More food contamination??

What's going on lately with all the veggies and, now, cold cuts being contaminated?  Thank goodness people aren't being poisoned by everyday food items....it's only raw milk we need to fear.  Right?  It's always amazing to me to see how many foods are causing terror in our food system, and yet there are outright raids on the poor small farmers trying to provide raw milk to an increasingly larger group of people.

Story after story is surfacing about how hard food officials are on a food that has it's own internal cleansing ability, while incident after incident of food contamination is reported in the news.  In fact, it's getting to the point of being a monthly event; and who gets raided?  Raw milk farmers.

I'm always so aware of how lucky I am, when picking up my raw milk from the co op I belong to.  I'm grateful to the cows; the farmer who helps produce the milk; the guy who drives the truck to Long Island, packed with this nutrient rich food for my family; and the naturopathic doctor who knows enough to give her patients access to it!

I will continue to support those farmers, support my family, and support our health with grass-fed raw milk.  I'll also keep envisioning positive changes in the laws that support freedom of producing and buying raw milk.  I think appreciation brings more of what you are appreciating:  I appreciate my freedom to choose.  I appreciate this great raw living food!  Support your dairy farmers.

Fresh and Sour Is Only For REAL Milk

Just heard something on the radio on the way home this morning about a couple of blokes in England that thought up a cute new gimmick for milk cartons:  They will show the words "fresh" and "sour", accordingly.  The announcers were thrilled, but it made me think:  That's not accurate!

To use those terms, fresh and sour, it would need to be REAL raw milk.  Fresh milk, in many countries, means unpastuerized milk.  There's truth in that, as that's the freshest milk you'll get!  Check out imported cheeses....if it says "fresh", it means unpasteurized, or raw, milk.  And the usage of sour is incorrect, as well.  Pasteurized milk goes RANCID!  All the live enzymes (and basically everything else that makes milk a health food) is lost when you pasteurize milk.  It no longer can naturally change into a soured milk...which is another wonderful transformation of REAL raw milk.

Only REAL raw milk sours;  pasteurized milk becomes...garbage.  Fresh milk is raw milk.  The white stuff you buy in Stop and Shop is a milk food--just like Cheese Wiz.  Perhaps that will be the next new gimmick for milk.....milk in a can?!   Perish the thought.

Check out www.realmilk.com for info on raw milk!

Mighty Neighborly of You

I have a friend, here on the North Fork, who raises her own chickens and geese for the delicious eggs they so graciously supply daily.  It was a normal part of life for most citizens a few generations ago, especially in rural areas, to have chickens and other livestock of your own.  Today, most people simply stand on line at Waldbaum's for something that resembles real eggs.
 
If you have never had the good grace of having REAL pastured eggs, I suggest you seek them out.  The difference is quite marked.  The taste is much more flavorful, the color of the yolk (if the chickens are getting sunshine. insects, and greens)  is anywhere from a deep yellow to an incredible deep ORANGE--I mean orange, too!--and the nutritional value skyrockets!

I just read on Weston A. Price Foundation's facebook page that someone loves their raw milk so much that they are going to buy a Jersey cow!  Now, that my friend's is dedication.  I would love to raise my own animals, but to be frank:  I know exactly what goes into it.  Think taking care of a puppy is a lot of work?

I'm honest enough with myself to admit when something is over my head.  With three kids and a new puppy, raising Clarabelle and the chics is way over!!  I'm very fortunate to have friends who have the energy, time, and patience to put into raising their animals so I can simply make a donation to the food supply and share in the bounty.

It is too sad today that the food you buy from the supermarkets is so suspect that we must seek out other food sources.  However, even though most of America saw what's really going on in our modern day food industry on Oprah, I still doubt most people will put in the effort to seek out other food sources at all.  Not only does it take a great effort (or atleast going out of your way a bit more), but it takes knowing who and where to go to get this alternate food.  Food that is grown and raised properly and where you know the source personally.

 I lucked out with a husband who hunts (the best meats you'll find), and I live in an area where people have surplus property to raise animals.  I also joined a co-op to purchase other meats, raw milk, raw cheese, raw butter, and sprouted grains.  Looking back, I did think it all a bit strange and extremist when I first embarked on this journey....but once you taste REAL food and see the results in your family, I can't imagine any other way of eating.

I can imagine a world of people happily exchanging food the way they used to before the advent of the Super-market.  I can imagine going local for all foods:  To Jenny for your eggs, Steve for your milk and dairy products, and Ernie for your maple syrup and fermented products.  Perhaps you'd be coming to me for some fermented chutney's, or even some soaked and oven dried nuts.  With awareness, who knows where we're headed!