On the Benefits of Pastured Chicken Eggs

Today's bounty from the henhouse

Along with raw milk and fermented dairy products, eggs from pastured chickens are one of the most nourishing foods on the planet.  Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride compares raw egg yolk to human breast milk because it can be absorbed almost 100% without needing digestion.  Egg yolks will provide you with the most essential amino acids, many vitamins (B1, B2, B6, B12, A, D, biotin), essential fatty acids, zinc magnesium and numerous other nutrients. 

We have a whole batch of young chickens hatched late spring here on the farm that just started laying and we once again have eggs for sale in the milk fridge.  You can tell from their vivid yellow-orange yolks that the chickens are eating their traditional diet of bugs, slugs, worms, even the occasional mouse or frog, supplemented with organic feed that is soy and corn free.  All these nutrients translate to a rich store of health enhancing carotenes.  The more carotenes, the darker, deeper orange color the yolk—and the higher the levels of fat-soluble vitamins as well. Eggs from pastured chickens also provide all eight essential protein building amino acids.

Our girls are out on green grass year round

For us parents, soft-boiled egg yolks are a great first food for baby.  Egg yolks, rich in choline, cholesterol and other brain-nourishing substances, can be added to your baby's diet as early as four months. (If baby reacts poorly to egg yolk at that age, discontinue and try again one month later.) Cholesterol is vital for the insulation of the nerves in the brain and the entire central nervous system. Since the brain is so dependent on cholesterol, it is especially vital during this time when brain growth is in hyper-speed.  Choline is another critical nutrient for brain development.

Store bought eggs on the left, eggs from our pastured chickens right

Why just the yolk for babies? The white is the portion that most often causes allergic reactions, so wait to give egg whites until after your child turns one.

In years past eggs have gotten a bad rap and if you listen to mainstream media you probably were scared to eat more than a couple eggs a week.  There is a great body of scientific evidence explaining how the body produces cholesterol as it's needed, to make up for what your diet doesn't supply.  Eating foods rich in cholesterol takes some of the work load off your body and even if you religiously follow a completely cholesterol-free diet, you will still have a lot of cholesterol in your body.  Your body has mechanisms in place to balance the cholesterol levels in your blood, whether you get it from food or it's produced by your body. Some people's natural, healthy cholesterol level is higher than others and a healthy body will balance this. 

Best idea yet - try to keep a few of your own hens in your yard so you always have an abundant source of nutrient dense eggs to eat or barter, or find a friend willing to house chickens for both of you. 

Truly pastured chicken eggs are hard to find but worth every effort to attain them! 

Charlotte Smith
@champoegcreamry
www.champoegcreamery.com
Charlotte passionately believes in the health benefits of a traditional foods diet, especially dairy products from grass-fed cows. She loves sharing time honored traditions of transforming milk into delicious and nutritious cheeses through her classes which also teem with nutrition facts and wisdom. Charlotte owns Champoeg Creamery, a pasture based raw milk dairy in St. Paul, Oregon, and is the mother of 3, a certified Nutrition Wellness Educator, and sits on the Executive Advisory Council for the Raw Milk Institute.

Preparing Bone Broth from Pastured Chickens: How and Why

Our chickens on lush July pasture

Raising pastured chickens in Oregon is a seasonal endeavor, beginning with chicks sometime in the spring and butchering the last birds by the time the grass is starting to slow its growth.  Different grass varieties grow at different rates throughout the year, but a good rule of thumb for our local pasture grasses is that it grows fastest between 50-72 or so degrees Fahrenheit.  This means we are just completing our last butchering for the year and coincidentally, it coincides with soup and stew season.  We always have lots of stewing chickens available which make the most wonderful soup stock!

I've been making soup stock/bone broth for the past 25 years, and learned from watching my mom in the kitchen with her soup pot bubbling and the wonderful aromas of herbs and aromatics filling the house for 24 hours. It wasn't until the last few years that I actually found out why bone broths are so important in our diet and I began researching this wonderful and simple food.

Now we have science that validates what my mother and her mother knew intuitively - rich, homemade chicken broth helps cure colds.  It helps with digestion - the gelatin in the stock aids in the digestive process and stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.  The Weston Price Foundation recommends you begin each meal with a small bowl of bone broth based soup.

I also wondered why sometimes my stock gelled and sometimes it did not.

Sarah Pope of "The Healthy Home Economist" has a bog post on "5 Reasons Your Stock Won't Gel" and I've pasted it below:

1. The stock rolled at too high a temperature.  If stock is simmered too high, the heat will break down and destroy the collagen.  To see what the perfect simmer on your stock should look like, see my short video on my website.
2. The stock did not roll long enough.  Once you get that perfect simmer or “roll” going, be sure that chicken stock rolls for 6-24 hours and beef stock for 12-50 hours.  Less than that will likely not draw enough gelatin into the stock from the bones.
3. Not enough of the right kind of bones were used that yield gelatin.  To get the right mix of bones that yield gelatin versus other types of bones that add flavor and color, make sure you use one of the following methods:  1 whole, free range layer hen with neck and wings cut up, 3-4 lbs of boney chicken parts which includes a combo of necks, backs, and wings, OR the picked carcass of 2 meat chickens.  For beef stock, use about 7 lbs bones total (4 lbs of boney bones and 3 lbs of meaty bones).
4. Too much water was used in proportion to the bones.  For chickens, the correct proportion is 3-4 lbs of bones per 4 quarts of filtered water. For beef stock, the correct proportion is 7 lbs of bones per 4 quarts of water or more to cover.
5. Using bones from battery chickens or chickens raised in cages.  Conventionally raised chickens or chickens raised in cages typically yield little to no gelatin.   It is worth the extra money to get quality when you buy meat especially if you will be using those bones to make stock

I thought it is interesting that store bought chickens not raised on pasture do not have enough gelatin.  We have a freezer full of USDA butchered pastured stewing chickens available for purchase just for this purpose!

Chicken Stock - from the Weston A. Price website
1 whole free-range chicken or 2 to 3 pounds of bony chicken parts, such as necks, backs, breastbones and wings*
gizzards from one chicken (optional)
2-4 chicken feet (optional)
4 quarts cold filtered water
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
1 bunch parsley

*Note: Farm-raised, free-range chickens give the best results. Many battery-raised chickens will not produce stock that gels.

If you are using a whole chicken, cut off the wings and remove the neck, fat glands and the gizzards from the cavity. Cut chicken parts into several pieces. (If you are using a whole chicken, remove the neck and wings and cut them into several pieces.) Place chicken or chicken pieces in a large stainless steel pot with water, vinegar and all vegetables except parsley. Let stand 30 minutes to 1 hour. Bring to a boil, and remove scum that rises to the top. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 6 to 8 hours. The longer you cook the stock, the richer and more flavorful it will be. About 10 minutes before finishing the stock, add parsley. This will impart additional mineral ions to the broth.

Beautifully gelled broth.

Remove whole chicken or pieces with a slotted spoon. If you are using a whole chicken, let cool and remove chicken meat from the carcass. Reserve for other uses, such as chicken salads, enchiladas, sandwiches or curries. Strain the stock into a large bowl and reserve in your refrigerator until the fat rises to the top and congeals. Skim off this fat and reserve the stock in covered containers in your refrigerator or freezer.

Cooper is our charismatic and loyal chicken guardian,
protecting them from predators day and night

Austin catches this bad boy to ready him for the freezer

Marc and Charlotte, farming to provide
our community with nutrient dense food.

Charlotte Smith
@champoegcreamry
www.champoegcreamery.com
Charlotte passionately believes in the health benefits of a traditional foods diet, especially dairy products from grass-fed cows. She loves sharing time honored traditions of transforming milk into delicious and nutritious cheeses through her classes which also teem with nutrition facts and wisdom. Charlotte owns Champoeg Creamery, a pasture based raw milk dairy in St. Paul, Oregon, and is the mother of 3, a certified Nutrition Wellness Educator, and sits on the Executive Advisory Council for the Raw Milk Institute.

Back to School - Lunch Time!

Once again another summer has flown by way too quickly and I realize school time is here already!!  Mornings are hectic around here - everyone needs to be washed and combed and dressed and fed and brushed and out the door by 7:15, so I can go milk cows.  In the midst of all this chaos we still need to plan ahead for lunchtime, too.

There are many attempts around the U.S. to make school lunches healthier - but most schools are still like our local school and have a very small budget to work within, which means heavy on the carbs and starches and processed foods to remain within budget.  For those of you trying to eat a traditional foods diet this can be frustrating.  Many of us working moms would love the convenience of school lunches but know we have to prioritize our children's health.

You also have to consider your kid's personality - are they the type that has to fit in and doesn't want to be different so therefore has to have the same hot lunch everyone else is having, or will they be able to stand up for their homemade grub that doesn't come in fancy shapes with a cutesy name?  This may determine how traditional looking you make your lunches.

Shivan's lunch this week - meatballs, enzyme rich ketchup, fruit, yogurt smoothie.

Shivan's lunch this week - meatballs, enzyme rich ketchup, fruit, yogurt smoothie.

Let Them Help

I have found that if my daughter gets to choose her lunch foods and helps prepare it then she has complete confidence eating it in front of all the pre-packaged and fried goodies that her friends have.  Now that she's 5 she loves to help by cutting up her own fruit and veggies and packaging them in her lunch box and she also helps make her own smoothies in the blender.  We also practice the 80/20 rule at school, just like we do at home.  If we eat a traditional foods diet 80% of the time than we give ourselves 20% leeway.  In this case I let her choose one lunch per week if she'd like to indulge in a cheeseburger or spaghetti or "chicken" nuggets.  This also gives me an "out" if we are really running late or I ran out of time to prepare for lunch.  Moms - it's ok to give yourself some grace and not be perfect every time!!

This week when I asked her what she wanted in her school lunch box she said, "meatballs, oranges, grapes and a yogurt smoothie."  Excellent choices!! I was so proud of her!  So this is what we are starting with the first week.  She helps me make kefir smoothies with honey and frozen blueberries we picked this summer and we put it in a thermos and it stays cold enough for her to drink it through a straw.  She's not a big sandwich person so meatballs or hunks of our home raised chicken is just right and she's huge on mixed fruit, especially if she can peel the little "cutie" oranges herself.

Other great options we will prepare:  steamed broccoli and carrots and some homemade hummus or ranch dressing to dip them in.  For the dip, I simply make some fromage blanc with raw milk, stir in some minced chives, parsley and garlic salt and it tastes just like ranch dressing from the store only far healthier.  If you mix the fromage blanc with a little honey it makes a nutritious and delicious fruit dip, too.  It can also be spread on bread or a tortilla for a sandwich - stack it or roll it with other goodies your child will eat. 

Sneak in the Enzymes

A challenge for me is getting enough fermented veggies in my kid's bellies - I still have to disguise them or mask them.  This week I am serving our homemade ketchup with her meatballs.  We use Sally Fallon's recipe from Nourishing Traditions which I've listed below.  Shivan also loves the homemade fermented pickles and has no idea they are full of enzymes to help start the process of digestion and reduce the strain on the pancreas.  Traditionally fermented salami slices are another healthy meat option whether on a sandwich or roll up with some fromage blanc again. Yogurt and kefir and even raw milk in a thermos will satisfy, feed the brain and the immune system!

Additional lunch box ideas:

• hard boiled eggs, sliced plain or in sandwiches and wraps
• homemade (or purchased :) raw milk cheeses, cubed 
• sliced traditionally fermented salami
• pepperoni sticks from (our) grass fed beef cow
• muffins with grated zucchini, carrots, or sweet potato
• sliced pita triangles dipped in hummus or fromage blanc dip
• homemade chicken soup packed in a thermos 
• Leftovers! - lasagna, pastas, casseroles in a thermos are all satisfying and nutritious
  
  

Lacto-fermented ketchup, rich with enzymes, is easy to make - mix the ingredients together and let ferment on the counter for a couple days.

Nourishing Traditions "Ketchup"

3 cups canned tomato paste, preferably organic
1/4 cup whey
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
1/2 cup homemade or commercial fish sauce
Mix all ingredients until well blended.  Place in a quart-sized, wide-mouth mason jar.  The top of the ketchup should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar.  Leave at room temperature for about 2 days before transferring to refrigerator.

The Healthy Home Economist has a great recipe out this week for Lacto-Fermented Sloppy Joes using this homemade ketchup - we will definitely be eating them this week.

Make your back to school lunches delicious as well as nutritious and your kids will be equipped to fight off all those back to school colds!

Warmly,
Charlotte

Charlotte Smith
@champoegcreamry
www.champoegcreamery.com
Charlotte passionately believes in the health benefits of a traditional foods diet, especially dairy products from grass-fed cows. She loves sharing time honored traditions of transforming milk into delicious and nutritious cheeses through her classes which are also teeming with nutrition facts and wisdom. Charlotte owns Champoeg Creamery, a pasture based raw milk dairy in St. Paul, Oregon, and is the mother of 3 and a certified Nutrition Wellness Educator.

How To Find Safe and Nutritious Raw Milk

Raw milk has become a very hot topic in Oregon this spring!  Even though the publicity was started because several people became ill, demand is still increasing as others become aware of this traditional food and its health benefits.

Raw milk farmers in Oregon are very limited in the amount we can produce so when looking for raw milk you may have to call/visit a number of farms before you can find availability.  In our state, raw milk is not regulated by the government, therefore the consumer must be very discerning.  I'm suggesting the following set of guidelines as a tool for all you new-to-raw-milk drinkers who are contemplating adding this wonderful food to your family's diet.

My girls LOVE their raw milk!!

Buying Raw Milk Locally If a farmer follows the proper procedures to produce safe, clean, and nutritious raw milk, it is very easy to do so every time.  When looking for a farm to purchase raw milk from, I recommend the consumer do the following:

1. Ask for a tour. If a farmer won’t let you tour their property then I would not buy milk from them. When you meet the farmer they should be open to sharing their practices and answering all your questions. Do you trust this person, what they say and do? Ask for references of several customer’s names and numbers who’ve been getting milk from the farmer for some time and call the customers.

 2. Look at the cows out in the pasture.  Are the cows on tall (at least 4") green grass vs. dirt? Are the cows clean, is the feeding area clean, is the barn clean, how does the place smell? How many cows are on the property vs. the acres of grass?  Are the cows rotated to fresh pasture daily?  Every 2 or 3 days?  Does the farmer have access to irrigation so the cows are on fast-growing grass for 9 months of the year, or is the grass gone by July, meaning the cows are truly grass-fed only 3-4 months of the year? Tall grass pasture keeps the cows cleaner and therefore the milk safer to produce.

3.  What does the farmer feed the cows, in addition to pasture?  The most nutritious and safest milk comes from grass fed cows on tall, green pasture.  These cows should be supplemented with some kind of grain, perhaps rolled barley or oats.  They need minerals daily and free choice of salt.  Alfalfa and grass hay are the best hay choices if they must supplement or if it's winter and pasture is not available. 

4. Look at the milking area.  Is it clean? A dirt floor in a barn can be a clean place to milk, look to see if it is free of manure and bedding.  How is the milking equipment cleaned? (vinegar/water rinse, hot soapy water rinse, bleach/water rinse).  And how are the milk jars sanitized? Where is the milk handled and is that area clean?  How is the milk chilled? Is it in an ice bath or just placed in a freezer or fridge (cools down much slower which could allow for illness causing bacteria to grow)

5.  Testing.  How often is the milk tested for bacteria? Cows should be tested daily to weekly with the California Mastitis Test and at least monthly milk samples should be sent to a lab for cultures. Ask to see the written results of lab tests.

6. Ask if they use organic and/or sustainable farm practices.  No hormones; occasional antibiotics only when necessary, 50% or more of the feed coming right off the farm.  Regular vaccinations should be used following an organic dairy plan. 

Overall, be an informed consumer. Be confident in the choice to drink raw milk so you can educate your friends and family who will ask how you can be sure it’s safe. If you follow these procedures then you will be assured the milk you bring home is safe to drink. Once you bring your milk home make sure it’s kept covered in its container and refrigerated to 37-40 degrees F.
 
Oregon law allows raw milk sales on the farm only, and only if you are milking fewer than 3 cows or nine goats.  With so few cows I am able to look them over thoroughly twice daily to be able to be confident in their good health.  I have the opportunity to thoroughly inspect the animal and the equipment because there are no industrialized or huge automated pieces of machinery that might fail.  Food produced by hand on such a small scale is very safe if you have an educated farmer who’s passionate about high quality.  If profit takes priority over quality, then the quality suffers.  Get to know your farmer and where their values lie in regard to this topic.

Consumers of raw milk in Oregon also have the responsibility to educate themselves on the high costs involved with producing hand crafted food on a small scale.  If raw milk dairies are following the proper procedures for feeding and handling the cows and the milk, they are lucky if they cover the costs of production.  It is a very difficult lifestyle to own dairy cows on this small scale.  If you plan on enjoying the remarkable taste and health benefits of raw milk, plan on paying what it’s worth.

Milk mustaches rawk!!

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Editor's Note: Charlotte is now serving on the Executive Advisory Committee for the newly formed Raw Milk Institute alongside Sally Fallon Morell, Dr. Joseph Mercola, and several other excellent champions of real food. It's been troubling to watch the news of controversial raw milk issues in Oregon from so far away, but I'm grateful to know that farmers like Charlotte are more committed than ever to educating consumers and producers and protecting the rights of the public to access safe, clean, raw milk.

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Charlotte Smith
@champoegcreamry
www.champoegcreamery.com
Charlotte passionately believes in the health benefits of a traditional foods diet, especially dairy products from grass-fed cows. She loves sharing time honored traditions of transforming milk into delicious and nutritious cheeses through her classes which are also teeming with nutrition facts and wisdom. Charlotte owns Champoeg Creamery, a pasture based raw milk dairy in St. Paul, Oregon, and is the mother of 3 and a certified Nutrition Wellness Educator.

A Cup of Kefir A Day Keeps the Doctor Away!

Here is all you need to make kefir: milk, kefir grains, and a jar to culture it in.

“All diseases begin in the gut.” This is a wonderful phrase coined by Hippocrates more than two thousand years ago and the more we learn, the more we realize just how right he was. If we are doing all we can to have a healthy digestive system our immune system will also be strong.  Fermented dairy products, especially kefir, are some of the best foods for our digestive system.

Kefir, a somewhat sour, yeasty, and effervescent lacto-fermented beverage is gaining enormous popularity!  January 2 of this year I began getting daily requests for kefir grains, which I just attributed to a few New Year’s Resolutions… however, those requests have not stopped and the grains are flying out the door!

Kefir originated in the Caucasus Mountains, in the former Soviet Union, and seemed to have been developed by shear accident.  The villagers of this area consumed the nutritious beverage in large quantities and were renowned for longevity, living long, healthy lives with little to no known disease. An active life span of over one hundred years was common for folks living in the region where kefir was cultured and liberally consumed as part of a staple diet.

Kefir is probably the easiest cultured milk beverage to make at home, easier then yogurt because it cultures right on your countertop – no need to find a warmer place to incubate it.  Whereas yogurt can be cultured from previous batches of yogurt, kefir can only be cultured using kefir grains.  Kefir grains are self perpetuating, increasing in volume with each batch you make, and therefore need to be divided over time.  If you ask around I’m sure you can find a local source – perhaps a friend with some extra to give away.  Kefir grains are not a grain at all – just initially labeled that because of their appearance and granular structure.  They are created through a dynamic association of friendly lactic acid bacteria, vinegar-producing bacteria and healthy yeast strains.

Identical as well as adorable twin sisters Cathy and Connie live nearby and culture about five gallons of raw milk into kefir each week in order to maintain strong immune systems.

As their cultures grow, they keep a steady supply of kefir grains coming my way – and I am able to pass them on to others all week.  Given that they drink more kefir than anyone I know, I asked them a few questions regarding their experience with kefir.

They each drink about 1-2 cups daily of kefir, drinking mostly in the morning but Connie and her husband enjoy a tall glass in the evening, too.  They, like me, find that it can be an acquired taste – they recommend getting used to the flavor gradually, perhaps adding maple syrup, raw honey, frozen juice concentrate or fruit compote to soften the sour flavor at first, and work your way up to being able to drink it plain if you choose.

It gets sourer and healthier the longer you leave it on your countertop – I leave mine about 24 hours, Connie ferments hers about 36 hours and Cathy cultures her about 48 hours.  I guess I’m the wimpy one of the bunch!

Initially, Cathy and Connie started drinking kefir in order to add beneficial probiotics to their diets to strengthen their immune systems, and they also chose kefir because it is the easiest of the cultured dairy products to make - you simply add kefir grains to a jar of milk and place it on your countertop to culture for a day or two.  It’s also a good idea to cover it with a towel to protect it from nutrient damaging light.

Cathy and Connie both credit kefir with preventing illness and for strengthening their immune systems immensely in the past few years.  Cathy used to get every passing bug and it would take weeks for her to recover from them.  As of today she has not been sick in a year, even though her husband has brought home a couple very nasty illnesses. 

Cathy also used to suffer from several food intolerances and breaking out in hives was a common occurrence, but since beginning kefir consumption hives are now a very rare occurrence.  Connie enjoys not having to worry about being exposed to others’ illnesses, confident her strengthened immune system will fight it off and additionally, she is now free of previously annoying digestive problems.  These two ladies are very trim and fit and Connie credits her figure to kefir being such a completely nourishing and satisfying food.

Simply place one or two of these kefir grains in a quart jar, fill with milk,
and place on counter top with lid loosened for 24 hrs. until thickened

Charlotte Smith
@champoegcreamry
www.champoegcreamery.com
Charlotte passionately believes in the health benefits of a traditional foods diet, especially dairy products from grass-fed cows. She loves sharing time honored traditions of transforming milk into delicious and nutritious cheeses through her classes which are also teeming with nutrition facts and wisdom. Charlotte owns Champoeg Creamery, a pasture based raw milk dairy in St. Paul, Oregon, and is the mother of 3 and a certified Nutrition Wellness Educator.

Feature: Portland's Own "Community Supported Kitchen"

Salt, Fire and Time 1902 NW 24th Ave. Portland

Somewhere throughout my days, amid milking the cows, making sure my kids are fed and clothed, and running a farm corporation, I am aware of my well-worn copy of Nourishing Traditions beckoning, encouraging, and even pleading to me - pleading me to be an even “better” mom and keeper of these Nourishing Traditions. It’s as if Sally Fallon herself is looking into my windows and wondering why I haven’t rendered that tub of pastured pork fat into tasty lard, or perhaps she’s noticing that although there is some kefir fermenting on the counter top, there’s no ginger ale or sauerkraut or beet kvass culturing, nor are there wild yeasts being captured for homemade bread for my brood. Just as I was feeling hopelessly unsuccessful as a complete nurturer of my family, I discovered help!

Salt, Fire and Time is a wonderful gem of a store in northwest Portland. “Portland’s Traditional Healing Foods Grocery,” is exceptional in its vision by owner Tressa Yellig, in that she fills in the gaps for us busy Weston Price fans - in many cases, parents seeking to raise our families on a traditional foods diet, which by nature, is not convenient. A “Community Supported Kitchen,” (CSK) SFT is only the fourth of its kind in the country.

Kidney stew and a variety of kombucha flavors - plus much more!

An incredibly valuable resource in our community, SFT sells those items that all of us should be making at home but with spouses, children, jobs, and blogs to research, we may find we aren’t able to quite fit everything in. At Salt, Fire and Time you can walk in and purchase bone broths, organ meat stews, cultured vegetables, granola from soaked grains and nuts, pork lard, cultured mayonnaise, beet kvass, kombucha, and many more items to fill your larder with the delicious, nutrient dense foods traditionally prepared within a family.

Another of Tressa’s goals in opening SFT is to restore the food culture heritage “that understood the synergy between our food communities and our world.” The public can also take a variety of cooking classes teaching you traditional cooking techniques, including various cheesemaking classes I am offering monthly on Saturdays.

A volunteer baking the "hand pies."

What is a “Community Supported Kitchen?”

“It is a sustainable model for community-scale food preparation and processing that honors culinary traditions and provides nutrient-dense foods. It is a place for community and community empowerment and nourishment. Through seasonal feasts, classes and volunteer opportunities, a CSK seeks to improve the transparency of food from farm to table. Our mission is to restore food integrity and traditional preparations to our regional food economy. We are committed to sourcing locally, planning seasonally, minimizing waste and working respectfully in direct relationship with our community of farmers, customers and fellow artisans.”
 

Weston Price babies grow up to shop at SFT!

So next time you want to learn to preserve your own raw milk through cheesemaking, or perhaps you’ve run out of lard or need a boost with some freshly brewed kombucha, consider visiting Salt, Fire and Time. Or better yet, get involved – in the kitchen as a volunteer, at a community feast, or attend one of the various classes.





Check out details on Charlotte's next class:
Feta Cheese + Wine Tasting, Saturday, February 18th

Charlotte Smith
@champoegcreamry
www.champoegcreamery.com
Charlotte passionately believes in the health benefits of a traditional foods diet, especially dairy products from grass-fed cows. She loves sharing time honored traditions of transforming milk into delicious and nutritious cheeses through her classes which are also teeming with nutrition facts and wisdom. Charlotte owns Champoeg Creamery, a pasture based raw milk dairy in St. Paul, Oregon, and is the mother of 3 and a certified Nutrition Wellness Educator.

Eat Fat - Burn Fat!

A very common question I am asked by new-to-raw-milk customers is, “am I supposed to remove all that cream on the top of the jar of milk?” The short answer is no, you do not remove it, that’s the best part, and that’s where the nutrition is.

As many Americans, you were most likely raised like me, to believe that fat is bad for us, we must eat a low fat diet at all times, and the best fats are vegetable oils. This can’t be further from the truth! In the 1950’s, it was noted that retailers made far more money selling the butterfat for ice cream and butter rather than whole milk. When the butterfat was skimmed off, the remaining waste product was soon identified as something that could be marketed to the public – claims were made (completely unfounded) that skim milk would help people lose weight, which added more profit to the dairy industry. In reality, skim milk is full of empty calories leading to diabetes, allergies, obesity and higher levels of bad cholesterol.

My grass-fed jersey cows provide wholesome, healthful milk that is 25% cream by volume in a half gallon jar of milk. This nutrition-packed cream will actually help you burn fat, as opposed to a high-carbohydrate diet which puts your body into fat-storage mode. Carbs stimulate the secretion of insulin, which is the only hormone that puts fat into storage. Saturated fats from grass fed animals actually take more fuel to burn, thus increasing your metabolism.

Besides increasing our metabolism, full-fat raw milk from grass fed cows has been described as nature’s single most complete food in that it has more nutritional essentials in larger amounts than any other food. It contains enzymes, the fat soluble vitamins A, C, D, E, B6, and B12, and Activator X, identified as Vitamin K2. The vitamins A and D in the cream are needed for proper assimilation of calcium and protein in the skim portion of the milk. When we drink skim milk on its own, without any fat from the cream, it is not healthy and can actually be toxic and cause allergies. Our bodies only absorb the nutrition from the skim by drinking it as whole milk with all the fat still intact. Traditional whole milk was at least 4% butterfat. I like to buy cows that are testing at least 4.5%-5% butterfat!

And briefly, one additional wonderful substance in whole-fat raw milk is Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) which occurs in the butterfat of grass fed cows. Many studies over the last 20 years have established that CLA offers protection against breast cancer and other malignancies, through its role as a potent antioxidant.

It’s worth every penny to find a reliable source of whole, raw milk – real milk, from grass fed cows. You will find that by incorporating milk and, if you can, raw milk butter, yogurt, and kefir, you will have found the key to burning fat and feeling satisfied with your meals!


Charlotte Smith
@champoegcreamry
www.champoegcreamery.com
Charlotte passionately believes in the health benefits of a traditional foods diet, especially dairy products from grass-fed cows. She loves sharing time honored traditions of transforming milk into delicious and nutritious cheeses through her classes which are also teeming with nutrition facts and wisdom. Charlotte owns Champoeg Creamery, a pasture based raw milk dairy in St. Paul, Oregon, and is the mother of 3 and a certified Nutrition Wellness Educator.