Sourdough bread is the old fashioned way of making bread. It is a natural ferment that actually changes the chemistry within the dough. The phytates and enzyme inhibitors that are present in all grain, seed and pulses will become neutralised within the fermentation process. Complex starches are also predigested into simpler sugars. With this kind of ferment, the bread will be much easier to digest and it will be tastier as well. Making sourdough is a totally natural experience from beginning to end, and with this fact in mind, the variations in taste will reflect your own immediate environment. Just like with cheese making and any other natural ferments; moulds and yeasts that inhabit the food preparation area will all be reflected in the sourdough starter that you make. THE STARTER To make a starter all you need to do is to add equal amounts of water with flour. It’s as simple as that. There are factors however that can influence this process and these are as follows: Freshly ground organic flour will give optimum results. Water should be as pure as possible. Town water will have chemicals such as chlorine that can inhibit the life forces that you are trying to capture. Temperature is an influence but is not important. The warmer the conditions are, the quicker the yeasts will grow and multiply. Cooler temperatures will retard but not stop the process. The mixture should be fluid enough for the yeasts to grow in and thrive. An improvement to this simple mixture would be to add a little whey to introduce some bacteria and enzymes to give it a start. This will help to make a better starter culture. If you are interested in making your own ‘Staff of Life Bread’ for very little cost, then you will do well to invest in a flour grinder. Buying organic wheat in bulk is quite economical and you can then grind any amount of fresh flour for when you are baking your bread. “Earth Garden’ has just published a book on home bread making, ‘The Good Life Bread Book’. I had the privilege of being able to contribute to this publication and you’ll find my article on page 26. So feel free to glean from my experience on sourdough making and hopefully you will join many others on the road to home food production.

Where in the world can you get hold of raw cheese? Not in this country, unless you make your own that is. So what’s so special about eating raw cheese? Well it’s the flavour that you noticed first. When chomping into a piece of cheese made from organic, raw milk, you really taste the difference! There is a certain complexity about raw cheese that is noticed straightaway after that first bite; and then you know you’re onto something good! Flavour is the first stage of experiencing the way cheese was meant to be. Another bonus is that it’s actually good for you! Healthy, organic, raw milk is very beneficial to your health, adds good bacteria to your inner health and brings its own package of digestive enzymes with it. Raw cheese abounds in enzymes that help to digest the fats and proteins. When the food you eat has abundant bacteria and enzymes, then the digestive system is not over taxed. Most of us suffer from depleted digestive enzymes and healthy gut flora in this modern age we live in, and our health is compromised for it. People often complain about feeling sluggish and lacking energy. This is because we are chronically short on healthy gut flora and digestive enzymes, as the food we eat is mostly dead. How do you get these life-giving raw dairy products? You make them at home in your kitchen! The yoghurt you buy probably has too low a bacterial count to start with to do you much good but if you eat yoghurt made from a live culture you will also boost your gut flora and build up your immune system. Supplementing your diet with kefir will also give you a definite edge in the stake for good health. Eat only butter made from raw fermented cream, and have kefired cream on top of your fruit salad! Enjoy food again as it was meant to be. You won’t have a cholesterol problem when you eat raw milk products and you will assimilate far more calcium from the milk. People enjoyed excellent health on raw dairy products for thousands of years until we pasteurized and homogenized our milk. Check out www.westonaprice.org for more info on raw milk. In the Cheese Making Workshop I teach people how to make cheddar cheese from cows milk and a brie from goat milk and cottage cheese, yoghurt, kefir, kefired cream, butter and ghee. If you can get hold of raw milk then you can be on the way to producing your own organic and raw dairy products. Your body will thank you for it.

Ever thought what it takes to have a healthy immune system? We know that to have a healthy diet accompanied with regular exercise goes a long way to achieving good health, but that’s only part of the story. When we are young we seem to have a lot more resilience when disease knocks on our door but as we age a bit we seem to be more prone to the many ailments that abound in our society. Around the age of forty we usually find that we need reading glasses and we don’t have as much puff as we used to. Sure, you have the two fruit and three veg a day and you walk the dog around the block every evening after work, but this is simply not enough anymore. Today we are living in a very toxic age. Every day our immune systems are bombarded by petro- chemical toxins. You might be entering into the new car that has been locked up in the hot sun only to breathe in the formaldehyde through the fumes, or our furniture, curtains and carpets that have been treated with mouldicides and fungicides whilst at the same time we have the house sprayed against vermin and we breathe in the fumes and the dust from these applications. This is not to mention the traffic fumes and if we are unlucky enough, the general pollution in the air found in any large city. There’s no getting away from the toxic influence in our lives these days as some chemically sensitive people can attest to. It is very, very difficult if not impossible to escape entirely. The food we eat is contaminated with pesticide and herbicide residues. Our food is grown in mineral deficient soils as the farmer uses yet more chemical fertilizers to grow the next crop. Our soils are being degraded at a rapid rate here in Australia and unless the soil is nourished and fed with organic matter, it simply can’t meet the requirements for our nutritional needs. It is often said that we need to take supplements to make sure we cover any shortfalls as we can’t achieve all our nutritional needs through food anymore. This surely is a sad state of affairs- welcome to the twenty- first century! Unfortunately the general public hasn’t yet caught up with this information and although we may suspect these things a bit, we are often so distracted by the demands of our daily lives that we are unwittingly caught up in the maelstrom. Ignorance however is no excuse. We are all bound by nature’s laws and if there are cracks in the immune system due to lack of nutrition and toxic overload, we will eventually pay the price. This is just the way it goes and no amount of arguing can deny it. There are however different tolerances within individuals as one person’s immune system can be genetically stronger than that of another and this explains why some people can totally abuse their health and get away with it- for awhile; and then of course the consequences are reaped later. So this explains in a nutshell why there is so much incidence of cancer in our society today. The statistics still stand that one in three people will have cancer in their lives but this is forecast to be for every individual in the not to distant future. You can see that there is something drastically wrong and yet we still don’t see it as a wake up call. Individuals fall by the wayside whilst the rest of the population carries on regardless. We can however be pro-active about this modern day dilemma. As individuals we can take matters into our own hands by taking the bull by the horns so to speak. Let’s take a closer look at what makes our immune system strong and resilient. Our immune system is part of a very complex network and it is not my intention to be too scientific about it. If we get right down to the nitty- gritty aspect of what we can do for ourselves then this will be entirely practical and beneficial for the individual. We need to look at what it takes to build up our immune system and to make it so resilient and strong, that disease can’t find a toe hold. By strengthening our immune system we will also be doing the best we can to heal ourselves from cancer. The immune system is very much influenced and strengthened by two factors. The first one is healthy gut bacteria, our inner health. When we have an abundant population of healthy bacteria in our digestive tract then assimilation of our food is optimum and new vitamins are created in our nether regions. These healthy bacteria help to keep us in good check and help to keep the nasties away. The other major influence on the immune system is our nutrition. The very basic nutritional requirements are minerals. This means that all the minerals required for life are to be found in the food we eat, and consequently, through the action of our healthy gut flora, these minerals are then assimilated and made available to us. This is where the shortcomings of our modern agricultural methods come into focus. Food that is grown with chemicals is mineral deficient. It’s as simple as that. When the soil lacks organic matter it cannot impart all of its required nutrients to the plants. Chemical input force feeds plants as these nutrients are water soluble and chemical agriculture also destroys soil organic matter in the process. You can see that our modern way of growing our food is very counter productive for our health and the environment! It is quite well known that if you have been diagnosed with cancer that you will do best to switch over to organic food exclusively, and this alone will go a long way to overcoming this insidious disease. That says a lot doesn’t it? Now there’s something else to look out for. Food that has been organically grown is food grown in the absence of chemicals. This does not guarantee that it has been grown in biologically active soil. Such chemical free food can still be mineral deficient. The difference is that the minerals made available to the crops grown without chemicals, and grown in biological active soil ( soil that is rich in organic matter,) will then impart the full quota of minerals needed to sustain optimum life. This is exactly the quality of food we should be aiming for to achieve a vibrant and robust immune system. Another couple of hints to add to this little piece of advice is to minimize sugar in the diet. Increased insulin levels in the blood due to a high sugar intake will do a lot to sap our immune system and also contributes to aging and diabetes. Being physically active is also a great way to keep the blood oxygenated and add to general well-being. To finish of with I’ll give you one more really good hint for a strong immune system. Start a veggie garden. Growing your own healthy organic food in biologically active soil and then taking it to the kitchen and turning it into living food abounding in lactic bacteria and enzymes by way of fermentation, will give you a whole new reason for living. You are actively involved in feeding yourself with the best food money can’t buy. It is the most cost effective, rewarding, tasty, alive and fresh food you can ever hope to eat.