Raw Milk Monday...What next ? Tiramisu?



After weeks of phone calls, emails, media interviews and conference calls we are finally just hours away from the May 1 meeting of the Dairy Work Group.

Again, lots has happened this past week. The Kankakee Daily Journal interviewed me and several of our raw milk customers and Keith was (reluctantly) photographed for the front page article. Fortunately dairy cow Ariel cooperated  by grazing quietly for the camera. We've had several phone calls and emails of support and several donations towards the cost of the bus we are renting for
May 1.  (Please join us, the bus leaves our farm at 07:30 and return sat 3:30 pm on May 1)

Just $100 short of the bus rental fee we have been truly humbled by the generosity of strangers some living as far away as New Mexico and Washington.

We, the group of small raw milk farmers, Westin A Price leaders and consumers, remain frustrated with some of IDPH less than honorable actions of late but we are all also positive that our work will encourage IDPH to step back and away from some of the more stringent proposed rules.

The issue of most misinformation is the actual raw milk illness data which I will share and clarify here. In a letter to the General Assembly dated April 9, IDPH Director Dr. Hasbrouck states that between 2006-2010 there were a total of 116 food borne illnesses. related to raw milk in Illinois.   In an attached table he lists specifically that in 2006 there were 18 illnesses related to raw milk that came from an Amish Farm, 96 illnesses associated with Mexican Style Cheese and 2 illnesses in 2010  related to milk brought into Illinois from another state.

No other specifics were given by Dr. Hasbrouck in this letter to the General Assembly.

The reason being...the specifics make it clear that raw milk produced by a raw milk farmer in Illinois according to the current law in not a problem.

This is why.

The 18 cases stated as caused by an "Amish Farm" in 2006 have never been proven. There is no written evidence, no written reports about this farm. Later that year IDPH states that 96 became ill after eating " Mexican Style " cheese, sold in a grocery store. This is cheese that is made illegally with raw milk since state law prohibits PROCESSING of raw milk into other products. And the two cases stated in 2010 came from Raw Milk produced on a farm in Indiana and distributed by a Michigan Distributor into Illinois, also illegal as interstate distribution of raw milk is prohibited by the FDA.

This brings us back to my original statement at the Feb 22 mtg of the then raw milk steering committee and now being called the Dairy work group that...There are no verified cases of food borne illness related to fluid raw milk produced and sold by an Illinois Raw Milk Farmer.

But, just for arguments sake, lest say that the 116 food borne illnesses listed by IDPH in their April 9th letter were valid, proven, investigated and verified. That would mean there were on average 23 food borne illnesses related  to raw milk and raw milk cheese per year. No deaths.

Compare that to these state of Illinois Food borne Illness facts: (from the CDC, Center For Disease Control and Prevention's own web site)

     in 2006  there were 869 food borne related illnesses that occurred in restaurants
     in 2007  there were 401 illnesses related to the consumption of "Pot Pie"
     in 2008  there were 36 illnesses related to a "turtle chocolate cookie"
     in 2009 there were 189 illnesses related to "ice,lemonade" in a school
     in 2010  there were 314 illnesses related to bread consumption at a drive through. But even more 
                   upsetting, there were 7 illnesses related to the love of my life...Tiramisu !

Well you get my drift. Of course those other food borne illnesses I listed above were only a very small part of the total number of food borne illnesses from all reported sources which numbered by the way...3,316 in Illinois in 2006 alone

We, the small raw milk farmers and consumers of Illinois understand there is of course RISK, involved with anything we consume. But the level of risk one takes when consuming raw milk is very very low and must be the responsibility of the producer and the milk drinker. Not be left in the hands of those who would eliminate something as healthy and nutrient-packed as raw milk but allow us to eat all the Turtle Chocolate Cookies we can handle.

    

Saponification Sunday...Cocoa- Java- Clove- Guiness-Cedarwood -Coffee-Cro- Soap

For over two  years I have been making a coffee soap which has been popular with my garden friends. Made with coffee grounds and  strong coffee (Folgers of course, Maxwell House is too wimpy) it works great for scrubbing off dirt at the end of a planting session.

Last week I decided to beef it up a bit. First I added beer. You see, new followers, once upon a time there was this lurker of a follower, Cro Magnon  he called himself. (Cro Magnun's blog by the way, is a most excellent read and a long time favorite of mine. When you stop by please tell him I sent you.) Being naive about the world of suds dear Cro made a comment to another well known, well respected  soaper, who went by the name of Cocobong.

They snipped at each other through the Internet waves, all in good CLEAN fun of course and in his honor I created "Cro-Bar" soap. Made of Guinness, it was hearty and earthy and a regular hit with the men folk.

But I knew deep down that "Cro-Bar" had not fully lived up to its potential. As a beer soap it was good but so was my coffee soap which I called "Java Wood" but neither were over the top. So I fixed that. At least in my own warped head it is fixed.

I started with 12 oz Guinness, letting it breathe in the open kitchen air for four days (it was only supposed to be overnight but I forgot about it) . Using it for my lye water plus another 8 oz of triple strength Folgers coffee.

To my Coconut, Olive, Babasuu, Almond and Castor Oil base I added organic cocoa powder (to offset the evil influence of the Guinness, that's why) some clove powder, but not much as it can be irritating to skin, and cedar wood essential oil. Mixing to trace I tossed in 2 scant tsp. of coffee grounds and pored it all into my biggest log mold.

For its white frosted topping, I poured a half batch of plain unscented soap lightened with titanium dioxide over the dark base. For a little texture I used a small whisk to pull some of the dark soap into the light soap.

It cut easily the next am and smells as good as I had hoped. Imagine how a husky handsome Irish Lad after a morning of breaking sod would smell after he guzzled down a pot of coffee with a Guinness chaser just before he walked out in the field to rescue a lost calf, carrying it across the rocky wall fence back to its mother... would smell.

Well, I think that smells good.

South Pork Ranch Labor and Delivery



In the midst of raw milk issues, sick grandsons (much better) spring rains flooding much of the plains, daily farm life trudges forward.

Our Red Wattle Hog, Mrs. Dalloway, full Sister to Clarissa for your Virginia Woolf fans, had her  second litter today. Labor was slow, over a few hours but we rarely interfere with the farrowing of our Red Wattle Sows unless absolutely required. Instinct, time and mother nature are usually far better midwives than mere humans.

Due to the very wet and cool conditions we did move her inside the barn three days ago. Generally they get a big section of a private pasture with a nice 3 sided shed and lots of bedding. But the ground is so wet and we were having trouble keeping her dry so she was transferred to higher level of care.

No idea if her HMO will cover it nor do we care.

Cool thing about Mrs. Dalloway was her nesting skills. I have never seen such a perfectly oval shaped nest. With equal sized borders all the way around babies are protected from cold breezes while mama is able to retain her own body heat.

She looked like some Queen sow with her moat of straw and hay.

I could only compare it to the millions of confinement hogs raised all over our country where sows deliver on rubber mats over concrete so to allow feces and urine to drain beneath. Mother pigs has minimal room to move, to turn, to nurse. Piglets are separated from mammas with metal bars which barely allow them access to nipples for nursing. Warmth is provided by artificial light and heat lamps.

Mrs. Dalloway was surrounded by soft grasses , natural light through the barn window, a few curious chickens who floated in and out of the labor suite, and finally by the warmth and snuggles of her babies.

Yes, this may sound overly romanticized for a farmer who in the end does indeed eat pork. But I firmly believe just because they do serve our dietary needs in the end there is no need for them to be stressed, uncomfortable and /or in pain while they are here with us sharing this earth.

Ready on the Right?

Sometimes you just have to go out with the girls. You know, that group of special women, the ones you've known a long time, the ones you've gone to for support, the ones whose shoulders you've cried on, the ones you've laughed with until the incontinence commercials sadly become a reality,  yeah those ones.

Someone sets a date and a place and a time, and you meet for say...dinner. Or maybe a movie. A shopping trip to The Covered Bridge Festival where you lodge in the finest of single wide trailers only Indiana can boast. Or perhaps a trip overseas together, twice I tell you, where you  gather around a wood table in front of a centuries old fireplace and drink whiskey in a warm, dark, haven of a place called  O'Loughlins in the village Ballyvaughan. Or maybe you just get together...

To fire off semi-automatic handguns, a revolver, a shotgun and an AR-15 rifle while getting yelled at through headphones by a man wanting to get your adrenaline way up while keeping your aim way steady.

Yeah. sometimes you just got to get together with the girls and do that.

It's extremely helpful if there is a group of talented marksmen who wear police badges during the day and teach woman how to stop intruders with intent of imminent harm, at night. Last evening  I completed a Home Self Defense Class sponsored by the Gibson City Police Force. (Illinois) Men who charge a pittance of a fee to teach woman how to protect themselves and those they love if pressured to do so.

Men who understand that true safety in the crazy world has nothing to do with limiting guns to law abiding Americans but everything to do with teaching the skills needed to make use of our second amendment Constitutional rights. 

Men who work long hours on their regular shifts but volunteer to come in extra to teach woman not to be afraid but to be in charge, as much as one can be, in desperate situations. Men who are tired of seeing woman terrorized, threatened, injured and too often killed because they didn't have the skills needed to say "get out! get away! I have a gun!"

The class was not easy. Several woman had never really handled a gun or shot before, some of us had a little experience but like me had been lazy about practicing. My father took me out regularly when I was 12 and he was a cop. Then 40 years go by before eldest son bit the bullet (sorry) and showed me the ropes again. But even though we had different levels of experience and confidence we were committed to knowing more about guns by the time class was over.

When you count the time these officers spent before and after class answering questions, allowing us to shot whatever we wanted as long as we wanted, we had 8 full hours of training.

Not exactly  boot camp but still those 8 hours were intense. Classroom time gave way to range time. Range time gave way to "Oh Dear God you want me to do WHAT ?! time. Each of us were assigned our own instructor to watch every single move we made,  teaching us the basics of how our guns worked, over and over and OVER.  Placement of hands, of feet, of trigger fingers, find your sight. How to slam magazines in. (No sissy stuff tolerated !)

And if they saw us "cheating" i.e not doing it the way they taught us, they made us do it again and again. Then came the shooting. First one round. Then one more. Another one. Then two rounds at a time. Then three. And after each round always back to the basics. Placement of hands, of feet, of trigger fingers, find your sight and for the millionth time "SLAM IT!"

Then the big finale where our skills and our nerves were totally tested. I won't tell you anymore about how they accomplished THAT last feat, hate to ruin it for those of you planning to take the class in the near future,.but I will tell you one of my nursing buddies (yes MS. To-Let of you I speak) went totally Sigourney Weaver in Alien at that point.

You know you've been thinking taking a class like this.  Just do it!

Gibson City Police Department 217-784-8666

Raw Milk Monday...Countdown begins

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Please note: If you are new to my blog you can catch up on the reasons for my raw milk passion and the struggles our own farm have experienced, by reading any of the previous posts on the topic I have written over the last 3 years . To do so, simply enter "Raw Milk" in the search bar under the picture of our house, on the right.

Less than 10 days away is the May 1 mtg of The Illinois Department of Healths Dairy Work Group formerly known as the Raw Milk Steering Committee. Since my last post on raw milk...

* We've received several donations towards the cost of bus rental to take our supporters to the mtg in Bloomington. About $200  left to raise. THANK YOU EVERYONE!

* We've had another conference call with Westin A Price and Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund folk to discuss our strategy for the May 1 mtg

* We've scheduled another conference call for April 24. for those planning to attend the May 1 mtg in support of raw milk . Those of you who are planning to attend and have not yet heard from me via text or email please email me opies99@gmail.com

* Tom Kocal of Prairie Advocate News wrote an excellent article on this issue. Real investigative journalism for a change. Please read it HERE

*Ernest Rando continues to keep his website active with summaries of my posts and our currents activities. Read it HERE (Thanks again Ernest)

* IDPH has FINALLY and after many requests  posted the minutes from the Feb 22 mtg, as they were required to do by the Open Meetings Act of Illinois yet they had not done so. No minutes for the Jan meeting have shown up on their web site

*IDPH has posted their agenda for the May 1 mtg (after several requests and as they were supposed to have done via the Open Meeting Act of Illinois) and although at first it looked encouraging as they expanded it from 2 hours to 5, upon closer inspection you'll see it's filled with lots of time wasters. See For Yourself Here   Even more frustrating, the total time allocated to the public who wish to speak positively about raw milk is limited to just 30 minutes. Each individual will only be allowed to speak 3 minutes and in order to speak they must PRE-REGISTER

Funny, how at the first two mtgs (or were there three? Still no confirmation on that from IDPH) those against raw milk were not limited in any way. In fact there was not a single farmer who made their living selling raw milk, represented at those first mgs but now that we've insisted on fair representation, these individuals we have fought so hard to make aware of this "public" meeting will be in a sense...gagged after their allotted 3 minutes.

So the clock is ticking. PLEASE help us make the point with with IDPH that changes in the current raw milk laws are unnecessary, unaffordable and unrealistic. Call Molly Lamb, Division Chief at IDPH 217-785-2439 or email her at Molly.Lamb@illinois.gov.  Please write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Email me at opies99@gmail.com if you need help with this. Please attend the May 1 mtg with us. You can ride with us if your a local follower. The bus leaves South Pork Ranch at 07:30.

        Illinois Corn Growers Association Building
        14129  Carole Drive
        Bloomington, Illinois  61705

Saponification Sunday...Oh Shea Can You See?

Shea on me. Even though I has been entrenched in the making of homemade soap for nearly 3 years,

I have never used Shea Butter until last week. .

No real good reason other than it is costly, averaging $1.50/oz   compared to coconut oil which averages .08 cents/oz bought in bulk and the fact that my basic recipe seemed pretty good. If you are not familiar with Shea Butter, it  is a slightly yellowish or ivory-colored fat extracted from the nut of the African Shea  tree.

Used often in cosmetics it is known to be a great moisturizer as well as healer of a multitude of skin issues such as eczema, sunburn, rashes, itching, wrinkles etc...Normally soap makers use it in the range of 5-7% of their recipe but I have heard of others going much higher. It is even used to soften leather straps. Hmmmmmm.

So,in the mood to experiment I bought some and used it. My first batch I used 15% Shea butter along with my usual Coconut, Olive, Castor and Sweet Almond. oils. In the second batch all the ingredients were the same except I bumped the Shea up to 30%

I only let the bars cure for a week before playing with them comparing them  to a bar of store bought Shea butter soap I picked up at Barnes and Noble.  The bar was real cute with it's little elephant imprint and dry, it felt very smooth in my hand, but the lather really bombed.

5 minutes after rinsing my hands were tight and my skin felt dry. So much for "Triple Milled Shea Butter Luxury Soap" Granted the package was adorable but no where did it state how much Shea butter was actually used. I'm guessing in the 2% range.

The first batch of my own Shea soap took well to my alkanet coloring, just a little for a ight pink swirl and the peppermint EO I choose. With 15% Shea I was surprised to get the amount of lather I did.

 

Several minutes after using, my hands felt wonderful! So then it was on to batch number 2 with 30% Shea Butter. The lather was slightly less the first batch, each bar got a brisk 10 second scrub...

 

 

 

But still it was very adequate and left my hands very VERY soft without them felling greasy or oily at all. Both bars. although somewhat soft when cut at 24 hours after molding, were moderately firm after a week.

 

Final opinion. Shea Butter is good.

 

Now tell me, how do you balance out the cost of Shea in your soap bars? Do you save it for special bars only? Do you use it all your bars and increase your price per bar accordingly? If you don't use Shea butter why not?  Would love to hear your side of the story.



 

 

Eggs....all in one basket

Everyone likes brown eggs it seems. Nothing says fresh country eggs like a big brown egg. So we of course ordered...blue eggs.

Brown egg top left. Light blue egg to the right and white egg to the bottom.
All secure in bubble wrap 14 more Cream Legbar eggs.

Coming from the very feminine looking Cream Legbar chicken we have always thought blue eggs would be fun to produce here. So we of course went to an organization of the highest caliber, EBay. For a mere $6 each, including postage, we bid and won some, a whole basketful.

I think I shall paint my bedroom in these colors
Yes, I shell!

They were supposed to be delivered over night. Which would have been perfect timing for the new incubator we also purchased. But the eggs came about five days late and the incubator is somewhere between Campaign and Wisconsin having passed up here in Chatsworth at least once.

In the meantime the eggs are staying in the well humidified basement (due to recent rains) waiting for their mechanical mother to arrive and make them whole.