Lacto-Bacto-Cilli-Us



Organic Lacto-Fermented Oranges Sweetened w/Rapadura

 The tradition of preserving foods, enhancing their nutritive value, and making them more interesting to eat through fermentation is a very ancient one.

It may seem strange to some, that in earlier times, people knew how to preserve veggies for long periods without the use of freezers or canning supplies.  This was done through the process of lacto-fermentation.  Lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits putrefying bacteria.  Starches and sugars in veggies and fruits are converted into lactic acid by the many species of lactic-acid-producing bacteria.  These lactobacilli are ubiquitous, present on the surface of all living things and especially numerous on leaves and roots of plants growing in or near the ground. 



Organic Lacto-Fermented Garlic

 The ancient Greeks understood that important chemical changes took place during this type of fermentation.  Their name for this change was "alchemy."  Like the fermentation of dairy products, preservation of veggies and fruits by the process of lacto-fermentation has numerous advantages beyond those of simple preservation.  The proliferation of lactobacilli in fermented veggies enhances their digestibility and increases vitamin levels.  These beneficial organisms also produce numerous helpful enzymes as well as antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances. Their main by-product, lactic acid, not only keeps veggies and fruits in a state of perfect preservation but also promotes the growth of healthy flora throughout the intestine.

Chronic illness in industrialized nations has reached epic proportion because we have been dazzled by technologies stepchild--fast foods, fractionated foods, ersatz foods-all the bright baubles that fill up the shelves at our grocery stores, convenience markets, vending machines and even health food stores.

In America, one person in three dies of cancer, one in three suffers from allergies, one in ten will have ulcers and one in five is mentally ill.  Continuing this grim litany, one out of five pregnancies ends in miscarriage and one quarter of a million infants are born with a birth defect each year.  Other degenerative diseases-arthritis, multiple sclerosis, digestive disorders, diabetes, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, epilepsy and chronic fatique-afflict a significant majority of our citizens, sapping the energy and the very life blood of our nation.  Learning disabilities such as dyslexia and hyperactivity afflict seven million young people.  These diseases were extremely rare only a generation or two ago. --"Nourishing Traditons"

Chemical sensitivities and problems with the immune system abound.  We have almost forgotten that our natural state is one of balance, wholeness and vitality.

With all this said, I personally embarked on this "whole food, organic food, healthy food, local food" journey, long ago. I began this journey with food and good health, back in the mid seventies, but somewhere along the way, I fell off track and lost my health.  In the past 7-8 years, I've returned to my "balance, wholeness and vitality." In the process, I think (fingers crossed, knock on wood), that I've begun to cure myself of Rheumatoid Arthritis!  And I truly believe that my immunological disease was caused by chemical sensitivities in our food.  I was creating the disease by eating BAD food!!

Let me just say, in defense of myself.........I was a healthy cook, or so I thought!  I mean, we raise all our own meat (we DO NOT) buy store bought meats of any kind.  We have raised an organic garden every year for as long as I can remember, I even can surplus from the garden.  We drink local raw milk from the dairy down the road.............so you ask, "what was the problem?"  Pre-packaged food, condiments, sugars, flour, cereals, canned goods............the list goes on and on. 

 People have got to become the new crusader's for their own health, they have got to start reading labels, learn more about genetically modified food, how your factory farmed animals are raised, what they are fed to "finish" them for the grocer chains, for YOUR consumption.  Because if you don't, and if you continue on the path of destruction you are on, you WILL come down with either heart disease, cancer or any of the aboved mentioned illnesses.  

I decided one day to denounce all pre-packaged food items in my home.  I went through every nook and cranny, every spice shelf, every cracker cabinet, every condiment and threw them out(BTW-I now have plenty of room in my fridge for the "good stuff).  I no longer make trips to "chain" grocery stores!  On occasion I will partake in the local green grocer for some organic produce to replenish my stock.  I make my own mayo, mustard, ketchup, salad dressings, crackers, cereals, bread, pizza dough, stocks, butter, kefir, buttermilk, creme fraiche', cream cheese, cheese.............I'm probably missing a bunch more, but you get the jest of this posting. And I know that many of you are saying to yourself, "who has the time?"  You have to find the time, and if you can't, then buy organic and remember, if it's not USDA organic certified, then look closely on the label for hidden GMO ingredients.

Use only natural sweetners in small amounts: raw honey, maple syrup, Rapadura, Stevia, date sugar, molasses, malted grain syrups, sorghum syrup and naturally sweetened jams.  AVOID: Fructose and high fructose corn syrup, concentrated fruit juice, and avoid all refined sugars from which nutrients have been removed.


Organic Veggie Stock

Our scientists and doctors today are mystified by the proliferation of new viruses-not only the deadly AIDS virus but the whole gamut of human viruses that seem to be associated with everything from chronic fatigue to cancer to arthritis.  They are equally mystified by recent increases in the incidence of intestinal parasites and pathogenic yeasts, even among those whose sanitary practices are faultless.  I believe that in abandoning the ancient practice of lacto-fermentation and in our insistence on a diet in which everything has been pasteurized, we have compromised the health of our intestinal flora and made ourselves vulnerable to legions of pathogenic mircroorganisms.  If so, the cure for these diseases will be found not in vaccinations, drugs or antibiotics but in a restored partnership with the many varieties of lactobacilli, our symbionts of the microscopic world.

R.A. was a "new" disease for me..........up until my diagnoses in 2003, I had been a healthy young women. When the disease hit me, it hit me hard and with full force.  It travelled from the bottoms of my feet, to my hips, to my joints in my fingers, knees, elbow, shoulder...........it moved like a snake throughout my body, causing severe pain, and fever which would land me in bed for days.  The "specialist's" and Dr.'s all put me on steroids, new drugs..........nothing worked.  I quit taking the meds and tried to heal myself with herbs to no avail.  It was when I finally went completely organic and threw out ALL pre-packaged "garbage" that my R.A. slowly began to recess, dissipate.......... and hopefully remain dormant for the rest of my life. 

If you have stomach issues, chronic fatique, fibro-myalgia, R.A., IBS, colitis, Crohn's, gastro-intestinal issues, GERD, thryroid problems............I'm telling you, it's in your food, it's what you're consuming, it IS making you ill.

The decision of what you eat, everyday, three times a day, can change your life profoundly.

Homemade organic wheat crackers from fresh ground red wheat.