Back and Forth - A Photo Journal of Reveries

Juxtaposition on today

"Magic is just science we don’t understand yet.

 - Arthur C. Clarke

Containing Keys

 In creative work — creative work of all kinds — those who are the world’s working artists 

are not trying to help the world go around, but forward. Which is something altogether different 

from the ordinary. Such work does not refute the ordinary. 

It is, simply, something else. 

Its labor requires a different outlook — a different set of priorities."

 - Mary Oliver

An invitation

...and a gazing within

“At worst, ​one is in motion; and at best, 

Reaching no absolute, in which to rest, 

One is always nearer by not keeping still.”

 - Thom Gunn 

.

 “You can recognize a pioneer by the arrows in his back.”

- ​Beverly Rubic

Layers

Ravenwind Botanica Coriander Oil Infusing

"​Close some doors. 

Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, 

but simply because they no longer lead somewhere.”

​ - ​Paulo Coelho

Art supplies/animal findings

"But when I lean over the chasm of myself - 
it seems my God is dark
and like a web: a hundred roots
silently drinking.
This is the ferment I grow out of.
More I don't know, because my branches 
rest in deep silence, stirred only by the wind."
  - Rainer Maria Rilke

Slow Food - Nourishing Body and Soul (organic potatoes and healthy fat)

“Of all evil I deem you capable:  therefore I want good from you. 

Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings 

who thought themselves good because they had no claws."

 - Friedrich Nietzsche

Calendula: Summer Bottled

The teacher who is indeed wise 

does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom 

but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind." 

 - Kahlil Gibran 

 - and Gone Again

Morning Majesty

One of my favorite creatures, seen on my morning walk. 

Vultures sun themselves in the morning to dry the dew off their wings so they lose the weight of water for better flying, and what they do so well, gliding. Their gliding gives us a vision of the wind as they ride the thermals. Majestic!  

Plus they make life from death! - the mushrooms of the animal world.  And they keep the place clean and the cycle going.  <3

"Wisdom tells me I am nothing,

love tells me I am everything,

between the two my life flows."

- Nisargadatta

Fecund Exposure

Last night's rain
on the Oak and Hickory leaves underfoot

becoming Earth once again

Tannin-soaked air reaches my nose

Like a sweet cigar, or a waft of perfume from a steaming cup of tea,
or the smell of rich woodland soil under shovel

in my hands, in my nose, in my heart.

One moment in time

a poignant mystery

to explore.

The depths are reached

in this slanted, decaying light.

The trees bare their bones.

Birds flit, exposed once again in their plenty

no longer their song giving them away, but their feather.

If we are of luck,
we too become exposed

in our journeys back home.

Where the deep, rich Earth will consume us

once more.

Lay it open

raw

rare

and beating.

For how can life grace us

if we aren't fertile ground.

Tomorrow's acorn sprouts

in the rot of yesterday's leaf.

Release the leaf.

Peony Root

One man's trash is another man's treasure, or should I say 

"One woman's compost is another woman's medicine."

When dividing or transplanting Peonies, one always ends up with pieces of root...

Did you know this common flower has been used for thousands of years as a medicinal?
It's root is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is called Bai Shao or Chi Shao depending on whether or not the root bark is removed and on which species is used (White or Red).  Likewise, their properties and strengths will differ somewhat, but essentially, Peony Root, one of the herbs I use most often, is bitter, sour, and cooling.  It has astringent, relaxing, calming, decongesting, and relaxing actions.(Please see a qualified health practitioner to see if it's right for you as it has contraindications).

As with all roots one wants to utilize for remedy making, I slice it while it's fresh; it makes for much easier cutting.  Then I either use it fresh or dry it for storage, making sure it is totally dry before storing in an airtight container.  Peony Root can be tinctured or decocted either fresh or dried.  Here is a great book to consult on how that is done.  Of course, you need to consult a professional as to whether or not Peony Root is right for your circumstances; I am not giving advice or recommendations here, but rather educating as to Peony's traditional uses and sharing what I do with it; I am not recommending you do this.

Another consideration when harvesting roots is that ideally one does not harvest when the plant is involved in rapid new growth, flowering, or going to seed as the energy is going up into these processes, rather than being in the root.  This means the ideal time to harvest (and to do divisions for that matter) is fall after the foliage is dying back or very early spring before growth is abundant (or winter if ground is not frozen).  That being said, I do not waste Peony roots if I have a circumstance where they are being divided at a non-ideal time for root harvest.  This happens at times in my landscaping business.  Some plants are affected by this more than others.  I find the resulting Peony roots to be useful nonetheless. 

Ah, the wealth of gardening!

Making Soup Stock: Bone and Vegetable - Nutrition from Kitchen Scraps

Strained Bone Stock with added Shitake and Seaweed for Flavoring and Trace Minerals.

You know those bits that many just throw away (or even better compost) when cooking...broccoli stem peelings, onion skins, chicken bones,....  well if you aren't putting them to good use, now is the time to start.  What I do is keep a gallon ziploc bag or two of each in the freezer going at all times, one for bones, one for vegetable scraps.  Once the bag is full, or sometimes I'll wait for two bags to be full, I make soup stock.  Sometimes I mix the bones and vegetables, but ideally you decoct the bones for as much as 72 hours; the vegetables are best just 24 hours max, so it depends.  The vegetables are mostly just a flavoring agent, something to use as a base or liquid in most any cooking.

Straining the Broth.

The bones on the other hand are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat and I believe no diet should be without the regular intake of bone broth, but especially anyone healing from any type of trauma, dealing with serious illness, or pregnant.  When I eat bone stock I can feel the goodness going throughout my whole body lighting up every cell, literally.  It's power packed with nutrients (amino acids and minerals especially) that enrich your body and make you feel good.

The strained Bone Stock; you can see it has good fat in it too.

To make this glorious golden liquid you just immerse the bones in water after breaking them open to expose the marrow if needed.  For instance, with chicken bones you want to use a mallet to break each long bone.  You can also buy larger soup bones at your local humane butcher (if you don't have one of these, look for one - know your farmer, know your food).  I often do this and just mix whatever bones I have; I even mix in fish bones.  Next add a tablespoon or so of vinegar per gallon of water used; this helps to leach the minerals out of the bones.  You may need to add water as you go, particularly for the longer times, or you can start with a greater amount of water.  Bring all this to a boil, then reduce to simmer with a lid and cook for 24-72 hours.  The longer you cook it, the more minerals you will get out of the bones.  72 hour decocting actually makes the bones mushy like a cooked potato.  Once your cooking time is up, strain it; you do not need to skim the foam off the top (it's high in amino acids).  I then put the cooked bones in my compost pile; I figure the garden will use any minerals left.

In this Vegetable Stock; you can see a Brussel Sprout stalk, Leek ends, Onion peelings, Carrot tops, and  rubbery Celery.

Now what to do with all this rich, luxurious goodness?  I use bone stock as a base for most any type of soup, mixed into any type of vegetable mash, as a broth when cooking meat, and even cook the occasional pasta in it.  It gives any dish a depth of flavor and mouth feel that is hard to beat.  You can also use it as the liquid needed when reheating a dish, or when creating a dish that needs just a bit more liquid to get the texture just right, or in making sauces and marinades.  Keep it for up to a week in the fridge, or freeze it in the right size quantities for your needs.  I have found that it does not work to cook dry beans in (even soaked first); I am guessing the minerals affect the ability of the bean coating to break down because the beans never soften.  So, cook the beans first separately, then mix with the bone stock.

Bone Stock with some type of Bean or Lentil and Garden Greens is a favorite staple dish around here.

For vegetable stock, use the same directions, but keep cook time around 24 hours, no vinegar needed.  You can use it in much the same way as bone stock, though it is more as a flavoring agent.  A great way to make something out of what would be waste otherwise.  Have fun in the kitchen!

~~~

Holy Kale

While picking some Kale from the garden for dinner last night, thoughts came once again about the holes in the leaves and what they mean.  For one, it means we garden organically here at our house.  While there are organic means to control bugs, for this we didn't use any; we just let it be.  And here's the thing: Does having these holes in the leaves mean the leaves are more nutritious for you?  Many of the beneficial compounds in plants (phytochemicals) are there for the plant's defense.

Since a plant cannot get up and walk, or run, away, or talk, or scream, they have evolved other defenses: chemical defenses.  Many of these chemicals are beneficial to us, having antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and other actions in the human body.  For instance, when a deer begins eating one plant out of a whole patch, that plant changes and begins to emit a chemical messenger, either through the air or via their interlinked root systems, alerting the other plants in that patch.  This leads to the entire patch of plants changing their chemical makeup to, for instance, become more bitter so that the deer will stop eating them.  This allows the deer to get some food without destroying the entire patch.  I am thinking this bitterness is often a beneficial phytochemical for us.  The same type of thing would happen with bugs/pests eating the leaves.

Though one thing to point out is that an unhealthy plant will often signal to and draw in pests.  Keeping our plants healthy goes a long way to preventing pests.  Growing a plant non-organically actually increases the likelihood of pests since non-organic growing methods only seek to supply the plants with 3 main nutrients:  Potassium, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus (the ones that affect how a plant looks, the size it gets, and other things good for selling), and hence the plant is not as healthy.  Organic gardening supplies a plant with much more, which is one reason why organic tastes so much better.  These principals would apply to herbs too.

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." - Hippocrates

So!  I am thinking that Holy Kale is even better for you than perfect looking Kale.  This applies not just in the garden; but also when I am wild-harvesting food, I don't just go for the perfect looking parts, I also pick the bug-eaten parts thinking I am getting extra beneficial compounds.

Now if only this could translate to what is acceptable in the grocery stores so we didn't live under the falsehood that a perfect piece of fruit or vegetable is in fact perfect when it may very well be lacking.  Perfect is artificial.  If you go out into nature you will see that all living things have "blemishes."  It is these imperfections that do indeed make them perfect.  Same goes for people and photoshopping - but that's a whole 'nother blog...

Guess that means the freshest food is not even picked yet!

Many of these beneficial compounds are destroyed through processing or poor storage, so fresh is best.  Cooking is good as it breaks down or begins digesting many of these compounds making them more bioavailable.

How to perceive the natural world more directly. Click here. 

Yes, that is duct tape on my glasses.  I see no reason to put something in the landfill when it can be fixed.                               Duct tape is our friend.  :)

~ ~ ~

"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and
 what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as
 sorry a state as the souls who live under tyranny."
 - Thomas Jefferson

"He who does not know food, how can he understand the diseases of man?"
 - Hippocrates

"The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth;
 and he that is wise will not abhor them."
 - Ecclesiasticus 38:4

Making Bone Stock

Lovely isn't it?  This is after cooking, during straining.

Why would you do this?  Because...

1.  It saves money; have you looked at the price of organic stock lately?  Mighty expensive when you can make it with just a little time on the stovetop.  Plus home-made stock tastes better and is more nutritious (less processed, less water).  Get nutrients in an assimilable form, cheaper than buying supplements!)

2. It'super nutritious:  Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus and other trace minerals; Glucosamine and Chondroitin and Gelatin- good for your bones, joints, hair, nails, skin, heart, and on and on...

3. It re-uses what would otherwise be a waste product.

This is what it looks like after cooking and straining.

How?
1. Collect bones as you get them in a ziploc bag in the freezer.  I mix all types of bones, literally from pork to chicken to fish (all humanely raised or sustainably wild-harvested, a prerequisite for me as factory farms are a true atrocity and serious ethical issue, on top of that, who wants to eat sick, tortured animals?  It matters.  We are what we eat.)

2.  Once you have a gallon bag full or so, use a hammer to break open any solid bones to expose the marrow and cover all the bones in a large stove pot (or crock pot) with water, add a couple tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar (this helps to leach out the minerals), and cook (bring to a boil, then simmer with lid) at least 24 hours, but as many as 72.  The longer you cook, the more nutrients you will get out of the bones.  72 hours makes the bones like mush.

3.  Strain and use.  You can fridge for up to a week, or freeze for longer storage.  Freeze in individual size portions, or use an ice cube tray.  You can use the stock for braising other meats, wilting vegetables, flavoring grains or legumes, making soup, reheating leftovers, etc.  I find a use for it almost daily.
Often I just make a huge pot of soup with it right after straining:

This is a soup to which I added right to the bone broth:  soaked and strained Aduki beans, Buckwheat Groats, Olive oil, Shitake, Kelp, Bay leaf, Thyme, Turmeric and Mizuna greens.

Mizuna, an Asian green from the coldframe

Greens Coldframe - with wild greens growing all around!

What?
Easy soup recipe guidelines (all measurements are approximate):
Add to gallon of bone stock:

- 1/4- 1/2 c. olive, coconut, sesame oil or saved oil from cooking fatty meats

- Kelp, small handful - I add this to all soups for it's salt, iodine, and other trace minerals.  Kelp helps to remove heavy metals from the body, so it's detoxing.

- 1 c. grains (cook in stock until done, different for each grain, can soak first overnight to initiate sprouting and improve nutrition)

- 2 c. dry legumes (**soak, strain, and cook them separately first.  There are so many beans and lentils
to choose from - lots of colors and flavors!  Soak  legumes 1-3 days before cooking with a rinse daily; this helps you to digest the beans, getting much more protein out of them, getting rid of the anti-nutrients that coat the beans so that you get more nutrition from the beans)

You can't go wrong with sauteed onions. 

- Greens of some sort:  bok choy, spinach, collards, etc.

- other vegetables and flavoring agents

- a dash of a couple spices (mix and match, experiment!)  I almost always add Turmeric for its anti-inflammatory effect.






Eat as soon as the ingredients are cooked, but simmer as long as you like.  Sometimes I leave this on the stove all day.  Then cool and put some in the fridge for sooner and some in the freezer for later.

These soups are so nourishing you can feel it; they make you feel good.

Another option is to mix vegetable scraps into the bone stock for making vegetable stock, or just use vegetables alone.  Vegetables only need an all-day or overnight (24 hour max) cooking time, so if I am mixing, I will usually cook the bone stock for a day or two first, then add the vegetable scraps.  By vegetable scraps I mean the peelings from carrots, the skin on the broccoli stem, the fibrous ends of the asparagus, onion skins, leaves off cauliflower, etc. - the parts that you usually compost, but are technically edible.  I save all this in a separate ziploc in the freezer.  I just keep re-using the bags, always keeping them in the freezer whether full or not.  Simple.  Keep in mind not to use tomato, pepper, or potato green parts as they are toxic.

Jujube dates

Another option is to mix herbs into your stock at the end of cooking time for their therapeutic effects.  Some possibilities include:
Astragalus, Jujube, Goji berries, Dong Quai, Codonopsis, Poria, Burdock root, Reishi, Dioscorea, He Shou Wu, Orange peel,
Lotus seed, and Lily bulb.
Go light at first so as to not overpower the flavor, and up the amount slowly. 

Soup-making:  a weekly ritual.  Warms the belly and the soul.