I *Heart* Winter Markets

This morning I was able to sneak away all by myself (which is a huge blessing for a stay at home, mama of four!)  I went to one of my favorite places.  The farmers market.

Yes, I live in New England.  Yes, it was snowing.

Yes, I said Farmers Market.

Are you aware that there are multiple winter markets available in New England? Several in Rhode Island and nearby Connecticut alone. I love the market.  I love it in the sun kissed, abundant days of summer, and I love it in the inward, peaceful days of winter.  Today I went to a great market, a short distance from my home, in the town of Stonington, CT.  It is located in a beautiful, reclaimed mill, The Velvet Mill.  It was loaded with venders, selling a much wider variety of items then you might guess in the North East in December. Apples, tomatoes, potatoes, leeks and preserves, cheeses and eggs, hand made soaps, one of a kind clothing, hand carved kitchen adornments, and prepared food (even a gluten free table!) to warm the belly while you visit.  The thing about visiting the farmer's market versus your local super market is that you are doing more than picking up your groceries.  You are fulfilling a much bigger part of your health than your nutritional needs.  Yes, you are avoiding processed foods (a huge bonus).  Yes, you are supporting the local economy (Yay!). But there are many facets to good health.  One of these is cultivating a healthy community.  To surround yourself with joy and healthy, friendly faces.  Going to the farmer's market, I will fill my bag with great produce, beautiful hand made gifts and so much warmth and love.  With winter being a time to turn inward, taking the time to chat with your local farmers and artisans and running into friends and family adds so much light to these dark days of winter.

Your assignment this week is to find a market nearby and make the time to visit it.  Instead of running to a local box store for those last minute Christmas gifts, why not pick up something truly special and unique, something functional and beautiful.

Here are some local favorites:

Stonington, CT

South Kingstown, RI

North Kingstown, RI

Pawtucket, RI

Find Your local market Here at Farm Fresh

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar!

I just experienced my first real sugar fast, and I'm not going to lie to you, it wasn't pretty and it didn't last nearly a fraction of the time I was hoping it would.
Learning a bit about sugar right now.  This includes white sugar, natural sugars, whole food sugars, high glycemic fruit, white starches, flours, breads and grains.
I'm not going to get into a lecture. I would just like to link you to a couple of short videos and ask you to think for a minute about your relationship with sugar.
I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with sugar lately. I'm looking forward to my real sugar fast. I know I need to prepare myself better, but I also know that it is time, that it will be best for my body to give sugar a rest.

 Drinking one soda a day...

 And a musical interlude...

Watch the Bears

Cultured Veggies

Cultures and Ferments go back to the earliest civilizations.  Every "culture" has their own cultured foods. Wine, sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, relish, mead, kefir, beers, kvass and the list goes on.

Originally a mode of preservation, the process of fermenting your food cultivates an irreplaceable ingredient of a healthy diet, probiotics.

Probiotics are the good bacteria, supporting and protecting our body from disease and illness.  According to Donna Gates in "The Body Ecology Diet", probiotics "are essential to a wide range of bodily functions.  They help white blood cells fight disease, control putrefactive bacteria in the intestines, provide important nutrients for building the blood, assist digestion, protect the intestinal mucosa, prevent diarrhea and constipation, and contribute to bowel elimination. They also manufacture important B vitamins and are the most abundant source of vitamin B-12."

Taking care to include a source of cultured food in your diet on a daily basis will arm your immune system against the everyday bombardment of bacteria and viruses that we are exposed to.  I personally, feel stronger and have superior digestion when I am consistent with consuming fermented foods.  There is such wide variety of ferments that something can be found for everyone's tastes. You can find fermented foods at your local health food store, or you can make them yourself.  If you do decide to purchase your ferments, be sure that they are in the refridgerated section of the store, and state that they are not pasteurized and that they contain live cultured enzymes.  A few of my favorite brands are "Real Pickles", which carry an assortment of cultured vegetables, "InnerEco" brand coconut kefir, and "GT" Kombucha.  There are many resources for doing it yourself. My teachers have been Sandor Katz, Donna Gates and Sally Fallon, all authors of wonderful books.

There are two main schools of thought when it comes to fermenting foods.  Wild fermentation, as is taught by Sandor Katz, and culturing, described by Donna Gates.  Essentially, wild fermentation collects wild bacteria from the air as each type of bacteria is attracted to a certain food.  Whether you are fermenting cabbage, sugar or honey, they have their own bacteria and yeast that are attracted to them.  Keep your equipment clean and sterilized, and there is no need to worry about harmful bacteria being introduced.  Donna Gates brings a closed culture style to the table, adding the preferred probiotics to the food and sealing it in a closed container to allow the cultures to proliferate in a controlled environment.

Whichever is best for you is your own choosing, I will show you both methods.  I recommend trying out both and going with whichever compliments your body.  Our four fermented staples are cultured veggies, coconut kefir, coconut yogurt and kombucha.  This will be a three part series starting with...

Cultured Vegetables

One of the most popular forms of cultured veggies is sauerkraut. In our home we keep a large batch in the fridge at all times.  The whole family enjoys homemade cultured veggies mixed with fresh ground tahini, a little salad dressing, as a side dish to help digest a protein such as eggs, or straight up, in a bowl, with a pair of chopsticks.  This week we harvested a delicious garlic kraut.  Every  month we pick a new variety of veggies to ferment.  This week we plan to bottle up a big bowl of radishes from the garden.

As I mentioned before, there are two basic routes with fermenting.  The first, traditional, ferment is wild fermenting.  Our friend, Franky Giglio, from Three Lily Farm has a few recipes on his family farm blog.  Instead of making my own video, I asked Franky if it was ok to share.  He does a wonderful job explaining the process.

Click Here for Franky's Video Blog 

Next is a Video with Donna Gates, herself explaining her technique of a closed system culture.  Visit this link for the Renegade Health Show Fermentation Blog.

Both Franky G and Renegade Health have published books on the subject, that I recommend checking out.

Next week we will visit making coconut kefir!

Happy Culturing!

Frosty Orange-Mango-Kefir Soda

After the family spent some serious time on a hot and humid Fourth of July weeding the garden, we needed a serious reward, and I was happy to oblige.

Frosty Electrolyte Mango Soda
2 oranges, juiced
The meat of one mango
1/4-1/2 C coconut water kefir
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp MSM powder (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tray ice

Blend together and Enjoy!

Opening A Young Coconut

There are loads of videos online on how to open a young coconut.  I figured I would put together a simple picture showing the tricks that I use every week while making my coconut kefir*.

If you are interested in a printable version, let me know and I'm happy to email you the pdf version.

ginamlaw@gmail.com

**click on the image to make it bigger.

SeaTreat Pate

To make this dish with speed and agility, it is time to pull out your food processor.  For the raw food chef, this machine turns a lot of cutting and dicing into a simple push of the button. 

Sea Treat Pate

Ingredients:

1 red onion

1 C snow peas, tops removed

1 1/2C sunflower seeds, soaked 2 hrs

3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

1/4-1/2C water, just enough to make a creamy consistency

1/2C soaked Dulse (10 min)

1 tsp lemon zest

1/2C soaked Arame (10 min)

 

Process separately and then place in a medium sized bowl.

• 1 red onion, pulsed in food processor 


• 1 C snow peas, pulsed in food processor

Process Together and then add to above veggies:

• 3 garlic cloves


• 1 1/2C sunflower seeds, soaked 2 hrs


• 2 tbsp lemon


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 2 tbsp olive oil


• 1/4-1/2C water, just enough to make a creamy consistency


• At the very end, pulse in 1/2 c soaked dulse (a 10 min soak should do)

 

Finally Mix in Arame and lemon zest, stir well and enjoy!

 

Immuno Latte

I love my morning coffee.  Really Love coffee. 

MAYBE the only thing I like better is a latte.  

Unfortunately, it's not good for me and my constitution.  There are lots of good substitutes, but really when it gets down to it you need something full bodied, warm and deeply satisfying.

In comes my reishi, chaga latte.  

Tree mushroom are an amazing medicine.  I'm going to keep my explanation short, as you could literally write a book on them (and there are plenty of books regarding the subject) I suggest looking in it further if this entices you.  What I will tell you are the basics.  They are immunomodulators.  What does this mean exactly?  They strengthen your immune system.  Over time it will build, however I feel the effects in the beginning myself.  Please don't get this confused with immune stimulators.  Herbs in the echinacea family, for example, are immune stimulants.  These are great if you feel a sickness coming on, however overstimulating your immune system is not healthy if it is not fighting against an oncoming cold or flu.  You will overtax and burn it out.  Also, good to note, these immunostimulators should not be taken if you have an autoimmune disorder. In this case your system is already overstimulated and attacking itself.  This is where immunomodulators come into play.  If your immune system is low it will bring it up, if it is high it will bring it down.  Reishi, "The Mushroom of Immortality" and Chaga, "King of Medicinal Mushrooms", are two of my very favorite mushrooms.  When I am consistently consuming them I feel stronger, healthier and tend to ward off sickness easier.  

Tree mushrooms are very woody and cannot be eaten as a ground mushroom.  They are best used in tea, soups and powders. When making a tea from a medicinal mushroom you need to decoct it. Which is cooking at a slow simmer for about 2 hours (other herbs that require decoction can generally be simmered for 45 minutes).  Strain the herb, and if you'd like, take the strained herb and tincture it to further pull out medicinal qualities, such as immunomodulating polysaccharides. For this recipe, all that you need is the tea.  I make a large pot of tea and use it for the family over the course of the next few days.  Mushrooms go a long way for the price and as far as bang for your buck, here it is.

In this recipe I've added Maca for its hormone balancing qualities, cacao for antioxidant and as a delivery system for the medicine (Cacao helps to deliver nutrients into your blood.  Take it with medicine verses low quality milk and refined sugar to optimize the medicinal benefits). Coconut oil and butter for the multitude of coconut oil as well as slowing the release of the latte into my system and making it into more of a meal (Don't be afraid of fats as we need these for proper brain function and believe it or not, in order to lose weight!) A sprinkling of cinnamon helps balance your blood sugar.

Try it out and let me know how you like it!  

Visit my Imagine Health Facebook Page  with any questions or comments!

 

And without further ado...

 

Reishi Chaga Latte

2C warm Chaga Reishi Mushroom Tea (Decoct (simmer) mushrooms 1- 2+ hrs and strain)

2 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp coconut butter

10 drops vanilla sweetleaf stevia

3 tbsp cacao nibs

1 good tbsp of your favorite honey

1 tsp-1tbsp maca

Twist of your best salt

Blend Well

Top with a dash of cinnamon and enjoy!