Mayan Calendar and beyond / Mariella

So we are still here! The world didn’t end on Friday, Christmas came and went and I have to say that even though I didn’t expect to meet my maker last week, a part of me did wonder if there would be some kind of manifestation of lack of Mayan calendar! A bigger swell than usual perhaps or a global hiccup…mass awakening maybe! Am I a little disappointed? Well let’s say that I bought my 2013 Moleskin with a little more fervor than usual. 

And I have nothing planned for New Year!

If there’s no automated rise in consciousness planned anytime soon, perhaps it’s time to manifest my own. I think that on a subconscious level I had my eye in 12/21/12 and now I have my eye on me! There is a growing movement toward looking to our forefathers for a way forward. We look to the Native American Indian prophecies such as the Rainbow Warrior story:

Some time in the future, the Indians said, the animals would begin to disappear. People would no longer see the wolf, or the bear, or the eagles. And, the story goes, the giant trees would also disappear. And people would fight and no longer love one another. And the beautiful rainbow in the sky would fade away; people would not see the rainbow anymore.

Then children would be born into the world. And these children would love the animals, and they would bring them back. They would love trees, and they would bring them back too. And these children would love others and they would bring peace to the world. And these children would love the rainbow, and they would bring back the beautiful rainbow in the sky. For this reason the Indians called these children the rainbow warriors.

http://2012rising.com/article/the-new-children-prophecies-of-the-rainbow-warriors

http://www.manataka.org/page235.html

We look to calendars, ancient texts, documents channeled from the infinitely wise for some guidance on this un-signposted path we tread. And sometimes we find the wisdom we seek and sometimes it sheds a little light on our cloudy road, but you know when someone else is holding the torch for you at night down a winding path to your car? You can see, but the light is always a little off center. And it’s irritating because you’d really rather be the one holding the light! You’re thinking that what you need is a light that comes from you! These incredible sources of valuable insight can only inform us on direction finding, in the end, the path is ours to walk. And if I am the one shining, then that light is perfectly positioned for me! So today I choose to cultivate a brighter light to find my way by, a light so bright that I can see the fork up ahead, or a shear drop! I don’t really see this as a post-Armageddon resolution, there’s another end of the world coming in March anyway! I see this as a renewed perspective on a methodology I already try to employ and I’m excited by it! 

Check out this truly inspired song by a very talented musician, Matisyahu, I will be light!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mbHr5wOKG4 

Why I'm keeping it Local this Holiday / Mariella

I have decided that I’m ready to take the Pledge! This holiday I am only buying local! I’m buying gifts and goodies from Locally owned businesses only! And even though the reasons are obvious, it still helps to bring them to mind in a conscious way and think about them when shopping.

Why it’s a good idea to buy locally designed products:

-South Africa is full of amazingly creative artisans, craftsmen and women, manufacturers, designers. There really is no need to look elsewhere.

- Locally owned businesses tend to take greater care with whom they employ, resulting in better customer care.

-You keep the carbon footprint of your festive season to a minimum, just think about the amount of trash in your bin on boxing day, and how many trashy plastic toys get thrown away in that first week. Now times that by the block and then by the neighborhood and so on….it’s scary stuff!

-  Buying local boosts local economy.

- It increases job availability in your area which in turn puts more money back into local economy which in turn boosts job availability!

- Support of one’s creative endeavors is a powerful incentive to keep creating and if people are supported in what they love to do, it makes the world a much happier place.

- It cultivates unique local identity

- It ensures growing quality instead of decreasing quality of product as a marketplace of many small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.  A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

Reasons to supporting local food:

-The produce is fresh and bursting with vitamins,

- It creates relationship between buyers and producers, if you want to know something about the product, ask the farmer, he's standing in front of you!

- You get more for less!

- If it's organically grown it safeguards the environment and protects biodiversity.

- It preserves open space as farmers trading directly to the public make more per metre and are less prone to selling out to developers.

- It cultivates home industry and entrepreneurship.

- It's a place where community meets and grows; a place unique to the character of the town and the people in it. It fosters a direct link to the food we eat and to the land and seasons.

And if you are giving presents this festive season, why not:

- Use news paper instead of wrapping paper and get creative with potato printing.

- Make what you can, especially if you are budgeting a small amount per person and there’s a long list! Chances are you’ll get more for your money by making something at home.

For those of us who like to give gifts at Christmas time, it’s good to keep the spirit of giving in mind; it’s about the love, not the amount of zeros and small prices can go hand in hand with small environmental impact, just think local! Now is the time!

Spring in my garden / Mariella

Contrary to popular belief it is now Spring in Plettenberg Bay. Our season’s are different here, warm time is from December to June. If you expect a week of warm days at a time before that, you may be disappointed! I see it in our garden. 

We planted like possessed farmers in August/September and all those sweet new baby shoots struggled to get out of their beds, like chilled children on a winter’s morning, while mom screams from the door,’ Get up now, it’s time for school!’

But now with a relatively dependable sun baking down on them from 5:00 am to 7:30 pm they are pushing fast toward the sky. It’s a reassuring sight to see! Everything is bright new green and hiding within the protective covering of so many leaves, are small green fruits and flowers of all kinds, carrying infinite possibilities!

   

And we have many different types of tomatoes coming up! Names like Chocolate cherry,Yellow Pear, Yellow stuffer, Mortgage lifter, Ananas Noir, Cuban black,Purple cherry, Ukrainian purple, Pineapple,Brandy wine, Golden princess, Green zebra, wild cherry tomatoes, and some strange unknown variety that look happy!

We use what is called a cold frame to plant some of our seeds in instead of in seedling trays. A cold frame is simply a wooden frame sectioning off an area in your bed. It has another frame the same size over it with a hinge that is used as a door to regulate heat and cold. We cover it with clear plastic in winter to keep it warm, and shade cloth in summer to keep it cool and retain moisture. This is where our little babies live and get transplanted from.

it keeps bugs out and makes sure that no unforeseen elements trash all of our hard work! I'll post some photos as things grow and progress. Spring is here and my garden is a busy place to be! 

Little nutrition tricks I've learnt / By Mariella

Little tricks, we all have them. Things we've learnt along the way that we now take for granted, things that have possibly yet to occur to others. It’s good to share these things, grow the trick pool a little. 

This is a little list of nutrition tricks and bits of info I have acquired along the way. This is not a complete list! I’ll add to it periodically, as I remember things!

-Coconut oil, when eaten, is a natural sunblock. I haven’t researched this and haven’t found it in the research I have read regarding coconut oil, I found out accidentally. We went hiking for a few days and I took coconut oil along as a superfood snack. I ate about 4 tablespoons of it a day, maybe more. We do this hike every year, and every year I burn, this year everyone else burnt and I didn't  except on the last day, when my coconut oil ran out! Also, i use it on my face instead of moisturizer and I've noticed a difference. And it's great to put on after you been in the sun, but not before! I use two different oils, one made by Quinns, which is deflavoured for everyday use, and one by Crede, which is super flavourful and yummy, check out the Crede Oil on the Fresh Earth Website. 

http://www.freshearth.co.za/store/p-2974-crede-coconut-oil-500ml.aspx

-Chocolate craving is indicative of iron deficiency; this does shed light on the cravings that happen at a certain time of the month. Incidentally, the more carbs we eat when we are PMSing, the worse the symptoms become. 

  

-Grinding your teeth is indicative of Magnesium deficiency, I find that if I take 1500 mg a day, I stop grinding and the benefits ripple over into things like being about to wake up earlier in the morning, clearer thinking, no cramps.

-Dehydration results in: Fuzzy eyesight, extrasystoles (when your heart skips a beat and then makes up of it with a double beat, usually at night), swollen hands and feet, sleepiness, loss of concentration and short term memory, back pain, craving something sweet, feeling hungry all the time.

-My body can handle a certain amount of mucus forming foods before reacting. Now that i don't eat carbs or sugar, my tolerance of Dairy has sky rocketed. This is the first year that I've eaten it throughout winter without so much as a sniffle!

-I read once that Chillies are so good for you that your body releases endorphins as a reward so that you'll eat more! Chillies are also great for your immune system.

Ok that's it so far, a little shared insight. I find that if I make sure I have at least 1l water before i leave the house and don't forget my Magnesium, I'm good to go. Find the little tricks that work for you and share them with others. A little wisdom goes a long way! 

My daughter's team wins the ETA awards Young designers category! | by Mariella

I am the proudest mother in the world! No really! Today, right now, I am! Ok maybe not, maybe there are three other mothers out there just as proud as I am! My daughter and her three friends from Bay Collage got together and decided that they wanted to enter the Eta Awards. This is an annual competition sponsored by Eskom which rewards projects in the field of energy efficiency. There are quite a few categories – Industrial, Commercial, Young designers etc. And my daughter was part of the Greenwood Independent school group which entered previously and received a special mention.

http://www.eta-awards.co.za/?q=con,70,2012+Winners

So, with the inexhaustible help of Susan Donald, regional coordinator for Wessa/Eskom Energy and sustainability program, my daughter and her friends, calling themselves ‘Girls Looking Forward’ set out to do a research project on ways to reduce electricity consumption in cooking. They prepared a dish using three different methods – microwave, stove-top and slow cooker. The aim was to determine affordable cooking costs for local communities and to figure out which cooking method was the healthiest.

They found that the slow cooker used the least electricity (saving a whopping 71% compared to the stove and 81% compared to the microwave!) and it yielded the food with the highest Nutritional value. But not everyone can afford a slow cooker, so they made hot boxes, did the presentation to a soup kitchen and donated the hot box!

http://www.thehotboxco.co.za/

They submitted their findings and made it through to round two, which meant that they had to fly to Johannesburg to do the presentation in person and got to stay overnight in a hotel, they had a blast! The final event took place on Thursday night and their category was far down the list for the evening. They were so sleepy by the time their names were called out! They won! They won money for their school too. I am so proud! Well done Kharma, Courtney, Chanelle and Ava, you rock. And Susan, you relentless hard worker! Thank you for all the commitment you put in to help them! If ‘Girls Looking Forward’ (GLF) were a political party they would have my vote! Proudest mother in the world!  

New Moon at Sun up | by Mariella

I’m a little tired today. It could be because I went to bed at 12:00 last night or it could be because I got up at 5:30 this morning. Either way, I am not holding a full deck of cards today and it’s probably great that I am not obliged to operate any heavy motor vehicles or power tools today! And why, oh, why would I do this seemingly incongruous thing to myself? I can wholeheartedly blame the moon.

I am part of a woman’s circle, we meet on Dark moon, as the tribal women before us would have done, to share and hold a space of sacredness in our otherwise disconnected lives. Under usual circumstances, we meet on the evening of Dark Moon, open with a warm up exercise, share the delicious dishes that we've all brought, and then share our thoughts, delving as deep as we must because we know, of all the quiet places to take your secrets to, this place is safe, will lock your cautious whispered words deep down into a place where no one will ever find them, you are safe here and your agonies, fears, conundrums, disasters, laughter, sighs, singing voices will settled down here and go no further than the hearts of the women sitting before you. But because of many things happening simultaneously, we chose the morning, and because we are mostly moms with jobs to go off to, and because the sun rises so early now, we chose to meet at the lagoon at 5:30 am! Goodness, it seemed a very good idea at the time, I slur over the keys as I write this, it’s been a long day!  

But it was worth it! The sun at my back and the hazy sleepiness of a morning meditation washing over me like the ripples of the water in the lagoon, what a blessing! But beach frontage aside, it’s a lovely practice to start: Once a month, on Dark Moon, to come together with your girlfriends and enjoy a little bit of organized something, be it tai chi, yoga, breathing exercise and then talk and eat and then eat dessert!  

I recently spoke with a girlfriend of mine (not this morning) who told me about recent studies on mental health indicating that women need a 10 minute heart to heart with another woman everyday. So go ahead, call someone up, now, for a good gossip, it’s good for your health!

Post Staph! | by Mariella

We are not in the clear yet but my son is finally healing! It’s a great relief! He’s back at school today, bandaged up to the hilt so that no one else gets exposed, even though the two remaining sores are no more than two millimeters big.

My son is a very physical boy and extremely confident in his body, this may have something to do with living in an area where most of his activities involve hiking, climbing, running, jumping! Or it could be that we do not rein him in, we leave him to jump off high things and climb dodgy stuff and be a boy. We thought it was just that, him being a boy, but one day, two years ago, we realized that was not entirely true….

I had just returned home after work and was met by a very excited child saying, ‘Come look what I can do, come, come!!!’ My husband and I came around the corner to see my daughter standing at the top of the hill holding an over sized bike steady so that our son could climb on. His feet couldn't even touch the pedals and he didn't know how to ride a bike yet! Once he was on, she let go! He went bouncing down the lawn full speed as we stood, mouths agape, unable to do anything. Once he reached the bottom of the lawn, instead of braking, he simply rode, full tilt, into the bushes and got off unscathed, leaving the bike suspended in a bush, wheels off the ground, as he ran up to us beaming from ear to ear! He has an accomplice! 

This is how it is with him. He lives life to the full, and there’s no stopping him, there’s only guiding him toward minimal injury! So you can imagine how strange it was to see him out and about yesterday for the first time in weeks without us fussing over him and trying to keep him from hurting himself and finding him, well, a fraction less coordinated than usual. It was noticeable. And the obvious conclusion is this:

The more we let our kids be kids, the better they get at being kids. 

So kick your kids out the house today. Close the door on them and feed them lunch through the cat flap! Not really, but remind them of the great outdoors where a backyard can really become a jungle. Inside is great for when it’s raining and they have their entire adult lives to sit in front of a computer. 

The time is now! 

Some interesting stuff about Staph! | by Mariella

Yip, there is no place like home! Especially when you come home, with your mind full of the things you seen, places you've been and you are met with your sweet baby boy who has acquired a staphylococcus infection in your absence and you are thrown straight into the turmoil of helping heal him. 

Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that is frequently found in the human respiratory tract and on the skin. Although S. aureusis not always pathogenic, it is a common cause of skin infections (e.g. boils, grim!), respiratory disease (e.g. sinusitis), and food poisoning. Disease-associated strains often promote infections by producing potent protein toxins, and expressing cell-surface proteins that bind and inactivate antibodies. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant forms of pathogenic S. aureus is a worldwide problem in clinical medicine so if you cop out of trying it the natural way,which is very tempting when you've been sitting on this for two weeks, you may end up having to try it again after the antibiotics have failed you, except now your child's immune system has been further compromised!

This is a post about icky stuff but we felt totally alone when we first had to deal with this and if you have kids in school, and ever have the misfortune of encountering this, maybe sharing our experience will be of some help

I shall spare you the gory pictures, there are plenty out there, but this is what an otherwise healthy but contagious child who has been kept at home from school for two weeks looks like:

And we hope that this:      

+ this:= this:

What’s in my home care kit of staph-destruction:

Raw garlic served orally on rice cake with marmite, twice a day

Olive leaf extract x 4 capsules a day

No sugars of any kind (fruit included) as they will feed the bacteria

Non acidic Vit C

Lavender and Tea Tree essential oil

Miracle Comfrey Ointment

Food grade hydrogen peroxide

Care (a biodegradable disinfectant by GNLD) – any disinfectant will do

Daily plan of action:

It’s essential to keep the wounds covered as they are highly contagious so every morning we redress them.

-First, we clean the wound with watered down disinfectant and one drop….I repeat….one drop only of hydrogen peroxide, open any new blisters and clean them out.

-We let him sit outside in the breeze for a while to let everything dry.

-Then we drip lots of Lavender Oil and a little Tea Tree over the area and wipe the oil off the skin around as plaster doesn’t stick to oily skin.

-Next, we spread a thick layer of Miracle comfrey ointment over a square of gauze a couple layers thick, place that over the sore and tape it in place with surgical paper tape.

-We wrap bandage around the whole job to keep it properly covered and safe.

-Then, and this is the tricky bit, we keep him entertained with things like audio books and lego so that he doesn’t run (excuse the pun) the risk of injuring himself and having more infected sores to deal with. I have, at times, given five drops of Rescue Remedy when I can see he is completely freaking out from frustration and fear. 

It’s a traumatizing thing for a little person and a very sobering experience for a parent. I’ll let you know how it goes and if you have any ideas, please let me know! Now is the time! 

A picture of home | by Mariella

I am currently on business in Munich, so I`m writing to you from a keypad that requires a little more concentration than usual! I`m only here for a week and it`s autumn here which means that the streets are lined with bright yellow leaves. When people ask me where i come from and what my home is like, this is what comes to mind, I try to communicate it to them, but there`s nothing like home!

Companion planting | by Mariella

Plants don’t grow in isolation, they grow together! This is obvious, right? But what I find so interesting is that plants do not always make good neighbours. Some vegetables, when planted together, turn out sweeter, stronger, seemingly immune to attack from pests. But when you get the combination wrong, plants seem to experience stunted growth and are weak or more susceptible to attack from harmful bugs and disease.

Companion planting takes into account: the proximity of plants which have adverse or beneficial effects on one another, planting of plants which are beneficial to the soil and plants which attract friendly insects or act as natural pesticides and herbicides in strategic places in your garden.

Comfrey is every gardener’s ally.  Its leaves are extremely high in potassium, nitrogen, calcium and other nutrients, making it the best natural fertilizer. Just remember not to eat any part on the plant though; this is food for your garden, not for you! Mix the leaves with boiling water and let the ‘tea’ rot for a month or so. It smells grizzly but the plants love it!

I would recommend getting a book on the subject if you are starting your own vegetable patch as it helps when you haven’t had the opportunity to observe which plants make good bedfellows!

There are some plants, especially herbs which attract helpful insects into your garden, doing the job of pest control for you. The flowers of angelica, borage, mint, buckwheat, Californian poppy, carrot, chamomile, chives, coriander, crimson clover, dill, Echinacea, fennel, garlic, golden rod, lavender, lemon balm, marigold, marjoram, mustard, nasturtium, parsley, rocket, rose scented geranium, rosemary, sage, sunflower, tansy, thyme, yarrow will attract insects like bees, dragonflies, damselflies, spiders, ladybirds – which can eat a whopping 400 aphids a day, lacewings, praying mantises into your garden. 

It’s so rewarding to hear the buzz of your little helpers already at work in your garden when you get there first thing in the morning. They've been awake and productive for hours, they love my garden and I love them, it’s companionable! 

Did you know that borage makes strawberries sweeter? And that fennel should not be planted near beans, tomatoes, kohlrabi or coriander, but it’s great as a flea repellent when scrunched in your hand and rubbed into your dog’s coat? Rows of wood ash in your beds will deter slugs. Garlic and parsley grown near Roses will help keep them pest free.

No one knows why it works, chalk it up to one plant liking the way another plant smells, but it comes from generations of observant farmers and if you’re going to take the time and effort to plant something in the ground and will it to live through hard work and love, you may as well surround it with buddies, so that together, they don’t get bugged!

Why compost toilets are a good idea! / Mariella

Now that we’ve gotten to know each other better, I’d like to tell you about my toilet! When my husband and I spoke about the design for our house, we felt very strongly about not having a flush toilet. If you take into consideration that the average toilet uses about six litres per flush and the average family member may use the bathroom five times a day. That comes to ten thousand, nine hundred and fifty litres of water down the drain per annum. In a water strapped South Africa, this is possibly going to become a problem! Toilets use more water than anything else in the home, including washing machines.

We took this very seriously and opted for a compost toilet. We built a temporary structure for it while we decide on the final design of the out house and because we couldn't find a locally produced complete unit which had good reviews, we made our own! It’s basic, you have two boxes, made from plywood, same size, ours are roughly one meter square, with a toilet seat on top, which we made so that it seals nicely and a hooded chimney pipe for ventilation. It’s only for number two and you tip a couple cups of saw dust in after every use. Toilet paper goes in too. Every couple of months we throw some good bacteria in and once the box is full, we seal it up and use the other one. Once box number two is full, box number one should be completely worked through and benign. It takes about a year to fill a box and once it’s ready, you throw it out into a corner of the garden and leave it there for another six months and then it can be used in your flower beds. I was terrified to see what would come out of that box, but once we tipped it out, it didn’t look any different from the soil around it. One square meter of fuss to deal with per year, instead of ten thousand, nine hundred and fifty litres of water which needs cleaning! 

And it’s outside with a great view of the sunset and the birds that fly overhead to and from the coast every day!

So, what to do if you live in a built up area and can’t realistically consider a compost toilet overlooking your neighbours’ kids’ jungle gym?

If you want to save water and you haven’t replaced your toilet with a dual-flush model yet, do it now! By doing this you can reduce water consumption by a whopping 20% or more. But something that you can do today would be to take an old 2 litre plastic bottle, fill it with water and put it inside the cistern of your toilet and save 2 liters per flush.

Another water tip: This is the easiest and cheapest way to reduce water loss. Turn the taps off when brushing your teeth! This will save you about fifteen litres for every single minute the tap is turned off.

All very serious stuff I know, but these are little ways in which we can actively take nature conservation into our own hands and it’s a great opportunity to inform our children about water saving.

                                                                                                           

We are building our own home! | by Mariella

Living in a tipi for two years (see “Lessons from a tipi” post) helped me realize what I want out of a home. I no longer take any comforts for granted. And I've rediscovered some of them, like doors that close! And lock!!

Going back to simple living brought us to the decision to take the building of a more sheltered more permanent home into our own hands. My husband built our home himself, alone mostly, on the deck we built for the tipi.

We took certain things into account when working on the design of our home.

-We built the deck in a natural clearing in the forest, so only a few saplings were taking out and many were redirected. It was essential for us to not destroy the forest in favour of building a home which overlooks it!

- There was a big Cheesewood tree next to the clearing and we designed the pitch of the room to accommodate the tree so that none of the larger branches had to be removed.

-Living in the tipi brought us into a closer relationship with our natural surroundings and that was something that we didn't want to lose. We wanted to incorporate outside living as much as possible and we kept the living room area as an outside space so that you have to step outside to get to the kitchen, this keeps us close to lunar cycles, the stars, what the little birds are doing. It also means that if you don’t cover your food, those same little birds finish off your breakfast for you!

- Our outside shower ruined me for ever having an indoor shower again! We’ve kept our shower outside, it’s nestled into the trees and it’s so lovely!

- We designed the electrical system to easily switch over to solar. We’ve kept our power needs simple and low impact.

- Big houses are great, but the bigger they are, the more time you spend inside, and the bigger your impact on natural resources, we’ve made our home as small as possible.

- There is so much stuff in the world that we really don’t need to buy anything new ever again! We’ve upcycled as many building materials as possible which means that when I walk through my son’s door, I think of my brother-in-law, when I walk into my daughter’s room, I’m reminded of our friend, Marty, and his wood workshop filled with beautiful driftwood, reclaimed yellow wood planks, antique wooden treasures. There isn’t an area in our home devoid of personality!

- It doesn’t make economical or ecological sense to design a house built from materials which are not found in the area. The Garden Route is covered in forest and plantation, so we obviously used mostly wood. This was an educational process in itself as we would find ourselves having to explain to suppliers why we didn’t want old-growth forest woods like Meranti and Balao and that there are many gums and other South African plantation woods to choose from.   

- We designed for our family and we had fun with it. We made a trap door which leads from our kids’ rooms to the passage (which isn’t built yet!) and painted a road with parking bays on our son’s floor!

They say that building your own home is much like painting a work of art, you never finish it, you just decide, at some point, that you’re going to stop now! We are half way. And the next building frenzy is set to start sometime soon. It’s an exciting process and we had a hand and a say in everything, no funny surprises! As a result I’ve gotten into carpentry and actually made our kitchen counter and work surface. It’s a great feeling and definitely a lesson in focus, clarity and patience!

A little advice on food label reading | by Mariella

There’s an old Greek proverb which states, ‘In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king’.

 I beg to differ.

‘In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is mad’, Patrick Woodroffe, makes a heap more sense to me. Once you open your eyes to something, it cannot be unseen. And if those around you have yet to see it, then your discovery casts you apart.

Take labels for example, once you learn how to read food labels on packaging, never again can you conceive of purchasing an item without ferreting through the disorienting bulk of fine print on the back to find the actual list of ingredients to make sure that it doesn’t come with any unwanted buddies and hidden agendas. And once you take the time to google one of those ingredients, it spirals down into this pit of unfathomably harmful side effects; you’d think the ‘they’ are out to dwindle our numbers with all this dodgy stuff hitching a ride along with our daily staples!

Conspiracy theories aside, label reading is an art. And the more you read labels, the more you begin to wonder,’ Are they trying to trick me?’ My husband discovered my favourite blatantly deceitful label to date on the back of a popular chip brand. It listed the flavourants and then in brackets said (MSG free), and further down the list, somewhere below where you stop reading because there’s no MSG so it must be safe, it says ‘anti-caking agent (monosodium glutamate)’ Now this does make one wonder somewhat about the motives of the manufacturers! 

When reading labels you’ll generally find a dizzying array of lists, columns and possibly foreign languages. ‘Nutritional information’ is very different from ‘Ingredients’, but many people see this and think that this is what they are looking for. 

It’s not. 

The nutritional information listed is a breakdown of the macro and micro nutrients present per 100 gms. It does not tell you what they put in the food. You’ll generally find the list of ingredients in much smaller text and hidden at a funny angle at the bottom, side or on the lid, in a corner listed in order of quantity, from most to least. This makes it easier to find the dodgy stuff which often comes in small lethal doses and can be found at the bottom of the list, so I just start reading from the bottom up!

The conclusions I have reached? Assume the worst and if you find something you can’t pronounce, google it before you purchase it. The down side is that you may find your shopping list instantly edited! But you’ll adjust. It just takes a little time and a lot of faith that the attention you are paying to the details will make all the difference in the larger picture of health for you and your family. 

Our first Market day! | by Mariella

There is nothing quite like putting time and effort into a project you truly believe in and then having it not only turn out well, but exceeding your expectations! 

Our first market day was a huge success! People came! Many! Most of the stalls had sold out by half time, and for a sleepy coastal town, that’s a bonus! We had twenty three handpicked stalls and most stall holders made a great effort to present beautifully. 

A family affair, it's so cool when your kids get involved and help out!

My son and his friend Julia a midst the flowers, the sunflower with the giant 'heart' is his

Our children’s art exhibition started with space for one hundred entries and ended with two hundred and forty! Old Nick Village looked so festive and it really did feel like a real small village farmer’s market. I feel like a proud mama watching my baby take its first steps! Plett’s local radio station broadcasted for the day and, of course, my business partner elected me to be the interviewee! What luck!

Rhian Berning from EcoAtlas

Yum goodies from O' My Goodness

You know when you’re nervous but take your time and really attempt to transcend the nerves and zone into what you are trying to explain? That was me, I was doing ok, stumbling a little at the beginning, but doing ok, and this is when my dear sweet considerate husband started to pull funny faces at me! To burst out laughing on live radio is a definite muscle relaxant! And for this to be the only notable stress factor is a good indicator, we had a great day!

We received many congratulations throughout the day, but now the real work begins! To keep a ball rolling is tougher than to muster the first kick, but it’s all about quality products in the end, and we feel confident that we have a strong mix of local, naturally grown, ethical products. We plan to do a lot of education around this market to try to inform shoppers about making the right choices when buying food for their families, no small feat but it’s achievable in a small town, wish me luck!  

Green Sunday on my mind! | by Mariella

The reason why you didn’t hear from me last week was because I had nothing to say! I was in ‘do’ mode, with a week to go before our food Market opens and so so much to finalise, the only thinking I’ve been doing has been the full-steam-ahead-toward deadline kind. But one strategically placed day can disarm that crazy autopilot and that day was yesterday.

If I could have taken a colouring in pencil and coloured yesterday in on the calendar, it would have been green. Green kept making cameo appearances! It started with green juice. Green juice made to order! My husband and I had two different needs, he’s got ‘The cough’ that’s going around and I had a homemade rusk episode yesterday which would be of no consequence if I weren’t in the process of doing away with an insulin intolerance issue.

I juiced lettuce, nasturtium leaves (good for sore throat and coughs), mint, whole lemon (try it, just juice the whole thing, you won’t regret it!), ginger, Californian poppy petals (we have so many!) green beans (breaks down insulin), coriander (good to get Mercury out of the body).

I poured enough for myself and then juiced a bunch of pears (alkalizes) for my husband and mixed the balance of the super greens mix in with that. Mine was great until I had a sip of his! My son loved his too, which was a big surprise as it was still a mean mix.

In between all this I was going to make our yoghurt for the week but when I poured the milk into the pot it had already turned sour. I considered throwing it out but then remembered a friend telling me she had made Paneer, an Indian cheese prepared much like you would prepare haloumi, out of sour milk and it had worked well.

 Normally you bring the milk to the boil and add lemon juice to it and then wait for it to separate but it just separated on its own.

I waited for it to separate completely, removed it from the heat and poured it into a pillow case over the sink.

The whey drained through and once the cheese inside had cooled enough for me to handle; I left it in the pillow case and kneaded all the whey out of it.

I put it in the sink and then placed a heavy pot full of water on top of it to compact it nicely and left it to drain.

It came out solid and perfect and it was so easy to make. It also freezes very well.

When making it with fresh milk I usually keep the whey and freeze it in ice trays. It can be used in smoothies, added to cooking rice or in any sauce to add flavour. Millet cooked in whey is so yummy.

I then worked on the table for my market stall as I too shall have products to sell. My partner found an old wooden crate and as I am getting into carpentry, I volunteered to up-cycle it and design a table top for it which ended up Green! With the help of my coughing husband, I finished in time to head to the Harkerville Lookout to celebrate National braai day with family! 

Harkerville is a forest reserve on the cliffs looking out over the ocean. There are several single track cycle routes through dense indigenous forests and many hiking trails that zigzag along the coast. It’s a magical place. And as we passed under the boom I felt something happen in my system that I could only liken to the process of photosynthesis, the trees receive energy from the sun and I felt my body’s answer to being in the presence of green lush trees as a deep internal setting to let go of the static electricity I’d generated around myself all week and at the same time received this beautiful transfer of life force from the trees! 
I felt so clearly that this was the optimal state for my body to operate from, that ‘relaxation’ is not a luxury but the natural default setting of our bodies. We ran down to the coast and up a rocky staircase before lunch, a mere three kilometres but I can feel those steps load and clear! To be surrounded by all that green was what I needed to recharge for the week that lies ahead of me! The next time you feel the need to ‘Go pick tomatoes’ (see ‘The Ultimate in Stress management’ post) make them green! It’s the new black!   

A little on broad beans | by Mariella

      

Harvesting food from my own garden is such a rewarding experience. It calls to the hunter gatherer in me. It’s so satisfying to return to the kitchen with enough food to make dinner. It’s like harvesting effort, and it’s so simple, you put the time and work in and you get food out.

Last night’s food started out as little green shoots in a row of 5 litre bottles. Because we have a cutworm problem in our garden, we put bottles over all of our seedlings until they are strong and their stems are thick enough to not be cut down in their infancy by these voracious nocturnal predators!

If left unchecked, cutworm can level all of your seedlings and your hard work in one night. If you run out of 5 litre bottles, cutting any bottles up into rings and using those works just as well for cutworm, but because we have snails as well, we use the bottles. A few still get in but it's controllable 

Yesterday we had our first harvest of broad beans. The plants have come up in what I refer to as our mega area, a space in the garden where everything we put in the ground grows to at least double the size! Our broad bean plants are standing at just over a meter and are heavy with new beans.

We love broad beans best fried lightly in butter with a bit of salt. But yesterday we had them with Swiss Chard out the garden and some roasted sunflower seed and they were yum! My mother-in-law makes a delicious broad bean and pea soup.  

Not everyone is familiar with broad beans, they are easy to grow but not available in most supermarkets. The next time you see them I would strongly recommend trying them out. Because they are still green they take 5 minutes to prepare, they are a good source of fibre, Protein, Phosphorus, Copper and Manganese and are truly delicious!

My visit to a Chinese Doctor / Mariella

As a result of several tedious health issues that have arisen over the last year, I am currently undergoing operation fix-me-up. I have lined up some therapies I resonate with and it all looks rather promising. Today I went to a Chinese doctor.

I completely overlooked the fact that a Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Doctor uses needles, long sharp needles, and that this could possibly constitute a problematic situation as I have an aversion to needles, even the small unimpressive kind, let alone the Kung Fu Panda variety that lay in store for me on the other side of the wall. This all slowly settled over me as I dutifully filled in my form in the waiting room. His receptionist interrupted my roost to escape through the bathroom window to inform me that I could go in. I was trapped and not about to make a scene, so off I went, like an animal…to the slaughter!

The Doctor before me didn’t seem inclined to do me any harm. He was rather friendly. I sat down and gave him my list of woes, among them; years of bad stress management and a ganglion,a very painful cyst formed from the tissue that lines a joint or tendon, on my wrist. He listened, checked my hand,  my pulse, my tongue, said I shouldn't eat chicken (interesting as I hadn’t mentioned my blood group, which apparently doesn't handle chicken very well at all). He then asked me to lie on the bed and attached a bunch of strange suction cup thingies on my back and left the room, they got hotter and hotter. 

I started to think about how I had to collect my daughter from a soccer match in twenty minutes and it suddenly seemed like I may be a little late! He came back a while later, removed the cups and horror of horrors, the ominous sound of something being removed from sterile packaging rang in my ears! He rubbed my shoulder and without so much as an ‘On Guard’,stabbed me with a needle! If that weren't enough to completely finish me off, he wiggled it around a little.

Whoever says that acupuncture doesn’t hurt, needs to have their nerve endings checked!

     

He did this twice, and then he asked if the ganglion was in my right wrist. I thought for a moment about making a run for it, in my bra, with needles poking out of my back to the car, or maybe just directing him to the wrong wrist, the one that isn’t already sore. I reminded myself that I was a consenting adult and was the one who had made the appointment, I lifted my right hand. 

He stabbed that needle right through the ganglion! He then wiggled it around and asked if it hurt. It felt like a mini epidural going all the way up my arm and you will never understand how one feels unless you’ve had one. ‘Yes’, I said. He then left me there, like a pinned moth, for whatever needed to happen, to happen. I have to say, once those needles were in, they didn’t hurt too much.

When he returned again I informed him that I had to get to school to pick up my daughter and he said,’Yes, yes, almost finished’. What followed reminded me of those Kung Fu movies where the Ninja, clad in black, steps out of the shadows undetected, and snaps the soldiers neck without a sound. It honestly felt as if he had decided that my head was a liability and the source of all my problems and it had to go! I felt my spine stretch all the way from my neck to my coccyx; he then confidently coaxed the kind of neck snapping, vertebrae crunching sounds out of my neck that you would expect to hear before the baddy drops to the ground, and then attempted to remove my head once more. ‘This no massage’, he said,’ This is ….(A name I couldn't possibly pronounce), this open all Meridian’.  

By the time I left everything hurt, I was so rattled that I forgot my medicine behind and almost got lost on the way to the school where my daughter and her friends were the only ones left. But now, a couple of hours later, I feel fantastic, like my meridians are open! I shall have to google the implications of having open Meridians but it all sounds favourable! I have not, however, had the courage to move my wrist yet! It’s swollen and blue, and I have no idea if that’s good or bad!