Books, Documentaries, Reviews: “The Greater Good”–Are Vaccines Safe?

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: October 21, 2013

“The Greater Good”

Are Vaccines Safe?

Maybe some vaccines are safe.

But, who knows?

No one knows how many people are being hurt by vaccines. Or, how.

Few scientists are doing research on that question at the cellular/molecular level. And the research of those who are finding significant problems is being ignored.

Maybe vaccines are effective.

But, no one really knows.

The only studies that call vaccines safe are epidemiological studies that compare large groups of people. And the industry-created myth that vaccines can provide “herd immunity” has allowed state governments to mandate vaccines for “the greater good” of all. (See earlier post discussing herd immunity.)

In fact, these epidemiological studies only show correlation, NOT causation, in terms of stopping disease. So one burning, unanswered question is what has caused some deadly diseases (polio, small pox) to dissipate over time since vaccines came into play only AFTER these diseases were on the wane.

Indeed, there are many unanswered questions about vaccine safety. But it is quite clear that vaccines are a life-threatening risk for some people. And, maybe, even, for all people at the level of the inducement of chronic illness.

“The Greater Good” is a documentary film that tries to at least surface many of these worrisome questions. It is being shown all over the country to general audiences and to medical groups and institutions. The film contains voices from across the spectrum of this issue of vaccine safety–including that of a major medical spokesman, Dr. Paul Offit, who has said famously that babies can tolerate 10,000 vaccines at once.

So, please, please, please–before you get another vaccine or give one to a child, do not assume that you have a good understanding of the issue of vaccine safety. Or even the need for vaccines. Start your research with “The Greater Good” for less than the price of a large pizza.

Here’s what I took away from the film–and I hope it’s enough to spark you to NOT assume that your doctor knows and understands the dangers of vaccines. That does not mean your doctor is a bad person. It just means your doctor is caught in the same “kool aid” information bubble that you might be caught in, that most of the US is caught in since the media is not doing its reporting job properly.

First, the film takes a close look at three families whose children have been harmed by vaccines. Gabi Schrag acquired a terminal illness from the UNTESTED vaccine Gardasil when she was fifteen. Another family’s baby daughter died after a vaccine around her first birthday. This child was apparently reacting to earlier vaccines, but her parents and pediatrician did not recognize the trouble signs. Her two brothers did not die, but in retrospect, the parents recognize that their sons, too, have been harmed. The third family’s son, now 11, acquired autism from the mercury in vaccines. That’s not a theory; the mercury showed up in blood tests. His body could not detox itself, and the mercury and other components in vaccines permanently injured his brain.

***Barbara Loe Fisher became an activist for vaccine safety when her son was injured permanently. She notes that in 1980, children received 23 doses of 7 vaccines. Today, the vaccine schedule calls for 69 doses of 16 vaccines. That’s TRIPLE the number of vaccines. That’s an industry at work in my opinion.

Dr. Lawrence Palevsky noted that he did not question vaccine safety until the Hepatitus B vaccine was recommended for newborn babies when, he said, infants are not at risk for Hepatitus B.

Fisher now has the following mantra: SHOW US THE SCIENCE AND ALLOW US THE CHOICE. She notes the irresponsibility of any system that takes vaccines off the table when they might be factors or co-factors for the causes of chronic illness or outright injury. Vaccines need to be shown to be safe and effective, and they have NOT BEEN.

Dr. Palevsky–as do other worried experts in the documentary–notes that reducing the vaccine safety issue to just that of autism has worked to hide the bigger issues. He notes that today ONE IN SIX children have some form of neural disability. And he wonders how many other chronic diseases are the result of vaccines. You read that right: ONE IN SIX CHILDREN.

Vaccines contain ingredients like mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, and preservatives–ingredients that are meant to keep them in your body for as long as possible. Palevsky and Bob Sears, a pediatrician, notes that there has been no safety testing for these ingredients. (Sears wrote a book that is pro-vaccine, but which, among other things. recommends spreading out vaccine doses.)

Chris Shaw, PhD, is a scientist who studies the origins of neurological diseases. He says we cannot claim that vaccines are safe as their ingredients were chosen to make them stay in your body. Injectable aluminum injected into mice in an attempt to replicate the vaccine schedule showed the rapid emergence of symptoms that included cognitive deficits, muscle and motor malfunctions, and behavioral symptoms. Autopsies showed massive damage to motor neurons–and Shaw posed that this situation was creating the conditions for diseases like MS and Parkinsons twenty to thirty years later. The FDA ignored these studies and refused to perform additional research.

So, how many children are being sacrificed for “the greater good”? We don’t know. Vaccine harm reporting is voluntary. But the fact that Congress created the Vaccine Compensation Program to pay off parents of harmed children signals that harm is being done. By the way, you pay into the fund every time you or your children get a vaccine–so here again is how industry is making YOU pay for your own injuries. Vaccine makers generate about $21.5 billion in annual sales.

Are there truly benefits from vaccines? If so, what are they? Do those benefits outweigh the risks? We don’t know. By the way, the last measles death in the U.S. was in 2003 and many are saying measles death has a strong correlation to poverty and malnourishment. Vaccines won’t “cure” that. (See earlier posts on the “measles outbreak” nonsense.)

What vaccines would you choose to get or give to your child. hepatitis B is not polio. And chicken pox is not small pox. And since 99% of the population lives in cities now, how many children are stepping on rusty nails? We now have good medicines for whooping cough. There is a big correlation between polio and the use of DDT, and polio was on the wane when the vaccine started.

What vaccines would you get for yourself? The flu shot? Do you know that science does not show that it is effective and that many flu shot forms still contain mercury? Or, other worrisome ingredients. But if you’re going to the third world, you might want to get appropriate vaccines. Just understand the risks first.

Did you know that INDUSTRY does the testing on new vaccines? The FDA accepts their word for the testing.

Did you know that INDUSTRY cannot be sued for vaccine harm? Thus there is no accountability or responsibility when vaccines harm people. Which brings me to Gardasil…

GARDASIL

So, let’s look at Merck’s Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil–and let’s note that HPV only MAY–only MAY I repeat–cause cervical cancer.

Merck asked the FDA too “fast track” Gardasil, and FDA agreed. As a result, whatever testing Merck was doing (on just over 1,200 girls under sixteen) was stopped. SO, GARDASIL HAS NEVER BEEN TESTED FOR SAFETY. Really, Gardasil has never been tested on anyone in a trial that was carried to its conclusion. So industry has no idea of its effectiveness either. What’s occurring is a giant experiment on young people.

Today, both young women and young men are being pressured to get this vaccine. Young men are said to carry HPV in their mouths. So they can “infect” young women. Do you really think any vaccine is going to kill HPV virus in someone’s mouth so that they never carry it again? Really? Hello…we all carry stuff like this all the time–on us, in us, it’s all around us.

Gardasil was released in 2006, and Merck spent $100 million on advertising targeting young women. You could be “one less” the ads stated.

Gabi Schrag saw those ads and got the multiple-shot vaccine–which caused her to get central nervous system vasculitis and central nervous system lupus. She will die. She is dying. Meanwhile, her life is a living hell. She has many symptoms, including seizures, paralysis on her face, partial vision, extreme fatigue, and on and on. Her family buckled under the medical costs and stress.

Diane Harper, MD, MPH, MS, is one of the world’s leading experts on HPV and was the LEAD RESEARCHER FOR THE GARDASIL TRIALS (before they were cancelled).

Harper notes that the death rate from cervical cancer is 3 per 100,000. Young people are more at risk from an automobile accident than from cervical cancer. PLUS, we have a very good system in place to defeat cervical cancer: PAP smears–which are not risky. Plus, Harper notes, our daughters are not cancer deaths waiting to happen–which the Merck ads indicate. In fact, says Harper, while Merck’s ads are not lies, they are false in their overall impressions.

WOLVES IN THE CHICKEN HOUSE:

Now let’s talk about Dr. Paul Offit.

Offit’s credentials are pretty heavy duty. And his certainty about the safety of vaccines so complete that I decided to poke around a bit. It didn’t take one minute to surface some real conflicts of interest–ones that are at the heart of what is wrong with medicine today, and why many people like me do not trust it.

Offit is a pediatrician. He is the Chief of infectious Diseae at the reknowned Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, or CHOP. He is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school.

Pretty good, huh? You’d pay attention to someone like this man, wouldn’t you?

Only Offit has strong financial ties to the vaccine industry–as a story of Sharyl Attkisson for CBS News reveals. He consistently refuses to disclose his industry ties. But, his research Hillman chair at CHOP is funded by Merck, for $1.5 million. He co-invented the Rotavirus vaccine and sold it to Merck–his share was somewhere between $29 and $46 million. He was on the CDC’s Advisory committee on Immunization Practices when his vaccine was put onto the vaccine schedule. Yet he said in the film that he does not see any wrong doing in the intersections between doctors and the vaccine industry. (We need to enroll him in a course on ethics and morals immediately.)

In this documentary, Offit says that UNTESTED Gardasil is a “safe and beautiful” vaccine. Yet, by 2010, there were 85 recorded Gardasil deaths. And, uncountable injuries as no one is looking for them.

Offit also said the following: “Are parents really in the best situation to evaluate the data? I don’t think they often have that expertise.”

Really? Apparently some of us do a better job of that then people like Offit do.

But, it is this kind of statement that misleads parents into trusting people like Offit–into trusting in his goodness, in his knowledge, and his genuine interest in the health of their children. To those folks, I say “WAKE UP.” There’s BIG MONEY involved here, and we live in a system that has thoroughly detached morals and ethics from the business of making money.l

* * * * *

Clearly, the “one size fits all” vaccine schedule is a mistake for too many children.

Clearly, industry is driving the vaccine juggernaut, not science.

Clearly, the states have overstepped their bounds by forcing people to get vaccines they do not want to get in the name of a misuse of the very real scientific concept of “herd immunity”–of which the vaccines cannot ever be part. Here, again, is where politics is trumping science–as it has in many of the issues about which I research and write. And when politics makes this move, it does harm. When it does it by and for industry, it is evil.

Clearly, the vaccine industry needs to be held accountable for the harm it is doing. They need to answer in our courts of law.

Clearly doctors like Offit need to lose their prestige and power and the positions they are misusing.

Clearly, the media need to do a better job of reporting all sides of the vaccine safety issue. And of exposing people like Offit and the rigged system that Merck is using for its own gain.

Clearly, parents have got to educate themselves and take responsibility for NOT being driven like fearful sheep into harming their children or themselves.

Clearly, clearly, clearly…

…this film is a “must see” immediately for you, your family, your doctors.

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: Vinalhaven Trip and Great Reads This Summer

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: October 17, 2013

Vinalhaven Trip and Great Reads This Summer

I have belonged to a book club here in Camden for eight or so years now.

I treasure my book club in many ways, but perhaps one of the best reasons I do is that I wind up reading books I would not have discovered or, even, chosen on my own.

We don’t always agree on which books we like–and that enriches our discussions.

We are NOT all on the same political page either, though we are all caring, good people. Those differences adds to the discussion, too.

There are six of us at the present time: three sets of neighbors. I was invited to join this book club by my neighbor Sarah Rheault, and I am grateful to her for that invitation.

In the summer for many years now, Sarah has us out to her summer house in Cushing. There are pictures elsewhere on this blog of some of the views from her house. We sit outside, snack on savory tidbits, eat lunch together, and talk and talk. This year was no exception, and we all look forward to this summer event.

This year, we upped the ante. Book club member Sally Burnett-Lessor and her husband Norbert bought an old house about three years ago on Vinalhaven–one of the offshore islands. They’ve been summering out there, and this year rented their Camden house and spent their whole summer on the island. And, loved it.

Sally invited the book club to come and see the house, walk the island, and have lunch. We took her up on her offer, rode out on the ferry, and had a wonderful day with her and Norbert. I wish I had taken pictures of all the beautiful work this couple has done on their old house–to include adding an astonishing glass room which they built themselves off the redone kitchen. (Next time, for I hope we have just established another summer tradition.) They are both amazing craftspeople, and the house shows many loving restorative touches. The tiled bathrooms are beyond belief. It’s exactly the sort of house I treasure–two stories; narrow, old stairway going upstairs; painted, wide-planked, crooked wooden floors; a great front porch, and on and on. The house is furnished with woven rag rugs, old pieces of furniture collected with love and delight, and many of Norbert’s own photographs. (He has a great eye.)

Here are some pictures from our day–but not ONE of the house. How dumb was that?

First, as we came up to the Vinalhaven harbor entrance, I looked back to see the Camden Hills where we started. This look back is a beautiful part of this ferry trip:

Vinalhaven is a working fishing village. There are some stores and a sturdy restaurant. One can walk to some interesting places, like the local refuge we visited, which is lovely. But Vinalhaven is a working fishing community first and foremost, and that’s why one might want to visit and see what that’s like.

Here’s a video I took as we came into Vinalhaven harbor.

Here’s a picture taken from the far side of the harbor as we walked to the preserve. The main part of the village is beyond the spit of land. I think this creek in the foreground is called Indian Creek.

Here’s a shot from inside the preserve. It does capture how very blue the Maine water is on a sunny day. That’s open ocean beyond the island shore.

Bayberry bushes covered this hillside. The smell of them was heady and rich. And in the background are the firs that writer Sarah Orne Jewett called “pointed firs”–as in her novel The Country of the Pointed Firs. Jewett was the same vintage as Willa Cather, who also lived on the Maine Coast. And, Lura Beam, who wrote A Maine Hamlet, which was a very good sociological study of what happens as families expand and dividing the land their parents owned became more and more difficult.

The other gal in this list is Ruth Moore, and I read every one of her books I could get when I first came to Maine. Especially after I was told that people used to put bumper stickers on their cars saying “I read Ruth Moore.” She chronicles that moment when local people begin to leave the islands and the coast because they want to buy things. They want money. So they work in fish factories to get money. And they lose their purchase on the land–and their health–just as wealthy people start coming to Maine and buying up the coast and the high places with views. Today, access to coast and water is a problem for many traditional fishing families.

Here’s the book club, save one member who had to work today. From the left: Sally, Sarah at the rear, Elinor in the pink sweater, and Susan in the cloth hat.

The purple asters are one of the last wildflowers to bloom. When we see them along the roadsides, we know fall, and pumpkins, and glorious leaves are not far behind. Here’s one of the prettiest clumps I saw all year. They were everywhere on Vinalhaven.

On the way home, we had a clear view of the wind mills on Fox Island. They are supplying all the electricity for Vinalhaven, Fox Island, and North Haven–as I understand it. The blades of these windmills are huge. I was in Rockland one day when they were trucking the blades out to the island. I was blown away by their size.

The wind mills have been hugely popular with everyone but a few families who live near them. They say the noise is bothersome. And, I know these blades can throw ice in the winter. But…properly positioned–as Europe has done–out in the ocean–or away from homes–they are a good thing.

On entering Rockland Harbor, I got a lovely shot of the Breakwater lighthouse from the water.

So, here are my most favorite books read this summer–in no particular order of importance:

Maine writer Bill Roorbach’s award-winning Life Among Giants made me want to go and read all his other books.

Maine writer Monica Woods My Only Story is a lovely little novel. She also has an award-winning memoir out that Maryann Enright is going to bring to me on her next visit. I think it’s called When We Were The Kennedy’s.

Martin Walker’s latest Bruno story, The Devil’s Cave. Bruno is a policeman in a small town in the Perigord region of France. The books always explore a serious issue, have a mystery at their heart, and are filled with the lovely life of a small town–from meals to showing the complexity of relationships. They are just plain fun.

Michael Oondatje, The Cat’s Table–a novel with depth, wisdom, mystery, and so much more. It’s a lovely read.

Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder. I inhaled this one. It’s set in the Amazon jungle. I will now go get Patchett’s Bel Canto, which won all sorts of prizes a few years back.

I am now reading Steward O’Nan’s Wish You Were Here, which is very good if a bit painful to read. The patriarch of the family has died and his wife and grown children and his sister are all struggling to handle and understand their relationships in the wake of his death and the selling of the vacation cottage that united them at least once a year.

And I will move next to Curtis Sittenfeld’s Sisterland. The book club read her novel American Wife a few years back, and we all liked it. Sittenfeld’s American Wife is Laura Bush, and the novel treats her gently and with great compassion.

Interesting Information: ITP, or Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Interesting Information: October 16, 2013

ITP

Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura

One year ago this month, our Kelly and his brother were taking a shower after a soccer game.

Nine year old Bowen wrapped Kelly, then 7 1/2, in a towel and brought him to his parents.

Kelly was covered with bruises–big dark bruises all over his trunk, front and back.

That moment will go down in family history as being one of the darkest.

The feared words lept into everyone’s mind: leukemia, cancer…

But, fortunately, I guess, Kelly had contracted an immune system illness: Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura, or ITP. His body was turning on its own blood platelets and killing them. Kelly was down to about 7,000 when he should have had somewhere around 200,000. HIs doctor wondered how he was walking around, let alone playing a soccer game.

Here’s an explanation from the Children’s Hospitals and Clinics web site:

What is Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura?

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a platelet disorder in which the body produces antibodies that bind with platelets that are the small, sticky cells of the blood that help the blood clot. The platelet-antibody complex is then destroyed in the spleen or liver. This can occur as a short-term event or can be chronic. Patients who have low platelet counts are more likely to have bleeding with trauma or surgery. Some evidence suggests that ITP is related to an overactive immune system; however, the cause is not clearly understood. The condition happens more frequently following certain viral infections and certain immunizations. It also can be associated with autoimmune disorders such as lupus.

http://www.childrensmn.org/services/cancer-and-blood-disorders/blood-disorders/childrens-center-for-bleeding-and-clotting-disorders/idiopathic-thrombocytopenic-purpura-itp?gclid=CIirnN6RorQCFUid4AodhiwAxA

With both parents at his side and his siblings farmed out to nearby family, Kelly went straight into the hospital where doctors tried to trick his body into stopping its immune reaction. The lobster pillowcase went with him. (Kelly picked out these fabrics, and I made the pillowcase.)

Everyone held their breath to see if the treatments would work. to see if this would be an isolated incident or would become a chronic condition that would alter his life forever.

Parents worked to keep him amused, as with this loaded dinner tray–ordered to try to get him to eat as much nourishment as he could. Kels loves mac and cheese and hamburgers.

HIs siblings visited and crawled into the bed with him. And his first cousin Ailey visited as well:

Even Sea Breeze visited:

Thankfully, the treatments did work, and when his platelets had grown to numbers that were not so life-threatening, Kelly was allowed to visit even sicker children and, eventually, to go home himself.

The pillow went, too, but not before many, many people had remarked upon it.

Kelly and his Mom Tami decided they would make more pillowcases and bring them back to the children’s wing of the hospital–and a local quilt store donated fabric. Halloween fabric. Here is Kelly giving a pillowcase to one of the nurses to give to a child.

The pillowcases make a nice story.

But, the real story here is the one that asks “why did this event happen to Kelly?”

Note that ITP is associated with having had a virus recently. Or, a vaccine. Or, certain drugs. And the internet is full of people making associations with aspartame.

The fancy word for an association is a correlation. It’s always important to remember that correlations are not causation–which has to be proven to be called a causation. One thing that is really wrong with our culture today is that all sorts of correlations have been made to seem as if they are causations–like cholesterol and heart disease. Or, saturated fat and heart disease. Or salt and high blood pressure.

In the end, medicine and scientists do not know what is causing ITP. And as near as I could discover, no one is asking about any correlations between toxic chemicals and ITP.

Who would do this work? Who would pay for it? Not industry. Especially not the chemical or drug industries since either might be to blame.

Charleston folks do a lot of lawn spraying and mosquito/bug spraying. Like too many folks today, they seem brain-dead about the effects of this kind of indiscriminate killing. They ignore the fact that lawn chemicals have long lives and get on their children and are tracked indoors. Skin is a very permeable organ.

Mosquitos are sprayed from planes that drop toxic chemicals on everyone and everything. I’ve been told that after such spraying, local bee hives are surrounded by hundreds of dead bees and the beach is littered with dead butterflies. Disrupting a food chain in this way causes a ripple effect that spreads and spreads. Chemical fogging trucks patrol the streets at dusk.

Research shows that we are learning daily that very small amounts of toxic chemicals have long-lasting effects on humans.

It mystifies me why anyone would think that a chemical that kills an insect by harming their nervous system would NOT harm them.

Airplanes sprayed not long before Kelly got sick. Now, there’s a correlation for you.

A year has passed–a year in which Kelly, who was quite fragile for some time after his hospital stay, has grown stronger and more sure of himself. The circles beneath his eyes are gone.

But there remains for me a nagging dread as to what caused Kelly’s very serious illness.

Nothing much has changed in his environment…

And, again, I ask myself, where is the tipping point where people say enough is enough and something has to change. Clearly the tipping point is a long way away when one out of two people now gets cancer, and no one acts.

Turkey Tracks: Quilting Projects Update

Turkey Tracks: October 15, 2013

Quilting Projects Update

I have really enjoyed making the Wheel of Mystery/Winding Ways blocks–many of which I did by hand. Here’s a picture to remind you what these blocks look like:

The line-up of lights and darks makes the “wheels of mystery.”

Anyway, after sewing while watching all of the tv series “Suits” and “Falling Skies,” I started making some blocks by machine to speed up the process. And, then, started wanting to get the top finished. (There is a quilt to make for granddaughter AIley’s third birthday in late November.)

When I get focused on finishing a top–it gets finished. All the blocks are done–so I will start sewing rows together–which will require patience as there are lots of joins that need to be perfect.

i’m going to do two borders that will finish at 3 inches–and come out to a border of 6-inch nine patches in the fabrics of the quilt–with the dark fabrics predominant. I hope the math works. It does on paper. These blocks are kind of stretchy and wonky–what with all the bias edges. It could be a disaster. It could be ok. Time will tell. It will be what it will be.

Anyway–handsewing blocks is a big thing in quilting now. “Hexies” are all the rage. And other shapes are showing up. Micky Dupre and Bonnie Hunter have a new book out that mixes hand-sewn blocks with machine patchwork. I can’t wait to see it.

I love hand-sewing. For the moment I’ve given up on knitting and am hand sewing some clam shell blocks. I walk around with the ingredients in a bag in my purse–such as at the airport last week to pick up sister Susan. Here are some of these blocks sitting on my knees:

Here area few sewn together against the blue arm of the chair in the airport waiting room:

Here’s what the top looks like as of today:

It has not been ironed–but it’s going to lay down nicely. I’m not sure it’s wide enough. I’ll trim up and put on multiple borders and will hand quilt the clam shells at the very least.

This fabric came from a collection Susan Barry, who died of cancer a few years back now but who is still remembered, put together. It came to me in a nice plastic box–all matched up and ready to go. I wanted to do something with it to remember her by. The clam shell block seemed to be perfect for these fabrics–which are sweet and soft.

Can I tell you that clam shells are hard to sew? There is a lot of fabric that has to be eased into a small curve. Heres’ a TINY clam shell block done by a dear friend who is leery of internet so she will remain nameless. It’s not a great picture. I’ll try to retake it.

Each of these tiny clam shells is perfect. The quilt is called “Shore Dinner” as I recall.

I can tell you that I have grave reservations about my clam shells being this perfect. BUT, I am enjoying making them.

Turkey Tracks: How to Feed Your Gut

Turkey Tracks: October 15, 2013

How to Feed Your Gut

More and more information is appearing daily about the importance of keeping your gut healthy.

You may recall from other postings on this blog that I compromised my gut health over the years–and have paid a pretty hefty price for doing so. It turns out that I have a genetic sensitivity to gluten–tested by a reputable lab sanctioned by the government with a fecal test. (Blood tests don’t often catch these kinds of food allergies.) The hefty price is that when I harmed my gut by eating gluten and other foods that let the opportunistic gut flora and fauna we all carry get out of control–read sugars and too many carbs here–they perforated the walls of my gut and food particles began to escape into my bloodstream–which, in turn, created conditions where my body thinks it is being attacked and produces a classic histamine reaction. My blood pressure drops, I lose all muscle control, and I pass out and have to be hauled off to the hospital where I recover in time. It takes days to get my brain fully functioning again.

This falling domino sequence did not happen overnight. It took years. And I ignored all the warning signs: reactions to red wine, allergic runny nose and sneezing after eating a food my body did not like, irritable bowel reactions that could strike without warning, the yo-yo effect of constipation followed by diarrhea, weight gain, and on and on. I didn’t stop until I started passing out and my list of foods that would set off the reaction began to grow and grow until I was afraid to eat anything for fear of setting off an attack.

You can’t take a pill to “fix” this kind of thing. The only way out is to heal your gut. And to do that, you have to stop eating any kind of processed food and to start eating nutrient dense whole clean foods that nourish your body.

So, guess what is one of the very best things you can do? Eat lots of lacto-fermented foods EVERY DAY at EVERY MEAL. This food has more probiotics and enzymes than any probiotic product you can buy in a store. Lacto-fermented foods are changed in ways that make them even better than they were when raw. It’s how people used to store foods before canning and freezing came along. And, note that canning kills foods and freezing is an energy drain. I reserve freezing real estate for things like meat, local fruit, and roasted tomatoes, where it takes many tomatoes roasted down to fill a pint jar.

But, first, let me explain that “lacto” is from the wild ingredient that lives in the air, lactobacillus. Cultured milk products also contain lactobacillus, so that’s where you might have first heard that term. And I learned all that and how to make sauerkraut first from The Weston A. Price Foundation’s Sally Fallon Morell and Dr. Mary Enig’s book NOURISHING TRADITIONS (a must have in your library). Then, I built on that knowledge after a few years with Sandor Ellis Katz’s book WILD FERMENTATION.

Katz was the Maine Organic Farmers’ and Gardners’ Association keynote speaker at the Common Ground Fair this past September. He has a new book out that is more comprehensive than WILD FERMENTATION. The new book, I think it’s called THE ART OF FERMENTATION, includes fermenting meats–like corning beef, for instance–which is something I really want to try.

Thus, Katz was in our region, and that sparked other programs on lacto-fermentation. One such was given by Ana M. Antaki at the Belfast Library–and Margaret Rauenhorst and I went.

Here’s Margaret outside the library–we got to the program a bit early. Belfast had all sorts of clever benches done by various local artists and placed all over town.

Margaret is important here because her recipes differ a little from mine–and it’s important to realize that there are different ways to lacto-ferment foods. For instance, I first learned to lacto-ferment cabbage into something we call sauerkraut (which bears little resemblance to cooked cabbage that’s fermented) from NOURISHING TRADITIONS–the excellent book from Sally Fallon Morell and Dr. Mary Enig of The Weston A. Price Foundation. That recipe uses some whey drained from yogurt along with a bit of salt, whereas Katz does not use whey. And Margaret, who does not refrigerate her sauerkraut at all, says the whey makes it go softer quicker.

And Ana Antaki uses glass jars with a bailer and rubber seal (Fido jars) to lacto-ferment, whereas Katz uses mostly crocks. Ana likes the bialers and seals as she says they let out gasses that form but do not let in outside air. I use, in addition to jars with rubber seals and bailers (FIDO jars) and crocks, half-gallon Mason jars because that’s what I have on hand and because I have the refrigerator room to store them so they stay cool. The crocks require a bit more attention to keeping liquid levels high enough. The Mason jars maybe need to have the gases inside let out from time to time if the jars are in places that are not cool enough. I do have questions about the glass Fido jars not letting in enough “wild” organisms not so much to help ferment the foods, but to let even more of the “wild” of nature do even more work.

Ana and her husband Roy put up ALL of their produce from their Weeping Duck Farm every year using methods like lacto-fermentation and dehydration. They do not buy any fresh produce all winter. And it’s important to realize that the food inside the jars/crocks stays as fresh and bright as the day you put it into the container. Ana has kept lacto-fermented jars for as long as five years before eating the contents.

Lacto-fermentation takes only two ingredients: salt (real sea salt please) and water (no added fluoride or chlorine). How simple is that?

And there are two methods: one for foods you want to cut or grate into small pieces and one for foods you can preserve in larger chunks.

Both methods could not be simpler to make and are delicious.

Sauerkraut and Sauerruben (a mixture of grated root veggies) put grated veggies into a bowl. One then adds salt and whatever spices or herbs one wants. (Ana adds less salt than Katz, but Katz says to use salt to your own taste. Ana adds 3 tablespoons of sea salt to about 5 pounds of veggies.) NOURISHING TRADITIONS adds 4 tablespoons of whey dripped out from yogurt and 1 tablespoon of salt. (I don’t know if the whey from commercial, processed yogurt would work–it is a dead food.)

Here’s a bowl of grated cabbage with bits of carrot–you could also fine-cut the cabbage with a knife.

I started using a pestle to bruise the cabbage enough until it started rendering its liquid–until I saw a 6-minute video Katz put on utube that showed him using his hands to squeeze the cabbage. That seemed to work a bit better.

Once the cabbage renders enough liquid, one just packs it into a jar and lets it sit. I turn mine upside down a few times a day and refrigerate it after a few days as that slows down the fermenting action. I still use 4 tablespoons of whey and maybe only one tablespoon of salt, but I don’t stress about it. I add things like some caraway seeds. Garlic is good in anything. You could add some herbs from the garden. Use what sounds good to YOU.

You can start to eat any of these foods after a few days. But the longer they ferment, the more they “develop” interesting flavors that are richer and deeper. Refrigeration slows the reactions.

Here’s the sauerkraut packed into a jar:

After after a few days, I was able to put the contents of the half-filled jar into the full one…

If you use a crock, you need a plate you can push down over the top of the veggies to make the liquid rise and cover them–and a weight to keep it pushed down–like a Mason jar filled with water–and a clean dish towel or cheesecloth over the top–tied around so fruit flies that are very present this time of year don’t get inside. You want this food to be able to breathe.

The other method involves cutting up veggies, adding spices and or herbs (I put whole garlic cloves into everything as it is a great immune builder–and I eat them as I go along) and pouring some brine over the mixture until the jar is full. Ana uses wooden popsicle sticks pushed down into the neck of her jars to keep the liquid covering the food–and that works really well.

The brine is simple–you can mix in 3 tablespoons of sea salt to one liter of water. Katz uses about 6 tablespoons for about 8 cups and replenishes evaporated liquid with a mixture of 1 tablespoon salt to one cup of water. You just put the salt into cold water, stir it around, and pour it over the veggies.

Here are my mixed veggies:

This batch has eggplant cut into chunks, carrots, beans, salad turnips, green peppers, red peppers, and so forth. Green beans are delicious done this way. And, of course, Katz has a recipe for New York garlicky pickles that is delicious! I can’t get enough of them.

It’s wise to always put a fresh jar/crock into a pan or a container so that if there is overflow, it won’t ruin anything. Especially with the crocks and especially if they are fullish. With the jars, you will see bubbles rise to the neck of the jar and when you see a ring of bubbles–or bubbles rising if you pick up the jar and shake it–you know all is well. Again, putting a jar into a cool place slows the reactions.

Remember that the veggies are in an acid environment–so will not go bad. And remember if using a crock, it’s entirely normal for the top of the liquid to “bloom” with white bits and blue bits. Just skim those off. They don’t hurt anything any more than the white and blue bits in blue cheese. It’s normal. It’s WILD.

I just tasted a crock I did two weeks ago of grated turnips (about 4 pounds) and carrots (1 pound)–with added sage from the garden. It is DELICIOUS! It has no “turnipy” taste at all–is just clear and fresh and lovely. I’m going to transfer it to a glass jar and think about doing it again and adding in some parsnips… And, maybe, rutabega as I have some. I might have grated in some Daikon radish and I did add garlic… How healthy is that?

So, here’s a picture of the New York garlicky pickles this summer–lots of garlic, grape leaves to keep the pickles crisp, some peppercorns, and fresh dill:

And a summer favorite–a bacon, lettuce, tomato (from your garden), slivered onion sandwich with homemade mayo and with a pickle on the side:

Turkey Tracks: Fall Update

Turkey Tracks: October 15, 2013

Fall Update

Well, I’ve neglected the blog for the past few weeks. It’s just been too pretty outside, and I have been too busy being outside, to sit down and write. I’ve been saving pictures, though. And thinking about what I would post eventually… So, here’s a group of pictures I took on September 29th–a week or so after Bryan, Corinne, and the girls were here visiting.

It was definitely time to switch the mailbox covers!

Although the Indian Summer weather is what brings out the ladybugs in droves. It’s not unusual to see them clustered on the sides of the house in a warm, sunny spot.

Still, the leaves are turning now, so it’s time to honor that:

I think this picture would make a good card, actually. So I printed some extra prints to try out that idea.

Remember the post on the robin mother that went wild this summer and build 14 nests across the front porch–then settled on two good ones and raised three babies in one? When I went up on a ladder to clean out the nests for the winter, here’s what I found:

It’s way too late to raise more babies… But the eggs showed no signs of decay…

Sean Floyd came and helped me store all the outside furniture, pots, lawn ornaments, and so forth. He also put down the winter boardwalk–which is a heavy-duty job to do.

That’s NO NO Penny who at ten is still going strong.

There’s something about the boardwalk that I really love.

I’m leaving the garden fence up for the winter–though I have not had the nerve to call Tom Jackson, who does the winter plowing to say so. I’ve loved having the garden fenced all summer–not one chicken got in there–which was great as those escape artists got out of their fence whenever they wanted to get out.

Miss Reynolds Georgia, at 11, has had a hard few years. She may have Lyme. She has the markers. She does not do well with the rabies shot. So our wonderful vet has stopped those. And I thought she would die several times this summer and last after giving her the heartworm pill–for only one time each summer. (I spread Penny’s out to no more than every 45 to 50 days, which has to do with the mosquito life cycle.) Anyway, Rey stopped eating, and I’ve had to gently force feed her by putting bits of food into her mouth and holding her head up. It’s like neurologically she just can’t get everything together to eat. She’s a bag of bones and skin. Yet, just lately, she’s been perky and playful and seems happier. AND, she’s eating again. Not much, but some, all on her own. Maybe she’ll get through another winter. And, no more meds!!! Ever!!!!

The cold frame is FULL of lettuce and delicious French Breakfast radishes. What a treat!

The garden is still very productive. The kale and chard are going strong. the pole beans are putting out another crop. The haricot verte bush beans will produce until killed by a frost. The cucumber vine is spewing out cukes way faster than I can eat them. I found six big ones in there just yesterday. They will likely go into cucumber water as they are too big to eat or pickle. Maybe with the seeds removed, they would be good quick pickled in a little white vinegar, water, some slivers of onion, and salt and pepper. That only takes about an hour to be ready to eat. The Sungold cherry tomatoes ares till producing. If I feel we are going to get a killing frost, I will pull the remaining green ones and lacto ferment them. And I’m still getting the odd zucchini or two off and on.

Sean Floyd helped me dump out the inside vermiculture worm bin. I let this smelly black gold dry out a bit and staged it in the garden where I will plant next year’s garlic–once we have a freeze and I have removed the frost-killed tomatoes, etc.

All these Brandywine tomatoes ripened on the window ledges in the kitchen. This may be the first year of my life where I felt that I’ve truly had enough tomatoes–to eat, to dry, to roast, to store up for the winter.

I think my dehydrator ran for most of August and September: wild mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini, and tomatillos.

Drying whole tomatoes cut into wedges went surprisingly well. I have enough jars of dried cherry tomatoes to offer a taste of sunshine in winter salads.

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