50 years after college graduation

50 years after college graduation

1965 After graduation, I found a job in New York City. Nothing worth pursuing. I saw Jay, we parted ways, we….

1966 got married. He was already in the Army, and by September he was on his way to Vietnam, with enough sense to get office work. I got another job while I lived with my parents. We meet in Honolulu for a week – and his parents came too.

1967 Trip to Japan to see Jay shortly after our 1^st anniversary. In September, Jay returns, I quit the job and start subbing in Jr High. Not so good with no training! We share an interest in cooking, which becomes a passion.

1969, 1970, 1973, 1975 and 1979 – children arrive and bump the cooking passion to #2. We move from apartment to apartment to house. I’m a happy housewife, mostly, and gardener.

1977 We become initiates of an Indian path which shapes and comforts me. I embrace vegetarian eating and cooking with pleasure.

1978 As an involved co-op member, I see what’s happening in the nascent natural food products on the market, and Jay pushes me when I say I can do better (and at lower cost).  I develop a line of mixes which we find a packer for, and a marketing direction. Manna Meals is born!

1981 The business has reached a stage where we and our 2 sales people decide to become partners in a natural food store in New Hampshire. We pack up, put the house on the market, and (coincidentally) fulfill my longtime vision of living in a small college town in New England, in sight of mountains. Foodstuffs in Keene NH is the right place for us!

We are excited to be there, doing that. The kids love the new freedom they have. However, our inexperience leads to letting a partner overstock and overspend, to the point where we had to buy him out. The other partner went, after a couple years (and an egg throwing episode by his wife… but that’s not ‘about’ me).

I gradually became more and more involved in running the business, and when we opened a 2^nd store, completely took on the management – after being bookkeeper, produce manager, deli manager, grocery buyer, etc. Nice run up the ladder.

More years like that: business growing and changing, a restaurant called Butternuts that people still talk about, kids growing and changing. The words of our first pediatrician, ‘Little children, little problems’ are proven true over and over.

1975, 1994, 1996, 1998 – I visit Israel, where my sister and her family live. First with 2 children, pregnant; then for the oldest son’s wedding; then for 1^st and 2^nd grandchildren.

More of the same, until 2010 when we retired. By this time, all of the kids were on their own, populating the world with our grandchildren.

I returned to cooking with a new sense of competence and freedom. I found a website where some of my original recipes are posted (www.food52.com, as ‘susan g’). We took short trips around New England, finding large and small museums with treasures in towns with good restaurants. I read a lot in a very undisciplined way, leaning and enjoying virtual travel through time and space. I take a variety of courses, from the Great Courses company and on Coursera.

We live in an even smaller town near Keene, in a house with beautiful trees that preclude lawn or garden. At the price of recurring power outages, I love the sight of the changing seasons through our windows and outside our doors.

My life has not been one that has changed the world, but I know I have changed or improved some people’s lives. We have become involved again in Judaism on the small close scale of a Chavurah group. I am grateful for my ‘own’ in-house St Johnnie who still has opinions and retains a perceptive view of what we read and hear, and even if I don’t agree with him, he can provide the stimulus to open my mind.

After 49 years of marriage, we are parents to 4, in-laws to 4 more, grandparents to 10, and happy to have each other. Age has brought its intimations of a  physical body yielding to stress. In the past year I have had a mild stroke and Bell’s Palsy, as well as served as caregiver to Jay during a year of cancer surgery and after his recent stroke.  50 years after our St John’s graduation, I am grateful to the college for opening my mind, opening up worlds of ‘great’ thought in great books, and (I think) teaching me to listen with a critical mind, and sort what is important from what is less so. 

Written for a collection of personal essays, Class of 1965, St. John's College, Annapolis MD

I'LL TAKE THE FLAVORS, NOT THE MEAT, THANK YOU

I might be an anomaly. I’m a vegetarian who seeks out meat recipes. Selectively, yes.. but why?

It’s all about taste. I am lured by the seductive taste and smell - not of the meat (or chicken or seafood) itself, but the techniques of cooking and the fabulous sauces I discover. However I get there, I want to share the tagines, curries, and chilis, the foods of every continent and cuisine. I want to do it without the lamb, chicken or beef.

It’s all about nutrition. We eat to live, we live to eat, and both must be considered. Sometimes all I have to do is take out the meat, and there’s still a meal in the works. I like to look at the balance of everything that goes with the meal so that all the parts leave me well fed.

It’s all about satisfaction. More than a full feeling, I love to have the pleasure of the aftertaste.  I like my house to hold on to the scent of spices, or the chemistry of the sauce in a frying pan or oven. Sometimes, there’s the satisfaction that I have been able to recreate a recipe to my own needs and still retain the clarity and purpose of the original.

Some of my favorites from The Perfect Pantry are the ones I’ve redirected for my vegetarian meals: Southwestern Beef Brisket and Nasi Goreng are two that I enjoy with only a little shift of ingredients. Then there’s Floribean Chicken Chili: first I omitted the chicken, since both beans and (vegetarian) sausage were enough for me. I wanted to taste those Florida-Caribbean flavors! Delicious, but I kept experimenting… if you’d like to see how it is now, here’s the adapted, still evolving, recipe.

FLORIBEAN BEAN CHILI

Broth: Put ½ onion and 1 carrot (cut in rough chunks), 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp  ground cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp chili powder, 4 black peppercorns in a pot with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Strain into a container, pressing out as much liquid as you can.

Saute: Cut into ½” dice 1 sweet pepper (red or green or a combination), ½ onion, 1 medium sweet potato; 1-2 carrots sliced diagonally, ½”. In your soup pot, saute vegetables in 1 Tb neutral oil (like sunflower or canola) until they start to soften. Stir in ½ tsp crushed chiles, ¼ tsp chipotle powder (or 1 chile in adobo), 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp chili powder, 1-2 spicy vegetarian sausages cut in ½” pieces. Stir for 1-2 minutes to release the fragrance.

Chili:  Add to the pot the strained broth, 14 oz crushed tomatoes, 1 T red wine vinegar, 1 T kecap manis, 1 ½ cup cooked pinto or black beans (or 1 15 oz can). Simmer ½ hour.

Thicken: Sprinkle 1-2 T Goya Masa Rica (or cornstarch dissolved in some of the liquid).  Simmer 5 minutes. If not thick enough for you, you can increase the amount or evaporate some of the liquid.

Finish: Stir in juice of ½ lime, sprinkle with ¼ cup chopped cilantro.

The original recipe on The Perfect Pantry suggests wonderful garnishes - sour cream, chopped mango, diced tomatoes, grated cheese.

Makes about 2 quarts

Written as a guest post for www.theperfectpantry.com 

DON’T KNOW WHAT’S BOTHERING YOU? MAYBE YOU NEED TO BE GLUTEN FREE

 

I am gluten intolerant. It’s not that I hate Ralph Gluten who lives next door to me. I just can’t eat wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut or oats. These grains contain gluten, the protein that makes bread rise. I have an inability to digest gluten, so it’s not absorbed in the small intestine and therefore leads to many of the following gastrointestinal symptoms: stomach pain, bloating, distention, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, foul stools, weight loss, and flatulence. Other nonintestinal symptoms are: irritability, back pain, depression, hair loss, vitamin deficiency, anemia, bone pain, fatigue, weakness and more.

Gluten intolerance is specifically known as Celiac disease, an autoimmune disease damaging the vilii (the small projections) of the small intestine. This injuring of the vilii leads to years of recurrence of the symptoms I have already outlined. The disease can rear its ugly head any time, from infancy to late adulthood. Today this often misdiagnosed disease is becoming more and more prevalent as evidenced by expanding gluten free sections of most major supermarket chains across the country. One out of every 133 people has Celiac. So there are more than 2,000,000 people walking around with the disease, 97% of which are still undiagnosed. In addition to the symptoms I’ve already enumerated Celiac can lead to arthritis, systemic lupus, certain intestinal cancers, Down’s syndrome, lactose intolerance, infertility, headaches, psychological dysfunctions, thyroid disease and diabetes. Celiac is primarily a disease in Caucasians and those of European ancestry. Women are more prone to inheriting it than are men.

I am 69 years old and was diagnosed with Celiac at a very early age. My parents put me on a gluten free diet during the Second World War when gluten free foods were almost impossible to secure. I was told I survived, for years, on lettuce, chicken and bananas. My symptoms went away for decades and I ate anything I wanted; lately however, my Celiac has begun to take its revenge: digestive issues, bloating, gas, depression, weakness, fatigue and high blood pressure. Sometimes, I think I can cheat because a little white wheat flour doesn’t affect me immediately. Now I realize, I’m just fooling myself. If I eat gluten I hurt, I’m depressed, my bones ache, can’t focus, can’t lose weight, can’t get on with my life. So that’s that. But there are enough really good gluten free substitutes in the market today, for anybody to find whatever they want. So ENJOY, BE HEALTHY!

Jay B. Ginsburg

2009

Falling Down

Climbing the stone steps to the Peterborough Unitarian Church, I fell. Suddenly I was down, lying still, reorienting. Heather came behind me and helped me up. I said I had to get Arnica, and walked across the street to open the trunk, find the bottle, and put four little white pills in my mouth. I went into the church to join the rest of Animaterra, ready to warm up, ready to sing. Nothing else is so good for me to bring me into the moment and set my troubles aside. Warmup over, I looked down and saw blood on my left foot and knee. Set that aside, a third dose of Arnica, and set my attention to singing for half an hour. How beautiful, such joy! Leaving, I felt the stiffness setting in. At our circle meeting which followed, Kathy provided the bandaids and wash cloth I asked for. More Arnica, a good meeting, moving slow, then drive home to Traumeel Gel. Now, three days later, still sore and stiff, but there was no bruising, and the scraped skin is healing over. So what is the lesson here? Be a Girl/Boy Scout, be prepared? Yes! My purse is a mobile natural first aid kit. At the moment, I see seven homeopathic remedies and two herbal salves. Bandaids are missing and need to be replaced. That covers most emergencies I meet. What I carry changes, evolves, but here's what I have now: Euphrasia (allergy, burning/tearing eyes) Nux Vomica (indigestion) Apis (insect bites and stings, red/hot) Cocculus Indicus (motion sickness) Ipecacuanha (nausea, vomiting) Arnica Montana (muscle soreness, bruising, trauma) Five Flower Remedy (a Rescue Remedy, physical and emotional) TheraNeem Neem Stick (for lips, for any kind of boo-boo) a tin of herbal salve They sit in a little pocket handily set on the side of the purse, with a secure flap and snap closure. The remedies are in very small tubes + a tiny bottle + a small tin, so they all fit. I haven't needed them often, but I would feel unprepared without them. Sunday I was very relieved to know I had what I needed.

Language and Health

‘Corn Sugar’ No More: HFCS Name to Stay

6:55AM PDT on Jun 2, 2012

There are many ways that a product can contain any kind of sweetner but the whole truth is your body neither knows or cares whether a sweetner is liquid, powder or granulated. The problem is not what the sweetner is. It is how much of it you put into your body. Lables are not going to change that. It is using less that will change the way people the way people treat their own bodies. If people can't change it themselves, neither will a name. Less is more!!! As in a sauge - use one instead of two or a half instead of a whole. The only way obesity will end is when everyone who cares about theie bodies enough, changes the amounts they put into theor body. It isn't up to government policy, it is up to each family cook to change the way their own family treats the food they eat.
Comment on care2.com from Janet W. (typos and all)

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/corn-sugar-no-more-high-fructose-corn-syrup-name-to-stay.html#ixzz1we33YFn6

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT -- The FDA will not allow 'high fructose corn syrup' to rename itself as 'corn sugar.'   'Sugar,' by definition, must be granular.  So, a technicality, but the fact is, the Food and Drug Administration did not cave in to the sugar manufacturers.

Now, how about labeling for dairy hormones?  How about the simple truth on a label for genetically modified plants and animals?  Let consumers make informed decisions, through information only available on labels.  (Consult those little produce stickers.  But, have you ever found the one that means 'GMO'?)

ABOUT THE COMMENT I copied above...  What Janet W. has said makes so many good points!  Yes, sugar is sugar.  The qualifications:  there is evidence that HFCS is particularly agressive when consumed.  A carb is a carb, but whole foods treat the body more gently than refined, and bring with them the benefits of the nutrients they carry.  Sugars have a range on the glycemic index and differ on the -ose composition, and (to a far lesser degree  than grains) can bring along some nutrient buffers to their pure hit.  Choose your sweeteners with attention.

Then, the issues of quantity... Valuable information you can learn from labeling is the breakdown of carbohydrates on the nutrition label.  If you are about to buy a manufactured product, compare items for the amount of sugar.  Check portion size too -- they may not be computed on the same amounts, or the portion size may be unrealistic. 

Following a recipe?  Here it's all in front of you, no secrets!  I just saw a cake recipe -- 2 9" layers, 2 cups maple syrup in the layers, 1/2 cup in the frosting (made with 1 pound of cream cheese), 1/4 cup in the 'healthy' fruit filling!  And the author of the recipe had reduced the sugar when she converted to maple syrup.  Common sense, anyone?

Janet says, "...when everyone cares about their bodies..."  Such a paradox in this country with its bountiful food supply, food costs still at a historically low level, mostly good information about nutrition easily accessed!  We're also a culture of rampant plastic surgery and Botox, anorexia and bulimia, skinny models and weight loss fads.  Too many people care about their bodies in strange and sometimes destructive ways, when the slow simple answers should be on our plates.

FOOTNOTE ABOUT SODIUM  I recently bought a package of English wholemeal biscuits.  I had a choice of 2 brands, with similar ingredients.  Checking the nutrition information panel, I found one had 4 times more sodium than the other.  Without that information, I would have ignorantly bought the other brand and ignorantly enjoyed it.  Another very sneaky excess in packaged food.

 

Need an Intestinal Workout?

I can hear myself quoting myself:

Fiber is a sponge and a broom. A sponge because it will pull toxins from the intestines, and a broom because it will sweep the toxins out of the intestines.

That was a handy analogy so that people who came to VitaSource could see a vivid picture of how fiber can work. Some people like to take seasonal change as the time for a dramatic internal cleanse. Simplify what you eat as a modified fast, concentrate on herbs and fibers in liquid meals. Some of the cleanse plans promote agressive, even explosive elimination. (The most common question was, Do I have to stay near the bathroom?) I prefer to advocate a more gentle approach. What you eat should be easy on the gut -- that food is assimilated. What you eat should be a pleasure -- that's better for you too. Fibers can be incorporated in a daily routine, in a simple drink with greens for gentle ongoing cleansing. Happier gut bacteria, happier elimination, better energy, better health. Now, quoting Carol Steadman:

Fiber without water is called a cork.

Fair warning! Plentiful water from pure sources makes everything work together.

Minor Angst

Daunted by technology, I plunged in and followed the prompts, filled in the blanks: I think I just set up a Facebook page for VitaSource. It has no photo: how do you do that? Have to import some kids (my own) to do it for me. Started a discussion, Resolutions 2010. Let's see where this goes.

Then I came to Blogspot to dump the spam comments, reset settings to try to prevent it. More tussles with technology. You start to feel OLD when you jump into new waters and find them cold --- and do I care?

There is weariness on me. Old year ending, no good books to read; that is, no mysteries. There are books aplenty piled up next to my bed. One that is fascinating is a history centered on the spice trade -- but I can only get through two or 3 pages at a time. Another is the next alumni seminar reading (Mind and Matter, Erwin Schrodinger): heavy, have to get going!

Knitting socks, slow work on #3 needles, and when I finish the first one I'll have to make another one if I want to wear them. I'm not a one sock person! I can't do my usual read and knit with this one, a definite restriction on my doing either one. At least when they're done they will be stunning!

Soon I will really have time to manage meaningfully. I can see that challenge, need to meet it.

Eat, Chew, Digest

Long ago I learned the mantra "Eat your liquids, chew your solids." This is probably the most valuable lesson I learned from Macrobiotics. It opens up the whole conceptual view of digestion. First, digestion begins in the mouth. We have teeth to masticate, we have saliva for the chemical action it performs (breaks down starches). There are nerve endings and taste buds to send messages to the brain, the liver and the whole chain of the digestive tract.

First, the sensual experience helps us slow down, enjoy our food, perhaps trains us to eat less because satisfaction is a byproduct of the experience. Then, our organs prepare the way -- secrete digestive enzymes and adjuncts, and the substantial quantity of fluid that is required for the process.

How common is it to see someone inhale a meal, gobble up food, bolt his dinner? Sadly some people choke, even die because of swallowing barely chewed food. Instead of calling for the Heimlich maneuver, chew! How many people scarf down food until they are stuffed, eating too fast for the brain to register the message of satiety? Think obesity... In this land of plenty (or excess), how often are the overfed the undernourished? Without the first step in the digestive process, how well can we assimilate? In extreme conditions, the knowledge of how to chew can be lost. At the risk of being totally corny, let's chew as if our lives depend on it -- because they do.

Mitch S. was in VitaSource today and told me that he was following my chewing recommendations, and impressed by how this changes his experience of eating. Wow, one convert!

Preventing deficiencies or promoting optimal health?

Concerns about Vitamin D deficiency may bring up an interesting dilemma. Those of us who live outside the tropics, don't eat enough of the foods that naturally have Vitamin D in them, spend little time outside four walls, use sunscreen or even have factors that inhibit normal absorption -- may be deficient in Vitamin D.

RDA's were set to define minimum levels to prevent deficiency conditions -- short on D = rickets. Who would have thought that Vitamin D's functions go far beyond bone health? Studies are piling up with benefits for high blood pressure, autoimmune disease, and cancer and diabetes prevention, to name a few. Other studies show that low levels of D are common.

So what do we do? Eat fatty fish and egg yolks, take cod liver oil, and cautiously get just enough sun. It would be hard to get too much D from food or the sun, but what about supplements? Canadian advisers have already increased the recommended daily intake from 400 IU to 1000 IU, and experts in the US want the FDA to do so too. "Upper levels" have been set higher already. Supplements can fill that gap.

All this seems to be a good move. Increase Vitamin D intake, understand the crucial interaction of D, calcium, magnesium, Vitamin K, and other co-factors and make sure we're getting enough (but not too much). Now my question is -- are we changing the meaning of the RDA (or whatever incarnation it's in now)? Are we proposing a move from minimum nutrition to prevent rickets (or whatever) to a new view that would realistically promote real health?

Another possibility: if Vitamin D can prevent a specific condition, or improve a condition, does that qualify that condition as a deficiency disorder? Cancer? Arthritis? Alzheimers? At the very least, we are certainly reinforcing this truism: Eating well is the best revenge!

THINK AGAIN -- Recommendations for Vitamin D usually specify D3, the natural form found in fish oils and lanolin. D2, either synthetic or from other natural sources, is said to be absorbed only about 1/2 as well. Or is it? A recent study from Boston University found that blood levels are the same when either form is used. In Australia, a study showed fewer falls in elderly women using D2. Stay tuned...

Eating by the numbers

Just about every piece of commercial produce you find in the supermarket now has a little sticker on it. It tells you what you bought, the name and origin of the fruit or vegetable and some numbers. It's meant to give the checker information to weigh and price your purchase, but you can learn useful information from the numbers.

4 digits: you have conventional produce, grown with the best "better living through chemistry" tradition. That may mean agribusiness, pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers. (Remember, cide comes from the Latin root, to kill.) Or it may mean any scenario short of organic.

8 + four digits: GMO! High-tech manipulation seeking world domination...and should we eat them? Is it good for us? Is it good for the butterflies and bees, or good for Monsanto and friends? Have you seen any 8's in the stores?

9 + four digits: Organically grown produce, thank you. Not only are they free of added toxins, organics are usually better tasting, have higher nutrient values and support fertility -- and that's just for the consumer. For the environment, a lighter load and a positive enhancement.

You aren't likely to see these stickers if you buy locally grown food. Talk to the farmers and the merchants to learn more about how the food is grown. Make your choices. As for me, I prefer organic!

Statistics of Hunger

News of worldwide shortages of food have been rising to the top of the news lately. A
shortage of rice leading to rapid price increases has brought crisis to parts of the world
where people depend on rice as the mainstay of their daily diet. I heard an interview with
an agriculture official in the Philippines on NPR, saying that 80% of the population spends
60% of their income on food, 40% of that on rice. When the price of rice rises, that last number must go up. Then where does that extra money come from?

Here in the United States, I have read, the proportion of an average income spent on food is close to a historical low, even though food prices are rising here too. The increasing cost of gas seems to be causing a much deeper impact. Most of us have the luxury of scaling back our food choices rather than an impossible decision between necessities. Our food stores are still lush with possibilities. So far, wiser buying will get us through.

Elsewhere, the choices are harder, and explanations of why this is happening now are not simple. Some greed, some weather changes, some transportation costs (that oil problem) -- and the overwhelming weight of population growth lead the list.

Reading the Green Fertility blog, a thought provoking post about fertility opens up some questions. Marie brings us a report showing that levels of toxicity in our environment and in our food supply may be contributing to a world-wide reduction in fertility. Is this the swing of the pendulum that will lead to a reduced world population? It is, you might say, food for thought.

Now's the time to remember the famous words of Marie Antoinette -- Let them eat cake (or, so I hear, brioche). Here in the 21st century, make mine chocolate!

ONE SMALL THING YOU CAN DO: Go to http://freerice.com and play a vocabulary game. In a few minutes you can improve your mind and make donations or rice through a UN agency. It's sponsored by businesses -- help them help others around the world.

Between drudge and druid

Before I started, I wanted to check the dictionary, page 188 of Webster's New World Dictionary and Thesaurus -- a handy book at the side of the computer. Drugstore: a store where drugs, medical supplies, and various items are sold and prescriptions are filled. Ah, the out! "Various items" is the can of worms. What else does a drugstore sell? Where do they really make their profit? It's all the anti-health items. It's the booze, cigarettes and junk food that keep the cash registers ringing, 24 hours a day. Drugs of choice, addictions that lead to drugs by prescription as beautiful healthy babies grow up to be sad reflections of a generation that they think they reject when really they are emulating their destructive behavior. Go back to the pharmacy (strategically placed at the rear of the store so that all the heavily advertised temptations on display call out), where you can check your blood pressure free (eating high sodium junk food?), pick up literature on preventing diabetes (ditto sugar), and pick up your prescribed medication ("drug"). I would assume that in an ideal society, the drug store would be the place to find the tools to support health. Let's keep looking!

So what about the health food store? To be fair, I check the dictionary again. Between heal and heap I found health food: food thought to be very healthful, as food grown with natural fertilizers and free of additives -- so far, so good. Thought to be? I can live with the skepticism implied there, and the positive implications, since I have my own disillusionment with the current state of "health foods."

When we started shopping in HF stores (1970's) they were in the hands of "health food nuts," people a little "holier-than-thou" (also in the dictionary), who lived as they spoke and did not hesitate to tell you how to live. Then in 1981 we were store owners ourselves, after years of living the life, but eager to teach by quiet example. Sodas were available, sweetened only with honey. Tofu was made by attractive as eggless-tofu salad and fried tofu sandwiches served in our deli, along with best selling tempeh reubens. Stoneyfield Yogurt started up locally. More and more products became available as delicious healthier alternatives to the white foods in the supermarket. Then the supermarkets caught on -- selling health foods makes profit. Then more replacement products until the stores filled up with Cocoa Puff look-alikes made with white organic flour and white organic sugar, and gummy vitamins, until the whole point had been lost.

So choose a source you can trust, no matter what they call themselves. Educate yourself with reliable information. Listen to your body -- it needs your best judgment, for the rest of your life!

Save a tree, plant a tree

499,191,000,000 ---> 500,???,???,???

Here's the (now) annual report of plastic bag usage for the year, courtesy of reusablebags.com. The numbers change too fast for the eye to take in, and there are 14 hours left of 2007. Over 1 million plastic bags are being used per minute! Is there good news? As we see more petroleum go into landfills, via the plastic bag waste (those that aren't flying through the air or forming huge masses in the Pacific Ocean)...is there any good news? As usual, there's goodnews/badnews. The progressive growth of packaging and overpackaging seems to rise inexorably. China (and all manufacturers): and WalMart (and all sources of retail goods that put cheap above sustainable quality): change! We are ready to take more responsibility for the Earth, but we need your help.

Where's the good news? More ways to recycle (and freecycle); more stores offering reusable bags at next to no cost (Shaws sells cloth bags at $1.00 each!); a new understanding of the plastic bottle problem, leading to a major campaign in New York City, for instance, to put tap water in reusable bottles.

At VitaSource, we have been very successful at selling water bottles -- stainless steel and polycarbonate (yes, each of those has many questions too, but it's an important step). At the store, customer donated bags, both plastic and paper, have replaced all new bag purchases, giving them a few more times around for reuse before they end up in (thank you) supermarket recycling bins. Still, I hope to see many more cloth bags in hand in 2008.

Doesn't it all tie together? All the little homely things we can do at the bottom of the pyramid creating the energy for municipalities and nations, giant retailers and manufacturers to make the changes for less burden on this energy-exhausted world? 2008: lots of work to do on alternative energy sources, saving soil and water to build health all over the world...the least we can do as individuals is reduce use of plastic, especially bags and bottles, choose organics to support the growth of a healthier use of resources, and more honesty -- personally, interpersonally, nationally, globally.

PS Just one more plug -- a simple way you can support recycling, literacy and libraries: buy used books from BetterWorld (with free shipping in the US). Good folks!

The Empire of Tea

I've been reading this book, "the remarkable history of the plant that took over the world," by Alan and Iris Macfarlane. It's a wealth of history, economics, sociology, and much more. Read the book for all of those. I want to call attention to their reference to a comment written in 1879:

the style of the conversation depends very much on the kind of tea that the housewife pours for the guests. If it be genuine Young Hyson...the talk will be fresh and spirited and sunshiny. If it be...Gunpowder, the conversation will be explosive and somebody's reputation will be killed before you get through. If it be green tea...you may expect there will be a poisonous effect in the conversation and the moral health damaged.

Wow! What assumptions! Now, I do notice a bit of typing in the people who buy bulk teas from me, particularly those who choose Lapsang Souchong, the very aromatic smoked tea. They're a strong, individualistic crew (if I had to make that determination). Otherwise, I could say that people who go to the trouble of brewing tea from leaf are morally superior...but how difficult can making a good pot of tea be, really?

What does fascinate me here is how scathing is the judgement of green tea. Now that we know so much about the antioxidant, anticancer, etc. properties of green tea, we choose to drink it (or take it in supplement form) for its benefits. Now that we know about the amino acid theanine, which elevates mood and focuses the mind, we have greater appreciation for this delicate cup of tea -- and the lower caffeine levels we get.

So what's the basis of his judgment? He is speaking from Victorian England, "things Japanese" are in vogue, and tea has changed English life. Still I wonder if this may be a racist judgement: the English, after all, are drinking black tea!

As a footnote: A woman in her 90's used to buy green tea from me by the pound. She told me that when she grew up here in Keene NH, green tea was what was widely used, and black tea took over later, maybe after World War II. Was it the "secret" of her long life?

Choosing to fail?

This week's New York Times Science section is full of fascinating and provocative articles. From their blog: "The less effective a beauty product or treatment, the more likely women are to keep using it," referring to a study of 300 women. My train of thought leads to my observation of people like a woman I spoke to today: She wants grape seed extract for her daughter, who has asthma; also probiotics. Why? She has heard/read that it will help her get more oxygen, maybe get off her inhaler. Hmmm....both of these will help just about anyone improve overall health, but asthma? I showed her a few things I thought might be more directly beneficial, gave her information and a web site so she can look at well founded explanations of how these may work. Why does she pursue the original goal? I didn't ask for the source of this suggestion. Was it TV, a piece of junk mail, something she just heard? Has she tried to confirm what it is used for, whether it is safe with her daughter's medication...Have they questioned diet, allergies, environmental factors? Did I help her or enable her ignorance? Is she like the women in the study who choose to pursue a dead end rather than find the way to a better outcome?

WANT TO GOODSEARCH? Yahoo's search engine lets you donate to a non-profit whenever you search. Just enter Animaterra as the chosen charity when you use Goodsearch, and the women's chorus in Keene which I sing with will benefit -- and you'll have the same reliable search you would be using anyway...and 50 wonderful women will thank you! How easy does it get?

Looking for a laxative?

Sadly, this perfect body we've been given is sometimes, well, less than perfect. Happily, there may be simple solutions to problems which are significant but still within the realm of self-treatment.

Constipation would fit that description (most of the time). Take simple steps: drink enough, especially water; chew well at meals and keep quantities moderate; check for foods that irritate you; get enough of the good fats that promote proper intestinal function; coddle your good flora so the acidophilus and friends thrive; love your fibers and they will return the love. Sometimes: enzymes when digestion needs a boost; magnesium when all of the above need integration (and when your calcium supplement seems to be causing more problems than it solves). And always, leave the stress behind when you eat.

For years an older woman came to my store, looking for the ingredients to make a natural laxative. She had found the recipe in an old "doctor book" and passed it on to friends and family. That's how good it was...Ready to try it?

RECIPE FOR NATURAL LAXATIVE
Mix together: 1 cup whey powder, 1 1/2 cups brewers (nutritional) yeast, 1 cup wheat germ, 1/2 cup psyllium seed, 1/2 cup flax seed, 1/2 cup mustard seed. Take 2 tablespoons in 8 oz. yogurt. Do not chew!

(My notes: best to refrigerate because of the wheat germ. Use yogurt with live cultures.)

Simple remedies? Simple solutions? Tell me more.

From the food blog junkie

Yup, that's me -- start with a good food blog, recipes and photos and a provoking discussion, then read old posts, comments...then link to commenter's blogs and before you know it the night is gone, and there's no time to cook or read. Working at the store I peek at more blogs throughout the day when there's a quiet spell, or eat lunch standing in front of the computer. What's new in the Perfect Pantry? What's Steamy up to now? What's cooking in Brazil, London, Mauritius?

It was cooking and cookbooks that led me to health food and books, and the love has persisted. Reading and writing about food helps keep me sane! Now I have been honored as the "Bookworm" of the week at The Perfect Pantry -- go look! Lydia writes about ingredients (her pantry) with wit and intelligence, and a recipe that shows off each one. If you like to read about food, you'll love it!

Reading "A Veggie Venture" today, I found a wonderful praise of the people who bring us our food in America, inspired by shelling black eyed peas (a 17 minute meditation).

How far we've come from the source of our food sustenance. Sure, I bought these from my local farmers market - I even 'walked' to the market. But what I didn't do was:

• Leave my homeland and family seeking personal freedom or economic opportunity
• Cross mountains and rivers and prairies to find affordable farmland

Follow the link to read the entire essay (and recipe)!

Was it the "Little House" books that started my awareness? Alanna, who writes the wonderful blog Veggie Venture, lives in St. Louis, where those settlers often passed through. Here in New England we are reminded by the stone walls and the rocks that are still in our soil how hard those early farmers had to work to grow food for their own subsistence, let alone to feed a village or have enough for the markets in town.

The need to return to the soil is strong. In recent times, people grew Victory Gardens during World War II. In the 60's, communes and "back to the land" inspired me to grow my own garden, as big as a neighbor and I could handle. (Where were the men?) Rodale's Organic Gardening magazine was an inspiration, along with Ruth Stout's book on gardening "without an aching back." Moving into the world of selling commercial produce made the garden redundant, but now that we're no longer suppliers we are again consumers. We are happy to support the CSA's and farmers markets that have sprouted and multiplied, putting us close to the soil again, one step removed. Support them -- we need them!

My toothpaste and DNA

Jay has had DNA testing done as part of the Genographic Project
out of a desire to look into his family's past. It took them back to the Rift Valley 50,000 years ago, up to 20,000 years ago in Europe. Fascinating as this is, it leaves a lot of time blank. Ultimately we want our ancestors to tell us about ourselves. Now he's working back from the known present, learning a lot about people still in memory. Wonderful stories, interesting relationships -- there's a rich history in a relatively short time.

I am thinking about this now because I have found an amazing fact: 10% of all toothpaste goes unused (thank you, Ideal Bite)! I immediately followed their lead, cut open my apparently empty tube, and there it was -- all that potentially wasted toothpaste (and it was the good stuff, Neem TP from Organix South). Of course I rescued it...there's something in my DNA, no doubt, that won't let me waste: toothpaste, or water, or the blank sides of papers... At least it gives me an inborn urge to save the Earth!