The View From Here - Paradoxical Me - Teaphernalia and other Product Reviews

The view from here, back home - looking north up the beach: our cabin is on the edge of the cliff a couple miles up.

Returning home and returning to our own rhythms gave me the opportunity to reflect a little on what those rhythms say about me, and what they give to me to say. (I'm still pondering and going back and forth about how to participate in/shed light on the whole current controversy over raw/veganism.)

After getting up, doing the 5 Tibetans and drinking my MSM/vitamin C/stevia drink, and writing my morning pages, I fix my rhodiola/fo-ti/reishi tea with warming spices, and fix coffee for Phil. I fix nut milk (sesame-brazil nut this time), then make my nut milk/blueberry/flax/pea protein/superfoods smoothie, and I fix bacon, egg and pancakes for Phil. Right after breakfast our first morning back, I got straight onto making bread for Phil (I still haven't gotten into the habit of wearing a mask for doing that, and I really should).

No, I don't approve of coffee. In my body, it's a terrible havoc-maker. I don't feel altogether comfortable with Phil's love of being permanently 'buzzed' either. And no, I don't feel completely good about the nitrates in the bacon, or meat in general necessarily, or all the gluten (although I do make the pancakes with a sourdough culture I started, which I think is the best way to do that).

And so it goes, three meals a day and all the other food: this dichotomy in my life. I have these very specific - recherche, perhaps, foods that I eat and herbs that I make into teas. All my meals are green at least in part, with herbs, spices and very little-to-no sugar. I very seldom eat anything cooked or processed other than by me in the Vita-Mix. I eat no animal products (except for 1% caseinate in one product I'll blog about soon, that might even be synthetic). And I'm surrounded by gluten, dairy, meat, sugar, and I play in it all the time, because that's what the people around me eat!

Am I a hypocrite, living in this paradox? What I want to say today is that it comes down to love, for me. Phil is 30 years older than me, in rude good health, more energetic than almost anyone I know, so I don't presume to think that I can 'improve' him with all my research and nutritional knowhow. Much of the meat and fish I fix for him has been wild-harvested from sustainable/renewable places, and I make sure to use the whole of the animal, out of respect. I relate to the 'cruelty' argument, but I also cannot refute the increase in spiritual connection and even compassion toward animals that I experienced for myself during my time living with chickens and goats and using their products a few years ago, and even during my brief experimentation with eating meat and fish.

So, 'ulterior harmony' - what is the underlying harmony in this picture? Today, I think it's love. But I don't claim to have the answers on the food dilemma, although I'm interested in discussing it more, sharing my perspectives, experiences and insights.

I have to go in just a minute, but I want to share some new 'teaphernalia' for corralling all those herbs that I'm always brewing up!

I picked these up before we left Oregon. On the left, a tea-straw a-la-South American mate drinking. On the right is a copco 'lily pad infuser.' The silicon mat stops liquids from draining out when you take the infuser out of the tea, and when you set it on the cup or jar...

...you can flip it over to form a seal. Great concept, but I'm not super-thrilled with it. You obviously have to have the water all the way up to the top in order for infusion to happen. I even thought it might work for Phil's coffee (we don't have a press or coffeemaker, just make it in a quart jar) but it didn't infuse at all.

As for the tea-straw, I love it! It's so well-designed - the holes are covered by a spring, which enables you to lift up the straw and released clogged material, whilst at the same time preventing anything much from getting clogged.

I used it for the first time with some rhodiola powder and a blend of lavender, chamomile, rose hips and oat straw, so it had a mixture of powders and leaves and flowers to work with. You're not in danger of burning your mouth, because the straw is too hot to touch with your hand when the water is too hot!

And the tea was excellent in taste and texture. Aside from the difficulties washing the mug out, with our lack of running water, I like having the leaves/powders circulating loosely in the tea.

What's your favorite teaphernalia?

Now that I'm home, there's no more natural food stores and no more raw treats to try out. But I did try two more in Oregon, even though my larabar experience told me that they're too much sugar for me.

I tried a 'raw revolution' bar and an 'i am strong' mini 100 calorie bar. The pictured piece is half the bar - 50 calories - it really isn't a lot of volume with those little treats!

I was tickled to see that the 'I am strong' bar was made by the 'Everything Raw' folks: I met their founder when I was cheffing in Costa Rica - he was a kitchen angel, I got to boss him around! And then I met him again when I lived in Hawaii! I loved that the first ingredient was walnuts - best omega 3-6 ratio nut, second highest in antioxidants after pecans. I didn't love that the second ingredient was agave, but I understand why. I love that it had merlin's roots elixir in it - that's quite germane to my superfoods energy bars, although of course mine are no-sugar. It tastes good, roots-y, earthy, not too sweet despite the agave.

The 'raw revolution' bar was better for me than the larabars, in terms of how my body felt with it, even though it has both agave and dates in it. Maybe the addition of flax is a good help. Delicious and good texture too.

I'm chelating, hopefully for the last time, and have to go steam.

Much love to all - and please tell me what you want to hear about!