Posts Tagged ‘raw food’

Victoria Van Cleef, creator of ToothSoap, quotes often from a book by Weston Price, DDS , Nutritional and Physical Degeneration and an out of print book by Dr. Judd, Good Teeth, Birth to Death. Dr. Judd says to use pure and natural soap to clean the teeth. Toothpaste has abrasives and glycerin – glycerin coats the tooth and prevents enamel regrowth.Victoria developed ToothSoap so her family would have healthy teeth.

It’s a liquid in a glass bottle with a glass dropper. Put a few drops on a soft wet toothbrush (never use a hard toothbrush) or drop it right into your mouth. It is quite nice! Very foamy, it’s light. There are a lot of flavors – I got cinnamon. Yes it does have a very slight soapy taste – but if I don’t get it on the back of my tongue, I don’t taste the soapy taste. I used to always brush my tongue after my teeth – don’t do that now so as not to get the soapy taste on the back taste buds – I use a tongue scraper now. Also, on the website it says a bottle lasts a person 4-6 weeks – I’ll keep you updated on that, I think it will last longer – it only takes a few drops at a time.

(UPDATE: It’s now Nov. 10, I am just now using the last of my bottle. I have no idea why they say the bottle lasts a month – mine lasted 5 months and I brush at least twice a day and use about 1/2″ or less of the dropper of Tooth Soap. Perhaps they mean one bottle per family. )

Since Dr. Judd recommended pure and natural soap – I thought I’d give it a try since I make my own pure and natural soap (click to see the book I talk about at the bottom of that post if you want an easy how-to on soap making). So I rubbed a wet toothbrush across a bar of my homemade soap and brushed my teeth. Never thought I’d be doing that. It was not bad! It was light and foamy and wasn’t very soapy tasting (again keeping if off of the back of my tongue). I will definitely use this when I travel instead of bringing the glass bottle.

1. Try ToothSoap or try a bar of natural soap.

2. Use only soft bristle tooth brushes.

3. Eat more greens and other alkaline plant based foods to remineralize your teeth.

4. Rinse your mouth out after eating acid foods (like meat, potatoes, grains) if you can’t brush right away.

PS: I didn’t really throw out my old toothpaste – I put it under my kitchen sink to use as a sink/chrome cleaner as well as a silver and jewelry polish. Works great on silver chains with a toothbrush!

Take advantage of the beautiful weather and take your family on a picnic or hike in the woods. Right now in my neck of the woods I can find Common Elderberry with both the flower and fruit! The fruit is early, I’ll see them more abundant in May.

Interestingly, the Elderberry is a member of the honeysuckle family. You will find it along creeks and rivers. Mostly damp areas. They get pretty big – about 13 feet tall. The tiny white flowers and the dark purple tiny berries are both edible. Right now is a great time for them – I can pluck the flowers and make a nice tea and have a handful of berries with my tea!  The berries have potassium, calcium, beta carotene and vitamin C. Yes, having a snack from the Elderberry bush is a healthy thing.

Some sources say that too much of the berry raw is not a good thing but that the taste improves with drying. I’ve never eaten a huge amount in one sitting – they aren’t that sweet. But I do like to dry them in my dehydrator and add them to trailmix and granola. For the cooked fooders out there, throw a handful of the berries in your pancake batter or bake them in muffins.

From the book “Identifying & Havesting Edible and Medicinal Plants” (see below) they offer that an infusion of the flowers (steep them like making tea)cleanses the skin and sooths sunburns and because of the bioflavinoid content, it strengthens the capillaires. You can even steep the flowers in oil to make a soothing massage lotion that soothes burns and rashes. There is a multitude of uses for this flower. There are usually several bushes together, but if there aren’t, always leave some flowers or they won’t make berries and the birds will be disappointed. The lacey clusters are beautiful close up – the flower being less than a quarter inch wide.

TEA: Gather elder flowers when in full bloom. You may use them fresh or spread them out on some cloth or screen and let them air dry. When they are completely dry store them in a jar and use like you would any dried tea. 4 tablespoons dried elderflower to 1 quart water. Good hot or iced!

The common Elderberry DOES NOT have thorns. If you find one with thorns or reddish fruit – don’t eat them, they aren’t poisonous but they may make you sick.

Get out there and try to find some. Learning about wild edibles comes from finding one plant at a time and using it some how. Keep track of it throughout the year to learn what the plant looks like during the different seasons. Before you know it, you begin to build a knowledge base of what is out in your part of your world and you become more connected to the earth. And if you ever get lost in the woods…well, you’ll be the one that is perfectly fine and healthy.

(drawing above is charcoal and color pencil, 15×23 - Mockingbird on Elderberry by me)

Here are some common elderberries that a bird has been eating on the left. And on the right is a nice full head of green-soon to be ripe berries.

Today I took my favorite collapsible bucket to the park for my walk. It was a beautiful day and the woods were full of wild onions. The plantain was particularly beautiful as well, so I picked a bunch of that as well. I’ll be using the plantain in my green smoothies this week. (All parts of Plantain can be  used and is often used medicinally. Rub/crush the leaves and put them on insect bites for itch relief and healing.) The wild onion I gathered for my Spring Fling Corn Chowder recipe I made this evening.

EDIBLE WEEDS are a great source of extra nutrition. The more you learn about edible wild plants, the more you will be dumbfounded by why so much money is spent on putting poisons in the yards to be rid of the “pesky plants.”

DO YOU KNOW WHY WEEDS are so hard to get rid of in your yard? Most have really long roots! The roots pass up the upper depleted soil and reach way down to where the soil is still packed full of nutrients. And this is why the edible varieties are super nutritious and we shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to add edible wild plants to our daily raw and live food diets. Dr. Ann Wigmore always added common Plantain and Lambs Quarters to her famous “Energy Soup.”

I don’t know when I first became interested in learning all about “wild edibles.” It must have been since I was a kid spending weekends in the mountains in Colorado. We always sought out the wild raspberries and I remember thinking how cool it was that I could help myself to food fresh from the woods.

I feel fortunate that I grew up with parents that always planted a vegetable garden by our home. This trained my palate early on to the awesome flavors of “ripened on the vine” food.

Fresh ripe carrots right out of the ground, washed off with the garden hose and desperately sweet strawberries plucked ripe from the vine – there is nothing compared to that. My aunt and uncle grew beautiful concord grapes that spanned the length of the yard. The scent was amazing, I can still conjure it in my mind. Another aunt that had a huge cherry tree in her front yard. My dad made awesome cherry pies from that tree.

So I guess the gifts of the earths garden have always been a part of my life – and now I am teaching myself more in depth about wild edibles.

Plantain and wild onion

Please note:There are more edible wild plants than there are toxic ones – but please don’t try any if you aren’t absolutely sure is an edible one. And there are some that are edible but have poisonous “look-alikes.” And also, some parts of a plant may be edible, while another part is not. Read some books, take a class, research the Internet. Find out what’s in your yard and parks. Three of my favorite books are:

1. Edible Wild Plants – A North American Field Guide by Thomas Elias and Peter Dykeman. Very good, color photos, has a “seasonal” guide so you know whats in season and where.

2.The Forager’s Harvest – A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Perparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer. His website ForagersHarvest.com has  articles and resources.

3. Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and not so wild) Places by Wildman Steve Brill with Evelyn Dean. Larger format book with illustrations. I usually don’t care for foraging books to be illustrated – photos do a better job for identification. But this one is pretty good and very descriptive. This book even includes recipes!

Ultimate Raw Granola

A great snack or breakfast cereal

Instructions in order of length of time needed to prepare:

2-3 cups hulled buckwheat groates
Put in gallon jar with a net or gauze or nut milk bag, rubber banded over mouth. Rinse and rinse and rinse. Buckwheat is a little starchy. Let soak for 1 hour then drain. Let sprout for 1 – 2 days, rinsing 3 times a day, until sprout is almost as long as the buckwheat.
Rinse and drain. (You can also then spread grotes on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate. Use for a trail mix base or with nut milk and fruit for a nice cereal. Ummm, crunchy!)

NOTE: All dehydrating done here is at 115 degrees or less.

1-2 pounds strawberries, sliced and dried
½ pound blueberries, dried
1 cup goji berries, soaked and drained
1 cup raisins, soaked and drained
2 cups sunflower seeds
1 cup pumpkin seed
1-3 cups chopped nuts, (pecan, hazelnut, almond, cashew, pistachio…whatever favorite nuts you like)
1 cup chopped dates (I toss them in powdered coconut or cinnamon to keep them from sticking together before I mix them in)
juice of 1 orange

Mix all together with 1 cup raw honey, ¼ – half cup tahini, optional cinnamon to taste, orange zest and coconut is a nice addition as well.
Let rest for 15-30 minutes and pour out and pat down with your hands, on dehydrator trays.

Dry at least 3 hours @ 115 degrees or until you are able to flip granola over. (Place another tray/sheet on top of tray of granola and flip over, peeling off dehydrator mesh sheet.) Dry at least 3 more hours. It will crisp up after cooling. After cooling completely, store in gallon glass jars or Zip Lock baggies.  Serve in bowl with sliced peaches or blueberries and almond milk! It only takes about a half a cup and it totally fills you up – very satisfying!

This looks like a bunch of trouble – but don’t try to do it all at once. Get your groates sprouting. Later dry some fruit, or purchase already dried fruit when you are ready to mix it all together. This makes a lot and you don’t need a huge bowl to satisfy you. It’s packed with nutrients and WAY better for your kids than a box of sugary stuff that has no real nutrition – and this is live, vibrant food!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of my Burger Museum. One year ago I purchased a cheeseburger and fries from McDonalds…and put it in this jar.

The burger and fries are a year old. They don’t look much different from the day I brought it home. Do you really think this kind of food will give your body fuel to grow, energy to live, nutrition to heal? If you want to live a vibrant healthy life – eat vibrant healthy food.

I got the idea from watching Morgan Spurlocks movie “Super Size Me”

For 30 days he ate a diet of only McDonald’s – three meals a day. He had to try everything on the menu and also “supersize” it if they offered. Part of his objective was to prove why many Americans suffer from obesity. He went to doctors before, during and after and it was pretty scary what happened to his poor body.

The movie is available for rent – check it out – funny, informative, thought provoking and scary. And don’t miss the bonus material! That’s where I saw his burger museum experiment. He also talks with Eric Schlosser, journalist/author of “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal.”  Highly recommened. The first part about the history of how food used to be prepared at home and the transition of buying it outside of the home was enlightening.

Visit the Bionic Burger site for a video on a burger museum. After reading Fast Food Nation you won’t want to ever set foot in a fast food joint again, but if you do – only go so you can start your own Burger Museum. A display like this sitting on top of your refrigerator is a blatent reminder of what not to put in your body.

Peace,

Jules