eatkamloops.org

Industrial Food Sickness

All disease begins in the gut.
Hippocrates

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.

Boxing Day: You Are What You Buy (Believe)

Boxing Day has a long history but is now primarily known as a shopping holiday in North America. I haven’t participated in Boxing Day “celebrations” for decades. But at this time of year, I can’t help but think about what we “buy into”, will make the world we live in.

I dream about a world where my needs can be met without those needs costing someone else dearly. I dream about food that will nourish the body and community that will nourish the spirit. I dream about producing food for our families in a way that won’t cost “the world”. I dream about a world where our children are surrounded by a caring loving community that thinks about our shared future.

How do we become more enlightened about our behaviors so we can live our dreams? How can we change our thinking so our actions will follow? Maybe we need to just “buy into” a new vision. Of course, this vision isn’t new but very old. Maybe we need to learn how to tame our technology and harness our brilliance. All the answers are out there, we just have to apply them.

While I was at the Weston A Price Foundation 2008 Conference in California, I had the opportunity to see some new ideas being worked out in the real world. I visited the Three Stone Hearth in Berkeley, CA. They are running a Community Supported Kitchen (CSK). Jessica Prentice is one of the co-founders of Three Stone Hearth and author of Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection. I hope you enjoy an interview with Jessica Prentice Part I and Part II. If you would like to see inside the Community Supported Kitchen run by Three Stone Hearth please watch Business With Passion.

People who feel themselves in chains, with no hope of ever getting them off, want to put chains on everyone else.
John Holt

Joel Salatin’s Vision of a Local Food System

This last weekend I had the great pleasure of meeting Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm. He was speaking to a sold-out crowd hosted by the Cowichan Agricultural Society in Duncan, BC. Joel Salatin speaks passionately about family run, grass-based farming. In his own words, he is “in the redemption business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture.” The guiding principles behind “Polyface are:
TRANSPARENCY: Anyone is welcome to visit the farm anytime. No trade secrets, no locked doors, every corner is camera-accessible.
GRASS-BASED: Pastured livestock and poultry, moved frequently to new “salad bars,” offer landscape healing and nutritional superiority.
INDIVIDUALITY: Plants and animals should be provided a habitat that allows them to express their physiological distinctiveness. Respecting and honoring the pigness of the pig is a foundation for societal health. 
COMMUNITY: We do not ship food. We should all seek food closer to home, in our foodshed, our own bioregion. This means enjoying seasonality and reacquainting ourselves with our home kitchens.
NATURE’S TEMPLATE: Mimicking natural patterns on a commercial domestic scale insures moral and ethical boundaries to human cleverness. Cows are herbivores, not omnivores; that is why we’ve never fed them dead cows like the United States Department of Agriculture encouraged (the alleged cause of mad cows).
EARTHWORMS: We’re really in the earthworm enhancement business. Stimulating soil biota is our first priority. Soil health creates healthy food.”

My husband Shaen has read most of Joel Salatin’s books, so much of the information in the lecture wasn’t new to him. Near the end of the lecture, Shaen asked Joel Salatin if there was any big differences in his thinking now compared to when he wrote his books. Joel Salatin answered that in the past he believed thousands of farmers would communicate directly with customers. But most farmers find marketing and distribution very difficult and don’t like the work. Now he sees “clusters of farms” working with “local streams of marketing and distribution”. Joel talked about a six part system for a successful local food supply: producer, processor, accountant, marketer, distributor and customer. My husband and I looked at each other and wondered if there is a place for GO BOX Storage and eatkamloops.org in this new vision.

We realized we could become a local food distribution center for Kamloops. We could form a buyer’s group for Kamloops. We could increase the size of our orders and get better prices for everyone. We could run pocket markets or personal deliveries for a cost. If you do not know about pocket markets please read: Pocket Market Toolkit.

It was exciting thinking that we could become part of a successful local food system which helps all of us get the best in local food at a reasonable price. If we could develop a successful local food system, Joel Salatin believes “we could give the big-box stores a run for their money.”

Update November 25, 2009: I contacted Sally Fallon and asked if she knew of anyone who could mentor me to start a buyer’s group for Kamloops. She suggested John Moody who started a buyer’s club called Whole Life Buying Club. Before a new member can join the Whole Life Buying Club, they recommend the new member watch The Story of Stuff. The Whole Life Buying Club follows a Food Philosophy which defines the type of products the buying club will bring in for members. John Moody has written an essay for the journal Wise Traditions called Building a Local Food Buying Club.

Update December 1, 2009: Here is a link to Martha Stewart’s interview with Robert Kenner producer of the movie Food Inc. and Joel Salatin. I hope you enjoy the hypocrisy of the commercial, marinated in the content, more than I did. This is a link to the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund about Buyers Club Victories.

Updated December 23, 2009: I have just learned from Sandra Burkholder that Joel Salatin will be coming to Quesnel, BC on March 27, 2010. Joel Salatin will be speaking at the 2nd Annual Poultry and Rabbit Forum being put on by the Cariboo Central Interior Poultry Producers Association. Sandra Burkholder and her husband Chris Newton are building a earthship house in Darfield, BC. An earthship house is made from recycled materials and is designed to be completely self-sufficient housing system requiring no outside support. The earthship is the brain child of Mike Reynolds of Earthship Biotecture.

Updated February 28, 2010: I found a series about Polyface Farm on Watch.MeetTheFarmer.TV. You will get a personal tour of Polyface Farm with Joel Salatin. There is an incredible amount of information in this video series about his pasturing systems for the watchful viewer. He will go into the types of grasses and herbage plus the effect of mass group grazing and resting of the pasture. He goes in to some theory but most of the videos are very practice. If you are interested in the theory behind his practices please read his books for more information. Here is Part I, Part II and Part III.

[The road to] hell is paved with good intentions.
English Proverbs

Kamloops Herdshare Program

At the Weston A Price Foundation Kamloops Chapter potluck, we had a group discussion about starting a herdshare program in Kamloops. If you would like to receive further information about starting a local herdshare program please contact me at info(a)eatkamloops.org. I will put you on the email list for people wanting further up-dates. We need people willing to volunteer their expertise to get this project operational. Below is a summary of the conversation:

Basic Structure
We talked about basic structure of the herdshare and how the structure must protect the landowner, agister/milker and shareholders. This means there must not be any question of who owns the herd. The herd must be jointly owned by the herdshare members. All the benefits and risks are jointly accepted by the herdshare members.

The basic structure will have three contracts. One contract is for the landowner for rights to pasture and house the cows on a given acreage of land. This would include water use for pasturing, if required. The second contract goes to the agister/milker for daily milking and care of the cows. Both contracts could be with the same person or different people. The third contract would be for shareholders. This contract would outline the member’s responsibility to pay a share price to become a member. The share price would be used for the purchase of cows, equipment, and start-up costs. A second part of the contract would be a quarterly fee for the boarding of the cows. This cost would be based on the pasture lease fee, hay, milking and processing. This cost could be increased if something unexpected occurred.

The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund has sample contracts so we do not have to start from nothing. We have copies of Wild Thing Organics cowshare contracts and l may be able to get contracts from Home on the Range and Birdsong Farm Herdshare. We need a lawyer to look at the sample contracts and write something up for the Kamloops Herdshare Program. This can be done later if we decide to move forward with the herdshare.

Amounts of Milk
Young cows produce less milk than older cows. A cow normally goes into peak production after about three pregnancies. Cows also go through a seasonal cycle of production. Management of the cow/calf relationship also affects dairy production. We can get more milk out of the cows by milking twice a day. This happens 12 hours apart, but we must have staffing for two milkings a day. This is a very hard split shift and makes people not want to continue the work. The agister/milker needs to be well paid and have holiday relief or we will lose our agister/milker.

A young cow will produce about 3 gallons a day and a cow in peak production will produce 6 gallons a day. If we use the lower numbers for a younger herd, we are talking about 21 gallons a week per cow or 63 gallons for three cows. How many families this can service depends on individual family use. A family would buy one or more shares depending on their personal needs.

Costs
We talked about costs. From my experience with our cow Patty, milk costs over $10 per gallon to produce. This includes the cream, which is a very valuable product which can be made into raw butter or consumed fresh. This is a very specialized product and it will cost more than store bought milk. Becoming cost effective should be a goal of the herdshare.

The quarterly costs of boarding the cows will involve the lease payment for pasturing and housing. The biggest cost will be for the contract to hire the agister/milker. To milk and process the milk of three cows, would require about 2 hours of work, twice a day, seven days a week.

Holiday Relief
One of the biggest problems of dairy production is the farmer becomes married to the cows. The easiest way to solve this problem is to not milk all year round. This means not having a fresh milk supply for a number of months each year. During peak summer and fall production, individuals who want milk all year round can freeze milk for the winter. The Weston A Price Foundation recommends seasonal milk for a number of health reasons. Milk produced from cows on fresh pasture is of the highest quality. Milk from cows fed hay is of poorer quality. It is better for the cows not to be milked in later pregnancy. The cows have healthier calves and the cows will live longer.

Sources for Jersey Cows
We had a brief conversation about cows and equipment. I told the group that we have a great resource with my contacts with Home on the Range (Alice) and Birdsong Farm Herdshare (Naomi). Naomi Fournier has given me a list of six local breeders for Jersey cows:
1.  Joni DeWitt (250)836-4206
2.  Jake Konrad, (250) 546-6069
3.  Don Hendrickson (250) 838-7942
4.  Thys Haambuckers (250) 546-0346
5.  Jennifer Pretty (250) 838-0556
6.  Gord Ferguson (250) 838-2373

I have talked to the first two people on the list and both have cows for sale. Jake Konrad gave a $750 price for a pure bred Jersey cow. Assuming these are quality cows, this would mean the base cost for the herd would be $2250.

Herdshare Equipment for Milking and Processing
If we have more than three cows, hand milking is not practical. We will need milking equipment and a filterer. Equipment is expensive but we could buy it used. It would be best to have a dishwasher and refrigerator for the milk. Most herdshares use reusable 1L wide mouth Mason jars with plastic caps. This can create a return problem but glass is best for milk. Yoghurt can be simply made by putting the jars of milk and culture into a cooler with warm water for the night. If we wanted to make raw butter as a group, we would have to look at industrial kitchen equipment to do this job efficiently. Otherwise, individuals can make raw butter at home. My guess is we would need about $2500 to cover used equipment costs.

Growing the Herd
The cows will need to be artificially inseminated once a year. We do not want the cost or risk of having a Jersey bull around. We have a 50/50 chance to get a female calf which can be added to the herd. She can be breed after 16 months. The males become grassfed veal. The products from the veal calves are to be split between herdshare members. The females are added to the value of the herdshare and will require some sort of “share split” for the increase of the value to individual shares. A link to a local company that does artificial insemination is Westgen.

CFAI Funding from Interior Health
Interior Health is funding Community Food Action Initiatives. I talked to Casey Hamilton and she said there might be funding for starting a herdshare program. She was very excited about the program and suggested we apply.

Call to Action
1. We need a core group committed to the Kamloops Herdshare Program. That group would do a fair amount of research without compensation. Anyone interested in volunteering their time and expertise is needed.
2. It would be good to have a herdshare member that is a lawyer and one member that is an accountant or bookkeeper. If anyone knows someone with these skills who would want to be a member please contact me at info(a)eatkamloops.org.
3. Christine Rougeau will write a grant application for CFAI funding. Regardless of if we get government funding, we should be willing to fund the herdshare ourselves.
4. Does anyone have the expertise to pick a quality Jersey cow? Krystal Williams is a 4-H leader and will try to find people with dairy cow expertise. Chris Harder has volunteered to check out the Jersey breeders in the area and learn more about cows.
5. I will try to get sample contracts from all my sources. I will try to get more details about costs from other herdshare programs.
6. Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) has courses on starting herdshare programs. I will look into this option.
7. We will be needing to find used milking equipment. If someone knows about dairying equipment and would be willing to help, it would be greatly appreciated.
8. We are looking for farmers or ranchers willing to take a contract for pasturing and housing our herd. We are looking for a person willing to be under contract as our agister/milker.

Updated November 17, 2009: This is an article I found on the Weston A Price Foundation Leaders Bulletin Board called The Raw Milk Revolution. Another link is to an article in The New York Times called Raw Milk Sales Could Reinvigorate US Dairy Farms. Please note the referral to the Canada listeriosis outbreak. The article is not talking about Maple Leaf Foods and how their processed meats sickened thousands and twenty people died. For more information about this issue read Slaughtering in BC: Information You Need to Know. This is a typical spin done in mainstream media about the dangers of raw milk. We don’t see people outlawing processed meats, do we.

Updated December 2, 2009: I found a source for Portable Milking Machines. Local used equipment would be cheaper. I hope everyone is on the look-out for used equipment.

Updated December 3, 2009: I have just applied for a four part seminar on Herdshare Formation put on by the Farm to Consumer Foundation.

Updated December 11, 2009: Naomi Fournier of Birdsong Farm found this essay on herdshare formation called Don’t Let Your Herd Share Agreement Land You In Court.

Updated December 19, 2009: I got an email from Interior Health about the grant application for the Community Food Action Initiatives (CFAI). Interior Health has decided not to fund the Kamloops Herdshare Program.

Updated January 21, 2010: Michael Schmidt, Raw Milk Activist, Acquitted!

Updated February 23, 2010: I have not been able to find an agister/milker. I have found some possible locations for pasture. Choice of location for pasture is tied to the location of the agister/milker. I have shelved the project for this coming spring.

Updated May 1, 2010: Here is Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures talking with Dr. Joseph Mercola about raw milk standards and testing. Here is the link to the 20 Raw USA Standards he mentions in his discussion. He discusses why raw milk is healthy to drink. This is a line to the Organic Pastures website if you would like to read more about his dairy, which may be the largest raw milk dairy in the world.

Updated May 31, 2010: Here is a very interesting set of videos about running a raw milk dairy by Tim Wightman of Farm-To-Consumer Foundation call Chore Time I and II.

25 Steps to Eating Nourishing Traditional Foods

1. Purchase your food as whole ingredients and as close to the original natural state as possible. Avoid processed foods. Avoid all additives, coloring, stabilizers and fillers. Avoid Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). If you are wondering what is wrong with GMOs please listen to Dr. Mercola and Jeffery Smith on GMOs: Who Do You Want to Believe. Make it a point to understand the system used to process your food. If you cannot understand the process, do not eat the food.
2. Try to source your food locally. Get to know your farmers and ranchers. Show appreciation for all the work that goes into producing your food. Look for pastured raised or organic. Find the local suppliers for un-sprayed products. There are many local suppliers which are not certified organic but follow organic principles. Un-sprayed products are usually cheaper than certified organic. Use eatkamloops.org to find local farmers and ranchers. For some guidelines about assessing food quality read WAPF Shopping Guide for Canada.
3. Eat local foods seasonally. The food has better nutrition and is cheaper. If you would like to eat these foods out of season, find a suitable storage method. Get a large deep freezer and find an area in your home for dried stores. Consider building a root cellar or cold room. For more information read Winter Storage Part I and Winter Storage Part II.
4. When buying from non-local sources try to buy certified organic. When we can’t talk to the producers about their practices, having a third party certification is a good idea. If certified organic foods are not in the budget, read about The Dirty Dozen and avoid foods with the most contamination.
5. Consider growing your own food. Use container gardening on small properties or a big garden on larger lots. If labor is an issue, you might be able to trade garden space for labor. Depending on your zoning, you might be able to have laying hens for eggs or a miniature goat for raw milk.
6. Start a grease bucket. Save all your drippings and fat from roasted meat and fowl. Use the grease for any high heat frying or roasting. For more information read The Grease Bucket - Something from Nothing.
7. If you eat industrial vegetable oils or foods containing industrial vegetable oil, stop now. For cooking, replace these industrial vegetable oils with your grease bucket, butter, or coconut oil. Save your extra virgin olive oil for salads and uncooked foods. Other cold-pressed oils may be used occasionally in very small amounts. If you have any condition involving inflammation, removing even quality cold-pressed oils may improve your condition.
8. Make bone broth. Save all your bones from meals and store in the freezer until you have a pot full. Cover the bones with water and add 4T cider vinegar and simmer for 6-24 hours. For more information read Beautiful Bone Broth.
9. Eat some fermented foods each day or with each meal. Fermented foods improve our digestion. Fermentation can remove anti-nutrients from our food and increase nutrient availability. Fermented foods are not commonly available in the Industrial Food System and must be made at home. For more information read Wild Fermentation.
10. Start making some fermented foods at home. A good place to start is making yoghurt or kefir. If you do not consume dairy, try making lacto-fermented vegetables or use sourdough for breads and biscuits. Contact eatkamloops.org for free starter cultures. For more information about what starters we have read I Got Culture!
11. If you eat grains, beans, and legumes, soak them overnight in water, salt and fresh lemon juice before cooking. This soaking will remove the anti-nutrients from the food and make it easier to digest. Use bone broth when appropriate for the recipe in place of water. This will improve your digestion of these foods. If you are wondering why you need to soak grains read Be Kind to Your Grains.
12. Purchase all of your grains whole. If you are making flour, grind it yourself, and use it within four days. Flour is very perishable and will go rancid very quickly. Freshly ground flour can be stored in the freezer for later use.
13. If you eat nuts and seeds, soak them overnight in water and salt. Nuts and seeds can be then dried and consumed uncooked. These store well in the freezer for quick use.
14. Look for a local supply of grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds. There are many local varieties which will be fresher. Look for un-sprayed or organically grown.
15. If you eat rice, buy organic brown rice. Since this is not a local product, buy certified organic. Brown rice does not need to be soaked overnight but cooking in bone broth will help with digestion and improve flavor. If you would like to try fermenting rice to improve mineral availability read A New Way to Soak Brown Rice.
16. Buy your meat by the whole animal. This allows you to have a variety of cuts, offal, fat and bones. The butcher will package the meats in sizes that are best for your family. Get all the products from the animal even parts you do not know how to cook. They can always be used to make bone broth. For more information read Cooking with Grass-Fed Meat and Fowl and Visit to the Killing Floor at Kam Lake View Meat.
17. If you consume dairy, find a source of raw milk or raw milk products. This will involve having your own cow, goat or sheep or being a member of a herd share program. If you are wondering what is so great about pastured raw milk please read Let’s Talk about Raw Milk Safety. For more information about herd share programs in the province read Birdsong Farm - Cow Share Program.
18. If you are concerned that you have a deficiency in your diet and want to take a supplement, consider using whole foods, sometimes called superfoods. Examples of superfoods are: fermented cod liver oil, high vitamin butter, liver, spring and fall butter, raw milk products, bone broth and fermented foods. Other superfoods are related to the health problem of the person such as: various fresh or dried glands, kelp, assorted clays, probiotics, assorted high vitamin berries and herbs. For more information about superfoods read Supplement or Superfoods.
19. Look at your cosmetics and decide if you would eat them. If you would not like to eat them, consider stopping use. Our skin is far more porous than was once believed. The use of coconut oil can be a excellent moisturizer. Consider making your own soap or buying brands with very few ingredients. A good source of information about the safety of your cosmetics can be found on Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database.
20. Look through your medicine chest and decide if you can do without most of your medication. Many medications mask symptoms while the condition worsens. It is better to feel the pain and make fundamental changes in our lives, rather than masking symptoms while the condition gets worse. Think about the other drugs you take on a daily basis. Assess if these drugs might be adding to your health problems.
21. Think about food preparation in the home and how the task can be done efficiently. The job of running a traditional household is more work than eating convenience foods. This means someone must be willing to allot time for this important work. Some people use one day a week where they spend a morning in the kitchen producing meals for the whole week. Others cook larger meals and consume the leftovers.
22. Remove all plastics from your kitchen and replace with glass containers. Remove Teflon and aluminum from your kitchen and use stainless steel, glass, cast iron or enameled cast iron. Stop using a microwave for cooking or reheating foods.
23. If you are thinking about having a child, start thinking about what you eat before you conceive. All traditional populations had a special feeding schedule for mothers and fathers to be. For more information read Thinking about Motherhood.
24. If you continue to have health problems after changing over to a nourishing traditional diet, consider looking at the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This diet is also known as Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS). This diet is for very sick people. For more information about SCD and GAPS please read Specific Carbohydrate Diet.
25. Continue getting educated about health. eatkamloops.org has donated a number of books to the Kamloops Public Library. For a list of donated books read Recommended Reading List.

Cooking with Grass-Fed Meat and Fowl

If you are new to grass-fed products and feel unsure about how to cook meat or fowl please read Achieving Culinary Success With Grass-Fed Beef. This is a long essay but it explains the differences between conventional and pastured animals. The essay discusses the interesting topic of artisan butchery and how this specialty is being regulated out of existence.

One tool that is very useful in cooking pastured meat and fowl is to “put away your timer and get a good meat thermometer”. I started doing this after reading The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook by Shannon Hayes. I found it took all the mystery out of cooking a turkey or a very large roast. The fowl or meat would always turn out wonderful. The temperatures below are from her cookbook and I have found the temperatures to always produce a succulent meal. She recommends allowing the meat to sit on the counter and rest after cooking. It is interesting to watch the temperature continue to increase after the meat is out of the oven. The temperatures are for grass-fed meats and the standard recommended temperatures are in parentheses. I like my meat rare inside, so I normally use the lower suggested temperatures.

Beef: 120-165F (140-170F)
Bison: 120-165F (140-170F)
Chicken (unstuffed): 120-165F (140-170F)
Duck: 160-170F (180F)
Goat: 120-145F (140-170F)
Goose: 170F (180F)
Lamb: 120-145F (140-170F)
Rabbit: 160F (160F)
Pork: 145-165F (170F)
Turkey (unstuffed): 160-165F (180F)
Veal: 120-165F (140-170F)
Venison: 120-165F (140-170F)

One of the joys of buying whole animals, is having a choice of cuts that you have never tried before. If you do not know your cuts of meats, you can learn about cuts from books such as the Joy of Cooking. I have found butchers very helpful with learning about cuts of meat and offal. Get every part of the animal you can, even if you don’t know what to do with it. It’s fun to learn how to cook strange parts of the animal! Another great source is Offal Good.

Dry heat is better for some cuts of meat and moist heat is a must for others. The use of rubs and pastes tenderize meats and add exotic flavors. Or you can tenderize with devices like Jaccard Meat Tenderizer. Super slow cooking can soften the toughest meats by cooking at the lowest temperature your oven will go. Most modern ovens will not go below 150-170F.

Remember to save the juice, bones and fat drippings from fowl and meat. The juice is a wonderful base for soups and stews. The bones can be saved in the freezer for bone broth. The fat drippings are good for frying or oven roasting just about anything. I always try to have a grease bucket in the fridge or by my stove for quick use. Fats from animals can take high heat frying much better than even butter which can burn. Read The Grease Bucket and Beautiful Bone Broth for more information. Coconut oil is safe for cooking but save your extra virgin olive oil for pouring over salads or other unheated foods. I do not recommend using industrial oils of any kind. Actually, I think industrial oils and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are the two worst modern food additives. Unfortunately, they are in most processed foods.

Full-flavored meat comes from animals that have led a full life… Life intensifies flavor, and modern meat animals are living less and less.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

Birdsong Farm: Cow-Share Program

About a year ago Naomi Fournier leased some land from her family and started a Cow-Share Program in Enderby, BC. A cow-share or herd-share program gives a person part ownership of a cow or herd, so the person is able to enjoy the products of the cow or herd. Cow-share programs are fairly new to British Columbia. There are five that I know of:
1. Home on the Range, Chilliwack, BC
2. Wild Thing Organics, Christina Lake, BC
3. Birdsong Farm, Enderby, BC
4. Hunny-Do Ranch, Prince George, BC
5. Graham-Knight Farm, Haida Gwaii, BC
6. EcoReality Co-operative, Salt Spring Island, BC

Naomi started a year ago with one Jersey cow and now has three cows. The cows are on pasture during the summer and hay in the winter. She has staggered the pregnancies of her cows so she can have fresh raw milk all year round. Naomi is considering starting shares in goats and sheep. She is the Enderby Chapter Leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation. If you are interested in owning shares in a herd please contact Naomi for more information and share prices:
Birdsong Farm
Naomi Fournier
3607 Trinity Valley Road, Enderby, BC, V0E 1V5
T/F: 250-838-0235
E: naomisbirdsongfarm(a)hotmail.com

If you are wondering what’s so great about pastured raw milk please read Milk: It Does a Body Good?

Winter Storage Part I

This week my family have been working on a modified root cellar for winter storage. Traditionally, a root cellar would be built into the ground. This would give the vegetables a consistent temperature and humidity throughout the seasons. We will try to build a real root cellar next spring.

This winter we will have to be satisfied with a modified work shed. The work shed is a typical 8′x12′ wood-frame constructed building. The building will be too dry. We will have to put pails of water in the building to increase humidity. We will have to heat the structure during the coldest parts of the winter, something a true root cellar would not require.

We will be sourcing vegetables for storage over the next few weeks. We will be looking for potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, cabbage, assorted types of squash, garlic, hot peppers, parsnips, rutabaga, turnips and shallots. As I said before, I am not a local food zealot. But I like to buy as much as I can locally. My largest household expense is food. When I purchase my food locally, my money stays in our community. Also, the quality is better. It is great to be able to look at my plate and know where everything on it came from. It makes me feel somehow more connected.

I am madly making sour kraut and kim chi. I am always amazed at how many cabbages can go into a crock. These crocks will be stored in the root cellar for later consumption.

There are lots of great places to find local food for root cellar winter storage. These are some of the producers I have used this year:
1. Zaparango Organic Farm (certified organic)
Robert Vanderlip T: 250.318.0235
potatoes, carrots, onions, assorted squash, livestock feed corn
2. Lyne Farm (un-sprayed)
Liz Lyne T:250.578.8266
pickling cucumbers, beets, carrots
3. Farmhouse Herbs (certified organic)
Paula and Mendel Rubinsons T: 250.373.2312
pickling cabbage, onions, shallots, parsnips
4. Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm (certified organic)
T: 250.832.4274
raw gouda, smoked raw gouda (Have Gort’s cut the large wheels into eight segments and vacuum pack. Each piece will naturally age and easily last through the winter months.)

Grassfed Veal

Confinement veal has a bad reputation. Standard veal production requires the calf to be separated from the mother after birth. The calf is confined in a pen just big enough for the calf to stand or lay down. The calf is fed only milk or a milk substitute for 18 weeks and then slaughtered. This feeding schedule brings on anemia in the calf which produces the characteristic white meat of veal. The meat has a very mild favor and is known for tenderness that can be cut with a fork. These calves are prone to illness and must be medicated to survive.

Grassfed veal is different. The grassfed veal calf stays with its mother on pasture. The calf has access to the mother’s milk and grass. The calf is butchered at 6 to 9 months old, giving a pink meat with more flavor, though it is not as tender as confinement, milk-fed veal. The calves are very healthy and rarely need medical attention. The calves have a better life, even if it is short. You will not be able to find grassfed veal without a serious search and you will pay top dollar for this premium product. Most grassfed veal is purchased by chefs in high end restaurants looking for more flavor from this old favorite. If you are interested in this specialty food please read The New York Times article called: Veal to Love - Without the Guilt.

Traditionally, grassfed veal was a side product of the dairy industry. The male calves would become veal and the females, unless culled, would become part of the milking herd. Traditionally, the offal from the veal calf is greatly prized. The stomach of the young calf is used to produce rennet required for cheese production. I had a chance to try this premium product when Patty’s calf went to slaughter. (Patty is our milking Jersey cow.) The grassfed veal was the best beef I have ever tasted. It was truly delicious. If anyone knows a rancher in the Kamloops area producing this product, I would like to know. Please email me and I will update this posting with the information.

Updated October 2, 2009: I have just talked to Susan McGillivray at Jocko Creek Ranch. They have grassfed veal for sale. These animals normally go to the feedlot for grain fattening over the winter. The steers are worth more that the heifers because the steers will fatten-up better in the feedlot. This product is seasonal and must be bought in October or November before they go to the feedlot. You purchase by the animal. The calves will weight about 500-600 pounds and you will have to pay for slaughtering. Right now the cost is $1.00/pound for heifers and $1.12/pound for steers. This is a live weight price. I would buy the heifers because they are cheaper and it doesn’t matter how well they do in the feedlot. If you are interested in getting this wonderful meat please call Jason or Susan McGillivray at 250.374.9495.

Updated June 23, 2010: Grassfed veal may be wonderful but I have found something even better. Last year we bought half, of an eight-year-old spent Dexter Jersey Cross milking cow. A cow is considered “spent” when she is getting old and does not conceive. When this happens it is time to replace the cow. This cow spent her life on green pasture with a small amount of dairy ration during milking season. The butcher wanted to grind her up into hamburger, which would have been standard procedure for a cow of her age. Since the cow was over thirty months old, by regulation, no part of the spinal column can be consumed. We had the butcher cut her up into roasts, steaks, stewing meat and hamburger.

That eight-year-old cow has been the best meat we have ever tasted. I think back in horror that she might have been ground up into hamburger. The meat had a tender, beefy, full flavor with marbled fat throughout. Part of the reason the meat was so delicious was the cow was part Dexter, a breed known for its wonderful meat. We would even lightly barbecue the stewing meat. It was tender and juicy. Can you believe that! Unfortunately, this meat will be impossible to get from the Industrial Food System. The only way to get this meat is buying an animal directly from the rancher or dairy farmer.

So, Harold McGee was right: “Full-flavored meat comes from animals that have led a full life… Life intensifies flavor, and modern meat animals are living less and less.” He believed cattle reached their peak of flavor around four years of age, but this was before the time of Mad Cow Disease. What Harold McGee fails to mention when he says “modern meat animals are living less and less” is that, you could not find a confinement animal from the Industrial Food System that was eight years old. If you did, it would be so diseased and sickly, no one in their right mind would eat it’s flesh. I sometimes wonder if the whole thirty month rule has more to do with the general poor health of confinement animals, rather than avoiding Mad Cow Disease. For more information about Mad Cow Disease please read Visit to the Killing Floor at Kam Lake View Meats and read the series of essays by Mark Purdey.

If you are looking for a small family cow that is good for milk and meat, please see the Canadian Dexter Cattle Association.

I Got Culture!

I have had a number of emails over the months about dairy and water Kefir. Kefir originated in the Caucasus Mountains and is a gelatinous community of bacteria and yeast. Kefir grains are the real thing. They are different from the “direct set cultures” you will find in health food stores which lose their potency and must be purchased again. Once you get the Kefir grains they will continue to grow indefinitely as long as the culture is fed.

I received my dairy and water Kefir grains from Real Kefir Grains. You can order directly from Marilyn Jarzembski, better known as the Kefir Lady, and she will ship it to you at a very reasonable price. Her culture is very vigorous. If you live in or near Kamloops, you can come and pick up your Kefir grains from me for free. Just email me to ensure I have enough to share. I get my Yoghurt Starter from Custom Probiotics which also has a line of probiotics.

These are the cultures I have to share:
1. Wild sour dough culture (sour dough bread, biscuits, pancakes, etc)
2. Lacto-fermentation liquid (sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi, etc)
3. Dairy Kefir (yoghurt-like drink, Kefir cheese, Kefir bread, etc)
4. Water Kefir (traditional sodas)
5. Yoghurt culture

Updated December 21, 2009: I am enjoying the ease of using the new Weston A Price Foundation website. I found this favorite essay about Kvass and Kombucha: Gift From Russia by Sally Fallon.

Updated May 8, 2010: I have just started my first Kefir of the year with Patty’s raw milk. Sarah Pope is the WAPF Chapter Leader for Tampa, Fl. She has a video on how to make Milk Kefir and Healthy Water Kefir Sodas. Sarah outlines some really good reasons why Kefir may be a better choice than yoghurt. Here is her video on Making Sauerkraut and Apricot Butter. Please note you can make the apricot butter “more raw” by pouring very hot water over the dried apricots and letting them sit until soft.

Updated May 30, 2010: I have found another source of cultures. If you are looking for cultures please see Cultures for Health.