July Challenge: Make your own Sauerkraut

The growing season is in full swing, and we have been delighted by the large cabbages in our farm box the last couple weeks. Now is the time to utilize garden abundance to preserve foods for the winter.

In keeping with that idea, the challenge for this month is to make your own sauerkraut. This is actually a very simple and rewarding task that will also be good practice for other traditional preserving later in the harvest season (I am thinking salsa, chutneys, etc).

This challenge is simple, try preserving sauerkraut traditionally (this means fermenting with salt or whey rather than "pickling" in vinegar). If you are already a preserver, study your harvests (or u-pick options) and see if you can figure out how much you would have to preserve to last you through the next season. I noticed that bulk cabbage is on a great special right now through Azure Standard, and since our own cabbage does not seem to have taken well in the garden this year, a bulk order may be in store this month for us.

I will post a photo-how-to in the next week on making sauerkraut, and you can see how simple it is, even without fancy equipment. I will also share tips for some tasty variations (like latin American sauerkraut).

Other things you are inspired to preserve this month? Please share in the comment section!

Healthy Desserts: Quick Compromise Cupcakes

My youngest son turned 2 yesterday. We had just returned from a trip out of town but I really wanted to bring something for celebration to my eldest son's soccer class (filled with lots of mutual friends and little siblings who watch). This gave me about an hour to come up with something. Sadly, not enough time to soak or sprout and grains. However, if a pie can have unbleached white flour for the crust, then surely some birthday cupcakes can have un-soaked, non-sprouted, whole spelt flour.

Quick Compromise Carob Cupcakes

Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole spelt flour
1 cup rapadura
1/3 cup carob powder
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp chocolate extract (optional)
1 tsp vinegar

Topping Ingredients:
1-2 cups heavy whipping cream (not ultra-pasteurized)
pinch of stevia powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 350. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with a hand-held mixer. Divide into muffin tray lined with baking cups and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from tray immediately and let cool on wire racks. In the mean time, whip cream until soft peaks form, add stevia and vanilla extract and whip until cream is quite thick (but not butter). Place a dollop of cream on each cup cake and enjoy!

One of the moms commented on how "organic" these cupcakes look. Organic in the sense of simple and from the earth, not necessarily that they looked certifiable =) I enjoyed the novelty of cupcakes with cream rather than frosting as well, and the kids all thought it was grand (and no one seemed to mind the carob!)

Healthy Desserts: Lemon Merengue Pie

This is a lovely cold dessert for warm summer nights.

Have a partially-baked pie crust ready (partially bake by placing in cold oven set to 300 for 15 minutes)

In a sauce pan, combine grated rind of 2 lemons, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 3/4 cup pure maple syrup, and a mixture of 4 tbsp Arrowroot powder with 6 tbsp water. Cook this mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly until well combined and thickened (it will not thicken into jelly until it cooks in the pie and cools). Let the mixture cool and then beat in 3 egg yolks and 1 tbsp butter.

Meanwhile, beat 4 egg whites (or more) with a pinch of sea salt until softly stiff. Mix in 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 2-4 tbsp Rapadura and beat until stiff

Pour lemon filling into the partially baked crust and top carefully with the meringue, sealing in the pie from the crust.

Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes. Let cool completely before serving, this pie tastes even better after it has been kept in the refrigerator over night.

Great Give-a-way

New Urban Habitat is hosting a great give-a-way this week. It is for the book The Backyard Homestead. This is a great resource for gardening and seed saving. This book will teach you to maximize the most local food source possible - your own backyard "farm".

Enter for a chance to win!

June Challenge: Kick the Sugar Blues

I think summer is the perfect time to wean yourself off refined sweeteners. There are so many lovely and naturally sweet options available. June begins berry season, and I already have plans to do some picking next week. For the U-Pick options in your area, peruse Pick Your Own.

Why kick sugar? Refined sugar is not a food, regardless of how much more "natural" it is than the packaged chemical substitutes. The process sugar cane is taken through to produce that white stuff we Americans are so addicted to is the same process that opium poppies are taken through to produce heroine. This is not a food; it is a drug.

Like all drugs, when you ingest sugar it has profound effects on your body. The moment your body registers that you've eaten sugar, it tells your body to fuel itself on the sugar and carbs rather than burn fat for energy (want to loose a couple pounds for the summer? Cut white sugar and white flour!). Here are some other interesting links on removing sugar from your diet.

Sugar picks you up and lets you down ("sugar blues"). It interferes with clear mental processing, natural energy, and normal body rhythms. It is unquestionably linked as a cause of diabetes (along with refined flour). It is addictive! The more you eat, the more you crave. Further, it does nothing to satisfy. Your body registers fullness on fat content and nutrient-density. Sugary snacks will only leave you hungry for more as your body will not recognize that you gave it something to feed itself. Before you reach for that sweet snack, opt for a big glass of raw milk first, or some buttered toast with honey.

William Dufty's "Sugar Blues" converted me nearly overnight. I literally went through my cupboards and threw away anything with any form of sugar or high fructose corn syrup on the label (ketchup, mayo, cereal, bread, you name it!).

However, I know for many people cold turkey is rarely an option. I had also just discovered I was pregnant with my second child, which was a large motivator for me. As with any drug addiction, it is the first few days that are the most difficult. For me, this is why removing everything from my house was a good first step. You will also need something to replace the sugar. Even if you are still eating far too many natural sweeteners while you transition, they will not give you the same addiction problems as they are actually foods. After you transition you will naturally wean yourself down to healthy levels of natural sweets.

For those not interested in cold-turkey sugar abandonment, this article provides great baby-steps towards transitioning sugar out of your life.

Challenge Level One:
Pay close attention to what your actual sugar intake is for this month. Write it down. 100 years ago the average American ate roughly 5 pounds of refined sugar per person per year. Now, the average American consumes 175 pounds of sugar per year. That is alarming! Read labels on EVERYTHING and make a list of all the places sugar is hiding in your diet (remember, look at the ingredient list, not the grams listed on the "nutrition" panel).

Challenge Level Two:
Purchase William Dufty's "Sugar Blues" or check it out from the library and put it on your early summer reading list. It might change your life. OR Read the above mentioned article on transitioning sugar out of your life and see how many of the steps you can implement in June. Let me know!

Challenge Level Three:
See if you can go the whole month sugar free. Gorge on fresh berries, substitute with raw honey, pure maple syrup, stevia powder, Rapadura, and Molasses. There are candies and chocolates you can buy - but still read the ingredients! Some of the alternate flavors use different sweeteners.

In order to help you this month, I will try to post a dessert recipe each week (or more often!). I will be catering a graduation reception mid-month and will be crafting several desserts for the celebration so it should be easy to share some of that goodness here (though it is likely I will also provide some sugared pies since it is for such a large group and I have not been asked to cater it in the Weston A. Price style).

CSA Report: 1st Week of June

This week's CSA box provided (from left to right in 4 rows)

Top "Row": Red Leaf Lettuce Head, Green Leaf Lettuce Head
Second "Row": Purple Kale, Dill, Cilantro, Chard
Third "Row": Radishes, Garlic Snapes, Purple and Green Kohlrabi
Fourth "Row": Large bag of Spinach, Zuchini, Cucumber, Rainbow Chard

The garlic snapes were new to me. I had to look up "curly long green things" on google, which produced this page that enlightened me and provided recipie ideas.

I thought they looked lovely as as a centerpiece,


But decided they were even tastier as a "pesto"


Raw Garlic Snape Pesto (as per the website mentioned above)
1 bunch garlic snapes
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup freshly grated raw Parmesan cheese

Process garlic snapes and olive oil in food processor until well combined and transfer to a serving bowl. Fold in Parmesan by hand.

Everyone raved about the pesto (children included)! It served as as topping for the roasted chicken last night, and as a sandwich base for leftover chicken sandwiches today. It would also be lovely with chips or crackers and I might have enough left over to experiment with it in a salad dressing for tonight. YUM.

Menu Plan Monday

Here is the meal plan for this week after perusing the pantry and our CSA box.

Monday
B: Scrambled Eggs and toast, raw milk
L: PB&Honey, carrots, raw milk
D: Roasted Chicken with gravy (little bits of liver hidden here), Fresh green salad, Sauteed Kale, Raw Garlic Snape Pesto, raw milk.
Dessert: Lemon Merengue Pie
To Do: Soak peanuts, begin buttermilk marinade for roast, marinate stew meat, make pie crust + extra for later, soak oats

Tuesday
B: Oatmeal porridge (with butter, cinnamon & raisins), raw milk
L: Chicken sandwiches with garlic snape pesto spread, carrots, raw milk
D: Potluck! Contributing "all day" beef stew and a large green salad
To Do: Begin dehydrating peanuts, soak flour for buttermilk bread, feed sourdough mother, soak oats

Wednesday
B: Oatmeal porridge (with butter, cinnamon & raisins), raw milk
L: Chicken sandwiches, carrots, raw milk
D: Beef Roast, Mashed Yams, Sauteed Chard, Green Salad, raw milk
To Do: Make Buttermilk bread, feed sourdough mother, make coconut "white fudge", soak oats

Thursday
B: Oatmeal porridge (with butter, cinnamon & raisins), raw milk
L: Roast beef sandwiches, carrots, raw milk
D: Spinach Quiche, Green Salad, raw milk
To Do: Soak wheat berries, make yogurt, make homemade dill mayonnaise, soak oats

Friday
B: Oatmeal porridge (with butter, cinnamon & raisins), raw milk
L: Quiche, Salad, Raw milk
D: Burgers, Steamed Kohlrabi, Green Salad, Raw milk
To Do: Rinse and continue soaking wheat berries, start new batch of Kombucha, soak flour for pancakes

Saturday
B: Soured Pancakes, raw milk
L: Fritattas, raw milk
D: Leftovers from week with Green Salad and sauteed Chard, raw milk
To Do: Make zarathustra crackers, make creme fraiche

Sunday
B: Eggs and toast, raw milk
L: PB&Honey, raw milk
D: Burritos, Rice, Cilantro salad, raw milk
To Do: Soak rice in AM, soak oats

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This post is participating in Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.org
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CSA Report: 4th Week of May

CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. I am fortunate enough to live in an area where local farms and CSA programs abound. When I lived in Portland, I discovered that CSA's fill up by January at the latest. Here in Eugene, there is a bit more time, but they still fill before the growing season begins. If you live anywhere near farm land, I would wager there are farms doing CSA near you. For a helpful place to start looking, check out Local Harvest.

Their are many lovely perks from being a part of a CSA. I LOVE supporting my local farms, eating local produce, and eating seasonally. I enjoy having new vegetables to master in the kitchen (who knew we all LOVE the parsnip). This is real food grown naturally by the real earth. It is nutrient-dense, and it tastes superior to it's off-season, non-organic counterparts. Additionally, it is fresh, it doesn't travel far, there is not much packaging and it is cheaper than buying from the farmers market or grocery store. If there is an abundance of a harvest, you enjoy a share of that surplus (my fingers are crossed for this to happen with strawberries this year).

The drawbacks, for those thinking about switching, is that you are at the mercy of the farms harvest, if a crop fails, you absorb that loss along with the farmer (though I have never experienced that), further, you are constrained by what is seasonal. Most americans have lost all connection with eating foods according to season (instead have we have substituted sports to feel in tune with the changing seasons?), so for someone transitioning to CSA for produce, it might be a major change to your menu repetoir (like our current abundance of lettuces). The biggest hurdle, for people with limited cash flow (like ourselves) is that most require payment for the season up front. However, do not let that deter you, for farmers are realizing that the more they can work to divide up the payments, the easier this is on gaining customers. We were fortunate enough to find one here that allows you to pay week by week, though it remains a full season committment to do so.

This week we received:
A large bag of field greens
A large bag of spinach
A flat-leaf kale
Rainbow chard
Bunch of baby parsnips
Bunch of various radishes
Head of red leaf lettuce
Bunch of parsley
Collection of chive blossoms
A cucumber
Head of celery

I meant to take lovely photos of each of these items, but our box comes right before dinner on Monday nights, and many of the items get chopped up so fast there just is not time. I will try to be more dutiful with the camera next week.

Right now we are swimming in lettuces while I am really the only one in the family who enjoys them (actually, my eldest enjoys salad too, but he can only eat so much as a nearly 4-year-old. my two-year-old is still missing his back molars, so lettuce is a challenge. Husband will eat salad, but begrudgingly unless it's Caesar, though last nights was rich with bacon and sharp raw cheddar, which helped). I am glad that we began getting our CSA boxes before planting our garden this year (I was previously disappointed we did not plant earlier), as my original growing plans included many lettuces. We have now decided not to grow any lettuce, trusting the CSA box to keep us amply supplied with salad greens, and relying on the garden to supply me with harvests I can preserve for winter (and lettuce will not keep).

There will be more on the garden coming soon. Hopefully next week I will get back to Menu Plan Mondays which will be mapped out once we receive our harvest box.

Nutrient-Dense Bread Making: A Compromise

In Sally Fallon's lovely cookbook, Nourishing Traditions, she offers a compromise for bread makers: Yeasted Buttermilk Bread. The flour is soaked, but the recipe still calls for yeast.

Yeast is a compromise because "active dry yeast" and the wild yeasts in the air that create a sourdough are not the same. Think of this difference: sourdough can take 4-12+ hours to double, and does not get punched down. That is because there are significantly less powerful yeasts at work. Further, many people use a packaged instant yeast for their bread making, which I have just discovered uses GMO's!

However, for someone transitioning to traditional foods, jumping straight to sourdough can be difficult both for flavor and for texture. Further, sometimes you need to make bread in between your sourdough cycle. We have found the Yeasted Buttermilk Bread to be delicious and easier on the stomach for my 2-year-old than commercially sprouted breads (you might note that I do not have any photos of the two loaves whole....we cannot resist this bread fresh from the oven, not even long enough to take a picture!).

Another perk: it is so easy!

Quick Directions:
Soak 4 cups whole grain flour (I use spelt) in 1 - 1.5 cups buttermilk on the counter for 12-24 hours (24 is best).
Place 1 tsp Active Dry Yeast in 1/4 cup warm filtered water with 2 tbsp honey. Mix well and let sit for 5 minutes.
Add 1 tbsp baking soda + 1 tsp sea salt to the yeast solution and mix well.
Divide soaked flour in half. Place half in food processor and combine with 1/2 cup whole grain flour (again, I use spelt), and half of the yeast solution.
Repeat with the other half of the soaked flour. Then slightly knead halves together and let rise in a bowl for 2 hours in a warm place.
Punch down and slightly knead (or process quickly again in the food processor in halves), divide in half, shape loaves, and place in buttered loaf pans. Let rise another 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
Place in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Turn out and let cool on wire racks. Enjoy!

Alternately, when you form your loaves, you can form them into about 24 little balls and stuff them into a 11-inch spring form pan for delicious yeasted buttermilk rolls.

When I was having sourdough starter issues here at the new house (which now seem to be resolved) I was making these buttermilk loafs every other day much to the satisfaction of the whole household and anyone who stopped by.

Menu Plan Monday

It is Menu Plan Monday again. However, we are leaving for Portland in the middle of the week so the "plan" will be limited. The plan from Thursday night on will be to find inexpensive, nutrient-dense, GMO-free (as much as possible) food while living out of a hotel room for 5 days. Ha! Good luck to us! (and yes, I will be packing as much as I can to bring with us)

Monday
B: Banana, soaked oatmeal porridge with butter, raisins, and cinnamon, raw milk
L: PB Honey, carrots, apples, raw milk
D: Meatloaf, green salad, raw milk, kombucha
To Do: Feed sourdough mother, start beet kvass, soak oats for cookies, soak oats for porridge, dehydrate oats for cookies

Tuesday
B: Banana, soaked oatmeal porridge with butter, raisins, and cinnamon, raw milk
L: PB Honey, carrots, apples, raw milk, kombucha
D: Roast chicken, rice, salad, raw milk
To Do: Feed sourdough mother, make oatmeal cookies, soak oats for porridge

Wednesday
B: Banana, soaked oatmeal porridge with butter, raisins, and cinnamon, raw milk
L: Chicken soup with rice, raw milk, kombucha
D: Quiche, green salad, raw milk
To Do: Make sourdough, soak oats for porridge

Thursday
B: Banana, soaked oatmeal porridge with butter, raisins, and cinnamon, raw milk
L: PB Honey, carrot sticks, apple slices, kombucha, raw milk

PACK FOR THE WEEKEND: Raw milk, Beet Kvass, Sourdough loaves, leftover chicken, raw cheese, butter, leftover quiche, carrots, apples, bananas, oatmeal cookies, peanut butter.

Another Contest!

Perhaps more useful than cultures (for those who are not home culturers), how does free non-GMO beef sound? The No GMO Challenge site is offering a giveaway to win $100 worth of meat (or anything else from U.S. Wellness Meats).

Check it out and sign up for the 30-day no GMO challenge (a requirement for entering the contest).

Menu Plan Monday

This is the first week I am participating in the Menu Plan Monday blog carnival. I am hoping to do this weekly and have this replace the "A week in my kitchen" reports (which I have neglected this year). For other menu planning inspiration visit the link above.

Monday
B: Banana, soaked oatmeal porridge with butter, raisins, and cinnamon, raw milk
L: Roast beef sandwiches, apple slices, carrot sticks, raw milk
D: Roast Chicken, rice, green salad, raw milk, kombucha
To Do: Soak rice in AM, feed sourdough mother, soak flour for buttermilk bread, make yogurt, start beef broth, soak flour for pizza dough, start new kombucha batch, soak oats for porridge

Tuesday
B: Banana, soaked oatmeal porridge with butter, raisins, and cinnamon, raw milk
L: Chicken sandwiches, apple slices, carrot sticks, raw milk, kombucha
D: Potluck Night: Contribute pepperoni/veggie pizza and CB Pineapple pizza, raw milk
To Do: Make bread, make more pure yogurt starter, feed sourdough mother, soak oats for porridge

Wednesday
B: Banana, soaked oatmeal porridge with butter, raisins, and cinnamon, raw milk
L: Chicken soup w/rice, apple slices, raw milk, kombucha
D: Steak, green salad, garlic/broccoli/onion mashed potatoes, raw milk
To Do: Soak garbanzo beans, feed sourdough mother, soak flour for bread, finish beef broth, soak oats for porridge

Thursday
B: Banana, soaked oatmeal porridge with butter, raisins, and cinnamon, raw milk
L: Steak Caesar salad, apple, kombucha, raw milk
D: Bacon/Feta/Spinach Quiche, green salad, french onion soup, raw milk
To Do: Cook garbanzo beans, feed sourdough mother, make bread, make yogurt, soak oats for porridge

Friday
B: Banana, soaked oatmeal porridge with butter, raisins, and cinnamon, raw milk
L: Quiche and soup leftovers, raw milk, kombucha
D: Liver & onions, green salad, steamed veggies, raw milk
Dessert: Homemade ice cream
To Do: Soak flour for pancakes, make hummus, feed sourdough

Saturday
B: Soured pancakes w/pure maple syrup, eggs, raw milk
L: BLTs, apple, carrot, and cheese slices, raw milk, Kombucha
D: Leftovers from the week, raw milk
To Do: Make sourdough

Sunday
B: Soured pancakes w/pure maple syrup, eggs, raw milk
L: PB Honey, apple, carrot, and cheese slices, raw milk, kombucha
D: Meat Loaf, salad, steamed veggies, raw milk
To Do: Soak oats for porridge

May Challenge: Make Your Own Bread!

Home baked breads are a delicious treasure and a huge way to save money.

There are two brands of bread I approve of from the store. Both are sprouted and do not have sugar of high fructose corn syrups added. One is from Alvarado St. Bakery, and the other from Ezekiel 4:9 (which, unfortunately, does use soy). Both are usually priced $4-$5.50 per loaf! When I make bread at home, I usually spend $1 or less per loaf on the ingredients and there are no compromising additives.

Even if you are not ready to take the plunge to fully soured flours or sprouted grains, making your own bread is a great baby step towards a healthier diet as well as a step towards creating extra grocery money which you can redirect towards choosing organic, non-GMO foods.

Challenge Level One:
Make bread this month, any bread recipie that catches your eye.

Challenge Level Two:
For those of you who already make your own bread occasionally, step it up and spend the whole month making your own bread each week.

Challenge Level Three:
For those of you who already make all of your own bread, try making a true, traditional sourdough bread. I have previously given instructions for real sourdough, but I will be adding more bread recipes and tips as the month progresses.

If you take the challenge on any level and/or blog about doing it, please comment here and let me know!

Yogurt Review & Update

I have been meaning to post about my yogurt adventures for weeks now. I apologize!

Cultures For Health was so kind as to send my two yogurt samples, a Viili and a Matsoni. I was so excited to make raw milk yogurt that would be thick! The instructions tell you to start by making a "pure" starter, which requires pasteurizing some milk. This is required so that you do not have the naturally occurring, healthy bacteria in the milk competing with the culture for the yogurt.

So, I brought a cup of milk to 160 degrees


Then let it cool to room temp and separated it into two jars, labeled of course.


Then I mixed in the cultures and topped the jars with a paper towel (my cheesecloth was being used elsewhere).


Then I placed them in the oven with my oven light left on. They are far apart to avoid cross-contamination (though truly, I don't know if this is still too close since it is an enclosed space). I also traded their positions about half way through so that they would get the same heat (the top left being closest to the light).


After a day or so (I think it was 18 hours), they looked nice and thick with nothing running up the sides when turned. Oh I was excited.


Then, as per instructed, I let the cultures finish culturing with lids in the refrigerator for 6 more hours. Then I added the prescribed amount of starter to plain old cold raw milk from the refrigerator, and covered the jars in the same way, and placed them in the oven in the same way as the starter cultures with the oven light on. After 12 hours or so (it was left overnight), I had jars that looked like this:

Notice the separation at the bottom of the jar? I wasn't sure if this was okay. I used some cheesecloth to drain it a bit, and hoped for the best, but it was not thick like I had hoped. It sufficed for soaking oats for porridge.

I presumed that the oven light made it too hot for the cultures. So I used the rest of my starters to try again. This time leaving the oven light off.

(Now, I should mention, the instructions say that you can leave these on the counter in a warm room. However, there really are no warm rooms in my house if the weather is cold, as similarly, there are no cool rooms in my house if the weather is warm. Further, the kitchen is actually the draftiest place in our house. So, that is why I keep using my oven as an insulated space. Perhaps your house is warmer and you can just put them on top of your refrigerator.)

Well, this time I left the jars for 18 hours, and even closer to 24, and it looked like nothing happened at all. Just milk. Not a hint of thickness nor of separation. Ug. It happened over a couple cold days here, and perhaps it was just too cold to grow the cultures?

I really do believe making yogurt at home is simple and easy. I used to do it in our old house (though not raw). This house seems against me. I have trouble with my sourdough here as well. I do have high hopes that the summer will make things easier on me. Further, I am in the middle of attempt three at counter top yogurt. Wish me luck! I will update you as soon as I can.

If you have any tips, or if you have taken any of the dairy challenges this month, please share!

Earth Day and The No GMO Challenge

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

~Native American Proverb

I am taking the Earth Day "Just Say No to GMO's" challenge this month. More truly, I am taking this challenge for the rest of my life, and have already been living it for quite some time. However, it is nearly impossible to avoid if you eat out, or ever need a convenience food. So, for the next month, I will even be ruling out those exceptions.

Think that GMO's are no big deal, since the FDA approves of them, right? Cheeseslave and Food Renegade have already posted great info today on GMO's, so rather than repeat them, I suppose I will share this old quote from Accidental Hedonist instead:

"Once upon a time, in order for the FDA to determine if Monsanto's growth hormones were safe or not, Monsanto was required to submit a scientific report on that topic. Margaret Miller, one of Monsanto's researchers put the report together. Shortly before the report submission, Miller left Monsanto and was hired by the FDA. Her first job for the FDA was to determine whether or not to approve the report she wrote for Monsanto. Assisting Miller was another former Monsanto researcher, Susan Sechen.

The result? Monsanto approved its own report.

Doesn't that fill you with [feelings of] safety and joy?"

Here is what Monsanto claims on their website about their own ethical standards:

“Challenges that arise in the course of our business can be resolved consistent with all applicable laws and regulations, and with our high ethical standards, and still allow us to meet our business objectives if issues are identified early, addressed cooperatively, and solved thoughtfully.”
- Monsanto's Code of Business Conduct

Interesting that the only specific foundation they have for ethics in business is that they comply with laws and regulations. This is interesting since their own lobbying dollars and other forms of bribery are what influence may of those laws and regulations - and then they use the same staff in a revolving door with the FDA. How is this objective!?

Here is an interesting history I recently found on the company, and here is what wikipedia offers.

I cannot find it at the moment, but Dr. Mercola also had an article a while back about a new "mystery" disease that caused blue, white, and some other color long plastic threads that would come out of (and tear through) your body. The only good explanation for this condition is GMO's as they disrupt and modify cellular function (that is, after all, the objective of their use in the food supply).

GMO's are awful for the environment and dangerous for you. Take this challenge with me! The best way to know what you are eating is to make it from scratch, however, you can still avoid GMO's by purchasing organic prepared foods. Start reading labels. Know what you are eating.....after all, your body can only be built by what you put into it.

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This post is part of the Real Food Wednesday blog carnival hosted by Cheeseslave. For other stories, anecdotes, recipes, and posts relating to Real Food, go check it out!
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