Bantams

The body also produces cholesterol. Depending on how much is consumed through your diet, your body will produce more or less. I have a feeling that when someone consumes very little cholesterol, the body may actually over-compensate and produce too much. From my family members' experience, the very best way to improve your cholesterol levels is to completely cut all hydrogenated oils from your diet, stop eating commercial feedlot meat, and never limit your consumption of healthy, grassfed animal products, especially fats - eat lots of real pastured butter, eggs, beef, whole milk (raw is best), cheese, etc, and enjoy it! This is how humans have been eating for thousands of years. Only in the past 50-60 years have we started eating heavily processed foods and tried to cut down on fat - and look at the health of our nation now...

Hello EGulleters! I am a student at the Culinary Institute of America (started in October) currently looking for an externship location. The CIA externship is an 18-week period spent at some food-related job - in a restaurant, a hotel, a resort, or even at a food magazine or newspaper. However, I am looking for something a bit different than most. I do not want to work in a typical restaurant. I’ve already worked for 10 months at a James Beard award-winning chef’s restaurant, which I absolutely loved doing, but I don’t picture myself working at a restaurant the rest of my life. I love the outdoors and animals; I milk my own cow and make cheese, raise our own meat and eggs and vegetables, forage for wild foods, and I also ride and drive horses. Some ideas that I am researching already: - A “glamping” (glamour-camping) site - here are two I have found already: http://www.pawsup.com/resort/ http://www.wildretreat.com/ - Equestrian safaris - A working farm/restaurant – one that raises all their own vegetables, meat, and dairy However, I would ideally go overseas for my externship, and I haven’t been able to find many resources. I am particularly interested in the UK and Italy. My externship is from May – October. So, if any of you have additional ideas, or specific locations in mind, let me know!! Thank you so much! Kelsey

All milk is rigorously tested for antibiotics, because they would interfere with the cultures/bacteria added to make cheese, yogurt, etc. So antibiotics wouldn't be the problem. It might have to do with the cow's diet - could you be allergic to something the cows at the big dairies eat?

Check out the RealMilk website for sources of raw milk. Just skim the cream off the top and you will have the best cream in the world. Be sure to get Jersey or Guernsey milk so that the cream is yellow. RealMilk Kelsey

Trader Joe's sells "Cocoa Hazelnut Spread", which is just like Nutella, but with no hydrogenated oil. Ingredients: Sugar, hazelnuts, sunflower and hazelnut oils, cocoa powder, whey powder, milk powder, soy lecithin. Kelsey

Here's an article I wrote for my high school newspaper, published last Thursday. I hope you guys like it! ------ A Book Review for the Eater: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Michael Pollan, author of the newly released The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, at a reading of his new book on Friday, April 21, at Elliot Bay Book Company. Pollan, a New York Times bestselling author of three previous books (The Botany of Desire, Second Nature, A Place of My Own), is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is Pollan’s latest book. This fascinating read is a real eye-opener to the world of food, industry, and government. Pollan strives to find out where, exactly, his food comes from, and he doesn’t settle with “the supermarket” as an answer. Over the course of this compelling story, Pollan explores four meals in depth; in fact, probably a bit more in depth than one would think possible. Not only does he follow his McDonald’s burger back to the feedlot, but he also follows the path of corn from an Iowa farm, through the processing plants and the feed mill, and into the feedlot where his steer is being fattened. Along with this McDonald’s meal, he traces the origins of a meal prepared with Whole Foods’ ingredients; a meal of chicken, vegetables, and eggs from a sustainable farm in Virginia; and lastly, a meal of wild ingredients that he hunted, foraged, and gathered. In stark contrast with the well traveled, fossil fuel paved paths of his McDonald’s and Whole Foods’ meals, the two meals prepared from local, non-corporate sources illustrate the balance of human, plant, animal, and fungi; life and death in a complete circle. Pollan shows us how it is possible to live in balance with nature, by raising animals on pasture rather than feedlots, keeping our farms diversified, and eating locally. Pollan manages to convey a complicated, intricate story in a very clear and riveting way, and the result is surprisingly entertaining. During his talk, Pollan said, “I like to write about nature in the supermarket; I like to write about nature in the garden…. As someone coming from that perspective, I understand eating is about nature, something a lot of us have been able to forget. Eating represents our most profound engagement with the natural world.” At the book reading, Pollan gave some insight into his impetus for writing The Omnivore’s Dilemma. “What should I eat? I realized before I could answer the question ‘What should I eat?’ I had to know what I was eating. And it turns out that is a very complicated thing right now,” he said. “Our food has probably changed more in the last 50 years than in the last 5000 years…. There are foods, actually I call them food products; they don’t really deserve to be called food, that your great grandparents would not recognize as food. Show your great grandmother a tube of Go-Gurt…. We’ve reinvented a lot about the way we eat.” Pollan also read a passage about each of the four meals in his book, and discussed some of the more important topics The Omnivore’s Dilemma focuses on, such as how the American food chain is based upon a monoculture of primarily corn (as well as soybeans) and how corporations and money influence so much of the way we think about and buy food. While the McDonald’s and Whole Foods’ meals showed the reality of the highly industrialized, environmentally degrading food system in America today, Pollan also had a positive outlook on the future of the sustainable farming model. “I think we’re on our way to creating another food culture in this country; I think that there are a lot of positive developments going on…. Chefs are leaders of this movement. I think that people are coming to appreciate the values of slow food. I think we’re relearning how to eat; we need to. The end of the industrial food chain is an industrial eater…the person who wants their strawberries twelve months of the year, who wants their food to be microwaveable, who wants to eat in the car, who wants to be above anything else. And we won’t change the industrial food chain until we change the way we eat. And when you go to the farmer’s market, you won’t find anything microwavable. You have to cook. So we need to rediscover cooking, too,” he said. I asked Pollan how writing The Omnivore’s Dilemma has changed the way he eats. “The main change is I don’t eat industrial meat; I only eat grass-fed ruminants, grass-fed beef. I joined a [sustainable co-op]; I don’t shop in Whole Foods anymore…. I try to shop at farmers markets as much as I can; I try to stay out of the supermarkets. I eat with more consciousness than I used to, which I find very satisfying. I don’t find it a burden at all; I find it a real pleasure,” he said. Pollan had some advice for Vashon students. “That idea of voting with your fork, it’s really really important, that even before you’re old enough to vote, you can vote with what you eat. You can choose not to participate in practices you don’t approve of, and you can support practices you do approve of. Get out in the garden, learn to garden, and to cook. Cooking is a very important skill to acquire that a lot of people don’t have anymore,” said Pollan. Michael Pollan is a thoughtful, intelligent person with a very important message for all of us. Anyone who has ever eaten anything should read The Omnivore’s Dilemma. ----- The Riptide, VolumeVII, Issue 10, May 4, 2006. Kelsey

Thanks for the info, PatrickS. I guess it depends on how "organic" and "free-range" the chickens are. Some brands of eggs are actually pretty good (small flocks, the chickens actually go outside), while others keep their chickens like conventional ones, but feed them organic feed. If the chickens are not stressed and they eat a more natural diet (animal protein such as fish and insect (chickens are not vegetarians!), no soy or overprocessed grains), it is unlikely that they will have Salmonella. Any crowding will cause stress, so if the chickens are kept inside they are more likely to be diseased. Kelsey

The only way eggs can carry Salmonella is if the chicken that laid the egg was infected with Salmonella. If you can get eggs from a healthy flock that you know, there is virtually no risk of Salmonella. Organic, "free-range" eggs from the store are also safer than conventional eggs. I always use our own chickens' eggs raw, but if I had to use eggs from the store, I would be sure to cook them.

I thought you might like to see the full-length version: http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/11/...ection=business Here are the six Grade A Raw Dairies in WA that I know of: Rainhaven Goat Dairy - Duvall (goat) Debbie Higgins (425) 788-7735 or Debbie_at_Rainhaven@hotmail.com Garden Home Farm - Mt. Vernon (goat) jsschleh@yahoo.com or www.gardenhomefarm.com. Conway Family Farms - Camas (goat) Shaun, Lorrie, Ashley & Amber Conway (360) 834-0315, conwayclan@juno.com, www.conwayfamilyfarm.com. Grace Harbor Farms - Custer (goat and cow) Tim & Grace Lukens (360) 366-4151, Tim@graceharborfarms.com , www.graceharborfarms.com Our Lady of the Rock Monastery - Shaw Island (cow) http://www.rockisland.com/~mhildegard/ I am pretty sure Estrella Dairy recently got their liscence to sell raw milk as well as the cheese. Estrella Family Dairy - Montesano (cow?/goat?) (360-249-6541) Dandelion, I don't think Pike Place Creamery will have raw cow milk anytime soon, because that Vashon source is not certified, or even close to being ready (this is a different farm from mine). Kelsey (the "kid on Vashon with the cow" and the one in the article!) http://bantams.the-kozaks.com/Creamery/

Kate, Did you get my email? Please call me at the number listed on my website and I will help you find raw milk. http://bantams.the-kozaks.com/Creamery/ Kelsey

Thanks for the quick replies! We bought our plane tickets today - August 18 / September 2. We are staying in Paris for a few days and then heading off to Lyon/Roanne; the later half of the trip will be spent in Florence, Italy. Lucy, I love just about any type of cheese. From what I have read, it seems that the Rhone-Alpes farmers mostly have Abondance cattle and make Reblochon, Beaufort, Tomme de Savoie, and a few others. I guess they could also have goats or sheep there, and make other types of cheese. I would really appreciate the addresses of the farms you have in mind. Would we be able to communicate by email with them first, or do we just show up? Margaret, thanks for Bernard Antony's address. I will look into visiting his place. Kelsey

Hello everyone! This is my first post here on the eGullet forums. I live on Vashon Island, WA, USA, and I own a Jersey cow, Iris, who I milk, and I make cheese, butter, ice cream, crème fraiche, and other dairy products with her milk. Anyway, a friend and I are planning a trip to France and Italy for late August, as I have wanted to visit France for a very long time, to study cheesemaking. We will be spending a few days in Paris, then about a week in the Lyon area (probably). If our plans for Lyon don’t fall through (visiting Herve Mons and his cheese aging caves), we are open to other ideas of where to stay for a week in France. The main purpose for this trip is food, specifically cheese. Assuming we stay in Lyon (near Roanne), can you recommend which farmer’s markets to go to, restaurants to eat at (although we won’t be eating out much since we will have a kitchen where we are staying), small farms that produce handmade cheese that we could visit, or any other culinary gems? If we don’t stay in Roanne, do you have any suggestions for where else to stay in France (preferably somewhere between Paris and the Italian border) where we could visit cheesemakers and their farms? I know this is rather late to be planning, but I will appreciate any information you have! Thank you so much!!! Kelsey