Why is it that nothing is ever simple?

This is a slightly off-topic post.

I have this issue. Everything I ever do seems more complicated than it should be. Simple things like hanging clothes or washing dishes turns into a series of minor details that need to be just right. All my clothes if they are hanging need to be facing the same direction with the hook part of the hangers all in the same direction, too. This makes it easier to move bunches of clothes and to see which shirt is which. Dishes have to be arranged well, too. Ease of access issues maybe, OCD potentially?

Anyways, in some cases I think that it's just the project that I'm working on that is the reason things get more complicated and more complicated as time goes on. But then it starts to appear that everything in my life has become over-the-top.

I really really just want a textbook I could trust for the quality information I wish to obtain. Instead, one person says one thing, another another thing. Everybody blames something, and nobody can seem to be trusted. Is it such a hardship to ask for good information? I didn't get into food research wanting to pick a fight, but the more I read the deeper it goes.

Architecture school wasn't much better. You're never really done with a project. You just are pushed further and further. Maybe I would have been better off with engineering or foreign language.

I'm searching for answers in an ocean teeming with information. Water that fails to quench thirst, and praying that it ain't just me that has a problem.

Interesting Find: Comparison of Ideology Behind Guns and Raw Milk

http://thecompletepatient.com/article/2013/january/16/what-do-guns-and-raw-milk-have-common%E2%80%A6or-why-do-so-many-people-have-so

The Bittersweet Taste of Raw Milk

The much anticipated day has come and gone, and with it, I can add drinking raw milk to the list of things I've done in my life. Don't let me saying that come off as though it is some exotic thing that I only wanted to do for the craziness of it all. That interpretation of my text and consequent perspective would be incorrect. The simple and nearly entire reason for this new adventure has come out of a personal quest for health and truth.

The raw milk atmosphere is so polarized. It's hot and cold. Mainstream public is strung around by fear. Pro raw milkers are discouraged by laws making it a hard business (especially if you consider that only the small farmers are producing and selling raw milk, which we all know how we hear about the difficulties of the small farmer -without considering milk-). Like I've said in previous posts, who wants to drive an hour away to pick up only a small portion of their groceries? Not only that, but who also wants to do a few hours of research online trying to find the nearest location that will sell that raw milk to you? The farmers aren't allowed to advertise, and it's a very limited supply. So the laws are pretty effective in discouraging your average mildly curious person from access.

If nothing else, all the weird legalities around raw milk only frustrated me to the point of motivation.

So, let's get to it...what happened?

Well. I first had to call to arrange an appointment. Then today, I borrowed a car (since I usually bike, and don't have one). I guess I could have biked, but it was super cold today (time of posting, now yesterday). I also would need to get a couple bike racks to be able to transport it back. So I drove to the farm, a little more than an hour north of here.

As I pulled up to the farm, I noticed a 'For Sale' sign. Confusion and disappointment set in, but I was still mostly excited. I was also nervous that in the hour drive, I still couldn't decide how much milk I actually wanted to buy. It was a long driveway up to the estate, like you'd expect on a farm. On my left, I notice a bunch of pigs seemingly not disturbed by the cold, eating to contentment.

I didn't know where to go. The house, the barn, the other barn? Where to park? I was greeted by the farmer (I'll assign him the name Don for future reference) and then given better instructions. It was quiet there. I must have been there almost an hour, but I was the only customer.

Don lead me from their farm store to the milk tank in another building. He let me try a cup. I was expecting something heavier, thicker, and tasting like cow. Instead, it tasted very similar to the organic milk that I get from Strawberry Fields in town (organic, but as a retail milk...pasteurized). Just because the taste is so close, doesn't mean I'm ready to believe there are no differences and that I should just go back to the pasteurized organic milk. The next couple of weeks will be very important weeks for experimenting with dairy. Hopefully my willpower will improve. I have a bunch of Noosa yogurt that I cannot seem to resist.

I was then introduced to the cows. They were all different types of breeds, which seems to be a slightly different approach than some other dairy farms choose. I guess there is something about Jersey cows that gets bragging rights. I don't know. Anyways, they were so cute! The floor was not as attractive. I advise never looking down while near animals on a farm.

I ended up buying three gallons in six half-gallon jars. I froze one of those gallons. It's a bit more milk than I usually drink, but I'm guessing my experimentation may require a bit more milk than I usually drink. I also bought some of their grass-fed beef and organic pork. I bought a lot; their prices were exceptionally low for organic. Seeing their operation lends itself to believing that these animals have the best lives one can hope for as an animal in today's society.

While I was burning a hole in my pocket, I was also slightly sad [not because I was buying a bunch of food]. I know part of the reason I was willing to buy so much was the good prices, but I felt really bad that such a condition exists that people who do good, quality work are undermined by big business farming. As poor consumers, we want the cheapest we can get. If we're uneducated, or indifferent, we don't care about the behind-the-scenes. It's similar in other aspects of life. Issues that we have personal experience, we tend to have stronger opinions on. For example, someone who is not in a minority group and doesn't have any connections to somebody who is may be completely oblivious to racism. They may think it's only a thing of the past blown out of proportion by over-sensitive individuals. When it comes to food, if you're in a city disconnected from the source of your food (since you are buying all your food in the grocery store), then there's a good chance you also cannot relate to the issues of the small farmer.

Capitalism says that private industry under control of supply and demand should drive everything. I think there is an inherent problem with it when access to information is tainted. The American public needs access to information that presents issues as unbiasedly as possible. Without that, we cannot make properly informed decisions on what to demand in a product. That's not to say that I agree with all government intervention either. Dairy farmers with raw milk sales would be in a much better position if government agencies stopped interfering and trying to tell the American public what they should and shouldn't eat. Who knows, maybe the American public would have better health (not necessarily from drinking raw milk, but from simply saying screw the food guidelines).

So the fact that this farm I visited is and has been trying to sale for about two years paired with believing that the small farmers are hurting was slightly depressing. They are looking for somebody to continue their farm in the manner that they've been maintaining it. I truly hope that when that somebody comes along to buy their farm, it'll be the perfect fitting. I feel the cause is just. I wish the route could be easier and the rewards greater.

I even felt like it'd be cool to be that person, but there are way too many reasons I couldn't be (especially at this point in time). Money, knowledge in farming, and desire to travel being the most significant reasons.

I finally tried raw milk. It wasn't anything too different in taste, but all the thoughts and efforts behind obtaining it were more than you could ever envision when picking up a regular gallon of milk at the grocery store. It hasn't made me sick either.

Random Quote: The Untold Story of Milk

Long 'make you feel good' quote of the day:

"It's not just Salmonella and Listeria that taint American meat and processed food. Thirty percent of ground beef samples taken at processing plants were contaminated with the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus and over half with Clostridium perfringens. 'All of these pathogens can make people sick,' wrote Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation. 'Food poisoning caused by Listeria generally requires hospitalization and proves fatal in about one out of every five cases. In the USDA study, 78.6 percent of the ground beef contained microbes that are spread primarily by fecal material. The medical literature on the causes of food poisoning is full of euphemisms and dry scientific terms: coliform levels aerobic plate counts, sorbitol, MacConkey agar and so on. Behind them lies a simple explanation for why eating a hamburger can now make you seriously ill: There is shit in the meat.'"
[pg. 254, The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid]

"Eat.......my......shit!" [The Help]

Raw Milk Adventures!!

I am super excited. I've made an appointment to meet at a farm to try & buy some raw milk! Tomorrow. Just one day until I can be officially ostracized by the non-believers of my family and friends for being a crazie.

One thing from the book I'm reading, The Untold Story of Milk that definitely makes sense:

How can we expect sick cows and heat to make a healthy food product? Heat must be some really magical process. Not only does it kill all the pathogens in the milk -- it produces nutrients from a product that should be deficient.

We're all in some sort of national epidemic of denial about the cruelty of our food production, and somehow there aren't any complications for us. We like to be so separate from the process that we don't have to think about it, and everything it means. Until one day, our healthy becomes so bad we cannot ignore it.

[Oh wait, no, those are the over-the-top vegetarians claiming food production is cruel....an extreme exaggeration]

Won't know how much milk I'll buy until I'm there. I've never tried raw milk. I'm scared. It's a little over an hour drive to get there. I think it's ridiculous that the production of raw milk has been made into some odd, almost underground movement. Give us freedom to our own food choices, no matter how weird they sound to our neighbors.

Allergic to Running: Experiment Results (Part I)

Last Monday, I wrote that I was quitting on dairy to see if I could reverse this strange running allergy that began in October. The next day, I wrote about exercise-induced food-dependent allergies. I combined the two theories, and today, I went for a run. I was planning on waiting two weeks, but I'm impatient.

It worked!  :)

I ran for almost twenty minutes with no symptoms. And it was cold! I felt like I was running with lead filled icicles. Brr.

So not eating 9-12 hrs before running + not eating dairy = disappearance of running allergy. Next, I will need to isolate these two factors. Is it the deliberate avoidance of food half a day before I run or the lack of dairy in my diet which have provided these results? I also plan on testing allergy to raw milk very very very soon.... (next post)

Vegetable Fermentation_Update

Last Thursday I posted about trying out another recipe for pickled carrots. My salt water and carrot concoction is brewing on the counter. I've tried it a couple times. It is clear that it has changed taste a little (for the better). It's more sour. Yet it's still not what I remember at Bucho's. The salt water still is a little more salty tasting than I'd like, too. Tonight marks three twenty-four hour periods. I'm nervous about giving it too much time. Patience. I'll give it at least one more day.

Other news: I ate terrible today. I had a gluten-free, dairy-free pizza with a cherry coke for lunch. Yikes! Awful processed foods and soy. Then for dinner I cooked something good. Grass-fed ground beef in tomato paste with a bunch of veggies. Celery, carrot, potato, onion, and green peas. Quite delicious, but I definitely feel as though I overate. Not looking forward to tomorrow morning's weigh-in.

Other randomness: been thinking to myself that I have a bunch of ideas I wish I could materialize and get rich off of. Saw somebody's comment online about how much of not accomplishing things is simply related to not trying. I'm always a chicken. Sure would help to have some confidence, thank you architecture school for all the confidence you stole from my personality.

Blog is on the backburner for a little while. I'm switching my focus from food to other stuff. I'm still experimenting with dairy-free for the running allergy. Soon I'll be going for a run to test it out maybe tomorrow afternoon if I can be good and not eat anything until then. Maybe just a few blueberries tonight, with a run before lunchtime. So I will be updating. But as far as content from readings and the like, that'll be limited for a bit. It's just the way I am. I focus intently on some things for awhile, then shift to another thing and then go back.