We have enjoyed organic produce from our garden for several years. First, we started with large pots, which we still have, but two seasons ago we went whole hog and made half of our back yard into a garden. I must tell you that the cost for installing our garden was several hundred dollars. In the beginning organic gardening is not done purely to save money. Yes, we were motivated by the high prices for organic produce, but it will take several years to reap enough produce to say that we are in a positive position as an investment.
Though we have spent more money on gardening than what we have saved, we do have the satisfaction of knowing that our produce is as “organic” as we hope it is. Purchasing vegetables at the store sometimes leaves you unsure of the level of purity in your cart. Another benefit that is difficult to put a dollar amount to is that what we pick from our garden is typically better quality than what is available in the store.
This season has been exceptionally good in the new garden. During the winter months I like to grow lettuce and greens which perform badly in the hot Florida summers. From July, through October, the heat is too much for delicate lettuces, it is actually too hot for most anything to do well. This season we have had so much lettuce that we are giving away just as much as we eat.
The added benefit of higher quality produce is hardly better noticed than in our salad mix. We love salad, not iceburg based “garden salad,” but nutrient dense lettuces and greens. This season we have four different varieties of lettuce, two kales, collard, Swiss chard, and spinach. A salad mix this healthy is hard to find in any store. And most of our seed is from heirloom varieties, totally avoiding genetically modified produce.
Another thing about store-bought produce is that it was likely picked at least a week before it gets to the store, most often two weeks or more. We enjoy the extra nutritional benefit of picking our salad the day we eat it, and we can pick it at just the right time of day, at the peak of nutritional value.
As for the profitability of our garden, in addition to the intangible value, we are picking at least $25.00 of produce per week. It may take a while to make a profit, but we sure do eat some fantastic salads.
I have to share with you how I found a way to diet to loose, and eat to win. The two may seem diametrically opposed to each other, but I found they are not necessarily so.
For many years, more than I would like to think, I have been way over my proper weight. By “proper” I mean the weight I once felt comfortable at, and held for more than twenty five years. Since I was in High School, until I was in my late thirties, I weighed in at the same weight, give or take a few pounds. I was comfortable, energetic, and what I would consider fit, at this weight. I never had to diet to keep the pounds off, I never had to worry whether I was in shape or not, then I hit the forties and I began collecting the pounds.
I know this sort of thing is not supposed to bother men, but it bothered me. I worked construction most of my life, my job was my form of working out. Working my way up in the construction industry I got to the point where I was managing, no longer doing the labor. My workout was over, and time did not allow me to begin going to the gym. First, I was in denial, not willing to admit I was getting fat.
Beautiful falls, the hike revealed how out of shape I was.
On a visit to the Carolina mountains my lovely wife and I went on a short hike to see a beautiful waterfall, I was winded and out of energy. I could no longer wish it away, I was officially out of shape, while gaining shape, if you know what I mean.
Thus started the long process of trying one diet after the other, hoping to achieve the results preached about by those selling the diet book. I began researching online to find the best diet, one I could live with. My work requires a lot of travel, so I have to be able to eat at restaurants. Trying to stay on any of the wild diet plans I found proved to be nearly impossible. After years of failure, and larger pant sizes, I was now nearly fifty pounds heavier than I need to be, and no longer felt healthy. To compound issues I am not getting any younger either. Now in my fifties I realized that I must drop this weight now, or loose the weight loss battle, and my health, for good.
This past year the issue of health and wellness became more critical, my wife began to experience symptoms of menopause; let me rephrase that, my wife got hit hard by menopause. Because my wife’s family has a history of cancer we elected not to go the rout of hormone replacement therapy. We decided to combat the menopause with herbal remedies and diet. No longer am I just trying to drop a few pounds, but now I am fighting to keep my wife from slipping into bouts of depression, prolonged dizzy spells, hot flashes, and fatigue that drains the life right out of her. The research into dieting and hormone balancing then went into high gear, it became a mission.
Through the search for what to use to balance hormones I became better educated about our bodily functions and the relationship between food and our metabolism. I began realizing that just throwing herbal supplements at the problem of hormonal imbalance was not much better than the method doctors often use to treat patients. How many times have you heard “take these pills and let me know if your condition improves in a few days” from your doctor? Medical practice is just that, a lot of practice. The practice of trying one herbal supplement after the other is not much better. I found myself chasing symptoms, while never treating the root causes of my wife’s menopause.
I began reading up on what causes the hormonal imbalance, and discovered that much of what makes the hormones to go so far out of whack is our self destructive diets. Part of the problem is related to age, but much of the imbalance is treatable by watching what goes into our diet and some exercise. Nutrition is central to healthy hormone production. When a woman is younger her body is able to compensate for the lack of nutritional discipline, few younger women ever notice that their bodies are constantly struggling to maintain a proper balance of hormones. With age it becomes more difficult for the body to compensate for a lack of proper nutrition and exercise. Then it leaped out at me, this is the same reason I have been overweight, the two issues are closely related.
I bagan looking into the concept of eating for health, balancing nutrition with physical activity; what I was finding was that my wife and I needed essentially the same thing, a holistic approach to wellness. Not being a nutritionalist, or a personal trainer, I was at an impasse. That is, until in my research I found a program, one put together by someone who is a nutritionalist, and a trainer. The information is solid, and the diet plan is not really a diet plan, it is just proper eating, in balance. I learned what I long suspected, what I have always felt in my heart was the case, if we just eat the right things we can enjoy eating (within reason) and enjoy good health and wellness. Along with eating in balance comes more energy, and less need for herbal supplements and vitamins. When you eat the right foods, in their proper balance, and stop eating the things your body does not know how to process, then you feel better and are naturally more active.
Meet Isabel, she is her own success story.
No more crazy diet plans where I try to starve my body of carbs or overdose on proteins, one day up and the next day down. With the information I have learned from Isabel at Diet Solutions, and I have just gotten started, our lives are already coming into balance, the natural way. No gimmicks, no starvation tactics, just good sensible eating skills. Diet Solutions provides all the tools to determine our metabolism, my wife has a different one than I do, so we can gauge the appropriate amounts of which food types for each of us. The program has so much available to help make the transition to eating properly: recipes using readily available foods, a short and simple manual on how to eat properly, meal plans, shopping guides, and a whole host of other things to assist you to succeed in dropping the pounds naturally. Isabel has a down to earth program, one anyone can achieve, she tells you how you can go all organic, using the best foods, for a more affordable rout she shows you how to use what is in every grocery store at lower prices.
What I have chosen to do, so we don’t drive ourselves crazy making separate meals, is to meet in the middle with our differing needs. We both eat the same things, each of us much more closely satisfying our own body’s requirements than we were doing previously. With the Diet Solutions program, the more closely you follow the regimen, the more weight you will loose. You can implement what you learn to whatever degree you desire. I am now dropping the weight, about fifteen pounds in the first month, while my wife’s hormones are now easier to control with fewer herbal remedies.
My wife and I eagerly anticipate that as we continue to learn from Isabel, and Diet Solutions, how to better facilitate our health by eating properly we will both enjoy an increasingly healthier lifestyle. Eating well and living well is not just a catchy theme for our website, for us it is a way of life; one I am finding I only thought I understood before.
This year has been a good year for peppers in my organic garden. There has been a steady flow of sweet bell peppers all fall and into winter. I am writing this in February and I still have several peppers growing in my garden. We enjoy the freshness a just-picked bell pepper adds to a salad or omelet. Years ago, when I ran a country inn, we had a small but very productive garden that supplied the veggies for our morning omelets. Our guests just loved it when I would pass by the breakfast table, with my apron full of fresh peppers and tomatoes. As they were drinking their first cup of coffee I was picking their breakfast. Most of our guests were local couples “getting away” for a couple of days, enjoying a cozy room at the inn and some good old-fashioned cooking.
In our garden this year sweet peppers were not the only variety in abundance. I was able to get one habanero pepper plant to grow from some old seeds I had. This one plant produced more than 40 peppers at one time, adequately making up for the plants I lost to the summer heat.
I have been trying to find a good source of organic habanero sauce, with no success. All the sauces I have tried say “HOT” on the label, but, they need to be investigated for false advertising. Reading the ingredients to purchase the one with the highest content of peppers does not prove to be any more fruitful. Since I now had an abundance of habanero peppers I decided it was time to make my own habanero sauce.
Habanero sauce puree simmering in the pan after all ingredients are blended together.
Making your own sauce is not that difficult, it does take considerable time, but it is worth the effort. If you are starting with 40 peppers you will have a lot of sauce when you are done, close to half a gallon. This recipe will yield between two or three cups of delicious sauce that will liven up your day and get your taste buds to dancing. Most families would have a difficult time consuming half a gallon of sauce before it might spoil. I recommend freezing some of the peppers for making beans or omelets in the future. One thing you must know before you begin the process is to use gloves once you begin handling the habanero peppers. Because this sauce is fairly “hot” I used gloves until I was done cleaning the pots and pans. If you do not use gloves you should not touch any soft tissued area of your body, or anyone else’s, for a couple of days. Yes, the fire will remain and you would regret not using gloves. As with anything that brings a tremendous amount of good, there is always something to be cautious about.
Now that the warnings are out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff. I love hot sauces, the hotter the better. I do like flavor as well, so this sauce is packed with flavor and heat. The end result is a sweet sauce that goes very well on blackened fish, eggs of any kind and oddly enough, tastes good by itself on a cracker with some good sharp cheese. If you have a good recipe I would love to have you share it with everyone in the comment section below.
Carrots and peppers were picked less than an hour before preparation.
In my garden this year I have some carrots that were accidently over crowded and are growing into knots with each other. Since they are not much to look at they will not do so well on a dinner plate, but, they are perfect in this sauce. The peppers and carrots being one hour fresh may have something to do with the wonderful taste of this sauce. I used organic dried mango in this recipe partly because I do not have a mango tree and because it is just so much easier to store, and they are less messy to use while cooking. The price of dried mango compared to fresh organic mango is another positive factor. As usual, I recommend all organic ingredients when cooking. When using dried mango I dice it and reconstitute it by simmering about 3/4 cup of water with the equivalent of one mango, keeping it moist if it begins to cook too much. In the sauce you want to minimize the amount of water in the final sauce so it keeps longer. Let the mango cook down to a pasty consistancy before adding it to the sauce.
Another word of wisdom when cooking hot peppers: do not remove the seeds, this is where a lot of the heat is. If you choose to strain your sauce (I just run it all through a food processor) at the end you will be able to remove the seeds after the cooking has brought out most of the heat. Save and freeze the strained pulp and use it in soups and other spicy dishes later. Do remove the stems before preparation. Don’t forget your gloves.
Ingredients:
1 onion chopped
5 cloves garlic chopped
1 Tbs grape seed oil
1 large carrot chopped
1 cup water
12 habanero peppers
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
In a medium sauce pan saute onion in the oil until translucent, adding the garlic at the end so it does not over cook and become hard; add the carrots with just enough water to cook the carrots. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer just until carrots are soft. Do not cook the peppers with the carrots, cooking reduces the hotness of the peppers. In a blender or good food processor puree the peppers, add the cooked mixture and mango, puree together. Add the vinegar and lime juice to the puree. Place puree into the pan and simmer for five minutes. Your sauce is ready to enjoy as-is or may be strained to make a sauce that can be poured from a bottle. Store in sterilized bottles and refrigerate. This sauce should keep for several months in the refrigerator.
This carrot cake recipe is bursting with energy because of the amount of carrot, honey and pineapple in it. Making this cake helps me to use some of the pulp left over from juicing. We have a daily routine of juicing fresh vegetables and fruit, leaving us with a lot of pulp as a byproduct. Juicing provides so much in the way of vitamins and minerals that I personally quit taking a daily multi-vitamin because taking one in addition to juicing I was getting too much nervous energy. Carrots form the base of our juice drinks, we use about seven pounds of carrots per week for two people. This leaves us with a lot of remaining pulp. We freeze the pulp and use in making soups and cakes. This particular recipe uses four cups of carrot pulp, which is about two days worth of juicing.
I always use organic vegetables for juicing, to make this cake I use all organic ingredients.
This recipe makes a large cake or you can split the recipe into two round cake pans for a layer cake. If you like traditional carrot cake with the frosting you could make this recipe that way. I do not use frosting due to the excess sugar most frostings have. To me this cake is sweet enough without icing, but then again, I tend to use less sugar than most people I know. I once took this cake to a family get-together and it was the most popular item of the day.
Because of the good amount of oil in the recipe this cake freezes very well. I like to cut the cake into pieces about two inches by three inches before freezing. If pre-cut, it is easy to just reach in and grab a piece to eat whenever you want. My favorite way to enjoy this is to pull a piece out of the freezer in the morning and pop it into the toaster-oven, heat on 350° until warm and enjoy for breakfast with a good cup of organic dark roast coffee.
With a one-hour bake time and approximately 30 minutes to put it all together you should plan on roughly one and a half hours total time to prepare this energy rich cake. Serves 10 or makes a good two-tiered cake. Do not be surprised when the batter is not wet and runny, form it into the pan the way you want it and it will come out fine.
2. Mix together Carrot pulp, pineapple pulp and oil.
3. Add honey, eggs and vanilla.
4. In separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together, then add wet ingredients.
5. Fold in walnuts.
6. Grease cake pan(s).
7. Bake for one hour, if in one pan it will likely take the full hour. If Using two round pans you will want to check with a toothpick after 45 minutes.
8. Allow to cool in the pan(s) for 5 to 10 minutes before removing. Place on cooling rack until almost cool. If freezing, when cake is cool enough to handle cut and place in freezer bags. Freeze the cake before it completely cools to lock in moisture.
9. Take at least one piece, place on plate, prepare a cup of organic coffee and sit down and enjoy your cake.
Below is a quick (as possible) recipe for yeast rolls. Making these rolls makes a relatively small mess so cleanup time is minimal. I actually used this recipe for a Wild Salmon meal accompanied by organic brown rice and fresh organic broccoli. I put the rice together just before mixing the yeast and water, then prepped the Wild Salmon and cooked it in the oven with the rolls while the broccoli was steaming. Everything finished cooking just at the same time, providing a delicious meal with piping hot rolls. A nice cup of organic mint tea topped off the evening’s meal.
If you are not in such a rush you may use instant yeast, allowing more time for mixture to rise.
These rolls are light and fluffy with a good balance of whole grain and light flours. Try it for your family:
QUICK ORGANIC MULTI-GRAIN YEAST ROLLS
1 pkg. rapid rise yeast
3/4 c. 120º warm water
2 tbsp. organic dark brown evaporated cane juice
2 tbsp. grape seed oil
1 egg
1/2 c. organic spelt flour
1 c. organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. organic unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Soft butter
Gather cold ingredients first and allow them to reach room temperature so the yeast can work as fast as possible.
Dissolve yeast in 120º water (check your yeast packet for proper temperature) in large bowl, stir in dark brown evaporated cane juice, grape seed oil and egg. In another bowl sift together flours and sea salt, mix thoroughly. Add 1 cup of flour mixture to liquid ingredients until smooth. Cover with cloth and place on rack over bowl of hot water, or if your oven has a proof setting, place in warm oven; let rise 15 minutes. Lightly grease 10 inch cast iron skillet, then warm skillet to receive dough. Stir down batter and add remaining flours. Stir just until mixed and turn onto floured board. Knead 3 minutes adding flour to board sparingly. The less flour your dough receives the lighter your rolls will be, it is best if the dough is just slightly tacky. If dough is too sticky, knead in up to 1/4 cup flour adding a little at a time until dough is workable being careful not to over knead.
Divide dough into 16 pieces and shape quickly into balls. Arrange in pan and brush tops with butter. Cover with cloth and place on rack over bowl of hot water. Let rise 25 minutes. Bake 12 to 15 minutes in 425 degree oven (if proofing dough in oven: remove from oven five minutes early and preheat oven before baking rolls). Brush tops with butter if desired to help lock in moisture. After five minutes remove rolls from skillet and place on wire rack to allow bottoms to dry.
Try using different flours to vary the texture and taste of the recipe. Buckwheat and millet is a good mix along with the unbleached flour, you may want to use more unbleached to keep the rolls light. Other sweeteners may be used, try substituting wildflower honey. For this recipe substitute one-for-one, equal amounts. All the evaporated cane juice can be replaced with honey or just part.
Here is a quick (as possible) recipe for organic yeast rolls. Making these rolls creates a relatively small mess so cleanup time is minimal as well. I actually used this recipe for a Wild Caught Salmon meal accompanied by organic brown rice and garden fresh organic broccoli. I put the rice together just before mixing the yeast and water, then after mixing the dough I prepped the Wild Salmon and the broccoli; when the rolls were ready I put them in the oven along with the Salmon and cooked them while the broccoli was steaming. Everything finished cooking at the same time, providing a delicious meal with piping hot rolls. All that in less than one hour. A nice cup of organic mint tea topped off the evening’s meal.
These rolls are light and fluffy with a good balance of whole grain and light flours. Try it for your family:
QUICK ORGANIC MULTI-GRAIN YEAST ROLLS
1 pkg. rapid rise yeast
3/4 c. 120º warm water
2 tbsp. organic dark brown evaporated cane juice
2 tbsp. grape seed oil (or olive oil)
1 egg
1/2 c. organic spelt flour
1 c. organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. organic unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Soft butter
Gather cold ingredients first and allow them to reach room temperature so the yeast can work as fast as possible.
Dissolve yeast in 120º water (check your yeast packet for proper temperature) in large bowl, stir in dark brown evaporated cane juice, grape seed oil and egg. In another bowl sift together flours and sea salt, mix thoroughly. Add 1 cup of flour mixture to liquid ingredients until smooth. Cover with cloth and place on rack over bowl of hot water, or if your oven has a proof setting, place in warm oven; let rise 15 minutes. Lightly grease 10 inch cast iron skillet, then warm skillet to receive dough. Stir down batter and add remaining flours. Stir just until mixed and turn onto floured board. Knead 3 minutes adding flour to board sparingly. The less flour your dough receives the lighter your rolls will be, it is best if the dough is just slightly tacky. If dough is too sticky, knead in up to 1/4 cup flour adding a little at a time until dough is workable being careful not to over knead.
Rolls after rising in skillet, just before baking.
Divide dough into 16 pieces and shape quickly into balls. Arrange in pan and brush tops with butter. Cover with cloth and place on rack over bowl of hot water. Let rise 25 minutes. Bake 12 to 15 minutes in 425 degree oven (if proofing dough in oven: remove from oven five minutes early and preheat oven before baking rolls). After baking brush tops with butter, if desired, to help lock in moisture. After five minutes remove rolls from skillet and place on wire rack to allow bottoms to dry.
If you are not in such a rush you may use instant yeast, the kind bakers use, allow more time for mixture to rise.
Try using different flours to vary the texture and taste of the recipe. Buckwheat and millet is a good mix along with the unbleached flour, you may want to use more unbleached to keep the rolls light. Other sweeteners may be used, try substituting wildflower honey. For this recipe substitute one-for-one, equal amounts. All the evaporated cane juice can be replaced with honey or just part.
We have enjoyed organic produce from our garden for several years. First, we started with large pots, which we still have, but two seasons ago we went whole hog and made half of our back yard into a garden. I must tell you that the cost for installing our garden was several hundred dollars. In the beginning organic gardening is not done purely to save money. Yes, we were motivated by the high prices for organic produce, but it will take several years to reap enough produce to say that we are in a positive position as an investment.
This season has been exceptionally good in the new garden. During the winter months I like to grow lettuce and greens which perform badly in the hot Florida summers. From July, through October, the heat is too much for delicate lettuces, it is actually too hot for most anything to do well. This season we have had so much lettuce that we are giving away just as much as we eat.
