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!

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.

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.

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.