Since my family has been eating exclusively whole, unprocessed foods for over three years, I have noticed a strange occurrence. When my girls go to birthday parties or indulge in holiday festivities such as Halloween or Easter, they don’t feel very well afterward. After eating the processed foods out of the Industrial Food System, the girls become nauseous and complain about stomach pain within a few hours. My eldest daughter has vomited a number of times after these meals. My youngest daughter is very sensitive to something in these foods. More often than not, it causes behavioral problems for a day or two after eating the processed food. My husband occasionally eats out at restaurants and complains about not feeling well after most meals. Even our cat Tabs, who has been on a raw meat diet since we got her, has become sick from getting into a friend’s processed cat food. As I observe their sickness, I notice it is like a mild flu that includes stomach upset or vomiting.

Now my family has not eaten unprocessed foods our whole lives. We used to eat processed foods everyday without feeling sick. (Okay, my family wasn’t the picture of health, but we weren’t vomiting after a meal either.) One would hope that eating nourishing traditional foods regularly would strengthen a person’s constitution so an occasional meal of highly processed foods would have no effect. But the reverse appears to be true. The longer my family eats nourishing traditional foods, the more sensitive we become to these processed foods.

Why are they now having industrial food sickness? Why in the past did these same processed foods not cause sickness? What has changed? I have been thinking about this question for quite some time. It is hypothesized that the healing action of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet is that it changes the composition of gut flora or reverses gut dysbiosis. Gut dysbiosis is the lack of gut flora or an unhealthy gut flora imbalance which causes illness.

What if this progressive industrial food sickness is caused by changes in the gut flora community? Do the processed foods damage or kill healthy gut flora? Does the gut flora “communicate” this damage to the “gut brain” causing the feeling of sickness? The gut brain is an extensive grouping of neurons in the digestive system, which gut flora attaches to and chemically communicates with the nervous system. What if the gut flora community is causing the feeling of being sick after my family eats the processed foods?

This would explain the progressive nature of industrial food sickness and why it seems to worsen the longer my family eats nourishing traditional foods. The longer my family eat better, the stronger the population of healthy gut flora becomes. As the healthy gut flora population increases, it can send a very strong message to the nervous system that the processed food is making the gut flora’s environment poisonous to them. The reason why the processed food did not cause illness before eating nourishing traditional foods is because of gut dysbiosis. There was not enough healthy gut flora to send a strong message of dismay to the nervous system about our food choices.

One thing I notice is that it is getting easier to get my children to eat better. Every round of industrial food sickness reinforces good eating patterns. The sad part is thinking about all of the people walking around with very sick gut flora communities, too weak to send a danger warning. Most people are not aware that we are indeed “individuals” but our bodies are a vast and complex microcosm of interrelating organisms. We are in peril if we forget that we interface with the environment on a microscope level and our first line of defense is our symbiotic gut flora community.

For more information about gut dysbiosis please read Gut and Psychology Syndrome and GAPS In Our Medical Knowledge. For more information about the gut brain connection please read Breaking the Vicious Cycle.

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.

A few days ago, we received our order of day old chicks from Miller Hatcheries. The chicks come in the mail from Westlock, AB. When the call from Canada Post came in, we drove down to the post office and picked up the birds. We have found getting live chicks from a respected hatchery will ensure healthy birds and less mortality. We get the chicks without immunization and do not have them de-beaked. Chickens that are not in confinement do not need be de-beaked for their own safety and actually need their beaks for foraging in the pasture. We ordered 50 Cornish Giants, a meat bird, and 50 sexed Red Rock Cross laying hens.

It is very important for the chicks to be kept at a constant temperature, so for the first week we have the chicks in our living room. Shaen got two large cardboard boxes, which he joined together into one very large box. He covered the bottom of the box with a few inches of spelt hulls from Fieldstone Granary. He set up the water and food. We use a standard un-medicated chick starter. When the chicks get a bit bigger we will put them on pasture and a homemade chick scratch made from organic grains from Fieldstone Granary. Shaen uses a red heat lamp for warmth. Miller Hatchery sends detailed instructions about the care of chicks, but Shaen likes watching the chick’s behavior for a better gauge of comfort. If the chicks are crowded around underneath the heat lamp, it is too cold, and he will lower the lamp to increase the temperature. If the chicks are crowded around the perimeter of the box, it is too hot, and he will raise the heat lamp. Shaen likes to see the chicks actively moving around in comfort.

Later we got a call from Rochester Hatchery. They specialize in heritage breeds. Originally, they had no extra birds available for this year, so we got put on their call list for order cancellations. We got the Rochester’s Heritage Group Pack. There is a mixture of 50 Ameraucana, Buff Orpingtons, Danish Brown Leghorns and Buff Brahams. There are a lot of chicks in my living room this week!

In Dietary Dangers the Weston A Price Foundation consider chocolate a food to avoid. Cocoa and very dark chocolate may have some health benefits in small qualities but most commercial chocolate is full of chemical additives. If you consume chocolate on special occasions the best options are using organic cocoa powder or organic cocoa nibs. If you must purchase chocolate choose a very dark chocolate from a high quality Chocolatier.

This ice cream is a holiday favorite in our household. If you cannot find raw cream, use a quality organic whipping cream without additives. Using a raw local honey is a great way to help your immune system if you have seasonal allergies, but the honey must be local and raw to be helpful. Blend the honey, egg yolks, cocoa powder and vanilla together and then add the cream. Pour the ingredients into an ice cream maker or use a shallow container in the freezer. For more information about making ice cream without a machine please read Cream, Cream and More Ice Cream.

When ready to serve, put ice cream in chilled bowls. Add a small amount of a liqueur that goes well with chocolate, if desired. Here is a list of liqueurs.

I have had the pleasure of enjoying the bounty found in these fire ravaged areas. As I dry about five pounds of morels, my house is filled with their rich, dark smell. Actually, it smells like the forest is in my house. These mushrooms have a brainy look to them and a very strong meaty flavor that reminds me of deep dark places in the earth.

I like my morels fried in lots of butter with a bit of sea salt. The mushrooms can be eaten by themselves but most of us would find their rich flavor overwhelming. Food from the forest is wild and rich. Real food has a strong flavor. Most of us have only eaten foods tamed by the cultivating hand of humans, and have forgotten the pleasure of these deep rich flavors.

Dehydrating morels is a good way to enjoy this fragrant food throughout the year. I have never used dried morels before but I can tell already they will be a wonderful addition to soups, stews and sauces. Louise Freedman of the Mycological Society of San Francisco says that morels dry very well: “The intensity and character of the morel flavor is not lost in drying. We have used them after three years of storage and found them to be just as aromatic, if not more so, as when fresh.”

Getting foods from the wild is called wildcrafting. There are environmental concerns with gathering food from the wild. But if you compare the environmental impact of wildcrafting to the environmental disaster of the Industrial Food System, this argument rings false. Enjoy your wild foods knowing that an intact ecosystem such as a forest will recover from your meal very quickly. It is our modern food system based on oil and externalizing costs into the greater environment that may not fair as well in the long run.

If you are in Kamloops and interested in trying wild mushrooms, please call Al Cadorette at 250.819.8260. Fresh black morels are $10.00 per pound but are almost done for the year. Yellow morels will be coming up later in the season. He also has whole or flake dried mushrooms for sale. Al says: “I will be getting shaggy manes which are a choice mushroom but not many people are aware of. They are great. Also, chicken of the woods are picked in the fall. I will be looking for king boletus. They should be coming up soon.”

Sauteed Morels
10 large morels cut in half
1/2c organic butter
sea salt to taste
1/8c raw cream (optional)
Saute the morels in butter until tender. Add salt. Add the raw cream if desired for a creamy steak sauce. Serve with a blue rare barbecued pastured beef steak.

Wild Mushroom Soup
2c finely chopped onions
1tsp sea salt
1/2c organic butter
4c chopped mushrooms
1/4c fresh morels or 1/8c dried morels finely chopped
6c beef or chicken bone broth
finely chopped fresh herbs from the garden: thyme, chives, parsley, or rosemary (optional)
2T fresh raw cream in each bowl
Saute onions in a small amount of butter until soft. In another pan saute mushrooms in small batches in butter. Add each batch to the onions. You can add a splash of wine if you desire, but the morels have a complex wine-like flavor of their own. If you would like a creamy texture, puree some of the onion and mushrooms. Add the bone broth to the onions and mushrooms and warm through. In each bowl of soup add some chopped herbs and the fresh raw cream on top.

1. The best milk is from cows on fresh green pasture which is only available for part of the year in Kamloops.
2. Unless you have a herd of dairy cows and can stagger pregnancies, having fresh raw milk all year round is almost impossible. Milking cows need to be dried off at some point in their pregnancy. The milking cow will be physically stressed by any third trimester milking. This stress may negatively affect the calf’s health and the cow’s longevity.
3. The Milker needs a break from the twice a day labor of milking. Milking in winter, in the dark and cold, isn’t any fun.

Last year, I experimented with freezing milk with and without the cream. Skimmed milk freezes very well and when unfrozen is similar to a commercial 2% milk. Milk with a cream layer has a lumpy texture when unfrozen. Last year, I tried freezing in glass jars to avoid using plastics. This did not go very well. I had some breakages which made me realize that sometimes it is better to use plastics even though I do not consider plastics in contact with food safe.

This year, I will skim off the cream and freeze the milk in 2L rectangle plastic containers. I will pop the frozen milk out of the plastic container, use two layers of plastic bags to protect the milk from off flavors, and date each brick. I will need put away about 110, 2L bricks of milk to make it through Patty’s dry period. This spring, we consumed frozen milk which was about five months old. I could not detect any off flavors, so storing for six months seems possible.

Freezing milk is easy and can save money. My family goes through about 8L of milk and about 1L of cream a week. Of course, I can’t get raw milk from the Industrial Food System but the closest product, organic milk, would cost my family over $2000 a year. My family goes through about two or three pounds of organic butter a week, which costs over $1000 a year. If you are interested in how to make butter please read Making Raw Sweet Butter or Raw Cultured Butter.

Another product we make is ice cream. High quality ice cream is very expensive. During the hot summer months, we make about 1L of ice cream ever day. If you would like to learn some of our favorite ice cream recipes, please read Cream, Cream and More Ice Cream Recipes. Our girls can eat as much of this delicious food as they want. I feel very good about the quality of the ice cream knowing every ingredient that went into the dessert. I know the raw cream is full of healthy fats that will help my girls grow into strong women.

I have just started using a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, but a machine is not needed for making ice cream. I do not like the idea that ice cream makers have an inner lining made of aluminum. The Wise Traditions Study Group considers the aluminum used in this manner is “safe”. There is no heat used so no metal is transferred to the food.

If you do not have a ice cream maker, pour the ingredients into a shallow container and place in the freezer. Every hour, remove the container and mix the contents vigorously to break up the ice crystals. This will give a creamy smooth texture to the ice cream. If you forget about the ice cream and it freezes solid, just cut the ice cream up into small squares and blend in the food processor until smooth and creamy. I made ice cream for years with this method.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
4 cups raw cream
3 raw pastured egg yolks
1/4c raw local honey
2T organic vanilla extract
small amount of freshly ground vanilla bean (optional)
This ice cream is an all time favorite in our household. If you cannot find raw cream, use a quality organic whipping cream without additives. Using a raw local honey is a great way to help your immune system if you have seasonal allergies, but the honey must be local and raw to be helpful. Blend the honey, egg yolks and vanilla together and then add the cream. Pour the ingredients into an ice cream maker or use a shallow container in the freezer. The egg yolks gives this ice cream a rich yellow color. You will never look at the “white” color of commercial vanilla ice cream the same again.

Very Berry Ice Cream
3c raw cream
2c frozen strawberries, blueberries or cherries
2 raw pastured egg yolks
1/8c raw local honey (optional)
At this time of year, I am digging into the bottom of my deep freezers, emptying out fruit picked last season. Use a food processor to puree the frozen fruit. If you cannot find raw cream, use a quality organic whipping cream without additives. Add the other ingredients and blend. Pour the ingredients into an ice cream maker or, if you do not have a ice cream maker, pour into a shallow container and place in the freezer. This ice cream will be ready very quickly because of the frozen fruit.

Updated July 6, 2010: Here is a recipe for Birthday Chocolate Ice Cream.

2c finely grated and peeled horseradish root
1T sea salt
1/4c live whey culture
extra filtered water if horseradish root is very dry (optional)
Clean and peel the horseradish root. Grate the horseradish root in a well ventilated space or work outside. Or chop up the horseradish into small pieces and grind into a fine paste using a food processor. The vapors that come off horseradish root makes crying from onions seem like a joke! Add the sea salt and homemade whey. Store the horseradish in a glass jar with extra space at the top to take the expansion during fermentation. If you do not know how to make whey please read Making Homemade Lacto-Fermentation Whole Seed Mustard. Let the horseradish sit in a warm place in your kitchen for 2-3 days until you can see many bubbles forming in the condiment. The horseradish condiment will last for months in the fridge. The horseradish’s flavor will continue to “evolve” and mellow from the action of the live whey culture in your fridge over a number of months. You can serve the horseradish as is, or remove an amount you are going to use that day and add an equal amount of heavy fresh cream. I like it the best this way.

Shaen worked every free minute he had to get the pasture ready for moving Patty and the calves. Shaen has 700′ of 3/4″ black poly hose running from the spring. There is a filter to reduce particulates in the line. He has about 45psi at the bottom of the hose but this pressure increases as the accumulation tank is drawn down. He finished off the roadway with a backhoe and made a turnaround large enough for us to bring in our big truck.

Shean moved an 8′x12′ tool shed to the property. It was scary for me to watch him move the heavy building but he got it into place without anyone getting injured. This building is a secure storage area for equipment and supplies for the cattle. It will also be one side wall for a hay, feed and chip shed which we will be building this summer. We built a small paddock about 30′x30′ to train the cattle on electric fencing. Shaen called it the ugliest fence he’d ever seen. The fence is pretty rickety too, but we were running out of time and just needed to move the cattle. The idea was to use the paddock to train the cattle on electric fences. Thus, strength wasn’t really needed.

We moved the cattle to the new pasture on May 30, 2010. Patty immediately started eating the wonderful rich forage. The calves started running around, leaping and jumping. But the training on electric fencing in the small paddock did not go well. Patty hit her nose on the electric fence then backed up in a hurry and hit her butt into another electric fence. She was quite upset, having no place to go but up. The calves found ways to break out of the paddock and would walk through the electric fencing taking the shock over stopping their romping. Then Patty walked through an un-electrified gate as we madly chased the calves around the property. It was not an auspicious start!

Shaen was worried we would never catch them again on the property. We stopped chasing and started working to secure the paddock so the calves could not get out. Patty headed up the gully to feast on some delicious forage. The calves leaped and jumped for joy at their new found freedom. After we got the paddock secure we worked together to catch the calves which were tired after all that wonderful play. I caught Patty and we milked her. But she did not want to go back into the paddock. As I led her towards the paddock she took me for a run. I did not let go but instinctively dropped to the ground on my knees. This spun Patty around. I weigh about 125lbs and Patty weighs about 800lbs. After that incident we got her into the paddock but without power to the electric fence. We were betting Patty wouldn’t walk through the fence, even through she likely could. We thought Patty, having been trained to fences, would not consider the idea that she could just walk through our weak fence. This proved to be true and we found Patty and the calves in the paddock in the morning.

The next day’s milking went better. Our netted electric fencing arrived too. Shean worked to get the fencing up and make a new pasture area for Patty and another area for the calves. We also had another problem. Two of Patty’s teats had sores from the vigorous feeding of the calves. One teat was especially damaged. We decided to try two controlled feedings a day. This time we protected the damaged teats with our hands and would allow each calf one undamaged teat to drain. When the calves started to seriously butt Patty they would be pulled off and returned to their electrified pasture area. We carefully milked out the damaged teats. After we were finished milking, we used Bag Balm on her teats and udder. I am somewhat uncomfortable using Bag Balm because of the petroleum product and antiseptic chemical in the preparation. We will shift over to straight coconut oil as soon as possible.

Within a few days Patty and the calves got used to the netted electric fences and the double strand electric wire. We are getting used to the twice a day milking. We are getting about 14 gallons of milk a week, even though Patty is feeding twins. With the fresh forage the cream line is going up from about 10% of the volume to 30% for night milking and 50% for morning milking. Patty’s teats are healing but we have to clear brush in the pasture area because Patty is getting scratches on her udder as she moves around to feed. We are starting to understand why farmers coddled their dairy cows. They do have special needs.

Undated July 11, 2010: After about a week of controlled feeding, Shaen decided to go back to bottle feeding for the male calf. He is just too rough on Patty’s teats. We have to allow the female calf to suckle on Patty or Patty will not let-down her milk. The calves are always in a separate pasture from Patty, though Patty can see the calves throughout the day. We cannot understand why the female calf fights us going to the feeding. We understand why she would fight us when we pull her off to milk Patty. It’s a lot of extra work to manage the cow calf relationship. I hope we will not have to do this for Patty’s next calf.

Krystal, our relief milker, started using an Ouch Cream on Patty’s damaged teat. This cream finished off the healing of this very big wound on one of Patty’s teats.

Patty has been plagued by hordes of flies so we have moved our layers to the pasture. It took about a week for the chickens to realize the wonderful maggots to be found in the cow patties. Our little manure spreaders are enjoying a wonderful meal while cleaning up the pasture. The number of flies on Patty has halved.

Homemade Lacto-Fermentation Whole Seed Mustard
Making homemade mustard is very easy. It will be fresher and of better quality than any mustard you can find commercially. Making your own mustard will also save money. This whole seed mustard is very much like the French Meaux Mustard. This recipe will get its vinegar-like flavor from lacto-fermentation. The mustard’s flavor will continue to “evolve” from the action of the live whey culture in your fridge over a number of months. The mustard will start as fiery hot and age into a mild, complex rich flavor.

1c brown mustard seeds
1T sea salt
1/4tsp turmeric (optional)
1/4c live whey culture
Take the mustard seeds and soak them for two days in filtered water. Change the water once or twice in a day. The mustard seeds should start to sprout during this time. (If they do not, find another source of seeds. The seeds are dead and have been given some sort of treatment to make the seeds store longer.) After the seeds have started to sprout, rinse the seeds one more time and pour off the water. Mix the mustard seeds, sea salt and turmeric, if desired. You can use any food processor to grind the seeds into a fine paste. Add more filtered water, if needed, for a smooth consistency. Store the mustard in a glass container. Add the live culture whey and let the mustard sit at room temperature for two days. This will activate the culture and make the mustard last for months in the fridge. The fresh mustard will start out very hot and mellow over time.

Live Whey Culture
Live whey culture is very easy to make. Use a cheese cloth bag or fine cotton cloth to drain the whey from homemade yoghurt. Whey is the whitish, watery material that comes off the yoghurt. If you continue to drain the yoghurt for about 24 hours, you will have a lovely yoghurt cream cheese. You can store live whey culture for months in the fridge.

Whole Seed Mustard Dressing
1c extra virgin olive oil
1tsp sea salt
1/4c raw apple cider vinegar, raw wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1T cold-pressed sesame seed oil (optional)
1T whole seed mustard
After you ground your mustard seeds into a fine paste in the food processor, cleaning out the last of the mustard paste can be a chore. You can “clean” out your food processor by making some salad dressing. Add all of the ingredients together and blend. The mustard will emulsify the oils into a thick, creamy dressing. Store the dressing in a glass container in the fridge for easy use.