Real Food Lifestyle

Eggs Without Salt - Possible or Not?

NOT!  I would have said ABSOLUTELY NOT even 2 months ago.  Today and yesterday I had eggs totally without salt or potassium chloride and they were delicious.  How? 

Bensons's Salt Free Substitutes.  More specifically Table Tasty, which is one of 9 different seasonings that Debbie Benson has developed.  Right now I'm experimenting with Table Tasty and Bravado, a chili seasoning which is medium-hot, but not too hot -- at least for me. 

Yesterday morning I wanted a fried egg and so I experimented, putting some Tasty on Top before I turned it -- I like my eggs over easy.   A tiny bit more Table Tasty when the egg was served up, and what a flavor fest -- egg feast.  I would have bet this could not happen, an egg tasting good without salt -- and it did.  Not just good but delicious. 

This morning I experimented with one of my fresh from the garden scrambles, with baby zucchini, beet tops, red bell pepper, green onion, fennel and celery seeds fresh from my garden sauteed in a touch of butter and then scrambled with egg and some shredded Cabot extra sharp cheese.  I served it up with some Greek Gods (my new favorite) Plain Yogurt.  Amazing, satisfying, fulfilling.  I'm sitting here right now writing you with a big grin on my face, and a happy tummy.  Without the extra salt the rest of my body is happy too.

I'll keep writing more about Debbie's Gourmet Seasonings.  The 6-pak and 9-pak come with a recipe book, but so far I've just been experimenting on my own.  I'll check out some of the recipes and get back to you. Oh, and did I mention that they are sugar free, MSG free, gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, no soy, low carb and all natural.  

More to come.

Cutting trees to make more sun available to my winter garden (in the planning stage at the moment). Great workout -- and now there's much more morning sun. Yes!

Coming up. Salt Free can be fun! I'm going to show you how!

Cultured drinks, make your own sodas and much, much more.

Passions Flowing

Remember what it's like when you meet that wildly attractive someone and the juices start to flow.  That passion is the best human fuel I know -- keeps your energy, creativity, productivity, etc. flowing.  And that's how I feel right now.  Only I don't have to wait for "him" to call.  The passion is about a current project. The one I'm sharing with you on this web site -- it's about the stories of the folks at the Farmer's Market. 

I just spent 3 ecstatic hours walking around at the Pasadena Farmer's Market, interviewing Gretchen, the founder; spending time at the sprouts booth tasting onion sprouts and buying cat grass; taking photos of oyster shitake and portobello mushrooms; tasting luscious offerings of peaches, plums, pluots, strawberries and having sips of old-fashioned lacto fermented sodas.  On my journey around the market I listened to classical violin duets, classical guitar, reggae, country folk and there was more that was just too much for me to take in. I did make a couple of videos that I'll put on my YouTube site sometime later.

Article Line-up for this WEEK

The Pasadena High School Farmers Market was started in 1984.  Up next will be an atricle from my interview with the founder.  Did you know, we have Jerry Brown to thank for California having Farmers Markets.  In 1978 he signed the Direct Marketing Act allowing farmers to sell their own products at Dept. of Agriculture designated spots.  Before that they could only sell them on their own property.

Culture Club 101.  Get your pro-biotics in a delicious blueberry and ginger soda, or pomegranate, vanilla spice, cherry, root beer and others. Enjoy cultured fruits and vegetables made in the old tradition.  Culture Club came to the Farmer's Market to promote their school and classes.  Find out more in my upcoming article or here. 

Fresh Veggie Scrambles from the Garden

One of my joys in having a backyard garden is the fresh veggie scrambles from the back yard.   Just taking a morning stroll through the beds deciding what to pick is a relaxing way to begin the morning.  Needless to say, cooking this way is both local and fresh - minutes from the garden to the pan.  This morning was beet top leaves, roma tomatoes, green onion, baby yellow squash,  kale, and a chile serrano.  I added oyster mushroom from the greens and mushroom lady at the Farmer's market. (It is my intention to do a story on her soon.) And a little celery seed, pepper, and Thai Lemon Grass. To the eggs I added about a 1/2 oz of Cabots Extra Sharp cheese (from Trader Joe's) and some pepper.  Wow!  What a breakfast.  I put some Greek Gods Plain Yogurt on the side and had myself a bountiful and fresh breakfast. 

Yesterday, the scramble included Hungarian wax peppers, okra, roma tomatoes, basil, onion, shitaki mushrooms, and a jalopena pepper. 

Several mornings ago, I went out to gather some beet top leaves and found this little critter enjoying his own feast.  No, I didn't include him in my scramble.  After his photo session, I moved him to some played out chard to keep feeding.  He was too beautiful to kill.  I just could not bring myself to do it. 

 

As best I could tell in this photo he is resting from his beet feast.  When I moved him, he had begun munching again and left beet juice on my hand.  Here's a more up close look.

Y

Worm Tea Anyone?

No, it's not something you drink.  It's something your plants are thirsty for.  What is it? 

To quote the flier from Urban-Worms it is "liquid produced by leaching soluble nutrients and extracting bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes from compost."  In other words, it's a vitamin and mineral filled health food drink for your flowers and veggies that also contains beneficial microorganisms that keep away all manner of garden pests, like mealy bugs and fungi.  It is also a natural repellent for scale, mites, white flies and aphids. 

I just learned all this about worm tea at the Pasadena Farmers market, though I do admit to having heard about it in passing from a variety of organic gardening sources.  Lara Lasky, co-owner of Urban-Worms, took the time to explain all of this to me, and show me how to easily grow my own worms and make worm tea.  I was fascinated. 

I walked out of the market with both a set-up to make my own worm tea per the video here and on my YouTube Channel, and with a Spray bottle of worm tea ($6.00) and she refills them for $3.00, to use immediately.  That afternoon right after I watered my garden, I spent a lot of time and most of the bottle I'd purchased spraying worm tea on all the vegetable plant leaves.  To my surprise the next morning the plants looked and felt different.  It only takes 2- 3 days to make worm tea, so soon I'll have more for my plants.  Repeated applications maintain the beneficial microbes.  

My next article will be about worm composting.  Which is the next thing I want to establish.  Yes, I'm going to become an urban worm farmer.  How cools is that?

You can order a worm tea set-up or worm farms from Lara here. 

NOTE:  To find a farmer's Market Nation Wide, go here (USDA search site) or here (Local harvest Search Site or here for the California Certified Farmer's Markets.

Pasadena Farmer's Market

NOTE:  To find a farmer's Market Nation Wide, go here (USDA search site) or here (Local harvest Search Site or here for the California Certified Farmer's Markets.

Comfort, Joy, Abundance and More!

One of my favorite places is the Pasadena, CA Farmers Market.  On Saturdays from 8 to around 12:45ish it teams with the lush products of Southern and Central California's naturally and organically grown produce.  Often I run into the market, grab what I need and rush out.  The organic lunches (if I've not grown it myself) for my Reference Point Therapy Classes come from this market.  I get to the market at 8 and out by 8:30 with luscious greens, fresh peaches, strawberries, blueberries, and other goodies for the continental breakfast, break snacks and organic lunch. 

This Saturday I took my time.  Nothing was rushing me.  And, I had my camera.  So my first circle around the market was simply to satisfy my photographic appetite.  Sunlight through fresh beets,

white radish iridescent in the morning sun,

freshly shucked corn, tomato cornucopias, peaches that should be in a magazine.  As I was taste testing, another gentleman doing the same said, "Now that's what a peach should taste like!"  I heartily agreed as a bit of peach juice escaped.

   

Potatoes and Melons.  At one stall there were fresh new potatoes in shades of red, white and purple, and several varieties of melon.  Now I know cantaloupe and honeydew and not much else.  A couple of the varieties looked like cousins of the cantaloupe and were clearly different.  These were melons I knew nothing about, and were "oh so delicious."  (The proprietress had made available samples.) Next Saturday I'm going back to find out what the names were.  For now, I purchased one that looked something like a spaghetti squash but tasted like a sweet distant relative of a honeydew.  Can you tell I'm in over my head here?  I'll take a photo of it.  Maybe you'll know the name. I took this photo just a few minutes ago at home. 

 

Flowers, plants, herbs and more flowers.  Sunflowers, lilies of many varieties, flowers I don't know the name of, eucalyptus, gladiolas, and a whole booth dedicated to orchids.  The flower booths alone delight my senses.  Even though I have my own herb garden, the rectangular baskets of herbs always temp me.  It was at this Farmer's Market that I discovered Rosemary flowers.  That time the proprietor allowed me to take pictures to my heart's content -- well over an hour.  Rosemary flowers are small (no bigger than the fingernail on the little finger of a small hand), and a soft powder blue.  I have over a hundred photos on a hard drive -- somewhere.  

MORE!  MUCH MORE!  There's the apple and pomegranate juice man, the fresh nuts, baked goods, Mexican food on the spot, eggs, seafood, honey and soooo much more.  Then there's the section with other "STUFF" -- my technical term for non-fresh berry, fruit and veggies.  It includes homemade preserves, hummus, fresh pita bread, politicians for Jerry Brown, people offering light blessings, and this Saturday I found someone selling worms, worm tea and worm farms.  That's my next article, by the way, complete with videos if they turn out.  Worms and worm casings are sooo amazing for the soil in any garden, flower or vegetable.  I spent almost an hour learning about growing worms, making worm tea, and on my third tour around the market bought a worm-tea making set-up.  My next article is going to be all about worms and in the meantime if you want to know more, go here.

Stopping for now so that I can get this and another article explaining why I've been away so long up on the blog.  Oh, if you are curious what Reference Point Therapy (RPT) is, go here. 

I'm Back!

My last post was in early May.  Now it's September and it is my intention to post weekly to this blog from now on.  While I neglected my blog, I didn't neglect my garden, so I have lots I've learned to share with you. A number or recipes, too. 

I began to break free from my writers block on a recent road trip to Paso Robles with my best friend, writer and amazing blogger, Charlotte Dixon.  She always inspires me because she writes almost every day.  We had not been on a road trip together in several years. Before that we've been cross country twice -- once each way at separate times. Other memorable road trips include Santa Fe from LA, Louisville to Washington, D.C and another great weekend in San Clemente.  I'm sure I've forgotten some and you can get the idea.  We travel well together.  Charlotte is a prolific writer and I knew being around her would be enough to break out of my almost summer long writing block on both blogs, this one and my Reference Point Therapy (RPT) blog.  (RPT is a power coaching and emotional change tool that I teach and am I'm very passionate about.)

As we drove through the country side both south and north of Santa Barbara, I realized that it was this area, as well as many others in Southern California, that produced the vegetables, fruits and wines that I so loved.  Charlotte and I discussed what might be in the fields we were passing, and who was out there working, and were they organic or not.  Our discussion raised many questions in my mind. 

The Pasadena Farmers Market, (really any farmer's market) is one of my favorite places and I'll be writing about it in my next article.  NOTE:  To find a farmer's Market Nation Wide, go here (USDA search site) or here (Local harvest Search Site.

Some of the happiest times of my early youth were spent with my Grandmother Carie (pronounced CAR ie) with my hands in the dirt of her quite extensive garden.  During both World War 1 and World War II, she had provided for herself and her family with this garden.  In my youth, we had potatoes, onions, preserves, fruit butters and home canned veggies throughout the entire winter.  I might add we also had a cow and chickens and one of the best tasting mountain springs that never went dry and was always cold.  So, this farm with it's orchard of peach, pear, cherry and apple trees was pretty self-sustaining.  Of course, at the time I didn't know anything about that, I just loved being in the garden, chasing the chickens around, gathering eggs and watching my Grandmother make homemade butter.  I had names for every one of those chickens. 

Driving through this bountiful California country side, catching glimpses of squash blossoms off to the left or a huge field of some veggie or other to the right, I began to feel re-inspired.  I'd write about the people who came to the farmer's market. The folks I buy from each week.  What did I know about them?  What were their stories?  I exchange pleasantries but little more -- maybe ask a question about this or that.  I know the "strawberry lady" (no, I don't know her name) had a son who was going on his senior prom.  He had a good time because I inquired the following week. 

It is my assumption that to keep farming in today's world, there must be a connection to the Earth in one way or the other.  What form does it take? These are not corporate farmers who have ravaged the farm land, these are farmers that grow on land that they love and care for, that produces food with actual nutrition in it, versus the nutrition lacking products of corporate farming America.  I want to know more about them, their stories, their lives, what drives them to work all week on the farm and get up at 3 and 4 am to get to the market by 8. 

It is my plan to write about someone I find at the Farmer's Market each week.  First, I'll write about the market.  That's coming up next.

Oh, and if you are curious about Reference Point Therapy and it's founder, Simon Rose, who is from Australia, go here.

NOTE:  To find a farmer's Market Nation Wide, go here (USDA search site) or here (Local harvest Search Site or here for the California Certified Farmer's Markets.