Portland's Own "Community Supported Kitchen"

Salt, Fire and Time 1902 NW 24th Ave. Portland

Somewhere throughout my days, amid milking the cows, making sure my kids are fed and clothed, and running a farm corporation, I am aware of my well-worn copy of Nourishing Traditions beckoning, encouraging, and even pleading to me - pleading me to be an even “better” mom and keeper of these Nourishing Traditions. It’s as if Sally Fallon herself is looking into my windows and wondering why I haven’t rendered that tub of pastured pork fat into tasty lard, or perhaps she’s noticing that although there is some kefir fermenting on the counter top, there’s no ginger ale or sauerkraut or beet kvass culturing, nor are there wild yeasts being captured for homemade bread for my brood. Just as I was feeling hopelessly unsuccessful as a complete nurturer of my family, I discovered help!

Salt, Fire and Time is a wonderful gem of a store in northwest Portland. “Portland’s Traditional Healing Foods Grocery,” is exceptional in its vision by owner Tressa Yellig, in that she fills in the gaps for us busy Weston Price fans - in many cases, parents seeking to raise our families on a traditional foods diet, which by nature, is not convenient. A “Community Supported Kitchen,” (CSK) SFT is only the fourth of its kind in the country.

Kidney stew and a variety of kombucha flavors - plus much more!

An incredibly valuable resource in our community, SFT sells those items that all of us should be making at home but with spouses, children, jobs, and blogs to research, we may find we aren’t able to quite fit everything in. At Salt, Fire and Time you can walk in and purchase bone broths, organ meat stews, cultured vegetables, granola from soaked grains and nuts, pork lard, cultured mayonnaise, beet kvass, kombucha, and many more items to fill your larder with the delicious, nutrient dense foods traditionally prepared within a family.

Another of Tressa’s goals in opening SFT is to restore the food culture heritage “that understood the synergy between our food communities and our world.” The public can also take a variety of cooking classes teaching you traditional cooking techniques, including various cheesemaking classes I am offering monthly on Saturdays.

A volunteer baking the "hand pies."

What is a “Community Supported Kitchen?”

“It is a sustainable model for community-scale food preparation and processing that honors culinary traditions and provides nutrient-dense foods. It is a place for community and community empowerment and nourishment. Through seasonal feasts, classes and volunteer opportunities, a CSK seeks to improve the transparency of food from farm to table. Our mission is to restore food integrity and traditional preparations to our regional food economy. We are committed to sourcing locally, planning seasonally, minimizing waste and working respectfully in direct relationship with our community of farmers, customers and fellow artisans.”

Weston Price babies grow up to shop at SFT!

So next time you want to learn to preserve your own raw milk through cheesemaking, or perhaps you’ve run out of lard or need a boost with some freshly brewed kombucha, consider visiting Salt, Fire and Time. Or better yet, get involved – in the kitchen as a volunteer, at a community feast, or attend one of the various classes!

Eat Fat - Burn Fat

A very common question I am asked by new-to-raw-milk customers is, “am I supposed to remove all that cream on the top of the jar of milk?” The short answer is no, you do not remove it, that’s the best part, and that’s where the nutrition is.

As many Americans, you were most likely raised like me, to believe that fat is bad for us, we must eat a low fat diet at all times, and the best fats are vegetable oils. This can’t be further from the truth! In the 1950’s, it was noted that retailers made far more money selling the butterfat for ice cream and butter rather than whole milk. When the butterfat was skimmed off, the remaining waste product was soon identified as something that could be marketed to the public – claims were made (completely unfounded) that skim milk would help people lose weight, which added more profit to the dairy industry. In reality, skim milk is full of empty calories leading to diabetes, allergies, obesity and higher levels of bad cholesterol. 

My grass-fed jersey cows provide wholesome, healthful milk that is 25% cream by volume in a half gallon jar of milk. This nutrition-packed cream will actually help you burn fat, as opposed to a high-carbohydrate diet which puts your body into fat-storage mode. Carbs stimulate the secretion of insulin, which is the only hormone that puts fat into storage. Saturated fats from grass fed animals actually take more fuel to burn, thus increasing your metabolism.

Besides increasing our metabolism, full-fat raw milk from grass fed cows has been described as nature’s single most complete food in that it has more nutritional essentials in larger amounts than any other food. It contains enzymes, the fat soluble vitamins A, C, D, E, B6, and B12, and Activator X, identified as Vitamin K2. The vitamins A and D in the cream are needed for proper assimilation of calcium and protein in the skim portion of the milk. When we drink skim milk on its own, without any fat from the cream, it is not healthy and can actually be toxic and cause allergies. Our bodies only absorb the nutrition from the skim by drinking it as whole milk with all the fat still intact. Traditional whole milk was at least 4% butterfat. I like to buy cows that are testing at least 4.5%-5% butterfat!

And briefly, one additional wonderful substance in whole-fat raw milk is Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) which occurs in the butterfat of grass fed cows. Many studies over the last 20 years have established that CLA offers protection against breast cancer and other malignancies, through its role as a potent antioxidant.

It’s worth every penny to find a reliable source of whole, raw milk – real milk, from grass fed cows. You will find that by incorporating milk and, if you can, raw milk butter, yogurt, and kefir, you will have found the key to burning fat and feeling satisfied with your meals!

A Day In The Life...

Coooper

This past Sunday was our day to get chickens!! First of all it was FREEZING out - maybe 28 degrees when we headed to the pasture next door at Full of Life Farm to catch a few birds. After sweet talking 25 birds to jump inside a crate we headed home on the gator.

Hayden and Austin unloaded the crates of chickens into their new coop - a very charming 50 year old vintage sheep shed.

Must have been the earthquake of '93 that made it lean a bit to the right so the guys had to "even" up the ground so the door would close tightly.
 







Within minutes our new flock of heritage breed layers were enjoying their tasty locally milled-non-GMO-no-corn-no-soy feed.  They will be locked in their coop with a light for the first couple days, then they will be 100% pastured chickens, enjoying our pasture buffet of grasses, slugs, bugs, worms, probably even a frog or two.  We locked them up the first couple days just so they are certain where home is and don't end up back at my brother's farm next door.

My two cuties... Marc and Cooper

Our next appointment of the day was to go select our new Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD) to protect our new brood.  We decided on some locally raised Great Pyrenees puppies.  Check out this cutie - Cooper was an easy decision - OMGosh how could anyone possibly go home without one? And he's only 8 weeks old! He's going to be huge!

Hard at work guarding his flock.

Cooper made the hens so comfortable and relaxed they laid eggs all afternoon!

The chickens are a natural complement to the cows, following them through the pasture they scratch apart the cowpies looking for fly larvae.  This serves two purposes - it helps keep the fly population down and breaking apart the cowpies allows the grass to grow back sooner and makes our farm even more sustainable!!

Let's Make Butter!

The question I get asked most commonly by raw milk drinkers is, "how do I make butter?"  You probably have everything you need already in order to do it.  This short video will demonstrate how manageable it is.

Fall On The Farm

Fall chores at Champoeg Creamery include, of course, the regular twice-daily milking of the cows, but also other tasks we perform only seasonally.

Here is Nicoletta at one year old!  She's not as small as she looks - my son, Austin, is 6 ft. tall and towers above her!  Nicky can't wait to join the milking herd and we are getting her ready to breed in December.  This means she's on the best pasture and we are tracking her heat cycles so hopefully she will be due to calve next September!




My dad living next door and able to perform tractor work on a moment's notice is invaluable - he's been cleaning out barns and spreading gravel in preparation for the cows being moved closer to the milk parlor for winter.

Time for the girl's annual pedicure!! This machine holds them still while their hooves are ground off.  Looks traumatic but Blake assured me it's not.  No leg massages or fresh coats of polish, however, just a good sawing-off!



After a month-long search for high-quality 3rd cutting alfalfa I was finally able to fill the barn for the winter.  The price is about 50% higher than last year and still rising.  Due to the dollar being so weak abroad, there is lots of alfalfa headed to Japan making it very difficult for small farmers like me to find what we need.  What happened to taking care of our own in this country before we sell out to others? 

BIG thanks to my son, again, who unloaded 8 tons into the barn!! You ROCK Austin!! I couldn't do any of this without you!

Feta Cheese + Wine Tasting Saturday 10/22!!

Saturday 10/22 from 1-4 PM I will be leading a feta cheese workshop here at the farm and there are 5 spots left if you want to join us.  During the down time of cheesemaking we will make (and taste, of course) yogurt and butter as well.  And if that's not enough of a treat we will also be trying AMAZING wines from Big Table Farm and ending the day with homemade ice cream! 

The September class, mozzarella, was tons of fun!! Made with milk from my lovely grass-fed jerseys, Brielle and Jacqueline - there's always the opportunity to go visit with them after class, too.  They are still enjoying the lush, green pastures and probably will until mid-November.

Taking Root - Food Meet 2011

This fall the girls are still enjoying being on their fresh grass paddocks seven days a week.  Now that the days are regularly below about 75 degrees the grass growth speeds up and once again we have more grass than animals to eat it!  They are each giving us about 4 gallons of milk per day.

Last week I was part of an inspiring event George Fox University hosts called “Food Meet” where I was invited to share my thoughts and experiences with raw milk. The idea behind Food Meet is to inspire all of us living here locally to “meet our food,” by being in contact and connection with our local farmers and food providers, gardeners and other pioneers in sustainability.

This idea of connection and relationship with food and those behind its production is hopefully a way of life with all of you, since most of you are already driving out to pick up your weekly supply of milk from “your” cows.  It was also a concept touched upon by several of the speakers at Food Meet, and was a great reminder to me of the value of the work we do. When one farms the land, digs deeply in the warm soil, plants the seeds and cares for the grass that nourishes the cows who provide our families in this community with nutritious, life sustaining milk, one can’t help but feel deeply connected with the people and animals involved in the process. 

When we go to the store and buy sterile looking boxes of food or limp produce from another country, we are missing out on a great joy in life – to be authentically connected to our food.  When we return home from our local CSA provider, our community’s raw milk dairy or the farmer we buy our meat and eggs from, we then pass on that connection and sense of relationship when we prepare and share this meal with our families. 

This authentic connection and relationship with our food translates to more compassion and respect for others – and not just people.  We respect that the milk our cow provides for us each week is possible only because of new life – she had to carry a calf for nine months and go through the discomfort of calving to then be able to provide us with this “white gold.”  And then do it again year after year, in service of us. 

Community events such as Food Meet are happening more and more frequently – it will be through meeting our food and connecting with those who provide it that we are able to revitalize our families’ health.  Know your farmer!  Meet your food! Love your cows J