Salty salty floating

I've joined a gym, the south pacific health club, it's in St kilda on the beach, it's like a whole new world, a different planet from the one I have been living on. It's great and really wonderful, they have a free 30 day trial, so I jumped to the opportunity and signed up. So at the very least I willbe a member for 29 days. I have spent the last three days there, 3 or 4 hours at a time. The St kilda sea baths is apart of the complex, it is a salt water pool. It is very very salty and makes you feel buoyantly alive. There is a hydrotherapy pool and a steam room. There are also many Feldenkrais and yoga classes. I haven't reallyventured near the machines yet but have thus far had an amazing time. The pool is really lively and you can look out across the sea, the dirty oily bay that you would never swim in but is still a vast body of water to look out upon and connect with something greater. I love this place, it's like a retreat, I just finished an iyengar yoga class which looked at opening and strengthing the shoulder to support and preserve the lower back. I feel stronger and like my arms have come home.

Really raw cashews

I just bought a packet of really truly raw cashews. They taste nothing like I would have expected. They are incredible. Creamy sweet and more dense and nutritious tasting... Wow, the loving earth ones are from the island of Flores in Indonesia. Fair trade, organic and still have the highly nutritious outer skin or testa on the nut. What we once thought of a 'raw cashew' has actually been boiled or steamed in order to remove the shell and inside skin, which of course destroys the enzymes. They are obviously more expensive but so worth it, these cashews have been shelled by hand!

Oh yeah, green is what I needed!

--
neatly snipped specimens from my glorious coriander tree, and diamond leaves of spinach
a banana and one kiwi fruit unwrapped from it's brown furry hiding place
a glass of water, blended until it is a thick smooth and gritty delight (grit = kiwi seeds)

Smoothie for the car ride to the train station

Tahini milk
Restorative, and balancing for nerves and stomach
-
Two spoons of unhulled tahini (calcium)
2 cups of water
2 tsps of slippery elm powder (good for soothing stomach acid and the esophageal world)
2 spoons of maca powder (adrenals)
2 spoons of lucuma powder (lucuma is often part of celebrations and banquet settings because of its distinct and fragrant flavor)

Chook feed

A month or so ago my friend alerted me to the fact that the chook food I was buying (grain mix for layers) contained all kinds of animal and meat products. There was still a lot of it left and it was expensive so I continued to feed it to them. Last week we finally emptied the bag and today I went to the big pet shop on high street to have a look at their selection. You can buy feed by the kilo there. They have a really nice grain mix (no animals or extra weird things) for $1.50 a kilo. The man told me the mix was designed by some dude doing his masters study (in chook food?) and that they made it up themselves. he told me all the names of the grains and seeds (sorghum, sunflower, safflower etc). It looks really super and I reckon I would eat it, it makes sense to feed them delicious things. I'm also really stoked that I even when I don't have much money I can scramble up some coins and buy a small amount to feed Betsy and Hen. Today I got a 10kg bag for eleven dollars and pushed it home in an old lady shopping trolley. They also have a certified organic feed but it comes in a much bigger bag for $43, next time!

Complete urban farmer #4 COMPOST

Things I learnt today
* there are four main ingredients needed to make compost - Carbon, Nitrogen, Moisture & Oxygen
* the difference between hay and straw -
Hay is when the whole plant is harvested and cured, such as lucerne, this means the nitrogen is retained
Straw is the fibrous part of a plant that is left after the peas/beans have been harvested, such as pea straw, which means it is mostly carbon
* humus is the stable end product after the decomposition process, ie what compost becomes when is cooked and ready
* Nitrogen - greens, grass clippings, food waste, manure
* Carbon - straw, cardboard, wood chips, leaves
* if anaerobic (if not enough oxygen is present), it is not compost, as the beneficial fungi and bacteria are asleep or dead and some other crazy creatures have taken over
* Fungi store carbon in the soil
* fungi can send out toxins and enzymes across distances to break down leaves and organic wastes so the conditions are favourable for when they arrive there later

Do we really need high speed blenders?

Blending foods, in particular greens breaks down the cell wall of the plant and makes the nutrient more "bioavailable." The reason you would buy an expensive high powered blender is to make things silky smooth and for the durability of the machine.
How else can you access the nutrition? Chewing! Why don't we chew suffiencently? Because we are too busy running around doing other "important" things, we are too hyperactive and existing in too many places at the same time. Maybe didn't learn to chew. Beyond blending there are bigger questions. Why are we too busy to eat and digest properly? What are we doing? How do we learn to chew? What would we do if there was no more electricity? The first thing to go would be everyones inefficent iPhones. This blog would become obsolete. Maybe I should make a zine? Or hold a weekly soapbox. But what exactly is it that I have to say that is apparently important?

Being present and connected to who you are,
Consciously choosing in the moment.
We are here together treading earth in a new way, positive, proactive, localised and simple.

Cephalic phase of digestion

The process of chewing also activates signaling messages to the rest of the gastrointestinal system that triggers it to begin the entire digestive process. This is because when chewing is a well-paced, thorough process, it can actually be said to belong to the "cephalic stage of digestion", the phase in which you first see, smell and taste your food. The length of time spent chewing the food is related to the length of the cephalic stage of digestion since with more extensive chewing the longer the food gets to be seen, tasted and smelled.

Cephalic phase responses have been extensively analyzed in the research literature. The release of small messaging molecules that is critical for digestion, such as cholecystokinin, somatostatin and neurotensin, have been found to increase by over 50% just by the mere sight and smell of food. Additionally, research has shown how chewing, as well as the activation of taste receptors in the mouth, can prompt the nervous system to relay information to the gastrointestinal system to expedite the process of digestion. For example, stimulation of the taste receptors can signal the stomach lining to produce hydrochloric acid that helps in the breakdown of protein. Additionally, chewing signals the pancreas to prepare to secrete enzymes and bicarbonate into the lumen of the small intestines.
From WHFoods

Mastication

Mastication or chewing is the process by which food is crushed and ground by teeth. It is the first step of digestion and it increases the surface area of foods to allow more efficient break down by enzymes. During the mastication process, the food is positioned between the teeth for grinding by the cheek and tongue. As chewing continues, the food is made softer and warmer, and the enzymes in saliva begin to break down carbohydrates in the food. After chewing, the food (now called a bolus) is swallowed. It enters the esophagus and via peristalsis continues on to the stomach, where the next step of digestion occurs.
Cattle and some other animals, called ruminants, chew food more than once to extract more nutrients. After the first round of chewing, this food is called cud.
The chewing cycle

Mastication is a repetitive sequence of jaw opening and closing with a profile in the vertical plane called the chewing cycle. Mastication consists of a number of chewing cycles. The human chewing cycle consists of three phases:
Opening phase: the mouth is opened and the mandible is depressed
Closing phase: the mandible is raised towards the maxilla
Occlusal or intercuspal phase: the mandible is stationary and the teeth from both upper and lower arches approximate

Mastication motor program
Mastication is primarily an unconscious act, but can be mediated by higher conscious input. The motor program for mastication is a hypothesized central nervous system function by which the complex patterns governing mastication are created and controlled.
It is thought that feedback from proprioceptive nerves in teeth and the temporomandibular joints govern the creation of neural pathways, which in turn determine duration and force of individual muscle activation (and in some cases muscle fiber groups as in the masseter and temporalis).
The motor program continuously adapts to changes in food type or occlusion.[1]
It is thought that conscious mediation is important in the limitation of parafunctional habits as most commonly, the motor program can be excessively engaged during periods of sleep and times of stress. It is also theorized that excessive input to the motor program from myofascial pain or occlusal imbalance can contribute to parafunctional habits.
From Wiki-pedia

Getting started on raw food diet

Nutrition

My new naturopath Heidi is wonderful, she just gave me this big bag of flowers and wild edibles, including Clivers (Stickyweed's other name), dandelion, chickweed, viola and pansies. So exciting!

Gaia's Table

Support group for practicing vegan raw foodists in Sydney Gaia's table, regular feasting gatherings. They also have a great links list for raw resources in australia. So much to read and virtually poke around and dance in.

Complete Urban Farmer #3 SOIL

Soil is complex and INCREDIBLE!
There is so much to write and investigate and think about. I'm particulary excited about how similiar soil and plant nutrition is to human physiological and nutritive processes!

A few notes of
things I learnt today
* Snow is really rich in nitrogen and minerals, so that is part of the reason why soil in NZ is so good.
* There are nutrients in the atmosphere, rain, snow, and sunshine
* if the plant is getting what it needs you will have good yeild, it will taste good and you shouldn't have pests and disease
* sick plants send out signals for insects to come and destroy them so that they don't reproduce a genetically inferior version of themselves
* when the soil is more acidic heavy metals become more available
* Calcium opens up the soil, makes it easier to work, more pore space, activates enzymes and is really good for cell structure

Raw permaculture

Bi-Lingual Spanish-English
Permaculture Design Course

December 6 – 19, 2010
at Buena Fortuna Botanical Gardens, La Ribera, Baja Sur, Mexico

All-Star Instructors:
Penny Livingston-Stark, Andrew Jones, Daniel Jaramillio, Bruce Horowitz, Seeds of Change Co-Founder Gabriel Howearth and guest instructors.
Hosted at Buena Fortuna Gardens, a dry tropical plant paradise with over 3000 species!

Course Syllabus:
 > Ecological Design < > Bio-Remediation < > Organic Gardening < > Natural Building < > Appropriate Technology < > Sustainable Community < > Water Conservation < > Renewable Energy < > Seed Saving < > Food Preservation < > Resource Efficiency < > Local Economics < > Disaster Preparedness < > and Much More! < At the end of the class, students engage in a group design project. Link to RawPermaculture

Sustainable Cuisine

Positively impact your health and the health of the planet by eating minimally processed, vegan cuisine. Support local economies: purchase seasonal, & organic farmer direct. Grow it yourself, forage, compost!!
Check out rawpermaculture.org

Read more about Bruce Horowitz, raw food chef and permaculture designer and teacher. This whole thing keeps getting more and more interesting, everything really is interconnected.

My orange and soil aggregate notes

Amazing morning tea

Today I'm at 'Complete Urban Farmer' school at Ceres. We are learning about soil. I am completely amazed by how many parallels there are with soil nutrition and health and that of our own bodies - human biochemical, nutritional and physiological processes are so similiar to how soil works, and how soil works in relation to plants, the sun and atmosphere. I guess there are lots of people thinking and operating on this level but it's quite a revolution for me.
A woman in my class brought along an incredibly beautiful Orange and tangelo cake to share for morning tea. Organic, home grown, made with love and gentle consideration in a homely kitchen. An impressively yellow appearance due to the healthy eggs of her backyard bantums. It was something of an immense joy to eat something so eggy and buttery and soft and crumbly. it's texture was like that of a perfect loamy soil...I appreciated the treat.

Conscious nutrition

I was just reading Heidi Merika's website - naturopath, and herbalist specialising in plant based nutrition and living foods - and felt compelled to share some of her words

"Food is a love note from God. Its letters are written by the rays of the sun.
It says I love you and I shall take care of you and sustain you with the offerings of my earth." ~ Gabriel Cousens M.D.

Conscious Nutrition goes beyond food as a source of fuel. It even goes beyond nutrition for health and healing.
It is about using food as a tool for personal and planetary transformation.

Conscious nutrition incorporates the whole food model and takes it one step further to an energetic level.  The purpose of conscious eating is two fold; firstly we must nourish our bodies by eating organic whole foods. Secondly we can use our food choices to enhance our spiritual practice and our subtle energy fields.  In this model foods are chosen not only for their nutritional benefits but also for the affect they have on the consciousness. Thus even certain ‘healthy’ foods may be avoided at particular times if they produce certain kinds of effects on an energetic level. Garlic, for example, is often avoided by spiritual practitioners who find it stimulates the mind and physical passions and makes it difficult to meditate. In this model one is concerned with the energy field of the food thus living, raw foods are chosen most often because they have the highest vibration. They also contain greater amounts of nutrients and enzymes that have not been damaged by heating or processing.. ... Continue reading on Heidi's website Conscious Nutrition

Wild edible resources

Food under Foot,
unleash the energy of wild edibles

Eat Weeds
Wild food guide to the edible plants of Britain

Herbs are special getting to know and use wild edibles

Self nutrition data Dandelion greens

Health benefits of dandelions
Much of what dandelions purportedly do in promoting good health could result from nutritional richness alone. Vogel considers the sodium in dandelions important in reducing inflammations of the liver. Gerasimova, the Russian chemist who analyzed the dandelion for, among other things, trace minerals, stated that "dandelion [is] an example of a harmonious combination of trace elements, vitamins and other biologically active substances in ratios optimal for a human organism" (Hobbs 1985).

Stellaria media, Chickweed

Chickweed has been esteemed as an internal cleanser and external healer. It is a soothing and healing herb for the entire digestive system, helping to relieve conditions such as inflammation, ulceration, and bowel disorders. It is said that chickweed possesses many of the healing properties of the valued American Indian remedy, slippery elm. All respiratory complaints can benefit from chickweed. It also has been used as atea and the leaves are eaten for arthritis, rheumatism, blood poisoning, constipation, colitis, gastritis, acid indigestion, diabetes, candida, cancer, fatigue, fractures, mouth ulcers, to strengthen the heart, improve eyesight and to assist the function of the thyroid, liver, gall, kidneys, bladder and lymphatic system. Stellaria media, the plants botanical name, means little star and this plant with its star flowers, in herbal folklore is a 'star' at helping, when we need to gently dissolve something, or to relieve and cool inflamed tissue. As a folk remedy, taken daily over a number of months, it has been known to dissolve cysts, lumps in the breast and elsewhere in the body. Chickweed also thins the membranes of the cells, so that nutrients are more readily absorbed and utilised.

Thrives in the cooler months and in shade, as a sprawling ground cover with soft 1cm long, ovate-shaped, lime green leaves; a line of tiny white hairs runs down the opposing sides of each stem, between each pair of leaves; star- like, tiny white flowers form at stem terminals. In some areas of Europe, chickweed is encouraged in orchards, as it is believed to increase yields of fruit.

From this article 'Getting to know and use edible weeds' from Isabel Shipards's how can I be prepared With Self Sufficency and Survival Foods? book