Foraging!

(That's a pix of what tempts Claire into the stream--watercress!)

Found this description of a woman foraging in colonial America in a novel I'm reading (An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. This series of Gabaldon novels make wonderful reading, by the way. I love the Claire and Jamie books. :) Claire is an herbalist and a doctor (and a time traveler).

Excerpt

Spring had sprung, and the creek was rising. Swelled by melting snow and fed by hundreds of tiny waterfalls that trickled and leapt down the mountain's face, it roared past by feet, exuberant with spray. I could feel cold on my face, and knew that I'd be wet to the knees within minutes, but it didn't matter. The fresh green arrowhead and pickerweed rimmed the banks, some plants dragged out of the soil by the rising water and whirled downstream, more hanging on by their roots for dear life, leaves trailing in the racing wash. Dark mats of cress swirled under the water, close by the sheltering banks. And fresh green plants were what I wanted.

My gathering basket was half full of fiddleheads and ramp shoots. A nice big lot of tender new cress, crisp and cold from the stream, would top off the winter's vitamin C deficiency very well. I took off my shoes and stockings, and after a moment's hesitation, took off my gown and shawl as well and hung them over a tree branch. The air was chilly in the shade of the silver birches that overhung the creek here, and I shivered a bit but ignored the cold, kirtling up my shift before wading into the stream.

That cold was harder to ignore. I gasped, and nearly dropped the basket, but found my footing among the slippery rocks and made my way toward the nearest mat of tempting dark green. Within seconds, my legs were numb, and I'd lost any sense of cold in the enthusiasm of forager's frenzy and salad hunger.

End excerpt

Oh, gads. I know JUST what that feels like! Foraging frenzy! It's so true. And here's I've got to wait two months (at least). Sigh.

Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

HM

Nettles for Medicine and Nutrition

Lately, I've been daydreaming about nettle gathering come spring. It's only late December and much too early for tasty, slightly bitter but oh-so-good-for-you spring greens such as stinging nettles or wood nettles. The pix above shows a young wood nettle, which grows in shady areas near flowing water.

If you're thinking of getting into wild food foraging this year, try to familiarize yourself with the nettle plant before spring hits. Get a good foraging book, one with color photographs and read up on stinging nettles, which is the usual variety of nettle described. Around here, I mostly find wood nettles, but since their nutritional and medicinal profile is the same, I harvest them and am grateful to find them in such abundance. I wrote about nettles once before...

Early in the spring, young nettles make excellent eating in any number of preparations. Saute or boil them for a few minutes, top with olive oil or butter, a touch of salt and you'll have one delicious and nutritious dinner. Or make a soup with onions, garlic and nettles. Add some to scrambled eggs...ah, the list is endless.

Harvest young nettles when they are four to eight inches tall. If they get much taller than that, they'll be a bit tough. Still tasty, still nutritional, but a bit tougher. Even so, I've harvested nettle at about a foot tall and they still tasted great to me. The trick is to find them when they're young and freshly popped out of the ground. Around here, that's early spring, in late April or so. Then later, I harvest nettles throughout the summer, but these I'll dry for use as a wonderful medicinal tea or as an extract.

Nettles are the green of chlorophyll, which naturally they contain, as well as iron, calcium, silicon, sulphur, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Rich in vitamins too: A, C, D, E and K and a few of the B vits as well. Nettles also have trace elements or more of zinc, cobalt and copper. I think nettles are so healing because of these vital nutrients. If you've read much of this blog, you've read how our food today has lost much of its nutritional value due to industrial agriculture and overall processing. One fine way to counter that is to eat wild foods like nettles (and lambsquarters, purslane, red clover....).

I found a couple of very informational articles about nettles. One is from Ingri Cassel, from a few years ago. Europeans down through the centuries have employed nettles in a variety of medicinal uses and treatments. Its a terrific article.

The other is from the University of Maryland Medical Center, which for some reason has lots of good herbal information. As you'll see from these articles, nettles can be used for many different ailments in a variety of forms (extract, tea, capsules and so on).

I mostly use nettles for a wonderful spring tonic--either as greens or simmered in a broth with other young spring greens (dandelions, clover leaves, wintercress, garlic mustard, plantain). I usually make two nettle extracts--one of the leaves and stems, one of the roots. And of course, I dry lots of the leaves for use as tea throughout the year. Whenever I'm feeling a bit under the weather, nettle tea is one of the first things I turn to.

It is definitely worth your while to learn to identify and harvest nettles. They grow worldwide, where ever rich soils are found. Both stinging nettles and wood nettles can sting, so wear gloves when harvesting. Once cooked or dried, they no longer sting. Nettles make a great fodder for animals as well. Once cut and dried a bit, nettles can be fed to horses or cattle, especially if they need a nutritional boost themselves.

During these months of winter (while I'm daydreaming longingly about these plants...), I'll describe as many as I can. I hope this will spur some of you to start foraging and boosting your family's nutrition. Foraging free, wild plants is an ancient skill--but one we should learn again.

Onwards,
HM

Diatomaceous Earth

I got the pix above from a website that sells DE for ridding birds of parasites. And I got the idea for researching DE from Kellene Bishop's nifty and useful blog Preparedness Pro. She discusses using DE in your food storage; that is, when you go to store a 5 gallon bucket of wheat or rice or beans or whathaveyou, you add a tablespoon of DE to kill insects. We've been using DE in our food storage for about a year now and we have very little bug problems, if any. We also use bay leaves. I highly recommend it for this purpose. However, Kellene also mentions that DE can be a good source of trace minerals, it absorbs nasty heavy metals and toxins in your system (and disposes of them), rids you of worms and other parasites, regulates digestion and elimination, and gives you stronger, healthier skin and hair. Wow. Sounds like a good deal!

Since I didn't know any of this prior to reading Preparedness Pro on the subject, I thought I'd better do a bit of research. Let's look at each of the benefits separately.

Absorbs Heavy Metals and Toxins

Diatomaceous earth (DE) Fossil Shell Flour has been reported in scientific literature to absorb methyl mercury, E. coli, endotoxins, viruses (including poliovirus), organophosphate pesticide residues, drug residues, and protein, perhaps even the proteinaceous toxins produced by some intestinal infections. Pyrethroid insecticide residues probably also bind to diatomaceous earth, since pyrethrins from Chrysanthemum flowers bind to and are stabilized by this material.

This excerpt is from an article on the benefits from a website that sells food grade DE from Canada. I haven't checked prices at various vendors, but I would before I buy. However, this website includes a lot of useful information, and I always like that. I'd certainly consider buying DE from these folks if the prices were equivalent to other vendors. The entire article is very good. Apparently, DE binds to all these toxins, including pharmaceutical drugs and other poisons, and takes them out of the body via elimination. Activated charcoal and benntonite clay can do the same, however, DE has so many other uses and benefits to make it even more attractive.

Trace Minerals

DE is essentially silica, which performs a host of good things in the body. You can't easily absorb calcium without the presence of silica. See this article on the benefits of silica/DE on health. It all sounds great, although I take everything I read with a grain of plain old sea salt. DE contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, zinc....well, check it out here. That's a LOT of trace minerals, which, lord knows, are difficult to get from our basic foods these days (see my previous entries on the nutritional value of food--and look under the label for it).

Kills Worms and Other Parasites

DE is used to rid animals, both livestock and pets, of worms and parasites. Of course, it works for humans as well. I have read that 80% of the entire human population on earth has parasites, which can cause a host of nasty diseases. The parasites in your gut will eat YOUR nutrition, eliminate their toxic waste in your gut, and cause many other problems, even kill you. Frankly, I don't know if I have worms, but if I do, I'd want to get rid of them. I don't like any parasites, including lawyers and politicians, but at least I can take DE to rid myself of the less evil kind (HAH!).

Over at Wolf Creek Ranch, they feed everyone DE: humans, kids, pets, livestock, feral rescue animals, birds, etc. You may want to read all the information on that page, it's excellent stuff.

On final note on this topic: if you care to read one woman's diary of how she uses DE to rid herself of worms, read here. A word of warning: it's not very pretty. But it is very enlightening.

Regulates Digestion and Elimination

If you read all of the articles at the links mentioned here, you'll find a lot of mention how DE helps nearly everyone with constipation and other digestion problems. You'll find more here.

The upshot of all this is that food grade diatomaceous earth is very beneficial. One website even includes some nifty household uses (besides ridding the house of pests). It cleans metal, you can use it as a face mask and toothpaste, etc. With all this good stuff going for it, I think incorporating DE into your normal healthy routines is a great idea. I just started taking it a few days ago. I will let you know how I feel in updates (although I don't think I'll share all the worm elimination details if it is all the same with you :).

If anyone currently uses DE and has good (or bad) things to say about it, I'd like to hear about it. Thanks!

HM

Kimchi!

It's only been a million years or so since I last blogged. My friend Charli Gribble down in 'Bama has been quietly yelling at me to get with it and get blogging again, so Charli, here you go! I've been busy as hell all summer growing, foraging, fermenting, drying, canning, wine-making and otherwise preserving food for our family. In fact, I've felt an almost primitive need to preserve food. Wild foods, garden goodies, produce from the organic Amish farm, you name it. I snagged as much of it as I could and preserved it in some manner. It will ALL come in handy and probably be necessary. I'm sure many of you have felt the same way--this is not only sort of a hobby, but an absolutely necessary project.

So I've been primarily gardening, foraging and drying in the dehydrator. What a wonderful tool! I had misplaced mine last year so I sun-dried, but it is much easier in the dehydrator. And fun. My brother makes fun of me: "She can't see a veggie without wanting to suck all the water out of it!" Me, I love seeing how the apples, peaches, berries, tomatoes, onions, rutabegas etc. all shrink down into little bits, only to plump back up again with the addition of hot water. It's all MUCH easier to store for us as we live in a small space. The vacuumed bags of dehydrated veggies, fruit and meat (jerky) now all live in some big popcorn tins I got cheap at the local thrift store.

Anyway, on to our topic of today: Kimchi. A national dish/icon of Korea. I was reading in The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich about fermenting veggies, especially cabbages and came across this bit:

Kimchi as Medicine
While more and more Westerners are turning up their noses at sauerkraut, Koreans and other Asians are eating more kimchi. This is at least in part out of fear of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), the deadly pneumonia that left Korea virtually untouched while sickening people throughout most of Asia in 2003. Many inside and outside of the country believe that kimchi kept Koreans safe from the disease.

(As an aside, this is my current interest in food as medicine: keeping us safe from any damn flu virus the government/vaccine industry can throw at us. Thus the quarts of elderberry tincture, the goldenseal/echinacea tincture, etc. And Kimchi!)

As Korean scientists have proven, beneficial microbes in kimchi can overpower bacteria such as Helicobacter pylori, Shigella sonnei, and Listeria monocytogenes. Scientists are now cultivating kimchi microbes in hopes of using them for mass production of a new kind of antibiotic.

Besides killing bacteria, kimchi may fight viruses. A team at Seoul National University reported in 2005 that an extract of kimchi helped in treatment of chickens infected with avian flu. After further studies, the team hoped to distribute the remedy to poultry farms across Korea.

In guarding human health, kimchi battles more than microbes. Scientific studies show that high consumption of cruciferous vegetables reduces the risk of breast cancer. Korea has one of the world's lowest incidences of this disease.

Here's another interesting bit about kimchi (and why we should make and eat it):

Korean scientists have studied kimchi at least as thoroughly as their Western counterparts have studied sauerkraut. The scientists have found that fresh cabbage kimchi is actually more nutritious than unfermented Chinese cabbage. When kimchi tastes best--before it becomes overly sour--its levels of B1, B2, B12 and niacin are twice what they were initially, and its vitamin C levels equals that of fresh cabbage. Scientists have also found that undesirable bacteria and parasites are destroyed during fermentation.

So I made some, using sort of a combination methods/ingredients from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions cookbook and The Joy of Pickling. First I went off to the store because there were some items I was going to be needing for various pickling/fermenting projects. On this day I couldn't find napa cabbage OR daikon raidsh, so I grabbed some savoy cabbage and some regular red radishes. It won't be the real thing, but then, I'm not a real Korean so it won't hurt. Here's the basic recipe:

Cabbage and Radish Kimchi

3 tablespoons pickling salt
5 cups water
1 pound Chinese cabbage (1/2 large head), cored and cut into two inch squares
1 pound daikon cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
5 scallions cut into thin rounds
1 1/2 tablespoons Korean ground dried hot pepper (or other mildly hot ground red pepper)
1 teaspoon sugar

(I used the whole head of cabbage, a bunch of scallions, more ginger and garlic than called for; also, I used hot cayenne pepper flakes rather than the ground hot pepper--my kimchi doesn't look red for that reason.)

1. Dissolve 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of the salt in the water. Combine the cabbage and daikon in a large bowl or nonreactive pot and cover them with the brine. Weight the vegetables with a plate and let them stand at room temperature for 12 hours.

2. Drain the vegetables, reserving the brine. Combine them with the remaining ingredients, including the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Pack the mixture into a 2 quart jar. Pour enough of the brine over the vegetables to cover them. Push a food grade plastic bag into the jar and pour some or all of the remaining brine into the bag. Seal the bag. Let the kimchi ferment in a cool place at a temperature no higher than 68 degrees F for 3 to 6 days, until the kimchi is as sour as you like.

3. Remove the brine bag, Cap the jar tightly and store the kimchi in the refrigerator, where it will keep for months.

Nourishing Traditions calls for pretty much the same ingredients, but no brine, just sea salt and whey added to the veggies. In this version, you'd pound the cabbage/radish mix with a meat hammer to free up their juices, then put them in a jar with their own juices covering them. Again, let it ferment.

(I didn't use the brine bag, just covered the veggies with the brine and left them to ferment. Both Michael and I tasted it and it was salty, spicy and good. I think it is going to be addicting!)

Kimchi is only one of the fermenting projects I've got going. There are lots of gallon jugs of wine, pickled beets, brined green beans, fermented tomatoes (then dried, rolled into balls, and stored in olive oil) fermented zucchini, fermented dill pickles, etc. The nice thing about fermenting is that the lactic acid formed by the fermentation process means that you don't have to water-bath can the jars. The veggies will keep, stored in a cool place, for months. I've used the Joy of Pickling, Nourishing Traditions, and Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning books for basic recipes.

Some good, basic info on kimchi can be found here, and here. The first link is a fun but bawdy romp about kimchi goodness. Enjoy!

Onwards,
HM

Increasing Nutritional Value of Food: Lactic Fermentation

One of the simple techniques you can use to increase the nutritional value of your food is lactic fermentation. I've posted about this before, here and here. I thought what I would do here is provide a couple of brief introductions, one from Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning (reviewed here), and another from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions. Their descriptions of the process and the "how-to's" are simple and elegant. While there is naturally some repetition in the two descriptions, they have slightly different takes and provide a few different details that make it worth reading both.

I think you'll be convinced to try this age-old artisianal craft for preserving some of your harvest this coming year.

Preserving Food by Lactic Fermentation

Preserving vegetables for months, using neither heat, cold, nor preservatives, yet retaining the original freshness and nutritional value of these vegetables--this is the "miracle" of lactic fermentation.

The process is so easy and effective that we wonder why it has nearly disappeared from use. Still used for making sauerkraut, and for turnips in a few farms in Alsace and in Franche-Comte, lactic fermentation was the primary method for preserving vegetables before heat sterilization was discovered. Let's recall how it is done.

The vegetables are grated or cut up, seasoned with a bit of salt (or a mild brine) and herbs, and left to soak in their own juice. (Salt is a key: A good rule of thumb is about 1 1/2 percent salt by weight of vegetables, which generally translates into 2-3 tablespoons of salt per quart.)

Lactic microbial organisms--similar to those that curdle milk--develop spontaneously and convert the natural sugars of the vegetable into lactic acid. This environment rapidly acidifies, to the point that it becomes impossible for bacteria responsible for food spoilage to muliply. Vegetables preserved this way will keep in a cool place, such as a cellar, for many months.

This process is remarkable in its simplicity, effectiveness, and beneficial effects on nutritional value and digestibility. For most people who discover them, lacto-fermented vegetables become part of their daily diet and provide year-round access to ready-to-eat raw vegetables. Due to their acidity, however, they should not be eaten in large quantities; they should complement rather than replace cooked and raw vegetables. We prefer to eat lacto-fermented vegetables uncooked, to retain their enzyme and vitamin contrent, although certain ones, such as sauerkraut, can also be cooked. Once cooked, larger quantities of these foods can be eaten, since cooking reduces their acidity (however, cooking will also destroy some of the nutrients).

One other cautionary note: Don't use tap water in these recipes if it is chlorinated, because chlorine inhibits lactic fermentation. Also, the stones should be noncalcerous, that is, not comprised of limestone, calcium carbonate, or calcium.

For further information about lactic fermentation, see Beatrice Trum Hunter, Fermented Foods and Beverages (Keats Publishing, 1973).

*CAUTION: The USDA and the FDA recommend that all fermented foods should also be canned in a hot water bath to protect against botulism. However, traditional lacto-fermentation methods such as those described here seem to effectively prevent botulism by creating a sufficiently acidic environment. There is good reason to think these recipes are safe without canning. Readers should of course use their best judgment.

And from Nourishing Traditions:

Fermented Vegetables & Fruits

It may seem strange to us that, in earlier times, people knew how to preserve vegetables for long periods without the use of freezers or canning machines. This was done through the process of lacto-fermentation. Lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits putrefying bacteria. Starches and sugars in vegetables and fruits are converted into lactic acid by the many species of lactic-acid-producing bacteria. These lactobacilli are ubiquitous, present on the surface of all living things and especially numerous on leaves and roots of plants growing in or near the ground. Man needs only to learn the techniques for controlling and encouraging their proliferation to put them to his own use, just as how he learned to put certain yeast to use in converting the sugars in grape juice to alcohol in wine.

The ancient Greeks understood that important chemical changes took place during this type of fermentation. Their name for this change was "alchemy." Like the fermentation of dairy products, preservation of vegetables and fruits by the process of lacto-fermentation has numerous advantages beyond those of simple preservation. The proliferation of lactobacilli in fermented vegetables enhances their digestibility and increases vitamin levels. These beneficial organisms produce numerous helpful enzymes as well as antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances. Their main by-product, lactic acid, not only keeps vegetables and fruits in a state of perfect preservation by also promotes the growth of health flora throughout the intestine. Other alchemical by-products include hydrogen peroxide and small amounts of benzoic acid.

A partial list of lacto-fermented vegetables from around the would is sufficient to prove the universality of this practice. In Europe the principle lacto-fermented food is sauerkraut. Described in Roman texts, it was prized for both its delicious taste as well as its medicinal properties. Cucumbers, beets and turnips are also traditional foods for lacto-fermentation. Less well known are ancient recipes for pickled herbs, sorrel leaves and grape leaves. In Russia and Poland one finds pickled green tomatoes, peppers and lettuces. Lacto-fermented foods form part of Asian cuisines as well. The peoples of Japan, China and Korea make pickled preparations of cabbage, turnip, eggplant, cucumber, onion, squash and carrot. Korean kimchi, for example, is a lacto-fermented condiment of cabbage with other vegetables and seasonings that is eaten on a daily basis and no Japanese meal is complete without a portion of pickled vegetables. American tradition includs many types of relishes--corn relish, cucumber relish, watermelon rind--all of which were no doubt originally lacto-fermented products. The pickling of fruit is less well known, but, nevertheless, found in many traditional cultures. The Japanese prize pickled umeboshi plums, and the peoples of India traditionally fermented fruit with spices to make chutneys.

Lacto-fermented condiments are easy to make. Fruits and vegetables are first washed and cup up, mixed with salt and herbs or spices and then pounded briefly to release juices. They are then pressed into an air tight container. Salt inhibits putrefying bacteria for several days until enough lactic acid is produced to preserve the vegetables for many months. The amount of salt can be reduced or even eliminated if whey is added to the pickling solution. Rich in lactic acid and lactic-acid-producing bacteria, whey acts as an inoculant, reducing the time needed for sufficient lactic acid to be produced to ensure preservation. During the first few days of fermentation, the vegetables are kept at room temperature; afterwards, they must be placed in a cool, dark place for long-term preservation.

It is important to use the best quality organic vegetables, sea salt and filtered or pure water for lacto-fermentation. Lactobacilli need plenty of nutrients to do their work; and, if the vegetables are deficient, the process of fermentation will not proceed. Likewise if your salt or water contains impurities, the quality of the final product will be jeopardized.

Finally, here's the recipe I use to make fermented red onions, which I eat nearly every day with whatever else I'm having for lunch. They're delicious and to me, irresistable. I crave them if they're not around...

Fermented Red Onions

2 red onions, chopped
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoons whey
filtered water to cover

Chop up the red onions, pack them tightly into a quart jar. Add sea salt and whey. Cover onions up to within one inch of the top of the jar with the water. Put the lid on the jar. Leave at room temperature for 4 days (depending on your room temp). You may find some white froth at the top of the jar, but just spoon that off. After the 4 days or so (smell them to see if the onions smell tangy), put them in the fridge and enjoy!

HM

Nutritional Value of Food

Many people today are storing food against hard times. We’re buying storable grains, canned fruits and vegetables, dried fruits, vegetables and meats, and freeze-dried storable foods as well. This is only prudent. I lived in an upstate New York city that was prone to huge snowfalls and ice storms. When a storm blew in, you might be stuck in your house for days on end. You had better have some food and water stored for those times.

And it isn’t hard to store food up against bad times, whether it be a winter storm, hurricane, a job layoff, another depression. Even folks without very much money can buy cans of food here and there and keep it on hand. Ditto with water.

But there is something else about food that people need to be aware of. And that is, today’s food holds less nutritional value than food did decades ago. Due to modern big business agricultural methods, the soil is no longer mineral-dense. As the quality of the soil has declined, so has the nutritional value in our foods.

In my research I found a couple of articles that explain this issue well. Of course, I’m biased toward organic farming methods, herbs rather than pharmaceuticals, traditional folk remedies rather than high-priced, intrusive allopathic medicine practices, whole, real, God-made foods rather than processed, chemical crap posing as food, etc. If you’re a reader of this blog, you should be aware that I’m not at all impartial about this. Just something to keep in mind.

If you are interested in the nutritional value of your foods, stored or otherwise, then do read all of the following articles. Interesting reading, to say the least. However, I’ve pulled a couple of pertinent quotes that get the point across.

The first article is called Human Health, the Nutritional Quality of Harvested Food, and Sustainable Farming Systems by John B.Marler and Jeanne R.Wallin

Food grown in nutrient deficient soil lacks the nutrients needed to keep people healthy. Studies reveal that the nutritional values in food have declined significantly over the past 70 years. The declines in the nutritional values in food have been attributed to mineral depletion of the soil, loss of soil microorganisms along with changes in plant varieties.

Without adequate nutrition from food, we become susceptible to disease. Simply stated … a lack of nutrients leads to malnutrition … malnutrition leads to disease. Wellness stems from eating nutrient rich, flavorful food. A critical need exists to provide assurance of the nutritional values in the food we eat.

*************

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Americans typically lack a sufficient amount of the minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium and the vitamins A, C, D and E needed to maintain good health. As an example, calcium is essential for the formation of blood clots, the transmission of nerve impulses, as a metabolic cofactor to release energy from macronutrients, for maintaining a rhythmic heart rate and controlling concentrations of substances on differing sides of cell membranes throughout the body. Mild calcium deficiencies can cause heart palpitations, insomnia, irritability, nerve sensitivity, muscle twitching, mental confusion and a feeling of depression.

Serious calcium deficiencies can lead to bone loss, a common health problem. Other mineral deficiencies lead to a host of well documented health problems. Without adequate nutrition, especially minerals, research has shown that people develop chronic health conditions. More and more nutritional studies have linked many of today’s most prevalent, life threatening chromic diseases – diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity, high blood pressure, macular degeneration, bone loss, dementia to nutritional deficiencies. Research is finding simple nutrition may eradicate many of these common conditions as it has with scurvy, pellagra, beriberi and others. The simple truth may be that susceptibility to disease is linked to either toxicity or nutritional deficiency. Increasingly, scientific research has shown that the secret to life-long health is good nutrition.

*****

The decline in the nutritional quality of food has been linked to production methods that result in soil degradation or the “mining” of soil fertility. Globally, the Green Revolution of the past 50 years has resulted in the use of large amounts of petroleum based, synthetic fertilizers to increase productivity. To increase yields, a vast over-application of inorganic, synthetic nitrogen has been applied to farmland. This over-application of labile, inorganic nitrogen stimulated the soil microbes and resulted in the destruction of the natural balance of carbon reserves in the soil.

With the destruction of moisture holding carbon, soils have lost the ability to grow healthy plants and to hold moisture. Along with losing the ability to hold nutrients, the bio-availability of minerals for plant growth has been significantly decreased as a result of the accelerated withdrawal of minerals from the soil without corresponding additions.

The second article to take a look at is A Sharp Decline of Nutrients in Our Food

Vital vitamins and minerals have dramatically declined in some of our most popular foods, including potatoes, tomatoes, bananas and apples, the analysis reveals. Take the potato, by far the most consumed food in Canada. The average spud has lost 100 per cent of its vitamin A, which is important for good eyesight; 57 per cent of its vitamin C and iron, a key component of healthy blood; and 28 per cent of its calcium, essential for building healthy bones and teeth. It also lost 50 per cent of its riboflavin and 18 per cent of its thiamine. Of the seven key nutrients measured, only niacin levels have increased.

The story is similar for 25 fruits and vegetables that were analyzed.

And just one more article, Taste, nutrients decline as size of crops grow

Donald Davis, a senior researcher at the University of Texas, did some of the most illuminating research into the disappearing nutrients.

He compared Agriculture Department figures on nutrient content for 43 common fruits and vegetables.

Davis says historical data spanning 50 to 70 years show apparent declines of 5 percent to 40 percent or more in minerals, vitamins and proteins in groups of foods, especially vegetables.
Higher-yield crops also decrease the concentrations of cancer-fighting chemicals and anti-toxins -- known as phytonutrients or phytochemicals. Food scientists have identified the benefits of only a few of these.

"We are beginning to understand how valuable these phytochemicals actually are," Davis said. "We can only guess what the loss of these from high-yield farming will mean to the health of the consumer."

So yes, if we value our health, and we'd better, we need to focus on the nutritional value of our foods, and ways we can increase the nutritients available to us by certain, simple techniques. In my next few posts, I'll be discussing these techniques, but I'll provide a short list here:

1. Make bone broths for a mineral-rich, nutrient-dense soup base.

2. Sprouting seeds

3. Lactic fermentation

4. Tonics: rejuvelac, beet kvass, fermented herb drinks, etc.

These things all increase the nutritional value in the basic foods, or they make the available nutrients more available for your body to use. Besides producing good flavor and attractive foods, these techniques all "kick it up a notch" "BAM" as Emeril says.

If readers out there know of other methods, please let me know in the comments. I'd like to learn as many ways of making our foods even better for us as I can. These are only the ones I've thought of or discovered in my reading. I'm certainly willing to learn more, so please do comment. Thanks,

HM

Thinking about Stored Food and Nutrition

I've been thinking a lot lately about our stored foods and about nutritional value of foods. We have stored a goodly amount of corn, rice, beans, canned fruits, vegatables and meats. And I'm glad we have, for the outlook on the world is nasty and getting nastier. I'm very grateful that we've been able to do this on our little income, but we have and it is all to the good. I know I'll be glad we have it, for ourselves and for friends in need.

But I worry about nutrition. Specifically, the nutritional value of our foods. I've read that the nutritional value of food has declined greatly over the past 50 years. When once you would eat one orange, you'd now have to eat 5 oranges to get the same nutrition out of it. It is all due to agribusiness methods of food production. Taking from the soil, but not giving back to it in the form of organic compost or cover crops or manure. Thus the soil has been basically mined of all its life-enhancing minerals and trace elements.

I'll be posting a bit about this once I've done some further research, and I'll share what I find out. As we all get busy this spring and make gardens, we'll be able to get better, more nutritionally dense foods. Until then, the stored foods will do. I'll also post on some simple and easy techniques for making nutritionally enhanced foods to ensure we get the good building blocks we need for our health.
HM

Bone Broth for Nutrients You Can Use

Yesterday, Fred and I went to the Amish farm as we usually do. As we came in the kitchen, we found Lydia and the girls getting ready to can some chicken they had just butchered. And in a big pile on the table were bones, lots and lots of chicken bones.

Hmmmmmm. Now, Fred's in his eighties and a child of the Depression, and I'm a thifty type and I looked at him and saw that we were both thinking the same thing.

So after our greetings and letting Lydia know what we needed that day, Fred asked what they were planning on doing with all the bones. Lydia said she'd hadn't thought about it--probably toss them.

"Can we buy the bones from you, Lydia?" asks Fred.

"Well, no," says Lydia. "But you can have them if you want."

See, these bones had already been cooked once. Lydia had already gotten her use from them, but there was still bits and pieces of meat on the bones and they'd still be good for bone broth. Which is another way of saying that even if you've cooked your chicken or beef or whatever, save the bones for broth.

Bone broth is very good for your health. Here's what Sally Fallon, author of the cookbook and encyclopedia on traditional nutrition, Nourishing Traditions, has to say:

Science validates what our grandmothers knew. Rich homemade chicken broths help cure colds. Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

So we took the bones home, or rather I did for I'm the one with the stock pot. I put the bones into cold water, added a couple heads of garlic, an onion quartered, some onion skins and other veggie bits I keep in a bag in the fridge for broth-making, parsley and other herbs and a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. The vinegar is important as it helps extract the minerals from the bones. The chicken bone broth has been simmering on the back of the stove for almost 24 hours now. About time to finish it off, which is merely straining it, cooling it, and putting it in appropriate containers.

This bone broth will go to Fred, for an all out attempt to get his elbow healed by the next time we have to go to his doctor. He's sick and tired of that cast on his arm. Well, I'll probably keep a quart of it for soup-making purposes, but he can have the rest.

The broth smells lovely. It smells like home, like health, like all good, simple things. And it will do wonderful things for a soup. You can't beat it. In a pinch, if I don't have any broth in the fridge or freezer, I'll use canned chicken or beef broth, and a decent bouillon cube (non MSG for me) if I have too, but you really can't beat homemade stock or broth for flavoring a soup or sauce.

It's great to know that this very simple cooking technique can give you such great health benefits as well as provide potent flavor. Peasant societies and all of our grandmothers knew what was best all along.

You used to be able to get critter and chicken bones from the butcher just by asking for them. These days you have to buy beef or lamb bones--they get packaged and sold with the meat. And that's a shame, but hell, I'll buy them. Or sometimes get lucky and stop by the Amish farm after they've been butchering....

For a couple of great articles that can explain the health benefits of broth better than I can, check here and here. You'll be glad you did, especially if you start making broth yourself.

HM