Category Archives: Healing Diets

Wise Tradition Beginner Video Series

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salad-fruit-soup

Good food starts with fresh ingredients from a source you can trust. Use whole foods and get curious about how your food is produced. Learn how to make bone broth for fabulous soups and stews. If possible, grow some of your own food.

Yeah, yeah, I know I am on holiday. But I just couldn’t help but post these links to a new series of videos for newcomers to the Weston A Price Foundation done by Sarah Pope. If you are having trouble deciding which video to watch first, I would recommend Tips for Limited Time and Limited Budget. I did a vary similar posting to this video a while back. One note about the video. We are fortunate that grassfed beef can be really inexpensive here in Kamloops. Just ask the rancher for an animal that has always been on pasture. You will have to buy the whole animal from the rancher and send the animal to a local butcher such as, Kam Lake View Meats. If cost is an issue, split the meat with your friends and family.

Here is the letter from Sally Fallon Morell giving this early Christmas present to newcomers to nourishing traditional foods:

We are pleased to announce that the Wise Traditions Beginner Video Series is now complete and available for viewing by clicking the “Videos” tab in the header of the Weston A Price Foundation website!

This 12-part series covers all aspects of Traditional Food Preparation and is an ideal starting place for the visual learner who is new to the teachings of Dr Price. Please feel free to use these lessons to introduce your friends and family to the the travels and research of Dr Price (see video #2) and the basic techniques of Traditional Cooking. Send someone a link to all or just one particular video. Thanks for sharing this information with anyone you can.

Note that beneath each video is a complete transcript which can be immediately translated into any language right on the WAPF website by clicking the “select a language” pulldown menu in the left margin.

Lessons include:
1.   Homemade Baby Formula
2 .  Introduction to Traditional Eating
3.   Traditional Fats and Sacred Foods
4.   Journey Back to the Kitchen
5.   Pantry Intervention
6.   Natural Sweeteners
7.   Salad Dressings and Sauces
8.   Fermented Foods and Beverages
9.   Proper Preparation of Grains and Legumes
10.  Stocks and Soups
11.  Healthy Snacks
12.  Tips for Limited Time and Limited Budget

We’d like to thank Sarah Pope, chapter leader and board member, for her good work on these videos.

Best wishes,
Sally Fallon Morell

 

Questions About the SCD, GAPS and PD

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modified-paleo-burger

This is a modified paleo burger. Loren Cordain would be horrified to see raw cheese on this burger. Many paleo diet followers are now including raw dairy.

With the Paleo Diet, you’ll be restoring the diet you are genetically programmed to eat. You’ll be eating the diet that every single person on the planet ate only 500 generations ago. It is the diet the modern world has completely forgotten. The Paleo Diet is simplicity itself. Here are the ground rules:

  1. All the lean meats, fish and seafood you can eat
  2. All the fruits and non-starchy vegetables you can eat
  3. No cereals
  4. No legumes
  5. No dairy products
  6. No processed foods

The Paleo Diet is not a fat-free diet, it’s a “bad fat” free diet. It has few of the artery-clogging saturated fats found on the low carbohydrate, high fat fad diets, but there is plenty of low fat protein and good fats – such as those found in salmon and other cold water fish, as well as in nuts and olive oil.

The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain

Recently, I have had a number of people ask my opinion about the Paleo Diet. If you put the three programs on a continuum from least restrictive to most restrictive, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) would be first, followed by Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), then the Paleo Diet (PD). All these diets are very healing and can cure the incurable. All these dietary programs want you to get off industrial processed foods which may be the major reason why these dietary programs work so well. These dietary programs restrict many of the same foods but the diets have some major philosophical differences. The saying, “the devil is in the details,” is true for these diets.

Here is a tongue-in-cheek book review by Sally Fallon written in 2002 about The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain. I found Sally Fallon’s humorous description of the PD very enlightening. In the past, I used to eat a low fat diet and was very worried about all fats, especially saturated fat. I used to skin my chicken, chop off all signs of fat from my steak, and ate only egg whites. The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain would have agreed with my saturated fat phobia. When I read Sally Fallon’s description of “Peter Paleolith”, I laughed and laughed. After that description I knew the truth was our ancestors would have done anything for fat including cracking bones and skulls for marrow and brains! Sometimes, humor is the only way to break through closely held beliefs.

Loren Condain also does some interesting mental gymnastics in The Paleo Diet. He states, “lean meat is brain food” and follows up this statement with: “At first, humans were not terribly good hunters. They started out as scavengers who trailed behind predators such as lions and ate the leftovers remaining on abandoned carcasses. The pickings were slim: ravenous lions don’t leave much behind, except for bones. But with their handy tools (stone anvils and hammers), our early ancestors could crack the skulls and bones and still find something to eat – brains and fatty marrow. Marrow fat was the main concentrated energy source that enabled the early human gut to shrink, while the scavenged brains contained a specific type of omega 3 fat called “docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which allowed the [human] brain to expand.”

So which is it? Does lean meat build brains or does fat build brains? Loren Condain likely believed the low fat dogma of his day like many other intelligent people. But he becomes disingenuous when he states the PD is a return to our ancestral diet while manipulating the diet to fit modern tastes and quoting current dietary dogma. I would image it was an easier sell to base a diet book on lean meat and vegetables rather than bone marrow and brains.

When I started eatkamloops.org, I had to decide which dietary program best illustrated my dietary approach. The SCD/GAPS program was the best fit but I always used some elements of the PD. I used many PD recipes and found PD resources to be very helpful. I just ignored the fat and salt phobia. At the time, a large segment of the Paleo movement were thinking some strange thoughts, like believing our ancestors ate skinned chicken breasts, didn’t use salt, and ignored the use of raw dairy in numerous traditional cultures.

The PD condemns all grains, legumes and beans. Grains, legumes, and beans are “poisons” for me, but I know many people do very well on these foods if properly prepared. Even though I do well on a low carbohydrate diet, low carbohydrate diets do not work well for all people. Some people need more carbohydrates to function optimally. Micro-nutrient needs are very individual and can change for the individual if activity levels change. Finally, the PD had many views that counter the opinions of the Weston A Price Foundation, an organization I have great respect for. The WAPF got me on a high fat diet, a change I will forever be grateful for.

All three dietary programs completely restrict all grains and their products. The SCD/GAPS does allow a limited amount of beans and legumes. Since I do not eat either of these food groups, I am more of a PD follower in this one area. In the past, I avoided all dairy which is one of the restrictions of the PD and the extreme version of GAPS. Since I found a source of raw milk, I have been able to re-introduce raw cheese, fermented dairy products, and even liquid raw milk. Liquid milk is restricted on all three dietary programs.

I was still scared about eating more fat. It was this book review and other WAPF articles about traditional diets that made me brave enough to take the chance and go high fat with my diet. My experience going high fat was very positive. I “cured” my health problems which included: asthma, allergies, chronic sinus infections, yeast infections, osteoarthritis and epilepsy. For more details please read: Specific Carbohydrate Diet: A Personal Story.

Over the last number of years more research has come to light about the importance of fat in the diet. If you read the link above you will know I identify with the SCD or GAPS but really I am on a combination of all three dietary approaches. In the past, I could not identify with the PD movement because of the Paleo dogma around low fat/high protein, salt, and dairy. Well now I can identify with the PD movement, because the PD movement is realizing that raw dairy, especially fermented dairy, high fat cream, and butter, can be good for many people. Of course, dairy is not for everyone.

The dogma about low fat diets being better is finally being seen as erroneous. I just found a great website about the “modified” PD called Paleo Diet Lifestyle. I have read most of the website and I agree with everything I have read. I also really like Mark’s Daily Apple for great PD recipes and “Paleo lifestyle” information. He has free ebooks for PD recipes and body weight exercises that can be done anywhere without any equipment. Even though I really like Mark’s Daily Apple, I do not endorse his use of supplements. These are not real foods but industrial nutraceuticals. Guidelines from the Weston A Price Foundation recommend eating real foods from a quality source first, and then the use of superfoods, if necessary. Here is my use of superfoods.

Finally, what I like about SCD/GAPS philosophy is that after the person heals their gut the person may be able to go back to eating “some” of the restricted foods. For those people that can tolerate these foods, the WAPF gives good advice on how to properly prepare these sometime troublesome foods. Of course, many of us do not go back to eating these foods because if we do, we get sick again.

The PD would state that these foods are bad for everyone and if we value our health and longevity we should never eat these foods again. The WAPF states many traditional cultures used “properly” prepared dairy, grains, legumes and beans. For many of us, we are too damaged to consume these foods. The question each of us must answer for ourselves is, which of these foods made us sick? My great-grandfather used to say: “If the food doesn’t agree with you, leave it alone.” Good advice for all of us.

One last word about the PD. What I really like about the PD philosophy is trying to image the food and lifestyle of our ancestors. No one can doubt the vitality of these primate people nor that our modern food and lifestyle is not working for many of us. The PD has come a long way from its original form and the lifestyle of our ancestors might hold the key to functional longevity and a sane habitation of our planet.

The “modified” PD lifestyle might be the program for you if you would like to “plateau your aging at a younger age”. Did I say plateau your aging at a younger age? Did I say stop aging? Here is a link to a video about Michael Rose, an Evolutionary Biologist whose research focus has been on natural selection and aging. If you find this video catches your interest, please see the 55 Theses, which explores and expands the ideas in the video.

Sorry, but the 55 Theses are a total grind, but if you live a longer functional life, you will have the time! The author of the 55 Theses is Rob Paterson who maintains a website called Missing Human Manual. Give yourself a few days to read the material. It will be a wild ride. I guarantee it!

Perfect Pate

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Even if you don’t like liver, give this recipe a chance. Try it just once, and see if you can learn to like this super-food. This recipe is based on Chicken Liver Pate from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. After chicken slaughtering day I make pate from all the fresh chicken livers. My husband loves eating pate on raw cheese. Who needs supplements when you can eat pate on raw cheese?!

1 pound pastured chicken livers
3T organic butter
1/2 pound organic mushrooms, finely chopped
1 small organic onion, finely chopped
1 organic clove garlic, minced
1/2tsp dried organic mustard seeds, finely ground
1/2tsp dried organic dill, finely ground
1/2tsp dried organic rosemary, finely ground
1/2 organic lemon, freshly juiced
2/3c dry white wine or vermouth (optional)
1/2c organic butter, cut into small cubes
sea salt to taste
Melt 3T butter in a cast iron pan. Add liver, onions, mushrooms and sea salt. Cook for 10 minutes until the livers are browned. Add wine, garlic, lemon juice, mustard seeds and herbs. Bring to a boil and reduce until liquid is gone. After the mixture has cooled, add the butter cubes, and puree in a food processor until smooth. (If you have raw butter available, use instead.) Test for taste and add more sea salt, if needed. Transfer to a glass container and refrigerate before serving.

Liver and Onions

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liver-and-onions

This is my breakfast of beef liver with buttered onions. The side dish is garden fresh zucchini sauted in butter and garlic, topped with Gort's raw gouda.

Liver and onions was once a common breakfast. Your grandparents would have eaten it once or twice a week, if they could get it. Now, many people are frightened by eating organ meats. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say: “Aren’t those dangerous? Aren’t organs full of toxins?”Of course, I am thinking about liver from an animal that has lived its whole life on pasture and has never required medication. I don’t think I would like to eat the liver from an animal that had spent its whole life in a confinement operation, heavily medicated just to survive its very stressful, short life.

I would like to share my favorite liver and onions recipe. Please do not be frightened by organ meats. Just make sure the liver you are enjoying is from an animal that has lived a good life on pasture, and did not spend its last days gorging on grains. Organs are very nourishing foods. In fact, organs are super-foods. The secret to great liver is not to over cook.

1c calf liver, sliced thinly
1 large organic onion, cut in half, sliced thinly
2-3T organic butter
large pinch of sea salt
Slice the calf liver into thin 1/3 inch slices. Set aside for later. Saute in a cast iron pan the thinly sliced onions and sea salt in some of the butter until the onions are golden brown. Place the sauted onions on the serving plate and cover. Don’t let the cast iron pan get cold. Melt the remaining butter over medium high heat. Quickly put the slices of liver on the hot pan in one layer. As quickly as you can turn the liver slices over. Remove the liver slices from the pan onto the serving dish. Be quick about it. Cooking for 10 seconds a side is about right. The liver should be pink in the middle. Eat each piece of liver with the browned onions. Add a bit more sea salt if needed.

If you are feeling more adventurous after enjoying liver, please read Gourmet Organ Meat Recipes from the Weston A Price Foundation.

Healthy Household: Comfort for Colds

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March is one of the worst months for colds and flu. Here are some strategies for avoiding colds and flu.

Tip Number One: Eat a diet of nourishing traditional foods. Avoid all processed foods and sugary snacks. Make sure your diet has plenty of healthy fats. Eat coconut oil which has anti-viral components. During the winter, eat pastured lard which is high in vitamin D. During the winter and early spring, supplement your diet with fermented cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil. If you have a source of raw milk you only need to supplement with fermented cod liver oil. Remember to eat your garlic. Use at least one crushed or minced fresh garlic clove everyday in your food.

If you do get sick, there are a few recipes below that will help your family avoid taking pharmaceutical drugs. Remember that colds and flu come from viruses which hate heat. Fevers kill viruses. Fevers should be allowed to take their course in most cases, except in very young children or very high fevers. An out-of-control fever is a medical emergency. Use good sense and get to emergency services.

Tip Number Two: Take care of yourself early in the illness. When you first get that sense that you are getting sick try taking Aconite 30c . This is a homeopathic remedy for stopping colds and flu but only works in the very earliest stages of an emerging illness. I started using homeopathic remedies because I wanted to do something very gentle for my children when they were ill. I have found homeopathic remedies work surprisingly well with young children. I use the Helios Homeopathic First Aid Kit.

If you prefer herbs, this is the time to use oregano essential oil (Origanum vulgare) which is a good addition to your Herbal First Aid Kit. (I will talk about making your own Herbal First Aid Kit in a later posting.) This is a very strong essential oil and can be used many ways. For an emerging sore throat, try 1-2 drops in the mouth twice a day. Swish the oregano essential oil around your mouth for a few minutes and then swallow. Some people find straight essential oils too powerful and will cut it with a small amount of olive oil. This treatment is better for adults. Children don’t like the strong taste.

If you prefer herbs, this is the time to take Echinacea Extract or Angelica Extract. Extracts take three to six weeks to prepare so it would be best to make the extracts in the fall or you will have to purchase the extracts at a health food store. Many people find Echinacea Extract works very well to improve immune function. I find Angelica Extract to work better for me. We are all different so you will have to experiment to find which extract will work best for you. The extracts should be taken three times a day in hot water. Along with talking an extract, make up a Ginger Infusion or Cold Away Infusion and drink this throughout the day. If you have a really sore throat find a local supply of propolis and suck on a small piece.

Remember food should always be your first medicine. If you are feeling poorly, this is the time to make some nourishing bone broths, stews and soups. Warming drinks are very comforting. Get plenty of rest. This is the time to increase your consumption of coconut oil to a therapeutic level which is thought to be 2-3 tablespoons a day.

Tip Number Three: Have some cold supplies in your pantry, ready for use. Here are six recipes that will come in handle if someone gets sick in the household. The Ginger Infusion will work for most colds and is liked by children. Cold Away Infusion is better when you are really sick and can’t seem to shake the cold or flu. Elderberry Syrup can be taken during flu season to avoid getting sick or can be used after the cold or flu sets in. Licorice Lozenges are really nice on a sore throat. Honeyed Ginger is good for a sore throat or nausea.

Echinacea or Angelica Extract
1/2c Echinacea root (Echinacea purpurea) or Angelica root (Angelica archangelica)
2c clear Vodka or Tequila, 40% alcohol
Use a small pint-sized glass canning jar with a plastic lid. Put either the Echinacea root or Angelica root into the jar. Add the alcohol of choice and fill the jar. Label the jar with the name of the plant, percentage of alcohol, today’s day, and the decanting day. Decanting day will be in six weeks. The jar will need to be turned over every day for at least the first week. On decanting day, use a cotton cloth to squeeze out all the liquid from the roots. Some herbalists use a juicer to get all the goodness out of the plant materials and into the extract. (Due to all the woody parts, I broke part of my juicer trying this, so be careful if you try this with your juicer. For home preparation, squeezing out all the liquid is far easier. Sometimes it’s best not to copy the professionals!) Store the extract in a dark glass bottle. If available, use a dropper top for easy dispersal.

Ginger Infusion
1/2c fresh ginger (Zingiber officinale), grated finely or 1/3c dried ginger
1L boiling filtered water
local raw honey, to taste
lemon, freshly squeezed, to taste
Put fresh or dried ginger into the glass jar. Pour boiling filtered water over the ginger and fill the 1L glass canning jar to the top. Put the lid on the jar and let the infusion steep for 4 hours or overnight. Squeeze out all the juice from the plant material into the infusion. When ready to drink, gently re-heat the infusion. Do not allow the infusion to boil or you may lose some of the medicinal properties of the plants. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice and local raw honey to taste. This drink is very soothing on a sore throat.

Cold Away Infusion
1/4c Rosehips (Rosa canina)
1/4c Elder Flowers (Sambucus nigra)
1/4c Peppermint Leaf (Mentha piperita)
2L boiling filtered water
Put plant materials into 2L glass canning jar. Pour boiling filtered water over plant materials and fill the 2L glass canning jar to the top. Put the lid on the jar and let the infusion steep for four hours or overnight. Squeeze out all the juice from the plant material into the infusion. When ready to drink, gently heat up the infusion. Do not allow the infusion to boil or you may lose some of the medicinal properties of the plants. Consume as needed.

Elderberry Syrup
Take 1T of syrup everyday to avoid colds and flu. Or if ill, take 1T three times each day.
1/2c Elderberries (Sambucus nigra)
5-10 cloves (Syzygium aromaticum)
1 cinnamon stick (Cinnamomum zeylanicum)
1-2T fresh ginger (Zingiber officinale), grated finely
2c filtered water
1/2c local raw honey
Bring filtered water to a boil. Add Elderberries, cloves, cinnamon stick and ginger. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes until liquid is reduced by one half. This is known as a decoction. Squeeze out all the juice from the plant material into the decoction. Let the decoction cool before adding the local raw honey. Stir well and refrigerate. This syrup will last for months in the fridge.

Licorice Lozenges
1c Slippery Elm powder (Ulmus rubra)
1/2c Licorice Root (Glycyrrhiza glabra)
2c filtered water
1/4c local raw honey
Bring the filtered water to a boil and add the Licorice Root. Simmer for about 30 minutes until at least half of the water is gone. This is a decoction. Squeeze out all the juice from the plant material into the decoction. Let the decoction cool before adding the local raw honey. This avoids destroying the healing properties in the raw honey. Put the Slippery Elm powder in a bowl and add enough licorice decoction to make a soft dough. Roll out the soft dough on more Slippery Elm powder to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Cut the dough into small 1/2 inch squares. Place the lozenges in a dehydrator overnight until dry. The lozenges will last for months in a metal tin.

Honeyed Ginger
1 organic ginger root (Zingiber officinale), sliced diagonally
1c filtered water
enough local raw honey to cover ginger
1 pint glass canning jar
Slice the organic ginger diagonally. You do not have to peel the ginger if it is organic. Put ginger slices in boiling water and reduce heat to very low. Cook the ginger for about 40 minutes until the ginger becomes translucent. Reserve the ginger liquid and water down for a soothing tea. Traditionally, this honey would be cooked with the ginger, but I feel it is best to just store the ginger in enough raw local honey to cover the ginger. If you find the ginger just too spicy, very gently warm some of the honey while stirring the ginger. Gently heat for another 40 minutes. The ginger will become more and more translucent. Store in a glass jar in the fridge. The ginger flavored raw honey can also be used as a treatment for a sore throat. Just spoon it out by the teaspoon. The relief will be immediate.

For more recipes please see Healthy Household: Staying Clean Safely and Saving Money.

Frugavore

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Some might see the word “peasant” as a derogatory term… In fact, the word is derived from the fifteenth-century French word “paisant”, meaning a person from the local “pays”, or countryside. By definition a peasant is any person who lives or works close to the land… The peasant diet has been described as “simple and nourishing,” and their health was all the better for it.
Frugavore by Arabella Forge

A few months ago, I wrote a posting called What’s a Starving Student to do About Food? This posting was to help the student, or anyone on a tight budget, find ways to eat nourishing traditional foods. I had just received my copy of Wise Traditions, a quarterly journal produced by the Weston A Price Foundation. The journal had a review about a new book called Frugavore. This book is written by Arabella Forge, the Weston A Price Leader in Melbourne, Australia. Frugavore has not been released in Canada yet, but you can get it through amazon.com.

A few days ago, my sister Christine surprised me with a copy of Frugavore. She ordered the book from Australia. I enjoyed reading the book. It was fun to read about regional specialties like Kangaroo-Tail Soup and finding a man to urinate on your garden’s lemon tree. At the beginning of each recipe Arabella has helpful advice for the new Frugavore. Each section begins with a philosophical discussion on how to be a frugal with our food dollars while maintaining a high quality food supply for our families. Arabella discusses small scale gardening, household waste reduction, methods of food preparation, and safe household cleaning. If you have problems with the Nightshades you will need to make some substitutions. If you are on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, some of the recipes will not be suitable. For those who can enjoy grains, legumes and beans, Arabella walks you through the process of traditional preparation for these peasant foods.

The first recipe I tried from the book was a success. Both of my girls, known for their dislike of squash, finished their bowls and asked for more. I have made some local changes to the recipe.

Pumpkin Soup
1/2 acorn squash, steamed and peeled
1 small sweet pumpkin, steamed and peeled
1T fat or butter
1tsp sea salt
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2tsp allspice, freshly ground
fresh parsley or chives, chopped
4-6c chicken stock or bone broth
In a large soup pot, saute the onions and salt in the fat until golden brown. Add the carrots and garlic near the end of the cooking. In another large pot, put about one inch of water in the bottom. Quarter the squash and steam until soft. Remove the squash from the pot and peel after the squash has cooled. Puree the squash with a food processor. Use the steaming water to thin out the squash, if needed. Add the sauted vegetables to the squash and puree until smooth. Return the mixture to the large soup pot and add enough broth to have a smooth soup.

Just One Sit-Down Family Meal

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This is a posting I wrote back in early October. It is quite a contrast from today, since we are pulling out our winter boots, snow pants and jackets after the first snow of the year:

Shaen and I spent the afternoon working at cutting back the tomato plants. We removed leaves and extra green growth from the tomato plants in an attempt to encourage the plant to put its energy into ripening the tomatoes before the first killer frost. Shaen found a monster eggplant and numerous hot peppers hiding in the greenhouse. Sonja worked on pulling up beets and baby carrots. Erika found a potato plant and dug up the tubers. Erika danced through the garden collecting ripe cherry tomatoes like some sort of fairy nymph. The girls cleaned and processed their vegetables.

For dinner, I made a mixture of baked vegetables in a glass baking dish. Most of the vegetables came from Farmhouse Herbs an organic farm that sells at the Kamloops Farmer’s Market. It hasn’t been a good year for our garden and Farmhouse Herbs has supplied my household with much of our vegetables. The vegetables included: parsnips, onions, green onion tops, garlic, beets and carrots. (By the way, those golden beets were the best beets I have ever eaten.) I added herbs gathered by the garden nymph, and mixed in sea salt and fat from my grease bucket. Please read The Great Grease Bucket: Something for Nothing for more information. In another glass baking dish, I cut the freshly dug potatoes and added sea salt and fat. I used our own garden carrots, lightly cooked in butter and dressed with fresh garden parsley.

When Shaen came in at the end of the day, he cooked three chuck steaks on the barbecue. Chuck steak is normally not grilled because it is considered a tough cut of meat but these steaks were tender and very juicy. We got the grassfed veal from Jocko Creek Ranch last winter. For more information please read Grassfed Veal and Cooking With Grass-Fed Meat and Fowl.

When we sat down to our meal, we each enjoyed a glass of fresh cow’s milk. There was a salad of sun ripened cherry tomatoes and herbs. The girls loaded their potatoes with raw butter I made last year. (I privately thanked Patty, our Jersey cow, for the wonderful dairy products.) It was a delicious meal. The meal was wonderful because so much of the food came from our own land or from the land of people we know and trust. We were hungry after working the afternoon in the garden. What also made the meal special is that we ate it together and enjoyed each other’s company.

I just wanted to tell about one sit-down family meal. It wasn’t a special meal but the way we eat normally. This meal might seem odd to the modern eater, rushing between the office, take-out, and home but this meal would have been the norm a generation ago.

Oven Baked Seasonal Vegetables
4-6 large carrots, cut into large 3″ pieces
4-6 parsnips, cut into large 3″ pieces
2 orange beets or turnips, cut into wedges
1 large onion, cut into wedges
1-2 leek tops, cut into large 3″ pieces
2-3 large garlic cloves, cut in half
1T fresh rosemary, chopped
1tsp sea salt
1tsp fresh growing black pepper
1T grease from the grease bucket
1-2 potatoes, cut into wedges, optional
The trick to this meal is to use the best seasonal vegetables you can find. Cut all the vegetables into pieces about the same size so they will cook evenly. Use a large glass baking dish and mix all the cut vegetables together with the grease, black pepper, sea salt and rosemary. Cook at 350F and stir every 15 minutes for about 45 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked through.

Sun Ripened Tomato Salad
2-3c sun ripened cherry tomatoes, whole
1/2c garden parsley, finely chopped
1/4c red onion, finely chopped (optional)
Add all ingredients together in a wooden salad bowl. Add 2-3T of Whole Seed Mustard Dressing. The recipe can be found in Making Homemade Lacto-Fermentation Whole Seed Mustard.

Hey farmer farmer
Put away the DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell

Trick or Treat: Earthships and Zero Energy Homes

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At the beginning of this year I wrote Boxing Day: You Are What You Buy (Believe) and Dreaming In the New Year. As I have said before, if we are going to save ourselves and our children, we each have to make some big decisions about how we live our lives.

Every day we make a decision about the foods we eat and its source. This one action can have a profound impact on our lives and the world we share with others. People talk about “voting with your food dollar” which can be a powerful way to live your beliefs and in fact changes the world around you. Buying locally produced organic food, pasture based animals, and getting reacquainted with your kitchen will change your world. You will be healthier, your children will have a healthier future, and your local farmer and rancher will benefit from your financial support.

Another big area we can look at after dealing with our food is housing. I was listening to David Suzuki on CBC Radio. David Suzuki is putting on a ten part series called The Bottom Line. He was talking about Climate Change and what we can do about it. I found his solution sadly lacking in imagination. His solution was to have more government regulations and force people to behave in an enlightened way. He seems to distrust the wisdom of his neighbors to do the right thing. Of course, sometimes it is the state that does not allow us to do the right thing even though we might like to as individuals.

There are a number experimental housing options that could potentially help us save the world by reducing our carbon footprint. But building bylaws and regulations will not allow these houses to be built. The Earthship is one such solution but you would have a tough time getting your local planning department to accept your plans to build a house that will collect its own water, make its own power, heat and cool itself, and process its own waste. The house will even grow your food all year round and it is made out of garbage that will otherwise end up in the landfill. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, to build this house you will need an “overseeing professional” such as an engineer, assuming you can even find one that will take on your project. You will have extra costs and frustrations. It is always easier for the officials to say no to a request. Officials are not known for sticking out their necks for the little guy.

So I say to David Suzuki maybe less state control rather than more regulation will get us going in the direction we need to go as a society. I know a great number of people willing to make big changes in their lives if we were allowed to do so. I know I have extra raw milk I could sell to interested neighbors. I have a chicken or two I could slaughter in my kitchen sink for a friend. There is lots of food available but the state’s system of control stymie these simple activities and turns citizens into criminals. Of course, their argument is that it is for your own good because you are too ignorant to design your own food system.

I would like to build a zero energy house on a property where I could grow my own food and sell any extra food to my community. Earthships intrigue me. But the reality is these buildings need to be built near cities and towns so the garbage does not have to be shipped long distances into the woods. Unfortunately, the only place these building can be built would be in the bush, far away from the watchful eyes of the officials. (If you are out in the bush, using reinforced concrete or compressed earth blocks instead of the tire walls makes more sense.)

In my more cynical moments, I have little hope that we can free ourselves from the tyranny of the state. I fear that my children will walk in a world with even more restrictions from Above. I would like to see more freedom for the individual to solve their own problems without the state interfering with its steel fist and jack boots. Why can’t the state allow me to live in a garbage and mud house, if I so desire? Why can’t I grow and sell my food to my neighbors without restriction? I do not see these actions as criminal, but they have become so. I do not know if earthships are the answer to Climate Change or housing the poor, but these buildings are a step in the right direction.

If you would like to look at more examples of zero energy homes such as straw bale and rammed earth houses, here are just a few Architectural websites about straw bale construction and compressed earth construction. There is an earthship being built in Darfield, BC.

What is a Healthy Gut?

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A well-functioning gut with healthy gut flora holds the roots of our health. And, like a tree with sick roots is not going to thrive, the rest of the body cannot thrive without a well functioning digestion system. The bacterial population of the gut – the gut flora – is the soil around these roots, giving them their habitat, protection, support and nourishment.
Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride

The are 400-500 different microbes in the human gut. There is a great deal of difference between the types of strains within the gut of individuals. Drug treatment, poor dietary choices, stress and disease can disturb the natural balance within the gut. The biggest factor that we control on a daily basis is the type of foods we eat. Food will change the environment of the digestive system for better or worse.

Inside and outside our body is a microscopic ecosystem. As with all ecosystems this microbial world is highly organized. Any area open to the environment, such as integumentary, digestive, respiratory and excretory systems, is inhabited by a huge number of microbes living in mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with their host.

The largest number of microbes live in our digestive system. Most of these microbes help us digest our food and also produce vitamins for our use. In fact, we cannot live without them. Like plants protect the soil from erosion, our microbes protect the walls of the gut from outside forces. Our microbes are our first line of defense from outside infectious or poisonous agents.

Before we are born, our gut is sterile. We get our gut flora from our mothers. As a baby passes through the birth canal, the baby gulps down vaginal fluid filled with the type of microbes found in the mother’s body. During breast feeding, the baby consumes more microbes from the skin of the mother’s body. Not all children are born vaginally or breast fed so some children do not get this natural, first large microbial transfer from the mother’s body.

Assuming the mother is healthy, the microbes will be well suited to the environment. If the mother has abnormal gut flora, she will pass the abnormal gut flora on to her child. This is part of the “environmental inheritance” children get from their parents. Over the first few days of life, the microbes colonize the baby’s body. This first microbial colonization is extremely important for the long term health of the child. The microbes will attach themselves to the wall of the gut and somehow communicate chemically with a vast array of neurons known as the gut brain. It is thought that our immune system is somehow interconnected with this microbial world through the gut brain. If our microbes are not doing well, we will soon be sick too.

There are three main types of gut flora:
1. Beneficial flora, sometimes called the “good bacteria”, are found in very large numbers in healthy people. These microbes help us digest our food and produce numerous vitamins for our use. The microbes will also “sacrifice themselves” by engulfing an infectious or poisonous substance and then be excreted by the body. The main types are: Bifidobacteria, Lactobacteria, Proppioncbacteria, Peptostreptococci, Enteroccci and Escherichia.
2. Opportunistic flora, sometimes called the “bad bacteria”, vary a lot between individuals. In a healthy person, these microbes are under the strict control of the “good bacteria” but can overgrow and cause disease in the sick person.
3. Transitory flora come from the water and food we eat each day. These are normally gram-negative bacteria. In a healthy gut, these microbes do not harm and actually helps nourish the person, and pass out of the body in a few days.

The best way to help our gut flora is to eat nourishing traditional foods, especially fermented foods, and avoid the processed foods coming out of the Industrial Food System. For more information please read 25 Step to Eating Nourishing Traditional Food and I Got Culture!

For most people this will be enough to tip the balance toward health. More sensitive people may find health by using the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. There is a small group of people that have a profound imbalance in their gut flora usually due to long-term drug treatment, stress or environmental issues. These people may find relief with supplementing probiotics. If you would like to learn more about probiotics please read Probiotics and Intestinal Microflora by Harry Bronozian.

Traditional Sour Cabbage Rolls

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At this time of year, I’m cleaning out my freezers for the summer months. I am always looking for recipes to use up frozen tomatoes, ground meats, organs and bones. Traditional Sour Cabbage Rolls are a great food for cold winter days or even rainy summer weather like today. This recipe does not use brown rice so is safe for people on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. If you would like, add 1/2c of raw brown rice to the recipe. Note the optional organ meats. Try adding the organs meats to casserole type meals and see if anyone notices the change. Joette Calabrese in Secret Spoonfuls: Confessions of a Sneaky Mom, recommends adding organ meats to increase the nutrient content of a meal.

Rolls
1 head of sour cabbage
2lbs. ground pastured beef
1lb. ground pastured pork
1/2lb. ground organ meats (optional)
2c finely chopped onions
3-4 minced cloves of garlic
1T paprika
1tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sauce
3-4 frozen garden tomatoes, skins removed
2-3c bone broth
You can make your own sour cabbage, if you have time, or buy it from a store. Carefully peel the cabbage leaves off the head. You will need to cut through the heavy vein at the base of the stem to get the leaves off. After removing the leaves, cut the leaf in half and remove the large central vein in the middle with a knife. This vein gets in the way of forming the cabbage roll. Use about 2-3 tablespoons of the raw meat filling and form into a oval shape. Place the filling on the half leaf and start rolling from the vein end towards the edge of the leaf. Tuck in each end to close the roll. Do not over stuff the cabbage roll. The rolls should be placed one at a time into a large Dutch Oven with the seam side down. (If you have an enamel Dutch Oven this is the time to use it, due to the acids in the tomatoes and sour cabbage.) Make two or three layers of rolls for the best results. Top each layer with one or two hand crushed tomatoes. Pour as much bone broth as needed to completely cover the cabbage rolls. Bake uncovered at 300F for two hours. The cabbage rolls taste even better the next day after the flavors meld together.