#32 Cabbage better than pills

Cabbage Outworks A $40 Pill Sauerkraut is easy and especially free if you have read my book Frugal Raw Feast. Sauerkraut is literally “sour cabbage” and since you have read Frugal Free Feast and now have FREE carloads of cabbage you’re going to be looking for ways to fix it. I usually make about 90 quarts a summer. We love sauerkraut with country style pork chop at dinner and John will eat kraut with his eggs instead of potatoes.

Raw homegrown and homemade Kraut has healthy pro-biotic bacteria. Store bought or cooked sauerkraut does not, the heat killed the good bugs. Cabbage is allowed to ferment in it own juice plus salt and some herb seasoning. The fermentation process makes it easy to digest and full of live pro-biotics.

Materials you will need
a large crock
a plate which will just fit inside the crock
a jar filled with water to use as a weight to fin on top of the dish
a towel or cloth to fit over the crock
a food processor to chop the hard fibrous vegetables like carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips and of course FREE Cabbage into small pieces

Start by removing the large outer cabbage leave and save them for use on the very top layers, at the end. Cut cabbage and veggies into small pieces. The cabbage should be real firm and fresh not more than 48 hours old. Work with about 5 pounds at a time. Cut head in quarters and remove the tough inner core. You may use a champion juicer with the flat plate to crush some of the vegetables. This juice is what activates the fermentation.

With a hammer or potato, masher firmly hit the cabbage until some of the liquid starts seeping out. Pack it firmly and smash it after every layer with salt. For each 25 pounds alternate with ¾ cup of salt. I have a large 5 gallon crock. With a clean food wrapped in a plastic bag I stand on the small cabbage pieces and press it down tightly.
Repeatedly pushing down every layer remove all the air from the veggies until it is very compact. Keep packing until you have a least 1/8 inch of juice on the top of the cabbage leaves.

Apply the huge outer cabbage leaves and the top with the plate on top of it all. Put the weighted jar on top of the plate and cover with a towel. Taste is the main way to know if the batch is ready.

Store at 70 to 75 degrees F. while fermenting. At this point, many books differ. On real hot days it can only take four days. Some books say at the temperatures of 75 degrees it will take 1 to 4 weeks. At 60 to 65 degrees in Colorado blizzard, it will take 2 to 6 weeks, at 60 degrees or less it will not ferment. You will have to experiment. Two years ago, our summer was very hot, I stored the crock up in my pantry, and the kraut became soft and sour in 3 weeks. Last year I stored it in the basement and it was ready in two weeks. If the fermentation goes to long it will have a spoiled taste. Good sauerkraut will have a zingy crisp taste.

Remove the huge top cabbage leaves and toss. Transfer kraut to a glass container in the refrigerator. Once you put it into the frig, it will slow the fermentation and can be stored for several months.

You will have to check the fermenting process several times a week. In the summer, also watch for little flies, they lay their eggs on the side of the crock – so keep that clean and wiped down. While doing this remove the scum that also forms. This scum does not look appetizing and it grayish white and foamy. Your job is just to remove it, don’t analyze it cuz it is gross. The fermentation is complete when the bubble stop or it tastes zippy and sour.

Kraut Variations

Curry Carrot VeggieKraut
1 cabbage
1 head read cabbage
3 cups carrots
3 cloves garlic
2 T. curry

Carrot Beet Kraut
2 heads green cabbage
2 cups carrots
2 cups beets


Ginger Zucchini Kraut
2 heads green cabbage
4 cups zucchini
For each two cups, add 1-Tablespoon ginger juice

Pesto Kruat
4 cups purple cabbage
1-ounce fresh basil
3 cloves garlic

Chinese Proverb – He who takes medicine and neglects his diet wastes the skill of the physician and his $$$
Raw Liquid Light Proverb – He who takes medicine and neglects living light food wastes his money. Later in this chapter, I am going to show you other easy, yummy smoothies to fix your problems.

Carbs Are the MOST Important Thing In Your Diet I bet you didn't ever expect to hear that from me. I can teach you this because all carbs are not created equal. Carbs found in thier natural form contain most of the essential nutrients and specialized chemical that keep you healthy and give you energy. But processed and refined carbs slow down your metabolism and contribute to every major disease associated with aging, including diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and cancer. If I say the word carb, you think bread and white flour, white sugar and candy. These carbs are unhealthy and are the lest important thing in your diet. Ever hear that carbs are empty calories? What are they empty of? There are empty of vitamins, mineral and phytonutrients. The important carbs are vegetables and fruits that can be considered carbs. If you want to be healthy you must eat healthy carbs because they contain, enzymes, vitamins, and phytonutients. Healthy carb vegetables have an abundance of obesity-fighty chemicals, vitamins, and mineral that can accelerate your metabolism (increasing energy) and provide plenty of fiber that will slow the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream. The key to eating carbs is to eat plants and avoid empty processed white flours and sugar foods.
Healthy Carbs = Phytonutients
Did you know that if these are missing from your diet, the consequences can be quite weighty? No pun intended of course! First of all, let's discuss what phytonutrients are. They are vibrantly colored plants and foods carrying bioactive chemical compounds proven to be beneficial to our health and well-being. The antioxidants found in these plants protects the cells in our body, from the damaging effects of oxidation (the little unprotected reactors that produce energy for each cell in your body.) These phytonutrients have also been proven to be a powerful blow to fat. In the journal of Nutrition Research, they discuss a study that included women eating raw fruits and vegetables, verses another set of women, who ate health food bars. The results were pretty astounding. On an average, the women who ate the raw fruits and vegetables (filled with phytonutrients) lost 22% more fat than the group who ate health food bars.
How do the phytonutrients in pumpkin, beets, yams, squash, nuts and seeds, work?
1) They fight infections in the body that lead to inflammation, which in turn leads to fat storage.
2) They have enzymes that detoxify the body and strengthen the liver.
3) They provide a power boost to the thyroid and adrenal glands.
4) They empower the genes that turn off fat storage, and promote fat burn to occur instead.
5) They trigger the body's internal mechanism to eat less, yet have the feeling of being full.
6) They create vital sources of nutrients which fight cancer cells
7) They strengthen red blood cells
Begin filling your smoothies with the above foods and watch the weight disappear. Not only will you experience predominate weight loss ... you'll also feel energized, experience clarity in your thoughts, manage stress much easier, and feel an overall feeling of wellness in your body. Studies have also shown that people who have incorporated phytonutirnets into their diets have also seen improvements in glucose control. Unstable molecules found around the bodies little nuclear reactors are controlled by these phytonutients. They inhibit the oxidation of LDL choleterol in the blood and since oxidized LDL cholesterol is much more likely to form artery blocking plaque, preventing oxidation is important -- if not more important than lowering the amount of LDL cholesterol and decreasing high blood pressure. This all sound like significant reductions for heart health.

PUMPKIN PIE HIGH RAW SMOOTHIE
I use fresh pumpkin from my garden. Hacking the guy with a huge sharp knife my husband opens him up, and chops him into about 20 pieces. Then I cut the thick outer skin off all of the pumpkin and cut him into inch piece that will go thought my juicer without problems. I keep him in a large tupperware and a good size pumpkin will last about four days or eight shakes The bright orange color of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that pumpkin is loaded with an important antioxidant, phytonutrient, beta-carotene that converts carotenoids into vitamin A protecting the body from cancer, aging, and heart disease.

2 cups fresh pumpkin pieces
One-inch fresh ginger
4 fresh carrots washed
1/8 fresh sliced cabbage
1 apple
Run the above though the juicer and pour the into 20 oz drinking glasses
I save the apple pulp and give it to my Dogs for breakfast along with their raw meat or egg. I discard the rest of the pulp in the compost pile.
Back to the raw smoothie, in the 20 oz glass divide the rest of the ingredients
1 teaspoon cinnamon or 4 drops cinnamon essential oils
1 teaspoon nutmeg or 4 drops nutmeg essential oils
2 raw eggs, one for each glass
For a little pucker try adding 1/2 cup of raw cranberries also.
Could You Have A Short Circuit? Food metabolism is very much like the progression of a boat going though a series of locks in a river. At each point, a key is used to allow the boat to go to the next level. Without the key (or in this case the enzyme) nothing happens. Without enzyme reaction in your body, nothing happens. Your brain doesn’t function fast, your bones hurt, organs are not up to par and your food rots, giving you gas. You can’t produce energy without enzymes. Raw veggies and fruits maintain your body’s balance.
Jump Start Digestion Here comes a forkful of food. A nice raw carrot. Your eyes and nose have checked out the situation and in response, your mouth begins to water. Saliva and enzymes juices are secreted and ready to mix with the food. The tongue starts the food down the 30 foot enclosed assembly line. Any carrot comes with his own enzymes. It takes care of its own digestion, metabolizing and assimilation. Now imagine that same carrot stir-fried or cooked in a delicious carrot cake. The body must produce the enzymes to get the nutrients out of it. It takes twice as much work to get half as much yield. Without adequate digestion, good health is impossible. The best dietary intake will have little value without enzymes.
Can You Chew Your Way To Better Health Chewing causes an involuntary secretion of pancreatic fluids, intestinal secretions, and bile, all needed to break up the food and release energy. The longer you chew your food the longer the enzymes in your mouth can work on that food, breaking up the starches even before they are swallowed. Chewing is critical for digestion of all food because enzymes only act on the surface of the food particles. The more time spent chewing the more the food is broken down and the more surface area the enzymes can get to. Here is the analogy. Imagine putting an orange in the blender. Would it be able to chop it up very well? Of course not. However, put little pieces into the blender and you will have orange puree in no time.
You’ve Got Two Tummy’s? Contrary to the myth that your stomach is simply one big round container, you have two tummy parts. Your tummy is shaped like a “C” facing backwards. There is the upper part of the “C” which retains food for 30 to 60 minutes, with a PH of 5. In a chicken, this is called a crop and in a cow, it’s the rumen. 60% of your carbs and 30% of your proteins are digested here. If in the top there are no enzymes and no churning, how does the food get digested? When raw liquid light food comes in, they bring their own built in raw liquid light enzymes and there is a lot of active digestion. When lots of fresh raw food is eaten, you can feel the difference. When cooked food is eaten – there is no action and everything just sits there rotting. When food is consistently void of enzymes, this causes the pancreas and endocrine glands such as the adrenals and pituitary to have to overwork.

Lower “C “ Gravity moves the food around the corner of the “C” into the holding lower chamber that if full of hydrochloric acid. Ptoteolytic enzymes break down protein, Lipolytic enzymes breakdown triglycerides, cholesterol, fats, and oils. Amylolytic enzymes or amylase decomposes carbohydrates, such as sugar, the lactose from milk, the sugars from fruits, and starches. As it enters the intestines, secretions causes the pancreas to produce a thick watery juice that has sodium bicarbonate, which helps, neutralize the hydrochloric acid in the food (chyme.) This new PH helps all the food digestive enzymes work twice as well and the food is absorbed into the blood stream.

Homework
l. The next time you have a smoothie try chewing it. Also when your at the
table for dinner be aware of how many times you chew a mouthful. Without telling, watch your family and how long they chew. Be aware of how long a meal takes to eat. Remember your tummy doesn't know that it is no longer hungery until the food has been there at least 10 minutes.
2. Try juicing cabbage you will find that it is sweet - just toss the pulp
3. If you have never eaten Kraut -- give it a try.