First Walk Without a Stroller July 24, 2008

We’re on vacation at Grandma’s house. Kate and I took our first walk without the stroller.

Stopping to chat with the neighbors.

Gotta go — see ya!

Baby’s Got a New Pair of Shoes July 16, 2008

I got Kate her first pair of real shoes yesterday at Stride Rite in the mall. I was so proud.

She loves her big girl shoes.

Duck Liver, Beets and Watermelon July 12, 2008

Kate’s dinner tonight:

Duck liver and heart sauteed in butter
Pickled beets
Watermelon

Whenever I get a duck from the farmer’s market (usually every other week), I roast the duck for Seth and me and give Kate the organ meat.

Lunch at Lilly’s July 10, 2008

Kate and I got to go to lunch today with Seth. We went to Lilly’s, a French restaurant in Venice where you can eat outside.

Seth and I both had moules frites (mussels with French fries) and Kate had duck liver terrine, olives, onion confit, and cornichons. She ate some mussels, too.

Summer Fruit Pies July 8, 2008

“When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it’s not, mmmmmmmm, boy.” — Jack Handy

We had a few people over for a BBQ on Saturday, to celebrate my 40th birthday. My friend Steven came over on Friday to help me make some pies and cobblers.

This is what a good pie crust should look like. See those hunks of butter? That is what ensures a flaky crust.

The trick to a good pie crust is this: You don’t want to handle your pie crust too much and overincorporate your fats. Also, start with very cold (frozen even) fat. You don’t want it to melt while you are working the dough. The more the fats stay together, the more air pockets you will create — which creates the flakiness.

This pie crust is made with 1/2 cup of lard (Steven rendered it at home and brought it over) and 1 cup of butter (KerryGold Irish butter — from grass-fed cows). The only other ingredients are unbleached white flour, cold filtered water, a little salt and a little stevia.

It is essentially the recipe from Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything. (Except I used stevia instead of sugar.) This is the recipe I have followed for years, and it comes out perfect — I mean perfect — every time. The first time you read the recipe, it is a little intimidating. It’s like 9 pages long! But once you learn how to do it, you will never use any other method.

We also brushed a little milk and egg yolk onto the tops of the pies to give them that nice golden brown tan.

Here’s the blueberry pie before we baked it:

And here’s the apple pie prior to baking:

Here’s the apple pie:

And here’s the apple cobbler:

Cobblers originated on the American frontier — when they were in the stage coaches traveling west — they could not roll out the pie dough so they had to be creative.

We used organic blueberries and organic Pink Lady apples (I prefer tart green Granny Smiths but I could not find any).

We used rapadura instead of sugar. For the apple pie, I added a little orange-flavored Armagnac that I smuggled back from my last trip to Paris. I did not add any cinnamon or nutmeg - just a little vanilla extract.

Here’s the blueberry pie out of the oven:

The blueberry pie was quite possibly the best pie I have ever tasted. I know, I’m being immodest. But it was!

We also made a cherry cobbler. Here it is before we baked it:

We used organic cherries, and rapadura instead of sugar. Plus some corn starch, a little lemon and vanilla extract. And a pinch of salt.

I didn’t make enough dough so this one’s a little short. But people ate it anyway.

It was really good with the rapadura. Not too sweet. You could really taste the fruit and it was not overpowered by sugar.

We also made raw homemade ice cream to go with the pies — made from Organic Pastures raw cream (from grass-fed cows), egg yolks, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Because how can you eat pie without ice cream?

Here’s Seth feeding Kate ice cream at the party:

Baked Beans for Dinner July 6, 2008

Kate’s dinner: Leftover baked beans mixed with some organic grass-fed beef and beef liver.

I modifed the Nourishing Traditions baked beans recipe. I soaked the beans for 48 hours (just because I was busy and didn’t have time to make them sooner). I used chicken fat instead of butter and olive oil — just because that’s what I had on hand. Instead of water, I used homemade chicken stock to make the beans more nutrient dense. And I added ham hocks for extra flavor and nutrition.

She would have loved some sauerkraut with this dish — but I’m fresh out. I have a couple of quarts fermenting in the cupboard. I need to make more pickles soon, too. Kate loves pickles.

Edible Weed Sprouted Salad July 3, 2008

Here’s the salad I made last night (all from local organic produce from the farmer’s market):

Dandelion
Purslane
Sunflower Sprouts
Tomato
Red Onion
Yellow Bell Pepper
Sprouted Red Lentils
Sprouted Peas

I dressed it with a red wine vinaigrette and some fresh lemon juice and sea salt.

We also had grilled salmon and steamed artichokes — served with melted Kerry Gold butter.

This is the first time I’ve ever eaten purslane and I loved it! Very lemony and crunchy and delicious.

And purslane is very nutritious:

Purslane provides six times more vitamin E than spinach and seven times more beta carotene than carrots. It’s also rich in vitamin C, magnesium, riboflavin, potassium and phosphorus. Source

Seth loved everything except the artichoke. He said, “This is too fancy for me. I don’t know how to eat it.” He only ate a few leaves.

I saved his artichoke heart. I’ll give it to Kate today with some melted butter for lunch, along with the leftover salmon.

Three Meals for Baby Kate July 2, 2008

Some of you have expressed an interest in what I feed Kate — so I thought I’d document some recent meals.

1. Breakfast:

Two pastured eggs scrambled in butter, with raw organic grass-fed beef liver (frozen and grated) and sea salt. Plus organic cantaloupe and blueberries.

Since then, I’ve stopped giving her raw berries and other fruits with a lot of pectin. She always has runny stools when she eats them. I don’t think they are good for an immature digestive system.

2. Yesterday’s dinner:

Pastured, organic chicken livers sauteed in raw butter, with sea salt.

Organic peaches sauteed in raw butter (yum — tasted just like pie).

Homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut (she absolutely loves this).

She’s waving and saying “Hi!” in this picture.

3. Dinner tonight — a “baby salad”:

Pastured chicken livers and organic strawberries and purslane.

I sauteed everything in raw butter (babies need a lot of fat!). Garnished with a little creme fraiche.

Here she is fingerpainting with her food:

My Favorite GAPS Treat July 2, 2008

If you’re doing GAPS, or just trying to avoid sugar and grains, and you miss cookies, I’ve got a solution for you: Jennie’s Coconut Macaroons!

I found them at the health food store (I’ve seen them at Whole Foods in Dallas, and our local Co-Opportunity in Santa Monica). Anytime I see them, I snap them up because they are so good. And totally GAPS legal!

I can even feed them to Kate because they are not made with grains or sugar.

Ingredients: coconut, honey, egg whites.

Just to clarify… Baby Kate is not doing the GAPS diet. I mean not officially. She’s just doing the WAPF baby diet, which turns out is very similar to GAPS. She gets lots of whole raw milk (I still make her the raw milk formula, which is designed to closely simulate breast milk), raw butter and cream and other good fats (duck and chicken fat, beef tallow, and coconut oil). She eats eggs and organ meats almost every day (usually liver, sometimes heart).

And muscle meats: chicken or duck with the skin and the fat, homemade roast beef with bone-broth-based gravy. Oh, and lots of soup made with bone broth. I like to put it in her sippy cup.

She also gets fish a few times a week: pole-caught tuna (with plenty of homemade coconut oil mayonnaise), salmon, shrimp, or soup — Thai lemongrass soup (made from Thai snapper fish stock) or miso soup (made from bonito fish stock). I think I’m also going to start giving her salmon roe. And of course, she gets her daily dose of cod liver oil.

She does eat vegetables and fruits — all organic and usually served with either butter or cream. She also gets lots of lacto-fermented foods (kefir, sauerkraut, yogurt, lacto-fermented ketchup and pickles, etc.)

For something sweet and nourishing, I feed her homemade ice cream (made with raw cream, egg yolks and a little maple syrup). She does not eat white sugar — but she does get maple syrup or honey. In her ice cream or yogurt. And in her macaroons!

I’m not feeding her grains until she is around two years old. I know, it seems odd if you’re not familiar with the Weston A. Price diet, especially the thing about waiting on the grains. But it turns out that babies do not have the enzymes needed to digest grains until they are around two years old. Around the same time they develop the molars needed to crush and grind grains.

Saturday Morning at the Farmer’s Market June 28, 2008

Here’s Kate and Cara (Annie’s daughter) this morning at the farmer’s market in Santa Monica. Cara’s eating fresh organic strawberries.

I’m so excited! I just happened to turn on the radio (I have Sirius radio in the kitchen — it’s wonderful) and guess what’s on? Kelly O’Hara, star of “South Pacific” on Fresh Air!

I can’t wait! I can’t wait! I can’t wait! We’re going on Friday night, July 18th. I just know I’m going to cry through the whole thing and make a big fool out of myself. Happy tears!

It is only my favorite musical of all time — and this is supposed to be a fantastic production — a multiple Tony award-winner. We got the last two tickets available.

OK, I better get to work. Lots to do! I have a duck to roast, kefir water to brew, gotta get my sourdough starter going, need to freeze my ice cream bowl. And tonight I’m going to make a delicious high-vitamin salad with purslane, dandelion, sprouted peas and red lentils, tomatoes, and yellow bell peppers. Everything organic and local from the market.

By the way, Seth did fine with corn tortillas last night.* Of course they were sprouted corn tortillas. He couldn’t digest the regular corn chips we had last weekend. So I think I am going to see how he does on some sourdough bread this week.

Oh! I almost forgot to report this! I’m so touched and feeling very grateful right now. When I met up with Annie this morning at the Organic Pastures stand (that’s where we meet every Saturday morning at 8:30), Maurice, who works the stand, told us that someone had donated some money to support us in our trip up to Sacramento this week for the congressional hearings on raw milk.

Isn’t that nice? I guess this person wanted to be able to go to the hearings but couldn’t — so s/he wanted to do something. And guess how much s/he donated? $200! Annie and I were totally floored. That pays for our hotel! Actually it pays for half of our trip — since the gas cost that much as well.

There are so many angels out there. It feels so good to know that people in the community support each other. Thank you, whoever you are. We really appreciate it so very much.

* I take that back. Turns out he didn’t do so well after all. I guess we’re going to be grain-free and on GAPS for a while longer.

Raw Milk Victory in California June 25, 2008

I cannot even express how awesome it was to watch the victory for raw milk at the state capitol in Sacramento yesterday.

Here’s my photo essay of what happened:

Annie was at my house at 5 am sharp, her kids buckled into their car seats in the back seat. I got Kate loaded into the car, with all of our gear and snacks and strollers, and we headed north on the 5. (Those are Annie’s sweetie pies, AJ, 13 months, and Cara, 2 1/2, and Kate is on the right.)

We reached Sacramento around noon, got checked into our hotel, and then walked with our strollers over to the capitol (about 10 blocks away from our hotel). We met up with our friend Angelique on the way to the capitol (she had driven up from San Francisco).

The first person we saw when we got to the second floor was Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures Dairy. He said, “You guys have raw milk written all over you!”

I said, “We drove up from Los Angeles!”

He thanked us profusely for coming.

I put my hands in his and said, “We wouldn’t miss it. We are so grateful for everything you do.”

When Kate met Mark McAfee, I know this sounds odd, but she did not want to let go of him. I think kids are the acid test for how genuine adults are. Kate hugged and hugged him, and he hugged her right back. He didn’t want to put her down.

He said, “This is why we do what we do. It’s for the children.”

We got our t-shirts and pins and head toward our seats.

The next two hours were grueling — due to babies who would not nap. Annie and I paced the halls with our babes in slings, trying to bounce and soothe them to sleep, while Angelique worked tirelessly to tire out toddler, Cara.

Finally the raw milk bill came up. We were asked to stand and show our support of raw milk. It was amazing how many people showed up. There were so many kids in attendance!

When everyone was done testifying, the voting began. I had been watching the bills come up before this one, and many good ones had been shot down. There were bills about taking the lead out of lipstick and BPAs out of baby bottles, and allowing surveillance cameras to record what happens in factory farm slaughter houses. We saw industry take these well-meaning bills out — due to lobbyists and money.

But when the raw milk bill came up, to our amazement, everyone said, “Aye.” One after another. It was unanimous. They said, “You can go ahead and applaud now.” And the whole room erupted in applause.

We all cried. It was that emotional.

Here we are celebrating… we had Guinness and Dungeness crab and Guinness (I had a vodka martini). After dinner, we went out for ice cream!

Having a Heat Wave June 22, 2008

It’s so hot. Way too hot to not have air conditioning. It’s so hot in our house that we had to get out. We fled to the mall so Kate could play at the indoor playground.

Look at those girls next to Kate. They are 2 years and 18 months old, respectively. I can’t believe how big Kate is next to them!

Before the playground, we went to lunch at On the Border. We don’t eat out often, but I didn’t feel like cooking and we wanted to sit somewhere air conditioned.

Kate had nachos and she loved them (like mother like daughter). Just the cheese and beans and chicken — not the chips and jalapenos. I usually bring her food with us when we go out to eat but today I didn’t. I think it’s totally fine to eat out every once in a while and not worry about it. Especially since she eats so well 99% of the time.

Kate just had her nap and we are relaxing now. She’s having a bottle and we’re both having a glass of Lillet and Pellegrino on ice — mmmm. Very refreshing. We’re watching Julia Child on “The French Chef”. I got it from Netflix.

We just watched the lobster episode. When we were kids, my parents used to feed us lobster pretty regularly. Fresh boiled lobster with lemon and melted butter. We loved it. We also got king crab ocassionally — that was my brother, Matt’s favorite meal. He loved king crab most, then lobster, then steak. All with lots of butter. My brother has a Frenchman’s palette. (And so do I.)

I was thinking about this. Remember how you used to always see a tank of live lobsters in the grocery store? I never see that anymore. When did that end? Did people just stop eating lobster at some point? Did lobsters become a lot more expensive?

We’re watching the sausage episode now (Okay, I’m watching it. Kate is playing in her playpen, quite happily — and Seth is ignoring it and working on his laptop.). Did you know that sausage casings are made from intestines? So, if you eat sausage, you’ve been eating pig and cow intestines. Sorry.

I really want to make my own liverwurst. Does anyone know where to get good quality natural sausage casings?

Oh goodie! This next episode is Tripes a la Mode. If you’ve never seen a cow’s stomach, it’s truly amazing. Absolutely huge! this is what I love about Julia Child. She gets so excited about things like cow’s stomachs and pigs intestines.

She’s talking about buying tripe and pig’s feet and veal knuckles at the local market. I’ve never seen them. Any of them. I guess pig’s feet and tripe went the way of the lobsters.

I’m going to fry up some chicken livers for Kate’s dinner. Serve it with some cantaloupe and butternut squash soup. That will make up for her lunch.

What Kate Ate Today June 20, 2008

Here’s what Kate ate today:

Morning Bottle: 5.5 ounces of raw milk formula

Breakfast:
1 slice of bacon
1 banana fried in bacon fat
2 eggs scrambled in raw butter

Mid-morning: Sippy cup with raw milk

Lunch:
Leftover homemade roast beef with white wine reduction sauce (made with pan drippings, beef stock and butter)
Leftover homemade butternut squash soup with raw cream
Organic cantaloupe and grapes

Afternoon:
Sippy cup with raw milk (normally I would do formula but I don’t have it together yet having just come back from our trip)

Dinner:
Homemade miso soup with homemade bonito broth
Salmon teriyaki (wild Alaskan salmon and homemade teriyaki sauce)
Steamed yellow squash and baby bok choy
Wakame seaweed
1/2 tsp cod liver oil

Bedtime:
5.5 oz raw milk formula

We all ate dinner together at 5 o’clock. It was fun! We are going to do that more often. Seth likes to eat early.

I forgot to give her her Lugol’s but she got plenty of iodine in dinner tonight. I also didn’t get around to giving her her Biokult but that’s OK. I didn’t give it to her on vacation either (which is probably why I’m out of the habit).

Homemade Roast Beef June 19, 2008

We arrived back in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon. I’m still tired. It was a very long week.

Right now I’m watching Martha Stewart’s show — they’re making carnitas, salsa verde and roasted tomato salsa. This is something I’m going to do very soon. I love carnitas!

Martha’s saying how she loves “lengua” (tongue) tacos. I’ll have to try that, too.

She said that when she was growing up, they used to render their own lard and eat the cracklings with a little salt for a snack.

Tonight I made roast beef for dinner. I had a nice rump roast that I needed to do something with. I’ve never made roast beef before — but it came out delicious! I used the drippings in the pan to make a yummy white wine reduction sauce (with extra butter). I also served a green salad with tomatoes and homemade vinaigrette, and some homemade butternut squash soup.

And now I have leftover roast beef for lunch. Nothing like a cold roast beef sandwich with buttered bread. Yeah, we’re still not eating bread — but one day! I gave Kate roast beef for dinner today and she loved it. She ate every single bite.

PS: I booked our tickets to New York for July. I also bought “South Pacific” tickets (thanks to Ed’s daughter, Helene, who had the inside track on tickets — they are quite hard to come by due to all the Tony awards. Thanks, Helene!).

I’m so excited — it will be such a wonderful 40th birthday celebration.

Why We Don’t Use Sunscreen June 10, 2008

Kate and I are leaving tomorrow morning on a trip to Dallas to be with family and help out with the crisis that’s going on. While we are there, we will be spending some time in the pool, and going on walks.

So we’re going to get some sun. And lots of it! But we won’t be bringing any sunscreen. We will, however, be bringing our cod liver oil.

Some people think I’m crazy not to put any sunscreen on Kate. If we are out in midday sun or we are planning to be out for a long time, I do cover her with a hat and a shade. Otherwise I don’t worry about it — I want her to soak in the sunshine!

The more I read about sunscreen, I really don’t think it’s good for you. It’s carcinogenic! Plus the vitamin D from the sun is so good for you. So you don’t want to block that.

It’s so funny — reminds me of that Woody Allen quote from “Annie Hall” (one of my favorite movies of all time), “Sun is bad for you. Everything our parents said was good is bad. Sun, milk, red meat… college.”

How did they ever convince us all these things are bad?

Here are a few excerpts from a great article on The Healthy Skeptic blog:

… Sunlight is a major source of vitamin D. Insufficient levels of vitamin D can result in osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases and rheumatoid arthritis - among other equally unpleasant and life-threatening conditions. When you put on those high-SPF sunscreens, not only are you increasing your risk for melanoma, you are increasing your risk of developing all of the conditions that can arise from vitamin D deficiency because you are blocking your body’s ability to synthesize vitamin D.

And while it is possible to obtain vitamin D from food, it is only present in large amounts in certain kinds of seafood - which many people do not consume regularly. The highest sources for vitamin D in food are anglerfish liver, cow’s blood (I’m not joking) and high-vitamin cod liver oil (HVCLO). It is also present in more modest amounts in chum salmon, Pacific marlin, herring, bluefin tuna, duck eggs, trout, eel, mackerel and salmon.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that most Americans aren’t eating these foods on a regular basis. The lack of adequate intake of vitamin D in the diet, combined with habitual use of high-SPF sunscreen and/or lack of exposure to the sun is a perfect recipe for increasing the risk of cancer for children and adults alike.

I don’t know about you, but we don’t eat a lot of anglerfish and cow’s blood around here. We do take our cod liver oil, which turns out is a very good thing to do because you need the right ratio of vitamin D and vitamin A:

Before closing, I must mention (briefly) the issue of vitamin D toxicity. Vitamin D is widely considered to be the most toxic of all vitamins, and dire warnings are often issued to avoid excess sun exposure and vitamin D in the diet on that basis. The discussion of vitamin D toxicity has failed to take into account the interaction between vitamins A, D and K. Several lines of evidence suggest that vitamin D toxicity actually results from a relative deficiency of vitamins A and K.

So, the solution is not to avoid sun exposure or sources of vitamin D in the diet. Rather, it ensure adequate vitamin D intake (through sunlight and food) and to increase the intake (through diet and/or supplements) of vitamins A & K.

Interestingly, I have noticed that since I have been taking cod liver oil, I don’t burn anymore. Kate and I went for a long walk a while back — two hours in bright midday sun and I was not wearing a hat. (Kate was under a sunblock shaded cover I have for her stroller.) We came home and Seth commented on how red my face was. We were both sure I was going to have a bad sunburn.

A couple of hours later, the redness was gone. No burn! That has never happened to me before.

Before I started eating the WAPF way, I definitely would have gotten a sunburn in those conditions. I’m not sure what it is about my diet that is preventing the burn — but I think it has something to do with all the good fats I’m eating (whole milk, cream, butter, coconut oil, meats with skin and fat). I think it also has a lot to do with the cod liver oil.

My inlaws said something interesting recently. They went to Costa Rica last fall and for the first time ever, they did not burn. They insisted that the only thing they had changed in their diet was the inclusion of daily cod liver oil.

PS: Since we’ll be gone all week, I probably won’t be posting. See you next week!

Food Choices: Local vs. Nutrition vs. Cost June 8, 2008

I’ve been thinking about this question a lot lately. How do you choose the best food to buy when weighing local vs. nutrition vs. cost?

There are a lot of people these days who are trying to eat a local diet. Local means eating food that was produced within 100 miles of your home.

There are online challenges that people track on their blogs. There’s the One Local Summer Challenge going on right now. And there’s people eating a hyperlocal diet, as in the 100 Foot Diet (which is where you try to only eat foods that you have grown yourself).

I think the local food (locavore) movement is wonderful. Food in America is transported, on average, 1500 miles from farm to fork. That’s just crazy! Just think of all the oil it takes for one meal!

I also think it’s important to try to eat food in season as much as possible. It’s always better to enjoy cherries in the summertime and pumpkins in the fall. Not only are they tastier when they are in season, but to me there is something special — even sacred — about it: a bowl full of cherries on the kitchen counter on a hot summer day and a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. Who would want to eat a pumpkin pie in the middle of July?

That said, I think you can get a little extreme with all of these blog challenges and lose focus on what is really important. I’m focused on rebuilding our health right now, and making sure Kate is as healthy as she can be. This is why I chose not to do One Local Summer.

One Local Summer would be easy for me to do. The rules are just to eat one meal per week with all local ingredients (excluding spices). One dinner a week? That would be no problem for me.

We get all our beef, pork, poultry, and eggs from local farmers within 100 miles from our house. Our honey and most of our vegetables and fruits are also local.

But our olive oil comes from Adam’s Ranch — 150 miles away. And most of our dairy (milk, butter, cream and cheese) comes from Organic Pastures — 200 miles away.

And there are many supplements we are taking that are shipped from all over. Who knows where they are produced. We take cod liver oil and probiotics and dessicated adrenal gland, among other things. I also buy various ingredients via mail order for Kate’s homemade baby formula (lactose powder, powdered gelatin, nutritional yeast, coconut oil, etc.)

I’ve been drinking Dandy Blend lately. So instead of coffee from Mexico or Costa Rica, the Dandy Blend comes from Ohio. I suppose I could make my own Dandy Blend, once my dandelion seedlings get big enough — but that won’t be for months.

I also regularly order liverwurst and hot dogs from US Wellness Meats (the local grass fed beef farmers do not carry these items).

I’m choosing not to do One Local Summer because that’s not really my focus. My focus is nutrition and health for my family. And I don’t want to lose focus.

I agree that is important to try to eat locally as much as you can. But at the same time, I don’t believe in making sacrifices at the expense of nutrition. Of course if money is tight, you have to do the best you can. But, for example, I would never buy local milk that was pasteurized when I can get raw milk from grass-fed animals that is farther away. And I only buy wine made from organic grapes now — and it’s not local.

I would also never buy pasteurized milk because it’s cheaper. Raw dairy products are so vital for health. I would buy raw milk even if I had to pay $20/gallon and have it shipped from the other side of the country.

That said, it is important to save money where I can so I can spend more money on other things. So, while I do buy raw butter from Organic Pastures, I also buy Kerrygold butter (sold at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods). Yeah, it comes from Ireland and that’s pretty far away. And it is pasteurized. But it’s cultured and it comes from grass-fed cows. And it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the Organic Pastures raw butter. My compromise: I use the Kerry Gold for baking. For light sauteeing and spreading on toast, I eat the raw butter.

I’m also looking into joining Azure Standard, an organic food co-op. Not local, but the prices are very, very good. For me, it’s worth it to save money where I can so I can spend more money on things like raw milk and cream and butter.

It’s really hard when you’re weighing all of these things. Local vs. nutritious vs. inexpensive. I guess it just depends on what your priorities are. My number one priority is health for my family. Especially because Kate is a growing girl — she needs the best quality most nutrient dense foods I can give her.

I want to give her the best start I possibly can — especially because when she gets older, I’ll have a lot less influence on what she eats. Which means the time to build up those nutritional stores is now.

When you are feeding a child, the responsibility is awesome. Especially today. Fifty years ago, our food supply was a lot less contaminated (with genetically engineered foods, trans fats, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, etc.) Up until the 1980s, McDonald’s was still using healthy fats (beef tallow instead of rancid vegetable and soybean oil like they use today). Fifty years ago, childhood autism, diabetes and allergies were rare. Today they are commonplace.

It’s not enough just to avoid those bad foods. Because physical degeneration due to malnutrition happens slowly over time — over generations. These days, I believe you have to do all you can to get healthy foods into your children — and you have to supplement.

Is it a coincidence that by the time I was 26, I had osteo-arthritis? I remember my mom’s reaction when I told her, “You’re too young to have arthritis!” It is no coincidence. Each generation is becoming weaker and more sickly on this fake and processed food.

Margarine instead of real butter, pasteurized milk instead of real raw milk, grain-fed beef and soy-fed chickens, high-fructose corn syrup or white sugar instead of honey or maple syrup, white flour instead of whole grains, genetically modified corn and soybeans in almost all processed foods, etc. etc. Just because you’re eating organic and/or local, doesn’t mean the cows ate grass or the chickens weren’t fed soy or the milk wasn’t boiled (which destroys all the enzymes and probiotics and many of the nutrients).

Seth and I are both recovering from 40 years of eating a SAD (standard American diet). We want to be healthy as long as humanly possible — so we can be around for our grandchildren!

If I have to choose between cost and location, the second priority is a tough call. But I’d have to say it’s cost. And not because I try to save money by buying cheap food. I don’t. But I do save where I can so I have more money to buy better quality.

Again, it comes back to nutrition. Kate’s over a year old now and I’m still feeding her homemade baby formula made with raw milk, raw cream, coconut oil, etc. I will continue to do so for quite some time. I wish I could breastfeed but I can’t (probably due to my own health challenges from eating SAD for so long). So this is the next best thing. And it’s not cheap. Nor is it local.

I also need to rebuild my nutritional stores for the next baby. So expensive superfoods and supplements are a must for me. And a must for Seth, with his health challenges past and present, also needs these as well.

I will always choose local over foods from a distance — but only if the nutritional quality is equal. With two exceptions: I will buy foods that come from far away if (a) we need them for our health (like coconut oil and cod liver oil) or (b) they are cheaper and allow me to buy other quality foods (like Kerry Gold butter for baking). If I save some money by buying KerryGold or buying in bulk from Azure Standard, that means I have more money for supplements.

Daily Photo: Look Ma, No Hands! June 3, 2008

Don’t you want to pinch those cheeks and bite that button nose?!

She’s proud of herself because she walked today without holding on. Two steps in the morning and four steps in the afternoon.

Woo hoo!

Potato Cheese May 31, 2008

It’s funny — when you’re single, sitting at home on a Saturday night is the worst thing you can imagine. And then you become a mom. And you’re always doing doing doing for everyone else. And the idea of having some time to yourself is so fabulous, you don’t care what night it is.

Seth announced that he had to go out to a business thing and I got so excited that I was going to get to stay home, put my feet up, and do my own thing. I don’t even have to cook dinner! I can eat cheese and some almond bread if I get hungry.

So I got Kate down (so easy, she goes down every night and every nap with no crying, no fussing) then I did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and watered my seedlings. Then I poured a glass of wine, dimmed the lights, and am now happily watching Oprah and House Hunters and Martha Stewart and Iron Chef America.

I’m also making “Potato Cheese”, a fermented potato dish (for Kate — we can’t eat potatoes on GAPS). I don’t like the name. Hopefully the recipe comes out better than the name.

I really like to try to serve fermented foods to Kate at at least one meal a day. Ideally, it would be every meal… but once a day is great. If I do more than that, all the better. She really loves sauerkraut and kefir and fermented yams and homemade lacto-fermented ketchup and dill pickles. Today she had some dill pickle relish in her tunafish for lunch, and this evening she had fermented yams with liver and ground beef stew for dinner.

Anyway, I got the Potato Cheese recipe from Nourishing Traditions. Well, it’s in Nourishing Traditions, but it was originally published in 1833, in a book called The American Frugal Housewife.

You cook 4 pounds of potatoes (I baked mine), then peel them, then throw them in the food processor with 2 cups of kefir or piima milk (I’m using kefir). Let that sit out at room temperature in a bowl (covered with a dish towel) for 2 days. Then you strain it the same way you do when you strain the whey when making cheese. When done, transfer to an airtight container and put it in the fridge.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Kate’s Dinner May 24, 2008

Chicken livers cooked in duck fat and butter, leftover Avgolemono soup, fermented yams with raw butter, egg omelet with avocado and a tiny bit of lacto-fermented salsa, cod liver oil, butter oil, Lugol’s iodine, and her Biokult probiotic.

Click on the photo to read more.

Support Our Local Farmers May 23, 2008

Kate is sleeping so I’m taking a break for once. It occurred to me that I need to take breaks when she is napping.

We get up at 6 or 6:30 am every day. And she doesn’t go to bed until 7. So that’s a 12-13 hour day! Plus then I still have to get dinner on the table and do the dishes and clean up the kitchen.

I don’t know how some of you moms out there do it. The ones who are homeschooling and cooking traditional foods and doing all your own cleaning. I guess if you have older kids, you can put them to work doing chores. But it is a lot of work. I commend you.

It’s a rainy overcast day today. Cold, like winter weather. Bizarre, since it was blazing hot all last week.

Kate and I went to the Japanese market this morning to get sashimi for dinner. Seth eats a lot — so I bought $30 worth. This GAPS diet is expensive. We used to be able to save money by eating more rice and beans and other things. But when all you are eating is meat and vegetables, you need more meat to fill up.

I only buy the wild-caught sashimi — so I got tuna and albacore and some snapper. All the salmon was farm-raised which I refuse to buy. I’ve also got some bonito broth simmering on the stove for miso soup. And I’ll make a seaweed cucumber salad.

I dug out some grass-fed ground beef and bison heart out of the freezer for tomorrow night. Gonna make taco salad. I’m going to grind up the heart and add it to the mix. Hopefully Seth won’t be able to taste it!

Here’s some exciting news — about a week or so ago I dumped some cut up potatoes into a big pot outside. And guess what? They already sprouted. There are green leaves coming up out of the pot! Isn’t that exciting? These were just potatoes that we didn’t get around to eating (since we went on GAPS).

See, this is the thing. People are getting all worked up about food prices and how there’s going to be a famine. And yet it is so easy to grow food! I mean, I literally just dumped those potatoes into the pot, added a little soil and water — went out and watered them a couple of times — and that was it. People need to get out of the grocery store and get into the backyard.

I was listening to Joel Salatin’s lecture at the last WAPF conference. He said an interesting thing. “In America today, there are twice as many people in prison than there are on farms.”

Doesn’t that blow your mind? Is it any wonder why so many people are incarcerated? Why so many people are dealing drugs?

We used to be able to live off the land and support ourselves. Now we are forced to work outside the home and leave our families for 8, 10, 12 hours a day. We are forced to drive cars to work since everyone is so spread out. And most families have two cars — 50 years ago, most families had one car if they had a car at all.

It’s ridiculous the way we live. Most of us are stressed out all the time, working way too many hours, not spending enough time with our kids, and yet we have huge homes with five TV sets and two cars and fancy gourmet kitchens we never cook in.

How did this happen?

Joel Salatin said something else in his lecture. He said, “Over 50% of all meals are eaten outside the home.” Isn’t that incredible? And restaurant food is not only bad for you, it’s very expensive!

Salatin said, “Try just making one homecooked meal a week.” It’s a good goal.

Here’s another statistic I heard today: 30 million people — oops — that’s supposed to be 300 million people in the world are malnourished. The person who said it said it was due to industrial agriculture and monocropping.

We need to take back our land. Even if you don’t have a backyard, you can grow something. Even if you only have room for pots on a patio — you can grow potatoes! Or herbs. Or lettuce. I remember when I was single, living in San Francisco, I used to grow baby bok choy in a pot on my tiny little postage-stamp sized deck.

If you can’t grow anything, you can support a local farmer. Local organic farmers take care of the soil. They don’t monocrop. They don’t spray poisons on the food. Go to your local farmer’s market and buy as much as you can from the local farmers. You can still go to the supermarket to get other things.