permaculture

["Frances and David" <fdnokes@hotmail.com>]

One of the concepts of the blood type diet is foods that are beneficial and 
foods that are avoids (much better terminology than the specific 
carbohydrate diet which talks about 'illegals' but then again that group 
does include people in critical condition health wise, so 
understandable)....
For me, much that I have found on the Type A list as beneficials and avoids 
rings true.  There are some minor exceptions perhaps.
However, I do  not find that peppers are something I tolerate well or that 
provide me with lasting benefits.
The underlying concept of the blood type diet is the concept of lectins --  
that different blood types express different lectins in relation to 
different foods and some of them can interfere with digestive health and 
create blockages.  There is a blood type database where you can look up 
specific foods online and see what reasons might be given.
At any rate, I have found that apple pectin is particularly good for me to 
have a serious round of in the fall...
Seasonal eating is great because it allows certain foods to have special 
powers and functions at certain times of the year.  The body is fresh to the 
effects and welcoming of the taste, etc.
Another food that I find incredibly beneficial is pumpkin. Dave and I  have 
realized that this is one that we both could happily eat piles of, and are 
saving a lot of pumpkin seeds. Tricky, though, to grow pumpkin without it 
turning out to be something else. That is why we decided to specialize in 
pumpkin. That way, we won't contaminate the flowers with other pollens and 
land up with some other type of squash.

I actually had a whole bunch of earth sprouts growing around here for a 
while. Had a shelf and grow lights to (we are in a higher latitude up here) 
but near a patio door with lots of light as well. And then the spring came 
and the bugs came and it was time to gut the sprout farm. We do have a 
wonderful local establishment in the area called Eatmore Sprouts.  They ship 
their product far and wide. I have a friend in Toronto who eats raw and 
loves to use her automatic water sprouting machine. That way, she doesn't 
have to worry about bugs. I recently found that I have a limit to how many 
sprouts my body wants to eat. Everything runs in cycles in my system. I find 
a groove, stay with it a while, and then it is time to get on to something 
else. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet in which I ate no starch for years, was 
the most extreme example. It was tricky getting off it, too, because I was 
not really prepared and it took a while to find the 'exit ramp' on that one, 
so to speak.  I could feel the imbalance in my system for a while before I 
was able to do anything about it.
Fermentation really seems to do well in the Pacific NW, I am just reflecting 
to myself, and might also, perchance be a favourable setting for those who 
are 'probiotically challenged'.

Well, L, I'd sure be curious to know how you do on the low temperature 
baking part for the sprout bread. It's often been on my mind to try that, 
though Dave has his doubts. Just the other day, I was wondering about it 
again. We actually still have an electric dehydrator that we could use. 150 
F is supposed to be the point at which one departs from allowing the food to 
'live'. Perhaps I'll ask to 'siphon off' one of the breads in order to 
experiment with low temperature dehydrating...

Oh, and, by the way, what I use for 'potency' in my green cook ups, is loads 
of onion, garlic, and ginger, as well as turmeric and other herbs/spices... 
So, don't feel sorry for me unable to eat those peppers. Nope. What I've 
learned is that regardless of what I've decided to eat or not eat, I've 
always enjoyed my food. In fact, I would say that as my diet became more 
pure, my enjoyment of food, followed suit.  Oh, and here is a tip we picked 
up in Costa Rica, Broccoli greens make wonderful greens, too! It isn't 
necessary to grow all broccoli for its lovely, nourishing fruit/flower. Yes, 
Kale, spinach, chard, all stars of the veggie cook ups. Can also be nice in 
salads, too.

I haven't been using any granular lecithin, but I have picked up some rice 
bran which I keep in the fridge after opening and use with things like oats 
or raw apple sauce.

I like a quality sea salt or herbamare. I am totally open to salting when I 
truly feel like it, but otherwise don't bother. Sometimes the urge is there 
and I believe it stems from inner knowing of the body.

For the sprouts, we use glass jars, and cupboards to keep them in the dark. 
We've grown wheatgrass and barley grass and oat grass among others. Barley 
grass and oat grass each have their own areas of strength.  A fascinating 
resource for reading about nutrients found in sprouts is a book called 
Hippocrates Life Force: Superior Health and Longevity by Institute Director, 
Dr. Brian Clement.  Although the book is about curing with raw foods, it has 
incredible charts detailing seed sprouts and more and the micronutrients 
they offer as well as clues as to how these micronutrients manifest in our 
health or otherwise. Both sprouts done with water and in earth are charted. 
The official description of the book reads like this (although for me, it is 
always the sprout book): shows how the Hippocrates LifeForce program 
implements the use of raw living foods to help people maintain a healthy 
weight and stimulate natural immune defenses against cancer, heart disease, 
and other chronic illnesses. Dr. Clement discusses psychological attachments 
to unhealthy eating habits and describes strategies to create a personalized 
support system. This health manual can help anyone improve their well-being. 
Also includes recipes from the Hippocrates Kitchen to inspire and give you a 
head-start towards incorporating more raw foods into your diet.

Yes, I did eat raw for a couple of years. Even ate the 'daylight' diet for a 
while (that's a timed eating regimen). I noted a long time ago, when I was 
young, that I had a good storehouse of will power that I could use to do 
pretty much whatever I set my mind to.  Food has long been an interest of 
mine -- when I was young, I thought about how language might have originally 
developed and what I pictured was a group of people putting their heads 
together to share what they knew about the effects of different foods... 
what was good to eat and what was not. This continues to be a big theme in 
my life!

So, yes, I've joined the list of people who are either happily obsessed with 
food and health or just willing to engage in a little sharing on the topic.

And thanks for the tip on the rock dust. Dave's been developing his 
composting skills and that has been going well. I wonder if there is any 
neat way to make rock dust out of rocks.  We have lots of those around. 
It's been something 'out there' that I knew I could do but never connected 
with it on an immediate level as in saying, "Okay, I have to get me some of 
that". So, now, I'll share this info with Dave and we'll see what we learn 
about its local availability.

Cheers,
Frances

-----Original Message----- 
From: venaurafarm
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2012 9:07 PM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: [permaculture] nutrition -- sprouted kamut bread

On 10/28/2012 9:18 PM, Frances and David wrote:
> Do you have a source to recommend for hand crank items?
>
> I have been making water based kefir drinks with the fruit tree harvest. 
> We
> call them fizzy drinks.
> Apples work well and nice when ginger is added. Makes for a ginger ale 
> like
> experience.
> I was whizzing up the fruit with water then straining through cloth. The
> pulp makes a nice raw applesauce that keeps for days in the fridge (or
> becomes a little ripe and is still good).

All that is right down my alley. I love drinks like those.

> I find apple pectin an agreeable input in the fall.

Apple pectin, found in the skin, is very important in ridding the body
of toxins.

> People have called the body the temple, but I'm finding it no stretch at 
> all
> to think of it as a garden.

Yes, it is interesting to think of feeding the microflora the right
foods, nutrients and innoculants to keep them in balance and in the
right proportion. kim chee, kraut, kefir, green tea, fiber, plenty of
liquid, etc.

I eat a lot of very hot red cayenne pepper, often, either powdered,
flaked or whole pods. Here's a good all round recipe:

leafy green potherbs, collards, cabbage, mustard or turnip greens, kale
or chard

wash and shred

add olive oil to carbon steel chef's wok
add greens, lots of red pepper pods, himalayan or celtic gray sea salt

stir fry until bright green
serve and enjoy

or fry up half pound of bacon in wok, remove from pan and cook the
greens (lots of them) in the fat with salt and hot red pepper pods

> One food I like to eat for its highly nutritive content is chia seeds. 
> I've
> taken to eating them whole in something like raw apple sauce or cooked 
> oats
> or oat bran. I feel that they retain their efa 3's further down the

I will have to try them! Thanks for the idea. Ground, organic flaxseed
are also extremely important to good health. I have also used granular
lecithin, oat bran and something no longer available from Fearn: corn
germ, but I do eat a lot of hole grain corn grits.

> alimentary canal that way, as efa's 3's are particularly heat sensitive. 
> So,
> I eat them with their protective spherical shape intact. Yummy, too.
> I ate no starches whatsoever for many years. Definitely no grains. In the
> end, it was wonderful to get back to eating some. But, earlier, it was a
> revelation to go without and helped me to focus my mind.

Good! Glad you discovered a working regimen and stuck with it.

> Back to the bread topic for a minute. Dave and I were chatting about the
> grains and it's the gluten that will make a difference in actually forming 
> a
> bread that will hold together.

Essene bread; sprouted grains, ground and fermented then dehydrated and
"baked" in the sun (or maybe really low heat in the oven).

> Sprouts are just a really neat way to find superior nutrition and more
> alkalinizing chemistry in many seeds and grains.  Kitchen as garden.

Kitchen as garden! Yes. How about a big sprout farm! Lots of different
kinds of sprouts grown different ways: sunflower and buckwheat grown in
trays of compost & rock dust in a sunny window, alfalfa, broccoli,
radish and others grown in gallon jars laid sideways on racks with open tops

I did create a separate mailing list for permaculturist's health called
pchealth
pchealth@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/pchealth

if anyone wants to get really carried away with discussion, recipes,
Q&A, etc, subscribe and enjoy
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