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Tag: raw milk

  • Eco-weekend

    Øverland Community Garden and Slow Food Asker and Bærum arranged an event drawing attention to organic food. The last weekend in November 2010 was filled with practical courses, films, photo exhibition, organic lunch, cakes made in accordance with raw food guidelines together with fine talks at the Waldorf school in Bærum near Oslo.

    Three practical courses were held on Saturday 27 November, first raw milk, followed by lactic acid fermentation and finishing with baking using old types of grain.

    Raw food
    Raw food was the last and most trendy type of food in 2010. The cafe Helt Rå (meaning completely raw) in Sandvika, 10 km east of Oslo, is an example. Celebrities like Lady Gaga and our own Princess Märtha were among their customers the first week after the opening. Raw food is food which has not been heated above 40?C, and it consists mainly of whole grains, nuts and vegetables. Raw food enthusiasts claim that doing traditional cooking leads that up to 80% of the nutrients are lost due to the heat. Consequently, the rather careful heat treatment of raw food.

    Lactic acid fermentation
    Lactic acid fermentation is an old method of conservation for conserving vegetables. A diverse selection of vegetables is cut up into small pieces and put into a jar where they are compressed. After having filled up most of the jar, salt water is poured over the vegetables until it covers everything inside the jar. Keeping the jar at room temperature, fermentation will start and continue until the ambient temperature is lowered to about 4?C, like in a fridge. The jars used at the course were quite large, 8 -10 litres(?), and they can be ordered from hjemmeproduktion.dk, which has a large selection of utilities for making food.

    Baking course
    The bakery course was arranged by Kristin og Johan Swärd who brought along grains like emmer, einkorn wheat, rye and barley from the farm Aschim Vestre on Hadeland north of the town Hønefoss. They are cultivating their grains organically and biodynamically. The next day we were informed by Kristian Ormset from the soil and plant analysis company Vital Analyse that the grains grown by the Swärd family had the best quality of all grains he had tested. His analysis showed that their grains were full of vitamins and antioxidants. After having prepared the dough on a Saturday, it was left for raising overnight such that breads could be finished for lunch the next day.

    Speeches
    On Sunday, nearly 70 participants could listen to discourses which were performed simultaneously in adjacent rooms. After a short introduction by Jolien Perotti, the leader of Øverland CSA, and Per Chr. Bakken, the leader of Slow Food Asker og Bærum, we could listen to Linda Jolly who told us about the story of agriculture, while also encouraging the audience to contribute their thoughts on the deficiencies of modern agriculture, Astri Riddervold, an ethnologist in her eighties, who talked about food conservation followed by Kristian Ormset from Vital Analyse who talked about the quality of the soil and showed us microscope photos of slices of grain and vegetables cultivated both conventionally, oganically and biodynamically. His conclusion was that especially biodynamically, and to a certain extent, organically grown grain and vegetables are more nutritious than conventionally grown ones, but only if the farmer is cultivating the harvest correctly. In extreme cases, organically grown plants may be less nutritious than conventionally grown ones.

    After having listened to experts from outside Øverland CSA and Slow Food, some of our “homegrown” experts shared their knowledge on composting, leftovers, beekeeping and organic agriculture.

    However, this event would not have been so great without the delicious vegetable soups made of organic pumpkins, onions and diverse vegetables together with a Thai soup with the same ingredients as the former, but also with coconut milk and curry. Homemade bread together with organic butter and sour cream from Røros dairy contributed to a delicious and nutritious meal. The last coffee break was enriched with a large selection of raw food, being quite tasty and diverse.

  • The Busi farm

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    Map reference

    Photo gallery

    The only means of sustenance of these poor families was raising pigs on their assigned properties, besides doing manual work in the countryside. Maria, who came from a village in the vicinity of Fertilia, married one of the sons of the Busi family in the 1960s. Uniting the entrepreneurial skills of her husband with her Sardinian traditional upbringing and passing these characteristics onto 4 sons, who are managing this big and modern farm, have reason to feel satisfied with the results of her husband’s and her own efforts.

    Now, there are about 60 Frissona cows and one Charolais bull called Cicero at the farm. The cows are milked twice daily by means of a machine. During our visit, the cows were waiting in a line in order to be milked. When the farmer Mauro was ready, about 8 cows were allowed to enter at the same time. The milking was finished after a few minutes, then a new group of cows could enter.

    The cow’s milk has a temperature of 39°C, but after having been pumped through various tubes into a big tank, the temperature is lowered about 10°C. After having milked all the cows, Tiziana, Mauro’s wife, started making a cheese called semicotto, literally half-cooked, by heating the milk up to 45°C and stirring it at the same time obtaining a thick substance called curd. After having added a small amount of rennet, in order to separate the fat and liquid parts of the curd, and after having stirred the curd until it seemed homogeneous, Tiziana extracted the fat parts from the curd and put them in small, cylindrical containers. Since they were porous, by compressing the fat parts, Tiziana was able to get rid of a large amount of the liquid parts, that is the whey. Tiiziana is also producing another type of cheese, which is called peretta, since it is pear-shaped.

    The Busi family was among the first ones to sell raw milk in Sardinia, and the initiative has been met with much enthusiasm among the Sardinians. Naturally, the major part of the milk is treated in dairies before being sold in shops.

    The calves are separated from their mothers shortly after being born. After the weaning, the male calves are kept in separate enclosures for some time before being slaughtered.

    They are also raising pigs and wild boars at the farm. These animals live inside a large enclosure in which they can move freely. The meat is mostly for their own consumption besides a few customers.