Kefir Dreamsicle!

You know what is the best, most delicious kefir drink? I do! I like you guys, so I will share it with you now.

Pour a half glass of plain kefir (use a 12 oz. glass or larger), add a half glass of orange juice, a half teaspoon of vanilla, a tablespoon of raw honey and stir it all up right in the drinking glass. It will take a little longer to stir than you think it should because of the stickiness of the honey, but keep at it until it's thoroughly mixed.

Then. Well, then you're about to have what amounts to a liquid dreamsicle--it is amazingly good. And, you're going to be getting those good probiotics into you.

You don't have to have junk to feel like you're having a treat. Junk has it's place--we eat junk occasionally--but, it's so much better when we can have treats that are both delicious and good for us.

Try it!

It's Kinda Like...

It's an imposing looking fruit. Not fruit in the sense of strawberry, or apple though. More like fruit in the botanical sense: the part of the plant that encompasses the seeds.

Sometimes melon is part of the name, and that's going to throw you off. It doesn't really taste like one. It goes by other names as well. I like Kiwano. Sounds a bit like a mens' civic organization or something.

It is also in the cucumber family--a bit of trivia that I left out when explaining about it to my kids. I thought there was a greater chance of them trying this odd spiky fruit originally from Africa if they thought it was more of the strawberry or apple type.

The horned melon or kiwano is a strange, odd, alien looking fruit. If a puffer fish was turned into a fruit, it would look like this and its skin would be orange.

It's like a pomegranate in that the fruit is filled with a copious amount of seeds that are covered in a gelatinous coating. Unlike the beautiful ruby red of the pomegranate, the kiwano seeds are covered in an almost glowing green goop.

Surprisingly, neither one of my kids thought that that was gross in any way.

I, on the other hand, was reminded of the BFG's favorite food--the snozzcumber.

It had a light cucumber taste. I didn't like the seeds, and didn't like digging the seeds out. It was very uckyslush.

Snozzcumber through and through.

Earth Day 2010!

The Earth

It's Earth Day! Normally this holiday gets me mad. I think it's a time for people to try and do a couple of things, and then forget about the earth the next day--it seems far more symbolic than real to me. On the other hand, maybe it gets people thinking. That's always a good thing.

Food, Inc. was on PBS last night and I watched it. Wow. If you don't already buy any food directly from a farmer, look around to see if it's possible in your area. The more people who are both buying real, untainted food (no GMOs or pesticides or herbicides or synthetic fertilizers), and supporting small family farms or CSAs (Consumer Supported Agricuture--co-ops of a sort) the more the corporate hold of our food supply starts to crumble a little. That's also always a good thing.

To celebrate today, I am going to go out and buy the latest and best of all of the Green products I can find!

No, I'm not. Joking!!

People keep forgetting, "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" We mostly have a hold on the recycle bit, but reusing things (hand me downs, garage sale and thrift store finds), and reducing in the first place seems to elude a lot of us.

If you need to replace something, see if you can get it used. If you can't then buy green. Buying green to replace perfectly usable things you have doesn't really help anyone or anything--except the Green manufacturers. That's OK except stuff still ends up in the landfills, doesn't it?

Go do something gentle for the earth today--even if it's as small a gesture as not buying something. Just skip it. You'll be OK, really.

Then, think about doing something tomorrow, and maybe all week. If you survive that, try it for a month. You may surprise yourself at your ability to forego stuff you don't need any way.

Try it and see how strong you are. You are woman!! (Or man, depending...)

Who Knew?

Of the many things that our new rats will eat, the fresh kale cut into little bits, the strawberry tops, the lab blocks (a kind of pressed tan cube of "complete" nutrition that they try to hide by burying in the shredded newspaper at the bottom of their cage), it is to my utmost consternation and frustration that they turn up their little pointed noses at the very, very stale wild rice that my family also rejected many years ago.

Yes, I did have many-year-old wild rice wrapped up in my cabinet. I'm sure I'm not alone. I know people who still have 20 year old spices in their cabinets--that they use on a very rare basis, which is why they have 20 year old spices in their cabinets.

Also, the rats don't seem to know that they are "rats". They have no self loathing or self esteem issues. They just placidly sit on my kids' shoulders surveying what they know of the world, relaxing to the point of gently purring in my kids' ears.

I guess I can't foist off rejected food stuffs on them any more. What a waste.

A Food Confession

I saw them sitting there, so cheery and innocent on an end-of-stand display at Trader Joe's. I've heard of them, known their name forever and never really understood what they were, or how they looked, smelled, tasted. And, so now I know.

I don't like kumquats.

There, I've said it. Make of it what you will. I'm free.

Random Thoughts...

Here are some thoughts I've had over the last week or so. No real link between them all except that some might recognize a bit of absurdity--and who doesn't love the absurd?

• President Barack Hussein Obama is a United States citizen. No--he really is. Perhaps some of the frenetic, hysterical energy questioning his citizenship is a wee bit misplaced and could serve people in a more positive way. Maybe a protest against mountain top removal, strip mining, injustices around the world. I don't know, get creative.
• Three single servings of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (two cones and a sundae) at Great America really shouldn't cost $19.78. The ice cream guy's smile, as I looked shocked, told me that he commiserates but what's one to do?
• I have all of my Mel's Mix material sitting in the garage--just when do I think I will actually put in a garden? Perhaps at the end of the season, just to be contrary...
• Honey not only helps heal skin lacerations received from a nasty collision with a fire hydrant, but a little dab will heal zits too! Not that my skin is ever anything less than perfect, I'm just saying that I've heard this...
• I want my dryer fixed so even on rainy days and when it's cold out, I can wash our sheets and towels. I think it's allowed, even on The Compact. Husband, do you hear?!
• Are we really using more water by hand washing rather than using our dishwasher, which is also broken? This is what I've heard, but I don't quite believe it. Maybe we have to get that fixed too.
• For our 12th anniversary, my husband and I gave each other a high five. Consummate romantics aren't we? Neither one of us made time to get a card or a gift. It's OK. We love each other and know it.
• Laura Ling and Euna Lee are free which is amazing! But, what of the women they were trying to investigate? North Korean women are lured out to China for a better life and then are captured by traffickers and used both for sexual exploitation and forced labor. Does this story ever get covered now? You know, I'm really sick of the world mistreating women, kids, minorities, certain ethnic groups and so on.

What's new with you, cyber people? What are some of your random thoughts? Please share if so inclined.

Your cyber pal,

Laura

How to Make Raw Milk Yogurt

A while ago, I took my Viili Yogurt Starter I got from Cultures for Health and made raw milk yogurt. It turned out! It was delicious and easy to make. I'll show you.

I followed the clear instructions sent with the yogurt starter.

I opened the packet up and poured it into a bowl... (At this point, please note how literal my pictures are. Do you really need to see how I open the packet? No? Well, that is how I illustrate with photos and I will show you every step. I'm sorry, you'll just have to deal with it.)

I poured the Viili starter into a bowl, so I could measure out what I needed.

As you can see, I needed 1/2 teaspoon of starter to add to the 1/2 cup of scalded (and cooled to room temperature) milk.

I sprinkled it in.

I reserved the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of starter to have in case I ever need it. 1 teaspoon per packet--very helpful.

I transferred the starter with the milk into a jar where it would sit out on top of my fridge for about 24 hours or so.

Not using the lid here, rather a cloth held on with a rubber band.

This is the pure, treated starter. The master starter. The main starter. From this, I take a tablespoon and add it to one cup of raw milk, let it culture on top of the fridge for about 12 hours or so, and then put it in the fridge for 6 hours and then voila: RAW MILK YOGURT!!

I would show you a picture of the raw milk yogurt I made but, I ate it... I ate it with raw honey and the kids drank it in a smoothie.

I still have the treated starter, so I'll add a tablespoon of that to some more raw milk and make more raw yogurt. I'll make sure I leave a tablespoon of the starter to add to a new batch of scalded, cooled milk to make another round of pure starter. Then, from that I'll make more raw yogurt.

It's not difficult. It is delicious and so healthy and good for all of us.

We are pretty durned cultured around these parts. Are you and yourn cultured too?

What yeh waitin' fer? Go git yeh some culture!

The Fourth

The Fourth

by Shel Silverstein

Oh

CRASH!

my

BASH!

it's

BANG!

the

ZANG!

Fourth

WHOOSH!

of

BAROOM!

July

WHEW!

Happy 4th of July everyone! Enjoy your freedom. Enjoy your families. Enjoy the loud fireworks and the corn on the cob and the grilled something or other.

Hold on tight, as you spin too fast on the tilt-a-whirl. Try not to hear the tinkling sound of nuts and bolts being jerkily shimmied out of rides at the carnival... Some of those are redundant any way. It's fine!

Hey, are we ever leaving Iraq? What do you think?

Because of the nuclear threat, must we really recognize the corrupt Ahmadinejad in Iran and continue to speak to him, thereby legitimizing his fraudulent election victory?

Life is complicated.

Let's just have fun today and enjoy our kids marching in parades, or watching parades and enjoy the summer fun of the 4th.

Happy 4th everyone!

I'm Going to Make RAW MILK Yogurt!

The other day, along with my sourdough starter, I received a viili yogurt starter from Cultures for Health. We're busy around here, but soon, I will make the yogurt and I will show you how--it couldn't be easier.

In the meantime, I want you to see the yogurt starter and the comprehensive instructions that are included.

The instructions are simple and straightforward. Included is a special note for raw milk users:

Many people have noted the traditional benefits of raw milk and its products and are returning to it in an effort to eat real, whole foods. Cultures all over the world have been sustained by raw dairy products for millennia.

When making yogurt, you usually heat milk and then introduce the yogurt starter to create the strain of good microbes that you want. You want the microbes from the starter and the heating of the milk destroys any other strains. Why not have all sorts of strains for yogurt? Because some microbes will affect the texture and make it stringy. This is true for raw milk as well as pasteurized.

So how will we have raw milk yogurt, if we're going to heat it up? AHA! This is where the handy dandy instructions come in from Cultures for Health. You only heat up a little bit of milk, add the starter to that, and then use that to make your yogurt, maintaining all of the enzymes, vitamin C, antibacterial properties of your raw milk. Brilliant!

Look at this beautiful sight:

It is so seldom that you see these words any where. I am so glad to be able to make a yogurt for my family that will still have all of the benefits of raw milk.

Making My Sourdough Starter

I recently received my Desem Sourdough Starter from Cultures for Health and I was ready to make my sourdough starter.

There were clear instructions and an expiration date on the package so I was sure to make the starter at the ideal time. Easy so far!

I gathered my ingredients: starter, water, sprouted whole wheat flour, giant jar (it doesn't have to be this large, but I'm ambitious), wooden spoon, Nourishing Traditions for inspiration and my pineapple top that I'm sprouting that hopefully will become a plant and will fruit in about three years... if I'm lucky. It's worth a shot.

Don't really need a sprouting plant when you're making starter, but it was there and it hurt no one.

You need flour, however, and I've found a great source for freshly ground sprouted flour. As if souring is not enough, the fact that the grain is sprouted makes it much more digestible--your body recognizes it as a vegetable and no longer a starch. The whole point for me in undertaking sourdough bread making and kefir making and raw milk yogurt making is to improve the health of my family. It's not difficult, but it does take a mindset that you're going to do it. And the more you know, the more you know, you know?

I put the starter in the jar and then my daughter helped me by stirring, as I poured in the water.

Once that was well blended, I added the flour and my daughter stirred.

I spilled some flour--my bad. But, my daughter enjoyed stirring and didn't spill a thing.

That was it! It couldn't have been easier. The starter from Cultures for Health had a great hearty, yeasty smell and I was hopeful that it would actually work. Would the starter develop? Would it create a frothy souring blend? I hoped so. It seemed promising.

I put a cloth towel over the top and held it in place with a rubber-band.

Now we would see how active the starter was. I couldn't wait to see bubbles.

I let it sit for twenty four hours and saw that it was beautifully bubbly. So I then again added water and flour to feed the starter. It's yet another living food, at least until it gets baked.

I have fed it diligently and will let it rest and then make some fresh starter from it that will get used in a recipe for bread.

I can also report that this is a very vigorous and robust starter, not easily messed with, even when someone is distracted by her parents who are visiting for the weekend to go to the kids' dance recital and she starts the oven to make something and then realizes that the emanating yeasty smell is her baking her starter which she had so cleverly put in the oven with the light on to nudge it along. Oh. My. God!! I fried my starter!!

It was OK, thankfully, and I will make a loaf of no knead bread this week.

A total success so far, but almost a total disaster... I dodged that one.

Raw MIlk Yogurt!! Sourdough Bread!!

Guess what I got from Cultures for Health--OK, I already gave it away in the title to this post, but I'll say it again any way--viili yogurt starter and sourdough starter!

Cultures for Health has five different yogurt starters and four of them require no yogurt maker and can be made with RAW MILK. That is thrilling to me. Besides raw milk being generally cleaner than pasteurized milk, it is the fact that it is raw that makes it so desirable. It is loaded with enzymes and in tact vitamins and minerals--why would I want to heat it up to make a nicely textured yogurt, but destroy the health benefits? That defeats the whole purpose of buying raw. I want it to stay raw.

On the other hand, I want some yogurt.

Along come Cultures for Health with several choices for making RAW YOGURT!!! Crazy.

I chose the viili yogurt starter and will make it when I pick up my next order of raw milk. In order to maintain the strength of the starter, just a little milk must be heated at the beginning. The starter is added to that and then you add the starter to raw milk, let it culture on the counter (doesn't Culture on the Counter sound like a great band name? No? OK. It's just me then...) set up in the fridge and you have creamy, delectable, RAW yogurt. I can not wait to try it and I will show you, step by step, how easy it all is.

The directions for making it with pasteurized milk are even easier. Homemade, creamy, probiotic-filled yogurt is only a couple of steps away for anyone who wants it.

Cultures for Health also has a huge number of sourdough starters each with subtle taste differences and attributes for making different kinds of bread. Out of the 17 different kinds, I chose the Flemish-Style Desem Sourdough Starter because it is whole wheat based. There are a few rye based ones and several from all over the world: Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark. Many are from areas of North America with a long history of great sourdough bread: Alaska, Yukon Territory, The Pacific Northwest, Ozark Mountain.

Cultures for Health offers a kit that has everything you need to start out making sourdough, and a book filled with recipes for bread, biscuits, pancakes and even cookies.

I am so excited to try my new starters and I will post how to make sourdough bread, pancakes, yogurt, yogurt smoothies, etc.

Let's get cooking!

You Know What You Can do With Quinoa?

Grass/weed of some sort that I'm pretending is actually quinoa.

Do you know what you can do with quinoa? Well, it depends on who you are. POV is very important here.

If you're a 43 year old wife and mother, you can cook it in some chicken broth and vegetable broth and finely chop some left over sauteed zucchini and mix that in and add some garlic and salt and pepper and some fine herbs. Delicious.

If you are a 44 year old husband and father you can look at the little squiggles with some suspicion, but suck it up any way as an example for the children.

If you are a 10 year old son and brother, you can announce to the table that you will try a little (very brave we all thought).

If you are an 8 year old daughter and sister, you can try it with gusto and realize just a few bites in that you don't like it. However, you may find, as my daughter did, that it makes a wonderful sculpting medium. Instead of making a many petaled flower, you might poop out and decide to just make a bunny after carefully placing two petals. They happen to make lovely ears.

Sometimes the medium shapes the form. The bunny was already in the quinoa and my daughter just needed to release it.

Your quinoa bunny will be received with great acclaim.

What My Kids are Eating That They Don't Know They're Eating

Avocado hidden within smoothie.

Usually, I make a smoothie with a banana, strawberries, raw honey, raw egg yolk, melted coconut oil, orange juice, yogurt or kefir and a teaspoon of vanilla. The kids love it and I'm able to freeze the purposefully made left overs in plastic popsicle forms. The kids are having a breakfast popsicle right now!

This last time, I slipped in a half an avocado too. Unlike the time I ambitiously put kale in and made sure it was properly liquefied so you couldn't see a speck of green, they have not noticed the additional ingredient. They are happily eating their popsicles without any realization that they are also getting the good stuff from a half avocado that Mom sneakily mixed in.

I am a huge proponent for honesty with children. That sounds ridiculous, but I know lots of parents that aren't. They'd much rather take the easier road of lying, shading, and omission with their kids. Obviously, communication must be age appropriate and children are not our confessors--we don't need to tell them everything. That's a burden for them and unnecessary. But, being passive aggressive, instead of clear and straight forward does them a huge disservice, I think. I don't lie to my kids. When they are upset that the DVD they hoped to watch is not here, I tell them that I put it out into the mail--my bad. When they ask for something, I tell them "no" if the answer is no. Not "maybe", I don't equivocate (unless the answer is maybe, and I'm still thinking about it). I afford my kids the same kind of decency and respect I have for adults. Although, if adults were running around chasing each other with Star Wars light sabers when we were trying to get ready and out the door to go to their tap class, I might raise my voice at them too...

Must I tell my kids every ingredient I use when I cook?! Do I have to share when I put in an extra grinding of pepper or use lemon instead of vinegar in a recipe? I think it's fine to sneak in extra nutrition in ways that don't effect taste. If they don't taste it, it's not affecting their popsicle joy. Who is harmed in this transaction?

I don't do this often because my son's palate is too sensitive. That's a really bad thing these days. It would have been a handy skill to have and he would have avoided poisoning as a cave man, but zucchini is not poison, all grimaces to the contrary.

Query: Can broccoli ever make its way into a cookie? Recipe anyone?

I am Selling Out... Kind of...

I started this blog as a challenge for my family and myself to see if we could live in a simple way and not buy new things. I thought it would be interesting to see if we could live through the limits that The Compact would impose on us. I wondered what we would discover about ourselves and about our neighbors and the typical consumer lifestyle that we are all pressured to live. Would we be able to live a year without buying any things that are new? Would the kids feel out of step with other kids? Would I pine for anything? Would I chafe under the restriction?

My husband makes a good living *knocks on wood* and we have always lived fairly simply, but if I wanted to get a little something from Williams Sonoma I could have. If I felt like getting a Hanna Andersson outfit for my daughter, that was no problem. I ended up not doing that very much, because I ended up not buying very much for any of us, even before The Compact. It was an easy switch to make to just buying used things from Goodwill or the Salvation Army and we found lots of nice, gently used things from Eddie Bauer (for me), and The Gap and every other place I used to shop when the kids were little and I wasn't a bit concerned with them outgrowing their clothing in a 2 month time... That was a little frivolous of me, but the clothes were very cute and 100% cotton. I felt that was important for tender new skin.

I found all sorts of decent clothing that was perfectly good. It didn't matter to my kids, or me or my husband either, if things were a certain brand. The Compact would have been far more difficult if that had been the case, or if we had cared if things were part of a current trend. Trendy, we are not.

So The Compact has continued to be a part of our lifestyle. We have purchased new things and then I have confessed to you all right here on this blog. We've gotten a water heater and a manual lawn mower and shoelaces and goldfish and leotards and props for performances and new toys for the kids at museums and gifts for them at X-mas and at birthdays. We've gotten used things too, but we have not been pure, just very conscious about our purchases. We haven't really been frivolous.

I started this blog as a way of tracking our lifestyle and seeing how we progressed and then realized that if we weren't purchasing new things, I could show you what we were doing instead. If you don't buy it, what in the world do you do? For many people buying is a form of entertainment or even sport--the challenge of finding and then getting the great deal. On one of my April Fool's Day posts I put up a Google AdSense banner and explained that we would now be carrying ads. I wrote:

See the ads over there, at the top of my blog? They pay me to run them here. That's a good thing. Why wouldn't I want to make money here? What would be the possible point of making all of these posts? Really, I don't get it. People only do things for money. That's what makes the world go round. Why would I sit here writing things for no reason? If I'm not getting paid, what's the reason then? I'm not tracking on that, really.

That was a joke. I write here because I feel strongly about many issues and want to share what I know. I write here because I like to write and hope to share something good with others: political outrage, unschooling joy, ways to be healthy with raw milk, kefir, the seminal book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, my hilarious husband... My secret ambition is to be a paid writer somewhere, somehow. It would be ideal if it was on my terms wouldn't it?

I feel like when I grow up, this is what I'll do as an adult. And then I realize that I am grown up and I am a writer, of sorts. So, why not now? What the heck am I waiting for? As my father quoted Hillel to me when I was an emotional teenager, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?" Sage words there.

So you know what? I am going to continue to write here and get money for my writing from having ads!! What?! "But, Laura, what about your whole 'We don't buy it. We're living on The Compact. We think new things are bad. We are holy and pure and think serious thoughts all of the time...' What about that stuff?!" you argue indignantly with me. Ah. I see your confusion and concern. Seems a little hypocritical doesn't it? Well, you are wrong! Wrong I tell you!! Because you know why? I'm going to have ads for stuff I believe in. Ha!

Food. Whole nutritious food! You have to eat, even on The Compact. I am a huge fan of kefir and kombucha, and yogurt, sourdough starter and dried foods that retain their enzymes and... and... and all of the stuff that Cultures for Health sells. So guess what. I am now an affiliate of their site and every sale that they make, linked from here at We Don't Buy It, I get paid for. Hurray!

I will now have some ads here. Also, I may have product giveaways. Have you ever wanted to try and make yogurt, or kefir, or sourdough bread? It can seem like a lot of work and it can seem overwhelming, but it's not if you have easy starters and quality ingredients. Maybe you'd like to try one out. Maybe you'll win a contest and get some for free and then you can.

I will review products too. I'll let you know what I think. (Yeah, that's a new one, because I've always been shy about sharing my opinions, haven't I?) *snort*

I am selling out sort of. But, as it turns out, not really.

Update on Robins: II

I looked in the nest many, many days ago. First, I saw one egg. And then, two days later I saw two eggs. Several days after that, I saw four eggs.

At least three of these eggs have now hatched, and the parents are trading off feeding them. The male flies to the nest with food hanging from his mouth, and the female leaps out of the nest to go look for food.

Round and round they go--seemingly non-stop in their effort to nourish their young. I can empathize...

They're good parents and very protective. Today, I saw the mama chase a squirrel through the fence and into the neighbor's yard. The squirrel hadn't done anything wrong, but maybe the mama could detect a certain nefariousness in the squirrel's countenance that my human eyes are too dull to pick up on. Or, she's just making sure. Either way, don't mess with this robin family.

More to come soon...

We Visited a Mosque

My friend, who was once teaching my daughter and me embroidery before I realized that I hated it and didn't want to learn embroidery, is Muslim. She is a practicing Muslim and recently had an open house at her mosque so her non-Muslim friends and acquaintances could come and ask questions and so we all could share some recognition of commonality.

It was a lovely, warm time.

I had met some of her Muslim friends before at a Weston A. Price meeting, and had seen another woman before at a science fair at a nature preserve, and at the recent homeschooling conference. These are some people who I have a passing acquaintance with and I felt very comfortable there.

My daughter had a great time getting henna decorations on her hands; it is also known as mendhi.

It kind of looks like brown, fine-tip marker, and I believe I know someone who will try to replicate this same effect once the henna wears off. I just think it's likely...

My son, unlike my getting-decorated-with-the-cool-henna daughter, was almost bored completely out of his mind. Like any religious tradition, the speakers tend to be a bit long winded. Yep. Check. We had long windedness. But, the recitation of the Koran at the beginning was beautiful. It was sort of sung and sort of intoned by an older gentleman and he had slight, intention filled pauses that lent it a grace and a spirituality that I didn't think I'd recognize there. I spoke later with my friend's husband and he said even if you don't understand the Arabic, people are sometimes moved to tears by it. I could see that.

I asked some questions after having gone online the night before. I didn't want to inadvertently offend anyone, and because my ignorance is vast, I thought I should have some basis for some of my questions. I wanted a basic understanding.

I found out about the 5 pillars of Islam.

1. Faith and belief in God--Allah.
2. Prayer 5 times a day.
3. Fasting for Ramadan.
4. Giving 2 1/2 % of your value to charity (Not 2 1/2 % of your money--your value. You include your car, house etc. in that figure.)
5. Visit to Mecca at least once--The Hajj.

I wondered about fatwas. I had a vague understanding, but asked for more information at the mosque.

They instantly got a bit defensive and started talking about Jihad, and I explained that I wasn't really asking about that. I had seen online at a site a listing of new fatwas. A fatwa is a judgement based on Koranic law about an issue in a person's life. The fatwa is handed down by a scholar or someone with authority with knowledge of the Koran. I had noticed a question a college student had about whether he could cut his prayers short because he had a long commute to school. There was a fatwa issued about that. I didn't find out what the verdict was on that, but was more interested in the idea that Muslim life is so proscribed by ritual and etiquette and traditions that no one wavers from.

Again my friend's husband later explained to me that it is a way of life that they always know as they grow up and it is steeped in their daily habits. They eat with the right hand and not with the left. They enter a bathroom with one foot and exit it with the other. There are rules of etiquette that describe proper Muslim behavior and it is second nature to them. My friends don't think to question it--it is more than cultural. It is one of the ways they honor Allah.

The not quite Imam who was speaking and answering questions explained that a fatwa can apply to an individual person and not necessarily to the whole Muslim community. And online I had noticed that it said that the conscience of the person still must guide their acceptance or rejection of the fatwa.

I asked about the hijab. I had read that there is some discussion about the reference to covering yourself as a woman in the Koran and that it only specifically mentioned the wives of Mohammad. No one else was told to cover themselves in that way. They explained that it is in the Koran and that there were ways that Mohammed's wives should cover themselves and the way others do. They also said that the hijab is a way of following in the good example of Mohammed's wives. All of the women at the mosque looked comfortable and were very cheerful and welcoming.

There was wonderful food that my friend had made and that was also catered. We had curried chicken and rice and a bulgar, lentil, beef dish with caramelized onions on top. The kids found the dessert trays and enjoyed the various cookies.

At 6:00 everyone had to go pray. We were able to watch the men on a closed circuit TV, but were not to go into their side. The women had a different room and prayed in exactly the same way as the men did and at the same time.

My son was able to join the men and stayed in the back of the room. He later asked my friend, at my urging, why they kept saying, "Riiiise up white men. Riiiise up white men." Well, my friend laughed because that's a little bit what the Arabic sounded like, but that's not what was being said. She thought that was cute.

My son knelt down at one point, as the men did in front of him. Not in imitation or in a disrespectful way, but my son did it just to feel it in his body as they did it as part of their prayer.

We are not a religious family at all. My husband and I are agnostic/atheists. We leave a little wiggle room for the possibility of God and we feel the wonder of the universe and of life and of our children. We know life is fleeting. We know life is beautiful and has meaning--just not what all of the religions necessarily ascribe to it.

Religion feels very manufactured to us. My husband should know, he designs stuff for a company after all. It feels like other man made things. Catholics have incense and confession. Muslims have prayer 5 times a day and a set of rules for daily living. Jews (like Muslims) can't eat pork, have to use separate dishes for dairy items and meat items, if they keep kosher. It all seems a bit forced to me.

Having said all of that, I have an appreciation for everybody's right to their religion. I like this country. I like that we have encoded in The Constitution the right to believe whatever we want. That is supremely American.

I wanted to visit my friend's mosque because I did want to have a chance to ask some questions. But, I had another reason for going as well.

A while ago, my friend was driving and a friend was with her. Both had on the hijab. My friend's two daughters were in the back. These are girls who attend a performing class with my kids. These are girls that played with my daughter while I grudgingly learned embroidery until I got up the nerve to explain to my friend that I didn't want to learn embroidery. These are sweet girls.

My friend was driving through a kind of upscale community. It's a little bit horsey and lot white. A guy in a pickup truck drove her off the road, and yelled at her once she came to a stop. He called her a foul name and told her to go back to her own country. This is not OK.

The police did not file a report at the station after my friend told them what happened. This is also not OK.

We visited a mosque to learn a bit and try to see how we are all human and American. Gosh, that sounds so silly as I read that back to myself. Of course we are all human! Yet, we still see so many as The Other. I visited to show my friend support and to show the greater Muslim community at her mosque that there are Americans who don't see them as an enemy or as The Other.

Plus, there was great food, and that couldn't hurt either...

April Fool's...or Our Sponsors Won't Like This!

Dr. Jay Gordon, this past April Fool's Day, sent a fake press release announcing that the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) was severing all ties to formula makers...which so isn't true, despite the understanding that breastfeeding is the optimal way to nourish babies. The AAP remains fully in bed with them. Cosy, really.

The AAP is not amused. In fact, they are right pissed off. They answered that in no uncertain terms are they severing ties to the formula manufacturers. But, why in the world not? Why wouldn't they sever a relationship with manufacturers that in several different ways sabotage women's breastfeeding relationship with their infants? Why wouldn't the AAP want to promote the absolute best food for infants--breast milk?

Follow the money...

There is a great post from Hoyden About Town, outlining how it all went down. Please go to her site to see it. I had it fully printed here, and at her request I've edited the piece. See it at her site and be amazed by the AAP's absurd reaction to Dr. Jay Gordon's practical joke. Further, be amazed at their list of sponsors and that they have no intention of severing ties with formula manufacturers.

Amazing...

Here is an excerpt of Hoyden About Town's post:

Background

Dr Jay Gordon is well known on Lactnet, as a passionate and knowledgeable breastfeeding advocate, and as a critic of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)’s policy of accepting infant formula company funding.

The AAP accepts sponsorship from McDonald’s, the National Dairy Council, Abbott, Gerber, Mead Johnson, Nestle, Pepsi, Playtex, the Corn Products Association, and a variety of pharmaceutical and chemical companies. A lot of people find this funding approach to be unethical, since the AAP is, as they claim, “Dedicated to the health of all children”. (There seems to be an asterisk at the end of that statement on their website, but I can’t see a footnote anywhere.)

The AAP’s history of accepting formula and pharmaceutical funding for conferences, undermining the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign at the behest of formula companies, and allowing infant formula logos to be placed on A New Mother’s Guide To Breastfeeding are well documented. When the AAP was contacted by a group of their own pediatricians about the formula logo, they were uninterested, citing financial issues. The AAP also put out “Nestlé Nutrition Centre” advertisements in the header of Table of Contents emails for their flagship journal, Pediatrics.

These facts are not contested, to the best of my knowledge, by the organisation. Nor do they contest the fact that the feeding of breastmilk substitutes has harmed millions of children; again, this is very well documented. Every day, more than 4,000 babies die because they’re not breastfed. (Yes, some of these dead babies are even in America.)

The tide is turning - very slowly. Gradually, even doctors themselves are starting to realise that industry sponsorship is often unethical and inappropriate, and it has been shown over and over that it influences practice - though most doctors like to think they are mysteriously immune. Two weeks ago the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published “Professional Medical Associations and Their Relationships With Industry: A Proposal for Controlling Conflict of Interest“, co-signed by a large number of different doctors, including a past president of the AAP. The article identified areas of conflict of interest, and asserted that sacrifice is required by professional medical associations in order to maintain integrity. [JAMA. 2009;301(13):1367-1372]

The First Email

On April First, this post appeared on Lactnet, clearly marked as coming from Dr Jay Gordon.

Press Release
4/1/2009

American Academy of Pediatrics—For Immediate Release

Dr. David T. Tayloe, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics which represents 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists has announced that it is severing all ties with the infant formula industry.

“This method of feeding substitution has harmed millions of children both in America and throughout the world and we pediatricians can no longer continue our relationship with the manufacturers of infant formula.” said Dr. Tayloe, who assumed the post of AAP President in October of 2008.

“Our alliance with the pharmaceutical industry is unethical. Our accepting millions of dollars and continuing to allow these business people to influence our policies while sponsoring our speakers, conferences and conventions is an ongoing embarrassment and we will end this ethical problem right now.”

“Further, I would like to apologize for our past mistakes involving the breastfeeding advertisement campaign and allowing the maker of Similac infant formula to print its corporate logo on the cover of a special edition of the academy’s book on breastfeeding.”

“Again, I can cannot express enough regret and can assure you that the AAP will immediately seek compliance with the WHO Code and will promote the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative.”

Sincerely,

David T. Tayloe, MD, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics
April 1, 2009

Read more to see how it all turns out...

A Couple of Questions

Do you think that raccoons, being the scavenging kind of animals that they are, will be in any way put off by the Paas dye covering the eggs that my husband and I just now scattered all over the yard? Will there be any eggs left in the morning?

Raccoons as they might look were they in search of pastel dyed eggs in our yard.

Homeschooling Lesson of the Day

Today's lesson is that if you sit on the trunk of the car in front because you want to watch the treetrimmers from the village absolutely mangle the neighbor's tree across the street, your mom will make you get off the trunk of the car and you will have to drag chairs from the wood shack in the backyard instead and bring them to the front yard and watch the workers from there.

Also, the chocolate chip cookies you were going to help mom make will be made by her alone, but she will fix up a tasting plate, so you don't miss out on any of the dough goodness.

And, you will see how long the workers' break lasts. You will note how hard they worked beforehand (very).

Please notice how the chipper grinds up a huge amount of trimmed material and how cool it is to see it come shooting out into the truck in front of it.

This will be independent work, although you may partner up if you so choose. All observations are to be shared.

Mom will routinely look out the window and make sure that the workers are not getting creeped out by two highly curious kids sitting in the front yard staring at them. So far, mom notes that the workers are not impeded at all by the onlookers.

At the end of the lesson, cookies will be served and there will be a conversation where we will talk about: what they did, why the did it, who paid for them to do it, how it effected the trees, its necessity, or lack thereof, how the chipper works, its ability to handle that much material, what fuels it, where the wood chips go, how quickly the shredded matter would decompose, whether the village composts, how we will compost, how quickly a banana peel would decompose in our pile. Or not. We might just talk about how loud it all was. Either way, a lesson will be had of some kind.

What do Doctors Tell Parents About Vaccination?

I'm wondering what doctors tell the parents in their practice who are going to vaccinate their children. Do they talk about side effects? Do they explain about the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) and that they should report any kind of side effect? Do they talk about contraindications to vaccination--allergies, immunocompromised kids, illness?

Do they ask that parents keep their kids at home for the length of time that the live vaccines in them will be shedding? Do they explain what that means? For all the fervor a while ago with the actress Amanda Peet calling non-vaccinating parents parasites, do doctors tell parents that the live viruses injected into their kids will be excreted through feces, saliva, and nasal secretions for weeks at a time? Do they tell them to stay away from babies, or the elderly in their concern for their weakened systems which may not be able to fight off exposure to live viruses? Do they tell them that vaccines are not 100% effective and that they shouldn't risk exposing people to the live vaccine? Do they explain how negligent that is or how irresponsible or selfish?

I know doctors tell people that vaccines are well tested, but do they tell them that they're not tested for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential or potential to impair fertility? Not that they've been found safe, rather that they're not even tested for that possibility? Do they tell them that Merck and other vaccine manufacturers aren't even looking? You can see that if you read Merck's package insert for MMR II (mumps, measles and rubella vaccine)


That's kind of amazing to me in light of SV40. I guess if you don't look, you don't find. Maybe that's enough of a scientific standard for some, but it seems a little bit shoddy to me.

Do doctors share the package inserts, as they're instructed to do in the package inserts?

Here's some information about the live nature of viruses in some vaccines. There's also some good information in the comments section. Which raises another question for me, has your doctor talked to you about nutrition for you or your kids?

Maybe your doctor should...

Secondary Transmission: The short and sweet about live virus vaccine shedding.

February 24, 2008 by generic
Filed under: Parents' Pages, Vaccine/Disease Analysis

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A child gets vaccinated and is from that moment on protected from the vaccine virus, correct? We all realize that vaccines are not 100% failproof, but is that the only concern?

If it only were that simple. The fact is that once a child is injected with a live virus vaccine (and let’s assume that this child is immune as a result of it) there are still other things to consider which most parents do not know about and most pediatricians fail to warn about - which is shedding!

Shedding is when the live virus that is injected via vaccine, moves through the human body and comes back out in the feces, droplets from the nose, or saliva from the mouth. Anyone who takes care of the child could potentially contract the disease for some time after that child has received certain live vaccines. This was a huge problem with the oral polio vaccine, and was one of the reasons why it was taken off the market in the US.

The OPV is still used in developing counties.

Secondary transmission happens fairly often with some of the live virus vaccines. Influenza, varicella, and Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) are the most common. On the other hand it may happen very seldom or not ever with the measles and mumps vaccine viruses.

Here are the vaccines that shed or have been known to result in secondary transmission:

Measles Vaccine - Although secondary transmission of the vaccine virus has never been documented, measles virus RNA has been detected in the urine of the vaccinees as early as 1 day or as late as 14 days after vaccination. (1)

In France, measles virus was isolated in a throat swab of a recently vaccinated child 4 days after fever onset. The virus was then further genetically characterised as a vaccine-type virus. (2)

Rubella Vaccine - Excretion of small amounts of live attenuated rubella virus from the nose and throat has occurred in the majority of susceptible individuals 7-28 days after vaccination. Transmission of the vaccine virus via breast milk has been documented. (3)

Chicken Pox Vaccine - Vaccine-strain chickenpox has been found replicating in the lung (4) and documented as transmtting via zoster (shingles sores) (5) as well as “classic” chickenpox (6) rash post-vaccination.

Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) - In areas of the world where OPV is still used, children who have been vaccinated with it pass the virus into the water supply through the oral/feces route. Other children who then play in or drink that water pick up the vaccine viruses, which can pass from person to person and spark new outbreaks of polio. (7)

FluMist Vaccine - The mist contains live attenuated influenza viruses that must infect and replicate in cells lining the nasopharynx of the recipient to induce immunity. Vaccine viruses capable of infection and replication can be cultured from nasal secretions obtained from vaccine recipients.

Transmission of a vaccine virus from a FluMist recipient to a contact was documented in a pre-licensing trial. The contact had a mild symptomatic Type B virus infection confirmed as a FluMist vaccine virus. (8)

Rotavirus Vaccine (RotaTeq) - There is a possibility that one strain of rotavirus which is presently circulating may be an “escaped” vaccine strain, from an old Finnish rotavirus vaccine. (9)

Following are excerpts from the discussion by the FDA Advisory Committee on RotaTeq vaccine shedding: (10)

Page 50:

The latest shedding that we saw was 15 days from dose one.

We had no subjects that shed after dose two, and only one subject shed after dose three. He shed four days from dose three.

Page 51:

A: The quantities were low, similar to what we saw in phase 2 studies, as well.

We also had two placebo recipients that shed, and of course, this raised a red flag for us.

B: Could this have been transmission of vaccine virus from vaccine recipients to placebo recipients?

A: We did a very thorough investigation looking for opportunities for a vaccine transmission to occur and did not find anything. These children were not siblings of a vaccine recipient. They didn’t attend day care with vaccine recipients. They didn’t have a common caretaker with the vaccine recipient, and in the office and clinic in which they were vaccinated, they were not exposed to vaccine recipients.

So going on then to summarize general safety, Rotateq was well tolerated….

Page 70:
Question and answer section -

Then with respect to the possibilities of how these children ended up with vaccine strains in their stool, we really could not find the answer for that. We even went so far as to look and see like on the day that that child was in the clinic, were other children getting vaccine, you know, right before or after them?

And that was not the case. So it has been a puzzle, and we don’t have an answer as to why these children had vaccine strains in their stool.

(One has to ask: Could the reason have been that someone mixed up the placebo with the actual vaccine vials and consequently some kids of the control group got the real vaccine?)

Source:
(1) Detection of Measles RNA
(2) Detection of measles vaccine in the throat of a vaccinated child.
(3) MMR II
(4) Vaccine Oka Varicella-Zoster Virus
(5) Chickenpox Attributable to a Vaccine Virus
(6) Genetic Profile of an Oka Varicella Vaccine Virus
(7) Polio Outbreak in Nigeria
(8) Flumist
(9) Human and Bovine Serotype G8 Rotaviruses
(10) Products Advisory Committee

Tags: bumps, causing sickness with vaccines, diarrhea, fever and rash, fine rash, german measles, impfen, Impfkontroverse, Impfung, Impfungen, infecting others with the vaccine virus, lacy rash, passing the vaccine virus, rash, spreading vaccine virus

Comments

2 Comments on Secondary Transmission: The short and sweet about live virus vaccine shedding.

jules on Mon, 25th Feb 2008 10:18 am


I believe the titer test(blood test) for Measles can also tell if it was the vaccine-type Measles or wild Measles. Someone feel free to correct me if I am wrong:)

Some people never develop an immunity-vaccinated or not. That is why some people get chicken pox more than once, or some women get repeated Rubella vaccines and still show no immunity. Reinfection is also always ‘possible’ if vaccine or natural immunity wears off over time due to NOT being exposed which helps keep immunity level up.

Marconi on Mon, 25th Feb 2008 10:45 pm


The titre blood test cannot differentiate between vaccine-type measles or wild measles. In order to do that, the virus would have to be typed with a test called Polymerase Chain Reaction, and the “bar code” compared with the reference viruses for either the vaccine virus, or the wild virus. Furthermore, the vaccine virus varies slightly with every new attenuation, so each batch of vaccine might show a slight genetic variation from each other.

To say some people never develop immunity, vaccinated or not is very simplistic. If you mean, some people never show antibodies on a titre test, that too is very simplistic. The current titre test offered to parents is a crude measure. Using other tests such as ELISA, antibodies can be picked up, which the standard titre test does not.

It is “normal” for some people to develop antibodies, for antibotides to subside over time, and for a titre test years later to show no antibodies. However, if you vaccinated those people, or blood tested them before and after a known exposure and subclinical infection during with the person shows no signs of infection, the immediate rise in detectable antibodies over a period of days is a specific curve which shows an anamnestic response. What that means is that the person actually did have immunity, but it was “memory” immunity. Just because a person doesn’t have “detectable” immunity according to a titre test, doesn’t mean they have lost their immunity.

What it means is that immunologists have not yet devised a method for detecting permanent “memory” immunity.

Virology texts are also interesting, in that they point out that many children who don’t have antibodies cope very well with diseases like measles. The reason for that is that the key to survival of a first exposure to disease in any person, isn’t antibodies anyway. When you first come in contact with any disease, how well you survive that is due to your “cellular” immune system, which does utilise IgA, and IgM at some point if you have a normal immune system. But most textbooks, even older ones by ‘greats’ like McFarlane Burnett, describe in great detail, children who have no antibodies, who cruise through measles and polio. The rate of paralytic polio in normal children (using the most virulent strain as a reference point) is one case of paralysis, per 100 children with mild symptoms. The historical rate of paralysis in children with no antibodies is 6 per 100. So while children with no antibodies are 6 times more likely to get paralytic polio, the cellular immune system of those children guarantees that 94 out of 100 of them will not.

Yes, some children with no antibodies will get sick and die. But not all of them will.

The key to fighting an infection for the first time, in everyone, normal or not, is a well functioning cellular immunity is nutrition, nutrition, and nutrition. A person can have a normal immune system, but if they have malnutrition or bad nutrition, their immune system will not work properly, and they can die regardless. Anyone working in Africa can tell you that. The connection between nutrition, infection and immunity has been, and is very strong in the medical literature.

A huge amount of “immunity” is based on the integrity of the gastro-intestinal system, and the person’s nutritional status. Antibodies are essential the net at the bottom of the cliff, which while vital, isn’t the most important factors.

Using Tetanus as an example, were antibodies the most important part of the immune system with regard to protection against tetanus, then the human beings on the earth would never have got past the first generation. Even in the western world, civilians had no access to a tetanus vaccine until around 1960 (at least in the country in which I live). You just have to look at your own family tree to realise that your great great grandparents probably died of other things rather than tetanus during childhood.

So the use of antibodies as a measuring rod of “immunity” is not only a very crude measure, it’s inaccurate. But it’s a very useful “weapon” with which to create fear.




Note: I didn't bold or enlarge the font in the first two paragraphs on purpose. I don't really mean to be yelling with my post up there. I'm just trying to talk and I can't correct it, darn it. Sorry about the bold and the large... that's a soap opera, right?