Tag Archives: Jocko Creek Ranch

Port-fool-you

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“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

tangled-wires

Our world is a tangle like the back of my computer. Watch where you tack your boat or you will end up in Port-fool-you.

Some unfortunate person asked me for investment advice. I just thought the readers of eatkamloops.org might enjoy my response. But first the disclaimer: I am not responsible for the outcome of your investment decisions!

Port-fool-you. Sorry, for making up words but I have to laugh about these things or I might start crying and end up a puddle of water on the floor.

I want to tell a story about my “backyard”. There is a copper mine going in. It’s big, really BIG. It will cover ten square kilometers and employ 1000 men for the build-up and 300 men permanently. It’s going to be great for my business because I am in the last industrial park before the mine. I will be rewarded richly for just being “lucky” with my location.

But the mine will contaminate the little water that is on the Knutsford Plateau. One of the biggest ranches in Canada, Sugarloaf Ranch has been bought out by the copper mine so they could have the surface rights too. Jocko Creek Ranch where I get my lamb and beef animals, will have several hundred acres going under a tailings pile. We will just have to say good-bye to the pasture improvements made over two generations.

A lake I drive by will be gone. Some people say that’s okay because its just an alkaline swamp anyway. We can say good-bye to the colony of Red-Winged Blackbirds that inhabit a swamp near the main road to the mine. By the way, that swamp is the most ecologically diverse place in this area. When society needs copper, despoiling an area is a price worth paying. All I hear about the mine is all the “great” jobs that will come from this project but I hear little about how the environment will be charged.

The big disconnect I see is that people don’t seem to wonder why they get paid such great wages or why their port-fool-you increases. Do they not realize that there is money in “raping and pillaging” the environment? And what about the health of the people downstream from the mine? Do we think about their long-term health? No. We are just looking for a nice fat return on our port-fool-you, thinking that this will be a great thing.

Have you done any meaningful work for the dividend or increase in your stock port-fool-you? Think about it. Are you adding to the problems of the world or solving the problems of the world with your investment strategy? Or are you just trying to save your own butt? Looking for a “big fat return” on your money just brings the cliff closer for us all.

Get a small piece of land. Grow your own food. Live in a very small house. Make your own energy. Learn the meaning of “enough” and stop buying junk. Stop supporting the “people” and “organizations of people” that are raping and pillaging the planet. These actions are enough to change the world.

Love, Caroline

ironmask-growing-grass

On the left is my home in the Ironmask Industrial Park which used to be an old gold and copper mine. In the foreground is Shaen's pasturing project. Over the hill to the right is where the copper mine will go in. Humans have always altered their environment. Each of us needs to think carefully about our actions because "on mass" we cause the outcome.

If you would like to learn more about Shaen’s pasturing project please see Brittle Grassland Pasture Update: Photo Essay. See what just one man can do to transform a desert into a pasture on a limited budget. Seems kind of silly now. Just imagine what a thousand men can do to the environment with an unlimited budget. If you liked Port-fool-you please read Wrong Turn, What if?, and Pick Your Poison or Change Your Life. The most effective tool against oppression and slavery is an awake mind.

It?s 3:23 in the morning
and I?m awake
because my great great grandchildren
won?t let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?
surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?
as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?
did you fill the streets with protest
when democracy was stolen?
what did you do
once
you
knew?
Hieroglyphic Stairway by Drew Dellinger

Healthy Clothing: Do you know what’s in your clothes?

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About a year ago, I started wondering about my long term use of nylon, fleece and other synthetic materials from Mountain Equipment Coop. I started wondering if these petrochemical-based fabrics were safe for use next to my skin and for that matter if the products were environmentally safe. Ironically, MEC is all about enjoying and saving the environment. Unfortunately, their fabric choices might be convenient for a sweaty hiker but the fabrics are made from materials that are not sustainable nor environmentally friendly. Many of these synthetic fabrics are partly recycled but the question I keep asking myself is should we be making the products in the first place and how safe are the fabrics for the wearer or the greater environment? On the positive side, MEC cares about the working conditions in the factories that produce their products. MEC sells very inexpensive 100% organic cotton shirts, 100% Merino wool underwear, and some hemp blend products.

I started wondering about my personal clothing choices and what I would have to do to be more sustainable. I realized that leather, sheepskin and fur are very sustainable products and have a very long wearing life. For example, a leather or sheepskin jacket could last a lifetime. In my vegetarian days, I would have been horrified by such an observation. I guess many people feel the same way. On my Visit to the Killing Floor at Kam Lake View Meats, I learned that hides, once a valuable byproduct of the slaughtering process, are now almost a waste product. The inspector said: ?we are close to the day when the customer will have to pay extra to dispose of the hide.? The kill floor manager said: ?when I started twenty years ago, the hides were worth $50.00 each. Now they get $5.00 a hide.? This situation seems wrong to me. As a show of respect for the life given for our food we should be using every part of the animal possible. There are problems with modern leather products. Most modern tanning methods use toxic chemicals but this does not have to be the case. Leather can be produced using traditional brain tanning methods which does not negatively affect the environment. If there were enough people that cared about how a hide was tanned, we could have a resurgence of artisan tanning using traditional methods.

Wool is another wonderful material that doesn’t require the death of an animal and is completely sustainable. All you need is the sheep on pasture and the wool continues to grow year after year. Wool can be used for years, and some thick wools will have the same longevity as leather, sheepskin or fur. Again, we are seeing the loss of another traditional home industry. At one time, many sheep farms would have had a method of taking the raw wool from the sheep to a finished product. Now, this wasn’t an easy task. Women spent the winter months working at cleaning, carting, spinning, weaving and knitting. They would make many of the clothes and blankets used by the whole family. Now wool is a waste product. It isn’t even worth the cost to send it to Custom Woolen Mills located in Alberta. I talked with Susan McGillivray from Jocko Creek Ranch about her sheep’s wool. She sends enough wool to the mill for her family’s needs but the rest of the wool gets composted. Here is another missed opportunity for a revival in artisan wool production. If enough people valued high quality wool and were willing to pay for handmade knitting and weaving we could have a local cultural Renaissance.

Cotton, linen, and hemp are beautiful materials and true products of the Industrial Revolution. There may have been cottage industry of these products long ago, but few people would have the production knowledge now. Cotton’s major problem is the amount of fungicides, herbicides and pesticides used to produce the crop. Going organic with your cotton clothing would really help the environment. Linen comes from flax straw, a “waste product” of flax seed and flax oil production. Linen does not require as many chemicals for production as cotton. Hemp is a very hardy plant with its own natural pesticide. Hemp is a very strong and versatile fiber and can be used in building materials, fabrics, and rope. The official story is hemp is hard to get because the material got caught up in a silly confusion during the 1930’s drug prohibition. Some people believe this official story is a fiction to hide the true reason which is to protect the synthetic fabric industry. If we lived in a sane world we would all be wearing hemp or linen. If we bought hemp clothes we could be wearing the same clothes for a decade. We would have to give up making a fashion statement and design styles of clothing that can adjust for weight loss or gain. If we are going to continue using cotton we should use organic cotton.

killer-clothes

This is an interesting book about clothing. It will make you look and what you wear in a new way.

I just finished reading Killer Clothes: How Seemingly Innocent Clothing Choices Endanger Your Health …And How To Protect Yourself by Anna Maria Clement. I was previously unaware of the chemical contamination prevalent in clothes manufacturing. Manufacturers are now putting some very scary chemicals on your clothes. (The way to protect yourself against these chemicals is to know your producers and make it your business to understand their manufacturing processes. Sorry, no easy answers on this website.) Manufacturers are not required to list the chemicals used on the clothing’s label. These chemicals are used to make the fabric flame, stain, shrink, static, wrinkle, bacterial, microbial, and odor resistant. For example, formaldehyde is commonly used in fabrics to resist wrinkling and shrinkage. Ugh. The author is concerned that we are all “guinea pigs” in a vast experiment without our conscious consent. She is concerned that our clothes are adding to a “total toxic load” in our bodies which can led to illness in the short or long-term. She is concerned that many of these chemicals “are persistent in the environment and bio-accumulative in humans and wildlife.” She is especially worried about what this will mean for the health of our children and grandchildren.

Finally, when we are done with our natural clothing, they can be recycled as rags or made into paper. The rags, when worn, will return to the soil which in turn will service another generation of people. I cannot say that about my petrochemical-based nylon, fleece, or polyester.

Holiday Dinner Menu

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pumpkin-custard

This Pumpkin Custard is topped with an obscene amount of whipped cream, drizzled with bitter chocolate.

I wanted to share the menu I used for Christmas Dinner, but the menu would be good for any holiday dinner. All the ingredients came from organic sources. I have found a new source for organic herbs and spices, mountainroseherbs.com. I was very impressed with the freshness and quality.

This meal was fairly easy to prepare and took about four hours. I usually bake my desserts the day before a special dinner. If I do not have time, I will complete the desserts in the morning so the desserts have time to cool in the fridge before serving. I make the stuffing well in advance, so the flavors can meld together. I cut up all of my vegetables well in advance and set the vegetables aside for later use. I let the roast sit on the counter, seasoned, until I am ready to start my final preparations.

The meal was delicious. We made it to the first dessert with the ice wine but could not get down another bite. This meal served six but could easily have served eight people.

Salad Course
Grated Beets with Whole Seed Mustard Dressing
Green Salad with Whole Seed Mustard Dressing

Main Course
Roasted Grass-fed Lamb with sea salt, fresh rosemary and whole garlic heads
Spicy Yam and Sweet Potato Fries
Savory Nut Stuffing
Vegetable Medley with Raw Cheese
Homemade Red Wine

Dessert Course
Pumpkin Custard with Fresh Whipping Cream
Chocolate Brownie with Cream Cheese Icing
Christmas Butter Tart Squares
Local Icewine
Espresso

Roasted Grass-fed Lamb
Our lamb came from Jocko Creek Ranch. Shaen and Joe slaughtered and wrapped the lamb earlier in December. We used the leg for Christmas dinner.
5 pound grass-fed lamb leg
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1tsp unrefined sea salt
1 sprig fresh rosemary, from my indoor herb garden
1-2 garlic heads, in their skins
Allow the grass-fed meat to sit in the fridge for a few days before cooking for best results. The morning of the meal, remove the lamb leg from the fridge and place on the counter to warm to room temperature. Make small incisions into the leg to place the slices of garlic. Place the sprig of fresh rosemary under the leg of lamb. Sprinkle the unrefined sea salt on top. When ready to cook, place the meat thermometer into the leg. Cook at 325F until the meat gets to 120F. Remove from oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes. The meat will continue to cook and the temperature will rise. Peel the garlic cloves and serve with the meat. Slice the meat and serve immediately.

Spicy Yam and Sweet Potato Fries
This recipe is based on a recipe from mountainroseherbs.com. This recipe is NOT safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, but might be a good recipe to try during the reintroduction phase.
1 large organic sweet potato
1 large organic yam
1tsp cumin seeds, freshly ground
1tsp paprika
1tsp sea salt
1T organic extra virgin olive oil (optional)
3T pastured pork fat
Heat oven to 325F. Cut sweet potato and yam into French fries or wedges. In a large bowl mix the spices, sea salt and fat together. Add the cut tubers to the spice mixture and toss well. If you are using fats you may have to use your hand to get the mixture to cover the tubers evenly. Spread evenly over a glass oven pan and bake for 30 minutes until tender and lightly browned.

Vegetable Medley with Raw Cheese
1/8c organic butter
1c organic onion, cut into rings
1c fresh organic mushrooms, whole
1/2c dried morels, crumbled (optional)
1c organic Brussel sprouts, cut in half
1c organic carrots, cut into wedges and julienned
1c organic broccoli flowers, cut into small pieces
some bone broth, juice from roasted meat or red wine
2c raw organic cheese, grated
1/2c organic parsley, chopped finely
This should be the last dish prepared before serving dinner. Have all the vegetables cut and ready for cooking. When the roast is ready, heat the butter in a large cast iron frying pan. Saute the onions and mushrooms until soft. Use a bit of bone broth or the juice from the roasted meat to avoid sticking. Add the Brussel sprouts, carrots, and broccoli. Cook until vegetables are just tender. Stir well and top with raw cheese and parsley. I used Gort’s Gouda for the raw cheese. Slightly heat the cheese and serve.

Pumpkin Custard
I remember the first time I had pumpkin “pie” using whole pumpkin instead of canned pumpkin. I was surprised at the flavor of real pumpkin. The canned pumpkin I used to buy, had “pumpkin” as the only ingredient, but the canned pumpkin had a sweet and slightly spicy flavor. It was then I realized labeling laws are deceptive and allow for the addition of sugar and spices to some given percentage without having to include this information in the ingredient list. I started distrusting labeling. Nevertheless, I would never go back to making pumpkin-based desserts with anything but whole pumpkin. The end product tastes so delicious.

The secret of great pumpkin pie is fresh spices and using a sweet “pie” pumpkin. I always use whole spices and grind them with a mortar and pestle just before use. I keep fresh ginger in the freezer and grate as needed. Since I am using organic ginger I grate skin and all.
1 small organic sweet pumpkin, pre-cooked by baking or steaming, skinned
1/4-1/3 raw local honey, adjust to sweetness of pumpkin
pinch of sea salt
1tsp organic cinnamon
1tsp organic ginger, freshly grated
1/2tsp organic allspice, freshly ground
1/2tsp organic cloves, freshly ground
1/2c whole organic cream, or more
1T Brandy (optional)
In a food processor, smooth out the pumpkin into a paste. Add honey, sea salt and spices and taste for sweetness. Add extra honey if needed, but remember the pie will become sweeter after cooking. Add cream to smooth out the paste. It should be thick but not stiff. Fill 6-8 oven safe glass custard cups and place into a large glass baking dish filled with warm water. Cook at 325F for 30-45 minutes until custard is slightly browned. Cool in the fridge and serve with fresh whipping cream.

Just One Sit-Down Family Meal

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heirloom-tomatoes

One of the pleasures of growing your own food is having a change to try heirloom varieties. These pear and cherry tomatoes do not travel well but have amazing flavor. You wont find these tomatoes at a grocery store but your local farmer's market will have them in season.

This is a post 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

Visit to the Killing Floor at Kam Lake View Meats

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Yesterday I visited the killing floor at Kam Lake View Meats. I had a very interesting experience and I am very grateful to Kam Lake View Meats and the local inspector for allowing it. I was there to harvest organs and glands from three heifers from Jocko Creek Ranch. I had ordered from Jocko Creek Ranch, one grassfed two year old heifer and two grassfed veal calves. For more information on why I like grassfed veal read Grassfed Veal. If you are looking for a full service butcher, here is their information:
Kam Lake View Meats Ltd.
Ron Keely
6453 Buckhorn Rd, Kamloops, BC, V1S 2A1
T: 250.828.1015
27 km
government inspected abbatoir, slaughtering, custom cutting, smoking, sausage making, good source for local meat, run The Cutting Block in Kamloops

That day, I learned many things on the killing floor. The hides, once a valuable byproduct, are now almost a waste product. The inspector said: “we are close to the day when the customer will have to pay extra to dispose of the hide.” The kill floor manager said: “when I started twenty years ago, the hides were worth $50.00 each. Now they get $5.00 a hide.”

It makes me think about my vegetarian days, when I did not want to wear leather because I thought it was environmentally unfriendly and cruel to animals. I thought we all should use cotton clothing. Of course, I did not think about all the water, energy, pesticides and herbicides used to produce industrial cotton. I do not think cotton clothing is environmentally friendly anymore. Now, I think about how long a piece of clothing made of leather or fur would last. I think about the skill of being able to tan that hide and make it into a piece of useful clothing, has almost been lost.

The internal organs and waste not harvested from animals includes the head, stomach, intestines, reproductive organs, tail end, hooves, and extra fat. Some can be used in raw pet foods but most has to be composted. There are parts of the intestine that are considered “toxic waste” and must be incinerated due to fears of Mad Cow Disease. The Weston A. Price Foundation has a number of essays on Mad Cow Disease by Mark Purdey called Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

These waste materials are shipped to Alberta because no one in the area wants to have a composting plant in their area. So, trucks full of animal waste moves up and down our roadways. The inspector shared some black humor regarding all the wishful thinking about “reducing our carbon footprint” while regulations require such inefficiencies. Again, the government always thinks big. Big composting plants cause big problems. Little composting plants cause little problems. But for the government it is hard to regulate small operations. For the small operations, government inspection and regulation is not cost effective.

Organs are normally harvested, though the interest in these foods have dwindled over the years. These foods are now commonly added to raw pet foods. This is ironic, because traditional people preferred the organ meats and fat over the muscle meat. During periods of good hunting, traditional people would eat organ meats and fat and would throw the muscle meat to the dogs. Traditional people would dry muscle meat as jerky and add fat to make pemmican. This was travel and starvation food. Read Guts and Grease for more information about traditional diets.

Kam Lake View Meats produces raw pet foods, so this would be a good local source if you need pet foods. Raw pet foods are called the Bone and Raw Food diet (BARF). In my opinion, raw food diets are far better for your dog or cat than dried or canned foods. Read Pottenger’s Cats by Francis Pottenger for more information about raw and cooked food feeding experiments. The Weston A. Price Foundation has an essay called Trends in Home Prepared Diets for Pets. There is a lot of controversy about raw food for your pet. Do your research and make your own informed decision.

We did not harvest the brain or pituitary glands. Kam Lake View Meats uses a 22 caliber rifle to kill the animal. This means the brain tissue is contaminated with lead and is unsafe to eat. In new slaughter houses they are required by law to use the humane hammer. The owner of Kam Lake View Meats has used this humane hammer and has renamed it the “inhumane hammer”. He has found the hammer causes more suffering for the animal but would allow the harvesting of the head meat, brains and brain organs.

The regular harvesting of glands has not been done for over eighty years. Before there was a pharmaceutic industry, people used glands to help heal endocrine problems. People with glands that were damaged by illness or injury might have to take glandulars for the rest of their lives or their condition would quickly deteriorate and they would die. For more information about glandulars read Royal Lee: Father of Natural Vitamins.

This is why I was on the killing floor. I wanted to harvest a number of glands from the three animals. With the help of these knowledgeable people, we located the thyroid, adrenals, ovaries, and pancreas. This wasn’t easy. Those pictures drawn by artists in textbooks does not do justice to the individuality found in all animals.

I brought home the following organs: heart, kidneys, and liver. I brought home the following glands: ovaries, thyroid, adrenals, and pancreas. When I got home, I cut up the glands into the smallest pieces I could. I cut up some of the heart and liver into small cubes. I then froze those glands and organs on a tray. After the pieces had frozen, I re-packed them into bags. I will leave the organs and glands for two weeks in the freezer to kill any parasites, before consuming raw. I will be able to eat the small pieces like a “frozen supplement pill”. The dose for organs is 1-2T a day or more. The dose for the glands is an issue. It will require some experimentation to get the dose right. I will be using Degeneration Regeneration by Melvin Page as a guide. I will contact Ron Schmid, who produces dried glandulars for human consumption. This will be a long term project for me. I will keep everyone posted about what happens and what I learn. If anyone knows about endocrine treatment with raw glands, please contact me.

Updated December 17, 2009: Here are two essays on adrenal function: What You Should Know About Your Glands and Further Experiments of Cortico-Adrenal Extract.