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"Many Paths, One Journey to Health..." Cookbook Out, From Holistic Moms Network

The Holistic Moms Network, a national non-profit group with over 100 chapters across the USA and Canada, has just released a new cookbook; Many Paths, One Journey to Health: In the Kitchen with Holistic Moms. This simple yet powerful guide is as diverse as the organization’s membership, and embraces dietary philosophies from raw food to macrobiotics, gluten free to traditional hunter-gatherer diets. 

Many Paths has more than 300 recipes, all submitted by the group’s members, who embrace holistic health and green living, although the path they each choose to improve their health may differ considerably.  The cookbook is divided into several categories: Farm to Table, Gluten Free/Egg Free/Dairy and Casein Free, Juices and Smoothies, Macrobiotic, Raw Foods, Traditional Diets, Vegetarian, Holidays and Special Occasion Foods. 

Many Paths also features a special Remedies and Other Recipes section including “recipes” for natural bug repellant, non-toxic home cleaners, and detoxifyng teas and baths. 

Showcasing many of the varied nutritional paths followed by their members, Many Paths.. is an valuable tool if you're seeking an alternative to the Standard American diet (SAD).  “Although our members share a common goal of health and well-being, we don’t necessarily agree on how to achieve that goal,” says Nancy Massotto, HMN’s Executive Director, “but we respect one another’s choices and are open-minded enough to consider new alternatives and paths for ourselves and our families.”  Throughout all sections of Many Paths, One Journey to Health is an emphasis on whole, natural foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, and unrefined grains and products.  Those new to healthful eating will find the introductory section explaining each of the paths to be educational and balanced. 

Healthy, kid-friendly recipes prevail and include everything from gluten free Pumpkin Cookies to Healthy Salmon Cakes.  A delicious Fresh Pesto recipe – featuring summer basil from the garden – is provided by green lifestyle expert and TV host Sara Snow who was a Keynote Speaker at HMN's2009 Natural Living Conference. 

If you're new to healthful nutrition or looking for recipes to help eat locally or to cope with food allergies, Many Paths, One Journey to Health will have much to offer! 

More @ HolisticMoms.org

EatingWell In Season, Farmers' Market Cookbook

If, like me, you rejoice when the first asparagus comes into season or relish a tree-ripened peach right from the farmers’ market and look forward to making fall’s squash soups, then this may be the best cookbook you will ever use.

It's filled with easy, fast and delicious recipes making EatingWell in Season a valuable cookbook/ guide for anyone who loves seasonal foods. All recipes are tested in the EatingWell Test Kitchen by the same folks who produce EatingWell Magazine. All the recipes use simple, easy-to-find ingredients and most take 45 minutes or less.

In addition, they are all healthy. So healthy that Dr. Preston Maring, the associate physician-in-chief at Kaiser’s Oakland Medical Center, near San Francisco, CA,  recommends these recipes and this book to his patients and wrote the introduction. As he says, "I’ve even written a prescription for an arugula salad."    His story is paired with 150 new recipes from EatingWell’s Test Kitchen.

Organized by season, the recipes celebrate farm-fresh ingredients, such as Grilled Steak & Escarole with Tomato Vinaigrette and Blueberry Tart with Walnut Crust. Also included in the book:

• Tips on how to freeze, preserve and find other ways to store bumper crops.
• Techniques for roasting peppers, peeling mangoes and other ideas to prepare your farm fresh finds.
• Cool tools & gadgets, from herb savers to cherry pitters, to help you prepare fresh fruits and vegetables.
• USA’s top five farmers markets.
• Nutritional tips that highlight the health benefits of dozens of fruits and vegetables.

And, you'll hear from several of the innovative farmers who are truly passionate about their specialty crops, learn how to plant a kitchen garden and find out when you should buy organic.

EatingWell in Season: The Farmers' Market Cookbook. Edited by Jessie Price, Intro by Dr Preston Maring, buy below thru GH.

The Artisan Cheese Revival

 

Over the past several years, the U.S. has seen tremendous growth in the number and variety of artisan and farmstead cheesemakers. Besides being absolutely delicious, these cheeses are distinctively marked by the unique characteristics of the region where they are made (the French use the term terroir for describing what occurs below the surface of the soil to affect the taste of wines, but this term applies to cheeses and other foods as well). The techniques used in production will also contribute to the unique flavor ways of a cheese. Artisan cheeses are now widely available, and can be found in gourmet food stores and farmers’ markets all over the country. We here at Gathering Home encourage you to explore the world of artisan cheeses.  Learn where to find them online, which are the best books to read on the subject, and even how to make some cheeses at home.

Artisan cheese is defined as cheese that is produced primarily by hand in small batches, using traditional aging and production methods.  Farmstead cheese goes one step further by producing artisan cheese on a farm where only organic dairy products (from that particular farm’s herd of animals) are used.  On these farmsteads, the animals eat only organically grown pasture grasses

"Edible Schoolyard"; Children Learn to Eat What They Grow

 One of America's most influential chefs, Alice Waters created a revolution in 1971 when she introduced local organic fare at her Berkeley, California restaurant Chez Panisse. Twenty-five years later she and a small group of teachers and volunteers turned over a long-abandoned plot of land at an urban middle school in Berkeley and planted the Edible Schoolyard (from Chronicle Books). The schoolyard has grown into a universal idea of Edible Education which integrates academics with growing, cooking and sharing wholesome delicious food! With inspiring images of the garden and kitchen (photos by David Liittschwager) and their young caretakers, the Edible Schoolyard is a visionary model for sustainable farming and childhood nutrition as well as a call to action for schools across the USA.  

 

Ms Waters is president of the Chez Panisse Foundation and vice president of Slow Food International as well as the recipient of numerous awards. She is the author of many books including the Chez Panisse Cookbooks.  David Liittschwager is an award-winning photographer who has contributed to National Geographic.

NBA Wife, Jackie Christie, Debuts Eco Friendly Clothing Line

    Jackie Christie, multi-talented, fashion designer, author and model, is set to release her new clothing line, 'Colored Girl', on May 9, 2009, just before her 3rd book, "Proud to Be a Colored Girl" releases.  Jackie's clothing line will launch first with designer eco friendly 100% organic cotton t-shirts and accessories, and later followed by a hip relaxed and fun denim collection.

Her clothes will be available on-line and in stores located in Seattle, Los Angeles and Atlanta initially. The limited release will be done to ensure that women will come together more to get my pieces if my clothes are not widely available at first, Jackie comments.  Christie's line will be competitive with other designers such as Free People and Ed Hardy and be environmentally conscious.

"I design with my heart and emotions, whatever I am feeling. I start there and I move with the vibe, not against it," says Jackie Christie.  The motivation behind 'Colored Girl' clothing is to instill a strong sense of pride, self love and equality in women, of all ages. The age old stereotype, is that colored stands for just African American women but in actuality every nationality of women the world over; has a color to their skin, no matter what that color is, a colored girl can be someone viewed as beautiful, I want to remove the stigma.

The proceeds from her clothing line as well as her new book will serve to support single mothers and impoverished families all over the world, through her and her husband NBA star Doug Christie's Infinite Love Foundation. As well as, to benefit the literacy programs in Seattle, Washington. "There are so many causes I'm involved with my true mission in life is to lend support to the underprivileged, and suffering. To try to bring about positive change in not just the world, but also the environment. To be honest it is very difficult to narrow it down to just one cause," expresses Jackie Christie.

And shop green at Ecoist. (ad) 

A Midwest Gardener's CookBook

A Midwest Gardener's Cookbook comes highly recommended by the author of the previous post -- Gwen Charles. It's a charming book filled with anecdotes and information; recipes and reminders.
I've ordered it and I can't wait to start reading and learning. Join me?

David Blume touts Alcohol Can Be A Gas !

Noted ecological biologist David Blume has been promoting his book, Alcohol Can Be A Gas and continues to talk about the importance of alcohol-based fuels, and of how the oil industry has worked against the developement of alternative fuel sources.  Many of the early cars, Model T for example, were flex fuel (running on either gas or alcohol), and Henry Ford was an advocate for alcohol fuel. But, he was fiercely opposed by John D. Rockefeller who pushed for Prohibition, which stopped the manufacture of alcohol for any purpose, Blume detailed.

Food and Healing

I HAVE A 1986 COPY OF ANNE MARIE COLBIN’S Food and Healing on my desk. It travels from here, to the kitchen, to the car. It’s my bible of nutrition. If you want to take responsibility for your own health and rely less on modern medicine, this book should be your nutrition bible too!

Recently, I found Ms. Colbin here working on a video blog with pediatrician Lawrence Palevsky, M.D. The blog is called (and I love this) HolisticAnarchy: Better Health Through Honest Dialogue. There’s lots of good info on this blog and not just about nutrition but medications, vaccines, and herbs just to name a few. Intelligent and innovative -- HolisticAnarchy provides sound information for parents, kids, and everybody else. As Dr. Susan Rubin states in her comment on the video blog – “We need more anarchists in the world!”

A Dear Book

When I was a little girl, someone gave me a set of books by Madeline Brandeis. My favorite was
The Little Dutch Tulip Girl. I loved imagining what life in other countries would be like. I think my understanding and acceptance of other cultures helped me to become an advocate for justice. I volunteered to work with the organizers of the Farm Workers Union back when I was in my mid-teens. I never thought – even as a child – that I should be more privileged than another. And, I knew that we all deserve to feel safe and happy. I credit my mom and then this book series for planting the seeds of understanding. Books truly are miracles and children should be exposed to them as much as possible. When my children were younger, my favorite source for books was Chinaberry. If fact, I still love Chinaberry! Check out this source of all the best in books, music, games and toys for nurturing our children and helping them to become caretakers of each other and the earth.

A New Old Way to Eat

My mom grew up in rural Mississippi. As I typed that, I remembered her teaching me how to spell the name of her home state (in that rhythmic kind of way) when I was so very young. It’s a lovely memory.

Mom really understood the meaning of eating locally, seasonally, and organically. As for “putting a face on her food”, well, if that face wasn’t her mom’s or dad’s, it was her neighbors and even her own. Back in the 1940’s, it wasn’t all that unusual to eat food grown within a short distance from one’s home or in one’s own backyard. My grandparents had a garden, fished in the Mississippi River, owned chickens and a milk cow. They were a typical family for that locale and time period. Mom brought that down-to-earth homemade country mindset to our home with everything she did; it was especially apparent in her cooking. I will never forget her Chicken and Dumplings, Strawberries and Rhubarb Compote, Cherry Pie, and Soupy Greens served right in the pot liquor. These days, hands on, organic, and homegrown is the new way to cook and eat – the green way. I’m certainly glad my family has gone back to eating locally and seasonally. And organic foods are staples in my home. But remember when it was common for people to eat canned and frozen foods? When homemade for many meant cooked ground beef added to canned soup? (OK, we might have had something like that once in a while but only in a pinch.) When you look back at the 40’s and further, it’ll remind you of the organic movement of today. And that’s what reading my newest cookbook (yes, reading) Edna Lewis’s The Taste of Country Cooking, kept reminding me: That sometimes, we need to revisit the past to make progress in our future.