As easy as herding a cat ...

Coffee cup firmly grasped in hand, I march determinedly out to our wild patches of forest.  I know they must be here ... looking, looking ... looking ...  

In a previously abundant area, I brush a tall green fern out of the way to expose their naked blue flesh.  

Ha HA - success!  They thought they could hide from me, but I am on to their sneakiness.  

Ahhh forest blueberry time.  It only lasts a couple of weeks in July.  We've got several good patches throughout our woods, and I seldom miss the opportunity to spend many bug-bite-filled hours to gather these tiny explosions of organic blueberriness.  

Even Kolbe can't keep himself away from their bluey blue goodness ...

Ummmm well maybe I exaggerated about Kolbe's enthusiasm.  He had to be dragged there, literally ...

But in the end, it's worth it.

 

Our freezer is happily containing the freshness of these tiny powerhouses of flavor for those special mornings filled with gluten-free blueberry pancakes, scones, etc ...

Speaking of, here's a recipe:

Gluten-free Blueberry Scones

Pre-heat the oven to 400°.

Combine the following in a large bowl:

• 2 C. gluten-free flour mix
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1 tsp. (aluminum-free) baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. (Himalayan or Real) salt
• 2 T. sugar 

Transfer a few tablespoons of the above dry mixture into a small bowl.  Add:

• 1 C. blueberries

Toss to coat - set aside.

To the large bowl with the dry mixture, add:

• 5 T. butter, diced & chilled

Cut in until pea-sized.  (Hint: don't over-work scones, as this would create lovely blueberry doorstops.)

Then add:

• 1 C. milk (coconut or almond milk works fine, as well)
• the blueberries tossed with some of the dry mixture (above)

Stir until dough comes together.  

Turn onto parchment.  Gently shape into a round 1/2"-1" thick patty.  

Cut into 8 sections and separate each by a couple of inches.  If desired, lightly brush with milk and even sugar (I don't do either of these and they're just fine).

Bake 15-20 minutes, or until the bottom edges are a nice golden brown.

Enjoy!  

p.s. Eating them with honey butter adds some rich, naughty sweetness.

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Eat your heart out, Winnie the Pooh

Some of you might be wondering what's going on with the bees.  Well, after the first swarm got away from us, the hive reproduced so quickly that it was back to 90% of pre-swarm numbers within a week (we're talking tens of thousands of new bees in just a few days - amazing)!  A few days later, they swarmed again.  So, we're left with small numbers right now - waiting for the new queen to emerge and begin rebuilding the troops.  In the meantime ...

This is the best honey I've ever tasted.

Why organic?

Why am I so passionate about eating organically?  It's a long story, so I'll try to keep it as brief as possible.

I have been pestered by chemical (and specifically pesticide) overexposure in very noticeable ways for the past 28 years of my life.

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It all started with the local lake I swam in for a number of years during childhood.  It seemed as soon as the water was warm enough to not turn my digits a bluish-purple after 5 minutes of hypothermic exposure, the green ooze was everywhere.  Algae.  I remember coming home from swimming, getting in the shower, taking my swimsuit off and finding that I had a lovely thick green layer of algae plastered to my skin.


Throughout my youth, I swam often, and I guess I wasn't intimidated by the green slime.  I would hear adults talk about how this particular dammed lake is fed by streams that wind their way through agricultural areas.  Farm runoff, they'd say, caused the algae.  I was slightly deterred by thinking about swimming through cow poo.  This knowledge stopped me from drinking the lake water, but not from cooling down on a hot summer day.


"How awful is poo, anyway," I thought.

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Then, after one late-August swim (a breech of etiquette - most locals don't go in this lake after July because the green ooze was so horrifically disgusting), I became very sick and a plethora of allergies were mine for the rest of my life.  What did I become allergic to?

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Algae

I had to get rid of my fish tank, as trying to clean it caused my airways to constrict and skin to swell and itch.  I also never swam in that lake (or any other body of water with large deposits of algae) again.

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Fruit skins

Especially apples, peaches/nectarines, plums and cherries.

Trees, grass, flowers

Basically anything with pollen.

These days, allergy symptoms are easily kept at bay with some kind of prescription or over-the-counter medication.  However, back in the '80s, there were not really any good allergy remedies.  The doctor gave me a big blue pill that took away my symptoms for 8 hours ... while rendering me unconscious.  When I woke up, the scratchy, watery eyes, sneezing and throat itchiness returned instantly.  :-|

I have experienced several more negative effects of chemical exposure that were more gradual.  Those will be covered in future posts.



What caused this sudden onset of allergies?  Well, let's consider what runoff from factory farms contains.

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Antibiotics - 70-80% of all antibiotics consumed in the U.S. are by farm animals (29 million pounds).  As has been reported, more than 90 thousand Americans die from infections that have become resistant to antibiotics every year.  To put that into perspective, that number is higher than the death toll from AIDS, car accidents and prostate cancer combined.

Pesticides - They don't just magically disappear after they're sprayed on crops that both animals and humans eat.

Poo - A LOT of poo.

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Not only does this cause concern for the environment, but for our health, our well-being.  After all, you are what you eat ... and we in this country eat a lot of factory farmed foods.













If you haven't seen the documentary Food, Inc., it is available to watch instantly on Netflix right now and should be put at the top of your queue if you have any interest at all about what you put in your body (not to mention sustainable farming practices).  If you don't have Netflix, maybe a friend does and will watch it with you.  Or rent it from your local library.  Here's the trailer: