Raw Milk: The Choices I Make, and Why

Raw milk has risks. It just does. That means it is exactly no different from anything else we ingest, from lettuce to alcohol. I choose to accept these risks,because I know what they are, and I’ve decided that any potential risks from raw milk from a local, well-vetted farm with excellent husbandry and milking practices is still lower than that of drinking conventional milk.

Here’s the deal:

-Not all of us who drink raw milk are uninformed, on jumping on some bandwagon. I’ve done the research. In fact, part of my job is literally to research food illness, benefits, husbandry practices,etc. I didn’t just hear someone says “raw milk is awesome” and decide “hey, I must drink that!” Raw milk isn’t a recent thing for me. I grew up drinking milk warm, directly from the teats of the cows and goats I milked on our farm. We didn’t pasteurize, but we were taught really excellent husbandry and milking practices. And yes, we milked by hand. We weren’t a dairy, we were too poor to have a milking machine, and as kids we were excellent free labor for our parents.

-I trust my local farmers far more than I trust corporate agriculture. I can stop by and visit my cow, help feed, watch the milking, and see what they do with the milk (including the fact that they’re drinking it, the same as we are) anytime I want, without notice. They provide any information I ask, including testing/herd testing information, with appropriate  verification if requested. I didn’t just wander onto some field with a guy milking a cow and say “hey, can I have some of that?”  Which is essentially what I’m doing if I buy food from corporate agriculture. Corporate Ag sickens thousands each year, from eggs to dairy to produces. Do people get sick from local goods? Of course. But, after looking at all the facts, I believe that–for my family–the risks of non-GMO, grass-fed, pastured, unpasteurized cow’s milk is simply far less than trusting a corporate food system we already know is horribly corrupt. I’ve been sick from mass-produced goods. I have never yet been sick from anything I’ve gotten from my local, vetted farmers. I realize that’s anecdotal, and I don’t expect others to make my choices. But *I* should have a right to make an informed decision about what I eat.

-The risks are, from all the data I can collect since the data is fairly sparse, pretty statistically insignificant. I know that when it’s you or a family member, statistics become irrelevant; but, when making reasonable food choices, they can be helpful. Depending who you listen to, between 3 and 10 Million people drink raw milk in the US. There is, from all the data I could find, an average of 100-150 cases of hospitalization a year reported, meaning they were serious enough to be diagnosed and hospitalized. Only 2 recorded deaths since 1998 that I could find (there may be more, I am willing to revise this, so please let me know). This means that reported cases of illness are between .00005% and .00016%. Even assuming there are, say, 100o unreported cases a year, you’re still only looking at well below a 1% chance of getting ill from raw milk.  I’ll live with that.

-Not all of us who drink raw milk espouse Weston A. Price Foundation values. I am not a member. I do believe in whole foods, I do believe in not eating processed sugars or many simple carobhydrates. I do think we get too few CLAs, Omegas, and the like in our diets as Americans overall. That is about where my paradigm similarities with them ends. I don’t have a problem with them. They’re free to make whatever food choices work for them, and I do applaud the fact that most members bother to educate themselves on what they’re eating, which is more than I can say for the vast majority of Americans who choose to eat crap “food.” I just don’t believe everything they do, and their paradigm borders too closely on fanaticism for me, personally. It’s also frequently tied to religion, and I prefer to keep religious issues out of my food choices.

-I don’t think raw milk is magic. Yes, there are many people who’ve got stories about it curing this or that, and maybe it does. Or, maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know, and that’s not why I choose it. I’m healthy, I am not looking for a panacea. I, personally, notice my (very mild) seasonal allergies are non-existent when I am drinking local, raw milk regularly. The same is true of local, raw honey. Is it psychosomatic? Possibly. But, since that’s not why I drink it, I don’t actually care. I drink it because I like the fact that the cow (from my farm) has been fed no corn or GMO feed, that it eats grass and therefore likely has higher levels of good fatty acids, that the milk tastes better to me, has a higher fat content (yes, we do actually look for that–Thadd needs something like 4 thousand calories a day, and we get almost none of them from simple carbs or sugars) , that it actually contains no hormones or antibiotics (as opposed to “allowable” amounts), that it’s only hours old when I get it, that it supports local agriculture, and that I can make cheese and other products from it much more readily than I can from high-heat pasteurized milk.

-I don’t feed it to the world. Thadd and I drink it. I do make my own cheese, and some of those cheeses can only be made with raw milk or, in some cases, low-heat pasteurized milk. Unfortunately, the latter is not available literally anywhere near me, so the former is my best choice, even if I didn’t want to drink it. These products, and the raw milk itself, are used for only ourselves. We have no children, and typically when we have guests over, we’re drinking local wine, cider, beer, or freshly-made lemonade, not big glasses of milk.

-You can know the risks, and still elect to take them. Simply because someone chooses to do something someone else views as “risky” does not mean the chooser isn’t aware of the risks. People who climb Mt. Everest are doing something I would personally never do, but I am pretty sure they’re aware of what they’re getting into. People have many different reasons for choosing what they choose to do, and can look at the same information, and come to a different decision. For some people, any germ associated with food is abhorrent. For me, food without germs is abhorrent. I think, overall, that germ theory has led us in the wrong direction, and is one reason we’re so sick as a nation. (I don’t use hand sanitizer, but I do wash my hands thoroughly. I don’t use bleach to clean my house, but I do clean well with soap and water.)  Of course, germs are not the same as pathogens, and while I realize that pathogens can be present in raw milk, appropriate practices keeps the risk of that very small. Small enough, in fact, that I choose to take it because for me, it’s a smaller risk than the long-term effects of what is in much commercial milk.

-Not all of us believe that raw milk should flow freely like a river down a mountain, unhindered and unregulated. I certainly don’t. I would love it if our government could take a step back from lobbyists who contribute heavily to their campaign funds, and draft real, reasonable regulation that would help ensure the safety of a raw milk supply and the products thereof. It’s not impossible. Other countries have done it well (some so well it can actually be gotten at vending machines, and the instances of illness are reported to be the same as pasteurized). Europe is famous for its fresh, raw milk cheeses. People are not hospitalized or dying in droves from fresh ricotta or aged Roquefort (the latter of which is required, by law, to be made from fresh, raw sheep’s milk). Unfortunately, our government, and many people who seem to speak on either side of this issue, seem to see no middle: it’s either a free-for-all, or a felony.  When really, it should be more along the lines of: here are solid regulations for husbandry, milking, testing, storage, and transport. Follow them, or you will be liable, just like other food companies (oh, wait…other food companies get people sick and hospitalize them all the time with no real consequences). So, until and unless those who do the regulation can get their collective heads out of their collective arses,  it leaves those of us in the middle with a lot of vetting to do on our farms.

Raw milk is not for everyone. There are plenty of instances when pasteurized milk is the better choice. But, there’s no good reason why the choice can’t be offered in a safe way.

Related Articles

• Why Hide Serious Government Data on Raw Milk Drinkers? (via Food Freedom) (healthisahabit.wordpress.com)
• Real Raw Milk Facts

Keeping It Low

There’s a lot of advice on how to keep your food budget low: buy in bulk, watch for sales, use coupons, etc. Most of it is fine advice, and I do use some of it; but, I also don’t use a lot of it. So, how do I keep our food budget low while eating really great, sustainable foods if it’s not intensive couponing and vigilant watch on sale papers? Here’s what I do, what I don’t do, and why.

What I Do:

1. We don’t eat meat like Americans. As a country, we eat far, far too much meat.  So, instead Thadd and I elect to do vegetarian meals several nights a week, and rarely eat whole cuts of anything. We use meat in a dish, not as a dish. I take that savings and put it into buying local, sustainable meats; or, short of that (usually if I can’t get it for some reason), I’ll opt for organic. When you eat a lot less of it, it becomes reasonable to purchase.

2. We recognize the difference in food as sustenance, and food as indulgence.

Sustenance (albeit yummy sustenance), Kale & Grapefruit Quinoa salad with veggie frittata:

Indulgence, roasted orange-cranberry sauce with port:

This means that we eat a lot of meals that aren’t our “favorites,” but are just fine, filling, and fairly tasty. Too many people have come to believe that everything they eat must be their favorite food. Since our bodies are designed to like high-calorie foods the most (hey, years ago we needed all those calories!), this means expensive and crappy food is topping the American “wish list” right now.  I am not saying we eat tasteless goo or anything, but we do often eat simple, inexpensive meals because they’re healthy and it’s in our budget.

3. We buy frozen veggies. Fresh vegetable are nice, but when we can’t get veggies locally (and we can’t necessarily put up everything to survive on all winter, though someday we hope to do so), we often buy frozen. They’re typically cheaper–organic frozen is often less expensive than non-organic fresh–and they’re usually healthier. Frozen fruits and vegetables are typically picked when ripe and flash frozen, so they have more nutrients than their fresh, green-picked counterparts. Since frozen rarely cooks up like fresh, these often get used as part of entrees, instead of just as sides. If I am making miso chicken, I’ll  toss in a bunch of frozen spinach at the end, for example.

4. We eat soups and casseroles a few times a week.

If it’s soup, there’s usually some form of bread on the side, but not always.  I’ve had people say “oh, but my husband/wife/children won’t eat those! It’s meat and potatoes every night–so how can *I* save money?” Um..you can’t. Not if you still want to eat healthy. Look, here’s the truth, which I’ve said before hundreds of times here: people are spoiled and they need to get over it. A few mealtimes roll around and what’s on the table is a soup or casserole or go hungry, and the household will get the idea. Refusing to eat healthy, well-prepared, and flavorful foods just because they’d rather be eating something else is childish. I’d rather be a millionaire, but I can’t stop working just because I’d rather not. If it’s a spouse, well, I’m not going there–that’ll have to be figured out between the couple. If it’s the kids, then it’s time to pony up to the Parent Table and put your foot down.

5. Legumes are a main ingredient several times a week.

Beans, split peas, lentils…all great sources of lean protein that you can prepare a hundred different ways. And, even the organics are fairly inexpensive.

6. No processed or convenience  foods. Processed foods are expensive (even if they look cheap, just look at their cost-per-pound–it’s always higher than whole foods), and lack nutrients.

7. Meal planning. I harp on this here, I know, but it really is probably the #1 thing we do to keep our budget low. Eating spur-of-the-moment, as most people do, is a recipe for disaster. Good, fast, cheap: pick two (saying courtesy of Thadd, who I believe got it from the military folks he worked with). If you want good, healthy food fast, you’re going to pay through the nose for convenience food. If you want cheap food fast, you’re going to pay the price by eating empty calories. So, the other option is good and cheap, which means it’s not fast. Planning for this is the only way to make it work.

8. Shop at my local Amish & Mennonite stores. They have the best prices and quality of grains, spices, cheese, and a lot of the produce we use fresh. Spices are often 1/2 to 1/3 what they are at Kroger or FoodLion, and they have just as large a selection of organic spices. Same thing with grains. Plus, they’re local, and that puts dollars back into our community (and, they’re great people, who are happy to do special orders, etc.).

9. Shop with a list (which was made using our meal plan). Stick to that list.

10. We keep a pantry stocked with basics. This lets us throw something together on the night that nothing went right, and to purchase items either in bulk or when we caught them on sale at the store.

11. Eat leftovers.

We do this a lot. In fact, we do this almost every day, and it’s actually part of our meal plan. We make sure to cook enough several days a week for us to eat lunch from, so no buying lunch out.

12. Make your own beverages. If you just have to have that specialty coffee or tea, make it at home. Shop craigslist or FreeCycle if it requires special equipment.

13. Keep snacks readily available.

We keep nuts, yogurt, some veggies & hummus, and the like on hand to munch on. This keeps us from doing something dumb, like ordering pizza, if we get home late and need to wait for dinner.

14. I use my slow cooker several times a week.

There are few things in life more useful for saving us time and money than our slow cookers. I have a few cookbooks (though I want more), am a regular visiter at A Year of Slow Cooking, and often just throw stuff for soup in and call it good.  I love coming home to a good-smelling house and a yummy dinner.

15. Choose foods that will keep us fuller, longer.

Whole grains and protein are they key. In the morning, we usually eat fermented oats or steel-cut oats from the slow cooker. Sometimes, we do eggs and homemade toast. We don’t do pop-tarts, freezer waffles, or the like. Not only are those foods far more expensive than our options, but both of us would be hungry within an hour.

16. Store foods when they’re in-season.

Drying, freezing, canning. ‘Nuf said.

What I Don’t Do:

1. Use coupons. About 95% of the foods we eat never have coupons. The other 5% have them so rarely that buying a paper to get them isn’t worth it. If I happen to get a store coupon for something like $1/off fresh produce, I’ll obviously use it; but, generally the things that have coupons in my area are unhealthy and expensive.

2. Shop a bazillion stores to save 5 cents. Stores here are fairly far apart, so unless I happen to be going somewhere else in that direction, driving to more than 1 store rarely pays for itself in actual money saved, not to mention I don’t have hours upon hours to drive.  Since we get all our meat, eggs, and milk from farms, there’s rarely enough price difference to warrant driving around. I do shop at a local health food store (which is also where I pick up our milk share and chickens), and the Mennonite market, in addition to Kroger. The health food store I shop at not only because I am already there, but because in this very culture-deprived town, it’s the only place I can get a lot of the ingredients I use (red lentils, etc.). The Mennonite store is a stock-up for me, when I need grains, spices, and cheese (which we freeze).

3. Buy things because “they’re on sale,” and I “might need them later.” If it’s not on my list or on the “stock up” list (we keep one of these, and have a certain amount each week we spend to do this), I don’t buy it.

4. Keep a garden. I’d love to do this, and I think anyone who can, should. We did do some herbs and greens this year, but we just don’t have a reasonable place to put indoor pots (by which I mean, a place we can keep them that my cats won’t eat them). Since we live in a rental that has really poor soil and very limited sun, and we don’t want to invest a pile of cash in doing what it would take to set up a box garden since we’ll likely only be where we are a short-ish period of time, we do without the savings. The time it would take us to recoup our outlay means we probably wouldn’t, so for us, it’s not a great option.

What do you do to eat healthy on a budget?

 

 

 

Related Articles

• 10 Winter Dinners from the Slow Cooker Recipe Roundup (thekitchn.com)
• Chef Eric Akis gives slow cooker recipes a contemporary tweak (canada.com)
• Karen Kelly: Changing the Food Landscape, One Person at a Time: Part One (huffingtonpost.com)
• In Praise of Frozen Vegetables (theatlantic.com)

Thanksgiving Mini-Event, Post 2: The Up-Rising.

Hey, I have a lot of cooking to do, so no rude comments about my bad puns!

The cornbread is drying nicely. It’ll stay out the rest of the day and tomorrow to finish crisping up, then I’ll add moisture back in with local VA wine, butter, broth, and fruit.

The ciabatta rolls are progressing nicely, as well. The second rise and kneading:

And it’s ready for the final rise, after which it looks like this:

You can see the difference in the dough now. It’s smooth, not shiny or sticky, pliable, and nicely puffy. So, it’s time to make it into dinner rolls. First, the work surface is liberally dusted.

Thadd’s a very thorough kind of guy:

This is why we have to have someone come in to help us clean the house: neither of us are exactly neat cooks. So, once the surface is floured, the dough is cut into 2 oz. measures and formed into rolls.

And, they’re ready to be baked. They’ll wait here, rising a bit, until the oven is up to 500 degrees.

Next up, later today: finished rolls, Thadd’s Famous Cinnamon Rolls, bird brining and The Monster Turkey. Check back!

 

Thanksgiving Day Mini-Event, Post 1. Let the Fun Begin!

The cooking has officially begun.

Last night, I whipped up the cornbread and let it cool. This morning it was torn into pieces for drying in an oven warmed, then turned off.

The recipe I used:

• 3 1/2 cups stone ground cornmeal
• 1/2  cup organic whole wheat flour
• 6 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups fresh whole milk
• 3 tbs. fresh yogurt
• 4 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons fresh butter, melted and cooled

Heat oven to 425°.  Spray 9″x13″ pan with baking spray, or butter and flour. In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients, and whisk to mix. In separate bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour wet mixture in. Stir just until all ingredients are moistened.  Pour into baking dish and allow to set for 5-10 minutes for a nice crown. Bake for  20 minutes, or until browned and firm to a light touch. Cool on rack, then dump into a bowl or large, deep pan and crumble for drying.

In the meantime, Thadd got working on the ciabatta dinner rolls, setting up the poolish last night, and starting the first rise this morning.

Then, the kneading before the second rise.

First, prep the table with sifted flour:

Then, flop the dough onto the table, and scrape the dough bits out of the bowl:

The first knead is more of a stretch-and-fold than a traditional kneading:

Once the dough is kneaded, it goes back in the bowl for it’s second rise:

And, that’s where we are currently. Late will be cinnamon rolls and brining the turkey!

Thanksgiving Feats Prep–A Mini Event!

Today, tomorrow, and Thursday I’ll be cooking both for our Thanksgiving and for some of my client’s holiday meals.  I’ll update here with picture, from fluffy potatoes to my apple-fig-chestnut cornbread stuffing, from the roasted orange cranberry stuffing the herb-and-wine brined, 100% pastured, local turkeys from Our Father’s Farm (including the 26 pounder–this bird is a monster!).

I’ve decided to make this a bit of an event, since so much is going into it. New posts will be put up as I do things, and will include photos, recipes, and cooking tips. So, check back often, comment and ask questions, let me know what your tips and trick are, and just have fun watching it come together!

Let’s get things started with what’s on the menu:

- 100% local, pastured, GMO & hormone free turkeys raised at Our Father’s Farm. The birds will be brined in vegetable stock, white wine, and herbs then roasted to perfection. One bird is 15 lbs, one is 26 lbs.

-Roasted cranberry & orange sauce. A twist on a traditional treat, this recipe is great either hot or cold.

-Tart apple, fig, and chestnut cornbread dressing. Locally-ground cornmeal, eggs, and milk make the cornbread, which is dried and mixed with local apples, chestnuts, and wine, as well as dried figs, cranberries, celery, pears, and more make this one of my all-time most requested recipes.

-Ciabatta rolls. Thadd’s whipping up his famous, and amazing, crusty ciabatta dinner rolls. Crispy on the outside, chewy and yummy on the inside.

-Green bean casserole. This isn’t your mom’s green bean casserole! Fresh bacon, mushrooms, green beans, whole local milk, cheese, homemade aioli, and topped with herbed Parmesan panko crumbs.

-Black truffle redskin potatoes. Fluffy potatoes with the rich flavors of rosemary, garlic, and black truffles.

-Roasted broccoli. Fresh broccoli, tossed with olive oil and kosher salt, then roasted to nutty perfection.

-Apple pie. Made from local Pippins from Vintage Virginia, with amazing, flaky crust, courtesy of Thadd.

 

Friday Fast One

So, this week, the only Friday Fast One I am doing is grass-fed beef.

Friday Fast One: Grass-fed meats have significantly fewer calories and significantly more nutrients than grain-fed. What this means to you: Most Americans can lose several pounds just by switching to grass-fed meats. It can help lower cholesterol, and provides important nutrients like Omegas and CLAs that are lacking in almost all our other foods these days.

If you live in or near Lynchburg and want the best, 100% pastured, 100% grass-fed, humane, and better-than-organic beef at a really great price, let me know in the next few days. We’re putting in an order to Pannill’s Gate, which is our definite preferred farm for all things beef, and you can get in on it!

Come on, don’t you just want to eat this face:

(yes, this is actually a photo of one of their cattle).

Seriously, though. People believe that it’s off-putting to see the beast you might be eating. I say that’s ridiculous. If you can’t admit it’s coming from an animal, become a vegan. One of the biggest problems we have in the US is that we are so very disconnected from our food, whether it’s meat or produce.  If you don’t know where your food is coming from, that also means you have no clue what’s in it, or what’s been done to it. It’s been proven that the more connected people are with their food, the better eating choices they make.

Get connected. Visit a farm, or grow your own!

Tuesday Sick Blog & On The Menu

I am sick. Thadd is making dinner, because I have no interest in standing, let alone cooking. So, he’s making a Pumpkin Bisque Soup using a recipe from L’etoile’s Chef Mark. (I’ve had this recipe, and it’s pretty darn spectacular. I highly recommend you try it.) Thadd’s got a thing for soups. It’s something he does well. I want to post a picture of him in his red mohawk, standing in domesticated bliss over the stove stirring a pot of hot soup, but I am too sick and tired to get up and take a photo.

He’s making it with a local wine, Cardinal Point’s Quattro,  which is a bit sweeter than is likely ideal; but, the wine’s got good flavor and body fora white, so it should work nicely anyway. It’s helping my sore throat, at any rate (what, we were going to let the bottle go bad?).  We’re also adding chicken sausage made by a guy we found in PA while visiting some friends. He hand-makes this wonderful, yummy chicken sausage, and Thadd needs protein. I’ll have to pick around it, because honestly I’ll be lucky if I can swallow the soup with my sore throat. Which sucks, because I love this sausage. And, as a final touch, I did get off my but and make whole wheat maple cornbread (which I also can’t eat) to go with it.

It should be an awesome meal. Now, if only I could eat most of it. I hate being sick.

At least I should be well enough to eat the crockpot haggis we’re making on Thursday. Right? Please tell me I’m right?

And, speaking of haggis, I haven’t put up an “On the Menu” in forever. Since I am sick and can’t talk without wanting to stick a fork in my eye, I figured I have the time.

Dinners:

Monday: Chickpea wet curry. I have no idea why I don’t make this more, because it’s spectacular. It’s a riot of Indian spices in your mouth. I recently got a spice mix from Penzy’s balled “balti” that I tossed in, and it worked beautifully. It’s also really frugal, and makes enough to feed an army.

Tuesday. Pumpkin Bisque. You read about this above. We love pumpkin soup.

Wednesday: Barbeque pulled chicken over rice. I work late, and this just gets tossed in the crockpot. All I have to do when I get home is throw on some rice and voila! Dinner. I put some veggies on the side, and the brown rice gives a lot of fiber.

Thursday: Haggis with parsnips and potatoes. Okay, it’s not real haggis. It’s the best we can do here in our quaint little part of the Southern US. Again, it’s a crockpot meal, because we’re both silly busy (and, have I mentioned that this woman is my hero, who has saved my not-eating-out life more times than I can count?). We are siding it with the traditional parsnips and potatoes, though. The lamb gets cut out because I am allergic, and replaced with that fabulous chicken sausage I raved about above.

Friday: Chicken Cacciatore. Yes, this is another slow cooker meal. I realize it looks like I never actually do any stove cooking, but I sweat I do. Just not this week. We’re trying to get some more leftovers into the freezer, so these large crockpot meals are perfect.

Saturday: Leftovers. We’ll clean out the refrigerator. Since we’re attending a local apple festival, we didn’t want to have to be home in time to cook. The preceding days should leave us with plenty.

Sunday: Goulash like Grandma Makes. This is not my healthiest meal. It’s made with white flour elbow noodles!! Why? One, because finding whole-wheat elbows around me is almost impossible, but mostly because this is one dish where the difference is actually huge and not necessarily leaning in favor of the whole-wheat. But, there’s lots of yummy grass-fed beef, and lycopene in the tomatoes.

Lunches:

Leftovers, for the most part.

Breakfasts:

Fermented oats, farm eggs, homemade bread, 9-grain fermented cereal, steel cut crockpotted oats.

What are you eating?

 

Fast One Fridays, Oct. 29, 2010

Fast One: More bad news for HFCS:  The HFCS in many sodas contains significantly more fructose than the companies reported. What This Means To You: HFCS could be an even greater contributor to obesity than previously thought. And, as importantly, there’s NO SUCH THING as moderation of this product, because you simply cannot have any idea how much you’re getting in anything you eat that contains it.  We all know that too much sugar of any kind is bad for us, whether it be table sugar, honey, maple syrup, or HFCS. The difference here is that HFCS is in so many things because it is artificially cheap, and you can’t know for sure how much or in what formulation you’re intaking it. So, just stop eating it. If you need something sweet, make some homemade cookies, or lemonade with local honey. You’re waistline (and your brain, since mercury has been found in a large percentage of HFCS) will thank you for it.

Fast One: Morningland Dairy is headed to court, after lodging a formal complaint against Missouri Milk Board’s order to destroy their products. What this means to you: Do you like having a choice in what you eat? Do you want to be able to eat raw foods, or local foods, or foods produced by someone with a face that’s not employed by one of the Big Ag companies that already own 90% of our farms and dairies (which, btw, they still try to tout as “family farm,” so be aware of that misrepresentation)? If you do, you need to speak up. Donate (see button at the end of this post), write your representatives and let them know the FDA needs to follow due process, blog about this, and just generally raise some hell. I don’t know about you, but I am terrified to see our food options continually taken away from us.

Fast One: Only 1% of chemicals on the market today are tested for safety, says Senator Lautenburg (D-New Jersey).  The laws are lax, and only 5 chemicals have been banned in the last 34 years. This means of all the chemicals on the market, only about 200 have been tested at all. What this means to you: Who knows, since this stuff isn’t tested? Okay, that was flip, I know. The point is there, though: we can’t have any real idea of the implications. It is terrifying to think companies have little regulation, and few rules about what they can or cannot put on the market without testing. We come into contact with these things every day, regardless of how “crunchy granola” we are, because they’re in everything from flooring to cell phones to clothing. What can we do about it? Write your representatives, and ask for tougher laws. Minimize what you can (chemicals in food, etc.).

Got interesting food news?

Morningland Diary–Fight For Your Food Rights.

If you care about food rights and haven’t read about this, you need to. This is an outrageous violation of due process, and a blatant attempt by the FDA to  crack down on raw foods.

Was Hillendale Farms, who produced *millions* of contaminated eggs that sickened thousands of people, asked to destroy it’s chickens, or it’s undistributed eggs? No.

Have *any* of the conventional, large, corporate dairies had to destroy all their remaining product when their milk or cheese made someone sick? No.

Yet this farm-run dairy, with no reports of illness or contamination in it’s 30 year history, is being told to do exactly that, with no reliable evidence of contamination, improper testing procedures, and no due process. This impacts not just the farm, but also the people who rely on them for employment.

Please read their story and pass it along. If you can, please contribute to their legal fund.

Related Articles

• FDA Orders Morningland Dairy to Destroy 50,000 Pounds of Raw Cheese (eatdrinkbetter.com)
• Morningland Dairy recalls cheese over Listeria and Staphylococcus risk (walletpop.com)
• We’ve got Regulatory Authority! Get Used to It (barbaradiamond.blogspot.com)
• Criminalizing Nature’s Most Perfect Food: FDA’s war on private food contracts (radyananda.wordpress.com)
• Morningland Dairy Stops Cheese Production After Listeria Fears (nowpublic.com)
• Morningland Dairy Recalls Raw-Milk Cheese Sold in 48 States (organicauthority.com)
• Almost 69,000 Pounds of Cheese Recalled Over Possible Contamination (aolhealth.com)

Foodie Updates

I said I’d be doing more on preservation, and so I am. Sort of. The truth is, I haven’t had much time to do a lot of preservation this last few weeks. I did do this:

Roasted pumpkin seeds with garlic and chili powder, from a local, organic pumpkin. Unfortunately, these didn’t actually get “preserved,” per se, so much as they were gone by noon the next day. What can I say, they were yummy. This is what happened to the pumpkin (well, one of them–there were several):

It was stuffed with pumpkin-sausage qinoa “risotto,” and topped with a pastry “leaves.” I tried for a stem, but I am just not that great with pastry dough. That’s Thadd’s thing.

And that’s about the end of my preservation since the salted lemons. Business is keeping me…well, busy.  I have, however, done some cooking (obviously, since that’s what “business” typically means in my case). Since you’re here for the food, I thought I’d share:

I love this method of cooking a chicken. I start out roasting it in a “French” style.  Carrots, celery, onion, and a bit of butter (or, in this case) EVOO in the roasting pan gives flavor, while a hot oven and a lot of turning the chicken give a crispy, brown skin. Once it was all brown and yummy looking, and put the bird on top of a pile of my cornbread, chestnut, and apple stuffing (which also contains dried plums, though sometimes I use figs). It turned out beautifully.

Hopefully, I”ll have some time to preserve this week. There’ll definitely be broth making (bone, chicken, and vegetable), and probably some catch-up on staples like granola. I also need to “catch up” on my working out…it’s suffering mightily with all this cooking!

Related Articles

• How to Prepare Fresh Pumpkins for Baking (tjantunen.com)
• Healthy Pumpkin Recipes for Fall (brighthub.com)
• more pumpkin baking (cathweber.blogspot.com)
• Meatless Mondays: Pumpkin Risotto (food.change.org)