HOW WE MAKE OUR GHEE
COMPARING ANCIENT ORGANIC GHEE WITH OTHER BRANDS OF GHEE
ABOUT ANCIENT ORGANICS
SNEHANA, HEALING AND OTHER QUALITIES OF GHEE
COW AND BUFFALO GHEE COMPARED
MAKING GHEE IN AMERICA
MAKING GHEE IN INDIA
STRAUS DAIRY THE SOURCE OF OUR BUTTER

Our Ghee is Rated #1
An independent website has compared 8 different ghees available in the United States today. We were greatly pleased to see our ghee was rated #1. Please click on the link below to see the article.- COMPARING ANCIENT ORGANIC GHEE WITH OTHER BRANDS OF GHEE -




An Ayurvedic perspective
Perhaps you are reading this because you have heard about one or another of the unique qualities of Ghee and want to find out more. Perhaps, if you have heard from an Ayurvedic or a Yoga practitioner, they might have told you about Ghee as a Vedic rasayana or medicine-Aushadha and its long and celebrated history of healing properties. Or, they might have told you about its use in the culture of India for preparing healthy and very tasty food-Ahara for thousands of years. As you might surmise, Ghee is a substance that is well known and valued as both a food and a medicine.

In my studies of Ayurveda, I have learned that Medicines do not create the tissues-dhatus. Food-ahara is the only thing that creates tissues. In fact, the older Ayurvedic Teachers, Vaidyas, used to say, If you do not want to eat my diet (food), do not bother to take my medicines.î The use of food as medicine and medicine as food is one of the unique and wonderful qualities of Ayurveda and is also one of the unique attributes of the substance known as Ghee. Let me tell you some of what I have heard:

The ingestion of Ghee is like offering the finest of fuels into the fires of digestion- Agni. For this reason, Ghee builds the aura, makes all the organs soft, builds up the internal juices of the body, Rasa, which aging destroys and increases the most refined element of digestion, Shukra, or Ojas, the basis of all immunity in the body. Ghee is known to increase intelligence, Dhi, refine the intellect, Buddhi, and improve the memory, Smrti.  Although Ghee kindles or increases Agni, the digestive fire on which all nutrition depends, it does so without aggravating Pitta, the elemental functioning of fire within the body. In fact, Ghee cools the body, essential in a world in which everything is overheating.

Ghee increases the overall strength, luster and beauty of the Sarira-the body. Let us look at a variety of ways:  Used on the skin, Ghee softens and strengthens, protects and nourishes. Up until the last generation in India, there used to be men who gave Ghee massages on the street. It was always the preferred substance for the skin, but since it was more expensive than oil it came to be used only for internal purposes. For generations, Indians have used Ghee for cooking, as an added measure on top of their food and as a medicine. It was used for old and young, for new babies (Mothers in India will massage their children daily with Ghee) and for those in the last days of their life. I massaged my Fathers body with it every day in the time before he passed. Sometimes, when he could not sleep, I rubbed it on his feet and temples and it soothed his agitation. It is the best substance for self-massage, Abhyanga.

Ghee has the quality of Snigda, oiliness, and unctuousness. It is smooth, lubricated and nurturing. Ghee is thought to make the voice soft and melodious.

Ghee is Guru, heavy. It increases the qualities of Kapha and decreases Pitta and Vata, which are both light.

When I asked my Indian acquaintances why there is a growing use of Buffalo milk and ghee over Cow milk and Ghee, they all said, ìIt is only because a Buffalo gives more milk than a cow.  In India, there is increasing use of Buffalo Ghee. Even in Vrndavan, the home of Sri Krishna, where he himself was a cowherd, protector of the cows-Govinda and the divine lover of the Gopis-cowherdesses, I was unable to find anything but Buffalo Ghee in the marketplace. You can tell the difference because Buffalo Ghee is white and Cow ghee is yellow.

Cow Ghee is used in lamps in temples and pujas all over India. It is said that the light of a Ghee lamp is more beautiful and brilliant than any other light. The light of burning Ghee is said to ward off negativity and evil influence.  It is traditionally considered, that the older Ghee, the better its healing qualities. 100-year-old Ghee is highly valued in India and fetches a very high price. Such Ghee was often kept in Temples in large vats and this aged Ghee is passed on from generation to generation within families.

In America today, very little butter is churned the old fashioned way. Most modern dairies, even ëorganicí ones, no longer churn their cream to make butter. In a typical dairy in America, the cream is now pushed through a fine mesh screen in which the heavier and larger molecules of butter are held on one side of the screen while the smaller molecules of buttermilk pass on through. I recently asked an Ayurvedic Teacher-Vaidya about what difference this makes. He said that butter made without churning is lacking in a quality of Fire, Agni. He went further in his consideration of difference; the home-based Indian culture churns their cream with a hand churn, rolling it back and forth between their hands. This back and forth action, he said, imparts a particular balancing quality to the Ghee- instead of the one way churning of a gear driven churn.

When we consider the process of butter making at this level, we are in the realm of subtlety, but it is in exactly this realm that much of what is pure and purifying, sattvic, is found.

Once you have obtained your butter, heat it in a stainless steel or enamel pot over a low flame. As it begins to boil, moisture evaporates off and whitish cloudy milk solids rise to the top and sink to the bottom. Do not stir it. After an hour and half to several hours, depending on the amount and the size of the pot and the amount of Ghee compared to the flame, your Ghee will be ready. This ëmomentí is very critical. If you cook the Ghee too little, you will be left with moisture in the Ghee and it will lack the exquisite taste that it can develop. Also, it will not keep without some souring. If you cook it too much, it will burn and impart a certain nutty flavor to the Ghee. This does not ruin the Ghee at all, but it is to be noticed, so that over time you can capture the perfect Ghee to be experienced between these two ëextremesí.

After the Ghee is done, you skim off the top light crust of whitish milk solids, if any. The heavier ones at the bottom of the pot are traditionally used to make sweets. Children in India love them and always plead with their Mothers to have the leftovers when Ghee is made.

Then, you pour the golden, sweet-smelling liquid through doubled over cheesecloth- to catch any last impurities and finally bottle it, leaving the burned milk solids (caramelized lactose) on the bottom of the pot you cooked it in. Be sure to not close the glass jar into which you pour the hot Ghee until it comes to room temperature. The reason for this is that there should not be any moisture from condensation that might form on the inside of the jar. It is moisture that spoils Ghee, allowing mold to grow and quickly causing it to go bad. This is the reason that you always use a clean and dry spoon to take your Ghee out of its container.

This culturing with yogurt introduces another form of Fire, Agni, into the substance of refining the milk into butter and then Ghee.

In my recent visit to modern day India, it was very hard to find pure cow Ghee. First of all, the commercial milk, cream and butter there are now homogenized and ultra-pasteurized. According to Ayurvedic Vaidyas I have consulted with, both of these factors increase the Vata (air and ether/destructive, catabolic, drying, rough) qualities in what was originally a very Kapha (earth and water, building, oily, tonifying anabolic) substance-milk. Some of these processes, like homogenization, make the milk, and thus the cream and butter, indigestible. Ultra-pasteurization creates a substance that will not spoil, even without refrigeration. This substantially changes the Gunas or qualities of milk making it indigestible, according to the Ayurvedic Doctor, Vaidya, I studied with in India.

In America there is a similar theme to the story. Although organic dairies are showing up all over the country, most of them make their butter by extrusion. Furthermore, even Organic Dairies homogenize and ultra-pasteurize their milk (This is a process whereby milk is heated to a higher temperature than pasteurization for a shorter period of time. This kills and destroys various living substances/enzymes in the milk thus prolonging shelf life). This is not true of all milks available, but, like in Vrndavan, the tides of ignorance realtive to our processing of food and the subsequent effects on our health are increasing.

We have named our company Ancient Organics to point to this Truth and the principle it represents. In the most ancient culture of the world, the Vedic culture, there were ways of doing things and creating things in accordance with the Whole. One of these 'things' was Ghee.

We ourselves have been so wonderfully pleased with the introduction of Ghee into our lives through massage and cooking that we felt strongly we should share that benefit with others. That is much of the impulse behind Ancient Organics. We want to make a contribution and we want to make a living, both. 

Everything is organic: the fields, the hay, the milk and the butter, the home grown silage and legumes. Strauss cows are total vegetarians. Straus milks their cows three times a day to reduce stress on the animals. Straus churns their cream to make butter and does not extrude it. Straus has won the award for 'Best Butter in America' from House and Garden Magazine. Their butter has the highest butterfat content of any butter on the market in the United States today.

Straus also seeks to integrate their business with nature in other ways. The Straus Farm is one of the first to use their cow dung to generate methane gas. That methane is then burned and produces almost all of their electricity. Their methane generator eliminates large amounts of greenhouse gases and greatly reduces the organic pollutants that are formed as wastewater.

The Ghee we make changes slightly as the seasons and the diet of the cows change. For instance, in winter, there are many days that the cows are not able to graze in the pastures and there is more silage in their diet. We label our Ghee as to date. In this way, you can tell what season your ghee was made and even what day or phase of the moon it was bottled.

We have found the making of Ghee to be a very beautiful and peaceful experience. The sound of softly boiling butter, the pouring of the thick liquid into bottles. The wonderful smell Ghee has as it permeates the space. All these things go together to bring you what we consider to be the very best Ghee in the world.

If you want any questions answered or if you wish to speak with us, please do not hesitate to call. We look forward to hearing from you.

Peter Malakoff and Gilda Zucolella
Ancient Organics

                    ORGANIC GHEE

Sunrise on the Ganges-Benaras

View of Himalayan Foothills above Rishilkesh

Straus Holstein Cow in Pasture overlooking Tomales Bay, CA.

Straus has both Holsteins and Jersey cows.