LIfe On The Farm: "Tree Tapping"

   Well Spring has finally arrived and was gladly welcome around the farm.

It is always nice to pull out of that winter slump, step outdoors and feel the hot sun on your face.

But Spring is a mixed blessing, as comes the heat so does the work!

As many of my readers will know I live on an organic farm and it is the goal of my family to become entirely self-sufficient and produce all our own food. As the season progresses I will be sharing some of our experiences here and on our journey back to real food.

   This weekend was an interesting one; I'm sure most of you are familiar with the delicious Canadian treat - maple syrup. Well now is the 'tree tapping' season, when you begin to harvest sap from maple trees and reduce it until it forms maple syrup. It was an interesting experience and one relatively new to all of us, this being the second time our family has done it.  We started off by tapping the trees; basically making a small hole about half an inch wide and inserting a small plastic tube attached to a bucket. As the sap makes its way up from the roots it begins to drip down and fill the bucket, which is later emptied and the sap boiled. 

  So day by day we would bring the buckets into our kitchen from the forest and reduce the sap. The smell in the house was incredible. New to our knowledge was how to get a different quality of syrup(usually judged by colour). Contrary to our previous beliefs darker maple syrup is not reduced farther but rather comes from later on in the season when the sugar content of sap changes from mainly fructose sugars to sucrose sugars. Strangely the difference in flavour was astounding. The darker syrup usually goes for a bit more money and there is no question why. The flavour was much stronger and the syrup much sweeter. 

  Another thing we learned was how hard it is to make maple syrup. It takes just about forty liters of sap to make one liter of syrup. Don't be worried though, a tree pumps many many times this a day and tapping trees does not damage them in any way. So this is how we spent our weekend on organics farm and in all honesty I had a blast. It was a great experience for all of us and one thing is for sure, tasting homemade maple syrup is like nothing else!

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked To MS

Researchers have recently discovered a direct link between

a lack of vitamin D and the development of ms. They have found that 

the vitamin directly affects part of the genome associated with ms.

Only further proving the importance of a healthy diet during pregnancy 

and child development. For the full story and more information about the

disease visit the following link:Multiple Sclerosis Caused by Vitamin D Deficiency

Raw Milk

Well anyone who has been involved in the health food industry for a few years has to have heard about raw milk and the raw milk controversy. Raw milk is a new 'natural' trend that involves drinking milk unpasteurized or as it came from the cow. Raw milk is currently illegal to sell in Canada but you are able to drink it if you own the producing cow. The issue presented with raw milk is the fact that by being unpasteurized any bacteria that could have contaminated the milk (potentially causing diseases such as salmonella) remain alive; whereas when pasteurized milk is boiled so all bacteria are killed.

So this really forces one to wonder why then do people choose to drink raw milk if it is so dangerous? Well through pasteurization many good bacteria that help us fight infections and disease are also exterminated and beneficial enzymes are broken down. Still one might think it could kill you so why take the risk? Raw milk still contains all the enzymes and beneficial bacteria which aid the body in defending against harmful bacteria. 

The nutritional value and health benefits of raw milk are unquestionable,

however if you are looking for raw milk it must be from a small producer whom you know runs a cleanly operation and takes care to make sure the milk is uncontaminated, because raw milk does run the risk of spreading infection, even though it is a healthier alternative.

To read a it more about raw milk visit:Health benefits of raw milk from grass-fed animals by Ron Schmid, ND