Greener Garden Accessories

 

We’ve spent the last few days happily planting vegetable seeds on our farm.  As every gardener does, we are hoping for a prolific harvest.  To achieve that of course you need a combination of sun and rain; in dry spells you have to water.

Traditional garden hoses use a lot of water and are manufactured with toxic materials. Fortunately manufacturers understand the importance of and the growing market for “green” household products and are now making eco-friendly hoses with patented water restrictors.  The restrictors control pressure and use at least 50% less water; they also help with puddling and soil erosion.  Earth friendly hoses are made from at least 50% recycled material, usually polyurethane, rubber or a combination, and are generally much lighter than the common rubber hose.  (It is important to choose a hose with UV protective coating to prevent cracking from direct sun exposure.) And on those hot days when you need a drink of water, you can safely drink from an eco-friendly garden hose.  They can be found on-line at greenhome.com.

100% recycled soaker hose

Conserving water is always a concern and using a rain barrel to capture rainwater makes good sense.  The spouts can easily be attached to your garden hose and you can put two or more barrels together for more water!  Check out these rain barrels from Gardener’s Supply.

Rain Barrel

To mark your plants in the garden, here’s a clever upcycling tip.  If you have some old venetian blinds hidden in your attic, cut them in pieces for garden stakes and label them with a sharpie.  It keeps the blinds out of the landfill and saves you a few dollars.

Show off the fruits of your hard labor and spotlight some of your plantings or light up a garden path with solar lighting.  They last for years and work just as well as conventional lighting.

Gardening is naturally a green activity, but make it even more so by using greener garden accessories.

Raw Food Diet

English: A close up of a fresh raw food dish (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently attended a raw food cooking class. A raw food diet is just what it says – food that is eaten raw or heated to no more than 115 degrees. According to raw food experts, the advantages are that raw food contains beneficial live enzymes that make it more digestible and that it has a higher vitamin and nutrient content.   Heating or cooking chemically alters food causing it to lose its ability to provide energy.  Cooking also destroys certain vitamins. A raw food diet can cleanse and heal. The raw food diet as a health treatment was first developed in Switzerland in 1897 by Dr. Maximillian Bircher-Benner, the inventor of muesli, after he recovered from jaundice by eating raw apples.  His health center is still in operation today.

In summer when fruits and vegetables are abundant, preparing seasonal, local, raw food is easy. A strict raw food diet year round however, is more involved and does not include any processed foods.  To make crackers, breads and other “baked” goods can be time consuming and requires advance planning.  Blenders, food processors, juicers and dehydrators are all needed equipment.  Sprouting and soaking are necessary to eat grains, legumes and nuts.  Nuts are a large part of the raw food diet and are used to make cheeses, crackers, breads and soups.

What appealed to me about the class was its emphasis on creating warming uncooked meals.  We learned simple tips like bringing all food to room temperature for a couple of hours before preparation and using lots of warming spices like cumin, curry and nutmeg.  Our meal started with a delicious raw butternut and green apple soup, followed by zucchini chive canapés, a zucchini slice smeared with chive cream cheese made from cashews – even better than “real” cream cheese! For dinner we made a Brussels sprout and pumpkin seed slaw, a wild rice and chickpea salad, kale and shallot pizzettes with 3 kinds of cheese (again, cashew based; the crust was made from flax seeds and vegetables “baked” in a dehydrator) and a fresh fig and lemon tart for dessert.  The dinner was fabulous and you never would have known it was uncooked!

I could never be an extreme “raw foodie”, but I do love experimenting with new and healthy cuisine.  I read somewhere to make 50% of your diet raw, so challenge yourself and give it a try. Below is a simple recipe for Cashew Parmesan cheese that rivals the real thing!  Email me for more recipes…

½ cup dry cashews

1 clove garlic (chopped)

¼ teaspoon sea salt (coarse)

Grind cashews and sea salt in food processor (with ‘s’ blade) until fine, almost powdery.  Add garlic and pulse food processor until texture resembles Parmesan.  Use on everything!

Information compiled from The Raw Truth, The Art of Loving Foods, by Jeremy A Safron and Renée Underkoffler,  http://en.wikipedia.org/, onesmallpatch.com.

BE HEALTHY!

Image via Wikipedia

I’m a firm believer in learning from other people’s expertise, experiences, wisdom and even well founded opinions.  This weekend I attended Be Healthy Boston, a 2-day urban wellness retreat with keynote sessions and workshops.   It was fabulous! Renowned doctors, naturopaths, nutritionists, physical therapists, psychologists, architects, designers, chefs, musicians, yoga instructors and green living experts, shared their knowledge with eager people who wanted a healthier lifestyle. I’d like to share some of this knowledge with you.

One main message was empowerment.  The resources to manage your own health and well-being are plentiful – we are lucky in the Boston area to have access to so many health care professionals of all levels – and there is no lack of information on the Internet.

One session that I especially enjoyed was “Food as Medicine” given by Dr. Mark Mincolla, a nutritional and natural health therapist who has transformed the lives of thousands of patients over the past 30 years.  He spoke extensively about inflammation, the root of many diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, autoimmune diseases, arthritis, and others, and how we can control chronic inflammation through diet, exercise and stress reduction.   Dr. Mincolla suggests trying an anti-inflammatory diet for three weeks (give yourself a break on the weekends if it seems impossible) just to see if you feel any difference, which consists of:  fatty fish like salmon, vegetables, fruits, legumes, brown rice (whole grains), olive oil, soy, tofu, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and yeast-free bread.  Eliminate inflammatory foods such as dairy, wheat, egg yolks, fatty red meats, sugar and alcohol. The anti-inflammatory foods, high in Omega-3 essential fatty acids, are an extremely important part of disease prevention and overall health. I urge you to read more about inflammation or visit his website maxhealing.com to better understand the inflammation/disease connection.  Check out his NECN program called “You Are What You Eat”.

I have long been an advocate of prevention and maintaining a healthy immune system through diet, especially in this time of virulent and unusual germs and viruses.  It’s exciting the medical community, the media and programs such as Be Healthy Boston focus on taking charge of your own life and embracing wellness.  As Dr. Mincolla says, “the best medicine is the medicine you will never need to take.”

An irony of all ironies – I picked up a flu bug from the Be Healthy Boston retreat!  Life is funny….

Some information compile from “Food is Medicine” by Dr. Mark Mincolla.

 

 

RAISED BED GARDENS

In this era of industrial grown food transported thousands of miles, and food borne illnesses that can often result, many people understand the health and environmental benefits of eating locally, or at least regionally.  Part of the new “locavore” movement is growing some of your own food, and one of the best and easiest ways to do so is to install a raised bed garden.

A raised bed garden is a garden built on top of your native soil typically sized around 5’ x 10’.  The basic idea of a raised bed is that instead of battling against poor soil conditions, you build above ground where you have absolute control over the soil texture and ingredients. You can plant more in a raised bed garden because you don’t need to leave room for paths.  You simply lean over to work in the garden. Because raised beds tend to have more plants in less space than a traditional vegetable garden, they have fewer weeds and require less maintenance.  Raised beds also drain better because they are elevated.

As with any garden, the quality of the soil is key – healthy living soil means healthy thriving plants, which means healthy fresh food.   So make sure you use local compost to enrich the soil, hopefully from your own compost pile. Along with the satisfaction of growing your own food, you’ll save money and will find that raised bed gardens add beauty to your landscape!

Have fun, get creative and grow a themed garden like a salad garden, a pizza garden, an Italian garden, whatever you can imagine. One idea is to grow fruits and vegetables from the Dirty Dozen list,the produce that contain 47 to 67 pesticides per serving and the foods you should always eat organic. These foods are believed to be most susceptible because they have soft skin that tends to absorb more pesticides.  Growing your own food is very rewarding!!!  Go to Gardener’s Supply Company for ideas!

Image by Peter Wild