How to shop healthfully for your family - New York healthy food | Examiner.com
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
More food contamination??
What's going on lately with all the veggies and, now, cold cuts being contaminated? Thank goodness people aren't being poisoned by everyday food items....it's only raw milk we need to fear. Right? It's always amazing to me to see how many foods are causing terror in our food system, and yet there are outright raids on the poor small farmers trying to provide raw milk to an increasingly larger group of people.
Story after story is surfacing about how hard food officials are on a food that has it's own internal cleansing ability, while incident after incident of food contamination is reported in the news. In fact, it's getting to the point of being a monthly event; and who gets raided? Raw milk farmers.
I'm always so aware of how lucky I am, when picking up my raw milk from the co op I belong to. I'm grateful to the cows; the farmer who helps produce the milk; the guy who drives the truck to Long Island, packed with this nutrient rich food for my family; and the naturopathic doctor who knows enough to give her patients access to it!
I will continue to support those farmers, support my family, and support our health with grass-fed raw milk. I'll also keep envisioning positive changes in the laws that support freedom of producing and buying raw milk. I think appreciation brings more of what you are appreciating: I appreciate my freedom to choose. I appreciate this great raw living food! Support your dairy farmers.
Story after story is surfacing about how hard food officials are on a food that has it's own internal cleansing ability, while incident after incident of food contamination is reported in the news. In fact, it's getting to the point of being a monthly event; and who gets raided? Raw milk farmers.
I'm always so aware of how lucky I am, when picking up my raw milk from the co op I belong to. I'm grateful to the cows; the farmer who helps produce the milk; the guy who drives the truck to Long Island, packed with this nutrient rich food for my family; and the naturopathic doctor who knows enough to give her patients access to it!
I will continue to support those farmers, support my family, and support our health with grass-fed raw milk. I'll also keep envisioning positive changes in the laws that support freedom of producing and buying raw milk. I think appreciation brings more of what you are appreciating: I appreciate my freedom to choose. I appreciate this great raw living food! Support your dairy farmers.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Stop factory farming...really?
Following a silver Prius today, I saw a bumper sticker that said, " STOP Factory Farming!!". Great, I thought, others are getting the message about the Abominable Snow Monster that has eaten all the small farms across the country; but will we really every stop the factory farming?? Really?
In my humble opinion, that is a ship that has sailed, and will continue to sail, for probably as long as this planet turns. Perhaps I am a pessimist, but I'm also a realist: Factory Farms make money....and lots of it. This is how we feed the masses, and the masses don't care about where the food comes from or how it came to be; they only care about how much they have to pay for it, and how it tastes.
Wow, that's harsh, right? Yes, but in that dark cloud lies a silver, maybe even golden, lining: You and I can still do what we do; we can still spread the word about how important small farmers are--how they help the local economy, the planet, and our bodies by giving us nutrient dense foods; we can still buy locally, and write our blogs, and teach our children what's truly nourishing to our bodies. What we can't do is stop a steaming locomotive that will have it's way because it has the money and power to do so.
Focus on what you want and resist the urge to fight what is; that's going the wrong way....and it's exhausting. Stay positive folks! Just by spreading the word we enlighten so many others: That is the way to salvation and a great grass-fed burger!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
SPEAKING OF NATIVE AMERICANS....
Speaking of Native Americans, I happened upon a wonderful site that will show some wonderful examples of pre-modern tribes. My own observation was that the late 1800's seemed to be the last of the full expresssion of their original diets. I'm no scholar on this, but it is just an observation of the regal expression of their faces from those early pictures; it seems to be missing from the later pictures-- in fact, they are not even in their traditional attire in several pictures during the 1900's.
Here is the site: www.firstpeople.us Check it our yourself.
Here is a wonderful legend that was told about maple syrup: Even too much natural sweeteners can cause harm, as observed by these very wise people.
He looked around and around, until he heard a strange sound. As he went towards the sound he could tell that it was the sound of many people moaning. The moaning did not sound like people in pain but more like the sound of contentment. As he got closer he saw a large stand of beautiful maple trees. As he got closer still he saw that all the people were lying on their backs under the trees with the end of a branch broken off and dripping maple syrup into their mouths.
The maple syrup had fattened them up so much and made them so lazy that they could barely move. Gluskabe told them to get up and go back to their village to re-kindle the fires and to repair the village. But the people did not listen. They told him that they were content to lie there and to enjoy the maple syrup.
When Gluskabe reported this to the Creator, it was decided that it was again time that man needed another lesson to understand the Creator's ways. The Creator instructed Gluskabe to fill the maple trees with water. So Gluskabe made a large bucket from birch bark and went to the river to get water. He added water, and added more water until the sap was that like water. Some say he added a measure of water for each day between moons, or nearly 30 times what it was as thick syrup. After a while the People began to get up because the sap was no longer so thick and sweet.
They asked Gluskabe "where has our sweet drink gone?" He told them that this is the way it will be from now on. Gluskabe told them that if they wanted the syrup again that they would have to work hard to get it. The sap would flow sweet only once a year before the new year of spring.
The People were shown that making syrup would take much work. Birch bark buckets would need to be made to collect the sap. Wood would be needed to be gathered to make fires to heat rocks, and the rocks would be needed to be put into the sap to boil the water out to make the thick sweet syrup that they once were so fond of. He also told them that they could get the sap for only a short time each year so that they would remember the error of their ways.
And so it is still to this day, each spring the Abenaki people remember Gluskabe's lesson in honoring Creator's gifts and work hard to gather the maple syrup they love so much. Nialach!
Here is the site: www.firstpeople.us Check it our yourself.
Here is a wonderful legend that was told about maple syrup: Even too much natural sweeteners can cause harm, as observed by these very wise people.
Native American Legends
Gluskabe Changes Maple Syrup
An Abenaki Legend
Long ago, Long ago, the Creator made and gave many gifts to man to help him during his life. The Creator made the lives of the Abenaki People very good, with plenty of food to gather, grow, and hunt. The Maple tree at that time was one of these very wonderful and special gifts from the Creator. The sap was as thick and sweet as honey. All you had to do was to break the end off of a branch and the syrup would flow out.
In these days Gluskabe would go from native village to village to keep an eye on the People for the Creator. One day Gluskabe came to an abandoned village. The village was in disrepair, the fields were over-grown, and the fires had gone cold. He wondered what had happened to the People.He looked around and around, until he heard a strange sound. As he went towards the sound he could tell that it was the sound of many people moaning. The moaning did not sound like people in pain but more like the sound of contentment. As he got closer he saw a large stand of beautiful maple trees. As he got closer still he saw that all the people were lying on their backs under the trees with the end of a branch broken off and dripping maple syrup into their mouths.
The maple syrup had fattened them up so much and made them so lazy that they could barely move. Gluskabe told them to get up and go back to their village to re-kindle the fires and to repair the village. But the people did not listen. They told him that they were content to lie there and to enjoy the maple syrup.
When Gluskabe reported this to the Creator, it was decided that it was again time that man needed another lesson to understand the Creator's ways. The Creator instructed Gluskabe to fill the maple trees with water. So Gluskabe made a large bucket from birch bark and went to the river to get water. He added water, and added more water until the sap was that like water. Some say he added a measure of water for each day between moons, or nearly 30 times what it was as thick syrup. After a while the People began to get up because the sap was no longer so thick and sweet.
They asked Gluskabe "where has our sweet drink gone?" He told them that this is the way it will be from now on. Gluskabe told them that if they wanted the syrup again that they would have to work hard to get it. The sap would flow sweet only once a year before the new year of spring.
The People were shown that making syrup would take much work. Birch bark buckets would need to be made to collect the sap. Wood would be needed to be gathered to make fires to heat rocks, and the rocks would be needed to be put into the sap to boil the water out to make the thick sweet syrup that they once were so fond of. He also told them that they could get the sap for only a short time each year so that they would remember the error of their ways.
And so it is still to this day, each spring the Abenaki people remember Gluskabe's lesson in honoring Creator's gifts and work hard to gather the maple syrup they love so much. Nialach!
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