Lazy, Rainy Daze

It’s been raining on and off here for the last couple of days and I haven’t felt much like doing anything. Guess it’s the rainy-day blues, although, last evening Ro and I took a beautiful sunset walk between showers in the north pasture by the waterfall. We found a lovely mulberry tree and Rowan cried when I couldn’t reach anymore berries for her! LOL! Poor starved child! ~giggle~ I think not!! The two year old eats more than I do some days!! Then we picked wildflowers and grassheads all the way home and made a beautiful bouquet for the kitchen table. The coyotes have been out in force lately. We’ve started hearing them as early as 7:30pm, so we made sure we were home before then. Wouldn’t want them to have a run-in with mama-me.

Lazy menu included:

bananas

strawberries

grapes

oranges

apples

lots of green smoothie—my one major effort today

macadamia nut milk—Yummy!!!

leftover cookies

frozen raw cheesecake from a couple weeks ago

The majority of the day was spent with a blanket, some books, toys, and a couple elmo movies. Hmmm . . . now all I need is some peppermint tea!

~Rowan & Sharilyn

Holy Mother of Black Raspberry

Pickin’, pickin’, and more pickin’. So the energys came through for us yet again (did I even doubt?) and as always, and interesting story accompanies our lush harvest of black raspberries.

As I was returning home a couple days ago I passed a man on the side of the road, just off the driveway and down from where I helped in the garden after inquiring about the pear tree. I wanted to introduce myself, as I thought this might be a neighbor. It turned out that yes indeed it was a neighbor who was an artist and photographer. After a few minutes of chit-chat I invited him to come photograph the landscape at our 260 acre farm if he wanted, which he gratefully agreed he would like to. More chit-chatting led to discussion about the pear tree, which he did in fact own, and did not eat the pears—I was welcome to them. (Yea!) And would I also like to pick berries, there are tons of them on his property? You bet I would. More chit-chat, oh you used to do landscaping? I’d like to landscape the front here . . . maybe some work down the road?? Or just a helping neighborly hand would be fine with me too!!

I was looking over the flora while I was picking berries today. Trying to avoid the poison ivy made me think of the many poisonous plants that can often be either growing wild or specifically planted in a garden. As I have a two year old who enjoys plucking and eating (she plucks peas and parsley and mint and red clover and nastursium and calendula/ marigolds and one time rhubarb flowers—not good! poisonous!—and before you know it is munching away) I thought I would include here a list of some of the plants to watch out for if you too have young children who like to graze.

Common name Latin name (SPP means ‘species’)

Baneberry Actaea rubra, pachypoda

Bleeding heart Dicentra spectabilis

Buckeye Aesculus californica

Buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica

Castorbean Ricinus communis

California poppy Eschscholizia SPP

Crowfoot Ranuculus SPP

Dogbane Apocynum SPP

English Ivy Hedera helix

Foxglove Digitalis purpurea

False hellebore Veretrum

Iris Iris SPP

Japanese Pagoda Tree Sophora japonica

Jimson weed Datura SPP

Larkspur Delphinium SPP

Lupine Lupinus SPP

Monk’s hood Aconitum SPP

Morning glory Ipomoea/ Convolvulus SPP

Mistletoe Phoradendron SPP

Nightshade Solanum nigrum SPP

Oleander Nerium oleander

Poison hemlock Conium maculatum

Poison oak Rhus SPP

Poison ivy Rhus SPP

Sweet pea Lathyrus odoratus

Scotch broom Cytisus scoparius

Steer’s head Dicentra uniflora, pauciflora

Water hemlock Cicuta maculate

Wild tobacco Nicotiana SPP

Wisteria Wisteria SPP

Though not an all inclusive list, these are certainly quite a few to watch out for.

Rowan’s menu for today included:

banana-hemp milk with flax oil

green smoothie—banana, celery, spinach, apple, orange

strawberries

grapes

cookies—almond, hemp seed, coconut, cacao nibs, black sesame, apple, salt and sweetener

tons of black raspberries—Miss Rowan couldn’t keep her patty-paws off them!

more smoothie

vanilla almond milk

brazil nuts and jungle peanuts

Here’s black raspberries to you!! THPLLLLLPPPP!!!!! LOL!

~~Sharilyn and Rowan

How To Make NutMilk

Nut milks are wonderful for your body. Each different nut or seed of course provides different nutrients and attributes. Brazil nuts and almonds are alkaline. Pumpkin seeds are antiparisitic. Sesame seeds are know for their calcium content. Hemp seed is a complete protein, containing all the essential amino acids that your body can’t make. It helps to reduce your “bad” cholesterol and had lots-o antioxidants. Cashews have a high amount of magnesium. The list goes on. I try to vary my milks, but favorites are hazelnut, almond, sesame, hemp, and pumpkin.

It all starts with raw nuts or seeds—about a cup. I use about ½ a cup for sesame seeds. In a pinch I’ll use a raw butter, usually 1/3 to ½ cup. Pictured from top left: Hemp seeds, sesame seeds, Raw cashew butter, raw almond butter. Next from left: Hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews, brazil, pumpkin seeds (green), macadamia, and sunflower (tiny white in bottom right). Toss your nuts into a blender (tee-hee) and add about two cups of water. Blend on high for up to two minutes (in a regular blender).

Strain it in a paint thinner bag and pour it back into the blender. Then add:

1 tablespoon honey or the equivalent. Pictured is: honey, agave, refined stevia, and powdered stevia leaf. I also use maple syrup on occasion.

1 tablespoon cold-pressed oil. Pictured is: coconut, olive, hemp, flax.

A dash of himilayan salt, sea salt, or powdered kelp (my preference).

Blend it baby!

Add enough water to equal 4 cups of milk and your done.

This is how much milk I got from today’s nut/seed (I scooped all the nuts/seeds pictured up top into the blender for today’s milk). I filled one large canning jar, plus about a cup left over. Added some cacao powder and a banana for chocolate banana milk.

What’s left after I filled Rowan’s cup.

Yum!! Drank it all, pausing only to let me refill her cup!

Now you don’t have to add the sweetner, salt, and oil. You could just blend the nuts and strain it. I prefer the fuller, more like milk taste with everything added.

And if you don’t have a milk bag, use a mesh strainer. Better yet, add a little more sweet, some cocoa/cacao/carob, and ice to make it thick like a milkshake. Then you don’t feel the graininess in the back of your throat. A banana helps too.

Hope you try some nut milk, as it’s super yummy as well as beneficial and nourishing to your body. Have a great day!

~Rowan and Sharilyn

Fruiting Pineapples

My pineapple top has rooted and now needs to be planted, which I’ll do today. You never knew you could grow a pineapple bush? Here’s how:

Twist the top off a fresh pineapple, don’t cut it. Let it dry out for 5 days or so.

Stick it in a glass of water, changing the H2O every 3-4 days. I put my cup in an east windowsill. It took a couple of weeks to start the roots, then I just left it in the cup for about another month I think. If your top doesn’t root, it may be too old—try another.

After it roots, pot it up. Eventually, a red bud is supposed to form containing over a hundred tiny flowers that open into velvety blue blooms, each lasting a day. Each spent flower bract then develops into one segment of the fruit.

But before the pineapple top will flower, I’ll have to put a bag over the pot with an apple, tied tight so no air escapes, for about 5 days, thus allowing the ethylene gas from the apple to force the pineapple to flower.

After the bag is removed, new leaves will form from the center of the plant and rows of pineapple fruit will begin growing at the bottom of the new leaves. It will be golden yellow and about 6 inches above the old plant on a stalk about ¼ inch thick. (Staking required.) And if the plant doesn’t flower, I’ll repeat the apple procedure.

I’ll keep you all posted how this project develops, but hopefully we’ll be eating fresh, ripened on the plant pineapple in about . . . 11 months or so, as (I believe) it takes about 9 months for a pineapple fruit to ripen. Can’t wait!!

Today Rowan ate:

banana

chocolate hemp milk

carrot salad: carrots, onions, celery, thyme, garlic, parsley, ACV, EVOO, maple syrup, braggs aminos, sea salt, cayenne, . . . . . ? (Going by memory here)

Mango coconut chutney: mango, apple, coconut, honey, cayenne, tumeric, salt, cinnamon, pepper, ????

raw cookies: hazelnut, coconut, hempseed, sesameseed, apple, raisin, goji, salt, cinnamon, honey

green smoothies—orange, apple, banana, spinach

fresh peas

blueberries

strawberries

~Rowan and Sharilyn

UPDATE: 7/13/2011 I have a small pineapple growing!!! yeah!

Naked Chocolate

I LOVE getting stuff in the mail. Today was doubly great, because I received a pound of organic vanilla beans from the organic vanilla bean company and the book Naked Chocolate by David Wolfe and Shazzie. I can’t wait to digest both.
I’ve been on a raw chocolate kick I guess you could say. You see, ever since the reception of the bag of Chocolate Bliss and the afore said consequent Happy Energy Buzz, I’ve wondered if it was just the raw chocolate or the combo of all the other super ingredients. And since I’ve had raw cacao beans—2 large bags—for the last year or so that I didn’t know exactly what to do with (and because I’m out of the Bliss already!!!), I figured I’d try to make a chocolate shake with mainly the raw cacao beans, even though it’s a bit grainy. (I only have a regular blender.) But, blend for a couple minutes, add ice, and it turns into a milk shake thick enough that you hardly notice the grainyness. And since I also have quite a few “super” ingredients that I’ve had for forever and not quite known what to do with, into the shake they go. Today’s super shake was super packed since I went to the store yesterday and totally stocked up on every kind of nut and seed that was raw that I could find. Normally I wouldn’t blend more than one or two nuts together, but I figured what the hell. Plus, I overstocked from the bulk bins a bit and couldn’t quite fit everything into the containers I had at home.

Today’s Super Chocolaty Super Good For You Shake:
raw cacao
hazelnuts
pecans
macadamia nuts
cashews
brazil nuts
hemp seeds
pumpkin seeds
black sesame seeds
maca root powder
tahini
goji berries
golden berries
carob
coconut
coconut oil
agave
honey
maple syrup
vanilla
sea salt
flax oil

Wow. Didn’t realize how much stuff was in there. Think I got it all. Blended the nuts and berries, strained it, added the sweetners and oils and salt and vanilla. Oh, and saved the pulp, added some flax seeds (ground) some coconut flakes and some soaked oat grouts, a little agave and vanilla, and made cookies for Rowan, which she loved. And mom loves that a cookie (or three) can be a healthy and filling on-the-go meal. Basically it’s a raw protein bar in the shape of a cookie that my baby loves!!

Today Rowan ate:
green smoothie w/ mixed greens, carrots, apples, bananas, kelp, orange, strawberry
raw chocolate ‘elixir’
more ‘elixir’ (actually she wouldn’t leave my shake alone and drank half my glass when I wasn’t looking!! - - AFTER finishing her own glass!!!!!)
fresh sugar snap peas from the garden
more smoothie
fresh carrot, asparagus, and more peas from the garden
raw cacao-oat-coconut cookies
apple slices

~~Rowan and Sharilyn

Chocolate Bliss

Yesterday I received my anxiously awaited package in the mail: Chocolate Bliss and Vanilla Agave from http://www.highvibehealth.com/. Today I made “Bliss” shakes (I’m still waiting to get back my ice cream maker, otherwise it would have been Bliss ice cream.) and Oh My Holy Mother! This stuff is unbelievable! I was only going to taste it since I’ve been fasting and trying to come off gently, but after that taste I had to have a small cup. Rowan did her Happy Dance and mommy joined in. What a buzz!! After about 10 minutes I felt Super Happy. I could literally feel the difference—it was huge!! As I was thinking about calling Stephanie at HealthVibe to thank her, the phone rang. Guess who!! She was calling to see make sure I had gotten the package. I totally went off telling her how wonderful it was and how incredible and happy I felt. (Come to think of it, ‘Bliss’ is exactly fitting.) She told me this stuff actually pulls toxins from the body, and to drink a cup of water with it. How great to have coming off a fast!! There’s something like 25 different ingredients, mostly superfoods, in this stuff—acerola berries, maca, hemp, rhodiola rosea, cacao (of corse) just to name a few. The kicker ingredients are ‘love and intention’ and Oh can you tell!!

Steph, you have bottled happiness. Namasté, my dear, namasté.

Get your own superbuzz from here: http://highvibehealth.com/Chocolate_Bliss.html

I had quite a full day. I was outside by 7 digging out the sod from the bed I cut last night and planting all the splits and babies from yesterday’s plethora. Then the potato bed got extended to include the corn babies that needed to get in the ground, so I turned the 4 x 4 foot bed into a 4 x 7 or 8 foot bed and tilled the soil down about 2 feet with a shovel and my sweat. That’s a load of work! Planted the corn and heard Rowan awake, so went to get her. We picked some fresh greens from the garden and made green smoothies. Later, we watered plants and weeded. Took care of some IRS business and bills. Then the Chocolate Bliss and dancing.

Rich came home early from work, so I took off to try to finish up at the retreat center. Six hours later it was getting dark, so home I came to pot up some more splits that there wasn’t room for. (I’m thinking plant sale to raise funds for this retreat or church affiliate.)

I’m beat. I’m going to stretch and go to bed.

‘Night!

~Sharilyn

UPDATE: Got the ice cream maker--should've seen the kids faces!!

Raw Chocolate Bliss Ice Cream

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad’s B-day and he’s made it . . . 62 times around the sun I think. (47 . . . 97 . . 2007 . . . + 2 years for 09) Yeah, he’s 62 years young. Here’s a big bunch of yellow roses for you daddy. Don’t know if there’s 62 of them, but it’s a digital picture so you can duplicate it if you want to. LOL. :o}

I had quite the busy day, a result of a spontaneous encounter. Last fall I noticed a small pear tree beautifully endowed with some of the most luscious looking fruit just down the road from where we live. I had stopped to inquire about the over-ripening pears and to see if we could pick them, but no one was living at the house. I kept an eye out, but never saw anyone there and, as realty signs were posted on the property, figured nobody resided there. Fast forward to last Thursday: A man was out cutting up a tree and on a whim I stopped again to ask about the pear tree. The tree wasn’t theirs, it was the neighbors, but they had a pear tree in back that was a help-yourself. I commented on the beautiful landscape (With my 15 years experience in the field, I was quite sincere on this point. The place is gorgeous.). One thing led to another and I had a job, sort-of. The flower garden needed some serious attention. It was overgrown and plants needed to be split and moved, weeds needed to be pulled. I offered to straighten things up in exchange for some of the splits and babies that decided to seed themselves in less than optimal locations. The man who maintained the place (it turned out to be a retreat center, religious based) said he’d pay me for any work, and to help myself to some of the extra plants. Just what I asked the universe for: Free perennials!

So I spent four hours there today and came home after dark and had to cut a new 20 or so square foot bed to temporarily store all the splits that couldn’t find a home in the garden at the retreat center. And more to do tomorrow!! I’m pooped. I’ve been fasting for the past three days—mostly water and a little watered down lemonade, and some herb tea for my head cold. Oddly enough I haven’t been energy deprived like I sometimes was on other fasts.

Now a weird part: An hour or so after I was there it began raining, and as I looked down at the ground, I noticed what I thought was hail bouncing back up after it hit. It was quite warm, so I thought that was odd. On closer inspection I discovered that it wasn’t hail, it was what looked like larvae. Imagine the Mexican jumping bean without the bean. Tiny white threadlike worms or larva, each about a centimeter long, were bending themselves into little balls and then popping open, causing them to pop up 3 to 4 inches off the ground. Strange. I asked Dad and my former business associate Joe about it, but neither had ever seen this before. Anyone know??

Today Rowan ate:

tahini/sesame seed milk w/ flax

grapes

oranges

green smoothie with fresh picked spinach, lettuce, arugula, kelp powder, bananas, apples

whatever else dad made as I was “working” (Yea!)

~Sharilyn

Happy Mom’s Day

Goji babies!

Hope all you mom’s did exactly what you wanted today. We were outside most of the day morale hunting and enjoying the sun.

Garden news: I dug the Jerusalem artichokes up ---I planted 3 tubers last fall. Three. Tres. Toi. I dug up . . . around 30. I hope I got them all. I’ll be replanting a few out in a separate area. Talk about invasive!! Perhaps I’ll move my mint over with it. The mint shoots along in the top three inches of soil, while the Jerusalem artichoke tubers grow about six inches down, so they sort of compliment each other.

Tristen has finally gotten his garden dug and planted. He’s growing: 16 carrots, 9 spinach, 9 radish, 1 fennel, 9 bush beans, 1 popcorn, 2 cucumbers, 1 tomato, and 4 basil plants. This is all planted in a 9 square foot bed.

The strawberries aren’t doing too well—I wondered when I saw the rootstock if I should return them. Perhaps I’ll try seeds yet this year. 5 of the 9 blueberry/raspberry bushes haven’t leafed yet. X yer finga’s for us.

Beyond food stuff: I’ve been working on a shade garden under the two big maples. I’ve split 4 large hosta into at least 50 plants, maybe more. I’ve added some transplanted wood ferns collected from the forest, and have recently found columbine as well, so that will be added soon. I have 8 seed trays holding between 30 and 40 seedlings each coming along, and I can’t wait until I can have cut flowers for the table (and for salads) every week.

Morals abound. The family’s collected over 10 pounds this season, and as none of us really eat them, they’ve made great gifts for neighbors and friends. Tristen found an extremely large moral this week—as big as a dollar bill. Kudos kiddo. What we haven’t given away, we’ve dehydrated to pass along later.

Other activities: Soccer season in here, and this is Tris's first year at it. He does well, particularly as goalie, and is picked often for that position. It’s so entertaining to watch all the kids running after that little black and white ball!

Rowan and I often go foraging in the woods. I'm trying to identify as many potential wild edibles and herbals as possible, as well as locate any thing else of interest--Like the fort on the top of the hill (really just a deep ditch surrounded by shrubs) which Tris has claimed as his own.

Hope you're keeping as busy.

~Sharilyn

Happy Birthday Rowan!!

I did it again. Posting at the library got put off yet a few more weeks due to a number of factors, the biggest being that I couldn’t find my memory stick. Sorry, anxious readers. I’ll try to be more consistent with my postings. I aim for weekly, but life gets in the way sometimes.

Little Miss has finally attained the age attributed to her attitude of late: She’s two!

Here’s what I love about Rowan:

She usually greats you with a “Hi Ro-Ro” in the morning or after nap time.

She is eager to help when asked.

She makes the best messes in the shortest possible time.

She tries new things eagerly.

She is determined and headstrong, constantly checking her boundaries.

She gives all kinds of presents, from flowers to bugs to little specks of dirt or a dropped morsel of food.

She shares her wonder at the world, in turn making me wonder too.

Her wonderfully large blue eyes.

The way she talks, using sign language and not fully pronounced words that are too adorable.

She has the best pout that will melt the firmest of resolutions.

Rowan had a plethora of presents, from elmo videos to a tea set. Plastic fruit and books to devour. A beautiful white party dress that managed to survive chocolate cake.

The cake was an experience. I half-followed a recipe from one of my raw books, using nuts, carrot and apple pulp and such. It turned out well and tasted wonderful. Not as fluffy as carrot cake, but much softer than the first nut cake I made. LOL. That one was a rock!!

So two years have passed in a blink. Soon it will be decades passing as quickly. Enjoy your moments. Do it now. They pass all too fast.

In Love,

~Sharilyn, Rowan, and Tristen

We’re Back!

It’s been a busy, busy month. The garden, of course, has taken up most of my time, digging new beds (all with a shovel, not a rototiller—we love our worms!), planting seeds and transplants, moving sod from the newly dug beds to the bare patch in our yard, and so on. Illness struck Tristen for about five days—fever and sore throat, then hit Rowan, though she was sick only a day. (Hmm, could that be because she eats 99% raw and he eats only about 75% raw??) Car troubles, tax return troubles (The IRS screwed my return up, still haven’t received our refund and it was in by the 2^nd week of February. Hrrmmmph! ), other paperwork issues, yadda, yadda, yadda, rent, rent, rent.

We’ve tried a few new raw recipes--strawberry granola, sour cream and salsa, corn-lime chips, bbq chips, garlic-almond crackers, cashewbutter squares, goji-maca-cacao bars, and Portobello sausages. All turned out great. I plan to attempt a mashed potato using jicama. I’ll let you know how that transpires. The best discovery was the garlic almond crackers. This has the BEST TEXTURE of a cracker, and with some tweaking, I could probably come up with a good soda cracker. Here’s what I do, to the letter:

First I make almond milk using a cup of almonds. I grind almonds with water and pour this into my nutmilk bags (I use doubled up paint thinner bags --MUCH cheaper than nutmilk bags, 2 for a buck and a half). I squeeze the milk into a bowl then I pour the milk back in the blender and finish adding my salt, oil, honey, and water, and dump the pulp into the bowl. Nutmilk done, I grind about half a cup of flax seeds in the coffee grinder and add it to the pulp. At this point, I could mix and spread for a plain cracker (soda crackers!), but I blend a clove or two of garlic with just a little water and add that to the batter. You may need a little more water, but I like a thick consistency. This is then spread with wet hands on dehydrator sheets (the wet keeps your hands from sticking) in either small round spoonfuls or larger sheets that are then scored before drying. Sprinkle on a little salt, and again later when you flip ‘em. Again, the texture is remarkably like a Ritz or a heavy soda cracker. But don’t take my word for it!

The berry rootstock is/are planted: 40 strawberries, 5 blueberries, 4 raspberries, a gooseberry and a boysenberry. Most of my veggies are in or started indoors for transplant later. Next on my todo list includes digging beds for flowers—chamomile, bachelor buttons, zinnias, cornflowers, and other cut or edible flowers. The herb garden is pretty well established. The best surprise was finding out how much rootstock I had in my overwintered parsley! Whew! I was able to plant 16 plants in the veggie beds and kept about 5 larger plants in the herb garden by the house. I will definitely pot some up again next winter.

Hope you’re keeping as busy! We’re off to hunt for morales.

Keep it raw,

~Sharilyn

DID YOU KNOW: The Jerusalem artichoke contains inulin. which helps stabilize wildly erratic blood sugar levels, keeping them smooth and even. Diabetics, take note!

UPDATE: Another plant that contains up to 36% inulin is chicory--you know, the common roadside weed with the stunning blue flowers. You can add the leaves to a salad. The root is used medicinally, and some add the roasted root to flavor coffee.

Warrrmmm!

Well the snow lasted all of a day, totaling about an inch. Yeah!! Now maybe it’ll warm up and I can plant the rest of the gardens! Unfortunately the cold and the potato shoots didn’t mesh well, but I’m hoping those taters ‘ll sprout new buds.

Sunday’s menu:

strawberry flax xrs

pear apple banana parsley smoothie

banana almond milk

romaine and celery ‘crackers’ with sun-pumpkin-almond-lemon-sesame-garlic-pepper-broccoli spread

apples w/ cashew butter and blueberries

veggie salad-broccoli, cuke, celery, romaine, onion, garlic, carrot

bananas

mulberry lemonade

~Sharilyn

Coooold!

Snow flies again in northern Illinois. Yesterday Tristen went to his school’s spring carnival. Today I remulched the newly planted potatoes and some of the plants that I had uncovered on Thursday because we’re supposed to get 3-6” of snow by Sunday. Hopefully this will be the last snow of the year.

Dorothy Domestic strikes again—or perhaps it’s just spring cleaning fever. I’ve been a crazy cleaning woman lately. Maybe it’s the fasting, I don’t know, but I just need to deep clean everything and can’t seem to stop. Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you.

Rowan’s been seriously cranky today—another tooth perhaps? Or maybe just an off day. Tris worked on his state project. Each student has a state to report about and he chose Michigan, so he’s been on the computer encyclopedia, jotting down info, and talking to grandma who lives in Michigan.

Here’s the kids’ menu for the day:

strawberry flax xrs with cashew butter

brazil nut milk

banana-apple-parsley smoothies

strawberry shortcake-strawberries, dates, brazil nuts, vanilla, agave

cherry tomatoes w/ chia seeds

potatoes

celery with cashew butter

~Sharilyn