Grandparents + Nourishing Traditions + Fermented Pancakes.

(Anthony with his Grandparents, Don + Aggie)

Visiting with the Grandparents is always enjoyable. Aggie and Don are really cute with cheery dispositions and we tried as much as possible to be polite while declining their offer of Hi-C ("it's fruit juice") to drink.

Side note: have you ever read the ingredients? Yikes! And how is it that Hi-C is able to label itself as so, when it is clearly high fructose corn syrup???

So we told them we'd make them fresh apple juice with apples from their trees and make pancakes to go with it.

(Grandpa helping Anthony pick the apples)

(Nice little apples- sweet and tart)

(Gads of fresh apple juice)

We got the idea for the pancakes from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD. We picked up the book because it had been referenced to quite a bit lately in the audios and other books we have been reading. Plus the book covers quite a bit about fermentation- which is timely with the kefir introduction into our diets.

Nourishing Traditions is a good sized book with tons of "old fashioned" recipes and loads of good information. Both authors have backgrounds in nutrition; Enig is also an expert in lipid chemistry, and Fallon founded the Weston A. Price Foundation.

(We got this copy from the Library)

Even if you are vegetarian (like us) or even vegan - we think you should read it. Why not read something out of the usual mind-frame? It's full title after all is, "Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats". For those that do eat flesh- you should read it as well. The standard fare of food these days is definitely below par and I think everyone will learn something from this book. At the moment we are still exploring it... but the pancake recipe caught our eye.

(Fermented batter- we used spelt flour and yogurt)

The biggest difference in this recipe versus other pancake recipes is that the spelt, kamut or whole wheat flour needs to be soaked overnight in buttermilk, kefir or yoghurt for 12- 24 hours before mixing in the other ingredients so it can ferment. This is good as it helps with digestion. Fallon notes in her book that almost everywhere in the world people ate fermented foods on a daily basis up until the beginning of the 20th century.

(These pancakes cook more slowly than "normal" pancakes)

(Before we ate them...)

The pancakes were VERY good and we didn't get that heavy feeling one might expect after eating pancakes. We enjoyed them with maple syrup and the homemade freshly juiced apple juice. Don said to us- "I thought all pancakes were the same, but I guess they're not".