Archive for the ‘Raw Milk’ Category

Home Made Farmer’s Cheese

 

We’ve been getting wonderful local fresh, organic milk. I’ve been making a lot of yogurt and kefir but also have started making cheese. If you put salt in with the herbs, this makes a hard style herb/garlic cheese, wonderful for slicing and serving to company – if it lasts that long!

INGREDIENTS:

1 gallon whole milk, preferably fresh and organic

¼ to ½  cup Organic White Vinegar

 

FOR SEASONING:

1 Tablespoon Celtic Sea Salt

2 tablespoons fresh basil, sliced thinly

1-2 tablespoons minced garlic

 

DIRECTIONS:

Pour the milk into a large pot, and stir. Bring milk to 190 degrees (best to use a thermometer) over medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

When the milk comes to temperature (small bubbles will first appear at the edges), turn off the heat. Stir vinegar into the milk, and the milk will curdle. You may need to wait 5 or 10 minutes.

Line a sieve or colander with a cheesecloth, and pour the milk through the cloth to catch the curds. What is left in the cheesecloth is the Farmer’s Cheese. The liquid is the whey.  If you want herb cheese, add the salt, basil and garlic now (or anything else you’d like to try).

Gather the cloth around the cheese, and squeeze out as much of the whey as you can. Wrap in plastic, or place in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

You can keep the whey and drink it, and I also soak oats in the whey for my chickens

NOTE: Make sure you don’t use Ultra High Pastured Milk – it won’t work to make cheese with.

Store in the refrigerator and enjoy!

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What is the matter with the FDA

What is the matter with the FDA?

We’ve been drinking raw milk and eating raw milk cheese for years. We love it and it’s been very good for our health. I make kefir out of raw milk and I’ve made cheese on occasion as well. Thousands of people in my state drink raw milk legally and we are thriving, healthy and not getting sick. There are many other states where it’s legal as well, so what is going on?

It seems like Big Ag,  and the large milk companies,  are getting threatened by all the people who are clamoring for REAL FOOD.  And it also seems like the FDA is more invested in protecting big Ag, then they are in protecting us.  They are supposed to work for us, the American people!

We are tired of over processed junk and want to feed our families real food, from real farmers. The FDA is fine with allowing us to eat genetically modified food – food that’s not been proven safe – and won’t even allow us labeling.  They’re fine with High Fructose Corn Syrup (soon to possibly be called Corn Sugar) and vegetable oils that have been processed using toxic chemicals, and they’re even fine with us eating raw fish.  How come we can go eat sushi, raw fish, in every Japanese restaurant in the country but the FDA is cracking down on Raw Milk and Raw Milk products?  Do you want to only be able to buy meat that’s been cooked? What right do they have to insert themselves into our food choices like this.  Even if you don’t drink raw milk, this issue is important to everyone.

They talk about the dangers but we’ve been drinking raw milk for years, from a good farmer who tests his milk and we’ve never gotten sick.  People around the world drink raw milk and have for thousands of years.  Raw Milk is dangerous when the cows are raised in CAFO’s, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, and fed genetically engineered grain – which has never been tested as safe for human consumption –  and given antibiotics because the conditions are so unsanitary. Any food you eat has potential dangers. Like the recent outbreaks of Salmonella in Peanut butter.

If you are raising cattle on grass and using good practices, raw milk is very healthful and delicious as well. We see news stories about food related illnesses in the news all the time and it’s very rare to ever see a story about raw milk. Raw milk is legal in California, where I live. I buy it in my local store. We’re a big state. If raw milk was so terrible people would be getting sick and we’re not.

Here’s a great article about raw milk:

Drink it raw  – Why is unprocessed milk the only illegal food in North Carolina?

by Suzanne Nelson

http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/drink-it-raw/Content?oid=1202527

The FDA has been raiding farmers and buying clubs for NO reason in the past month.

Here’s an article about the raid at a private buying club in Venice, CA.

Raw-food raid highlights a hunger

Some people balk at restrictions on selling unprocessed milk and other foods. ‘How can we not have the freedom to choose what we eat?’ one says. Regulators say the rules exist for safety and fairness.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/25/business/la-fi-raw-food-raid-20100725

And two farmers have recently been seriously harassed to the point where they are in danger of being put out of business.

The first is Joe and Denise Dixon, owner of Morningland Dairy whose cheese was one of the products taken from the Rawsome club raid.

http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/10/11/family-farm-ordered-to-destroy-50000-pounds-of-cheese/

http://morninglanddairy.webs.com/recallinformation.htm

http://www.ftcldf.org/aa/aa-22october2010.htm

The second just happened this week.

Another FDA Cheese Bust: Award-winning Artisan Raw Cheese Producer in Washington State.

http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-25october2010.htm

Here’s a great article about why the media is not covering the FDA’s action by the brilliant David E. Gumpert,

http://chelseagreen.com/blogs/davidgumpert/2010/10/25/why-major-media-won%E2%80%99t-cover-the-morningland-case-and-thereby-give-fda-free-reign-over-small-food-producers/

Here’s a great article about raw milk by Pete Kennedy of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund,

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/fdas-ace-in-the-hole/

What can we do? We all need to chip in, to protect our farmers and our food choices, join the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund: http://www.ftcldf.org/

We, the people,  need to protect our access to healthy food, as the FDA seems to have no interest in doing it for us.

I am one outraged mom!

________________________________________________________________________________________

Read more posts about this issue at Farm Freedom Friday here:  http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/11/save-farm-freedom-friday.html

Read more, great Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-october-29th/

Read more, great Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/10/pennywise-platter-thursday-1028.html

Read more, great, Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/10/real-food-wednesday-102710.html

Tapioca Pudding

Tapioca Pudding

As three of our four chickens are now laying eggs, I was looking around for some egg recipes and remembered how much my husband loves tapioca pudding. I had organic pearls in the cupboard so I decided to make pudding.  It’s easy to make pudding from scratch and so good!

Look at the instructions on the package of tapioca that you buy. Some small pearl tapioca requires overnight soaking in water. If your package has that requirement, reduce the milk in the recipe to 2 1/2 cups from 3 cups.

Ingredients

    * 1/2 cup organic small pearl tapioca (Do not use instant tapioca)

    * 3 cups whole real, raw milk

    * 1/4 teaspoon salt

    * 2 eggs, preferably organic and pasture – or backyard – raised

    * 1/2 cup of organic sugar or Rapadura sugar

    * 1/2 teaspoon of organic vanilla

    * 1/2 teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg

Directions:

1 –  Combine tapioca, milk, and salt in 1 1/2 quart pan on medium high heat. Stir until boiling. Simmer 5 minutes, uncovered at the lowest possible heat, adding sugar gradually.

2 –  Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Mix in some of the hot tapioca very slowly to equalize the temperature of the two mixtures (to avoid curdling).

3 –  Return eggs to pan with tapioca. Slowly bring mixture barely to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and stir several minutes at a low simmer, stirring constantly until you get a nice thick pudding consistency. Cool 15 minutes. Add vanilla and nutmeg. You can spoon the pudding into individual serving bowls or into a covered casserole.  We like to chill it in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving, but you can serve it either warm or chilled.

Serves 4-6.

Read more great, Real Food Wednesday Posts here:  http://www.cheeseslave.com/2010/01/06/real-food-wednesday-january-6-2010/

Raw Milk Vanilla Ice Cream

We drink raw milk, and we make fresh kefir with it too.  This summer I decided to make raw milk ice cream. It was delicious.  Note: I do use raw eggs in this recipe.  If you use raw eggs it’s at your own risk. I only use local organic eggs – soon to be from our own back yard chickens.  If you are not comfortable using raw eggs the recipe works well with pasteurized eggs, like eggbeaters, too. I’ve made it both ways.

If you want to read more about why we love real, raw milk, click here:  http://realmilk.com/

I’ve made many types of ice cream and with many recipes you need to make the mix and then chill it for a few hours or overnight.  This recipe is super easy because you just mix it and put it in your ice cream maker.

If you’ve never made your own ice cream it’s really worth the effort.  You can find many different machines, including an attachment for your Kitchen Aid mixer, that make great ice cream.

I got the original recipe in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream book and tweaked it a bit to make it my own.  This book and David Lebovitz’s Perfect Scoop are my two favorite Ice Cream recipe books.

In the picture, the ice cream was just done. We put it in the freezer for a few hours after and it firms up beautifully.  It makes enough to fill two (empty and cleaned for re-use) quart yogurt containers.

Ingredients:

2  large organic, free range eggs, or equivalent amount of eggbeaters (see note above)

3/4 cup  organic sugar

2 cups organic raw cream, heavy or whipping

1 cup organic raw milk

2 tsps. Vanilla extract

You can make it in a mixing bowl or with a stand mixer.  Whisk the eggs until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.

Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more.

Pour in the cream, milk and vanilla. Whisk to blend.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.  You can mix in anything you like towards the end of the freezing cycle.  Enjoy!

Read more Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-september-25th

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