You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'raw milk' tag.
I just read an awesome article in this month’s issue of Prevention magazine. I have read about Omega essential fatty acids before, but this article brought some new things to light.
We’ve heard of Omega-3 essential fatty acids, but what about Omega-6? We hear we should eat fish to get Omega-3s, but is it found in other food?
Please read here and then you can read my notes.
The Vanishing Youth Nutrient by Susan Allport
Notes-
The author makes an excellent point that we need to get back on grass-fed meat and dairy, like our great-grandparents. Here are some sources:
In the Tulsa, OK area – Swan Brother’s Dairy
Also for Oklahomans – Oklahoma Food Co-op
In the Tulsa area – Natural Farms (two locations–4th & Utica or 91st & Yale)
Also check out Eat Wild for a list of sources in your area.
Or you can order from US Wellness Meats
(I have not been paid to promote any of the above businesses.)
We see in this article that a big portion of the Omega-6s in our diet come from vegetable oils, soybean, cottonseed, corn, etc. If you will remember from my earlier article, But Isn’t It Natural?, that these oils are very difficult to extract from the beans/seeds. Chemicals are involved, as is high heat, both of which damage the oil tremendously. If we would just eat these seeds in their whole form, we wouldn’t be overdosing on Omega-6. Remember–If God created it, it is healthy, but if man has adulterated it, it isn’t.
I cannot agree with her recommendation of Canola oil for two reasons. Canola oil has a 2:1 ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3. This means that for every gram of Omega-3 you’re getting, you are still getting 2 grams of Omega-6. I don’t see how this helps anyone. We are supposed to be getting a ratio of 1:1 of Omega-3s and 6s. Chances are, if you are using Canola oil, you are still eating some packaged food, so you are still getting too many Omega-6s. The other reason is that the oil you buy in the store is already damaged, like mentioned above, by the heat and chemical process. Ingesting damaged oils is toxic to your system. But let’s say you are going to buy expeller-pressed Canola. Then what? If you are heating it, you are damaging it. If you want to drizzle it cold, on your salad, I suppose it would be okay. I, myself, will stay away from Canola. Want more information? Click here.
On page 115 (in the magazine) and page 6 (online), I take issue with point #6. Butter is not bad. You can read my article on that topic, here. And did you know that butter has antioxidants in it?!? Click here to read more.
So, overall, the information in this article was great and I hope it helps you. It basically just comes down to the fact that if we were all eating food that hasn’t been processed, we would be getting plenty of the right Omega-3s and Omega-6s, in the right ratios.
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:
In the last installment, I posted a link that answered the question of why I drink raw milk. I should add that the number one reason is because of my motto–if God created it, it is healthy; if man has adulterated it, it is unhealthy. Pasteurized milk is one of our most processed/adulterated foods (that everyone thinks is healthy). Now on to this week’s topic.
Celtic Sea Salt
You may have noticed that I call for this in most of my recipes. Specifically, my Curried Sweet Potato Soup and my Molasses Sourdough Bread.
Why?
Let’s go back to the beginning.
I first heard of Celtic Sea Salt when reading Nourishing Traditions. Sally Fallon calls for it in all her recipes. So I bought some so I could try making homemade sauerkraut. It was quite expensive, I think I paid about $6.00 for a one-pound package.
So I made some sauerkraut and then left the salt up in the cupboard and didn’t dare use it for anything else, since it cost so much!
Well, one day I was talking to a friend and she told me that she had started using Celtic Sea Salt and it tasted so much better than regular salt in her food. My package had been in the cupboard for quite a while at this point. I figured I should start using it.
So I tried it out and she was right–it tasted great. But another very interesting thing happened. An issue I had been dealing with cleared up. Around the time I had my daughter (she’s 3 and a half now), I started having dizzy spells. They weren’t like anything I had ever experienced before. It wasn’t lightheadedness, like low blood sugar–I knew what that felt like. It wasn’t full vertigo, the room didn’t actually spin, but it was just a very weird feeling. My legs would feel weird and my stomach would feel weird and I would just close my eyes until the feeling passed–it usually lasted a few seconds. Well, these episodes started happening more frequently and were becoming longer in duration. I am the type of person that only goes to the doctor in emergencies, but this was starting to concern me.
When I started using Celtic Sea Salt on my food the dizzy spells stopped! I was thrilled! This told me that it must be some sort of mineral deficiency causing them.
I used up the bag of salt that I had and didn’t rush back out to buy more since it was so expensive. After a bit, the dizzy spells returned, so I ran right back to the health food store to buy more salt. I didn’t care how much it cost now, this was medicine to me! As long as I keep using the Celtic Sea Salt, the dizzy spells seem to stay away. And interestingly, the RLS I had for many, many years is almost non-existent!
Celtic Sea Salt is an unrefined salt. Therefore it has a range of minerals that are not present in regular table salt or even other sea salts. You will notice that it is gray, that is because of all the minerals.
It comes in coarse or fine. I have found that the fine salt is more expensive. I just buy the coarse and grind it in my food processor.
You will notice that it is moist when you buy it. Dr. Hulda Clark recommends sterilizing it in the oven (400F) on a plate for 5 minutes, to kill mold. I did not know this for a while, but a batch of my ferments molded, so now I am taking this precaution.
I do keep Hain Sea Salt on hand for certain things, to keep in the salt shaker, but I use Celtic Sea Salt in all of my cooking.
So why use Celtic Sea Salt? It will help supply your body with needed minerals, it is unrefined (therefore in line with my motto), and it tastes great!
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!
I made the most delicious thing the other night–homemade egg nog! Let me tell you, it was fabulous!
I love egg nog, but it is not something I have had much in the last few years. I don’t think I’ve bought any in the last year at least, maybe two. I can’t help but read labels and I can’t bear to buy it when it has all that junk in it–high fructose corn syrup and chemical thickeners, flavors, and preservatives. Plus in the last few years the store kind is just too sticky sweet for my taste.
I opened up my Joy of Cooking the other day and the recipe for homemade egg nog didn’t seem to fit my needs. First of all, it was for a very large crowd, second, it was complicated as it called for cooking for egg safety, and third, it called for Rum. I wasn’t sure if I could cut the recipe down by 12ths or if it would taste like my favorite store brand without the rum.
On a whim I just decided to be creative and create some of my own. I used the following ingredients:
1/3 cup raw cream
1/3 cup raw whole milk
1 raw egg yolk
1 Tb sugar (you could use honey or stevia, they may impart their own flavor)
dash of vanilla
sprinkle of nutmeg
This made one serving (about 7 ounces). I mixed it with an immersion blender, but I think you could whisk it, as well. The blender actually made it foamy and I could do without the foam.
I did not heat this to cook the egg, I was brave and drank it raw! I consider myself a brave person when it comes to food. I cooked a roast one time that I had left on the counter all night to thaw. I figured I was going to be cooking it for 3 hours, that should kill anything harmful. :) I’m sure some of you have nibbled on raw cookie dough, even though we’re told we’re not supposed to do that!
I mixed the nog and then had it drank within 30 minutes, it’s not like it sat out for hours. :) So procede at your own risk. Ideally, use eggs that are farm fresh, they are safer. Or you could look up the Joy of Cooking recipe and follow the instruction for heating it up. The other day a friend mentioned that this would make good ice cream. Maybe next year I’ll try that!
I am going to enjoy making this every holiday season now. I hope you enjoy it as well.
Recent Comments