Here's another little tid-bit regarding this same article. This is from my favorite soil scientist. Those that know her will recognizer her writing style. She's got a unique way of putting things (yes, there may be a little crush going on here): The way I look at molasses is that it is a great bacterial food resource. Add molasses to anything, at the right concentration, and bacteria bloom! Quite a bit of what Malclom Beck talks about in the post linked below (that Louis sent in, thank you for that!) is the necessity of having the right sets of microbes in the compost or soil in order to get the benefit you want from growing a whole bunch of bacteria. Malcolm makes sure that there is a good inoculum or addition, of Nitrogen-fixing bacteria present. Most of the time, by managing the composting right, those bacteria are present in the compost. Where did those bacteria come from? They were on the organic matter originally put into the pile. But you can hedge your bets and add the particular sets of microbes to make sure you have them. The bacterial species to get are: 1. Any FREE-LIVING Nitrogen-fixing bacteria, such as Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Frankia, Azomonas 2. "Bad-guy" fungi suppressors, such as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium, B. flourescens, 3. If concerned about pesticide residues in your soil or compost, then buy a mix also containing Pseudomonas laterosporalis, P. licheniformis, or other some fungal species know to do a good job breaking down pesticides. Sorry, can't remember the names of the fungi. When you buy an inoculum, check to make sure it actually has the bacteria in it you want. If you learn to use a microscope, or have a local friend who can use one, you can check easily to make sure there area at least bacteria in the mix. Bacillus species are distinctive, so you can check for them just by appearance - big fat rod shapes.....some short, some longer, some really long, single, or chained. ---------------------------- Folks have spoken a bit about EM on this list serve, and if you have severely compacted soils, areas of your lawn that puddle and do not drain properly, then making a little bit of your compost with an EM addition might be a good idea. EM is a particular mix of a number of bacterial species. Sorry, no fungi in this mix that survive in soil (or, let's hope they don't survive in your soil, the yeasts that are normally in EM aren't beneficial in soil). EM is prepared in a way that means the species you buy will be low-oxygen environment organisms. They work in compacted or low-oxygen environments WITHOUT making alcohol (which is the danger when your compost goes anaerobic). These species don't volatilize ammonia, rotten egg smells, or make phosphine gas. So, you don't lose your important nutrients if the compost or soil goes anaerobic and these guys win out against the more "rotten" bacterial species. So, if you have soil, or compost that is stinky or smelly, or have areas of puddling in your lawn, make a compost where you have added these organisms, can put a light dusting of this compost on that area and water it in. Or make a tea from that compost, and drench the area. But REMEMBER, in two weeks to come back with an inoculum of AEROBIC organisms, such as a compost with no addition of EM, or a compost tea made from a normal aerobic compost. The species that should be in EM are: 1. Lactobacillus Long slender rods, may be single, two in a chain, or multiple in chains. But always slender rods (to differentiate from Bacillus species) 2. Pseudomonas species - but mostly the low-oxygen environment ones. They do have ability to chew up pesticides, so possible a good place to get a good mix of these species. 3. Actinobacteria - a herd of species. These bacteria grow in filaments, so they look like very slender threads. They look alot like fungi, but are too thin to be real fungal strands. So, when you see "pencil-lines" in your microscope, those are actinobacteria. In all my experience, having high amounts of actinobacteria in a productive pasture or row crop / broadacre soil is an indicator of bad things. These bacteria do not help the crop species most of us grow. They do help brassica though, and riparian and wetland plants. So........ are these good bacteria? Depends on what you want to grow. 4. Non-sulfur, purple photosynthetic cyanobacteria. Very distinctive purple to violet color in the cells of this organism. Doesn't typically survive transportation in the mail, doesn't survive in bottles stored in the dark. It is a photosynthetic organism after all, and despite the fact some EM salesmen say it doesn't need sunlight to survive, all the data we have from looking at the product shows no survival of this organism once the product gets to us through the mail. 5. Yeasts...... these are fungi that grow in low oxygen conditions. They look like big round to oblong balloons that some times grow in clumps, and look rather like little cactus clumps. Not good to be seeing alot of these in soil. Definite indicators of compaction and lack of oxygen. Yeasts aren't good at building structure or helping make things better in soil, at least that I have ever seen. An EM without lots of yeasts would be better than one that has lots. Hope this helps clarify why molasses can do good things in soil. Okay, it's me again. I wanted to point out that when she talks about adding compost to your soil, she doesn't mean the usually recomended rate of 1/3" or a cubic yard per 1000 sq.ft. She means a light dusting of the best compost you can make. What's more is that when you have a soil chemistry test performed, and that test makes recomendations based on Ca:Mg ratios and available NPK, you can achieve the same results using 1/600th the recomended rate by applying those elements to GOOD compost and using that to amend your soil. The reason being that the nutrients are held in suspension by the microbes in the compost. Someone start a new thread if you want to discuss this more. Are you guys keeping up with me here? Info overload or what? Heh, heh...keep it comin'. If you guys like these types of discussions and want to dig a little deeper email me and we can talk. We're havin' fun now! Greenjeans

Lars, I often substitute water for milk in bread, mostly because I'm out of milk, I don't buy it as often because I only drink one glass for breakfast daily and it's always skim, Ashley likes chocolate milk, whcih might actually be OK in some breads but not most. I've also successfully substituted my homemade yogurt for sour cream and milk in bread and muffins without noticeable problems. If it were me, I'd just substitute water in most bread recipes. Croissants are more tender, so that might not be as good an option for them, I'd probably try to sub something else for the milk in those. Annie

Lars here is my quiche recipe. It has a whole grain crust, which I must admit I have never made, but I make the filling all the time. You can sub any vegetable for the broccoli if you don't like it. I got the recipe from "Vegetarian Times" magazine years ago. Low-Calorie Quiche Crust: 1/2 cup rolled oats 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup unbleached white flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. baking powder 1/4-1/3 cup canola oil 2 TBLSP lemon juice 1 1/2 tsp. honey 2-3 TBLSP COLD water 1-2 tsp. toasted ground sesame seeds Preheat oven to 375. Grind oats to coarse flour in blender or food processor. Mix dry ingredients. Drizzle in oil until mixture looks like coarse sand. Add lemon, honey and 2 TBLSP water til dough forms ball. Add more water if necessary. Roll between wax paper. Sprinkle sesame in pie pan first (optional). After shaping dough into pie pan, prick crust on sides and bottom. Bake 10 min. then remove from oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Filling: 1 tsp. water or olive oil 1 cup minced diced onion 1 tsp. minced garlic 3 cups small broccoli florets or other veggies chopped small 1-2 TBLSP water 2 large egg whites 10 oz package soft silken tofu 1 TBLSP prepared mustard (dijon) 1 tsp. dried basil or rosemary 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper (I use white) 1-2 TBLSP grated parmesean (I have to admit I use about double that!) Heat 1 tsp. water or oil in a nonstick skillet over med. heat. Add onion and saute 3-5 min. Add garlic and broccoli and 1-2 TBLSP water. Steam until broccoli is bright green ~2 min. (Note: this is a lowfat recipe, so you could saute the veggies in more olive oil if you weren't worrying too much about calories. I often just use frozen broccoli and no water.) Drain veggies if necessary. Place veggies in the pre-baked crust. Whip egg whites until frothy. Add tofu, spices and parmesean cheese. Blend until smooth. Pour into pie crist. Garnish with red pepper if desired. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Note: can sub brewer's yeast or fake parmesean for the parmesean cheese. I've had it that way, it is good too. Not a traditional quiche, more like a "tofu vegetable pie" but still good if you like veggies. Seems like it would be good with artichoke hearts too, I like the combo of artichoke and red pepper. I have also made it with zuchinni and yellow squash.

WOW!!! What's old is new again..... ;-) dian57, your recipe looks great! I have a new-and-improved add-in choice since this thread - it's High-Maize Resistant Starch. High-Maize would be a good substitute for wheat germ (measure-for-measure) in the Cornell Bread Recipe. Wheat germ is unnecessary in the Cornell Bread Recipe IF you use at least a portion of freshly-milled whole wheat flour in the recipe to begin with...fresh wheat germ is already available in whole wheat flour. Milling your own flour will also assure the highest amount of nutrients from the wheat. This is why I find it amazing the Cornell Recipe didn't use whole wheat flour in the first place. The nutrients in freshly-milled whole wheat flour begin to degrade within 3-hours of milling, and the wheat germ oil oxidizes quickly. You will find wheat germ purchased as an individual ingredient is basically a rancid product - which means it's a free-radical, which is destructive to the body. The rancidity in the wheat germ purchased commercially is covered by the toasting they do to the raw germ. Rancid oils don't have to smell rancid to BE rancid. If they smell rancid, then they have been rancid for a VERY long time. If you want to add wheat germ to a recipe, add freshly-milled whole wheat flour - it's in there... I add High-Maize Resistant Starch to all my recipes for baked goods anymore. Here's a bit of information from King Arthur Flour: -Natural dietary fiber is derived from corn. It's an easy solution for adding fiber to your gluten-free diet. -One serving of Hi-maize (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) contains 6g of non-soluble dietary fiber: about 20% to 25% of your suggested daily requirement. -Substitute for up to 1/4 to 1/3 the flour in your baked goods; adjust up or down to taste. -Add to soups, sauces, and smoothies. -Wheat-free, soy-free, nut-free blend is packed in a dedicated gluten-free facility. King Arthur - 12-ounces for $6.95. I buy High-Maize 5-in-1 Fiber from Honeyville Grain. $18.49 for 5-pounds. http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/hi-maize5-in-1-fiber.aspx Here's what Honeyville Grain has to say about Hi-Maize: Hi-maize has some real health benefits. Hi-maize is lower in calories than the flour it replaces. Hi-maize delivers between 2-l kilocalories/gram while flour delivers 4 kilocalories/gram. Hi-maize also helps your body burn more fat and may lead to lower fat accumulation. Hi-maize helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels in healthy individuals because Hi-maize increases insulin sensitivity in healthy people. Hi-maize helps balance your energy in the hours following a meal. It has a lower impact in blood sugar and blood insulin than the flour it replaces. For individuals following a "carbohydrate-control" diet, it lowers the "net" or digestible carbohydrates in foods. Hi-maize promotes digestive health. The fiber in Hi-maize is fermented within the large intestine and encourages the growth of friendly bacteria (a "prebiotic" fiber). It reduces harmful compounds such as ammonia, while producing beneficial compounds such as short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, the preferred fuel for colon cells. Hi-maize is ideal for use in a gluten-free diet. Hi-maize is well tolerated. It is slowly fermented and does not produce the uncomfortable digestive side effects sometimes found with fiber. I add a heaping tablespoon to my morning smoothie (homemade kefir, 100% fruit juice, flaxmeal, High-Maize and a nutritional supplement. I also substitute up to 15-20 percent of the flour in a recipe with High-Maize. Another good substitute for wheat germ in the Cornell recipe is amaranth (I believe I mentioned it above in an earlier post). You could add whole amaranth seeds or amaranth flour (amaranth is so tiny it needs to be milled in a seed mill or in a coffee/spice mill). The seeds look like golden poppy seeds and I like to add amaranth seeds to quick breads. Amaranth flour is high in protein, and protein is why wheat germ is used in the recipe. The fiber content of amaranth is three times that of wheat, plus good amounts of iron and calcium. Amaranth also contains vitamin E (also found in wheat germ). Amaranth is easy to digest. The Cornell Bread Recipe was a good start to improving nutrition, fiber and protein in bread, but there are a lot of other things you can add to your recipes way BEYOND what was used in this "old science" recipe. -Grainlady