Although my partner and I are not sure what the exact date of our anniversary is, I recently decided to take a page from my own book and start to create a ritual of celebration for our partnership around a date. We marked one down on the calendar about a month ago and today is the day.

August 26th at least is a date I should be able to remember as it used to be my sister’s birthday. Another interesting comparison–seeing as she was given that date as her birth-date because no one really knew the exact date she was born either. Putting that all aside, it is amazing to stop and think that we have been together for 6 years!

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We began the GAPS diet (or enhanced Specific Carbohydrate Diet) in February, so we have now been on it for more than six months. The difference is remarkable. I have sent in for another hair analysis so I can compare the result with the test I did last November. All of our conditions have not completely disappeared. We have had to do a fair amount of travelling earlier this year and it has been difficult to maintain full control over everything that goes into our mouth on those occasions, but on the whole we have done very well.

The hardest thing about this diet is that it makes it very difficult to socialize. We can’t really go out to eat, go over to peoples houses to eat or even out for a couple drinks. We have started to drink Bloody Mary’s on occasion, as they seem to be relatively harmless. Beer or wine or anything sweetened just does us in. Going out to restaurants is a real pain too as you can never really be sure what is in a dressing or soup or whatnot unless you really know the place you are eating at is dedicated to real food. It was surprisingly easy in LA to go out to eat, and I think the gluten-free fad has really taken off all of a sudden, so I think it will get easier as well, perhaps grain-free will catch on by default!

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Almost every summer, when I was a kid, I spent on the farm where my Grandmother was born, some kilometers outside Warsaw, Poland.

Coming from Long Island New York, it was like stepping back in a time machine. If you wanted to make a call you had to phone a central switchboard and they would connect you. Primitive, right? Endless fields of wheat, a swimming hole, barefoot kids, chickens in and out of the kitchen, homemade everything AND raw milk.

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Read the Wilderness Committee article about developing more sustainable waste management systems in Vancouver: Environmentalists Urge Minister Penner to Reject Incineration Due to Toxic Ash in Burns Bog Landfill.

About a month ago I sent in a message to Metro Vancouver after reading about the garbage issue on www.wildernesscommittee.org (great group working for the environment in BC). I just got an email with an update on the situation from Councillor Andrea Reimer and am posting it here in hopes that more folks will become aware of the situation.

Anyway here is the update from Andrea Reimer:

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We never seem to have much time for entertainment these days, but since coming to Vancouver, BC we have become fans of a local troupe of radical actors. The last play we saw was Death of a Clown by Sebastien Archibald. This was actually our first time at Queen Elizabeth park which was a treat in and of itself. We climbed through the park to the top of the large hill, through lovely gardens and past a Cambodian picnic with traditional music and dancing to boot. The view over Vancouver is fantastic, what a perfect spot for this modern version of Robin Hood, also written by Sebastien Archibald.

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Limited Time! Twitter Contest! WIN a Free SCOBY Brew Now Kit (provided by LA’s Kombucha Mamma and valued at $35- see it here).  All you have to do is follow @helladelicious & @kombuchakamp on twitter by Sunday, August 15th, then Tweet this message: “Win a Brew Now Kombucha Kit from Kombucha Kamp, RT & follow @helladelicious & @kombuchakamp by 8/15″.  Good Luck!

Visit Kombucha Kamp’s Contest Page Here

A special thanks to Hannah Crum who is LA’s Kombucha Mamma, and the author of KombuchaKamp.com for this article giving us the low-down about what has been going on in the US with the kombucha recall. She also conducts workshops about Kombucha year round, for anyone who wants to take control of their own kombucha!

As long as humans have roamed the earth, they have turned to Mother Nature to improve their health. Kombucha is an ancient folk remedy that is enjoying a huge resurgence in popularity. Purportedly discovered during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC) in China, 21st century peeps are reclaiming this sweet and sour tonic to aid in the digestion of our over-processed diet and to boost immunity in our increasingly toxic world.

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Long, long ago I had a dream to have a magazine with all my friends and family contributing and sharing their experiences as third culture kids (or not) so that others going through the same sorts of things will have something to relate to. Over the past nine months Hella Delicious has evolved to encompass many more facets of the DIY real-food-lovin’ culture, demonstrating that something much better than what we are generally led to imagine, already has an extensive network of roots and is now shooting up all over our world. In fact, it is well on it’s way to blossoming and bearing fruit.

Hella Delicious has been getting more authors and people who would like to contribute so we have a new design in the works, which we hope to have coming on-line in August. We had a lot of travels and whatnot at the beginning of the year, which has helped to clarify the idea of where Hella Delicious is going, having a chance to hang out with some old friends and family helped with hashing certain aspects out. Other good news is that Hella Delicious was recently ranked 36th in America’s top local food websites for 2010! We are pretty pleased.

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This article was recently pointed out to me by a friend who knows of my distaste for the Gates Foundation and all of the “good work” they are doing. I once looked through a long list of all the projects they were funding in ‘developing’ countries and was quite disturbed. One example of something they funded which I think is entirely redundant was mosquito nets drenched in mosquito repellent. I feel very concerned for the kids sleeping in these pesticide tents every night. In some ways giving out these ‘gifts’ of mosquito nets is rather like the gift of small-pox blankets given to the native Americans so many years ago. This article shows other ways in which the Gates Foundation is working with some very money hungry corporations.

You can read the full article here: Market-led Development Aid for Africa. Good For Business, Bad for Farmers. by Richard Jonasse. July 13, 2010.

The mixture of quasi-religious faith in free markets, and their conflation with democracy, perfectly encapsulates current US (World Bank, IMF, USAID …) development philosophy. USAID no longer provides aid through local governments as it did during the Cold War era. In the post-1980 neoliberal era, its primary activity has been farming out aid via contracts to private corporations.

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A powerful video. It is truly a landmark event to have the Maya finally see some glimmer of justice. Hopefully this will spread quickly to other areas where the Maya are being exploited. I believe this demonstrates how the world is changing soon we will see more and more indigenous people re-gaining their inherent rights.

Maya Land Rights Affirmed in Belize Posted by Ahni on July 10, 2010 Excerpts from the article, please see the full article here.

A celebration by the Maya of Southern Belize on June 28, 2010 in honor of the landmark judicial decision granting them full rights over their ancestral lands. The celebration includes the Cortez Dance at Indian Creek Village.

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Facbook Page for Vancouver Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Training

In 2003, I began a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy training in New Zealand. I was a chef at the time, so this was entirely new for me. Prior to starting the training I spent about 3 years researching various healing modalities to make sure I put my hard-earned money into the right one for me. I knew I wanted to do craniosacral therapy, but at the time it was hard to find anyone to teach it. I stumbled on this course when I was studying herbs and nutrition at Wellpark College in Auckland and knew right away it was what I had been looking for.

As a chef, I worked long hours and the standing combined with chopping, whipping, stirring, grilling… was taking a toll on my body. Not only that, but I smoked more than I ate, and loved a cup of coffee more than a bowl of soup. At the time I actually thought it a waste of money to buy food! (Bear in mind that I worked in kitchens so I always had access to the best food without having to buy it for at least one meal a day.) My body was falling apart. I knew I was on the wrong path and I needed to find a way to get healthy again.

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