sauerkraut, kimchi, wine, beer, cheese, yogurt, miso–to name a few. Even more food was fermented back in the days before canning. It is a natural way to preserve food. This is how people back in Bible times kept food from spoiling without refrigerators. Fermenting actually increases the vitamin content of food. Eating some fermented food every day aids digestion.
I like to use a cross between a recipe from Wild Fermentation and Nourishing Traditions.
You will need:
-filtered water
-sea salt (If Celtic, make sure to sterilize, like I mentioned here.)
-dill seeds or fresh dill heads
-mustard seeds (optional)
-few garlic cloves
-cucumbers, either whole, sliced, or cut in spears
-whey (optional)
-glass jars or crock
-something to weigh down and keep the cukes submerged (see photo)
I mix 6 tablespoons of Celtic Sea Salt with 8 cups of filtered water, stir to dissolve.
Place a couple cloves peeled garlic in each jar, add seasonings, dill and mustard, if using. Add cucumbers to the jar. If you are using whey (this just gives them a little kick-start on fermenting, it’s not essential), add a couple tablespoons to each jar. Then cover with brine. If you need to mix up more brine, do so with the above ratio. You will need enough brine to cover the cucumbers and you will want to leave about an inch of head room.
Now for the important part–you need to weigh your cucumbers down so that they stay submerged. Any part of the cucumber that is above the brine level will rot and have to be thrown out. If you’re using a big crock, you can use a plate to weigh them down. I use mason jars (see above picture), so I use little plastic containers filled with dry beans as my weights.
You will now leave these cucumbers out at room temperature to ferment. I do mine for 5 days. The bigger your cucumbers the longer the ferment. If you leave your cucumbers whole, it will take longer. I always slice mine, like you see in the picture.
You will see the liquid turn cloudy (that is good!) and the cucumbers turn from bright green to the darker pickle color. Cover your container with a cloth to keep flies away. After they are done fermenting, store in the fridge (with lids on the jars).
Now at this point, your germaphobia may be telling you that you can’t leave cucumbers out on the counter for 5 days! But this is wrong. Bacteria and mold cannot survive in certain conditions, salt and acid are two of those conditions. The brine you made is very salty, nothing bad can live in it, that’s why we have to keep the cucumbers in that brine. If they poke above the liquid, they aren’t protected and will mold and rot. In the process of fermentation the sugars are turning to acids and that keeps baddies from growing, too. Good bacteria are multiplying and keeping bad stuff at bay as well. If you want to learn more, click here.
Oddly enough, even though the brine starts out very salty, it changes during fermentation. These pickles are not too salty. If your’s taste too salty, let them ferment longer.
You will need to check on your pickles every day and skim any mold that is growing on the surface. It’s not essential to get all of it, just do your best. Again, I know this sounds weird, but don’t worry, the pickles in the brine are safe. This is how true kosher pickles are made. This is how pickles were made in barrels for hundreds of years. Unfortunately all pickles sold in regular grocery stores are only vinegar-soaked, not truly fermented, and so they don’t have the same health qualities. In addition, store pickles are then pasteurized/heat sealed, which kills them. These pickles are a living food and will last for months in your fridge.
If you are concerned with how these will taste, you can buy Bubbie’s at Whole Foods (sold in the refrigerator section, next to the cheese and yogurt). They are made the same way I have detailed. Bubbie’s are spicier, though.
Also, an added bonus–you will have pickled garlic–a wonderful, natural antibiotic. The garlic takes longer to pickle than the cucumbers. Typically the garlic is ready when the pickles are all gone. If the garlic taste like a pickle, you know it’s done. If it still tastes strong, like garlic, then you know it’s not done and you can just leave it in the jar, in the fridge. I beat colds and flu with garlic, but it’s much, much easier to eat when it’s pickled! My kids will eat it, too, and love it! Occasionally, I will drink some of the pickle brine, too, since it has lots of good stuff, good acids, good bacteria (probiotics), probably some essence of the garlic, etc.
These are easy (probably takes me 30 minutes or less), but they require a little patience (you don’t get to eat them for a few days), but it is SO worth it! Hope you enjoy!
I am making homemade buttermilk this week from my raw milk. I let my starter go, so I’m starting over from scratch. I like to keep buttermilk on hand for pancakes, biscuits, etc. Plus it’s a great way to keep from wasting my raw milk. Once it’s cultured, it lasts a long time in the fridge.
You can use store-bought buttermilk as a starter, but I found that it only works well for a handful of times. When I start it from scratch myself, it lasts longer (the culture, that is).
Click on this link to see just how easy it is to make buttermilk at home.
If you need more information, check out this link.
Also, you can use this same method to make sour cream. Once you have a starter, either store-bought or homemade, use it to culture your raw cream. If you want it ultra-thick, you can strain some of the whey out (I use a coffee filter, basket-style).
The benefit of both these products, is that they are live foods, without any added junk. They contain necessary probiotics, and even if you are using the buttermilk to bake with, there is evidence that dead probiotics still benefit us (the heat will kill the probiotics)!
Other articles on live foods that you may enjoy:
I am going to start a series called Why? In it I will select a few things I do/supplements I take/food I eat and explain why.
While I was mulling over things to include in this series, I ran across this post on Cheeseslave – Top Ten Reasons to Drink Raw Milk. This post is wonderful! It includes all the reasons why I love raw milk. I love all the Powerpoint slides, especially the one regarding food-borne illnesses. Thank you, Ann Marie, for putting this together!
You can make this with raw or pasteurized milk, but raw milk will give you more benefits. This makes a nice, mild yogurt, not too sour. My daughter and I eat it plain, my son prefers some all-fruit jelly added to his. You could also sweeten with raw honey. Yogurt provides us with beneficial bacteria and protein. Plus, yogurt is very low in carbs!
This recipe is really easy; I think it takes be about 40 minutes at the most. Just read through the entire recipe before starting (and check out the pictures at the end of the article). Last time I made it, I also folded a load of towels at the same time J. I do this once a week to keep us supplied. It will make almost 2 quarts.
For the starter, I use Dannon Plain whole milk yogurt. Some say you can always save some of your yogurt to start another batch, but I have heard that it will not set up as firm each consecutive time. I buy a container of Dannon yogurt and then freeze it in an ice cube tray for later batches. I use ½ cup fresh yogurt or 4 yogurt cubes as my starter.
I pour 6 cups of milk into a two-quart saucepan and heat over medium heat on the stove until it reaches 180°F. I stir frequently (or rather, I whisk) and use a meat thermometer to accurately test the temperature.
Then I turn the heat off and cool my milk down to 110°F. You will kill your starter if you add it to milk that is heated to 115°F or higher. To cool down quickly I set my pan over a plate of ice and constantly stir or whisk it. When the temp is at 110°F, I then stir in the starter (see above). This will bring the temperature down a bit. If I’m using the yogurt ice cubes I will actually add them at 120°F, since they will bring the temperature down quite a bit. You want the temperature to be 100°F when you are ready to pour into your jars. If it has dropped below this, just put it back on the stove and gently warm it, stirring constantly. If it’s a little about 100°F, don’t worry; it will cool when you put it in the jars. Now you are ready to pour into quart jars and put on the lids.
You need to keep this warm for 6 hours. Some people will put them in the oven with the light on. I don’t think my oven stays warm enough for that. Some people will put them on a heating pad and wrap them in towels. I put mine in a little cooler. Before I start the process I will fill the cooler halfway with hot water to get it warm. Then I dump the water out right when I’m ready to put the jars in. I will put the jars in and pack a few hand towels around and on top of them to insulate even more. Then I set the timer for 6 hours. When it goes off I take the yogurt out and chill it overnight before we eat it.
Homemade yogurt has more of a custard-like texture than store-bought yogurt (I am speaking of plain store-bought, not fruit flavored). This is because the manufacturer has added powdered milk to thicken it up. Store-bought plain yogurt is not a food to avoid, but it is a compromise food; homemade is ideal. Powdered milk is processed milk and you know what I say, “If God created it, it is healthy; if man has processed it, it is unhealthy.” According to Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, “commercial dehydration methods oxidize cholesterol in powdered milk, rendering it harmful to the arteries. High temperature drying also creates large quantities of cross-linked proteins and nitrate compounds, which are potent carcinogens, as well as free glutamic acid, which is toxic to the nervous system. (pg. 35)” So powdered milk is something you want to stay away from. Powdered milk is added to skim, 1%, and 2% milk to give it body, also to yogurt to thicken it, and many other packaged food items.
I like thick, creamy yogurt, so I strain some whey out of mine. Plus I need the whey anyway; I use it in my oatmeal, pickles, sauerkraut, and more. You can place some cheesecloth in a wire strainer set over a bowl and fill it with yogurt. Cover it and place it in the refrigerator for an hour or more (I usually leave overnight). I buy unbleached coffee filters (basket-style) from Whole Foods and use them instead of cheesecloth. The longer you let the yogurt strain, the easier it will be to turn it out of the cloth or filter. I strain some of the yogurt and then mix it with some that is unstrained. You will have to play with it to get the thickness you are looking for. I usually end up with a little more than half the amount I originally made. But it’s worth it, to me. It’s oh so creamy and delicious! If you want to make dip out of it, just strain more whey out of it. Some use strained yogurt in place of cream cheese, too.
The more I use coconut oil, the more I learn of its wonderful benefits. You can read about my results with the flu and coconut oil here. I used to take it only if we felt a cold or the flu coming on, but I have discovered other uses.
My daughter broke out with a patch of eczema and I had just read Gut & Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (GAPS), so I gave her coconut oil for it. Dr. Campbell-McBride explains in her book how many, many issues are a result of an imbalance of bacteria in our gut. Coconut oil will kill harmful yeast, bacteria, and viruses in our gut. And most recently I learned that it helps ward off certain parasites, too. I gave my daughter the coconut oil daily for a couple of weeks and the patch disappeared. (It was the size of my palm.)
This summer, just a few days before my son was to leave for camp he had an outbreak of eczema all over both legs. It was the worst outbreak he had had in years, it itched so bad he was scratching through the night without even realizing it. My thought was that I couldn’t send him to camp like that! I gave him a half-teaspoon dose, three times a day, for three days. By the second day the itching had stopped and by the third day it was almost completely healed. I stopped the doses at three days since he really doesn’t care for coconut oil and the eczema kept healing, it didn’t come back.
In GAPS, Dr. Campbell-McBride also linked seasonal allergies with gut imbalance so I started taking a daily dose of coconut oil and drinking a lot more raw milk (great source of probiotics). My seasonal allergies were relieved by about 90% this year. That was awesome!
A Spoonful of Coconut Oil
How To Take It
Some people put coconut oil in hot liquid, like tea, to drink it down. I am not sure what temperature would negate its health benefits. Hot liquid to drink is probably fine, but I’m not so sure the anti-viral, bacteria, and fungal properties are kept when we cook with the oil. It is a healthy oil to cook with, but I try to get some raw oil in my family, as well.
When I gave it to my daughter for her eczema I would put a dollop (semi-solid) on her first bite of banana at breakfast. I have mixed it with honey for my son, but he didn’t like that. Now I barely warm it to liquefy it and put it in a medicine dropper for him. I take a spoonful of it in its semi-solid state (see above pic) with a drop of honey on top. For some reason the honey makes it go down, without that it’s not so easy. J
I cook my popcorn in coconut oil and also use it to sauté onions for my marinara. I don’t cook with it as much as some people. I am frugal and butter is cheaper and still very healthy. But for some dishes, butter will burn; so then I will use coconut oil. I also put some in my yogurt smoothies. I have started putting it on my kid’s peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. I just spread a thin layer on one slice of bread, spread on the jelly and the peanut butter and voila!—they don’t even know it’s there! This way they are getting a little bit every day.
I like to buy my coconut oil from www.greenpasture.org. It is quality oil at a great price! (I’m not paid to say that. J)
Here is an article I found that lists in detail all the wonderful benefits of coconut oil.
Here is another article by the same blogger about all the ways you can use coconut oil.
This week I am making…
Beet Kvass,
Beet Kvass
Kombucha,
Kombucha
Yogurt & Buttermilk,
Yogurt
Pickled Green Tomatoes,
Pickled Green Tomatoes
and
Sauerkraut.
Sauerkraut
Why, you ask? 1 – it’s fun and easy. 2 – they’re yummy. And…3 – they’re chock full of goodness!
Beet Kvass, according to Nourishing Traditions, page 610, is, “loaded with nutrients, an excellent blood tonic, promotes regularity, aids digestion, alkalizes the blood, cleanses the liver and is a good treatment for kidney stones and other ailments. May also be used in place of vinegar in salad dressings and as an addition to soups.”
Kombucha I wrote about earlier, see here.
Yogurt is full of probiotics and protein. I make buttermilk to have on hand as a starter culture for sour cream and for recipes that call for it, such as biscuits, pancakes and such.
The pickled green tomato recipe I got here. It’s a variation of the pickled cucumber recipe from Nourishing Traditions. I varied a bit from the recipe listed. I sliced my tomatoes and used dill seed instead of weed. I have never made these before; I really hope they turn out. I tried a garden this year, well, really just one container. I grew tomatoes and basil and was really happy with the turnout. I picked all my green tomatoes on Sunday to save them from the frost.
Sauerkraut picture 1 is shredded cabbage. Picture 2 is the cabbage that has been salted and has wilted, plus some caraway seeds were added. Picture 3 is the kraut in jars. This recipe is from Nourishing Traditions, page 92. Sauerkraut has been known as a health wonder for millennia. Roman historian Pliny wrote of it around 50BC. Captain Cook could not have discovered Hawaii, Alaska, New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia had it not been for sauerkraut. He brought barrels of it on his voyage and ordered his men to eat it, punishing those that tried to refuse. Sauerkraut was the wonder food that protected the crew from scurvy. We now know that it is high in vitamin C.
All of these naturally fermented items contain enzymes, probiotics, and loads of vitamins.
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