Lovingly dedicated to Melissa “Stanley” Cohen (1971-2007) who stood on the shoulders of giants and helped haul me up to stand with her as we learned together.   This is just a part of her legacy and I’m proud to share it with you.

In May of 2004 my best girlfriend Melissa found a lump in her breast.  She was only 34 years old.  Six months earlier she had had an inkling and asked her doctor for a mammogram. She had cancer run in her family for generations.  The doctor declined and told her that her insurance wouldn’t cover it.  Just half a year later she was facing stage IV cancer, including a mastectomy, a  ton of chemo and radiation – so much for preventative medicine.

Along her path to wellness she started to seek out alternative therapies and investigated the current state of nutrition in our American culture.  She attended Donna Gate’s Body Ecology Certification program.  Melissa went on the BED and found her markers in decline for a year’s worth of PET scans. 

Her desire to share the new wealth of information about health and diet was the impetus behind her opening her own business called Get Into Balance where she sold… Cultured Vegetables! 

Her infectious excitement and heart-felt desire to change from the inside out meant she led me on a merry chase for nutritional education and helped my family get on the path to cleansing and healing as conscious eaters.  She taught me how to make cultured foods and how to go raw with our dairy and grass-fed with our meats.

Therefore this is a family affair and one that I share proudly with my sons who assist with my workshops. They are learning much on this journey and it warms my heart to see them participate with such enthusiasm. We have been canning CVs for over four years now, adhering to the same methods Melissa taught us and now we share it openly with those wanting to learn how to can their own.

I am excited to offer classes to show people how to preserve their garden veggies in a way that’s healthy and beneficial. I also offer raw dairy kefir and on rare occasions, young coconut kefir.

Melissa “Stanley” Cohen