I read the thread on fermenting. The WHOLE thread. Took me most of a day, but was worth it.
So now...
My chicks are eating fermented crushed grain and seed mash. One that was struggling is now improving since starting this.
My older chicks and chickens are eating fermented seed and grain mix. My kids now make jokes about the chickens being tiddly (they aren't, but the kids are having fun anyway).
I have sourdough going. I keep it in the fridge, take some out every couple days and refresh it. I mix the sourdough with more flour, water, and salt, then put it back in the fridge for another day or two before I bake it. So I have the benefit of not having to buy yeast, and the benefit of completely fermented bread (not just halfway like most sourdough bread). So far, the family likes it.
I'll try some fermented pickles this fall if I can manage a good garden.
I've always made yogurt, so nothing new there. Might get brave enough to try "leave it on the counter and see what grows" buttermilk one of these days.
As far as gardening at high altitude, with the soil we have here, and the wind, short growing season, etc. Yeah, you CAN do it. But when you have to pay to get good soil (or take years to do it), pay to get materials to build beds, pay to get materials to build a cold frame or greenhouse, pay for windbreaks, pay for row covers, pay for water in the hot dry summer, etc, it just ends up being WAY too expensive. I've been working on it for years, and can still only grow enough to provide a few servings a week through the growing season.
Crohn's is a complicated disease - something irritates the intestines. Once they are irritated, more things irritate them. The irritation starts a self-perpetuating cycle of auto-immune progression, so your body itself now makes the irritation worse (I have an explanation of this process published online, if anyone needs it - what causes auto-immune responses, why they ARE logical, and what can be done about it naturally). The irritation then does two more things: It decreases your ability to break down foods - your intestines and stomach don't release the substances needed to do that effectively (a clue to this is undigested foods passing all the way through, and showing up in stools). And it decreases your ability to absorb nutrients (damaged intestinal walls don't absorb nutrients well). Those two things result in fairly severe malabsorption (uneven - low on a few nutrients, not on everything, just enough to cause a collection of vague symptoms). In fact, PAIN is one of the LAST symptoms of Crohn's. Malabsorption has been occurring for YEARS (average 10 years) prior to feeling pain in the bowels. When you get to the point of pain and constant diarrhea, you've usually had all sorts of vague and non-specific symptoms (fatigue, hormonal imbalances, skin problems, chemical sensitivities, increasing allergies, food sensitivities, arthritis, headaches, sinus irritation, asthma, exercise intolerance, sleep problems, persistent obesity, poor temperature control, etc), and have been labeled a hypochondriac by all your associates, so when you finally have bowel pain, they ignore that (doctors especially).
Chemicals in foods seem to be the primary causative factor (though doctors will tell you that no cause is known). Most people have NO idea how many chemicals are in their foods, nor do they figure out one logical point: Preservatives, especially, are deadly with consistent exposure. They are chemicals DESIGNED to STOP THE GROWTH OF LIVING CELLS. Duh, they aren't good for your intestines with regular exposure! And the average diet has anywhere between 3 and 30 foods PER DAY that have significant amounts of preservatives in them. Even people who think they are eating healthy are consuming large amounts of harmful chemicals. Fruits and vegetables are treated with preservatives and other chemicals between harvest and distribution, and those chemicals are NOT listed on labels anywhere (you can prove this easily with potatoes - take an organic one, and a non-organic one, and set them in the window, and see which sprouts first - the sprout inhibitor on non-organic potatoes is a rather caustic substance, and is not listed on the labels, and it is on every potato or potato product including chips, soups, dried potatoes, etc). Even "organic" preservatives are harmful (they are still designed to stop the growth of living cells), and even many "organic" foods have treatments applied to them that are not listed on labels, which are as harmful as the chemicals in non-organic foods.
Treating Crohn's involves cleaning up the diet, eliminating the irritating foods (primary and secondary irritants), using healing and anti-inflammatory herbs, and some immune suppressant herbs until the auto-immune agonists can be eliminated. Also important to eat fresh food (for maximum nutrient content since you don't absorb much of what you eat), and to eat forms of foods that are easily digestible (for me, that means Muscovy duck, rabbit, bantam or quail eggs, goat milk, fresh organic or homegrown fruits and veggies - a LOT of them).
I SO need to move where I can grow food easily. I won't have any kind of security until I can do so, and I've healed as much as I can where I am, so I won't be able to make more progress with that until I can grow things more easily either.
Going to the kitchen now, to shape my sourdough rolls.
and I have been to both places.
