Ode to My Farmers
Ode to My Farmers
Farmers are my (everybody's) lifeline
worth more than silver or gold
the food they feed me now
will keep me young as I grow old
I write of real farmers
true stewards of the land
farmers who love their animals
sustainability is their stand
Food IS our best medicine
to prevent and heal disease
farmers are the keepers of our health
hug your farmer(s) today, please
Rob & Winny Sachno
PS Compensate your farmers well for the food they grow you.
(It IS hard work!)
Good food IS your preventative medicine,
Your farmer is your best Doc!
Even the wee ones make awesome farmers!
Gramma's Grass Acres, the Lynch's, processing chickens!
PPS This is a mere sampling of the amazing farmers in my life. To find your own farmers use your local farmer finding resources: farm markets, Co-ops, Health & Natural Food Stores, etc.
In St. Lawrence County, NY, we have Gardenshare!
Summer Solstice Sipping Secrets
OK, by reading my posts you have figured out I am a whole food enthusiast, correct? I put the best whole foods, grown locally and sustainably, into my body.
Now what's a gal to do when she wants a tasty drink on occasion? Last eve was such an occasion: summer solstice and the weather was perfect. Time for a backyard fire and like-minded girl friends to celebrate the longest day of the year.
Most alcohol drinks are bad news. Pre-mixed stuff is full of awful ingredients: artificial colors and flavors, corn syrup, and who knows what else (Think pre-mixed screw drivers or marjaritas).
I confess, I am a beer loving gal. Finding a beer, made with good ingredients, is not an easy task. I have tended to buy German or Belgium brewed beer or US brewed organic beers. In a pinch, a US made micro-brewed beer. Blue Moon was one of my preferred. Just like food made in factories, beer has been bastardized. Blue Moon is not what I thought it was. Bummer! (Click the link to read the news on cheesy beer production in the USA.)
Summer Solstice Sipping drew out my home-crafted, mixed drink secrets and skills. I make drink like I make food, from scratch (as much as possible... I don't distill my own liquor or make my own ginger beer!) I refuse to use pre-mix factory made drink stuff. It is so easy to make your own fun cocktails from fresh ingredients.*
My Summer Solstice concoction: Lemon Ginger Mint Moscow Mule - Mojito Combination!
Ingredients: (poured into a 12 oz glass)
- 1 shot of organic vodka (I used Ocean Vodka from Maui)
- 4-5 ounces of Reed's Extra Ginger Ginger beer
- 5-6 ounces of lemon water (recipe below)
- fresh mint from garden, 2-3 leaves per drink, rip and bruise the leaves before adding to the drink.
- ice if you like icy cold drinks (me, I prefer no ice)
Lemon Water: I took one, very large, organic lemon and juiced it on my gramma's glass citrus juicer. Pour the lemon juice into 1/2 gallon canning jar. Scrape the pulp out of the lemon peel into the jar. Cut lemon peel into small chunks and add to jar. Fill jar with water, cover and shake well, and let jar sit for several hours (overnight) then refrigerate for hours before needed to make drinks.
Summer Solstice Sipping Secrets:
- The lemon water cuts the very sweet ginger beer. Less sugar racing through our blood vessels harassing our adrenal glands.
- The ginger, lemon, mint combination is a summer taste sensation: light and cheery.
- Using the best ingredients possible makes for a tasty drink and avoids the additives in pre-mixed stuff.
- Like minded girlfriends, gals who "get it," make for light and cheery conversation. I should have taken a picture of us around the fire! Next year!
- The fire added to the mystical evening; fire flies and singing tree frogs were the bonus!
May your summer be light, cheery, and full of sun (naked sun?)! Love, Paula
The Scene of the Summer Solstice Sipping Secrets!
*Try fresh squeezed, organic, orange juice (again, using gramma's glass citrus juicer) and Ocean vodka. So fresh, light, and tasty. No added crap!
Comment: Your blog made me remember a column from the 1960s by Sydney Harris who used to write "slice of life" columns. He talked about a time he was with a friend in a restaurant that advertised "freshly squeezed orange juice." They both ordered it, and his friend commented on how it "didn't taste natural" to him. Harris wondered at what point the concentrated and adulterated orange juice we take for "real" orange juice became more "natural" than taking a few oranges and squeezing them to make orange juice.
I think of that on occasion as I consider our relationships with food!
My Reply:
I so agree. As a culture, we have lost the concept of what is real and natural in regards to food! Working to change that, 'lil by 'lil!
I have lots of family coming this weekend and after their reading this blog post, I am the drink Mix-tress for the weekend. I need to get buying ginger beer and lemons!
Have a peaceful summer!
Making Herbal Medicines 101
We will meander through the preparation of herbal infusions, tinctures, and salves.
Herbal teas, decoctions, and solar - lunar infusions will be defined.
We will explore the wonderful practice of extracting plant constituents through tinctures. You will take home a tincture to "care" for and strain in 2-4 weeks.
We will make an herbal infused oil and then a salve.
We will discuss the preparation of liniments and poultices and how they are used, as well as putting together your own capsules and pills.
Be prepared to get your hands, heart, and soul involved in the wonderful art of creating your own herbal medicines.
Class will include a follow up email with recipes and herbal medicine making instructions to keep the ideas fresh in your heart, mind, and soul at home.
Date: Monday, June 30th
Time: 5:00 to 7:00 PM
Cost: $25.00
Where: Directions will be given upon RSVP for class
RSVP Required, class is limited to 5 people. pyoumell@gmail.com
Bring with you please:
- an 8 oz, clean, glass jam jar or two
- a small, clean, glass jar that a cream, ointment, or jelly sample came in
Payment: Can be made at the class or via my online shop.
Naked Sun Time!
Happy Summer Solstice, Happy Summer SUN Time!!
Vitamin D is essential for our body's functioning... every cell of our beautiful bodies! Vitamin D is actually a hormone. We know what happens when hormones get low or out of whack; this has far reaching effects on the whole body, mind, and soul. Think PMS!
Another Hormone D issue that was brought to my attention as a public school teacher: cognitive issues around low Vitamin D levels. A student was having great difficulties understanding and following simple instructions and directions and was found to be quite low in Vitamin D. Get your kids out into the sun (skip the sun screen, just be wise about skin type and sun time). Kids who are labeled with the ADD / ADHD diagnosis? Maybe they just need some sun and natural Vitamin D! (100% whole food diet would be very healing as well but that is another blog post!)
We must remember that this hormone, Vitamin D, is an important part of our hormonal feed back loop. All hormones, all body chemistry, work in harmony: a synchronized symphony of wellness! When one hormone is off (low levels in the body) this affects all other hormones, cognitive functions suffer, our immune system suffers... our whole body suffers.
Here is your beautiful hormonal system: a feed back loop system!
So, where am I going with this Vitamin, hormone D information?
Get out in the sun people! We are at the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
Live it up, get naked in the sun! (I just love this woman's post on being comfortable in our skin, in our nakedness!)
Funny Naked story: When 25, I went to Germany with a dear girlfriend. We were invited to a bath house. Now I had not a clue, at 25, that Europeans were so freely naked. (I should have figured this out by the male attendants wandering about the female locker room, cleaning and restocking towels.) Anyhow, we walk out of the locker room in our bathing suits. The gentleman who brought us to the bath house says: "You can leave your bathing suits on if you want to but you are going to be the odd one out and will be stared at."
I had my bikini off, lickety-split, and thrown into the wooden cubby on the wall before he finished speaking. My girlfriend hung onto her bathing suit straps with a death grip. Finally, she was convinced to remove it. After a couple of hours of hot tubs, pools, steam and dry saunas, cold pools, and sun rooms we were asked to head for the bar for a beer. Here is where my girlfriend said: "No way, not sitting at a bar, naked, drinking beer!" I found this to be a fine invitation, having grown up swimming naked in various locations up and down the St. Regis River and drinking beer around bonfires which inadvertently led to naked dips in the moonlight.
Naked beer drinking in Germany? Sounded fine to me!
Sorry Mom, I know you did not bring me up this way!
Find a space where you can shed as much, or all, of your clothing and let the sun love your body.
Skip the sunscreen, it interferes with Hormone D creation!
I do recommend:
- Hat to cover the face, no need to add more sun time to aging the face's skin (our faces get plenty of incidental sun time!)
- Keep it nourishing skin time, not "sun-burn" skin time
- Take awesome, natural care of your skin, in or out of the sun!
Love your skin, love your hormone D level, love the sun, love yourself!
Happy Solstice, Paula
PS I made certain my boys got naked sun time every day.
Shhhh, don't tell my boys I added their pictures!
HELP! Desperate Plea from a 1/2 Crazed Cat!
Hi, my name is Frost. I have a BIG problem and I need your help.
First of all, we all know that pets are healthy for humans, correct?
- lower blood pressure
- reduce stress
- promote longevity AND longevity with vibrancy!
- lower rates of death in human who have pets
- stronger immune systems
- stronger cardiovascular system for dogs who walk their humans (humans benefit here as well!)
- etc., etc., etc.
OK, this is my problem. There is this dog in my cat dominated home. When my human takes said dog (picture coming soon) for a walk, it gets the damned beast out of my fur for a while. By the way, this makes the other cats who live here happy as well.
The aforementioned, flea bitten, beast I was referring to. Those kids like him?
Do this for me: Vote for the town of Potsdam in the "Bark for your Park" contest. http://www.petsafe.net/barkforyourpark/
Vote on FB as well and you have 2 votes per day for Potsdam's Dog Park and my CAT sanity!
https://www.facebook.com/PetSafeBrand/app_321086731284099
If my human has this dog park to go to, the above beast will be out of my fur for more time in my day and life. PLEASE, I am begging you, vote everyday, twice a day, until July 31st, please. You can be from anywhere in the world and still vote for Potsdam, NY's Dog Park. It IS the saving grace of cats!
AND, if the dog walks, the human walks. This means a healthier human, around more years, to feed me and tend to my needs, when I insist.
The other cats and I thank you,
Frost
The 4 felines, in my home, who will be forever grateful!
PS Shhhh, please don't tell my health crazed human that I have infiltrated her blog. She actually likes that dog she calls Basil!
More meaningful info from another human:
Dear animal lovers,
Our little town of Potsdam has made it to the top 15 finalists in the country of the PetSafe "Bark for Your Park" dog park contest to win either $100,000 or $25,000 toward the building of a dog park! Impressive power of mobilization from the community, great job!
Potsdam is already working on a dog park - an enclosed area safe for dogs off leash. This will be really important for dogs who are not reliable around roads, cars, or animal distractions. A lot of volunteers have been working to clear space in the woods behind the Potsdam Humane Society who donated the forested land. PetSafe's contest will help pay for fencing, gates, benches, running water, etc. We win if we can get enough online votes.
By voting you are helping a small town do big things for the dogs and people of our community. Our dog park will be unique in that is is not only a park for townspeople to walk their dogs, it is on donated land owned by the Potsdam Humane Society, which means the dogs at the shelter will finally have a place to walk and play and maybe even win over the heart of a new owner, and as a result, get a loving home. Couldn't get much better than that. We have thousands of people living in Potsdam and the North Country. We can do this.
Register once on the website:
http://www.petsafe.net/barkforyourpark/
And the FB link for getting in your second vote everyday:
https://www.facebook.com/PetSafeBrand/app_321086731284099
and the site remembers you for the next time. So easy, takes only a seconds! Please try to vote TWICE A DAY, every day through July 31. And you don't have to live in Potsdam, so spread the word and have everyone you know voting for us! Thanks!
Deborah
3 Day Belly Fat Blast!
Do not, I repeat, do not attempt this stunt at home! Guaranteed to blast 2 to 4 pounds of fat right off your belly & butt in just 3 short days! Here are my five easy steps for success on this belly fat blast:
1. Get your butt (and belly fat) to Arizona: plane, train, automobile... bus if you must. Walking and biking are fine options, as well, and will seriously ramp up the belly fat blast!
2. Hike 8 miles down into the Supai Native American Reservation. Once there, you will be hiking many more miles, every day, to see and do what you want to see and do. 35-40 miles in 3 days... see how this belly fat blast just happens!?
3. Live on the food (and a lizard or two, see info below) you carry in your back pack... down those 8 HOT, dusty miles into the Grand Canyon.
Food Carried:
Amazing nutrition in a fruit, nut, and Superfood power bar. I avoid packaged food but this one is great in a pinch. www.herbdoc.com Nope, no kick backs for me. Darn!
Several varieties of organic beef jerky available at the Potsdam Food Coop.
Bison bars from the health food store in Flagstaff, Arizona. These bars were a great pick!
Organic cheese sticks (Someone knew I would need cheese. Again, see below.) It is amazing how they survive, despite the heat. They were a little floppy on day two but we did not die from food poisoning!
Organic carrots, apples, and nuts pack well. Thanks again to the Flagstaff, AZ store!
Dessert in the canyon was 2 of these very tiny, raw food cookies:
4. Share your meager food supplies with the Supai Native American Reservation dog you fall in love with.
Pedra is the blonde doggie I fell in love with. Her sweet 'lil kisses on my face were a welcome bit of love. Her black and tan friend was collar-less, tag-less, and therefore name-less. She won my love as well.
Pedra's tag said: "Pedra. Love me, feed me, leave me free." On the flip side the tag stated: "Prefers paleo diet with cheese and a side of lizard." So, I did what any dog loving woman would do... shared my beef jerky, bison pemmican, and mozzarella cheese stick (I was so glad I bought those Organic Valley Mozz cheese stix! Pedra loved them.). Funny, she did not want a bite of my Superfood bar or a share of my almond and pecan stash.
I tried to capture a lizard for Pedra and her friend but damn those canyon lizards move fast! I left her to handle that part of her diet on her own. No, I did not eat any lizards. Couldn't catch 'em!
Yes, I asked Pedra to come home with me but she said: "No thank you Paula. I run free down here in the canyon." Guess being a Northern NY "house pet" was not on Pedra's agenda for this life time!
5. Bring your 12 and almost 15 year old sons with you. I figured their growing, teen bodies needed the calories more than my 49 year old - no longer growing body needed the calories. Just in case we did not carry enough in... I ate lightly and left the food for the boys. Amazing how a mom will go without to ensure the comfort and survival of her offspring!
Success of this program is based upon:
- minimal food
- maximum movement
- sharing minimal food with awesome dogs
- bring hungry teen boys and leave the bulk of food for their consumption and survival
- grain free diet (keep in mind that live stock is fattened up for slaughter by grain feeding...)
- butter free diet (OK, one morning my boys had oatmeal at the Supai Reservation Cafe. I confess, I ate a pat of Land O'Lakes butter. Had it been my NY State pasture raised butter, I would have eaten a 1/4 cup!)
I am home now... real butter is back in my diet!
This success story is based on a quote by a rather enlightened MD (I forget his name!):
"We have moved from a culture where movement was mandatory and calories were hard to come by to a culture where calories are mandatory and movement is hard to come by."
Got any belly fat blast stories for me? Perhaps long hikes in the ADK mountains with little food? A trek up the Appalachian Trail and running low on food before the next drop? Maybe the Pacific Crest Trail caught you low on food? Drop me a comment and share your "do not stay at home" fat blast stunts!
Blessings, Paula