Category Archives: nutrition

Buying more canning jars

canning, food preservation, Intentional Spending

I haven’t bought any canning jars since last year, but I keep my eyes open on a regular basis in case I can expand my collection at a reasonable price.  Though I didn’t use all the jars I already have this year, I attribute that to it being my first year canning.  Over time, I think I’ll use more and more of them. 

But since October or November, used canning jars are getting snapped up very fast (I’ve read that new jars are also selling at a much higher volume than in the past).  This is interesting since the winter is the time of year that no one is usually buying jars – the summer is prime time canning season.  It’s markedly different than what I saw in the summer months immediately prior.  It’s amazing to me how fast the public has decided that something they once never paid attention to is now worth buying.  The interest in canning is intrinsically tied to the financial insecurity that people are feeling now, just like the huge increases in purchases of vegetable seeds.

Now on one hand, I think it’s great that people are getting interested in back to basics type skills like canning.  On the other hand, it means that suddenly used canning jars are commanding top dollar prices and finding a good deal is much harder.  A month or so ago, someone posted a large lot of used jars, and said she’d take the best offer.  I emailed her my offer, and explained what it was based on.  It was a reasonable offer, at a price that has been accepted every single time in the past.  She emailed me back to say that she had received a bunch of responses, that my offer was right in the middle, and someone was coming to buy the lot, which I had offered $60 for, for $150.  This floored me – in my opinion, no one in their right mind would pay such a high price for used jars that didn’t even have lids or rings, because it was significantly more expensive than buying brand new jars that had the lids and rings included.  (The additional purchase of a set of lids and rings at about $3 per dozen would be necessary for the buyer to have what he needed for canning.)

That indicated to me totally irrational buying – it’s obvious that the people buying now are those who don’t know the value of what they’re buying.  They just see canning jars and feel they need to get them because somehow that’s going to protect them from the bad stuff coming down the economic pike.  So that doesn’t leave much room to negotiate with sellers!

Last night I saw an offer for jars, and though it’s higher than what I’ve paid in the past, I felt it was in the realm of reasonable, unlike a lot of ads I’ve been seeing (like $22 for a dozen quart jars from a private seller – which you can buy for under $8 at Walmart).  Turns out I was the first person to respond, but the seller told me that after my response last night, there were three more responses, and then another three as soon as she opened her inbox this morning.  She said she didn’t think anyone would be interested – they were her mother’s jars, and she’d tried offering them to family members for free, but no one wanted them.  She was taken aback at how many responses she received in such a short amount of time. 

Anyway, I took four kids with me to pick up the jars – it was a nice 40 minute drive there, but they asked if they could come, and I was happy to bring them along.  (It was ds10, dd8, ds6, and ds3.)  She gave me the code for the electronic gate, and when we entered it, I was initially discouraged because it seemed to be a mini community of several homes, and none of them had addresses – there was only one address on the outside gate.  Turns out it was all one private property, and what looked like two homes was actually one huge home, in addition to one home for their parents who had recently moved away (hence her selling the jars), and the other was their garage.  At first we couldn’t find her, just the jars she had left in the driveway as she said she would (though she didn’t tell me there were several driveways, all independent of one another – the jars weren’t in the main home’s driveway and I had to drive around until we found them).  After we got the jars, we circled back around to the main house so we could pay her, and found her the second try.  She told me she found another dozen jars for me, and while my ds was putting them in the van, I was shmoozing with her and my other kids all got out of the van to play with her dogs (they loved dogs but as much as they’d like one, it’s not going to happen for us at this point in life).  She said she used to help her mother can tomatoes and green beans from their small but prolific garden in Brooklyn Park, and how the kids hated picking berries for jam because it took so many berries to make a small amount of jam. 

After talking for a while, she commented on how good the kids were, and offered to let them go onto her private dock behind the house and hang out there.  (Good behavior is it’s own reward! :))  You’d never know there was any water anywhere near there – the entire property was very expansive but also very private – but there was actually a private lake behind their home.  Then she mentioned that there was a large trampoline on the way down the path to the dock, and the kids might feel like they wanted to jump on it when they went by – so they should feel free to jump all they wanted!  She had to leave soon afterwards, but even though it meant leaving us there alone on her property, told us to feel free to stay there as long as the kids were enjoying themselves. 

It was so generous of her, and we had a lovely time on their beautiful property.  I was so glad that every one of them came along – it would have been a shame if they had missed the special outing it turned out to be.  The kids had a great time on her trampoline and on the dock, and enjoyed looking at their motor boat, canoe, rowboat, and kayaks, along with going on different parts of the dock (they particularly liked the floating dock). It was fun for them to be able to explore a different kind of place than we’d usually have access to.  The private lake didn’t have any entrance for public access, and the home itself was kind of hidden away, with the only access through their private gated entrance.   It was so relaxing on the dock, though less than it would have been if the kids weren’t there – I was pretty vigilant about watching them all every single minute – but there’s something about water that is so calming and peaceful. 

When we got home my ds10 organized all the jars, and it turns out that instead of 7 dozen for $30, we got 11 dozen for $30 (5 dozen quarts, 5 dozen pints, 1 dozen half pints)!  Which means that it ended up not only being a really nice outing with the kids, but a super deal, too!  And something I like about used jars is the sense of history that comes with them, as many jars were made by companies which no longer exist, in colors and sizes that aren’t made any more.  It just goes to show that even in a hot market, if H-shem wants you to have something, there are bargains to be had, unexpected though they may be. 🙂

Avivah

Spirulina

nutrition

>>What is Spirulina powder? what is it made from, nutrients, etc?<<

 Since the site where I bought mine from can describe it much better than I can, I’m going to link to there so you can read what they write about it:  http://www.bulkherbstore.com/Spirulina-Powder.  There are some interesting letters from people about their experiences with spirulina, and one of them was new since I made my order.  She was the second person to write that it helped her with sciatica, and since sciatica is something I struggle with during pregnancy, if I had realized that might have helped me I would have been really purposeful about regularly including it in my diet!

I bought this months ago with the intent to use it daily, but I haven’t.  I just keep forgetting about it!  When I have taken it, it’s been sprinkled on top of food, not in significant amounts.  It would be easier to take in capsules, since 1 teaspoon really changes the look of your food!  Last week I made myself a banana milkshake (bananas, milk, spirulina), and it was a very strong green color – not the most appetizing to look at, but it tasted great!

Regarding putting it in capsules, which would be a very easy way to take it, I started researching kosher capsules when I got the herbs (to fill the capsules myself), and after doing some searching, decided to put it on the back burner.  Most of the capsules have gelatin and it was getting confusing to figure out what was what from different companies.  I could have pushed the checking out more, but it wasn’t important enough at the time to me.  There are always so many things to do and learn about, that it means I can’t do all the things that I’d like to do, so some things inevitably slide to the side.

As far as the kosher status of the spirulina itself, I called the company linked to above to inquire about it (they buy herbs in bulk and repackage them in smaller amounts).  They gave me the contact information for their supplier, who I called to ask about certification.  They told me the name of the rabbi who certified the product and where he was from.  If you’re more comfortable buying from somewhere that has the certification directly on the packaging, there are lots of other sources, both online and in health food stores.

Avivah

Making kefir

cheesemaking, food preservation, lacto fermentation, nutrition

I love making kefir!  I didn’t make it very often or very regularly this winter, but now I’m back into it being a regular part of my daily routine so I thought I’d share about it with you.

Kefir is cultured milk, packed full of fantastic probiotics.  You can buy ready made kefir in stores for an outrageous price (and you know I won’t advocate this!), or you can make your own.  If you decide to make your own, you have a choice of using a powdered starter or kefir grains.  The powdered starter needs to be purchased periodically, whereas the kefir grains can last forever (unless you are like me and don’t treat them well, or one of your family members throws them away :)).  The cost for kefir grains can therefore be a one time expense.  If you’re lucky enough to get some from someone who has extra, they can be free or a very low expense.

I’ve been able to get kefir grains from an individual, though I’ve damaged their ability to propagate (kefir grains grow).  But they still work just fine, and yesterday I was amazed to see just how effective the grains I have are.  I only have about a teaspoon of grains (grains look like a clunk of pinkish cauliflower).  Anyway, until now I’ve always made kefir in a quart jar, but a quart is such a tiny sized amount for our family that I had to ration out servings to be sure everyone would get some.  However, we recently finished a gallon sized glass jar of olives, and after cleaning it, removing the label, soaking it with baking soda to remove any odor, and toiveling it, it was ready to be used as my new family sized kefir jar. 

To make kefir, all you have to do is put the kefir grains in a glass jar, add milk, and leave it at room temperature until it cultures.  It’s misleading to say you’re making kefir, since it practically makes itself.  In warm weather it cultures very quickly; in cold weather it takes longer.  I put my grains in our new large jar, and was curious how long it would take to culture a gallon of milk, since it was such a small amount of grains.  I started it in the afternoon, and by breakfast the next morning (ie less than 16 hours), the entire jar was ready.   I was delighted, and so were my kids, since now I can be more generous with how much I give them. 

If you want to know more about kefir, you can check out the following site: http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html.  If you read even a small part of it, you’ll know more than most people do about kefir.  I’d encourage everyone to aquire some grains and make some kefir for yourself and your family – it’s very inexpensive (basically just the cost of the milk, once you have the grains), and it’s a wonderful health supplement that strengthens your digestive health.  One thing I like about kefir grains is that you can transform the nutritive value of regular store milk by culturing it.  I used to only use raw milk for everything, but then I’d run out before my next shopping trip.  Now I mostly use the raw milk for drinking and pasteurized milk for culturing – it would be better if I could use all raw for everything, but I simply don’t have enough room in my freezer to buy the amount I need to last from one shopping trip to the next (unless I drastically cut down on the amount of milk we use). 

As far as taste, it’s kind of like a sour liquidy yogurt.  Lots of people like to blend it up with fruit or something else for a breakfast smoothie, but we like it just fine on its own.  If I were making a smoothie, I’d add coconut oil, fruit, and spirulina powder for a nutritionally charged breakfast. 

When the milk cultures, if you let it sit long enough it will separate, with the curds rising to the top and the whey remaining at the bottom of the jar.  I stir it together before drinking it, but you can also take out the thick and creamy curds at the top to eat, and put aside the whey to use as an acidic medium to soak your grains in.  There are other uses for whey, but I can’t think offhand of what they are since I don’t do anything else with it. 🙂

If you use only chalav yisroel, then you’ll have to take some extra steps to be able to use milk grains.  A friend I have who checked out with her rav how to handle it told me the following: you have to make and discard three batches of kefir from the grains before you can drink the kefir – ie, the fourth batch is okay.  But ask your rav for guidance; I’m just passing on what she told me. 

In our home, the kefir jar is now back in its regular place as a countertop ornament. 🙂

Avivah

Water filters

food preservation, nutrition

I’ve had my eye on a good quality water filter since last year, but due to the expense, I’ve continually pushed it off – there’s always something more pressing that takes precedence.  But a month ago, I finally purchased the one I’ve been wanting – the Big Berkey.   It filters out things that most filters don’t – theoretically, I could catch water in a bucket from a rainstorm and use it after filtering it through this. 

It arrived a few days before Pesach and I said we’d put it aside to use on Pesach and then continue using it for the rest of the year.  But I didn’t get around to pulling it out during Pesach, so we finally took it out yesterday.  Since it had to be toiveled and dh didn’t get home with it until late, my dd set it up when he got home and filled it with water to filter overnight. 

First thing this morning, the kids started drinking the filtered water, and as soon as I came downstairs for breakfast, they started telling me how much better the water was.  Not only that, they very quickly found the taste of tap water, which they’ve been drinking for years, unappealing and said it has a strong chlorine taste to them now (my dd8 said it was bitter).  I was surprised that the difference would be noticeable so quickly.

The water is tasty, and since water is our main beverage, I’m glad to know that it’s really pure.  Last night, after the filter was already assembled, I happened upon the following article: http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/pharmawater_factories.html.  After I read about the medical wastes that end up in many water supply systems, I was extra glad that we have this filter!  Unfortunately, lots of things end up in every water supply system, some of which are supposed to be helpful to us and are forced on us whether we think they’re helpful or not (like fluoride), others are contaminants that no one thinks are worthwhile.

There are two kinds of filters that you can buy with a Berkey filter – white or black.  The white filters are good for filtering water that is basically already clean; the black filters can handle more contaminants.  The white filters last about three times as long as the black filters, probably because they aren’t being used to block all of those contaminants!  Because of that, the black filters are more expensive, but I felt once we were getting a filter, it should be one that could handle anything we wanted to use it for.  I found a site (http://www.readymaderesources.com/cart/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=516)   that sells the Berkey with four filters at the same price most sites sell it for with only two filters, and they give you a choice of the white or black included in that price.  So now I have a replacement set of filters, though it should be a long time before I need them since you can easily filter several thousand gallons before needing to replace them.  And the filters can be scrubbed clean several times before needing to be replaced.

The most important element of a filter is, obviously, the filter.  The casing that holds it just makes it look nice.  I looked into buying the filters themselves and using five gallon buckets to make the casing for them (you can Google for instructions on how to make a Berkey filtering unit), but after finding the above source for the entire set up, didn’t feel the financial gain was of doing that was substantial enough to make it worthwhile. 

(By the way, I hope that this is obvious to you, but I don’t have any financial interests or benefits from anything that I link to.  I don’t make any money if you click on a link or order from a site that I mention here – I mention them because I do a lot of research on things before I buy them, and figure that if the time I spent can save someone else time, then I’m happy to share that.)

Avivah

Bulk food storage and garbage bags

food preservation

I’ve mentioned that when we buy dried food in bulk, we store them in buckets lined with garbage bags.  Since many garbage bags are sprayed with pesticides, this isn’t a good thing to do unless you know the brand you’re using hasn’t been sprayed. 

I downplayed this concern for a while because I didn’t want to think of potentially having to throw away any food we had stored in this way, but finally decided to be on the safe side and check the status of the garbage bags we use.  I called the company – you can find the phone number on the back or bottom of the box – and asked them this question.  I told them I knew they weren’t recommended for food, but wanted to know in the event that they were used for food, if the food would be contaminated by any pesticidal or similar sprays.  They told me a customer service representative would call me back later in the day, and she did.

Then she took all of the information down – where I bought the bags, the code on the bottom – and told me she’d have to check with the factory in China where the bags are manufactured to check this out. Sure enough, the next day, I got another call back.  She had called the manufacturers and the manager there checked out the details for the bags we use.  It turns out, happily for us, that these bags have no sprays, and are fine to use for dry foods, though they don’t recommend it. 

The bags we use aren’t a name brand – they’re called Tuf and are sold at Walgreens.  If you’re been thinking of buying any kind of food in bulk and storing it in the way that I mentioned we store ours, take a few minutes to make a call and verify that your garbage bags are okay for this.  I was pleased with how helpful and receptive the people I spoke with were, and it gave me peace of mind to know that what we’ve been using is fine.

Avivah

Dandelions for your health

Gardening, nutrition

Until last June, I never knew that dandelions were edible.  Did you?  Not only are they edible, they’re an incredible source of nutrition.  Read here if you want more details of how wonderful they are for you: http://www.leaflady.org/health_benefits_of_dandelions.htm

Different parts of the dandelion are good for eating at different times.  The best time to eat the leaves is before they flower, when they start to get bitter.  You can deal with the bitterness by boiling them, rinsing them, and then boiling them again, which is what I did last year.  But it’s better to just pick them when they are young and tasty.

This morning I sent the kids out to pick dandelion flowers.  I have a neighbor who has tons of them in her yard, so they got quite a few. It didn’t look like so many at first, since they are so small and compact, but it was a lot.  I have several experiments I want to try with them, only one of which we made today.  One is dandelion flower fritters – that was part of today’s lunch – another is dandelion bread and dandelion quiche.  For the bread, you need to separate the petals, so dd8 and ds10 spent quite a while doing the petals. 

I’d like to tell you how amazingly delicious the fritters were, but they honestly weren’t such a big hit.  It’s not a hard thing to make – you basically dip the flower in the batter, drop it in hot oil, and quickly fry it.  I think the lack of success had more to do with the fact that the batter for the fritters was too heavy than anything else (if we make it again we’ll use less flour), and the heaviness of the batter also meant that they took much longer to cook than they should have and it was labor and time intensive.  I left dd14 to make them while I went with dd12 to the thrift store to do some emergency clothing shopping.  (Do you remember me mentioning a child I have who rips pants within the first time or two wearing them?  Well, he has a unique gift and I can’t figure out how it’s possible for a child to so quickly destroy clothing, but he does this with all of his clothing – socks have holes within a couple of wearings, he came home from a friend last Shabbos with a borrowed shirt because as he walked by a door it got caught and literally ripped every button off his new shirt, and now he has worn holes through the bottom of his shoes – not one other child of mine has ever accomplished this, and since the first I knew of it was when he showed me how he could poke his toes through, I needed to buy replacements right away.  🙂 Anyway.)  If I had been here I might have realized in time that the batter was too thick and avoided the problem, but in any event, I wasn’t and I didn’t.  I think the fritters could be very tasty and maybe we’ll try again.  I love the idea of being able to forage for high quality nutritious food right outside of our doors. 

Tonight I told a friend I could send over my two oldest daughters to help her tomorrow with the cooking for Shabbos meals for all of her visiting family (she’s making a bar mitzva this weekend), so I won’t have them around much to help here for Shabbos.  I was thinking of making the dandelion bread for Shabbos breakfast, but now I’ll see if I’ll have the time.  The basic idea for that is to use the flower petals the way you would add banana or zucchini to a quick loaf recipe.  For the quiche, I think it would work nicely to use the petals and or the greens, sauteed with garlic, and add it to a typical quiche filling. 

One of my kids asked if we could dehydrate the flowers and them blend them into a flour.  I thought that was a good idea, and maybe we’ll try that.  It would make it very easy to cook with, adding a sprinkle of some here and there.  Dandelions are such a good source of vitamins, free and easily available, that it seems worth a little time to play around with how to best use them. 

Avivah

Explaining food dehydrating

dehydrating, food preservation

>>Hi, would you mind explaining what it means to dehydrate vegetables?<<

Sure, I’d be happy to!  Dehydrating vegetables is a method of preserving them by drying.  It’s very simple to do when you have a dehydrator – I bought an electric one a few months ago that I’m very happy with that has been super useful.  It’s also possible to dry vegetables in the sun, using a solar dehydrator or even just putting food on screens when the sun is shining and covering it with muslin cloth.

I’ve found that once you have a dehydrator, it can be a big help in making your food budget go even further. I can take advantage of large amounts of produce that is on sale, since I have a way to preserve it before it goes bad.  Dried vegetables can be used in cooking very easily – they plump back up to regular size with cooking – and they take very little space to store since they shrink substantially when dried.

I put them in glass or plastic food grade containers and keep them on the shelf – they don’t need any refrigeration once they’re dehydrated.  Because we’re a lot of people using one regular sized fridge, this is also very helpful in using our available space efficiently.

Do you need a dehydrator to keep your food budget as low as mine?  No, obviously not, since I just started using one recently!  I don’t point to this as a major strategy that I use to keep food costs low, but rather a way to extend your food budget dollars, by being able to buy more at a low price and making it last for longer, so that you don’t have to pay full price when you run out of sale vegetables.

Avivah

Uses for dehydrated zucchini

dehydrating, food preservation

I posted about dehydrating zucchini and mentioned that they got quickly eaten up as chips.  I didn’t initially make them with the intent that they’d be used for a snack, and I don’t want to leave you with the assumption that it’s all they are good for!

Here are some other ways you can use dehydrated zucchini slices – they are good in soups, stews, or tomato sauce.  I’ve seen it suggested to dust them with cinnamon sugar, and they then taste like apple chips (slice them 1/4 inch thick, peel them and take out seeds to make this).   Even when eaten plain, they have a sweet-ish flavor, as the natural sweetness is concentrated by the dehydrating process.

 When sliced length-wise, they can be used in place of lasagna noodles when making lasagna, or to replace the eggplant in eggplant parmesan.  You can rehydrate them before using for the lasagna or parmesan, but I’d find them easier to handle by using them dried and then adding extra liquid to the recipe so they’d rehydrate when cooking.

If they are shredded before dehydrating, you can use them in muffins or quick breads – just add a little extra liquid to the recipe you’re making.

Like other dried vegetables, they can be dried and then whizzed in the blender to make a powder.  If you do this, you can easily add a nice flavor to your soups or stews, along with great nutrition, without any signs of vegetables (for kids who are averse to eating veggies).

I’d bet that you could candy them, but that’s just a guess – it’s the kind of thing you could play with by coating them with honey before drying them, and seeing what happened.  Because zucchini has a bland flavor, it can be used in a lot more ways than something with a much stronger flavor.

Avivah

Dehydrating zucchini squash and celery

dehydrating, food preservation, Homemaking

Today was a nice productive day.  I started off by cutting up all those pairs of jeans so I could easily store the needed fabric for whenever I get around to starting a quilt.  The pile is significantly smaller now, which is good, since I was feeling a little overwhelmed with the amount of clothes needing to be put away for projects.  Then I sketched out a couple of designs for quilts for the boys’ room, and asked my ds15 how he liked them.  It’s good to have a basic design worked out because you really have to have a plan before you start.  Last week I cut out a bunch of squares, but realized that I was complicating things for myself by not having the plan in place first.  Fortunately my dd found the graph paper (it was missing last week when I wanted to start thinking on paper regarding designs) so I was able to do that today.  It seems like the kind of thing that can be done in little blocks of time. 

Then I went to the hospital with the kids, then to the post office to mail some organic tea to someone who generously sent me some heirloom seeds for planting in this summer’s garden, and back home.   We got a bunch of inexpensive zucchini, so much that there’s no way to fit it into the fridge.  And it’s one of those perishable veggies that don’t last long outside of the fridge. 

So we sliced a bunch up in the food processor to dehydrate.  We did it once before and it was very successful – the slices were so thin that when we dried them, they were like crunchy chips.  They ended up getting gobbled up as snacks the first day we made them.  You can also brush the tops of the sliced zucchini with olive oil and spices, and they are delicious when dried!

I bought a few bunches of celery from the reduced rack with the intent to dehydrate them, and I’m going to slice a bunch of that up and dry it tonight, too.  I’ve seen how useful having dried veggies to use has been so far in putting together quick meals when prep time is short, and it will be nice if we can add celery to the list of things I have on hand.  It’s nice to have a way to prep vegetables in ‘bulk’ and use them later on when we need them, and it’s nice not to need to rely as much on my refrigerator to keep things useable. 

Avivah

Raw milk

nutrition

>>I was wondering if you purchase raw milk? I know you have linked to the Weston Price foundation before and I know they are very supportive of drinking raw milk. I was just curious because it really intrigues me. I have actually been doing some research on it and was thinking you would be a great person to ask and then this post reminded me to ask you.<<

 Yes, we do drink raw milk. 

>>I am thinking about trying some for my family. We are not big milk drinkers, in fact I do not drink it at all, but I have been researching all of the health benefits and think it is definitely worth a try. Did it take a while for your family to adjust? <<

 We also weren’t milk drinkers before discovering raw milk – I can probably count on one hand the amount of times my kids had milk in their lives.  I had never even heard of raw milk as a possibility until three years ago, and I did a lot of research and reading before I was even willing to consider the possibility that dairy could be good for you. It didn’t take any of us any time to adjust, physically.  The harder part was thinking of milk as something that had a positive nutritive value – I had always attributed my kids’ good health to staying away from dairy products.  My husband was reluctant to try it, because he had allergies when he was younger to milk, but was surprised to have no reaction to raw milk.  Many people who can’t tolerate dairy find that they can digest raw milk just fine, thanks to the nutrients not being denatured.

>>I was told to take a probiotic (which I do anyway)for a week or so before consumption.<<

That seems unnecessary to me, but probiotics are good to take at any time, so it couldn’t hurt!   But having just a small amount and seeing if you have a reaction would be prudent, if you’re concerned.  I’d be more cautious about suddenly using something like kefir, which is a powerful probiotic – in that case, to avoid your system suddenly cleaning itself out, it’s good to start off taking just a small amount and giving your digestive system a chance to adapt. 

>>Also with such a limited shelf-life, do you freeze the milk?<<

Both farmers I bought from told me that the shelf life was a week.  But we found that the milk stays fresh in the fridge for two weeks in the summer, three weeks in the winter.  I think they are choosing to err on the side of caution – when I questioned one of them a second time, he said that they find it stays two weeks but don’t want to take a chance of someone’s spoiling before that and getting upset.  Remember that I get it the day it comes from the cow, so it hasn’t been sitting around.  I refrigerate what I think we’ll use within two weeks, and put the rest in the freezer.  Interestingly, raw milk doesn’t spoil in the way that regular pasteurized milk does because of all the good bacteria in it – it changes form as it gets thicker and more sour, but remains useable and good for you.  So even if you had it sitting in your fridge for six months, you could use it (it’d be more like sour cream by that point).  Pasteurized milk putrifies, though, and I’d hate to think of doing anything with it but pouring it down the drain once it started to go off!

Freezing raw milk changes the consistency, but not the flavor.  The cream, since it hasn’t been homogenized, will freeze into tiny pieces and stay in tiny pieces after defrosted.  Not bad, but not as smooth once it’s defrosted.  If you blend it up with some fruit, it’s not noticeable.  We definitely prefer it before it’s frozen, but no one turns up their noses afterwards!

There’s alot of misinformation and disinformation out there about raw milk, and most of what people say comes from simply not being educated about it – like too many things, there’s an excessive amount of fear mongering that comes from ignorance.  But the taste is great (some people notice a difference more than others) and the health benefits are wonderful, so if it’s something you can get hold of, it’s a good addition to your family’s diet.

Avivah