As a perfect follow up to our last blog post, Real Food Crusader Inspires Change, today’s guest blogger, Melissa Cameron, writes about how eating organic food is part of a healthy lifestyle, including getting and staying fit.

Progress, by definition, is a good thing. In food production, however, we’ve lost sight of what’s most important – nutrition. Convenience is at the forefront, while nutrition and sustainability have taken a back seat.

Have you ever thought about the meat at your local grocery store? It’s been exposed to harmful things like hormones and antibiotics. Likewise, your fruits and vegetables have been sprayed with harmful substances such as pesticides in order to maximize profit and production. This is not a good thing!

Organic foods devoid of such harmful substances and practices are the way to go.

Organic Food as a Part of Overall Physical Fitness

Physical fitness is about your body being healthy overall, not just losing weight. You have to detoxify your body to get rid of the harmful things that have built up over the years because of your typical Western lifestyle. Eating organic foods over a long period of time allows you to do this seamlessly.

We all see the “organic” label on various foods at the supermarket and take it to mean healthy food that is often overpriced, but there’s more to it than that. Organic food is food that has been raised on a farm that is treated as a whole organism, rather than a food factory.

No manmade synthesized chemicals are used, such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, antibiotics or hormones. Organic livestock also has requisite pasture time, rather than being locked in pens. The term originated in Walter James’ book, “Look to the Land”.

Requisite Steps for Organic Living

Eating right is half of physical fitness. Exercise is equally important (of course), but eating organic food is the perfect way to eat right and detoxify. To really embrace organic living, there are two essential things you must do:

• Visit your local farmers’ market
• Buy organic foods at your local supermarket or visiting a whole foods supermarket

The farmers’ market is the perfect place to buy organic food. You will never have any doubt about where the produce comes from at a farmers’ market because the person selling it is usually the farmer him- or herself! You can take the time to ask him or her any questions you have about their farming practices on the spot. Their produce is grown for you, not for national chain supermarkets.

Farmers’ markets aren’t hard to find, they’re often held in the same place every week, at the same time on the same day (as long as the season is appropriate). Organic meats can be found at your local grocery or maybe even a butcher shop if you still have one in your neighborhood. A whole foods store is another good place to look for meats and other obscure organic foods.

Prep Tips
Cooking organically is all about substitution. All you have to do is replace your old food and techniques with organic ones. Read some organic recipe books for ideas, or look online for organic fitness tips. If you have a Cuisinart food processor, the sky is the limit when it comes to organic cooking, as the possibilities are endless.

About the Author

Melissa Cameron is a 33-year-old mother of two who enjoys spending time with family, scrap booking and writing. Her dream is to one-day work for herself online as a freelance writer. Melissa is an avid Internet surfer enjoys digging up deals and is known by her friends and family as a walking infomercial. Check out her website for a great deal on a Cuisinart slow cooker and much more.

I cannot wait for the farmer’s markets to open up again! Will you be choosing more organics and visiting some of your local farmers this season?

If you’ve been reading Live Lighter regularly, you know we’re posting a series on spring cleaning. On Sunday we shared 119 cleansing recipes to help you spring clean your body. Today guest blogger, Melissa Cameron, helps you choose the cleanest ingredients available to use in your cleansing dishes.

Everything has a downside, and modern food production is no exception. While at one time it was all the rage to be able to get whatever we wanted in a nice and neat package at the grocery, we’ve recently discovered there’s a sacrifice we make for such convenience: nutrition.

Another factor that has increasingly gained more consideration is the environment. As we look toward the future and contemplate whether or not we will be able to keep up our modern food production practices at our current pace, we find that we are sorely lacking.

While conservation seems like a loftier goal to most, the more immediate problem is your own health. The meat we eat is full of preservatives, hormones and antibiotics. Our produce has also been exposed to preservatives, along with pesticides and other chemicals. If you switch to organic food, on the other hand, you can forego all of it.

Organic Food & Fitness

While the term “fitness” may make you think about the trim, muscular people you see on infomercials, there really is a lot more to it. Sure, it’s great to be trim and muscular, but your body has to be in a more natural state internally to be truly fit.

When you consume organic food over long periods of time, you detoxify and return your body to a more natural state by attrition. In other words, you flush all the junk out of your system by not repeatedly replenishing it via consumption. Those attractive people on TV may not be as fit as they appear; they could be dehydrated and malnourished because they haven’t taken the proper steps to be truly fit.

What organic means in terms of our food:

• Organic produce is that which has not been sprayed by with synthetic pesticides and preservatives.
• Organic livestock is that which has had a federally regulated amount of time in a pasture and has not been injected with preservatives, hormones, etc.

Tip for the Novice: The Farmers’ Market

Assuming this is your first foray into organic living, you are going to have to become intimately familiar with the farmers’ market. It’s the place to find fresh, organic food because the transit time from the farm to the market is much lower than the farm to a grocery store. This ensures that fewer nutrients are leached from the produce.

Plus, the farmer is right there for you to talk to, so ask questions if you like. There’s nothing like this layer of involvement with your food; it promotes a real sense of community.

Farmers’ markets can usually be found along a major roadway, so they’re pretty easy to come upon – even if you’re not looking. They’re also typically held on the same day of the week, so if you’ve seen one at a parking lot on a certain day, you can return the same day next week and it will be there.

If you are looking for something more obscure than typical organic produce (or if you need organic meat), you should visit a health food store or a typical supermarket. Either way, you will find plenty to keep your Cuisinart slow cooker busy.

About the Author

Melissa Cameron is a 33-year-old mother of two who enjoys spending time with family, scrap booking and writing. Her dream is to one-day work for herself online as a freelance writer. Melissa is an avid Internet surfer enjoys digging up deals and is known by her friends and family as a walking infomercial. Check out her website to read a review on a Cuisinart food processor and much more.

Do you eat organic food for the same reasons Melissa gives in this post?

Editor’s Note: While you may treat yourself this weekend, there’s a trick to staying healthy at Halloween. Seasonal foods! Guest blogger & cookbook author, Bindu Grandhi, contributes a special Halloween poem and a healthy soup recipe for our spooky celebrations!

A Halloween Poem

by Bindu Grandhi

‘Tis the season of goodies and goblins,
And decorated porches with pumpkins!
Popular in fall and loved by all,
Bright orange in color and sometimes disguised
By a crooked smile and cutout eyes.
Its flesh is best when fresh
But canned also meets the test.
Rich in vitamins like C and E, and
Loaded with antioxidants good for you and me.
Potassium and Magnesium are in it too,
Not to mention high in fiber, can this be true?
Indeed, its health benefits are unrivaled from
Anti-aging to disease-fighting.
Pumpkin goes great in smoothies and pies,
Puddings and muffins, but I haven’t tried it fried!
Also used in breads and soups,
Here’s a recipe for the troops.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin adds a vibrant color and sweet taste to this curry-spiced soup. For a more elegant touch, top with fresh cilantro and sour cream.

Prep Time:  5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves:  4

Ingredients

• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1 (15oz) can of pumpkin (of course use fresh pumpkin if available)
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 3 tsp brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup whole milk or skim milk

Garnish

• 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Preparation

1. Combine vegetable broth and pumpkin and bring to a boil on low heat.

2. Add curry powder, brown sugar, salt, and black pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add milk and simmer for another 5 minutes.

3. Turn off heat. Serve hot in soup bowls. Garnish with cilantro and a dollop of sour cream.

About the Author

Author of Spice Up Your Life, Bindu Grandhi is passionate about healthy and flavourful cooking, especially when it’s flexitarian. She shares her health knowledge with the world by providing practical, healthy and tasty recipes as The Flex Cook.

The image for today’s post is the jack ‘o lantern my good friend and I carved out last night – and yes, I’m soaking the pumpkin seeds right now to roast). Do you recognize it from the movies? If you’ve taken a pic of your pumpkin and posted it online, leave us the link so we can see!

Last week in Part 1 we learned why autumn is a great time to work on getting healthier in the lungs and large intestine, and a few tips on how to do it. In today’s follow up post, we’ll find out even more ways to stay healthy when the leaves begin to fall.

Dr. Elson Haas in Staying Healthy with the Seasons uses a holistic approach and suggests we can use autumn’s characteristics to boost our immune systems. The following is merely a synopsis so if any of it resonates with you, the book would definitely be a good investment!

Autumn Cleansing

A week-long juice cleanse in early to mid-autumn will give us a boost of energy and eliminate any potential illnesses we’ve stored away by flushing out excesses or by improving organ functions.

Since this is harvest time, we’ve got a plethora of fruits and veggies to choose from, including the Master Cleanse recipe (lemon juice, cayenne pepper and organic maple syrup). Apples, pears and grapes are in season, and Doc Haas even suggests eating only grapes for a week coupled with a daily lemonade if the juices are too sweet.

Also, try a teaspoon of cold-pressed olive oil twice daily, as well as one cup of an herbal laxative tea (see below for some choices) on rising and before bed to keep the intestines moving.

With an internal cleanse, we might want to pay some attention to facilitating the cleansing process. Dr. Haas says to:

1. Brush our teeth and tongue (there will be more coating during a cleanse), and to floss regularly.
2. Bathe daily and brush our skin with a loofa sponge or skin brush to remove dead skin cells and to stimulate the clearing of toxins.
3. Exercise, with a good sweat, is beneficial to cleansing before bathing.
4. At the end of bath or shower, use cold water to close the skin pores and prevent heat loss and vulnerability to colds, as well as stimulate skin circulation.

Garlic

This plant and herb is a lung aid that also facilitates cleansing and healing; it’s been used for centuries by many cultures as a food and medicine for a variety of ailments. The health benefits of garlic deserves its own post, so for now, Dr. Haas says if it’s eaten regularly, it can help prevent colds, flus and other infections.

Try taking a couple of cloves a day, pressed into water or juice (it’s so potent it needs to be diluted), or as garlic capsules, taking two twice daily. Chewing parsley will help balance the strong breath odour. When your body begins to eliminate garlic odor through the skin, it’s said this is when you’ve had enough.

I’ve tried a few of the interesting recipes found in Staying Healthy with the Seasons (like this tonic made with garlic), yet one of the best has to be garlic olive oil!

Garlic Oil

1. Peel and chop enough cloves to fill a half of a quart jar.
2. Cover the cloves with cold-pressed olive oil to about one or two inches above the garlic and place in a sunlit window for five to seven days, shaking once daily.
3. Strain it well through cheese cloth, and you have strong smelling garlic oil.

The soaked cloves can be refrigerated and used in cooking. The garlic oil will last for months and can be used both internally (like on salads) and externally (like rubbing it on a congested chest or even on the soles of the feet to prevent or remedy early colds)!

Colon Hydrotherapy

This autumn cleansing tip is controversial but Dr. Haas is a believer in its benefits. He says,

Many doctors have stated that constipation is one of the main causes of disease, and I feel that aging and death may well begin in the colon… Constipation can create a backup of toxicity through the body, and affect the muscular or nervous system, creating tensions and exhaustion.

Colon hydrotherapy is a non-toxic method of cleansing the large intestine and has been used for thousands of years as a natural internal bath. Before today’s machines, it was done by entering a river or lake and using a hollow reed or bamboo tube to allow water to enter the rectum.

Meditation

This section alone is worth the cost of the book! Meditation is a deep subject and Dr. Haas does a fantastic job in explaining the mind’s potential and using meditation to develop the different parts of our brain for better functioning.

For instance, he talks about how the bimodal character of our brain is crucial to how we experience life. One mode is active, thinking, time-oriented, and attempts to organize and manipulate our world. The other is receptive, sensing, timeless, and perceives and understands our external and internal environment without judgement.

Meditation is a practice which helps expand awareness and moves us to a new balance, which is neither active or receptive. It takes us to the center to experience both of these realms and has been used over the centuries to enhance sensory awareness and alter perception of the environment and oneself. Haas says,

It is important to staying healthy as it facilitates a greater communication between our inner and outer worlds, and allows a deep state of rest and rejuvenation. Physiologically, meditation lowers the respiratory rate, increases the frequency of alpha brain waves, and facilitates muscular relaxation.

Try setting aside 15 to 30 minutes once or twice a day for quiet conscious relaxation and clearing your mind of old and congested thoughts. Many people like to do this in the morning to set their day off right. Just avoid meditating on a full stomach.

Haas even hints that meditation will strengthen our will power: “You may learn how to guide your energies rather than being controlled by your impulses.”

Drugs

Another fascinating section of this chapter in Staying Healthy with the Seasons, Dr. Haas says that drugs can be helpful but should be reserved as a last resort because they all affect our physical, mental, and emotional states. The use of drugs as medicines is part of the same picture as using drugs to alter psychological states.

He suggests that therapeutic options should be:

1. Lifestyle changes first
2. Natural therapies second
3. Drugs last

Short-term use of any drug may lead to weakened resistance to illness and more vulnerable to colds, flus, hepatitis, lung and skin problems. Long-range effects help create many of the degenerating and chronic diseases through toxin build up in the body, and by weakening specific organs and systems.

Haas says it’s time to break the patterns of relying on drugs (including sugar as a stimulant!) to make us feel better:

Understanding your natural cycles will help you see the importance of creating healthier bodies by the use of good foods, exercise, and eliminating toxins in your life. Pleasure drugs are a lazy way to alter and control your energy. And the body will not be able to re-experience this relaxed or stimulated state without drugs unless you take the time to tune your machine to its most healthful state.

Autumn Diet

If you have habits or addictions you’d like to overcome, it’s helpful to change other aspects of your life, such as diet, exercise and attitudes. (And as we learned, meditation may also help strengthen your mind and resolve for change!)

After the week-long juice fast (or, in my case, I just started a month-long mini-cleanse), an autumn diet is a bit heavier and builds on the late summer diet. For meat eaters, this means more meats and dairy products. For vegetarians, autumn requires an increase in grains, nuts, beans and seeds, and eggs and dairy if used.

Although we need these heat-producing foods to combat the colder weather, too many congesting foods (or simply overeating) tends to keep our internal state at the level of physical sensations and indulgences.

How do we know how much of what to choose?

Dr. Haas says diets are totally individual and related to personal character, activity and to the climate in which you live. We must listen to our bodies for clues as to its preferences. This Food Balance Breakdown might help when choosing certain food types, combinations and proportions:

• Builders: Animal proteins and beans
• Cleansers: Fruits and vegetables
• Congestors: Sweets, cheese and breads
• Lubricators: Nuts, seeds, and their oils

While there are less fruits available in the autumn, an abundance of veggies helps us balance out our diets. For instance, check out tomorrow’s post for a 5-star restaurant butternut squash soup recipe!

Exercise

The longer nights make the season and our energy more yin (quiet, inward and contracting) so Dr. Haas says we might want to concentrate on staying loose and relaxed:

Stretching, calisthenics, running, and hiking will all help. A strengthening program using weights and isometric exercises will build more muscles from your higher protein meals. Exercise keeps your weight in balance, too, with the heavier autumn diet. It is natural to gain a few pounds during autumn and winter, so turn some of it into muscle as well as a little fat to keep you warmer.

Herbs

In the colder months, just as our energy turns inward, so does the energy in plants. To gain energy in autumn and winter for us, we use root herbs. Dr. Haas suggests quite a few herbs, mainly those that facilitate cleansing in the lungs, skin and large intestine.

For instance, burdock root and comfrey root can both be used as tonics, the former for skin disorders and the latter for intestinal lining, mucous membranes and the lungs. He also suggests simmering fresh ginger root for 15-20 minutes (which I do regularly since reading this book) for more body heat and clearer lungs.

To tone and clear out the intestine, casara sagrada is an effective laxative and tonic. So is licorice root and oregon root.

Dr. Haas imparts a wealth of knowledge and many more tips in his chapter on staying healthy in autumn. Try these out and when you’re ready, get the book  so you can stay healthy throughout the year!

Are you doing an autumn cleanse or juice fast? I’ve got ginger, pumpkin, squash, olive oil and garlic so far on my shopping list for this week!

Wednesday marked the first day of autumn. While our ancestors (and some people still today) are busy storing excess food and fuel for winter, we can use this time to prepare for the colder months ahead by boosting our health.

Seasonal transitions can be difficult – isn’t this usually the time people catch colds?

As the days get shorter and without the energy of the sun, we tend to have less energy. But in today’s society, despite feeling like we need more rest, most people maintain their hectic schedules and responsibilities.

Dr. Elson M. Haas, author of Staying Healthy with the Seasons, says that:

Change is an inherent process in our lives and possibly the only “truth” in the universe. If you adapt yourself to the changes that come with the seasons, you will maintain health. You must gain control of your internal climates (emotions) and stay protected from the external climates. Maintaining a healthy state depends especially on a balance of outward activities and regular, inward-directed activities.

Through a daily discipline of inner attention and physical exercise, you can create a more open, resilient, and supple body; a mentally and physically relaxed state; and a stronger resistance to disease. Using your body in dancing, yoga, tai chi, jump rope, or other solo-exercises, and learning quiet breathing and relaxation will start your days in a more balanced, open state. And physical activity and exertion will help you relax more deeply and sleep more soundly.

Editor’s Note: I’ve blogged several times about this book before but to recap, Dr. Haas combines Eastern and Western healing traditions to form Integrated Medicine. His basic philosophy is that humans and nature are inextricably linked. His seasonal health guide focuses on education and prevention, and “explains the Chinese Law of the Five Elements – Fire, Earth, Metal (or Air), Water, and Wood – and how this system relates to specific seasons of the year, organs in the body, and experiences of activity, emotions, color, and flavor.”

Autumn corresponds to the Metal element which represents the mineral ores and salts of the Earth. These function in creating structure and communication – just think of how metal wires establish connections and conduct electricity. Just as our brains and nervous systems communicate via electrical impulses!

Haas explains the link between autumn and Metal (as well as their many outer and inner aspects) in an entire, fascinating chapter. Until you read it for yourself and for the purposes of today’s post, it’s important to note Metal is associated with:

• Lungs and large intestine (organs)
• Nose (sense organ)
• Mucus (body fluid)
• Worry, grief and sorrow (feelings)

Lung & Large Intestine Health

Dr. Haas explains in laymen’s terms how these organs function and what leads to their impairment. For instance, did you know that normal food transit time (from mouth to anus) is 24-36 hours? And that children have a bowel movement after every meal but as we age, it’s delayed because of conditioning, stress and congesting diets?

Haas says the lungs and large intestines are two areas of the body that must stay clean for their best function, and often have difficulty when they are contaminated by environmental pollutants of cities, by smoking habits, and by the dietary excesses common to the American culture.

Autumn, like the other temperate season of spring, is the perfect time to work at keeping these organs strong and healthy. First, by removing the harmful agents (as much as we can), and then cleansing. An autumn cleanse helps prepare our bodies for a fuller, richer, and more heat-producing diet suited for the colder months.

For lung health, Dr. Haas suggests deep breathing of the purest air possible, and since lungs do not like a cold, damp climate any more than smoke and polluted air, to keep warm and dry, especially your chest, neck, head and feet, to help prevent colds.

Pressure in the head and sinuses, headaches, sore throats, as well as crankiness, lack of energy, and even lack of enthusiasm for life can come from a back up in the large intestine. Also, an overburdened liver and gallbladder will not only slow intestinal functioning and thus allow a buildup of even more toxins, but also may lead to awakening congested in the morning with sinus mucus or with back stiffness, abdominal discomfort or cramps, and it may be hard to get going for the day.

To keep things running appropriately here, Dr. Haas suggests to limit congesting foods, such as meat, dairy and refined foods, as well as improve eating habits, like sitting down to eat rather than eating on the run. An overburdened liver and gallbladder results from dietary over-indulgences as well as the ingestion of poorly digestible substances such as alcohol, fatty foods, fried oils, sweets and chemicals/preservatives.

Therefore, a diet high in natural foods – fresh fruits, raw or lightly steamed veggies, roughage (greens) and whole grains – will assist good elimination and keep the intestines well-toned.

Colds

The common cold is often expressed from the sinuses and lungs but Dr. Haas says it’s actually related to the large intestine and to poor elimination of wastes from the body. If your ability to handle and eliminate waste is weak, or if you take in more than you need, garbage may pile up inside the large intestine.

Mucus in the intestines (created by mucus-forming foods such as meats, dairy products, sweets and starches) not only leads to poor assimilation, but provides a site for bacteria and viruses to grow. Excess toxins and mucus may begin pouring out through the sinuses. This is your body’s way of cleansing itself.

Haas says we can stimulate this cleansing process by drinking lots of fluids – water, juices, teas and soups – and by getting proper rest and staying warm, rather than blocking elimination by taking cold tablets and eating congesting foods. The body treatment for colds is rest, fluids and sweats.

In addition, feelings and blocked creative energies also contribute to head congestion and weakened physical resistance. Getting in touch with feelings and expressing them, or taking care of what we’ve been putting off, will also help the body cleanse itself and gather new strength.

We’ve covered only about half of Dr. Haas’ chapter on staying healthy in autumn. Stay tuned for Part 2 where we discuss Dr. Haas’ autumn cleanse designed to strengthen the lungs and large intestine.

Since I’ve been off the wagon for awhile and feeling yuck, I plan to take Dr. Haas’ advice and do an early autumn cleanse starting October 1st! Based on what we’ve covered so far, what would YOUR autumn cleanse look like?

When you go to your local grocery store, do you choose food grown in your country? Can you even find it in the overflowing aisles? The healthiest, most nutritious food is the freshest – harvested at just the right moment of ripeness and consumed almost immediately.

When our grandparents (and even some of our parents) ate meals, they received the full benefit of nature. Their food was bursting with nutrition! Not only were soil erosion, pollution and commercial use of pesticides not as prominent as they are now, but importing food was an expensive and rare occurrence.

It’s healthy to vary your diet and it IS a blessing that we can consume foreign foods. However, our grocery stores in Canada (and probably yours if you live in the States) have gone over the deep end with importing food. We, like the United States, have rich farmland and the ability to be self-sustainable.

But when I go grocery shopping, I see more imports (even food we grow here!) than local. To back this up, Helmann’s produced a 2:43 minute video with startling statistics to raise awareness for the importance of choosing and consuming local food:

If you live in the United States, do you know how much food is imported? Do your grocery stores post the origins of the food they sell?

I’d like to know why Canada allows food that we produce here to be imported into the country. What’s the point? Why waste money on food we can produce here? And why not produce more of it so we can export it to other countries who cannot make the same food so we can bolster Canada’s economy?

What do you think of the numbers Helmann’s has shared with us in this video, Readers? Will you start choosing more local food in order to support local farmers and your own nutritional health?

Fiddleheads are fun, tasty, healthy, versatile and even a little bit dangerous! They will appeal to people who love wild, earthy and slightly bitter flavours common among green veggies known to have powerful healing effects. Think: asparagus, green beans, artichoke, okra and broccoli. Yum.

Yesterday was my second time trying “Spring’s first fruit”, considered a delicacy in many places like the Maritimes (CBC video clip). While this veggie is crunchy and scrumptious lightly fried in olive oil (the only way I’ve tried it so far) but for the rustic gourmet, there’s no end to the possibilities of fiddlehead cuisine!

Here are just a few other reasons why this vegetable is so impressive:

Fun Facts about Fiddleheads

• They are baby ferns with their leaves still tightly coiled near the stem. They got their name because they look like the end of a violin or fiddle!
• North American aboriginal people were first to capitalize on the medicinal qualities of fiddleheads, said to act as a natural cleansing agent ridding the body of accumulated impurities and toxins. (Vitality Magazine)
• It is also reported that fiddleheads were an olden day treatment for high blood pressure, and eaten to ward off scurvy.
• Usually foraged in the bush, you can now often find them in many commercial grocers. Several farmers have been attempting to cultivate them, including Nick Secord in Port Colbourne. (Toronto Star)
• They’re only available for a couple of weeks in May before they grow too large to eat. But you can dry, freeze, pickle or can them to enjoy whenever!
• Linda Gabris wrote that her grandmother made fiddlehead tea to cure constipation and a sping tonic as a cure-all. Read her nostagic article for these recipes and more.

A Healthy Choice of Veggie

Fiddleheads are loaded with vitamin A & C, iron, potassium, niacin, riboflavin, magnesium and phosphorus. They are an excellent source of protein and rich in antioxidants.

Useful Links

1. This Canadian Living article suggests tips in how to pick your own, where to buy, how to prep and cook them, as well as a recipe for Fiddlehead Spaghetti Frittata.
2. Fiddle-heads.com gives some advice in how to select fiddleheads, handle and store them, as well as some quick, easy cooking ideas.

The Danger of Fiddleheads

Some varieties of fiddleheads are inedible – this wiki article lists the safe variety.

Although we’ve been eating fiddleheads for centuries, it’s important to know even the edible fiddleheads have shikimic acid, a mild poison to humans, and must be removed by blanching or cooking.

Food poisoning outbreaks in 1994 and 1999 were linked to consumption of raw or undercooked fiddleheads. Cases have been rare since but Health Canada suggests boiling fiddleheads for at least 15 minutes or steaming them for 10 to 12.

I lightly fried mine for 6 minutes on each side and if you read through some of the above sources, you’ll find some fiddlehead fans like to take a walk on the wild side. However dante you dare to go with fiddleheads, the handling recommendations are consistent: remove the entire thin, brown chafe or husk and use lots of water.

What to do now?

If you’re in Ontario, this coming Victoria Day weekend is the perfect time to venture into the woods and pick fiddleheads with the family! If you’re not Canadian but want to learn more about our local foods and seasons, check out Live Lighter’s other Local, Seasonal & Organic posts.

Have you ever picked fiddleheads? Do you like them or have any recipes to share?

Spring’s cold nights and warm days have been naturally pumping the sap up the still dormant maple trees here in Ontario. Some people (including myself and my in-laws last weekend) are busy tapping trees and boiling sap to make delicious, sweet, healthy maple syrup!

It was my first time assisting with this family tradition and I can see why it stuck. It was fun working as a team and being in nature with all the fresh air and the sweet aroma of boiling sap.

I found it incredibly humbling, too. I was awed by the amazing, sweet gift from Nature, human ingenuity for the whole maple syrup making process and, of course, the hard work. Let’s just say I really appreciated the dark amber, grade A, homemade, organic maple syrup on my french toast the next morning!

How to Make (Lynch’s) Maple Syrup

While the trees, process and tools may vary, here’s how we made maple syrup at the Lynch’s:

1. In early March, Dad strung up a series of tubes around trees that ran down hill.
2. We tapped approximately 60 red maple trees by drilling holes on the North East side of each one and fitting the holes with the taps attached to the tubes.
4. At the bottom of the hill, the tubes came together and collected the sap in 45 gallon containers.
5. Dad rigged up a pulley system that held a gigantic cast iron pot over an over-sized campfire.
6. On Friday afternoon we lit the fire, filled the pot and started boiling sap.
7. For about 30 hours, we continuously fed the fire and topped up the boiling sap with fresh sap.
8. We were having so much fun by the fire near the end, we boiled the sap a bit too much (it was super dark and thick, almost like a taffy).
9. Dad diluted it by adding 2 liters of fresh sap and took the pot off the fire.
10. After emptying the pot into a bucket, we moved the operation in doors (well, the garage) to “finish it off”.
11. We strained the liquid through cloth filters to catch any big debris and poured the condensed sap into a stainless steel pan.
12. Heating the pan with propane helps control the heat for this last part so it won’t burn or thicken too much.
13. We boiled it for about another hour, consistently checking it with a hydrometer (measures water content).

In the end, we boiled 135 gallons (511 liters) of sap to make 11 liters of delicious and nutritious maple syrup.

It was much darker than usual because we boiled it too long in the cast iron pot. We were lucky because if it had burned, it would have been 30 hours wasted! Instead, our mistake taught us not only how to make dark maple syrup, but how much more maply tasting it is compared to light and medium!

Fun Facts

• Maple syrup is considered one of the wonders of the world!
• Natives used maple syrup as food and medicine. They believed it had healing abilities and cleansed the body after the winter. (source: The Ottawa Citizen)
• They collected the sap through a wood chip stuck into a slanted gash in the tree. The sap dripped through the gash, flowed down the chip and dripped into a birchbark bucket. The syrup was made by boiling the sap in a hollowed-out basswood log with hot stones thrown in.
• Maple syrup is made mainly from maple sugar trees: Sugar Maple, Black Maple, Red Maple and Silver Maple. They are found in Eastern Canada and Northeastern U.S.
• Birch trees can be tapped for a more bitter birch syrup.
• Sap from the tree originally has a one-digit percentage of sugar. Maple syrup is made by condensing it to approximately 60% sugar.
• Maple syrup has the same calcium content as whole milk but no fat and only two-thirds as many calories as corn syrup. (source: MapleSugarRecipe.com)
• It has antioxidant properties comparable to broccoli!
• You can store maple syrup up to 6 months in the fridge and up to 2 years in the freezer.

Health Benefits

Maple Syrup is a good source of manganese and zinc. It’s an anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and immune booster; not to mention it’s heart and prostate healthy!

Other Useful Links

• Click here for an in-depth article on maple syrup.
• Click here for it’s complete nutritional data.

Are you as enamoured with maple syrup as I am? Celebrate it with others and check out the maple festivals in Ontario.

Share in the craze of cherry season with Live Lighter’s Local Food Guru, Denise Lambert! This is the fourth addition to our “Local, Seasonal and Organic Food” section. Please see our previous articles on strawberries , rhubarb and asparagus .

Nothing is better than fresh cherries. I was raised in the Niagara Region, and one of the greatest pleasures of summer was taking a drive on the back roads to the fruit stands and eating fresh cherries until we burst!

Years later, I still do this! Let’s start with where to pick your own in the Toronto Region…

Andrew’s Scenic Acres

Two Century Farm – this farm uses organic methods, but is still awaiting certification.

Nutritional Information

Cherries are a nutritional powerhouse, antioxidant-rich and packed with vitamin C. They are also an excellent source of potassium and manganese, and have good amounts of iron and phosphorous.

But that’s not all. Cherries are rich with vitamin K and a good source of thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6 and pantothenic acid. They also contain traces of niacin, folate and vitamin A.

100g of cherries contains only 63 calories and is a good source of dietary fiber.

Health Benefits

Cherries have been credited with a vast number of health claims. Cherries can reduce the pain of arthritis, gout and headaches. Cherries contain anthocyanin, a red pigment, which acts as an antioxidant. The plant pigment along with vitamin C strengthens collagen. Cherry juice contains melatonin, which is important for the function of the immune system.

History & Fun Facts

Cherries have pleased the palates of food lovers for centuries. Their ruby-red color and tangy taste won cherries a place on the tables of Roman conquerors, Greek citizens and Chinese noblemen.

Cherries were brought to America by ship with early settlers in the 1600s courtesy of the French.

Today, on average, Canada produces more than 15 million pounds of tart and sweet cherries. In Ontario, 74% of the trees are located in the Niagara and Hamilton-Wentworth areas. Internationally, Canada is a relatively small producer of sweet cherries. The largest producers are the U.S. and Eastern Europe.

A Cherry Recipe

Hands down, this is the best cherry bread recipe I have ever tasted:

Cheddar Cherry Bread

Makes 1 loaf

INGREDIENTS

2½ cup Flour
½ cup Sugar
½ cup Brown Sugar, packed
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1¼ cup Milk
1 Egg, beaten
3 tbsp Oil (any will work, I use olive)
1¼ cup Sweet Cherries, frozen
1¼ cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS

Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.
Combine milk, egg and oil; pour over dry ingredients and stir just enough to dampen.
Gently fold in cherries and cheese.
Pour into greased loaf pan.
Bake at 350F for 55-65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean.
Cool on rack 10 minutes; remove from pan.

Cool completely before serving.

Serve at room temperature, or toasted.

Yummy Tummy!

But come back soon for a traditional Hungary Sour Cherry Soup Recipe.

Denise Lambert is a vegetarian, food enthusiast and prepares healthy, organic meals on a weekly basis for several selected clients as a side business. Denise also tries her best to live the 100 mile diet to take advantage of the added nutritional benefits of eating locally as well as doing her part to ease environmental (and social) concerns due to food transportation.

Here is another excellent `Local, Seasonal and Organic Food’ article from our Local Food Guru, Denise Lambert. Enjoy!

Rumour has it that if you share a double strawberry with someone, you are destined to fall in love. Strawberries are the symbol of Venus, goddess of love.

Strawberries an excellent source of Vitamin C, a good source of folate and potassium and provides 3 g of fiber per one cup (250 ml) ­ all for only 50 calories.

Interesting strawberry facts:

• Created from crossing two wild strawberry varieties, the strawberry we all know and love has been cultivated since the 18th century.
• Romans used to consume wild strawberries for their therapeutic qualities.
• Native Americans used to call them `Pocahontas’.
• Quebec is the largest strawberry producer in Canada. But they grow quite prolifically here in Ontario as well.
• There are more than 600 varieties of strawberries.

Where to pick your own:

www.organicsfarm.ca – for organic.
www.whittamoresfarm.com for Fun! This is where I go with my daughter, and it’s an all-day event. They have a really great playground for the kids and a market for the adults.

Tips for purchasing:

Since strawberries don¹t really ripen once picked, it¹s best to buy them when they¹re already ripe, free of green or white sections. Choose firm, bright red fruit exempt from yellow traces near the stalk. The green collar of leaves should be stiff and bright green. Avoid soft strawberries with prominent yellow dots covering the surface of the fruit.

Cooking and storing strawberries:

Highly perishable, strawberries must be kept away from the sun and remain at room temperature for the shortest time possible. They can be kept in the refrigerator or in a cool area, in a colander or other breathable container. If you store them unwashed, unstemmed and not squeezed together, they will last for up to two or three days. But take them out of the refrigerator about 1 hour prior to eating them to truly appreciate their full flavour.

Washed or older strawberries will keep better with a little added sugar.

Strawberries are easy to freeze as long as you choose ripe fruit. They can be frozen whole, sliced, quartered or crushed, with or without sugar.

Spray cut or crushed strawberries with lemon (or citrus) juice, this will help to reduce loss of colour.

Only wash fruit when ready to eat, and wash them with the stems on. Use cold water and do not soak fruit. These steps help keep the strawberries as fresh tasting as possible.

Strawberry recipes:

1. This fruit is very adaptable. The obvious thing to make is jam. If you want me to post a jam recipe, just leave a comment and I shall!
2. Try them in salad, or in a smoothie with bananas & plain yogurt.
3. A delicious vinaigrette can be made by combining them with olive oil, cider vinegar, garlic, green peppers, onion and sugar in a blender and processing until smooth.
4. I really like this recipe from Allrecipes.com for Strawberry Salsa :

INGREDIENTS

1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
4 roma (plum) tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lime
1 tablespoon olive oil

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, combine strawberries, tomatoes, chili peppers, garlic, lime juice and oil. Toss all together to mix and coat. Cover dish and refrigerate for 2 hours to chill. Ready to serve!

Strawberries herald summer – Happy Summer!

Denise Lambert is a vegetarian, food enthusiast and prepares healthy, organic meals on a weekly basis for several selected clients as a side business. Denise also tries her best to live the 100 mile diet to take advantage of the added nutritional benefits of eating locally as well as doing her part to ease environmental (and social) concerns due to food transportation.