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I like to serve cold cucumbers with Korean or Chinese food. There’s just something about the cool, crisp texture next to a spicy helping of General Tsao’s Chicken that seems right to me. This is one of my favorite ways to serve cucumber:
In a small bowl, mix a teaspoon of raw honey, a teaspoon of sea salt, a tablespoon of organic creamy peanut butter, a tablespoon of organic soy sauce and a tablespoon of oil. I like macadamia nut oil in this because I find olive oil overwhelms the flavors. Stir it around well and drizzle over a large sliced organic English cucumber. English cucumbers are the longer ones sold in plastic wrap. They have fewer seeds and a slighly better flavor. That’s it. It’s simple, refreshing, tasty, and the enzymes in the soy sauce and honey will help you digest a serving of meat!
This post is part of the Saturday Salads and Simple Recipes blog carnivals.
I just got another wonderful email from Shawn Dady:
Hey everyone,
Fantastic news to report on the Raw Milk/Cow Share bill. Rep. Frank Nicely just emailed me and told me that the bill PASSED in the TN State House. WOW! Praise God! I cannot believe it! Seriously, can you hear the happy screaming all the way from Brentwood? That would be me and my kids! Anyway, if it passes the Senate and the Governor, it will be more reason to scream. Heck we could even throw a raw milk party! WOW, wow, wow, wow! (When I get really happy I scream and squeal, can you tell?)
Excited,
Shawn D.
www.tennesseansforrawmilk.com
A raw milk party. Now that’s my kinda open bar!
This post is part of Fight Back Fridays, hosted by Food Renegade.
Government is a squishy thing. Not at all the firm marble and granite structures in which they work, politicians are all too easily swayed by questionable science, fuzzy math and persuasive lobbyists. But I must give credit to the Federal Trade Commission, for it is due. They called this one right.
Statement of CSPI Legal Affairs Director Bruce Silverglade
The astonishing claims made by Kellogg that its Frosted Mini-Wheats improved children’s attentiveness by 20 percent were laughable on their face and never should have surfaced in an advertising campaign by a major food manufacturer.
The settlement announced today by the Federal Trade Commission is a strong sign the false advertising cop is back on the beat, and the agency will no longer tolerate misleading health claims. We hope this is the just the beginning of a coordinated new effort to rein in dishonest advertising and marketing by food companies. The FTC could require much stronger remedies, such as corrective advertising. In addition, Congress should expand the FTC’s authority to level civil penalties.
Incidentally, if Kellogg sincerely wanted to improve children’s attentiveness, it would phase out the use of Blue 1, Blue 2, Red 40, and any other synthetic food dyes that show up in some varieties of Mini-Wheats. Those dyes exacerbate some children’s hyperactivity and behavioral problems, and have no place in foods aimed squarely at children.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is also right. It’s time for megacorps to stop telling us (and especially our children) that their GMO-laden, ultra-processed nonfoods are nutritious, healthy and delicious.
Another installment in an occasional series on local in-season foods. This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays and Make It From Scratch blog carnival.
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a native of Asia. The roots are used under careful medical supervision to help with disorders of the colon, spleen and liver. The leaves are toxic because they contain a great deal of oxalic acid, which gives them even more of that “tangy” flavor than the stems. If you are on a low-oxalate diet for kidney stones, please talk to your doctor before eating rhubarb in quantity or regularity. Rhubarb comes in two varieties: red and green. Green rhubarb is easier to grow, sturdier and tastier, but resembles celery so doesn’t sell well in grocery stores. The more medium-sized stalks also cook up better than the larger ones. You’ll want to use your stalks within a day or two for best flavor and nutrition. Cooking rhubarb in an iron or aluminum pot will discolor both the pot and the rhubarb (although you really shouldn’t be cooking with aluminum anyway.)
I was raised on wet, mushy, stringy rhubarb drowning in white sugar. I never really understood why people liked it. But, in my quest for the fresh and local, I stumbled across rhubarb again last year. I was determined to find a way to serve this bright red treat that was edible and even nutritious! We all enjoyed this recipe:
Apple Rhubarb Pandowdy
adapted from Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors
1 recipe yogurt dough (from Nourishing Traditions)
4 large apples, cored
1 pound rhubarb
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 tbsp bulghur flour (or whatever flour you use for general cooking)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup (use slightly less if you use honey)
1 tbsp pastured butter
raw cream
Preheat the oven to 400°. Lightly coat an 8×8 pyrex baking dish with butter or coconut oil. Quarter the apples and slice crosswise about 1/4 inch thick. Dice the rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces. If the stalks are very wide, slice them lengthwise in half first. You should have 7-8 cups fruit. Toss the fruit with the spices, flour, and salt, then add the maple syrup and toss thoroughly. Distribute the fruit in the dish and dot with the butter. Roll our the dough about 1/8 inch thick and cut it about 3/4 inch wider than your dish. Lay the dough over the fruit and tuck the edges down into the fruit. Bake until the crust is light gold, 30-35 minutes. Lower the heat to 350°. Remove the pandowdy from the oven and slice through the crust into 2-inch squares in a crisscross fashion. Using a spatula, gently press down on the crust, allowing the juices to flow up and over it. Don’t worry if there isn’t much juice. Return the dish to the oven and continue to bake until the crust is really golden and glazed, another 20-30 minutes. Once or twice, brush the juices over the dough to give it a pretty glaze. Serve warm with cream.
Watercress
Watercress is a delicious green that loves water. If you live near the Great Lakes, you might consider it a weed because it is very happy growing in the alkaline water there. In drier parts of the country, watercress is a rare treat because it is delicate and doesn’t store beyond one or two days after harvest. Hydroponic gardeners usually find their crop’s demand greatly exceeds its supply, and for good reason. This mildly bitter leaf is a nutritional gift. It is a gentle diuretic, and encourages the bladder and kidneys to work at top efficiency. It has a wide vitamin and mineral complement, including some constituents (like vanadium) that are difficult to find in other food sources. Watercress is a good nutritional remedy for indigestion and can stop gas buildup in the stomach and intestines before it starts. Hm, watercress soup with those bean burritos? Leaves are best consumed within a day of harvest and before the plant begins to flower.
In Great Britain, you’ll find watercress finger sandwiches at afternoon tea. We aren’t fond of white bread though, so we have ours on leftover pancakes that have been dried in a low oven for several hours until crispy. We spread pastured butter on the pancake and layer on the leaves and stems of freshly washed watercress. The sweet butter makes a great foil for the tangy watercress.
I am focusing this post on allergic eczema because that’s my field of experience. There are other triggers, most notably: toxin overload, insufficient diet, severe emotional trauma, multiple chemical sensitivity. You can also check my other posts below for more information and my “Who We Are” page. Other eczema related posts:
Dairy Allergies and Fermented Foods
If you are dealing with eczema today, you have my sympathies. It’s a miserable scourge, attacking young and old and making sweet babies miserable. My youngest developed allergic eczema before her first birthday when we moved from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest. We had no idea she was allergic to juniper when we moved into the house surrounded by a hedge of it. We didn’t know she was allergic to pine when we relocated into a national forest full of it. We’d never even heard of dust mite allergy when we moved into a 150-year-old house with 40-year-old carpeting. If we’d known the extent of her sensitivity to mold, we probably wouldn’t have put her in a carpeted basement bedroom in the southeast where we live now. It’s a real moving target for us: finding out what causes the rash, avoiding the allergen, fixing the rash. Eczema is called “the itch that rashes.” For us it’s very true that the itch comes first, then the rash. It’s hard to tell a youngster or adult, “Don’t scratch! That makes it worse!” But telling it to a baby or toddler is just so much wasted breath.
As for causes, there are as many causes as there are allergens. Eczema can erupt from an allergen you breathe, eat, drink or touch. And because the affected body is exhibiting allergies through the skin already, prick allergy tests can be almost useless by giving false positives on nearly every tested allergen.
My first line of defense is different with eczema than with other health problems. For most health issues, we believe in using the smallest possible “gun” first, relying on nutrition and lifestyle refinements and saving the bigger guns (OTC drugs and prescriptions) in case the situation worsens. But when Rose tells me she itches, we go right for the Benadryl first. Allowing the itch to live on her skin increases the odds she will scratch, rash and worsen. Steroids do knock out the problem fairly quickly, but are also very strong drugs. We try to avoid steroids, even topically, unless the rash is covering a large part of her body and not healing after several weeks of home intervention. We have tried every lotion available and they all sting her skin, so we don’t put anything on the rash. Oatmeal baths actually made her worse, and for a time we suspected an oat allergy. We were able to rule that out later, and still don’t know why her skin reacts negatively to oatmeal baths.
In this photo, you can see how the skin on Rose’s neck is oozing, a very distressing symptom of eczema. You can also see the red rash on her arms, chin and chest. I took this photo for comparison. If the rash didn’t show significant improvement in 48 hours I would take her to the doctor. This open skin is very susceptible to infection, and once infected, the skin can suffer permanent damage and scarring. With a combination of compresses, dietary intervention and filtered air, she did show improvement within 24 hours.
As for what works, that’s also a moving target. Sometimes a cool bath takes the itch out enough. Sunshine helps sometimes and worsens it others. Benadryl helps a little, but not nearly as much as one would hope. Topically, aloe gel helps sometimes, as does clay (like the kind used in a facial). Calendula cream in a choline base (available from health food stores) can help if applied soon enough, but once the rash starts, it just stings. A decoction of marshmallow root can prevent infection on an open, weeping area. Witch hazel works nearly as well as over-the-counter hydrocortisone cream and doesn’t have the nasty side effects. If they work for you, forskolin tablets (also available at health food stores) can be a good substitute for Benadryl.
Food suggestions include cold water wild caught salmon for its EPA content. There’s a good EPA supplement called Coromega that our kids take. It’s pricey, but they will take it. Cod liver oil is also very helpful, and capsules are available. Sufficient zinc is important in any skin condition, and good sources include beef, grains, lima beans and peanuts. Berries (blackberries, blueberries, cherries and raspberries) have wonderful anti-inflammatory compounds to take swelling down deliciously. Rose has long had a habit of eating an apple (or more) every day. In doing some research on her eczema, I learned that apples have a good dose of Quercitin, a compound that helps the body with inflammatory issues like allergies.
If your child has eczema and asthma, check your house carefully for molds and dust mites. These two allergens and reactions often go hand-in-hand.
I strongly recommend keeping a diary for eczema-prone children. Where did they play? What did they eat? What’s the pollen count and major pollen source (available at the Weather Channel website)? What did you try? Did it help? Because eczema has so many causes, keeping it all written down could help you identify triggers that would remain a mystery otherwise. It took journaling and internet research for me to discover the cause of the outbreak Rose suffered an hour after jumping on the bed (hello, dust mites!) But if I wasn’t journaling, I’d probably have missed it.
This post is part of the Natural Cures Blog Carnival.
In my journey from standard American to smarter American, I embarked on an herbal medicine course. Due to family issues, I had to stop two or three weeks before completion. I have since finished the course on my own, but don’t have the official stamp of certification. Studying herbal medicine was a wonderful step toward being more self-reliant for our family. As I see the US move toward socialized health care and as I study the strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian and British systems, I am more and more convinced that I need to take care of as much as I can in my own home and not rely on doctors for everyday illnesses and injuries. DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor, the medical advice I provide my family is just that…advice. The herbal remedies I make at home are for supporting our health, they aren’t cures.
Studying herbs has also lead me to study food and the way what we eat supports or degrades our health. I believe there are critical first steps to take to help our bodies function at their peak: sunshine, fresh air, clean water, lifestyle exercise, restful sleep, peace with God and the foods we eat. Sometimes our bodies fall ill and we need to take stronger steps. But long before I bring out the cannons of prescriptions, I’ll try some smaller guns like herbs and time-tested home remedies.
I have what some might call “weak lungs.” That is, when I catch a cold, it usually goes to bronchitis and occasionally pneumonia before resolving. In order to stop the downward cycle, I have a weapon in my herbal arsenal I’m never without.
Mullein grows wild in many parts of the US, including the Pacific Northwest where I first learned about this gem; and the southeast where I now live. The first year it makes a soft, green rosette. These leaves can be made into a soothing salve for scrapes and hemorrhoids.
If left through the winter, the plant puts up a flower spike that I’ve seen rocketing 7 feet tall in its second summer. As the spike blooms, the flowers can be picked and made into a tincture.
When I catch a cold, the cold goes through these stages if left untreated: the headache, the runny nose, the congested chest, bronchitis, pneumonia, healing. When my cold reaches the congested chest stage, I will start taking my mullein tincture. The mullein causes the congestion in my chest to break up. The coughing that results is good coughing, called expectoration. This coughing breaks up the mucous in my lungs and keeps a secondary infection from getting started. The exercise of coughing also increases blood flow to my lungs, which helps my body warm up and clean the area. Since I’ve begun taking mullein during the congested part of a cold cycle, I have only had one bout of bronchitis and it didn’t develop into pneumonia.
I now have mullein growing in my medicine garden so I don’t need to wonder if the herb I wildcraft has been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. The next time you’re driving through a wild area and see a tall spike like this, I hope you think “medicine” and not “weed!”
This post is part of the NO-GMO Challenge Blog Carnival.
You’d think the boy cut his teeth on Skippy. He didn’t. Really! When my oldest three were young, we only ate natural, organic, homemade food. Not traditional so much, but never fast food and rarely processed food. The only peanut butter he knew until he was 10 was the kind you grind yourself at the health food store. Just peanuts. I even had an attachment to my food processor that would make dandy PB before it died.
I came home with the ONLY peanut butter in the store I could locate that didn’t have cottonseed, soy or canola oil in it: a glass jar of Smucker’s Organic. Even the store organic brand had sugar in it. Of course, the Smucker’s had a layer of oil floating on top, something I knew John would NOT stand for. So, I dumped it into a bowl and hit it with the handblender for a few seconds. Knowing our track record with kids handling glass jars and injury, I set it out for recycling and scooped the mixed PB into the plastic Skippy jar that was nearly empty. I wasn’t home to explain the switch when he got out the jar to make his before-bed sandwich.
You would think I committed a felony. John was not pleased that: 1) I “substituted this junk for real peanut butter,” 2) Didn’t tell him of the switch, and 3) “hid it in my Skippy jar like I was a two-year-old.”
I like the idea of replacing the things you eat most with the healthiest possible versions. John eats his way through a 16 ounce jar of peanut butter two or three times a week. Switching it out for organic, no GMO peanut butter with no added sugar would really benefit him. And I know once he gets used to it, the other stuff won’t taste right anymore. But getting there sure can be an uphill climb!
Photo by *~Laura~* through Flickr
Hi friends,
As you may or may not know, state Representative Frank Nicely has been quietly working on a Cow-Share bill for the state of TN. This is a very good thing. Although cow shares are already legal in the United States because of contract law and our Constitution, basically what this bill would do is reiterate that these kinds of contracts are 100% legal in TN. It would declare them legal instead of letting the question hang out there, waiting for some challenge in court when someone does it.
Well, I have some GREAT news to report. Rep. Nicely emailed me this morning and told me that the TN Cow Share bill passed unanimously out of the house Ag. Committee. This is a HUGE step. Now it goes to the Calendar and Rules Committee. After that it goes to the Senate Ag. Committee, the Senate Calendar and Rules Committee, then to the Full House Floor, then to the Senate Floor, then to the governor. I hope I am right on that progression. But the point is that Rep. Nicely feels pretty good about it that it will PASS and become law!
I cannot tell you what a momentous day this is for the raw milk movement in TN. It is historic.
Rep. Nicely has asked that we not lobby, but that we pray. If you are a praying person, please pray. This is an amazing time. I will keep everyone updated as things progress,
Shawn Dady www.tennesseansforrawmilk.com
This is great news. Finally, Tennesseans are finding something proactive to do to protect our rights to raw milk rather than waiting for the shoe to fall and having to scramble to “fix” legislation. This is not just good news legally, but it’s also a good sign that people who care about access to raw milk are awake and moving the cause forward.
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.
I love this idea:
Bainbridge Island mural by mokolabs, on Flickr
Beginning June 25, the Ferry Farm Stand will open every Wednesday evening at the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal, offering Seattle commuters a variety of locally grown produce in convenient USD 5 bags. Commuters arriving on the island via the busy 4:40 pm and 5:30 pm ferries will then be able to grab a bag of fresh local lettuce, some crisp sugar snap peas or a box of sweet, island-grown strawberries before they get in their car or board their bus or bike.
Here are some entrepreneurs that have the right idea. To get healthy food into the hands of city dwellers, we need to get the food to the city and put it into people’s hands. Farmer’s markets are wonderful and I love browsing them, but there are some people who just aren’t going to take an hour to go. All those strange fruits and veggies they are unfamiliar with make a lot of people uncomfortable. But grabbing a $5 bag and opening it in the privacy of your own home is a great idea. If you have no idea what to do with a sugar snap pea, you can look it up on your computer and not feel foolish by asking. The bags are a simple, flat $5. One bill, no change. Grab the bag, head home.
These people are Food Renegades, and deserve a Fight Back Friday salute!
Okay, I think I’ve got all my ducks in a row and am ready for the final tally of April!
Cost of food per person per day: $10.85 That’s up considerably from last month because I’ve been working on stocking the freezer with grassfed meat. Now I need a separate freezer! I’ve also developed a kombucha habit which is seriously expensive ($5 for a 16-ounce bottle). To combat the expense, I made my own “mother” with this great instruction from Food Renegade. Mama Scoby is floating on top of a gallon pitcher of sweetened tea doing her thing and should be ready the first Saturday of May.
Relevant books read or re-read: The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan; Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine: Improving Health and Longevity with Native Nutrition by Ronald F. Schmid N.D.; Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets by Deborah Madison
Energy Level: Starting quite suddenly on the 17th, I experienced a wave of sleepiness at 4PM every day. I’ve been working my way off coffee, so the normal pick me up at around that time of day was out. If I was sitting down when it hit, I would immediately fall asleep. If I got up and started moving, my muscles would become weak and shaky much sooner than they would otherwise. I tried taking what my hubby calls a “power nap:” just 20 minutes of sleep. It helped some, but I frequently wasn’t able to get up after only 20 minutes. One afternoon I slept almost two hours! On the 23rd I was out shopping when it hit, and I confess: I stopped at Starbucks for a pick-me-up. It worked and I was able to finish my shopping trip and make dinner. It got better as the month went on, and by the end of the month I was once again able to go from 6AM to 10PM pretty much nonstop.
Visible health improvements: This month was marked more by shocking setbacks more than continued improvements. My mother-in-law’s visit really put a fine point on it for me. Now that I’ve had steady improvement for a while, having a sudden, measurable backward step was very educational! I gained two pounds this month and walked less than 10 miles. Now, I don’t want to blame everything on one week’s indiscretions, but I find it a little telling that until the 15th my health and energy levels were booming right along, but by the 19th I was sick, tired and my knees were hurting just like the bad old days.
Other notes: Rose’s eczema improved early in the month. Out of ideas for how to help her, we had her start sleeping upstairs on the couch instead of in her basement room. The improvement was immediate and substantial. I went looking for a possible reason and found mold! A hidden wall and corner of the carpet in their room had mold growing on it. I moved the furniture required, cleaned up what I could and sealed it off for now. It will require a much more thorough cleanup, including probably the removal and replacement of part of the carpet. While I was working, I probably stirred up the spores pretty well, because Rose had an immediate, large flare up. We are running several air purifiers in the room, including a UV purifier, in hopes of reducing the mold in the air as much as possible. It’s always something, isn’t it?
My stress level was also kind of high this month, as I prepared my oldest girl for a summer-long trip several states away. She’ll be fine, I know her well and trust the work her father and I put in loving and raising her. But there was shopping, mending, packing, chore charts to re-write, last minute words of wisdom to impart, a feeling that I wouldn’t be seeing her again in the fall (I fell in love with Colorado at her age, too) and helping her little brothers and sisters deal with the change. I found myself crying a little too easily from the combination of being tired and the natural negativity I fight. We’ve already had our first Facebook chat, and I’ve already sent off our first “care” package full of homemade “we love you” cards, new ear buds for her iPod and a stick of ostrich jerky. Hubby is, of course, playfully tormenting me by playing “Cinderella” by Steven Curtis Chapman at least once a day. If he doesn’t stop soon, I’m gonna pull out that old copy of “Butterfly Kisses” that made him misty when the girls were babies! Fair warning!
I was successful (except for the above Starbucks trip) in getting down to one cup of regular and one cup of decaf coffee a day. My May goal is two cups of decaf and no regular. I need to start walking more again. Starting May 1, I’ll be adding three tablespoons of coconut oil to my diet everday. I already cook with it and use it in my toothsoap and deodorant, so I figure that will give me a total of about 4 tablespoons a day, the amount recommended for weight loss. My farmer’s market starts up again May 20, and with it my meat and veggie CSA. YAY!
As for my May plans for this blog, I’ve asked a local beekeeper and farmer to write a guest post for me. He has had some interesting experiences this year and just from reading a short email he sent out, I learned more about beekeeping than I ever knew!
