Bekah from PA

Hi, my name is Bekah, and I love to cook. My husband and I have four kids ages 7, 5, 2, and 10mos. Our oldest has Tourrette's and asthma, milk allergy, persistant constipation, and eczema. We've been doing WAPF type eating for at least five years and I make all our bread (soaking the flour first). My oldest is our only vaxed kid and the only one who has had pasteurized milk. I was also on antibiotics when he was born and he had them once as a toddler. My other three kids are MUCH healthier and the five yo just had antibiotics this summer for the first time.
I had lactose intollerance issues as a kid, but seem to handle dairy really well now. I've experimented going off it for weeks and then having it again and I feel better with dairy due to the probiotics in the yogurt I eat.
We love our lacto-fermented veggies here and I've just started making pickled peaches which my kids LOVE even though they aren't a bit sweet. They drink the brine too.
I've been phasing out GAPS illegal foods for the past week and just went and bought LOTS of meat and veggies today in hopes of starting the intro diet next week. Late summer seems like the perfect time with the abundance of good, cheap veggies!
Looking forward to getting to know everyone hear and helping each other out.

Congrats on getting ready for intro! Yeah, I bet it is a LOT easier to do in the summer. I'm going to start doing full GAPS hopefully at the end of this month. Glad to have you here!

Hi Bekah! I'd love to hear more about pickled peaches! I'm relatively new to fermented foods, and haven't gotten very creative yet!

I haven't even STARTED trying to ferment yet.

I wash the peaches, take the pit out, and slice them - leaving the skin on.
Put them in a mason jar with a cinnamon stick, some cloves, and some whole allspice.
Mix 2 Tbls salt in a quart of water. Pour water over peaches. Put lid on and put in the cupboard for 2-3 days. Refridgerate for a week and then enjoy! They are really rather fizzy and zippy and not sweet, so don't expect them to be. Most of my kids love them.

I'm excited about starting probiotics. Do you not add any whey to it? I'm highly allergic, and if there are ways for me to prepare things sans whey, that would be great. I'd love to try making sauerkraut, but my understanding is it should probably be fresh-grown? I have some cabbage seed, but I really can't try to grow it till the colder season

Sans whey! Less salt is required if whey is used.
I've done kraut with grocery store cabbage and it still works. Next best is farmer's market. My mantra is only do what you can afford and don't sweat the rest.

That should TOTALLY be my mantra. I have found that I am a bit obsessive over any one thing that I set my mind to at a time. I see an interview on Mercola with a juicing lady, I suddenly need a Champion. (My husband is smart enough to say no to these things when he knows we don't need them) I have become enchanted with all things almond butter. I have tried a new GAPS recipe almost every day of the week since I got my copy of Internal Bliss. And what happens? I burn myself out. When things don't go perfectly, I get discouraged. My dad says I'm a 90-10 kind of person. I get 90% of the way there, and then I quit before the last 10%.

Eating store-bought cabbage-sauerkraut freaks me out a little bit. I usually feel fine about store-bought cabbage because you can take the outer layers off and presto! no more pesticides. But you NEED the outer leaves for sauerkraut, right? You know, I've never actually had sauerkraut. It's stinky. Of course, that was store-bought. It's going to be an interesting experience. Can you wash the cabbage before "krauting?" Gah. Just to shut myself up, I'm going to try to make kraut with a store-bought cabbage THIS WEEK.

I ALWAYS peel the outer leaves off the cabbage and still get great kraut. Homemade is very little like store bought. It's less sour, and fresher tasting. AND it's crunchy rather than soggy like store bought.

Wow, I thought the whole theory behind kraut was that you use the bacteria on the outer leaves. I'll definitely give it a go. I happen to have half a cabbage in my refrigerator, actually. I could use that. I don't think I have a mason jar, though. I have a jar that used to have spaghetti sauce in it, though. I guess that could work. Do you just stick it in a food processor, get enough juice out of it, fill a jar (leaving 1-2 inches), and leave it on the counter for a few days? Do you have a cold house? If so, what do you do to manage? I bet I could wrap my heating pad around the jar on low.

I've been wanting to try this recipe since I read about it. The carrots and things make it sound sweet.

All you need is a glass jar. Make sure you salt the cabbage - that will draw the juices out. Also make sure the juices are covering the cabbage in the jar, so mold won't grow. If a little gets on the top, that's fine, just scrape it off.
Room temp is best for fermenting. Slightly cooler takes longer and gets a more sour product, so it really depends on what you like. Don't heat the cabbage as it ferments!!!!! No need and it could do harm. Just let the natural bacteria do their work and don't stress it. I've had a few failures, but never with cabbage. It's almost fool proof.

Oh, all raw foods have the bacteria all over them and cabbage leaves grow in layers, so it's really throughout.

Awesome. Now I just need a jar! This is going to be fun.