Clabber, Skim Milk and Healthy Fats

I'm trying out a new format where some of the rambles I've done on instagram or youtube are being written up as blog posts for those who prefer to read over watching. Let me know what you think! xo Kate

Ready for a ramble on clabber, skim milk and healthy fats? OK buckle up and let’s go. First question I can hear already: what is clabber? If you leave pasteurized milk out on the counter it will rot and become disgusting. If you leave raw milk out it separates into curds and whey and it’s called clabber.  You know, little Ms Muffet, sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey?

Chickens have a hard time digesting straight milk. Pigs can have straight milk, but chickens do better with clabber. So if we have milk that has gone off or simply too much skim milk for us to use, we let it clabber before feeding it to the chickens. This is a great source of extra calories for them!

When I refer to skim milk that I've skimmed by hand with a ladle, its probably more like 2-3% milk. Its not skim milk like what has run through a cream separator and you see on the store shelves.

Somewhere along the line the “powers that be”  managed to convince the general population that skim milk was the healthy choice for your family. This is excellent marketing on their part. Historically skim milk was for fattening pigs - it’s a waste product from making butter. For every quart of heavy cream that you buy, in all likelihood from Holstein cows, it took 2 to 3 gallons of milk. 

They’ve managed to convince you that the waste product called skim is what you need to properly feed your family! No girl! And I hear you - this is probably so engrained in you from years of hearing it… that you need to eat low-fat and this is all you know. Fair enough.

You might ask what about all the fat? You’re trying to cut out fat and it’s a good way to lower overall calories consumed.  How about this instead; cut out the refined sugars, cut out the high fructose corn syrup, cut out crazy refined carbs and keep the whole fat dairy. It’s good, real good! Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Ironically most of whats left in skim milk is the sugars. Drinking skim milk is like tossing out the cob of corn and eating the tassel. You’re missing all the good parts. Your body needs good fats.  Your brain needs good fats. These are the facts we know.

Around ten years ago, we decided to stop buying cheap fats, and to consume more good fats. Marius LOST weight when we made this transition.

 So how do we decipher what are good things to feed our family?  This is our very basic formula, our family’s guidelines. Yours will be different. 

If it takes a factory to make it it’s probably NOT something we will be consuming on a regular basis. 

If it takes chemical processing to produce it or extract the oils it’s something that we are going to pass on. 

We DO skim some of the cream off of our jersey cows milk for butter and sour cream, but hand skimmed milk still has decent fat levels to it, and we are still consuming the fat...just in other ways/forms.

As for cows over chemists I trust the cows. Who wouldn’t trust our bovine buddies? 

That doesn’t that mean we never eat treats ever, of course not. These are just things that we enjoy in moderation and they are TREATS.  I dont have time for legalistic food rules. Marius loves his M&M’s. Dont wave a mars bar in front of me or you might get your fingers bit off.

One of the ways I keep myself in check using sweeteners and sugars is by buying good (read: expensive) ones like organic cane sugar. You are less likely to be making all sorts of things with great abandon if they cost more. It’s a bigger chunk out of your budget but it’s just one of the tools I use to keep myself in check whilst using higher quality products. 

 If you are allergic to dairy or choose not to consume dairy you can still follow the same principle. My sister, her whole family and my mom are plant-based.  They choose to eat foods especially oils and fats that are healthy and take minimal processing. They rely heavily on good oils like olive oil and tahini and not much coconut oil. These are good healthy fats.  Nuts are also packed with healthy fats. Same theories- how much processing does this fat take?- apply just take out the dairy.

I have zero judgement if you don’t eat dairy. This is not meant to be a pro-dairy rant (although you know I love my dairy...). This is a pro-healthy fats ramble and I hope it inspires you to look at the foods your consuming and how they are made.

xo Kate