How's Your Vitamin D Level?

     I just got back the results of my vitamin D test.  Right in the middle of normal.  Sounds good right?  Well, it didn't happen over night.  Two years ago when I was tested it was almost non-existent.  If you live in a northern latitude and are not taking vitamin D, I guarantee you, yours is low too.  Today I take 5000 I.U.'s of vitamin D every day.
     Over these last 2 years while getting my level back up, I've been trying to learn how they kept their vitamin D levels up back before the days of a capsule.  Well, for one thing, they ate liver.  I know, you all just curled your nose.  But, the fact is, liver is one of your best sources of vitamin D.  I save all the organic chicken livers from when I butcher my chickens, and am determined to find a recipe for liver pate that everyone will eat. (I'm still working on it).  When Rick bags his deer in the fall, I am all over him to bring me back the liver rather than leave it out there for the coyotes.  If we can't bring ourselves to eat it, at least we can cut it up into dog treat size, freeze them individually on a cookie sheet, put them in a freezer bag to store in the freezer for a month (to kill any worm larvae), and then feed them as the healthiest dog treats ever!  My dogs love frozen liver treats.
     Another good source of vitamin D that I read up on, is drying shiitake mushrooms gill side up in the sun.  I can't remember the exact amount of vitamin D they absorbed, but I remember being so impressed with the number that I was going to start doing it. (It was a lot)  I still haven't built something to dry things in the sun and keep the flies off at the same time, so it hasn't happened yet --- maybe this summer.  Then you would throw some mushrooms in your chicken soup every time you made it. 
     Vitamin D is so important for making hormones and keeping our immune system up that if you have never had yours checked, well, you should :-)