Another Kefir Class; In Heber City, Utah

Tuesday night, Nov. 15, at 6:30 at The Real Foods Market in Heber City, Utah. I will have kefir samples and smoothie made with raw milk kefir and I will be selling starts for kefir. I will also have some starts and tastes of a couple of "user friendly" yogurts to try. Raw Milk is all ready a super food but "kefiring or culturing" it makes it even better. There is a $10 charge for the class and the kefir starts are also $10, but this is a very worthwhile investment in your health. Kefir is for those who can and especially those who can't digest lactose (milk sugar). Come and taste real kefir and see what you can do with it. Better health can start with this very simple process. See my older blogs about making kefir and a pineapple kefir smoothie.

Kefir Class

I will be teaching a Kefir class at Real Foods Market in Orem, Saturday Oct.8 at 1.
There is a $10. class fee to be paid to the store a few days before Oct. 8. I will be selling milk kefir, water kefir, kombucha and sourdough starts. Nothing better than homemade, raw milk kefir! Come learn how easy it is to culture your own kefir products. The Orem Real Foods Market is on 800 N. west of State Street, north side behind Sonic Burger.

Kefir and Garlic Green Smoothie

This one is truly unusual but so thirst quenching for hot summer days. I used to make this back in the 70's when I was living in Detroit and a neighbor from the middle east, Syria I believe, made this for me and I loved it. She gave me the recipe and I of course, modified it some but it still has the basic ingredients. She said this was one of the ways they kept their "cool" during the hot months. I forgot this idea for many years, but a couple weeks ago, when it was very hot here in Utah, I remembered this and revived it. Hope you try this one cause I think you will like it too.

2-3 cups homemade or commercial plain kefir. You can also use plain yogurt.
1-2 peeled and chopped cloves fresh garlic
1/2 tsp. Real Salt or other sea, high mineral salt
5-6 big leaves of spinach
handful of ice
4" piece of peeled cucumber (optional) fresh parsley is a nice variation too.

Blend all this up, liquify it and serve. Keep remainder in the fridge.

User Friendly Yogurts

I have 2 more new "pets"; Matsoni and Viili. Each different bacterial cultures that make milk into a yogurt...So easy to work with. Usually yogurt is fussy about temperature and the need to be left alone and still. But these two can be active at any reasonable temp, the warmer the better and they can be stirred, juggled and shook.

I have a pint of each. I eat what I want of each one, Viili is a little thicker and slight taste difference than Matsoni. When one of the pint jars is down by half, I add more raw milk about a cup and shake or stir it up with remaining yogurt and leave on counter at room temp. for about a day with loose lid. After 18 -24 hrs. I taste for sour; sweet means that the lactose, milk sugar is still too dominate and it needs more time. When sour is just right, I put it in the fridge to slow down action and then eat from that jar. I don't even have to use other jars. This is so easy and tasty. I will sell starters for these at $5.00. 801-765-4645

Water Kefir

I have a new "pet". I consider all my microbe colonies "pets"...you have to feed them and nurture them to keep them alive and well and growing. In return they produce the amazing enzymes and vitamins so beneficial for health.

My new "pet" are water kefir pearls. They are so easy to feed and keep happy. Their water product is kinda like a natural soda pop. I tried to get photo big enough to see them at the bottom. They are crystal colored and the size of beans and stained brown due to the brown sugar.



You add these microbe colonies to pure water and some natural sugar. By pure water I mean,filtered water and chlorine-free and higher ph than neutral. I take city tap water a gallon at a time and fill my large glass container that has a bag of "prills" in the bottom, and cover with a clean cloth and let sit a few hours. While sitting, the chlorine is pushed out and evaporates and the "prills" raise the ph of the water to about 8.5. I pour off 3 quarts of water at a time into another container on my counter with a spigot and that is the water I use for all drinking, cooking and fermenting. "Prills" are magnesium crystals that do not dissolve. I've had my bag for about 2 years now and they are still working. I have a link to the website where you can order the "prills". It really is a great deal for about $20.

Water kefir pearls eat/consume sugar. You can use the plain, no nutrition white sugar, or more natural, dark sugars with organic compounds sill intact. I use succanant and agave.

To one quart pure water add
4 ounces of sugar, any combination you want

Stir to dissolve, add the kefir grains, cover and date and set on counter at room temperature for 1-2 days. How long it ferments depends on how sweet you want the taste. The longer fermentation the less sweet it becomes. When it has fermented to your taste, strain the pearls and start another quart or put them into cold storage in some pure water with just a little sugar. They should keep about a week but then take them out warm them up and prepare more sugar for them. I've noticed something fun about these kefir grains....they bounce up and down in the liquid as they consume the sugar. Maybe the milk kefir grains do that too but milk is opaque and I haven't seen them. These grains look like they are happy and dancing!

Well fermented water should be a little bubbly and slightly sweet.

LDS Holistic Conference

Greetings new friends from conference. Thank you for coming to one of my 3 classes on Saturday, June 25 and thank you, for looking up my blogspot here. It was a truly remarkable experience! I enjoyed meeting so many new friends. You are all so wonderful and the fact that you came to that conference tells me you are seeking more light and truth and knowledge about living a higher law of health and wellness and purpose. I am truly humbled that anything I said might have added something worthwhile to what you learned that day. My only regret is that I didn't get to spend time looking over the other vendor booths or getting to hear other lectures or spending more time talking to you, individually. I know I missed out. But I am very pleased that I was able to teach and sell some useful fermenting products to so many.
I hope you can find the blogs on fermenting that I have posted since last July. I hope they are useful to you. Fermenting is a great way to boost nutrition and connect with "old wisdom" and our ancestors. Good luck with your search and your beginning practice. Please contact me if any friendly microbes I sold you, do not work. However, I have a road trip to make to Ohio right after the 4th weekend so I will not be available until July 15th. 801-765-4645

Plant Protein Pilaf ; Blood Type Specific Storage Blends

As a blood type O, which is the most common blood type in society, we are genetically designed to digest red meat very well. We produce more intestinal alkaline phosphatase than other blood types and that is what digests meat. Blood type As produce the least and thus they have a hard time digesting red meat.
Food storage presents some challenges for Os. My DH and I have meat in storage; canned meat, dried meat and freeze dried meat. But those amounts are limited and at some point will give out unless in our survival community there are hunters that can kill the occasional game or slaughter cattle.
We have been told to store wheat and beans and we have done that, but wheat is a poor food for Os and most storage beans are avoids. Pondering this problem I got the idea (inspiration, really) to study the food lists of the blood type diet and combine either the neutral or beneficial beans/legumes with grains and seeds for a plant protein combination that could serve as a protein source to supplement the occasional and limited meat. My first combinations were for just Os and OBs as my DH is a B. But then I thought to formulate combinations for all the blood types and marriage combinations.

Os and Bs have the most limited number of beneficial beans/legumes, grains and seeds while As and ABs have longer lists. As can pretty much live off plant protein combinations as many primitive and 3rd world societies do and many vegetarians have been doing.

I believe in storing foods that don't fight with your genetic metabolism. We will soon be living in very stressful times and many of us will be living off our stored foods. When the stress is high why put upon yourself even more stress by eating foods that don't "agree" with your system? It is wasteful and unnecessary to my way of thinking.

When combining dry storage ingredients, use what you all ready have and use either glass jars or used #10 cans with the plastic lids. Choose a "unit" say, a tablespoon or a scoop or a cup...whatever is easy to work with considering your chosen containers. These ingredients and amount ratios are not "set in concrete" and can, of course, be custom fitted to your choices.
All these combinations work with a 3:1 ratio of water to pilaf. Rinse the combination under running water in a strainer first, then measure 3 parts waters to grain/beans. Soaking for 8-12 or more hours is a necessity because water neutralizes the phytic acid naturally on all grains and beans and seeds and softens the food for cooking; no need to drain. Soak without the salt but add sea salt when cooking. Ratio for salt is: 1 tsp. salt to 1 cup dry blend but salt to taste. Bring to a boil and reduce heat and keep a lid on during cooking and stir occasionally. My sun oven worked wonderfully the day I gave this as samples.
Cooked plant protein pilaf can be kept in cold storage and brought out for many uses; as breakfast, as lunch and as dinner. Os should not eat this with meat but separately. Please serve it hot with ghee or coconut oil or butter or olive oil. Many spices and herbs can be used to make it tasty but it is good just with salt and fat.

Plant Protein Pilaf for Os

Brown rice 6 units
Quinoa 4 units
Brown rice blend with wild rice 2 units
Split peas yellow or green 2 units
Millet 2 units
Adzuki beans (little and dk red) 2 units
black eyed peas (beans) 2 units
Flax seeds whole 1 unit
Chia seeds 1 unit
Amaranth 1 unit
Red lentils 1/2 unit

Plant Protein Pilaf for As this list has many choices; you do not have to use all of these, choose those that you have, making sure you have some grains, some legumes, and some seeds.

Brown rice 6 units
Millet 6 units
Toasted buckwheat 6 units
Quinoa 4 units
Adzuki beans (little and dk red)4 units
Wild rice blend 4 units
Amaranth 4 units
Lentils green, yellow or red 4 units
Spelt berries 2 units
Black eyed peas (beans) 2 units
Black beans 2 units
Rye berries 1 unit
Split peas yellow or green 2 units
Flax seeds whole 2 units
Chia seeds 2 units

Plant Protein Pilaf for Bs

Brown Rice 6 units
Quinoa 4 units
Millet 4 units
Barley 2 units
Flax seeds whole 2 units
Rice Bran 2 units
Split peas yellow or green 2 units
Navy beans 2 units
Chia seeds 1 unit
Spelt berries 1 unit

Plant Protein Pilaf for ABS

Brown rice 6 units
Millet 6 units
Oat groats 4 units
Rye berries 4 units
Spelt berries 4 units
Amaranth 2 units
Navy beans 2 units
Quinoa 1 unit
Flax seeds whole 1 unit
Chia seeds 1 unit
Red lentils 1 unit


As for Married couples with different blood types, look to see what grains, legumes and seeds are common to both blood types and make a combination using those common items. The idea is to combine grain with legumes and seeds. The lists are either neutral or beneficial for each blood type, however if you have a sensitivity to something on the list, substitute something else. There are many more beans for each blood type but they are not included in the list because of size. All the ingredients have to cook at about the same time so, size was a consideration in planning the combinations.
Another consideration; Vududaddy on AVOW suggests combining dry ingredients in a jar for a meal; pasta, herbs, vegetables, beans etc. If you are considering this excellent idea, use blood type compliant ingredients.

Greetings! Fellow Campers at the Nephi AVOW Campout June 8-11

What a great camp out! Just had to say "Thank You" to those lovely people Perry and I met at the campground in Dog Valley this last week. What an experience! I learned so much from you. 'Thank You' especially to the 35 or so people we crammed into our first-time put up Turtle Tuff geodesic dome tent ( www.turtletuffshelters.com) and to those few who gathered outside the opening in the sun to hear me give my presentation on Food Fermentation and the Blood Type Diet. I have never instructed a more receptive and appreciative group in my life! I mean that. I have never had such interested and receptive "students". You are all just amazing. You were strangers at the beginning of camp and now we are truly friends. Thanks too, to Moravec and Whitewater Lady for organizing this camp out. Thanks too, to those wonderful people who helped us put that dome together on Wednesday and then take it down on Saturday. I hope we meet again.....maybe the next camp out, yea! AVOW (Another Voice of Warning www.ldsavow.com)
The next post will be my directions for Plant Protein Pilaf as per blood type.

Raw Milk Kefir Smoothie and Homemade Kefir

I love kefir! I love it's sour taste(it's the lactic acid). I love that it is another high quality protein source and I love that I have dairy back in my diet again. For this quick smoothie you will need;
1 cup homemade raw milk kefir (or, homemade kefir with pasteurized milk)
1 cup pineapple juice
a few fresh clean spinach leaves
a few chunks of raw pineapple
1/2 tsp. bee pollen (optional)
Blend till very smoothie. Of course add any other healthy ingredient that suits you.

There is a big difference between raw milk and it's products and commercially pasteurized diary products. Raw milk for one, is a natural product that humanity has been living on for thousands of years. Human babies develop on human milk and if that wasn't possible in the past, people used animal milk until the child was weaned. Then the child ate/drank cultured milk products like the adults....curds and whey and variations. Adults did not drink fresh milk unless there was no time to let it separate or "culture" which is what raw milks do without refrigeration. What the ancients didn't know and we know today is that raw milk contains bacteria....good ones; lactobacillus.

These natural, friendly bacteria begin to consume the lactose or milk sugar as soon as they get warm and have enough time. When milk is kept cold, the bacteria are kept dormant. Warm them up and they go to work on the lactose. These bacteria are our friends.

Our standardized, super hygienic, germ-phobic culture has really demonized all microbes, the good ones along with the bad ones until recently. Today there is a lot of talk about the need for pro-biotic. Pop science has finally admitted that humans need good bacteria in the gut to truly be healthy. The commercial and health food industries have responded with lots of supplements and cultured products which you can purchase but there's nothing better than culturing your own.

Raw milk when placed in a clean jar and set on the kitchen counter at room temperature for a few days will not rot and stink like pasteurized milk will do. It "sours" and separates and tastes amazingly good (it's the lactic acid). The milk solids can be formed and squeezed and dried and made into cheese and the whey can be used as a beverage used in "smoothies" or used to preserve vegetables or soak grains to make breakfast cereal or muffins.

Kefir grains are colonies of specific bacteria that digest lactose and build little sacks of polyglicerides that grow bigger with regular use. Their metabolic action on milk sugar is quicker and different from the natural lactobacillus all ready in the milk. Kefir has a bubbly or effervescent taste to it that is delightful. Kefir grains must be obtained from someone that has them as they are not spontaneous to the milk itself. Kefir grains grow with use. Mature grains look like little clumps of cauliflower. I make kefir once a week so my grains grow slowly. If I made kefir every day, they would get bigger faster.



To Make HOMEMADE KEFIR you will need;
Raw milk (or pasteurized if you cannot find raw)
clean quart glass jars
a stainless steel fine mesh strainer bowl to fit strainer
1 TBS. kefir grains (or the freeze dried ones you can get in HFS)

Almost fill a clean quart glass jar with raw milk and stir in the kefir grains. Put a lid on the jar and place in a very warm place. Temperature should never be above 115 degrees else the high temp will kill them. It works for me at about 75 to 80 degrees in my corner cupboard which is located over the kitchen heat vent. Stir the milk and grains a few times in the 12-18 hours fermentation time. The warmer the place, the faster they consume lactose and reproduce. When kefir is ready, it will be thick. Stir it up and position the strainer over a bowl the right size and pour the kefir into it and gently shake it to strain it. When all the kefir has worked it's way through the stainer, scoop up the clumps at the bottom of the strainer and put those into another clean glass container and fill with raw milk and then refrigerate until you warm them up for the next batch.

It used to be said not to let kefir grains touch metal, but that was "back in the day" before stainless steel. Other kitchen metals at the time, brass, copper and aluminum are "reactive" metals and they did react chemically with the acid of the kefir and kill the microbes and produces strong metallic flavor. But stainless does not do that. So your stainless strainer will be fine but if your grains are very small, make sure the mesh is fine to catch them.

Because our society for the last 100 years has attempted to eradicate all microbes from our food, soil and environment, plus our dependency on antibiotics and vaccines, we have I believe, weakened our species to a very serious degree and now the bad microbes have come back as super-bugs and are lethal very difficult to get rid of. I believe that if we use more friendly bacteria in our food we could become stronger and better resistant to the super-bugs that are becoming more and more threatening. It's time to rediscover the natural protecting and healthful properties of the friendly side of the microbe kingdom.
This post was shared on Wildcrafting Wednesday at Mind,Body and Sole.
http://www.mindbodyandsoleonline.com/links/wildcrafting-wednesday-2/

Healthy Nonsense

I've thought about this blog for a long time. The title comes from my son Casey who is married now and has a most beautiful baby girl named, Gemma. Children usually poke fun of their parents at some point in their lives especially if the parents provide the stimulus and most parents do. I am such a parent and my sons took their turns poking fun of me and all my "healthy nonsense". I certainly poked fun of my parents, God rest their souls, when they were doing weird things to get healthy. So I thought I'd share some of my nonsense. I start with the oldest and wisest; praying over food.

Prayer over food started with my parents and really is not nonsense, in fact it is really smart. I believe that the smartest people are those that believe in Jesus Christ and God the Father and pray many times a day to God, for all kinds of things like; protection, healing, safety, for the well being of others and for food. Prayers including gratitude are very powerful. I taught my sons to pray and they would agree that prayers, any kind, are not nonsense.

However, living without microwave they would say is really silly. Nonetheless, we live very well without a microwave. We've had several over the years, but I was finally convinced that the "waves" disrupt and destroy the "chi" or "life force" of foods and water, which
gentle heating and cooking does not so much. We use small convection ovens to reheat foods and to do some cooking. The loss of convenience isn't really a bother. We believe that food is just better without microwave heating. I haven't researched this, but I'll bet there is a whole lot of information out there about the dangers of microwave cooking.

A small bag of "prills" with instructions.

"Prill water" is a recent addition to our daily routine. Two years ago we made the acquaintance of a couple who had just purchased a Kangan water purifier for about $4,500 and they wanted to sell us one, so they kindly delivered some high alkaline water to us to try out. We liked the taste and results of high alkaline water and considered a purchase but the price was really too high for us. About that time, a product came to my attention online from a company out of Nevada http://www.life-enthusiast.com/ that cost only $15 and was supposed to change water from it's normal 6.5 -7 ph to 8.5 or higher and would last for years! We bought a bag of "prill" magnesium crystals and put them in a gallon size glass jar and after waiting 24 hours, poured off about 3 quarts of 8.5 ph water. The chlorine gas that the city purifies the water with, evaporated off and we had great tasting "prill water" to drink, cook with and water plants and cat with. It's been 2 years and we have the same bag. I test the water every now and then and the water comes off as 8.5 and higher if we leave for a few days. By testing I mean that I "muscle test" the tap water and then the "prill water". Both the glass container and the polycarbon container on the counter with spigot that we use as holder have never needed cleaning for calcium and mineral build up or moldy growths.

Green Soap and Lotion.

"Green Soap " Master's Miracle ll green soap, neutralizer and lotion have been part of our personal hygiene for many years. My sister Janet introduced me to it maybe 20 years ago and I stopped using most other commercial soaps. What Perry and I have found the most useful is using a drop or two to brush our teeth with. Since using it as mouth and teeth cleaner, we do not get those irritating gum infections. This soap does not let the bad bacteria live. I can't remember the last time I had a gum infection but I do remember before using this soap how annoying those were. We use it for bathing too. I use the neutralizer when traveling and away from my "prill water". A few drops in my bottle of city tap water and let sit for an hour, takes care of any bad guys in the water and increases the ph of the water. The body lotion is healing and I mix it with a good moisturizer for my face. Love, love these products. Again, a good product that the original compounder claims was revealed to him from God, but is still cheap enough for regular people to buy and use, and my own many years experience with it, tells me that it is what it claims to be ...a miracle. http://www.miracle2ofutah.com/

A deodorant crystal.

Salt crystal for deodorant. Doesn't matter what brand. When I bought my first one several years ago at the health food store, I was looking for an alternative for underarm antiperspirant. The epidemic of breast cancer had me really concerned and I reasoned that if a product was going to stop the flow of sweat then where did those body toxins go? I stopped using antiperspirant and went only for deodorant but the oder still persisted. Once I started using this salt crystal, the body oder stopped. A few months later, I stopped using it after showers and baths just to see what would happen..... it took a few days but the oder was back. I haven't used anything else now for years and I have the same original crystal! I believe the salt crystal you put on wet, kills body oder bacteria.


A few of Young Living's essential oils that we use.

Essential oils; No home should be without them! When I married 4 years ago, my husband had an account with Gary Young's company, "Young Living". I have that account now and we order something every month (mlm online automatic ordering). I don't sell the oils or make a business out of it like a whole lot of other people do, but we do use them and give them away to family or anyone who wants to try them. They are truly amazing. Wouldn't be without them. It does take training to use them and the study of essential oils is a worthwhile effort. We know a little about them and use them successfully on ourselves and others but there is so much to learn about them. We have a text book that Gary Young published a few years ago that we reference. Oils have been around for centuries, maybe millennial but not till recently have they been promoted widely thanks to Gary Young, and others and now there are a few more companies selling them. My friend Mona Merz is in with a company called Do'terra and it seems to be a very fine company as well. Readily available essential oils are evidence to me that a caring God knows our needs and knows we need alternative healing devices and products because these are the "last days" and we are living in toxic, stressful times.

My small stainless steel fry pan and my old, well used large iron frying pan.


stainless steel cookware; Don't know when I gave up aluminum cook wear, probably way back because I remember my mother throwing away all aluminum cook ware. That was in the 60's so even then there was talk about the possible dangers of cooking in aluminum pots. But then in the 70's Teflon cooking pans came out and they were all the "rage" and I bought some. They were aluminum frying pans coated with Teflon surface so food wouldn't stick. They were wonderful to work with and clean up was really easy but after a few months the Teflon surface started to break up and expose the aluminum underneath and I thought, that wasn't good. So I threw out all my Teflon pans and went for iron to fry pans. I had been using stainless steel pots for cooking soups stews and cereal. Have been using iron and stainless steel and glass for many years now.

no hair color; My genetic heritage from my mother's side, her name being "Buie" which in old Gaelic means the white haired ones, meant that me and my sisters and cousins all started turning grey very early in life. I started in my 20's. I became a regular buyer of hair coloring products. I tried them all.....every 6 weeks or so. I started with dark browns, then medium browns then a mixture of browns; I even tried a redish color for a few months. Then I used dark blond for a few years in my 50's and med and lite blond and finally at 58 gave it up entirely. Wasn't sorry. My white hair was really lovely. (My mother married at age 33 was completely white in 1945 and she was beautiful). When I started the blood type diet about the same time, some of my hairs in back started to go dark again which surprised my hair stylist of 11 years. She said she had never seen hair go darker in an older woman....I was the first. My silver hair did not discourage my husband's interest in me either. He said it wasn't the hair so much, as the healthy blue color of my eyes. He said he was looking for a woman who was healthy and could cook!
I gave up hair color because of the hassle, but am finding out that hair coloring agents also pose a health risk, so it was a good decision.

Tai Chi; I know a little. I was fortunate enough 10 years ago to learn some indirectly from a 15 yr. old Chinese boy who was living with Master Lou of Salt Lake City, and he was attending the private school I was teaching math at. For one year I taught 3 different preparations of math at this private school in Murray. I had no business teaching math, but I needed a job and they were desperate for a math teacher. Part of my teaching was also to teach 3rd and 4th graders Tai Chi one period a day. I didn't know Tai Chi but this boy was learning from the Master. So he would show me a move in front of the gymnasium and I would then mimic him and then teach the children. We did that for a whole school year. I learned part not all of the movements of the Shulon tradition, but just that part has served me well for a decade. Now I do the routine maybe once a week and I play this wonderful Zen music with it. It's one of the things I love to do to keep flexible and pliant.

Our 2 yr. old, hand held Q Laser.


low level laser; Q Laser is it's product name and we have had ours for over 2 years now. I wouldn't be without it but again we don't sell them because they are pricey. We want our neighbors and family to use it whenever they have a need. We use the laser on aches and pains that we don't have clear remedies for. It is really helpful for pulled ligaments, bone aches and sore muscles. I like to use it on my eyes, for the rare headache and gut sluggishness. If I had a tumor somewhere I would use Q Laser on that along with other protocols. I also use it on my teeth when they start to get sensitive to temperature or pressure. The man who invented it, is a dentist and he and his daughter use it to numb tooth nerves in their dentistry. It has a rechargeable battery that is easy to recharge and the laser modes are strong and effective. Love the Q Laser! Look up Larry Lyttle of South Dakota or Q Laser.


Two of Dr. Dadamo's books I use the most.

Blood type diet: I've written about this very early in my blog. To recap, I am an O+ which means that I am very primitive...the oldest blood type and a carnivore. Red meat is my food with lots of veggies and a few nuts, beans and fruits but carbs, both simple and complex are my nemesis....my toxins.....my downfall. I also have a variety of fish and poultry to chose from. When I am very compliant with this diet I do very well. When I eat too many sweet things, including avoid fruits and too many starchy things I gain weight, loose energy, get constipated, don't sleep well and generally don't' feel good. Wheat is particularly difficult for my system. I avoid it. I used to have rheumatoid arthritis in knees and knuckles when I ate whole wheat....my own stone ground home baked bread. I don't have it now and it cleared up when I gave up wheat. The Blood Type Diet, developed by Peter J. Dadamo is the basis for our diet. My husband is a B and has similar food lists with a few avoids that I don't have. He also is off wheat but uses spelt which is similar but not like the super hybridized wheat that is so common in our food culture. I can't say enough good about this diet. If I hadn't started it when I did and been at least 80% compliant with it, my health would be very bad now and I would be having knee surgeries and who knows what else. We are grateful to pioneers like Peter J. Dadamo and many others for their contributions to today's health. http://www.dadamo.com/


This is the biggest of my 3 Kombucha (fermented green or regular tea) fermenting jars.

Fermenting: or culturing is the art of "indoor farming" of friendly bacteria, which is a recent healthy hobby I have acquired. It is so beneficial and enjoyable that I teach it whenever I can and give seminars about it at our local store, Real Foods Market where I buy raw milk. I culture and nurture, kefir bacteria, kombucha bacteria , sourdough yeasts and I harvest lactobacillus from goat yogurt to ferment, preserve and pickle some select vegetables. Fermentation is a hard one for my family and they don't often taste or eat any of my microbe products. That's OK, I eat them and enjoy the benefits of healthy intestinal flora and better more robust health.


"muscle testing" for health; This practice I learned from my friend,Mona Merz, who is an "Energy Healer". I have tremendous respect and admiration for the knowledge and experience she has acquired in a very short time. Her work is highly respected and effective. She and I consult with each other often because we are good friends. I do the "food" thing and she does the "energy" thing and we compliment each other's work. She taught me how to "muscle test". It's simple.....first you have to acknowledge that there is a part of you, your thinking and feeling that is "smarter" than your conscious mind. Some call this part, the "higher self", or the subconscious, or the soul or the spirit or.....whatever. Just acknowledge that some part of you is very wise and very smart. Once you do that, then you can calibrate your mind to "lock" your hand muscles when you try to put a finger or thumb on the opposite hand, through a hole you form with index finger and thumb of hand that is going to do the "locking".

I calibrate my mind, and practice like this; "Higher mind", please" lock" my fingers if I ask for an answer to a question about my health that is true....meaning ; yes, this is good, this is true keep it. If the answer to my question about my health is no, then "unlock" my fingers and let my thumb go, meaning; no, this is not good for me, or this is false, let it go, don't keep it.
After a short time of practice and asking only yes/no questions about your own body, your confidence in the practice increases and then you trust it. I have learned that my "higher self" will not lie to me. I can protect myself from eating bad food; being poisoned or simple not buying a certain supplement when another is better.
Practitioners like my friend Mona, use this technique on other people as part of their practice but she has been trained and has a lot of integrity. I only do this for myself or my husband when he gives his permission.


Bio-Identical Hormones; Wow! was this a wonderful thing to discover.
When I married my wonderful husband 4 years ago I was concerned that my body parts after a decade of being single, and on the quiet end of menopause, would function properly. I had a medical exam and sure enough my parts were in process of atrophying. The doctor wrote out a prescription for the standard "birth control" and sent me on my way. But I figured there was something better than that old standard pharmaceutical. Especially since a very damning report about the failure of pharmaceutical birth control to prevent heart attacks had been recently released. I have forgotten when that report came out but there was no way I was going to start that drug stuff. I can't remember how I got onto bio-identical hormones but someone pointed me to a "compound" pharmacy in my area and they had names of doctors or nurse practitioners who prescribed these more natural hormones. I visited one and I have been seeing her for years now. Thanks to these hormones based on readout from blood tests, I do enjoy a "married woman's" life with my husband and I feel great and feel "normal". I would highly recommend this treatment for any woman who wants to shy away from Big Pharma.

Supplements; Lots and lots of them for both of us. The picture shows just a few of the ones we currently use. I'm not going to promote any particular brand because we change them often. However, when Dr. Dadamo started to formulate some supplements based on blood type a few years ago, those caught my attention. I have been ordering some of their supplements online for a few years now. I am pleased with their products but I like to look around and purchase different things at my HFS here in Orem. Perry also responds sometimes to radio ads for supplements. A couple of companies advertise on talk radio. Our collection is always changing but I do think supplements are needed today.


Rebounder; It's just a mini trampoline and I should bounce on it more than I do. When I have time in the morning, I do. I use the Q Laser with bouncing; do 2 things at same time. The most useful thing about the rebounder is that it helps move the lymph system which carries toxins to dumping points in the blood. It gets my whole system moving which is a very good thing in the morning. It helps oxygenate my blood and gets everything moving. Simple, easy excersize.


Square foot garden; Any kind of gardening is good. That is one of my garden boxes without any plants....it's March. For two summers now I have had bumper crops from that box and I plan on another bumper crop this September also. I used to garden more seriously when I was an at-home mommy in Detroit, Michigan. I haven't gardened for many years my excuse being that with teaching, the school year starts just as crops come on and I can't do much with my produce. But, with times changing and food getting more expensive, gardening just makes good sense.

Agressive food storeage; The time for serious, or agressive food storage may be just about over. Food prices are going to get higher and higher this summer and fall and some food storage is going to be absolutely neccessary, not nonsense any more. We have been working on our food storage ever since we got married. Last winter, my husband built me a really nice storage area with shelves in our basement and we have filled it up. Our goal is 1 year supply. I'd say we have a year supply of some things but not all. We have some freeze dried and dehydrated food in #10 cans for long term storage, and we have some canned food for short term and we have MREs for quick fixes. Just recently we were able to get work shifts at the Church cannery in Lindon, to can beef stew and beef chuncks. We work and then earn privilege to buy. I do some canning of home grown tomatoes, and salsa and some apricot and peach jam and I dry cherries and apricots. I also freeze some of my grown green beans. It's a modest investment but I'm getting reacquainted with the garden and my skills. On storing grains, I have been pretty picky. I do have some really old wheat, but haven't bought any the last few years. I bought spelt instead and sprouted spelt and wheat. Wheat is not good for my husband or me. I also have stored basmati brown rice and flour, some millet, some quinoa and lots of oats. We have dried beans too that are compliant for O and B blood types. We have water stored (not near enough) some supplements and spices and first aid items and paper products and some alternative cooking fuels and candles and batteries and juice and fats and oils. Those are; ghee, which I make, coconut oil and olive oil. We also have lots of nuts and seeds to eat, of course blood type specific. We have some canned and dried fruit. More is needed!

MMS; Miracle Mineral Solution. I have truly earned "nonsense" with this one. This solution when mixed and swallowed will kill any ANY pathogen known to man. Doesn't matter if the pathogen is parasite, bacteria or virus or any other nasty toxin, it will destroy it without harming living tissue or the friendly bacteria that are supposed to be in your gut. I learned about this a year and half ago and I researched it and found it to be exactly what it says it is....a miracle. Two solutions when mixed create a gas called chlorine dioxide that gets into your blood stream and annihilates all toxins and pathogens that it comes in contact with. I have been using it for over a year now and it has kept me cold and infection free.....no small thing when I am around many high school children 9 months of the year. I take a 6 drop dose 3 times a week for maintainence. If I feel something coming on, I up the doses for 3 days and the "thing" is gone. I trust it and have more of it in my storage. It tastes nasty just like medicine is supposed to, but confidence in our own ability to handle our own health needs has greatly increased and our goal of being self sufficient is closer. Look up Jim Humble and MMS online and research for yourself if the FDA hasn't shut down all information about it yet. Another thing, it costs about 17-22 dollars for one set of bottles or solutions depending on which website you go too. Mr. Humble lives in Mexico where he is free from the FDA.

Stewed Plums (prunes) and Stevia

I have resurrected an old favorite of mine, stewed prunes. Sounds awful, but really it isn't. I was in my food storage room, moving items around taking inventory when I discovered an overlooked bag of prunes. The bag was not compromised in any way, but the prunes felt really hard. I thought these are too old to use and should be thrown out but I wondered if they could be softened up a bit. Then I remembered what I used to do with prunes in the 70's; I used to soak them in water and gently cook them with some lemon juice and sugar. So I opened the bag and took about 2 cups worth of prunes out and soaked them all day in 2 cups of water....prill or high ph water ( prill water super hydrates tissue). I warmed them up in a small stainless steel pot and kept the temperature on warm for a couple hours. When they cooled I added the juice of 1/2 lemon plus 3 drops of lemon essential oil. To sweeten them I used Sweetleaf plus, powdered stevia, about 1/2 tsp. They were so good, good as I remembered. (pictured is Sweetleaf liquid; the powdered stevia bottle I used up and threw away)

I've been using stevia a lot lately trying to come up with the perfect ratio of chocolate and stevia with no aftertaste. So I have several different brands of stevia on hand and now using this amazing stuff in my regular cooking. Sweetleaf seems to be a good brand with little or no aftertaste. Stevia is a no calorie, no carb sweetner that appears to have no side effects at all! But it is tricky to work with as some brands have a strong, bitter aftertaste.
I love my updated version of stewed plums or prunes or however you want to call them. Another bonus.....prunes still remedy constipation.

Cabbage, Kale and Carrots

I got my husband to eat cabbage! Cabbage is one of his beneficial foods but when I first married him, he refused to eat it so I have been on a minor crusade to find ways to get him to eat it. I found 3 ways actually, but this one is his favorite.

1/2 head of cabbage chopped
1/2 yellow onion sliced
1/2 bunch of Kale (dark leafy greens so alkaline and good for you) wash, chop up
2 carrots peeled and shredded
some Real Salt
1 tbs or more of ghee or olive oil

In a skillet, saute the onions until soft even longer to "caramelize" add the carrots, then the cabbage and kale. Keep a lid on the skillet on med heat to steam, but stir often until veggies are just tender. Add salt to taste and some garlic if you like. Serve hot It is also good cold the next day for lunch. It's like a hot salad. I love hot salads.

The other cabbage preparations that Perry will eat are; my own fresh sauerkraut ( see older, previous blog), cole slaw that I let sit for a couple hours with Real Salt on it drawing out the water, and then I drain it and add some apple cider vinegar sweetened with agave. It's about a 1 to 1 ratio. He will also eat cabbage in stews and soups now. My next project with him is beets.

Holistic Conference in June in So. Jordan

Well this news is exciting for me.....I just got accepted to be one of the speakers at a holistic conference to be held in So. Jordan, Utah the end of June. The organizers invited me to submit a proposal before Christmas and I submitted 3. Two were accepted and the one on fermentation will be repeated twice. Check it out www.LDSholisticliving.com Click on speakers.

The organizer who contacted me learned about my work with food microbes from the REAL FOODS MARKET here in Orem where I have been giving seminars on food fermentation. I don't know any of the other speakers, so if anyone I know out there knows any of those other people, please email me or comment here and tell me what you know. I hope a few people I know go to this conference.

I will get a venders booth also where I can sell strainer cloths, prill crystals (for high ph water), sourdough starter, kombucha starter, ghee, maybe kefir pearls and give out samples of our new no-sugar chocolate bar . Registration opens March 1.

Jelled Cranberry and Apple Salad

This recipe is my favorite fall/winter salad. I put one together at Thanksgiving and thereafter about every two weeks. It serves the purpose of supplying my fresh fruit and vegetable servings during the cold time when I make and eat mostly soups and stews. For some reason, I hate getting my hands wet too much when it gets cold like I have to do when making leafy vegetable salads in the warmer months. I can make this as sweet or tart as I want and it is a pretty color. It really is a good compliment to the winter time hot soups and stews.

1 packet of plain gelatin sprinkled over
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1 package of cranberries (after the holidays fresh ones are scarce so I buy frozen)
1 carrot peeled
1 tart apple
1 stalk celery
1/4 part of a sweet onion
1 grapefruit
some fresh blueberries if possible
handful of pecans
1 small can crushed pineapple ( reserve the juice from this can....use canned cause fresh pineapple doesn't let the gelatin set up)
1 cup pineapple juice to boil
1/2 cup naturally cultured sour cream ( I use my own filtered goat milk cheese)
1-2 tsp sweetleaf stevia or 1/3 cup agave or honey to sweeten
1 or 2 drops grapefruit essential oil

You can chop all the ingredients or use a food processor but I use my blender. I put the 1 cup pineapple juice in the blender and then add the fruits and vegetables a few at a time and blend.
I like some chewing texture so I don't blend too much, then I strain the mixture, put the juice right back into the blender and process the rest of the fruits and veggies. When all is done, ( I do save out the celery and chop that) I measure the 1 cup of juice and boil that to mix with the softened gelatin to dissolve. There is usually another cup of juice left over and that I love to drink as is. Mix everything together and place in cold storage to set up, in a flat bowl like a 9x9 glass baking dish or something. It keeps for many days in the fridge. It's great to take with lunch or have with dinner and sometimes I eat it with my egg breakfast.

Sourdough Bread Pudding

Hey, I discovered something new.....it is possible to make bread pudding out of sourdough bread.
In one of my earliest blogs the one about the process of making soudough bread, I described how to knead 1 tsp. baking soda into the bread to take the "sourness" out of the bread if it is too strong. That information comes from Sally Fallon in "Nourishing Traditions" and is a very good trick. Most times when I make my bread I remember, but last weekend I forgot. I tasted that bread and it really was too sour. I didn't want to throw the 4 mini-loaves I made away but the problem was what to do with them. Afte a couple days pondering, I decided that if soda sweetens the bread before baking, maybe it will sweeten it after.

I cut this little loaf up into cubes and added about 1 1/2 cups water with 2 tsps baking soda to it and let the bread soak. I call this a "soda bath". It really reacted by bubbling up. The bread cubes floated on top of the water so I kept stirring and pushing them down. I was surprised the cubes didn't fall apart but for the most part kept their cube shapes. After about 2 hours I tasted the cubes and they were not sour! I drained the cubes and set about to make a sweet egg custard to bake them in. I didn't write this down at the time cause I was sure it wouldn't turn out so the amounts are approximate.....the idea is what's important.

My little loaf made about 2 cups of cubes
2 eggs beaten
2/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp Real Salt
1 1/2 cups milk ( I used old, raw milk that hubby wouldn't drink)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
handfull of raisins
coconut oil for greasing the baking dish

Combine all and bake uncovered at 325 for 45 minutes or more if needed. Nuts can be added.

I warmed some of this up this morning with some cream for breakfast and it was very good and gave me enough energy to last until my prep period. I keep it in the fridge with a lid. The "soda bath" did neutralize the sourness. Yea!

Seminars upcoming this Spring

Real Foods Market in Orem is gracious enought to have me again teach a couple seminars in their store on 800 North in Orem this spring. The first Fermenting seminar is Sat. Feb. 19 at 1:00pm. It will be like the ones I did in 2010. I will decant Komcucha and everyone will get a starter, I will bring 3 vegetable ferments and everyone will get tastes, I will bring my own sourdough spelt bread with ghee and everyone will get tastes, I will bring some sourdough starters for sale, I will bring my pumpkin seed ferment as a nut butter and of course everyone gets to taste that too and I will bring some either multigrain mini-muffins or fermented cake. I will teach how to separate whey from yogurt to get the living lacto-bacillus and have some 11x14" poyester strainer clothes for sale. I will also bring a few Precious Prill bags for sale; these magnesium crystals turn tap water into pure, high alkaline water good for lacto-bacillus. It's always hard to pack so much into an hour and half and still have time for comments and questions but we manage to do it and have fun in the process. The cost for these seminars is $10 per person and it is so worth it.

The second seminar will be in Heber at the Real Foods Market up there on Satuday, March 29. Seminar same as above.

The Third seminar is Sat. April 23. And this one will be a little different. I may be partnering up with Michelle and we will teach how and why to use alternative grains. We will discuss the importance of soaking grains and what that can do to boost nutrition. I will discuss the difference between hybridizing and GMO and what that difference means in terms of nutrition. Wheat sensitivies will be discussed with recipes shared using alternative grains. Food storage with alternative grains will also be discussed. Of course samples will be part of this seminar too. Sally Fallon's article "Be Kind to Your Grains" is the inspiration for this very practical seminar. This one will also have a $10 fee.

Chocolate and Stevia and other goodies

Holidays were great! Most of my gifts were food related; some new items I've cooked up and cooking equipment. My friends and family are very indulgent with me and know they are getting some weird but practical stuff and I do appreciate them for humoring me these many years. But one item that I am still working on and perhaps will market is a chocolate sweet made with stevia. Nothing to do with fermenting, but really a good idea worth investigating. I have a brother-in-law with diabetes and some friends and they love sweets but cannot partake, so to provide something they can eat and enjoy I embarked a few weeks ago on this task of putting chocolate and stevia together. One of my trials was pretty good, not great and I made a few chocolate pieces for my brother-in-law. But haven't heard back from him on it. I'll assume that the flavors were too strong and he didn't like it that much.




It is a sizable task. I now have 10 trials and I'm close but not there yet. Trouble is, both unsweetened chocolate and stevia have very strong flavors by themselves and putting them together is like putting two strong personalities in the same group. Which one will win out? Stevia has an aftertaste that is very strong when using the amounts I've been using in order to get the chocolate to taste sweet enough. I've been using various "extender" ingredients with varying success. I've also been learning how to "temper" chocolate which is an art of itself and adding different ingredients alters the "tempering". It is a challenge and I would share more of the ingredients and process here, but like I said, if I can get it right, I would like to market this. Sadly, there are a lot of diabetics in our culture and I think this would be a great thing for them especially as the lack of side effects from stevia sweetening are so promising. I really am just beginning this adventure and don't know much about chocolate or stevia or where it will lead but I like a good kitchen challenge....HEALTHY kitchen challenge.

Another item I have been working on is an energy cake. Yes, all cakes are "energy" cakes because they are nothing but starch, sugar and fat which are classic energy sources but the one I have invented is really healthy too. I don't use the classic cake ingredients; wheat flour, hydrogenated vegetable oils, or white sugar. My recipe does not use regular flour from hybridized wheat, or corn or soy or peanuts or sunflower seeds. Which are all cheap but not good for all, or some of the blood types.




There are many "energy bars" on the market and some of them are processed in a way, and using ingredients that can claim the "RAW" distinction. That is all well and good but mine are different in that the grains and seeds I use are soaked at least 8 hours or more and then baked. So, mine can't claim a place in the RAW market, nonetheless, they are very tasty using high quality ingredients which are neutral for all blood types. I guess that is my distinction; high quality ingredients and neutral or beneficial for all blood types. They provide high energy and high nutrition. I have given many batches of these little cakes away and many more are in my freezer. The feedback I get from these are very favorable. Again, I apologize for not giving the recipe for this as this might also be a product worth marketing. I think it a good item for food storage as well if I can figure out how to package them correctly.



The other thing I have been working on is a grain, legume and seed combination that cooks up into a complete plant protein source compliant for each of the 4 blood types. (I am again thinking of food storage) The question for me was, what can be stored a long time, cooked up simply yet provide high nutrition for us non-vegetarians? Vegetarians have been "combining" for a long time but my concern was for us Os and Bs who really thrive on red meat and very little grain and legumes. I have some red meat stored as canned, dried and frozen but what happens when the meat runs out in a time of economic or natural disaster....what do Os do? I researched the grains, seeds and legumes that were at leat neutral or better for Os and came up with a combination that answers my question and still tastes really good and for me upon eating it clinched the idea was it doesn't constipate me. Yea! I call it Plant Protein Pilaf.




The greatest difference between blood types in what they eat have to do with proteins. Os and Bs can digest red meat easily because of intestinal alkaline phosphotase which we produce in abundance and As do not. As need protein and can get it from fish,(also good for Os and Bs)poultry and plant proteins. Plant proteins are very blood type specific. As have a very wide and long list of agreeable grains and legumes to choose from, Os do not. The O list of agreeable legumes and grains is short but Bs even shorter. The physical test is alsways "gassing". If you eat a legume and it makes you gas up, you know it was wrong for your digestive system and it will be expelled as fast as your body can get rid of it. If there is no gassing, then that legume was agreeable to your system and will stay in you long enough to get the nutrition out of it.

Quarts of this dry combination were part of my Christmas gifts this year as well. I have made up Plant Protein Pilaf combinations for O, B, A, AB blood types as well as those tricky combinations for married couples like....O+B, O+A which are the most common. So far, the feedback has been good. People like it. IF they follow the directions which include 8 hours or more of soaking before cooking.