Middle Sparrow Ranch Pickup

Our diet changes over the past year have been pretty amazing for us. Each change has been gradual, yet powerful, as we are really trying to learn as much as we can about different foods and how they affect our health. We are learning to make healthier food choices, and then learning how those foods affect us individually. We realize there is no "one size fits all" diet. Some of us can't tolerate certain foods, be it grains, dairy, nuts, nightshades, soy, or whatever. And an individual who may not be able to tolerate a certain food at one point in his/her life, may tolerate that food in another stage of life. We have been eating whole/real/clean foods for quite some time, but still included dairy. We thought dairy didn't bother us. But then again,we didn't think wheat or sugar bothered us either, but very quickly learned differently once we removed them (separately, but completely) from our diets. Once our bodies were rid of those particular foods, and we later reintroduced them on a special occasion, we felt horrible! And it kept happening at each holiday or family gathering. We'd load up on sugars and flours and suffered hangover-like symptoms for days. Once, it took me two whole weeks to get back to normal. And that's another thing we realized...that on our old Standard American Diet, we felt like crap all the time, and so that felt normal to us. We didn't even notice aches/pains as much because it was an everyday occurance. We thought it was "normal" and "a part of getting older". We have been reading that dairy causes inflammation and insulin spikes and that so many people have issues with it, that we realized it was time to test that area of our diets. About two months ago, we gave up dairy, and once again, we found that we feel and perform better day to day, without it. I think a very significant effect for both of us was greatly improved sinus clarity. My husband no longer uses those expensive nose strips and rarely uses his neti pot, which he was once using twice per day! I am a lot less stuffy than while I was consuming all those pasteurized cheeses. Another great thing is that I have effortlessly lost another 8 lbs!!! I have exceeded my weight loss goal, without hitting the gym. Not to say exercise isn't important, I know it is, I'm just trying to make the point that I believe it to be true, that 80% of our body composition comes from what we eat! I do need to add that most of the dairy we were consuming was commercial, highly pasteurized dairy. We did the same as on our previous elimination diets, once the dairy was out of our systems, we reintroduced it, and within a few hours started feeling very badly...stuffy, bloating, weight gain, and lots of flatulence. It was pretty terrible, but more importantly, we learned that pasteurized dairy clearly wasn't for us! Some people who have trouble with pasteurized dairy find they have no trouble with high quality raw diary products. We are crossing our fingers that will hold true for us as well! We were SO excited about our first raw milk purchase today from Middle Sparrow Ranch! We will keep you updated on our raw dairy experiment. I can tell you it tastes delicious! It's creamy and full flavor awesomeness! This farm also sells grass-fed/finished beef, so we bought a 2-lb package of beef to try before committing to a large purchase. We plan on cooking that tonight and will update on that as well.

• Raw Milk $7 gal
• 2 lb grass-fed beef $10