These are only some of the signs that your body does not have enough of the right kind of fats. Did you know that women should be 28% made up of fats? Men should be about 18% fat. 60% of our fat needs to be constantly replaced. This is why it is important to have fats in our diets throughout the day, every day.
Eggs are an actual superfood, packed with protein, healthy fat, numerous vitamins, zinc, magnesium and more. Not only are they full of nutrients, these nutrients are also easy to digest. Raw egg yolks in particular are often equated with breastmilk in the ease of nutrient absorption basically without any digestion needing to be done first. For people with digestive issues, a food that needs almost no digestion in order to get the benefits is a huge win!
With talk of viruses so prevalent, many people have been introduced to the concept of zinc deficiency. However, this is not a new thing - in the 1930s zinc was found to be essential for humans. In the 1960s it was found that deficiency of zinc can cause several symptoms. More recently we have been finding more and more symptoms associated with zinc deficiency as the world seems in general very zinc deficient. Some estimates show that zinc is involved in more body functions than any other mineral.
Colic (severe, fluctuating abdominal pain that causes crying and screaming in an infant) and reflux (leakage of stomach contents into the esophagus through an open sphincter causing pain and spit-up in infants) are challenges for parents and caregivers, not to mention the babies! But these conditions don't have to be tolerated!
Recently the idea struck me to try to make a GAPS waffle. I had made many GAPS pancakes, so I thought maybe it could be done. And it turns out... it can! It was not a simple task, however.
The ratios are fairly different than a GAPS pancake... for one thing, putting in too many eggs caused it to overflow and made quite a mess. But after some trial and error I found a recipe that is delicious, and delivered consistent results (which is a big deal when cooking without flour).
I was also excited to make this a dairy-free recipe (except for the whey). Unfortunately, I can't make it nut free, the almond butter is essential! I hope you enjoy them!
(makes about 8 waffle squares or 2 full-size waffles)
1 cup cooked butternut squash
4 TBS fermented almond butter (see note)
1 TBS melted lard
2 eggs
¼ tsp sea salt
About ¼ cup melted lard or butter to grease the waffle iron
Food processor or high-powered blender
Waffle iron
Chopsticks (this is very helpful to get the waffles off in one piece)
This recipe is quick to put together if you do a little prep work first!
Prep the Fermented Almond Butter:
At least 24 hours in advance, ferment the almond butter. Add 2 TBS whey to 1 cup almond butter. Stir. Leave at room temperature for 24 hours. This will keep in the fridge for at least 2 weeks.
Prep the Butternut Squash:
Cut the butternut squash in half and place face down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 min until soft. Remove the squash flesh and place in a bowl.
For the GAPS Waffles:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until very smooth and mixed.
I recommend pouring the mixture into a bag and using it like a pastry bag. The more quickly you can get the waffle batter on the iron and close the lid, the better it turns out!
When everything is ready, and the waffle iron is hot, use the pastry brush to spread fat on the upper and lower waffle irons. Do this as quickly as possible.
Add batter to the waffle iron, then close the lid.
There is a lot of moisture in this recipe, so expect a lot of steam!
Wait for the green light to go on, and then another 30 seconds or so.
Slowly open the waffle iron.
Remove the waffles from the iron, using the chopstick in the groves in any areas it is sticking.Top with fried eggs, honey, date syrup, berries, homemade whipped cream, or anything you want to!
Enjoy!
Strawberry rhubarb pie has always been one of my favorites! In the past I have modified recipes to make a strawberry rhubarb dessert, but this year I decided I wanted to use my growing knowledge and skill in the kitchen and make a delicious GAPS-legal pie. My added challenges? I wanted to make it with a fermented almond crust, and use a different sweetener than honey. Finally, I wanted to have a modification that made not only GAPS legal, but dairy-free, nut-free and egg-free.
Overall, I would call the experiment a success. But to get that success I had to make more multiples of this recipe than I ever have for any previous recipe I've posted. Because of the crust. Not that my "tester" friends and family complained.
Turns out almond flour crust doesn't play nice with a wetter pie filling. Actually, the problem is that it plays too nice! It wants to combine with the filling; get up close and personal. Not what a pie crust is supposed to do. I did not fully overcome the pie-crust conundrum, but every recipe I made turned out delicious. So instead of chocking it up as a "failed recipe," I decided to share with you what I made... a good pie that happens to have a crust with boundary issues! And, of course, I will share the modified recipe for egg-free, nut-free, dairy-free strawberry rhubarb dessert. Keep reading!
For the Pie Crust:
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 cup whey (enough to moisten)
1/2 cup room-temperature butter (or lard)
1/2 tsp sea salt
For the Filling:
3 1/2 cups rhubarb pieces
2 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup date syrup (I use this one)
2 TBS gelatin dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
Optional: zest from 1/2 lemon
Mix almond flour and whey together. Cover and leave on the counter for 24 hours to ferment.
After 24 hours, this mixture keeps in the fridge for up to 1 week.
To the fermented flour mixture, add butter or lard and sea salt. Mix well, getting all clumps out.
Then butter a pie pan well. Press the crust mixture into the pan and form a crust using your fingers.
Bake at 400° for 5-8 minutes until a little dry and just turning brown.
Combine all ingredients for the filling. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until the juices increase.
Add the filling to your pre-baked crust.
Bake at 400° for 30-35 minutes until light brown.
A delicious nut free alternative served hot or at room temperature!
Mix the filling the same, except add 2 additional TBS of gelatin and dissolve in 1/2 cup of hot water.
Let the filling sit for 5-10 minutes to let the flavors mix.
Line muffin tins.
Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes until the tops are just browning.
Serve warm or room temperature. These gooey treats are a bit messy, so eat with a spoon. They are delicious!
In the last post, I shared about mindsets to have (or not) that will help with successful habit change. This week I want to share about some of the habits I think are most important to consider integrating into your family. This is not an exhaustive list! These habits are simple and sound.
Another one of my favorite Christmas cookies are Buckeyes. These delicious cookies are traditionally peanut butter and powder sugar balls dipped in chocolate, made to look like the buckeye nut. The buckeye nut is commonly found back East, like Ohio and Michigan, where my family is originally from.
The roots for this recipe go deep in our family. Much like the Force.
Ok, maybe not the Force (although I am excited for the new Star Wars movie that comes out this week!)
But we do make Buckeye cookies a lot. Since powdered sugar is hardly GAPS legal, I haven't had these cookies for a while either. But all that is about the change!
Introducing Buckeye cookies, made with real food!
These no-bake cookies are egg free, and casein and lactose free (contains whey and butter). They are also coconut free!
Please note that while cassava flour is not technically on the GAPS-illegal list, it is still quite starchy. These cookies should be a special treat, and consumed infrequently and in small amounts. Same with cocoa powder. And, as always, observe if YOUR body is okay with this particular food at this time. Just because something is "GAPS legal" does not give you a free pass to eat it! Pay attention to what your body is telling you. But if it's telling you that these cookies are okay for you, then by all means ENJOY THEM!!!
Makes about 48 cookies
Filling:
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups cassava flour
8 TBS whey
1/2-1 cup honey
8 oz butter
2 tsp vanilla
Coating:
1 1/2 cup cocoa butter chips
1/8 cup raw honey
1 TBS cocoa powder
Prep time: Need to start this recipe 24 hours in advance, 5 minutes prep time. Then it takes about 30-45 minutes to finish on the following day.
Filling:
Twenty-four hours in advance: mix 1/2 cup peanut butter, 4 TBS whey, and 1 cup cassava flour together until everything is moist and crumbly. Try to eliminate as many clumps as possible. Leave on the countertop in a glass container with a lid. This is to give the legumes and cassava flour a chance to lacto-ferment. This makes them more digestible and increase the nutritional value. For more on why we should only eat nuts and seeds that have been properly prepared, watch my video on this.
After 24 hours, the mixture should look something like this...just a little more moist than what you started with the day before.
Add to this the vanilla extract, honey and 8 oz of softened butter (it's not the end of the world if you melt it, but try not to).
I used 1 cup of honey for this recipe, and to my non-sugar eating palate they are very sweet (which is the point, I suppose)! I plan to reduce the honey by about half the next time I make this. The mixture just needs to be formed into balls.
Mix well, and smooth out as many clumps as possible. You should be able to easily for this mixture into little balls.
Form the dough into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper
Place the balls in the freezer to chill (about 10-15 minutes) Next, make the coating The most important part of making the coating is to heat things just hot enough to melt. Nothing should be cooked here! You are gently heating them up to mix. Then gradually cooling them back down again.
Using a double boiler (or as I just discovered, my glass 2 cup measuring container fits perfectly into a medium saucepan) On low heat, melt the cacao butter chips.
When they are fully melted, turn off the heat and add the honey.
Next, stir in the cocoa powder (I recommend using a whisk to mix well.)
Finally, remove the mixture in the top half of the double boiler to the coating is allowed to start cooling Continue whisking the coating mixture occasionally. The honey cools faster than the cocoa butter, and you need to keep them mixed.
When the mixture is cool enough, remove the dough balls from the freezer. Stick a toothpick (or broken-off bamboo skewer in our case) into a ball and dip it into the coating. Depending on the temperature of the coating, you may need to dip more than once to achieve a satisfactory coating. After allowing the extra coating to drip off for a few moments, return the ball to the parchment paper.
Maintain the coating within a narow temperature margin. Keep the water from the lower part of your double-boiler ready. If your coating begins to cool too much, slip the top of the double-boiler back on top of the hot water for a minute or so to warm it back up (you probably don't need to turn on the heat). Do not let it cool too much or reheat it too quickly or too much—these can cause the chocolate to clump (this happened), and there's not going back from this. You would just need to start over making the coating.
Traditionally the coating is darker than this recipe. I originally made a darker coating, but more cocoa powder required more honey, which seemed to throw everything off balance. I think this is part of why it clumped. Once you master the basics of temperature and consistency, you can try increasing the cocoa powder to darken the color. I will be doing that myself. In the meantime, even though this isn't as dark as traditional Buckeye cookies, the coating dries hard at room temperature. I'm calling that a win!
When they are all dipped to your satisfaction, use a toothpick to roll over the holes, filling them in.
There you have it! Rich, delicious Buckeye cookies.
As I'm writing this, we are almost half way through December. This time of year is about getting ready for the holidays AND the new year. As we are looking forward to the new year, most of us are thinking about new habits we want to start (or renew). But this can be tricky. You only have so much time and energy to spend on habit change, and some health trends are not actually helpful to you. I want to help you plan for this upcoming year. Let's talk about how decide what habits are right for you!
It's the holiday season! More specifically, it's cookie season! I love making, giving away (and eating) Christmas cookies. But it's been a long time since I have enjoyed many of the cookies I grew up making, so this year I decided I wanted to create real-food versions of some of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes.
First up, Christmas Wreath cookies!
This cookie is traditionally a mix of corn flakes, marshmallows, and butter. So let's look at the ingredients...
The butter is already a real food!
Marshmallows I have made before, modified from Mommypotamus' marshmallow recipe.
So all I had to do was figure out a substitution for the corn flakes (and see if the marshmallows actually work the same as the commercial variety). Challenge accepted!
Makes about 36 cookies (recipe can be halved)
For Marshmallows
2 cups honey
1 cup of filtered water
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp sea salt
6 TBS grass-fed beef gelatin
1 cup of filtered water
For Wreath Cookies
Marshmallow paste (above)
8 ounces organic butter
14 cups coconut flakes (approximately 20 ounces)
Red hots (my homemade recipe)
Natural food coloring, blue and yellow packets (I used this one)
Place the coconut flakes in the oven at 200°
Toast the coconut until they are light brown—this makes the cookies crispier! When done, remove them from the oven Place in a large bowl, set aside.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat When melted, remove from heat and set aside Next, make the marshmallow paste. See recipe here.
Soften the gelatin
Add gelatin to 1 cup hot water
Stir and allow to to sit, keep warm (not on stove)
While gelatin is softening... Heat honey and water in a medium saucepan (medium to high heat), stirring frequently, until it reaches the soft ball candy stage (about 235°F).
If you don't have a thermometer, you can check by dripping the heated honey into a glass of cold water. When the candy forms a ball, it is ready!
When the honey has reached the soft ball stage, remove from heat. Add the heated mixture to the softened gelatin in a large bowl. Add vanilla.
Do these steps quickly, you don't want honey mixture to cool off too much!
Whisk the mixture using an electric mixer or stand mixer for about 10 minutes.
When the mixture is thick and looks like marshmallow paste, it's done!
If you want marshmallows, you can stop here. Put the marshmallow paste in a greased glass 9x11 dish and allow to cool and dry for a 24-36 hrs. Then cut up and serve.
But we are not stopping here! To make traditional Christmas wreath cookies you melt the marshmallows and turn them back into paste-which is what you just created!
Next, stir the melted butter into the mixture. It will deflate the mixture somewhat, this is normal.
Mix in the blue and yellow food coloring packets. This will turn it green (not neon green—that's an artificial color). But when it's made into wreathes it does look green—although you're going to have to take my word for it!
Pour the marshmallow mixture into the bowl with the toasted coconut flakes. Mix until the flakes are coated.
Finally, form the warm mixture into wreath-shaped cookies on parchment paper.
Add decorative red hots as berries (see my homemade recipe) Allow to cool.
See, I told you they look green!
All that's left is to share and enjoy these delicious treats!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Your trust is important. I only recommend products I trust.
I have been getting more bold in the kitchen, and this December I decided to create alternative recipes featuring some of my favorite Christmas cookies. To enjoy.
I decided on my first cookie to make, Christmas Wreath cookies. And as I was running through my ingredients and working out substitutions I came to the decorative red hots.
And I was faced with a dilemma... could I create a red hot, or should I simply bite the bullet and just use traditional red hots. Maybe I could even find a healthy brand...
But my all-or-nothing attitude kicked in. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it right.
And that meant making red hots. From scratch. A quick search revealed that it was possible... in essence red hots are a sugar brittle flavored with spices, like cinnamon.
I knew how to make candy out of honey. This could work.
It did work. But I'll admit that when I make the Christmas Wreaths in the future I may use boughten red hots... and tell people they are just for decoration and to pick them off.
Because making homemade red hots is a labor of love. There is no other way to put it. But being able to put healthy, three ingredient red hots on your Christmas cookies is amazing! And if you don't care if they are rounded into tiny, holly-berry decorative balls, then this is a really easy candy to make!
1/2 cup water
1 cup honey
1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 package natural red coloring (I used this one)
Combine the honey and water on the stovetop in a medium saucepan, stirring frequently.
You want to heat it at a temperature that is not too hot that it burns, but if it's too low it will take forever to get to temperature.
You're going to have to find your heat sweet spot. It should take between 5-10 minutes to get to soft ball stage, if it's taking longer, turn it up!
Soft ball stage occurs around 235°. If you don't have a thermometer available, you can drip some into a clear glass of cold water. It will form into a little ball upon hitting the water. For a little harder candy (I recommend this), let it go a minute or two after you hit the soft-ball stage.
After whisking thoroughly, pour the liquid onto some parchment paper to cool When it has cooled enough to touch (doesn't take very long), then use well buttered fingers to form tiny little balls
Not tolerating butter? Any fat will do—the key is to prevent sticking!
Roll those little suckers quickly... after a while the candy will get too hard to work with. You can reheat it to soften in up, but believe me, you will be ready to stop rolling balls. Better yet, recruit a friend (or two) to roll with you!
Set the balls in a cold place (outside works for us right now!) When they are hard, gather them up and store them in a container in the fridge. This prevents the balls from clumping. This candy could be made into any size (I only chose red hot size because of the Christmas wreath cookies)... or simply cooled and broken into pieces. It is a delicious treat!
Enjoy!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Your trust is important. I only recommend products I trust.
One of the best things about November is the focus on being grateful and thankful. Everywhere you look there are posts and tweets showing gratitude. And we sure have a lot to be thankful for! Some things are so obvious we often forget to be thankful for. These are things like safe drinking water, warm houses, smart phones and electricity are so everyday for us that we forget how much we have.
Sometime this week, I encourage you to write a list of all the things you have to be thankful for. Don't feel silly including things like water, or your favorite pair of jeans. See how long you can make the list! Even if you don't feel like being thankful, I encourage you to do this exercise—gratitude changes our perception and experience of life, even if nothing is circumstantially different.
This is not to say that you don't have hard things in your life, or that you should pretend they aren't difficult. They are. Hard things are part of life and are very, very real. Remembering that there are good things in your life as well will help YOU through difficult situations.
As you know, most of my posts (so far, at least) aren't recipes. But it's Thanksgiving! The start of holidays and delicious, rich, made-with-love food. Well this recipe is definitely delicious, rich and made-with-love!
I took the recipe out of Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Cambell-McBride. If you are following the GAPS diet this is legal on stage 5 or 6, when you are tolerating dried spices and peppercorns.
This recipe is very simple—chop and combine ingredients, simmer for a while, then store in jars. It would be a great recipe to make in a crockpot... you really could fix it and forget it! But simple doesn't mean plain. It's delicious and adds flavor to any meat you are eating. And I'm told, quite excellent with turkey!
*This dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, sugar-free recipe would be great for gifts as well—ladle into pint jars and add a bow!
Makes 3-4 quarts
2 lbs dried dates (without stones, cut in half)
2 lbs cooking apples (about 7 cups of pieces)
1 lb plumbs (I used packaged prunes)
3 medium onions (about 3 cups, finely diced)
3 peppers (about 2 cups, finely diced)
2 cups raw apple cider vinegar
1-2 tsp whole peppercorns (freshly crushed)
1-2 tsp aromatic seeds (I used cumin and dill)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1-2 tsp natural salt
Cut dates in half (and remove stones (seeds) if needed)
Slowly boil the dates in about 1 cup of water in a large pot until soft (about 10 minutes)
If you live in Colorado like me, and don't use a lid (also like me), you may need to add extra water during this process.
When the dates are soft, turn off heat and mash them with a potato masher—they don't have to be perfectly smooth, just mashed.
While you were softening the dates, I hope you were furiously chopping! I completely underestimated the time it was going to take to chop everything I needed for this recipe. If you want the process to go smoother, I would recommend chopping everything at the beginning. Then as soon as the dates are soft you can add the rest, stir occasionally, and walk away!
The directions from Dr. Natasha are:
Add everything else to the dates and simmer 1-1/2 hours on very low heat, stirring occasionally.
If you are like me and work better with a little note of panic, then by all means, chop furiously and add things as you chop. For all you step-by-steppers like me, below are pictures to show what I added.
Sterilize the jars.
Dr. Natasha recommends doing this in an oven. I had never done this but it seemed to work great! Place cold jars in a cold oven. Heat the oven to 250°F, then leave it at that temperature for 40 minutes to sterilize the jars. Pull the jars out of the oven one-by-one as you are ready to fill them so they stay hot. Use oven mitts!
Ladle the hot chutney into the jars.
A jar funnel is a lifesaver here!
I left just a little room for air, much less than my fermenting self wanted, but no jars exploded so it must be okay!
Wipe off any chutney on the rim of the jar. Then immediately seal the jar, tightening the lid.
Again, use an oven mitt—the jars are hot!
Place the jar on the counter, some distance between them.
It's better to not move the jars until they are cool, so place them where you will not need to move them for many hours, overnight is better.
When cool, place the jars into the refrigerator.
This is not a fermented food, so it does require refrigeration.
Serve with meats and fish. Good cold or warm.
It's delicious! I made this for our Thanksgiving feast in a few days, but tried it out with some chicken today. I enjoyed it thoroughly! I hope you enjoy it as well!
Onward!
In 2006, a book was published that sought to give the reader a better understanding of where their food comes from. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan followed three major tracks, or sourcing, of food. The public reaction to this book was significant and varied, and it evoked discussion from vegetarians and meat-lovers alike.
Eating animal fat is important to our body's health. But eating enough fat can be challenging, especially when there is a dairy allergy. Lard is a great alternative to butter, and its taste is more mild than that of tallow.
You can buy lard at the store, but it is expensive and may be hydrogenated or of poor quality. Making your own lard is simple and easy, and can be done for a fraction of the price.
To make lard, you first start out with pig fat. This can be obtained from a butcher, or even trimmed off of fatty cuts of pork like the Boston butt. The process of turning fat into lard or tallow is called rendering. In this post I describe rendering lard, but the process for rendering tallow (which is fat from beef, bison, deer, lamb, or elk) is the same, although for tallow it may take a few more hours.
There are two kinds of pig fat. Leaf fat is from fat surrounding the internal organs. It is very mild in taste and used to be reserved for making pies and pastries. Body fat is from the layer of fat beneath the skin. This has a slightly stronger pork taste, and is better used in cooking meat and vegetables. Along with a different taste, there is a different look to the two types of fat. Body fat is in large pieces, and appears more dense and flat. Leaf fat is in smaller pieces, has a fluffier texture, and may contain membranes. The fat you get from a butcher may contain both types of fat. If that is the case, I recommend separating out the two types of fat and rendering them separately so you can use them for different purposes. However, there is no problem in mixing them and rendering them together.
Watch the video below to learn how to make lard and then scroll down for the recipe and directions!
First, cut up the pig fat into small 1-2 inch sized cubes. If using leaf fat, remove as much membrane as possible.
Put the fat cubes in a medium saucepan on low heat. You may use a crockpot, but it must have a very low setting or the fat will burn. Stir occasionally and watch closely. Don't let the lard smoke!
With time, the solid pieces of fat will get smaller, and the liquid will increase.
After a few hours, when the lard is liquefied, set up your strainer and cloth. A metal strainer is best because the lard is hot! For extra strained lard which will last even longer you can additionally strain through a cloth. You can use an old napkin or other cloth, or several layers of cheesecloth. I have a dedicated cloth I use just for straining lard because you can never really wash out all the grease.
Pour the liquid into the strainer. The liquid will go into the jar and the cracklings will stay in the cloth or strainer.
Squeeze the rest of the liquid out of the cracklings.
Once cracklings are separated from the liquid lard, salt and fry them. You can eat them like bacon bits, or just by themselves.
Allow the jar of lard to cool on the counter.
When the lard is cool you can move it to the fridge, or leave it on the counter.
If you are careful not to contaminate the jar, the lard will last for several months, even left out at room temperature. Use the lard in your cooking— it is a wonderful thing to fry up vegetables or meat and add fat to your diet. Bon appétit!
Onward!
Grass! It's a wonderful thing to lay in the grass and look up at the sky!
Until this weekend, there have only been a few tufts of grass on my property. Most of the landscaping is river rock and mulch. But there was one area of dirt that I have had my eye on for grass, and on Friday it finally happened!
With some (okay, a lot) of help from my sister, we laid patio stones (for a fire pit), pounded in metal edging, and hauled and laid 50 rolls of sod (transported in two trips in the back of my Santa Fe).
Viola! Instant lawn!
Padfoot was quite interested in the goings-on... although he preferred supervising from on top of the rolls of sod still in the back of the car (sorry, I was too dirty and tired to think about getting a picture of it, you'll have to take my word for how adorable it was) or playing in the dirt. Silly puppy didn't want to be on the grass until we were almost done.
In keeping with my desire to be as chemical/pesticide/fertilizer free as possible, I did some research about grass to find out my best option. A quick internet search revealed: There probably isn't such a thing as organic sod, or if it does exist, it would be WAY more expensive. It's possible that sod contains significantly lower amounts of chemicals than I was expecting. While dogs do eat grass, they eat little of it. It would be unlikely that a little grass eaten from a non-organic lawn would be a problem unless I regularly put chemicals on it (which I don't plan on doing). It appears to be possible to get organic grass seed (about $40 to cover 1000 square feet), but I still had questions about what they put in the seed mixes. There was not a huge price difference between any sod company, especially for the small amount of ground I needed to cover (about 500 square feet). So then I was faced with the question... do I just get sod (and take whatever chemicals may be included) or do I get seed so I can get an organic yard? The decision may seem very black and white...the only option for organic grass is seed. So you may think that of course my choice was seed. But first I had to factor in what I call "the reality of life."
I am not very good at watering and there is no sprinkler system. If I did seed, the chances of needing to re-seed at least once are high. This adds more time and money. I would have to research if I needed fertilizer or other additions to make my seed grow, and then pick from the available options. It is now the middle of summer. I was planning on doing grass right when I got so sick two months ago. Now it's July. If I want to enjoy a lawn this summer, sod would be faster. My landlord sprays for weeds. He is spraying less with me here (I'm pulling weeds as much as I can), but the ground already has years of stored chemicals in it. It's not organic soil. I've never seeded, but I have laid sod. My brain can only handle so many new things to learn at one time. And learning how to raise an organic lawn didn't feel like the correct focus for me right now. If I sod, I can immediately put up and use the clothesline I bought a month ago (this truly factored in to my thought process, I love line-hung clothes, and I don't have an electric drier).
From Home Depot. I paid with a credit card. I picked it up and put it in the back of my car. You can't get any less alternative than that. But my goal is not to be alternative. My goal is to be healthy, and to make conscious choices. I really want an all-organic yard. And one day I hope I can. But right now (and in the future) I need to make the best of what I've been given. Maybe I could have succeeded in an organic grass seed lawn. Maybe. But I want to do other things with that time. Things that feel more important right now. Because taking time away from important things to do something "perfect" isn't better.
#1 No more chemicals!
I'm sure there have been some chemicals on this grass, but that stops now! Any "fertilizers" will be food-based (like old milk or yogurt, or the Green Pastures product below). Any weeds will be extracted by hand, providing me with sunshine and some light exercise.
#2 Add back microbes and nutrients!
I purchased a by-product of fermented cod liver oil from Green Pastures called Liquid Fish Soil Rescue to re-vitalize my soil. I actually meant to put some in the ground right before we laid the sod but I couldn't (reality of life check: I was not strong enough to open the container, my neighbor-with-all-the-tools was gone, and I don't own a pipe wrench). So later (when I get it open) I will spread it over the top of the grass. It will be a little fishy for a day, but fish oils smell is not new to me!
#3 Water to encourage deep roots!
It's recommended to water sod frequently at first, but to still let it become just a little dry to encourage the roots to reach down and establish. Here in Colorado we are having 90 degree days, so I'm needing to water 1-2x/day, and the grass is still getting a little dry in between waterings. Soon I will be able to water less often, and next year I should be able to water once every 2-5 days.
You don't have to do everything perfect.
Sometimes the "best choice" is outside your budget for money or time, and sometimes there are circumstances that happen outside of your control.
That's okay... it's normal. That's life. And today, life is good!
Onward!
Every time I learn more about the complex interactions between the human body and different nutrients, bacteria, and dozens of other factors, I am blown away! Not sure what I mean? As an example, this was mentioned in my latest post. A seed has enough intelligence to protect itself from being digested, but then is able to release those protections when the conditions are right to grow! All while it's still a seed! And that complicated process relates only to the seed. We haven’t even begun to explore the combining of that seed with some other food, or in a different form, or after the seed grows up. Not to mention the effect stomach acid levels, digestive enzyme activity, and different gut flora have on that seed. And the list goes on and on. Therefore we see that our bodies, and the processes that happen inside them, are incredibly intricate. And it begs the question:
Eating real food is more than eating food-shaped packages of vitamins, proteins, and fibers. Real food is dynamic, and what you get from a particular food is conditional, and depends on several factors.
Growing Conditions: The actual nutritional value of that particular piece of food depends on the conditions it was grown in, including sun exposure, water quality, and the amount of vitamins, minerals and healthy bacteria in the soil or food the animal was eating.
Preparation Methods: After it is grown, different ways of preparing food will make it more or less digestible; helpful, stressful, or even harmful to the human body.
Individual Body Status: Even if it’s prepared properly, each individual body's environment has a role in determining the amount of benefit or harm that food will have.
In fact, a food's helpfulness to an individual body is dependent on the season, metabolic needs, current hormone state, and a myriad of other factors that are going on in the body at that moment. So what's helpful to your body in the summer may be harmful in winter. Or what's beneficial to eat at noon may weigh your body down at dinnertime. Every minute your metabolic needs may be different.
This is why "eating healthy" cannot be reduced to fortifying processed foods with vitamins, or taking the "perfect" supplement mix. It is so, so much more! Now that you know all this, eating healthy may sound like an unattainable goal. And in some ways it is. Even if we are extremely in tune with our bodies, it is unlikely that we will think “I need 5.78 mcg of calcium and 4.24 mg of vitamin D at 2:57pm”… and so on. And this is my first point.
Even if the advertised effects are real, it doesn’t mean that it will work for you! Your body may need something else entirely. If anyone tells you that they have the one product that will fix all your ills, run the other way! On the other hand, the innateintelligence inside our bodies does know what it needs, and how to get it. We can work on listening to what our bodies are telling us. I call this becoming an expert detective (for more, see chapter 7 of Notes From A GAPS Practitioner).
As we renew the partnership with our body, we will begin to understand its signals about what foods will best support our bodies at that moment. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride talks about this in a wonderful article, One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s Poison. In it she shares how important it is to listen to your body telling you what food to eat at the moment, and how much of it to eat. Becoming an expert detective does not happen overnight. It is a commitment to observe, experiment, create theories, and modify them as needed. It will get easier with time and experience, and every time you learn something, your health will benefit. And you will have taken one more step in your journey toward better health.
Onward!
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Ever wondered about recommendations like "soaking," "sprouting," "fermenting," or "properly preparing" your nuts or grains? Ever wondered what that meant, or why it's better? I did! In fact, when I first heard about "sprouted bread," I thought it was made-up. But there are real reasons why eating properly prepared seeds is better for your body. Check out the video below to find out why.
Did that make sense?
This is just one example of why food preparation matters. And while food preparation techniques used to be passed on from generation to generation, our modern western culture has largely lost that heritage. But some do remember. And some do research. And some teach. And some write it down for us. That is the entire reason behind the cookbook, Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. Traditional ways to prepare foods in traditional recipes are recorded in this helpful resource. If we want to return to health, we need to start understanding these principles. Our health depends on it! Still have questions? Have another food preparation question? Ask it in the comments below.
Disclosure: The link in this post is an affiliate link. Links like this help support my blogging. Your trust is important to me, and I only recommend resources I trust.
