Luka's Birthday Party my way! ~ Mariella

It’s all over! And it may take an entire year to muster the courage to do it again! I had a long list of intentions and some fell by the wayside. I have, in the freezer, two full fully forgotten trays of fruit juice ice-cubes with Strawberry slices in and enough home-made magnums to last the month! But the rest went down rather well! I have a confession to make though, I didn’t manage to keep the sugar monster away, there wasn’t enough cake for the moms too and my mother-in-law miraculously manifested a cake she’d baked specially for the event, the day before. Gotta love grannies! 

This was my menu for the day:

~Sliced carrots, red and yellow peppers, cucumbers, celery with tahina and tsatsiki:

Tahina:

Equal parts Tahini and water

A glug of olive oil

Lemon juice to taste (everyone is different but use juice of one lemon for a cup of Tahina)

1 clove of garlic (a common mistake it to put too much)

Salt, paprika, cumin and coriander powdered spice to taste

Blend it all with a hand held blender and presto!

Tsatsiki:

Cut cucumber into itsy bitsy cubes, this is where people make their first mistake, grating it makes the mix very runny, whereas cubing doesn’t,

Cube one clove of garlic, little little!

Add salt, paprika to taste. I’ve seen recipes where they add a splash of olive oil on top, looks yum!

~Oven roasted Cheese crackers

Too simple to pass up, slice cheese into thin slices, put on cracker, grill for 5 min, serve warm.

~Pancakes with cinnamon and honey

~Date Balls and Chocolate date balls, my husband says that I make them a little too cocoa-ish so I tried to go lightly on the cocoa this time but I get the feeling it was still a little heavy handed, I think for kinds, it’s best to use very little cocoa in the date ball mix as it’s rolled in cocoa powder.

http://freshearthorganicfood.blogspot.com/2012/07/super-easy-healthy-snacks-on-move.html

~Fruit kebabs. When one of the kids got dropped off, I overheard him say to his dad that there won’t be any sweets at this party, this was the one kid who exclaimed, repeatedly, how delicious the fruit kebabs were!

~Iced tea.

Fresh mint and rooibos tea with fruit concentrate and as much honey as I could find in the house, (melted in warm water beforehand) One of the children took a sip and said, ‘This isn’t even nice!’ That’s seven year olds for you! I then proceeded to explain that that is how it should taste, once you take all the sugar out! I don’t know if I won him over but he did finish it!

 

~And then the Pièce de résistance, The Birthday Cake:

I wanted to try something new, so I googled and googled until my googler was sore! I even found a recipe where they elected to forgo sugar and wheat in favour of shop bought mayonnaise (which would have all that and more! Grim) Now, what I should have done was to peruse the Freshearth website where I would have stumbled upon the Low Carb Chocolate cake with Aubergine, 

http://www.freshearth.co.za/store/p-4181-low-carb-gluten-free-chocolate-cake.aspx

Always start the search in your own back yard, but what I did find and used, to the unending laughter of my son was this recipe and the kids didn’t throw it away!

Healthy Flourless Chocolate Cake

Adapted from a recipe at LowCarbFriends

Makes a 9″ one layer cake

Ingredients:

1-15 ounce can of unseasoned black beans

OR 1 1/2 cup cooked beans, any color

5 large eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

6 tablespoons unsalted organic butter OR coconut oil

3/4 cup erythritol + 1/2 teaspoon pure stevia extract

OR 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons honey + 1/2 teaspoon pure stevia extract

OR 1 1/4 cup Splenda (using Splenda is not recommended)

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon water (omit if using honey)

Mint Chocolate variation:

2 teaspoons mint extract (in place of 2 teaspoons vanilla)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9″ cake pan with extra virgin olive oil cooking spray, or just grease it with a thin layer of butter. Dust cocoa all over the inside of the pan, tapping to evenly distribute. Cut a round of parchment paper and line the bottom of the pan, then spray the parchment lightly.

Drain and rinse beans in a strainer or colander. Shake off excess water. Place beans, 3 of the eggs, vanilla, stevia (if using) and salt into blender. Blend on high until beans are completely liquefied. No lumps! Whisk together cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat butter with sweetener (erythritol or honey) until light and fluffy. Add remaining two eggs, beating for a minute after each addition. Pour bean batter into egg mixture and mix. Finally, stir in cocoa powder and water (if using), and beat the batter on high for one minute, until smooth. Scrape batter into pan and smooth the top. Grip pan firmly by the edges and rap it on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cake is done with the top is rounded and firm to the touch. After 10 minutes, turn out cake from pan, and flip over again on to a cooling rack. Let cool until cake reaches room temperature, then cover in plastic wrap or with cake dome (I use an overturned plastic chip bowl). For BEST flavor, let cake sit over night. I promise this cake will not have a hint of beaniness after letting it sit for eight hours! If you are stacking this cake, level the top with a long serrated knife, shaving off layers until it is flat and even. Frost immediately before serving

~58g net carbs for the whole cake using erythritol/stevia.

~6g net carbs per 1/10th

~126g net carbs for the whole cake using honey/stevia.

~13g net carbs per 1/10th

Healthy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough to thickly cover one layer, or fill and frost a halved stacked layer

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted organic butter, softened, OR 7 tablespoons nonhydrogenated shortening

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon erythritol, powdered, OR 1/4 cup xylitol, powdered

5-6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons half and half OR coconut milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of sea salt

Good-tasting pure stevia extract, to taste

Optional addition for a glossy finish:

1 fresh organic egg yolk

Preparation:

Cream the butter in a small bowl until fluffy. Powder erythritol or xylitol in a coffee grinder or Magic Bullet for a minute or two, until extremely fine in texture (reminiscent of powdered sugar). Let sweetener settle in grinder before opening the top. Stir powdered sweetener into butter with a spatula, then beat until smooth. Slowly blend in the cocoa powder (unless you want to redecorate your kitchen), vanilla, and sea salt. Beat in the half and half and egg yolk, if using. Add stevia, starting with 1/16 teaspoon. You’ll probably use less than 1/4 teaspoon. Just keep tasting and adjust sweetness to your liking.

~7g net carbs for the frosting, using erythritol

I had to double up to feed sixteen kids. My son is still giggling at the thought of the ingredients, I only told two of the parents and they giggled too! Have a look at the website I got it from. 

http://healthyindulgences.net/2009/05/healthy-chocolate-cake-with-a-secret/

It’s refreshing, in the meantime, since I fully advocate laughter as a real means of therapy, I am leaving you with this YouTube video a colleague sent me. If you have been in the situation where you have to change your diet as result of allergies, you’ll get it, if you haven’t, I’m sure you know someone who has. Have a look and ponder this, how do you milk an oat?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9QbC41oQRo

Healthy kids Birthday Party preparations ~ Mariella

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions! I think that’s a little dramatic, given the circumstances, but it does get the point across! I have full intention to throw a completely sugar, additive, preservative, colourant and flavourant – free birthday party for my Seven year old boy on Saturday! It has to be awesome, delicious, inspiring, the stuff children dream about. And it can’t break the bank! These are my intentions! 

I'm wondering if I'll be able to pull off something like this without the usual suspects, sugar and colourant

Oh, and being the eccentric type, he’s asked for a Black and White Magicians Party, so at least the paper plates were cheap! Unfortunately Plett comes up dry in the Magicians for hire arena, so the entertainment for the day will have to come from me!

Rather relieved this only happens once a year!

So far I’ve come up with pass the parcel, wrapped in newspaper (black and white!), musical statues and a long treasure hunt ending with treats, little gifts and the cake.

When addressing the cake, it’s all about priorities. Most of the children coming to the party eat sugar from time to time and they all eat wheat, so it would be a waste of money and effort to bake a gluten-free cake just because we don’t eat gluten regularly! Last year I made a banana cake with xylatol and honey. It had less than half a cup of flour in it. It was basically a great big banana bread with exotic extra fillings. We made the icing sugar with honey, rice milk powder, turmeric (as colouring), and natural vanilla. It was a hit! But I put a couple of smarties on top for lack of cranberries you see, because I dreaded the thought that my son’s friends should see me in the same light as my daughter’s friends did back in the days when I really didn’t know what I was doing and dished out ‘everything-free’ experiments that not even the dog would touch!

 

So far the menu goes as follows:

-Pop corn

-Lays lightly salted

-Peanuts and raisins

-Sliced veggies with home made dips like hummus

-Veg Sausages

-Black olives

-Cheesie something melted

-Fruit kebabs, thought to chop up the fruit and let the kids make them as a game but there may be blood so i'm still deliberating that!

-Licorice 

-Date squares

-Homemade 'Magnums'

-Lemonade made with honey and organic fruit juice concentrate I get from a friend in Swellendam and ice-blocks with frozen berries inside 

-Pancakes rolled up and cut into slices with honey and cinnamon inside, served in a tray so they don't fall apart 

 
-chocolate date balls

-Something with peanut butter, not sure yet!

How exactly I will be making this black and white is another matter altogether! It's a small party so that helps. I’ll be delving into my usual Mary Poppins bag of tricks as well as hunting for new yummy ideas, I’ll give you the low down on Monday as to how I weathered against the temptingly convenient and very cheap allure of sugar and it’s other buddies! Wish me luck!

Clothes Swops ~ Mariella

In this great age of limitless availability and ever changing trends, it's sometimes refreshing to slow down and really access the full lifespan of the things we gather around us instead of buying and discarding at a rate of knots. When you look at your wardrobe and see nothing but outdated clothes that are either too big, too small or too familiar, your first instinct is to schedule some retail therapy but there are other, more enjoyable, more enviro-friendly options. There’s a great little event that happens in my circle of friends. It’s called a Clothes Swop! It’s really simple and works on the principle that one woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure...

You put all the clothes in a pile in the middle of the room, mix them all up, count to three and start grabbing! It’s such a laugh! Afterward, items get tried on and passed from one prospective new owner to the next until the perfect fit is discovered. What doesn't get claimed goes to the charity shop. 

If you have a very special item of clothing that you haven’t worn in ages but cant bare to just chuck in the pile, there’s a special one on one swop on the side.

It’s a girl’s only event, so, no husbands and no kiddies. Its an evening of chatter, confidences  yummy food and hopefully great new finds for your wardrobe. There’s so much ‘stuff’ in the world that we really don't have to buy new, and I’ve walked away from Clothes Swops with absolutely great finds in beautiful condition. 

It’s good to do it at the beginning of a season, so schedule one now! Just send an invite out to all your girlfriends to gather up all their unworn clothes and a delicious dish to share and look forward to a great girls night in!

What I want to know about GM food~ Mariella

In light of the signing of the Agricultural Appropriations Bill last week by President Obama, I am genuinely worried! This obviously does not concern me directly, not today, but it does present a widening shadow over the future of my consumer rights that I feel unable to control. This little bit of trouble snuck into the Bill, referred to as the 'Monsanto Protection Act', states that products containing GM ingredients no longer require labeling and makes it impossible for US federal courts to halt the planting and sale of GM crops should health concerns arise. I find this super scary!

In South Africa, we have no regulation in place stating that foods containing GM ingredients need to be labeled. There is something called the GMO Act, which merely concerns the controlled management and sale of GM crops. And then there is the Consumer Protection Bill, which seems to have conveniently omitted anything to do with regulating GM products!

Interesting that the very corporations producing and patenting GM crops and insisting on their safe use are the very same bodies insisting they be unlabeled. So where does this leave me as a buyer?

Firstly, you know how I go on about growing your own? Well, in addendum to this, its a great idea to grow the foods which are most commonly GM, failing that, I have started to avoid these foods completely. 

Most Common GM foods are:

Corn~ GM varieties have been created to produce a toxin which poisons moths and butterflies, resist herbicides, present high fructose levels to be used as corn syrup.

Canola~Resistant to herbicide (usually Roundup, also incidentally produced by companies producing the seed!)

Beetroot~ Same as above

Soybeans~Same same as above! Starting to see a pattern yet?

Cotton~Engineered to poison pests. These are not only used in clothing, but in foods like Margarine and vegetable oil.

 

Baby Marrow and Papaya are also high on the list and funny how most crops are genetically modified to better tolerate the use of Roundup....

The most obvious concern with GM crops is that, even though they have been deemed safe, they are being banned throughout the world based on mass crop failure and health concerns due to insufficient testing. If you are going to introduce a human gene into rice with possible future use in the pharmaceutical industry, I am going to want to see generations of testing before I even consider going near it, and then what are you testing it on? So far, there have been two tests which have chilled me to the bone, and both were done on rodents, which I find equally unacceptable:

“ This study was just routine," said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. 

After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.

And if this isn't shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths,a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.”

The Second test to drive the point home was conducted in 2012. Rats fed a lifelong diet of one of the bestselling strains of genetically modified corn suffered enormous debilitating tumors and multiple organ damage, according to a controversial French study which has lead to the petition by Influential Petition site Avaaz, which was signed by millions.

Scientists said the results raised serious questions about the safety of GM foods and the assurances offered by biotech companies and governments.

So what can you do today to deal with the encroachment of undercover GM foods into your home?

~Ok, I know, I know, I keep going on about growing vegetables at home, but really, a one meter space can yield all of the greens you need to keep your family healthy, tips on buying seed to follow in the next couple of weeks.

~Buy foods labelled 100%organic, which is difficult, but if you invest the time into finding the products that are right for you then you know where to go from then on. Even though these are sometimes more expensive, keep in mind that when you consume only the best foods, the quantity you crave goes down as your nutritional needs are being met and you see the long terms benefits in reduction in health care costs.

~Eat only Pasture fed Free-range hormone-free meat. In this regard, meat eaters may have an easier time of it, but given the recent meat outrage in SA, its advisable to find a local small scale outlet that you can trust.

~Shop at Farmer’s Markets as you have direct access to the person growing the food.

~Stick to Wholefoods and say goodbye to fastfood.

~Start asking questions, become your local supermarket manager’s best friend!  Ask for products which are not yet on the shelves and don't be afraid to get on their nerves!

We as consumers are always in a precarious position as we almost don’t want to know what goings on behind the shelves, but I’d rather be told by the shop owner before I consume the food than by a doctor, years after it’s too late. My rule of thumb is, the more natural it is, the better! 

Holiday Survival Guide

Moonstone, our Crystal and Mineral shop, depends much on seasonal trade so we tend to be busiest during school holidays. As a result I carry a subtle constant feeling of guilt that my children are missing out! I’m sure this is the case for many parents. This holiday we have a Gem and Mineral Exhibition in Menlyn Shopping Centre in Pretoria.

My daughter will be jolling with friends but my six year old son will be with me most of the time and even though I’m going to be busy, I’m making a point of creating a holiday survival strategy which makes everyone happy!

H. P.O.A. (Holiday Plan Of Action)

-Stick to his usual bedtime. Its so easy to let this one slip during holiday time but I so often end up with a thoroughly uncooperative young individual on my hands.

-As children are most energetic in the morning hours, I plan to focus on exciting physical playtime early, right after breakfast. Previously I would have tried to pack work in before he wakes up and end up attempting to distract him with things to buy myself time. My kids have always been great at keeping themselves entertained but I’d like to make this holiday fun without overcapitalizing on impressive distractions or making them feel marginalized. So you’ll find us cycling, walking the dog, playing hide and seek and treasure hunting in the garden between 7 and 9 in the morning for the next 2 weeks!

-Organize indoor free play for afternoon down time and make sure there’s always music playing as this will increase his concentration span and feeling of contentment. I'll let him choose as this increases his involvement and affirms that he has a say. He has discovered Bob Dylan recently! Audio books are a winner in my house, and it’s cool to get them to illustrate the story they're listening to.

-Google 'crazy animals' together and select one clear picture to print out everyday with the name for him to copy in detail and then put in an Awesome Animals of the world file that he can take to school first day to show teacher.

-Keep a picture journal of the holiday, each day gets one drawing of the day's events and I may add photos later. 

-Sending him off into the garden with a camera is a great way to ensure hours of new discovery outdoors.

-Kitchen time- I’ll be encouraging him to make a side dish for dinner, popcorn, gluten free banana bread, date balls and co. Also we’ll have a lunch decorating competition daily where I’ll chop a bunch of veggies and other edibles into slices, squares and rounds for him to make funny faces on rice cakes sandwiches, we’ll take photos of them, and he’ll help select the best one at the end.

-Get him to choose the toys that go with when he has to go with to work but give him enough time to select carefully and include books that he enjoys looking through. Where’s Wally is a winner!

- Pack healthy snacks for when we leave the house to prevent crazed starvation buying!

http://freshearthorganicfood.blogspot.com/2012/07/super-easy-healthy-snacks-on-move.html

-Find some cool kid’s events to go to as a treat. This will be easy for us as Plettenberg Bay is the most beautiful place on the planet but is decidedly lean in the Museums, Arts and culture department.

Happy holidays everyone. May the next two weeks find you bonding with your kids, keeping your sanity and not too happy to see it end!

We have chickens! ~ Mariella

We have chickens. Well to be precise, we have chicks, two of them! Chomp, for obvious reasons, and Star. As you may probably be able to discern from the names, they are our children’s chickens! The hours of enjoyment they are getting out of these cute noisy creatures is not as easy to quantify as our primary reason for getting them, free range eggs. 

 

I’ve been putting this off for a while now but it’s so easy to keep chicks. We have a fig cage, about 5x5m, which will be their final home, but for now they are in a little mini cage, which will double up as a chicken tractor and nursery later. They sleep in a box indoors with a red light overhead at night until they get older.

A chicken tractor is a mobile, easy to move structure with a open floor which can be moved about all over the garden, typically over beds which have been harvested and need to be prepped for the next crop. They can be any size or shape, but should have a dry, wind free section built from wood or corrugation with a shelf off the ground where they can sleep in the dry and lay eggs. The rest of the tractor can be clad with chicken wire and open to the weather. Find a more in-depth guide to chicken tractor building here : 

http://sustainablog.org/2011/10/how-to-build-a-chicken-tractor/

I made one out of the wooden side walls of an old tile crate that I got from behind a tile shop in town. I cladded it with chicken wire and that’s it. Some people keep their chickens in chicken tractors all the time and some have a large chicken coop and they put the chickens in the tractor as and when they need land worked over. A friend of mine made the effort to call a large scale free range egg farm who supplies a big supermarket chain to make sure of their methods. She was informed that they were experiencing very little rain so the chickens were not free range for the foreseeable future, when she inquired about the ethics of not altering the branding, she was met with a garbled response….does make one wonder! We buy our eggs at farmer's market just make sure but are looking so forward to our own eggs!

And it’s enjoyable to have ‘livestock’! My photographer friend Anja Wiehl put it better in images than I could in words. It’s all about the cycle of life, you feed the chickens, they lay the eggs, you eat the eggs, you crush the shells up and feed them back to the chickens to make strong healthy eggs, make sense to me!   

Being woman on Woman's Day! ~ Mariella

Today is International Woman’s Day. 

The first National Women's Day happened as far back as the 28 February 1909 in the United States. In 1977 the UN proclaimed the 8^Th of March as the Day for Woman’s rights and World Peace and it took off from there!

Every Woman’s Day I become acutely aware of how privileged I am to lead the life I do,and of how my fore-mothers worked hard for the rights I now have. I become aware of the blessed women around me, of women in countries devoid of basic human rights, of the staggering rape statistics in South Africa and how the only way out, for me, is to strengthen community.

And every time this day comes around I can’t help but think that there isn’t an International Man’s day! A day when we celebrate what it is to be a man in this brave new world. And it really is new, with the rules of the game having changed, being Man today can’t be an easy gig!

There is a very interesting initiative called the ManKind Product committed to building and supporting emotionally mature, accountable and compassionate male role models in our communities.

http://mankindproject.org/

The one way to help redefine, or rather, eradicate, the line between the Macho Oke and Sensitive Male is to refine what it means to be a woman. If I require an emotionally grounded and sensitive, spiritually evolving, physically strong, environmentally responsible, socially considerate Sacred Warrior in my life, then what, exactly am I proposing to cultivate in myself?

I commit to strengthening that within myself which is inherently and uniquely Woman:

~To cultivate the patient mother in me who knows how to guide my children without breaking their spirit, how to nurture them so that when they go out into the world, the words they remember from their youth were of encouragement, reason, affection, clear boundaries.

~To cultivate a secret garden within my life, a labyrinthine realm which is mine alone, a workshop, a clandestine chamber within my soul that I alone have a key for where my Manifestation Machine lives! That crazy, creative, lively, insightful machine which makes my future and drives my fears out with shear enthusiasm and direction, which depends on no one else for replenishment but me.

~To always take the time to consider where I am, how I feel, when I need to rest and to have enough respect for that, that I can freely and clearly communicate it to those around me before I falter.

~To breath!

~To manage my life in a way which cultivates Balance. To be committed to every facet of my life important in keeping me content, be it a weekly phone call to my mom, a daily run around the block even though the laundry needs folding, fresh juice, hugs.

~To cultivate my own sensuality. To take responsibility for creating a new template of femininity which overthrows the limiting public opinion of the ‘empowered woman'. To give the beautiful feminine Goddess within me her space to shine, to leap out from the dark, the shame, the uncertainty, to embrace what makes me a woman and teach this to my daughter.

~To give time to romance. To know that it is not neglectful to separate from the mother and teacher and professional and dive into flowers and chocolates and be assured that it will not fall apart in my absence!

~ Pursue Beauty.

~To work hard and extend myself fully into this life, to not fear healthy ambition.

~To laugh.

~To share and care for those I love and for my natural environment, to affect the lives of those in need in real and lasting ways and to consider the needs of the planet as equal or more important than my own.

~To reach out when I need help.

~To love myself, and be positive about myself, because if I do not champion myself, I cannot expect anyone else to.

And, most important of all; To not beat myself or anyone else up within an inch of my or their lives if I don’t achieve all of the above all of the time, but instead to smile, because I’m Human and a woman and in this great University of life, being Human and a woman rocks!

A little intro to Permaculture ~ Mariella

Permaculture is a big word. And I never quite understood what it meant. In all honesty I’m still in the process of understanding its meaning! But this is what I have gathered thus far:

It has to do with more than just gardening; Permaculture is a philosophy of working WITH rather than against nature, of thoughtful observation rather than thoughtless action, of looking at systems in all their functions rather than only one facet or possible outcome. In other words, it is the implementing of an entire system that works for you, considering everything so that in the end the thing you’ve created works for itself! 

This is a universal need. 

And this is where the concept of sustainability comes in, if the system that you have designed for your garden or your business or your lifestyle requires a disproportionate amount of input and resources, and creates a lot of waste, then it’s not sustainable over the long term. 

I’m going to be chatting about Permaculture a bit over the next few weeks as it’s something that I’d like to learn more about, but I promise that I’ll try not to bore you! I’d like to intro with Permaculture Ethics or principles:

Care for the Earth – All things, animate or inanimate, have an intrinsic worth and shouldn't be overlooked.

Care for people – Through self-reliance and community responsibility we care for ourselves and our fellow human beings.

Give away surplus – This fulfills the above. It’s plain to see in a garden situation, when food is ready to eat, it’s really ready! Everything ripens at once and this harvest needs to be shared. When we have too much of something in the garden for our family to eat, we give some to my husband’s parents and his brother's family. This perpetuates a habit where they also do the same, and we receive yummy gifts from time to time from a crop that we were not growing ourselves. 

This can apply to more than just gardening. If you’re building and there is material left over, swop it out or gift it, you’ll see the turn around when things come back to you. Trust the process.

In today’s current system, everything has one or two uses and then it ends up as landfill, this is called a linear system, as the resource makes a straight line for the dump! Sustainable systems are circular. The used item gains further use or ends up back at the source, where it can be naturally recycled and help make new things grow. Not a drop of energy is wasted and in such a system, where every little thing is cared for and considered, excess of resources is the natural result and the surplus can go toward care for the earth and people again!

It’s a system which focuses on humanity grounded in the same functions that make the planet a place which sustains life opposed to one slowly becoming inhospitable because of exploitation. Take some time today and think about the systems you have in place in your life and if they work for you as they are. Like, does it make sense to throw the compostable off cuts from cooking in the trash just to buy compost from the nursery when you want to work in the garden over the weekend? Have a good think, and I’ll be covering some ways to implement Permaculture in your home soon! 

How we chose our new cell phones ~ Mariella

How do you choose a cellphone? Contract, durability, service provider, design, colour? These reasons alone may be a strain on your brain!

There are as many studies showing that cellphones lead to brain tumours as there are studies which show that they are harmless, so this leaves us pretty much in the position of guinea pig! We are taking part in the largest (+5.981 billion subscriptions worldwide) bio-dynamic experiment in history, exposing ourselves, our children, our environment to a constantly buzzing web of electromagnetic signals. Are you excited yet?

There is much debate about the disruption and massive reduction in numbers of bee colonies and radiation from phones and other electronic devices.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/are-mobile-phones-wiping-out-our-bees-444768.html

In October last year an Italian court ruled that a businessman developed a benign brain tumour as a result of being on cell phone for hours on end and deserves worker’s compensation. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified mobile phone radiation on the IARC scale into ‘Group 2B - possibly carcinogenic. Deeming it necessary to conduct further tests.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57536355/italian-court-rules-mans-tumor-caused-by-mobile-phone/ 

The most obvious cause for concern is that, the longer you chat on your phone, the warmer your head feels. This is due to dielectric heating, an effect of microwave radiation. Dielectric material/living tissue is heated by rotations of polar molecules induced by an electromagnetic field. When on your phone, most of the heating effect will occur at the surface of the head by your ear, causing its temperature to increase. The body will increase blood flow to that area to reduce heat but the cornea of the eye can’t heat regulate. Even though no tests show increase in cataract due to microwave radiation exposure from cell phones, I don’t find this information too encouraging!

Baring all this in mind, our contracts expired recently and we embarked on an info seeking spree. The manufacturers of the phones I was interested in did not seem to have answers regarding the radiation levels of their products so we had to glean info from independent sites, comparing data to try to filter bogus information!

These are the sites that we found informative:  

http://sarshield.com/radiation-chart/

http://sarvalues.com/what-is-sar-and-what-is-all-the-fuss-about/

http://www.emfexplained.info/

http://reviews.cnet.com/2719-6602_7-291-2.html

 

Cell phone radiation levels have a SAR rating which stands for Specific Absorption Rate, which is the unit of measurement for the amount of RF energy absorbed by the body when using a mobile phone. The lower it is, the better off you are. Simple!

Tips for basic phone survival:

   - Distance makes the brain last longer. Many cell phone manuals actually recommend keeping your mobile phone at least 10 mm away from your ear at all times. Consider talking on speaker or a hands-free device. Experts cannot agree on whether a wireless or wired version is better, but as they all emit low level radiation, it’s best to take it off your ear when you’re not on a call.

  - No conclusive tests have been done on the lasting effects of radiation on kids, but most authorities recommend limited use. My kids speak on speaker for a minute or less, no exceptions. I’m not waiting around for the results! They also don't play games on phones without switching to flight mode.

- - SMSing is your friend. Phones emit less radiation when texting and it keeps the radiation away from your head!

- - Research shows that calling and receiving calls when the signal is strong dramatically  reduces exposure to radiation as the phone doesn’t have to try so hard to broadcast its signal to the nearest tower.

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 - Dial with your phone on speaker as this is when the radiation levels go up.

 - Remember to change hands during phone calls.

     

   It's a mine field of information out there, but after quite a long search we chose what we felt was right for us, even though we originally had something else in mind! This is important stuff, but just how important, only our children will be able to know for sure.

Keeping healthy with Sprouts! ~ Mariella

A while ago, the lady who helps me out once a week told me her son was ill and the doctor informed them that he had an unhealthy diet. Together we embarked on exploring ways to fix the situation on a low budget. 

She explained to me that they ate almost no raw food, with the exception of the occasional apple and I felt that this was a good place to start. We worked on it for a while and her son’s health quickly improved, and the secret ingredient was sprouts!

Sprouts are packed full of vitamins, minerals, proteins and enzymes which can be easily assimilated and digested. They also aid digestion. Think about it, this little green sprout has everything required to create a large plant, it’s just bursting with the energy to grow. It takes a few minutes a day to maintain and can produce much of your daily nutritional requirements.  

Sprouts allow for quick salads,  just throw them all in a bowl, add olive oil and lemon juice and serve! And as far as super foods go, you don’t get it cheaper.

There are many sprouting trays on the market, but I use a glass jar with netting held over the opening with an elastic band. 

Fill one quarter of the jar with your choice of sprout, soak overnight in a dark place, like the cupboard, and allow to drain in the drying rack before you leave for work. 

Rinse once a day until ready. 

Its best to leave them until the root is about 1 cm long at least, but a good way to know if they are ready is to taste one. 

If it still tastes a little starchy, leave for another day or so.

See your sprouts as a micro organic garden on your kitchen counter. It takes up no space and offers so much. I like to use alfalfa, fenugreek, lentils, Mung beans.

Each sprout offers something different:

Legumes – Protein and starch.

Mung beans - vitamins A, C, and B complex.

Most Seeds – phosphorous.

Sunflower seeds - vitamins B and D and all the essential amino acids.

Sesame seeds - calcium, iron, phosphorous, niacin, and protein.

Alfalfa (otherwise known as Lucerne!) - chlorophyll, vitamins A, B complex, C, D, E, G. K, iron, calcium, phosphorous, and sulphur.

Wheat grass (sprouted in trays, have as juice or sliced in salad) - Vitamins C, E, B complex, magnesium, calcium, phosphorous, sodium, potassium, protein, enzymes, chlorophyll.

Buckwheat - lecithin and rutin.

They are also fantastic to take on long hikes as they weigh nothing and will ensure that you get your raw foods in long after all the usual fare has dried out or gone off. 

Sprouting makes my life easier and breathes freshness into my salads and believe me, including sprouts into your diet makes eating raw much easier to achieve! 

Practicing Gratitude ~ Mariella

My goodness, this was an eventful weekend. With two minor injuries in the family, both requiring urgent medical attention, and car damage, unrelated, it has been challenging to keep my sense of humour! 

Today I woke up like the weather; cloudy, heavy and grey. It took going out in the late afternoon drizzle to ‘go pick tomatoes’... 

(See http://freshearthorganicfood.blogspot.com/2012/05/ultimate-stress-management.html)

...to gain some objectivity on the matter. And I came to the conclusion that one area of my life is lacking attention and that is dedicated intent-full me time! 

I have found that one of the practices most effective in times of trouble is the practice of gratitude. As a means of delving into one another’s days, my family have cultivated the habit of performing a little ritual in the evenings during dinner. It goes like this:

Everyone gets a turn to say:  What they are grateful for today.  

                                         What they found challenging today. 

                                         What they are excited about today.  

That way it ends off on a high note and I, as a parent have the added opportunity to hear about issues at school that my children may not have thought to tell me about. The most important part is to highlight the positive events in the day and to feel real gratitude for them. 

After my trip around the garden with my little basket of tomatoes and herbs I have decided to crank the gratitude thing up a notch by getting myself a lightweight little Gratitude Diary, it will live in my bag and as I see things that reaffirm my faith in this magical life, I’ll whip out my diary and commit them to paper. That way, my arsenal against down days can build. I recall telling someone last week, ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’. Well here we go…..

What we fed the soil to get Today's Harvest ~ Mariella

This is our harvest for today! Granted we were away for a few days! But still! I’m quite excited! It serves as confirmation that hard work over time pays off, and reminded me to not feel discouraged when the birds total the tomatoes or the caterpillars consume the basil. 

When we started our garden on this hill of Fynbos exposed to harsh salty weather coming off the sea, the soil was tired and acid, and my husband worked hard to enrich the soil. 

Here’s a list of what we used and why:

-Dolomitic lime: Lime is produced from limestone, mined, crushed and processed into a granular form used to neutralize acidity in the soil, provides an inexpensive source of calcium and magnesium, improves microbial activity, improves nitrogen availability, promotes root growth, increases soil structure and increases rates of air and water infiltration.

-Manure: Organic Matter used to fertilize the soil and add nutrients such as nitrogen.

-Horse manure: We filled the bakkie with loads full of horse manure which was then allowed to compost for a couple of months before use. It’s an incredible fertilizer.

-Green Manure: Any garden clippings or crop leftovers like stalks and leaves. They help to nitrogen fix, and add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. The green manure principle started as a natural consequence of crop rotating, the bits left over in the fields after harvest are churned into the ground and allow the soil to recover.

-Compost: Anything organic from the garden and kitchen. Try to avoid throwing any cooked food it as it attracts pests like rats. If you have a compost heap in the back of your garden, you can throw any kitchen scraps in it but if you have a compost bin filled with worms, there is a list of foods that cannot be thrown in, like pineapple, onions and garlic.

- Bounce back pellets: An effective easy to use organic fertilizer based mostly on Chicken manure.

-Comfrey Tea: Comfrey is every gardener’s best friend, it’s prolific and a great source of nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium, potassium, fruiting vegetable love it! Fill a bucket with leaves and weight them down with something heavy like a brick, put a lid on the bucket to keep the flies out and allow to compost for about 3 weeks. It comes out foul smelling and dark and your plants will thank you. Dilute by at least 50% and spray on leaves to suppress foliar diseases, increase the amount of nutrients available to the plant, and speed up the breakdown of toxins. Using compost tea has even been shown to increase the nutritional quality and improve the flavour of vegetables.

- Bone meal: A mixture of finely and coarsely ground animal bones and slaughter-house waste products used as an organic fertilizer for plants It’s a slow-release fertilizer and very good as a source of phosphorus.

We have been working on the garden for about two years and the benefits are starting to show. There’s always lots to do but there’s always lots to harvest!