The Best Thing to Do With a Beef Shank

When I started buying grassfed beef about a year ago, I discovered that the cuts I was used to buying and preparing were now way too expensive for my budget.  I love beef (and so does everyone in my family) but there was no way we were going to be eating $25/lb steaks on any kind of regular basis.  So I started looking at Whole Food’s selection of grassfed beef according to price rather than cut.  I noticed something called a “shank” that went for 5 or 6 bucks a pound.  So I bought some.  I had never cooked shank before and was unsure what to do with it, but in the spirit of the revolution, I decided to figure it out.  It is now one of my favorite parts of the cow and we eat beef shank usually once a week.

Beef shanks are slices of the cow’s shin.  If bone-in (you always want it bone in!), there is always a nice piece of marrow bone surrounded by some meat.  Now, since shank comes from the leg, it is well used, tough muscle and needs to be cooked “low and slow”.   There are a few really awesome things about shank, beyond its reasonable price.  First of all, that chunk of marrow bone that it comes with is magic.  You get all the nutrition and flavor from the bone and the marrow as you braise the shank.  Second of all, I have come to the realization that muscle meat that was worked hard during the cow’s life and then cooked slow in liquid afterward, ends up being just as flavorful (if not more) as the most pricey filet. 

So, here is one of my favorite things to do with a beef shank (or two).  This dish is delicious, chock full of nutrition, and inexpensive.

Beef shanks (you can use just one if your budget is thin or splurge and get two)

1-2 Tbsp of good fat (I usually use tallow but lard, coconut oil and butter all work well.  I have used bacon drippings before and the bacon-y flavor added a very subtle deliciousness to the dish).

Salt and pepper (I use pink Himalayan salt)

Splash of vinegar (I like apple cider)

2 (or more) cloves of garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

2-3 carrots, cut into chunks

2 cups diced tomatoes

Any other veggies you have in your fridge that you would like to use up

Sour cream (I culture Piima cream—it’s my favorite)

Water

Choose shanks that have lots of meat on them but also a good chunk of marrow in the bone.  Season the shanks on both sides with salt and pepper. 

In a dutch oven or heavy pot, heat up the fat and then place the shanks in the hot fat, allowing them to brown on both sides.  Add the onion, garlic, and carrots as the meat is browning and allow them to begin to soften in the fat for 5 minutes or so.

Add the vinegar and tomatoes.  Cover with water and put the lid on the pot.  Let it heat up but  just before it boils, turn the heat down to a simmer.  Let the shanks and veggies simmer for two or three hours.  When the carrots are soft and the meat has fallen off the bone, add in other vegetables (or not).   Green and yellow squash, broccoli, or greens are all good.  I also love this dish with nothing added—experiment and see what your family likes best.

When all the veggies are nicely cooked (but not mushy), use two forks to shred the meat.  Take out the bones, making sure that the marrow has fallen out and is somewhere in the liquid (knock it against the side of the pot or poke it with your spoon to get it to fall out).  If you can find it and break it up into smaller pieces, everyone will have a chance to get some…if not, just keep your fingers crossed that it ends up in your bowl!   Serve in soup bowls with a dollop of cultured sour cream to give it a probiotic kick and extra richness.

Kitchen Revolution

A revolution is not necessarily an organized or methodical process.  It can be messy, with fits and starts and sometimes retreats.  My personal kitchen revolution has not followed a straight path.  Almost a year into it, I can look back and see how I might have proceeded differently had I known then what I know now.  Ultimately, my revolution has been my own experience and has followed the path of the knowledge and understanding that was given to me at each step along the way. 

If I was giving advice to someone just starting this journey toward real food, I would first of all tell them that it is about taking small steps, not leaping off a cliff.  There is so much to learn, to consider, and to do, that it cannot be accomplished quickly or easily.  It has to be a process, where layers are built as you learn and grow.

One of these days I will write about the twisting and turning path that my revolution has taken.  For today, I am going to focus on how I would have done it, had I known then what I know now.

For a step by step process, check out Kurt Harris' Archevore.  This 12 step list is straightforward and simple.  Go down the list in order, over time.  Don't do all the steps at once.  Dr. Harris gives a thorough explanation for the rationale for each step on his blog, so I won't repeat them here. Just click his links and read.

I am going to focus on his first four steps because in my mind, they overlap and can become a first step in your kitchen revolution.  I am going to add my own step, as well, switching to raw dairy.  If I were starting all over, I would focus on these things.  I would not try to do everything at once, but would implement the easiest changes first and work toward the more difficult ones.  I would be forgiving and gentle with myself and not expect perfection, just progress.

The first step is to eliminate sugar and flour.  When you do this, you will have to eliminate all processed foods.  Get rid of the boxed meals, pasta, bread, cookies, crackers, bars, cereal. Last summer I cleaned out my pantry, literally throwing away two thirds of the food in it.  Ultimately, I threw away most of that last third, but that was part of the process.  Throw away all the snack foods.  If it comes in a package or a box, get rid of it.  There were certain things that I threw in the trash and certain things that we ate but I did not replace.  You could approach the process either way. 

This was huge for my family.  My kids were horrified.  I had many conversations with my eight year old about why we were changing our diet.  I explained why sugar and wheat were bad for our bodies and we agreed that on Saturdays he could choose to have a treat.  My husband took the change a little better than my son, but only outwardly.  Since I have always been the one who grocery shops and cooks in our house, he eats what I buy and prepare.  He will go to the store and get the kinds of snacks that are banned from my kitchen but he keeps them at his office or stashed in his little hiding place on the top shelf of the pantry.  He has agreed to not to eat them in front of the kids. 

It seemed like a major hurdle to figure out what to give my kids for snacks.  I struggled with this idea until it occurred to me that I was making it more complicated than it had to be.  I have always kept a big bowl of fruit on the kitchen table and carrots and celery in the crisper drawer.  I also buy cheese, sausage, and ham.  There is plenty of water and milk to drink.  They don't have to eat something made of flour and a sugary drink to have a snack. We had some whining and pouting for a week or so.  I ignored it and eventually it went away.  Now, my kids take for granted their choices for a snack...and the truth is, I have noticed that they snack less.  That is probably a healthy development.

At this point in the process I began to feel more energy and I lost 15 pounds effortlessly. 

The next step is to learn to use natural fats.  This step can be done at the same time as eliminating sugar and flour.  You can replace the lost sugar and flour calories with calories from good fat.  Don't be afraid to eat fat.  It will make you feel good and it won't make you fat.  Understanding the truth about fat was a huge step for me.  The moment that I realized that the assumptions I had held about saturated fat were dead wrong was an epiphany for me.  I was reading Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes and the light bulb went on.  I realized that I had been lied to and misled.  I understood that my poor health was a consequence of bad information.  I was so angry, I threw the book across the room. 

Buy butter.  Get some coconut oil.  Use either or both of these to cook with and on your vegetables.  I originally bought my coconut oil from Whole Foods but have since started to buy it in bulk on the internet.  I buy the unrefined, virgin coconut oil that has a light coconut flavor.  If you don't like the taste of coconut, you can buy the refined kind that is flavorless.  I have read that it is just as good. 

You can also reserve the fat from bacon.  Just pour it from the pan that you cooked the bacon in and save it in the fridge for the next time you need some fat to cook with.  You can strain it through a coffee filter if you want.  Eggs are especially delicious cooked in bacon grease. 

I have since moved on to render my own lard from fatback bought from a local farmer, but this is not necessary.  I cooked for a long time just using butter, coconut oil, and reserved bacon grease. 

I read Eat Fat Lose Fat by Enig and Fallon and started eating a teaspoon of coconut oil before each meal.  It sounds a little gross but it is actually not bad.  When I started this habit, I noticed some amazing transformations.  My energy levels soared, my libido bounced back, my periods settled down, and I felt happy for no reason.  There is something magic about coconut oil.  It contains medium chain fats which are not processed by your body in the same way as other fats.  It gets converted directly into energy and has several different anti-microbial compounds.  It makes me feel good. 

The third step is to eliminate gluten grains.  Hopefully you have already done this by eliminating flour.  But now tighten it up.  Don't let gluten touch your lips, ever.  I am convinced that years of eating "healthy whole wheat" in the form of whole wheat bread and pasta has destroyed the lining of my gut and is the root of my depressed thyroid.  Gluten is a protein in wheat and other grains that is difficult to digest and causes a whole host of problems.  It turns out that if you are exposed to gluten, even a tiny bit, it takes 6 to 9 months for your body's inflammatory response to settle back down.  And gluten is hidden in everything.  It's in soup, sauces, added to packaged foods, even added to bread--which already has it, of course!

I see many places where people talk about eating grains that have been properly prepared to make them more digestible...but I choose not to eat them at all.  I have read that soaking and sprouting grain makes them better but still not optimal.  I stick to "safe starches" (as explained by The Perfect Health Diet) like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sometimes white rice (which I cook with bone broth instead of water). 

Every Sunday I take communion at church but I bring my own little gluten free rice cracker and pass the plate of wheat crackers on to the next person.  It's my belief that it is the act of eating that is the communion, not which cracker I eat.

The fourth step is to eliminate grain and seed derived oils.  You have already done this when you switched to natural fats but now become militant about it.   Get rid of all bottled oils, margarine, and imitation butter spreads.  Throw away the salad dressing, mayonnaise, and other oil based products in your fridge.  All of them are made with seed oils (usually soybean oil).  Polyunsaturated seed oils (canola, corn, soy, safflower, cottonseed, vegetable) are unnatural, rancid, and turn to trans fats in your body.  Olive oil is a good fat but since most olive oils that you buy in the grocery store are cut with inferior oils, you have to be really careful about what kind you buy.  In any case, don't cook with olive oil.  When you eliminate these oils from your diet, you will once again discover that you cannot eat packaged foods since they almost always have soybean oil in them.  All fast foods and most restaurant foods are off the menu since they are cooked with seed oils.  We still eat in restaurants every once in awhile but we NEVER eat fast food anymore.  This has certainly been a good thing for our budget. 

Make your own salad dressing using good olive oil and vinegar.  Choose a nice vinegar like balsamic or wine to make the dressing special.  Combine the oil and vinegar in a jar, at a ratio of 2 to 1.  Add some finely chopped garlic and salt and pepper.  Shake well.  You can also add finely grated parmesan cheese, onion, or any herbs that taste good.   Make your own mayonnaise with egg yolks and olive oil.  Use your homemade mayo as a base for a creamy, ranch style dressing.

At this point, your kitchen has been completely changed and you are probably feeling some amazing effects from having eliminated many modern toxins and incorporated many healthy, real foods.  Archevore goes on to list other steps that you will want to incorporate as you continue down the road. 

I would add one more thing to change at this point, especially if you have young children.  Switch to raw dairy.  Go to realmilk.com and search for sources of raw dairy in your area.  Different states have different laws about how and where raw milk can be sold.  This website will give you lots of information about why you should only give your kids raw milk and it will also give you sources for raw milk in your area.  You can also go to the Weston A. Price Foundation website and look for your local chapter.  Contact the chapter leader and ask where to find raw milk.


Here are some great sources of help for making the transition to real food:

Nourished Kitchen
Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Weston A. Price Dietary Guidelines
The Perfect Health Diet

Answering Deena's Questions

This morning I got a facebook message from my old friend, Deena.  She had stumbled onto this blog (probably through a FB post, I am sure) and asked me:

Lauren, I happened on your blog today and am very interested in what you are doing to get and keep your family healthy and happy. Can you share more with me about your daily menus and meals? How do you balance life with the extra time and effort it takes to eat this way? Hope you are all doing well....Love Deena

So, I have to say that this question from someone I care about is EXACTLY why I created this blog.  I had to drop everything and answer her questions. 

She wonders about how I balance my life with all the extra time and effort Real Food requires…and I think she has touched on the most amazing and magical part of my kitchen revolution.  A year ago I was exhausted and spent by 3pm.  I struggled to cook for my family and often lost the fight, falling back on frozen pizza and boxed mac and cheese just because it was easy.  These days I spend hours in the kitchen, making everything from scratch, culturing dairy and veggies, brewing kombucha, making butter…plus every week I travel around to source all my local ingredients from several farms as well as visiting 4 different stores.  There is no “one stop shop” for me.  How did it happen that I now have the energy and desire to go to such lengths to feed my family in the most labor intensive way possible?  And why would I want to?

First of all, I have to say that as I have changed my diet, my vitality and energy has increased.  I saw a jump in my energy and a decrease in brain fog and fatigue when I cut out processed carbs and especially wheat (and I lost weight, which made me feel better, too).  When I started eating large amounts of saturated fat (coconut oil, butter, cream, lard) I felt an amazing lift in my mood and energy.  All of a sudden the negative cloud I had lived under for many years lifted.  Life became easier and more joyful. When I read Eat Fat Lose Fat by Fallon and Enig, I started eating a tablespoon of coconut oil every morning (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it) and I almost immediately felt better. I think the addition of saturated fat made such a difference to my vitality and brain function.  I learned first hand how important natural saturated fat is to our bodies, especially our brains.

Here is what our family typically eats:

For breakfast, Latas drinks coffee with grass fed cream and I have tea (I cut out coffee when I realized that it could be contributing to my low thyroid and adrenal function).  I cook 2 or 3 sausages or a pound of bacon (both pastured, of course) that I get from Burns Best Farm.  I usually cook them in my cast iron skillet under the broiler and if I am making bacon, I am sure to save the grease in a mason jar (strain it through a cheese cloth) so I can cook with it another time.  The kids drink raw milk from Carlton Farms and for a treat I might whisk two raw egg yolks (also from Burns) into the milk, add a splash of cream and maple syrup (Grade B from whole foods), vanilla and cinnamon.   Another option might be to give them half organic orange juice (from Trader Joes) and half grass fed cream (from Johnston Dairy).  Here’s a little secret:  I always splash a little whey into whatever they are drinking to give them a little probiotic kick.  Don’t tell them, please!  I drain the whey off the yogurt I make. Anna also eats fruit and sometimes raw cheddar (From Carlton Farms) in the morning.  I eat the homemade yogurt that I make from Johnston milk.  Latas takes two hardboiled eggs with him in the car when he leaves for work.

For lunch I pack Anna slices of ham or an uncured hot dog (from Trader Joes) and homemade, fermented ketchup.  Sometimes she gets some chicken if I have just made bone broth with a whole bird rather than a carcass.  She also gets fruit and/or carrots in her lunch box and a chunk of raw cheddar.  Isaac is homeschooled, so we usually eat leftovers from the night before for lunch.  I also like to make a big salad for each of us with the greens we get from our CSA with Lee and Gordon Greens.  I generally put a hardboiled egg and raw cheddar in it along with whatever veggies I have.  I always throw in a tablespoon of fermented carrots.  I make a basic olive oil and balsamic dressing that is super easy and yummy. Isaac drinks raw milk and I drink water.

Butter Butter Butter

I told myself that when spring came around and the local cows started noshing on the new green grass, that I would buy some pastured cream and try to make some butter.  I read in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration how the isolated alpine Swiss celebrated the milk at this time in the year as sacred.  Butter made from spring milk is full of Weston Price's Activator X. 

Spring is here in Georgia and I have noticed lately that our milk has turned from white to beige as the cows eat the lovely green grass.  The new grass is so full of carotenoids that the milk gets a little yellow with it.  And apparently, butter and cheese made with this milk will be yellow as well.  This past winter I was buying butter made from local, grass fed milk but since the cows were eating hay, the butter was white. 

So, I got myself a gallon of cream (not raw, but vat pasteurized from a local grass fed dairy, Johnston Family Farms.) and I started making butter.

First, I made sweet cream butter, meaning that I just used the fresh cream and did not culture it.  I poured about a pint of cream into my Kitchen Aid mixer and used the whisk attachment.  It takes a lot of high speed whisking to finally get to the butter.  It also spatters quite a bit.  Note to self:  try using the food processor next time.  You know you've gotten there when the cream starts to clump and separate from the liquid.  I drained off the liquid (buttermilk) with my mesh strainer.  Tiny globs of butter made it through the mesh. Note to self: strain it through a cloth next time.  Then I poured about a half a cup of ice cold water into the bowl and mixed again.  And strained again. And again.  This is called "washing" the butter.  You want to keep at it until the strained water is clear. This process helps preserve the butter.  It won't go rancid as quickly if it has all the milk solids washed out.  I added some salt as I worked it. Salt helps to preserve the butter, as well. I didn't really measure; I just sprinkled it on as I went.

I turned the big glob of butter out on to my big cutting board and worked it with my plastic spatula until I couldn't squeeze out any more water.  It was a lovely, creamy yellow.  Fresh butter is amazing--light and sweet.  I could almost taste the fresh green grass.

The second time around, I used my food processor with the dough blade.  It didn't spatter but it also required more stopping and scraping the sides.  I think I prefer using the stand mixer.  Washing and working the butter to remove the milk solids is a bit tedious.  This time, I kept the butter in a bowl as I worked it with my spatula.  I think they used to use a paddle for this job and I could see how my spatula was not an efficient size or shape for the job..  As I worked the butter against the side of the bowl, a little pool of water would form at the bottom and I just tipped it out as I went.  This was an easier and neater method than working it on my cutting board. 

I wrapped the balls of butter in some wax paper, put them in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer.  Butter is supposed to stay good in the freezer for 6 months. 

The third time I made butter, I used cream that I had cultured.  I couldn't find any buttermilk or sour cream in the store that had active, live cultures, so I decided to use my piima culture.  I've been using piima to make sour cream and it has a lovely, mild taste.  I figured it would make good butter.  I used the stand mixer and after just a few minutes the buttermilk separated.  I washed it a little but the butter seemed light and airy, it didn't get thick like fresh cream had.  I decided to whip it for awhile longer...and ended up with very light, whipped butter.  I am not sure if I made a mistake or if this is what the piima culture did to my butter.  I ended up putting it into mason jars and storing it in the fridge--it'll be lovely on veggies and rice but probably not great to cook with.   I am going to try piima again...I'll edit this post if my results are any different.

I bought another gallon of cream this weekend...so I'll continue butter making for a little while, at least.  I am not sure that it is worth the time to make this a regular part of my Real Food Revolution...I can buy good butter (Kerrygold) from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and even Costco.  It's pricey but not unreasonable.  But for the time being, butter making is fun and interesting.  And I am excited about stocking my freezer with locally sourced Activator X.

The Consequence of Pizza Twice a Day

On Saturday we had a birthday party for Isaac.  He turned 9 on March 20th but that week was a little hectic so we decided to celebrate a week late.  We held the party at Isaac and Anna's taekwondo school and as a part of the price, they brought in pizza and juice pouch drinks for the kids.  And then we had cake (not homemade, just a standard ice cream cake bought from a local store).  That evening was Parent's Night Out at the tkd school and Isaac and Anna attended that, as well (Latas and I were so exhausted from the day that we did not actually go "out"...but the break was very welcome).  At Parent's Night Out, they were fed MORE pizza, MORE sugary drinks, and all kinds of junk snacks.  For my kids, it was a day for the SAD (Standard American Diet).

It's been almost a year since my kids have eaten like this.  Even before my kitchen revolution began it was highly unusual for them to get TWO junk food meals in a day.  When I was planning the party, I struggled with the idea of so much gargage going into my children but I just could not see myself having the time or energy to go to the lengths it would have taken to upgrade the food.  I figured that one day of junk out of 365 days of Real Food was not such a bad compromise.  And they had a good breakfast...surely it wouldn't hurt.

Since I started my Real Food Revolution, Isaac and Anna's health and wellness have noticeably improved.  Isaac, who has always been generally very healthy and resistant to most of the bugs that pass through, now has apples in his cheeks and a consistently cheerful attitude that we saw just glimpses of before.  Anna, who has struggled from birth with her own involved health problems, has improved in her resistance.  I am sure that some people might want to explain to me that the upswing in their health may not have anything to do with raw dairy, fermented cod liver oil, and elimination of wheat from their diets...but I believe it does.  And until you show me evidence to the contrary, I will trust my gut, my eyes, and my experience.

So, Saturday came and went.  We all went to bed Saturday night, exhausted from a full day.  And we woke up Sunday morning to find that Anna was running a fever and Isaac was pale and pasty with dark circles under his eyes.  I am sure they were both sick because they were exposed at some point to a bug that decided to take root...and I am also sure that this bug was able to take root because of the garbage they poured into their bodies throughout the day on Saturday.  We are ALL being exposed to all kinds of bugs every day...so what determines whether we will succumb?  Our immune systems, of course!  And our immune system is built from our gut, nourished or deadened by what we put in it. 

So, what is the consequence of pizza twice a day (or any kind of trash food, for that matter)?  Lowered immunity, sick kids, and a spoiled Sunday.  In fact, Anna ran that fever until Tuesday morning.  It's Friday today and she is still not quite herself.

My take-away?  A compromise in my children's diet is a compromise in their health.  It isn't worth it.

Bonny Clabber

I am fascinated by fermented dairy.  I love the idea that these little magic critters will happily predigest milk for me, making it easier on my stomach, removing some of the sugar, and improving its benefits.  It is thrilling to take the bowl of scalded milk that I left in my warm oven the night before and find creamy, beautiful yogurt.  I love that there are so many varieties--beyond yogurt, I have made piima, labnah, crème fraich, and buttermilk.  My next project is kefir. 
 In all the many varieties of cultured dairy, you add a starter culture, inoculating the milk with the specific species of microbe that produces the result you want.  The starter you begin with predicts the product you end up with.  It is fascinating to me that there are so many variants to soured milk.  In every culture that traditionally used dairy they depended on microorganisms to preserve their milk.  Each culture had its own unique version, from cheese to yogurt to sour cream, but the goal was the same—imbue perishable milk with a bit of immortality. 

Bonny clabber is another fascinating dairy ferment but it is a little different.  It is the product of wild fermentation. You don't inoculate the milk, it inoculates itself.   You set the milk out for a few days and let it go.  It thickens and curdles.  In the end you have something that looks a lot like cottage cheese and tastes very sour and yogurt-ish. 

Apparently, clabber came to the southern United States, especially Appalachia, with immigrants from Scotland.  The name, “bonny clabber”, is from Gaelic for soured milk. I can imagine that those thrifty, frugal people were unwilling to throw away nutritious milk that had soured in the hot weather (I can relate-raw milk is expensive and I don’t want to waste any of it).

Bonny clabber has died out with the advent of pasteurization.  In fact, it's a little difficult to get over the cultural notion that milk that has gone sour, and in the case of bonny clabber, has thickened and curdled, is not ok to eat.  Paradoxically, I have no problem enjoying yogurt, kefir, sour cream, or any other more “cultured” dairy ferment.  I had a hard time finding much about bonny clabber on the internet. I found a Civil War recipe, which was kind of cool, and Jenny at Nourished Kitchen mentions it when talking about the variety of cultured dairy.  Alchemille tried it back in 2009 and I found a mention of it in a book called Scotch-Irish Foodways in America.

 So, I had a gallon of raw milk that went sour this weekend.  Normally, I make sour milk into chocolate milk or eggnog and let my kids have a special treat.  I don't want to send expensive raw milk down the drain just because it's sour--raw milk that has soured is not like pasteurized milk which becomes putrid and rotten.  The little magic critters just start using up the milk sugar and turning the milk sour...it actually becomes MORE nourishing.  So, I find a way to get it into my kids' tummies. 

This time I decided to completely jump the shark and see if I could make bonny clabber.  I put a quart of sour milk in a mason jar, covered it and set it in what I have come to call my “ferment cupboard”—the cupboard above my range that stays nice and warm.  Three days later (that would be this morning), I took it down and opened it.  It had curdled into a solid mass and smelled like warm yogurt.  I put a little in a bowl and tasted it—wow! Very sour!  The texture reminded me a little of custard.  It was shiny and thick and white.  The cream had risen to the top of the jar and curdled separately, so I spooned that off first.  I had read that you can make clabber butter with clabbered cream…now, that’s a thought. The whey breaks out very quickly when you start to spoon out the clabber so I decided to stain some of it off.  I used a coffee filter to line my strainer and left it for a couple of hours.  It strains a lot slower than yogurt. 

After the straining, it looked more like cottage cheese than custard.  I tried it with brown sugar, cinnamon, and cream and it was good…different but good.  My 9 year old had it for breakfast and he liked it too.  I can’t see us having it very often because it requires a good heaping helping of sweetness to deal with the sour taste, but once in awhile a little bonny clabber might be a nice thing. 

Adventures with Homemade Yogurt

Last week my kids and I tagged along when my husband went to Dallas on a business trip.  Dallas is our hometown, so we had a great time hanging out with our family and some of our old friends.  One person I got to visit while I was there was my good friend, Leisa.   Leisa has three little girls and is one of those moms that is very conscientious about her kids.  She works very hard to give her children healthy “food” in the spiritual, educational, as well as physical sense.  I am consistently impressed with her thoughtful and purposeful parenting.

So, in the course of our conversation as we spent the afternoon together, I had to tell her about all the new things I have been learning about food and nutrition (am I becoming a Real Food evangelist?).  We had some very deep discussions about grains, natural fats, raw dairy, and grassfed meat.  Two things that came out of our conversation were a trip to a local raw dairy farm and a lesson in yogurt making.  At the time, I showed her how to make yogurt from pasteurized milk because making raw milk yogurt is a bit of a can of worms (healthy worms, but worms nonetheless)…Her eyes were already a looking a little overwhelmed, so I was trying to keep it simple. 

Here’s how we did it:

We went to the grocery store and bought ½ gallon organic milk and plain, whole milk, live culture yogurt (we bought Dannon that day but I have also used Greek Gods and Trader Joes).

We preheated the oven just to warm and then let it cool so that the inside was warm but not hot.

We heated the milk in a saucepan on medium heat to 180 degrees, stirring to prevent sticking or burning (Makayla and Grace were the stirrers).  Then we took the milk off the heat and let it cool to 110 degrees.  We added two heaping Tbsps of the store bought yogurt and mixed it gently but thoroughly through the milk.  We put the milk into glass jars (she had some clean spaghetti sauce jars, I use quart sized mason jars at home) and put them in the oven.  I headed back to my hotel at that point but instructed her to leave the oven closed with the light on overnight.  The next morning she took the jars out and put them in fridge for a few hours.  After that, she strained the yogurt through a clean cloth, taking out some of the whey (which is great for other things like this and this and this) and thickening up the yogurt. 

I believe she also sweetened it with some homemade fruit jam.

The yogurt experiment went well, I guess, because today I got a text from her asking a very simple question: “When I make yogurt with raw milk, do I still have to heat it to 180 degrees?”  And thus, the can of worms was opened.  The answer to this “simple” question is the result of about 6 months of experimentation on my part.  Here it is:

In order to get the yogurt starter to "take", you have to kill off all the existing microbes so that the ones in the starter won't have any competition...in essence, you have to pasteurize it. That is what the heating to 180 degrees does. If you are using milk that is already pasteurized, it’s all good because the milk is already "dead" and you are putting the starter in to make it alive again.

However, if you are using raw milk, some people don't think you should heat it beyond 110 degrees because you don't want to hurt all the living components of the milk. You can make yogurt with raw milk by only heating it to 110 (which won't hurt it at all), letting it cool just a little and then adding the starter. The difference is that it will not get thick. It will be a runny, yogurt drink. It will be super healthy and delicious (and you can add stuff to flavor it up) but it will not be thick and firm like store bought yogurt. You will also get slightly different consistency each time because you are dealing with an already established ecosystem that will be individual for each batch of milk. I make this kind of yogurt sometimes and it is a yummy surprise...sometimes super sour, sometimes has little clumps, sometimes thicker, sometimes thinner. All of it is delicious and healthy.

On the other hand, if you want thick yogurt you must heat it to 180 and sacrifice a lot of the existing microbes and enzymes in order to give your starter a chance to grow.  This heating does not completely deaden and alter the milk like commercial high heat pasteurization and homogenization does. In addition, the milk still has all the great vitamins and minerals from the healthy cows. So this yogurt will be much more nutritious than Dannon or what not. Your results will, again, not be as consistent as when you start with store bought milk.  But however it turns out (thick, thin, clumpy, smooth) you can be sure it is still healthy and good for you. Raw milk does not go "bad", it just sours as the milk sugar gets used up by the microbes. 

My children are very very picky and I have found that if their yogurt is different every time, they will turn up their noses. So, this is what I do--I have found a dairy where the cows are grassfed and healthy but the farmer does pasteurize (NOT homogenize). He does what is called "gentle, low heat batch pasteurization”, which is a different process than the high heat, factory processing that all store milk goes through. His milk is only heated to 165 degrees. I buy a gallon of this milk to use it to make yogurt for my kids rather than take my chances on raw milk yogurt. This way, my results are consistent, the yogurt is from healthy milk, and my kids eat it...we all win.
I do not know if there is a source for vat pasteurized and non-homogenized milk in your area. Ask around at the farmers market and on the internet. You might find one. If you can't and your kids insist on thick yogurt that looks the same every time, you could just continue to use organic whole milk from the store. By adding back in the live cultures, you are giving them good stuff for their tummies and making sure that they don't get the yucky additives that store bought yogurt has. 

I hope my answer was helpful to Leisa.  I guess she is really going to just have to experiment to decide if she (and her children) will prefer homemade yogurt from raw milk, vat pasteurized, or settle for organic from the grocery store.  In my opinion, homemade yogurt made from any of these types of milk is nutritious and delicious…and it makes me feel like a super mom when I watch my kids eat it for breakfast.

So, I just got another question from Leisa.  She wants to know what to do with raw milk when it sours.  Another simple, straightforward question with a long, complicated answer…I’ll get right on it!

Sally Fallon on Soy

I love Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions.  It is full of information, science, and recipes.
Here she is talking about soy.  When I first read the truth about soy, I felt like someone had played a mean trick on me...why are we told that soy is a health food?  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that soy has become an intrinsic part of mono-agriculture and it's big bucks...They keep growing the stuff and they need to sell it, right?

Josh Rubin on Milk

Josh Rubin (like Sean Croxton on Underground Wellness) is a little off-putting to me simply because I feel like a bit of a fuddy-duddy when I listen to him...he uses slang that I don't understand! 
But once I get past my impression of the messenger, I really appreciate the information.
Here he is talking about milk.

Chicken Broth

Even before I knew about the health benefits of bone broth, I was making chicken stock.  Every time I cooked a chicken, I would throw the bones in my crockpot and boil it for a few hours.  The next day I always made chicken soup, using the stock and the leftover chicken.  It just seemed like the frugal thing to do.  I have learned since then that it is also the healthiest thing to do.  Stock made from bones has tons of health benefits.  It is full of proline,  glycine, and gelatin which you can read about here and important minerals like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and other trace minerals.  There are many places on the internet where you can learn about the benefits of bone broth (here and here) and how to make it (Look here and here and here).  Bone broth is an easy, inexpensive way to boost my family’s nutrition, and chicken broth is the easiest and most inexpensive type of broth. 

When I make broth, I usually make a soup or stew that day or the next but I don’t use up all the broth for that one meal.  I take what’s left over and pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it.  I put all the little broth squares into a freezer bag.  When I am cooking and need to add water to the pan, I throw in a broth cube instead, adding a few more minerals to whatever I am making.  I also use the broth to cook white rice, instead of water.  Rice by itself is not particularly nutritious—just a bunch of starch.  When it’s cooked in broth, however, it absorbs all the goodness inherent in the broth and becomes much more nourishing.

As an added note, canned or boxed stocks and broths have none of the health benefits of homemade broth and have added preservatives, sugar, and junk.  Bouillon, on the other hand, is downright toxic, full of MSG.  Accept no substitutes for delicious, healthy, homemade chicken broth.

Here is how I make it:

Chicken carcass

2 peeled carrots cut into 1 inch chunks

2 ribs of celery cut into 1 inch chunks

1 onion cut into 8 pieces

A few whole peppercorns

2 bay leaves

A shake of dried thyme

A little salt

¼ cub apple cider vinegar

Filtered water to cover

Put everything in a stock pot or slow cooker.  Let it sit for about an hour so that the vinegar can begin leaching minerals from the bones.  Turn on the heat and cover, letting it simmer for 4 to 24 hours. 

Strain out the bones and vegetables (My daughter loves to eat the carrots that come out of the pot). Store the broth in the fridge (you can skim the fat off the top after it chills, if you want) for up to a week and then freeze it.

A Special Way To Start And End The Day

Having a warm mug of something delicious is one of those things that elevates an ordinary morning and makes a quiet evening special.    When I first got my copy of Nourishing Traditions, one of the first recipes I made was Chicken Coconut Soup.  I found it to be amazingly delicious and comforting and I started to make it on an almost daily basis, drinking it in the morning and at bedtime from a mug.  It is warm and comforting, lifting my spirits, soothing my tummy, and making me feel mellow and relaxed.  To make it even better, I know that the bone broth and the coconut milk have health promoting elements like minerals, healthy fats, and are healing for my gut.

Many times I have gone to make this soup and found that I was missing one or more of the ingredients.  However, it is delicious and satisfying when simply made with broth, coconut milk, and salt.  It is even better when one or more of the flavoring elements are added.     

1 quart homemade broth (chicken is my favorite, but any type of bone broth will do)

1 cup coconut milk

1 Tbsp finely minced  fresh garlic

1 Tbsp finely minced onions

1 Tbsp grated ginger

1 tsp red pepper flakes

Lemon or lime juice from half a lemon/lime

Fish sauce or salt to taste

1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Method:

Heat the broth to a slow boil and add the coconut milk.  Turn it down to a simmer.  Add the garlic, onions, ginger, and pepper flakes .

Simmer for about 30 minutes. 

Add lemon/lime juice and fish sauce or salt.  Taste it and adjust, if needed.

Ladle into a mug or bowl and add cilantro.

Enjoy inhaling the flavorful steam as you sip.

Spring Brings Green Grass and Yellow Dairy

This morning I saw that Sarah at The Healthy Home Economist was writing about the wonder of rapidly growing spring grass.  She tells how the color of her grassfed milk changes to a darker beige as the cows feed on the vitamin rich new spring grass.

We switched to raw dairy at the end of this past summer and I read Nutrition and Physical Generation just a few months ago, in the middle of winter.  Weston Price tells of the isolated Swiss who regard the milk they harvest during the spring as a sacred food, thanking God for providing them with the means to make nourishing cheese that will sustain their families through the year.  After analyzing butter made from spring milk, he found that it had a special, uniquely vital component that he called "Activator X".  I think I saw somewhere else that this turns out to be vitamin K2.  Price used butter oil from spring butter as a supplement for undernourished children and now I give my own children this same butter oil, mixed with fermented cod liver oil.

Late last summer I switched to raw, grassfed milk, butter, and cheese because I wanted to provide my children with optimal nutrition.  Since it was the middle of winter (and the cows were eating hay) when I was learning about the special properties of raw dairy harvested in the early spring, I  felt a little frustrated that I would have to wait to see that subtle color change. I bought grassfed butter that was a pale, off white color but made a plan in my own mind that when spring arrived and the butter turned yellow, I would buy as much of it as I could and store it in my freezer to use year round.  Since then, I have lost my original source of butter and need to find a new one (I still have butter in my freezer, so it hasn't been at the top of my list).

Perhaps this spring I'll try making butter myself, using the grassfed raw milk I get from Carlton Farms.  If I do, I will be sure to tell you about the experiment and the results.

My Journey

For much of my adult life I have felt the tension of a struggle-struggle against fat, against fatigue, against negative thoughts.  Somehow I had a feeling that the key to winning the struggle might depend on what I put in my mouth.  I had certainly hear Hippocrates’ famous quote, “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.”  And I believed it.  Over the years I tried being a vegetarian, a vegan, and for a brief, disastrous time, a raw vegan.  I watched what went into my mouth and made that a partial measure of my worth.  As I got older and settled into moderation of thinking, I was careful to base my own and my family’s diet on whole grains, abundant plants, and an avoidance of red meat and saturated fats.  I understood and “swallowed” the mainstream message of what constituted a healthy diet.  Yet despite my best efforts, excellent health and the peace of mind that should come from it eluded me.  Especially after I had children, my health problems grew.  I was always tired.  I had just enough energy to take care of my family, hold down my job, and watch TV.  Every year I gained weight.  I struggled with food cravings.  I went through a monthly cycle of mood swings.  Negativity and discontent dogged my mind.   I got my thyroid tested and found that I was hypothyroid but synthroid did not really make me feel much better.  Last summer I had an interesting conversation with my brother.  He had been following a Paleo diet—something I had never heard of.   He said that he had been avoiding carbohydrates, especially grains and eating a lot of meat and saturated fat.  He suggested that I read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson and pointed me to his blog, Mark’s Daily Apple.  That particular blog led me to another and another.  And after reading The Primal Blueprint, my reading list grew.  I was led, inevitably to the Weston A. Price Foundation.  I also discovered The Perfect Health Diet by Paul and Shou-ching Jaminet.  Over the course of months, I came to a new conviction about what it meant to be healthy and began to strive toward a diet of whole, real foods.  I started shopping from local farmers, switched my family to raw dairy, crossed grains (other than rice) completely off my shopping list and accumulated a long list of blogs, websites, and books that I get my health information from. 

Clearly, I am still in the midst of the journey.  My understanding and convictions change as I learn, but here is where I am now:  I do not buy processed or package foods.  I give my children raw, grass-fed milk.  I buy, as much as possible, local grass-fed beef and pastured pork and chicken.  I buy local, pastured eggs.  I cook from scratch, using real, unprocessed ingredients.  I never use gluten, under any circumstance.  The only grain I use is white rice.  I try to eat fermented foods (made by me) every day.

This blog is my record of the journey toward resolving my struggle and finding health and peace.  I am honored to share it with you.

My First Post

Well, here it is.  My first post on my first blog.  The purpose of this blog is to create a space where I can organize, access, and share information that is important to me.  Mainly, since I have been doing so much reading and researching about health and traditional food, I want a single url I can send to friends who ask me about what I have been learning.  I plan to post on this blog as I experiment with recipes and traditional cooking and food preparation. It has become a daily adventure for me and I would love to have a record of my successes, failures, and the lessons that come with them. I will also maintain a list of links to my favorite websites, blogs, and books.  Inevitably, my family will leak into my posts, so perhaps this will also become a place where I can share with our extended family all that is happening with us.

So, as they say, here goes nothing!