A good find in the San Francisco Bay area: EGGS!!!

These pastured eggs come from a ranch near Chico, California. This egg rancher delivers wholesale to elite Bay area markets on the weekend and will add retail stops at $9/dozen (minimum 2 dozen). Although not as good as eggs that I might raise myself, I think they are way better than any I have seen at local farmers' markets and equal to what I can find if I drive for a few hours to buy them myself.

He also sells chicken, turkey eggs, and cooked Chinese-style foods. He can get pasture-raised lamb and beef from his neighboring ranchers.

He can be emailed at kfchickenfarmer (at) aol (dot) com, or on facebook https://www.facebook.com/kfchickenfarmer.wan.

Living here as I do in the Land of Diverse Cultures, I am aware that many people toilet by squatting with their feet on the toilet. It may seem like a "queer" practice to people used to a Western toilet, but I can only imagine the awkwardness of changing one's toilet position by thinking about how I would react to toileting in a squatting position when I am used to going in a seated position; even though I can squat, I'm not sure I could relax enough in that position to "go."

Instructions posted at the toilet seem to be a kindness to foreigners, not a topic of humor. Perhaps instructions to raise the toilet seat before squatting would be more appropriate, assuring that "sitters" don't sit bare-bottomed on shoe soil.

Seriously, there are many cultures where it would be absurd to eliminate into clean water or soil clean paper to wipe! In other cultures, the drain pipes and destination cannot handle toilet paper. Eliminating without bowl or paper is the ancestral way to go to the toilet. Maybe the joke's on us....

Hmmm... my wife is like what Paper Clips and Eveheart prefer.  My wife does not like sleeping beside anyone.  Not even beside her own children....

Heavens to Betsy, GS! Can't you read my posts without "repurposing" my words? I love to sleep with others; my grandchildren sleep in my bed every chance they get. Your wife is young enough to be my daughter, so she probably is nothing like me in terms of her preferences. I have no problem with what she likes, just don't reverse engineer my preferences to say that her preferences are like mine. Please.

Well, eveheart was supposing that a lack of marriage was the reason for those centenarians living so long.

I suppose nothing of the sort! As they say, "Correlation is not causation." I was merely observing (again) that many of the supercentenarian women that we have posted about here are cited as being single for most of their lives.

My own experience, single at 47 after raising a family, was "Free at last! Free at last! Lord Almighty, I'm free at last!" I find that there is a subtle freedom component of being single that goes a long way to increase one's sense of wellbeing and happiness, but I suppose some women are more inclined to find happiness in lifelong marital union.

Great advice Eve. Ill experiment a bit. How do prevent the surfaces from drying out?

That's the reason for the lid on your jar, but do remember to replenish the air so you get aerobic bacteria activity.

Couldn't the jars be stored in a cupboard or behind some fly proof mesh to keep them out? Wouldn't that be better than keeping them in the cool of the fridge which i assume would slow down the process?

Read my previous post about time and temperature. For example, I make the most incredibly delicious sauerkraut at room temperature all winter long, but come the summer, the same process produces the vilest flavor because the bacteria the thrive at a winter temperature of 65 degrees F. are different from those that thrive at 80 degrees F. in the summer.

Try two batches, one in the fridge and one at room temperature. Don't forget oxygen in both batches, and prevent the surfaces from drying out. (That would product dried meat, not high meat.) See what you get, and if you like it.

It will be covered though. My impatience wants the process to be fast so i can try it. I assume leaving in the fridge will slow it down?

What bacteria are you hoping to utilize? There is a certain cycle in decomposing foods, and it depends on time and temperature. You'll have less control at higher temperatures, and need to air your batch quite frequently.n Are you really interesting in "procedure and tips," or do you want someone to approve your method?

As with any new venture, it is wise to learn the "traditional" ways before you branch out with your own variations. Once you have mastered the traditional, make small adjustments to try out your own ideas. Remember to keep some of each experimental batch that you ingest so that the emergency room pathologists can find out how to resuscitate you. (That's an LOL!)

Medical professionals like to use packaged treatments that are quantified and verified by their own medical organizations. That's not to say that a homemade batch won't exceed the quality and efficacy of the packaged product, just that they have not quantified and verified your formula.

Here in California, hospice is gaining popularity beyond its usual end-of-life application. If hospice is available and appropriate, you might explore the possibilities of home care for your father. At the very least, visiting nurses are less harried than their in-hospital counterparts, so they are more cheerful and relaxed. They say that, in the U.S., most sick people die in the hospital and most sick doctors die at home. That is interpreted to mean that doctors do not choose the hospital when they need ongoing critical care.

From what I've learned, e. coli in meat is only minimally a problem in grassfed meat. The scary e. coli is the kind that is antibiotic resistant, and that comes from grainfed ruminant animals.

Consider: we all have e. coli in our own intestines. Sometimes our own e. coli can infect us due to bad hygiene, such as wiping feces forward towards the short female urethra can cause an e. coli bladder infection. So, I conclude that good hygiene with our food and our bodies is what's needed, not avoidance of properly prepared food.

I'd head back east to sit at the feet of my mentor-butcher, sabertooth, then pay my respects to cherimoya kid (same neck of the woods).

I'd suggest you ask the rancher directly. I've had a conversation with my Muslim rancher about what he does with the blood. He slits the throat, which is not particularly cleaner than the chest, and the blood flows into a bucket, then on to a renderer. He offered me blood for the asking. If you decide that the blood is clean enough, but you don't want to offend this rancher's religious sense, you can tell him the blood is for fertilizer for your garden.

...I understand chicken is not optimal but I don't have other options for white meat.

I'm wondering why you have a particular need for white meat. All chicken that I have access to has been cornfed, and I have problems with that, so I avoid chicken. My main meat is lamb from a ranch that I have visited often.

In regards to high meat, if you get a batch that doesn't appeal to your taste or smell, it's okay to throw it out and start again. That even happens to me when I ferment cabbage - some batches are not to my liking.

Is there anything wrong or bad with eating a semi hybrid food like this?

I think that a semi-hybrid refers to a type of automotive engine or something like that.

In the plant world, cross-pollination occurs all the time when winds and insects distribute pollen from one plant to another. Mankind has created deliberate cross-pollenization for thousands of years with the intention of breeding foods that are larger, juicier, (often) sweeter. The offspring plant of this process is a hybrid plant; deliberate control of the ensuing plant generations creates what we call a hybrid variety.

Unlike the GMO process, hybrid plants are generally from the original plant type. After man decides the mommy and daddy plant, nature takes its course. There can be good culinary effects of this cross-pollenization, but you also get foods that have more sugar than nature intended, and probably other less-than-optimal variations.

I eat many modern varieties, avoiding those that are massively sweet, mainly because I have zero access to any other plant foods. This is something on my do-not-worry-about-it list.