Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Raw healthy cheese can be made in your kitchen!
Raw milk and raw milk products are so valuable in maintaining or regaining good health! In my case it has been a regaining of health. (For more on this, you may wish to look further down in the blog in the cancer section to my story first posted in four parts on November 1st, 2007.)
I usually use the full fat milk, though I imagine skimmed milk could be used as well. If you use the full fat milk, the fat will float to the top of the bottle. I have my stainless steel strainer ready to house the cheese, once the milk has clabbered or solidified after a few days.
Now to the procedure: at first, I take a quart of milk in a covered glass bottle (or put the milk in a quart glass jar or bottle) and set it on the kitchen counter until it solidifies or clabbers. In the summer time it will solidify within a few days or less. I take some care not to jostle the bottle by moving it around too much, and I definitely do not shake or stir it. Somehow that lack of motion helps the good bacteria to do their job and make it in to cheese, right there in the bottle. Since the milk will expand as it clabbers, you may want to take a few spoon-fulls off the top before starting the clabbering process.
If it's too cold on or around my kitchen counter, I encourage the bottle of milk to make itself in to cheese by placing warm bottles of water surrounding the bottled milk (but not touching it) and I cover all of them (the bottle of milk and the bottles of warm water) with a towel. I might repeat the process of replacing the warm water perhaps once in the morning, once mid-day and once before bed time. This simply gives the bottle of milk a warmer environment, which it needs evidently, in order to become cottage cheese. You can tell when it has "cheesed" by slightly tilting it, and you will see that it has solidified, or you may see bubbles in the bottle. If so, these bubbles will likely be visible mostly down to or near the bottom of the bottle.
When the bottle of milk has clabbered, and having used the full fat milk, I use a dull knife to scoop the cream off the top and put that in a small jar. That cream will have become sour cream. Scraping the cream off the top first, has several advantages. The sour cream does not solidify in the same way as the cheese (milk) part does. If you put the sour cream in to the same strainer as you put the cheese (milk) part, the sour cream will ooze through the strainer and be lost in the liquid whey and it will be wasted. That sour cream is valuable fat since it's raw fat and is loaded with good bacteria, so you may want to save it and use it separately. I definitely do!
After having taken out the fat, I use the same dull knife to gently take the cheese out in to the strainer. I use a conical stainless steel strainer and provide enough space to drip in to a bowl below it. (That whey that dripped through in to the bowl can be used or discarded.) You may use another type of strainer, or a cheese cloth. This process as a whole may take some practice. I had a few "failures" at the beginning, but I found it was worth it. From experience I learned that it was usually due to an environment that was too cold, or, too much jostling of the milk by me, or in transport to me. You can always use the soured milk and cream anyway, even if you didn't make cheese with those first few batches.
Use this if you will, and lots of good health to you!
Barbara
Saturday, February 23, 2008
View a character sketch of two well known advocates of a raw food diet
Many of you have probably never heard of Dr. Aajonus Vonderplanitz.
Although somewhat lesser known than Dr. Joseph Mercola (of mercola.com *fame), the two men are very close together in their wellness philosophies [particularly in pointing out the benefits of a raw food diet]. In their disciplines, their fearlessness and dedication to altruism has distinguished both men as virtually unassailable. In the opinion of many, these men rank as the two most nutritionally advanced health researchers/authors alive today.
This is no accident. Both men are fond of speaking their mind and when they lecture or hold workshops, corporate moguls cringe while chips fly like confetti at a tickertape parade. Where truth is at stake, these men seldom exhibit any respect toward corrupt vested interests.*Dr. Mercola has an osteopathic practice in Chicago and authors the most visited alternative health and wellness website on earth (subscribe to his newsletter, as regards to breaking wellness news, it's easily the best and it's FREE!).
Dr. Vonderplanitz now lives in Malibu, Ca., is a former 'soap opera' star, a published author, worldwide lecturer, has a website, and offers a subscriber-only newsletter available at (www.wewant2live.com). Dr. Vonderplanitz has quite a medical history (from which he recovered, following his own unique, hard-earned, meticulously-researched wellness protocol). [You may find a workshop not far from where you live; check his itinerary for the next several months].
To your good health, Mark R., Birmingham, Alabama
Thursday, February 21, 2008
What is in the news about raw milk?
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Do those who follow a raw foods diet still have tooth decay?
"A couple of years ago I went to a dentist ... and had all my mercury fillings removed (Complete with the dam).
"At that time they mentioned that there seemed to be a bit of an infection in the root of the upper left tooth. ... She told me that standard dental technology was anti-biotics and root canal, but suggested (She knows I'm a wierdo health nut and []she has similar attitudes) She said I should try green vegetable juices and exercise on a rebounder (Trampoline) ...again, MY kind of prescription.
"The next day my jaw was more swollen. With my tongue I could feel a cyst at the root of the tooth about 1/4" high and 1/2" long (Of course it felt like the size of a lemon).
"I spent the day drinking vegetable juice (The parsley, celery, cilantro, zucchini mixture you suggested for me), eating tomatoes, napping and just laying around feeling rather punk with the swollen jaw and a bit of a headache (something I haven't had at all since I've been on the raw [primal] diet). Today the swelling is 80% gone, the cyst is completely gone, the pain is 98% gone and I feel almost totally up to snuff.
"So there you are. I think that is amazingly fast healing for something like that."
Love, Pem Los Angeles, California"
Note: More info available for subscribers at www.wewant2live.com ; also see what foods cause and promote cavities.