2013

Photo of our back deck by visiting Zsuzsanna Luciano

I'm afraid to title this 2013 cuz by now it gets tiring reading/ hearing of summing up the last year. And too New Year's Resolutions. I don't usually go there. But last year was quite a ride - mainly health wise - amongst some other things cooking wise. I want to start posting again . . . We'll see. Seems I'm too busy to write, tho writing is one of the many things I love to do.

Like today. It's January 6, Eucharist Day, Magi visited the Christ child on the Church calendar. It's my day (usually) for putting away Christmas decor. Our tree IS brown, so last night was the last lighting of the tree. BUT I also had Sardines mailed to me from I Love Blue Sea - 3 pounds. I'm going to "pickle" them, as you can with all small fish and white fish - typically herring. But I'm planning on doing more of the ferment version, without the vinegar. I still have some cranberries for my favorite wintertime ferment (I posted about it before). I'm not going to ferment all the sardines.

Garden produce ferments - sauerkraut, dilly beans, zucchini relish, and kimchi

I got an electric smoker in November, so going to smoke a lot of sardines too. We're loving the smoker. My reasoning, finally, for getting the smoker, is all the grass-fed beef we have in the freezer - 1/2 a cow! Unless slow cooked in the oven, and the ground beef is out of this world! all the steak style cooking, including grilling, has not been a good experience - it's tough - not enough marbled fat like modern beef (the last century?). So I figured a smoker is slow cooking as well as giving that luscious grilled flavor. I don't use a lot of smoke - usually just 2 feedings of pellets and soaked wood chips in the first hour. Everything has been great! Turkey at Thanksgiving (going to do 2 smaller turkeys from now on - one stuffed and in oven for good stuffing and gravy). The steaks have been awesome. Did some bacon as a trial run before getting a whole pig to add to the freezer later this month - bacon was awesome. Pulled pork, pork chops, and loved the roaster chicken. We even smoked our Swedish potato sausage we make every Christmas, instead of the typical boiling, and it was great.

Thanksgiving smoked Turkey - everyone's preferred meat!

So today - some ferments and smoking (I have a "smoking jacket" and hat which I think is so funny!). Oh, I also have some sourdough started yesterday to form into loaves and bake either today or tomorrow morning. That's the other food thing I'm in love with - making sourdough bread! And the book that transformed the whole process is the Tartine. Chad Robertson just came out with Tartine 3, hot off the press I got it, and am in love!

Sourdough bread

I did mention my health. Quite the year! Things I complained to a nutritionist friend of mine had me tested. I was diagnosed in February, big time, as Adrenal Fatigued. I researched a lot, and still occasionally read along that line and in conjunction with Candidiasis. They can have a connection. Then further testing, is not absorbing nutrients. Hard to take when living and eating so well. Primarily B12 deficient - which is another weird thing when we have chickens and eat tons of eggs, as well as all the meats in the freezers. And oh . . . also diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia, which is not fun - when it's kicking up, it's very painful - checking that out more this year. My mantra last year was "You Gotta Keep Dancing"!!

My kitchen garden

Moving on . . . I gardened big time. I'm thinking I'm done with buying plants, unless a great deal on some fruiting tree or bush that's different from anything I have. Froze a lot of beans and broccoli and kale. Dried a lot of zucchini and tomatoes. And all this living at an altitude of 8,000 feet. Like growing corn and having enough to freeze. That's quite a feat! (Ah, another homophone to tell my grandson: feet and feat - he's collecting them!)(Oh, our 5th Grandchild was born.)

Tail end of broccoli, green beans and kale to freeze

I joined Denver's Botanical Gardens and walked around there a lot with my Master Gardener friend. We also took lots of classes together. Like greenhouse gardening and propagation and seed saving. So that's the new venture - tho that's how I've gotten tomatoes at this altitude in the first place. And I've scattered seeds forever, which is how my wildflower and perennial beds look lush. But on to improving it all and more propagating.

Photo of our sunroom/ greenhouse by visiting Zsuzsanna Luciano

So what will this next year look like? Garden planning and ordering some seeds right now, hoping to do more seed saving. We moved my studio space to a brighter and warmer room, so more sewing and weaving (which ends up involving spinning and dyeing)? Always food prep gourmet with real foods!

A large loom I'm selling - if anyone's interested!

Have a good year!

A Guerilla Gardener

This is amazing. How Gardening can solve life's problems! Share it!

"Free is not sustainable. The funny thing about sustainability, is you have to sustain it. . . . To change a community we have to change the nature of the soil. . . . If a kid plants kale, he'll eat kale . . ."

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."

Ron Finley grows a nourishing food culture in South Central L.A.’s food desert by planting the seeds and tools for healthy eating.

Orthorexia

I first wrote about this in 2007, but it's still so valid ... Maybe even more so!

I think about this statistic I've read about, having first heard it on the radio: 6% of American's money goes to food, while Europe and Japan spend 15-20+%. We Americans gladly fork over money for satellite TV, cell phones and other electronics, yet buy our food as cheaply as possible.  I still don't understand this diagram ...

For years I have been interested in nutrition, reading tons. Since the 60's, Mr Rodale and others started our awareness of farming practices, and health and wholeness. So much food was beginning to be processed, boxed and shipped long distances. Shelf life became most important, as well as convenience.

The more I know ... understanding where the food around me is coming from and how it's grown and made, makes it almost impossible to eat.

There's a word for this: orthorexia. It means having an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy.

Our grocery expenses are higher than they used to be. We're wanting to buy wild fish, pesticide free fruits and vegetables, hormone and antibiotic-free meat and dairy. And did you know there's now organic Twinkies!? It turns out that eating with a conscience costs more.

That's what we've told ourselves, as we try and buy as fresh and local as possible.

I know we can buy cheaper, probably half the cost. But here's the thing about orthorexia--unlike most afflictions, the worse it gets, the better you feel.

Some friends roll their eyes, as I pick up everything and read labels. Are we becoming elitists? But you know what? We feel great!

The Doctors Who Say Everything You Know About Cholesterol Is Wrong

Yep, I've believed this for a long time. Our liver has to work harder producing cholesterol if we don't take it in!

NEW DOCUMENTARY: We Are What We Eat [topsoil erosion food organic mon...

Short and Sweet. We all can do our little part. What am I doing?

I buy organic. I garden, making compost I scatter on all my garden beds every year. I get non-GMO chicken feed for my chickens. I buy grass-fed meats. I buy raw milk. I buy pastured butter and cheese. We fish for our fish, or buy from I Love Blue Sea . . .

My compost bin

My chicken coop

One of my veggie/ fruit gardens

Greenhouse gardening

Fermenting foods

Our cellar in process with home-made wines, etc

‎
"Artificial manures lead inevitably to artificial nutrition, artificial food, artificial animals and finally to artificial men and women." - Sir Albert Howard (1873 - 1947), English agronomist

Getting Dirty is Healthy

I read about a study . . . A soil bacteria called M. vaccae activates neurons in our brains. It releases serotonin that helps balance our immune system, decreasing the cause for depression. This dirt bacteria helps our brain's cognitive function and regulates our moods; also improving vitality and quality of life.

So diggin in the dirt is good. Exposure to soil microbes, and being outside breathing in good bacteria helps our immune system learn the difference between good and harmful bacteria and viruses. Helps teach our bodies to fight the right fights and lessens infections and allergies.

I got my dose of M. vaccae today!  I dug in my compost. I shoveled all the compost from the center bin into the right bin, readying the center bin for winter composting. Once down near the bottom I shoveled the new dirt, well composted kitchen scraps and garden refuse - what I call "black gold!" - thru the end sifter into a wheelbarrow. I needed compost for the garlic I was planting (garlic bulbs are separated and planted in the fall to grow new bulbs and get harvested the following summer).

So don't be afraid to get dirty! Let your kids play outside!

My compost bin

Will

Emery and Will

Scout

Emery's first fishing trip with Grandpa Monte

Our fire pit

Infrared Sauna ... and Wine

Infrared Sauna

We got an Infrared Sauna! Isn't it beautiful?! It's made of hemlock. I sit in it every day, and sometimes twice a day. I strive for 40 minutes. I'm reading books as I sit there. I've sat in the typical rock and steam sauna before - but can't take that kind of heat. I can't breath in that kind of sauna. This sauna heats into your body - more inside-out.

It takes awhile for us Americans to sweat! That is one of the goals. Our skin is our largest organ. Sweating clears the pores of blockage, and impurities sweat out of you - like even metals and other contaminants. Organs detox. Fat melts. Joints feel limberer. You sleep better.

I shouldn't even put wine in the same title. You're not supposed to have been drinking alcohol and go into the sauna. Also not a good idea to have just eaten a meal either. Better to let it digest first. You do need to keep replenished with lots of liquids. Since I'm drinking water kefir and eating fermented foods and our water is quality well water, I'm taking in plenty of minerals for all the sweating I'm doing!

Messy looking wine fermentors next to the sauna

So why mention wine? Cuz my sauna picture has wine ferment containers sitting next to it. I'm currently fermenting four wines. Two have green grapes I'd frozen from Dawson's yard he picked for me this year. It takes a lot of grapes to make wine, so last year I tried adding some similar grapes a friend gave me to a Pinot Grigio wine kit . . . And it's a refreshing wine. So one of these ferments are with a Sauvingon Blanc kit and the other a Zinfandel Rose. Then I've got my typical Amazon Tuscany Rosso going, and too a chokecherry wine.

3 carboys of rhubarb wine, then plum, skeeter pea, shiraz, and a 3 red blend

Chokecherries I do grow here, as well as crab apples, rhubarb, and raspberries. I've tried all of them as wines. I don't care for the crab apple wine - they're frozen for applesauce. The raspberry wine is awesome, but I rarely use my raspberries for wine. Rhubarb makes a great wine, and one of my pics shows you three five-gallon carboys of rhubarb from this year. And then chokecherries make a fabulous red wine!

Cellar shelves with wine and other ferments

Cellar stairs from kitchen panty trap door

So yes, among my many ferments I've got going is wine. The room I make it in is the boys' old bedroom. The kids' bathroom (no kids at home anymore) is where all the washing and sterilizing solutions sit - in the bathtub. I want to do posts of the process, since I've taken tons of pictures over the years of all I had hoped to see as I was researching. Once bottled it gets stored in our nice cellar Dawson is finishing off this year. We poured concrete down there just before his wedding this summer. Before, for years, it's just been our root cellar, dubbed "rot" cellar by my daugher-in-law. He made great stairs this summer and some shelves (more to come). The cellar is accessed through a trap door in my kitchen pantry. We've gone through two other staircases that rotted. It's staying an even 50 degrees down there and about 60-70% humidity.

Germs?

"Unless you're in a kissing relationship,

skip the dip."

- as said by Lynne Rossetto Kasper

on NPRs Splendid Table radio show this weekend.

Anyone needing me to explain?

Menopause?

I jokingly call menopause "mental pause". But I'm there. How long does it last? It starts for some people early - believed to be the result of pesticides, hormones in our food, stress, etc. I'm at the age women in the old days started menopause.

Why am I talking about this? Yesterday I went for a physical. I've not had one in quite awhile, or I should say some things started several years ago never got completed. I thought I was over the hump, meaning that my body has entered the next woman's season of life ... but no.

Monte was reading about menopause on line. Do other men do this?!!! ;^) Well, Monte read that the possibility of having a baby in the house this summer has thrown my hormones for a loop.

But ya know what happened yesterday that is so typical of my body, but this was the worst! ... I was poked by 8 (or was it 9?) needles (and two nurses and the doctor) trying to draw my blood! I hate saying something to nurses, not wanting to start them off scared. And if you're going to ask me the typical question of if I drank enough water? ... YES!!!

Four tries were in the early morning since I had fasted. When they think they got enough for the one test needing my having fasted, they told me to go home, eat, and drink TONS of water and just drop in again. So I did just after lunch. Finally, the fourth one that time filled three more tubes.

I've heard in the past, "your veins are good but they collapse or roll". They did get veins this time but my blood is so thick (probably why I had blood clots in my last pregnancy). In the past I've tried laughing to make the blood flow more.

I told them they need to write in bold red letters on the front: Hard to draw blood! Put a warm pad on first. Use the smallest butterfly needle you've got. I think too they should draw my blood first when I get there and have been drinking a lot, and then do the rest of the appointment.

Now just the gap of time waiting, hoping all's well.

Self Improvement?

With every New Year there's a focus on self-improvement. I was reminded of what sits in my pantry as I read an article ...

There's this visual used in many varieties of settings. I've used it myself when I've spoken around the country. I used a large plastic gallon jar and had put very large rocks in it. The example I read this morning had golf balls in a mayonnaise jar. Then we ask, "Is it full?" and the response is, "Yes". I then filled it with gravel, the article- marbles, and "Yes, it's full" is the response again. Then we fill the jar with sand. The response is not quite so sure any more. I poured in water, the article poured in beer - then the jar is full.

Most of us have seen this illustration and know the right answers, but in the reality of daily living our lives answer this visual with, "In all the busyness of life we can always squeeze in more."

I had my old plastic jar with rocks visual sitting around ... I like visual reminders for reminding my heart. One look at the jar and I remember what's most important in my life that I need to make sure I squeeze in first, for my sanity or to be a better person.

One day, looking at that all grey jar, I thought, "That's ugly! That doesn't represent me! I'm made in the image of God who created gorgeous birds, butterflies and animals ... created exotic fruits and vegetables, beautiful sunrises ... all for our enjoyment. I'm a child of God!" I wanted a beautiful jar to look at, full of color!

I can't just end the illustration here. People want to know what I named my stuff in the jar. The sand is all the small stuff in life, like the squeaky wheels demanding attention, and this is what we tend to most. But if the jar is full of sand, we can't then put in the marbles or golf balls.

I share a piece of my life's story with this illustration: for the first third of our marriage I/we (when the kids came along) traveled with Monte as he did his geology, traveling primarily all over the western US, back roads, staying in cabins or kitchenettes. We'd be gone a week, home a couple weeks, then gone again. 

This is the time in one's life when they are establishing patterns, like organizing a home for best functioning and establishing a maintenance program. This traveling lifestyle forced the large important pieces into my life's jar. I had to say no to many things people fill (maybe clutter) their lives with. "No" to long term commitments, committees, sports, music/dance/etc lessons ...

When we stopped traveling ... I was overwhelmed and lost. I knew what life felt like, what I called "beyond maintenance", so I knew what I was missing. But I had never evaluated or named the important things to me in life. I didn't want to just maintain or just survive (tho there's times for that).

Most important in life? Family, health, passions and friends. If everything else is lost and only they remain, our life will still be full. The marbles/gravel represent other big things in life like jobs, house and vehicles ...

We do have a choice (usually). We should be able to control our reactions to outside forces and how we spend our time. There will always be time to clean the house or fix the disposal. We can choose to nurture relationships, take walks, control media. Talk, think, ponder, laugh, and love. It's our choice.

Years ago when I was pondering this message, Monte's dad and I were sitting in his living room and I was looking out the window at the woods. They had recently clear-cut, how they log in Wisconsin, and I couldn't get over how quickly the woods re-grew. Emery made a profound statement: "There are so many seeds laying dormant in the ground just waiting for the right conditions to spring to life."

Cleared for the sun to shine through and not be crowded, and then moisture, allows the seeds to grow. I thought about lives. How many seeds lay dormant in our lives, seeds of creativity ... All they need, to burst forth with life, is a little clearing.

I'm again re-evaluating what I need to remember and do for improvement in 2009.

Organics

I found this picture at this site.

I'm glad there are watchdogs out there.

locavore

Locavore is the new 2007 Oxford American Dictionary word of the year. I'm just reading about it.

It's all about the popular trend in using locally grown ingredients. It encourages people to buy from Farmer's Markets or even grow or pick their own food. As local and fresh as possible has got to be the best tasting and most nutritious!

Some groups are spelling it 'localvores'. (For further interesting comments along this vein and another dictionary word, check out my blog called Orthorexia.)

Indoor Gardening

I had an opportunity to purchase some Aerogardens cheap, so I got three. The third one had some minor difficulties which are now solved, so my Italian herbs are just sprouting. But the Garden Salad mix and Tomatoes are off to a great start. Tomorrow I'm going to raise the lights to the next level.

For years I've dreamed of sprouting and growing plants better, and possibly keep us in salad makings through winter. We did keep a cold frame outside that gave us salad makings most of the winter - until voles found it! But it's so labor intensive with putting insulation back on every night and removing in the morning, and sometimes needing to crack the glass open so the plants don't cook! And then last winter with the 3 foot snow dumped just before Christmas that never melted ...

The key for seed and plant growth in low sun angle cool weather is heat for the soil and grow lights. Now I've set that up in the greenhouse! With all the excavating and landscaping we are doing this year, the cheapest route is to start from seed.

Every year, I do start my veggie garden seeds in the house, on the rug in the dining room, just for a bit of warmth, and then move the sprouted seeds to the cooler greenhouse attached to the south side of our house. My growing season averages about ninety days, so I need to get a head start on some things. And too, I've learned what things start best in the garden.

But there's some things I know I can start from seed but have not had a lot of luck with and think it's the soil temperature. So this year will be a year of experiment. I'm going to start my garden seedlings in the greenhouse soon, and the grow lights that I can raise as plants grow, will keep the plants from getting leggy. After the garden starts, I'll start the perennial seeds I got for landscaping and can be planting them out through fall. Then I'll experiment through winter. If the winter gardening is successful in the greenhouse, then I'll be passing on the Aerogardens to my kids.

So far, what I've got growing in the greenhouse is wheatgrass. It's about ready to start harvesting. It's supposed to be very nutritious for you. We had bought some and Monte tried just eating it. His comment was, "It tastes like grass ... not objectionable though". I tried blending it with some juice, and it doesn't 'chew up' very well. So we'll 'juice' it through an extractor like a meat-grinder. I'll give you an update on that.

Fruits and Vegetables

A Coincidence????

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.



A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters fo r brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

"The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it's that they are so good for you, they can save your life."

-David Bjerklie, TIME Magazine, Oct. 2003

Happenings

I'm sick. I have a fever and my body is achy. I've not been sick for ages! It's good to get sick once in awhile - it strengthens your immune system according to Dr Monte. I wasn't sure what I was feeling this morning, so I did go to church.

Philip Yancey is preaching all February and I didn't want to miss him. I love his books and am glad he's a part of our body.

We just had a bunch of geologists at our house. They left this morning. So I've been preparing some nice meals for them. I love listening to them talk about the origin of oil, peak oil, global warming, the origin of life, lakes of oil on Titan, platinum in gold (or was it a silver mine?), and subjects I can't pronounce. I can picture what they're talking about, but couldn't very easily explain it to you, though I am understanding it more after years of listening and seeing their maps. It's another world, a world of stories written in the Earth.

Several days ago I posted about a movie trailer. It's pretty powerful - the scientist writing on a chalkboard like a reprimanded kid having to write something 100 times.

Those of you who are Christians would experience sad and mad emotions over the movie coming out this spring.

I have to tell you that over the years we've had some pretty brutal experiences with Christians. You see, Monte's being a geologist who is a Christian, is viewed by some Christians as a walking oxymoron. Apparently you can't be a geologist and a Christian at the same time.

So it's as if we're in the middle of a war and being crucified from both ends.

Clean Plates?

When growing up, did you hear, "You better clean your plate ... Remember the starving people in ..."? And then the sitting with a timer. Or, "You'll just have to have it for the next meal."

We had some teens here for supper and were talking about this. Lots of fun comments, and Lizzie said something that we made her write on a post-it-note. So here it is -

"When you force kids to eat, even 1 or 2 extra bites, you deprive them of the skill of letting them recognize that their body is telling them that they are full." -Lizzie Farland

Her comment is profound because it opens up possibilities that some long-held child training methods may be fundamentally flawed and may even contribute to America's obesity pandemic. And like an old book on health in our home library says, longevity could correlate with eating small meals.

Clean plates got me thinking about the times I used to cook for the student center at the University of Arizona. I remember both Monte and another guy, used to lick their plates clean in front of me to show how much they loved the meal! I guess this has little to do with over eating by being forced to clean your plate as a child. It just makes the point that cooks love to be appreciated.

Health quote

"It's no longer a question of staying healthy. It's a question of finding a sickness you like."

I just read this quote and it made me laugh - sort of. You see, I disagree with it and definitely have some thoughts on it I'll share.

For most of us it is estimated that around 95% of our body is basically healthy, so why not work to keep that part healthy!

That's what a cell biologist acquaintance of mine realized. She used to give her time to lab work discovering things to help???? cancer cells. And she does have a discovery attributed to her name. But now she's giving her time speaking around the world hoping to help keep the healthy healthy.

A thought question - what's healthy versus vitality?

Orthorexia

As I prepared supper, I thought about statistics I've read, and not long ago heard on the radio (and had to call Monte on my cell phone immediately!). I think it's like 6% of American's money goes to food, while Europe and Japan spend 15-20+%. We Americans gladly fork over money for satellite TV, cell phones and other electronics, but we try to buy our food as cheaply as possible.

It's kinda weird, considering the fact that we can live without our TV. But shouldn't we be more willing to spend more on food, since we actually put it into our bodies?

For years I have been interested in nutrition, reading tons, since the 60's and Mr Rodale started us down this path of health and wholeness. So much food was beginning to be processed, boxed and shipped long distances. Shelf life became most important and convenience.

The more I know...understanding where the food around me is coming from and how it's grown and made, makes it almost impossible to eat.

There's a word for this: orthorexia. It means having an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy.

Our grocery expenses are higher than they used to be. Monte was questioning, since I've visually got it laid out on excel spread sheets. But we're wanting to buy wild fish, pesticide free fruits and vegetables, hormone and antibiotic-free meat and dairy. And did you know there's now organic Twinkies!? It turns out that eating with a conscience takes money.

That's what we've told ourselves, as we try and buy as fresh and local as possible.

I know we can buy cheaper, probably half the cost. But here's the thing about orthorexia--unlike most afflictions, the worse it gets, the better you feel.

Some friends roll their eyes, as I pick up everything and read labels. Are we becoming elitists? But you know what? We feel great!

quote

I love quotes! This is a keeper for me...

"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing."
from Redd Foxx

I am a health nut.
I can't write about it now, but I will.

Color

My last posting reminded me of a funny story I share when I do my Home Making Beyond Maintenance talk (which I'm going to put out soon as an eBook for starters).

There's many things we do in our dailies that I think we should try and be creative with - like making the environments we spend time in, like even where we do laundry, have some beauty.

Once we sat down for a meal and Monte prayed, "Thank you Lord for this white meal".

I had thought of the 4 food groups--potatoes, fish, bread and maybe rice. Everything was white, including the plates!

We need to think color when we make meals. Not only for the nutrients, but for the beauty of it too. It's definitely a memory we've never forgotten!