Spiral of Life - Energy Transformation from Field to Fork

This being the start of a 10 day fast it’s a perfect time to reflect back on some of our activities and observations about our lives as far as our food is concerned. I can always measure our journey by what we are eating, growing or cooking.

Today we are working on some honey from one of our hives… I love the smell in the house when honey is being processed. Of course our form of working with honey is very simple – for the most part, we don’t do much of anything!

What we like is honey on the comb or cut comb honey. This is the honey you can gently squeeze out of the comb or eat the entire thing really. There is a little bit of wax and lots of honey – all of it with health and healing properties.

Mostly we don’t take much honey from our bees – just enough to use for medicinal purposes and a little in my baking. It certainly would not be something I would spread on my toast (other then the first day with new honey) it is too precious for that.

This past week I also cooked a leg of lamb – it was one that needed to be used up, something that was bought from a shop awhile ago. What I wanted to mention about it is that it was bland – the day before we had enjoyed some of our own meat raised here and it did not compare.

First of all, it wasn’t organic, it was also likely raised and then not handled as gently as we would our own animals. But, I do think what they are fed likely makes a bigger difference then we all realize.

Fortunately here in Ireland, most lamb and grazing animals are on the land and eating grass. However, those intended for market are often finished on grains which are mostly genetically modified these days (corn and soy are GM in the regular feeds).

This gave me something to think about – and I was not overly impressed with the meat itself. I was thinking mostly in terms of the flavour – perhaps we are so accustomed to stronger flavoured fowl and game meats now. Or maybe I just need to get a lamb of my own and raise it to see if it tastes better or different to me.

Some other things I have noticed with my cooking and baking is how much of our meals are now our own. At Easter we sat down to a meal with the following items made or grown by us - turkey, pickled gherkins, pickled beetroot, cranberry apple sauce, sage stuffing, green salad, hot fruit juice.

Everything, except for items like rice and some of the vegetables (which we are not able to grow yet) were from our own hands. It was nice to look around the table and see how far we’ve come with our food.

Even if you have to buy in some of the raw ingredients – you are still making something terrific for yourself and your family when you raise, grow and cook your own food.

I can see how my focus shifted sometime ago from removing any processed foods (they have been long gone) to seeing how much we are able to grow on our own. Then tasting the difference in the herbs, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, vegetables from our own hands – has become a pleasure.

It is such a wonderful feeling to put energy out into the raw ingredients and then to have it all come back full circle – transformed into healthy, nutritious meals for your family.

The spiral of life is dynamic and alive….

April 

Honey comb waiting to be pressed

An Unprocessed Solstice and Yule Season

Taking stock of where we are now and looking back at how far we've come this year alone - things are much the same BUT - everything is completely different. And I am only touching on the food part of things here.

Our diets are pretty well the same - we eat organic and have for many years. We would eat mostly vegetables, some grains, a little fish, some fruit, nuts, seeds, herbs and some meat. Ours is a fairly well rounded eating plan with plenty of room in there for variety and seasonal change.

However, even though I made nearly everything from scratch my self - there is always room for improvement and this year has seen a dramatic shift in our bodies, mind and spirits because of the complete removal of any processed foods.

Right now is the season you would tend to plan for when it comes to food - make it through the Holiday season and it's smooth sailing after that. With this time of year in mind I made jams, chutneys, sauces, pickles, raised turkeys, stored honey and did the extra baking.

And all of it from using only the raw ingredients. If we want juice, jam, halva, pretzels, sweet treats or mustard - we find a way to make it. To be honest, late last night I was up making stocking treats for the kids (and everyone!) everything from scratch, including some of the ingredients....

I am feeling quite impressed with the entire process for a couple of reasons. First of all when I started out, I thought it would all be so complicated and perhaps difficult. At least for some of the foods that we are used to eating. 

Of course it has turned out to be the exact opposite in every way. Making food from scratch is straight forward and gets easier as I gather better tools and try the recipes several times.

Then, there was this entire resistance thing I had to overcome - mostly in my mind surrounding the amount of work involved and the convenience of being able to just buy a couple of things ready made. It may take a little bit more time in some cases, however, this is my food - what could be more important?

 Finally, I really was not prepared for the profound difference in taste, texture and the sheer amount of choice I now have in, well, everything we eat. I can make up my own recipes, create different textures and try out new things....simply by changing an ingredient or two.

Life and food could not get better then this!

April

Barley Cove Beach, West Cork

Fruit Leather

I am now always on the alert for anything different I can make for the children for some different tastes and textures. Also, because we are not buying foods made in factories, I am now simply assuming, everything can be made at home.

Lately, I have been very pleased with nearly all the results from my attempts at making homemade goodies and treats. The halva I made last week was perhaps one of the trickier types of recipes to try, even though it did not get as hard as the one from a shop, it was much tastier with a creamy texture we loved.

Then each of the nut butters I have made here - almond butter for instance, so simple yet an elegant taste of only almonds. The difference between a shop bought one and a homemade nut butter seems to be the flavour. The one I made was still very 'almondy' even after a few days.

Then the sunflower seed butter - the kids are still raving about it. I added a splash of honey to it which not only changed the taste to something very sweet, but gave the butter a depth we had not tasted before. The children were not interested in the least in anything coming from a factory, they preferred our own homemade versions of each food I prepared.

I guess at this point into these changes to our diet, I have renewed hope and a sense of purpose, because there is no turning back! 

Today I thought to try my hand at some fruit leather or fruit roll-ups as I have seen them in shops previously. We love dried fruit of any kind and use lots of it in our muesli and baking or anywhere else it can fit in. So, this stuff should be a hit as well.

Fruit leather is generally cooked pureed fruit, that has been dehydrated in some way. To make this food, I cooked some apples and kiwis, mostly because that's what is on hand, put some orange juice and water with it, and a splash of maple syrup. Then used my handy blender to get it to a smooth texture once it had cooked down a bit.

raw apples and kiwi

I poured it into a flat baking pan on a piece of parchment paper - now it is still in the oven and has been for about 4 hours or so on a very low heat. This will (hopefully) dry out into a type of fruit strip that can be rolled up and eaten as a snack. Apparently it may take a few hours before it is tacky, but not sticky to touch.

Totally unnecessary? Perhaps, but something different for us to try out. I will let you know how this one tastes once it is done. 

Have a lovely day!

April

Apple Kiwi puree ready for the oven

A Lot Has Changed...

After this last Master Cleanse, I am still taking stock of how I feel physically while I examine each of the differences in my body, mind and life. Some changes are easily noticeable, while others are less obvious, and have sort of snuck up on me during the time I have been clearing out my diet even further.

One of the most interesting things to mention at the beginning is my diet is organic, clean, with many years as either vegan or vegetarian and even now - the majority of the foods I do eat are plant based.

So, this is what I came up with....

As I was pondering the changes that are taking place for us because we have decided to further remove any and all remaining processed items from our diets, I found they could be divided into two distinct categories. 

One main area of change was primarily physical with several places I have noticed over these past few weeks where I actually 'feel' different

• more energy - overall I feel brighter and have more energy to get through each day, I am not any busier either, even with some extra cooking, it has been quite enjoyable to be honest

• eating less - perhaps this is a result of better food, or because homemade food is richer, but I find myself full sooner, needing less to eat and generally not overeating 

• clearer, smoother, softer skin - my skin has changed quite a bit over the years, deep detoxing has also improved it considerably, but now, it is also softer as well as smooth, as if it is well hydrated

• better digestion - my digestion should be pretty good after all these years of eating well, however I do notice an improvement and my intuition tells me that my absorption is better

• senses - I have mentioned this a few times these past few days, and I can't say it enough, each of my senses (including my eyes) are stronger, sharper, better 

The other areas of significant change have been found on a day to day basis, sometimes I hardly notice it, I just seem to have broadened my interests and 'feel' differently about the same situations which would have bothered me even a few weeks ago. 

• creativity increased - in general I am finding ways to be more creative, with my children, in my writing, around the house and in the garden

• saving money - I definitely have noticed a reduction in the overall spending on food since we started making all of our own items, we are shopping far less

• food security - as a Clinical Nutritionist, I have a need to know exactly what is in the food and what my children are eating, and now I know, because I make it ALL myself 

• more organized - with the use of additional glass jars, using up storage space and generally moving things around, this has prompted me to be far more organized in the kitchen as well as to know exactly what is on hand when it comes to food

• energy is clearer in mind and body - looking back over these past 2 months or so, even though I only removed a few items from our diets, I am getting the desired results within my energy field, it looks and feels brighter

These are only some of the places and ways I have found to have changed during these last few weeks since embarking on really making every possible effort to remove the remaining processed or factory made foods from our immediate food chain.

I think it is quite impressive! All along I would have felt I was doing a superior job feeding myself and my family - yet, there are always ways to improve and of course the benefits have been tremendous. 

These are early days yet, so who knows how I will feel in the coming months as time moves on...it will only get better!

Have a healthy day,

April

One of my favourite meals - turmeric rice with vegetables