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Should Celiacs Eat Corn?

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I saw an interesting article from The Gluten Free Society named Celiac Patients React to Gluten-Free Bread.  The article claims that corn contains gluten and is just as damaging as the gluten from wheat, rye and barley and they point to some studies to back up their stance.  The studies appear to have some holes in them just from my cursory readings.

After reading it, my first thought was how much of that corn was GMO?  Organic?  Surely the body could have an immune reaction to a GMO grain and not react to the same grain in non-GMO form? [Read more…] about Should Celiacs Eat Corn?

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Good, Better, Best: When and How to Choose Organic on a Budget

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I’ve had a lot of questions come in based off of the beginnings of the Good, Better, Best series.  Lots of people are asking how I apply what I am writing, and how I make my own choices, since I haven’t been very explicit in telling you where my own lines are.  So I decided to give a quick write-up on where our lines are, and then pick back up on the series. Here’s what I do for my household. They are in order of importance

Fats

Animal fats are critical to buy organic, pastured and grass-fed, as fats are where toxins are stored. Animals raised without chemicals and on their natural diet will have the lowest levels of toxins. For vegetable based fats, like olive and coconut oil, I decide based on price. I buy [Read more…] about Good, Better, Best: When and How to Choose Organic on a Budget

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Free Webinar today: GMO Contamination: What’s an Organic Farmer to Do?

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I just found out about a free webinar going on today, and I wanted to pass this along to anyone who might be interested in the topic.  If you can’t do today’s webinar, they do have other ones on different organic farming topics this month.

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GMO Contamination Webinar Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Registration is still open for a webinar on GMO Contamination: What’s an Organic Farmer to Do? The webinar will take place on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 2PM Eastern Time (1PM Central, 12PM Mountain, 11AM Pacific Time). The webinar is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required. Register now at:

http://www.extension.org/article/33163

About the webinar:
Genetically engineered corn, soy, canola, alfalfa, oh my! What should organic farmers do to minimize GMO contamination of their organic crops? Jim Riddle of the University of Minnesota, will share ideas to minimize genetic trespass during planning, planting, production, harvest, storage, and transport.

About the presenter:

Jim Riddle has worked for over 26 years as an organic farmer, inspector, author, policy analyst and educator. He was founding chair of the International Organic Inspectors Association, (IOIA), and co-author of the IFOAM/IOIA International Organic Inspection Manual. He has trained hundreds of organic inspectors throughout the world. Jim served on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Organic Advisory Task Force from 1991-2009, and was instrumental in passage of Minnesota’s landmark organic certification cost-share program. Since January 2006, Jim has worked as the University of Minnesota’s Organic Outreach Coordinator. Jim is former chair of the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board, and is a leading voice for organic agriculture.

Check our webinar schedule for more webinars in March on Integrated Pest Management,  Local Food Systems, and Organic No-till at http://www.extension.org/article/25242.  If you were unable to attend our past presentations, you can watch them anytime on our archived webinar pages at http://www.extension.org/article/24989 . For articles and videos on organic farming, please visit the eOrganic home page at http://www.extension.org/organic_production.

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Good, Better, Best- Choosing Meats

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As I stated with my first post in this series, I fully recognize that some of you have very tight budgets or only have access to mega-marts due to your locations. Others will have the funds and availability to choose the best of the best. Either way, this post isn’t to condemn someone who can’t pick the best of every option, it is to help you make the best decision you can with what you have, where you are.

This week’s installment is on choosing meats. This post is to help you decide what is the best option for your budget. This posting is my opinion, and after research, you might reach a different conclusion. If you do, please comment and share what you found and your reasoning. I’m always open to changing my opinion and updating this post if new or different information comes along.

The Choices

Best– Locally grown, 100% pastured, organic or ‘not-certified but organic practice’

Better– 100% pastured, organic or ‘not-certified but organic practice’ [Read more…] about Good, Better, Best- Choosing Meats

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Product Review- Lundberg Brown Rice Couscous

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If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to enter our Menu Mailer giveaway here. It closes on Wednesday, March 9th at 11:59 PM EST.

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I’ve been gluten free for four-and-a-half years now. In that time, I have watched a myriad of products come onto the market. It’s rare that I try a product new to the GF market and am completely disgusted.

Tonight, that happened.

And not only was I disgusted, I was downright mad.

Wednesday, I took the kids for their dental check-up. On the way home, we swung by the store. I was completely excited when I saw Lundberg’s new Brown Rice Couscous. I have a couple of favorite recipes for couscous that I had back when we went gluten-free. I had held on to them, hoping that eventually someone would debut a gluten-free couscous. So I happily grabbed two boxes from the shelf and danced all the way to the check-out line. I planned on making my favorite chicken dish for dinner on Thursday night and the couscous dessert this weekend. It would be a special treat. If the couscous was good, it would be the meal I would request for my birthday coming up shortly.

So, tonight I started making dinner, very excited to once again have a favorite dish available for special occasions. I popped open the box and my heart sank. I took one look at the ‘couscous’ and immediately felt like I had been duped. It’s not really couscous. Couscous is a pasta. This product is nothing more than cracked rice! It’s simply grains of rice that have been cut unto three or four pieces each. I was mad that I had paid so much money for something I could have simply made in my grain mill for a quarter of the cost! It works out to be over $5 a pound!!!

Well, disappointed or not, I decided to go ahead and fix the dish. The couscous is toasted, so it does have the nutty flavor I remember. And the pieces are cut to the right size. So it gets good marks on flavor and mouth-feel. It cooks just like whole rice, so it gets good marks for the ease in fixing it. It also gets good marks for being certified non-GMO. But it gets a big, fat zero from me for value for the cost and false advertising, and that over-rides all of the other considerations. I will not buy this product again, and I have written to the company to express my disgust. Couscous is a pasta, not a cracked grain!

So, I recommend you save your money and run your rice through a grain mill instead. It will be far cheaper and you won’t be supporting a company that is engaging in some false advertising while charging a quadruple price for it!

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Disclaimer: I have received no payment or free product in exchange for this review. I have no financial interest in the product or the company.

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KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.

2 Responses to “Product Review- Lundberg Brown Rice Couscous”

1. Tas says:
February 25, 2011 at 03:02 | edit

Maybe they were getting mixed up with burghal which is cracked wheat.
2. KerryAnn Foster says:
February 25, 2011 at 19:35 | edit

That’s possible, Tas, but I sure hope their research department would have better sense! Lundberg is normally a very good company.

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Review- Daiya Dairy-Free Cheese

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Recently on the Facebook CTF page, someone mentioned a new dairy-free cheese on the market that melts and strings like real cheese.  Since I’ve been working on developing a variety of pizza crusts, I decided to look into it.  [Read more…] about Review- Daiya Dairy-Free Cheese

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