I ordered my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds on Saturday; a mix of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers.
Another shift
I’m right in the middle of garden planning at the moment.
One thing has become exceedingly clear: If I truely wish to be self-sufficient, I’ll not be able to live with a raw diet year-round.
I’ve asked myself which is more important – raw or self-sufficiency.
I feel amazing when I’m eating 80-90% raw food.
I feel great when I’m eating only vegetables (cooked).
I start to feel a bit groggy when I eat flour-based foods (bread/pasta)/rice.
I feel my throat get ‘thick’ when I eat dairy/cheese and too much onion/garlic.
For me, it’s far more imporant to be self-sufficient.
It’s easy to be extreme.
Either you’re following a ‘strict’ dietary regime, or you’re eating anything.
It’s difficult to eat for nutrition’s sake – you have to eat a lot more low-calorie food (veg & greens) in order to pack the minerals and vitamins in.
Grains are just a filler – they’re rich in calories, but (unless I’m greatly mistaken) very poor in nutrients. Hence, the need for flours to be ‘enriched’ (pumped full of extra vitamins/minerals).
I guess it’s just like tap water and rain water – tap water will keep your plants alive, but rain water will make them thrive.
Bombay Star, Boardman OH. Review
I can’t hide the fact that on hearing the news that an Indian restaurant had opened locally, I was more than a little excited.
Frank and I don’t really get down to Boardman too often, as we’re so preoccupied with our day-to-day life, but when we were afforded some extra time after running my parents to Pittsburgh Airport the other week, we decided to stop by and tickle our tastebuds.
Continue reading “Bombay Star, Boardman OH. Review”
The good keeps flowing in!
Another check on the wishlist.
I’ve always loved ballroom dancing.
No. It wasn’t brought about by the film ‘Dirty Dancing’. I’ve just always loved the grace and elegance. Then again, this probably all stems back to my love for the ‘old days’ (pre-1900 etc).
Today, a former teacher of mine approached me about befriending someone my age who lives here in the US.
And, would you know it, she’s a ballroom dancer!!
So cool.
My Kitchen
I just thought I’d boast about my kitchen.
White Vitamix 5200 Super
White Omega 8004 Juicer
White Maytag self-cleaning slide-in gas range
Oh – and when it’s finished, my kitchen will unsurprisingly be white and black (with grey marble tiles on the floor, and pale green walls).
Birthday, Valentine, Birthday
My parents flew in on Wednesday 9th.
I took Eliza to collect them at the airport, and we had dinner at the Olive Garden near Pittsburgh airport before heading back home.
Next morning, Frank and I headed out to pick up a rental car, and immediately thereafter, we hit the road for West Virginia.
My grandmother (father’s mother) turned 90 on Thursday, and my uncles/aunt put on an absolutely terrific birthday party for her.
The Garden
April is less than two months away.
April is when our darling little seedlings will be started (I mean plant seeds … we’re not ‘growing’ any more babies just yet!).
We have a large enough plot of land, given that we’re ‘downtown’ (even if it is a rather small town), and hope to add more over the years.
At the moment, we have just over 1/2 acre. With any luck, by the time we’re done, we should have 1.5-2 acres.
I’ve been reading up on intensive gardening techniques, and if you’ve read my earlier posts you will have read about the companion planting techniques which I hope to adopt.
Me taste buds are changing!
I made some raw broccoli soup last night (the second soup I’ve made in as many weeks, and disliked it as much as the one I made last week), and thought I’d have a slice of bread with it. I’m not professing to be 100% raw. I just felt like I needed something a bit more heavy.
YUCK!
The bread was store bought rather than homemade by yours truely … but even so. I really wanted to spit it out. It tasted gross.
I asked Frank if he thought it tasted fine/normal, and he did; so it was obviously me.
I minute ago, I had a glass of mineral water from a ‘dispenser’ type water system we have in the office.
YUCK!!!!
It actually had a taste to it. An odd one at that.
We have a whole-house charcoal filter at home, so our water is pretty much tasteless.
We have a reverse osmosis filter in our refrigerater, but it’s not connected to the water supply.
Maybe now is the time to get that done!!
Inflammation Factor
I’ve switched from monitoring my daily intake via nutridiary.com to http://nutritiondata.self.com/
Nutrition Data has FAR more information, and while you can’t have a ‘historical’ log of what you ate on a given day, you can track a single day’s intake easily enough.
I found my eyebrows raising somewhat when I saw that the overall ‘inflamation factor of my consumed foods on Friday was high!!
APPLES!!! Apples are moderately inflammatory!
Bananas are too, to a much lesser extent.
What does that tell me?
I NEED MORE GREENS!!
Studying Nutrition
Another something that I’ve been interested along the above lines is taking a course/courses in nutrition.