Hi Eileen,

Thank you for writing, and thank you for thinking I am a normal person! The Cultured Veggie DVD has thorough directions for making cultured vegetables and kefir, and the kefir is made with milk. That said, I highly recommend you get it and incorporate cultured veggies in your diet, even if you don't do the kefir.

I do not do well with dairy either unless it is raw. I do fine with kefir because the culturing process changes the food by enlivening it, so it is easy to digest. I don't eat a lot of it (I make it from Goat milk when I am craving it) because I eat cultured veggies daily instead. This food is one that most people leave out of their diet and it could be said it is one of the most important to include. Please read the article about cultured veggies on my website. Most Sauerkrauts are pastuerized and full of salt. You can purchase them “raw” from Rejuvenitive Foods, but they are pricy. Making your own is easy and you can make them taste the way you want. One batch will last for weeks because you can make a lot at once. You can purchase the culture by going to Wilderness Family Naturals through my web-site. Every one I turn on to cultured veggies say they notice a difference in their digestion immediately. Cultured veggies are a Powerful Food – one of the greatest ways to implant healthy probiotic flora into your intestine and thus enhance your immune system.

If you are in ever into making coconut kefir (from the juice of young baby coconuts), the instructions are really the same as the milk kefir. The only difference is that you have to cut open the coconuts and obtain your own juice.

If you are still going to be eating cooked foods – lightly steamed veggies, alkaline grains and squashes you will get a lot from the a la Oils DVDs, including cooking with coconut oil. The ala Oils DVD set contains a mixture of raw and cooked. I found that most people do not have a dietary practice of only Raw foods – myself included. I like to mix the concepts – taking the most essential from Raw Food Cuisine and marrying it to some of the foods that are better when cooked. It is all very personal.

Thanks so much Eileen. Please feel free to call or write should you have any more questions.

Making every bite count,

Chef Teton
susan@chefteton.com