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!