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