The kind and gentle garden state is in a battle right over the right to have Raw Milk. On June 12th they have slated a hearing at the local legislature. The goal is to pack the house and show unrestrained support for releasing the stranglehold on raw milk and raw milk products. They have a nice website here called Garden State Raw Milk.

It’s interesting…it [the website] is built with .aspx. I’m sure they paid for that. I didn’t think normal people use .asp??? I wonder how many low-budget organizations are out there actually paying for websites.

Time wasted some breath on the raw milk Issue last Month in May. Here’s an excerpt from their article.

Got milk? No? No biggie–just zip to your local supermarket and pick up a carton. Got raw milk? Now that’s trickier. Carol Peterson, an IT manager at Xerox, drives almost two hours each month to her favorite farm in upstate New York for her unpasteurized supply. Susan Mueller, a mother of two in Ithaca, N.Y., bought shares in a dairy farm so she could pick up her raw milk and yogurt at a drop-off point closer to home. And they consider themselves lucky. In Manhattan some raw-milk drinkers hire a mule to bring the white stuff to an agreed-upon location in the city, where they stock up during a strictly enforced two-hour window. “Sometimes I just can’t believe this is all about milk,” says Peterson.

Believe it. Since 1987, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required that milk sold and distributed between states for human consumption be pasteurized, meaning it must first be heated to kill off most of the bacteria that might be lurking in the barn or flourishing in the cow. But a growing contingent of natural-food fans is demanding the right to bring milk from teat to table, convinced that pasteurization strips away the very stuff that makes milk so nutritious to begin with. Farmers are more than willing to meet the demand, since raw-milk products–milk, cheese, yogurt and cream–can be sold at a thick premium. But both buyer and seller may be at odds with the law. Though the FDA allows the sale of raw-milk cheese that has been aged for 60 days, it doesn’t permit the sale of raw milk over state lines. Six states allow the sale of raw milk in stores, and 28 let consumers buy the straight stuff only on the farm where it is produced. In the rest, raw milk exists only on the black market.

Why drink raw milk at all? Fans are convinced that heating destroys the good bacteria–the same probiotic critters that retailers now add back into some yogurts–as well as enzymes that can be beneficial to your health. They claim that drinking raw milk can relieve asthma and eczema as well as give flagging immune systems a boost. Mueller started her daughter on raw milk last winter as an experiment. “The previous year, she had bronchitis, an ear infection, a urinary-tract infection and three or four colds,” Mueller says. “This year she missed two days of school all winter.” That’s why Mueller joined the cow-share program, in which members pay quarterly fees of $100 to $200 for the upkeep of the animals and get raw milk in return. As an owner, her family receives its raw milk as dividends. No state or federal authority can prevent you from drinking milk from a cow you own, right?

Not everyone is sold on raw milk. The growing consumption of unpasteurized products has food-safety authorities warning about a potential uptick in the milk-borne illnesses that pasteurization was designed to prevent. Disputes over the safety of raw milk are being waged on websites like Realmilk.com and increasingly in the courts. California food and agriculture officials began battling with farmers last month over a new state law requiring raw milk to meet the same safety standards as pasteurized milk. John Sheehan, director of dairy-food safety at the FDA, has likened drinking raw milk to “playing Russian roulette with your health”; advocates accuse the agency of relying on outdated information and harassing raw-milk producers in order to protect the pasteurizing industry. “The heat from the government against us is just palpable,” says Mark McAfee, founder of Organic Pastures Dairy in Fresno, Calif., which produces and ships raw milk across the country.

So who’s right? The available evidence suggests that without a bug-killing step like pasteurization, even the cleanest dairy with the healthiest cows cannot always expect to produce safe milk. In testimony before Maryland state delegates, the FDA’s Sheehan stressed that raw milk in any form “should not be consumed by anyone, at any time, for any reason.” He cited 45 outbreaks of disease from 1998 to 2005 that were traced to unpasteurized milk or cheese–and pointed to the dangers of exposing the vulnerable immune systems of young children, the elderly and those with immune disorders to the colonies of bugs that can populate untreated dairy. Raw milk makes up less than half of 1% of milk sales in the U.S. but accounts for twice as many disease outbreaks as pasteurized milk.

Farmers like McAfee counter that all raw milk is not created equal. Government surveys, they claim, lump together raw milk that is destined for pasteurization–and therefore doesn’t have to be table-ready–along with milk, like McAfee’s, that is produced for human consumption. But that doesn’t convince Kathryn Boor, chair of food science at Cornell University, who grew up on a farm drinking raw milk–but won’t do it now. “You can’t always tell when a cow is sick,” she says. “And cows can sometimes kick the milking machine off. Generally, what’s on the barn floor is not something I want in a glass.”

So could raw milk ever be made safer to drink? Maybe. It would help to mandate that it meet the same bacteria-count standards as pasteurized milk, as Washington and Maine currently do. But even with regulations, consumers would still be putting a lot of trust in the farmer and the health of the cow. In the end, that may be too much work for a glass of milk.

The rest of the article via here “slanted Times article on Raw Milk”

I’m glad to see big people are ‘TALKING’ about raw milk. It’s funny though. They still pretend like scientists actually study it. They still fantasize about Evidence and Regulation of raw milk :P I’m not sure who to feel more endeared to at this point??

The FDA or the Newspapers…and then there’s people like Alex Avery and the CGFI via Monsanto, the waste of breath.

Perhaps I’m not as grateful as I could be…maybe these folks are really doing us all a favor eh? :P I must say though, of all the players on board lately…there are some really strong people out there. The folks at the Weston Price Foundation are amazing!!! They don’t back down. They’re fighting in the world of beaurocracy for our daily food. That is a pretty amazing thing, it’s not something you see very often these days. People who are just trying to help you.

This is a FANTASTIC document addressing the FDA’s actions concerning raw milk and it’s health affects. Reading something like this just makes me feel alright for a little while.

A busy little bird is he…It’s a war of perception here. What can we make people perceive? There are people out there who are bought and sold to be dedicated agents of misinformation. One of these persons is Alex Avery. Alex Avery is an iconic voice for large milk industry. He is the Director of Research and Education at the Center for Global Food Issues, a project of the Hudson Institute.

He also runs the propaganda outlet…milkismilk.com. Dedicated to ensuring the Dairy AggroIndustry can sell shitty-quality milk to consumers for many years to come.
Via the ‘Simple Truth‘…milkismilk.com is disguised a consumer awareness / health awareness and information blog. It takes a very heroic stance to saving you(the consumer!) from making ‘harmful choices’.

It’s part of a FUD disinformation campaign supporting the recent legistration the CGFI has taken up against Milk Producers that openly tell their consumers they don’t use rBGH on their cows. By openly disclosing this, apparently they’re practicing false and misleading marketing practicing. Obviously Industrialus Milkus en large can’t have people going around and insinuating that their animal practices are anything less then divine. What are they going to do about it? Well, they’re going to FIX the problem of course. The problem is people are starting to have this idea that their storebought milk was produced in a less reasonable fashion. And once these people start to have that perception…well they start looking for their milk in other sources(commonly soy/rice, organic, or non-rBGH advertised milks). Quite a few more(I’m proud of you America) have discovered real raw milk. And the demand for it is blowing out of the water. Just in the last year in Montana, I’ve seen prices in the raw milk underground shoot from less then $3 a gallon to $7 or $10. That’s simply because everybody wants it, and not many are willing to distribute it. And when they do, they do in seceret. You don’t tell people who you get your raw milk from. It’s a big no no. Anyway…here is an excerpt from milkismilk.com.

Did you know that “milk is milk?”
The Center for Global Food Issues (CGFI) is part of a broad-based coalition which has filed state and federal complaints about false and misleading marketing practices in the dairy industry. As a result, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has announced it will be review claims being made and take action against those engaged in misleading marketing practices. Taking these concerns to the marketplace, CGFI has recently launched a grass roots campaign of concerned consumers, principally mothers, to educate food and dairy retailers (supermarket and grocery chains) regarding false and misleading label and marketing practices.

Why the Dairy Industry?
Milk and dairy products are an essential part of a healthy, well-balanced diet, particularly for children. In addition, family dairy farms are an important part of the American farm economy. Yet, certain misleading marketing practices by some in the dairy industry designed to increase sales of niche products are creating false fears and driving people away from affordable, nutritious dairy products. These marketers publicly admit to specifically targeting women and the children for whom they purchase food with their campaigns. In the process, state and federal regulations and guidelines specifically established to prevent these practices are being ignored.

These practices result in harm to family dairy farm economics; they defraud consumers; and, in some cases they promote production practices which harm the environment. CGFI and a growing coalition of concerned consumers are working with responsible retailers throughout North America to pressure those in the dairy industry engaging in false or misleading dairy marketing to stop.

What is Happening?
Well-published research shows that health and safety fears are a leading factor in driving consumer food purchase choices. This is particularly true for mothers who purchase products they believe to be better for their family’s health and well-being. (At CGFI we understand that single people, non-moms, and many dads also purchase milk!). In the case of milk, labels that claim to be “pesticide-free,” “antibiotic-free” or “hormone-free” are misleading and in most cases simply false. All milk, for example, has hormones (over 25 different hormones are naturally found in milk), whether a cow received supplements to increase milk production or not.

I love the part that says….
“At CGFI we understand that single people, non-moms, and many dads also purchase milk!”
lol! if that isn’t buddy nudging i don’t know what is. This is just fucking ridiculous! Do they actually expect people to believe this trash? They DO. AND worse…it works. It works EXCEEDINGLY well. I suppose at the root of things these must just be Monsanto funds trickling down the line. I wonder how far extends their reach?

Alex Avery. You must be the fool at the end of the chain who gets to plaster his name all over the corporate cumstain. You know if they ever have to become agile, they’re just going to cut you off and shove all the dirt downhill.

We aren’t done yet with you Alex.

Sandor from wildfermentation.com sent out this invitation yesterday. It’s a web-broadcast 2 day live demo of mad fermenting! here is his letter….

Hello friends,

I m venturing into new media as part of my effort to scale back
traveling while continuing to spread fermentation fervor.

On June 7 and 8, I will be teaching an intensive 2-day webinar, to
be broadcast live over the internet from 10AM-4PM (Pacific daylight
time) both days. We will be making kraut, miso, tempeh, natto, kefir,
amazake, mead, fish sauce, sourdough, porridge, and idli. Internet
viewers will be able to email questions, and participants will
receive an edited DVD recording of the workshop. The cost of the
workshop is $60. For further information and registration, visit
http://www.academyofspirit.com/sandor.html
.

Also look for me starting in June on You Tube. By the time I send out
my summer workshop schedule in a few weeks, I hope to have some videos
posted and links to send.

That s all for now. I hear the garden calling&

Sandor

This is going to be awesome. Sandor’s book also titled ‘Wild Fermentation’ is practically holy scripture in my home. I’ll be there Sandor, thanks for bubbling my way =)

J

A little history

I’m utterly and ghastly in love with kimchi. There are so many different styles and kinds, I’m convinced I could totally live off of the stuff. Korea, as a country, are high Kimchee enthusiasts. Apparently I was born on the wrong side of the world.

Like most of human fermented foods, Kimchi’s history stretches back into the dusty tomes of yesteryore. The earliest known reference can be found in the Chinese Poetry book called Sikyeong, written some time before 1000 b.c. The earliest surviving edition of this book is a fragmentary one of the Han Dynasty, recorded on bamboo strips, it was unearthed in the city of Fuyang, and refers to Kimchee as ‘Ji’.

Anyhow, there are countless recipes for Kimchi, here is one I’ve been working on for several monthes. I’ve tried to model it off of this chi by the Deer Garden people. There have been 3 or 4 bungled attempts. The batch that I have photographed here is my 5th, and it is coming along quite well.

a lively spicy kimchi recipe

2 green cabbages
5 large carrots
1/2 large onion
a handful of gingerroot
a large spoonful of crushed or powdered chillies
a large spoonful of crushed or powedered cayenne
a dab of salt(very little is okay, like 1 tsp or less)

a large mixing bowl
1 gallon ceramic crock
a cheese grater
a small plate that fits into the crock
a clean rock or something heavy
a sharp knife

Preparation & Instruction

1. Pull off 5 or 6 of the outer cabbage leaves, try to keep them intact, save.
2. Slice the cabbage into thin strips, just like you would for Sauerkraut.
3. Do the same to the onion, cut into thin strips and break them apart.
4. Grate the Carrots and the Ginger.

Merge everything into the mixing bowl, sprinkling salt, cayenne, and chillis as you go. Toss and make sure it’s all mixed up well.

Next you are going to pack it into the ceramic crock. Put a few handfuls in, and tamp your chi down with your fists or a potato masher. Fill the entire crock in this manner, leave at least an inch on the top. Take the fully intact cabbage leaves and pack them over the chi to create a tight covering.

You’re prettymuch done here, just take the little plate or saucer and fit it down into the crock, and put a heavy rock or stoneware bowl on the top to keep the pressure. If you use a rock, you will want to wash and boil it first. Now just take a piece of linen or cloth and cover it up to keep the flies and dust out.

Leave it out at room temperature for 1-3 weeks. In my home which is usually around 60f this time of year, it takes 12 or 13 days. Note that the cabbage layer on the top *will* become rotten and very unappealing. After you peel these layers off, the good stuff is waiting for you underneath, and you should transfer it to mason jars and keep it in the fridge. Try some! It’s bubbling with lactobacillic laughter and your body will love it!

Afterthoughts

Kimchi may come in HUNDREDS of different varieties. This one is similar enough to sauerkraut, I sometimes just call it SpicyKraut. or GingerKraut. Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll happily extend my advice. Also…if anyone wants to try some of this last batch…msg me and I will mail you some.

Have you ever had Kimchi before? What do you think of it? Have you ever tried cultivating your own fermented foods? How did it go? What did you try?

Have an idea but short on time? Share it with me, I’m always looking for new projects!

I was more then a little shocked, not to mention excited, when I discovered you could use olive oil on your skin. I told everyone I knew about it, most people just looked at me funny, and my friend Zeke said if we got lost in the woods, he was going to eat me first.

Several years along, and I’ve experimented with as many natural or even just non mainstream lotions I could find. I have chronically dry skin, and I have always reacted badly to lotion. So for myself, this discovery had been a little patch of velvety skin on a very very large, coarse, scaly, elephantine dragon creature. I covet my oils and creams, they hold more value to me then nearly anything in my home.

Some things I gotta put out here.

1. Anything you can eat, you can apply to your skin.
2. Anything you apply to your skin, you are eating.
3. Not everything you can apply to your skin ends up with pleasant results.
4. My favorite healing lotion is lightly fermented cream…leave a covered dish at room temperature for a day
5. The cream will be soaked up really fast, follow it with some light oil for an all day affair.

Coconut oil and Avocado oil are two particularly effective ones, but there are probably untold hundreds of others. Nor is it just plant oils, raw cream is straight up essence of miracle. Raw cream is absorbed in through your skin very rapidly, it leaves almost zero residue, and most importantly it heals. Oils offer very serene relief from dry skin, and over time they do imbibe a little extra vitality as well. But if Oils are choral angels singing away your aches and ills, raw cream is the lifeblood of the divine that flows through all things in the kingdom of clouds. There is more healing power in a dab of raw cream then anything I know.
Coconut, Olive, and Avocado oils can be obtained on the grid, plain olive oil will work. In the realm of Knowledge and Gifts, everything works. The question is how well and to what extent. And the only way to find out is to try it and observe. Be present, be patient. This is important. You can listen to me, or you could listen to the FDA, but neither of us give you knowledge. Don’t be afraid, the world is a very forgiving place for the brave.

Raw is the difference between frozen night and blinding light when it comes to oils and cream. The oils and creams we grew up with do not constitute The Whole Story.

And you absolutely cannot trust any label on ANY packaged product no matter WHAT it says about the production method when it comes to raw foods. Companies have zero compunctions selling you a word. To most of them, it’s a just money, raw is worth more money, and it is not a regulated term. They can and will say whatever it takes, be wary and look thrice. You want to look for gifts, not products, gifts come from the land and it’s inhabitants, products come from PR designers.

Have you come by any gifts that make you really excited lately?  Please post and share them with us!