For those who are interested and live within travel distance to the Los Angeles (USA) area:

A Remembrance and Celebration for Aajonus Vonderplanitz is being held on Sunday September 22nd at 2:00pm in Los Angeles, California.

The location is 6700 W. 83rd St., Westchester, Ca. 90045

In the Community Room, past the Community Garden, of the Holy Nativity Episcopal Church

Please RSVP to facilitator@WeWant2Live.com.  Plan to arrive  early- from 1:15 on - to socialize with others who remember Aajonus.

More details can be found on the home page of www.WeWant2Live.com.

I turn a fair amount of liver into 'high' meat, and eat a piece or two a day as a probiotic. I started a batch on June 7 that I checked lately (still eating off the batch I started in early May), and a layer of oil had formed on top of the liver that tasted vaguely like the fermented cod liver oil I'd bought from Green Pastures some years back, only without that biting fishy taste. Did I make a batch of fermented beef liver oil?

Anyone have any experience with this happening?

Nice article: World Renown Surgeon Speaks Out on What Really Causes Heart Disease

Hi folks, I've been eating high meat for the last few years and have generally benefitted from it, but over the last year I've noticed a couple things that I thought I'd share.

First, I notice that the only time my high meat smells bad is when I use cuts of meat that are either fatty (muscle meats) or that are high in cholesterol (heart). When I use meat that is very lean, like whitetail deer muscle or liver, the high meat doesn't smell bad no matter how long I age it. I have a jar of liver that's been aging since March 2 in my refrigerator right now, and although its clearly well-aged, when I open the jar it smells fine, with a subtle sweet odor.

Second, I notice that when I eat high meat made from fatty or high cholesterol meat, I reach the 'stop' very quickly and sometimes even have to force myself to finish eating the 1 inch cubes I cut the meat in to age it. It's far easier for me to eat aged lean meat, and I can eat aged liver in large quantities if I let myself, the stop doesn't come any sooner than if I sat down for a normal meal of liver.

Right now all of the meat I have aging is liver. It just seems to age so well for me and my body reacts so favorably to it that I can't convince myself to age anything else.

Thoughts or comments?

Awesome, for those with a sense of humor:

Weston A Price Primal Paleo Low Carb Faileo Diet Parody

I started my winter cold training regimen today with a swim in Lake Champlain. Not exactly ice cold yet; the water was about 9 C (48 F), the air a bit cooler. I was pleased to see that I haven't lost any of the cold tolerance I built up last winter, as I felt no shock upon entering the water and was able to swim calmly for 5 minutes before I felt the need to get out of the water.

On a related note, I see that Wim Hof, known in the media as The Ice Man, released a book on his cold training method last fall entitled Becoming the Iceman. Anyone read it? I've got it on order from Amazon after failing to find a local shop that could order it in for me. I'd be happy to write a review of the book if anyone's interested.

Hi folks, I just finished a new essay entitled Energy, Economy and the Impending Rite of Passage. It's not diet-related, but I thought some here might be interested anyway. You can read it by clicking on the link above. I'd welcome comments and critique. I'd be grateful if folks forwarded this link far & wide.

I attended a potluck earlier this afternoon put on by a local Transition Town group, which was coupled with a public talk by Ascent of Humanity and Sacred Economics author Charles Eisenstein. I thought I'd be bold and bring a raw meat dish to the potluck to see if anyone would eat it.

I have a decent amount of whitetail deer from this past hunting season, so elected to make sushi rolls. I laid thin slices of raw whitetail deer back strap on nori and wrapped them around a few leaves of green onion and a sliver of crimson carrot (a variety that's deep red on the outside but orange on the inside, a beautiful contrast). I brought some pickled ginger to offer as a condiment, and also made a sauce from raw honey and dijon mustard. As is the custom at these potlucks, I wrote the ingredients on a notecard by the platter so that everyone knew what was being served, and specifically noted that the meat was raw.

Results: 2 pounds of raw deer meat sushi GONE!

Several people asked about the dish, not too surprising given the prevailing taboos against eating raw meat. I explained my largely raw diet and that I've never had problems with parasites or 'bad' bacteria. I also explained that one of my motivations for exploring a raw diet is to reduce my energy demand, as over 30 percent of all energy used to deliver food to people's mouths is used in the home, and much of this is used to cook or process food. Since Transition Towns are all about adapting to Energy Descent (i.e. fossil fuel depletion), people were intrigued by the idea of adopting a raw diet to reduce the embodied energy of food. Most of the people who asked about the dish tried it and agreed the flavor was appealing, especially with the honey mustard sauce.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the rolls before I put them out on the big table, but I'll make more tomorrow for my own personal consumption so I'll take a photo then and upload it. Success is sweet, with or without a honey mustard sauce!

I've read We Want to Live and Recipe for Living Without Disease, and while I think there are nuggets of useful information in both books I can't help but remain skeptical of AV himself. After reading widely about him, I have two questions for those who might know him personally:

1. What is AV's real name? He mentions his first name was either Richard or Dick in WWtL, but I've read that 'Vonderplanitz' is a new-age take on the German translation of "Beyond the planets" and isn't his original (or actual) last name. Any insight on this?

2. Second, I have read that AV claims to have a PhD. I'm curious what discipline his PhD is in, and what the degree granting institution was. Anyone know this?

A book recently came out entitled Primal Diet, Primal Mind by Nora Gedgaudas.  It is not related to Aajonus V's Primal Diet, and from the interviews I've heard it sounds like a melding of the Weston A Price Diet and a more typical Paleo Diet.  Anyone read the book yet, and want to offer any thoughts?