Crockpot Yogurt Yumminess

My favorite thermometer- perfectly designed and always available!

I once read a post that delineated the changes our habits and taste buds go through before we are ready for the very best, healthy yogurt. It is a bit of a process, so be patient. Moving slowly from sugary, chemical-laden, low-fat, neuro-toxic individual cups of yogurt (even Greek) to the real, organic, pure pro-biotic action of homemade full-fat yogurt takes some adjusting, but your brain, your gut, your wallet and the environment will thank you!

Hold up!  "Full fat"?? Isn't that a scary concept that will make you fat or cause high cholesterol?? I'll do a separate post about that another day, but the short answer to full-fat concerns includes a reminder of the metabolic truth that the fat on your waist is not made from the fats you eat, it is literally the storage of excess sugars that your body couldn't or didn't use in a timely manner (excuse the severe over simplification). Eating full fats with your carbs, simple or not, modulates the impending sugar spike that is the real villain in the fat and, more importantly, the brain equation. Sugar spikes 'tickle' the brain and make us feel better for a minute, but they also damage the brain and set the stage for all sorts of long-term neurological problems. The slow release and processing of sugars gives your body longer term fueling as well as emotional, physical and neurological peace. More another day.

Did I hear you groan about the cost of "organic" milk! Yes, it is worth the extra money to buy the organic milk, for you and your kid's sake, but no worries, you will still be able to meet your budget needs by making this simple yogurt instead of buying expensive pre-made yogurts.

So, you want to give yogurt making a go... you will need:

• A half gallon-ish of whole, organic milk with no additives (read the label!). It does not need to be raw or low-temperature pasteurized as the whole point of the process is to bring this dead milk back to life.
• A 1/4 cup yogurt start. Choose a yogurt that has four or five types of bacteria. The more varieties, the more diverse you will be making your internal biome (gut) and diversity leads to a more effective 'army' keeping the balance and fighting any 'bad' bacteria that meander through your gut. Keep a small, clean jar in the fridge for next week's batch, separate from the jars your family is eating.
• Glass jars - I use old salsa jars that have been recently through the dishwaher, but any clean jars you have and like work well.
• Two beach towels- yep, simple. I keep two cute beach towels from my kids childhood so that I get a little rush of nostalgia when I'm cooking. Yogurt and the "aww" factor make any day better.
• Your finger- clean of course. This is the high tech yogurt making tool that I'm most grateful for! 

Here's the process. It takes about ten hours over all processing, so plan your time correctly. The good news is that it takes about three minutes of actual work on your part. Five if you include washing the crock pot after.

Step 1- Put the milk in your clean crock pot and turn it on low. Use a timer for two hours of warming time. 

Step 2- At the two hour mark, unplug your crock pot. Set a timer for three hours.

Step 3- After the timer goes off, wash your hands and stick your finger in the milk to check temperature. It needs to have cooled just enough that it feels warm, but not burning on your finger. Our skin is comfortable at temperatures that don't kill bacteria (pro or not)--so don't kill your new little yogurt bacteria babies. 

Step 4- Gently whisk in your yogurt start. These are living creatures, so keep the whisking minimal. More starter isn't necessarily better because the little bugs do need room to grow. 

Step 5-Make a big plus sign + with your beach towels and set your entire crock pot system in the center. Wrap the towels around the crock for insulation and leave on the counter. Set the timer for five hours.

Step 6- Return to scoop your yogurt into clean glass jars and place in the fridge. 

Don't ask me how long it keeps because I've never had it stick around long enough to know. It takes a little forethought to find the perfect window of time in life, but that little bit of work each week provides us with three large jars of wholesome probiotic food for the cost of one half gallon of milk. What a budget booster! Recycling one milk carton versus three or four large plastic tubs, what an environmental no-brainer.  And no little plastics for the landfill, nice.

For a larger family you could easily double the recipe. It is essentially a process of growing perfect, beneficial bacteria, but it isn't a a process that demands perfection. Of course be smart so you don't grow bad bacteria inadvertently--keep things clean, don't let it sit out significantly longer than required and such--but remember that it is a very forgiving and growing life experience! (Pun intended!)

I will sometimes get a varied texture, but I've come to appreciate that anything coming from nature is supposed to be varied and not perfectly smooth. Smooth perfection and perfect consistency comes from a factory and usually via 'stabilizing' practices that destroy the greatest benefit of any real food.  

Did you know that in some Asian countries the fresh produce with holes in it sells at a higher price because the buyer knows that it is good to eat, i.e. if bugs eat it, it is safe for human consumption! I love this confidence in the natural order of things. If bugs (visible or microscopic) find our foods inhospitable, the foods will create an inhospitable biome within us--and we literally need bacteria to survive.. 

A speaker I heard yesterday pointed out that "if Dial soap did what it says it does, we would all be dead". Lol! Funny quote, yet the point is real. But I digress...

Enjoy! Add your own fruit and less-refined sweetener like maple syrup--but don't add raw honey as it is a natural anti-biotic. 

Unless, of course, you make a face mask with raw honey and real yogurt--skin smoothing synergistic perfection according to the stunning Kris Bertsch,one of my favorite naturally based beauty advisers and wellness practitioners,  

Happy Bacteria Growing! :)

Soaked Grain Wonder (fulness)

Colette! As per your request, here is the basic information on soaking wheat!

Quick review of the "why".... Wheat was created to sit on the shelf for decades without rotting. There is a coating of phytic acid on the outside and there are enzyme inhibitors in play to keep food from decomposing before its time.

As you know, if a food doesn't rot easily outside your body, it won't decompose or digest easily inside your body. So, traditional cultures right up until the first couple of decades of the 1900s all soaked their grains before cooking. We lost this wisdom with the advent of "quick", "convenient" modern, industrial food. Now we even bake this unsoaked grain at high temperatures, add some chemicals and intensely refined sweeteners and wish our bodies luck at actually absorbing something good. Hmm...

So, think about it the night before and soak your grain on the counter prior to cooking. Simple, and super revealing as you see what the soaking liquid unveils.

The recipe below is a pancake recipe. We also use this as a flat bread. There is some concern and research about the down sides of industrial revolution yeasts (can you say "quick") and so my preference is for a sourdough or a flat bread to keep my body in balance.

One of these pancakes with some real butter and real maple syrup and you will feel well-fed till lunch!

Pancakes

2 cups freshly ground flour
2 cups water
2 T cider or lemon juice (or kefir or yogurt)

Soak overnight or up to 24 hours in a covered glass bowl. I just put a plate on top to be environmentally clean and avoid any toxins from plastic wrap.

In the morning:
Drain off liquid and blend in:

2 eggs
½ t sea salt
1 t baking soda
2 T melted butter

Cook as usual in a a good quality oil such as coconut oil or butter.

Enjoy!

We also use this soaked grain as a base for healthier chocolate chip cookies by adjusting the liquids in the recipe a bit and then adding a simple gluten free flour like rice flour (or whatever is working well for us that week). We don't really use a recipe, just mix and play with the basic "Toll House Cookie" recipe till it looks and tastes about right.

When it comes to comfort food--these cookies are a simple use of soaked grains that will actually make you feel better longer!

"Which" of Tincturing

Common Use Herbal Tinctures 

Each herb in the Eastern treasure chest has certain properties and specialties. These are all phrased in ways completely foreign to our Western way of evaluating what a medicine does. I'll try here to 'translate" and talk about the special affinity that each of these herbs has for specific body/channel regions and conditions.  The explanations must be general by definition as there is a body of knowledge behind the proper use that is difficult to share in a short, sound byte setting...


Honeysuckle flower in a tincture-
Jin Yin Hua-
This is to reduce fever or 'heat' in the body. That means when you get a new cold/flu with fever greater than chills. There is a special affinity with the throat, breasts and stomach, so 'bugs' that involve these areas will be especially successful with the addition of honeysuckle tincture to a mint tea.
If the cold/flu has chills greater than fever and is a new onset, please avoid both mint tea and Jin Yin Hua. Instead boil chunks of fresh ginger and fresh green onion in filtered water for about twenty minutes, have a nice cup of this warm beverage (add raw honey if you need sweetening) and snuggle down for a warm blanket nap.
Jin Yin Hua can also be used for sores and abscesses. Whenever there is infection in the body, this can be useful in helping your body to fight hot and pus-based problems.

Honeysuckle vine in a tincture-
Ren Dong Teng
Ren Dong Teng has many of the same actions as its flower, Jin Yin Hua, but is less effective at clearing infection.
However, it has an additional property that allows it to help clear away pain when there is swelling or 'blockage' in the channels which means it is good to relieve the pain of hot, swollen joints and painful muscles with heat.
As with Jin Yin Hua, this is best added to a hot mint tea to 'burn off' the alcohol of the tincture.

Dandelion Leaves in a tincture-
Pu Gong Ying
Used both internally and externally as a pultice, Pu Gong Ying works on deep set infections. It has a special affinity for the Liver channel which encompasses the reproductive regions, including and especially the breasts. Deep 'zits' would benefit from the use of Pu Gong Ying. 
Used in conjuction with Jin Yin Hua, it is a go-to first line antibiotic when dealing with hot sore throats and flu, stomach pain, and liver channel pain.
Pu Gong Ying also moves qi so there is a special effect of helping sores heal quickly and cleanly as an external applicant.

Olive Leaf Extract-
Not in the Oriental Medicine Cabinet
My personal experience with this herb was the successful treatment of an eighth stage parasite. Most of the Homeopathic sources do not claim Olive Leaf to be anti-parasitic, but it is used clinically in this manner. It is my preferred use for this extract.

Olive leaf has shown promise in the research  for treating various ailments, both pre- and post-onset, including:
Lowering blood pressure and relaxing blood vessel tension
Decreasing blood sugar level in diabetic and pre-diabetic patients
Anti-cancer properties
Neuro-protective properties for both chronic (Dementia and Parkinsons) and acute compromises, including the reduction of stroke symptoms when administered pre-event. (Scary animal research, but interesting outcome)
Reduction in various types of arthritis, both pre- and post-onset

***Warning- please do not mix Olive leaf with any pharmaceutical products for treating high blood pressure, the effect can be cumulative, causing excessively low blood pressure.

"When" of tincturing

Dear Tincture Users,

This is a complex question and to answer it in my life daily I lean on hours and hours of study and research in the classroom, at the computer and in wonderful ancient texts. So I have to start with the disclaimer that this is not medical advice and you should do your own thoughtful research when making decisions for your family.

Understanding illness from an  Eastern Perspective...explains alot!

Take a diagnosis, any diagnosis...say, "headache" and what does it really tell you?? It is like an engine light saying "something is wrong". Our bodies are incredibly complex and multi-layered machines and pain is our friend if we are tuned in to our bodies. Without pain we wouldn't know when we have stepped on glass, burnt our hands or used a knife without accuracy! So, when our internal mechanisms go wrong and our pain 'lights' go off, why do we think that the 'engine light' is the problem and not the indicator??

Looking at symptoms as indicator lights rather than as diagnoses is the first step in true self-care.

So, you have a headache, what now??

Time for some diagnostics...

First, look at common indicators- Have you been drinking enough clean, room-temperature filtered water? Have you eaten whole healthy foods recently? Have you had any processed foods recently?? If your body is undernourished, your head will hurt. If you body is undernourished but overfed (result of eating processed food) it will hurt more. Are you sleep deprived?? Are you fighting other symptoms besides just the headache??

Take a quiet moment and just tune into your body. Breathe deeply, relax and FEEL. Your body is SMART! It knows what it needs to be healthy and it is very much interested in feeling good. Empower it!

Eastern questions would include a couple of yes/no indicators?

So, for the sake of our tinctures, let's get on to some common things we can treat at home to help our bodies fight 'evil invaders'.  (What!) In ancient days

Tincture magic

I'm not sure if I should blame my sweet friend in Rocklin or Amsterdam for this post, but here goes!

My hubby just got back from an eight day international trade show in Amsterdam. He wore himself out and came back SICK! He asked immediately for some "magic tea" to help him feel better. Immediately I went shopping for some of my basics that I usually make at home, but don't have here with me and was surprised to see a smallish bottle of Dandelion Tincture for 22 canadian dollars! Whoa... that is sticker shock! After making my own since the beginning of my love affair with tinctures, I am thrilled with how much money I have saved!

My friend "Ophelia Jane" called and wanted to understand more about the tinctures we started before I left America and the moment came for me to sit down and write! Forgive if I ramble!

What is a Tincture?


You have been using tinctures your whole life and didn't even know it... Vanilla Extract is the tincture that is sitting in your cupboard right now. The tincturing process removes the taste and medicinal action of a food or herb and preserves it in alcohol. This preservation process keeps the medicine good on your shelf, if pure, for up to ten years or more.  But, of course, it is preserved in alcohol to make this happen, so we have a myriad of ways of dealing with the alcohol and as many personal beliefs about whether or not that alcohol is a big deal.  I'll try to address some of these methods below.

Shelf Life

Once properly tinctured and bottled, the medicine should be put in dropper bottles, preferably darkened as in these cobalt blue dropper bottles, and stored in a cool, dark cupboard. Avoid keeping these near ovens or other heat sources to help maintain quality.

Once the alcohol is removed, the medicine will deteriorate quickly, so is only used for the short term.

How to Use

So before we talk about WHEN to use these tinctures, let's walk through the "how".  Mark needed some magic tea, and of course I used some dried herbs that fit his particular need, like spearmint for instance, but I also knew that he needed an antibiotic effect. For his sore throat a dandelion and honeysuckle combination would be the perfect combination...in Montreal in September. Of course there were no fresh greens to throw in a salad, so I needed to go to stored medicine. Food is always preferable when it is available and appropriate:)

So, step-by-step...
1. I boiled the water. (This electric kettle is one of our favorite finds from when we lived overseas...a household treasure!) But however you do it, boil some water for a tea.

2. Pour the boiling water and a dropper full of tincture into the same hot chocolate mug and add any other ingredients that you feel work well for your child, whether that is a comfort beverage like ovaltine or an herb tea that is a favorite, add it now!

3. Wait five minutes.

Some people object to alcohol use for their families for religious reasons and some object for health reasons. I had a professor who objected because her body didn't tolerate alcohol well at all. She indicates that she was able to tolerate tinctures using this method because the alcohol dissipates during the resting period with the boiling water while the medicinal value is left behind.

There are plenty of conflicted reports about how much alcohol is left behind, so I have to turn to common sense here...We are talking about a couple of dropper-fulls, and we never worry about the similar or higher alcohol content of Vanilla Extract in our cooking. We swish industrial age mouthwash around in our mouths with lots of alcohol and the additional tragedy of harmful chemicals. I just can't get too upset about a little alcohol byproduct when people are routinely ingesting chemical chaos in our soda based society.


Drink! Voila! Simple...

Water Kefir.. the care and maintenance

After my usual rant about the evils of soda (I know, I was an addict!) one of my friends exclaimed, "Then what am I supposed to drink?" 

It is a common concern as fruit juices cause a sugar spike, milk is difficult for many people to digest, soy has hormonal consequences and water simply gets boring to many people.  To my friend I have to reply....

Water Kefir!  

It is a wonderful drinking option.



Water kefir is a wonderful way to add 'good' bacteria to your gut. There seems to be a wave of research and marketing going on right now in Western culture about the benefits of probiotics, thankfully. Here's one about mental ability and behavior  and one about arthritis from today's feed. We know that many ancient cultures made great use of fermented, probiotic-creating preservation methods, and apparently not just to preserve their food resources.

Probiotic foods, like raw probiotics, make nutrition from your food intake more easily absorbed and bioavailable.  Making your own Kombucha or Water Kefir is a cheap way to build these beneficial but tiny friends into your daily life.

Making water kefir is simple and quick and is well explained here and a great video here. These well-known bloggers did such a great job, I think I'll just pass you over...


You might notice that there are some discrepancies between these two blogger's descriptions of how to make water kefir. Does the water have to be boiled with the sugar? Or can you just swish it around in pre-boiled water?? Can you add fruit in the first ferment or not??

It sounds confusing, but in my experience, so far,  I have found that it really doesn't make a big difference. Whatever your preference, it will be OK! As one writer said, "it isn't rocket science" and she is right. This has been done for centuries and there has to be a huge range of details that have been employed... all good!

One thing that absolutely does matter is the quality and mineral content of your water. City water can have additives that will kill the good bacteria and yeast--like Chlorine for instance. Super filtered water is wonderful for you and your kefir grains, but may be lacking in the trace minerals that we both need for growth. A simple squirt of trace minerals in your water is recommended by Cultures for Health, find theirs here.  I find that my grains won't ferment as well without this addition.

But what about the care an maintenance of the kefir grains and the water kefir that is produced? 

First, kefir grains are alive and so need to continually be fed. They feed on sugar and turn it into a balance of good yeast and bacteria, so keep them active!

Secondly, they respond to temperature. The warmer the environment, the more the grains will grow and consume. So, if you go on vacation or get an overload of kefir on hand, make sure you feed them and slow their little metabolisms way down by putting them in the fridge.

Leaving them without an additional feeding for a long period of time can lead to an over/undergrowth and the balance of yeast and bacteria can get out of whack. One blogger reports that if growth slows down, then she adds a little honey to the second fermentation to get the good yeast back on track. I gather that it is more common for the bacteria to overgrow the yeast than vice versa, but you will get to know your own grains and your own colony with a little experimentation.

Don't be afraid to try new things! Here are a few rules that I've gleaned from a myriad of bloggers and retailers...

1. Don't use honey in the first fermentation. It is naturally anti-bacterial and will get things out of balance.

2. General agreement is that adding fruit juices or dried fruit in the first fermentation may damage your grains, so better to add them the second fermentation.

3. Counter time is generally 48 hours. Don't stress over this number and understand that there is flexibility. Life happens! Putting your kefir in the fridge slows the fermentation way down and holds it until you are ready to drink it...within reason.

4. Mold is a bad thing! It shows an absolute conquest of the good yeast by the bacteria or the invasion of "bad" bacteria.  If you see it, throw out your kefir. Rinse your grains well if they were involved and then try another batch with extra care for cleanliness...if the second batch is bad, get new grains.

5. Mold can happen from cross contamination. If you have yogurt or kimchi going on the same counter, both fermenting in the open air with just cloth between them, cross contamination can happen.

6. Mold can happen from too much cooking/cleaning/dust in your fermenting area. Generally the kitchen area is pretty clean, so this is usually safe, but be aware of the fermenting environment and take notice if something impacts the taste and health of  your kefir.

7. REAL FOOD ROTS, which is a good thing that makes it digestible and absorb-able, but it also makes it so it can't sit on the shelf or in the fridge indefinitely.  If your kefir gets strange floaties that taste, smell or looks suspect, throw it out.

It will cost you a quarter cup of sugar to start again! Not bad!

So...keeping those seven points in mind, try adding fruits, juices, and fun to your second ferment. The fizziness and the variety of flavors will keep you feeding your gut flora, and if you stumble on something wonderful, please share it!

Eating foods "in the season thereof" is such an important thing for gut health. Kefir is a great place to add seasonal favorites, so mix it up and have some fun!

Fermented beverages

Hi Enochka! :)

This blog post is especially for you and for anyone else wondering about natural, food-based ways of getting pro-biotics into your diet.  Why?? Well, Sarah Pope does a great job of explaining some the ways that pro-biotic foods have traditionally helped the body.

There are so many diets and ways of eating out there, bookshelves of data to try to digest! But, in reality, they are based on ideas and theories and sometimes they may miss a key piece of data that inadvertently shifts their fundamental premise into the realm of, well, unhealthy.

I LOVE the Weston A. Price information because it is based on traditional diets and real food that blessed cultures where folks died of acute events, not painful, chronic illness. Pre-industrial revolution eating honored the state of food as it was placed on this earth, without the fundamental altering of it (and profit making) by mankind. There is something very natural and real about that!

Did I mention that chronic illness is definitely on my top ten of worst fears?? I have lost two sisters to chronic illnesses, and their last decades were painful. I've spent time on that path, and I have researched and changed my life to get gut healthy and to reach better brain functioning as a result. What I share on this blog is probably a direct result of the reality checks when my second sister passed. I miss them both and don't want to lose anyone else to metabolic dysfunction, no matter what their genetic tendencies.

It is a journey, so please take this information one bite at a time and do what you can do. Whenever you are ready for another bite, check in here or go to one of these beginner videos and see what looks great for you next! There is so much great information out there--and I want to share it even in little bites.

Next post will be the whys and hows of water kefir use....see you then!