Yvonnemlv's

[Yvonne LV]

DIGESTION

*beet test: I've not eaten red beets in 8 months or more. When i did I had light pink pee. DD had reddish pee, thought it was blood till I remembered she'd eaten beets!

*low stomach acid - no idea if it is low or not. Probably not optimal though.

* digestive enzymes: better than it was 9 years ago.  I had to take enzymes for a couple of years with every meal every day.  Now I haven't had any in 3-4 years.


ABSORPTION

* All three of my children have been sensitive to foods I have eaten while nursing.  Dairy being the biggest one, but also green bell peppers.

* Haven't had antibiotics since 7 years ago. As a kid though, I had them 4-10/x a year, which was penicillin based and I am allergic to that mould now.

DETOXIFICATION

- low serotonin - hence medication

- transsulfuration - Sulfa anything makes me quite ill. I feel nauseated for the first hour after taking MSM (for example), then the hour after that I usually end up puking.  Too many eggs also make me feel ill.

- vit D have recently forgotten to take my D3, not much sun here either

- glutathione - I can't handle any caffeine. I get instantly wired, anxious, nauseated, then crash hard.


CURRENT REGIMEN (ME)
-300 mg Bupropion @ Breakfast

- 40 mg Escitalopram @ dinner
- Vit B-complex (50mg) @ breakfast

-Fish oil - one capsule right now, @ breakfast

- D3 (2000 IU) @ breakfast

- Vit C (1000 mg) @ breakfast

- Zinc (25 mg) @ breakfast



CURRENT REGIMEN (KIDS)

Magne (19 m) - nurses often. chewable C. Starting to really want solid foods more than breastmilk

Freja (nearly 4) - nurses once every few days. Chewable C. Sometimes a multi vit. Practically a vegetarian.

Vidar (6.5) -  Does not nurse. Chewable C daily. sometimes a multi vit.  Eats only bread, rice, and eggs -- fruit is usually okay for him. Carrots are only veggie he'll eat.

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I'm still reading up on all this and may have some things mixed up. 

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[Yvonne LV]

Egads, it can turn grey?? OOF.. man this is going to take some strong effort to get over my brain then. LOL. It's a bit yellowish now on the 4th day.

Oi, should I be keeping it in a dark place while it ferments??!!

Oh, and how do you know if it smells bad?

[Yvonne LV]

Dang! My fingers are on fire from making the Master Tonic! My eyes and nose are a bit burny too from the gasses. LOL.

[Pat Robinson]

I wore rubber gloves.


Pat

[Yvonne LV]

Smart. I was all out of the vinyl gloves, sadly.

Three of my fingers still burn a bit.

[Pat Robinson]

Try rubbing some banana on them. Something in the banana helps the burning.

Pat

[Yvonne LV]

Can anyone answer these questions? Most importantly do you need to ferment EVERYTHING in the dark, like the cabbage?

Yvonne LV said:

Egads, it can turn grey?? OOF.. man this is going to take some strong effort to get over my brain then. LOL. It's a bit yellowish now on the 4th day.

Oi, should I be keeping it in a dark place while it ferments??!!

Oh, and how do you know if it smells bad?

[Pat Robinson]

I'm clueless. I'll ask Tanya to chime in.


Pat

[TanyaL]

You don't need to ferment veggies in the dark, I just do it on the kitchen counter. I probably wouldn't do it in direct sunlight, it may get too warm and ferment quite quickly, but even that would be safe, I'd think, but it may cause a quality issue--the bacteria are supposedly a bit different in warmer (>72F-ish) vs cooler, and I've read some folks feel the cooler fermenting temps result in a better flavor. Maybe due to the bacteria, maybe just the slower speed of fermentation makes for better flavors.

--whoops, guess you can tell I like to ferment. That was WAY beyond the question. :-O

Yvonne LV said:

Can anyone answer these questions? Most importantly do you need to ferment EVERYTHING in the dark, like the cabbage?

Yvonne LV said:

Egads, it can turn grey?? OOF.. man this is going to take some strong effort to get over my brain then. LOL. It's a bit yellowish now on the 4th day.

Oi, should I be keeping it in a dark place while it ferments??!!

Oh, and how do you know if it smells bad?

[TanyaL]

Okay, now I went back and read the whole thread.

Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation is a great book for getting a good feel for how fermentation works, it's much more flexible than I first envisioned (sorry Pat :-P ). He has a website that has some discussion plus his excellent Sour Dill Pickle recipe--really yum. But his book is much more thorough and talks about experimenting and the range of variation that can work.

You should be able to tell if a veggie ferment has gone awry. If you get piles of mold on top while it's fermenting, I'd chuck it. I skim the scummy-looking stuff every day, the bubbly white stuff at the edge of the liquid and the fermenting container, that should prevent mold. But if you don't have mold and it smells fine (fine = not nasty, it will be tangy), then I'd start taste-testing. Once you get to a taste you like, pop it in the frig. Once or twice I've had mold start after it's in the frig, that's a sign to throw out the batch, but it's pretty rare.

How fast a ferment finishes depends on the size of the vegetables, the saltiness of the brine, whether you start with a bacterial inoculant and by the ambient temperature. For me, being in Texas, temperature is a huge factor, so if you're in a warm environment, you may need to star taste-testing much earlier than typical recipes suggest. My pickles, because I cut them into rounds, go much faster than someone's who uses whole pickling cucumbers. And if you make up a couple jars at once, taste-test each--I never get the amount of salt exactly the same between two jars.

Yvonne--if you don't like sauerkraut, consider kimchee. There are versions that aren't terribly spicy (if that's an issue for you) and napa cabbage is more delicate in texture than green cabbage, and the garlic and ginger and carrot and green onion add a wonderful array of flavors. Yum, we love the stuff. I struggly (and often fail) to keep us stocked, if all four of us (2 adults, 3yo and 6yo) all eat some a couple times a day, we can go through a half gallon a week.

[Yvonne LV]

Thanks Tanya. Now I feel brave enough to taste my cabbage as it's been 6 days now and i popped it in the fridge this morning.

I will see if I can get the book locally in Sweden first. I also have no idea what kimchee is or the other cabbages you talked about. I only know the swedish terms as I didn't like cabbage before I moved here. LOL!


"Yvonne--if you don't like sauerkraut, consider kimchee. There are versions that aren't terribly spicy (if that's an issue for you) and napa cabbage is more delicate in texture than green cabbage, and the garlic and ginger and carrot and green onion add a wonderful array of flavors. Yum, we love the stuff. I struggly (and often fail) to keep us stocked, if all four of us (2 adults, 3yo and 6yo) all eat some a couple times a day, we can go through a half gallon a week."

[Pat Robinson]

Ok, if you come back and write that you tried it and survived, I'll might maybe try my cabbage...


Pat

Yvonne LV said:

Thanks Tanya. Now I feel brave enough to taste my cabbage as it's been 6 days now and i popped it in the fridge this morning.

[Yvonne LV]

I DID IT! :D After the first bite, it was a bit oi. But more because I've not had it in a long time so had forgotten what it tasted like. But after awhile I wanted more. :D

Pat Robinson said:

Ok, if you come back and write that you tried it and survived, I'll might maybe try my cabbage...


Pat

Yvonne LV said:

Thanks Tanya. Now I feel brave enough to taste my cabbage as it's been 6 days now and i popped it in the fridge this morning.