Raw milk and the heritage/humane/local/sustainable food movement

Check out this fantastic introduction to David Grumpet’s book about the raw milk movement, The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights.

It is true that raw milk advocates are probably some of the most bedeviled people on the planet. They are called crazy, stupid, sick, ignorant, and even malicious for encouraging people to drink a substance that is illegal in most states. Yet as Joel Salatin points out in this excellent introduction to Grumpet’s book, we’ve come to a place in our collective history where we think Coca-Cola and Lucky Charms are “safe” foods but milk straight from the dairy cow is not.

Read on for more thought provocation.

Legalize raw milk in Arkansas (but good general info)

A Campaign for Real Milk

The Weston A. Price Foundation

Behind America’s Growing Battle Over Food Rights

Raw Milk Explained (Treehugger.com)

meditation

When 2008 turned into 2009, I was sitting on my cushion meditating. I started a meditation practice in earnest about a year ago and got well into it before life intruded. That, of course, is no excuse, but lately I have been feeling the need to get back to the cushion.

When I was recycling some of my old Facebook posts to get myself back into the habit of writing, I could feel in my words the effect of the meditation. There was a spaciousness to my thoughts and writing, an freedom, a very loose grip, a long leash…in short, I could hear echoed in what I was writing the freedom that was taking hold in my mind and body.

This freedom is a very subtle, personal one, difficult to express yet completely known; it is actually one and the same, the feeling and the practice, entering the role of “the witness.” To paraphrase Lao Tzu (again), that which can be named is not the way. While difficult to pin down in words, and probably better not to (release expectations or the need to categorize, label, and organize), the practice of meditation bestows something to the sitter. I miss that “something,” I need that “something” again.

Our brains are plastic and I am certain my neural grooves have been re-wired and re-routed over the years of martial arts, yoga, meditation, and exploration into altered realms of consciousness and awareness. Divination, intuition, dreamwork, tantra, music, dance. Sex, love, friendship, relating, solitude, exploration, journeying, challenges, new experiences, crisis, loss, sadness, ambiguity, ambivalence, presence.

I keep seeing the cushion in my mind. It is just a matter of time before I sit. It’s amazing how everyday we “sit” but to sit with intention of non-doing is another kettle of fish. When I try to approach it logically, it dissolves before me and I can not grasp this dichotomy–to sit with the intention of non-doing. Isn’t that an oxymoron? Perhaps, but the experience of it is anything but.

blood sugar rollercoaster

I’ve been paying a lot of attention to my diet lately. I’ve joined an organic food co-op and even found a place to get pasture-fed, organic, non-homogenized, non-pastuerized dairy products. Yes, the latter is technically illegal but many of us engage in illegal pursuits for reasons far less respectable than health!

I have also been studying metabolic typing and experimenting with a diet that is based on my individual metabolic type and reaction to certain foods.

Between these two pursuits, I have naturally let go of many less-than-optimal habits, such as snacking, white flour and sugar, and processed foods. There’s the 80/20 rule: eat well 80% of the time, and the other 20% is wiggle room. But I’ve been feeling much better as my food choices improve, and haven’t really needed that 20% too much. Maybe on weekends, I use that 20% up in drinks, but during the week when I’m on a tighter schedule, I don’t really veer into 20% territory too much.

Except for today.

And I am paying for it!

I had some small-batch toffees in my desk drawer that I bought before I really started down this new eating path. Ingredients are butter, sugar, chocolate, almonds, salt, and baking soda. Sounds good, right?

Based on what I have learned thus far, I know that a sweet craving 1-2 hours after a meal means my proportions of food were off for my metabolic type; I really haven’t been having sweet cravings much since I started this plan. But today I did. So my proportions were off and I knew this, but instead of going outside to get something that would’ve probably naturally balanced my blood sugar levels, that damn small batch toffee was signing to me from the desk drawer.

I had one piece and now I feel miserable! Miserable! I have a headache, I still have a sweet craving (which means that my body is in need of complex carbohydrates and possibly fat and/or protein, NOT simple carbs) and I knew this before going for the damn toffee! I have a headache on top of it.

So, the lesson here is: if you really want to improve your diet, be serious about it because you may not only lose your cravings for your favorite sweet things, but if you do decide to play with that 20% and go for it, you’ll feel as though you just drank a pint of vodka or something! I feel like one of those drunks who says “I’ll never drink again!” except I really don’t think I’ll be eating any more toffee!

Big Strick – 7 Days (FXHE Records)

B side is the more floor-friendly side. A side is more introspective and moody, especially A1 despite the bombastic title. That sad piano coursing through A1 makes it the type of thing to put on when home alone listening to records. A2 picks up the energy a bit and sounds very 909ish to me, as does the whole release, especially the rim shots that are scattered throughout all five cuts. I dig the dubby sounds that come in the second half of the track: sounds like a water drop tweaked and delayed.

The B side is where it’s at for me. B2 is the instrumental version of B1. B2, a minimal chugger with staccato rim shots anchoring the rhythm, a slightly delayed, mournful piano, and a simple bassline, is deep and perfect for dark late night sessions. B3 “Whatup Doe!” is brighter, with a basic keyboard pattern for the melody and claps that phase in and out, occasionally coming in at nearly every step in 16.

Big Strick is supposed to be Omar S’s cousin. Another piece of deep, minimal house from FXHE. Listen here.

the sheer sumptuous simple beauty of…a record

Did you ever notice that you have to get up to flip the record? You can’t just load up two hours’ worth of music in your playlist and ignore. A record demands to be tended to.

The warmth of the sound from a vinyl record has a nostalgic or intimate quality to it that seeps into the heart and soul. Maybe emotion only carries over analog waves?

It’s like that old Naked music song “Music and Wine” — music and wine were the only friends of mine. Maybe not your style of music but everyone has felt that at some point in their lives. Sometimes even if they’re not the only friends we have, they are still some of the best.

A quiet evening at home with some records. Is there really anything better?