Go Organic? Grow Organic

17. May 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Healthy Eating · Tags: , , , ,

I love food. There. I said it. In fact I love food that much that I grow my own. I photograph and journal what I grow. I have a website that I use to share my experience and knowledge, and a small but appreciative audience that leave enough positive comments to keep me ‘growing’ back for more.

Seriously – it all started because I hate spending money on something that doesn’t (to me) appear as though it possesses value-for-money. So, not only do I grow my own, I’m a tightwad. Wow. Confessions are coming thick and fast today huh?

Roll back ten years. The organic food industry was rumbling into view, and on the horizon (well, the one that contained food in it) it looked as though things were about to change for the better – and proponents of the healthy lifestyle (me) rubbed our hands together in glee at the thought of a whole host of non-processed, non-modified foodstuffs coming soon to a store near you. Me. Us.

Man was I wrong. Oh yeah, the organic food arrived but did ya see the price tags?? Even now, how many years later, organic food is overpriced. Instead of inflating tomatoes with chemical crap, they decided to inflate the cost of buying them instead. Boy did that leave me pi … mad. But what’s a guy (or my case girl) to do? Don’t get mad – grow your own.

So I did.

... I like it organic. Ya know?

Going Back To My Roots

I come from a family of farmers. Only I had a distinct lack of farm. The things you put up with when your not the first born, right? My older brother got the farm, I got a three-bed with a backyard, and enough asphalt out front to lay claim to a driveway. Still, being good old country gal stock meant that I’d picked up an awful lot of know-how during my formative years.

As well as at college. Being what I am I kinda got steered into agriculture at college, and though I didn’t go on to to turn the Earth beneath my feet into food that I could pack up and sell, I did go onto to become a teacher. Of agriculture. At college. Who’d have thought it?

Anyway I’ve always grown stuff. Mostly herbs, things I could use for flavor. And almost everything I did grow I grew in pots. Then I got a little older and wanted to eat a little better. And once the organic ‘revolution’ started , I felt the revolutionary within (honest – I didn’t know I was about to become the Che Guevara of the organic vegetable until I saw the price tags) start to flutter inside my chest.

Why not?

And that, as they say, is history. I ended up ripping out the flowers that ran all down the left side of the back yard (the sunny side, sorry Mother Nature but needs must) and got the soil ready. Knowing what I know about agriculture, I just applied my knowledge on a micro-scale. I knew from the start what I wanted to grow, how to plant, what season yielded what, and so on.

Throwing Light Onto The Subject

I’d also used grow lights, inside, for years, and this was possibly the magic ingredient in my soon-to-be-venture into the wonderful world of (let’s be honest here) slashing your grocery bill in half. I wanted to grow enough food to sustain me and my family. I also wanted to grow enough fruit and vegetables to keep us munching on good organic stuff year round. And I wanted to do it as cost-effectively as possible. 

Using my experiences with grow lights and general plant growing, I knew how to grow from seeds. This meant that as each season ended I could recycle my own seeds back into the growing cycle. Trust me on this – growing seeds is fairly easy but when you’re doing it because your larder is going to depend on it, you’ve gotta get it right.

Grow lights, indoor planting - etc

I already understood the science between plant growth and light, how could I not? Grow lights give an added advantage, especially for indoor growers and/or folks like me that want to start their plants off from scratch. Ok, seeds. As a well seasoned (don’t pardon the pun, it’s intentional, just smile) grower-of-things and college-professor-of-agricultural … stuff, I knew plenty about the different types of grow lights. My favorites are LED ones, but I tend towards a combination, depending upon what I’m growing.

Setting up an indoor system is easy once you know how, and watching your seedlings shoot up is kinda awesome. Anyway, as I don’t want to digress (this is a minor opinionated piece about my one-man-warfare on organic food prices) let’s get back to the crux. Organic vegetables. Healthy lifestyles. Or is it ‘living’? Whatever. Let’s just think of it as putting in a little effort in order to receive a lot of benefit.

Here’s the lowdown, the skinny, the inside track, on growing your own (organic) produce.

Grow Your Own. And Then Eat Them

Here are the top easiest-to-grow veggies. And trust me, you really would need to have the IQ of a gnat to mess these babies up:

  1. tomato
  2. spinach
  3. radish
  4. pepper
  5. beans
  6. eggplant
  7. squash
  8. potato
  9. onion
  10. lettuce
  11. peas
  12. carrots

Of course there are more. But these are good for beginners. And cover a range of veggie ‘types:

  • salad
  • tuber
  • pulse
  • bulb
  • fruit (oh yes … eggplant, squash?)
  • leaf
  • root

We’re also covering the two main crop types – cool and warm season crops. As you learn more about going organic, you’ll figure out why peas and lettuce grow better in cool weather conditions, and vegetables such as beans and tomatoes grow better in warm ones.

Yep. That's right. Natural.

Ok so we’ve covered the bare bones of growing and eating your own organic produce. Obviously you need to learn more. A lot more. You need to know about soil, planting, using grow lights, what to grow and when and the only way you’re going to learn is to go and read up on it. That’s what the internet is for. And that’s also a good deal of why the internet is so awesome. Tons of information at your finger tips.

Recommended reading for the two main components of this article – grow lights (and what they are/do/how they work) and the backyard organic ‘farmer’, the basics, the must-haves and must-do’s etc: click here and then click here. 

Now that I’ve hopefully peaked your interest, I also hope that you’ve got the you know … whatever to go forth and organically plantify the heck out of your back yard. Eat well, live well. That’s my motto. I also have another one. Spend little, benefit much. I like to think the two go well together.

And believe me, every time I eat something that’s home grown, something that I know was created through good soil, good lighting, a little bit of love (and yeah ok … a little help from Mother Nature) I smile. To myself. Here’s to good (organic) living.

Why Detox Diets Don’t Work

21. March 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Healthy Eating

Many dancers worry about their weight. Ballet dancers are under constant pressure to be wraith thin.  Belly dance costumes show off the midriff area, so belly dancers are always conscious if they gain a few pounds around the belly.  So it’s not surprising dancers reach for a “detox” diet for a quick fix.  But it’s not a good idea!

A detox diet is a starvation diet. That means your body is less likely to burn fat (it think there’s a famine, so it wants to save up the fat for later). Instead, it will draw energy from your muscle fibres, which will make you weaker and more liable to injury.  It’s also a shock to the system, and you’ll feel lacking in energy.  All dangerous things when you consider the demands a dancer places on the body during classes and rehearsals.

A young ballet student just starting exercises for pointe, for instance, needs strength and stamina.  If she’s tired, or her body is under stress, her young muscles and ligaments are far more likely to become strained. Even a belly dance workout can cause harm to a body that’s under-nourished.   So it’s much wiser to focus on regular healthy eating than shock tactics when it comes to diet.

Enjoying the health benefits of green tea and using it in your cooking

13. January 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Healthy Eating · Tags: ,

Of course when most people think about green tea they are referring to the liquid beverage. But in recent years I’ve been experimenting more and more with using green tea as a cooking ingredient. The results have been well worth it and I’m excited to share some quick tips to get you started.

But first let me cover the key health benefits that have been associated with green tea in summary form (learn more about green tea here):

The most important polyphenols in tea are known as catechins. These have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative functions.  It is thought that the action of these compounds on free radicals in our cellular structures may help inhibit the spread of certain types of cancer as well as lower cholesterol levels in the body. Their anti-inflammatory properties may also help in stabilizing blood pressure.

Another important chemical in tea is caffeine. It’s a myth that green tea does not contain caffeine.  It does; particularly if the tea leaves have been picked from the top shoots of the tea bush. However the caffeine in tea has a more moderate effect than the caffeine in coffee due to other compounds that limit the speed at which it is taken up in the blood.

The main vitamins associated with green tea include the vitamin B complex, vitamin C and vitamin E. These have been linked with a wide range of health benefits from lessening stress to building up resistance to mild infections.

When I cook with green tea I use it in 3 main forms.

  1. Used Tea Leaves – Leaves that have been steeped just once can be used in all sorts of ways. Add them to a pasta sauce, stir them into a risotto or sprinkle them into your scrambled eggs. They impart a fresh, grassy and vegetal aroma to your cooking.
  2. Powdered Tea – I love experimenting with powdered green tea in my cooking. The most famous type of powdered green tea is called “matcha” and is what is used in Japan for tea ceremonies. Selected tea leaves rich in chlorophyll are picked and carefully ground between 2 rotating stone plates to form a rich green powder. You can use powdered tea to make spreads, add it to sauces, use it in a pasta mix or add to bread.  The options are almost endless.
  3. The Tea Itself – Finally you can use cold or hot tea in your cooking. I don’t use it very often, just occasionally to boil fish but it’s something I need to experiment with more.  It’s quite traditional in Japan for example to simply pour tea over cooked rice.

Making Healthy Homemade Ice Cream

12. January 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Healthy Eating · Tags: , , , , , , ,

Ice cream is a wonderful treat but it’s not always the healthiest option. People who have to watch their cholesterol or fat intake usually have to stay away. But it’s important to note there is a tremendous difference between homemade ice cream and whatever you buy at your local store. Processed ice cream that comes in a carton often contains a lot of additives that you simply don’t need. All you have to do is take a look at the ingredients list and you’ll see chemicals that you might not even recognize. There is also a lot of fat content with commercial ice creams, and that’s quite often why they taste so great. If you want to be able to enjoy ice cream on a more regular basis without having to worry about your health, it might be time to try making it in your own home.

ice cream maker

The process is not as complicated as you might think, and any modern machine will be able to do the job quite easily. A current ice cream maker will blend your ingredients together into a smooth product that can be enjoyed right out of the bowl. And best of all, you’ll have full control over each and every ingredient which means you can keep an eye out for your health. If there’s an element you don’t want, you simply can leave it out of the overall recipe. This allows you to use items like low-fat milk in addition to adding healthier ingredients like fruit or unsalted nuts.

If you want to increase the health level of your ice cream even more, then make sure to pair it with something that strays away from traditional high-fat desserts. Instead of having it with chocolate cake, think about combining it with a fresh fruit salad or even a light crêpe topped with skimmed whip cream. With creativity and imagination, there’s no reason why you can’t adapt recipes so you can still enjoy the occasional treat. Being able to enjoy healthier alternatives allows you to maintain your diet while keeping your cravings down for indulgent treats. Homemade ice cream can be a valuable part of your healthy eating plan whenever you want to give yourself an occasional reward.