Bypassing the Flu to talk about Food and Gardening....

I was going to write about having the flu for the past month:

For the past month I've been the reluctant host to an influenza 
virus that moved in and metaphorically cleaned out my refrigerator 
and then invited another unwelcome guest, bronchitis, to move in 
and start rearranging the furniture.

The good news is that while influenza and bronchitis where 
partying it up, I got to rest.

But I just realized I'm tired of giving the flu attention. I'd rather
write about my garden and food : )

The greens I planted last month are already three times the
size and ready to be harvested. I planted more greens after
clearing out six large bushes of basil; and now we have jars
of pesto lining the freezer, along with canned tomatoes from
the local farm.

Raven and I have shifted our diet, and we are mainly eating
vegetables and organic, grass-finished meats (which means
the animals are either wild or spend their entire lives out to
pasture and are not fed grain). There is interesting research
around eating a diet that is free of grains, dairy, and legumes....
For more info check out: http://www.paleodiet.com/

This weekend we had fresh venison, shot with a bow and
arrow by my friend T's cousin. Blessings to that beautiful
critter that nourished us on Saturday night.

I'm also experimenting with raw food recipes from a Gabriel
Cousins book. Latest creation: cashew cream with cinnamon
and agave nectar, yum! Today I am soaking oat groats to
make Raven raw cookies.

I was also inspired by reading Barbara Kingsolver's book
Animal Vegetable Miracle, which describes the adventures
of Barbara, her husband and two daughters living only on
food grown within a 100 mile radius from their home. So
I'm also focusing on buying as much local, organic produce
as possible. I've loved talking to the farmer's who grow the
food (we have a wonderful farm just down the road from us.)
We are also part of a cooperative that buys produce and
meats from local farmers; we get an order from them every
two weeks. It is a joy to go online (www.bountifulsprout.com)
and order what is fresh from the local farmers, then pick it up
in a large bushel basket on Wednesdays.

Raven still drinks milk in his tea, and I still love rice, we are
still eating bananas from Puerto Rico, and it has been fun to
incorporate more mindfulness and new habits into our world.

One other thing I just did that is making me very happy is to buy
a bunch of glass canning jars to store food in, rather than using
plastic. I can then also fill these directly at the store from the bulk
bins, saving on plastic bags (if you do this make sure to weigh
themfirst and write down the tare, so it can be subtracted from the
totalweight.) I also just bought a $12 bottle of cheap wine just for
theglass bottle! So now I can keep this bottle in my car, refill it
easilyat Whole Foods, and use it to top off my smaller glass
water bottlesthat I'm carrying around. Less plastic makes me
VERY happy!

Here are some photos of the growing garden and of T and my
canningproject this weekend. Regular canned tomatoes, italian
stewed tomatoes(garlic, onions, tomatoes and basil basil basil!)
mexican stewed tomatoes(with HOT jalapenos), and four types of
pesto: regular, jalapeno, magic (jalapenos and homemade
sundried tomatoes) and vegan pesto.

The garden photos are taken near dusk.... my favorite time to garden!

Stay healthy this flu season! Probiotics, Wellness Formula or AirBorne, Colloidial Silver, and eating healthy will help keep your immune system strong. And respect the flu virus. It has the capacity to travel by air (when someone near you coughs or sneezes) and can also live from 2 to 8 hours on surfaces. So wash those hands, give coughing and sneezing people a wide berth (and your love!) and be mindful.

Blessings!