Cell - A - Brating Spring Foraging

                                               Clockwise from top:                                                   Dandelion greens, Wild Violet, White Pine, Wild Leek shoots.

It is April 23rd (Happy Earth Day yesterday!) and I am patiently awaiting Dandelion greens, Wild Violet leaves & flowers, and Wild Leeks. I am heading out soon, with my yogurt quart container bucket and trowel, to see if the mighty Spring Leeks have popped up big enough to dig.

It has been a long winter and a hard won Spring for us Waaaay Northern New Yorkers. Today is day 3 of sunshine and no snow floating down. The ground is finally bare, save for a few pockets of the "white stuff" here and there, on the northern sides of trees, hills, etc. 

*After a long winter of heavy foods, our bodies long for light and fresh. Our body cells crave the nourishment from the Wild Ones in our lawns. 

The 4 plants surrounding Mother Earth (image above):

Dandelion is a liver lover. She helps to promote bile flow from the liver into your gall bladder and on into the small intestine. This bile helps digest food, keeps you regular, helps balance gut microbial health, and so - so much more. Bile is a good thing. Dandelions are a good thing too. This Spring: enjoy the greens raw or saute' very-very lightly, eat the yellow flowers, and learn about the root for harvesting and use in fall and winter (Shhhh, forget I said that naughty word).  Dandelion is loaded with chlorophyll and beta-carotenes. 

Wild Violets are Springs gift of flavor, color, and Vitamin C. Our bodies love vitamin C after a long, dark, cold winter. This is why I love citrus fruit by the time February rolls around. No, citrus is not local, but sometimes a girl has got to do things to survive. Vitamin C is a scrub brush for the body, a bit of Spring cleaning for you cells to perk things up, get firey Spring into Summer metabolism revving, and boost the immune system after the cold, dark days.  Feel free to eat the greens and flowers in salads. See below for *sustainable harvest info. Always leave plenty for reseeding and regrowth year after year.

I just read a blog post on Wild Violets and how they are the bad ass weeds of your lawn. (From the post: One of the most difficult weeds to control in the lawn is wild violet.  This native plant may look cute and dainty, especially in the spring when it produces pretty purple flowers. But in reality it is an aggressive weed with an unusual flowering quirk that results in thick mats of leaves that can choke out your lawn.) Yes, I was and am laughing quite loudly. An aggressive weed?! Look out folk, the violets are coming to get you! Seriously people, violets (and dandelions) are pretty color in the sea of green. Who wants a perfectly groomed, institutional like lawn. Nothing like some wild flowers to break up the never ending grass AND violets only grow to a low height... no mowing needed where violets take over. Seems like a win win to me: color, food, no mowing required. 

White Pine: Placed here because I Love White Pines. They are a Tree of Wisdom. Pines are evergreen, like I need to tell you that. Their green-ness all winter long keeps the landscape colorful and is the hope of the Spring green to come. Their needles are high in Vitamin C.  Harvesting to make winter tea (be gentle when you make tea, keep it covered while steeping. See link above.) is a dose of Vitamin C. 

Wild Leeks: I will keep this info quick & simple. I love Leeks. There is much info on Leeks here on my blog, just do a search (Dandelion as well).  These Spring beauties are a gift to digestion, the intestines, the liver, cellular health, and life in general. Eat raw, saute' very gently, add to soups and stews (I add Leeks after the soup or stew is made and the heat is turned off). Just enjoy them, bad breath and all.

Please do so with extreme consciousness of only harvesting what you need for right now's meal. Do not ever over pick - over dig the Leek patch. Go to a different patch for your next meal. I really freak when I see people harvest huge pails of Leeks (or any wild plant) with no regard that they just destroyed the whole patch. Be kind. Take only what you need right now. 

My April 23rd Waiting For The Wild Ones Spring Tonic

• 1 organic lemon
• handful of fresh, organic cilantro
• local, raw honey
• well water (no chlorine or flouride)

1. Juice lemon and place juice in blender. I scrape out the lemon peel with a grapefruit spoon and add to blender.
2. Add 2 cups water to blender. Carefully rinse citrus juicer and add liquid to blender. Do not waste anything.
3. I eat a chunk of the lemon peel. Good nutrients here and anti-cancer antioxidants.
4. Add the handful of cilantro leaves and stems to blender.
5. Add 1-3 tbsp. local, raw honey.
6. Cover and blend to liquidy consistency. 
7. Let settle a minute or two and pour into a quart canning jar. Rinse blender carefully & slowly with gentle low stream of water, from top of blender down, to save every bit of goodness and pour the "cleaning water" into your quart jar. You should have a quart now. If not, fill the quart.  Enjoy.

I do not add ice cubes to the blender in Spring. We are trying to warm digestion as we move into the warmer weather. Iced drinks squelch digestion and contribute to poor digestion, reflux, etc. 

Relaxing by the Raquette, reading a book sipping my Cilantro Lemon Aid, and deeply grateful for the Sunshine of Spring!

*Please harvest very responsibly and never take more than 5-10% of the patch of wild foods. Other beings need to eat. The patch needs to be able to restore itself for sustainability for the next 7 Generations. Nature is not providing just for you. Be kind. Be gentle. Be conservative, caring, and Love the Earth's bounty.

Stinging Nettle Cake

I can't proclaim the brilliant idea for this cake came from me. I confess, I eat nettles in every way possible, even blending up raw in a morning green drink (yes, all green plants come from my lawn). When Debbie Miller of Earth Rythm Wellness in Ogdensburg, NY shared the recipe with me... I think the whole North Country knows I am a Nettle Queen, I thought "Why Not?"  We make carrot cakes, beet cakes, zucchini cakes and breads; nettle cake sounds like a splendid idea to me.

The original recipe came from Kate Hackworthy, a freelance food writer, magazine columnist and blogger who admits to being unashamedly obsessed with vegetables. I don't know her but I like her already! Kate lives in the UK and writes about her veggie obssessions on her blog Veggie Desserts.

The raw nettles about to get blended into a non-stinging cake patter puree, see #7 below.

Here is what I did differently. Come on, don't act shocked. If you know me, you know every recipe gets the Paula Whole Food Makeover.

1. I added pasture raised goat's milk (nope, I don't have goats but I love my farmer and farm family who care for my goats.)
2. I used 4 eggs, yup, from the same loved farmer. Eggs bind things better and I use gluten free flours. No gluten in the flour and things tend to get crumbly, cakes can fall apart. But, the frosting always glues things back together nicely!   ; )
3. I stuck with the 3/4 cup sugar. Surprised? Are you saying: "What? Paula always decreases the sugar?"  Yes, I do but most cake recipes call for 2 cups of sugar that I immediately decrease to 2/3 or 3/4 a cup. Kate, the veggie loving gal from the UK, did this for me!
4. At least 1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons) of real, organic vanilla. Recipe called for 2 teaspoons. I am heavy handed with vanilla and pour right from the bottle into the batter despite what my high school home ec teacher tried to teach me. Sorry Jane.
5. I used 1  1/2 to 1 3/4 cups of gluten free flour not refined, white, wheat flour. This is why my cake will not be so luminous green from the nettles but more of an earthy brown tinted green. I used a blend of oat, quinoa, millet, and amaranth flour that I ground fresh. All organic and the oats are certified gluten free as well.
6. I used a very full, very rounded tablespoon of baking powder not the 2 teaspoons the recipe called for. Gluten free flour is, well gluten free, and can use a 'lil kick in the bran and germ butt to get fluffed up. Do not be mistaken: this cake will not be the light fluffy cakes you are expecting from baking with refined white flour. Will it be yummy: yes it will!
7. Nettles: I easily over did the 2 packed cups. I did not boil them. The nettles are being pureed in the blender and baked in the oven. If the sting can withstand that well then sting away baby! Seriously, just blending the raw nettles into the batter gets rid of the sting. I make pesto with raw nettles all of the time and never have I been stung.
8. I added 1/2 to 3/4 a tsp. of baking soda. Not sure why, just a habit and seems fitting with gluten free flour. (No, I do not used refined gluten free flour mixes of tapioca, potato, and/or white rice flour. Most gluten free flours and products are crap food sources that do not feed cellular health.)
9. For the frosting: I made my customary heavy cream & neufchatel cheese frosting to which I added in the 1/2 lemon's worth of zest and 1/2 lemon's worth of juice (1 tablespoon). I did use a fresh organic lemon for the zest but I saved the juice part for my liver flush am drink and used bottled organic lemon juice. I figured the juice was getting baked at 350 F and would destroy the vitamin C so why not use the fresh lemon juice right now in its raw state? Yes, this is how my mind works all of the time.
10. I used Sucanat unrefined organic sugar not refined white table sugar. 
11. I poured the batter into one 9" round cake pan instead of the two 7" pans. I like to slice cakes in half and toy with the gluten free flours ability to hold up to my kitchen play. The then raw cut surface of the cake soaks up the yummy frosting better. This took 50 minutes of baking at 350 F. I then cracked the oven door about 3-4 inches, shut off the gas, and let it sit there in the warm oven to cool.

The cake batter in a 9" pan looking a bit olive drab green not the bright green of Kate from the UK's cake,                       See # 5  &  # 11 above explaining pan size difference and cake color difference.

OK, Ok, I will quit finger babbling and give you the ingredients and directions.

Into the VitaMix Blender I put:

• 1 cup goat's milk
• 4 eggs
• 2+ packed cups of raw nettle leaves, stems not removed 'cuz I am a nettle rebel
• 3/4 cup sucanat unrefined, organic sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup soft butter  (extra for lubing up the cake pan really well)
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp. organic lemon juice
• 1  3/4 cups gluten free flour: oat, amaranth, quinoa, millet (no refined crap please, see #8 above)
• 1 tbsp. baking powder, aluminum free please, your brain will thank you
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. unrefined sea salt of the pink Himilayan variety

1. Preheat 350 F oven. 
2. Blend into a greenish brown frenzy.
3. Stop 2-3 times to scrape the sides down.
4. Rub that luscious butter all over the insides of the 9" cake pan.
5. Pour cake batter into butter loved pan.
6. Slip into that hot 'ole oven and bake for 50 minutes. 
7. After 50 minutes, slip a knife into the cake to see if it is done, finished, baked to perfection.
8. If so, keep oven cracked 3-4 inches and leave cake on the rack.
9. When cool, frost your 'lil stinging nettle cake with the frosting I use for everything...

Frosting:

• Organic heavy cream, one or two 8 oz containers
• Organic Neufchatel Cheese, one 8 oz package
• 2 - 4 tbsp. dark maple syrup
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice, basically juice from 1/2 lemon

1. Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and use an electric hand mixer to whip into frosting consistency.
2. You can slice the cake open for 2 layers, if you wish. I suggest proceeding with caution as gluten free cakes can be tricksters.
3. Frost.
4. Let sit for a bit to settle into the flavor melding.
5. Serve with the Blackberries that Kate of the UK suggests, or not.
6. Enjoy. Nettles are amazing nourishing food. Adding them to cake makes sense! 

Voilà: The finished cake!  

Because of the whole grain flours and unrefined sugar (very brown and not white like refined baking ingredients), the cake does not have the luminous green of Kate's of the UK. It was delicous. As with all whole food baked goods I like to tell people to get used to the heavier texture. Unrefined foods mean you have the density of fiber, minerals, vitamins, complex carbohydates, proteins, and fats... not light, fluffy refined and empty calories (cellular health degenerating). Dense food is real food feeding your cellular health. 

Happy Memorial Day!

Be Grateful to All who have given to make your life better.

Need support around finding your personal space of gratitude in this world?  Jenny Morill & I share our new book about creating mindfulness & healing.  We hold sacred space for you.

Active Vs. Passive Medicine

                     Active                    Vs.                       Passive

Healing oneself takes an individual's active participation in the process. This participation can be physical (body), emotional (mind), or spirit work.  Often times, all three woven together into a beautiful Self-Healing tapestry is your healing magic in action.

We live is a culture that generally works from a space of passive health care.

One western medicine scenario:

1. Visit your practitioner.
2. Explain your symptoms, issues, challenges.
3. Have a prescription handed to you.
4. Go home and take your pills.

Rarely does a western medical practitoner ask you to participate in the process of regaining your health. Drugs and surgery do not get at what is causing your health crisis. Drugs cover up the symptoms. Surgery removes the damaged organs but never opens up space to determine why this organ is in a state of dis-ease and how can I change my habits to reverse the damage that has been done?  What is actually causing the symptoms usually continues in a person's life because no one asks us to take a hard look at what made us arrive at this space of ill health. When we do take this hard look, unravel the causes that led to the problem, we can then start working in reverse to remove the problems and recover health.

Examples of the "You don't have to do anything active about your health problems" scenarios:

• High blood pressure: just take this pill and it will bring your blood pressure down. 
• Type 2 Diabetes: again, take this pill and continue doing what you have been doing. Until, of course, your diabetes get worse and now you need to... inject yourself with insulin at least once daily.
• Joint problems: take this pill, come on in for a replacement... keep eating and drinking all you have been because like the problems above... these problems are not your fault. You know, it's just bad genes. Take this pill and call it a day.

I could go on & on... PMS, menstrual irregularities, infertility, arthritis, auto-immune disorders, cancer... Nothing you eat, drink, or do in your life has anything to do with the presence of this health problem in your life.

Or so we are led to believe by mainstream media, mainstream medicine, and mainstream agriculture.

Active Participation in your health and healing means taking ownership of your lifestyle habits; true Lifestyle Medicine. Lifestyle Medicine is Active Medicine. You are asked and required to take a participatory role in your health and healing. You are invited to make changes towards whole health eating and whole health living that will ultimately repair your body cells.

1. How has the food I have been eating over the course of my life impacted my body's cellular health?  (Unhealthy cells mean an unhealthy body.)
2. How are my daily lifestyle habits impacting my health, my display of symptoms?
3. How is my body weight affecting my heart, blood pressure, diabetes, joints, back problems, and overall health?

It is time for your health care providers to invite you and inspire you (that is right, health care professionals who activley participate in their own well being and are good role models of real health). Your health cae providers need to be asking you questions:

"Stand up people. Take a hard look. Where can you change habits that have contributed to this crisis in your health? What can you do to actively return your body to vibrant, vital health?"

Trust me, return to health is a reality.  You just need to get active about the process. Invite healing support into your life:

• Lifestyle medicine professionals (think Functional Medicine, Functional Nutrition, Naturopathic Medicine, Holistic Health Coach)
• Acupuncture
• Massage
• Reiki
• Shamanic Care
• Chiropractic Care
• Spiritual Counselor
• Osteopath who practices lifestyle medicine

So where does preventative health care fit into this?

There is a difference between mainstream medicine's view of preventative health care and "holistic - whole health care - lifestyle medicine's" idea of preventative health care.

Mainstream's Idea of Prevention  -  Whole Health Care's Prevention                                                            (Lifestyle Medicine)

• mammogram                                                                          whole foods
• colonoscopy                                                                            deep, restful sleep
• cholesterol screening                                                              maintain healthy weight
• prostate exam                                                                         yoga, meditation mindfulness
• bone scan                                                                               moving the body daily
• vaccines                                                                                  immune building lifestyle habits
• diabetes screening                                                                  good posture
• blood pressure screenings                                                      hydration with pure water (no chlorine and fluoride)

Natural health habits are preventative health care; TRUE preventative health care.

The "get your annual mammogram, colonoscopy, cholesterol screening type of prevention" (which often leads to your lifetime pharmaceutical prescriptions)  does not actually prevent anything but instead is an early detection tool so your symptoms of dis-ease can be treated, managed, for the rest of your life. This is management of disease through management of disease symptoms.

Healing, active medicine, needs to be part of this equation.

Active Health Care is about real preventative health care... choosing lifestyle habits that build amazing cellular health & vitality so you truly prevent dis-ease from ever darkening your doorstep and actually knocking on your door. 

If disease symptoms are already part of your life, Active Health Care invites you to heal your symptoms of disease. 

I invite you to become an active part of your own healing team AND I will do my best to educate you and inspire you (be a healthy role model) towards whole health choices and self healing! 

Join me at 5 Elements Living for

Creating Inner Wisdom: Your Personal Health Journey

Register Today

3 Class overview
• March 27th: Eating for Cellular Health
• April 3rd: Natural Food Know How
• April 10th: Wise Woman Nurse "Movement Magic"
for Digestive Health & Herbs for Gut Health

Monday Evenings 6-8 PM

More info? Click here.

Ready to join us? Register here.

Why I Am Not Vegan Anymore

I am asked these questions around food and eating quite frequently:

• What is the healthiest way to eat?
• You aren't going to tell me I have to be vegetarian or vegan to heal my health problems?
• What happened to you?!... You were vegan, you had it so right, why did you change?

Just what is healthy eating? Ask that question of 10 different people and you will probably get 10 different answers... some spewed forth with the enthusiasm of a food fanatic. Hey, I only say this as I know, I could be mildly fanatic in my hey day.     

I am grateful for age, wisdom, and my more laid back attitude (Thank you very much yoga). I am now more careful where and when I say my famous quote:   "I wouldn't feed that crap to my dog."               Which honestly is an insult to my dog, any dog. I have since replaced dog in that statement with my compost pile fully realizing it is an insult to my compost pile's amazing bio-diversity and work on this planet. *Why feed my compost pile junk food, GMOs, non-organic crap? I don't want that cycling back around into my garden plot OR worrying about the wild animals who eat out of the pile (including my dog!) and would be getting less than whole food choices. Yup, see I can be a zealot.

20+ years ago when I returned to Northern NY, my home (I grew up in Brasher Falls), I was vegan and had been for 5-6 years. Truthfully, I thought I would starve to death up here.  I quickly found Nature's Storehouse, The Potsdam Food Coop, and Birdsfoot Farm (I believe Birdsfoot was the only organic produce farm in the area at the time).

So, what made me toss aside my vegan ways, turn back the clock on my omnivorous eating? It was a circling back of wisdom I already held within. 

1. I was pregnant, 33, always hungry, and dreaming of my Mom's roast beef dinner, venison stew, and chicken and dumplings. Listen to your body. I did! Our bodies have a wisdom as deep and pure as the earth is old. I listened (with a little encouragement from my Dad that I would not rot in hell for eating meat AND he was worried about his grandson who was hanging out in my uterus at that time). Even my 100% whole food vegan diet, no packaged fake meats and cheese... processed food is processed food, was not supporting my pregnancy well.

2. A Wise Woman Native American made a simple statement to me one day (this was before I was pregnant), as we were talking about vegan eating, that brought me full circle back to the wisdom I already held within: "Everything you eat must die for you."  

Over the years this statement has held strength with me. Everything on this planet holds spirit in its being: plants, animals, the water, air, fire, the Earth herself. When we pull a carrot from the ground we are essentially birthing that carrot from its Mother, Mother Earth. That carrot is alive, alive with life force energy. The carrots roots are its umbilical cord to the uterus that was sustaining it, again, Mother Earth. Life force energy is spirit. To eat we must take a life. Who am I, as a human, to be placing higher value on one life over another. In the great web of life, all beings on this planet are required to balance out all others, all beings are equal.

Eating, actually everything we do on this planet, is a gift we receive from the Earth. Gratitude, deep and sincere gratitude, is a gift we give back to honor all the beings we use for food, medicine, building homes, driving cars, stuff we buy and own, etc. all which comes from Mother Earth. 

Yes, there is more to the story but this is enough for now.

As a kid, I knew this deep life force energy of all things. Kids just do. Trees and plants have always held special energy for me (they do for everyone). I spent hours of my summer up in trees: reading books, eating meals and snacks, lounging back against a sturdy trunk to drink my quart of Homestead Dairy's chocolate milk after school, and taking naps sprawled belly down across the length of a branch with my arms and legs dangling. I had favorite maple and white pine trees for climbing and "living" in. I had a favorite white pine for napping under: the years had piled brown needles under her branches and she faced south. Who could resist such a warm and fragrant bed? I would take my faithful friend Buster (a lop eared beagle), books, and water and head through the fields and woods to get to this pine tree a few miles from my home. Buster and I would camp out: me reading and napping in the fragrant, warm, brown pine needles with the south sun shining on me and Buster terrorizing the small animals of the woods until he was tired and napped next to me.

This deep life force energy of all things... we are culturally trained to forget it. So it was easy for me to think that the only lives I was eating that mattered were the animals. Coming full circle... the life force energy, spirit, in everything matters. (I still eat, enjoy, and am grateful for many vegetarian & vegan meals every week. Is not a meal of butter vegetarian? A meal of dark chocolate vegan?)

What are my healthy eating recommendations?

• 100% whole foods
• Grown and raised as close to home as possible, this means eating seasonally
• Eat only what you need to sustain yourself, over indulgence of anything is over indulgence
• If you know a food does not make you feel vibrant... don't eat it
• A food that makes you soar with happiness & energy? Eat it... well, if it is whole. Dunkin Donuts® do not count here.
• Be deeply grateful for every bite: grateful to the food, the Earth that nurtured the food, the farmers that worked hard to bring that food forth to your plate, fork, & table, the person shopping & cooking for you...
• Show your gratitude by eating in peace, chewing slowly & thoroughly so your digestive tract can do the work to bring the Earth's nourishment to every cell in your body

As We Express Our Gratitude,

We Must Never Forget That The Highest Appreciation

Is Not To Utter Words,

                              But To Live By Them.     John F. Kennedy

Native American Gratitude Prayer

We thank Great Spirit for the resources that made this food possible;

we thank the Earth Mother for producing it,

and we thank all those who labored to bring it to us.

May the wholesomeness of the food before us, bring out the wholeness of the Spirit within us.

*Any food you eat should have been grown with healthy, sustainable, biodynamic principles in mind:  How was this food fed? If a food, plant or animal based, was fed healthy food... its cells will be well nourished and therefore capable of nourishing your cells. If a food you were eating was fed less than whole food, that food will have less than whole nourished cells, and will be incapable of fully nourishing your body. 

For deeper diving into this feeding your food issue:                                                                                     What Does Your Farmer Feed Their Cows, Chickens, Pigs, Goats, Vegetables, Fruits...?

Shopper's Rut: Why do I need to avoid this?

Shopper's Rut Defined: buying the same 'ole fruits and veggies every week:

• bunch of bananas
• few apples
• an orange or two on occasion and maybe a pear here or there
• stock of broccoli
• pre-washed & prepared lettuce of some sort
• carrots
• maybe a cuke or bell pepper
• perhaps some celery because it is easy

Why Should You Avoid This Same 'Ole - Same 'Ole Produce Shopping Experience... (Hint: to avoid eating the same things day after day, week after week!)

• Variety in fruits and veggies creates variety in the vitamin, minerals, anti-oxidants, and phytonutrients your body is graced with. There are so many nutrients in food that we have not yet discovered. Opting to eat produce that varies with the season opens your body, your body cells, to receiving all of these nutrients.
• Phytonutrients fight oxidative stress, inflammation, and allow your body to heal for disease prevention and disease healing (You want this, trust me and yes, your body is capable of healing from any disease. It is how we are genetically programmed. The "you must take this drug for the rest of your life" medical mentality erases the fact that the body has the ability to heal.).
• Mixing up your fruit & veggies provides your body with different kinds of fiber, the roughage in food. Fiber, complex carbohydrates are good on so many levels. See below for some gut bug info.

• Your taste buds, eyes, nostrils, hands, and brain will be happy for the variation in sensory stimulation. All the colors, textures, smells, and tastes are an amazing way to stimulate your neural pathways. Think of that beautiful summer salad on your plate and then the slow rotation into fall and winter veggies giving us tantalizing root veggie and cabbage slaws. Then there is my favorite winter veggie... beets!  A winter, cooked beet salad with walnuts & feta cheese is a taste bud tantalizing change from the same ole - same ole steamed or sauteed broccoli. 

Above picture borrowed, with permission, from the website of Martin's Farmstand, Potsdam, NY.           Look at the seasonal abundance available in Northern NY!  Go to their website and have fun clicking on the "previous newsletter" links. The pictures from the farmstand, the farm fields, and gardens are amazing. Lush and juicy, fresh, local, and seasonal food everywhere!  And all this food is tended to with love by wonderful people.  For your fall & winter veggies... give them a call.

Looking for a winter CSA in Northern NY State?:  

• Kent Family Growers, 
• Birdsfoot Farm, 
• LittleGrasse FoodWorks  OR check out
• GardenShares website to find a farmer close to you that sells produce, meats, cheeses, milk, herbs, spring plants, etc.

Try these ideas to eat more variety in your fruits and veggies:

• Get Creative in the Kitchen
• Eat Seasonally Fruits & Veggies & Naturally Rotate Your Phytonutrients
• Use Root vegetables instead of grains to add plenty of complex carbohydrates and starches to your eating habits. This is good gut pre-biotic food that feeds the gut bugs you want to survive and thrive in your intestinal tract. A healthy gut microbiome is a self-responsibility tool in your personal medicine bag to prevent intestinal disease, auto-immune diseases, cancer, and a host of other preventable human ills. And food is your easy, at home medicine!
• Grate veggies on a grater (or use a fancy spiralizer); use these grated veggies instead of pastas. Depending on the veggie, I use some raw and gently saute' others.
• Learn what fruits & berries grow in your area, what their season is, and freely indulge in them.

More recipes: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/recipes/

Tip for the Week, Month, & Year: Create seasonal variety in your whole food eating habits not just around the produce you eat. Variety bathes your awesome body cells in different nutrition daily, weekly, and with the seasons of the year.

Your body's health WILL thank you! (Your local farmers will thank you too.) 

Bone Broth: What Is the Hype?

Jar one: bones soaking in apple cider vinegar

Jar two: finished bone broth

I originally wrote this for the Potsdam Food Co-op's August 2016 Newsletter.

Perhaps you remember your mom or grandma feeding you chicken soup when you were ill. Most chicken soup, stock, was made with the bones, cartilage, and the hunks of attacked chicken meat. (If you are vegetarian or vegan… don’t bail on me just yet. I have plant based gut healing suggestions as well. Bare with me on this bones thing.)

Animal bone broths have been used for hundreds of years, thousands really, for their nourishment and healing benefits. People inherently knew the healing benefits of the daily food and life choices they made. Modern living somehow now requires scientific proof that what we are doing is worthwhile. Research into the benefits of bone broth is available and plenty to satisfy the scientifically inclined.

After the long soak and simmer to make bone broth (recipe to follow), the resultant gelatinous and slightly fatty liquid contains valuable minerals and nutrients in a form your body can easily absorb, circulate in your bloodstream, and be taken in and used by your body cells. These nutrients include amino acids, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, silicon, sulfur chondroitin, glucosamine, collagen, and a variety of trace minerals and other nutrients.  The gelatin in bone broth supports gut lining health, gut lining healing, and proper digestion.

Bone broth has been proven to help with infection fighting (why Mom and Gram gave you chicken soup when you were sick with the cold and flu). Bone broth contains amino acids that easily nourish the body on the cellular level. L-arginine and L-glutamine are two nourishing amino acids present in bone broth that decrease inflammation in the gut (and whole body inflammation) assisting the immune system in its never ending job of fighting infections and inflammation.  L-glutamine is known for its gut health enhancing properties. L-glutamine helps to heal and seal the lining of the digestive tract, your gut. More L-glutamine information coming up.

Many issues of modern living (antibiotics, hand sanitizers, modern wheat-gluten and dairy, chlorine and fluoride in drinking water, household chemicals, cosmetic chemicals, glyphosphate and other industrial agricultural chemicals… the list is never ending) create inflammation in the gut. An inflamed gut lining creates problems that allow undigested particles of food, chemicals, microbes, etc. to directly enter into the blood stream. This happens because the gut inflammation creates a diseased small intestinal condition medically named increased intestinal permeability.

This dis-ease of the body’s small intestine is more commonly known as Leaky Gut Syndrome. The small intestine has junctions that are very tightly packed together. These tight junctions serve a wonderful purpose by keeping unwanted particles (chemicals, bacteria, viruses…) in the digestive tract to be dealt with and passed out in solid waste OR food digested down to the smallest particles* to be absorbed, circulated, and used for cellular nutrition.

·         *Carbohydrates to simple sugars

·         *Proteins to amino acids

·         *Fats to fatty acids

The issues of modern living, mentioned above, create inflammation that irritates and erodes away at the gut and loosens these tight junctions. When these junctions are loosened all hell breaks loose in the body. The above mentioned substances pass through the now loose junctions directly into the bloodstream. This is not meant to be. The substances are meant to be digested first, cleaned up by the liver, and/or pooped right out of the body. When they slip into the circulation because the junctures are no longer tight to keep them where they belong… your immune system goes postal on them. Antibodies are created to combat these substances that are seen as foreign invaders, antigens. The next time you eat or take in one of these substances, the substance moves into the bloodstream through the loose junctures setting off the immune system (The immune response to this now problem food or substance actually happens before the food even reaches the intestines). This time the immune system has the antibodies ready and war is waged on the substance, the assumed antigen. Over time the body wears down from this cycle of inflammation, gut juncture loosening, seepage of the unwanteds into the blood stream, and a result can be that the body starts attacking itself (auto-immune issues).

Above 2 photos used with permission of Tracy Harrison – http://www.wildlysuccessfulhc.com/  Photo #1 shows tight junctures and loose junctures in a simplistic drawing.  Photo #2 inside of small intestine showing a very blown up view of the thousands of villi covered by millions of micro-villi. These villi are where the junctures exist.

My gut story is a very simplistic explanation meant to assist in the understanding of what in the body is going awry.  An inflamed gut lining contributes to leaky gut syndrome and the resultant food sensitivities and allergies, auto-immune conditions, and many other inflammatory body issues leading to a host of dis-ease. (Dis-Ease being a lack of ease in the body; lack of health.)

L-Glutamine, contained in bone broth, is a gut junction healer. It helps to soothe the inflamed gut and heal the loose junctions back to their tight junctions. Tight junctions are immune and whole body health enhancing.

Now you know some substances and habits that can contribute to leaky gut issues and how bone broth plays a crucial role in the healing of this condition. It is time to tighten up junctions everyone; time to learn how to make bone broth. (Again, I have added vegetarian and vegan suggestions to mimic, as closely as possible, bone broths healing benefits to your gut and body’s health.)

Making Bone Broth: 

By the way… bone broth Cafés are now quite popular in metropolitan areas.

Bone broths are made with fish, chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and lamb bones in water. Different animal bones and tissues have different nutrients and benefits. (Buffalo, venison, rabbit, wild bird bones are fine as well.) Use only bones, cartilage, feet, tails, etc. from pasture raised or wild animals. Never use bones from commercially raised animals (factory farm animals) that are given anti-biotics, hormones, and/or fed genetically modified feed (corn, soy…).  You are what you eat and animals are what they eat. If unhealthy substances were used in the raising of the animals, those substances will be concentrated in the animal bones and body tissues, and therefore concentrated in your finished bone broth.

1.  Put slightly meaty bones, cartilage, feet, tails, etc. (they do not have to be stripped clean of meat) in a sauce pan or big soup pot (if you have a lot of bones) and cover with water, just enough to cover bones well. I break up the bones as best I can and squish them down into the soup pot bottom.

2.  Add a generous tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) and cover the pot.  If you are doing a big pot of bone broth use more of the ACV. For estimation purposes I use a heaping tablespoon of ACV for a whole chicken’s pot of bones.

3.  I soak the bones in the vinegar water for at least an overnight and then…

4.  I slow simmer the bones for hours the next day. I gently bring the bone filled pot to a simmer on the stove top.

5.  I then place the pot o’ bones in a pre-heated 220 F oven and leave for 5-6 hours if chicken or fish bones and longer if the harder bones of pork or beef (at least 6-8 hours).  Yes, a crock pot works well.  You could simmer for hours on the stovetop but I find the oven temp is easier to regulate and keep the simmer from boiling away the broth. Cool fall and cold winter days make for extra warmth in the kitchen with the oven going. Slow roast something for dinner to get extra bang for your buck using the oven for so long.

6.  After simmering, I remove the bones with a large slotted spoon.  Use the broth as a soup stock or eat the broth as it is, drink it like a morning or evening cup of tea.  I add a bit of unrefined sea salt to taste.

7.  If making soup, I sauté the veggies and other soup ingredients before adding them to the hot bone broth. This avoids further simmering of the broth.

8.  Toward the end of bone broth simmering you can add herbs** that contribute to the anti-inflammatory effects: turmeric & ginger root, rosemary, thyme, oregano… allow the herbs to gently simmer (that 220 degree oven is hot enough) for an hour if a leaf/flower and simmer for 2 hours if a bark/root/seed.  (Similar information is the making of herbal tea infusions: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/making-herbal-infusions-teas/ )

9.  When I re-warm the broth for sipping I will sometimes add small amounts of marshmallow root powder, slippery elm bark powder, and/or licorice root powder. These herbs are anti-inflammatory and also contribute to the soothing effect; the heal and seal for the gut lining.

10.  Using a large slotted spoon, remove the bones from your finished broth.  

Now what to do with it?

• Put into glass canning jars and refrigerate until ready to use.
• Drink one or two cups daily, gently warmed up, like a tea.
• Use it as soup stock.
• Freeze to use later as bone broth tea or soup stock.

I often keep my bones soaking in the vinegar solution for days or weeks. I keep the bones in a wide mouth canning jar in the fridge. I add bones to this jar until I have enough to justify making bone broth and/or the outside temperature is cool enough to be ok with my long oven usage. With fall and winter just around the corner, sorry dear Co-op friends, it is a good time of the year for long cooking of bone broth.

Enjoy making and sipping bone broth.

**This is part of my vegetarian and vegan friendly information for enhancing your gut health through plant based choices…

Thanks for hanging in there and continuing this read. As a vegetarian or vegan you can cook up vegetable broths that are enhanced with the above herbs.

· Slippery elm, marshmallow, and licorice root have coating and soothing effects on the gut lining. I use them in many ways as bonus gut health foods – teas or the powdered herbs mixed into plain/full fat yogurt with added L-glutamine powder.

·Add red cabbage to your soup as it is a plant based source of L-glutamine. Red Cabbage is considered the densest vegetable form of L-glutamine. Making red cabbage sauerkraut is another great way to use cabbage and create a highly bio-available form of l-glutamine.

·Other sources of L-glutamine to help tighten up those junctions: the highest levels found in grass-fed beef, bison, chicken, and free range eggs. Raw dairy products from grass-fed cows and goats are also very high in L-glutamine.

·Plant sources: almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts and peanut butter are all good sources (peanuts can be disturbing to gut health in people with pre-existing gut issues). Dried lentils, peas, and beans contribute L-glutamine as well. Other vegetables sources include spinach, parsley, and beets.

·It is best if these vegetables are consumed raw or fermented in order to maximize their glutamine content and increase bioavailability. Cooking heat, especially high heat, breaks down the L-glutamine.

·A recipe for using raw, red cabbage in fresh slaws: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/winter-salad/

·Making sauerkraut with red cabbage: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/02/04/i-popped-the-cranberry-of-fermentation

Conveniently made for you bone broth in Canton-Potsdam area: 

• Potsdam Food Co-op in Potsdam carries Pacific Organic bone broths, in aseptic packages, on the grocery shelf.
• Nature's Storehouse in Canton carries Bonafide organic beef broth in their meat freezer.

2 websites for further learning about bone broth and healing the gut lining (type "bone broth" or "leaky gut syndrome" into the website's search bar):

·         http://www.mercola.com/

·         https://draxe.com/