Localvore Oregon

Proof that Oregon has been working on NAIS for atleast 6 years

2010-07-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

OREGON’S COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT WITH THE USDA
This is from the desk of the State Vet, Don Hansen, who told me last year in an email that he did not foresee any NAIS in Oregon’s near future. His contact information, should you wish to voice your displeasure: Don Hansen, Oregon Department of Agriculture, 635 Capitol Street NE, Salem, OR, 97370
Office Phone: 503-986-4680; Cell Phone: 503-510-0333; Fax: 503-986-4734; Email address (Plan Administrator): dhansen@oda.state.or.us

In the interest of making a shorter document for copying and distribution, I have shortened the original without editing or altering the verbiage. I apologize for the loss of easily read tables on this blog. My comments are in red.
Cut and Pasted from page 5: The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) has the responsibility to control diseases within the state and to eradicate and prevent the spread of infectious, contagious and communicable diseases to the livestock or people of Oregon. To this task, the ODA must rely on it ability to locate infected animals and animals at risk as quickly as possible. Having credible epidemiological information is key to a successful campaign against a disease outbreak. Epidemiological information includes: owner/manager name and phone number; animal’s physical address; livestock species at location; animal identification when available (e.g., brucellosis tag number, back tag number, brand description, scrapie tag number, etc) number of animals present, animals recently arrived and animals recently departed/died. We believe we have a functional traceability system. However, it must be improved if we are expected to protect our livestock populations against disease threats in this age of rapid and expansive animal movement. Our system contains both electronic and paper form data and as such, is not as efficient as it could be. As a functional traceability system, it includes databases that contain certain epidemiological information on imported animals and change of animal ownership transactions (in the field and at auction markets). We know physical addresses for thousands of livestock operations in our state and have personnel contact and animal species information for each.

Cut and Pasted from page 7: Update all electronic information systems and web services to reflect USDA’s current approach for advancing animal disease traceability.

 Upon the announcement of USDA’s current approach, ODA changed our web site to reflect the new direction of USDA. The web url is: http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/AHID/ah_nais.shtml

Develop, further refine, and implement an outreach plan for producers, accredited veterinarians, and livestock markets that describes the applicant’s plan for advancing animal disease traceability

 ODA plans to work closely with Accredited Veterinarians in an effort to keep them apprised of current USDA expectations/requirements.

 This will include providing them the latest information about the use of electronic CVIs provided by USDA.

 ODA will explore possibility for using USDA software for official tag distribution in our state.

ODA staff will be available to assist the Accredited Veterinarians in an effort to keep them apprised of current USDA expectations/requirements.

 This will include providing them the latest information about the use of electronic CVIs provided by USDA.

 ODA will explore possibility for using USDA software for official tag distribution in our state.

 ODA staff will be available to assist the Accredited Veterinarian in the issuance of a PIN when required by AVIC. The Veterinarian will be able to contact staff and provide them with 911 addresses or with GPS information and staff will obtain and relay the PIN to the Accredited Veterinarian.

 Currently, auction yards are working closely with the brand inspection program in the process for collecting data.
Advancing Animal Disease Traceability Work Plan

From Pages 3 and 4, which show how Oregon spent USDA grants:
Funding Year Cooperative Agreement Number Amount Awarded Expenditures De-obligation Accomplishments

FY2004 California/Oregon Interagency Contract Number 04-0714Funded: $124,710 Spent: $116,909.79 $0 -Registered more than 1,600 premises
-Tagged 2,555 calves
-Tagged more than 9,000 cows
-Partially tracked 450 cull cows
-Held meetings throughout the state to promote NAIS

FY2005 05-9741-1497 Funded: $248,000 Spent: $169,321.66 Deobligation: $78,678 -Actively promoted premises registration and animal id
-Provided producers cost-share program
-10,000 NAIS compliant RFID tags
-20 RFID readers

FY2007 07-9741-1497-ca Funded: $75,815 Spent: $75,815 $0 -Actively promoted premises registration and animal id
-Provided producers cost-share program
- We combined state resources with cooperative agreement funds to initiate revitalized effort that integrated our brand inspection personnel into this animal health/NAIS activity
-Found interoperability mechanisms at local auction markets that could enhance our ability to capture premises identification and subsequent animal movement information within the targeted goal of 48 hours
-Used hand held devises to capture data then transmitted to our centralized database within 48 hours

FY2008 08-9741-1497-CA Funded: $192,194 Spent: $192,194 $0 -Continued to actively promote an educational effort to advance the premises registration and animal identification aspects of the NAIS
-Included premises registration information and application forms in our annual brand renewal notices
-We continued our efforts, using state resources with cooperative agreement funds, to integrate our brand inspection personnel into this animal health/NAIS activity
-We used hand held devises to capture data then transmitted to our centralized database within 48 hours

FY2009 09-9741-1933-CA Funded: $158,866 Still in process $40,000 +/-
-Local AVIC office already had items that we had planned to acquire with these funds. We had intended to purchase a complete system for our last auction yard, which was disallowed -We continued our efforts, using state resources with cooperative agreement funds, to integrate our brand inspection personnel into this animal health/NAIS activity
-We used hand held devises to capture data then transmitted to our centralized database within 48 hours
This effort captured more premises location data and animal movement data as well
-We estimate that we have added 3 to 4 thousand addresses to our database.

Makes you wonder how Mr. Hansen could not foresee NAIS in Oregon’s future if he was simultaneously actively promoting NAIS!

The document states that the ODA will contact “all livestock groups” to assist them. It says they will “travel to all parts of the state to provide informational meetings, education and training.” The document makes it clear that the ODA is still working on planning equipment and staff needed. However, they have requested more funds from the USDA. From page 12:
Fund Request, Intended Use of Funds
Personnel and Benefits $ 86,000 Personnel to assist with the following activities of the agreement. Work directly with field personnel to provide support and insure quality of data being received into databases in Salem office. Provide informational meetings, education and training. Work with Advisory Committee, auction yard owners and Accredited Veterinarian in relation to the new framework. Enter data into ODA databases.
Travel $ 7,000 Travel when attending auction yards, cattlemen’s meetings and other livestock related functions in order to educate personnel, auction yard owners, producers and veterinarians about the new framework as outlined by USDA. Funds may also be used to send ODA representatives to out-of-state informational meetings
Equipment $ 5,000 Funds used to purchase computers, wireless communication devices, GPS units, portable printers and other devises. Equipment used for data input and verification by regulatory animal health officials and full-time Animal Identification employees.
Supplies $ 2,723 Funds to incidental supplies to maintain electronic equipment used in the field.
Subtotal Request $ 100,723
Basis for indirect charges and matching 17.14%
Indirect Charge $ 17,277
Total Request $118,000
State Matching Funds $ 23,600 20% State matching funds for this project.

I am curious about the $23,600 from state funds. I know for government spending, that’s not a lot, but Oregon is one of the states on the verge of bankruptcy. Does that mean we will have additional taxes and fees to pay? And if so, why aren’t we spending additional taxes on education?

From page 13, a stated goal: Measure the increase in new information gained from data entries completed from May 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011. (List specific kinds of information collected and the number of each entry)

So now we have proof that Oregon is indeed working on a NAIS plan, and has been since at least 2004, even if they have been calling it by a different name. Please share this. Thank you! - Larisa Sparrowhawk and Sharlyn Homola, Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association, www.oregonfarmrights.com

Five Spice Peanuts and Cardamom Pecans

2010-06-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

When I was a child, my mother made Five Spice Peanuts for me a couple of times. I adored them, perhaps a little too much. (Did I ever mention I was a chubby child?) Mom and I have both been downsizing from big houses; the work included going through acres of cookbooks to decide which to keep and which to pass along to other relatives or Goodwill. I found the recipe for Five Spice Peanuts and was shocked by the instructions to soak raw peanuts in boiling water with a cup each of salt and sugar for ten minutes! Peanuts are legumes and need soaking to become digestible; but a much smaller amount of sugar and salt can be used if soaking time is increased. The next recipe includes raw pecans, which are soaked in cool water and dried gently to deactivate enzyme inhibitors and enzymes are preserved to aid in digestion. After trying these recipes, you may wish to try other spices, such as garlic, cayenne and ginger.

Five Spice Peanuts: Boil 3 c. water with 2 tbsp. salt, 2 tbsp. sugar. Stir until dissolved. Add 3 c. raw peanuts, turn down heat, simmer 20 minutes, stir a few times while allowing to cool in the liquid. Drain thoroughly, then mix in 2 tbsp. agave, a dash of salt, 1 tbsp. peanut or sesame oil and 1 tsp. five spice powder. Spread on baking sheet and bake at 250 degrees, stirring after each 20 minutes until the nuts are completely dry in about an hour. Let them cool completely to restore their crunch before eating.

Cardamom Pecans: Soak 2 c. raw pecans (you can lower the cost by making them half sunflower seeds if you like) in water about 8 hours. Drain thoroughly. Mix with 2 tbsp. agave, a pinch of salt, ½ tsp. cinnamon and ½ tsp. cardamom. Spread on cookie sheet and dry at 100 degrees for several hours, stirring once or twice.

I use raw lucuma powder, which is not available in stores around here, to help the seasonings stick to the nuts. I have not yet tried raw carob, but imagine it would be a lovely substitute.

Fried Rice and Fried Noodles

2010-06-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

This will be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News:

GOOD FOOD CHEAP

Fried Rice and Fried Noodles by Larisa Sparrowhawk

Both fried rice and fried noodles make great use of leftovers and are economical, kid pleasing belly fillers. They can even be healthy if you use brown rice and whole grain pasta and watch the quantity of oil.

Fried Rice - Use left over, drier rice. Pour 1 tbsp. peanut oil per 2 c. cooked rice into a large, hot skillet or wok and add chopped onion. Cook until onion is beginning to get translucent before adding other chopped vegetables or leftover meat. Good options are carrots, celery, jicama (to replace water chestnuts and bamboo shoots), bell pepper, bok choy, ham, chicken, beef and tiny salad shrimp. Scramble an egg in another skillet, chop small and add to rice mixture. Add a splash or two of sake or white wine, soy sauce and garlic or ginger to taste. If you would like to add snow peas or sprouts, add them now, just before serving.

Fried Noodles - Udon, big, slippery noodles that really soak up flavors are most popular with children. However, brown rice or buckwheat soba noodles are more healthy. Rice or bean threads (also called cellophane noodles) are a low calorie option. Cook the pasta al dente, then rinse under cold water, running your fingers through to remove starch. Drain thoroughly. Fry in large, hot skillet or wok: 1 c. of chopped meat in 2 tbsp. sesame or peanut oil, 1 tbsp. sake or white wine and 1 c. chopped onions, carrots or other firmer vegetables. Stir fry a little longer and add 2 chopped green scallions, snap peas, frozen peas, spinach or other softer green vegetable. Fry about 2 minutes longer, stirring continuously and remove to a bowl. Add 2 tbsp. sesame or peanut oil and pasta to wok, stir fry a couple minutes, adding 2 tbsp. sake or white wine, 1 tbsp. soy sauce half way through. Add vegetables. Season with 5 spice powder, garlic or ginger to taste. Sprinkle each serving with sesame seeds.

Diane Wilson Exposes Spill Baby, Spill BP

2010-05-30T03:03:00.000-07:00

This lady has been my heroine since the 90's.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/medea-benjamin/getting-naked-to-expose-b_b_592207.html

Simple Sushi (Korean style - no raw fish)

2010-05-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

This will be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News:

GOOD FOOD CHEAP

Bento Box Lunches - Simple Rolled Sushi by Larisa Sparrowhawk
Sushi is made with short grain sweet brown or white rice, made with more water than usual so it will be sticky like the rice ball recipe last week. Add a dash of salt and a small piece of konbu seaweed if you can find any. After cooking, add 1 tablespoon brown rice and 1 tablespoon rice, coconut or white vinegar per cup of raw rice. (Do not leave it in an aluminum pot after this or the aluminum will leach into the food.) Let the rice cool.

Lay one sheet of toasted nori seaweed on a bamboo sushi mat or wax paper. Wet your hands. Spread a layer of rice about 1/4" thick on the 2/3 of the nori sheet closest to you, leaving about 1/2" margin around the sides. Smear umemboshi plum paste, wasabi paste, American brown mustard or white horseradish sauce thinly across the rice. Lay thin pieces of desired fillings (see suggestions below) across, going past the rice to the side edges of the nori. Smear a little water on the uncovered edge of nori farthest from you. Start rolling the nori up and away from you, pressing tightly with your fingers until you reach the wetted edge. Firm the roll with your bamboo mat or wax paper. (A bamboo mat will make a nicer looking roll.) Lay the roll aside a moment for the nori to soften before cutting into five smaller cylinders with a very sharp, wetted knife.

Suggested fillings:
a) a smear of American brown mustard, ham, egg pancake (see the rice ball recipe), spinach
b) white horseradish sauce, shredded leftover roast beef or pork, julienned red bell pepper, scallions
c) umemboshi plum paste, julienned carrot, cucumber and snow peas
d) wasabi paste, julienned carrot, cucumber, avocado strips and a sprinkling of sesame seeds
e) light miso paste, pea, buckwheat or sunflower sprouts,shredded leftover dark meat chicken, julienned radish
f) umemboshi plum paste, shredded beef marinated in mirin, soy sauce and sake, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, scallions
g) white horseradish sauce, smoked trout (Sunrise Asian Grocery in Eugene has good prices), julienned cucumber, scallions,
h) any julienned veggies you have - experiment and have fun!

Oregon's Vehicle Fee and Gas Tax Hikes

2010-05-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

This isn't about food, although it could potentially have an affect on food prices in stores. It's about politics, my second biggest interest.

I am both a paid and volunteer petitioner for a campaign to bring Oregon's vehicle fees and taxes to ballot. I sent the following op ed piece to Eugene's Register Guard and will send versions with less Eugene/bike path commentary to another eight or so papers tonight.

****
You may have noticed petitioners at gas stations in Portland, Eugene and Roseburg and wondered if they were protesting the federal gas tax increase to pay for the BP oil catastrophe.
Despite the coincidence of timing, the petitioners are addressing vehicle fee and fuel tax hikes in Oregon. In May, 2009, the Oregon Legislature quietly passed HB 2001, the largest increase in vehicle registration fees, over the road fees and fuel tax in state history. The Bill is called The Oregon Jobs and Transportation Act, a warm and fuzzy title for a bill that will cost us all money now, but will provide temporary construction jobs beginning 2013 and 2014 after two or three years of traffic and alternative use studies.

Registration fees for non-government vehicles increased by 59-104%. Over the road fees for commercial truckers increased 24.4-24.6%. The state gas and diesel taxes will also increase by 25% by January 1, 2011. HB 2001 also allows Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Lane and Marion Counties to raise registration fees beginning in 2013.

Truckers and industries dependent upon them are especially burdened by these fee and tax increases during a recession. Already struggling businesses are likely to close. Retail goods and groceries are likely to become more expensive.

A loophole in the Oregon Constitution currently allows the Legislature to raise these fees and taxes without a public vote. Campaign to End Highway Robbery, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Silverton, filed an initiative petition (IP66) to require legislators to put all proposed vehicle fee and fuel tax increases in excess of 3% to a public vote, retroactive one year to include HB 2001.

When legislators have to explain plans to spend tax and fee increases, they generally spend less and distribute revenue more fairly. A thorough reading of HB 2001 shows the representatives and senators who sponsored the bill strongly favored their own districts. Although the entire state will have to pay increased fees and taxes, the Portland metro area gets an enormous chunk of the revenue. Budgeted plans for Portland total $548 million out of $943 million. Portland's population is approximately half of the entire state’s, so on the surface, that would seem almost reasonable. However, the bill's other projects planned for Portland do not yet have estimates, including a bridge over the Willamette, traffic and emissions reduction studies and bike paths. Representatives Edwards and Hunt and Senator Starr, all sponsors of the bill, happen to live in the Portland metro area. Two other sponsors, Representative Berger and Senator Courtney, are just outside Portland in Salem. Another sponsor, Senator Metsger, serves Clackamas County east towards Hood River; his district will also benefit.

Moreover, the remaining money is not shared equitably. Although all coastal residents who use motor vehicles will have to pay increased vehicle fees and taxes, the only planned improvement to Highway 101 is at the junction of Highway 6, which goes to Portland. Highway 101 is a major tourist attraction as well as an often used route from Washington to California; it is riddled with potholes and needs guard rails in many places to prevent errant vehicles from plummeting down cliffs to the ocean. However, the only repair, aforementioned, is in the district of Senator Johnson, a sponsor of the bill.

The following counties will receive no benefit from the tax and fee hikes: Clatsop, Columbia, Lincoln, Polk, Benton, Curry, Wasco, Gilliam, Wheeler and Josephine Counties.

One of the sponsors of HB 2001, Representative Bentz, serves the very desolate Baker, Malheur, Harney and Grant Counties, with a combined population of only 49,000 people. Bentz secured 15.5 million in road (as opposed to highway) repairs; another 15.5 million in additional repairs is under consideration. On Chandler Lane alone, Baker County will receive 4.5 million dollars worth of repairs. Compare that with areas in which no one sponsored the bill, like Douglas County (population 104,000), which gets the shoulder on I-5 widened near Sutherlin for a truck climbing lane, at a cost of 4.1 million and will share some sort of improvement (10 million) on curvy portions of Highway 42 with Coos County. Not surprisingly, Douglas County Representatives Hanna and Freeman and Senator Kruse all voted against this bill.

The Eugene/Springfield metropolitan area, with 350,000 residents, seven times more than in Representative Bentz's entire district, will receive only improvements to Beltline Highway at the junctions of I-5 and Delta Highway. The State wants the Eugene/Springfield metro area to conduct alternative land use studies and present findings to the Legislative Assembly by July 1, 2013. The goal is to "accommodate planned population and employment growth while achieving a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less". Before you start envisioning a glorious future for Eugene with a subway, The Departments of Transportation and Land Conservation and Development intend to provide "technical assistance, grant support and guidance" but Eugene is to raise funds to pay the bulk of the expenses. Graciously, the State says that the Eugene/Springfield metro area is not required to complete these planned projects if adequate funds are not raised. The likely result is another bike path situated where no one will use it for commuting.

After disparaging bike path plans twice, I should probably state my own political views. I consider myself a libertarian environmentalist. I visited Congress the first time when I was only eight years old, lobbying to save the 804 trail in Yachats from casino development. Since then I have written thousands of letters and hundreds of articles in defense of sustainable communities and farms. I believe locals are better stewards of the environment than multinational corporations or governments will ever be. I am in favor of road improvements and bike paths, but I believe the public should be consulted regularly in the planning and budgeting. Town hall meetings are an excellent way to learn where the worst intersections are, where bike paths are needed for commuting (rather than recreation) and how much we are willing to pay for projects. I suspect that the lawmakers who place bike paths in lovely park settings are either thinking of photo opportunities or have never actually ridden a bike to work. Especially in urban environments where cars parallel park, biking is very dangerous. A person in a parked car could open their door at any second, sending a bike flying into the path of a moving vehicle. Drivers are nervous trying to pass bikers on crowded streets.

Commuters want bike paths located in congested areas to increase safety for both bicyclists and drivers, to encourage green transportation and to reduce competition for parking. At least one major north/south road and one east/west road downtown and by University of Oregon should have bike paths. Roads with wide sidewalks decorated with large ornamental planters are an excellent first choice; planters can always be relocated. A second choice would be to replace some parallel parking spaces with bike lanes and racks. Construction can move one block at a time to disrupt traffic as little as possible. The increased visibility of store windows and signs and the ability to attract perhaps ten cyclists to park in front of a store or restaurant where previously only one car could park should more than make up for the inconvenience of construction to existing businesses.

While collecting signatures on the petition to bring fuel tax and registration fee increases to the ballot, I have repeatedly heard Lane County residents express anger over frivolous projects that waste vast sums of money. Pretty, rather than useful, bike paths are frequently mentioned, as is the plan to rename Beltline Highway exits. Voters are willing to accept the current state fuel tax of 24 cents per gallon, which is 4 cents higher than average, because Oregon does not have a sales tax. However, nearly everyone feels that raising taxes and fees during a recession is a bad political move.

Lawmakers, we live here, too. We pay your salary as well as the funds you use for your projects. We demand the right to participate in planning how our tax and fee dollars are spent. We will prove it by collecting more than enough signatures to bring HB 2001 to ballot.

Larisa Sparrowhawk

Bento Box Lunches - Part 1, the box and rice balls

2010-05-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

I vividly remember lunch in elementary school and summer camps in the 1970's. Almost all the kids had healthy but "boring" lunches or unhealthy but "fun" lunches. There were many complaints and trades. Now I know better, but I used to send my kids to school with a granola bar, an apple and a cube of cheese. I was sure I was doing the right thing, but whenever I opened the door to their rooms, I was shocked to find Mountain Dew cans and empty candy bar wrappers. Japanese mothers know how to make their children eat even the good stuff!

First, you need attractive packaging. I know of at least one Eugene Asian food store that carries bento boxes in bright colors and/or animal shapes; so does Amazon.com. To see one shaped like a panda, view http://www.amazon.com/Kotobuki-2-Tiered-Bento-Panda-Face/dp/B00200L840/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1273742946&sr=8-8. ; Archie McPhee in Seattle sells 1950s American style lunch boxes in a pirate themes (http://www.mcphee.com/shop/products/Pirate-Dome-Lunchbox.html); you can also purchase a pirate stamp to use on toast. Maybe you have your own old lunch box in the attic or can buy one used and paint it (use enamel and only paint the outside).

Inside the box, arrange small amounts of several differently colored items. If you use an American box, you will also need a smaller, resealable Tupperware-type container inside. Popular items are sliders, meatballs on rice, donburi, vegetable sushi, flavored rice shaped like animals, omelet rolls, coleslaw, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, orange segments, tiny containers of pudding, green vegetables seasoned so many kids will eat them, cooked apples, sweet potatoes, pineapple rings, pineapple coleslaw with yogurt, red bell pepper strips, potato salad, little sausages and cucumber slices.

Flavored rice balls with treats hidden inside are very popular in bento box lunches. For centuries, the Japanese used exclusively sweet brown rice, which is naturally sweet and sticky, but now they use primarily white rice and corn syrup. Sweet brown rice is available in some health food stores. You can substitute short grain brown rice. White sushi rice with a little honey will also work. I am giving directions for brown sweet or short grain rice cooked in an electric rice cooker. If you use white rice, use a little less water. If you boil it, use more water. You are looking for a slightly gluey texture, where the grains easily stick together and pack well in your hands. This takes approximately 2 3/4 cups water to 1 cup brown sweet rice and a pinch of salt.

Popular treats to hide are chunks of ham or pineapple (or both); shredded carrot/raisin slaw; pickled plums; shredded beef stir fried with green onions; smoked salmon; and dried apricots. Depending on what filling you use, flavor your rice with a little cinnamon and honey; garlic, ginger and soy sauce; 5 spice powder; or curry powder. Wet your hands. Pick up a handful of cooled rice, pack it firmly into a ball, push an indentation in it with a thumb, insert the treat, close up the hole and then roll the ball in sesame seeds if you like.

Outer roll treatments are often decorative. Cut a sheet of nori (sushi wrapper) in strips and press the strips into an x on top of the rice ball. Or cut nori in a circle, cut an x in the center, press the nori onto the rice ball, pull up the edges of the x and sprinkle sesame seeds or dulse (a red seaweed) there. You can also make a very thin egg pancake to use as a wrapper. Beat one egg thoroughly, add a dash of salt and pour into a very hot, lightly oiled (peanut or sesame are best) non-stick skillet. Tilt the skillet so the egg is very evenly and thinly distributed, cook until just set, lift and flip over carefully and cook for just a few seconds on the other side. When the pancake is cooled, you can use it to wrap the rice ball in, tying it with a ribbon or a wilted green onion top.

Once you get the basic technique down, you can make little rice ball geisha dolls (with nori and egg kimonos, seaweed or egg hair, currant eyes, etc.), bear and cat heads and other fun shapes with your children! Save your pink pickled ginger from take out sushi for decorative noses, ears and lips! Amazon sells rice molds and also little stainless steel molds for cutting out egg, carrots, ham and other items to use as decorations.

Next week: simple, rolled vegetarian sushi!

Paella Peppers

2010-05-10T04:44:00.001-07:00

GOOD FOOD CHEAP

Paella Peppers by Larisa Sparrowhawk

If you crave paella, but don't want to spend $25 to feed a family of four, this recipe provides all the flavor for very little money if you find red bell peppers on sale. Cut 8 red bell peppers in half, lengthwise and remove seeds and stems. Dip quickly in boiling water, about half a minute each to soften the skins.

Cook 1 1/4 c. brown rice until tender in the juice from a 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes and the juice from a bottle of clam juice plus 1 3/4 c. chicken broth. Season with 1/8 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. paprika, 1/2-1 tsp. turmeric and 2 tbsp. olive oil. Mix in 1/8 c. drained diced tomatoes, a thawed 4 oz. package of frozen salad shrimp, 1/2 c. diced leftover chicken, 2 diced scallions and a small can of clams if desired. Stuff this mixture into bell pepper halves, sprinkle with paprika and bake at 400 degrees until lightly browned. It's not traditional, but you may wish to sprinkle the tops with parmesan cheese before baking.

These also reheat nicely for lunch at the office.

Reminders of the Nazi Occupation

2010-05-08T06:34:00.000-07:00

This article was published in VICFA Voice, a newsletter for Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association and has been reprinted dozens of times for VICFA’s marketing purposes. United Caprine News also printed it in 2005.

Reminders of the Nazi Occupation
By Larisa Sparrowhawk

Mary Van der Woude-Hill and James Hill are preserving many acres of Fauquier County farmland and recently restored a beautiful 1800’s house on one of their two properties. They raise attractive heritage breeds of poultry, cattle, goats and sheep on pasture. They do not grow any genetically engineered crops or spray pesticides that might drift onto nearby properties or pollute streams. So why is Virginia taking them to court?

When I drove up, a half dozen floppy-eared Nubian goat babies stretched their necks out of the first paddock fence to watch me get out of my truck. I let the kids nibble on my fingers a moment before knocking on the door. Mary invited me into the living room, where we admired two new goat kids in a wooden box next to a cozy woodstove. James sat down next to them and the kids busied themselves for the next hour and a half trying to climb out of the box and into his lap.

Mary grew up on a farm in Holland during the Nazi Occupation. Although she came to America in 1953, when she was 20, she still has an endearing accent. I was surprised to learn the Hills were in their seventies since they look and work like they are much younger.

Mary met James in California; they married and moved to Virginia to start a farm together. Mary bought some dairy goats, milked them and learned to make cheese. After several years, Mary started selling cheese at Archwood Greens Barns, a Sunday farmers’ market in The Plains.

The Hills researched Virginia state milk processing requirements and spent over $23,000 constructing a state approved building separate from their farm and home. It has heat and air conditioning, stainless steel sinks and counters, concrete floors with drains and a refrigerator dedicated to milk products. The Virginia Department of Agriculture (VDACS) now wants Mary to use a specific pasteurization machine that costs $8,000.00, heats the milk up to 165 degrees and requires a minimum of seven gallons of milk to operate. With only six does, Mary would have to store her milk longer than she likes in order to acquire enough. She showed food inspectors two alternatives: a stainless steel pasteurizer designed for small dairies and her own stove. She asked, “Why would I buy an $8,000.00 machine when it does not heat to the temperature I need to make my cheese – 185 degrees?” For years, she has achieved excellent results with a stove, a stainless steel pot and a good thermometer.

Virginia food inspectors have listed her lack of an “approved” pasteurizer as a violation every time they have made a report, even though a scientific test that checks for pasteurization proves Mary is heating the milk to a temperature above the legal requirements. If the new and more restrictive regulations VDACS is pushing at the General Assembly become effective, neither Mary’s method of heating the milk nor the building in which she processes it would meet requirements.

In 1999 two food inspectors arrived at the Hill’s doorstep – with an armed sheriff! Mary was immediately reminded of growing up in Holland when Nazi police showed up unannounced to terrorize the citizenry. She asked why the sheriff was there and was told “to protect the inspectors”. She reminded them of the Fourth Amendment, which states, in full:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported
by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched
and the persons or things to be seized.

Since the inspectors did not have an appointment, the Hills did not allow them into their house. The sheriff threatened them with a misdemeanor, but he and the two inspectors left.

A few days later, the Hills received a letter from VDACS asking them to explain themselves. An attorney who offered to represent the Hills pro bono arranged for the inspectors to return at an appointed time and was present when the inspectors returned. The inspectors spent four hours searching the milk processing building and the house, even opening the bathroom medicine cabinet!

The attorney required the inspectors to buy the cheese at market prices, to take one sample for the Commissioner of Agriculture, one for the state lab and to leave a sample for the Hills so they could have their own tests performed. The inspectors sent the cheese by UPS in a little cooler without dry ice to the state laboratory. If the shipping had been delayed, would the cheese have failed inspection? Fortunately, the cheese was frozen, arrived adequately chilled and passed testing with no findings of pathogens, filth or bacteria. The cheese also passed a subsequent inspection.

The Hills are not against inspection per se. They have never turned away an inspector who had an appointment. They point out that other states allow small farmers to register with their state’s department of agriculture. The farms are inspected either by appointment or when there is a complaint. Twenty three states allow sales of uninspected, unpasteurized milk or milk products at farms and farmers’ markets. Virginia, however, is extreme. In Virginia, although police need a search warrant to come into the home of a drug dealer, VDACS inspectors often come to homes and farms unannounced.

VDACS has initiated prosecutions in Virginia Court against three other families who refused to allow warrantless inspections of their homes. All of these cases were thrown out on the refusal charge, but are pending on other Fourth Amendment Constitutional issues.

In 2003, inspectors showed up unannounced at the Hill’s during breakfast once and also during a birthday party for a grandchild. The Hills refused entry both times. Then someone tipped them off that the Hills were hosting a program for sixteen children from Wakefield School on July 9th at 10:30 am. The inspectors arrived that morning, again without an appointment. Mary said they were busy with the children, but the inspectors insisted there would be an inspection that very moment. James told them they were trespassing so they left.

Shortly thereafter, the Hills each received a summons saying they had violated three inspections requests. They were summoned to General District Court October 9, 2003 before Judge Foley. There was no court reporter present. This particular judge normally handles small violations like traffic tickets, not Constitutional issues. When the Hills quoted the Fourth Amendment, the judge told them to stop “hiding behind the flag”. He entered the Ruling of the Court on the back of the original summonses. James Hill’s ruling was “Not Guilty” and Mary’s ruling was “Guilty of _____”. It literally had a blank line, as if he needed time to think of a verdict. James was fined $314.00 and received a 30-day suspended jail sentence. Mary was fined $250.00 with a 30-day suspended jail sentence.

Christine Solem, a small farm activist who co-owns a goat dairy in Charlottesville, was present to assist the Hills. She recommended they appeal immediately on the grounds that the Hills had a Constitutional right to refuse entry from inspectors who had no warrant. The Hills obtained copies of the summonses and appealed before leaving the building.

At the Hill’s Motion to Dismiss hearing on January 22, 2004, they were shocked to discover that someone had used white out to change James Hill’s verdict to “Guilty as Charged”! Their attorney, Norman Lamson of Charlottesville, told the appeals court judge that a higher court cannot legally change the opinion of a lower court, nor can a lower court change the opinion of a higher court. Judge Parker said he himself did not change the record. However, he refused to admit anything was wrong.

The Hills later learned a court clerk had changed the summons without consulting any judge. The Hills decided not to pursue the matter since the judge said he would hold an evidentiary hearing which would prove James had been found guilty.

At the Motion to Dismiss hearing, the first step in the appeals process, the prosecutor asked Mary, “Are you aware that contaminated goat cheese can kill people?” Mary did not know how to answer; if she said yes, it would sound like an admission of guilt, but if she said no, she would sound ignorant. She was silent. Later, she wished she had said, “Not on my farm! We are inspected!” There have never been any complaints of people becoming sick after eating their cheese.

Judge Parker denied the Hill’s Motion to Dismiss. With the financial help of Christine Solem, the Hills' attorney filed a Writ of Prohibition, which, if granted, would have blocked, on Constitutional grounds, any further proceedings in the case. The writ was denied the day before the trial, and the Hills went back to court on April 8th.

A VDACS employee who had bought cheese from Mary “undercover” at the market testified at both trials. The purpose of his sting operation was unclear, since the Hills were never legally prohibited from selling their cheese. Mary indignantly told me later, “They act like I am selling drugs or prostitution!”

The prosecution asked Mary, “How did you learn to make cheese? By trial and error?” Mary answered yes, although what she meant was over the course of years, some learning in Holland, some here in the States, many total years before she sold even one ounce of cheese. The prosecution loved her partial answer and implied that her customers had been lucky to survive.

Legal precedents exist for finding the Hills not guilty: The United States Supreme Court ruled in Camara v. Municipal Court of the City and County of San Francisco, 387 U.S. 523 (1967), that a person may not Constitutionally be convicted for refusing to allow inspectors into their residence without a warrant. In Christine Solem’s Declaratory Action in Albemarle Circuit Court, Judge Paul Peatross enjoined VDACS agents from entering her property for an inspection without a warrant. The Hills were convicted of refusing to allow inspectors in, a "crime" with no victim.

I called Mary the day they lost their appeal to ask how she was holding up. She sounded dejected. Her health had been shaky of late. She was tired of expending so much effort fighting for her way of life, only to lose repeatedly. The only good news was that the Circuit Court reduced the fines to $100.00 each and dropped all jail time.

“So now,” Mary sighed, “We just sit and wait for them to show up again, those rude inspectors, interrupting our breakfast and prowling through our stuff.”

The Hills are considering appealing the decision on the Writ of Prohibition and the Circuit Court Decision.

Homemade bread, dogs and math

2010-05-06T01:17:00.000-07:00

I am scheduled for an entrance exam for college next week and I'm dreading the math portion. Despite the fact that I have held various bookkeeping type jobs over the years, I was never even an average math student.

Somehow, maybe because I am easily distractable, thinking about the exam reminded me of a dog named Molly who lived with my parents at their house in Virginia. Molly was a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, a curly, wrinkly, worried looking little thing. (To see what she looked like, click here: http://www.findoutaboutdogbreeds.com/images/cavalier_king_charles.jpg)

Molly rarely left Mom's side and Mom babytalked to her in a way I found silly (even though I now do it to a little rescue dog of my own). Mom fed Molly commercial dog food, gave her scraps after she was done eating her own meal AND regularly made "dog stew" out of leftovers . This dog was NOT mistreated.

Mom was an excellent baker and made Dad two loaves of whole wheat bread every Sunday. While the bread cooled on the counter, she also cooked a large beef roast. She cut the bread into 10 pieces and the roast into 5 pieces. Dad would take these downstairs and sit in front of the tv to watch the news while he made sandwiches to take to work during the week.

Periodically, Dad would be annoyed because Mom "couldn't count" and only gave him nine pieces of bread! Mom is a retired teacher, and no matter what you think about public education these days, she could most certainly count to ten. (In fact, if we looked alike, I'd wonder if I could bribe her to take the math test for me.)

Mom thought Dad was mindlessly eating a piece of bread while he was watching the tube. This went on for months.

I was living two hours away when the Mom suddenly "forgot how to count".

I came to visit on a Sunday and wondered why there were crumbs all over the closet floor in my old bedroom.

Dad is now deceased. I enjoy the memory of his face when I asked him who had been eating in my bedroom. He looked puzzled a moment and then he laughed. I suppose he never accused Mom of being unable to count again.

Kiosk Coffee at Home, Part Two

2010-05-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

The first part, published in Becky Holm's Douglas County News, can be seen a few posts back if you click on the column to the left.

GOOD FOOD CHEAP

Kiosk Coffee at Home, Part Two by Larisa Sparrowhawk, localvorefresh@aol.com

Last week we tried several blended coffee drinks using frozen bananas, cream and coconut cream. A reader suggested I try yogurt, so I fiddled with various combinations but unfortunately was not pleased with them. It takes a LOT of additives to sweeten and thicken a drink blended with yogurt to rival $4.00 coffee confections. One and a half frozen very ripe bananas per tall blended drink provide a lot of sweetness and creaminess for only 120 calories, eliminating or nearly eliminating the need for any additional cream or sweetener.

Today we will try both hot and cold drinks.

When I was in college in the 80's, I had a roommate who had visited Italy. When everyone else was drinking powdered Lipton ice tea mix, she and I felt soave, indeed drinking strong coffee on ice.

Italian Vanilla Iced Coffee
Stir 1 tsp. instant expresso, 1/4 tsp. vanilla and 2 tsp. brown sugar per two cups of strong hot coffee. Refrigerate. Pour over ice cubes, preferably made of coffee. Stir in half and half if desired.
Black Forest Coffee
Stir 1 tsp. chocolate coffee syrup and 2-3 tbsp. black cherry juice concentrate (available in the natural food section of Sherm's or at natural food stores) into a mug of strong, hot coffee. Stir in 2-3 tbsp. half and half or float 2-3 tbsp. cream from the top of a can of coconut milk on top of the coffee.

Cafe' Mexicano
Stir 1 tsp. chocolate coffee syrup, 1/4 tsp. brandy extract and a shot of Tabasco into a mug of strong, hot coffee. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Middle Eastern Coffee, Iced or Hot
Mix 1/4 tsp. each cinnamon and cardamom per 2 scoops of coffee grounds before brewing. Serve coffee hot with honey if desired, or refrigerate and pour over ice.

Middle Eastern Blended Coffee
Blend 2 cups of the above refrigerated coffee with 3 frozen overripe bananas and 2-4 tbsp. of cream from the top of a can of coconut milk. Serves two.

Oregon ballots coming soon!

2010-04-30T03:35:00.000-07:00

Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association Vice President Sharlyn Homola and I have spoken with the following candidates in the last two years and they have either said they were against NAIS and/or were willing to draft a bill for us against NAIS. There may be others in other districts; we only write of those we have spoken with personally.

For Representative, 4th District, US Congress: Jaynee Germond. Sharlyn and I have both met Jaynee personally and she is an intelligent, loving and gracious human being who means what she says when she promises to research the issues and to read bills before she votes on them. Although a number of politicians understand that NAIS will be an expensive bureaucratic nightmare requiring untold numbers of additional administrative staffers and enforcement personnel, Jaynee also understands it will be an immoral infringement on the private home lives of individuals.

Unfortunately, the incumbant Pete Defazio seems unconcerned about privacy issues. This baffles Sharlyn and me; Defazio was a vocal opponant of the Patriot Act. When questioned, he said the Patriot Act allowed spying on ordinary citizens without their knowledge and consent. Sharlyn, Jaynee and I do not believe that simple ownership of a horse or six chickens implies knowledge and consent.

For Governor of Oregon: John Lim. John is a reasonable, no nonsense fellow who understands that NAIS will cost a lot of money, anger a lot of citizens and accomplish nothing.

For State Senator, 4th District: you have a choice! Marilyn Kittelman, Republican or Floyd Prozanski, Democrat. I actually am in possession of a letter from Floyd offering to write a bill for us, however.

For State Representative, 7th District: Bruce Hanna

- Larisa Sparrowhawk, OCFA President

Song of John's Subtle Rebellion

2010-04-30T02:22:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about Crater Lake, the second deepest lake in the world, on the same day I thought of food freedom fighters Christine Solem and the recently departed John Coles. John was a lovely man, smiling quietly as he bucked the system, giving away free goat cheese at the popular Charlottesville, Va. farmers market because he was no longer legally able to sell it. He did, however, accept donations for his and Christine's legal fund.

Song of John's Subtle Rebellion

volcanic lake with inward spring
drought could not his waters dry
the deeps exposed both rock and sky
a doe at dawn stretched near to drink

summer fires blew from the south
just to threaten tourist trade
but water's cool in the cascades
at day the doe lapped water's mouth

a blizzard blew cold three feet deep
the water's gray and strangely still
the doe watch from a fir until
at dusk the waters fell asleep

Larisa's Top Ten Reasons to Live With Dogs Instead of Children

2010-04-25T00:14:00.000-07:00

Larisa's Top Ten Reasons to Live With Dogs Instead of Children

10. Dogs never open the refrigerator door, stare for 15 minutes and then declare NOTHING EVER looks good to eat in there.
9. When you accidentally sneeze with your mouth full, dogs will help you clean it up.
8. Dogs are PROUD to be seen walking with you.
7. A frozen dog toy stuffed with frozen peanut butter will allow you a peaceful 2 hour nap. This trick does not work with TVs and Ipods.
6. Getting your dog fixed to keep him from wandering off is considered humane.

5. Dogs never confuse that pretty green lump of wasabi on your sushi platter for mint ice cream.

4. Dogs won't crash your computer while looking up pictures of cute dogs in swimsuits.

3. Dogs won't screech for something at the grocery store - and then refuse to eat it at home.

2. Dogs happily wash the dinner dishes, whether you ask them to or not.

1. It may be illegal to stuff a toddler in your purse or a box full of holes to save on airfare.

Kiosk Coffee At Home

2010-04-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Kiosk Coffee At Home
This will be a two part series in Becky Holm's Douglas County News

When I moved to Oregon I was charmed by all the cute, brightly colored little coffee houses. I'd never seen one before. Sure, Virginia had Starbucks, but they were just more stores in strip shopping malls. And I rarely got out of my car to go into one because I could never escape without spending at least $4.00 - or $20 if I happened to be with my daughter. But I had to try out coffees from cute little red and yellow buildings and ones that looked like windmills!

My wallet is glad I got over that tempation quickly... and so are my heart and my waistline. Those drinks have way more caffeine and and sugar than anyone needs to consume in ten days, much less in ten minutes.

I recently read an article comparing coffee drinks at various restaurants from the authors of "Eat This, Not That!" It was no surprise to me that many blended coffee drinks have 600 calories and at least 90 grams of sugar, but they even found drinks containing 1210 calories and 240 grams of sugar! Can you imagine yourself sitting down to eat a dozen twinkies?

Keep in mind that a human liver is designed to process no more than 25 grams of sugar at a time and that sugars in excess are turned into triglycerides. High triglycerides are not only a better predictor of heart attacks than high cholesterol, but are also of diabetes and overweight in general.

Becky Holm of Douglas County News and I thought it was time for a couple articles about healthier, cheaper blended coffee drinks at home.

Do not use non-dairy creamers, which include hydrogenated oils and corn starch. Also avoid nonfat dry milk, which contains oxygenated cholesterol (the dangerous kind).

These drinks are really quick to make if you have pre-chilled strong coffee. Make a pot of brewed coffee double strength or save leftover coffee and stir in 1 tsp. good quality instant coffee or expresso for every two cups while the coffee is still hot. You can also pour some into ice cube trays, pop them out and put them in plastic feezer bags. Some of the creamiest and sweetest drinks also require pre-frozen over-ripe banana chunks. If you like cinnamon, you can add 1 tsp. cinnamon to enough coffee grounds for a pot before brewing; this also makes delicious hot coffee.

All the recipes make two large drinks. A high speed commercial blender puts a nice froth on top of the drinks without whipping cream.

Caramel Frappe - This one tastes very much like a coffee house confection. It is too sweet for me, but others love it. For myself, I just omit the sugar. Blend at high speed:
2 c. chilled, strong coffee
3 large frozen bananas, in chunks
2 heaping tbsp. cream from the top of a full-fat coconut milk can (or whipping cream)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. brown sugar, raw sugar or honey

Gingerbread Shake - blend at high speed:
2 c. chilled, strong coffee
2 tsp. ginger flavored coffee syrup
2 frozen bananas, in chunks
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 c. half and half, if desired

Blended Cappuccino or Mochaccino - blend at high speed:
2 c. chilled, strong coffee
5 coffee ice cubes
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 c. 2% milk
2 tsp. honey if desired
1-2 tbsp. dark cocoa powder if desired
a little orange zest if desired

More next week!

Flavored oils and instant noodle soups

2010-04-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

GOOD FOOD CHEAP
Instant noodle soups are handy for emergencies, lunches on the road and camping, but are unhealthy, overpriced and waste resources with their throw away containers. Here's a healthy, environmentally friendly and inexpensive recipe. I also included ideas for flavored oils to enhance the noodle soups and use in cooking.

A package of quality noodle soup costs about $1.75. Most groceries have cellophane (gluten free bean thread) pasta in $2.00 packages in the ethnic food section. These packs make five to six bowls of soup. They are traditionally added to long-cooked meat soups just before serving, since they soften very quickly.

Cut one packet of noodles into five or six portions with scissors (this is unfortunately messy) and put in closeable tupperware containers. Add to each container: 1-1 1/2 tsp. brewers (nutritional) yeast, 1/4-1/2 tsp. spice mix (try garam masala, schezuan seasoning, curry, etc.), a pinch of chives and some sliced dehydrated mushrooms, tomatoes or bell peppers. To serve, pour boiling water over, cover and let sit a few minutes. Enjoy as is, or add a dash of flavored oil just before serving.

Flavored oils are often very expensive. Peanut and sesame oil taste best with instant noodle soup. Add a small amount of thoroughly dehydrated minced garlic, lemon peel, basil, and/or hot pepper to a jar of oil. These must be no trace of moisture or the oil will spoil and could make you sick. If you are not sure, place the flavorings in an oven at 100-125 degrees for a couple hours. Let the oil sit at least three days before using; the flavor will intensify over time and will finally mellow.

Inexpensive Camping or Office Food

2010-04-10T05:30:00.001-07:00

GOOD FOOD CHEAP

by Larisa Sparrowhawk localvorefresh@aol.com

Although fresh from scratch foods are always best, sometimes light weight, packable and inexpensive foods are useful, such as for camping or for "emergency food" at the office. When I was in elementary school, I was obsessed with those little packets of flavored oatmeal, which were then new on the market. I'd frequently eat three packs, sometimes only opening the third to try to get all the goodies (flavored sugar, raisins) out of it while leaving the oats behind. Today a box of ten one ounce packs is about $4.00, so my breakfast would today cost over a dollar, contain 464 calories and would send me into a sugar coma. My version, about a cup of "cooked" oatmeal with only one teaspoon of evaporated cane juice (raw sugar) and spices, contains only 161 calories.

Here's the basic recipe for one serving: 1/3 cup dry instant oatmeal (59-67 cents per pound in bulk), 1/4 tsp. each ginger and psyllium powders, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. evaporated cane juice. Simply pour boiling water over, stir thoroughly and let stand a couple minutes. The psyllium not only adds extra fiber, but also improves the texture and helps to lower cholesterol. True cinnamon, if you can find it, really helps regulate blood sugar. Cinnamon cassia, which is more commonly found in stores, is less effective, but still tastes good. Ginger is a powerful anti-inflammatory. To take this on the road, place 1-1 1/2 tsp. of the mix in a plastic bag or tupperware along with 1/3 c. quick oats. If you like your oatmeal richer, those tiny tubs of half and half from coffee shops are perfect and do not need refrigeration.

To make a handy mix for twelve servings, use 1 tbsp. each ginger and psyllium, 2 tbsp. cinnamon, and 4 tbsp. sugar (or more if you find my recipe not sweet enough).

Despite the instructions on the box, instant potatoes do not really require cooking. For 1/2 cup, add 1/4 tsp. each nutritional (brewers) yeast, psyllium powder and Herbamare or salt. Sprinkle on curry, paprika, or pepper according to your taste. Add boiling water, stir and let sit a couple minutes. The nutritional yeast serves as a healthy, high vitamin replacement for broth concentrate. Again, those half and half tubs are convenient.

Next week: assorted instant soups!

Sangria Chicken, Duck or Turkey

2010-04-03T23:53:00.000-07:00

This will be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News on Wednesday:

Sangria Chicken/Duck/Turkey

This dish was inspired by both my love of chutney and my laziness. I wanted the flavor, but neither the sugar in premade chutneys nor the work of making my own. When I had access to inexpensive duck, I used to make this dish regularly. It is just as delicious with chicken or turkey, although if you have any picky children, they might wonder why the meat is fuschia!

Common to all the variations is the internal stuffing for the bird: one whole orange and some chopped up onions. Also the bird needs to be cooked very slowly at 250 degrees and basted regularly to achieve maximum flavor. Cook in a covered, deep pyrex, stainless or glass (not aluminum!) pan with any of the following:

Version #1: 2 cups inexpensive red wine, along the lines of "Three Buck Chuck", juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 lime, 1/2 orange and the contents of one small can of pinapple.
Version #2: 2 cups rose', rosehips, chopped apples, 1/2 bag frozen blackberries.
Version #3: add hot sauce and garlic to the first recipe.
Version #4: add sliced ginger to the second recipe.

Once the bird is falling apart tender, remove the lid, turn up the heat and place under the broiler, watching closely, to brown and crisp the skin without burning it. Remove and cut up the orange used for stuffing, placing sections on each person's plate. Enjoy!

Biblical Dietary Laws - Conclusion: Considering Changes at Home

2010-03-25T00:41:00.000-07:00

In the preceeding three articles, I presented the basics of the original Biblical dietary laws and how they were expanded by Talmudic rabbis and eliminated by the Vatican. Without crossing grandparents who follow the traditions of their faith, what should a modern family wishing to make meals more holy do?

Joel Salatin, a farm rights activist who has written a number of very popular sustainable and ethical farming books, is a devout Christian. After he gives one of his rousing Revivalist style speeches, he is often asked why he thinks pork was taboo. Joel answers that during the time the Bible was written, the only pork available was either wild boar (carrion eaters) or from filthy city lots - the ancient version of modern factory farming. Although he would never touch feedlot pork, pigs range happily over dozens of wooded acres on his own farm. They do not smell or bite each others' ears or tails off. They are lean, muscular and healthy. I've enjoyed pork not only from Joel's farm, but also from others who free range their pigs: Double H Farm in Wingina, Virginia, Afton Field Farm in Corvallis, Oregon and Deck Family Farm in Junction City, Oregon.

I won't claim to be the model religious citizen myself. In college, I dabbled with Buddhism. I wandered in and out of churches for ten years and let a whopping 23 years elapse between synagogue visits. However, I do study Torah and Talmud almost daily, so what I lack in outward observance, I hopefully make up in education. I now keep Biblically kosher at home, meaning I eschew forbidden foods. Although I follow the Talmudic injunction against eating milk products in the same meal with meat, it is only because I don't like waking up the next day with a sour stomach. I do not go so far as to keep two sets of dishes and silverware to prevent mingling of meat and milk.

Like Disciple Paul, while I am a guest, I eat whatever is placed before me. Tuesday, I visited my mother, who served shrimp with a delicious Askenazic buckwheat pilaf. I saw no contradiction, ate with gusto, and returned for second helpings.

I don't feel deprived in the least. I don't miss pepperona pizza; I always thought pepperoni was scary stuff, anyway. Although pork sausage is tasty, I prefer Cattail Creek Farm's expensive but delectable lamb sausage. (Junction City, Oregon.)

Lamb is more expensive than pork (dressing out a 45-50% of weight in comparison with pork's 65%), but I've found center leg slices from Anderson Ranch (Brownsville, Oregon) at great prices at Sherm's Thunderbird. For a treat, sometimes I go to Long's Meat Market in Eugene (at 28th Street, near the Willamette Market of Choice) and fairly salivate over their fine in-house butchered products: very reasonably priced local lamb as well as beef.

B&K Natural Farm in Sutherlin has excellent prices on free range poultry. Afton Field Farm gives a discount if you help on processing day!

Since my kids moved out, I eat meat rarely - only two or three meals a month, but every bite is top notch, from pastured animals. I enjoy every bite with a clean conscience and a happy belly.

Biblical Dietary Laws part 3

2010-03-20T04:59:00.000-07:00

Among what Becky Holm calls my "wee little food articles" in her Douglas County News:

*****
Biblical Dietary Laws, Part 3 by Larisa Sparrowhawk, localvorefresh@aol.com

Last week we left off with "you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk", which I believe is an injuction against cruelty to a young animal's mother. There are health reasons, as well. Milk contains lactoferrin, which inhibits iron absorption, and vegetables contain vitamin c, which increases iron absorption. Neither milk nor meat contain fiber; they require fiber from vegetables to move through the digestive tract. Therefore, we would do better to eat meat with vegetables and not with milk products.

Wheat, oats, barley, spelt and rye were all grains used in Israel. A famous early recipe for bread in Ezekial includes both grains and beans and is a complete meal. During Biblical times, leavened breads were made from grains that were soaked, thus creating sourdough that tasted better and was more easily digested. They were somewhat domed, small round loaves about the size of the palm of your hand and men typically ate several a day, along with lentils and vegetables. Meats were eaten IF they had been slaughtered and prepared in a kosher manner, with appropriate thanks given to God.

During the long exile of Jews from Israel, both the Vatican and the Talmudian Rabbis had political reasons to disassociate their religions from each other, despite both claiming ancestors in the Old Testament. Thus, it became common for Jews to greatly expand upon Biblical dietary laws. Christians, interpreting part of the Book of Matthew and teachings of Paul, abandoned dietary laws. However, a closer reading of the Books of Matthew and Acts has brought some Christian groups, most notably the Seventh Day Adventists, back to the Law in Leviticus.

Paul taught that one should eat whatever was placed before him, without question and if one bought meat at a market, one should not worry that it may have come from a ceremony worshipping idols because unpure foods could not make a man unpure. However, Jesus followed the laws of kashrut (kosher foods), and well after the Crucifixion, Peter still ate kosher. Jesus, in Matthew 5:17-20, said "I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets... til heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled. whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven..."

When the Philistines confront Jesus regarding washing hands before eating bread, Jesus gives a long answer, only part of which is commonly quoted (Matthew 15:11): "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man." Peter asks for clarification, and Jesus explains in Matthew 15:18-20: "...whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man... evil thoughts, murders, aldulteries... these are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."

In Acts 10:10-28, Peter, while praying on the roof, has a vision in which a sheet descended from heaven, covered with non-kosher animals. A voice told him to eat, but Peter answered, "Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." God advised he should never call what He had given him common or unclean. Peter, still musing this, met Romen men at the door and realized the meaning: "God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean."

Continued next week!

Biblical Dietary Laws, Part 2

2010-03-13T03:08:00.000-08:00

This will also be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News. I get a small section of page 7, so it may take me several articles to discuss the subject until either a) I am satisfied or b) people are getting bored!

*****
The Book of Leviticus, which lays out God's expectations for the Israelites, includes dietary laws. Many have tried to discern hard and fast rules for why certain animals are included or prohibited. The only clear commonality I see is that "clean" meats are low on the food chain. Most of the "unclean" animals are predators or carrion eaters. Others are simply unusual for where they live, like animals that live in water but can walk on land or are so simply made that there is no way to separate ingestive and excretory organs from the meat (as in shellfish). Clean animals include: cloven hooved animals that chew their cud, fish with fins and scales, crickets, locusts and grasshoppers, and non-predatory and non-carrion eating birds.

The fact that pork is prohibited is well known, and most people assume this is for health reasons. In Virginia, I raised pigs. They are hilarious and intelligent, but they will eat absolutely everything. I purchased them to clear marshy woods (unsuitable for goats) of thorn bushes and poison oak, which they did admirably. They also ate grass, some live chickens (to my horror) and excess garden produce. Occasionally, they'd break fences and go beg at the neighbors' houses or run up Courtney's Corner Road to Highway 17, literally looking for road kill to eat. An animal that died three days ago is still food to a pig. No doubt, the ancients knew that any animal that ate decomposing critters could give them food poisoning. Distressed pigs will also turn on their human handlers and eat them.

Poultry also are rather unpicky about their diet, but the Israelites may have highly valued their proclivity for chasing down and eating insects.

Although the command "you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" is repeated three times, it is never explained. The Rabbis in the Talmud wrote that milk and meat could not be eaten in the same meal, but the Bible itself does not say this. Dairy and meat together are difficult to digest. The Bible also commands one to never slaughter a calf in front of its mother and to set a mother bird free before taking her young. I view the "boiling a kid" rule as an injuction against cruelty to its mother.

Continued next week!

Part I, Biblical Dietary Laws

2010-03-07T06:17:00.000-08:00

Also sent to Becky Holm's Douglas County News
GOOD FOOD, CHEAP

Biblical Dietary Laws by Larisa Sparrowhawk, localvorefresh@aol.com

In the next two columns I will discuss Biblical dietary laws that are relevant to both Jewish and Christian denominations. On the Sixth Day, God said He gave man "every seed bearing plant that is upon the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit" for food and also that he gave all the animals, including birds, "all green plants" (or "herbs," depending on your translation) for food. Clearly, the original diet for all was vegetarian.

No details are given of how Noah understood the concept of clean (acceptable as offerings or human food) and unclean (not acceptable) meats, but Noah did. Man may have already become an omnivore. God instructed that Noah take seven pairs of every clean animal and only one pair of the unclean, with him into the ark. Once the waters receeded, God gave Noah instructions that "every creature" could be eaten, which seems odd in light of the previous classification of clean and unclean. Moreover, the simple fact that Noah was instructed to bring enough of the clean animals to allow burnt offerings, meals and procreation, suggests that details are missing here that will be supplied later.

Throughout Genesis, before the Revelation at Sinai, we read of meals of game, kids (goats), lambs, cattle, bread, lentils and grains. All the animals used in offerings were animals later mentioned as ritually clean. Unleavened bread and lamb are required by God for Passover rituals. We get an early example of "be careful what you wish for" when the Israelites grumble that they have no bread and meat and are sent so much manna and quail they sicken of them. (Modern scientists believe the manna Israelites found to eat in the wilderness was actually a secretion of a type of aphid.)

In Exodus, God promises that if the people follow his laws, they will be free of the diseases of the Egyptians, "for I, the Lord, am your healer." With the laws of both food and bodily cleanliness, He shows how.

Tune in next week!

misleading headline to article in NY Times makes it seem like NAIS is dead

2010-03-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late in uploading this response to a New York Times article. I sent this to OCFA's email list and uploaded it on several Facebook foodie pages.

This article, published yesterday, has already been blasted all over, including in the Organic Consumers and Farmers Association online newsletter and also in Farm and Ranch's online newsletter. The headline makes it sound like the Feds are giving up on NAIS. But they are not. Animal traceback and destruction are still included in S510 (which WILL go to a vote one of these days...) and the article itself makes it clear that states are still expected to work on traceback and that the Feds will design a new program.

Disturbingly, the article also says the American Farm Bureau was against NAIS, but they were in fact, a major author of it.

We know that many people don't read entire newspaper articles; makes you wonder if the USDA submitted a press release with this headline because it served them to mislead, or if the newspaper had a reason to mislead.

In another note, Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association has a Facebook page (Oregon Farm Rights), where I post articles of interest. The recent Supreme Court decision to legalize corporate buying of legislators will also affect us. On my personal FB page, I post about this type of thing several days a week; on OCFA's page I try to be more moderate. Friend either or both of us for access to regular political rants! :) Make sure you mention that you are interested in food rights.

-Larisa

The article is here:
U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock
Eric Draper for The New York Times

The H. Jay Platt family operates a 16,000-acre ranch in New Mexico, and opposes a federal identification plan to track livestock.

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Published: February 5, 2010

Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national program intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak.

In abandoning the program, called the National Animal Identification System, officials said they would start over in trying to devise a livestock tracing program that could win widespread support from the industry.

The agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, will announce the changes on Friday, according to officials at the Agriculture Department, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been made public.

The officials said that it would be left to the states to devise many aspects of a new system, including requirements for identifying livestock.

New federal rules will be developed but the officials said they would apply only to animals being moved in interstate commerce, such as cattle raised in one state being transported to a slaughterhouse in another state.

It could take two years or more to create new federal rules, the officials said, and it was not clear how far the government would go to restrict the movement of livestock between states if the animals did not meet basic traceability standards.

The system was created by the Bush administration in 2004 after the discovery in late 2003 of a cow infected with mad cow disease.

Participation of ranchers and farmers in the identification system was voluntary, but the goal was to give every animal, or in the case of pigs and poultry, groups of animals, a unique identification number that would be entered in a database. The movements of animals would be tracked, and if there was a disease outbreak or a sick animal was found, officials could quickly locate other animals that had been exposed.

But the system quickly drew the ire of many farmers and ranchers, particularly cattle producers. Some objected to the cost of identification equipment and the extra work in having to report their animals’ movements. Others said they believed the voluntary system would become mandatory, that it was intrusive and that the federal government would use it to pry into their lives and finances.

The old system received $142 million in federal financing, but gained the participation of only 40 percent of the nation’s livestock producers, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.

When Mr. Vilsack took over the Agriculture Department last year, he began a series of public meetings on the identification program and was bombarded by strident opposition.

Agriculture officials said that most details of a new system would be worked out in the coming months through consultation with the livestock industry and the states.

“It was just overwhelming in the country that people didn’t like it, and I think they took that feedback to heart,” said Mary Kay Thatcher, public policy director of the American Farm Bureau Federation, which had opposed the identification system. “I think it’s good they’ve at least said we’re going to do something different.”

Carol Tucker Foreman, a food safety expert of the Consumer Federation of America, agreed that the old system was not working and needed to be changed.

But she worried that a new system that could have different rules in every state might not be effective.

“It’s very, very hard to have an effective state-by-state program,” she said.

Revising Cake Recipes

2010-03-07T06:10:00.000-08:00

GOOD FOOD CHEAP

Revising Cake Recipes for Better Health by Larisa Sparrowhawk localvorefresh@aol.com

Do you have a recipe book that consistently gives you desserts your family enjoys, but which could be healthier? Are you struggling to meet your New Year's resolutions while your kids are clamoring for cake? Most unhealthy recipes can be improved without your family's resistance if you try one upgrade at a time - for instance, cutting back sugar without also changing to whole grain flours and lessening the fat content.

Many cake recipes include as much sugar as flour. Sugar does have a moistening effect on baked goods, so either try reducing the sugar by 1/3 and not changing the rest of the recipe, or reduce it by 1/2 and add in a tablespoon of honey or unsweetened apple sauce for each 1/2 cup sugar used. Add a little extra vanilla, cinnamon, ginger or other spice. Don't be fooled by the advertisements for fake sugars - they are bad for you. Aspartame is a neurotoxin and Splenda, a chlorocarbon, is hard on the liver and digestive system.

The next time you try the cake recipe, sustitute 1/3 of the flour with a whole grain flour. This is a lot easier to do sneakily with chocolate or carrot cake than vanilla or light colored cakes. Wheat, spelt or kamut work best. Heavier flours like oat work well in muffins and brownies. Gluten free recipes often include half "real" flour and half starch of some sort. You can usually drop the starch to 1/3 of the recipe without complaint if you use a smooth grained flour. Authentic Foods makes a finely ground rice flour. Sorghum flour is also smoother than most rice flours.

Replace all trans fats (like margarine, shortening and most commercial peanut butters) with real fats. Replace vegetable oils with flavorful nut oils and you can often decrease the amount used. Peanut oil is not expensive and contains 48% oleic acid, the same acids revered in olive oil. If a recipe calls for 1 cup vegetable oil, try 7/8 (or 3/4) cup of mixed peanut oil and melted butter. Add 1/8 (or 1/4) cup apple sauce. Although it may be tempting to use flax oil, DON'T - all its benefits disappear when heated.

Frosting recipes are usually horrible - generally tremendous amounts of powdered sugar plus a little liquid. The better ones use cream cheese, but you can lower the fat by replacing each 8 oz package of cream cheese with 1 cup and 2 tablespoons whole milk plain yogurt. Place the yogurt in a colander lined with cheesecloth overnight and allow all the water to drain out, then gently press out a little more. Flavor with 2-3 tbsp.honey and a pinch of appropriate spice or 2 tbsp. carob or cocoa. Beat in 2 tbsp. melted butter or coconut oil and refrigerate to firm the frosting enough to spread. This is so good with cardamom and honey that it's tempting to eat it straight!

A collection of short diet articles for New Year's

2010-03-07T06:08:00.000-08:00

These were in Becky Holm's Douglas County News
GOOD FOOD, CHEAP

The Grapefruit Diet and Master Cleanse by Larisa Sparrowhawk

Because it's that time of year, my next few columns will discuss weight loss plans, with a few simple recipes.

The Grapefruit and Master Cleanse or Lemonade Diet have been popular for several generations. The grapefruit diet requires you eat a half a grapefruit before every meal and consume no more than 800 calories a day. The Master Cleanse or Lemonaid Diet is a juice fast consisting of lemon juice mixed with water, maple syrup and cayenne, a pretty vile concoction. To make the diet even less pleasant, you are also supposed to drink salt water and or a laxative and take an enema, all of which promote dehydration, malnutrition and possibly laxative dependence. Medical professionals (usually) agree you should never take in less than the calories your body uses at rest. Since your basal metabolic rate will change with your weight and age, you may want to calculate it every few years. Try this website: http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html. Most women are between 1250 and 1450; most men, between 1750 and 1900.

That said, grapefruits and lemons are both high in vitamin c, and if you include some of the white pith, antioxidants, including bioflavonoids. Red grapefruits are slightly lower in calories than white and have impressive Vitamin A levels. Both fruits are full of water, low in calories, do not cause a marked blood sugar change and strongly flavored, so they are useful in diets.

Replace a 16 oz. cola drink (182 calories) with Pomegranate/Grapefruit "Cocktail": juice of 1/2 red grapefruit, 1/2 c. pomegranate juice, 1 c. flavored seltzer water for 107 calories. Or try juice of 1/2 red grapefruit or 1/2-1 lemon or lime, stir in 1 packet stevia and fill with seltzer water for 12-45 calories. Or blend grapefruit or lemon juice with honey and ginger, stir in to seltzer or hot water.

Zip up a spinach salad with sectioned citrus and maybe some tiny shrimp (1/2 cup for 105 calories) or chopped roast beef or chicken breast (1/2 cup for 130 calories, both roasted at home to avoid MSG or other additives). Squeeze a lime over for dressing.

Low-Carb Diets by Larisa Sparrowhawk localvorefresh@aol.com

Low carb diets were all the rage about 5 years ago but are no longer trendy, even though many people did lose weight. When carbohydrates are restricted, the body does not have enough glucose to use for energy and uses stored fat, instead. Several problems with very restrictive high protein, low carbohydrate diets suggest that a modified diet, while giving slower weight loss, is much healthier. First, meat has no fiber. Second, some of the meats recommended are high in carcinogens (such as bacon, ham and sausage preserved with nitrates). Third, high protein diets cause ketosis, which could be either desirable or very unhealthy, depending on your current health. Essentially, ketosis is what happens when your liver converts stored fats (triglycerites) into water- and blood-soluable fatty acids (ketones) that your body can use for energy in an absence of glucose. Excess ketone bodies are excreted while exhaling or urinating. If you are relatively healthy, your body should handle the conversion and excretion processes well.

However, people with diabetes (especially type 1 diabetes) or kidney trouble can develop ketoacidosis, which essentially means your body has become too acidic, or ketonuria, which is an abnormally high amount of ketone bodies in the urine, showing that your body does not have enough energy to sustain itself. (Interestingly, very low calorie diets can also cause the same two conditions, especially during pregnancy.) Both ketoacidosis and ketonuria can cause weakness, dehydration, miscarriage, toxemia, muscle loss (the body can create adequate glucose only from muscle tissue, but very little from fat), frequent urination, vomiting, dizziness and possibly death. However, low carbohydrate diets can also be very helpful in managing diabetes; the trick is to monitor ketone activity with test strips and to take in adequate calories.

For most of our time on earth, humans have eaten a modified low-carb diet, consisting of much meat and fish with the higher fiber, lower sugar fruits and vegetables that were available before the days of hybridization. Grains and beans were unknown until fairly recently in human development. Low carb diets that shun processed meats but include a lot of produce are generally considered safe and can be maintained long term. If you find yourself craving grains, make them whole and as unprocessed as possible.

Diet Pills by Larisa Sparrowhawk, localvorefresh@aol.com

I can well understand why people would be tempted by diet pills. They are available online and in many retail outlets, including Wal-Mart, grocery stores and health food stores. They practically promise if you take a pill at breakfast, you will lose weight by lunch, without ever having to jog in the January rain.

Many diet pills contain caffeine, diuretics and laxatives, sometimes in combination. No one should EVER, in my opinion, take laxatives and diuretics at the same time. Not only are you risking extreme dehydration, but also malnutrition, because your body does not have the time to extract the nutrients it needs from the food you eat.

Sometimes high levels of caffeine are disguised in multiple different ingredients, not only as pure caffeine, but also as guarana, gotu kola nut, bissy nut, cassina, cacao, green tea and mate' . A few years ago, these were often combined with pseudoephedrine, ephedra or ma huang, all stimulants blamed for serious heart issues in young, previously healthy women. High levels of caffeine deplete calcium and vitamin C in the body, as well as contribute to insomnia, dehydration, heart and kidney troubles and osteoporosis. Many diets rely on grapefruits as high water, high vitamin C fillers. Unfortunately, grapefruits actually increase the effects of caffeine in the body. Tobacco, asthma medicines and many other medicines also increase the effects of caffeine. (Just like red wine is beneficial in small amounts, small amounts of caffeine, especially in tea, are considered beneficial, but larger quantities are considered dangerous.)

Country mallow and bitter orange and are stimulants that may cause irregular heart beat. Fat and carbohydrate blockers like Xenical and Alli can decrease the nutrients your body absorbs, including vitamins A, D, E and K. They also cause intestinal distress, including flatulence, bloating and diarrhea. Some diet products also include laxatives along with the blockers, which means you could have to stay home near a bathroom! Some appetite suppressants don't appear to work at all, prompting some users to take more than the recommended amount, increasing the negative side effects.

Research on chromium, conjugated linoleic acid and coenzyme Q10 suggest they help with blood sugar response, fat metabolism and energy, but have little or possibly no affect on weight loss.

If you read the fine print on most of the diet products, they recommend a reduced calorie diet combined with increased exercise. You may as well save yourself some money and discomfort, skip the pills and adopt a sensible eating and exercise plan.

Spiced Banana Sole

2010-01-03T00:02:00.000-08:00

This will be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News, which is published every Wednesday.

GOOD FOOD CHEAP

Spiced Banana Sole
by Larisa Sparrowhawk localvorefresh@aol.com

In the mid 80's, a date who didn't know me very well took me to a high-end restaurant in Washington, DC. Everything was marble - the tables, the floors, the walls. Plates were huge, heavy slabs and the silverware was substantial enough to pain wrists sore from typing on a persnickety word processor with sticky "a" and spacebar keys.

I was greatly intimidated. I ordered Chardonnay because I could pronounce it. I also ordered Spiced Banana Sole. I do not remember the rest of the meal, but I sure remember that fish. It arrived as a filet with tail still attached, swimming in shallots, butter and cream, the banana carmelized under a broiler. Always awkward with a knife and fork, even when a battallion of waiters with hands clasped behind their backs weren't watching, I tried to cut into the fish. It shot across the table. My knife clattered to the floor, echoing. A waiter whisked the offending fish, plate and silverware away while another waiter moved us to the next table so he could clear the soaked tablecloth. Fifteen minutes later, I received a new sizzling, heavenly smelling fish. I was mortified, but it was damn good, and fork tender so I didn't need a knife.

Here's my lower cost, lower fat interpretation for two people. You may use any white fish you prefer other than monkfish, which can be gummy.

Marinate two thawed fish fillets in a mixture of lemon and orange juices. Sprinkle lightly with ginger and nutmeg. Bake at 350 degrees until fish is just barely done. Meanwhile, sautee one chopped red onion in 2 tbsp. butter or coconut oil a few minutes, then add a second chopped red onion (for different levels of sweetness and crispness). Peel and slice two bananas lengthwise and lay them over the fish. Drizzle 1 tbsp. melted butter or coconut oil over. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of cayenne and salt. Place under broiler a few minutes, watching so it does not burn. Mix warm onions into 1/8-1/4 c. half and half or coconut cream from the top of a can of coconut milk, then poor mixture back into saucepan to warm. Salt to taste. Place onion cream on plate and use two spatulas to gently lift each fish onto plate. Serve with something colorful and crisp like red grapes and a salad.

Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association newsletter

2009-12-19T23:50:00.000-08:00

The latest OCFA newsletter is within a couple of days of being finished, only awaiting a couple of phone calls to verify information before I send it to the printer.

This issue is JAM PACKED with NAIS and raw milk news, as well as news about food safety bills in the US Congress. A normal edition is 8 pages; this issue will be at least 14 pages!

If you would like a copy mailed to you, please email me at localvorefresh@aol.com.

Gluten free gingerbread

2009-12-19T23:43:00.000-08:00

This gingerbread is moist, very flavorful and has a nice texture even people who can eat gluten will enjoy.

Mix: 1 c. sorghum and 3/4 c. each brown rice flour and tapioca starch with 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp xanthan gum, 2 tsp. ginger, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg and 1/2 tsp. salt.

Add and mix: 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 c. honey, 1/2 c. molasses and 1 stick (1/2 c.) melted butter.
Add and mix: 3/4 c. chopped candied ginger.

Bake 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees until a tester comes out clean.

No knead yeasted rye bread

2009-12-12T01:56:00.000-08:00

I used to be able to tolerate rye if it were soaked. I haven't had it in awhile, but wanted to make some tonight. We'll see how I feel in the morning. So far, so good!

This bread does not require kneading. It is dense, but has good crumb and tastes good. Rye is low, but not no gluten, so people who are gluten intolerant should do well with it but people who have celiac disease may not. The yogurt and raw honey are included in the sponge specifically to start the digestion process.

I whipped this up on a whim, writing down quantities as I went. This is how I usually cook and most of the time, the results are excellent. Gluten free breads have often required two or three trials before I am happy with them. This one fell a little, but I suspect that is because the house started smelling good and I opened the oven to take a peak only 20 minutes into the baking. Despite falling, the texture is very nice.

Mix: 1 1/2 c. whole milk yogurt brought to room temperature
         1/4 c. warm water
         1/4 c. melted butter
         3 1/2 c. rye flour
         2 tbsp. raw honey
         1 package yeast
Cover bowl and let sit at least 3 hours.
Mix in salt and various herbs or spices to taste. You want to add the salt late in the process because it inhibits the action of the yeast, and low or no gluten breads need all the help they can get. Be sure you mix it thoroughly, though.

Put in greased pans. I used one oval casserole dish, but generally low/no gluten breads do better in smaller loaves. Let rise 45 minutes or so and preheat oven to 375 degrees. My one loaf took 40 minutes to bake. You are looking for the bread to be golden, pulled away from the sides and to fall easily out of the dish rather than for it to sound hollow when tapped.

I use Azure Standard's organic unifine rye, which has an extra fine texture that helps lighten the bread.

Avgolemono (chicken/lemon soup), yogurt salad dressing

2009-12-12T01:31:00.000-08:00

Instead of chicken noodle soup, I crave Avgolemono when I am sick. The traditional way to make it is to beat egg whites into stiff peaks and fold it in, but the way I make it is still frothy and a lot faster.

I much prefer it made with a whole chicken and a lot of onions and other vegetables cooked down into stock, then the chicken removed for other meals.

So you can adjust up or down for the size of your family, the formula is 2 eggs, 1/2 c. cooked brown rice and one lemon for 2 c. of stock.

Cook 1 chopped up onion, 2 tsp. basil, 1 tsp. salt and 2 cloves garlic in 4 c. chicken stock until onion has just a little crunch left to it. Add 1 c. brown rice. Turn heat to lowest setting.

Blend 4 eggs and juice of 2 lemons until frothy. Add hot soup a little at a time until egg mixture is hot, blending between additions. Pour egg mixture into soup slowly, stirring. Let cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring often.

If I weren't sick, I'd serve this with a huge crunchy salad with yogurt dressing and a hunk of bread.

Here's my yogurt dressing recipe:
1 c. whole milk yogurt
pinch of salt
1 tsp. dried dill leaves
1/4 tsp garlic
1 tbsp. olive oil
lemon juice to taste

Cough Syrup

2009-12-12T01:18:00.000-08:00

After spending two weeks emptying and cleaning out barns that were full of litter and cobwebs, I have a horrible sore throat. I made some cough syrup and it is actually extremely yummy. I didn't write down quantities since I didn't expect to like it.

Black cherry juice concentrate (Knudsen's, sold at Sherm's in the health food section)
slices of ginger
a little honey
juice of a couple lemons

I cooked it down until the ginger was limp and the liquid was reduced to a third of the total. I thought about adding onions. Next time I probably will.

Stretch Roast 3 Days, Without Boredom

2009-12-07T01:01:00.000-08:00

This will also be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News, although shortened a bit.
GOOD FOOD CHEAP

Stretching A Roast 3 Days, Deliciously
By Larisa Sparrowhawk, localvorefresh@aol.com

You will need 1.75 lbs of boneless beef roast plus a soup bone for two people plus 1.0 pounds for each person thereafter.

Day One, French Onion Soup: Today’s recipe is time consuming, but the next two are quick. Cook roast and bone on low heat with enough water to cover, 2-3 onions, 2-4 ribs celery , a few garlic cloves, a bay leaf, some carrots, apples or any vegetable except potatoes. Add 1/4 c. red wine vinegar, which helps draw the minerals from the bone. Simmer at least 6 hours. Skim off any foam. Turn off and let cool. Skim fat off and save for later. Remove most of the beef and split between two containers; refrigerate. Discard most of the vegetables.

Blend stock and remaining vegetables with 3-5 tbsp. flour, preferably rye. Sautee the beef you saved out with 2-3 chopped onions and 2 tbsp. butter until onions are carmelized. Add blended stock and ½-1 c. red wine if desired. Add ½-1 tsp. each salt, white pepper, dry mustard, rosemary, thyme and nutmeg. Add 2-3 tsp. garlic. Simmer another 15 minutes. Serve with bread and cheese.

Day Two, Sesame Beef: Stir fry (high heat) 1 chopped onion in 2 tbsp. sesame oil until translucent. Add 1 rib chopped celery, half a chopped broccoli head, 1-2 chopped carrots. Cook 2 minutes, stirring. When sesame oil begins to dry, add 1 tbsp. each red wine vinegar and sherry or mirin. Add garlic or ginger if desired. Add 1 chopped bell pepper and 1-2 tsp. black bean garlic sauce or soy sauce. Add one portion saved beef. Stir constantly until hot. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve over rice.

Day Three, Stroganoff: Cook in a cast iron skillet until carmelized: reserved beef fat, 1 chopped onion. Add 1-2 c. chopped mushrooms. Reduce heat to low. Add remaining beef, 2-3 tbsp. red wine vinegar. When beef is warm, add chopped scallions and/or parsley for color. Mix ½-1 tsp. each salt, white pepper, dry mustard and 1 tsp. paprika and garlic into 1 c. whole milk yogurt. Mix a little of the beef and vegetables into yogurt to warm it up. Add to the skillet and cook just a couple minutes longer. Serve over rice, rye or pasta.

Chocolate Orange Raw Pie

2009-11-27T02:26:00.000-08:00

This is a vast improvement over the pie I posted a couple weeks ago and I took it to a party last night.   It's quick, it's yummy, it's about as good for you as a pie can get and it doesn't turn brown on top! I'm sending it to Becky Holms' Douglas County News.

Cut a piece of parchment to fit the bottom of a pie pan or springform pan with removeable bottom.

The crust:
2 c. cashew pieces
2 c. raw carob
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp. raw extra virgin coconut oil
4 tbsp. raw honey
Mix in food processor until it forms a ball. Press onto bottom of pan and place pan in refrigerator. It will firm to a hard cookie crust. If you don't want it quite so hard, use less coconut oil.

Blend:
2 small to medium avocadoes
1/3-1/2 c. raw honey
pinch salt
2 heaping tbsp. raw extra virgin coconut oil
1-2 tbsp. water if necessary to get the blender moving
Once that is mixed, add:
1 c. carob powder and 2 tbsp. cocoa powder if you are a normal person
          or 2/3 c. cocoa plus 1/3 c. carob if you are a chocoholic
          if you do the latter you will probably need more honey
Blend again until silky smooth. You will probably need to start and stop the blender several times to keep it from overheating. Place this chocolate layer on top of the chocolate crust. Re-refrigerate.

Clean blender and blend until silky smooth:
2 large mangoes
3 tbsp. orange juice concentrate
1 tsp. ginger
1-2 tbsp. honey depending on sweetness of mango - can also use stevia
1/2 c. coconut oil
1-2 tsp lemon juice
pinch salt
lemon zest.

Spoon the orange layer on top of the chocolate layer. Re-refrigerate.

This will set in about an hour and it is seriously yummy. It delighted people at a party today who eat lots of sugar and junk. I'm opening their eyes gradually, one recipe at a time!

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, gluten free! (or garlic bread)

2009-11-20T00:21:00.000-08:00

I literally moaned when I took my first bite of this. This is AWESOME! Throw all your other pizza crust recipes away, even if I wrote them! :)

I avoid commercial yeast because it gives me indigestion. Between the lack of yeast and the lack of gluten, creating something that tasted like real bread that actually ROSE has been interesting. The last pizza dough I created tasted great, but got gummy after sitting for awhile, and became dog food after I put it in the refrigerator. (The dog was not impressed! Of course, he's a picky dog...)

This dough stays fluffy for several days on the counter or in the refrigerator. The secret is to soak (make more digestible) virtually all the flour in beer, reserving a tiny bit to mix with baking soda and xantham gum at the last minute. Eggs and flax also help it rise and hold texture.

I've included options for making a garlic bread using Montina flour blend, which I bought inexpensively in bulk, or a pizza or foccacia dough using rice and tapioca flours. You could certainly use either types of flour. The important difference is in how the dough is cooked. The pizza dough needs very high heat to create a more solid, chewy bottom crust, or else it's just bread with stuff on top.

Mix   1 1/2 c. sorghum flour
          1 1/2 c. montina flour blend or
              1/2 c. each white and brown rice flours and tapioca starch
          1 c. beer
          1 c. water
Cover and let sit at least 12 hours at room temperature. It will have more flavor if left 24 hours. Stir it once or twice during this time period.

Preheat oven to 400 for bread or 500 for pizza or foccacia.
Mix    1/4 c. montina blend or white rice flour
           1/2-1 tsp. salt
           1 1/2 tsp. each baking soda and xanthan gum
           1/2-1 tsp. garlic
           for bread: 1 tbsp. onion flakes or chives
           2 tbsp. ground flax seed
Combine beer batter and above dry ingredients with:
          2 eggs
          1/4 c. olive oil (for pizza or foccacia) or 1/4 c. melted butter (for bread)
          2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar

For pizza or foccacia: pat into 2 greased round cake pans, making the outsides much higher than the center. Rup on a little olive oil. Bake at 500 degrees on lowest rack of oven 10 minutes until set. Add toppings and return to oven under broiler until toppings are done.

For bread: pat into a 9x13 pan, brush olive oil on and sprinkle with chopped onions if you desire, or brush butter or egg wash on. Bake at 400 degrees until a tester comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

By the way, the dog loves both of these versions.

Gluten Free Black Bottom Pie for the Holidays

2009-11-07T00:33:00.000-08:00

Following is a recipe that tastes really bad for you. My version is still quite sweet, but is far healthier than the recipe it was named after, and also is uncooked, leaving the enzymes naturally present in the food available to help you digest it! This is excellent party fare.

Two ingredients, avocado and coconut oil, are unusual and fairly expensive, but are indispensable. The avocado flavor disappears into the dessert, but its creamy texture transforms the bottom layer. California Haas avocados work best. Coconut oil, which solidifies in cool temperatures, replaces cornstarch and adds subtle flavor. Coconut oil also contains antimicrobial and antiviral properties. Unlike other oils, it actually boosts metabolism.

You may make this pie less expensive in both dollars and calories by omitting the middle layer, but I like all three layers together. If you choose to make a triple layer pie, place 1 1/2 c. hazelnuts or pecans in 3 c. filtered water and leave to soak for 6-8 hours before proceeding with the remainder of the recipe.

Bottom layer: Blend 2 small to medium avocados, 1/3-1/2 c. raw honey (1/2 c. is more realistic), a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 2 heabping tbsp. raw virgin coconut oil and 1-2 tbsp. water if necessary to get the blender moving. Blend until silky smooth and spoon into prepared pie crust (see notes below). Rinse the blender.

Middle layer: Drain water from nuts. Blend with 1/3 c. raw honey, 2 heaping tbsp. coconut oil, 2 tsp vanilla and 1-3 tbsp. water if necessary. Spoon on top of chocolate layer.

Top layer (double the ingredients in this layer if you omit the middle): Blend 3 ripe bananas, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, 1-2 tsp. vanilla (to taste) and 3 heaping tbsp. coconut oil. Pour onto nut layer. Sprinkle with cinnamon, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate pie to firm.

Use your favorite precooked pie shell, or just scatter pecan chunks and ground pecans thinly on the bottom. I usually just dust the pan with ground pecans; this recipe fits perfectly that way. You may need a deep dish pie pan if you use a crust. This would also look great in parfait glasses, although I'd place the banana layer in the middle to keep it from browning.

Gluten Free Pizza Crusts - one potato based, one beer batter

2009-11-07T00:08:00.000-08:00

Both of these are much less expensive than purchasing a gluten free pizza crust mix. They are sturdy enough to hold toppings without crumbling apart when you pick them up, although the potato crust pizza should be cut in small squares rather than in triangles. I prefer the taste and texture of the beer batter dough. However, since I don't drink, I had to actually buy beer just to experiment with the pizza dough, which seems unfrugal! "Decent" beer is now a dollar a bottle! Jeepers! (Though I imagine Busch and Rolling Rock would do!) Fortunately, my first trial was excellent and didn't require multiple trials, unlike my ongoing attempts to make a fine-textured sourdough bread.
Potato Crust Pizza - using leftover mashed potatoes
Mix 1 1/2 c. brown rice flour, 1/4 c. tapioca starch, 3 tsp baking powder, 1/4-1/2 tsp salt, 1/4-1/2 tsp garlic powder. Add 1 1/2 c. thick leftover mashed potatoes, 2 large eggs, 3 tbsp olive oil.
Mix in, divide batter in two and pat into bottoms of two greased 9x13 baking pans. Periodically moisten your hands with water. This will be a very thin crust pizza to use with bold flavors so the taste of potato doesn't interfere with the toppings. Bake on bottom rack at 450 degrees until golden and fairly firm. Remove from oven, brush on some olive oil, pour sauce over, sprinkle on extra basil or Italian seasonings and add toppings. Return to oven until toppings are browning and cheese has melted. You may wish to broil it the last two minutes.

Beer Batter Pizza Dough - a very realistic flavored and textured dough!
Mix 2 c. brown rice flour, 1/2 c. tapioca starch, 1/2 tsp each salt and garlic, 3 tbsp olive oil, 2/3 c. beer, 1 c. water. (You could also try 1 c. beer, 2/3 c. water if you want to increase the yeasty flavor.)
Pour into greased round cake pans (2 or three depending on how thick you want it), push some of the dough to the edges so the center is a little concave to combat the natural doming that occurs while rising. Place in a warm place for 3 1/2 hours or so. It will look sort of fluffy, but won't double in bulk. Place in a 450 degree oven until it browns at the edges and is firm in the middle. Then rub a little olive oil on, add toppings and place back in the oven until toppings are brown and the cheese is melted. I like to turn the oven up to 500 degrees for the last few minutes so the very bottom of the crust is both quite solidified and crispy.

I think this dough has very good possibilities to become a gyro wrapper as well, but I've had enough dough for awhile and won't experiment more for a week or so. This has been a delightful foray into comfort food, but now I'm feeling fat...

At glutenfreesourdough.blogspot.com, the author recommends water kefir as an agent to help gluten free doughs rise. One of these days I'm going to try that, too, but that is definitely an item that has to be purchased over the internet. There aren't any stores around here that carry that sort of thing!

the celiac disease/ heart disease connection and local food

2009-11-01T05:20:00.000-08:00

I read this morning that people with celiac disease are 47% less likely to die of cancer, but 48% more likely to die of heart disease. Cardiomyopathy (a defect in the heart muscle itself that may go along with tachycardia or arrythmia, weak valves and edema) appears to be relatively common among celiacs. 2-3 times as many celiacs get heart transplants than the general population and insufficient blood flow and spitting up blood, which I was doing a lot of before my attack, also appear to be relatively common.

My thoughts: maybe celiacs have less cancer because the disease almost FORCES them to avoid processed foods. Gluten is not only in bread, but also is in many products that contain carcinogenic ingredients like msg and nitrates.

However, gluten free cookies and crackers, which are commonly available, are just as likely to contain trans fats, which are horrible for the heart, as regular cookies and crackers. Celiacs have a great deal more trouble digesting and holding onto nutrients because of intestinal damage. Although the intestines will gradually heal in those who follow their gluten free diet religiously, years of malnutrition may take quite a toll on the heart muscle. Virtually all celiacs are deficient in B complex vitamins, especially folic acid, and some are deficient in selenium.

The good news: I read elsewhere that selenium supplementation is very helpful to cardiomyopathy patients. Since I eat 90% local food, I looked up where I live now and where I lived previously on a map of selenium in the soil. And guess what? I have lived in selenium deficient areas 43 of the 44 years I've been on this earth! So I've got some on order from vitacost.com, along with a good raw multivitamin.

Selenium deficiency is the only negative I've found to eating local foods. Otherwise, I am happy to eat local, even when summer produce is no longer available. Since I do not eat winter produce in the summer and summer produce in the winter (with the exception of bananas, which are a cheap source of both potassium and tryptothan), I don't feel deprived. By October, I haven't eaten a potato in five months, and suddenly, although I eat a lot of raw food, baked and boiled potatoes seem like an indulgence to me. Apples are awful in the summer. But I eat three a day, raw, most of the winter. They are a handy lunch food, along with carrots and celery. I don't tire of them until they start losing their crispness and juiciness, about February or so.

I am grateful to learn that there may be a natural treatment for me so I don't have to go under the knife. I've had two fairly comfortable nights in a row. I have been taking my natural diuretic and I have avoided gluten like the plague, even in tiny amounts like in soy sauce. Mom came to help me with the shop and took me out for gluten free pizza at Pedotti's. I wasn't hungry until it got to the table and it smelled so good, I became ravenous and devoured my half with gusto. Apparently the owner's son has celiac disease and so they offer quite a few gluten free selections. Mom, who can eat regular pizza, agreed that Pedotti's pizza was delicious. So if you're ever in Sutherlin, stop in! They are just a few blocks off I-5, next to the visitors' center.

Posole and Gluten Free Cheater Enchiladas

2009-10-31T05:53:00.000-07:00

My grandmother and great grandmother in New Mexico served something like this to their ranch hands. I have adapted this to be easier, more flavorful and more economical with less meat.

The morning before, soak in water: 1 c. dry red beans and 1 c. posole or hominy corn (dry peeled/hulled corn sold in the ethnic section of grocery stores). In the evening, drain and rinse the beans and corn, leave in the colander and cover with a cloth. The next morning, rinse, drain and cover again. (Nearly sprouted beans and corn are far more digestible and also cook faster.) That evening, about 1 ½ hours before you are ready to eat:

Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in a large stockpot over high heat. Add 1 lb. beef or goat cubes. Sear on both sides. Turn heat to medium low. Add 2 chopped medium onions and cook until onions are transparent.

Add 6 c. water, drained beans and posole, and 2 c. chopped paste tomatoes and 2 chopped, seeded jalapenos (or one can chopped tomatoes with chiles). Add 2 tsp. garlic, 2 tbsp. basil, 2 tbsp. paprika and 1 tbsp. cilantro. About half an hour before serving, add salt, cayenne and cumin to taste.

Cook until beans and corn are tender. Serve with corn or rice chips, warmed corn or brown rice tortillas, sliced avocado, shredded cabbage, limes to squeeze over the soup, chopped green onions and/or sour cream.

Leftovers can be strained of excess liquid and used in cheater enchiladas. Pour a little salsa into the bottom of a round baking dish. Layer corn or brown rice tortillas, posole mixture, chopped green chiles and cheese (at least 2 layers of each, ending with cheese). Bake 1/2-1 hr. at 350 degrees, until liquids are absorbed.

Localvore and my heart

2009-10-31T05:41:00.000-07:00

I am not going to touch gluten anymore; I can't afford to. I've been gluten and lactose intolerant for years, if not for my whole life... I've had mysterious digestive ills with occasional bouts of unexplained vomiting or diarrhea since I was a child. An itchy rash has hung around the edges of my face since... well, as long as I can remember.

In the last two months, after increased heart trouble, gluten became more than an irritant. It is a danger. I have bouts of debilitating heart pain, tachycardia, breathlessness and exhaustion. On September 2nd in the middle of the night, I experienced what felt like a heart attack. I was too weak to even get down my own stairs. I suffered through the night, went in to work like a fool and collapsed while taking the fruit out of the refrigerator and putting it on the shelves. Rick deYoung, who works for the Douglas County News and is an all-around great fellow, drove me in to a clinic until Mom could arrive from the coast. The doctor didn't find much beyond an enlarged heart, tachycardia and edema. He didn't do any further testing, thinking I was exhausted and stressed and should have gone to the hospital DURING the crisis if I wanted answers.

The tachycardia I've had since childhood previously only caused scary symptoms when I didn't get enough sleep or used my inhaler too much. Weak heart valves run in the family, and so do heart attacks. Weak valves often cause edema (fluid build up) that creates so much pressure while lying down that very little blood actually gets to the lungs and elsewhere. I went home, started myself on diuretics and used a wedge to raise my torso while sleeping. I have been a lot better, gradually increasing the distance I can walk and the amount of work I can do.

For two weeks I didn't drink any coffee or eat anything that I would consider junk food. Then I started slipping, a little bit at a time, with half a cup of coffee one day, half a cup of coffee with ice cream another day, a cup of black tea and a cookie another day. I cheated because I was exhausted and was looking for a lift. Instead my heart raced and hurt for hours afterwards. I figured it was the caffeine.

Last night I ate two cookies without any caffeine. I was in pain and semi-terror most of the night. I think I have progressed from gluten intolerance to a full-blown allergy called celiac disease. I could go spend money (no health insurance) to get it confirmed. Or I could just learn my lesson. NOW. Before I land in the hospital and don't come out.

I am closing the store; I don't see what other option I have. It's not making money and I DO get paid at my night job. I don't have a partner, so I can't just negotiate less work hours. I also need to fix up my house for sale and I really want to go back to school.

I think it will be a lot easier for me to behave starting next week, when the store is completely closed. Tonight I really want something, anything, to keep me awake, but it's already almost 5am so I'm almost through the night.

My plans are to devote more time to OCFA, to change the Localvore website to one celebrating Oregon foods and promoting OCFA, and to HEAL. I will start attending OSU next fall, majoring in Nutrition Science.

In the meantime, all my recipes will be gluten free.

Apple and pumpkin butters and bread and cheesecake made with these butters!

2009-10-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

This will be in Douglas Co. News Wednesday. I made the pumpkin cheesecake with regular pumpkin puree rather than pumpkin pear butter and I liked it, but it wasn't sweet enough for anyone else. With the pumpkin pear butter, others like it, too!

GOOD FOOD CHEAP #16

EASY APPLE AND PUMPKIN RECIPES

By Larisa Sparrowhawk

INSANELY EASY APPLE OR PUMPKIN/PEAR BUTTER – Chop and core apples or pears. Leave skin on some. Chop, skin and seed pumpkin if using. Cook in a crockpot with a little apple cider vinegar and water, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ginger if desired, but no sweetener. Check 6-8 hours later. When it’s cooked down to 1/3-1/2 its original volume, let it cool. If making pumpkin/pear butter, you may add a little raw honey to taste after cooking. Blend it silky smooth. Freeze some for pancakes later!

GLUTEN FREE PUMPKIN BREAD – Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix 1 ½ c. brown rice flour, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp each nutmeg and ginger, and 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda; set aside. Mix 1 c. pumpkin butter, 1/3 c. honey, 1/2 stick melted butter, and 3 eggs. Mix wet and dry ingredients. Add chopped nuts, raisins or dried cranberries if desired. Bake in greased loaf pan for one hour 15 minutes.

CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE - Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Soak 1 c. golden raisins in 1 1/2 c. pumpkin butter for half an hour. Cut parchment to fit the inside of a spring-form pan. Chop pecans and spread them on parchment in pan with half a bag of semisweet chocolate chips. Melt remaining chips over very low heat. Blend pumpkin/raisin mix thoroughly with 3 tbsp. honey and put aside. Blend 3 8 oz. packages of room temperature cream cheese, 1/3 c. carob powder, 2 tsp. cinnamon (or 1 tsp. ginger), a pinch of salt and 4 eggs. Mix in pumpkin mixture. Pour carefully onto crust. Drizzle melted chocolate randomly over cake and swirl to marble. To prevent cracking, put a pan of water on the bottom rack of the oven and bake the cake in the center rack 1 hour without opening then door. Turn oven off to let cake set slowly for an hour and 15 minutes, still without opening the door! Run knife along edge of pan, then remove sides before allowing to finish cooling on rack. Refrigerate before serving.

Gluten free cookies and pancakes

2009-10-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

This will also be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News. After I move, I will continue to write for her, so keep reading Good Food, Cheap!

GLUTEN FREE BAKING
By Larisa Sparrowhawk
Gluten Free flour blends tend to be expensive and disappointing in many baked goods. Those with tapioca or corn starch produce gummy and flat breads and are better saved for pancakes. In my recipes I use individual flours rather than a prepared mix.
Gluten Free Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - These have a “pecan sandies” texture from the rice flour but taste marvelous.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix 1 3/4 c brown rice flour, ¼ cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, ½ tsp. salt and 1 tsp. cinnamon together and set aside.

Cream ½ cup plus 2 tbsp. of softened butter with 1 cup brown sugar. Beat in 2 large eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla flavoring. Mix wet and dry ingredients together, then fold in a bag of chocolate chips. (Check the label on the chips to ensure they do not contain gluten!)

Bake on parchment (best) or non stick cookie sheet 14 minutes or until set but not hard.

Buckwheat Fruit Pancakes – I didn’t realize how much I missed pancakes until I had a few bubbling on the stove. I devoured every one of these within a day all by myself.

Mix 1/2 cup brown rice flour with ½ cup buckwheat flour, ¼ cup tapioca starch, 2 tsp. baking powder and a pinch or two of salt. Add 1 egg, ½ cup of milk or nutmilk and 3 tbsp melted butter. Open a Celestial Seasonings blueberry teabag into the batter and add frozen blueberries or dried cranberries. Or use a cinnamon apple tea bag and raisins. Whisk together thoroughly and pour into a greased skillet to cook.

Coming soon: pumpkin sweet bread and sourdough gluten free bread!

Larisa Sparrowhawk will be available in Localvore, 115 E. Central Ave. in Sutherlin until the end of October and afterwards by email only: localvorefresh@aol.com.

H1N1 Vaccines

2009-10-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

This will be published in Becky Holm's Douglas County News, although in a shorter version if I can bear to cut it any more. I am currently at 1800 words, down from 2500 and there is just SO MUCH VITAL INFORMATION about this subject. Becky will also publish a pro-vaccine article since I couldn't make myself take that stance!

****

H1N1 Swine Flu Shots are Coming to Douglas County! Will You Get One?

By Larisa Sparrowhawk

Small shipments of H1N1 vaccine have arrived in Douglas County and are becoming available for healthcare workers, emergency responders, pregnant women and children. It is unknown when sufficient vaccines will arrive for the general population. While you wait, learn more here about the virulence of H1N1 and the safety of the vaccines.

The latest U.S. Census counted over 74 million children from birth through age 18. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported on the 39thth week of the outbreak that 50,768 children were reported with H1N1 or related “Subtype A influenzas” and 76 children died of these viruses. So far this year, H1N1 and other “Subtype A” influenzas greatly outnumber others – 99.7% to .3%. However 147 children died of all influenzas, so just under half of flu related deaths were attributed to H1N1.

No other infectious agents were reported for 44 of the children who died. Of the 32 remaining, 7 also had staph infections and 4 of these resisted treatment with methicillin. Other bacteria identified in the H1N1 infected children include Streptococcus constellatus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus, and Enterococcus. Two thirds of the 76 children had neurological disorders like cerebral palsy and epilepsy; 32% had asthma. Over half of adults hospitalized for H1N1 also had other serious health concerns like pneumonia, diabetes and asthma. Many were smokers.

By the 39th week, your child’s chance of catching H1N1 was greater than catching the seasonal flu, but your child’s chance of dying from H1N1 was less, just over one in a million. As of the end of the 40th week, 86 children died from H1N1 with or without other complications, so these statistics should be monitored.

A CDC health economics expert, Dr. Martin Meltzer, says “almost nobody dies of the flu and deaths are associated with flu, but not necessarily caused by flu.” The CDC and World Health Organization (WHO) lump influenza and pneumonia data together, which is misleading, because influenza is more often fatal. In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that of the 152 deaths reported in Mexico, only 7 were confirmed to be from H1N1!

Although the WHO stopped testing for H1N1 this summer, it continues to call H1N1 a pandemic. Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny of the WHO stated in September that the H1N1 has not mutated and “we are lucky that the pandemic is moderate in severity, that most people experience a mild illness and recover spontaneously.”

H1N1, like all influenzas, is a self-limiting disease, meaning it runs its course. Symptoms are similar to seasonal flu. The popular CNN Medical Reporter, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reported that he caught H1N1 while in Afghanistan and had a higher fever than expected with ordinary influenza. However, he recovered within a few days.

There are four different types of H1N1 flu vaccine coming available, with the most controversial being the Live Attenuated Influenza Virus (LAIV) nasal spray targeted at children. The government recommends this as a no-mercury vaccine that parents can feel good about. Concerned parents fear their children will contract H1N1 after a live virus is sprayed up the nose! Dr. Rita Laibow warns that the FluMist contains three live viruses and even if vaccinated people resist all three, they could infect others.

MedImmune, the producer of the FluMist nasal spray vaccine, includes this disclaimer in its product information: "Administration of Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine Live, Intranasal, a live virus vaccine, to immunocompromised persons should be based on careful consideration of potential benefits and risks. Safety has not been established… children and adolescents regularly taking aspirin or products containing it; or persons with certain: sensitivities, health problems, illnesses, malignancies, immunodeficiencies, nutritional deficiencies, abnormalities, allergies, or infections.” These are very vague contraindications, presumably excluding most children!

Ingredients used in injectable vaccines are also worrisome. Since you are unlikely to read the drug insert - which details legally required (but not all) ingredient information and potential side effects – before you get a shot, read on.

All vaccines are created by growing live viruses in various animal products conducive to quick multiplication of the virus. Chicken eggs are most commonly used. However, mouse brains, caterpillar eggs, and monkey kidneys have been used recently. Other flu vaccines are grown in pig blood or tissue or in human stem cells or cancer cells. The latter are especially shocking, but researchers use them because they multiply so rapidly! DNA fragments remaining in vaccines have been a concern for decades.

Adjuvants, agents used to irritate the immune system to react to even small amounts of the virus, are used in many vaccines. They make it possible for drug companies to produce many vaccines quickly at less expense. The World Health Organization (WHO) and CDC say adjuvants are necessary during health emergencies and also deny that they cause immune system diseases. A growing number of parents and medical personnel disagree. Mercury and aluminum, both known poisons, are still included in flu vaccines even though they have been removed from most other vaccines. Scientists are also beginning to use genetically engineered (recombinant nucleic acid) molecules and nanoparticles. Formaldehyde is sometimes used to inactivate a virus before packaging vaccines for use. Squalene, an oil based substance often manufactured from shark oil, is similar to oils produced by the human body, and is touted as being especially safe. You can eat squalene with no effects. However, some scientists say that “molecular mimicry” makes it dangerous. Injecting squalene with a virus and chemicals makes the body see it as an invader. Then the immune system begins to attack the body’s own squalene-type cells.

Squalene has previously only been used in one human experiment, by the military during the Gulf War. It is strongly implicated in the neurological disturbances (Gulf War Syndrome) and immune system diseases still experienced by 25% of those servicemen injected with the vaccine. In the 2004 lawsuit Doe v. Rumsfeld, the District Court in the District of Columbia ruled that the squalene was not approved for human use in the United States and therefore the military could no longer require mandatory vaccination with squalene containing products. However, The Novartis H1N1 vaccine contains the same MF59 squalene formula used in the military.

Dr. Baylor from the FDA admitted that the Novartis vaccine did include an adjuvant and “for CSL, GSK and Sanofi Pasteur, mixing of the vaccine with an adjuvant at the site of administration will be necessary.” This means the vaccine you receive in your body may not be completed in a sterile laboratory, but by a clinic employee we hope is wearing gloves and a mask.

The FDA and CDC insist testing has been done on these new vaccines; however, tests include only the viral agent without adjuvants. Dr. Tom Jefferson of the Vaccine Field Group “found less than two dozen studies on the current H1N1 flu vaccine and none with a completion date before December, 2010!” The FDA does not require independent laboratory analysis using industry standard double blind studies with placebos. It allows the drug manufacturers to exclude children, pregnant women, the elderly or allergic individuals and also to remove from the study anyone who develops any reaction to the vaccine. Nor does the FDA require drug manufacturers to release any information other than what the drug manufacturer sees fit to publish.

A law passed recently that gives vaccine manufacturers immunity from lawsuits! A person harmed by a vaccine could not even file suit without prooving an act of “willful misconduct,” or intentional harm. Additionally, even if it can be proven that a drug manufacturer knowingly harms people, if the vaccine was used during a health emergency declared by the HHS, only the U.S. Attorney General can initiate enforcement action for the injured party.

Possible negative reactions from an injectible H1N1 vaccine package insert updated in September of 2009: “Local injection site reactions (including pain, pain limiting limb movement, redness, swelling, warmth, ecchymosis, induration); Hot flashes/flushes; Chills; Fever; Malaise; Shivering; Fatigue; Asthenia; Facial edema; Immune system disorders; Hypersensitivity reactions (including throat and/or mouth edema); In rare cases, hypersensitivity reactions leading to anaphylactic shock and death; Cardiovascular disorders; Vasculitis (in rare cases with transient renal involvement); Syncope shortly after vaccination; Digestive disorders; Diarrhea; Nausea; Vomiting; Abdominal pain; Blood and lymphatic disorders; Local lymphadenopathy; Transient thrombocytopenia; Metabolic and nutritional disorders; Loss of appetite; Arthralgia; Myalgia; Myasthenia; Nervous system disorders; Headache; Dizziness;

Neuralgia; Paraesthesia; Febrile convulsions; Guillain-Barré Syndrome; Myelitis (including encephalomyelitis and transverse myelitis); Neuropathy (including neuritis); Paralysis (including Bell’s Palsy); Respiratory disorders; Dyspnea; Chest pain; Cough; Pharyngitis; Rhinitis; Stevens-Johnson syndrome; Pruritus; Urticaria; Rash (including non-specific, maculopapular, and vesiculobulbous).

Another product insert states: “Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with influenza virus vaccine. It is also not known whether influenza virus vaccine can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman.” Public officials have stated that vaccines do not cross the placenta, however, since everything else does, this seems unlikely to be true.

No wonder many health care workers around the world are resisting vaccination! 50% of health care workers polled in Hong Kong are refusing the vaccine, 69% of French will refuse it, 29% of Germans say they “will refuse it under any circumstances” and an additional 33% confess to misgivings about the vaccine. Polls in the UK show half of all doctors and a third of all nurses are refusing the vaccine.

New York was the first U.S. state to require all health care workers in contact with patients to get both the seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines. Six health care workers filed a suit against the FDA (Null et al. v. FDA et al.) for licensing vaccines without proper safety testing. The plaintiffs include Dr. Gary Null, PhD, a nutritionist who is well known for his writings on natural healthcare, Rima E. Laibow, MD, a licensed physician and Dr. Ted Koren, DC, who heads the Foundation for Health Choice. Another plaintiff is a billing clerk who was told she could be fired for refusing the vaccine, even though she has no direct contact with the public. The plaintiffs’ immunological expert, Sara Schon, MD and pharmaceutical chemist, Paul King, PhD will testify that the vaccines are not “prepared in the same manner as previous flu vaccines” like the government claims. The suit also references the testimony of HHS Secretary Sebelius to Congress on September 15th that the FDA’s own scientists would not “sign off” on the use of adjuvants in the vaccines. The plaintiffs further allege that the LAIV nasal vaccine could cause rather than prevent a pandemic. CNN reported Saturday October 17th that the Judge has issued a stay against mandatory vaccinations. The New York Health Department vows to fight this ruling.
Jim Clymer, the Constitution Party National Committee Chairman, said, “If the government can force potentially dangerous substances into our bodies, what, then, can’t the government do to us?”

Gluten Free Cornbread

2009-10-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

This will be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News. Cornbread is an easy gluten free bread because it is generally somewhat coarse anyway, and so there is no reason to add tapioca, which makes a smoother texture but tends to create a gummy tooth, or xantham gum, which is expensive. I include a little background on food intolerances because this is written for the general public.

Good Food Cheap #14

Baking Gluten Free
By Larisa Sparrowhawk

Food intolerances are an often-unrecognized source of symptoms including fatigue, seizures, rashes, acne, hives, stomach aches, diarrhea, flatulence, headaches, mood swings, sugar rushes and crashes, unexplained over or underweight, and tingling extremities.

Gluten intolerance symptoms come and go with ingestion of or abstinence from offending foods containing wheat, rye, barley, spelt, triticale and kamut. Most medical science says it is genetic but a few studies suggest a bacteriological origin. It appears to me that when an adult with gluten intolerance goes untreated, the illness worsens to become celiac disease in the following generation.

Rather than an annoying food intolerance, celiac disease is an autoimmune disease in which even tiny amounts of gluten in beer, soy sauce and salad dressing will trigger an immune response and damage intestinal villi. People with untreated celiac disease are often malnourished and more susceptible to other food intolerances, intestinal cancer, lymphoma and autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis, thyroid disease and diabetes.

Gluten free grains and flours include: amaranth, arrowroot, bean, buckwheat, corn, flax, millet, montina, potato, quinoa, rice, sago, soy (a goitrogen to be used with caution), tapioca and teff. Most people can also include oats in their diets.

Gluten-free cornbread: Preheat oven to 350. Combine 1 cup rice flour, 1 cup corn meal, 2 ½ tsp.baking powder and ½ tsp. salt. Set aside. Mix 1 cup milk or non-dairy milk, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp. honey and 1/4 cup melted butter together. Combine the wet and dry mixtures quickly. Add 3/4 cup frozen corn kernels. Bake in 8x8 inch pan for 20-25 minutes. You may stir in grated cheese, onion flakes and chopped bell peppers. For better digestion, you may also soak the flours in the milk in the refrigerator overnight and then add the remaining ingredients.

Next week: more gluten free breads!

Larisa Sparrowhawk is owner of Localvore Fresh Oregon Foods, 115 E. Central Ave in Sutherlin 459-1259

Using left over tomatoes from your garden

2009-09-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

This will also be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News.

Judging by recent cool nights and morning fog, tomato season will be over in a week. If you have quite a bit of fruit on your vines, you will like the ideas below.

I really dislike commercial tomato soup, but homemade is wonderful and leftovers freeze well. Blend tomatoes – some can be over or under ripe – thoroughly in a blender. Add red bell peppers if you have them. Add chopped onions, dried basil and garlic. Transfer to a non-aluminum pot and cook down. Add salt, dry mustard, hot sauce or pepper to taste. Let cool. Reblend with approximately ¼ cup of oat, chickpea or wheat flour per four cups of liquid. Reheat and top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream if you like.

Salsa verde is traditionally made with tomatillos, but if you use green tomatoes, I won’t tell anyone. It also freezes well. Either drop the tomatoes quickly in boiling water, remove them and skin them before chopping or blend them so you don’t notice the skins. Place tomatoes in a non-aluminum pot, add onions, chopped bell or hot peppers, cilantro, a little lime zest and salt. Boil down. Cool and add chopped avocado right before serving.

natural treatment for alcoholism

2009-09-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

I don't drink, but was married unhappily to someone who drank a LOT. I wish I knew then what I know now about nutritional deficiencies and alcoholism.

Many alcoholics have blood sugar issues (tending to be hypoglycemic) and absorption issues (lack of B vitamins make it harder for enzymes to digest food so one can get the vitamins, which make it harder for the enzymes... a vicious circle). I read three different doctors from a generation or two ago recommend B complex INJECTIONS. The book I am reading now is Feed Yourself Right by Lendon Smith and I highly recommend it. Smith recommends adding vitamin C to the injection, also. The other books were Your Body is Your Best Doctor by Page and Abrams and another I can't remember because I am at my store instead of in front of my bookcase! Curiously, I remember his face well from the photo in the back of the book. The alcohol/B vitamin relation is also mentioned in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell and in Eat Right or Die Young by Cass Ingram.

If three doctors practicing from the 40s through the 70s knew that alcoholism could be treated and eventually cured with simple nutritional support, why is this knowledge not commonplace now? So many lives could have been improved or saved! If you know someone with alcohol issues, please pass this knowledge on.

Shop like a Great Depression Survivor

2009-09-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

This will be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News:

In 1976, when I was eleven and Mom was badly hurt in a car accident, Dad taught me how to shop for groceries. He told me we were going to fill up the cart and pay for it with $100.00 cash. It would be hard to fill a cart with $100 today without fake juice drinks and puffed up sugar cereal, but the principles he taught then still apply. Dad embarrassed me by snapping bottoms off asparagus and refusing to buy stone fruit because he did not want to pay for the pits. I love stone fruit so that is a rule I do not follow today. However, he also refused to buy food in boxes because he did not want to pay for boxes and air space, he wouldn’t buy canned food unless we shook the can to make sure it wasn’t full of water and he preferred simple, unprocessed food that was either bulk or packaged so he knew exactly what he was getting. When we were done, we had a cart full of meat, cheese, fresh and frozen vegetables for less than $100. Thereafter, he dropped me off at the store and I was to fill the cart for less than $100 by myself. All the way through the store I was counting and paying close attention.

Today I’d add the following advice: shop alone, do not talk on the cell phone while you are in the store, avoid big box stores that encourage you to buy more than you need, and shop twice a week rather than once so you always have fresh produce and do not throw any out. Subtract $5.00 per person from your normal grocery expense and take cash into the store. Have a secret stash to use ONLY if you find a quality ingredient at an exceptional discount. Otherwise if you spend $100.00 per week for two people, subtract $10.00 and take half of the new $90.00 total in to the grocery twice a week.

The first couple of times you shop this way, you may want to take pen and paper and mark one line per dollar with a hash when you reach five dollars. Eventually it will become second nature.

Simple menu good for digestion and wallet

2009-09-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

This will also be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News:

Eating simple home prepared meals can be both inexpensive and very good for your health. During fall and winter months, focus on onions, garlic, carrots, cole crops, apples and pears, all of which are locally in season.

For breakfast, eat eggs or oatmeal from rolled oats you cook yourself, not the packaged kind that is full of sugar, preservatives and flavorings. Top oatmeal with butter and raw honey, which will help you digest it. For snack, eat an apple or other fruit (eating fruit alone greatly helps digestion).

Lunch should be your biggest protein meal of the day, to give you long lasting energy and plenty of time to digest it before bedtime. Skip bread products and sugar items, both of which cause post-prandial sleepiness. Eat a lentil, seed, cheese or meat dish with vegetables. Again, fruit eaten alone makes an excellent between meals snack.

For dinner, eat a small amount of sliced meat (not deli meat, which is loaded with preservatives, sugar and also is often the culprit of food poisoning), nuts, seeds or avocado with a large salad. Lettuce, avocado and nuts promote a restful sleep. Dinner is also the best time to eat pasta or bread, but make sure to use whole grains for more nutrition and also to lessen blood sugar spikes and drops. Or eat a bowl of brown rice or quinoa.

A delicious entrée salad with an Asian flair: marinate chopped broccoli, green onions and bok choy or other cabbage in Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, ginger, sesame oil and lemon or lime juice for a couple hours, until wilted but still a little crunchy. Add sliced cooked beef, chicken, shrimp or almonds. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Eating the vegetables raw preserves their enzymes. Enjoy!

what I've been doing

2009-08-31T15:03:00.000-07:00

I've been building a website (http://www.localvoreoregon.com/)! I'm not very good at it so I've started and stopped a couple times on various hosts. Webhero's pretty straightforward, so I'm actually getting somewhere. I even have directions, using mapquest! Yooohooo!

Also have been hauling stuff out of my house and to the back room of the shop for a yard sale and have posted a bunch of livestock and other stuff on Craigslist. I need to get serious about downsizing, fixing up the house and moving.

It occured to me that my old rowhouse in Richmond was a good shape for my house on wheels. It was a big wedge, a rustic Victorian built in the 1880s and I could fairly easily duplicate some of the architectural details on my little bandsaw. I'll have to build the basic house, of course, and get going, but it will be fun to add stamped tin to the kitchen ceiling, scrollwork above the door...

Cheater's salsa/spaghetti sauce - frozen instead of canned

2009-08-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

This will also be published in Becky Holm's Douglas County News.

Canning too much work? Try freezing instead!

By Larisa Sparrowhawk

Every August I am suddenly overwhelmed with tomatoes. I used to make cases of both spaghetti sauce and salsa, but lately that just seems like too much work. Instead, I make a couple of batches of a dual purpose sauce to freeze. It can be used on noodles, chips or tortillas, mixed into rice for Spanish rice or poured onto roast before cooking. Because it contains lentils, it has protein and you can eat it as it is or add leftover meat from another meal to it. I’ll give approximate directions that you can adjust according to how bountiful your harvest is.

7 parts tomatoes, cut
1 part tomatillos, cut
1 part chopped onions
1 part chopped fresh basil
1 part chopped bell or hot peppers if desired
1 part lentils
A garlic clove or two, a splash of water, a pinch of salt, a little cayenne pepper, a teaspoon or so of celery seed and some chopped dried tomatoes or mushrooms if desired for a richer sauce.

If you add a little cooked chopped sausage to the sauce, you can extend the flavor of sausage (making it seem like there is more of it!) by adding whatever spice the sausage tastes like—usually sage or anise seed.

I don’t even bother cutting the tomatoes small. I blend them with half of the onions because it is faster and that way I don’t have to add a lot of water for the lentils to cook in. Also blending the tomatoes means you don’t have to de-skin them first. Let the mix simmer for a couple hours at least. At this point I often skim off the thinner part and eat it as soup and then cool and freeze the rest.

Enjoy!

By the way, for more inexpensive and wholesome foods to make at home, visit Wardeh Harmon's GNOWFGLINS Tuesday Twister! http://gnowfglins.com/2009/08/24/tuesday-twister-blog-carnival-2009-08-25/

Downsizing and liking it

2009-08-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about downsizing. I was downsized at my job last year and I didn't like THAT at all, but it has actually become a blessing in a weird round about way. I never considered myself much of a consumer; I shopped at thrift stores and thought I could squeeze a penny so tight I could put Lincoln IN the Memorial. But I've learned a LOT in recent months about living lighter on this earth and how I could keep money in my wallet.

About eight years ago, during a Field Day at Joel's Polyface farm and then again while being interviewed for a job as cow masseuse (I kid you not!!!) at Sunrise Farm, I looked at their chicken tractors on trailers and thought, wouldn't that be fun, to live in one of those, of course without the chicken poop? When I was a kid I had a fascination with pop up and regular trailers, but they were cold, not so well designed, and they were noisy while travelling. I had frequent daydreams about running away and living in the woods as I imagined Native Americans did, but without the close tribal society. A lone Native. To me it meant big adventure, not hardship and uncertainty. I tried VERY hard to get my Gold Beach cousin to run away with me to the mountains near Ashland when we were 14. If she'd been more interested, I wonder what the rest of my life would have turned out like?

I was homeless and near homeless at various times when I lived at Virginia and then I got a fairly comfortable job and bought a little farm. I started scaling up. I wanted pigs, I wanted chickens, I wanted cattle and sheep and goats and fruit trees and a garden. But I've never been much good at picking men, so I had all these projects going but never actually handled any of them well because it was simply TOO MUCH WORK FOR ONE PERSON. (duh!) Joel talked about this briefly at Afton Field Farm's Field Day last weekend. The most successful farms, he said, realized their inefficiencies, and gave something up. After they streamlined they were able to produce and prosper. Joel suggested to all of us that we form a farming community where we live, that if we raise chickens, we find a friend with produce, and another friend with milk... or whatever... so we can market together and pool resources.

I was forced to scale back when I moved across country. I sold or gave away a lot of my belongings, including things I'd hauled around with me for years. I reduced my livestock to three goats, three ducks and a livestock guard dog. I cried many tears over goats I'd never see again. But once I got here, I started scaling up again. I bought the fruit trees, multiple dozen chickens, a few more goats... and suddenly found I couldn't afford to feed them all. There's nothing worse than feeling like a bad parent to so many critters... I did feed them - just look at my fat goats and you'll know they didn't suffer ONE BIT! But it was a struggle, as were all the other bills. And I didn't like the guilt.

How did I get this way? In a house I can't afford, alone and with more chores and bills than I can handle? I have the plague of smarts - I have read so much and thought so much, I have huge ideals I can't possibly live up to. I see so many sides of gray in a situation that sometimes I am stymied and unable to make decisions. Sometimes I go with the flow rather than expose myself to conflict. And then, just to complicate things, I also have a fierce need to be independent and to do everything all by myself. When I moved out here, I should have gone camping then, to save money. I didn't. When it was clear I wasn't going to sell the Virginia house, I should have pulled out of the Oregon house and gone camping. I didn't. I should have put condoms on the drakes and roosters. I didn't.

Relatives are telling me to declare bankruptcy and move back to Mom's and go back to school. I don't feel good about that. I don't want desperation reflected on my credit report for ten years. It costs money to declare bankruptcy, anyway. $1300 plus.  I do recognize that my training in automotive is of little use to me in this economy and I could use at least skills updating if nothing else. But I also know I've wanted to own something like the store I have now since I was 19 years old. I don't want to quit just after opening it. It only needs a very small cash infusion to grow as long as I can personally reduce my bills so I can keep going without a paycheck from the store.

Also, I want a degree in Nutrition Science. I don't want to go back to school for anything else. I can't afford a bachelors degree while I can't even keep my utilities on, so I figure my best bet is to wait until I either save money or find a scholarship for a four year degree that will let me take most of my classes online. I can't see myself accepting the free tuition being offered to take classes in a field I'm not interested in. I went to UTE1stop and I just couldn't put my heart into it.

Looking back, a lot of my money issues were caused by entering relationships, racking up expenses like houses and cars and kids (not that kids are expenses only) and then suddenly being alone again. Every bad relationship I got into started with us feeling broke and moving in together to pool resources before we knew each other well. I'm not necessarily against cohabitation, but only with someone who is your best friend as well as your lover... someone you could at least SEE yourself marrying, whether you do or not. I married three guys (one at a time!) who stopped drinking just for me, and when they started drinking again, I couldn't extract myself. I got all caught up in the should I's and shouldn't I's and stayed there, paralyzed, for years with someone I shouldn't have spent months with. And then I'd live alone for a few months and start the cycle all over again. This is how I am nearly 44 and single! Because I never dated, I never shopped. I was in a relationship or alone, one or the other.  And economics had WAAAAYYY too much to do with it. I made myself a promise I'd take the proper time to get to know the next guy. If my economic status is stable, it will help me keep that promise. And besides, how many men would really be willing to share a house that was 6' x 10'? He'd HAVE to love me. One thing I know I don't want, which was actually the stimulus for finally breaking up with a man I dated for years, is to marry a man I'm not excited about, even if he promises to bail me out. Again, I want to do it myself. I will be my own bail out plan.

So now I'm thinking seriously, deliberately, trying to separate emotion without being untrue to myself. What do I really need? What do I really want? What can I get rid of? Where do I want to be next year, in five years, in ten? When I first began to consider downsizing I wanted to keep nearly every animal I have and find a big piece of owner financed land. Now I'm thinking if I only take my 47 chicken youngsters and my guard dog, I'll have a lot more possibilities open to me, including cheap rent on the back 40 of a farm owned by someone else.   If I find someone who owns property they want cleared, but they don't want to pay for it, I can take my chainsaw and my goats and probably live there for free for months. But then I'll have to consider fencing and feeding. They're not trained to electric fencing and they have horns. Chickens, however, are easy to put in a flexible electric fence on a roll like they sell at premier1sheepsupply.com. I need to get the chicken house and my house built and then see what is out there. If I take apart some structures I built when I moved in, I'll have about a sixth of the wood. I have a couple ads posted for partial sheets of plywood, partial cans of paint, any bits and pieces others may have from their projects that they may be happy to have me haul off free.

As far as material belongings go, I am blessedly unconcerned. I need to have enough to stay physically clean and to look good for my jobs. I'll take some of my art supplies. The rest???

Over the last six months, I have put many signs up on my store window and on feed store bulletin boards to sell livestock, with little success. Last night I put an ad on Craigs List for livestock and some household goods. I've gotten a LOT of emails already.

Over the last week I've been moving things I want to keep from the downstairs to the upstairs, which is one big room. That simple action is making me downsize. If I have too much junk in the upstairs room, I obviously won't be able to take it in my tiny house on wheels, so it gets sold, given away or tossed. I've been hauling around notes I've taken for future writing projects. Not a few weeks worth of notes - but boxes and boxes of notes from the last 11 years. I think I'll burn them. I've been carting around books I haven't read in 15 years. I've done the same with clothes. I finally got rid of all my size fours, realizing I'll never be a four again. I didn't even like how I looked when I was that thin, so why did I keep the clothes? I got rid of all the 12s I was keeping as a fat-again insurance policy. It's stupid, but I think a lot of women do it. I think if I don't have fat clothes, I'm a lot less likely to get fat again. I like my big bedroom, but truly, all I ever use in it is the bed! A loft will do. I was opening closets and cabinets and looking at my stuff yesterday. How did I get so much stuff? I mean, I have FOUR teapots! Most of my stuff I either got free or bought at thrift stores and yard sales. But even a bargain costs money and even a freebee takes up space.

When I get the downstairs emptied I will have to decide what to do about the little dog. I either have to crate train him while I am gone every day to keep him from peeing on stuff and scratching walls, or I have to find a new home for him. He's being one of my hardest decisions because he's cute, funny and loving. If I met a retired or handicapped person who spent a lot of time at home and needed a companion, he'd probably be a good dog for that person because he could get lots of potty breaks and lots of lap time.

My mom and daughter want me to get rid of the Great Pyranees because they are afraid of him. He has growled at my daughter to keep her out of the kitchen (like it was his and not hers!) more than once. He also needs work. But he has loved both of my ex boyfriends and is extremely faithful to me. I think this dog would die for me. I live alone so this loyalty means both companionship and protection. He could also be feasibly retrained to do traditional farm guard duties.

I'm playing with housing designs, and each design gets simpler and less expensive. I won't go so far as to build the whole thing with pallets because I do have to haul it behind my truck, probably more than once. But I am downsizing the interior... a LOT. I want a composting toilet and probably will get one, eventually, but do I need one? Not to start. A portapotti will do. I want my hot showers, but I hate my 100-200 electric bills. Cabella's sells a propane water heater on a tripod that I can use on those days I must have hot water. I like cooking, but my store will have a kitchen. I don't need a full kitchen in the rolling home. A propane burner and a solar oven for those times I must cook will be good enough. Otherwise I can eat raw foods, either as whole fruits and vegetables or as items I have prepared at the store that do not need refrigeration or heating. I'll bet I lose that last ten pounds because when I go prowling at midnight I'll eat an apple instead of making a big meal!

Since the rains are coming, I intend to build entire panels on the floor in my office (which is huge and mostly empty) and then borrow someone to help me carry them out and lift them onto the trailer.

Well, got to go back to work, so I'll have to do more of this thinking on computer later. Thank you for reading through all this. I'm hoping someone else in a similar boat starts following and we can cheer each other on! I talked to a couple of other women who were unhappy in relationships and wanted to move out, which got me daydreaming about multiple little houses, like the caravans of covered wagons that came across the country to Oregon. What if we rented land together and I supplied eggs and another supplied.... ?

Update 8/27:   I went on a blind date yesterday at 6am (coffee in a thermous shared on a blanket in a park) with a man who I was floored to find out has many of the same sustainability books I do and is a green builder. He is getting a divorce and hadn't decided where he was going next. I described the house on wheels idea and he became very excited.  We HAD to see each other again in the evening and we poured over internet pictures and scribbled plans on graph paper until 2am! I think I have home #2 for the "covered wagon community" I was mentioning above.

"food safety" bills in Congress and how YOU can help! - Long but important

2009-08-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

Lifted from an email I sent to 222 people from Oregon who expressed interest either while at my local foods store or at events featuring Joel Salatin last week. Therefore Oregon Senators are listed, but you can find your Senators' contact info on www.congress.org quickly and apply the rest of the information.
*******
The US Senate is on recess and this is the best time to contact them before they go back to Washington, DC to vote on "food safety." They may vote on HR2749, which was forwarded to the Senate exactly as it passed in the House, or they may vote on S510, which was sponsored by one of their own, Senator Durbin of Illinois. We will need to let them know we oppose both bills as written and why. S-510 is slightly less damaging, but it would not be a good idea to say you want them to vote for it, not HR2749. Both bills would GREATLY REDUCE the availability of locally grown and produced farm and food products, as they will force us to "get big or get out."

There are several ways you can express your thoughts. The quickest is to call. You will almost assuredly talk to an aide, who will ask your name and address. Then you state thay you want Senator ______ to oppose both HR2749 and S-510 because they would force small farms and producers out of business. Have this email handy because the aide may ask questions. Most of the time, however, they just thank you for your input and hang up. The second quickest way is to email the Senator using the form on his website. You should put "oppose HR2749 and S510" in the subject line rather than something that could be misconstrued to be in favor of the bill, like "please make food really safe." The third way is to visit your Senator at one of his offices. This is obviously the most time consuming, but it is also usually very gratifying, especially if you go in a small group (2-5 people, no more) and each of you is prepared to talk briefly about your area of expertise. Well behaved children are generally welcome. Bring something from your own farm or food business. If you have a charming child who can present the Senator with goat cheese, for instance, and a picture of your family goat, or a jar of jelly and homemade bread in a basket, the Senator is likely to remember the experience a long time. Make sure there is plenty so the aides can share, or bring the aides some, too. Or take a collection of letters. Make sure your name, address, phone # and email are on them. Have letters written by your family and friends and children. (Even children can understand that if farming becomes too expensive they will have to give up their favorite goats, chickens and berry bushes!) Make them look different, so it doesn't look like you sat down at a computer and made them all up yourself. Some can be on note cards, some can be typed, etc. Even three or four letters will be noted. Make sure they all say "oppose HR2749 and S510" on them.

You should call first to make an appointment or plan to go to a town hall or event the Senator will be attending.& nbsp; If you don't call, you will likely see the aides only. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as they are generally friendly and MOST of them will take notes, but in case they don't, that is what your food and letter are for! When you leave, you will know you have done your part to preserve the right of yourself, your family and your community to (as Joel Salatin says) feed your three trillion internal bacteria with the best food available!

Make sure you acknowledge that you know there have been many outbreaks of illnesses in the news lately, and that you know the Senator is only trying to protect his constituents, but that slapping a one-size-fits-all bill on everyone who produces food in the country will only make food LESS safe because it will take away local food options. Say you feel safer buying food from someone you can see face-to-face, someone who processes food in small batches and oversees every bit of it personally. Make sure you do not confuse HR2749 and S510 with NAIS, but that you mention that these new safety bills have a lot of the same problems, including saddling taxpayers and small producers with huge expenses to cover an industry problem, requiring farmers to shoulder an unfair amount of necessary work, and near certainty that the privacy and property rights of individuals will be unfairly violated.

The structure for this email: first, Senator contact information, then de tails about the bills, then information about OCFA, Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association.

Senator Ron Wyden
Email through a form on his website: www.wyden.senate.gov
Washington, D.C. Office:
223 Dirksen Senate Office Building,District of Columbia 20510-3703Phone: (202) 224-5244Fax: (202) 228-2717
Portland Office:1220 SW 3rd Avenue, Suite 585Portland, Oregon 97204Phone: (503) 326-7525Fax: (503) 326-7528
Eugene Office:405 East 8th Avenue, Suite 2020Eugene, Oregon 97401Phone: (541) 431-0229Fax: (541) 431-0610
Bend Office:131 NW Hawthorne Avenue, Suite 107Bend, Oregon 97701Phone: (541) 330-9142Fax: (541) 330-6266
LaGrande Office:SAC Annex Building, 105 Fir Street, Suite 201LaGrande, Oregon 97850Phone: (541) 962-7691Fax:
Medford Office:310 West 6th Street, Room 118Medford, Oregon 97501Phone: (541) 858-5122Fax: (541) 858-5126
Salem Office:707 13th Street, SE, Suite 285Salem, Oregon 97301Phone: (503) 589-4555Fax: (503) 589-4749

Senator Jeff Merkley
Email: www.:merkley.senate.gov
Washington, D.C. Office:107 Russell Senate Office Building,District of Columbia 20510-3704Phone: (202) 224-3753Fax: (202) 228-3997
Portland Office:121 SW Salmon Street, #1250Portland, Oregon 97204Phone: (503) 326-3386Fax: (503) 326-2900
Eugene Office:405 East 8th Avenue, Suite 2010Eugene, Oregon 97401Phone: (541) 465-6750Fax:
Medford Office:10 South Bartlett Street, Suite 201Medford, Oregon 97501Phone: (541) 608-9102Fax:
Salem Office:495 State Street, Suite 330Salem, Oregon 97301Phone: (503) 362-8102Fax:
Bend Office:131 NW Hawthorne Avenue, Suite 208Bend, Oregon 97701Phone: (541) 318-1298Fax:
Pendleton Office:310 SE Second Street, Suite 105Pendleton, Oregon 97801Phone: (541) 278-1129Fax:

THE DOWN AND DIRTY QUICK VERSIONS:

S510 includes dozens of requirements that the Secretary of Health and Human Services devise and implement plans regarding specific food issues, but of course since these plans are not yet made, the Senate can have no idea what they are voting on other than that the Secretary will take action of some sort.

S510 will require small producers of value added products to register their property with the government, pay an unspecified fee based entirely on what the Health and Human Resources Secretary decides the costs of business are (remember the government's $600 toilet seats? Don't assume this will be reasonable!)

S510 includes a National Agriculture and Food Defense Strategy that sounds suspiciously like NAIS for value added products like bread and jam. It also contains an indirect but fairly clear reference to NAIS. It includes working with the Departments of Agriculture and Homeland Security to be consistent with "other relevant national strategies." It includes rapid response detection, communication and "surveillance" as well as "developing and conducting exercises to test decontamination and disposal plans" including "contaminated agriculture and food products and infected plants and animals." It includes "immediately investigating animal disease outbreaks and suspected food contamination... organizing, training and equipping animal, plant and food emergency response teams of the Federal government and state, local and tribal governments." You may find this on pages 23 and 24 of the bill. It is not specified how the surveillance will occur, but the word surveillance is used multiple times in this section, and is sometimes paired with the word "laboratory." Can we assume that inspectors will be posing as customers and purchasing products to send off for secret testing? I know a few farmers who were targets of such stings. The Secretary of Health and Human Services will provide biennial reports about fruit and vegetable "raw agricultural commodities" that include recommendations for "enhanced surveillance, outbreak response, and traceability." In Section 204, "Enhancing Traceback and Recordkeeping," the "Secretary shall select participants from the produce industry to run projects which shall include...fruits or vegetables that have been the subject of outbreaks...to develop and demonstrate methods that are applicable and appropriate for small businesses and technologies... that enhance traceback and trace forward." Industry will decide what is appropriate for small businesses! Included in the plans are "working toward automatic electronic searches...The Secretary shall support and maintain a diverse working group of experts and stakeholders..." In "Section 208, Decontamination and Disposal Standards and Plans, " The "Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture shall jointly develop and disseminate model plans for the decontamination of individuals, equipment and facilities... and the disposal of large quantities of animals, plants or food products..." This is on page 46.

On page 3 and 4, "Section 101, Inspections of Records", state that if the Secretary "believes there is a reasonable probability" that the food may be adulterated or make people sick, producers, packers, distributors, importers, processors, and holding facilities shall provide records relating to the food to an agent, officer or employee who is unspecified, but is assumed to be an agriculture or health services employee of the Federal government. Farms and restaurants are currently excluded from this requirement, presumably because farms are the source and restaurants cook and sell food rapidly. However, later in the document, it is clear that farms will be required to produce records. I assume this ambiguity will be removed later.

The Secretary may suspend registration, fine you for your failure to provide adequate records or for other reasons including issues with your processing facility and then charge you costs of reinspection and re-registration. If you are involved in a recall, you will also have to cover the costs of "recall activities." If you do not pay your fees within 30 days of the due date, "such fee shall be treated as a claim of the United States Government," which means they could seize your tax refund or possibly personal property. This part I have not researched thoroughly ; if someone wants to read "subchapter II of chapter 37 of title 31, United States Code" and report back to me, I'd be grateful.

S510 will require even small producers to come up with a HAACP plan, whi ch means you will have to document not only your current food safety measures, but also what could potentially happen to your food and how you will keep such potential occurrence from occurring. This would include using physical structures such as screens over windows and three compartment stainless steel sinks, training employees to wash their hands after going to the bathroom and posting a sign in the bathroom to remind them, and guaranteeing you will not purchase raisins for your raisin bread from someone who is not in compliance (because that would make your bread adulterated and misbranded!), etc. As S510 states, you will "identify and evaluate known or reasonably foreseeable hazards... including biological, chemical, physical, radiological hazards, natural toxins, pesticides, drug residues, decomposition, parasites, allergens, and unapproved food and color additives, and hazards that occur naturally, may be unintentionally introduced, or may be intentionally introduced, including by acts of terrorism, and develop a written analysis of the hazards." Then you will have to "monitor the performance of these controls and maintain records of this monitoring as a matter of routine practice." If you find something that does not comply with the plan, you must document your corrective action. You must keep these records for a minimum of two years. The inspector will look for this and will expect an entry EVERY TIME you do anything related to your business. You bake six l oaves of bread for the farmers market or the retail store down the street, you fill out the HAACP form. I suppose you could write that you found the house doors unlocked and you locked them to keep terrorists out!

S510 will require us to have a recall contingency plan and to verify our suppliers. This means we will have to provide name, address and phone number of where we buy our supplies and who we sell the finished products to. If you sell strictly on farm or at a farmers market or you only occasionally produce bake sale food, which you donate to your church and then your church sells it, you will probably not have to comply with this. These folks have been exempted from regulations in HR2749. However, if you sell retail and wholesale, you should plan on having all these records because inspectors will look for them. You will also need to keep very good records of how your income is split between direct sales and indirect sales, including both retail shops and restaurants. Currently a farmers market booth is considered an extension of your farm, and therefore a direct sales venue. However, even if you are the sole owner and employee, like I am, of a retail store, you are selling indirect. I am sure there will be some hair-splitting over this later. Joel and his neighbors band together to sell products. He's the sales person, then, of many different products. Are his sales direct and the other farmers' sales indirect? Or are they all indirect because they are retail products from multiple sources? If Joel suddenly is deemed to have a retail store, he will have to comply with everything in the bill.

S510 will require us to follow the government's current "science-based" standards not only for our HAACP plan, but also our growing methods! Joel and Tyler of Afton Field Farm can tell you all about the ridiculous requirements for poultry processing buildings, I could tell you about unreasonable egg washing requirements; we are all afraid that they will tell us that we can not grow our fruits, vegetables and livestock naturally, as our families have for generations. S510 states that "the Secretary shall prioritize the implementation of the regulations for specific fruits and vegetables that are raw agricultural commodities that have been associated with food-bourne illness outbreaks." In the last few years, this has included spinach, peppers, tomatoes, green onions, cantaloupes, lettuce, peanuts, alfalfa sprouts, peanuts, etc. The Center for Disease Control says that food bourne illnesses have not actually increased, but are being better reported in the press. Hmmm... makes you wonder, since the USDA and FDA distribute a lot of press releases, if they have a reason to fan the fires... like to get NAIS-like plans enforced on producers of value-added products in addition to animal owners? The regulations "include, with r espect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to soil amendments, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment and water and consider hazards that occur naturally, may be unintentionally introduced or may be intentionally introduced, including by acts of terrorism." I can't imagine it would be very satisfactory to a terrorist to drive down my gravel drive to contaminate my 18 tomato plants when he could contaminate hundreds of thousands of plants at a commercial farm. He might sicken five people with my plants or five thousand with the commercial plants.

S510 specifies that farms are exempt from anti-terrorist regulations for short shelf life and bulk foods UNLESS these foods includes milk. So if you grow corn, for instance, you will have to have approved growing methods and keep terrorists away from your plants, but you can rest easy about how you store it once it is picked. But if you have dairy animals, you will have to show that your milk storage facility is terrorist proof.

The Department of Health and Human Services will consult with the Departments of Agriculture and Homeland Security for their terrorist prevention strategies. I find it especially nice that these strategies will be published so that terrorists, if there indeed are any, may know what these strategies are.

"Section 113, Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management" requires parents to provide schools or other educational programs annually with a doctor's or nurse's documentation that the child has a food allergy, what the symptoms are, if the child has any history of anaphylaxis and a list of substitute foods that may be offered. I would think that every parent should want to protect their child, but I resent the specification that a doctor or nurse must be involved. When my daughter was little, I noticed that certain foods gave her rashes, including milk products, powdered drink mixes and M&Ms. I decided that pasteurized and homogenized milk and certain food colorings were the cause of this. Later I noticed bread products gave her intestinal distress and made her overweight, grouchy and tired. (A doctor diagnosed her as being diabetic and prescribed Metformin, which caused liver damage and repeated trips to hospitals and clinics!) Since she stopped consuming such products, she has been fine. I might have to take her to multiple doctors to find one who agrees with me that raw goat milk is ok, but pasteurized cow milk is not, that flour is bad, but sprouted grains are usually ok, and that dyes that are approved by the government as safe are indeed not safe. Why would I want to do this and subject her to invasive testing when I know from years of living with her what the truth is?

One of the very unfortunate realities of food inspection is that requirements are frequently vague and up to interpretation. The state inspector and the federal inspector may have totally different interpretations of the same words, which can almost be guaranteed to be 180 degrees different from our interpretations. Another unfortunate reality is that sometimes violators are cited, arrested, fined, jailed and even tried in the USDA's court rather than in public courts. Linda Faillace in Mad Sheep documents her experience with how hard it is to win against the USDA in the USDA's own courts.

Not expressly written in the bill, but implied, is that this bill allows the Federal government the unprecedented, unConstitutional authority to interfere with interstate (in-state) commerce. Previously only states and localities could regulate what was sold within their jurisdiction.

So there you have it. I am all for the provision that provides the Federal government the ability to mandate recalls. Currently recalls are voluntary, and producers of contaminated products tend to wait until the problem is huge and many people have been sickened rather than risk the bad press. But much of the rest of the bill tromps on small producers, processors and sales outlets. When our country is experiencing record unemployment and mind blowing debt, why should Congress pass a bill that provides for expenditures of $825,000,000.00 in 2010 ALONE and will put many small producer s out of business? Please do everything you can to help us make sure that the Senate does NOT pass this bill.

HR2749 RFS (The bill as referred to the Senate, available on Thomas.gov) is similar to S510, but far more specific, and does have differences that would affect us:

Hr2749 exempts farms, restaurants, retail stores, non profit organizations and individual homes where food is sold to or served directly to the consumer, which is defined as not being a business. It also exempts farms that process foods for their own consumption. (Generous of them, isn't it?) This is an improvement over previous versions of the bill, but anyone who receives more income selling food indirectly will have to comply with the entire bill. So a farmer who makes more money selling to restaurants or to retail stores (I assume this includes Joel now, since he's gotten the Chipotle account) will have to comply. The division is done by dollars sold rather than by types of food, volume sold or effort and time expended in such sales. This is probably bad news for a lot of people, since a farm may spend three days selling food at markets and on farm to make as much money as they receive from one delivery to a restaurant. I believe it will force many to keep records just in case an inspector shows up, just to prove that they sell mostly direct. It is also bad news for folks who farm part time or do not like dealing with the public who chose to sell only indirectly. Their operations may be no more "commercial" than the folks who sell only on farm, but they will have to comply as if they were a large commercial establishment. This would include folks like me, who work regular jobs and sell just enough to cover the feed bill so we can enjoy having livestock. There are still no exemptions for farmers and producers who sell only within their own states. Again, the Federal government does not have Constitutional authority to interfere with interstate commerce.

HR2749 specifies fees per facility of $500 for 2010 and allows for adjustment for following years. Someone who owns or operates multiple facilities have a maximum fee per year of "not more than $175,000." I wonder if my homestead and my store count as multiple facilities. HR2749 also contains provisions for additional fees for reinspections, recertifications and recalls. HR2749 requires submission of products for testing. I might be ok with this if this were the only requirement, but since we have to pay the fees and the HAACP plans, pass inspection and everything else, and pay for testing... Also, they get to decide who performs the test. I know two Virginia goat cheese manufacturers who had cheese seized and sent off to labs. They both sent samples of the same cheese to facilities they knew. Surprise! The results were different. One of the farmers said the inspectors did not pack her cheese on dry ice before mailing the package off. If you dispute the results, you get to pay for both tests, a retest, fines, and perhaps a lawyer once your facility is shut down. Plus you lose business and possibly receive bad press over the closure, even if you are not guilty. You’d be surprised if you knew how reluctant newspapers were to handle cases like this where the farm is right and the government is wrong.

HR2749 goes into significantly more detail about the Federal government's ability to interfere with foods sold interstate when they suspect a problem. (S510 allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create unknown new regulations.) HR2749 allows for search and seizure if there is "reason to believe" (as opposed to proof) that a product is unsafe, adulterated or misbranded. Remember that adulterated and misbranded could include simply purchasing ingredients from unregistered sources. It also may include raw milk, even in states where raw milk is legal. HR2749 specifically states that producers "in a state or a portion of a state" where there has been a suspected or confirmed food illness outbreak will be quarantined. It includes not only restriction of food, but also "means of conveyance of food," which for many of us would include the farm trucks we use to take food to market - and also to run errands and go to our day jobs.

The FDA still gets to decide what they consider a risky facility that requires inspection once a year or as often as they wish. HR2749 has stricken the requirement that there be "credible evidence" before search and seizure and has replaced those words with "reason to believe." If you make raw goat cheese, watch out. You are not allowed to refuse or delay an inspection, even though the inspectors will be interrupting you at HOME. They are not required to have a search warrant. A warrant limits the search in time, place and scope. They can be in your house for hours, even days, go into your kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and other private places, in addition to your computer, address book and cell phone. They can interview your children, your customers, your neighbors. And at least some of them will be packing guns. My personal observation is that farmers who are registered gun owners tend to be treated the roughest during inspections.

The Secretary of the HHS can provide information to state, federal and local agencies at will, but may not necessarily disclose this information to you. Even better, they may also release information to foreign governments, international organizations, the public in general and the IRS. You don’t have to be proven guilty of selling unhealthy food in a court of law. You could simply sell “misbranded” food.

HR2749 also allows for the imprisonment of up to ten years of any person who knowingly sells misbranded or adulterated foods. It also allows for stiff penalties for noncompliance: $20,000.00-50,000.00 for a single individual, $250,000.00 - 1,000,000.00 per company or other group of individuals, up to 50,000.00-7,500,000.00 if they decide you or your company knowingly violated the rules. And here's a really chilling sentence: "Each violation and each day during which the violation continues shall be considered to be a separate offense." They will fine us so violently we will never, ever be able to recover. Already farmers are among the most risky of professions for suicide.

NAIS - most of you know all about NAIS but just in case a few don't, here's a one paragraph summary. National Animal ID is a plan that will require all owners of animals considered "livestock" by the Federal government (whether or not such animals are intended for human consumption, and whether or not such animals are even kept solely for personal use) to register their homes/farms with the government, using real estate metes and bounds and gps coordinates. All livestock owners will be required to identify each animal with government-approved microchips imbedded in the flesh or eartags and to submit this identification information to the government within 24 hours of the occurrence. Additionally, owners will have to report livestock movements (births, deaths, trips to the vet, trips to the fair, lost tags, etc) and veterinarians will be required to turn in non-compliers or they will lose their license. NAIS allows warrantless searches and seizures. Noncompliers may be slapped with a fee of $1,000 per animal per day.

This information is distributed by Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association to encourage farmers, homesteaders and the consumers who love them to stand up against unfair legislative action. Although emails are free, other activities to protect farm and food rights are not. Therefore I have included an OCFA membership application below. Please consider joining OCFA today!

Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association is a non-profit lobbying association dedicated to action. OCFA peruses national, local and state legislation and acts upon any that violate privacy and property rights of farmers, homesteaders and the consumers who enjoy their products.
Future plans are:
Feed your Legislator: We will reserve a room at Oregon’s Legislative Assembly in Salem to provide delicious home grown and produced foods, friendly smiles and conversation. We will help legislators understand that our food is more nutritious, fresh and tasty than that of multinational corporations, that we are real people, and they should do their best to protect us, their constituents.
Farm Food Voices: We will reserve an auditorium and host an event with locally grown and produced foods, guest speakers, a raffle, a book table and easy, convenient activism opportunities.
Demonstrations: In the event of an impending legislative emergency, or if a member farm is treated unfairly by the ODA, we will send out an emergency response team with picket signs and petitions to peaceably discomfort the aggressors and to capture media attention.
We need help: Please donate your photographs of farm families with animals, or consumer families visiting farms. We include these in letters to legislators and on posters showing who is affected by bad legislation. Send them to the address or email below. We need a central location (Eugene to Corvallis) for our rare but important meetings, a webmaster and of course new members!
OCFA membership benefits:
*Potluck strategy meetings
*Newsletter and private e-group
*Access to NICFA, the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association
*10% discount on related books and goods
*Fellowship and support
Join today!
Send $20.00 for one year’s membership to: OCFA, 3849 Green Valley Road, Oakland, Or. 97462
(Donations above $20 much appreciated!)
Name____________________________________________________________________
Address__________________________________________________________________
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Phone________________________ Email_______________________________________
May we email your newsletter rather than mail it to save resources? Yes/no
Comments________________________________________________________________
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Questions? Contact: President Larisa Sparrowhawk, 541-459-1259 at Localvore Fresh Oregon Foods, localvorefresh@aol.com

Joel Salatin's visit to Oregon

2009-08-16T01:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a whirlwind several days for Joel, although he often packs his days tightly when he travels. Patrick Donaldson of Portland scheduled it all and did a great job of making sure a lot of people could get their Joel fix.

Thursday they went to the Urban Farm store and Whole Foods in Portland, then to the Hollywood neighborhood of Portland to host a fundraiser for Hollywood Market and Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association (of which I am President). I gave my obligatory speech thanking Joel and Patrick for the fundraiser, added in what OCFA was going to be doing next and plugged the anti-NAIS petition Sharlyn and I have been circulating for a few months. (Patrick and I want to host a Feed Our Legislators event in February in Salem and I'd like to have 2,000 plus signatures by then!) I was pleased that people laughed when I hoped they'd laugh, clapped when I hoped they'd clap and that many stopped by to sign before they left the building. We got one membership on the spot and enough people took brochures and newsletters so I hope more memberships will come in the mail.

Joel got on stage and kept the audience spellbound with his stories of government interferance in the lives of small farmers. Many complain and whine. Part of Joel's popularity is that he can make ridiculous and maddening laws and situations funny. People know the subject is serious and they know they should be angry, but angry speakers are not great entertainment. Because Joel is a natural story teller and because he flashes huge, beautiful smiles often, people will listen to his tales of woe and LIKE IT.

I had to go home and take care of the animals and open the store Friday so I missed the activities then, but Joel and Patrick did the radio and tv circuit. It sounded like so much fun!

Saturday they went to the new farm owned by Patrick's daughter Alisha and her husband Tyler Jones, who used to be an apprentice of Joel's. Tyler and I met in Virginia in 2003 or 2004 I think, when there was a meeting at Joel's house not too long after he became VICFA's president. I was amazed at what Tyler and Alisha had for a home base: a very pretty (although in disrepair) historic Federal style farmhouse overlooking 106 acres. Tyler's only 29. Apparently he is mortgaged to the eyeballs, but he also has an AWESOME family on both his and Alisha's sides. Both fathers help feed and care for the animals! Patrick owns a business in Portland, but comes down a couple days at a time and lets the kids sleep in while he does chores. How incredibly cool is that??? Tyler's father helped build the processing barn. I haven't met Tyler's mother, but Alisha's mother, Patrick's wife, started a food buying club in Portland. How cool is THAT? Wardeh, if you're reading this, I gave her your GNOFGLINS blog info and told her you might have some pointers.

Joel's success as a farmer is also partially due to incredible family support. His success as a writer and public speaker, of course, is partially because he is naturally a go-getter, and partially because his family makes it possible for him to globetrot. Son Daniel takes care good of the farm and Teresa knows Joel will eventually, faithfully come home.

I got off track here. A little side foray into the importance of a loving family.

Joel and Tyler split the spotlight today. They talked about raising and processing chickens, custom grazing other people's cattle, a family milk cow, bees, pigs, politics, etc. I kept mostly quiet until they got to the politics and then I had to throw in my two cents now and then. They took us around the farm and again, I was amazed at the potential. It's an expensive farm, but it is also just barely outside the city, which will help hugely with their customer base. The view from the main house is pretty. They have quite a lot of pasture that is dry and lifeless now, but could be brought back to fertility within a couple of years. Tyler and his dad Brad did a great job building the processing building. It is not finished, but looks professional already.

I collected more signatures and emails on the Anti-NAIS petitition. I didn't get any memberships today, but I felt like several people were very likely to join.

The hard part is I spent $110 on gas, am sitting on E, didn't open the store two days and don't have a lot to show for it yet. The good part is I feel like OCFA and I have turned a corner. I think I made friends today I will keep for a lifetime. I have felt mighty lonely since moving here. I also think Patrick deserves more gratitude than I was able to show him in my little gift of food from my store. He introduced me to a lot of people I really needed to meet. I enjoyed seeing Joel for the first time in almost two and a half years. I have lots of email addresses (I hope I can read) to send information about bills in Congress and in Oregon's Legislative Assembly. I will send them an email version of a newsletter, information about upcoming OCFA events and will hopefully get at least a dozen memberships from these two events.

I found out when I came back that the House has sent HR2749 as they passed it to the Senate for consideration. The Senate already has S510. We will have to watch these closely. I will read and compare the two and write back.

Rolling home

2009-08-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

When I first decided to move to Oregon to be near my mother after my dad died, I wanted to camp until the Virginia house sold. My brother and daughter came out here with me and everyone told me camping was a very bad idea. My gut feeling that I couldn't spend money on anything but land (since I refused to move without my goats and livestock guard dog) was correct, though. Now I am deeply in debt because the Virginia house finally sold at a loss 18 months after I put it on the market, I renovated the house and moved out here on credit cards expecting the house to sell faster and my income here is less than a quarter of what it was in Virginia.

My brother moved back to Virginia and my daughter moved out. NOW I AM ALONE, AND I'M GOING CAMPING!!!

I should be bummed, I guess. I have to leave the farm because I can't pay the rent and I can't afford to buy it. I already planted fruit trees and shrubs and put up a lot of fence. But I am mysteriously not bummed. Twice in Richmond I had a roof over my head but was without food, water, electricity and heat for several months. This time I have the ability to plan and make it an enjoyable learning experience.

The only thing I feel bad about is that a relative owns the house I currently live in and I promised to buy it. 2 years later with the housing market still in a crisis, I wish I could keep my promise but will be leaving her with a house that will not sell for what it is worth.

Otherwise I feel ok. Call it my mid-life crisis. I'm actually excited to be almost 44 years old and about to build two tiny houses on wheels - one for the chickens and one for me. The big dog will come with me. The little one will probably have to find a new home because he freaks when he is confined. He was formerly abused. Now he is spoiled rotten but he still remembers the abuse sometimes and shreds walls. Once I sell or give away a few, my favorite goats will fit in the pen I put in the back of my truck. I desperately need to reduce my flock of chickens and ducks, too.

I don't have to move for a few months, which is good, because I have no idea where I am going except that it has to reasonably close to the store. I have the time to source materials for the houses, find the camera that is around here somewhere and take pictures to show progress.

I am determined to build the chicken house for free. I have a 4x8 trailer to build it on and some scrap wood, including pallets. My own house will hopefully be on a 6x10 trailer, but if I can't find one for a good price, I can do 4x8. I have drawn plans for both sizes using minimal lumber cuts and standard sized showers, doors, counters and a composting toilet. In the smaller version the bathroom and kitchen sink are one and the same. In the larger version I have two sinks, both draining to outside. Since these classify as trailers, and I live in Oregon, they don't need a home building permit or to pass a vehicle inspection. I'll wire some lights to the back on a toggle switch to my truck brake lights. My house will have two layers of plywood and bubble wrap between for insulation. Before you laugh, bubble wrap is used by the greenhouse industry, so why not here? And I'm very allergic to most types of standard insulation. A gambrel roof will allow more room in the sleeping loft.

I was originally looking at Cabella's outfitter tents, but a complete set up with solar showers, a stove, etc, is $2,000 and if I brought the little dog that freaks, I could count on it being shredded. I'd also have to put up cattle panel around the outside to keep the goats from tasting and scratching themselves on it. I can build a much warmer rolling home for $1400 if I am careful where I source the wood and fixtures. (The composting toilet is expensive and not figured in either estimate.)

Moreover, I am only spending one day in Portland instead of attending all three days of the Joel Salatin event because I simply can not afford the trip. I would pay more gas hauling a home behind me, but I could park in a parking lot and skip the hotel room charges. Try doing THAT with an outfitter tent.

I thought I had made up the idea of a rolling home on a trailer myself, but it turns out there are a couple COMPANIES that build them now. One started after Katrina, which makes total sense to me. Those FEMA trailers were hard to get and were filled with formadehyde and asbestos. (Don't you wish you could put some of the poor displaced people in the homes of FEMA managers and put the FEMA managers in those trailers? Just for a few nights?) http://www.tinyhouse.com/ has lots of pictures of various projects all over the country.

Here are the basics:
The bottom is a utility trailer, which can be purchased inexpensively on Craig's List or in a used merchandise newspaper. I'm not going to build a frame for either house, although the pictures at tinyhouse.com all show people doing that. I'm going to build complete panels under the weather protection of my current front porch - windows, doors, insulation and all. Then I will call a friend over to help me lift and attach two long sides and one short side. I will keep one end open (with temporary bracing) until I install the countertop, closet (that uses a ladder to upstairs for the door!), sink, shower, second story, etc. Then I will attach the last wall. It sounds dicey, but it will be totally sturdy - I'll have to take pictures as I build to show how.

So, what do you think? I've told a couple people who think I have lost my mind, but I personally think I have found it.

Inexpensive ways to improve ulcers

2009-08-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

Another I sent in to Douglas County News, though I haven't seen it published yet:

Good Food Cheap #6 by Larisa Sparrowhawk

Instead of buying poor quality food and compensating with vitamins and painkillers, why not change your diet? The next several columns will deal with one or two specific concerns and natural options you can try.
Ten percent of Americans have ulcers. Many sufferers take antiacids, which work by alkalinizing the stomach contents. If acid reflux (release of stomach contents to the esophagus) occurs, the patient has less discomfort. However, since the body needs acid to digest proteins and fats, the body sends out a signal to produce additional hydrochloric acid, and so the cycle continues.
Cigarette smoking also inceases the occurance of ulcers. Just think of how much money you will save if you quit!
My guess is nearly all non-smokers with ulcers eat a sugar-heavy diet. Refined sugar, already acidic and enzymeless, is hard on the body and is especially so when used in cola drinks or consumed in amounts greater than 25 grams per sitting. In India, farmers use cola drinks as pesticides because they destroy soft bodied insects. If you crave sweet and fizzy drinks, pour seltzer water or club soda over juice concentrate.
Ulcer patients have been advised for years to drink milk, but many people are allergic to or intolerant of milk. A food allergy to a frequently consumed food can create an ulcer. An option would to be quit all milk, consuming yogurt, which contains probiotics, instead for a few days. If you still have pain, eliminate dairy products entirely and see how you feel.
Avocados, bananas and okra soothe the entire digestive system. Raw fruits and vegetables contain enzymes, which help the body digest them. If you have a juicer, juice cabbage, which is beneficial to ulcers, with apples or carrots to improve the taste. If these suggestions improve how you feel, you may consider purchasing an enzyme supplement to take at the beginning of each meal.
Larisa Sparrowhawk is owner of Localvore Fresh Oregon Foods, LLC.

Yummy and cheap food for your joints

2009-08-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

I also sent this in to Douglas County News, a local weekly that features local politics. The owner, Becky Holm, and I believe that government should respect the privacy and property rights of individuals. We also share a delight in good food that happens to be cheap.

Gumbo is Good for Joint Health by Larisa Sparrowhawk
Hyaluronic Acid lubricates skin, eyes and joints. It costs $35 or more for a ½ ounce bottle, but you can get it inexpensively in your diet. HLA is released by long slow cooking of cartilage and bone. Before you go to bed (so you don’t heat up the house), place some rooster combs and feet that have been scalded and peeled of their skin in a pot. Or if you mysteriously can neither find a source nor stomach these goodies, you can substitute chicken necks and backs, which are almost as good. Add water, onion, celery and garlic and cook at 225 degrees or on low in a crock pot. In the morning strain the broth and discard the bones (and/or toenails!) and mushy vegetables. Add brown rice to the broth and cook until almost done. Add chopped green bell peppers, onions, dried tomatoes (or meaty fresh ones), celery and okra if you desire. Season with cayenne, garlic, rosemary, celery seed and basil, all of which are anti-inflammatory herbs. Salt to taste. The basic recipe will feed a family of four well for two meals for less than $6.00. You can dress this recipe up with a pound of good quality hot sausage, ham or tiny shrimp. Alternatively, you can use the same chicken broth and use it with turmeric and ginger (also anti-inflammatory herbs) as a base for curry.
Larisa Sparrowhawk is owner of Localvore Fresh Oregon Foods

blogs about nourishing communities

2009-08-05T15:49:00.000-07:00

This first blog also shows what I left behind when I moved. Yes, I had tears in my eyes as I got to the last couple sentences of my comment.

http://hartkeisonline.com/2009/08/03/journey-to-the-center-of-safe-food-earth/comment-page-1/#comment-3756

Think Local Umpqua out of Roseburg is working hard to help people understand why they should care about the local economy, including local food. And I am, also. But I feel lonely, sometimes.

However, seeing Wardeh Harmon of GNOWFGLINS weekly perks me up, even if she didn't buy from my store. She also is a regular with some of my store's farms, caring enough about feeding her family the freshest and most natural foods to make three or four stops in a single day rather than go to the local Priceless grocery and settle for five week old factory farm eggs and vegetables that were grown in chemicals, picked green and ripened with ethylene gas. Since learning about the teachings of Weston A Price, she has blogged about her family's experiments with making goat cheese, soaked grain breads and other traditional foods. Wardeh's developed a loyal following and sometimes the comments are as good as the posts. See her blog here:
http://gnowfglins.com/

HR2749 - a thorough reading reveals many problems

2009-07-31T03:29:00.000-07:00

Written in response to a blog elsewhere that states the latest version isn't so bad...

I believe I have the last copy of HR2749 in my lap; it was “ordered to be printed” yesterday. I have a number of concerns still.
1. It gives the Federal government jurisdiction over interstate commerce, still, which violates the Constitution. There is no exemption for farmers, homesteaders or small processors who sell only in their own states.
2. The exemption for those who sell over 50% direct to the public will of course require some of us to PROVE the mix of our business, which means government inspection of our paperwork, farms, etc anyway. I own a small local food store. I am the sole owner and the sole employee and currently have nothing of my own in the store other than tomatoes and cucumbers, but will have goat meat within the month and eggs and bread as soon as my egg processing room and kitchen are licensed. Now you’d THINK since I am sole owner, this would be direct to the public, but since I have a storefront instead of a farm stand, it is not. Complying with HR2749 would make my tiny 9 acre farm cost me more money and heartache than it is worth. Those folks who sell at a farmers market and at a retail store or establishment will have to watch their sales very, very carefully and keep their records for years, just in case. I know someone who underreports farm market sales because the market takes a percentage and he thinks that is so unfair even though he signed a contract. This person will pay eventually, but to the Feds rather than to the market he’s cheating, because he also sells to a restaurant. There goes his more than 50% direct!
3. Despite what seems to be the popular consensis that the 50% rule protects most small operations, I know a lot of family farms and homesteads that will have to comply. They have zero employees and due to lack of time (full time jobs, full time families) or lack of sales skills, sell more items to stores than to individuals.
4. This isn’t directly a part of NAIS because this bill regulates how the FDA and HHS handle food. The USDA has jurisdiction over most livestock products (meat, poultry AND eggs). However, there are still quite a few NAIS-like provisions in the bill (for those who don’t sell more than 50% directly to consumers according to the government officials who inspect them. I take the worst case scenario when inspections are involved since I know at least a dozen farmers who have had USDA agents on their properties, despite no wrongdoing or disease issue.) If you “misbrand” your products, which would include simply not registering your facility and securing a “unique identifier” (NAIS language) or paying the fee, you could be fined, your product could be seized, you could be thrown in jail, you could be quarantined, your animals could be seized… and possibly you could lose your property itself. You still have to provide full traceback (information about your growing methods and ingredients, including where you purchased them) and traceforeward (who distributes and/or buys your product, including their name, address and telephone number).
5. Something I haven’t seen discussed nearly enough is THIS ISN’T A ONE TIME FEE! This is an annual fee of $500. How many small producers honestly make a profit big enough to cover it? A lot of times people who sell small quantities of foods are trying to recoup some of their costs for their lifestyle in the country and would roll their eyes if you suggested they made a profit. I’ve had assorted livestock for 11 years. I lost money all 11 years on goats and sheep, but I love them so I keep them anyway. I used to make money on chickens. Oregon requires I build a separate room with three sinks, a separate refrigerator, have it inspected and pay a fee before I can sell eggs to any retail facility, even my own. I will lose money on chickens for at least this year and the year following. I gutted a bathroom to wash eggs in and have gotten no further because I ran out of money. I can’t wait to see how much it costs me to get the licensed kitchen done. Virtually all states require licensed kitchens to sell even one loaf of bread or jar of jam. The costs to sell anything more complicated than produce were ALREADY quite high before this bill. HR2749 also allows the fee to be altered in future years, and you can bet it will go up. Does it reassure me that the maximum amount is $175,000 for someone who owns multiple facilities? Hmmm…. do my home and my store count as multiple facilities? There is a note that fees may be refunded for years 2011 and up if the fees exceed the salaries and expenses of the FDA, but I am not holding my breath. The FDA, despite its inefficiency, is not known for frugality. Any fees due and unpaid within 30 days of the due date are “treated as a claim of the United States Government subject to subchapter II of chapter 37 of title 31, United States Code.” Folks, I don’t know what this means and I am afraid to look it up. I suspect it gives them seizure rights.
6. We still have to submit HAACP plans, no matter how small our facilities are, unless we can prove we sell more than 50% direct to the public. The FDA is allowed to decide your HAACP plan is not good enough and to change it. This means you are subject to their whims about stainless steel versus fomica or ceramic, certain brands of cleaners they like or dislike, whether your dishwasher is appropriate, whether you can use your licensed kitchen for preparing home goods, even if the state allows it, what could happen if your sink backed up and how you could prevent that, whether you have enough sinks, what could happen if you became near sighted and your lights were no longer placed and aimed well enough to help you and what you could do about that, what could possibly go wrong if your refrigerator didn’t get cold enough one day and the steps you could take to prevent that, what could possibly go wrong if a visitor came in without a hairnet on and how you could prevent that, what could go wrong if a bird flew in through an open door and how you could prevent that, etc, etc… if it seems I’m getting silly, it’s because that’s how HAACP is. And if somehow the government finds out a bird did fly in, you have to prove somehow that you have “established and implemented procedures to ensure that… no product from such facility enters commerce!”
6. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, not your very clean grandmother who taught you how to clean your kitchen, gets to decide what is acceptable. He gets to “review international hazard analysis and preventive control standards” to decide. I’ll bet vinegar and lemon juice, things used by our ancestors, won’t be on the approved list. I was given a ridiculous list of approved brands of cleaners for eggs. Yaay.
7. We have to submit our products for testing. They get to decide who performs the test. I know two Virginia goat cheese manufacturers who had cheese seized and sent off to labs. They both sent samples of the same cheese to facilities they knew. Surprise! The results were different. One of the farmers said the inspectors did not pack her cheese on dry ice before mailing the package off. If you dispute the results, you get to pay for both tests, a retest, fines, and perhaps a lawyer once your facility is shut down. Plus you lose business and possibly receive bad press over the closure, even if you are not guilty. You’d be surprised if you knew how reluctant newspapers were to handle cases like this where the farm is right and the government is wrong. I thought reporters had an obligation to report the truth. I began farm rights activism in 1999. I have seen very little media coverage, no matter how badly a farmer has been wronged. If it weren’t for the internet, people would never know.
8. The FDA still gets to decide how we may grow, harvest, process, pack, store, sort and transport produce that they consider potentially risky. Considering recent news, this could mean lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, almonds, pistachios, peanuts…
9. The FDA still gets to decide what they consider a risky facility that requires inspection at least once a year. If you make raw goat cheese, watch out. They’ll be interupting your sleep, your breakfast or your four year old’s birthday party to demand an inspection without warning and they WILL go in your kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, living room, etc. They will. They are not required to have a search warrant. A warrant limits the search in time, place and scope. Guess what? No warrant? They can be in your house for hours, even days. And guess what? At least some of them will be packing guns! How do I know this? It’s happened before (USDA, though.)
10. The FDA can also modify the inspection schedule and inspect a facility more often than what is stated in HR2749. Yep, it says so on page 30.
11. The FDA can take your address book, your computer, your written records, your cell phone. Will you get them back? Possibly. Will they read your personal business? Possibly. At this very moment, I probably have four or five dirty jokes stored in the text function of my cell phone. Do I want the FDA reading them? Probably not.
12. The FDA can chose to interview your kids, your neighbors, your customers, your interns, or whomever else they want. Can you honestly say that if two or three agents dressed in black and packing pistols show up at your neighbor’s door asking questions about you that your neighbor will assume you are still the sweet person they know and will defend you? Probably not.
13. The FDA can access your records remotely. HR2749 does not specify that they will do so, but it has been rumored in Washington state and Vermont that both state and USDA officials have remotely accessed farmer’s computers. You know, hacked.
14. There are a number of places in the bill where the words “EXCLUDING farms and restaurants” have been removed and where “farm” has been inserted where “factory” was used in previous versions of the bill. There is a section in which the Secretary of the HHS no longer has to have reason to believe that a health concern may exist and now only has to believe that there are misbranding or recordkeeping errors. See pages 35 and 36. On page 64, dealing with surveillance, search and seizure,”credible evidence” was replaced with “reason to believe” and ” serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals” is replaced with “adulterated, misbranded, or otherwise in violation of this Act.”
15. It is clear that handwritten records will not satisfy these people. For one thing, they do not comply with traceability requirements.
16. Restaurants and grocery stores must keep records of all food purchased and sold or used as ingredients. No more casual cash transactions, even for something that seems totally harmless like green beans.
17. If the FDA deems your facility does not comply and they shut you down, you get to go through the reinspection process and pay all the associated fees for this. Don;t assume this is another $500 - although you’ll pay that, too. No, they’ll charge you man hours for however many people they decide are necessary to inspect you. You may also have to pay man hours for your facility to be inspected and shut down. If you make a few dozen jars of jam a week, you may see one inspector, or perhaps three or four or six… depends on whether you are a risk, I suppose. I noticed that the peopleI know who were treated the worst by state and federal ag agencies also had licenses to carry a gun. So if you chose to exercise your Second Amendment rights, you may pay emotionally and finacially with a veritable SWAT team in your kitchen. Supposedly none of the inspectors will have a conflict of interest. This sounds like it is to protect you, but what it is likely to mean is that the inspectors will be from another state. The fact that you will never see your inspector in the grocery store makes them a lot less likely to treat you with kindness. By the way, none of these man hours will be at minimum wage.
18. The Secretary of the HHS can provide information to state, federal and local agencies at will, but may not necessarily disclose this information to you. This could result in your having no idea what the people in your house think you are guilty of! Even better, they may also release information to foreign governments, international organizations, the public in general and the IRS. You don’t have to be proven guilty of selling unhealthy food in a court of law. You could simply sell “misbranded” food.
19. Quarantines are still in effect. There is no set mileage, but often it is a wider geographical area than you would expect, like 6-25 miles. From my house driving 25 miles south I pass TWO WHOLE TOWNS! And I live in a rural area. Quarantines do not affect only the farm or factory suspected of causing a health concern. They affect everyone who produces food within that region. The Feds can limit your movements and require your “food transport vehicle,” which is usually the only vehicle that runs on a farm (!) not move off your property. So you can’t go to the grocery store, the post office, the bank or your job…
20. The fines are way steep! Places that violate rules but can not be determined to do so knowingly: up to $20,000 for an individual but also up to $50,000 for any one "proceding"regarding that individual (I suppose this means if they find two or more violations). Places with more than one individual involved (I’m thinking Joel Salatin, who has family members on the same property operating slightly different business ventures) can face fines of up to $250,000 or $1,000,000. Fines double if they think you knowingly violate the rules.

Etc. I’m tired. It is 3am. You get the idea. This bill is not harmless. We must keep a similar bill from passing the Senate and we must chastise our Representatives soundly for voting for it.

action on the state and local levels

2009-07-31T00:43:00.000-07:00

It is time for us to go to our county and state governments and pass ordinances (which carry more weight than resolutions) that the federal government shall not conduct any searches or seizures or otherwise enforce any action on individuals, small farms or homesteaders producing food only for interstate sales, direct to the consumer. The 10th Amendment of the Constitution states the Federal Government has no authority to interfere with interstate commerce. We need to remind our local governments that the money promised to them by the feds to carry out surveillance on small farms will fall short of their expenditures, that such plans as NAIS and HR2749 will cause great distress to their constituents and also that by shutting the Feds out of where they do not belong, local governments are morally doing the right thing. We need to enact as many ordinances as possible before this type of bill is passed in the Senate.

My immediate goals are: go to Portland, screen Fresh, talk to as many people as I can and go to Douglas County commissioners, all by the end of September. In February, Patrick and I plan to host a feed your legislator day at the Oregon General Assembly building in Salem. I've helped host similar events in Virginia and at the Nation's Capitol and they are wildly successful. The gist is this: legislators need to see that we are real people, normal families who will be devastated by such plans. We feed them fabulous home grown and produced foods, provide information and generally be friendly. I started making posters with pictures of Oregon farm families and had to stop for lack of submissions (I can't just pull 'em off the internet!) but maybe readers of this blog will submit more photos, even if I have to print them. Or you can mail them to OCFA c/o Localvore, 115 E. Central Ave, Sutherlin, Or. 97479.

Hopefully by mid summer of 2010 we will have an Oregon version of Farm Food Voices, where we rent a school cafeteria or some similar large place in a central area like Eugene, invite well-known farm rights and nutrition speakers, have a lot of home grown and produced food again and then invite the public for FREE. We will accept donations, will sell raffle tickets and will have a book table and OCFA membership table. Again, I helped host the first two of these in Virginia and they were wildly successful.

Naturally, I will be looking for volunteers... !

HR2749 passed

2009-07-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

Grrrr... I take this personally, as I know does every farmer and homesteader and consumer who cares about where their food comes from. Everyone who called and emailed their Representative should do it again, expressing displeasure. DeFazio voted for it AGAIN, and I called to say please don't because they sneaked NAIS into the bill and you haven't had time to read it.

screening Fresh, the movie

2009-07-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

I found out from Kathryn Russell that at the award ceremony in Portland, Joel Salatin will be giving me a signed copy of Fresh, the movie. I know it is a bit premature (I haven't gotten it yet!) but I have already reserved a stage and kitchen at the Sutherlin Community Center for a screening September 19th at 7:15 pm. Now I'm just working out the details. Seems there are room fees, insurance, licensing fees... I talked to Lily at Think Local Umpqua and they will help. Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association will help. And of course, I'm going to NEGOTIATE as much as I can. However, it looks like the FREE showing I wanted to have will be impossible. Instead, I will probably charge $3 admission, with all proceeds going to OCFA, which would please Joel. The admission will include refreshments. As I find out more, I will post more, but I am so excited I couldn't wait!

From Pete DeFazio about raw milk

2009-07-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Ms. Sparrowhawk:

Thank you for contacting me about H.R. 778, introduced by Congressman Ron Paul, which authorizes the interstate traffic of unpasteurized milk intended for human consumption. I appreciate hearing from you.

I believe informed consumers should have access to raw milk, but this issue is regulated at the state level. While I work frequently with Congressman Ron Paul, I do not think the U.S. federal government is going to usurp state's rights to legislate the availability of raw milk. Raw milk regulations vary from state to state, with about half of the states banning the sale of raw or unpasteurized milk. Oregon currently does not allow for raw milk to be sold for human consumption.

Some believe pasteurization changes the nutritional value of milk, but findings vary amongst studies. On the other hand, pasteurization does kill off bacteria in milk, and raw milk accounts for 70 percent of illnesses attributable to dairy consumption. The Center for Disease Control advises that unpasteurized milk should not be consumed.

Because states currently regulate milk production and safety, I encourage you to contact your state representatives about this issue. I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope you will continue to stay in touch.

Sincerely,
Rep. Peter DeFazioFourth District, OREGON

My thoughts: Actually, there is a licensed raw milk dairy in Oregon... only one that I am aware of, Fern's Edge Goat Dairy. And their milk is goooooood. It may be quite naive for DeFazio to think the Feds really won't mess with states' rights, anyway. They do it all the time. They are voting right now whether to meddle in interstate commerce of small farms. (HR2749).

My reply, sent by email through his website on house.gov:

Dear Congressman DeFazio:
Thank you for your reply regarding Representative Ron Paul's HR778. I wish I believed that the Federal government would not meddle with individual and state rights. A bill before the House today, HR2749, would allow the Feds quite a bit of control over interstate commerce, which the Constitution says the Feds can not do. Ordinary citizens like me would like you to fight every instance in which the Federal government might step into individual and state areas of responsibility and choice, even when it seems that standing up for us may be a moot point because nothing ever happens. You and Ron Paul are in a very small minority of Congressmen who seem to care; caring, like genius, comes with great responsibility.

Also, there are licensed raw milk dairies in Oregon, athough I only know of one personally that actually sells milk rather than cheese. Fern's Edge Goat Dairy sells delicious raw goat milk in health food stores in Eugene.

I will be watching HR2749.

Sincerely,

Larisa Sparrowhawk

HR2749 going for a vote today, perhaps RIGHT NOW

2009-07-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

HR2749 is going for a vote and the format has changed to what they call "on suspension," which does not mean to Congressmen what it means to us. To us suspension means on hold or floating - it makes it sound like no big deal, we can worry about it later.

On Suspension to Congress means they do not allow any debate or amendments. No debate means it's too late for a Representative on our side to sway another. No amendments means no exemptions for homesteaders, small farmers and anyone who sells small amounts of goods in their own states.

it's easy to contact your congressperson about HR2749

2009-07-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

I have two jobs and although I currently spend a lot of time at a computer, I never really feel like making phone calls. I always feel like it's going to take too much time and it will be a big hassle. So I already signed three petitions and sent an email to Rep Pete DeFazio urging him to vote nay on HR2749. But you never really know for a fact if petitions get taken seriously and emails get read in time, so I sighed and picked up the phone. It seems I have daily horrible experiences with various companies and government agencies (take your pick- ODA, USDA, USPS, VDACS...) but I have to admit right now that I HAVE NEVER IN 35 YEARS OF ACTIVISM EVER SPOKEN WITH A RUDE LEGISLATIVE AIDE WHO ACTED LIKE I DIDN'T MATTER. Let me repeat: never.
In case you are also delaying your phone call, this is what to expect. First, look up http://www.congress.org/ and click on the button on the left side under "Take Action" that says "Find your official" and when that page loads, type your zip code in. It will pull up your Senators and your Representatives in Congress. This is good for people who have trouble remembering whether the legislator they have in mind works at the state or national level! In this case, since we want to protest a bill that is in the HOUSE, you want to click on your Representative. You will then be taken to your Rep's webpage, which will let you leave an email AND call him/her, which is what I hope you will do. If you need talking points, see my blog on HR2749 below. It will walk you through what the problems are. It would be best if they scrapped the bill and started over, but if Congress sees a need to DO SOMETHING in a hurry because there has been such bad news about food safety lately, they can at least write an amendment that clearly exempts farms and homesteads with 5 or fewer non-family employees (this allows farms to have interns) that sell goods in their own state. The federal government is not supposed to meddle in interstate transactions anyway. It violates the Constitution.
So you will take a deep breath and call your Rep's phone number, which may even be an 800#. You will tell the charming person who answers the phone that you want to register your opinion on a bill that is coming up to be voted on. You will give your name and address. Then you will state something like, "I request that Representative _________ (name) please vote nay on HR2749." The aide may ask you why and jot down some notes, which is why you may want to make the call in front of the computer or take your own notes before you call. The whole process should take less than five minutes.
Thank you in advance for picking up the telephone and calling. God bless!

amazing phone call

2009-07-28T12:28:00.001-07:00

I just got an amazing phone call from Patrick Donaldson in Portland. Apparently he and Joel Salatin are going to honor OCFA (Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association) and me during a 2 day event in Portland with a field day in Corvallis. I am awaiting specifics on where everything is held and if it is public.

So now I have to figure out how to keep the shop open, get the animals fed and watered and go!

Joel will be speaking. Patrick will be the MC, I think. I will run up, give a five minute speach while trying not to blush and sit back down! I haven't seen Joel in two years. He is an awesome speaker, intelligent and charming. In the middle of a very serious talk he can pull out a relevant funny comment with a huge smile that totally disarms everyone in the audience and makes it hard for even legislators and USDA inspectors to dislike him. I can only pray to one day hold an audience in my hand half as well as he does.

creamy no cook blender soup

2009-07-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

When it’s hot outside, we tend to eat lots of salads. As much as I love my greens, sometimes I want something creamy that does not taste QUITE so good for me. Blender soups are healthy, creamy and do not heat up the kitchen at all. This is a variation on the green smoothie concept (if you blend greens rather than juice them, you get all their healthy fiber, too), but one almost anyone will enjoy.
In the morning soak a handful of hazelnuts, cashews, almonds or pine nuts in twice as much filtered water. At least 4 hours later drain the nuts, slip the skins off those with skins by pinching one end of each nut, and put the skinless nuts in a blender. Add spinach or chard, a pinch of basil, dill or garlic, a pinch of salt and a sprinkle of pepper. Add enough water to blend well. With a commercial high speed blender, you will have silky soup in no time. A home blender may require multiple pushes of the liquefy button with several minute pauses between to cool the machine. I enjoy my soup cool, but others may want to warm theirs up briefly on the stove.
Avocado may be substituted for the nuts.
My store currently has no ac. A mason jar full of this soup is a cool and satisfying lunch. I just need to remember to wipe the green mustache off before I talk to customers!

You can make foie gras pate humanely and cheaply!

2009-07-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I'm alone I make food no one else likes and I enjoy it tremendously. An example is the foie gras I am savoring on my tongue now.

Foie gras technically refers only to liver from fattened ducks and geese, but you can make delightful seared liver slices and pates from humanely treated pastured animals, too. Just make sure it is from animals that have been slaughtered as soon as pasture grasses dwindle, when the animals are their fattest - in July here in southwestern Oregon.

I've had three goat livers and three kidneys in the freezer for nearly a year because my daughter says liver stinks up the entire house. She's off at grandma's so I can stink up the house if I want!

The proper way to cook liver is to slice it when it is still very cold and put it into a pan that's been heated on high with duck or bacon fat or a high temperature oil like coconut or olive. Add a little butter after you put the liver in, but cook it very fast, just a couple minutes at most on each side, just until it has a crispy edge on both sides and is still pink inside. Enjoy it as is, with a little salt and a platter of fruit or turn it into pate.

Or if you do not want the crust, you can do as I did Wednesday, and put the livers (I added the kidneys, too) into an oven safe pan with some butter, semi-sweet liquor such as brandy or sherry and onions, then cook them at 225 degrees while you do other things. I used apple jack because I'd made it by accident (instead of juice) in a previous year. Since I don't drink, it's what I had. You can also add mushrooms if you wish.

When the liver is seared, remove it from heat and let rest 15-20 minutes to cool and reabsorb its juices. Then place it in a food processor with whipping cream, more sherry or apple jack if desired, a pinch of salt and a little ginger and nutmeg. I don't give exact quantities because livers vary so much in size and availability around here (sometimes I use duck or chicken liver) so I never tried to make an exact recipe. Process it until it is very smooth. Don't worry if it is a little bit runny since it will firm up in the refrigerator. Taste it to see if you want to add white pepper and/or ground mustard. Serve cold for lunch or dinner with crusty bread, apple slices and a good mesclun salad. Pate is delightful also at brunch with a sweet bread like gingerbread, served inside of a flaky pastry, or even in the scooped out seed cavity of apples or pears with some pecans sprinkled on top.

Me? I enjoyed some of mine straight out of the food processor with ripe plums, marionberries and crunchy carrot sticks from my store. The rest I put some in little tupperwares for luxurious lunches later, even after my daughter returns home.

handy little article on food additives

2009-07-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.aolhealth.com/healthy-living/feature/_a/decoding-food-ingredients/20090722140209990001

food related bills in Congress

2009-07-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

Lifted out of my newsletter, OCFA Fare, because I'm short on time today, but the public absolutely must be educated on these bills. Please spread this post around!!

Bad Congressional Bills Pending: NAIS for Bread and Jam and the Livestock Flatulence tax

HR2749, called the “Food Safety Enhancement Act” in the House would give the FDA significantly greater powers over farmers and would reduce penalties for improper actions of FDA officials in a lawsuit. The bill requires a $500—1,000 registration fee for farms that produce value added products, including those who sell small quantities of food like pickles, cheese, bread and jam at farmers markets in their own states (interstate commerce, which is not supposed to be under federal jurisdiction). HR2749, like NAIS, also requires farms to have a premises ID and allows the FDA to conduct random searches, without warrant or proof of any farm’s wrongdoing. It allows the FDA to regulate produce growing methodology and to ban raw milk sales completely, even in states that currently allow raw milk. It provides authority to quarantine all farms and vehicles used to transport food within an area, regardless of whether all the farms could be considered a risk for the disease outbreak. Suppose a disease strikes stone fruit trees in your area and you grow tomatoes. Yes, your farm could be quarantined, too—and so would the pickup you take to the farmers market and to run errands. Even more alarming is that farmers with value added products will be required to provide full trace-back and forward. You must supply customer information and also keep proof of where you buy your ingredients, even if you produce items generally considered harmless, like bread. If you do not comply, you face fines from $10,000 to $100,000 and prison terms up to ten years. A recent amendment allows seizure if food is simply misbranded. This bill treats your grandma with 36 jars of jam at the farmers market to the same conditions, regulations and fees as a corporate food processor producing thousands of jars per hour. The definition of an exempt farm is as narrow as the definition for who does not need to comply with NAIS: if the food is grown and consumed on the premises, compliance is not required.
The EPA still plans to tax dairy and swine farmers by the head for their “emissions.” The New York Farm Bureau estimates the cost to be $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per beeve and $20 per hog. Margins for many dairy and swine farms are dismally slim already. Although pasturing animals tends to improve, not harm the environment, the EPA neither treats pastured animals differently from feedlot animals, nor is willing to exempt livestock raised solely for direct sales. If you have more than 50 beef cattle, 25 dairy cows or 200 hogs, you would have to purchase a greenhouse gas permit, regardless of the amount of land the animals graze. Please contact your congressmen about bills HR 1426 in the House and S527 in the Senate and ask him to vote nay.

And now for something completely different… A Good Bill in Congress!

Representative Ron Paul from Texas, who sometimes seems like family farms’ only friend in Washington, D.C., introduced HR778 in the House. This bill would allow interstate commerce of raw milk for human consumption… so customers wouldn’t have to pretend it was for their very hungry puppies week after week, month after month, year after year (funny how these puppies never grow up!) This bill currently has no co-sponsors and is in the Energy and Commerce Committee. HR778 disallows any federal action—seizure, lawsuits, regulation, etc—solely because the dairy products are unpasteurized. Raids on raw milk suppliers would legally be required to cease unless the raw dairy products created a bonafide health threat.
Please call or write your congressmen to request votes against HR2749 and HR1426 (or S527) and for HR778.

Read these bills on www.thomas.gov;
Find your congressmen: www.congress.org
Call, email and fax fast!

quick, cheap and healthy ice cream substitute

2009-07-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

Peel and break ripe one to one and a half bananas per person into chunks and freeze until solid in freezer bags. The bananas MUST be frozen; they create a creamy texture. Put them in a blender with your choice of cream, half and half, milk, hazelnut milk, coffee, plum juice, orange juice or water. Add a little cinnamon, carob or cocoa powder. In a regular blender you will need more liquid than in a high speed commercial blender, and the result will be more like a shake. In a good high speed blender you can approximate soft serve.

Everyone likes this! If you're on the raw food diet, this is something you can share with friends (unlike green smoothies) that will make them envious!

There are endless variations: Banana and blueberries, raspberries, blackberries - all those taste good alone or with ginger or cocoa. You can substitute a flavorful herbal tea for the liquid. You can add raw coconut butter and pineapple juice to make a virgin pina colada. You can even add raw cacao butter, but it tends to freeze fast and stick to the sides of the blender. It's so expensive I will spend way too much time trying to scrape every last bit off the blender wall so I can eat it and not waste any.

I might as well admit it - all these are so good I slurp up every drop I make and then wipe the blender walls clean with my hand (which I then lick) before washing the blender. My mom did teach me to be a lady, but I forget when it comes to banana ice cream!

Introduction

2009-07-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

Shall I start at the beginning? It seems the appropriate thing to do. Growing up, I ate a pretty Standard American Diet (SAD) until my family was involved in a bad car accident in 1976 that put Mom in bed for a couple years. Dad, who was raised on a ranch in New Mexico, taught me how to shop for food. He took me around the store, snapping bottoms off spinach and asparagus because he didn't want to pay for stems, telling me he wouldn't buy fruit with pits because he didn't want to pay for the pits, wouldn't buy food in boxes because he didn't want to pay for the boxes, didn't want to buy canned food unless I shook the can to make sure it wasn't full of water... by the time we were done shopping, I was terribly embarrassed, but I had a cart full of fresh and frozen vegetables, meat and cheese. It is odd to think that a car accident can improve the family's health, but it most certainly did. I learned to cook, and incidentally, so did Mom when she got better... in fact, her bread is consistantly better than any bread I've had in stores, and I wish she could supply some for Localvore, but she lives too far away.

I experimented with various diets as a teenager and college kid... I was always convinced I was fat and sick. I tried macrobiotics, which made me very skinny and seemed to solve stomach issues I'd had for years, but I remained exhausted. I tried the typical ovo-lacto cooked food vegetarian diet and the stomach aches with random bouts of unexplained vomiting came back. Plus, when I was pregnant, I really, really craved red meat. I would stand in front of the meat counter at the grocery, practically drooling. When I was pregnant with my third child I also worked a night job and sometimes ordered meat sandwiches for "lunch." One of these gave me food poisoning and I lost the child a few weeks later.

I'd miscarried before, but this one was especially awful. In addition to the emotional trauma, I hemorrhaged and months of hormones didn't stop it. I ended up with two blood transfusions and daily b-12 shots. My daughter, then 4 years old, helpfully told people I used needles. Since I had shaved my head in a moment of anguish, and since I had become very white, I am sure they thought the worst. Once I had regained my emotional and physical health, nearly a year later, I began to research food poisoning.

Turns out, it is incredibly common. And the government does little to help protect us from it. Recalls of bad beef are voluntary, not mandatory. The USDA inspects less than 1/2 of 1% of all slaughtered meats and leaves it up to the meat processor to inspect the rest. Needless to say, in an environment where animals are run through at warp speed and hamburger is processed 16,000 pounds at a time (all that is ground on a shift), employees seldom find and report issues.

My own illness may have been caused by bad meat, or by the sub shop not cleaning off the meat slicer. Meat slicers sit on a counter at room temperature all day. Have you ever seen anyone remove the blade and clean it, even in a high-end grocery store or deli, before the end of the day? I haven't. I'm pretty sure I lost a baby due to lazy or poorly-taught employees.

The more I read, the more determined I got that my family would never be at the mercy of food processors again. I bought a little farm and stocked it with chickens, goats, sheep, pigs, ducks, bees and a steer. I grew a garden. I read some more. It seemed at first a no-brainer that selling excess food would help me pay the feed and seed bill, but I found out that the government saddles the small farmer with more regulation than multi-national corporations. So I joined Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, a farm rights group, as soon as Joel Salatin became President. I thought with Joel at the helm, we'd see some action. I became Secretary of the group and served nearly four years before moving across country.

While with VICFA, I participated in several demonstrations, lobbied the Virginia General Assembly and Congress, wrote letters and emails to legislators, helped with the newsletter, went to court in support of farmers who had been wronged, tasted some of the best food anywhere and enjoyed comeraderie I have to admit I've missed since moving. During this time, I also joined the Weston A. Price Foundation and continued to learn more about traditional foodways.

Dad died, leaving Mom alone in Oregon, so I renovated my house as fast as I could, sold or gave away nearly all my livestock and belongings, put my house on the market and drove across country in April of 2007. My brother drove the pickup that had the great pyranees (Lacuna), a cage with three muscovy ducks and another cage with a cat in it. I drove the truck with three pygora goats in a pen fitted to the pickup bed. I also pulled a 4x8 trailer piled with people and animal food, tents and clothes. I swear we had to pull over two or three times in every single state to replace tarps and bungee cords.

We took Rte 40, the southernmost route, specifically to be in the warmest possible temperatures. At night we'd stop and camp near the animals. I was very nervous about animal health, and left two of my favorite angoras behind because I was afraid they wouldn't make the trip. But the pygoras settled in quickly and Aeroplane, my favorite, stood near the back of the pen and watched cars go by. She seemed thoroughly amused by the whole trip. We stopped three or more times a day for gas, potty and food breaks. We walked Lacuna, checked the tarps, watered the animals, stretched and got back in to drive some more. Police stopped us twice to check under our tarps for illegal aliens. At the Hoover Dam, one of the policemen leaned on the goat pen and lost a little hair to Aeroplane, who just had to taste it.

It took us every bit of seven days to get from Virginia to Oregon. It took 18 months to sell the Virginia house - at a loss. My nerves piled quite a bit of weight on me (used to be nerves made me lose weight, but not since I hit 40!), which I lost by eating a high raw diet (more on this in future posts).

The trip was actually very interesting, but I'm going to fast forward. VICFA set up a national non-profit farm rights group, NICFA, which serves as the umbrella over individual states rights groups. There was not one in Oregon. So I organized one. I was somewhat intimidated by the prospect, since I work waaay too many hours off farm as it is (night job and day job!), but there wasn't exactly a long list of volunteers. The Vice President is Sharlyn Homola, a horsewoman from Umpqua with a huge charming smile, who trolls the internet looking for NAIS news on a regular basis. Our membership is tiny and it is financially difficult for me to keep writing, publishing and mailing newsletters. We also have not had any of the fundraising dinners I had hoped for, or gone to the Oregon General Assembly yet. Enter Patrick Donaldson from Portland, a man who has contacts and energy and promises to help recruit members and help.

I worked in automotive for 14 years and was downsized. So I took my twenty nine cent savings and opened a farmers market/health food store. Ok, so I had some help financially from Donnie Murray, an old flame from Virginia who believed in me even when the banks would not. Essentially, Donnie bought refrigerators and freezers for me. I rounded up some new and used furniture, stained and painted it to match, and found a few farmers who wanted to sell on consignment. I bought some coffee, tea, cheese, bulk food, herbs and spices from Oregon companies that sell primarily organic food. And once the Oregon Department of Agriculture inspected the store, I opened the door on June 16th.

Prices are very good. I am the only employee and do not see the need to mark items up 50% like a lot of health food stores do. When I weigh quick profit versus repeat customers, repeat customers win every time.

That said, it has definitely been a challenge. I need a cash infusion from somewhere to purchase more food, pay the electric and phone bills, etc... and it is somewhat nerve wracking. Customers come in and tell me they hope I won't go out of business like the last health food store in Sutherlin did. I reply that I am too stubborn to fail.

And I am.