Miracles I've Omitted To Mention--at Home and in Homer

Phil is home now, bruised from his travels, glad to be home, dismayed by some of my less-functional ways of being in his absence. And I realize that there have been some miraculous things going on all the time that I should have talked about here and haven't yet--perhaps partly in concern over what would be interesting. Trust me--this is interesting.

Miracle 1): Two ripe tomatoes in our kitchen.

We weren't even trying to grow tomatoes: as often, there were some tomato 'volunteers' mixed in with our basil seed. This one got big--

 --practically crowded out the basil! It was in a pot that didn't hold water well, in any sense of the word, so it tended to get underwatered, or be under water when it was watered! For all that, there are tomatoes. Now, a couple of our friends did grow indoor tomatoes successfully on purpose, with a lot of work, and obtained whole bowls-ful. Our scant few seem miraculous even so.

Miracle 2): All the literary events in Homer. I mentioned the 12-author reading event that I was heading for on Thursday night. Although it seemed a shame to have only one poet in twelve readers (albeit a phenomenal and marvelous poet), the depth and breadth of writing talent in this small, rough-hewn town at the end of the road is truly remarkable: among the eleven prose writers, there was diversity of tone, theme, style and color. There was also another gathering the previous Friday night, with five local authors discussing the books that had influenced them, and some lively and fascinating discussion of the same question from the audience afterwards.

Five of us poets have been gathering twice a month to critique one another's poems and to discuss a book we've previously read. Every time we gather, I feel awed by the privilege of being in a group with these ladies, astonished that they accept me in their midst.

And I attend two other writing groups in town, too. Lately, I've been roped in to help out with the organization of one of them, and it triggers an alarm bell. I've always been so willing to keep things like this going, I end up curating or assisting, to the detriment of my own creative work.

So this particular miracle comes with a lesson/challenge for me. A few different people asked me why I wasn't one of the readers on Thursday night. Of course, it's not mine to say: I wasn't the curator or organizer this time--and I take a moment to feel flattered that anyone might have thought of me. But it's also true that the organizers wanted people who are 'big names' locally, and I am not that. Still, if I want to be the type of person that gets called on for this kind of event (which is easier to contemplate than "being a big name"), then I do need to be more self-promoting (clear some time in the schedule to get those poems out into the world!) --and this might also meant that I need to be more forthright about how important my own work is. Those of us who love to help others wrestle with this anxiety (is my work really important?)--and those of us who can convince ourselves that getting our work out there is actually good for everyone are the most successful in this.

Do you think I'm equal to this challenge?

Miracle 3): Venus Potato

One of the funnest things about growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables is that you get to see all the oddball creations--the persimmons with funny 'noses,' the carrots with two legs and a phallus, the orange that is just a quarter of an orange, with skin perfectly sealing just that quarter. Or, this potato! This wasn't one of ours: Leslie, Phil's daughter's mom, grew it, but it may be the best 'oddball' I've ever seen. The 'head' part even has the impression of eyes and a mouth.

Miracle 4): Jumping rope in our cabin. It really is miraculous that I can turn a rope in this tiny space!

But I can, and I have been doing so on an almost-daily basis. The rope I bought in Anchorage was about a foot too short, so what you see is a piece of old climbing rope (light and flexible) onto which Phil put the handles from the other rope. Even with that extra foot of rope flailing around, I can do it! I can break a serious sweat right there in the middle of the cabin, in less than a minute (and I'm not a quick sweater).

It's nice to be able to try some different techniques, like running in place while spinning the rope, which were simply impossible with the shorter rope. And nowadays I can trip over the rope and then regain the rhythm rather than having to start over, which feels good. Lately, I've been jumping for 30-40 seconds, then stopping for a few deep breaths, then repeating, for about ten minutes; and then doing bodyweight exercises. Hiking and biking too, enjoying the last few days of feasible biking here.

What are some miracles you've experienced recently?

Heading to the Farm - The View From Here/Up For This Week - Communication and Preconceptions - Reflections on Self-Love: One Life

The View From Here

We love our beach hikes! I've shared before Phil's avid harvesting of seaweeds as fertilizer for our garden beds - 

- and today I picked up some dulse from the tideline, hoping to dry and eat it.

Something that makes us sad when we hike on the beach is seeing the stuff that gets dumped there. Anything that my Herculean husband can lift, we haul out…

… but this gutted-out ATM machine was just too darn heavy!

It's getting quite cold here now, and we have less than a week left before we go down to Oregon to stay on the family farm, visit Phil's mom and family, help out with harvest, firewood, etc. 

I'm worried absolutely sick.

When I first went to the farm with Phil, I'd been living on communal farms in Hawaii for several years, where the ability to see what needed doing and get on and do it was prized, and where things were generally quite rough and ready. That was the preconception from which I came, and the way that I understood things. Unfortunately, that did not equip me to hear subtly phrased comments like 'that's not how we do this here.' In my Hawaii background, that would mean 'let's have a conversation, how do you do it?' But almost everywhere else, it means that you're not doing it the way it's supposed to be done in someone else's place. So, although I was trying to listen well, I wasn't able to hear what I needed to hear.  

Have you ever been in a situation where you think you're understanding what someone says, but actually what they're implying is completely different? Or have you tried to tell someone something and been frustrated that they simply don't get it?

I've learned better over the last couple of years, but have still not gotten it right.  I am periodically eaten up with remorse, guilt, shame, grief for the offense caused by my misunderstanding, and by fear that I'll somehow make too much mess or do something wrong this next time. I feel like I can't trust myself. I also feel anxiety over my very real need to control my own food in a place where I don't have kitchen access. 

So, how does this fit in with today's reflection on self-love? Tina talks about how we have to seize the day - there's no point in wasting our life on the small things. In order to live life to the full, we have to love ourselves. She says, "if we want to live the most fulfilling and satisfied lives as possible we need to love ourselves. We can waste our lives away with worry, regret, doubt, and negativity. We can spend too much time concerned with trivial matters of what size pants we wear or what other people think of our hopes and dreams." Tina asks, "What can you focus on today so that you end your day knowing you cultivated your best life? What should you ignore that tries to rob you of joy?"

Well, wow. I think I have the answer to that question. I'm preventing myself from focusing on enjoying the gorgeous colors and objects around us, as well as the people around me, by worrying over something in the past, and something else in the future. 

I worried myself crazy over my Fairbanks trip in July and had a wonderful time. Things are often not as bad as I think they will be. I used to work so hard at the farm that I didn't have the energy to pay extra attention to people's subtle communications or clean up fast enough. This time, I can resolve to treat myself with more respect so that I'm not running myself into the ground and unable to be attentive. I can resolve to keep smiling, keep listening, keep paying attention, and be constantly respectful and sensitive. I know that I know how to do that! I can prepare as much food for myself in advance of the trip, take my little hand-blender to make smoothies in our bedroom if need be, and just relax. I can put this whole pain of anxiety aside and go into the situation determined that things will go well.

Up For This Week

I'm going to continue to make kraut and pesto, and other things to use up the last of the garden goodness. It's supposed to get close to freezing here this week, and will be pretty thoroughly frozen by the time we get back in October!

I'm going to keep on sharing the message of self-love. Yes, I've been in a funk the last few days, but I think it's still lifted me above where I might have been with it.

I'll write whatever else I can make time for in here, about gardening, adventures, words, etc.

love to all.

30 Days of Self Love - Perfectionism - and Green Smoothie

Having seen some great green smoothies around lately, I decided to share mine today, as well as today's reflections on self love.

First, a reminder of my Amazing Grass giveaway - go here to enter!

One of the last farmer's markets of the year here in Homer…

In today's reflection, Tina asks us to remember that anything that is perfect is dead: that the imperfections make things beautiful and unique, and allows us to have goals.

"In what things do you try to seek perfection? Why do you even want it? How does desiring perfection actually hurt that area of your life? What would letting go of the hope of perfection do for you?"

This is one of the most crucial thought-habits that pop up and sabotage self love - and to me at least, it's not even always clear where it comes from! I had tended to think that I wasn't really perfectionist, because I tend to be 'sparky' rather than 'meticulous,' and beyond a certain point in your progress, you can't get things perfect on 'spark' alone - you have to do some of the perspiration stuff. I certainly do not keep a tidy house! However, that's been a way to beat myself too - to hold up a goal of perfection to myself and feel despondent when I always came short. Telling yourself that everything you accomplish is no good, that nothing will ever be good enough, doesn't allow for any kind of self esteem.

I also see that perfectionism inscribes itself on our life habits. My current need to eat and sleep at very regular/set times seems like an expression of a certain kind of perfectionism - there's a lot of anxiety that comes up if anything knocks the pattern. Sure, that's mostly because of the physiological component, that my blood sugar goes whacko if I don't take care of it regularly, that I turn into a pumpkin if I don't go to bed early… But probably I should consider this spiritual imprint upon it.

So, a perfectly imperfect, messy lunch today! Almost all of it greens from the garden, and lots of them weeds - wild greens that aren't 'supposed' to be in the beds! I harvested some raspberries, and you can also see lots of chickweed, parsley, mint, chives, dandelion leaves, arugula…

Here it is proudly in the Vita-Mix, with herbal tea, fenugreek sprouts, flax seeds, a little piece of avocado…

Fenugreek sprouts - so yummy...

Of course, raspberries plus greens makes it slightly at the brownish end rather than a vivid green, but it was good! It was definitely bitter and sour, and I stirred in a tiny bit of white stevia powder. Should have blended it in - it didn't mix quite thoroughly. 

It looks so nice in my mug, I think! I love how foamy it gets in the Vita-Mix, and how I blend up some tea to wash out the pitcher and that thin, green-tinted tea, is also foamy.

Love and greenness!

My First Blog Giveaway! And the Power of Perspective

If I can get blogger to co-operate - here goes with my first ever blog giveaway!

I am so grateful to Amazing Grass for their generosity in sending me so many samples to try out - hope you saw my series of reviews for them last week. Now, we're teaming up for a giveaway! 

More on that in a moment - first, today's reflection on self love - 'How do you witness the power of perspective in your life? Do you currently face something where your perspective could make a difference?

Awe and gratitude to Tina once again for a wonderfully-crafted series of reflections, that have been such a powerful tool in my own work on becoming my best - and we are just coming to the end of our first week.

Cauliflower leaves look so huge in the perspective of chives and carrots. And the thought of the frozen months makes all this fecundity so treasured…

Perspective… We all have our true north, but even true north has its declination. I love that Tina has brought in 'perspective' as a part of this invitation to find our true north. Self love is all about finding the best expression of our own gifts, but perspective invites us to acknowledge that this expression is flexible in different contexts.

I feel that my 'true north' is my poetry writing, and that everything else I do feeds into it somehow. But, as Alaska's Writer Laureate Nancy Lord advised us in the closing speech of the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference back in June, it's good to do 'other writerly things' as well as just writing. Perspective tells me that I can't realistically expect to have wonderful poems springing forth fully formed like Athena from Zeus' head every single day, nor that the process of revision will be as delightful in every case as I often find it to be. 'Other writerly things' include reading, even reading the occasional low-brow genre novel (amazing the kinds of poetic ideas that come from excursions of those kinds), walking in nature, blogging, gardening, interacting with other writers. 

A sense of perspective also dulls the aching edge of perfectionism. Since we are all coming from different perspectives, it's foolish for me to think that everyone who reads my work is going to love it - indeed, it encourages me to stop and think about whether I even want it to appeal to everyone!

The realization that it's OK to have preferences has come very late to me, and it's a precious freedom.

Raspberries are full-on here. I put a handful, that I'd just harvested, in my smoothie this morning, with chia-sweet, a ts of flax, pea protein powder, almond-brazil milk, herbal tea (reishi and fo-ti and chai rooibos), maca and wheatgrass juice. I love how the Vita-Mix can handle all those little seeds and the wonderful, thick, smooth texture of the smoothie!

Because that is how I love to make my smoothies, I chose Amazing Grass' superfood powders to give away (as opposed to the 'made up' meal replacements and energy bars) - I think the superfood powders are just a wonderful 'ingredient' that also stand alone just mixed with water. And so, I'm giving away an 8.5 oz bottle of the 'original' green superfood powder 

and another of the chocolate flavor. 

The chocolate flavor tastes out of this world to me; the original flavor is great too (but not quite chocolate!) but it doesn't have the oat fiber that I, for one, have to treat with caution, so I think it's an even more super product.

Please enter this giveaway and take your chance to enjoy Amazing Grass' great products and generosity!

To Enter:

1 - Mandatory - leave a comment below telling me why you want to win this.

2 - Visit Amazing Grass' website and leave a comment back here telling me which products interest you the most.

3 - Tweet this giveaway with a link and reference me @Ela_HG - and leave a comment here telling me you've done so.

4 - Follow Amazing Grass on twitter and leave a comment here telling me you've done so.

5 - Mention this giveaway on your blog - and leave five entries here saying you've done so.

I'm going to run this for a week and announce the winner next Tuesday. Good luck and thanks!

Amazing Grass Energy Bar Review, Loosening Boundaries, Testing Tolerance and Always Reading the Labels!

I was sent four flavors of Amazing Grass' 'organic green superfood' bars to try, as well as four flavors of their 'amazing meal.' The latter will be reviewed tomorrow or the day after, but today I'll talk about the bars.

First, a couple comments about both of these products. The way I see it, Amazing Grass' basic product is the green superfood powder, which has a wonderful mix of greens, antioxidants, fiber and superfoods. The bar and the meal are both vehicles for this basic product. Now, as I've repeatedly said before, it usually works best for me to create my own such 'vehicles,' since commercial products usually contain too much sugar and have other issues too.

However, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to sample these, as because of that boundary and belief I have, I probably wouldn't have tried them otherwise. There's a boundary issue that's been going on for some time: I still have yeast issues. But the ND has been telling me that since we can't deal with those until the mercury chelation is done, I shouldn't be too uptight about avoiding every last bit of sugar. In particular, he wants me to eat my daily apple, berries are ok, etc. My preference is still to avoid sugar mostly, to control the yeast symptoms as much as possible, but Phil has been encouraging me to try some higher-glycemic foods to see if it'll help with my blood sugar. 

Here come these samples to review, and since the bars have dates and agave as their first and second ingredients, you'd be right to think that I'd never have gone near them if I didn't have this review to do! So, we got to try out Phil's sensible experiment suggestion. 

These bars fall into two pairs - the 'original' and 'berry' flavors, which are uncoated, and the 'chocolate' and 'chocolate-peanut butter' flavors, which have a chocolate coating. They also fall into a threesome and a singleton: the 'chocolate-peanut butter' version is different in a very important way - an illustration of why you should always, always read the label, which I'll get to in due course. They range from 210 calories (berry flavor) to 260 calories (choc-pb flavor) and all but the choc-pb flavor contain five grams of protein. The choc-pb flavor has twelve grams of protein. They all contain mid-30s grams of carbs including four or five grams of fiber, and eight or nine grams of fat.

Now for some comments about the individual bars.

The berry wholefood bar has a lovely texture, and well-nuanced flavor (it's nice that there are more 'savory' seeds like pumpkin and sunflower to cut the sweetness of the dates, agave and berries).  It's a little lower-calorie than the chocolate bar, probably because it doesn't have a coating. The berry flavor is intense and pleasant. I love that the recipe includes green foods, herbs, probiotics and enzymes. This makes the bar work better for me than anything else that high in sugar might. That said, the sugar content is too high and the protein too low for me to consume on a regular basis. It seems like everyone else knows how hard it is to make no-sugar raw energy bars! I keep working on it, but dates and syrups are such wonderful binders and preservers!

Most of the same comments go for the plain whole food bar - it's pretty neutral, without the intense berry flavor. The pumpkin and sunflower seeds dominate a little, which makes it seem less sweet than more nut-based bars.

The Chocolate energy bar: I actually tried this one first, shared it with Phil.  I haven't had dates in so long, so it was extremely sweet to me, but had a lovely gooey texture I haven't quite been able to achieve with 'chia sweet.' 

I liked that I could taste the different nuts and seeds in it, but also enjoyed the 'green' taste, which gave it a certain subtlety. This bar is fairly high in protein but is too high in sugar to be something I could eat regularly. Phil also thought it was very sweet, which surprised me. He liked it a lot but didn't love it.

I was excited to try the 'chocolate-peanut butter' flavor, especially since it has so much more protein. I had already accepted that I was going to eat more sugar than my usual comfort zone and that there was going to be some cacao consumption. But of course, I still read the label - and it turns out that the chocolate-pb bar is made with whey protein! It also contains rice crisps, so it's quite different from the other three. If you look at the photo, it clearly says 'whey protein' in large print - I like that it does that so that even if you're not an avid defensive label-reader, you shouldn't have to get an unpleasant shock.

I was really surprised by this, since so many of the other products are labeled 'vegan.' I know that whey protein is an excellent protein source for many people. It is thought to be one of the best sources of Branched-Chain Amino Acids, (in which I know I'm deficient). However, I also know that whey protein does awful things to my system. Aside from binding up my guts, which have been tending to be sluggish anyway, when I experimented with it in the past, it affected my mental and emotional functioning in a very adverse way. Interestingly, since I figured this out and quit all dairy again (it was a short-lived experiment) I have had an intense aversion to all things dairy. I can get Branched-Chain Amino Acids from Pea Protein Powder, which works much better for me. Fortunately, Phil was open to having it - he's not into smoothies or superfood powders at all, but he does like energy bars, and is a snickers fan. I had a tiny nibble just for the sake of the review - was afraid the whey taste would make it repugnant to me but actually it wasn't really detectable. The pb and the rice crisps definitely made it more attractive to a 'standard' palate, and Phil liked it a lot. It came with us on our beach hike on a warm day and got melted, though!

My bottom line on the bars: they're quite similar to 'organic food' bars, which I liked a lot before I had to avoid sugar. They're probably similar quality, although as far as I know, 'organic food bar' doesn't have a corresponding superfood powder sold as is that I could check against. I would love to be able to give these bars to my family as healthier snacks than they might otherwise go for. For myself, I love the idea of incorporating superfood powders into my own bar creations - and have blogged about doing so before - but these bars are too high in sugar for me to eat. The most I've eaten at once is a half a bar, and I found that that wasn't enough to fill me as a snack, but was right on the edge of feeling like too much sugar. I know that not everyone is like this, and both in terms of taste and of quality of ingredients, I would recommend these bars to people who can handle sugar (especially people looking for something better than trans-fat laden candy bars!)

Speaking of 'too much sugar,' how did the experiment go with trying these higher-glycemic foods? Well, sometimes it's hard to interpret,  when you are both the principal investigator and the guinea pig! Here's the current state of play, though: today, I took a day off from sampling the added-sugar items. On Sunday, I felt fantastic - I think I mentioned: the best physical and emotional-feeling day I can remember during a chelation spell. But yesterday I felt terrible. In terms of stomach upset, bound up guts, general yucky-bloated feeling and other chelation-associated malaise, I was in the dumps and even the steam sauna didn't help! On Sunday, I wondered whether more sugar had helped me to feel so good: yesterday, I wondered whether it had helped me to feel so awful. I can't quite believe that one minuscule nibble of the whey-protein-containing bar could have been responsible for binding my guts so badly, but wonder whether eating less flax because of eating these other things was a contributing factor.

I hope this doesn't sound like needless obsessing: it's really a complicated equation and it feels good to be gathering some data. 

Sweetness from the garden -

- raspberries, peas, cilantro, mint, parsley, arugula - and a poor cauliflower that got nibbled all over by slugs! We harvested hundreds of slugs the last few days and are hoping to get the population down. I'll probably kraut that cauliflower, since it's so much bitterer than all the others we've had, probably as a defense against predacious slugs! I made the herbs into pesto - parsley-arugula and cilatro-mint. Delicious!

Amazing Grass Product Reviews #1; Are You a Pessimistic Label Reader?

Are you a pessimistic label reader? I know I am - I read every label pretty much in the expectation that sooner or later, I'm going to run into something that rules the item out for me. Too much sugar, some gluten or dairy, soy, rice - almost everything has something like that. This is why, when I first came across Amazing Grass Green Superfood, I thought it was too good to be true!

Not only is it full of good quality powdered greens: it also contains antioxidants, probiotics, enzymes and  fiber! And it is sugar free, and uses stevia (several other sugar-free mixes use alternatives that I really wouldn't prefer!) The type that grabbed me was the chocolate flavor: as I mentioned the other day, mixing chocolate with tons of greens and superfoods is the best strategy. I was a little hesitant about the small amount of oat fiber in the fiber complex, but gave it a try anyway (gluten is a protein, and is unlikely to be present in the fiber). And the product is certified gluten free (which gave me more courage around the oat ingredient) and vegan, and seems to be raw too. So, this pessimistic label reader found something to try after all!


It is a little pricey, but I love it so much that I get it anyway. It featured in my no-sugar raw birthday pie, and I often add a little to my morning smoothie (except when I'm completely avoiding cacao). Sometimes mid-afternoon, I have a tablespoon of it with a little nut milk or herbal tea - it's remarkably filling and satisfying for the low calorie count. I really enjoy the complexity of the green-ness and how it balances the chocolate flavor.


So when the folks at Amazing Grass sent me a package of samples to review, I knew I had a delightful opportunity. I think it's going to take several posts to cover all the products they sent - what generosity!

There are energy bars, superfood powders of several different kinds, and meal replacement powders. I couldn't possibly have tasted them all in one go, let alone given a fair reflection of how they felt after consumption, so I'm going to do several review posts over the next few days once I have tried them. Since the green superfood powder is where it all started for me, and since I've already reviewed the 'chocolate infusion' green superfood powder above, I'll start with those powders.


I started out by trying the wheatgrass powder. It's labeled as gluten free and vegan: this is reassuring to me, since I'm very much allergic to wheat and have often been nervous about trying wheatgrass products even though I understand that gluten is a protein formed within the grain, not the grass.

This powder was a rich, dark green - much darker than my wheatgrass powder from Wilderness Family (I don't know if this is a good thing but I enjoyed the color). A little taste of the powder 'straight' showed it to be sweet and full-bodied in flavor.


I mixed it up with my little balloon whisk (works best if you put the water in the glass first).

I really enjoyed the taste and that calm-buzz feeling of having just had something very green. I have to say, this is a big serving of wheatgrass! In retrospect, I should have had it on an empty stomach: I had it as part of my mid-afternoon snack, after I'd had half of one of the energy bars (to be reviewed soon) and one of my own no-sugar cookies, and my tummy felt a little insulted by doing things in that order. Wheatgrass is so detoxifying... I think that in future, I would take this on an empty stomach, and maybe only take half the serving at once, until I got used to it.

Well, wheatgrass is the very basic, but the next most basic is their unflavored Green Superfood powder. 

I've talked before about how I generally prefer to add my own flavorings/protein powders/superfoods to something basic, rather than using someone else's formulation, but I love the mix of ingredients in this green superfood. I wanted to try the unflavored version to see how it is without the cacao (to see whether potentially I could get this kind and add my own cacao at times when I'm actually able to tolerate a bit of it). This would be a great addition to a smoothie, I thought - but this afternoon, I tried it straight up, mixed only with water. This was part of a mid-afternoon snack, but I ate my no-sugar cookie when we were hiking on the beach and drank this when we got home, a little later.

Whisked it up with my balloon whisk just like the wheatgrass - and whoops! Had drunk half of it before remembering to take a picture! Yes, it was really good. I love the addition of peppermint to the formulation. I love the slight grittiness of the texture - it disperses very well in the liquid but has enough of a texture to remind you to really 'chew your juice' - to savor every mouthful. To me, this is an important feature when you're taking in green products: mindful consumption, whole body at attention.

It tastes satisfyingly 'green' without any bitterness. I felt a clear, calm energy after consuming it, fairly satisfied without being too full to eat a few raspberries from our garden! (There are still two more flavors of green superfood powder I have to try: I'll update this post when I've tried them.)

OK - Update #1 - Lemon-Lime Energy Drink Green Superfood. With mate and green tea. Sugar free, stevia sweetened, but 85mg caffeine in the serving - I'm supposed to avoid caffeine. A point I'll probably make a couple of times during these reviews: aside from the superfood powders, there are ingredients in some of these samples that I ordinarily have to avoid (caffeine, sugars, rice). I am exercising caution and sampling them anyway, so that I can give a good reflection of each product. However, products, like the bars and meal replacements, that contain extra sugar, will inevitably taste very sweet to me. I also have a high tolerance for gritty textures (because, as I mentioned above, I generally think they enhance your appreciation). So please bear in mind that my reviews are inevitably going to be somewhat subjective and idiosyncratic.

I love green tea but it's hell on my adrenals at the moment, and whilst I like the taste of mate, I really don't do well with it. I know that this is not the standard story, so please understand the idiosyncrasies of this tester! I tried this mid-morning, and just used half the package with a small amount of water. Straight up, the powder has a pleasantly 'green,' citrus-enhanced taste. Mixed with water, I found that it didn't disperse quite as well as the 'original' green superfood powder. The mate flavor was intense to me, as were the citrus notes - a good combination, I think. I was surprised that it didn't seem to mix as well, considering that I only had half the amount of powder - but it could have been that I didn't whisk it as well! Just this small amount definitely put me on the 'adrenal edge,' like drinking green tea or eating a lot of cacao, but I suspect that for a person without adrenal problems this would be a great, and great-tasting energy boost!

Just one more flavor of superfood powder to try - berry - and then this post will be complete!

And for my final update: Green superfood drink powder - berry flavor. Again, I simply mixed this with water. I'm sure it would be great in nut milk or smoothies too. I noticed that they say 'natural flavors' in the ingredients, without divulging what these ingredients that produce the berry flavor are. In addition to the acai that all the flavors have, this one also has goji berries in the antioxidant blend. 

Just like the 'natural' and 'chocolate' flavors, I liked both the taste and the texture of this - I enjoyed how well it dispersed and yet how it retains enough of a texture to remind you that 'this juice is food.'

Another thing I noticed was that only the chocolate flavored superfood powder contains oat fiber in the fiber blend. The rest of them contain just flax and apple pectin. For me personally, this is yet another signal that I should get the 'original' flavor and add my own cacao when I'm actually better able to tolerate it (or use the flavor essence!), since the cacao flavor alone has that one ingredient that is questionable for my system. I do think that this is a wonderful superfood powder.

Speaking of our garden, we're still harvesting herbs, beets, lettuce, chicory, cauliflower, broccoli, those weird carrots, kale, chard, peas, raspberries. We've been making delicious mint tea with fresh leaves from the garden. I froze some raspberries today and am going to make raspberry jam for Phil this evening. I've been eating massaged chard/kale salads lunch and dinner the last couple days. 

And we're taking advantage of the fall tides to fertilize our gardens in preparation for over-wintering and for next year! Phil loves any excuse to do some more strenuous, heavy work, so our beach hikes have been featuring the truck and a pitchfork, he loads up with kelp (sometimes has me drive alongside the tideline very slowly as he loads) and has been putting it on the garden beds back home!

It was a beautiful day here again! Happy Sunday...

Internet At Home!! - The View From Here/Up For This Week

The View From Here

First blog post with internet at home! But it's almost 4pm and it has literally taken half the day getting it to happen. Why is it that technology is so prone to glitches of the kind that you wouldn't expect in situations that are even less - well - technical?! We were supposed to have been sent a modem by Friday - it never arrived. Today, I walked (30 minutes) down to the phone company's store, waited there 30 minutes, and was given a modem which turned out not to work at all, no lights! 30 minutes on the phone, and the best they could tell me was go back and exchange it. I'd already had more exercise than my still-extremely-tired body wanted. I took the bike, coasted down, rode back super-slow. Another 30 minutes on hold to get tech help because configuration wasn't happening straightforwardly, and then we got cut off and I had to start over! 

It's almost a caricature of a technology story. You don't expect to be given a faulty piece of equipment in any other scenario, but here I am, not even surprised! I'm glad to have managed to stay fairly equable about it - might have been easy to end up feeling very frustrated. 

Another bright side to look on - it was beautifully sunny all morning and until mid-afternoon, which was when I was going back and forth chasing a functional modem, and by the time I was stuck holding on the phone (and working on my translation), the forecast clouds had come over everything and it was gloomy and preparing rain!

Now that I have internet at home, it should clarify some things and make other things happen faster. Hopefully it'll make it easier to get organized. 

Up For This Week

I will do a wordstalk this week and will also try to think more about what this blog is 'for.' I really want it to be interesting to people. I have tended to write about our life, writing/literature, food, gardening, words. If anyone would care to tell me what they'd like to see more of, I'd greatly appreciate it.

This week we have friends from Oregon - an old friend of Phil's and his 18-year-old son and a friend of his son's. They are the kind of kids who will go for a 100 mile bike-ride just for fun, and so it's likely that I won't be going along for many of the adventures - I've stayed home yesterday and today so far - (and participated by fixing great food, of course) - I just wouldn't be able to keep up. It's great for Phil, though - he gets to 'go like crazy' and show all the beautiful places he loves to hang out in to people who've never been up here before. Glad they had some sun today - yesterday they were hiking in deadfalls and devil's club while it rained incessantly!

Even without accumulated exhaustion to catch up on and plenty of translating work, I could work all day in the garden and not catch up! It is so lush and beautiful. I'll show off just a little bit here:

Cauliflower leaves I made into kraut, and frilly chicory:

Here they are in the bed, with carrots and maca in the background. I planted so much bitter chicory and radicchio - not to mention arugula - and I'm the only one that likes it!

Chard is falling everywhere and spinach is bolting

Beautiful pea flowers - pea pods too - cilantro bolting in back, a beautiful kale in the middle

A bed almost entirely of lettuces...

And a patch of beets direct-sown in the ground (not in a raised bed)  -

Some beets fresh-harvested

And rainbow carrots - remember those carrots that we salvaged way too early to plant them, that were lifting their leaves in prayer to be put in the ground while it blizzarded outside in March? Here they are, a little woody but beautiful -

And some turnips! The slugs made a mess of the leaves, which is a shame, as turnip greens are even more nutritious than kale/collards (harder to eat, though).

much love.