Signs of Spring!

Although it's snowing in Metuchen right now, yesterday I was able to snap a few pics of the first sign of spring -

CROCUSES!

Yes boys and girls our first Crocuses are peeking through. This warms my heart especially during such a long snowy winter.

Crocuses are really cute little flowers. If it wasn't such a pain to plant them I would have them covering our front yard. Since most need sunny spots, we would have to plant them in the backyard instead and that's already been done for us. Our larger patch in the backyard still hasn't come up but when it does I am hoping it's bigger and better than last year.

Juice, Juice... Baby

Got my juicer - woo hoo! It came last night. Jared got chef's choice so we did: collards, carrots and a yellow apple. I thought the greens were going to be tough to juice but I added them followed immediately by carrots or pieces of apple and they went through beautifully!

Having the juicer is also a no-waste system. I took the pulp, added about 1/4 cup each of ground flaxseed and water then mixed it together. I put the mixture flattened into the dehydrator overnight and viola! I woke up to wraps that I was able to use for breakfast and lunch.

How cool is that! I don't think our co-op is going to have enough fruits and veggies for us, good thing we'll have our garden going this year!

Not recommended for Pregnant Women or Nursing Monthers

You see those warnings a lot. When I saw my neighbor who is pregnant, and looks great by the way, it got me thinking.

Source: http://www.magnetstreet.com/baby-blog/2009/03/

If it's not safe for a developing fetus or an infant is that something you really want to ingest? Now I'm not talking about cigarettes and alcohol. I mean let's face it, they aren't exactly good for anyone. Cigarettes definitely and alcohol, well 1 glass a day can be tough and it works against you if you have your 7 glasses in one night - believe me I know!

And I'm not talking about Pthalates even though they are all the rage now. They are found in plastics, mostly the soft pliable kind. They can also be found in the air, not much you can do about that since you have to breathe. They do affect developing fetuses, causing male babies to be born with small genitalia.

Source: http://specialedjames.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html

Here's a quote from our friends at the Environmental Working Group (EWG)

Phthalates have been found to disrupt the endocrine system. Several phthalate compounds have caused reduced sperm counts, testicular atrophy and structural abnormalities in the reproductive systems of male test animals, and some studies also link phthalates to liver cancer, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s 2005 National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. Though the CDC contends the health hazards of phthalates to humans have not been definitively established, for some years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has regulated phthalates as water and air pollutants.

I'm talking about food and cosmetics.

Pregnant women are told to avoid a laundry list of foods because of contamination (mercury in fish & seafood), bacteria and paraiste risks (rare beef, chicken, pork, raw dairy & soft cheese) and because of chemical exposure (cosmetics).

Do you really want to eat things that can compromise the development of a human being? I don't want to consume foods that are contaminated with mercury for my own safety, same goes for foods that are not cooked properly that can kill me.

The chemical exposure is what always strikes me. We have no problem coloring our hair and going to the nail salon, but when you are pregnant it's recommended you don't color your hair and I have a friend who is a manicurist that couldn't work while she was pregnant.

Source: http://www.beautyschools.edu/Beauty_School_Curriculum/Cosmetology_Program_And_Education

What does that mean for us? It's been found that a newborn is born with about 300 different chemicals in it's system. For those of you that are vegan and organic that number is lower. Chemicals are found in breast milk too. The scary thing is that of the 80,000 or so chemicals out there only a fraction have actually been tested for human safety. That means that WE are the guinea pigs for those chemicals. As it was explained to me by a chemist, tests do not have to be conducted if the chemicals are generally assumed to be safe. What is not taken into account is that there can be interactions between other safe chemicals that can lead to a not so safe situation. Think of your two best friends and they each have on their favorite perfume. On their own it's great but put them together in a small space and yikes!

Now a days there are plenty of alternatives and I encourage people to seek them out. Eating a plant-based diet* that includes the organic version of the dirty dozen and using skincare products that don't contain parabens and other harmful chemicals will help reduce your exposure to chemicals in the long run (check out the Skin Deep: Cosmetics Database to find the right product for you).  If only cleaning the air and the water was that easy...


*The new GMO alfalfa that's been approved by the USDA raises the risk of contamination into organic animal feed

This is So Sad...

This just in:

Headline on the Organic Consumers Association Website:

The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now? 
click here for the entire article

Looks like times are a changing when Whole Foods, Organic Valley and Stoneyfield - the trifecta of organics - decide that they will call a truce with Monsanto and GMO crops, specifically the highly contested alfalfa crop.

Waiting for the Snow to Melt

So while I wait for the snow to melt, or not, before I plant my early spring garden – target date March 19th!

Backyard - January 27, 2011

I really wanted to do it on St Patrick’s day but that’s a Thursday and I’m not planting in the dark – been there and done that! I have decided that I need to detox. So on Tuesday I started with some fruit, a seaweed salad and a juice: Spinach, carrot, apple and ginger. Yesterday more fruits, smoothies and peas and beans made up the day. Today it was smoothies, beans with buckwheat and hopefully something justa as good for dinner. Hopefully I can keep this up – I am looking to cut out caffeine, gluten, soy, added sugar & alcohol. The big toughies will be gluten and alcohol as I love my bread and wine. It's only for a few days this time, if it works it might be my Monday - Friday diet.

In order to help me along this journey I have purchased 2 raw uncook books:

The Complete Book of Raw Food, Second Edition: Healthy, Delicious Vegetarian Cuisine Made with Living Foods (The Complete Book of Raw Food Series) by Julie Rodwell (Editor), Victoria Boutenko (Contributor), Juliano Brotman (Contributor), Nomi Shannon (Contributor), Mary Rydman (Contributor)

AND

Raw Food for Everyone: Essential Techniques and 300 Simple-to-Sophisticated Recipes by Alissa Cohen (Author) & Leah J. Dubois (Author)

I haven’t gotten them yet but am looking forward to trying them out. As soon as I can leave the house, of course.

Well I did it again

Or at least that's what Jared is thinking...

I went ahead and bought not one but two greenhouse. They should be coming in at the end of the week. I ordered them on eBay and can't wait for them to come in!

They are really big, dimensions are: 71"x54"x36" - woo hoo! I plan to use them as cold frames to start my plantings early and to extend the growing season when it gets cold out.

Here's what they look like.

Time to think about the new garden

Yep it's that time of year. Even though I sit in my office freezing my tukhus off at the kid's desk I use, I have my mind on SPRING!

Last year's garden was quite a bust and I will take full responsibility for that. We had a couple of traumatic events and a mini drought without a hose was the icing on the cake.

Well now we are armed with great books thanks to Mom & Dad H.

A great resource for anything veggie gardening related including: planning; composting; pests and a crop guide to all your favorite veggies.

And of course in this day and age gardening on the cheap is definitely a must! This book includes tons (about 400!) of tips on saving money and more importantly, resources while you garden.








One way I am saving money is by saving seeds. Over the past year I have begun saving the seeds of our favorite store bought organic vegetables. If I see something that looks good I will keep the seeds, clean them and let them dry. I will then store them in containers in the fridge.

Right now we have saved seeds from:

Kentucky Wonder Beans
Collards
Patty Pan Squash
Sweet Peppers: Green, Purple & Yellow
Sunflowers - of course!
Decorative Pumpkins that will go in the front yard - yippee!
Calabaza or Edible Pumpkin
Asian Foot Long Beans
Ugly Tomatoes
Oregano
Butternut Squash

 

BUT we still have seeds left over from last season too:

Black Beauty Eggplants
Sweet Banana Peppers
Peas
Tomatoes: Oxheart. Black Krim and Roma
Radicchio
Lettuces: Romaines, Black Seeded and Green Oak
Celery
Cucumbers
Zucchinis
Turnips
Spinach

Seed Drawer

And my ultra-fabulous friends have gifted us organic Cucumber, Tomato and Squash seeds too! They also gave us really cute garden stakes.

The only thing I am missing is Kale - now we have two Kale plants in the house, I am thinking of letting them go to seed so we can plant those. If it doesn't work no biggie, we can get seeds.

Oh boy! I don't know if it's from the cacao nibs in my morning smoothie or thinking about the garden, I am ready to start right now! How exciting!!