A Kitchen Witch’s Favorite Machine

I wanted to tell you about my favorite machine for making your own natural products at home – a.k.a. being a “kitchen witch.” If you are crafty and like to make your own things, you can save loads of money and create many different herbal remedies and beauty aid products for your own personal use or even to start your own little cottage business. That’s what I did with the help of my Vita-Mix 12 years ago.

I became a Certified Herbalist in 1995 and purchased my first Vita-Mix “Total Nutrition Center” machine then, too. This machine still performs amazingly well for me 14 years later even though I’ve now upgraded to the new Vita-Mix 5200. I formed my company, Magical Botanicals, Inc in 1997 and have sold thousands of handcrafted organic herbal products over the years both wholesale and retail. I’ve made the majority of my products in small batches with my Vita-Mix. I mainly used the dry container for grinding seeds, roots, bark, flowers and leaves to use in many different preparations such as tea blends, incense, bath salts, bath bombs and an organic herbal smoke blend. I used the liquid container for making lotions, creams, massage oils, edible elixirs and to mix tinctures.

A good kitchen witch knows that besides making all of her own herbal beauty aids, you need to eat a healthy diet, too. Beauty comes from the inside. The Vita-Mix 5200 helps you to easily achieve this.

My diet is all plant based and I make many raw vegan recipes. My Vita-Mix has helped me to quickly prepare everything such as green smoothies, salad dressings, sauces, soups, grinding flaxseeds, making nut milks, ice “cream”, frozen fruit sorbets and other delicious items in such a fast, easy way.

Making your meals from scratch is very economical and it’s also much healthier for you and your family. Whether you are grinding your own grain in the dry container for bread making or pizza dough or making a frozen dessert in the liquid container, the Vita-Mix 5200 processes your food in such a complete way that it uses the whole food so you are getting all the vitamins, minerals and fiber in your meals and you are not wasting anything. Its biggest asset to me though is really as a time-saving device! Cooking from scratch can take a while but that’s why I use my Vita-Mix 5200 which does the majority of the work for me!

As much as I loved my original Vita-Mix TNC, upgrading to the 5200 has been great. The hard plastic containers used in the 5200 contains no BPA, a known hormone disruptor. The material is also sound damping which makes the powerful motor sound quieter. The lids are easier to use and have a really nice tab over the container for easy on/off and the removable center lid piece actually gets locked into place much better than before. The handles on the containers are now padded and feel better in your hand, too.

I’ve put it to the test this spring with grinding different roots I wildcrafted to make tinctures, powdered dried leaves for capsules and made several batches of my best selling organic herbal smoke blend, Organic Smooth Smoke. As always, it performed beautifully.

Investing in a piece of equipment that is durable, high performing and long lasting that is able to create hundreds of healthy recipes quickly is a smart move for the do-it-yourself kitchen witch. You really can’t go wrong with owning the Vita-Mix 5200!

Chicks & Garden Update

Since an ordinance was passed in my town allowing backyard chickens and permits were issued, we went ahead and took the plunge and got ourselves 4 baby chicks on March 21st! We now have an expanded garden, made new garden beds on the side of our house, built a small greenhouse (8′x8′) last fall with all reclaimed materials and are going to be building a movable chicken coop (with reclaimed materials, too) to fit in next to our greenhouse. It will be like a coop/chicken tractor so we can move it around the yard and  the girls can graze safely on grass. I will let them out inside the garden to eat bugs and let them run around the yard while I’m out there with them. I’ve noticed a red tailed hawk in my neighborhood recently which doesn’t make me happy!

My husband grew up raising chickens so I am getting lessons first hand from him even though caring for them on a day to day basis will be up to my son and I. My husband has lots of other projects lined up to do!

We also built our son a funky tree tower next to the greenhouse because there was an Aspen tree in bad shape that needed to come down. My husband decided to make the tree tower for our son’s birthday in February and built it on any weekend that was not frigid this winter – and we had lots of nice weekends, actually.

Here are some pix of the peeps from 4 days – 2.5 wks old:

The two golden colored ones are Buff Orpingtons and their names are Daisy and Lulu. The two brownish ones are Easter Eggers – Americana’s, specifically and their names are Iris and Acorn. All 3 of us named them. They really are so very cute at this age!

Here is a picture of our (still unfinished) greenhouse that will be painted this spring and the funky tree tower to the left of it:

It’s located right in front of our newly expanded garden space, that’s the garden fence behind it. The tree tower looks like it’s all open in the picture but there is lots of cable wire going through the Aspen branches and it’s a 4 ft tall fence so my son won’t fall out! It’s very secure and he loves it!

The greenhouse was built so we could walk in there through a door (on the left side), it’s about 8′ tall at the highest point and has 2 large beds on the ground as well as a big shelf on the back wall under another window that can hold 4 large pots (or 7 flats of seedlings). The roof windows open for ventilation, too. There is a sprinkler head inside it from our sprinkler system so we can run a drip line off of it to the beds. We are also hanging up heavy duty hooks to hold large hanging pots in there, too. I want to grow the upside down tomato plants to have a longer tomato growing season in the fall (I admit I’m a little obsessed with growing tomatoes!). We have also worked out our glitches from last winter’s trial garden and will use the back of the greenhouse to help anchor the hoop house for better winter gardening this year. We are pretty excited for all of this additional growing space we’ve got now!

Many seeds have been started indoors this past week and my husband just rototilled in a mix of compost and top soil into all the new beds we created so now we are ready to plant! We will be direct seeding the new greenhouse beds this weekend with several varieties of cool weather greens and peas. This growing year  should be a good one since we are done with the hardscaping now and can successfully do year round succession planting.

Now with the chickens, we will have free range, organic eggs from happy birds (and my son & husband eat lots of eggs), new fun pets to hang out with and we will be able to feed them many veggie scraps from the garden and compost their waste and bedding to eventually be put back into the garden. The cycle of life. Love it.

The thing I love most about gardening is all that you learn from nature. Everything is trial and error and you find what works best for your individual space and then when it clicks, you get to watch the magic of nature unfold in front of your eyes and reap the bounty! I find this to be so much fun!

Co-opin’

For the past few years I’ve been feeling like I need to join a food co-op again (I was part of a home based one 14 years ago then part of a store front one in the mountains for many years and again when another store front one opened in my current town but closed down). I did find a co-op group last summer that was located about 20 min away from where I live. It was what I was looking for but it didn’t work out for us for different reasons. I was left with the fact that I would have to take on this job myself and start something here in my town. I was given the different distributors’ info and set up accounts with them right away. I already had a group of interested friends wanting to do this and since I was doing all the coordinating work for it, I chose to keep it small and manageable for me to deal with – we have 11 families in our group and have had others ask to join in but have turned them down until we think we need to grow. We’ve been ordering about 2x/month. The produce selection changes with the seasons so it’s been fun for us to see what’s on the list each week.

I like the distributor we are with who provides the fresh fruit and veggies. They also carry all of Organic Valley’s dairy and eggs, too as well as locally made gmo-free tofu and locally made organic tortillas. For me, a co-op (or buyer’s club) is better than being part of a CSA (which I was part of for a couple years) because I can pick and choose which veggies and fruit I want and if it’s a price I want to pay. Since it’s a group buying these items, we all split the large cases they come in and get just how much we want for amazing prices. And the quality has been excellent for mostly everything. It’s a win-win for me personally since I really look to always save money especially in an unstable economy and still get to have the best quality food for my family that’s mostly local, wholesale and organic.

There is another distributor located near our produce distributor that carries all the bulk organic dry goods such as: nuts, dried fruits, grains, flours, legumes, etc. If we don’t have enough items to meet their minimum order, we can pay a markup on the price of our dry goods items to the produce distributor and they will go and get it for us and deliver it with our produce order. It really has been great having this option for all of us! Last summer I replenished my dry goods depleted stock here at home and split a variety of grains, beans, flours and nuts and we have been eating from our stores all year making fun and delicious ethnic food and other recipes – even homemade pizza night! Since I eat all vegan (and about half raw) and my husband eats an omnivore diet, we agreed to make vegan family dinners from all this bulk and preserved food we invested in and we’ve been really enjoying the variety of recipes we’ve tried out. The fresh produce we get 2x/month is a really nice addition, too.

Since we live in CO, in winter there isn’t that much growing here on a large scale besides potatoes and indoor herbs, sprouts & mushrooms so more items are brought in from organic farms in CA and other states like TX or even Mexico that we will buy (like citrus, greens & now artichokes!) but during the warmer growing season, our distributor really tries to work with as many CO based organic farmers as possible – several are even from the town I live in which makes me happy to support those farms as well as other organic farms from the surrounding 100 miles of our town. And CO is known for its amazing western slope fruits like peaches, nectarines and cherries and they distribute these as well!

Even though there are 2 large farmer’s markets near me, the exact same produce from some of the same farms are carried through our distributor at much better pricing for us. We only have to meet this company’s minimum order of $200 and they deliver the order to my home for free (where a few of us divide it up for the group) since we are on their delivery route for stores. Since everything through the distributor is sold by the large case or pound sacks (50#), we are actually buying bigger volume from the farmers than if we just bought a pound or two at the farmer’s market or if I had a CSA share. I still like to support other farms and enjoy the farmer’s market atmosphere so we go to the really big market on Wednesday nights in summer and buy assorted items from the booths for a picnic dinner and watch live, outdoor music performed nearby.

We are also growing a much larger garden this season, too. I’ve been trying to figure out how much I might want to purchase outside of the bulk buying of certain fruits and veggies for preserving for winter. We increased the amount we preserved last summer (by canning, drying, freezing & lactofermenting) and have been really good about using our frozen veggies, canned sauce, salsa and pickles and other lactofermented foods like sauerkraut. Even the dried produce and herbs are being used up well. The seasonal food cycle really makes such logical sense to me to live like this and eat really high quality food all year. You can totally taste the difference – even my frozen veggies still have such good flavor and crispness when we cook with them. The frozen fruits (mostly used in smoothies) have been delicious, too.

Don’t believe that eating organic food has to be more expensive – for us, it’s cheaper than buying conventional produce & dry goods at the supermarket. We are also supporting organic farmers from our state as well as a few other locations by buying large quantities from them. Our distributor even gives back to the farmers they work with through their annual profit share program. The more we buy from the distributor, the more the farmer’s make.

And what about me and all my hard work in coordinating all of this? In lieu of payment for me I’ve asked that the co-op members chip in and buy an extra case of fruit each time we order to donate to the food bank in our town. It’s our way of giving back to those less fortunate and who pretty much rarely if ever get to eat fresh fruit or veggies. I am very lucky I don’t have to worry about that so I wanted to donate my “fee” and give fresh, organic food to those who desperately need it.

Reconnecting With My Roots

I just returned home from a much needed week long break we took to see my friends and family in NY for a friend’s wedding.  It was awesome. There truly is nothing like hanging out with old friends and in NY, I have many that I keep in touch with.  As much as I love living in CO, it always makes me so sad to leave everyone at the end of my trip.  Each day I woke up and I didn’t care about what was going on in the world and instead I saw many different people and we just laughed so much, ate great ethnic (vegan) food, played with all of the kids (my son just loved that) and just got to hang out and be me. My son got to see and understand more about his mama on this trip now that he’s a bit older and he got to play with so many cousins and friend’s children and spent quality time with my aunt who babysat him while we were at the wedding.

One of my friends who was the maid of honor gave a beautiful toast and at one point said, look around the room, see how many people (the bride) is still close with for more than 25 years.  (I have been friends with the bride for 28 years already).  She said this is because of the kind of character she has and the quality person that she is.  I agree.  The old, enduring relationships are with the kind of people that are there for you, know all about you and how you have evolved as a person over time and love you regardless of it all. This is such a rare and beautiful thing because as it is with any relationship, it takes some work and effort to maintain.

Our last day there we drove into NYC and took my son to see the new dinosaur exhibit at the natural history museum, went to Central Park then met my uncle for dinner at a restaurant I’ve been dying to go to – Pure Food and Wine.  It is a gourmet raw vegan restaurant and the food was amazing – we all liked it and I have new ideas of things to try to re-create here at home.  The highlight of the whole meal had to be the dessert – 3 different raw vegan ice creams.  Oh.My.God. They do have a $2,000 ice cream machine in the kitchen which makes it come out like gelato. One was an ice cream cone with chocolate ice cream dipped in a hardened shell of raw chocolate, the other was a pistachio ice cream sandwich dipped in the same raw chocolate shell and the third one we tried was a chai tea ice cream pop covered in the raw chocolate shell.  All so good and the ice cream sandwich tasted like marzipan which is one of my favorite desserts so I had to ask what the ingredients were and the waiter told me that it was really the Italian almond flour in the cookie part that gave it that flavor.  I am so trying this at home soon! My son, Mr. Picky ate a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dinner. I figured at least it’s all healthy ingredients since he wouldn’t eat anything else on the menu.  He loved it and loved the other ice creams for dessert, too. Now I need to get a good ice cream maker since I only have the REI roll it on the floor kind of ice cream maker you use for camping. Not the same.

The other great thing for me about being in NY is that it’s a very liberal state and that makes me feel right at home.  CO is a “purple” state so there is more opportunity to encounter others with a much more conservative viewpoint on every single issue out there – even ones like my current congresswoman voted for that hinder support for low income children in my own town which makes me so sad for them and disgusted by her (she’s done many other actions I don’t like, either).  Good thing she’s up for re-election and hopefully she won’t be back to do more damage.

On our plane ride home, there was a current issue of Rolling Stone Magazine left behind so I was psyched to read it since I don’t normally read that mag and of course, there is a big political article in it (many, many details) about “The Real John McCain.”  I’ve read a lot about both candidates over the past few months and just like I pick my friends, I want to choose my candidate on the content of their character and their integrity.  This article goes into detail with facts from his biography, interviews he’s given to the press over the years as well as interviews the journalist did with his fellow POW’s and other military personnel – even info about the Reagan’s viewpoint on his actions which was surprising to me.  I highly recommend you check out this article as it’s the best one I’ve read about him, bar none: http://www.rollingstone.com

I really hope we can rebuild our country and focus again on the people of this country and taking care of us all so we can become a strong nation again.  We are looking and acting pretty wounded right now out in the world especially because of what’s happened to our economy.  We who live here are lucky to live here, it is a great nation and I am fully aware of that from having lived abroad in other countries.

I am hoping we all will elect the president that understands that and wants to help rebuild us as strong people first.  I want my son to have opportunities for good health care and education that won’t cost us an arm and a leg to provide it for him and better laws to get rid of putting special interest groups first over what is safe for him (and us) to ingest and breathe in. If we had that, we wouldn’t have to go look up in the Skin Deep website about products we use on our bodies to see if the unregulated chemicals in the products we buy are safe for us or not or have a need for the Safe Toys Act or the noxious toxins that are allowed to be put into our air and dumped into our water supply, or injected into our food supply – even through the factory farm animals most people eat everyday, etc.  We need an overhaul of so many systems to help us become a strong and healthy nation and the tides are finally turning where enough people are aware of and care about these issues now.

As Suze Orman always says, “People first, then money, then things.” I really hope we get the opportunity to finally put all Americans first instead of continuously catering to the greed of the corporations and the wealthiest 1% of Americans.   If we don’t focus on the people, I think we will see lots more devastation and death with increasing global warming catastrophies doing a number on this planet as well as a bankrupt financial system and extreme amounts of homelessness and poverty all over America and the world, too since we’d be in the midst of a global depression.  Yeah, happy thoughts, I know.  I hope all of my American readers will take all of this into consideration when choosing who to vote for.  There really is only one logical choice who will put the people first and if you don’t believe me, be sure to read the above article.

Ok, I’m stepping off my soapbox now : )

Fruit and Veggie Seeds At Risk

Well this is yet another bit of highly disappointing information I learned today. The Path To Freedom Blog posted today that Monsanto owns about 40% of all the fruit and veggie seeds sold in the U.S. and they are growing.  It’s not bad enough that they’ve taken over grain production and made it into frankenfood and are destroying many family farms in the process but now they are invading the fruit and veggie seed market, too.

Here is what the PTF folks have to say about this:

We aren’t talking genetically modified seeds here were are talking about who is supplying the seeds.  Even if you purchase non gmo seeds from a seed company who touts a ‘Safe Seed Pledge’ that variety may still be OWNED by Monsanto.  Sorry to break the bad news to you, but that’s the facts folks.  We, yes even PTF, is supporting the big M by purchasing seeds from our favorite seed companies and you probably are too.

Out of the 2,500 varieties that Monsanto has acquired from the Seminis takeover, here are a few of the published veg varieties that we know that Monsanto owns:

Beans: EZ Gold, Eureka, Goldrush, Kentucky King, Lynx, Bush Blue Lake 94

Carrot: Nutri-Red, Sweet Sunshine, Karina, Chantenay #1, Chantilly, Lariat

Cucumber: Dasher II, Daytona, Turbo, Speedway, Sweet Slice, Yellow Submarine, Sweeter Yet

Lettuce: Esmeralda, Lolla Rossa (and derivatives), Red Sails, Red Tide, Blackjack, Summer time, Monet, Baby Star, Red Butterworth

Melons: Alaska, Bush Whopper, Casablanca, Dixie Jumbo, Early Crisp

Onion: Arsenal, Hamlet, Red Zeppelin, Mars, Superstar, Candy

Peppers: Valencia, Camelot, King Arthur, Red Knight, Aristotle, Northstar, Biscane, Caribbean Red, Serrano del Sol, Early Sunsation, Fat and Sassy

Spinach: Melody, Unipack 151Spinach, Bolero, Cypress

Squash: Autumn Delight, Bush Delicata (producer-vendor), Really Big Butternut, Early Butternut, Buckskin Pumpkin (AAS), Seneca Autumn, Table ace

Tomato: Big Beef, Beefmaster, First Lady I and II, Early Girl, Pink Girl, Golden Girl, Sunguard, Sun Chief Sweet, Baby Girl, Sweet Million

Watermelon: Royal Flush, Royal Star (pet), Stargazer, Starbright, Stars and Stripes, Yellow doll, Tiger

Zucchini/Summer Squash: Blackjack, Daisy, Fancycrook, Sunny Delight, Lolita, Sungreen

They aren’t not done yet!  Recently Monsanto purchased one of the largest International Eurpoean based Seed Company.

Monsanto is now the largest supplier of vegetables seeds.

So what to do?  Start saving fazing out listed Monsanto owned varieties, reach where your seeds come from and or save your own.

Taking Back Our Food Supply

Before agriculture became an industry, every gardener, farmer was responsible for the availability of seed for next years crop.  With this recent merger and marketing tactics that has allow a certain “M”-onopoly to take over over the majority of the seed population. Seed-saving is one among many tactics of reclaiming our power (and freedom) to grow our own food, and an indispensable step towards fully sustainable and secure future.

The shift from public to private seed systems

Monsanto Purchases World’s Largest Vegetable Seed Company

The seeds of vegetable diversity

I kept having insights and dreams about saving seeds before this growing season started.  I was shown a local seed bank happening in my area and really, I’m not that skilled at seed saving and all it entails even though we have owned the book, “Seed To Seed” for many years just for this reason that one day we would have to rely on ourselves for ensuring our food production.  Needless to say, we’ve slacked in that department over the past few years what with moving to the ‘burbs, major home renovations and having a kid and all.  I’ve even discussed this a few times this past spring with different people in my area (including my friend Julie, a master gardener) to find out if there was a seed bank already happening where I live – there isn’t. Clearly why I’ve been shown this over and over again before we started growing anything this season was for a reason and we have been diligently saving heirloom organic seeds this summer the way my husband learned from his homesteading mom and step-dad.

This is bad news, people.  Being more self-sufficient even with your own garden is becoming increasingly more important everyday. I recommend that you read up a bit on this topic if you don’t already know about what’s going on.  It’s a big deal and I’m not kidding.  Those who control the seeds of life control everything and they definitely do not have our best interests at heart.

Btw, which political party do you think they are affilitated with? Just saying.

Detox Month

Right now I am in the midst of one of the biggest detoxes I’ve ever undertaken.  And that’s saying something since I’ve done many different things over the years. Ten years ago, my husband and I followed “The Body Ecology Diet” for several months to clean our bodies from candida and parasites.  We didn’t have any major problems but Michael did have pretty bad seasonal and some pet allergies.  And some food ones, too.  All of that warranted a good internal cleansing and we did that together.  This was also our first attempt at making lacto-fermented saurkraut (as recommended by the book) which came out badly and we haven’t tried it again until this summer and we are lacto-fermenting veggies like crazy!  We had excellent results from doing this program which really is a good cleansing and very healthy way to live. Michael’s allergies were almost totally gone!

Along with that particular cleanse, we did some colonics as is also recommended in the book.  We really didn’t like the “closed circuit” colonics that we did so I’ve never gone back for them even though I am aware of how important it is to keep your colon clean.  There is a quote from the Royal Academy of Physicians of Great Britain that says, “90 percent of all disease and discomfort is directly or indirectly related to an unclean colon.” Now that is really saying something.  90 percent. That’s a lot.

Being on a raw vegan diet is very deeply cleansing in itself. I thought I was doing enough sufficient exercise to sweat out the toxins that were being dredged up by this cleansing diet but I guess not since I’ve been having weird rashes come out on my skin the past few months.  This is basically past prescription meds I’ve taken and heavy metals, solvents, etc that I’ve been exposed to over the years trying to make a quick exit through the largest elimination organ we have – the skin. It all gets stored away in the liver, one of our most important organs in the body that performs over 500 tasks everyday.  Most skin problems are related to liver congestion or stagnation and the body trying to rid itself from it.  I’ve known this and have done many liver flushes and herbal liver tonic blends over the years to try to keep mine in good working order.

A liver flush is generally a  concoction blended in the blender every morning and drank on an empty stomach for 10 days then a 3 day break then do it again.  Clearly this was not enough to get at the deep seated stuff for me.  I also have been having visions of colonics so I knew it was a message and that I needed to do them again but I just didn’t like the kind I did before and didn’t realize there was another way until I started to read about it in some of my books.

I investigated this other type of colonic that has been recommended by many health experts and this one is called the “gravity feed” method. It is the most gentle way and very effective at cleaning you out.  I found a practitioner in my area (that cured herself of liver cancer) and she is highly knowledgeable of many rather unpleasant facts and stories relating to sickness caused by toxed out people that she has treated over the years. I loved her right away and knew she was the person for me!

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of my Detox Month Saga!

What To Do With All Your Zucchini?

Make Hummus!

I have been hearing about how great zucchini hummus is from different raw vegan websites as well as seeing a few recipes for it in my raw cookbooks. I am quite a Middle Eastern food snob having lived in Israel at one time as well has having dated Israeli men and have dined at many of their recommended Middle Eastern restaurants both in NY and in Israel or ate their homemade food. I still have Israeli friends in NY that I visit when I go there and we inevitably go to one of the Middle Eastern restaurants where only Hebrew is spoken and they have some of the best food I’ve ever eaten there. I think besides Italian food, Middle Eastern food is my favorite and I’m very picky about it.

Since I’ve been scoffing at the idea of eating a hummus made without chickpeas, I’ve never bothered to try this recipe. I kept thinking, “How can it be good without beans?” Well, it is! It’s awesome, actually and I’m so glad I tried the recipe because I was not eating any beans (until recently) and I’ve really missed this dish!

This past weekend, I made 3 different versions I found for zucchini hummus. One was even a sundried tomato version of hummus (using zucchini) from Ani Phyo which was good but my favorite one is from Alissa Cohen. I’ve adapted the recipe just a little from Alissa Cohen’s book “Living On Live Food” and it really tastes and has the body of a chickpea hummus but is just a touch lighter, not as dense feeling and is easier to digest if anyone has a problem with digesting beans.

Boy am I stoked!! I’ve frozen 5 containers of this so far to eat throughout the year cause I have so much squash and zucchini coming out of my garden. I find that most patés freeze well.

Zucchini Hummus
by Alissa Cohen

5 cups zucchini or squash, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup tahini (I added an extra 1/4 cup more which really helped)
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. cumin (I added this to mine, Alissa didn’t have it in hers.)

Place all ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth.

It’s such an easy recipe and it tastes so unbelievably good! Now when you have a glut of squash or zucchini coming out of your garden, you have another great way to use it up!

Post-Partum Depression,The Brain & Good Fats

I read this Q & A that was sent in to Jinjee from The Garden Diet to answer. She is a raw vegan mother of 5 raw vegan kids. I feel the info she gives is very important for all mothers to keep in mind:

Question of the week:

Q: All the years before becoming raw, i drank fish oil/cod liver oil daily. lately i literally feel like i’m loosing my mind, forgetting things, catch myself not thinking straight, anxiety, sadness (not like myself). i called our family naturopathic doctor and he says that without a doubt it is the lack of fish oil in my diet combined with breastfeeding my toddler = brain loss. he said that the body will get the (DHA) from my brain to give it to the breastmilk for the child = mom becoming sad and a little crazy. he said that is the reason for post-partum depression. and people just do not know it. what do you think? how do you have 5 children, nurse them, and not lose your mind?

A: Regarding losing your mind, I’m not totally happy with my memory but I attribute it to too much on my mind at any one time. Yoga, prayer, or meditation helps me a lot when I do these regularly. Breathing deeply is also good! And of course exercise is awesome for the brain as well as the body!

Here are some more fatty raw foods that can grease the brain:
purslane – an herb you can add to your smoothies, or eat plain! Very yummy! With natural vegetable DHAs
olives
olive oil
avocados
durian
coconuts – we think these are so important to brain function that we use these in our recipes and plain daily, even though they’re unfortunately not organic.
nuts, seeds, tahini, nutbutters, nutmilks
flax, flax seed oil
hemp seeds
hemp seed oil
ochra

If you significantly up the fats in your diet, you’ll find a lot of nice things happen, including thinking better and feeling happier!

But what about those well-known teachers who recommend limiting fats on the raw diet? Well, I simply disagree with them. Maybe a low fat raw diet works for some people, but not everyone. You have to find what works for you!

If you are a stressed out mama and you crave something like potato chips or lots of meat, that can very well be your body signaling it’s need for good quality fats. Do an experiment with yourself and either eat some healthy fats with your food – preferably not heated to get the most benefit – or pop a flax or hemp oil or fish oil capsule in your mouth or drizzle the oil on your salad, put it in a smoothie, etc. Use enough of it, don’t skimp and see if that helps you feel any better. It may take a few days of doing this but it does kick in pretty quick. These types of fats are essential to your body and you must eat some everyday especially if you are nursing.

I did my own experiment this summer with a low-fat version of the raw vegan diet. Since there was so much good fruit and veggies available everywhere and I’ve been reading up on the LFRV way I decided to up my fruit intake, not eat any dehydrated foods and not really eat much fat containing foods. I love to eat lots of sweet fruits and to juice the greens and veggies from my garden or eat a big salad and have not had the desire to make any real recipes since it’s been so hot out so it’s been easy to do this. I was really living on just fruit and greens and very little fat – a handful of olives or seeds, a little avocado once in a while and an occasional Israeli Salad (one of my all-time favorites). I have not eaten any raw chocolate, either since June or early July. That’s unheard of for me! I also hardly made any raw desserts like pies or cobblers, either.

Well, I’ve determined that someone sensitive to sugars (namely me who has had insulin resistance before) needs the fat to counteract that. Fat is grounding and nourishing and I think I’ve been craving and eating some of my son’s cooked vegan foods (millet, quinoa and beans) the past 2 weeks because of the lack of eating adequate fats all summer. When I ate a decent amount of raw fats everyday in my diet I didn’t crave much of anything at all. I found this whole experiment so interesting because my body really told me what it needs to stay in balance. For me personally, too much sweet puts my body out of whack and makes me crave the opposite end of the spectrum – dense cooked foods. Eating some cooked food again has been interesting and doesn’t make me feel better, either. It makes me tired, actually.

I made a big batch of Israeli salad (olive oil) and a big massaged kale salad (olive oil and avocado) today and have been slurping it down – I really couldn’t get enough of it. Clearly my body was craving good fats and now I feel really satisfied. I’m glad I gave the low-fat raw way a try and I’ve had lots of fun eating tons of juicy, organic watermelon, nectarines, peaches, plums, cherries, melons, etc (I would never eat much fruit in a day before going raw due to the IR) and now I know that my body needs enough of the healthy fats everyday to balance out the glut of sweet summer fruits. There are many people who thrive eating like this but as I’ve found out, I’m just not one of them. I also notice that I do feel more even-keeled all day eating the healthy, nourishing fats and a well balanced raw vegan diet – and that’s a good thing for both myself and my family!

Refreshing Summertime Healthy Treats – Kid-Approved, Too

I’ve been trying out different recipes for my son to eat that are both healthy and tasty for him. He thinks he’s getting a treat and I’m happy that he’s getting more produce.

Since he’s so picky, I’ve kept it pretty simple. Simple seems to work best and then I try to add on if he will allow it.

His favorite treat of all in the summer is a popsicle. We have some popsicle molds that we use and last year, he would only eat it if I put fruit juice or lemonade in it for him but this year, I’ve been buying so much more fresh fruit and he seems more interested in what I’m doing with it that I’ve made popsicles out of just whole fruit and a little raw agave nectar which has a very sweet taste and is low glycemic, i.e. does not raise your blood sugar like regular sugar does.

So here are a few simple but tasty treats for the kiddos:

Strawberry popsicle:

1/3# fresh, organic strawberries, washed
1T raw agave nectar
1/4 cup water

Puree in a high speed blender til smooth. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

You may need a bit more agave depending on how sweet the berries are. The first time I made this for him, he wanted it more sweet, of course so I just brushed on a little agave on the outside which made him a happy camper and he ate the whole thing. He asks for popsicles everyday and eats at least one a day especially after he comes home from camp.

His new favorite popsicle flavor is watermelon. We got a huge organic watermelon from the health food store the other day and it was so sweet. I could eat watermelon all the time, I love it! Whatever fruit we are eating he will ask me to make it into a popsicle now. It’s really funny to me.

Watermelon popsicle:

2 cups organic watermelon
1T raw agave nectar
Blend til smooth. Pour into molds and freeze.

If it’s not sweet enough, just brush a little agave onto the outside and that does the trick.

I have tried blending flavors and also adding in diluted supplements but that never goes over well and I end up having to eat it so I just stick to the basics. It’s cheap, nutritious, the whole fruit is eaten not just juice and it’s a fun food for the kiddos.

We have also been making lots of raw lemonade. Super easy and tasty.

Lemonade:

1T freshly juiced lemon juice (this is best, otherwise get unfiltered organic lemon juice)
1T raw agave nectar
Water to fill glass
Ice
1/4 tsp. Sea Salt (or Himalayan crystal salt is better). Add this if it’s really hot out for more electrolytes and water retention

Mix really well and drink. Tastes great like regular lemonade but you are using a low glycemic sweetener so your child won’t bounce off the walls and it’s also an electrolyte balancer to prevent dehydration. It’s really like a healthy Gatorade. Lemons also replenish electrolytes. This too, can be frozen as a popsicle.

We have been making sun teas, too. My favorite flavor for the summertime is Mint. Just put a bunch of washed fresh mint leaves in a gallon sun tea container, fill with filtered water and let sit in the sun all day. Refrigerate in the evening and the next day you have really cold mint tea which really cools you off when you drink that on a hot day. You can sweeten it, too but we all like it plain. Even my picky son loves cold mint tea. If you combine that with eating some cold watermelon, you will really cool down pretty quick.

Some cultures drink hot mint tea for cooling down in the heat but I still prefer the cold version best. Mint is a diaphoretic herb so drinking it hot opens the capillaries and helps you sweat which cools you down. It is also very good for the digestion.

The other snack my son Leif is loving is actually going into the garden and picking his own cucumber or greens, etc and we bring it inside and I wash and cut it up and he’s so happy to eat the food he’s watched grow. He will eat large amounts, too. He’s ecstatic that his little yellow pear tomatoes that he planted the seeds in a container himself in May and watered (a lot!) all summer are now bearing fruit and so are the cherry tomatoes growing right next to them. He goes and looks everyday and sees if they are yellow enough and when they are he picks it and pops it into his mouth. He does the same with the red ones, too. I think it’s the cutest thing ever, of course! He’s really into living foods and likes having them around him, just like his parents. The garden is one fascinating place to him.

Preserving The Bounty

Well we have been busy around here this week! Michael and I have been doing all sorts of preserving of our garden and finding really good deals on organic produce at the store and farmer’s market. We are looking at this season as more of one of experimentation because we are trying not to water bath can or pressure can (what we normally do each year) but to do more low tech preservation methods that keep the enzymes alive and nutrients intact since this is very important to me now.

So here’s the recap of what we’ve been doing every evening and last weekend: First, Dehydrating – both solar dehydrating outside and also with my new-this-year-and-I-love-it-so-much dehydrator. I purchased an Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator with teflex sheets back in January when I went raw and I couldn’t be happier with it. What an amazing investment this was – it has a temperature control on it and it’s square shaped so it feels like an oven so I can even put a lasagna pan in there to dehydrate a raw, living lasagna recipe. The 9 trays don’t have to be rotated since a fan blows on each individual tray from the back, there’s no dripping onto the trays below and I’ve dried both sweet and savory at the same time on different trays and there have been no crossover of flavors or any problems. The electricity usage when it’s on is low, too. It uses the same amount of power an ordinary light bulb uses when you dry at the lower temps.

I’ve been dehydrating herbs especially culinary ones like rosemary, mint, parsley, basil, dill, etc in it at a low temp and then crush and store it in little glass bottles for seasoning especially for this winter. I will continue to do this as the harvest progresses because it’s so damn easy and quick and I get a superior product to what I can get at the store – it’s still technically raw and organically grown, afterall – not to mention cost savings! I usually hang dry my herbs but wanted to try it out on the spiffy machine this time.

We also bought several pounds of local, organic apricots from a coop recently and ate a bunch right away but we wanted to preserve some, too so instead of just dehydrating them, Michael wanted to try to dip them in something to preserve the color, too. He mixed up some raw, local honey with some lemon juice that I had juiced that day (we go through lots of lemon juice here, I’m always juicing lemons!) and dipped the apricot halves into that mixture then dehydrated them at a low temp for a couple of days and they came out awesome! So tasty and with a bright color.

We’ve been drying berries, too. Organic strawberries are on sale in my town for $2.19/pound which is ridiculously cheap for here so I’ve been stocking up for the winter – we of course ate all the berries we grew in our garden already! I make smoothies with frozen organic berries a lot in winter but we also wanted to try dehydrating them and using them in recipes more that way. Oh man, so delicious! I will have to go back and get more because dehydrated strawberries are unbelievable. We plan on trying out dehydrating more produce, too over the next 2 or so months.

We’ve also been Freezing produce – ok, not low tech but we do have an energy star freezer and I like my frozen, organic fruits in the winter so this is a large and important step for us to do during the height of cheap produce season. I’ve been freezing mangos, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc. I will freeze some organic corn when it becomes less expensive and other veggies, too. We wash and vacuum seal pretty much everything we store in the freezer. We’ve experimented with juicing some fruits and greens and freezing them right away, too. It’s not as good as fresh juice but may be pretty good still – we’ll see in a few months.

We purchased 10 pounds of local, organic snap peas and 10 pounds of local, organic green beans and we 3 literally ate several pounds of each fresh already this week and have tried out different methods of preserving the rest. We have dehydrated a small amount, froze some (we soaked in hot water but did not blanch and will see if they will be ok in the winter. If not, we will blanch then). We also have lactofermented some of the beans.

Lactofermenting is how you make real sauerkraut and pickles and any other kind of pickled produce or Kimchi but without heat or vinegar. All you add is sea salt, good water and the vegetable then let nature do it’s thing. Once fermented, you then add in other seasonings if you like. We have glass bowls all over with plates fitted on top and a weight on that with either beans or assorted greens from the garden lactofermenting right now. The beans are at the fizzy and fermenting stage and we just transfered them into glass jars. They need a bit more time to sour.

This is a super cheap and easy method to do and very healthy for you. The good bacteria is in there, you are eating probiotics which help your digestion and immune system stay healthy and strong. Vitamins, minerals, fiber and live enzymes all are in there and it’s very tasty and a living food, too. Some Kimchi contains a natural antibiotic to e-coli so that would be good to consume with meat if you eat that. Sauerkraut is one of my favorites and once the cabbage harvest comes in, I will be lactofermenting like crazy! We have some beets to process and we are going to try out lactofermenting some of them, too. This could possibly become a new addiction for us!

There are lots of resources on the web and in books for more info but a really good blog to read for lots of detailed info on all things food preservation is Casaubon’s Book. Sharon is really very talented in explaining all that you would ever need to know on this subject whether you are a suburban gardener or have a small scale farm. She also talks about Peak Oil and all that entails, too.

We also have recently purchased bulk dry goods from the coop for our food storage. I always like to have dry goods on hand for some reason – it gives me a sense of security, I guess plus it’s the most economical way to buy it, really. This year, we purchased several items that can be either sprouted to eat in recipes for my way of eating or cooked for my husband and son to eat. At Leif’s camp, they have been preparing both quinoa and millet for snack time so he has gotten used to eating those two grains which he has been refusing to eat here at home. Now he will let me make them for him so we will buy more quinoa this fall and have already bought millet, buckwheat groats (my favorite for raw recipes), black oil sunflower seeds for sprouting & eating the greens, assorted beans, popcorn, some brown rice and some whole wheat & rye flours – we store both flour and brown rice in the freezer.

Quinoa is technically a seed and can be eaten sprouted or cooked. Buckwheat groats, too and millet can be sprouted or cooked as well. All are considered non-allergenic, too. All healthy, versatile foods and organic, mostly locally grown and pretty cheap! We vacuum sealed everything in smaller 1-2 pound packages and store all of it in bins in our root cellar closet. We do always rotate through what we store over time and many of these dry foods when properly taken care of can be stored for years without going bad.

We feel that with the rising cost of gas and food (and availability), it’s better for us to put in the effort and stock up now with replenishing our dried food stores. The glut of fresh produce takes effort to preserve but when winter rolls around, I am always happy to eat something preserved from our garden or the market at the peak of flavor and obtained at the cheapest possible price. And no, I don’t have to do it, I can live like most of America and not put up any food, ever. It just feels like the right thing to do since I live in a colder climate, there are weird climate changes happening affecting the food supply everywhere you look and gas is only going to keep increasing so less driving to the store for us. I think this is a knowledge that needs to be taught and passed down because everyone’s health and finances could improve by doing this every year. These type of vegan foods are healthy for most people to eat at least several times a week and they save you money and time if you do it right.

Michael and I have been doing this for as long as we’ve been married (except the lactofermenting – we failed at that sev’l years ago and haven’t bothered to try again til now). It only takes some focused effort in the summer and fall, you can even do little bits each night like what we have been doing all week that will supply us for months in the winter.

Next, we are on to conquering the cucumbers coming in!

photos:Ginsky, babybee, racheliscoconutandlime, Ian Riley