This recipe has developed over the years from Sally Fallon’s recipe for raisin chutney in her wonderful cookbook Nourishing Traditions.

• 3 c organic raisins
• 1 t red chili flakes
• 1/2 head garlic, crushed
• 2 T coriander seeds
• 1 T cumin seeds
• 4-5 cloves
• 1 T fenugreek seeds
• 2-3 cardamom pods (remove shell)
• 1 T black mustard seeds
• 1 T black peppercorns
• 1 t ground turmeric
• 2 inches ginger, grated
• 2 t Himalayan salt (sea salt)
• 1/4 c whey
• 1/2 c non-chlorinated water

Method: Soak raisins in warm water for at least an hour. Peel and pound ginger and garlic in a mortar and pestle. Place the whole spices in a pan and dry roast until the aroma rises from the pan. Process until well ground.

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Bentonite clay has been a real life-saver for me. I am blown away by the powerful detoxing abilities of this clay. I don’t remember where, why or when it was that I first started using bentonite, but I do remember the first place I ever heard of anyone eating any kind of earth was when I read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marques. I remember being quite shocked by the idea at the time, but I think it did make me more willing to try bentonite clay originally .

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Many people have been asking me how the GAPS Diet has been working out for us, and I am finally getting a chance to post about it. We started this diet because we have had serious re-occurring health problems ever since living in a moldy apartment in New Zealand. Our problems seemed to just get worse instead of better. I seemed to have developed leaky gut syndrome and was getting intolerant of more and more foods. We had been on no-carb diets, and various other health regimes which worked for a while but were unsustainable for long periods.

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As we all know the supplement industry is run by greed and money almost to the same degree as the pharmaceutical industry (if that’s possible). I personally believe that we can get everything we need from our food, but at times we may not be able to afford to buy all organic or from farmers markets, we may not have the strength of will to break all our addictions to coffee, sugar, processed foods, chocolate, alcohol or whatever it may be. We may be working overtime trying to make ends meet and pay the bills and not have time to learn how to make bone stock, yogurt, kombucha, sauerkraut and everything else. So I do appreciate that at times it is necessary to use supplements. But be warned if you do so there is a whole lot of products out there that won’t do what they say, and are packaged brightly to tempt you to throw your money at them. I spent time working for a multi-level marketing company (EQUINOX) that sold herb and supplements for a very high price–I ended up totally bankrupt from that venture–this may be part of why I have nearly as much resistance to the supplement industry as I do to the pharmaceutical industry. I much prefer, as do most of us, to use herbal teas, cod liver oil, berries, sauerkraut and yogurt than popping a unknown pill.

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After reading Anna’s positive experiences with the GAPs diet I ordered the book and have just finished reading it, I have tried a lot of diets over the years especially after living in a moldy apartment in Wellington, NZ which has resulted in problems with my digestive tract ever since. November last year was a month of non-stop rain here in Vancouver, BC and with the temperature change, was the perfect breeding ground for mushrooms, mold and yeasts. As a result our health problems reared their ugly heads again and showed us that we still have an overgrowth of harmful yeast in our systems. In some ways this is good because we at least know that we need to deal with it.

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Published in Healthy Options December 2009.

Recipe for Wild and Raw Blackberry, Walnut Ice-cream.

All of us know the tale of Sleeping Beauty and how long, long ago she was enchanted by a Wicked Witch into a deep slumber lasting a thousand years. How the enchantment fell on the people around her and there grew up a thick brier (bramble) around the kingdom. In 2006 I discovered a book by Stephen Harrod Buhner, The Lost Language of Plants, around that same time I also read Derrick Jensen’s amazing book, A Language Older Than Words, both of these men spoke of a different educational system, and how to study this open and multi-dimensional school of nature to learn to understand and interact with it. I had become interested in these authors because of a biodynamic agriculture course I had taken at one of New Zealand’s oldest biodynamic farms, Hohepa Farm in Hawkes Bay.

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I had a strange experience the other day. I was in the shower and suddenly got a weird metallic feeling in my belly button. It seemed to originate from my navel piercing and shot upward towards my breastbone. It felt like the sound of a fingernail on a chalkboard and sent shock waves through my cells.

I pierced my belly button the end of the summer in 1994. My friend and I had been working at a boy scout camp in Lake Arrowhead as cooks for the summer. These were some spoiled boy scouts if you ask me — they had a heated pool, we cooked them 3 meals a day 6 days a week, and on Friday they had BBQ ribs. Anyway, whatever, it was hard but fun work and we were so glad to be done for the summer that we rushed into the nearest tattoo parlor and got our belly button’s pierced. We had been warned to eat beforehand, but didn’t heed the advice so my friend passed out when she leaped from the chair right after her piercing. I took my time getting out of the chair after that and was fine – but it took a while for my belly button to heal. I was at a point where I was going to give up, when it suddenly healed up and has given me no trouble for 14 years. Part of the reason it was strange to suddenly get this nerve grating metal feeling from it.

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Refreshing recipe for Fenugreek and Fennel Salad

Fenugreek: (Trigonella foenum-graecum) called methi in the Ayurvedic tradition, has been a trusted friend of mankind for a long time, perhaps even before crops were cultivated. It is widely used in Ayurvedic medicine and cooking, which dates back at least 4,000 years. The Ayurvedic philosophy of life comes down to us from the mysterious but sophisticated culture that flourished in the Indus valley and worshiped the Mother goddess. Fenugreek is especially renowned, in this tradition, as a warming digestive herb and galatagog.

An interesting property of fenugreek is it’s affinity for certain wild yeasts, which are beneficial to the digestive tract as well as being useful in the fermenting process of making traditional dosas or idlis, by attracting wild yeasts to the batter. Fenugreek is a great adaptogen, and its supportive function in the intestine cleans out impacted matter in the mucous membranes while adding a protective gum of it’s own to the walls of the intestine. The mucilagins in fenugreek (galactomannans) stimulate production of fluids, which also flush allergens from the respiratory tract, making it useful for treating bronchitis and congestion. It also reduces fevers and relieves inflammation. These gentle properties of both the seed, sprouts and the greens of fenugreek, are vital for modern urban dwellers. In fact, according to the Ayurvedic tradition, these properties also help with arthritis by cleaning out toxins accumulating in the fluids around the joints.

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Published in Far West Almanac.

Mutual assistance enriches even the poor

Chinese Proverb

A couple years ago I finally had a chance to start making kombucha. My sister had gotten a hold of a kombucha mother/starter (known as a SCOBY – Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) while doing a house call, (she’s a nurse). Kombucha is a fermented tea created by a mysterious symbiotic colony of yeasts and bacteria. It looks and feels like a rubbery pancake, and floats on the top of strong black tea and sugar for 7-10 days. The resulting liquid is similar to fizzy iced tea and is very good for cleaning out toxins, supporting the liver and digestive system.

After making a couple batches I didn’t know what to do with all my SCOBY’s (a new baby is born every batch) so I posted my email onto the site www.kombu.de offering the babies to whoever wanted. To my surprise a steady stream of all kinds of people arrived at my door, each with their own kombucha experiences. The most recent being a South African lady who started drinking kombucha while living in Malaysia, she had gotten her SCOBY from someone in Kuala Lumpur via www.kombu.de.

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You help me and I’ll help you.

Like Sesame Street…co-operation.

When our digestive system is operating under the right conditions a symbiotic shield is created of friendly, helpful micro-organisms and our mucous membrane.

Within our digestive tract these yeasts and bacteria create a diverse garden boundary. At the same time, they produce multitudes of B vitamins which are so important for smooth connections throughout our nervous system.

In this manner these micro-organisms help to calm us and allow us to thrive on stress and challenge with confidence and creativity. They also help with absorption of essential minerals.

If your intestinal wall is covered with candida (or other parasitic yeasts) that are being fed a diet that encourages them to grow out of control, you will have difficulty functioning.

These pathogens flourish on refined sugars and carbohydrates, growing to form an impenetrable wall in your intestines.

As a result your ability to absorb minerals and vitamins through the intestinal wall will progressively fail.

If these yeasts are allowed to continue to grow they can destroy the intestinal epithelial cells, allowing minuscule undigested food particles to slip through into the blood-stream. This can often cause food intolerances and allergies…

Therefore it is a good idea to consume food and drinks that have lots of helpful micro-organisms in it like kombucha, yogurt, keffir and kimchi.

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