Now that's why I enjoy living out on the East End of Long Island....the cool events and the great local foods! From September 26 through October 6, edible magazine has put together an event called Eat Drink Local to celebrate the local harvest. With the fall colors, the cooler weather, and all the wonderful autumnal eats, a celebration is definitely in order.
There's something about this time of year that gets me back in the kitchen after a summer of barbecues and eating out. It's time for the roasts, the meat loafs and the roast chickens. I start thinking succotash and pumpkin pie and apple cider, and all these can be gotten locally by me: the North Fork is brimming with artisanal foods and organic farms selling all kinds of seasonal items.
So while Eat Drink Local is going on, I'll be in my glory sampling all that the season and my area has to offer. Slow down, eat locally and enjoy the season!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
How to shop healthfully for your family - New York healthy food | Examiner.com
How to shop healthfully for your family - New York healthy food | Examiner.com
Check out my new article on examiner.com!!
Check out my new article on examiner.com!!
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!
Monday, July 26, 2010
"Eclipse" Native Americans Need Weston Price Makeover!
For those of you who've visited me before, you may or may not have noticed my Edward Cullen quotes at the bottom of my blog: This means I'm a Twilighter, as well as being a Real Foodie, and that I've, of course, seen the newest film, "Eclipse" (fours times, but who's counting). "Eclipse" brought in some Queluete (this is a Northern Pacific Native American tribe) tribes people from the past. I'm sorry, but I just need to comment:
The Native Americans they showed from the 1700's--I believe that was the time period, judging from the clothing--had horrible teeth (all crooked and yellow), narrow faces (obviously aiding in the crooked teeth), and pock marked faces. Native Americans of the past, before the advent of the white man's food, were described, in many accounts from travelers of those days, as being of strong stature, beautiful well-formed faces, and perfect white teeth; so beautiful were these people that the white people's description was one of utter awe in their meetings with Native Americans of the past. They seemed to describe them as the ultimate in human example.
They ate all the foods that Weston A. Price discovered back in the 1930's: Pastured animals, as they hunted in the wild, full fat meats (Native peoples threw away lean meat as unfit for human consumption), some fermented or soaked grains, and fish, where available. Their physical appearance was one of magnificence because they ate a diet that produced the ultimate in healthy humans.
How did they know what to eat? We know that information was passed down from generation to generation; much like teaching life skills to the young: Food education was of top priority to these folks due to their, obvious, cause and effect seen in their babies. "We eat this because it makes healthy babies" was translated over and over from tribe to tribe all over the globe.
They listened to their instinct; they watched nature and other animals; they trusted in their knowledge and were rewarded for this vigilance: Native Americans, like many other indigenous peoples, were free of many of the diseases that are rampant in today's society and had perfect teeth--no dental caries, no need for braces.
The producers of "Eclipse" were, assuredly, unaware of this very important detail: They also were using today's Native Americans who, sadly, are just as mangled from modern foods as the rest of modern society. Can you imagine what those original peoples looked like? Can you imagine what we, ourselves, would look like, and feel like, if we had an original diet?
I'm not sure that feeding these healthy foods to my children today will produce those "perfect babies" of days-gone-by in one generation, but I know it's a beginning; I know that in a few generations we could be back to where we once were-- if only we would see the light and realize we could all use a Weston Price Makeover.
The Native Americans they showed from the 1700's--I believe that was the time period, judging from the clothing--had horrible teeth (all crooked and yellow), narrow faces (obviously aiding in the crooked teeth), and pock marked faces. Native Americans of the past, before the advent of the white man's food, were described, in many accounts from travelers of those days, as being of strong stature, beautiful well-formed faces, and perfect white teeth; so beautiful were these people that the white people's description was one of utter awe in their meetings with Native Americans of the past. They seemed to describe them as the ultimate in human example.
They ate all the foods that Weston A. Price discovered back in the 1930's: Pastured animals, as they hunted in the wild, full fat meats (Native peoples threw away lean meat as unfit for human consumption), some fermented or soaked grains, and fish, where available. Their physical appearance was one of magnificence because they ate a diet that produced the ultimate in healthy humans.
How did they know what to eat? We know that information was passed down from generation to generation; much like teaching life skills to the young: Food education was of top priority to these folks due to their, obvious, cause and effect seen in their babies. "We eat this because it makes healthy babies" was translated over and over from tribe to tribe all over the globe.
They listened to their instinct; they watched nature and other animals; they trusted in their knowledge and were rewarded for this vigilance: Native Americans, like many other indigenous peoples, were free of many of the diseases that are rampant in today's society and had perfect teeth--no dental caries, no need for braces.
The producers of "Eclipse" were, assuredly, unaware of this very important detail: They also were using today's Native Americans who, sadly, are just as mangled from modern foods as the rest of modern society. Can you imagine what those original peoples looked like? Can you imagine what we, ourselves, would look like, and feel like, if we had an original diet?
I'm not sure that feeding these healthy foods to my children today will produce those "perfect babies" of days-gone-by in one generation, but I know it's a beginning; I know that in a few generations we could be back to where we once were-- if only we would see the light and realize we could all use a Weston Price Makeover.
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