Killer Veges?

Killer Cucumber' Bug From Spain Hits Britain

When are people going to wake up and learn where e coli comes from? E. coli, short for Escherichia coli, is a type of bacteria commonly found in the intestines of animals and humans. So, in order for it to get in or on your your meat and vegetables, they have to be contaminated with it. In other words, covered in crap! Or, handled by a person who can't wash their hands after they crap.

Water sources can also be contaminated via raw sewage or animal waste being dumped into the water source. Nice huh?

So, in short, if you'd like to avoid picking up some nasty bug that will really ruin your day, know where your food comes from! Buy local produce from someone that knows how to grow it and if you can, butcher for yourself!

Avoid contaminated meat with Self Sustained Living

Isn't he beautiful? An Australian Hereford. This is a common breed used for commercially produced beef in the USA. A company in Oklahoma, National Steak and Poultry, has recalled 248,000lbs of meat due to a possible E coli contamination. The story broke on CNN yesterday.

There's nothing more tasty and disease free than critters you raised, nutured, fed and butchered for yourself. There's something to be said for being in control of every aspect of the processing. No chances of your meat being infected by bacterias from poor sanitary conditions or mishandling. Not to mention the superior taste of a well fed, chemical and steroid free piece of meat!

If you can keep and raise your own meats, you should do it. Even if it's just a couple of chickens at a time.

The sun after the storm

It poured rain all day yesterday. Of course, it's filling my root cellar hole with water. I guess I should have consulted the Farmers Almanac ahead of time and I would have known this wasn't a good time to dig a hole! It's gonna rain Tuesday thru Saturday of next week! LOL, oh well, we'll deal with it.

Every day a new sunflower blooms. Now that the orchard is completely wiped out and all the trees removed, it's kind of bare out there. I look forward to planting new trees in the spring and getting them done correctly.

I took the seeds from my jam making out and spread them out along the front fence line. Hopefully I'll get a stand of blackberry growing out there. It'll be a double duty stand of blackberries, food for our family and home protection for the farm. Won't be anybody coming thru that fence line, I'm still picking thorns from my arms just from berry picking!

Going to bake some fresh bread today plus 2 more pound cakes for the freezer, gotta use up those eggs a little quicker. Maybe I should hang a sign out and pick up a couple egg customers?

Once again, dp from New Kentucky Homestead is my hero for the day. He posted a link in comments everyone should read. It's an ingredient list of how manufacturers hide MSG in food. You're going to be amazed... this is the link-Truth in Labeling.

I see that the MSM is tying to pull more wool over our eyes by saying the Recession Eases, even if the economy contracts less that predicted, it still contracted! Duh, how does that calculate into the end of a Recession???? Smoke and mirrors, frankly it's all bullshit just like the unemployment figures. The continuing unemployment numbers are going down because people are exhausting their benefits! It's not a good indicator of real employment across the country. How many people still are out of work now without government benefit checks? The government isn't counting those people.... I wonder why????

Well, once again I'm going to tell you all to work on becoming more self sustained. I know, you must be getting tired of hearing me say that but it's really a geat thing. Not only is the food awesome but the feeling of freedom it gives you is almost overwhelming. The time it frees up from not having to go to the store and the money you save from not going to that store....... well, you know the rest!

Another good point for living self sustained

You know how I'm always talking about how much healthier growing food for yourself is? How much better it tastes and such? How I'm always saying chemicals and preservatives are bad? Here's more to support my views, this come from Johns Hopkins University. The surprising ingredient causing weight gain.....MSG folks, that's right, monosodium glutamate. It's tasteless, colorless and is what causes you to eat the entire bag of potato chips and then gives you the urge to open another bag. It has no nutritional value at all, just wicked side effects. I personally rank it right with aspertame on my list of evil substances.

"The study focused on 750 Chinese men and women, ages 40-59, living in 3 rural villages in north and south China. Most of the study subjects prepared their meals at home without commercially processed foods and roughly 82 percent used MSG. Those participants who used the highest amounts of MSG had nearly 3 times the incidence of overweight as those who did not use MSG, even when physical activity, total caloric intake, and other possible explanations for body mass differences were accounted for. The positive correlation between MSG and higher weight confirmed what animal studies have been suggesting for years."

Wanna know why Americans are the most obese people in the world? It's the crap we eat! Commercially produced food filled with chemicals and we consume millions of tonnes of it a year. It's in everything you buy from the store, everything.

Want to lose some weight? Stop drinking soda and start preparing your own food at home instead of eating out every day. You'll not only have more money in your pocket, you'll feel better, look better, have more energy and not be sick from every little bug that blows by.

Overcast days

Well, once again, I'm annoyed by corporate greed and governmental stupidity. The Governor of Illinois is proposing a 50% increase in income taxes. Gee Pat, you didn't notice that the unemployment rate for the state is over 8%? Guess Pat hasn't noticed all the businesses in the state closing or laying off workers either. Guess the Governors mansion comes with a pair of cool sunglasses....

I made a batch of apple butter yesterday. 4lbs of frozen apples from the grocery sold as "fresh". No wonder they had such a good price on them. A little sugar, cinnamon and a touch of clove, a little simmer time on the stove and I've got 8 jars of a wonderful apple spread for my fresh bread.

The garden spots have been tilled into beautiful soft beds of fertile soil awaiting the seeds, tubers and bulbs it will soon be nurturing. Spring is upon us and it's about dang time! This will be an exciting year here, stay tuned....



Stay safe and keep prepping!

Dirty Food

The 5 dirtiest foods

This article is being featured on yahoo's homepage along with a picture of brown eggs. Is this article helping people like me spread the word about self sustained living and feeding ourselves or hurting? Will people get the same point that I did out of this article?

• by Sarah Jio, Vitamin G, Glamour Magazine, on Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:56am PST

How would you rate your food-safety IQ? I know someone who never washes their fruits and vegetables after bringing them home from the market because he believes that they're washed at the store. Um, no. Read on to learn about what some call the "5 dirtiest foods" and for a food safety wake-up call...

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The dirty food list, according to this fascinating piece I found over at AOL Health include the following:

Eggs: While most eggs aren't going to make anyone sick, experts estimate that more than 2 million germy eggs (as in Salmonella infected) get into circulation each year, sickening 660,000 people each year and killing as many as 300. Um, maybe we should think twice about eating that cookie dough (or, judging by our conversation on Vitamin G, perhaps you'd rather take your chances?). How to buy cleaner eggs? Make sure the carton says they're pasteurized and never buy a dozen that contains any obvious cracks or leaks.

Peaches: They're pretty, but that's just skin-deep. Health experts warn that peach skins are doused in pesticides before they make it to grocery store to prevent blemishes. On average, a peach can contain as many as nine different pesticides, according to the USDA. This is one fruit you might want to buy organic (which may have blemishes, but won't have pesticides).

Pre-packaged salad mixes: Surprise! "Triple washed" doesn't mean germ-free say experts. Pathogens may still be lurking so be sure to wash your greens before tossing in your salad bowl.

Melons: Get ready to be grossed out. According to the article, "when the FDA sampled domestically grown cantaloupe, it found that 3.5 percent of the melons carried Salmonella and Shigella, the latter a bacteria normally passed person-to-person. Among imported cantaloupe, 7 percent tested positive for both bugs." Ewww. Your best bet: Scrub your melons with a little mild dish soap and warm water before slicing.

Scallions: Blamed for several recent outbreaks of Hepatitis A, and other bugs like the parasite Cryptosporidium, Shigella and Salmonella, scallions present a food safety problem because of the way they grow (in the dirt) and lack of proper washing. While you can't control what happens in restaurant kitchens, you can give them a super-duper washing at home before cooking with.

Other dirty foods in the article include chicken, ground beef and turkey, raw oysters, and cold cuts. Click here to read 5 more.

The bottom line: Don't be afraid to eat these foods, just be aware of the precautions you need to take before enjoying them. Most food-borne illnesses are the result of hygiene carelessness somewhere in the food chain. Protect yourself!