I still love a good PB & J once in a while, and I will occasionally spread some whole-fruit preserves on toast, now that I’m turning over a new “eat breakfast” leaf. It’s easy to become bored, however, with grape jelly and strawberry jam. I decided it was time I branched out and I wondered if there were any organic lines of preserves. I came across High Desert Foods. Granted, I have a place in my heart for those companies that support the small farmer, but one taste of their product and I’m forever hooked. This is real fruit here, grown organically in Southwest Colorado. High Desert Foods are small farmers who in their words make quality foods such as the fruit confitures, as well as smoke-dried tomatoes, pasta sauces, pasta and more in the ways that are, “not just a way of sustaining life; but also a ritual that nurtured hearts and minds.” They do this while taking care of the land they grow their fruits and vegetables on.

Here are some of my top choices:

Pear: My grandma used to make and can homemade preserves. She never made some of the exotic flavors that High Desert cooks up. I love pears, so I was looking forward to trying Pear Vanilla Bean Butter, Pear Merlot and Pear Blackberry. Did you know that pears have been gathered for over 6 millennia? Well these folks make something special with this ancient fruit.

Cherries: My dad swears by the health benefits of cherries, but he’s not talking the artificially-colored, overly sugared Maraschino that I always asked for in my Shirley Temples as a kid. Lucky for him, High Desert Foods makes an exceptional little jar of whole Organic Sweet & Sour Cherry confiture and he wants to order them by the gallon.

Strawberry: This isn’t Grandma’s strawberry. How does Strawberry & Wild Strawberry Liqueur, Strawberry Rhubarb with Candied Ginger or Strawberry Chardonnay sound to you? Well, the agriculture workers in California would call the strawberry “the fruit of the devil,” and one taste of these and you’ll see why. It’s simply wicked! Try slathering it on a bagel.

Keep an eye out for their upcoming grilling rubs and sauces, and many other delicious products.

Go to www.highdesertfoods.com, and you’ll never bother with Smucker’s again.

By Veronica Cannon

Image by High Desert Foods

When we seek health advice, we typically want our information from an expert. Well, the author of the book titled “Anticancer: A New Way of Life” is not only a doctor, not only a brain researcher, but he’s also a cancer survivor. Get this: he found his own tumor. He performed his own brain scan when a volunteer failed to show up for their appointment. As a result, he found a walnut-sized tumor in his brain. After surgery and chemo, Dr. David Servan-Shreiber set out to find out more about this mysterious disease after asking his doctor if there was anything he could do to keep it from returning, recieved a confident “No.”

Some of the advice in this book you may have heard before such as eating dark chocolate and drinking red wine; which I can assure you, I follow to the letter… I for one aren’t taking any chances. The book will enlighten and inspire you, none the less. With the author’s personal experience and medical education and research to back up what he writes, this is a book you really need to get a hold of.

Here are five “anti-cancer” tips from Dr. Servan-Shreiber’s book that you can start putting into action today!

1. Stop being such a stress case! Stress takes a beating on our systems in a number of ways. Referred to in the book as the “great calm,” a good attitude has shown in some cases to slow down cancer growth; sometimes stopping it. So could it stop it from ever stopping it? I’m up for giving it a try. Eliminating stress by participating in exercise, realizing what our “buttons” are and work to eliminate them, and here’s a radical thought: USE ALL YOUR VACATION DAYS! That is what they are there for. This is also where more wine can come into play.             

2. Dump out all the toxic cleaners and pesticides you’re spraying all over your house! We use chemicals in our homes everyday in the name of “cleanliness.” We’re scared to death of a cricket making its way into our living areas, so we spread poisons around and in every corner of our homes. There are droves of new cleaners on the market (for another post) and alternatives to pesticides. Make this change for you and your family immediately.             

3. The doc points out that much of the food we eat was not consumed back when humans were hunters and gatherers. No Jack-in-the-Box, no ice cream, no Starbucks. How DID they do it?? You don’t have to give up this stuff all together, but most people could add a few more fruits and vegies, lean meats (sorry vegetarians, I’m still a little meat-and-potatoes girl), and anything that includes Omega-3’s. Go organic!             

4. Increase vital nutrients through food, but also through supplements. The book discusses in depth the benefits of selenium, magnesium, and Vitamin A and C. He describes tests that have been done where researchers in New Delhi were said as stating, “…statistics show simply by consuming a combination of ingredients found in common foods, these mice went from 100 percent risk of developing cancer to a 90 percent chance of escaping it.” Sounds good to me. If you increase those fruits and vegies, trust me, you will increase these naturally. Give yourself a boost though with high quality supplements when you’ve had too many weekends of over-indulgence or just slacking.             

5. Change your attitude. The attitude we choose to carry around with us everyday can have a huge impact on our immune system; and on our healing ability. 

“A strong positive attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.”
~ Patricia Neal

The author expresses belief that we as human beings have the ability of actually inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, that it has been proven again and again. So we have to ask ourselves where it would hurt to incorporate some of these things into our own lifestyles.

Anything that includes eating more chocolate and drinking more wine can’t be all that bad.

By Veronica Cannon

Image by Beth Rexford

Last November the New Oxford American Dictionary declared the 2007 Word of the Year to be locavore. Wikipedia defines locavore as “someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles.” Coined by Jessica Prentice from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2005, according to Wikipedia, the word reflects the fact that buying locally grown produce has grown in popularity. According to the USDA, farmers markets increased across the country from 1994 to 2006.

What is the importance of buying locally grown produce? As an article in the September edition of Country Living magazine puts it, “Knowing where your food comes from is a trend worth following.”

Eating locally helps the environment. Decreasing the distance food travels releases less carbon emissions, and small farms often plant diverse crops which reduce soil degradation. It takes 20 to 1,000 years for a centimeter of top soil to form. In the U.S. we have lost a third of cropland topsoil in the 200 plus years since our country’s founding.

Eating locally also helps out farms. Over 90¢ of every dollar you spend at a farmers market goes directly to the farmer who produced the food. When you buy produce at a grocery store, vegetables farmers get only 21¢ of your dollar.

Slow Food U.S.A. is a non-profit education organization that advocates eating locally produced food. The Slow Food International Manifesto declares, “Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.” Read the rest of this entry »

When growing indoor plants and herbs, it is important to have knowledge of each plant’s needs for survival and success. For some plants, a sudden change in temperature, drop in humidity and too much or too little water, can hinder its growth. The following is a list of plants that are easy to grow indoors:

ORGANIC PLANT FOOD – A HEALTHIER CHOICE

Derived mostly from non-renewable fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers are used to fertilize soil. The widespread and excessive use of chemical fertilizers has increased air, soil, and water pollution. As well, these fertilizers have increased the amount of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. More scientists are coming to the conclusion that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can adversely affect people, especially children. Studies have shown that people exposed to toxic chemicals while working on farms often develop various forms of cancers later in life. Also, these chemicals are dangerous when stored around the house, contaminate the soil, and are difficult to dispose of properly. Read the rest of this entry »