According to meteorologist Tom Skilling, the seasonal change occurs on the first of the month that the calendar lists it as.  On the calendar, summer is designated on the summer solstice (the longest day), winter is marked on the winter solstice (the longest night), and fall and spring are marked on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes (the days that sunlight equals nighttime).  But the real change in the season occurs several weeks earlier.  So summer is here and I'm sticking with that story!

A little over a month ago, I attended the YMCA Healthy Kids Fair at the Fry Family YMCA in Naperville, IL.  What a great bunch of people I met!  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I sampled a "super secret ingredient chocolate mousse" for all to taste and it was interesting to see everyone's reaction, especially the kids.  Their tastes varied widely.  Some tasted the avocado, some thought it was not very sweet and a few thought it was too sweet.  I had promised them the recipe and here it is.  This is a wonderful treat for summer and a great way to use those avocados. 

Super Secret Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

3 avocados
1/2 - 3/4 cup raw cacao (or cocoa)
1/2 - 1 cup maple syrup (or honey)

In a blender, add all ingredients.  Process until smooth.  Add sweetener to taste.  Easy!  

When I made it for the fair, I didn't have a blender at the time, so I mashed it a bit with a whip and then whipped the chunks out of it ~ not an easy feat.  The blender is the better option.  But you can see, you don't need fancy equipment to make great food!

To help change your children's palates, I suggest adjusting the ingredients.  If the avocado taste is too strong for your child, add more cacao.  If it is not sweet enough, add more sweetener.  

As your child (or you or your spouse) adjusts to the taste, scale back on the sweetener the next time you make it.  Do it gradually.  If their diet still includes a lot of processed sugar, they may not like the decrease in sweetness.  Eliminate as much sugar in their diets as you are able.  It is tough, but they will adjust.  

Keep track of any changes you make to the recipe.  That way, the next time you make it, you'll know what you did last and if you want to adjust it.  I always suggest keeping a kitchen notebook in the kitchen to write down recipes, adjustments, spontaneous creations, etc.  When **_Real Food Kitchen Transition_** comes out, in there I suggest making a designated kitchen notebook or binder. This helps greatly with kitchen management.  

What are your favorite summer recipes?  What would you like to see here this summer ~ Recipes?  Summer survival?  Natural first aid remedies?  Kids cooking?  Post in the comments below! 

There has been much attention in recent months in the blogosphere regarding the safety of mason jar ferments.  So I'd like to take a little time to discuss the science and art of fermentation.  I truly believe that fermentation is both an art and a science and I believe that when we get so wrapped up in the science of things that we lose the beauty of the art ~ when we get so tied up into our heads, we lose our hearts and lose the beauty of the marvelous gift that this truly is.    

I believe that as a society, we've lost the ability to trust our senses.  We rely only on what is measurable and observable, what we are able to measure and observe at this moment.  And we've lost the ability to observe with our other senses.  We've lost the ability to intuitively know what is right and what is wrong.  Now that I've said that, I'll say that I think the word intuitive is greatly overused.  Intuitive is defined as "perceiving by intuition, as a person or the mind"  and intuition is "direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process", "a fact, truth, etc., perceived in this way", "a keen and quick insight", "pure, untaught, noninferential knowledge" (from Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dicrtionary of the English Language; Deluxe Edition 2001; p. 1002)  It really is the innate ability to determine something true.  When I first started fermenting, I had no experienced family or community members to lean upon.  I had to trust the scientific knowledge I had regarding the gut, microflora and dysbiosis first.  But to take that first bite, I had to trust my real gut ~ my instinct, my intuition.  Since my professional training taught me otherwise, I had to believe that eating it would not kill me!  I had to know that this was not bad, despite all my healthcare training that "it wasn't pasteurized, it would severely harm me, possibly kill me...it wasn't controlled by man, so beware".  

So, what is fermentation?  Fermentation is a biological process which converts the sugars that are present in food into cellular energy and lactate (a metabolic byproduct).  It is a living process that makes the food "more alive".  The process is essentially simple ~ you prepare your food (slicing, spicing, etc), then you make sure it is submerged beneath the brine it has created from the water in it or under a prepared brine you have created.  When you keep the food away from the air (submerged under the brine of the vegetables), you initiate anaerobic conditions and, rather than rotting, the food ferments.  When a food ferments, it creates energy.  Vitamins are more readily available.  And beneficial bacteria, probiotic bacteria, proliferate.  These bacteria are wonderful for your gut.  As you know (or may not know if you haven't heard me talk or read further on this site), we have 10 times more bacteria in our bodies than we have cells in our bodies.  That, to me, is just amazing!  And it speaks volumes to the importance of the proper balance of bacteria in our outer world and our inner world that create such a delicate, yet resilient, balance.  

Back to food fermentation.  There are many real foodies who have come to believe that we can only ferment in completely controlled conditions by using specialized jars which will allow the fermenting gases to escape while completely preventing contact from the outside air.  One of the arguments is that in the past traditional cultures that fermented would bury their vats of fermented food and the vats were left there until use.  Therefore,  they were completely removed from air contact.  My problem with this is that not every culture buried their vats.  The Koreans did with their kimchi, but what about the Czechs and other eastern European countries that used vats with weighted plates to keep the ferment submerged under the brine?  I remember stories of my stoic, dutiful Czechoslovakian grandfather and his brother sneaking into the root cellar, grabbing handfuls of sauerkraut in the winter and getting a dishtowel snapped at them by my great grandmother.  So the tales of the buried, perfectly anaerobic vats of ferments in years past are a bit washed away in the reality of life......kids sneaking in with dirty hands opening the containers and sampling, forgetting to reweight the ferment after using it (didn't have a story for this one, but I can't be the first in history to have forgotten to put the lid on something!).  And for those buried in the ground, what would happen if animals broke them open?  Would the family discard the rest of the food, maybe the only food they had left, and not eat it?  Or would they scrape the top off and rebury it somewhere else?  Could that last scenario happen?  I don't know, but I am sure there are many other cases of "real life" that we can't fathom or imagine unless we are able to experience similar life circumstances.  It is hard to imagine what it would be like for your supply of food (your ONLY supply of food in many areas, other than what they were able to hunt) to vanish when we can just go to the store and buy some more.  Our biggest issue today is that we pay more money for food that is grown out of our season and shipped to us.  

So, my final thoughts?  Well, if you have a serious health issue and the nature of your dysbiosis (imbalance of beneficial and bad bacteria in the gut) is severe, you many need specific cultures to be included or excluded in your ferments.  If this is the case, then you should ferment in a completely controlled environment with starter cultures specifically for your situation.  But many of us will be missing out on the wonderful gut benefits that probiotic, fermented foods have for us if we don't do it unless it is perfectly controlled by us.  

The very nature of fermentation, as I said, is both an art and a science.  This duality is present in all of life.  For me, I am an artist. a scientist, a writer, a thinker, a being, a do-er, a mom, a daughter, an aunt, a niece.  You see.....we can't separate the one from the other.  So art and science are intertwined eternally.  It was meant to be that way.  

Now, go eat your sauerkraut....

Fall is a wonderful time to begin new habit.  I will be having a class on fermented drinks and gut health in the near future.  In addition to the information on the fermented drinks, I think it is important to also talk about gut health since everything boils down to gut health.  Fermented drinks are nourishing and tasty.  They can quench our thirst as well as our craving for something more soda-like.  So they are great for kids!  Get them to ditch the soda and nourish them as they enjoy their drinks.  And with water kefir, kombucha and beet kvass, the possibilities are endless!  

So why do I talk about gut health and fermented foods?  Well, beverages and foods that are cultured are full of live bacteria and yeasts that repopulate our guts and help to create the proper balance between the bad bacteria and yeasts and the good bacteria and yeasts.  Our guts are FILLED with bacteria.  We have 3-5 pounds of bacteria in our guts.....and yes, it does belong there.  That is really amazing when you think about it.  Bacteria are smaller than cells......and there are 3-5 pounds of them.  We have more bacteria in our guts than we have cells in our bodies!  So to say that they are important to our health and wellness is an understatement.  And when you understand that the gut is the seat of our immune system, as well as our second brain, you see that gut health is of utmost importance for our wellness.  

Next week on Thursday and Saturday (same class, different days), July 12th and 14th, I will be having a fermented foods class.  It will be from 9:30am-12noon.  We will be tasting and making a few different fermented vegetables, including cabbage, carrots and daikon radish.  We will talk about how to "personalize" them with what you have on hand and with what you like to taste.  

Fermented foods are a part of many traditional cultures.  Prior to refrigeration there was really no other way to preserve food for winter use other than drying.  OK, there are other traditional methods prior to the more modern methods of canning and freezing, such as cold storage and using salt, oil, sugar, alcohol or vinegar and each has its own specific uses, but fermentation actually enhances the bioavailability of the nutrients in the food, unlike the other methods.  

A true fermented staple is cabbage.  Many different cultures have their versions of fermented cabbage, or sauerkraut.  In some parts of Germany, apples and/or juniper berries are added.  A typical eastern European way is to use caraway seeds.  In Korea, each family has their own version of kim chi.  It is a spicy combination of chiles, garlic, radish or turnip, Asian cabbage such as Napa and personal touches.  The kim chi is prepared in the fall for the entire year.  The crocks of fermented kim chi are often buried in they yard in various places to store it more easily.  In Latin America, there is a version called cortido and this is a combination of onions, carrots and cabbage.  

As was discussed in the fermented drinks class, gut health is extremely important and fermented foods are a significant part of it.  So it bears saying again....

"Beverages and foods that are cultured are full of live bacteria and yeasts that repopulate our guts and help to create the proper balance between the bad bacteria and yeasts and the good bacteria and yeasts.  Our guts are FILLED with bacteria.  We have 3-5 pounds of bacteria in our guts.....and yes, it does belong there.  That is really amazing when you think about it.  Bacteria are smaller than cells......and there are 3-5 pounds of them.  We have more bacteria in our guts than we have cells in our bodies!  So to say that they are important to our health and wellness is an understatement.  And when you understand that the gut is the seat of our immune system, as well as our second brain, you see that gut health is of utmost importance for our wellness." ~ NKS  

So I hope to see some of you at the next class.  I am in the process of putting together a calendar for the year so if you miss a class, you will be able to attend another one.  For those of you at a distance, my goal is to put together a video series so that you, too, can benefit from demonstration.  I hope to see you soon!  Be well!

Welcome here!  This is a place where you can get inspired and empowered to create and eat REAL food.  And a place where you can make your own decisions on what works for you.  I feel very strongly that everyone should get the facts, ALL the facts.  Then you can make your own decisions based on what resonates for you ~ balanced, individualized decisions based on what is important to you, what makes sense to you, and what you are able or willing to do.  

I'll start the discussion by talking about what food is and what it isn't.  Food is something that you put into your body that nourishes you.  It gives you energy.  It builds strong cells, tissues and organs.  It provides your body with the tools to effectively communicate within itself.  It is really amazing.  

Unfortunately, we have come to see food products as real food.  Food products are things that we can eat, but don't really nourish us.  Sure, they provide the building blocks for our bodies, but they are not the building blocks we need.  It is like using improperly made bricks to build a house.  Sure you'll get the house up, but when is it going to start to deteriorate?  That depends on where the bad bricks are, how many bad bricks there are, how the builder put them up and what kind of stresses the house is exposed to over its lifetime.  Do you see the parallel?  Some people do better longer with poor food but maybe they have different resources, different stressors, a different strength when they were born, etc.  

And food products often interfere with proper communication in the body.  Our bodies need good fats and proteins to produce the hormones and neurotransmitters that we need for our cells to communicate with each other.  Cells tell each other what to do, depending on what cell it is.  Without proper fats and proteins, our cells can't communicate effectively.  And to top it off, many of the additives in foods are excitotoxins that stimulate our brains and nervous systems inappropriately and send excess and/or wrong messages.  In short, food products are messing us up.  The extent varies from individual to individual, but it affects us all.

So, food is important.  There is no question about that.  And the way we prepare it can enhance or detract from its nourishment.  It is important to prepare food with care and consideration, paying attention to proper techniques, as well as to prepare it with love ~ to be mindful and fully aware of what you are doing and how you are feeling.  Get the whole family involved in the food preparation ~ from planning, purchasing and preparing to cleaning up and putting away.  It is just you?  Then focus on each step involved and don't dismiss it because it is "only" you.  It is a great time to recenter and refocus, as an individual and as a family ~ to balance your day with nourishment.  So as we move ahead, let's focus on REAL food, exactly what we are eating and how we feel about it, and how we nourish ourselves.  Buon appetito!