Hot Cocoa Chai



Gift chai mix & my first attempt to imitate the recipe.

A dear friend sent me two amazing boxes of gifts recently, meant to cover a year's worth of celebrations--including my 2012 birthday and the one soon to come--filled with an assortment of feel-good items from BPA-free insulated travel drink cups and 2013 calendars, through shawls and pajamas, to my favorite: food. In keeping with the cooler weather, a tin of DAGOBA(R) organic drinking chocolate / chai mix was included. What a treat!
The can reads "DAGOBA(R) is dedicated to The Art of Chocolate Alchemy(R): transforming exceptional cacao into edible gold." What's not to like?!

Ingredients are listed on the front as follows: "cacao powder, bits of pure, dark chocolate, cane sugar, crystallized ginger, & essence of chai." Ingredients are organic and Fair Trade certified.

When looking at the Nutrition Facts and ingredient listing on the side of the can's label, the emphasis on sugar becomes clear. The first listed ingredient is cane sugar (organic) and a 3-tablespoon serving contains 8 grams of sugars--making sugar nearly 1/3 of the mix.

Having just hosted two "Sugar Blues: Combat Cravings" workshops in December, and still battling the seasonal influx of sugar-laden treats, I waited a few days to dive into the divine-looking cocoa. It wasn't until my housemate had enjoyed a couple of servings and the scent had wafted my way, that I decided it was time to try it myself. (Need I mention that the box of chocolates included in the gift had long since vanished, or that I had given in to the seasonal influx of gift chocolates? By the time I dove into the chocolate chai, I had chocolate and sugar running in my veins again--true to form.)

Since the goats are a month away from supplying us with milk again, I added a scoop of Action Whey(TM) to the hot water. After it dissolved, I added the DAGOBA(R) mix, and the result was delightful!

Knowing that the gift tin won't last, I promptly set about trying to imitate the mixture.

So far I'm pleased with the following: a scoop of Action Whey(TM), a half-scoop of raw organic cacao powder (abut a hefty heaping tablespoon), minced raw ginger root (about 2 teaspoons), and a tablespoon of semi-refined sugar. Next time I'll shave in some 85% dark chocolate.

Stay tuned while we work out the kinks to this recipe. Come January we'll have to return to shunning sugar. Although the sweet taste is a treat, the negative health impacts are not acceptable. Why, after a few days of indulging in gift chocolates I actually suffered some of those sugar blues I once lived with daily. Talk about a wake-up call! I am NOT going back to sugar-laden mood swings. No thank you, ma'am.

If you have a favorite hot cocoa recipe, please feel free to post a comment and include a link if you so desire. Thanks for reading, and Happy Holidays!

Primary Food

Tennessee's graceful trees and blue skies feed my soul.

Primary Food is one of the core concepts taught by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and one that resonates with me. Basically, IIN teaches that the food we put in our mouths is secondary to the rest of the nourishment we receive from our lives. Emotional and spiritual well-being impact our physical health. 

For me, getting adequate Vitamin D by spending time outdoors is crucial to my well being. Connecting with the natural world--hearing the birds twitter, cows moo, leaves rustle and hens cluck; seeing plants leaf out, bud, grow and pass; and feeling the sun or rain on my skin--is deeply important to my feeling connected with the earth. Nature's music feels my soul.

When I pass graceful trees, or admire the vast expanses of sky that Tennessee affords me, I thank my Creator for the natural gifts that surround me. There was a time in my life when I was too busy to take note of natural beauty, or--if noted--to pause to give thanks. Since making the effort to build conscious gratitude into my repertoire, I am healthier, more grounded and infinitely happier.

Eat to Be Fit Workshops

The Jimmy Floyd Family Center in Lebanon, Tennessee, located on North Castle Heights Avenue, will be hosting a pair of "Eat to Be Fit" workshops by yours truly in December!

Join me on Monday evening, December 3rd, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. for "Sugar Blues: Combat Cravings" (repeat class on Saturday morning, December 15th, 10:00 - 11:30 a.m.). We'll discuss sugar cravings, and learn about the history of refined sugar, how sugar can contribute to ill health and how to spot sugar by reading nutrition labels.

All attendees will be invited to receive a free Health History Consultation with me. Sign up times will be available at the workshops.

Can't attend? Not local? Post a comment with your e-mail and I'll let you know about upcoming teleseminars and webinars coming in 2013!

The second workshop, "Eating for Energy," is being offered on December 17th, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m., another Monday evening. Sorry, no Saturday alternative is available in December; however, one could be scheduled for January if interest is expressed.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Refreshing Teas and Waters

Hot Cranberry Tea with cinnamon

The majority of Americans have been conditioned to choose sugary and/or caffeinated beverages over water. When asked why, many will cite taste. "Water is bland," or "tasteless," according to some. Okay, so perhaps water is an acquired taste; if so, more of us should adjust our palates to appreciate the sweet goodness of pure, clean (unchlorinated, unfloridated, freshly filtered), life-sustaining water.

For those of us who prefer more variety, I've found that simply adding slices of vegetables, chunks of fruit, or the leaves and stems of herbs can be enough to make plain water interesting again.

In our household we often brew up pots of tea on the stove. No, we don't use tea pots. A simple pot, filled with a good quality of water, and seeded with a plant-based flavor source will do. Some of our favorites include beet tea, ginger tea (especially in cold and flu season), and cranberry tea (we like to add a little cinnamon.



Watercress Tea, on the stove

For flavored waters, having a jar with a dispenser spout at the base is nice, although a simple, single-serving glass works as well. While we do make larger batches of waters, I find dipping them from a pot to the glass somehow less satisfying than when dipping teas.

Many folks combine two or three flavors when making summer waters. Examples include watermelon and rosemary, cucumber and mint, among others. Personally, I'm more of a purist when it comes to teas and waters (although it may be hard to discern this about me from my throw-everything-in blender and soup-pot recipes).

Cranberry Tea, just begun

The bottom line is that humans require hydration. Drinking about a quart of water of every 50 pounds of body weight should be sufficient to keep the average person hydrated. More is required during periods of stress, especially heat stress--when one exercises, sweats, or loses inordinate amounts of fluids during periods of illness.

Water should be consumed steadily throughout the day, not in vast quantities when one is very thirsty or happens to remember to drink. Indeed, thirst is an indicator of dehydration. Sip steadily throughout the day. Stop a few hours before bedtime to ensure a good night's worth of uninterrupted sleep. (Hopping up to go the the bathroom during the night is not restful.)

If you crave sugary sodas and other beverages, start small. Exchange one cola or sweet tea for a glass of cucumber water one day, and try a brewed tea on another occasion. Make inroads slowly and you will be surprised that, just by listening to your body, how quickly you will wean yourself off of the addictive, unhealthful beverages.

Good luck. Start today. I wish you many blessings in health.

Good-for-You Chocolate Mousse

Mmm, mmm tasty: Chocolate Mousse

On Saturday while I was trying to make an frozen dessert in my Blendtec blender, I did what I frequently do and simply grabbed ingredients that were handy and hoped for the best. The result surprised me. My palate was expecting an ice cream of sorts, but was treated instead to a very tasty mousse. In retrospect, I realize the mousse-making ingredient must have been the added cocoa butter. (The chia seed helped, too, of course.)

Who knows why I throw in the ingredients that I do? Impulsivity teaches me some interesting lessons. This is one for which I am most grateful.

Now, the ingredients I used included a large tomato because that is what was readily available and practically begging to be used. Plus, I love tomato; however, for those of you who shudder at the thought of including tomato in your mousse--skip it. It's that simple. Substitute an equivalent measure of another ripe fruit.

Also, the liquid base I used was cucumber water, again because that was handy. In this household we brew up pots of teas or simply steep batches of vegetable or fruit waters. I will include a post about this within the next several days. Cucumber water is simply water that has had sliced cucumber sitting it for a bit. By the glass, just add a slice (or chunk) or two of cucumber--being sure to include the seeds--let it sit a moment and drink. The result is surprisingly refreshing and delicious.

As always, where possible I use raw, organic ingredients.

Ingredients

• cucumber water -- 12 oz
• flax seed -- large palm full
• chia seed -- large palm full
• maca root powder -- 1 T
• cacao powder -- 1 T
• Action Whey [TM] -- 2 scoops
• cocoa butter -- 2 T
• very ripe figs -- 4, peeled
• fresh papaya -- 3/4 cup
• ripe tomato -- 1
• maple syrup -- 1 blurp (maybe a tablespoon? I just tip the jug quickly)
• frozen blueberries -- 1/4 cup
• frozen strawberries -- 1 cup

Directions
Blend for whole juice.
Serve immediately or chill and serve the next day.
Garnish with sliced strawberries for an added sweetness.

Warning
Although made as a dessert, it is highly recommended that this food only be consumed at a time when the eater plans to stay alert for several hours. The inclusion of superfoods, in this instance most particularly the cacao and maca, make this treat not only a sweet dessert but also a recipe for sustained alertness. I only had one serving on Saturday night, yet was up well into the wee hours. A serving on Sunday following lunch kept me fresh and alert through the remainder of the day.

Autumn Sweet Potato - Kale Soup

Sweet Potato - Kale Soup

As chilly nights descend, we delight in the warmth and full-bodied flavors of simple fall soups. This sweet potato kale soup in a coconut milk base is delicious fresh and hot. Later, when the flavors have had time to sit and blend, I enjoy it warmed from the refrigerator to room temperature.

Although I have yet to fully swear off the microwave--I still munch on microwave-popped popcorn--I no longer use it to reheat food. When I travel to work, I like to take a single-serving dish of food that I can eat without taking the time or trouble to reheat on a stove top. That's how I discovered just how delicious this soup is after a few hours out of the refrigerator.

The sweet potatoes in this particular soup were not from our garden; however, with the pan roasting, rich spices and milky soup base, their flavor was quite pleasing.

 Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 2 medium sweet potatoes 
• 1 medium onion
• 6 cups kale, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 can coconut milk
• 4 cans water

Include ample spices, amounts are estimates:

• tumeric -- 1-2 Tbsp.
• black pepper -- 1/2 tsp.
• garam masala -- 2 - 3 tsp.
• ginger -- fresh, minced -- 1 - 2 tsp.
• parsley -- dried, small palm-full crumbled in
• oregano -- dried, small palm-full, crumbled in

Directions:
Melt coconut oil in heavy pot. Add onion, sweet potato, and kale; lightly saute until vegetables brighten with the heat. Add garlic, stir. Add coconut milk and water, then spices. Warm over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Do not simmer or boil.

Serve with fresh baked bread for a filling treat.

Refrigerate leftovers after cooling.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Harvest

Our 2012 sweet potato harvest.

Whoo hoo! Our first sweet potato harvest came in this morning. Pulled from a 4' x 8' raised cedar bed at the side of the house, one that I threw together last fall and filled with layers of compost and shovelfuls of the clay that passes for soil in these parts, the harvest proved quite fruitful. (Sorry, pun intended.)

Although the soil had not matured fully by spring, after pulling the wintered-over cabbage plants and tossing in a few more errant red worms to work, I had tucked in a small flat of sweet potato starts late in the spring and hoped for the best. The fellow at the feed store where I picked up the plants had told me that "some folks hill 'em" (the plants) but that he didn't know if that was necessary. During the summer, I occasionally treated the plants to the raw-milk rinsings from the milk bucket, and infrequently side-dressed the plants with a dose of humic acid in hopes of enriching the soil and the plants. Starting out with virtually no research and with plants fed mostly on prayer, I guess we can count ourselves lucky to have hauled in 14.5 pounds of the rich vegetables.

As eager as I am to taste these, I will insist that we deplete the backlog of sweet potatoes garnered from local farmers' markets first. They may keep well, but the last several batches we've purchased have been less than optimally fresh to begin with, so I would rather eat them than allow any to go to waste.

Picture of Health

Me, six days after smashing face onto pavement: picture of health.

Good morning. As this new day dawns, I invite you to join me in giving thanks to our Creator for the glorious opportunities life on this earth offers. As I continue my adventures in life, most significantly my adventures into the realm of optimal nutrition, I am increasingly aware of the abundance of blessings I receive daily and I am thankful.

Although this may sound odd, last week I was blessed with the opportunity to smash my face onto pavement. As one who tends to bruise fairly easily and colorfully, my fall in the dark that resulted in cracking my left cheekbone against the driveway so hard that I literally saw a flash of light should have provided some pretty ugly results. True, I slept more over the ensuing days, allowing my body time to heal, and suffered the discomfort of a tender cheek, sore left arm and slightly wrenched back; however, the photo shown was taken exactly six days after the accident--at which time the bruising should have been quite evident and unsightly.

What has changed since my last opportunity for spectacular bruising? The only change has been the addition of top-quality nutritional supplements, namely those from USANA Health Sciences, Inc. As a Health Coach, I have been experimenting with the effects of nutrition on my own body and observing its effects on those of others for a good year now. When I switched to USANA supplements, I had been told that they were vastly more effective than the brand to which I had been true for the preceding five years, but I am a skeptic. I continued to research the company, its claims and its products, and with each passing day I became more sure that I had found something pretty spectacular.

Within a month of first trying the product, I returned to sign on as an Independent Associate with the company, eager to share the good news--but all I had to share were reports from others. True, I have more energy and my wounds are healing faster, but I needed something bigger to really prove to me that the nutritional supplements had effected my body on a cellular level. Well, what do you know, God has an incredible sense of humor. He allowed me to trip-and-fall, hard, over a piece of baling twine caught between two feed bins--twine that I had seen the day before, noted as a hazard and yet neglected to pick up. Lesson learned; I picked it up that night, a Wednesday.

Then I took my tender face into the house and watched and waited. By Friday a very little bit of puffiness was evident. I knew that my face would be pretty ugly in time for church on Sunday--wrong. By Monday I could begin to notice a very little bit of yellowing. This photo was taken Tuesday. Every time I shared this story, I have had to remove my glasses and allow onlookers to peer closely to detect any difference.

Heck, who needs makeup? I have USANA, which means good health from the inside out. If you want to know more, I invite you to contact me; I am only too happy to share my experience of health and wealth the USANA way with anyone who asks.

Here's an introductory video to USANA Health Sciences, Inc.:

Thank you, Dr. Wentz, for your vision, drive and ethical standards. Thank you, Universe, for the abundance of good health you offer to those who ask!

Ginger Plants & Rooted Mint

Sprouting ginger.

The news from our backyard containers is good, especially with regard to the budding ginger root and the mint transplants.

Our ginger buds are beginning to send up shoots. Now, from what I have read online, we would do best to find a location with filtered light and establish a small stand of plants, then leave it be for two years before harvesting any ginger root for our own use. If we plan to harvest regularly, a series of small stands of ginger is recommended.

This concerns me a bit because when I first set out the root thumbs, a few days later I discovered that some critter had eaten away every last shoot.

Transplanted mint--established.

Now hardware cloth covers the pot, to keep out intruders. This will work, of course, only until the shoots get tall enough to reach the rim of the pot.

The other good news is about the feebly little mint transplants that were re-potted not too long ago. After struggling for a few weeks, they have taken off and are now going like gangbusters. Once again we can enjoy mint in our morning smoothies, and savor chocolate mint ice cream in the evenings.

Life is truly good.

USANA

USANA Essentials

I have been lax about posting over the past couple of weeks because I have been working on an exciting new project. After taking the Essentials (TM) multivitamins by USANA Health Sciences for about a month, and diligently researching the company and their products, I have signed on as an Independent Associate with the company.

USANA makes top-quality, science-based nutritional supplements (and foods and skincare products) right here in the USA using the pharmeceutical industry's Good Manufacturing Practices. Their stringent manufacturing processes, ongoing scientific research, and insatiable drive to produce exceptional products make their products ones that I, and over 600 world-class athletes, trust.

The company was founded by Dr. Myron Wentz whose dream has long been to see a world free of pain and suffering. A microbiologist, immunologist, and pioneer in infectious disease diagnosis, he founded USANA to help further his dream by providing people all over the world with the most advanced supplements that science can produce. USANA products are designed to work at the cellular level to help those who take them achieve optimal health and wellness.

USANA products fit with my vision as a Health Coach, and now they fuel my body, as well. If you are interested in achieving optimal health, I invite you to visit my USANA site to learn more, and/or check out the videos in the Video Bar on the right hand side of this page.

Blessings in Helath!

Smoothie

Smoothie: captured with flash photography.

This morning's low-glycemic index smoothie recipe combined high fiber and protein--provided by flax seed, chia seed and quinoa--with the fruit and vegetables at hand. Employing two exciting super foods--cocoa and maca root powder--the drink powered the members of our household for several hours before hunger returned.

Interestingly enough, the two photos are of the same beverage: the pinker color appeared when the camera's flash went off, and the more chocolaty color came when the dark background was removed and the automatic flash elected to not activate.

Same smoothie, without camera flash.

The ingredients: 

• fresh, raw goat milk--12 ounces
• chia seed--palm full
• flax seed--a palm full
• quinoa--a palm full
• raw, organic cocoa powder--2 tablespoons
• raw, organic maca root powder--1 tablespoon
• Action Whey [TM]--one scoop
• one fresh peach
• one garden tomato
• six overgrown green beans (that needed to be eaten)
• mint--a sizable handful of fresh leaves
• maple syrup--a quick pour, to offset tartness of maca
• frozen blueberries--1/4 cup
• frozen strawberries--8 to 10
• ice

The smoothie whipped up thickly and tasted fine for our needs. I would not try serving it as a restaurant or to anyone used to restaurant smoothies for it was far from sweet. That said, it was filling and refreshing, and carried us solidly until our midmorning snacks.

Growing Herbs

Some mint transplants beginning to thrive.

Here in Tennessee, I am still learning to cultivate plant life. A lifetime ago, in the northeast, I recall having a catnip patch--started from seed and planted for the felines of the neighborhood--that was thick enough that a dozen cats could disappear in it together. We also had mint growing as a weed, spreading and invading at will; it was marvelous. Here, practically all of our herbs and spices still reside in containers. Perhaps this winter I will find the time and energy to build some permanent herb beds on our rocky hillside.

In summer, my most favorite herbs to enjoy raw are basil and mint. At times I believe I could live on pesto. Having mint available for teas, smoothies, and frozen treats makes my taste buds so happy that I smile widely with every sip, slurp, or bite.

Ginger root with developing buds.

This year we had basil and mint early on, but the June drought ended that. Although the plants are still alive, the basil leaves are narrow and hard, and the mint leaves are small and yellow-green. For all the mint sprigs I rooted in water in June, none survived transplanting into soil. Thankfully, the spreading shoots of the presently-nonproductive mint plant offer many rooting shoots and some of those have transitioned well. Now I finally have flavorful fresh mint again available just steps from the door.

A bud from a bit of ginger root, potted and place outdoors.

Inspired by the budding ginger root in the kitchen, this week I transplanted some root chunks with developing eyes. Growing ginger is novel for me, and while I understand that the plants will need a couple of years to develop before I start picking away at their roots, I am eager to give it a try.

Having fresh herbs and spices available can make the experiences of cooking and eating so much more enjoyable. When I take the time to eat mindfully, knowing the sources of my food and how it was raised allows me to connect better as I contemplate this cycle of life.

Watermelon Refresher

Watermelon refreshment.

Watermelon Refresher

• 2 cups seeded watermelon
• 1 small tomato
• 1 small beet
• 1/4 cup fresh coconut
• 2 cups filtered water
• 1 scoop sport drink base

Blend the ingredients in a strong blender. (If your blender won't emulsify the seeds, you may want to remove the watermelon seeds and chew them thoroughly to get the nutritional benefits--amino acids, B vitamins, minerals, protein, fats.)

Yield:  1 1/2 quarts.

Are you interested in the story behind the drink? Here it is.

Today we enjoyed another gloriously warm, sunny afternoon with thickly humid air. Per usual, after moving a few sections of fencing, cutting a cartload of brush and grasses for fodder, and bouncing the dog living in lockup for ignoring the boundaries I set, I was soaked. Ladies perspire; I sweat, copiously. Obviously, hydration was in order.

With the animals put to bed, I gladly buried my head in the refrigerator. Success! There sat the bulk of a seeded watermelon, the perfect base for a sweet, refreshing, hydrating drink. Watermelon, water, and the sports drink base were all that were necessary; however, I cannot resist adding whatever extras I can find available.

This is the first time that I have  blended, and likely the last that I will blend, the sports drink into a fruit drink. Although it provided the electrolytes my body needed, it did little for the "natural" flavor of the watermelon refresher. On the other hand, the coconut gave the drink a milky fullness that the fruits and vegetables could not have given it on their own.

Every drink is a unique experience. Every mistake is a lesson. Today I learned that while hydration is important, my palate prefers separating the natural flavors from those of the processed drink mix.

Coconut Kale Morning Smoothie

Morning smoothie, garnished with pumpkin blossoms.

This morning we started out the day with a refreshing Coconut Kale smoothie.

The first order of business was opening the coconut. Working over a large bowl, we sawed at the coconut's seam until we could easily press a knife tip into the coconut flesh. After emptying the coconut water into the bowl, and subsequently pouring it into our Blendtec blender, we got lazy and took the mostly-unsealed nut outside and dropped it onto the driveway. It separated nicely and the hull even broke away from the meat on one side.

Into the blender we added the following:

•  a large chunk of rinsed meat 
•  two kale leaves, a handful of parsley from the garden
•  a tablespoon of raw organic maca root powder
•  a scoop of Action Whey
•  a handful of chia seeds
•  a tomato from the garden
•  a few snips from a hot red pepper
•  less than a cup of fresh kefir
•  and a tray of ice cubes

Lesson: do not put a large chunk of coconut meat at the bottom of a pile to be blended. The meat kept the other ingredients from circulating until it had been fully blended into milk. Once that occurred, the rest of the blending process went quickly.

The result was delicious! The rich, creamy, coconut-flavored drink gave a delightful start to this destined-to-be-glorious day.

Ginger Carrots

Ginger Carrots lacto-fermenting quietly in a mason jar.

Today a dear friend and I make a batch of Ginger Carrots for lacto-fermentation. Well, I should say, my friend did the work, I simply provided the materials, space, and recipe. (Warning: visitors are welcome to our home so long as you are willing to work! This week's visitor was a Godsend in terms of being helpful on our farm and in the kitchen.)

Did you ever wonder how people managed before the advent of refrigeration? Root cellars, cured and smoked meats, and lacto-fermented vegetables all played important roles. I suppose that lacto-fermentation could be considered a form of canning; after all, we store the products in canning jars. Using the whey separated from raw milk to provide lactic acid, traditional cultures preserved vegetables to last until the the next harvest season. Thus, summer and fall vegetables could be available in the dead of winter.

Ginger Carrots is a dish that goes well with spicy meats and provides a gentle introduction to lacto-fermented foods for the sensitive palate. The recipe we use is from page 95 of  Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions cookbook. If you want to live well and are interested in how traditional cultures managed to live in supremely good health before "civilization" descended with our processed foods and the like, then you need to discover the Weston A. Price Foundation and Nourishing Traditions.

My friend Tanya valiantly grated about 6 cups of carrots (the recipe calls for four but we were aiming to fill two mason jars--until we ran out of carrots) and a well-rounded tablespoon of ginger (nearly two tablespoons). I ground a tablespoon of sea salt. (The recipe calls for one tablespoon, but again I thought we would be getting a double recipe; I generally cut salt in half in recipes--when I use it at all.) Finally, the recipe called for 4 tablespoons of whey; we probably used six.

Next, Tanya got to pound the combined ingredients until the vegetable juices blended with the whey enough to cover the vegetables in the jar. Since the wooden tool we have to use is small, the task was difficult. I keep meaning to fashion a better tool since we have abundant stores of wood here, but have yet to get to that particular project.

After much labor--indeed, Tanya worked the entire time I was cooking up a batch of fresh ricotta using 1-1/2 gallons of raw goat milk--Tanya announced that the finished vegetables would fit in one jar. Although it seemed like a supreme amount of effort for the amount of product, I know that the flavor will be so delightful as to make the trouble well warranted.

When eating lacto-fermented vegetables, such as homemade sauerkraut, a healthy tablespoon size serving each day will provide the enzymes necessary for a balanced and healthy intestinal tract--deliciously!

Thank you, dear Tanya, for your efforts. We will think of you fondly as we enjoy the fruits of your labor in the coming months.

Stop for a Moment

Stopping to visit with a butterfly who landed on my knee.

Primary Food(TM) is the notion that what we put into our lives, minds, and souls nourishes us first while the foods we put into our mouths provide only secondary nourishment. This concept is one of the core teachings at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where I began an amazing journey into a life of sharing good health and abundance.

By respecting the moments of grace scattered throughout each of my days on this planet, I find myself visiting with the likes of the butterfly pictured. This delicate creature stopped by our milking stand the other day and extended her proboscis to explore my sweat-soaked bluejeans. Not my idea of refreshment, to be sure, but the exploration kept her in place for several minutes. Undaunted by the stamping goat doe on the stand who, once milked, was ready to return to a day spent busily foraging through the woods for tender greens, this butterfly stayed and stayed.

Her presence provided one of those moments of grace where I just stopped to breathe and contemplate the greatness of the natural world around me. Having time in one's day to contemplate the delicate joints of a butterfly's legs, or the striping pattern on her antennae, or the way she moves about and probes with her proboscis--this time is a true blessing when we chose to take advantage of its offerings.

Cultivating health involves more than simply the foods we put into our mouths, or the exercises in which we engage, it involves those moments when we just stop, listen, breathe, and feel.

Consider one of those moments in your day. Did you take full advantage of the opportunity it presented to you? Commit now to stopping for just a moment today and appreciating what the world is offering to you.

Humic Shale for Livestock

Meet Marcie, our most prized dairy doe.

The other day I was speaking with a gentleman about his friend's aging horse. Oftentimes, when horses get old they are unable to obtain the necessary nutrition from their usual  feed rations. Stories abound of horse owners who do all that they can for their aging friends, yet not only do they have to watch them become unthrifty with age, even skeletal in appearance, but also many must suffer the indignities of having animal inspectors visit pursuant to claims of animal abuse. As one who has loved horses in her life, I find these stories incredibly sad as these owners are doing their very best to care for their equine friends.

The other day while I was having this conversation, I thought of what I have been doing with Fulvic Ionic Minerals for my own health and wondered aloud if livestock might not obtain similar benefits. Promising to consider the question and blog here about the result, I bid my visitor good day and marched uphill to milk my goats before sunset.

Now, with all I have been learning about nutrition in this past year, and all the benefits my physical being has gained from the goodness I gift to it, I am still not the quickest wit in the neighborhood. Indeed, it was not until the next day that I recalled that I do already know something about the topic. You see, Optimally Organic, the site from which I order Fulvic Ionic Minerals, has already considered the question and has a partner site for agriculture, Optimally Ag.

Not only that, but I purchased a bag of their Organic Raw Humic Shale powder to include with the feed of my dairy does...and forgot to mention that in our conversation! (This goes to show one of the benefits of an ongoing relationship with any nutrition counselor because important thoughts often occur "after the fact" and can simply be added into the conversation at the next session.) While I do not mix the powder into the feed on a daily basis, most particularly because I do not feed grain every day, my herd has never once turned away an opportunity to gobble it down. Since I have not invested in laboratory testing, I cannot attest to any improvement in the quality of the milk; however, as I continue to learn more about what the Fulvic Ionic Minerals do for me, I am more inclined to believe that similar benefits may well be going to my herd.

Bobby, if you do read this, please share the information with your friend. Then, let me know how his aging horse does with the addition of humic shale to its diet.

For other agriculture and farm related blog posts, I invite readers to visit Precious & Celestial Wonders Organic Farm's blogspot page.

Fulvic Ionic Minerals

Fulvic Minerals and additives--ginger, beet, lemon balm, tea.

The Fulvic Ionic Minerals I use daily combine fulvic acid, humic acid, electrolytes, essential amino acids and minerals to provide a bio-available source of these incredible, health-giving nutrients. After dissolving only a few drops of the liquid in clean water (I use rain water as our tap water contains chlorine), I provide my body with an amazing start to each day. By balancing and energizing the cells, the body becomes better able to absorb and utilize nutrients. Even better, this morning drink stimulates the immune system. The Fulvic Ionic Minerals we use, from Optimally Organic, are sourced from humate deposits in the southern United States, derived naturally, and packaged in amber-colored glass bottles.

Of late, I have taken to doing more with the Fulvic Ionic Minerals than simply adding them to water. By adding them to water with a tea bag or fresh herbs, the nutrients and flavor of the tea or herbs become rapidly dispersed through the water. Indeed, I am entertained by watching just how fast some of these processes happen. Yesterday I experimented with green tea, ginger and beet root on video, and some lemon balm leaves and red bell pepper juice (after turning off the camera).  Unfortunately, the video is not uploading to this Blogger post correctly, and all I have to share, then, are these still photos.

Left to right: Fulvic Minerals, green tea, ginger juice, beet chunks.

The green tea performed as expected. Normally, a tea ball added to cold water will produce little if any tea infusion; however, with the Fulvic Ionic Minerals added, in practically no time a dark, smoky haze emanated from the ball. After a bit of dunking, we had a glass of tea so green as to be practically black. The flavor was quite rich.

The ginger root was fairly fresh and produced juice readily when squeezed in the garlic press. Although the color in the mineralized water was unremarkable, the flavor was amazing. With a bit of carbonation, this would make an excellent home gingerale. (Adding a bit of agave nectar might help for those with a sweet tooth.)

The beet root was not as fresh and did not produce juice when squeezed. I shall have to try this again when we have fresh beets available.

The lemon balm took a little time to blend. Although I bruised the fresh leaves between my fingertips before adding the herb sprigs to the water, I did not observe a rapid reaction after adding the minerals. Some minutes later, though, the liquid appeared darker and the flavor was incredibly lemony.

Lastly, the red bell pepper--which was fresh from the garden--- readily emitted several drops of juice from a small slice. With the added minerals, the resulting "tea" had a pleasing flavor. Not that I have drunk bell pepper tea before, but the sweetness of the fresh pepper was readily available to the palate.

Try your own combinations at home and be sure to share your experiences in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

Quick Fruit & Nut Snack

Snack food. Yummy!

Snack food should entertain the taste buds and energize the body to brighten up a dull afternoon at the office or a long stretch of studying. Ideally, it should please and enliven the person snacking, without producing an unnatural caffeine or sugar high that is all-too-soon to be followed by a slump. Of late, I've taken to snacking on dried fruits and/or nuts when garden grazing is not an option.

The quick snack pictured here has just five simple ingredients:

(1) Raw, organic walnuts
(2) Raw pumpkin seeds
(3) Raw, organic golden berries
(4) Dried blueberries
(5) Raw, organic cacao nibs

Walnuts are an excellent source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids. They're so obviously brain food that the nut meats even resemble brain tissue.

Pumpkin seeds offer protein, fiber, and healthy fats, as well as the amino acids tryptophan and glutamate.

Golden berries offer a sweet and tangy-tart flavor akin to pineapple. They are packed with vitamins and antioxidants. High in beta-carotene and bioflavonoids, they are said to have anti-inflammatory properties.

Blueberries are packed with antioxidants and offer vitamins, minerals, and fiber for health.

Cacao, chocolate, is said to be the food of kings. Cacao beans are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, omega-6 fats and the amino acid tryptophan. Although perhaps this recipe could benefit from using whole cacao beans--as the nibs tend to sift to the bottom between the larger morsels, the nibs were readily available when this particular snack-attack hit.

Toss the lot together in a small dish and enjoy the crunchy, sweet, savory, and tart tastiness!

Passion Flower

Passion flower.

The state wild flower of Tennessee is the passion flower. We happen to be lucky enough to have a few plants that began to thrive shortly after the severe drought conditions were relieved by the arrival of steady rains in July. Now they've begun to blossom, and one plant in the front pasture is beginning to bear fruit.

Still-green fruit on passion flower vine.

While I have yet to taste the fruit of the passion flower vine, I cannot wait to try some. I understand the seeds are enclosed in a plump, juicy flesh much like pomegranate seeds. We'll give the fruits on this vine some time to ripen beyond green, then we'll be tasting them.

Stay tuned!

Heavenly Bodies

Feeding the soul is our primary responsibility, while feeding the body is merely secondary. Tonight's annual meteor shower has been phenomenal. Just sitting out on the deck, contemplating the skies, listening to the bugs and mammals, and feeling the chill night air is so soothing. When a shooting star streaks across the sky, the emotional lift is amazing. The excitement resonates viscerally and I get giddily happy.

Such a treat. This is what Primary Food is about, feeding the soul.

Have you made time to feed your soul today?

Wild Spinach Salad

A light dinner salad featuring wild spinach.

One of my favorite discoveries this season has been that of wild spinach. This "weed" proliferates in areas where the ground has been disturbed--think of the average garden bed. Indeed, I learned to identify wild spinach as a food just hours after destroying probably  two or three hundred volunteer wild spinach plants competing for nutrition with the few okra plants I had started from seed. (I still would have "weeded" to favor the okra, but I might have harvested the young plants instead of simply relegating them to the compost pile.)

Wild spinach is highly nutritious, more so than its cultivated cousin; however, unlike the curlier cultivated varieties, this plant's leaves like to lie flat, very flat, on the plate. This necessitates keeping clusters of leaves together on the plant's side-stems in order to give the food some "body" on the plate. The flavor is mild and the leaves are less crisp than the cultivated spinach leaves I've eaten.

The light dinner salad featured in the photo includes wild spinach from the yard, tomatoes, basil, curly parsley, and sweet banana peppers from the garden, and small pieces of lemon for zest. A few squeezes of fresh lemon and a drizzle of olive oil dressed the salad for serving.

When I discovered wild spinach in John Kallas's Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate, I enjoyed his story about visiting a U-pick farm operation, picking a container of the crop for sale and basket of wild spinach, only to have the proprietor not only give him the "weeds" for free but invite him back to gather more anytime he wished.

If more people would develop an appreciation for such wild plants as food, they might help local farmers as well as themselves by volunteering to weed the rows--and then taking home those very "weeds" for dinner.

Breakfast Smoothie

Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day, but with today's busy lifestyles it's often the first to go. The time to cook a wholesome breakfast, then to sit and eat it can be difficult to schedule. While on the journey to better nutrition, I have managed to move beyond the grab a cup of coffee and run out the door style that served me for years, I have difficulty thinking about eating solid food first thing in the morning. Personally, I have found that smoothies provide a healthful breakfast option that's tasty, portable, and easy on the stomach. Also, while I have enjoyed a cup of coffee every morning for probably three decades, since learning that coffee intake can interfere with serotonin production, I have cut back on the coffee. A well-balanced morning meal blended into a smoothie can provide enough fuel to keep me going until noon without any cravings for snacks or caffeine.

What goes into my breakfast smoothie? In our kitchen, smoothie-making is akin to soup-making: whatever is handy goes into the recipe. Of late, kefir is the base liquid; our kefir is homemade using our fresh, raw goat milk from the farm. The drink pictured was blended almost a month ago, but to the best of my recollection the recipe included the following ingredients:

     * Kefir, made with raw, organic goat milk
     * Garden tomatoes, organic
     * Cocoa, raw, organic powder (from Optimally Organic)
     * Blueberries, frozen
     * Strawberries, frozen
     * Peaches, fresh, local
     * Garden cucumber
     * Garden mint
     * Action Whey (TM) --This is the ingredient
     * Nuts--either walnuts, almonds, or pine nuts
 
Possibly that smoothie included a palm-full of chia seed; I don't use it every day because it's stored on a high shelf and I do not always feel like climbing up to reach supplies stored up there. The same goes for various powdered super foods from Optimally Organic; usually I like to add maca root powder to smoothies.

A two-quart blender mixes up a smoothie big enough to drink a glass before leaving the house, then I bring along the balance in a plastic juice bottle. This allows me to pour out smoothie into my cup and sip throughout the morning. I love the taste of chocolate mint smoothies!

Squash Blossom Snacks

Drive-thru snack.

Yesterday when I was leaving the farm in the late morning, I had to get out of the car to close the front gate; the car waited for me beside some self-sown pumpkin vines--very conveniently. Each day the vines' new growth migrates toward the warmth of the driveway's blacktop surface, and each day that I pass by I try to redirect the vines. (Those that resist redirection get run over or just cooked in the midday heat.)

In the mornings, when the blossoms are freshly opened, their cups often hold drops of dew of even puddles of rainwater. (Lord, bless the clouds for the rains that have washed much of our drought conditions away. Please help the rains to continue.) Still-wet blossoms offer an added layer of sensory delight to morning snackers. Yesterday I picked a handful of spent blossoms from along the edge of the driveway--after all we don't need pumpkins growing that close to potential calamity--and stacked them along the car's console before pulling out.

This pile quickly vanished as I snacked.

What a delightful sensory treat they offered! Crisp, gently soft, lightly prickly (the blossoms wear spiny protectors to shield them from snack-craving humans such as myself--didn't work!), and with a burst of unchlorinated water--Yum! Although I tried to make the pile last a bit, the last of the blossoms had vanished before I got into town.

Snacking directly from one's garden and/or yard is a treat everyone should be able to enjoy. Even those with no yard whatsoever can use such clever devices as the AeroGarden or vertical hanging planters installed along a wall. The plants freshen the indoor air and provide a dimension of greenery so necessary to human well-being. We am blessed to live where gardening and farming are not only possible but usual.

Squash blossoms are often served battered (tempura style) or lightly sauteed. I prefer the freshness provided by fresh-from-the-vine snacking. For calorie-counters out there, an entire cup of squash blossoms has only 5 calories. Unfortunately, the flowers offer little in the way of nutritional value--but they are tasty and, when picked from organically maintained gardens, certainly not bad for you!

A pumpkin flirts with danger along the driveway's edge.

Welcome!

Cynthia, mid-2010, TN small farmer.

Welcome to Cultivate Health Now, the blog. My name is Cynthia Winfield and I am excited to be able to share wellness tips, nutrition information, and healthful recipies with you through this venue. Soon I will have a bi-monthly newsletter available to be e-mailed directly to your inbox. Watch the blog posts and/or the sidebar for ways to sign up.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am an early-50-something white woman living in the rolling green hills of Middle Tennessee. When I arrived here I was an achy-late-40's woman feeling every bith her age; however, since then I have learned on and from the land and grown into good health day by day. Now I neither have the aches and pains that I once considered "normal for my age," nor do I suffer from asthma, migraines, or other chronic conditions for which I had been taking daily medication for decades.

How did I manage such a drastic change? With the power of nutrition! While some of the details of my initial nutrition epiphany are documented on my farm blog, most of what I have learned has come as a result of my studies with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and my personal experiments with my own diet. What a wonderful adventure this has been!

If you are interested in feeling better than you do today, please join me on this journey into health and wellness. "Like," "Subscribe to," and/or "Follow" this blog to stay in touch. Welcome!




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