Today I found a Spanish Lavender volunteer tucked alongside a very mature Rosemary shrub. What a great find! I also found a Japanese maple innocently growing in a neglected garden pot on a deck I keep meaning to spruce up. It is a deck without a water source but alas, this beauty is growing strong amongst the 4 other pots filled with verifiable weeds.

Plants spread by all kinds of means; by underground runners, by division, by layering and by spreading their seed. Volunteers spread via seed venture off on their own away from the parent plant to chart their own course in another site in your garden. So when I found both of those volunteers they were close to the parent but far enough away to consider them special to have survived.

So what do you do with these volunteers? How do you put them to good work? Why did they come to you? Some volunteers will need to be relocated to a more suitable location, others can stay where they have landed, and others need to be slated to be given to a lucky recipient!

Because I can do quite a bit of financial damage when visiting our local nurseries, I look at these plants as little gifts from the universe. Finding them is also good for stress relief! Watching out for them is worth the cautious observant pace I encourage you to set because it is a reminder to slow down and really appreciate all of the abundance that is so freely given. My volunteer friends are always welcome in my garden.

Eat

I get a kick out of eating asparagus right out of the garden but Elizabeth and I agree, they are simply delicious when simply cooked . A few favorite ways to enhance the goodness are lightly steamed, pan sautéed, or oven roasted – butter and lemon always welcome.  Many recipes suggest boiling them but I suspect that cooking method is the reason some people never want to try them again. It brings up an image of a soggy, stringy mush of a vegetable.

Store

Whether you shop for the spears in the store, at the local farmer’s market or if you are lucky enough to grow them in your garden, keeping them crisp is key. Cut off the ends of the stem and wrap them in a cotton produce bag slightly moistened placed in the crisper section of your fridge. If they are especially schlumped over, place them vertically in a jar of water. This will perk them right up.

Grow

You can have asparagus all to yourselves if you want to grow them at home. Spring is the time to plant a row of asparagus crowns averaging about 10 plants per person. I am always amazed at the speedy growth of the spears as they shoot up in the garden. Asparagus are known to grow a valiant 7 inches a day while left unattended can peak at 15’ high! For best flavor, harvest the young spears when 6” tall, the tips tightly closed.

Enjoy the bounty!! Enjoy the spring!!

Spring is here and so are the asparagus shoots. In our modern day quest to eat locally grown foods in season,  asparagus is the vegetable to start with. The growing season is short, lasting 4-6 weeks, so indulge in theses robust delicacies while they are at their peak.

That said, I encourage you to take every opportunity to eat this delicious and highly nutritive vegetable.  Asparagus are loaded with a bevy of vitamins like beta-carotene, vitamin C, as well as folate and fiber. They also contain the minerals, zinc and potassium, a diuretic that helps flush toxins from the body. Asparagus also has the naturally occurring anti-oxidant glutathione touted for lowering the risk for both cancer and heart disease.

Eat

I get a kick out of eating asparagus right out of the garden but I think they are also simply delicious when cooked simply. A few favorite ways to enhance the goodness are lightly steamed, pan sautéed, or oven roasted – butter and lemon always welcome.  Many recipes suggest boiling them but I suspect that cooking method is the reason some people never want to try them again. It brings up an image of a soggy, stringy mush of a vegetable.

Store

Whether you shop for the spears in the store, at the local farmer’s market or if you are lucky enough to grow them in your garden, keeping them crisp is key. Cut off the ends of the stem and wrap them in a cotton produce bag slightly moistened placed in the crisper section of your fridge. If they are especially schlumped over, place them vertically in a jar of water. This will perk them right up.

Grow

You can have asparagus all to yourselves if you want to grow them at home. Spring is the time to plant a row of asparagus crowns averaging about 10 plants per person. I am always amazed at the speedy growth of the spears as they shoot up in the garden. Asparagus are known to grow a valiant 7 inches a day while left unattended can peak at 15’ high! For best flavor, harvest the young spears when 6” tall, the tips tightly closed.

Enjoy the bounty!! Enjoy the spring!!

We all get them and we all try our hardest to resist but sometimes they get the better of us. Understand why we get maddening cravings for foods and drinks and how to rebalance your whole system through regulating blood sugar, deepening quality of sleep, and enjoying nourishing foods.  $10

Classes held at the Pacific Wellness Center

Registration necessary!

 Who Says Chocolate Isn’t A Health Food?

Mood booster- check √

Heart healthy treat- check √

Delicious and nutritious-  check √

These truffles are literally out of this world! The combined richness in taste and creamy texture will have you closing your eyes as they melt in your mouth taking you to far away dreamy places!

Ingredients:

Truffle base- creating a ganache

         1 cup heavy whipping cream

         16 ounces bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped

         1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Optional: 1 tbsp. liqueur (brandy, cognac, rum), or espresso, and/or chopped fruit (cranberries, dates, apricots), and/or finely chopped nuts.  Add more liquid if adding nuts. ½ cup nuts= additional ½ cup cream. Mix and match flavors for a big WOW factor. 

For extra chocolaty craziness try adding a Chocolate Coating-

 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped

 Unsweetened cocoa powder (optional; for rolling)

 Chopped nuts- walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans

For truffle base:

• Bring cream to simmer in heavy small saucepan. Remove from heat; cool to lukewarm.
• Meanwhile, stir chocolate in double boiler or metal bowl over saucepan of simmering water until smooth.
• Remove from heat.
• Stir in cream.
• Add additional goodies and mix well – liqueur, nuts, or espresso
• Pour onto pan and chill truffle base until firm enough to roll, about 3 hours or overnight.
• Line rimmed baking sheet with waxed paper. Roll 2 teaspoons truffle base between fingertips into ball. Transfer to prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining truffle base. Chill until firm, about 1 hour.

For chocolate coating:

Line rimmed baking sheet with waxed paper. Stir chocolate in metal bowl over saucepan of simmering water just until melted. Remove from heat. Cool slightly.

Dip truffle in melted chocolate . Transfer to prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining melted chocolate and truffles, re-warming chocolate if necessary.

Or, just roll in cocoa powder, toasted coconut flakes, or chopped nuts

Chill until firm, about 1 hour. Store in airtight container and keep chilled in fridge for one week or freezer for a few months or however long they last!

Wednesday March 7, 2012                                  10:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Raise your hand if you don’t have stress. You were hard to find. Please teach this workshop…we are too stressed. Just Kidding!

Rushed, Overwhelmed, Distracted? If this sounds familiar, this class is for you! Managing our current fast-paced high teck uber connected world is vitally important  for your wellbeing but if you are not, and you know who you are, you may be unknowingly creating major life and health imbalances. If and when we neglect the connection to higherself, we loose our insight to leading our most authentic life. Next week, in our very own Silicon Valley, visionary, …. will be hosting the revolutionary Wisdom Conference. Even the techies understand keeping it real in our digital age.

I hope you can join us on March 7th for a one hour amazing experience in learning a holistic approach to managing stress. If it is manifesting physically, emotionally, or even spirititually, I will provide you with the tools to tackle your heftiest stressors.

Learn how humor, nutrition and other helpful strategies can help you leave stress behind to enjoy living in the present.

We will sample calming herbal tea, learn rebalancing yoga poses, and practice stress relieving breathing techniques. $12

Location: Pacific Wellness Center, 4841 Soquel Dr. Soquel Village

Upcoming classes

3/14 Curb Your Cravings

3/21 Meatless Mondays

3/28 Top 10 Cancer Prevention Foods

Many cleanses can leave a person even more depleted and run down than when they started.  My approach to cleansing and detoxification is to infuse the body with the nutrients it needs to do the job. Our bodies are designed to detoxify and cleanse on a daily basis, always moving towards health and wellness. Therefore these detoxification recommendations can be used throughout the year to support your ongoing health.

I will discuss three areas to focus on to support your daily detox and cleansing; the mind, the gut, and the liver.

THE MIND

Detoxification begins in the mind. Therefore, my first suggestion is to forgive yourself for any holiday over-indulgences and create the serenity to start fresh today. There is no point in ruminating about the past or counting pounds obsessively as this may indeed lead to more stress and unnecessary weight gain.

Start your cleanse with an affirmation and repeat it every night before you go to bed. This is a simple self-healing practice that allows you time to reflect on what you want for yourself. It is a time to clear your mind and think healthy thoughts. Getting into this practice will have you awakening each day refreshed, calm, and balanced. A favorite affirmation of mine is called Self-Healing By Diane Mariechild.

Perfect health is the natural state of my being.

I will have a comfortable, restful sleep and awaken filled with energy.

Each cell of my body is regenerating, my heart is pumping steadily and strongly, my lungs are filling with healing energy, and as I exhale I am releasing all toxins.

My spine is straight, my muscles and tendons are relaxed.

I am a strong, vibrant and energetic woman (person).

You can write your own affirmation, intention, or mantra, too!

THE GUT

The second strategy in restoring your body, so it can efficiently and safely rid itself of waste products, is to heal and fortify the digestive tract.  Just as your mind needs to be clear in order to absorb information and function well, so does your gut. Most nutrients are absorbed in the digestive tract, so it won’t matter how well you try to eat or how many supplements you take if nothing is getting absorbed.

There are many amazing strategies to heal and nourish the gut, so many that numerous books have been written about it. Below I will focus on a few dietary musts that are worth you becoming cozy with, like balancing your body’s pH, using the wise tradition of taking bitter herbs, the necessity of reinoculating your system with beneficial bacteria, and finally to welcome the undervalued and mysterious digestive enzyme. These strategies are worth incorporating into your health regime because they will jump-start you on the path towards balanced cleansing and detoxifying.

Alkalize

Creating an alkaline pH condition in your body is one of the secrets to creating optimal health. Reducing sugar, stress and yes, eating your veggies, are some ways to achieve this. It is a good idea to boost your ability to alkalize. Upon awakening, flush your system with an 8-ounce glass of warm/hot lemon water. Lemon is an alkalizer that will help balance your pH by reducing the acidity caused by too much sugar, stress, alcohol and the effects a deficient diet might create. Lemon water actually helps mineralize the blood thereby supporting digestive acid production (HCl). That is a good thing!

How to take: Squeeze half a fresh lemon or a few tablespoons of lemon juice into warm or hot water and drink before your first meal. Enjoy every morning.

Bitters

Although not as glittery and flashy as holiday lights, digestive bitters will keep you sparkling (er, or not sparkling if you know what I mean), in all of the right places. What goes in your mouth must be processed, so when enjoying heavier meals with  fatty gravy, hearty meats, or decadent desserts, digestive upset, sleepless nights, and blood sugar problems may result, if you don’t have what it takes to digest it all.

The body needs nutrients, like bitter foods, to act as a catalyst for proper gut digestive function. Bitters are made from foods and herbs like artichoke, dandelion, turmeric, ginger, hops, and gentian root. If you look into traditional diets from around the world, in literally every culture, they always include bitter foods in their diets.

Bitters are so important and worthy of eating because they stimulate bile production and stomach acid (HCl) while enhancing bowel function, thereby keeping everything clear and running smoothly. So when you experience bloating, gas, heartburn, and acid reflux, it usually is a result of low digestive juices.

The catch is that you actually need to be able to taste the bitters on your tongue. There is no getting past the taste by taking them in a pill, as the bitter flavor actually signals your brain to produce gastrin, a hormone that regulates stomach acid.

Thankfully, there has been a resurgence of eating bitter foods, like arugula, endive, radicchio, kale, and dandelion greens. These can all be enjoyed with your meals.

How to take: Enjoy eating bitter foods or take a bitter liquid formula. There are many excellent elixirs on the market and they do make them taste nice. You can either look for one that has the above ingredients or you can start with a single herb.  For instance, you can try artichoke extract – take 300- 600 mg of standardized extract before, during or after a heavy meal.

Digestive Enzymes

Another vital factor in boosting digestion is supplementing with food enzymes. These crucial catalysts are critical in cleansing and balancing because they contribute to the body’s ability to efficiently pre-digest the three main macronutrients that supply our calories – fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Enzymes are also essential to break down plant fibers. Do you know the sounds your belly makes when it has a hard time doing this?

Commercially packaged, processed, and most cooked foods are missing what would be naturally occurring enzymes found in plant and animal foods. Therefore, supplementing with food enzymes greatly reduces the stress and strain put on the body to produce more of its own pancreatic enzymes that would then be responsible to digest all of the foods in order to compensate for the lack of dietary enzymes.

How to take: When in doubt, it is prudent to take comprehensive supplemental enzymes (with amylase, lipase, and protease) with every meal.  Supplement with 2-4 dosages taken before or during your meal.

Probiotics

When consuming sugar in all its sinful forms, be it chocolate, candy, white breads, alcohol or sweet drinks, your body will start hosting not so friendly guests in your gut if you are not careful. The “holiday” time of year tends to have us indulging in more sweets, refined carbohydrates and white fluffy foods that cause more gut imbalances than we bargained for. So, if you had your cake and ate it too, candida or gut dysbiosis, may have taken over your system.

Bad or “unfriendly” intestinal bacteria, when out of control, can create candida overgrowth that leads to poor digestion, lethargy, inflammation, compromised immune function, and brain fog. Lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, and L. acidophilus are just some of the strains of beneficial bacteria that colonize our guts that thwart the growth of pathogenic diseases and inactivate carcinogenic substances.

How to take: Take a comprehensive probiotic. You can buy them in health food stores in the refrigerator section. Take every day with food to aid in the restoration of the gut. This will go along way to keeping you and your insides happy.

THE LIVER

A popular saying is Love Your Liver and we should do just that and for good reason. The liver is one the body’s major detoxifying organs, working at great lengths to keep you clear of unwanted chemicals, contaminants, and waste products. We can help our liver do its job daily by supplying it with vital nutrients, herbs, and supplements.

Eat beets! Beets contain betaine, a detoxifying agent that is great for cleansing of the blood, liver, and intestines. Beets also help to relive constipation (if you are not going more than once a day, you are constipated), helps with fat metabolism, and is high in fiber, which we all know is absolutely critical in keeping things clear and moving regularly. This is what detox is all about folks!

Enjoy Healing Herbs

Milk Thistle

There is extensive research on this wonder herb, or some may say weed, for its capacity to support liver function. The active chemical, silymarin, in milk thistle, has been shown to protect the liver from damage by chemicals and free radical damage. It is known to have more antioxidant power than vitamin C and vitamin E. Milk thistle is also a friend in detoxifying the intestines, gall bladder, circulatory, and lymphatic systems.

How to: Take milk thistle in tincture form or as a supplement in capsule form.

Licorice

You might associate licorice with candy but the truth is it is a powerful medicinal herb. Licorice enhances digestion, promotes liver and heart health, and assists in cleansing the blood and digestive tract of stored toxins. This herb is plays a role as a wonderful anti-oxidant that contains healing flavonoids and isoflavonoids.

How To Take: Make a tea with equal parts dried licorice, nettles (a mineral rich herb that aids in digestion and elimination), and dandelion leaf (providing bitter for the liver and minerals for alkalinity). You can also take licorice as a supplement, or as a chewable tablet before meals.

I hope you have been nourished by reading about all of the wonderful and delicious ways we can support or body’s own natural rhythm of cleansing. Celebrating our body’s natural ability to detoxify daily means that all you need do is supply it with the needed nutrients with a good dose of happy thinking. Cleansing and detoxifying are what we are meant to do. It is still fine to choose times during the year that you eat lighter but you’ll never have to starve yourself with another crazy cleanse again.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. sweet potatoes

4 tablespoons dried cranberries

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1  orange, peeled, seeded and chopped

2 tablespoons chopped green onions

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

4 tablespoons organic extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary laves

1/3 cup sliced raw almonds

a few pinches of sea salt and black pepper to taste

Roast sweet potatoes in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes. Cool, cut into cubes, and place into large bowl.  Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix olive oil, oranges, onions, rosemary, parsley, lemon juice, dried cranberries, sea salt and pepper to taste.  Add to the cooled sweet potato cubes. Mix well. Chill, serve warm just out
of the oven, or at room temperature. Top with sliced almonds and enjoy.

This is a free community event. Tea and popcorn available for purchase. Please email us via the contact page or, call the PWC at 476-2302, to reserve your space. Seating is limited.