Oy, Geoff! Too gullible!

There are Americans who buy those vast freezers to put in their vast kitchens in their vast houses,  but that does not mean that "we" have vast freezers in the US.

BTW, is it true that everybody in Europe lives in a castle?

Will wait at least 5 months.

I'd start sampling at one month because you should start noticing "mature" fermentation flavors at this time.

What kind of fish did you start with?

so anybody from this forum eats oats, quinoa, amaranth...

Raw, as in "sprouted" until the seed swells and begins germinating, but no roots or shoots? I tried this a few years ago with rice. For me, the result was inflammation (felt in my joints). Same thing happens when I tried fermented-cooked and sprouted-cooked rice. I don't know if it was the insulin release, the blood-sugar rise, or something in the grain itself.

So, I'd say: try some well-grown grains for a few days. Pay attention to gluten levels of the particular grain and try various preparation methods, especially overnight sprouting and fermentation.

So, 4 weeks raw paleo... just thinking aloud here, but what raw protein powder are you using? How are you meat and egg sources? Are you getting plenty of fats? How old are you? What kind of diet got you in this state?

I wouldn't worry about the worms you ate...

I know there are many types of parasites that can live in the human body, so I hate to generalize, but my understanding is that we would typically get parasites from ingesting the eggs of the organism. Stomach acid digests most adult parasites, but the egg's shell resists stomach acid, so the parasite's eggs pass through the stomach and hatch later on. I don't think a parasitic infestation would make you queasy in a day or two.

That's why I wouldn't worry.

Also, would you mind sharing your recipe for the pemmican with tallow because I have a bunch of that stuff!

I followed Lex's recipe. Since your tallow is heat-rendered, what will you accomplish by using it as food?

Also, I'm curious as to why you didn't like the pemmican? Too dry or not enough flavor maybe? I've never had any type of pemmican before so idk if I will care for it or not....

It's hard to explain why I don't like a food, but the quick answer is that I like other food better. I dry age meat like in the old country, by hanging big chunks of it in cool temperatures. I don't need a compact, lightweight, complete meal to take on my journeys.

Some people live on pemmican, or make it a frequent meal. Clearly, they have a different gustatory agenda than I have.

Did you happen to run across Lex Rooker's pemmican conversations in this forum? His information includes a jerky dryer design made from a cardboard box with these instructions: http://www.traditionaltx.us/images/JerkyDrierInstructions.pdf. I've made and used the dryer and it works just fine. I made some raw pemmican in this manner and didn't enjoy it. I've also made pemmican made with tallow rendered in the regular way (cooked) and I didn't enjoy it, either.

Open. If anyone asks what I'm eating, I say, "Sashimi," even when it is clearly a chunk of mammal meat.

My approach is based on not over-interpreting the question. For example, if I ask someone eating a SAD meal what they are eating, I expect a short, informative answer, such as, "Oriental Chicken Salad. I made a whole big thing of it last night." See the period? No explanation is necessary. People really don't care. They are just making small talk.

BTW, this won't work if you are making a spectacle of yourself, gnawing on great big hunks of bloody flesh with blood dripping down your jowls. Use the same table manners, including plates, bowls, utensils, and napkins, just like everyone else. Save the theatrics for your youtube video!

Also, people who know me well enough to get past the small talk - friends - know I eat raw, unprocessed foods. They know why, too. They know how great I look and feel, and they wish they had my discipline to eat well.

Is it possible that one melts the coconut butter and it still stays raw?

The fat in coconut melts at room temperature, they say 76 degrees F.

Sassafras is a tonic root dug up by mountain people and used to make tea, or root beer...its legal and has a mild psychoactive effect, which can lead to unexpected and enjoyable sassy-ness....

You may encounter interesting warning labels when you buy sassafras root or bark, such as Not For Human Consumption. This dates back to the 1980s, when safrole, one of the main compounds in sassafras, was deemed by the FDA to be carcinogenic.

Safrole was then the main flavoring in root beer. The root beer industry quickly found a substitute, and root beer has never tasted the same ever since. I sometimes drink sassafras root tea - because it tastes awesome - and I never noticed any kickiness. I'll pay better attention next time.

I'm with you on eggs, Van. Even when I buy the "best" eggs in California, I always have mental question marks about some of the things I see at the property. For example, Tara Firma farms had the most correct look, with hens pecking at the edges of a forested area; the mental question mark was that the number of hens I saw couldn't have produced all the eggs I saw for sale in their store. Maybe they had lots of hens at lots of forest edges, or maybe their main egg operation is cooperatively farmed in many locations that are not as ideal as the ones they show.

The Chico egg rancher was a little interesting. I found his ad on craigslist posted under a Santa Cruz mountain location. His eggs were above average, in my opinion - truly fresh, yolks to die for, and fertile. For the next order, I asked the rancher where he was in the SC mountains, and he said he came down from Chico. His story: he was a Sacramento restaurateur who wanted to get out of the city and knew there was a need for superb eggs in the restaurant industry, so he bought some land and went into business. I still thought his eggs were excellent, but I was uncomfortable that there was no ranch to visit. Another question mark: an egg rancher who has to fill market orders is going to be more concerned with yield than with feed quality. Also, placing an order was a little hit-or-miss, so I stopped ordering from him. (The other part of his operation was producing commercial quantities of some Asian slow-cooked bbq meats that are sold in restaurants and delicatessens.)

The best eggs I've had in California came from an organic vegetable grower in the Salinas Valley. He had his hens pecking on his vast no-pesticide vegetable rows - plenty of grubs and worms there. You brought your own egg cartons. First come, first serve for his modest supply of eggs. No eggs in winter, as nature intended.

I think that egg mislabeling is a US phenomenon, driven by our appetite for cheap, year-round eggs. We do that with all other food production, so why should hens have it better? Abundant food at low prices is our number one demand, which kind of makes sense when you consider that we have a 300,000,000 mouths to feed. I'd hate to have roving hoards of my starving neighbors loot my lamb when Costco runs out of food to sell.

The bottom line: I don't buy eggs often, and when I do, I accept their imperfections in the name of Urban Paleo, where everything is a compromise.

Your description of the family dynamic makes sense of the girl's behavior. As the late comedian Gilda Radner used to say, "If it's not one thing, it's your mother."

Since the mother is going into a program, she might get referrals for family counseling in a dire situation like this. If you just try to fix the girl's eating habits, you'll not get very far. This is how childhood looks for children from chaotic households. All the girl's weird behaviors are actually her way of coping. A good program will give her new ways to cope. She'll probably be working on her issues as an adult, for the rest of her life. Such is life.

There are healthy-ish foods for children - the kind of compromised health food that fills stores like Whole Foods Market. Here are a few that I've seen conscientious yuppie parents give their children: Lara bars (ground up snack bars with fruits and nuts), pureed baby food in a pouch (featuring vegetables pureed with some sweet fruit, like pear, to fool the kid into thinking that veggies should taste sweet), and non-fried vegetable chips (made from a variety of veggies, such as sweet potato, peas, carrots).

Smoothies are another way to load up a kid with hidden food. Not that I'm endorsing the junky health food route, but sometimes it's easier to fool a nine-year old than reason with one.

Another option I use is to go to a Japanese sushi restaurant(not a bar!). These will often have at least one large sashimi(raw fish) option.  Of course, one has to check...

The typical American sushi bar is usually a safe bet for sashimi. No rip-offs, minimal theatrics. Well, if the restaurant is trying to be a happening joint with a young drinking crowd, the sushi chefs might act like they are Ninja warriors and shout short victory phrases in Japanese every time a customer buys them a shot of sake. If you really look carefully at their precision knife work, you realize that it is all a show and these guys are focused, sober entertainers.