one small change...in gratitude for this lovely planet

It seems that my approach to the one small change challenge ended up being me discovering what change came to me during each month.  Here I am on earth day finally getting around to discovering what I changed for April.

Each month, my changes had more to do with changing something that would improve my health.  I have a fundamental believe that if we want to heal the world, or change it for the better, we have to first start with ourselves.  Healing ourselves gives us the energy to affect the people around us in a big way and it ripples out from there.  For me, this means returning to a diet that will nurture healing on all levels.  Which brings me to my April change...

Thanks to Suzanne's Green Smoothie Challenge I am finally giving raw a real try.  I've dabbled in eating a raw diet over the last several months.  But somehow the smoothies are making it really easy this time.  There are two other components to my raw change besides the smoothies.  I am also foraging for some of my food each day.  I already mentioned dandelion here. But since then I've been gathering blossoms and greens for my smoothies.  I've been using redbud blossoms (which is the name of the tree that everyone has been inquiring about), violets,  archangel, plantain, and anise hyssops (this from the garden).  There is something profound that happens when you find these gifts in your own yard.  I am just filled with gratitude and it affects the way my food tastes and the energy it gives me.  The other component has to do with developing new raw recipes...more on that to come.

To recap my changes over the first three months of the challenge...
In January, I explored making fermented foods.  Using mostly handmade fermented veggies, but also giving kombucha brewing a try.  I have now successfully made two batches of kombucha.
In February, my change was more of an intention rather than a change mostly because it isn't a small change. I am now in the process of growing food for my family year round.  This summer I hope to grow most of the produce that my family eats and continue to provide some of the produce we need for fall, winter, and spring.
In March, I started getting my water in glass bottles instead of plastic.

I have really enjoyed this challenge and knowing that I am a small part of something really big that is energetically shifting Earth in a positive direction.  Thanks to Suzy and her family for being inspired, acting on it, and expanding that energy to include us all because whether you participated or not, the change affects you too!

Happy Earth Day!

:::

We shared how nature nurtures us over at threading light this week.  In honor of earth day, pop over and pick up the thread by sharing your own thoughts.

one small change...just in time for march

This is more of a reporting rather than a proposed small change.  I didn't think I was going to have a one small change for march, but I was lying in bed last night and realized that I had made a small change.  I use alkalized water due to some health issues that I have, and it came in plastic gallon jugs.  We have eliminated almost all   much of  (edit note: don't want anyone to think I am some kind of superhero here.....there is more plastic than I really like to admit coming in contact with food that we purchase, but we don't use plastic to cook, store or serve our food) the plastic that comes in contact with foods from our home so I really didn't like the fact that the water I drank was in plastic.  A couple of weeks ago I scrubbed up some glass wine jugs that I got out of our recycling center by dumpster diving (I have a habit of doing that there) and have the water placed into them instead of the plastic.  No more plastic for me.  My husband still gets his water from a local spring in 5 gallon plastic jugs.  I hope one day to find an alternative for that too. 

Encouraged by the fascinating work of  Masaru Emoto I labelled each bottle with the words 'Love and Gratitude'.

***thanks to everyone who made me start thinking just how much plastic is still coming into our home.  I hope to do a post in the near future to share some of the ways we avoid plastic.***

homemade and homegrown intentions...one small change

A dream of mine is to grow a significant portion of my family's food.  I really wanted to grow more of our food this fall/winter, but I really got a late start on that.  I have some carrots and endive ready in a cold frame waiting for more sun and warmth to grow into early spring harvests, and we ate a lot of kale, celery, swiss chard from the garden this fall, but winter is tough.  I am in the planning stages now to grow a lot of root crops that will get us through next winter and more diversity to make our growing and eating more enticing. So this month's one small change is really the next step and a big change (for us) to rely on our land and our hands to meet our family's food needs.

There was a time in our life that we would stop at the grocery store on our way home from work each day to buy whatever we needed.  Slowly, over many years we have transitioned to relying on local sources for our food.   But we are not perfect, this winter I have reluctantly bought conventionally grown produce in our grocery store to get us by.  There is also the fact that neither one of us works outside of our home anymore.  We have a limited budget, and it is hard to justify driving into town to get stuff.  Often I have to weigh the choices of spending the money and time to drive to local markets that are 35-45 miles away, a large grocery store that has a decent selection of exotically grown organics 25 miles away, or our local grocery store that offers only organic carrots, celery, and broccoli which is 10 miles away.  Even in the heart of the growing season, I still have to drive 20 miles to pick up my CSA order and visit a closer local grower's market.  So it is time to step up and grow...our own food.

This month I've bought Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest, which I got through interlibrary loan this summer...too late to really get things going for this year...but oh so inspiring.  I also ordered his latest book, Winter Harvest Handbook.  Oddly enough, about 18 years ago, I read his book Organic Grower and was seriously interested in becoming one...seems I am finally coming full circle.

I also placed my seed order and I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my seeds.  This week we are getting started with some cold weather crops like kale, mache, and other greens...yes, greens!  There is 2 feet of snow on the ground right now and another 6 inches on the way tonight...so we are still at the dreaming/planning phase.  I've been gardening for years, so that part isn't new.  It is just being more intentional about what and how much I grow and why I am growing it.  So it is an intention more than an actual change.  But that's what seeds are too...tiny intentions that can grow into big things.

Finally, to properly wrap up January's small change.  We did a really good job exploring the idea of different cultured foods.  The cultured veggies seemed to be the easiest to assimilate into our lives at this point.  Although, I struggled to get Jude to eat much.  Did anyone else have luck with their kiddos eating cultured veggies?  Kombucha brewing was a dismal failure...I think our house is too cold this time of year.  I'll try again in the summer.  And I am going to get kefir grains soon to begin making our own kefir from raw milk that we get from Erma.

Finally to share what turned out to be my favorite winter salad creation...so far:

Celebration Salad

what you need:

1/2 head savoy cabbage

2 carrots

3 T of cultured beets

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

what you need to do:

1. slice the savoy cabbage into thin slices

2. grate the carrot and mix in

3. mix in the cultured beets

4. drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over and toss

enjoy~

homemade...winter salads

My body has been really craving greens and other fresh vegetables lately.  These are just not available locally this time of year.  Last week I drove 45 miles to a grower's market that I have never been to before, and low and behold a grower had mache.  I couldn't believe my eyes...fresh local greens.  I felt slightly stingy grabbing up two small bags, knowing they were like gold this time of year in central pennsylvania.  But I am so glad that I did.  Here are a couple of winter salads that I created to use some of the cultured veggies I told you about here.

Mache salad with cultured carrots

1 bunch mache or other green like spinach

1 handful of bean sprouts

2 tablespoons olive oil (first cold pressed from italy or greece)

4 tablespoons cultured carrots (or shredded carrots with a splash of apple cider vinegar)

12 kalamata olives

1.  Pull the mache apart into individual leaves and place into separate bowls.

2.  Place a bit of the bean sprouts on top of the mache

3.  Drizzle 1/2 tablespoon olive oil over the greens and sprouts

4.  Place a tablespoon of the cultured carrots on top of the greens

5.  Add 3 olives to the top of the pile of carrots

enjoy!

This was a salad I made up to disguise cultured carrots so that Jude would eat them.  The lemon, olive oil combine with the carrots to be very cleansing for the liver....so don't skimp on the olive oil!  This may be a little tart to most palates so you may want to mix it up as is and add honey or agave nectar to individual tastes, but it will all depend on how sweet your carrots are.  I like it as is without the cranberries, but they make a very colorful presentation and they are a favorite of Jude's.

Cultured Carrot-Apple-Cranberry Salad

3-4 grated carrots

1 grated granny smith apple

1 grated piece of 1" square ginger 

2 tablespoons of cultured carrots (or 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar)

1 handful of dried cranberries

1 handful of chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

2 tablespoons of chopped parsley

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice

honey or agave nectar to taste

1.  Mix together grated apple, carrot, ginger.

2.  Add in the cultured carrots, cranberries, nuts, and parsley

3.  Stir in olive oil and lemon juice

4.  Add honey or agave nectar to taste

Our one small change project is going pretty well...this is the batch of veggies I have going right now...celeriac, black radish with a bit of beet juice, beets...cultured beets are really tasty.

And finally to reveal what was in that brown paper bag....

kombucha starter!

I am just starting my first batch today so I'll have to report on this later, but I am quite excited since I bought my scoby in november, and I love kombucha.  Some times even small changes require a certain alignment and motivation.  

***I'm using a new post editor with blogger, and I can't seem to get the spacing right....it looks really bad on my computer...how does it look on yours?  I just reread the last sentence in my post...and let's just say it made me laugh.***

To follow up a bit... The kombucha is fermented tea. The scoby is used to ferment the tea and in the process creates a really yummy drink that is slightly carbonated. It is said to have really great health benefits and has been consumed for hundreds of years. As for the cultured vegetables, you have to use common sense here. If you are not comfortable with eating them, you shouldn't eat them. If the veggies are spoiled and not fermented they will smell bad and the color will be dull in color. The salt inhibits bad bacteria and allows the good bacteria to grow. Once the good bacteria grow they keep the pathogenic stuff from growing. But I am not an expert and I suggest that anyone who is interested in making their own cultured vegetables use some of the resources that I linked to in the orginal post and read some more before they dive in...although this is really not complicated at all and people have been fermenting vegetables for centuries.

homemade...cultured vegetables tutorial

This has been quite a week, and it almost got away before I had the chance to share this promised tutorial. I was honored to be featured in an article over at Shivaya Naturals this week, and it has been a really incredible to connect with so many inspiring and creative women as a result. All I can say is wow...how blessed I am!

I chose making and eating fermented foods as my one small change for January. I've made cultured veggies before and purchased them from local growers, but my new commitment is to get into the habit of making them for my family regularly so they are available and consumed with every meal.

This time of year it is really important to try to up the nutrition we receive from our foods because we are not eating from our garden or from local sources. Eating cultured veggies does just that. It ups the vitamin content of the vegetables, provides important enzymes, and provides us with healthy bacteria for our digestive tract. And making cultured veggies is super easy and even young children can participate in the preparation. Here's how...

Gather your materials. You need whatever veggies you want to use ( see the end of the post for some recommendations), some sea salt, and we used some caraway seeds (this is optional). You need something to grate or chop up your veggies into small pieces.

Make your veggies smaller by grating or chopping them. You want to increase their surface area...I like keeping things simple and using a grater.

Jude got into the action with the grater.

Then we got out this crazy chopping contraption which was a hit.

Of course you could use a food processor instead.

After the veggies are smaller, use your hand...

potato masher, or spoon to squish the veggies and release their juices.

Add salt to taste. Enough salt is necessary to inhibit the microorganisms that we don't want.

We added some caraway seeds too.

Transfer to a clean dry jar or ceramic crock (no metal).

Push the veggies down until they are submerged under their juices.

Add a bit of water and additional salt if you need to.

Set the jar in a shallow container or bowl in case it overflows and cover it with a cloth or loosely with the jar lid (gases need to be able to escape).

Put the container in a warm spot in your house (ideally 72F). Check on it after a couple of days to make sure the veggies are staying under the liquid. You will start to see bubbles on the surface. You can taste it every day to see how it changes. It will take on a tangy taste, and you get to decide when they are done...generally 3-6 days. Then store your container of cultured veggies in the refrigerator.

You can use all sorts of veggies for culturing. Beets, daikon, and of course cabbage all work really well. You can add ginger, garlic, other herbs in various combinations. The real purpose of this tutorial is to show you how simple making cultured veggies is, but I love experimenting. There is lots of room for that with cultured veggies.

I've always eaten cultured veggies as a condiment, in other words, a tablespoon or so with my meal. I chose to give carrots a try this time because I have a mama hunch that Jude will like these.

In case you are a video person, I found a really great video of Sandor Kantz demonstrating how to make cultured veggies. His website has a wealth of information on fermentation too.

There are numerous recipes out there on the web, but I really enjoyed reading Making Fermented Foods: the Why and How and encourage you to take a look if you are not sure why eating fermented foods is such a good idea for your health. Additionally, there are a great collection of basic recipes at the end. I am particularily interested in trying Shivani's bread, which is a flat bread made from fermented grains...gluten and wheat free if you choose.

But the next fermented food I'm going to try making is still waiting patiently in that brown paper bag ...I'll let you see the results, hopefully, next week!

one small change

I have been so inspired by all the one small change projects that I have seen popping up on various blogs. Recognizing the power in little acts and always enjoying good company, I decided to jump on board. Hip Mountain Mama started this project to encourage folks to pick one small thing each month to change in their lives to make a "positive green impact and follow through with it" for the next four months.

So what to change?

We do a fairly good job of living in a sustainable way, but we are always striving to do more and enthusiastically embrace new ways to become more so. It's my nature to stretch the boundaries of any assignment...so stretch your definition of environment when you consider my one small change.

My small change for January will be making and consuming fermented foods. Now at first thought, you might not consider this eligible. How is making fermented food better for the environment?

When we begin to take care of our internal environment and consider the interconnections among what we consume and our personal health and well being, even on emotional and spiritual levels, we inevitably begin to see the interconnections in the external environment in which we live. We support an internal environment within our bodies. My desire is to nurture organisms within my body (and in the bodies of my husband and son) that will coexist peacefully and healthfully.

"Your environment becomes you, as you invite microbial populations you share the Earth with to enter your diet and your intestinal ecology." -Sandor Katz

Additionally, taking the time to mindfully prepare food always connects me more to the food. I cannot grate a carrot without thinking about where it was grown (even if I am not sure where it was grown). Fortunately, a large portion of our food comes from people we know or that we have grown ourselves. Those connections are significant and help us not only appreciate the food but the environment from which it comes and of course the people who grew it.

To be completely on the record, I consume fermented foods from time to time already. The change will be to begin making them for my family so that they are always available and to make them a regular part of our lives and our meals. By making them, it will also cut down on packaging and expense.


I've had intentions for this small change for this for a long time. In fact, I have a little friend in this bag that has been waiting patiently to become part of my life... I'll introduce you to them in the near future as well as offer a super easy cultured veggie tutorial this week because even a small change takes commitment and accountability on some level.

blessings~