The other day, I did a yogurt-making demo with some friends.
As you can see, I used a slow cooker to make the yogurt. It did work, but I have some comments and recommendations. The slow cooker is probably not as functional as an actual yogurt maker. On warm, it does keep things heated for the required amount of time, 8-10 hours. However, even on warm, it can get too hot. The ideal temperature for making yogurt is under 118F. When I took the temp of the yogurt the next morning, it was 140F down near the bottom of the crock. At top it was a perfect 110. One of the issues is that I might have had the towel covering it not allowing out enough heat. Previously, when I've made yogurt, I cover it with a towel, not with the lid. The lid holds in too much heat. But with the towel it should should be open on one side, I have found, because even a towel can slow down the heat escape. Also, we used simple whole milk. I like to add cream or half-half to my yogurt. This gives it a creamier result at the end. We used A2 and Organic milk. I prefer using A2 milk as this protein is safer for most people, especially those sensitive to dairy. Most milk from the store is A1 milk protein and this can be bothersome to some people. It contains a protein that turns into an opiod in the body and this can cause gastric distress and allergies. Add 1-2 tablespoons of yogurt from the store or buy yogurt culture to inoculate. Must inoculate! We added blueberries, minced ginger and pineapple for flavor. For some reason the yogurt came out a little bitter, I'm not sure from which of these, but I suspect the ginger. Otherwise, it came out pretty good. I add molasses to sweeten it up a bit.
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If you wanted a secret to health, this might be it. As you can see, the Super Activators are very critical to overall health.
This diagram shows the relationship between the Super Activators and important bodily functions. Without them, the body cannot do its job. Eventually things will begin to break down. Who knows the number of potential diseases with fancy names are a result of simple deficiencies? I'm guessing hundreds or thousands of diseases are partially or directly a result of deficiencies. These would include the big killers, cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Mineral absorption like calcium and magnesium depend upon them. So does digestion, for example hydrochloric acid generation in the stomach, depends on them. Water soluble vitamins, like B-complex, vitamin C and others function more efficiently when the Super Activators are present. Synergy - "whole is greater than the sum of their parts." They also work holistically and synergestically. The Super Activators are a team or web. They work best in concert with each other. When one is missing, the whole team is affected. Synergy: "the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects". Synonyms: cooperative interaction, cooperation, combined effort - Oxford Dictionary For example, Dr. Price discovered that when A and D3 were combined with Activator-X, that their effectiveness was greatly enhanced than if they were on their own. Vitamin A and D3 depend upon a proper ratio. We need 4-10 times as much A as D. More of one demands more of the other. Activator-X relationship to D is important and helps to prevent vitamin D from becoming toxic in the blood. Omega-3 must be kept in balance with Omega-6, and so forth. Deficiencies Dr. Price also discovered that his patients were obtaining 1/10th the Super Activators than people following their native diets. The healthy populations were resistant to disease like TB and tooth decay. The children were strong and without deformities. In his practice at home, he used high vitamin cod liver oil combined with high vitamin butter oil to obtain the Super Activators together in the levels more closely matching those he studied in healthy populations. This is why the Blue Ice formulas closely mimic Dr. Price's work like no other product out there, in my opinion. You also get the added benefit of thousands of other health compounds that are well known, like ALA, choline, selenium, and healthy fats, plus other compounds that haven't even been fully researched. You can obtain all the Super Activators and Omega 3 DHA and EPA conveniently in one source with Blue Ice packages in the Organic Fool store. Minerals are very important to health. These are some of the top minerals our bodies require each day. And we need the SuperActivators to absorb them efficiently.
Minerals will pass right through the body and not get to where they are needed if we don't have the fat soluble vitamins found in animal fats, liver and high vitamin cod liver oil like Blue Ice (which you buy here in the Organic Fool store). I am happy to announce that I'm producing a new booklet summarizing the Organic Fool's way of the Weston Price inspired foods!
This simple little visual booklet is a good introduction to the Weston Price diet ideas, including fermented and cultured foods and dairy, bone broth, sprouted grains, gravy, and simple recipes based on my own ideas and inspiration from Nourishing Traditions. It also includes a little education on the fat soluble vitamins or as I call them the SuperActivator Vitamin Heroes ©, plus info on top minerals, and other good stuff. I hope to use this in my counseling sessions and food demonstrations. I will be selling the book online when I feel it is ready to go. Mixed vegetables, water chestnut, eggs, shrimp, and homemade sprouted grain batter with a little soy sauce and herbs, sea salt.
Cook in pan and turn once. I fried mine in coconut oil and some rendered lard. Topped with drizzle of oyster sauce. Raw cream from legal local raw dairy.
I love the raw cream that comes around in the spring when it's calving season and there's plenty of extra milk. I use cream for my coffee mainly, and I enjoy a small spoonful for breakfast. I even give just a tad to my dog. We are mammals and cream is fine for most people as it contains little lactose sugar. Humans generally can create their own lipase enzymes for fats whereas many cannot produce the lactase enzyme for the milk sugars in pasteurized milk. Cream contains very little lactose sugar anyway. But raw cream will contain lipase to help digest the fats. These are healthy fats the brain and heart require. Humans need a lot of these fats and should avoid modern polyunsaturated fats in many new refined vegetable oils. Real cream for babies! I like to marinade pork. It does several things, such as add flavor and reduce possibility of pathogens.
I use olive oil, kefir or kombucha or apple cidar vinegar, molasses or sugar, soy sauce, worchester, sea salt, fresh garlic, pineapple, ginger, basil and other herbs. Kefir once again adds pro-biotics than can help keep down bad bacteria. Marinading pork also helps to neutralize certain proteins in pork that can cause blood cells to coagulate in a bad way. I put the marinaded pork in a safe glass container with lid and put in the fridge for a few days before cooking. I like to keep it on hand for guests that stop by for tacos and for myself for breakfast with eggs and sprouted grain pancakes. Pork should be marinaded, cured or smoked to neutralize these proteins. I learned about this from a Wise Traditions article. You can look it up on the Weston A. Price website to learn more: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/food-features/how-does-pork-prepared-in-various-ways-affect-the-blood/ "The processing of pork in customary ways by salts and acidic marinades makes pork safe for consumption— not only by inactivating parasites, killing off noxious bacteria that may cause food poisoning, and promoting safe fermentations in the meat that add flavor; traditional processing of pork also seems to prevent the inflammatory and blood clotting effects as observed here through live blood analysis, although we do not know why." Some people do not eat pork for religious reasons, and I respect that. There are good reasons not to eat pork due to possible parasites as well. If one does eat pork, I recommend local pasture raised pork not fed soy. Sliced cucumbers placed in Mason or Ball jar with water, kefir, sea salt, dill (I used cilantro because I didn't have dill on hand), few slices of fresh ginger. Seal lid, let sit a couple days and place in fridge. Keep an eye it doesn't bulge the lid too much from carbonation produced during fermentation. You may want to release some of the gas during this process or it may spray liquid all over when you open it! This has happened to me and it makes a big mess.
Use fermented condiments like this with every meal for enzymes to aid digestion. It also should provide some vitamin C and maybe some B vitamins plus pro-biotics. Kefir provides the starting culture and many more strains of pro-biotics for the the gut than yogurt, but I have used yogurt to start my culture. Whey from raw milk is also another option. I make both water kefir and milk kefir which I use for all kinds of fermented foods. You can buy water kefir culture on Amazon here. I often use calf liver for home made dog food. Calves are usually fed grass and thereby should be less contaminated from soy and corn in their diets. You can give it to dogs once a week as a snack or slice some up to combine with daily mix.
Carnivores like dogs and cats require organ meats in their diets to stay healthy. I believe many of the diseases people's little friends get are often as a result of deficiencies of the nutrients supplied by liver, such as high amounts of real retinol (vitamin A). Cats cannot convert beta carotene to vitamin A in the body, so they really need real organ meats. Humans could also add calf liver to their diet as an alternative to local pasture-raised, if this was hard to come by. Cook liver with onions and bacon in pan or on the grill, or you could make delicious liver pate with vegetables like sweet potatoes and carrots and fresh cream and yogurt. A guest made this meal for me and it was delicious.
Baked brussel sprouts in olive oil. Sauteed chicken breast and peppers with garlic in pork lard. On rice. Store-bought salad dressings should be used sparingly because of these modern rancid vegetable oils and it's best to make your own.
Easy salad with fresh organic mixed greens, cucumber, shredded carrot and cilantro. I make the dressing with yogurt, sour cream, olive oil, egg yolk, blue cheese, sea salt, Herbs de Provence, fresh basil. I also added a bit of store-bought avocado salad dressing for extra flavor. I try to avoid store-bought salad dressings generally because it's hard to find salad dressing without soybean oil or other modern vegetable oils. I try to use olive or avocado oil for salad dressings, which are generally much healthier due to higher monounsaturated fats which don't rancid as easily as oils high in polyunsaturated fats like soybean oil. Oils to avoid are those highest in polyunsaturated fats because they oxidize easily and this can contribute to internal arterial damage. Saturated and monounsaturated fats are the ones to stick with due to their stability at room temperature and can take higher heats for cooking. Small amounts of these modern oils on occasion are generally harmless. Homemade gravy with oxtail gelatin broth and my sprouted milled organic grain batter mix I keep in the fridge for just this occasion. Make gravy with the bone broth, batter, cream, pork lard and butter, herbs and spices, and sea salt to taste. I topped my rice with gravy and then with yogurt and sour cream, hot sauce and fresh basil.
Calamari can be a tough one and I admit I haven't perfected it. But it still came out tasty with the rice and homemade blue-cheese yogurt dressing, albeit a little chewy!
I use my homemade fresh-ground sprouted batter mix for the calamari. I soaked the calamari for several hours in kombucha, water kefir and lemon juice. This is supposed to soften it up because calamari can be chewy if not done correctly. But it still came out a bit chewy. I'll have to keep working on this one. It's cheap and a fun snack, if done right. I added a bit of corn starch to the batter to thicken it up. Then dip the calamari in the batter. I just used the stove rather than a deep-fryer with coconut oil and pork lard to fry it until the batter is nice and crispy. Be careful of hot oil always and keep children away from the pan and possible splattering. One mainstay I keep handy in the fridge is batter for making gravy and also for pancakes.
I first mill organic grains like rye, millet, buckwheat, barley, steel-cut oats, organic wheat berries and even some rice all combined together. I put the fresh-ground flour in a mason jar, add enough water for right batter consistency, some yogurt for active cultures, and a couple teaspoons of sea salt. I sometimes add herbs or curry to make it into a savory pancake. You can then top your pancake with fresh raw cream or use natural syrup like molasses or real maple. The red around the edges of the pancake are from red palm oil. Red palm oil is a great oil to use for cooking due to stable fats and also provides a good source of beta carotene which can be converted to vitamin A in the body. I use multiple oils when I cook, including butter, coconut oil, and home-rendered locally pasture-raised pork lard or beef suet or tallows. These oils provide heart-healthy stearic and palmitic acids along with many other important fats. I love my panini press for making delicious sourdough sandwiches. You can make them with just about any ingredients. Here is a Philly-inspired T-bone steak meat, peppers, onions, mushrooms sauteed in butter and pasture-raised home-rendered pork lard with havarti and colby-jack cheeses. Also, a vegetarian eggplant, onion, garlic, fresh basil with and without havarti and chipotle bar-b-q salsa. Fun to make deli style in the basket for your friends. I use local sourdough rye or sprouted grain bread, like Ezekiel 4:9. Good bread is key to the health value as grains should be properly soaked or sourdoughed to obtain the phosphorous and B vitamins.
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Following Weston A. Price
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