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16 December 2010

Giveaway: Shiloh Farms Sprouted Flour

Shiloh Farms is sharing: one reader will win a packing including 5 lbs. of your choice of either Essential Eating sprouted spelt or sprouted whole wheat flour, PLUS a 12 oz. bag of organic maple sugar and Janie Quinn’s book Sprouted Baking (over $65 value!).
CLICK HERE TO ENTER

(Courtesy of Kitchen Stewardship's blog)

22 October 2010

Giveaway: Green Pasture FCLO

Just a head's up to a great giveaway. Green Pasture's has products I've been looking into getting for a while now and I just haven't had the extra money to do so. But they're giving away 20 bottles of FCLO so enter below:


http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/10/22/giveaway-green-pasture-fermented-cod-liver-oil-twenty-winners/

21 October 2010

Warm Bread Pudding w/ Bourbon Sauce

So my sister and I were over at her house earlier this week making pear cider (I'll post pictures and info on that process when we've tasted the final product) and I happened to have brought the items to make bread pudding. My sister hates bread pudding. I hate bread pudding. However, we both went to Flag Fork Farm's Garden Cafe a while back and they had warm bread pudding with bourbon sauce for dessert. I fell in love with this stuff! So this is bread pudding for bread pudding-haters. I deconstructed the recipe for the pudding and sauce. When I asked, they said they used Jim Beam. My sister wrinkled her nose and I laughed when they said that because she had been talking about how Jim Beam is rotgut. Cass happened to have Maker's Mark (she lives ON the Bourbon Trail and I live close to it) so that is what we used.

I tried to think of a way to make this more nutritious, but then I gave up and realized that sometimes it's okay to have a little BPA, sugar, and alcohol. ;)



Recipe:

3 brioche rolls or equivalent amount of french bread, shredded into quarter-sized pieces
4 eggs
½ cup of sugar (heaping)
2 tsp vanilla
12 oz can evaporated milk
1 cup water
 

Blend eggs, sugar, vanilla, milk, and water together until fully combined. Put in a blender if necessary. Put the bread pieces in a casserole dish. Pour the custard over the bread, making sure the custard covers it all.  Push down on the bread with hands to make sure all the bread is soaked in custard. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve warm. You can also make this ahead and reheat before serving. Add nutmeg if desired, but the bourbon sauce comes through better without it.

Bourbon Sauce:


1 stick salted butter
1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar (to your taste)
2 tsp vanilla
1/8-1/4 cup or several good splashes of bourbon


Put the whole stick of butter in the pan. Pour the sugar and vanilla on top and crank it up to high. Let sugar and butter liquefy and start to boil. Slowly drizzle in bourbon, as much as desired. Cook and stir till slightly thickened, where it coats the back of the spoon. I usually add a small splash after that just to make sure there is still some alcohol in it. Stir it well and serve over the pudding. Enjoy!

07 October 2010

Snap Scouts

Okay so I came across this by accident. At first I thought it was a joke and I laughed. Then I looked into this and realized it's not a joke at all. Snap Scouts . . . sounds pretty innocent, right? Take a look at the picture below.


According to the website: "Want to earn tons of cool badges and prizes while competing with your friends to see who can be the best American? Download the SnapScouts app for your Android phone (iPhone app coming soon) and get started patrolling your neighborhood. It's up to you to keep America safe! If you see something suspicious, Snap it! If you see someone who doesn't belong, Snap it! Not sure if someone or something is suspicious? Snap it anyway! Play with your friends and family to see who can get the best prizes. Join the SnapScouts today!"

Hello Hitler Youth anyone? How dare someone think that it's okay to use our children in this way! And you know, they will likely use them most against us. Take my family for example. We homeschool. Many people consider that to be sort of weird and some people even think of it as abusive (yes, we're denying our children the right to have their heads flushed by jocks and to have inappropriate relations with other 9 year olds between classes). I'm sure that this system could possibly catch a crime, but how often will that happen? According to the website, 600 crimes have been reported already in 3 countries. How much more often will they 'catch' innocent people and send their pictures to be profiled for later use?

Snap Scouts asks their participants to: 'Once you've found something suspicious or caught someone in the act, you can tag it to report what type of crime it or just to let us know it "Looks Suspicious". After you've tagged it, you can enter the name and address of the people in the photo, too. The photo gets submitted to our super secret servers, where a team of trained security professionals reviews every image for possible illegal activity.'

Are you frightened yet? As my husband put it, 'it's like 1984 with a cartoon finish'. And just remember that 'SnapScouts was designed and developed for children to use, before they form stereotypes of other people. They're the perfect reporters, unbiased and unprejudiced by media concepts'. So that means that we should absolutely raise our children to spy on their neighbors because they are such perfect reporters! If this disgusts you, give me a 'heck yeah!'

Mrs. Yoder

05 October 2010

Review: Time4Learning

Okay, so here is my promised Time4Learning review.

Pros: I have to say that my daughter absolutely loved this program. It was a lot of fun for her with the games and activities. It has several areas for preschoolers such as colors, shapes, numbers but also other things like 'at the farm' where she got to do learning games based on farm items.

It also showed her HOW to use the computer, such as the mouse and keyboard, and it asked her if she wanted to proceed in ways she could understand such as using a green nodding smiley face for yes and a red frowning face for no.

Time4Learning did help my daughter with her numbers, shapes, and colors. It is remarkable how well she now knows her colors, and it helped to reinforce her number skills so she can count to 15 without skipping any numbers now. She especially enjoyed the paint program where she could actually mix secondary and tertiary colors. Time4Learning kept her attention for hours at a time and gave me the opportunity to work with my son on his schoolwork or to actually get some housework done.

Cons: My son wasn't too keen on the program. He only logged in once to try it. My son is older, 9, so maybe it's better for younger kids.

We had a lot of technical difficulties trying to get the program online and actually working. I had to jump through several hoops on my browser, but Time4Learning gave me step-by-step instructions online and I didn't have to call anyone to get the issue fixed so that made me very happy.

I also think that the program should have rewarded my daughter with a virtual blue ribbon only if she actually did a good job instead of when she also did poorly. It could have encouraged her to try again for the blue ribbon and made the blue ribbon a real badge of merit instead of something given no matter what. This is one of the reasons we've decided not to do Upward Basketball again this year with my son because they give prizes to everyone, no matter what, and I heartily disagree with that mentality.

As it stands, though, it's a small thing and could easily be overlooked provided you discuss the values of true merit with your children, or even set up a special rewards program just for them to use so they can understand your values.

My main problem with this company has stemmed from the fact that they seem to be a little dodgy in their wording. Since I was part of their review program and had a 30 day free trial, I received an email that said the following: As a thank you for posting your review, we want to offer you an additional free month if you decide to continue your membership.  After your review has been posted, simply log into your parent administration page and select “Convert Membership into an Automated Monthly Billing”. You will receive your second month with Time4Learning absolutely free.

So I went online and signed in to reactivate my membership and ran into an error. It said that my card was declined. I checked my bank and everything was fine. I assumed that they were going to authorize for a dollar and then drop the charge until next month when the full amount would go through. When I called, I was advised (just before she ran the card) that she was going to charge me the full price for this month. When I told her I was supposed to have my second month free, she told me that I had to pay for a month before I received one for free with the review program. When I looked back at the email, I saw that it could be taken to mean that, but it isn't what it actually said. If I hadn't run into an error online, my card would have been charged $35 when I wasn't expecting it because the page said $0.00 to be charged.

I've therefore decided that Time4Learning really isn't for our family, but maybe it will be for yours.  If there is information here that has not yet made itself known to me, I will surely post it here.

Mrs. Yoder

02 October 2010

Pickles! Pickles! Glorious, Crunchy Pickles!

Hey did you know I was going to talk about pickles today? It was a surprise to me, too, but someone requested that I post my raw pack bread and butter pickle recipe, so I am. And I'm posting other ones, too. Hope you guys like them! BTW, I usually buy my raw apple cider vinegar by the gallon because it is cheaper and I use a lot during pickle season.

I purchase Spectrum organic from the expensive co-op down the street and pay only $14. But I couldn't find Spectrum's gallons online. I did find Bragg's and they make good vinegar, too even if I don't trust some of their other products. http://www.nextag.com/Bragg-Organic-Raw-Apple-679255446/prices-html

For salt, we use pink salt. I purchased a 25 pound bag of Himalayan salt from San Francisco Bath Salt Company earlier this year when they had a sale. If you keep an eye on their website and pounce, you'll find great deals. I managed to get a 25 pound bag of good quality salt for $40, no shipping! And they're having a sale right this minute in fact! No, I don't make any money off of this, but it is a fabulous deal. Everything is food grade quality. http://www.sfbsc.com/himalayan-salts


Gabrielle's Often Requested B&B Pickles

5 pounds of pickles (that would be small, warty pickling cucumbers) cut into dimes, thin or thick
2 large yellow onions, cut in half and thinly sliced into half-moons
6 TB good quality salt

Sugar to taste (here it gets tricky because it takes a lot of sugar to preserve these, but I can usually get away with 3 cups of organic cane sugar for the whole thing, or 2 cups cane sugar and a few drops of stevia, but I recommend just using good quality sugar for better taste. You aren't drinking the pickle juice!)
3 cups raw apple cider vinegar
1 cup filtered water
2 TB black mustard seeds

Spice Mix

2 tsp celery seeds
2 TB turmeric, or more if you want
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp good quality curry powder (Frontier is great!)
1/2 tsp cayenne (if you want to, not necessary)

First things first, mix the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar together. So everything dissolves properly, I suggest using 1 cup boiling water in with the sugar and salt. When it all cools to room temperature, then add the vinegar. Otherwise, you kill all of the good stuff in the vinegar. You'll want to taste it at this point. It should be strongly vinegar tasting, very salty, but slightly more sweet than salty. Think to yourself, does this taste sweet enough for me? B&B pickles are sweet, and if you don't have the mix right, then they taste otherwise. Add your spice mix in about 1/3 at a time. People have different tastes, but you want this to be a bit spicier than you'd be comfortable with because you'll otherwise have bland pickles. So take the time here to test it, even if you've made them a million times before, and keep tasting that 'pickle broth' until it tastes just right. Also remember that it has to be stronger than the taste of a pickle because the pickles will only soak up so much of the taste from the brine.

I recommend mason jars, but you can use another type of glass container if you want to put your pickles in. Layer the pickles, onions, and mustard seeds. Shake the jars to get them to lay flat. We like the pickled onion bits around here as much as the pickles themselves so we probably use 1 onion per jar. You can use less, but use a little bit or they won't taste right. Then pour your brine over the top. I usually wind up going back to make a little more brine for these guys because it never seems to be the right amount. You can do just the vinegar, water, salt, sugar mix to top up the jars as long as they are at least 3/4 full.

Put your lids on and shake them all up. Make sure the jars are wiped clean of water or your husband will be wondering why you're throwing pickles on the walls (or at him). So shake really well and then put in the back of your fridge. The hard part is to leave these guys alone for a week. They taste better AFTER a week, but they're not bad if it's just a week. I often get requests for these pickles. My mother said that she once ate an entire quart jar of them in one sitting without realizing she did it.

The good thing about these is that you can re-use the pickle juice. After the pickles are gone, repack the jars with more pickle pieces and onion and do it again! You can also toss slices of roasted beets in the pickle juice and they make great pickled beets. I use the same recipe for the B&B's as for my pickled beets. If I'm making just beets, though, I usually leave out the turmeric and curry powder. Everything else stays. THEN you can take the leftover pickled beet juice and make pickled eggs with them, etc. It goes on. Very frugal recipe that you can do a lot with.




German-Style Dill Pickles (very similar to Gundelsheims, I think!)

The recipe is originally from Germany and I've fiddled with it a bit, but it's still a bit odd in places due to metric measurement conversions. I've found it has the best sweet-sour dill pickle taste so I had to keep the wonky brine measurements even if I changed the acidity of the vinegar.

6 1/2 pounds of pickles, sliced into spears and kept in salty ice water for several hours
1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped


Bottom of every quart jar:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp dill seeds
1 tsp cracked black peppercorns
1 tsp tarragon
1 tsp garlic powder
1 clove fresh garlic, chopped roughly
1 bay leaf *
1/4 sliced onion
1 clean oak or grape leaf

Brine:

4 liters filtered water
2 liters of raw apple cider vinegar (5% acidity)
1.1 pounds of sugar
2 handfuls of salt (I've figured that this is approximately 1 cup)

Note about bay leaves: Whole Foods usually carries fresh bay leaves in their fresh herb section. If they don't, or you don't have a Whole Foods around, try to find the greenest bay leaves you can. They should be heavily aromatic. I keep my fresh leaves in the fridge. They dry out over time, but they last at least 2 years in the fridge without quality loss. If you can only get the dried out brown ones, or they aren't very strong smelling, use 2 instead of one.

Heat your water, salt, and sugar until just dissolved. Add the vinegar when the mix has cooled down a little but is still warm. Taste it now. It should be strong, very salty, slightly sweet. Put your spices in your jar and get add your icy pickle spears to the jars. Stand them upright and cram the little guys in there. Cover the pickles with the brine, leaving 1/4 inch headroom, wipe the jar tops off, and process immediately. I put them in a water bath on boil for about 15 minutes. Out of 7 jars, 2 didn't seal so they went in the fridge. I found this article here to be invaluable with my pickles because I had never been able to figure out how to can them without making them mush. http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/08/26/finallycrunchy-pickles-lacto-fermented-and-canned/

29 September 2010

Real Food Education giveaway!

There is a giveaway for a Real Food Nutrition Course for children! It's an e-course and also includes a workbook. You can sign up for it here: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2010/09/giveaway-teach-your-kids-about-real.html

If you're part of my Workboxes group, you may remember that I posted a link to the Real Food Nutrition Course a month or two back. (http://www.foodrenegade.com). I remember that a few people were really excited to hear about it and ran off to buy it. If there were any other people out there who are interested, then this is the time to look into it! There will also be a $20 off the price of the class registration fee for all of us who don't win.

21 September 2010

How to write an elementary/early middle school level research paper

So I discovered that I'm really not pleased with any of the history curriculum I have tried to date. Either they are too, I hate to say 'fundamental' but that is the word that comes to mind, or they are too secular. We consider ourselves pretty conservative, too conservative if you ask our church, but some things just bother me because they don't make sense. I can't teach things that don't make sense. Nothing really had that happy medium I was looking for and all of them seemed to have some type of agenda. I did find Story of the World, but it seems to be missing so much so I use it to supplement what we do. I have made my own curriculum pulling from SotW, MrDonn.org, AEP Complete Book of World History, and Evan-Moor History Pockets combined with research on Encyclopedia Britannica, Brainpop, and various documentaries I've rented from the library.

How do you bring all of this together, though? Well, we do research reports at the end of every subject to ensure that Joshua really understands what we've gone over.  I spend 1-6 weeks on each subject of world history. Our shortest was the first people and our longest will probably be Greece and Rome. This method, which I discovered on a forum and tweaked for our own use, will work for ANY subject. You can do this with science, writing, reading, ANYTHING. It just happens to be eminently well-suited for history.

How to get started:

Take your main subject and divide it with them into several sub-topics. We recently did a research report on Mesopotamia. So we had 'Mesopotamia' as the main topic and there were 8 sub-topics since we worked on this for a couple of weeks. We had geography, agriculture, tools, inventions, daily life, religion, cuneiform, and achievements.

We kept some of the whiteboard that was left when my husband made our wall sized whiteboard and cut it into 12'x12' squares we call 'lapboards'. These are used instead of scratch paper for math and other small projects that usually waste paper. You can use anything, though. A piece of spare poster board, construction paper, anything!




Take the lapboard or whatever you're using and divide it into columns based on how many sub-topics you have. We had 8 with this so there were 8 columns with the sub-topic at the top of each one. Give them a stack of post-it notes or scratch paper squares and tape. Guide them to the research materials, show them the basics, and then let loose.

I advised my son to write 1 fact on each post-it note and each sub-topic needed 4-5 facts. I told him to write complete sentences on each note (not just 'hard work' or 'they farmed') and on the back to write his source (eb.com, Story of the World, etc.). It took him a week to get it all together from various places, about 3 days of actually researching the topic.

We worked together during this time to write a lead sentence and put it on the back of the board so we wouldn't lose it. Then came time to put things together on paper. Work with them to put it all together into one paper. I have a paper template I printed up, and a place to put their sources at the end. You can see it copied below so feel free to use it. I took the lines out for each paragraph because they didn't translate well to this page, but feel free to copy into notepad or word and add them yourself.

Hope this helps everyone!

Mrs. Yoder


Elementary Research Report

Title: ______________________
Author: ____________________
Subject: ____________________
Date: _________

Lead Sentence:

1st Paragraph:


2nd  Paragraph:


3rd  Paragraph:

4th  Paragraph:

5th  Paragraph:


6th  Paragraph:



7th  Paragraph:


8th  Paragraph:


Closing sentence:

Sources:









25 August 2010

Time4Learning homeschool program review

I’ve been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

14 April 2010

Base/carrier oils

Hi there. I recently saw a request for a list of base oils with properties and I remembered that I had this old chart I typed up for a class I was giving on personal care products. It isn't all-inclusive, but it is a start. I've been meaning to expand it for a while to include some other oils but never got around to it. Perhaps I'll find the time to update it soon or make a 2nd page. Enjoy and let me know of any suggestions anyone here may have!

Mrs. Yoder

02 April 2010

Easter dress!

Okay, so this is definitely not about herbs. But I have been bursting with pride over my daughter and had to share. I have waited for her to be old enough for proper Easter dresses for ages, and I always wanted a daughter to see go to church in her little bonnet and gloves. I know! It sounds horrible. But it's my thing. I love little girls in modest, feminine attire that is just a bit old-fashioned. I'll take more pictures on Easter morning when she's completely attired with tights and shoes. But here she is:


23 February 2010

Tragedy (mine) and a giveaway (not mine)

Okay so perhaps it's silly to call a computer crash a 'tragedy'. But mine crashed. Both of them actually. That is the reason I haven't posted lately. I'm trying to recover everything from the old hard drive that contained my herb write ups and stuff. Le sigh.

But for happier things, I found a wonderful giveaway. My husband and son love braunsweiger and I can only ever find the garbage from the supermarket to give them occasionally as a treat. Kelly the Kitchen Kop has a giveaway for all sorts of meats and cheeses that are naturally raised and grass fed where applicable. I hope I win, but I can be nice and hope other people win, too. I'll be happy if it's someone I know!

Go here to enter for yourself.

Peas,
Mrs. Yoder

19 January 2010

Herb of the Week: Angelica and a book review of Girls Gone Mild

Herb Of The Week: Angelica (Angelica Archangelica)





Parts Used: Leaves, roots, seeds, stems

Properties: Anti-inflammatory, aromatic, culinary, carminative, diaphoretic, digestive, emmenagogue, expectorant, sedative, tonic

About: Angelica is a plant rich in lore and traditions dating back far before the Christian world. Angelica’s ‘angelic’ powers were supposed to protect against witches and demons. I don’t know about that though . . . it hasn’t worked on my kids yet. o_O
Angelica has mostly been used for it’s effects on the respiratory tract. Coughs with excess phlegm are particularly helped, especially when noting the mild sedative and relaxing effect Angelica has on the body.

The upper section of the Angelica root is used primarily for building blood and is therefore an excellent treatment for anemics. Angelica has often been considered as the female ginseng due to it’s helpfulness with female reproductive problems of all sorts.

In cooking, Angelica lends a licorice flavor to whatever you are making, using usually the stems or leaves. Candied Angelica stems are a historical favorite and would make a unique treat for your friends and family.

Warnings: Angelica is not an herb to mess around with if you don’t know what you are doing. Not only is it easy to mistake it in the wild for the most certainly deadly Water Hemlock, but it also has been found to contain carcinogens.

The safety of Angelica has been compared by some botanists to the safety of coffee. However, a single 8oz cup of coffee has recently been found to contain as many carcinogens as an entire year’s worth of conventionally grown produce. Obviously if you buy organic coffee the amount of carcinogens will be less, but it isn’t just the pesticides that create this risk to your body: it is the roasting process.

Angelica is still considered safe by the FDA, but how much do we really trust those bozos, eh? So like drinking coffee, I advise using Angelica in moderation and for mostly medicinal purposes. Angelica won’t hurt you unless you take too much. I really don't think it's any more dangerous than comfrey (another maligned herb), but you need to know what you are doing and be 100% confident that you are wildcrafting the correct herb and using it in the correct dosages.

Dye Colors: Angelica stems and leaves produce a deep green dye if you use iron as the mordant.


Also, I want to remind everyone that Herbal Roots Magazine is a great resource for more herb knowledge, especially for children since that's who it's created for, but just fun herb knowledge in general. :)


Book Review: Girls Gone Mild - young women reclaim self-respect and find it's not bad to be good

I actually found this book by accident on Google Books. Wendy Shalit seems to be a woman after my own heart. She breaks down what the breakdown is in young women's lives. She also made me realize that more women feel as I do than I previously thought.

Wendy Shalit highlights the issue of young girls having sex and 'sexiness' shoved in their faces, as well as parents not understanding the line between adult and child. "Two women I interviewed had friends who photographed their baby daughters in bikinis, spread out on the hood of their car. They imagined that the adult pose was 'cute,' and they had brought the photos to work." 

I notice more and more little girls dressing provacatively. The parents not only allow this, but seem to encourage it as well by purchasing inappropriate toys and slinky clothes that would be out of place on a full grown woman in public.

Mrs. Shalit encourages modesty of dress in women in a time where I thought I was the only one. Through recent research I have found that there are MANY women who are taking back their bodies and their self-respect. There is an entire counter-movement against feminism and all it has destroyed. This book is a shining example; a beacon in the darkness of human repression through overt sexualization. "There is no longer any mystery or power to sex--it is just expected that everything will be sexual, and so nothing is. There is nothing to wait for, or to look forward to."

I liked this book because it helped me focus my thoughts on the matter of modesty and sexuality a bit more. People used to look forward to going on dates, stealing a kiss, getting married. I thought I was the only one who never went out on a date until I met my husband, but most apparently don't for a different reason. According to interviews Rolling Stone did with young college age women, a lot of young people don't date anymore, they just bed-hop. And many girls make themselves do it anyway because they think there's something wrong with them if they don't. I know I thought there was something wrong with me for years and years because I couldn't just kiss someone I didn't know, much less anything else!

Over the past few months, I've worried to myself about what sort of world my children are going into when they grow up. What kind of mate can my son expect to find? What sort of man will my daughter marry? Will my son be able to find a woman worthy of making his wife? Will my daughter ever find a real man out in the social jungle? Will everything I do for them be in vain? Will they still turn out just like everyone else?

The fact that there is an entire movement back to basic family values and a return to modesty relieves a lot of my worries. It helps me know that we aren't alone a single candle in the dark. If anyone who reads this is curious to read more or wants to know where they can join up with other people of a like mind, I have a couple of links below.

Peas and love,
Mrs. Yoder

http://blogs.modestlyyours.net/
http://www.avirtuouswoman.org/
http://ladiesagainstfeminism.com/

14 January 2010

New Post! Been a while!

Okay, so the holidays are FINALLY over with. Hurray! I have a major love/hate relationship with the holiday season. I'm just glad it's done and I can go back on with regular life. I am still putting together information for a regular blog post, but until then, I thought I'd put up a link to a new site I found, particularly an article, and my own response to it. Hopefully it will prove educational!

http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2009/03/healthy-cooking-oils-whats-wrong-with-canola-info-from-nina-planck.html

Here is my response:

From what I know of Canola (shortened form of Canadian Oil Low Acid), one of the main reasons I avoid it is because it’s processed from genetically altered rapeseed. Apparently back in the 40’s, rapeseed was grown to make oil to use as engine lubricant during the war. After WWII was over, they had to find something to do with it, so companies repackaged it as cooking oil. They did the same basic thing with SLS (from coconuts) which was originally used as an engine degreaser and is now used in toothpastes, shampoo, soap, body washes, etc because it causes foam and bubbles. The American populace got a lot of fun things handed to them as left overs from WWII industrialism.


Anyway, the information I’ve found through various widespread places is that rapeseed is a member of the mustard family and naturally contains high levels of erucic acid which is highly toxic. Animals don’t touch rapeseed in the field and it’s known as being quite deadly. They GMO’d it a bit about 40 years ago and continue to do so today so it wasn’t as toxic and can practically be called another species now. I still maintain that it is toxic for several reasons and it has been linked to heart, thyroid, and kidney problems amongst others. I won’t touch it because it’s not natural and I don’t trust it. I never trusted microwaves, even when I was young, and I was right about that. I felt the same way about margerine and always preferred butter, way before reading anything about Weston A. Price. I think if humans follow their instincts about what they put in their bodies instead of mindlessly feeding, we’d all be healthier over all.

So more important than whether it is a traditional oil, though, is that we should look at what it does. You can’t take a plant with a toxic seed and breed it and tweak it to make magic non-toxic oil. That doesn’t work. There will always be residual problems with it. We are not God and we as humans are not meant to drastically alter what God has made. A little regular plant breeding, weeding out the weak and breeding the strong I can understand. That happens in nature usually and even cross-breeding happens in nature. Drastically altering plants to make brand new ones, however, creates an unknown factor in our health.

Peas and Love,

Mrs. Yoder