“Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter…” Pr. 30:33
One of the joys of having a family milk cow is all the different uses of the milk. In our home, we use a lot of butter….and we like fresh, raw butter the best.
Instead of shaking the cream in a jar for a few hours, we found the following way that is easy, works quickly, and we get the same result!
Step 1:
The first step is to skim the cream off your milk that has set in the fridge, preferably at least overnight. Take your cream and put it into a quart jar. Set your cream out until it reaches room temperature. If it is too cold, it will take much longer to turn into butter.
Step 2:
Pour your cream into your food processor, up to the ‘max liquid’ line. Put your processor on medium speed. DO NOT leave your processor. If your cream goes too long, it will turn into butter, and then go back to liquid again. After it goes back to liquid again, it is very hard to get it to go back to butter the second time.
Watch your cream closely, and you will see it begin to ‘gather’. At first, it will go through the stage where it looks like Cool Whip; don’t stop it here, let it keep going. You will see it turn yellow, and the buttermilk will be the liquid that is left. Stop it here! Take off your lid, and you will be able to see clumps of butter floating around, stuck to the sides or middle.
Step 3:
Drain off your buttermilk into a jar (if you want to keep it) and put your butter into a bowl. Press it down with a spoon, and you will see more buttermilk come off; Pour it out of your bowl. Continue to do this until you press and no buttermilk comes out.
Step 4:
When you are finished, and no more buttermilk comes out upon pressing, rinse your butter with cold water, pour it off, and pat it dry.
Step 5:
Salt your butter (if you like it salted), and it is ready to enjoy.
When you start eating clean, it is tempting to eat kosher and forget about eating healthy. After all, Coca-Cola, M&M’s, and other unhealthy foods have Kosher Symbols on them. So, doesn’t that make them clean and healthy to eat?
Even though we all like those things sometimes, being Kosher, still doesn’t make them healthy. Sorry.
Many Kosher foods contain High Fructose Corn Syrup, white sugar, hydrogenated oils, and other ingredients that are harmful to our bodies.
What makes them Kosher is that they do not contain the ingredients or the combinations of foods that the Rabbi’s consider not Kosher.
Yehoshua taught us that, if we love Him, we will obey what He commands. John 14:15
John tells us, He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6
You can find Yehovah’s clean eating instructions in Leviticus Chapter 11
We choose to follow what our Messiah did and eat clean, and to stay away from foods that although they might be “Kosher”, aren’t good for our bodies. While at the same time, eating things like lasagna that have milk and meat together because although that is not “Kosher”, it is clean. Abraham, the Father of our faith, led by example and when he was visited by Yehovah, fed Him milk and meat together. If it’s good enough for the Father, it is good for us! (Genesis 18)
We want to follow Yehovah, not men’s laws.
Below you will find a list of ingredients that can be dangerous to your health, even though you may find them on a product label that is Kosher.
Sodium Nitrate/Nitrite,
Preservatives used to prevent bacterial growth and maintain the pinkish color of meats and fish. They are in cured, canned, and packaged meats. Sodium nitrite and nitrate react with amino acids to form cancer-causing chemicals called nitrosamines.
Hydrogenated Oils, These are oils made by forcing hydrogen gas into vegetable fats under extremely high pressure, it creates trans fatty acids. Food processors like this fat because of its low cost and long shelf life. It is found in margarine, pastries, frozen foods, peanut butter, cakes, cookies, crackers, canned soups, fast food items, and flavored coffee creamers. These man made fats are a leading cause of clogged arteries.
BHA/BHT, Butylated hydroxytoluene and butylated hydroxyanisole are petroleum-derived antioxidants used to preserve fats and oils.
To read an article on the effect of these chemicals, click here.
Artificial Colors, (Like, Yellow #5 & #6, Blue #1 & #2) These dyes have been linked to cancer, tumors, allergies, and hyperactivity.
This is commonly found in foods as a ‘flavor enhancer’.
Studies have shown that MSG increases the likelihood of weight gain, high blood pressure, asthma attacks, metabolic syndrome. Symptoms of sensitivity include; headache, flushing, tingling, weakness, and stomach ache.
MSG is the ingredient found in the ‘spice’ Accent. It’s commonly found in potato chips, fast food, ice tea mixes, packaged seasonings, sports drinks, canned soups and broth, bouillon cubes, and salad dressings.
It is best to avoid processed packaged foods and eat a whole foods diet instead. This alone will help you avoid many of these dangerous food additives.
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), is derived from corn starch. Starch itself is a chain of glucose (a simple sugar) molecules joined together. When corn starch is broken down into individual glucose molecules, the end product is corn syrup, which is essentially 100% glucose.To make HFCS, enzymes are added to corn syrup in order to convert some of the glucose to another simple sugar called fructose.
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener, also referred to as Acesulfame potassium (K), AminoSweet®, Neotame®, Equal®, NutraSweet®, Blue Zero Calorie Sweetener Packets™, Advantame®, NutraSweet New Pink, Canderel®, Pal Sweet Diet® and AminoSweet®.
It’s used in a variety of food and wellness products like diet soda, gum, ice cream, jello, packaged yogurt, candy and vitamins. Anythings that says “Sugar Free”, “Zero Sugar”, “Light/Lite” or “Diet” usually contains Aspartame or another artificial sweetener.
Note in the picture above the aspartame in the ingredient list with an asterisk talking about this frozen yogurt containing phenylalanine. According to Mayo Clinic this can cause intellectual disabilities, brain damage, seizures and other problems.
Aspartame’s other potential dangers include cancer, induced or worsened diabetes, increased heart disease risk, nervous system and brain disorders and much more.
Here is a link to an in depth article on Aspartame, complete with numerous studies and information.
Genetically Modified Foods (GMO’s)
According to the Non-GMO Project “Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in a laboratory through genetic engineering. This creates combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.
Most GMOs have been engineered to withstand the direct application of herbicide and/or to produce an insecticide. However, new technologies are now being used to artificially develop other traits in plants, such as a resistance to browning in apples, and to create new organisms using synthetic biology. Despite biotech industry promises, there is no evidence that any of the GMOs currently on the market offer increased yield, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition, or any other consumer benefit.
More than 80% of all genetically modified crops grown worldwide have been engineered for herbicide tolerance.7 As a result, the use of toxic herbicides, such as Roundup®, has increased fifteenfold since GMOs were first introduced.8 In March 2015, the World Health Organization determined that the herbicide glyphosate (the key ingredient in Roundup®) is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
Genetically modified crops also are responsible for the emergence of “superweeds” and “superbugs,” which can only be killed with ever more toxic poisons such as 2,4-D (a major ingredient in Agent Orange).9,10
Most GMOs are a direct extension of chemical agriculture and are developed and sold by the world’s largest chemical companies. The longterm impacts of these GMOs are unknown. Once released into the environment, these novel organisms cannot be recalled.”
Potassium Bromate, is used mainly is dough processing in breads and other processed foods like crackers, egg rolls, pizza crusts, and cookies.
In 1999 the International Agency for Research on Cancer determined that potassium bromate is a possible human carcinogen.
You can learn more on the EWG’s website. They have information about toxic chemicals in our food, as well as in farming, personal care products, and household products like laundry soap. They offer a grading system, and make the Clean 15/Dirty Dozen Shopper’s Guide that helps you know what has the least and most pesticides residue on fruits and veggies.
As always, we encourage you to do your own research.
View here or click on “Download” button to open for a printable version
In Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 12 we read what The Father says we are to eat and not eat for meat.
Listen to our podcast here to learn more about why these laws apply to us, who are born again through Messiah’s blood, and were not thrown out in the “New Testament”.
Today, In Part 2, we are going to look at the answer to the question, “Which Animals Does The Bible Say Are Clean and Unclean For Food?” And “Do the dietary laws still apply to us today, or are they done away with?” *Clean animal list to come!*
Start by washing your apples. Once that is done, peel, cut, core and slice.
Put these slices into a large stockpot. If your apples are really dry, you need to add about a quart or so of water to a very large stockpot full. If your apples are very juicy, you need little to no water. You will have to gauge it by the juiciness of your apples, so that they do not burn. Stir continually.
Shut them off when they are mostly cooked, but still a little hard.
To a large stockpot, add:
4 cups Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp Lemon Juice (optional)
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Nutmeg
Warm water if very thick until it reaches desired consistency
Canning Preparation:
Fill your canner half way with water, and turn on. Put your empty jars in your oven on ‘warm’. If your oven doesn’t have a ‘warm’ setting, just put it on the lowest setting it has.
When everything is hot/warm, you are ready for the next step.
Fill your hot jars with the hot filling, leaving an inch of head space in the top of your jar. Pack filling tightly into jar. Put a butter knife down the insides of your jar (between the glass and the sauce) to let out any air bubbles in the jar/filling. Wipe your rims clean with a rag or paper towel to remove any filling. If you don’t do this, it can prevent your lids from sealing tightly to your jar.
Put on your pre-warmed lids and screw on your rings tightly. Put your jars into your warm water in your canner, with a jar lifter, pictured below.
Canning/Water Bathing
When all the jars are in the canner, you want there to be about 1” of water covering the top of all jars. Put your canner lid on, but do not lock it. Watch for when water starts to boil. When it does, turn heat to medium, and set your timer for 25 minutes.
When timer goes off, shut off canner. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Place a towel on your counter. Take your jar lifter, and carefully remove your jars from the hot canner and onto your towel. Do not tighten your rings if they loosen.
Let cool for 12 hours. Check seals and store.
The reason you want to check the seals is to make sure they are all secure before you store them.
You check the seals by tapping the jar lids with one finger. As you tap them, listen for a jar that sounds different than the rest of them. It will usually make a hollow sound.
If you find a jar that hasn’t sealed, put it in the fridge and use it soon. If you are planning more canning, you can try to can it again. Make sure there are no nicks in the top of jar and a good lid on it.
For this recipe, we are making a gallon of yogurt. If you want more or less, you can adjust it by doubling, halving the recipe, etc.
You can use cow or goat milk for this recipe. If you use goats milk, it will not be as thick, and will be more of a drinkable type of yogurt, like the consistency of kefir.
You start by taking your milk out of the fridge, and letting it sit on the counter until it reaches room temperature. If it is just a little bit cooler than that, it is fine. Or, if your milk is just fresh, you do not have to let it sit because it will already be the right temperature.
Put your gallon jar of milk into a double boiler, or pour it into a stainless steel pot. Put it on your burner and turn it on. Take the lid off your glass gallon jar, and put a thermometer in with the milk. This way you can keep an eye on it as the temperature rises. DO NOT LEAVE IT…..the temperature rises quickly!
Once it reaches 180℉, take your glass gallon jar out of the pot or double boiler. Place it on the counter, leaving in the thermometer, and keeping an eye on it until it drops back down to 110℉.
When the temperature arrives at 110℉, it is time to add in your yogurt starter. If you already have some yogurt on hand, (store-bought is okay) add in a cup and a half of that. Otherwise, you can buy yogurt starter packets, either at your local health food store, or online. We like the ones from New England Cheese Company. Add one packet per gallon. Stir well, whichever method you use.
After you have added your starter, put the lid back on your jar. Place your jar, wrapped in a towel, in a cooler, and latch the lid. Leave overnight, or for 8-12 hours.
Take out, and refrigerate….then enjoy! It will keep for about 5-7 days. After that, is usually gets a little sour.
Make sure you save some of your yogurt, so you can use your own starter, next time!
In mid-winter take your best sweet potato and put it in a quart canning jar filled with water. (DO NOT CUT YOUR POTATO!)
Don’t have a sweet potato you grew? That’s okay, just get a couple from the store.
Set your canning jar in the window sill. Change the water every few days, or when the water begins to stink.
After about 3 weeks, your sweet potato will start to sprout. Once your sprouts/slips are 3”-4” tall and leafed out, snip off the slips and put them in a pint jar of water.
Once they are in the jar of water, they will start growing their own roots.
If the slip or root growing process seems to be taking awhile, adding some compost to the water helps to speed up the growth.
Once your slips have grown roots that are 2-4”, they are ready to transplant.
We have found that it works best to plant them in a pot of dirt that is VERY wet.
This prevents them from going into shock, by just going straight from the jar of water, into the garden.
You want to keep them in your pot of wet dirt for at least 5-7 days, longer is okay.
If it is still cold outside, keep this pot indoors in a window sill as well.
Planting Sweet Potatoes Outside
You want to plant your slips outside after your last frost date. With your hoe, make small hills about 1′ around and 1′ high.
With your hoe handle, make a 4” deep hole in the center of your hill. Take your slips (we like to do 3-4 per hill), spread out the roots and cover with dirt. Then top your hill with compost.
Watering
Water WELL everyday until plants are established. This is VERY IMPORTANT!
Once established water a couple times a week (unless it rains, of course).
Pests
There are many garden pests who will attack your potato vines. These include sweet potato weevils, sweet potato beetles, wireworms, flea beetles, and blister beetles.
If any pests attack your sweet potato plant, spray Neem oil (organic spray) 1-2x per week, or more depending on how bad the bugs are and how much damage they are causing.
If it is blister beetles that are eating your sweet potato plants, remove them WITH GLOVES (THEY DO GIVE BLISTERS) into soapy water. You will have to be on top of it checking daily, or several times daily, until they are gone. Otherwise they WILL destroy your plants.
Feeding the Plant
If your sweet potato leaves are looking a little yellow, or just not growing well, you need to feed the plant. You need to add compost around the hill and plant. It is also a good idea to put hay or mulch around the hills in the dry season, to keep the moisture in.
When to Harvest
Harvesting is an exciting time, and a time to be thankful to God for what He has blessed us with. Ecc. 3:13 says, “Every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.”
Before your first frost date (it is alright if the plants get frosted on, just make sure they don’t get frosted on repeatedly.)
Take a potato fork and dig up the hills, being careful not to dig the fork into the potatoes themselves.
Carefully brush off any dirt with a soft bristled brush, making sure you do not remove or scratch the skins.
Storing
Store them in a cool, dark place to let them cure for about two weeks. You can begin using them after this time; but they longer they cure, the sweeter they will be!
Preserving
If your sweet potatoes are not keeping well, for whatever reason, you will need to can them.
Prov. 12:27 says, “the substance of a diligent man is precious.” We don’t want what is ‘precious’ to us to go to waste!
Canning
You begin this process by washing the potatoes well. Cut them into bigger chunks, (you can peel now, or after the boil) put them into water and bring to a boil. Let them boil for about 10 minutes, then remove from heat. Do not strain the water out of the potatoes; you are going to use it in a moment.
Take the potatoes out of the water with a slotted spoon. If you did not peel them beforehand, you can slip them off now. Fill the jars with the peeled potato chunks.
Ladle the water you boiled them in over the potato chunks, leaving 1” head space between the water and lid. Put your lids and rings on the jars tightly.
Place your jars in the canner with hot water, and slide the lid into ‘lock’ position. Once steam starts to come out of the vent pipe, set your timer for 10 minutes.
When your timer goes off, and your ten minutes in up, put the weight on, and let the pressure build up to 10psi.
If you used pint jars, keep at 10psi for an hour and 5 minutes.
If you used quart jars, keep at 10psi for an hour and a half.
When the time is up, let cool as the pressure comes out. When all the pressure is out (your psi is back to zero) Remove your jars from the canner. DO NOT re-tighten bands if they came loose.
Allow to continue cooling for about 12 hours or so.
Check your seals (use any if they didn’t seal, soon) and store.
DON’T FORGET! Save some of your potatoes to start your slips in mid winter! Then you’ll never have to buy slips from a greenhouse again! 🙂
What to do with Canned Sweet Potatoes?
You can heat them up straight from the jar, mash, and put cinnamon and butter on them, or you can add them to soup.
Have you ever had Sweet Potato Pie? If you like Pumpkin Pie, Sweet Potato Pie is just as good. Some in our family would say EVEN BETTER!
First you will need to have your planting tray ready. Pour your soil on your tray. Push soil into the cells of your tray. Sprinkle with water. When you are finished, put 4 to 5 beet seeds in each cell. Put your soil on top. Make sure your soil is not too deep, or your seedlings will not come up. Water again, and water your seeds each day. They should sprout up in about 7 to 14 days after planting.
The reason why we plant them like this is because it saves on space and it allows the root to get bigger and they grow better together.
Note: If the seedlings get long and spindly, just replant them deeper.
In 2 to 3 weeks you should be able to plant them outside. Make sure it is after the first frost, so that they do not get killed by frost. When you plant them outside, give them space to get big, about 6-8 inches apart. Keep watered, in the dry season.
Harvesting your Beets
Honor Yehovah with thy substance, with the first fruits of all thine increase. Proverbs 3:9
We seek to obey the Father and give our first fruits away in order to obey His word. We have seen His faithfulness in abundantly blessing, our harvest, since obeying the Scriptures, just like in all areas of life where we seek to obey.
When your beets look like the picture below, pull them up, taking the biggest out so that the smaller ones can continue to grow. Cut off the tops/greens of your beets. You can saute the greens, see recipe here, or compost them.
A word of caution: If you are prone to kidney stones be aware that many stones are formed from an anti-nutritent called oxalate. Spinach contains the highest amount of oxalate, however beets contain some as well. To help bind the oxalate, you can eat something with calcium, beet and cottage cheese is good!
Preparing your beets for canning
Put a pot of water on to boil. Keep the the long tap root on the beet for now. Wash your beets in the sink, and when your water comes to a boil, put your beets in the boiling water for 10 to 20 minutes, or until the beets skins’ are coming off and you can stick your knife in the beet and it is soft.
When your beets are ready to cut, carefully take the beets out of the pot of boiling water and put them on a cookie sheet. Let cool. When cooled, cut off the tap root, take the skins off, and slice your beets into whatever size you want.
The instructions below are for canning beets, without pickling.
Get your presser canner and put it on the stove. Fill with water 1/4 to 1/2 full, and turn canner on low. You are going to need to turn your oven on warm, or the lowest setting it will go to heat your jars. The reason you need to have your jars hot, is so that when you put your hot beets and boiling water in, your jar won’t break.
When your jars and canners’ water are hot, and beets are sliced, ladle your beets and hot boiling water into the jar, leaving 1 inch head space at the top.
Remove air bubbles by sliding a knife down the sides of the jar. Wipe jar rim and put lid and ring on tight.
Turn your burner on high. DO NOT USE A FLAT TOP ELECTRIC RANGE IT WILL CRACK THE TOP.
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CANNER!
Once steam starts coming out of your canner’s vent pipe, set the timer for 10 minutes.
When the timer goes off, place your weight on your vent pipe. The pressure will start building. When pressure reaches 10psi turn your canner on low to keep it there. Set the timer for 35 minutes for quarts, and 30 minutes for pints.
MAKE SURE TO KEEP YOUR CANNER AT 10psi. You may have to shut off your burner and turn it back on.
When the timer goes off, turn off your burner and let your canner cool.
CAUTION! DO NOT REMOVE YOUR CANNER LID OR WEIGHT UNTIL YOUR CANNER HAS COOLED AND RELEASED THE PRESSURE. YOUR REGULATOR WILL BE AT 0, WHERE IT STARTED.
Once the pressure has released from your canner remove the weight from the lid. Make sure you put it somewhere you won’t lose it. Open the lid turning it away from you, so you don’t get steam burnt.
Place a towel on the counter, and carefully lift your jars out of the canner with a jar lifter, and place them on the towel. Some of your jars will seal after you remove them from the canner.
CAUTION! DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON TOP OF YOUR JARS. It will cause them to unseal.
At this point, we used to cover our jars with a towel. However, we’ve since learned that you want the jars to come out of the canner and be exposed to the quick temperature change in order to seal.
Once your jars are cooled, check to make sure they all sealed (gently tap the lid and listen to the sound, if one sounds hollow and clicks when tapped it’s not sealed) if they are sealed, remove the rings and store the jars.
Saving Beet Seeds
If you want to save your seeds make sure you are buying a heirloom variety. You can’t save the seeds from a hybrid and it come back the same thing. The package will usually say if they are heirloom. Some examples of heirloom beets are Detroit Dark Red, Sangria, Sweetheart, Ruby Queen, to name a few.
A hybrid is a way the government has used to get people to rely on them for their seeds. Now many people are on food stamps. They have gotten to where they don’t grow their own food, and don’t know how to. We hope reading this post will encourage and teach you how to.
Step one, do not harvest some of the beets that you planted. Keep them in the ground over the winter. They should start greening up on the spring. As they grow, they will start getting flowers on them, like the picture below.
Beet “spikes”
By late summer/ early fall you should see the flowers die, and the seeds appear. You’ll recognize them by the seed you planted in the ground. The seed will dry out on the plant turn brown/tan, and you can then harvest the seeds. Cut the “spikes” and put them in a brown paper bag to finish drying for a couple weeks.
Store your seeds in a cool dry place for the winter.
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Isaiah 55:2
When you pickle beets, you do not pressure can them. It is a good alternative for those who like to water bath their canned goods. The vinegar acidifies the beets, so they can be water bathed.
You’ll need:
A water bath canner, quart size jars, lids, and rings, sugar, cinnamon sticks, whole allspice, real salt, white vinegar, and water. A canning funnel is a handy tool as well.
Preparing Beets
Wash beets, keeping taproot and 2” of stem.
Boil the beets until tender, about 25–35 minutes.
Transfer beets into very cold water.
Remove skins, stems, and taproots.
Slice or chop beets to desired size. Keep hot.
Prepare Brine
Combine vinegar, water, sugar, and seasonings in a saucepan.
Bring brine to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove cinnamon stick.
Keep brine hot.
Canning Procedure
Warm you jars in the oven. Start you water warming in your canner, but not boiling.
Heat your lids in boiling water.
Pack your beets into hot jars and cover with the hot brine. Leaving 1/2″ headspace.
Remove air bubbles with a knife, wipe rim, and put on lid and ring
Put into canner, start your timer when the water is at a full boil. Keep covered.
Boil quarts for 35min., pints for 30min.
Remove from canner, put on towel on counter and let sit for 12 hours.
Do You Know My Father? 