Which egg would you rather eat?

The choice should be obvious. If its not, you need to read my blog more. :)

Follow your instincts. Which egg looks like one you would rather eat? We are naturally inclined to choose foods that appear rich, vibrant and colorful. It is an indicator of their nutritional quality. I happened to have some industrial eggs for another project. And I cracked one open, and was reminded of how pale those eggs are! I had to compare my farm eggs!

Left to Right: Industrial Wal-Mart eggs, Dan's Farm Raised Eggs, MB Farm Eggs

It was obvious that there is a difference. So for the same amount of calories and density- you could be getting many more nutrients and benefits by choosing naturally raised pastured eggs!

More vitamin A, D, E, Zinc, on and on. Make the choice, feed yourself and your family food the way it was intended to be. It's better for you, the environment, society, farmers, and the chickens!

Happy Lard?!

I stole this quote and picture from my friend Sharon's Local Food Beat blog. http://localfoodbeat.com/?p=665

“Over at least the last 15 years, it’s repeatedly been given a clean bill of health, and good cooks regularly point out how superior this totally natural fat is for frying and pastries…. Lard has clearly won the health debate. Shortening, the synthetic substitute foisted on this country over the last century, has proven to be a much bigger health hazard because it contains trans fats, the bugaboo du jour. Corporate food scientists figured out long ago that you can fool most of the people most of the time, and shortening (and its butter-aping cousin, margarine) had a pretty good ride after Crisco was introduced in 1911 as a substitute for the poor man’s fat….“

To see lard go here: http://lizzielovesfood.blogspot.com/2009/11/lard-101.html

I think they are Happy because of the vitamin D in lard, and they feel satisfied from not depriving themselves from meals cooked in mineral and vitamin rich animal fat.

Fresh Pumpkin Pie

Cut up fresh pumkin, add a bit of water to baking sheet, bake at 350 till soft.

Scoop insides, puree.

Make crust. Lard and Butter = best pie crust ever!

Adding zested fresh ginger smells so yummy and tastes so refreshing!

Pour pumpkin pie mixture into pan! Bake for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Lard 101

1. Cut pork fat into small pieces, the smaller the pieces the more lard will be rendered.

Bake pork fat at 225 degrees, for several hours, until the pieces no longer change in size.

Strain fat. Funnel into clean jars.

What remains is pork cracklins. Many people use these as "bacon bits." They've been cooked in one of the most nutrient rich fats, so try to find a use for them.

Let Lard come to room temperature, then refrigerate or freeze.

The color from each jar to jar varies depending on how much muscle tissue was on the pork fat from batch to batch.
Use Lard for frying, roasting or baking potatoes, vegetables. Use cold-frozen lard as shortening in recipes, especially pie crusts.

Lard from pastured pigs is one of the highest food sources of vitamin D. Get your vitamin D in a jar!

Cakes

I've Made a few cakes for sale which has helped me develop a price guide. Here is my approximate cake price list current as of November 2009.

Cakes (includes most filling and frosting)

8-inch (serves 14 adults)

round.....$36.00

9-inch (serves 18 adults)

round....$44.00

10-inch (serves 24 adults)

round.....$56.00

12-inch (serves 36 adults)

round.....$84.00

1/2 Sheet (serves up to 40).....$65.00-$75.00

Sprouting Wheat 101

After the Nourishing Our Children presentation I gave a few weeks back, a few people asked me about how to soak grains, get a good quality flour, about noodles, etc. I realized I had very little practical experience in soaking grains to produce flour so here is the beginning of a very important how-to.

Wheat: Any whole wheat grain will do. If you prefer organic go for it, I happen to have a bucket of Hard Red Wheat for food storage, so I decided to use that.

Quart size Mason jar: Fill it half full with rinsed wheat grains, also called "wheat berries."

Fill Jar full of water. Leave wheat to soak overnight.

The next 2-3 days, rinse wheat at least 2 times per day, or more times if possible. To do this, cover top of jar with screen material or a thin cloth to allow to drain at an angle.

You will see a small shoot out of the wheat grain begin to emerge when it is approx 1/4" long, the wheat is ready.

See the tiny sprouts?

Sprouting the wheat removes the anti-nutrient phytic acid. This is important to obtain a grain that is fully digestable and absorbable to the body. Otherwise phytic acid binds with nutrients

instead of our bodies being able to utlize it.

Those ions are just waiting to bind to nutrients and take them away from you! This particular picture is already bound to phosporus (indicated by a 'P')- which you could have gotten from your wheat if you would have soaked it!

Many ancient and traditional cultures soaked their legumes and grains for long periods of time and with careful preparation.

Once wheat is sprouted, let it air dry in a strainer for an hour or so,

then spread it in a layer on a cookie sheet. Place it in a warm oven, no warmer than 150 degrees. Leave in oven overnight or until wheat is fully dried. (Don't bake it!)

Place dried spouted wheat in a container in the fridge. Use it to add to soups, or other other meals. When it's still moist before oven drying, you can add it to muffins, or blend it into blender pancakes for your own cracked wheat!

You can take the dried sprouted wheat (also called Bulgur at this point) and grind it in a grain mill into flour! Keep the flour in the fridge to prevent rancidity and protect sensitive oils in the grain that have been exposed.

Diet DOES Matter when it comes to Breastfeeding and preconception

Ideal breast milk contains high levels of both saturated fats and Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids. This can be accomplished by consuming high levels of animal fats plus eggs, cod liver oil and oily fish throughout the lactation period. Saturated fats in mother's milk stimulate the immune system and work synergistically with LCPs to maintain them in the tissues where they belong.

Levels of fat in a mother's milk will decrease with each baby unless she takes special care to consume high levels of nutrient-dense fats between pregnancies and during each lactation.

Vitamin A is found only in animal fats. Mothers can convert some of the precursors in fruits and vegetables into true vitamin A and these will then show up in her milk, but adequate supplies can only be met with consumption of animal foods rich in the true form of this nutrient.

Inadequate foods include low fat milk and dairy, lean meat, unsoaked grains, vegetables without butter or fat activators.

This is unfortunately how I ate, and promoted others to eat, while I was pregnant. I still had high quality foods, but they were inadequate to completely nourish myself and a growing baby. I realize how little I knew about nutrition, as I continue to learn more. Now I can get more fat and nutrient dense foods, and offer them to jade, but now she can choose to eat them or not, pregnancy would have been an ideal time to consume these foods, so that she would have had ample amounts of nutrients. She is still a healthy strong girl, which I am very grateful for, but as a mother I naturally question if it was enough to give her the best start possible. I hope my previous pregnancy diet of 2% industrial milk and occasional wild salmon meals, was enough to give her some fats. Now I try to offer her the best of what I know, but she chooses to not always eat those foods.

It can be overwhelming to eat all the foods that will make-up for my and her possible nutrient deficiencies, but it's so important.

High Quality Foods Include:

Whole Raw Pasture Milk

Pastured Eggs

High Vitamin or Fermented Cod Liver Oil

Pasture Butter from Grass-Fed Cows

^These are my top 4 foods that have helped me restore many nutrient deficiencies.^

Wild Caught Fish

Pastured Meats with their fat

Organ Meats (I haven't figured out how to incorporate this one yet.)

Seafood, shellfish, oysters. (I haven't found adequate sources of these foods.)

Soaked Legumes (beans)

Soaked Grains

Organic or LOCAL vegetables with ample amounts of butter

Organic or LOCAL fruits