Potato & Kale Soup

Here's a great winter warmer and a solution to the problem of "Oh-so-much-kale-in-the-CSA-box-this-week!" 

Based on a Portugese favourite, this filling meal traditionally uses chorizzo sausage to add a little spice. Here I've substituted that with some red pepper flakes to give a slight kick but without the meat. I don't generally deal in quantities because I prefer to throw things together and let my tastebuds decide along the way. Seasoning particularly should always be used 'to taste'.......your taste! Don't be afraid to grab a teaspoon and test the flavor as you go along.

Potato & Kale Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

Chicken/Vegetable broth* - enough to cover potatoes

Potatoes - probably about 3lbs, peeled and diced

1 garlic clove, crushed

Kale - however much you have (it cooks down), ribs removed and leaves thinly sliced

Red pepper flakes, crushed

Salt/pepper

Dash of cream*

Heat the oil in a large heavy bottom pan. Saute the onions until they soften. Add the diced potatoes stirring continuously to prevent sticking. Add the chicken/vegetable broth, the garlic and the red pepper flakes. Cover and bring to the boil. Reduce the temperature and simmer the potatoes until they're almost cooked. Mash down slightly with a fork or potato masher, then add the kale. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes until kale is done. Add a little cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with crusty wholemeal bread and grated mature cheddar cheese* (Coastal Cheddar is good).

* Those sensitive to MSG need to source these products carefully. Look for cream and other dairy products that contain no carrageenan or additives.

Organic Label Under Attack

Two separate articles have crossed my desk today both dealing with the issue of attempts to weaken the USDA Organic label. First off is a report by the Cornucopia Institute on the efforts being made by agri-business to fly under the radar of organic regulation by subverting the rules of organic egg production. Giving access to the outdoors to chickens does not mean providing them with a small caged run attached to an enormous chicken shed!

Likewise The Huffington Post reported today on efforts to sneak non-organic sulphites into organic red wine. Check out Ronnie Cummins article Proposed Sulphite Amendment Weakens Organic Standards.
If you struggle with sulphites this could be a matter of life or death.

Let's hope the USDA National Organic Board remember just who they're there to protect. Definitely two stories to watch!

7 Foods To Avoid For A Healthy Life

Just as I finished canning my final batch of tomato paste this week, I came across an article by Anne Underwood published in Prevention Magazine. 7 Foods That Should Never Cross Your Lips questions the methods of modern day food production and reveals just how many toxins and chemicals are lerking in the foods we eat daily. The magazine asked a group of seven scientists, farmers and health experts which foods they try to avoid. Their answers were enlightening and the first one out of the gate made me feel very grateful for all the time and effort I'd just expended in the kitchen.

1. Dr Fredrick Von Saal PhD, an endocrinologist, listed canned tomatoes as the main food he avoids. Unfortunately the resin linings of the cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen which has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and reproductive issues. As the tomatoes sit in the cans, their acid content breaks down the resin and releases the toxin. Before you know it, you're creating health issues along with your pasta sauce!

The solution: Buy tomatoes in glass jars or Tetra Paks (or can your own!)

2. Joel Salatin, farmer and author, avoids corn-fed beef. "We need to respect the fact that cows are herbivores," says Salatin, "and that does not mean feeding them corn and chicken manure." On the giant feedlots cows are fed corn and soybeans which fatten them up faster for slaughter. This keeps the prices at the grocery stores low (and more money in the cattle farmers pockets), but sacrifices nutritional value for the consumer.

The solution: (aside from eating less beef) Buy from Whole Foods stores or local farmer's markets. Cuts on the bone are also cheaper (and actually cook better and have more flavor too.)

3. Olga Naidenko PhD, a scientist for the Environmental Working Group, chooses to avoid microwave popcorn. A chemical known as PFOA is used in the lining of the bag and has been linked in animal testing to liver, pancreatic and testicular cancer. When the bag is microwaved the chemical migrates to the popcorn, which is then consumed and the toxin accumulates in the body.

The solution: Do what I do, pop your popcorn in a heavy-bottomed pan on the stove top. It takes no time and is very cheap!

4. Jeffery Moyer, chair of the National Organic Standards Board, stays away from non-organic potatoes.
Potatoes are treated with herbicides, pesticides and fungicides during the growing season and are then sprayed again after harvesting to prevent sprouting. All these chemicals are absorbed into the flesh of the potato making organic the only alternative.

5. David Carpenter MD, Director of the Institute of Health and the Environment at the University of Albany, recommends avoiding farmed salmon. Like the cows the salmon are fed soy, chicken litter and even chicken feathers. As a result farmed salmon is full of pesticides including DDT, which has been linked to a myriad of health problems including diabetes. The fish are also treated with antibiotics, not what you really want on your dinner plate.

The solution: Buy wild Alaskan salmon instead.

6. Rick North, project director for The Campaign For Safe Food, avoids milk produced with artificial hormones. Farmers treat their cows with rBGH, or rBST as it's also known, to stimulate milk production. Sadly this also leads to udder infections in the cows which results in pus in the milk. In all other industrialized countries this bovine growth hormone is banned.

The solution: Look for milk produced without growth hormones (rBST-free) or buy organic.

7. Mark Kastel, co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, stays away from conventional apples. Again it's the amount of pesticides used which are of concern here. Apples are one of the most doused fruits and with evidence mounting that exposure to these chemicals is putting farm workers health at risk, it makes sense to avoid eating something that has the potential to contribute to the development of neurological illnesses such as Parkinson's Disease.

The solution: Buy organic apples.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Are there certain foods you avoid?


Links:
Cornucopia Institute
The Campaign For Safe Food
Institute For Health And The Environment
National Organic Standards Board
Environmental Working Group

Canned Tomatoes

Last week I received a hot tip about where I could buy chemical/pesticide free tomatoes. I promptly reserved two 25lb boxes over the phone and then bought yet another when I collected them. I was also tempted by some delicious Jona-Gold apples while I was there and so those came home with me too. By the weekend I had 75lbs of tomatoes and 25lbs of apples sitting on my kitchen table.........waiting.

On Saturday I set to, soaking batches of tomatoes in boiling water until their skins slipped esily from their dark red flesh. I took out the cores and then turned a full 25lbs of them into preservative free provisions for the winter.

First I harvested some green jalapeno peppers from the garden, diced them finely and mixed them with some garlic and red onion in a large pan. I added the tomatoes, some apple cider vinegar and a few spices and set the aromatic concoction to simmer whilst I prepared my canning jars.

Water bath canning is very simple and there are lots of places on the web where you can learn more about it. One of my favorite resources is Pick Your Own, a site that not only lists farms and stands in your area that sell fresh produce, but gives you wonderful tips on how to make and can everything from jams to spaghetti sauce. I also enjoy Food In Jars, an inspiring blog full of ideas for canning produce and what to do with it when you finally open a jar.

My Jalapeno Salsa was a winner and I canned about 12 pints of it. I also made some Pasta Sauce using onion, garlic and the last of my fresh basil and several pints of Passata, the UK version of pureed tomatoes. I threw handfuls of chopped tomatoes into the food processor, chopped it down and then canned it. I used lemon juice in each jar, just to make sure there was plenty of acid to prevent mold. Citric acid can be a problem for people sensitive to MSG, so I searched for some lemon juice which was as pure as possible. If in doubt, squeeze a lemon!

Once I had transformed 25lbs of tomatoes into winter sustenance (and made the house smell like Italy), I poured the water I had used to soak my tomatoes in through the sieve containing the skins and squeezed them for all they were worth. What I got was tomato juice! Another quick canning session and I had 4 quarts of juice all ready for those soups and sauces which we love to eat when it's freezing cold outside.

Today I'm back in the saddle, converting another 25lbs of fresh Eastern Washington tomatoes into sauces and salsas to keep my family healthy during the next six months or so. It's backbreaking work at times, but worth every moment.

Links:
Pick Your Own
Food In Jars

Natural Flavors.........NOT!

"How many times have you seen the words 'natural flavors' on a label and thought, whew, good. Nothing bad there!"

This is the question posed by Lynn Stratton at the website Healthy Holistic Living. Lynn has been checking out Flavor Technology companies and gives us the lowdown on her findings in her article, Is it Real, Or Is it Senomyx? How New Flavor Technology Tinkers with Our Tastebuds. What she has uncovered is truly frightening, especially for those of us already sensitive to food additives. I urge you to read her article. If this kind of technology continues to be used under the guise of providing 'healthy' products, then the future of food is looking grimmer than ever.


With this in mind I just picked up 75lbs of pesticide free tomatoes which I will be canning over the coming days. When you can't trust your food supply, Grandma's ways really are the only alternative!

Photo:Public Domain Photos

Breast Cancer Linked To Everyday Chemicals

If ever I had any doubts about my quest to reduce my family's chemical exposure, they were obliterated on Friday with the release of The Breast Cancer Fund's 2010 "State of The Evidence" report. The report clearly links the rise in breast cancer in women to the abundant use of petro-chemicals in our environment and our food.

“A substantial body of scientific evidence indicates that exposures to common chemicals and radiation contribute to the unacceptably high incidence of breast cancer,” said the report’s lead author Dr Janet Gray, a professor at Vassar College, New York. The research investigated all the scientific data on how breast cancer risk is increased by exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals, carcinogens and radiation.

This news also received coverage from the UK's Daily Express and you can read the full article here. The newspaper goes so far as to link cancer with cleaning products, clearly exposing the threat to women (and men if they clean the house regularly) caused by frequent use of household cleaning solutions.

"Experts warn that as many as one in eight women is at risk of contracting breast cancer – a dramatic increase since the 1930s when the first reliable cancer figures were recorded," declares the article. It goes on to state that, "The increasing incidence of breast cancer since the 1930s parallels the proliferation of synthetic chemicals."

In the words of Jeanne Rizzo, President of the Breast Cancer Fund, "This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, our message is clear: we must move beyond awareness to prevention.”

I couldn't agree more!

*****

In the meantime, while the scientists decide just how often it's safe to have a mammogram, some women are dying because they can't afford one in the first place. Screening that could catch breast cancer early should be available to all. Please go to The Breast Cancer Site and 'click-to-give.'

*****

Links

National Breast Cancer Foundation

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Susan G. Komen For The Cure

Breast Cancer Awareness

Breast Cancer Care (UK)

Breast Cancer Research (UK)

Photo: BritneyBush

My Story

When I look back on my life now, I think it probably all began in my early twenties when I started to itch every time I wore my watch. Soon afterwards the cool-looking earrings I loved to sport in my pierced ears started causing problems too. I'd get an itchy rash on my ear lobe and before long it would become sore, swollen and weepy. My days of trendy earrings were over and I was forced to switch to gold or silver, not the cheapest jewellery for an impoverished student. A gold watch was ofcourse way beyond my means so I switched to a Swatch, those wonderful plastic watches that restored my street cred and my timekeeping back in the '80's. As long as the back of the watch face did not directly touch my skin, I was fine.

Contact dermatitis was really the first clue that I had that I could possibly be allergic to anything. I learned to live with it and moved on with my life. Next up was Chinese food. Every time I ate at my local Chinese restaurant I'd end up feeling terribly thirsty and would have a wakeful night. I started to avoid eating Chinese and got on with living. I moved house (several times), got married and then had my first child......and that was when my problems really started. Around my daughter's first birthday I started to be violently sick. I suspected a case of food poisoning as the symptoms were just the same; vomiting, chills, sweats, headache, thirst etc. I lost weight rapidly, which for someone as tiny as me is not a good thing. But the vomiting wouldn't stop. The doctor performed every test known to man in an effort to work out why I couldn't stop being sick, but everything came back normal. I spent several months having good days and bad, struggling to care for a one year old and feeling like a failure.

Eventually I was referred to a Gastro-enterologist, who also subjected me to a battery of tests. I had blood tests for everything from Celiacs disease to Cancer, a Barium Meal (where you drink this strange concoction and they x-ray you as it passes through your body) and finally, a Jejunal biopsy (where they insert a tube down your throat until you gag, so that they can take a sample from your small intestine.) It was all very unpleasant and revealed...........nothing!

.........The conclusion?

That I was perfectly healthy and must therefore be suffering from some kind of intolerance to additives and preservatives in food. Seventeen years ago, this was quite an open-minded diagnosis. It would be hard to discover what the triggers were, I was told, because intolerances work differently to allergies. The former build up over time much like a cup slowly fills with water one drip at a time, until eventually it overflows. All they could do was give me a drug to take half an hour before eating out anywhere. It would line my stomach and protect it from an allergic reaction much like asthma drugs prevent an asthma attack.

It worked for a while, although I avoided eating in restaurants as much as possibly preferring to eat at home where I could control what went into my food. I have always been a good cook and come from a long line of excellent chefs who all have a keen interest in growing and preparing food. Little did I know what a blessing this would become to me.

I plodded carefully on, had another child and got used to the combination of morning sickness and food induced sickness that punctuated these years of my life. My immune system took quite a clobbering, but I put the frequent colds down to having a pre-school child in the house who brought home every illness on the list. Then one day during a visit to the doctor about yet another chest infection, I was tested for asthma. I tested positive. It wasn't bad but it was enough to need controlling. Cold air seemed to make it worse and strong perfumes were completely out. Walking through the perfume section of any department store was dicing with danger. I particularly hated those women who stood there spraying copious amounts of fragrance into the air just as you passed by them!

I had also become increasingly sensitive to make-up and skincare products. I remember a particularly painful experience with a popular brand name Hypoallergenic moisturizer that left me looking like I'd been under a sunray lamp for too long! My sore, red face was ofcourse of no concern to the company's customer service department, who replied  to my letter of complaint with the statement that they couldn't possibly test for all allergens when creating a hypoallergenic product. Great!

Then I moved to Norway and my life changed hugely (and not just because I had another child!) One of my first discoveries was the bread. It was divine. I bought it fresh every day from the local bakery and ok, it didn't last very long before going off, but it tasted great. I soon realised that it didn't last long because it wasn't stashed full of preservatives like the breads I'd been eating in the UK. Suddenly I understood that one of the main things that had been making me sick was my daily loaf of bread. During the seven years I lived in Scandinavia, I learned to bake my own bread, making rolls, pizza doughs and sweet breads. I also bought fish from the daily market that had been swimming in the ocean hours earlier and vegetables grown in the local fields. I have never eaten better or been able to feed myself so safely! 

I still got sick from time to time, but it was normally caused by over-the-counter pharmaceuticals or drugs prescribed to cure other ailments. After a case of the stomach flu that lingered on and on, one enlightened doctor taught me the value of pro-biotics and I was well within days. I learned to maintain my body's chemical balance by seeking out natural remedies first and am a firm believer in the value of herbs and spices to maintain health. 

For the past six years I have been living in North America and oh, what a challenge that has been. Seeking out fresh, chemical free food is harder here than anywhere else I have ever lived, partly because food labelling is so poor. Doctor's still look at me as if I'm mad when I present with symptoms of food poisoning or diabetes that go on for two or three weeks at a time. They run the tests, which are ofcourse all negative and still no one connects the dots and actually acknowledges that chemical sensitivity is a real and growing condition.

Toxicity caused by the chemicals we eat, clean ourselves with and pollute our environment with could prove to be the cause of everything from Alzheimers to Cancer, but little is done to protect us from these consequences. My case is extreme, but I believe that everyone is affected to some degree by their unwitting exposure to multiple toxins. I've always felt that we will go down in history as the generation that killed its own offspring. For our children's sake, I hope this won't be true.