Bone Deep

Many years ago, on a March day in a year when spring was visibly transforming the long winter, I dragged myself to my acupuncturist.  I was so fatigued, had no energy, was completely kaput.  I was despairing because part of me so wanted to enjoy the outer transformation underway and I couldn’t, I was feeling so bone weary.  I knew Babs would help me; she is not only a gifted and seasoned acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist, she’s a magnificent all-around healer.

Babs did her magic with her needles while telling me a story. She said, in Five Element Theory (classical Chinese Medicine), it’s believed that a cataclysmic summoning is required on Earth’s part to have Spring arrive.  Just think of it:  from small bulbs and meandering roots, trees and flowers require an extreme awakening and tremendous force to produce their transformative glory.  Where does this energy and force come from?  They get it from all the four and two-leggeds walking on top of the earth.  Hence, why it is a common occurrence that humans feel so wasted by the time Spring is underway.  We are food for Great Mother Nature.

So, it’s not only all those winter carbs we lean on or the post holiday overimbidements we are paying for necessarily.  How do we bolster our flagging selves, enrich our blood, our kidney qi in preparation for this auspicious time of year?

Babs prescription for me was bone broth.  This is something I start to make in January for comfort and continue on in February and March for my kidney qi, wellness and well being.  Bone Broth is a vital adjunct to any diet, especially those struggling with autoimmune disorders, leaky gut, joint and digestive problems.  This is an ancient remedy for what ails you.  The Chinese talked about it many millennia ago, Hippocrates associated it to gut healing, Jewish mothers everywhere have been passing down their chicken soup recipes for hundreds of years.

Benefits of Bone Broth

Many of our modern diseases are rooted in an unbalanced mix of microorganisms in our digestive system, mostly due to SAD (Standard American Diet) -- a diet that is too high in sugars and too low in healthful fats and beneficial bacteria.  Leaky gut is the root of many health problems, especially allergies, autoimmune disorders, and many neurological disorders. The collagen found in bone broth acts like a soothing balm to heal and seal your gut lining.

Bone broth is also a staple remedy for acute illnesses such as cold and flu. Recent studies on cartilage (the abundant base of homemade broth), show it supports the immune system in a variety of ways.  It's a potent normalizer, a biological response modifier, activates macrophages, Natural Killer cells and lymphocytes.  Bone broth contains a variety of valuable nutrients in a form your body can easily absorb. This includes:

Calcium, phosphorus, and other minerals	Components of collagen and cartilage
Silicon and other trace minerals	Components of bone and bone marrow
Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate	The "conditionally essential" amino acids proline, glycine, and glutamine

Healing benefits of bone broth:

Reduces joint pain and inflammation, thanks to chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine, and other compounds extracted from the boiled down cartilage and collagen.

Inhibits infection caused by inflammation, bacteria and viruses.

Fights inflammation: Amino acids such as glycine, proline, and arginine all have anti-inflammatory effects. Glycine has calming effects, which may help you sleep better, Arginine is effective fighting septis.

Promotes strong, healthy bones: bone broth contains surprisingly low amounts of calcium, magnesium and other trace minerals, but it plays an important role in healthy bone formation because of its abundant collagen. Collagen fibrils provide the latticework for mineral deposition and are the keys to building strong and flexible bones.

Promotes healthy hair and nail growth, thanks to the gelatin in the broth. Feeding collagen fibrils homemade broth can even eliminate cellulite.

How to Make the Most Nourishing Broth

The more gelatinous the broth, the more nourishing it will tend to be. Indeed, the collagen that leaches out of the bones when slow-cooked is one of the key ingredients that make broth so healing. If the broth gets “jiggly” after being refrigerated, it's a sign that it's a well-made broth. To make it as gelatinous as possible, add chicken feet, pig's feet, and/or joint bones.  All of these contain high amounts of collagen and cartilage.

Shank or leg bones, on the other hand, will provide lots of bone marrow. Marrow also provides valuable health benefits.  So ideally, you'll want to use a mixture of bones. You can make bone broth using organic chicken, whole fish or fish bones (including the fish head), pork, or beef bones. If you're using chicken, enjoy the roasted flesh first then throw the carcass into a pot, covering with water. Add a small amount of vinegar to help leach the minerals out of the bones. To ensure the broth is really gelatinous, add some chicken feet when you use the carcass of a roasted chicken, as some of the collagen will have been leached out already during the roasting process. You can also add vegetables of your choice into the pot.

The most important aspect of the broth-making process is to make sure you're getting high-quality bones.  Ideally, you'll want to use organically raised animal bones. It's worth noting that chickens raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) tend to produce chicken stock that doesn't gel, so you'll be missing out on some of the most nourishing ingredients if you use non-organic chicken. People living in the Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania are truly fortunate to be surrounded by lots of conscientious farmers.  Finding connection with these folks ensures good agriculture sourcing.  Many of these small-operation farms raise their livestock according to organic principles even if their farm is not USDA certified organic (the certification is expensive). Talk to them.                                 Sample Beef Broth Recipe

Below is a classic beef stock recipe excerpted from Nourishing Broth, including lamb and venison variations. For more nourishing broth recipes, consider Hilary Boynton and Mary Brackett's new GAPS cookbook,



The Heal Your Gut Cookbook: Nutrient-Dense Recipes for Intestinal Health Using the GAPS Diet.                                                            

•   About 4 pounds organic beef marrow and knuckle bones

•   1 calf, beef, or pig foot

•   3 pounds meaty bones such as short ribs and beef shanks

•   1 small can or jar tomato paste (optional)

•   4 or more quarts cold filtered water

•   1/2 cup vinegar (leaches minerals out of the bones)

•   3 onions, ends removed  (skin may be left on)

•   3 carrots, peeled if not organic

•   3 celery sticks

•   1 bouquet garni made with parsley sprigs, thyme sprigs, and bay leaf, tied together

•   1 tablespoon black peppercorns, or green or white peppercorns, crushed

Directions

1.    Place the knuckle and marrow bones and optional calves foot in a very large pot (or ideally, a crock pot), toss with vinegar and cover with cold water. Let stand for 1/2 to 1 hour. Meanwhile, place the meaty bones in a stainless steel roasting pan. For a particularly aromatic stock, brush the bones with tomato paste. Brown at 350 degrees in the oven, about ½ hour. When well browned, add these bones to the pot. Pour the fat out of the roasting pan, add cold filtered water to the pan, set over a high flame and deglaze the pan. Add this liquid to the pot. Add additional water, if necessary. Bring to a simmer and carefully skim any scum that comes to the top. Afterwards, add the vegetables, bouquet garni, and peppercorns.

2.   Simmer stock for at least 12 and as long as 24 hours. (Again, if you do this in a slow cooker/crock pot, you’ll be able to leave it while you go about your other business).

3. Remove. Strain the stock into a large glass container. Let cool in the refrigerator and remove the congealed fat that rises to the top (use it instead of butter or oil in cooking). Transfer to smaller containers and to the freezer for long-term storage.

Note: The marrow may be removed from the marrow bones a couple of hours into the cooking, and spread on whole grain sourdough bread. If left in the pan for the entire cooking period, the marrow will melt into the broth, resulting in a broth that is cloudy but highly nutritious.

Variation: Lamb Stock

Use lamb bones, especially lamb neck bones and riblets. Ideally, use all the bones left after butchering the lamb. Be sure to add the feet if you have them. This makes a delicious stock.

Variation: Venison Stock

Use venison meat and bones. Be sure to use the feet of the deer and a section of antler if possible. Add 1 cup dried wild mushrooms if desired

much of the above info was gleaned from www.mercola.com, including broth recipe
for more info on the power of bone broth:  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/05/bone-broth-recipe.aspx

The Lunch Rut: A Renewed Curiosity Outside the Box

One of the reasons we get into ruts is that we stop feeling curiosity and become unacquainted with our life force.  It's an odd occurrence if you think about it.  Why wouldn't we want to feel everyday the excitement and higher vibration that is available in our life?  We become slaves to a routine, a schedule, the patterns that "work" for us, including our daily food intake, exercise, even bathing rituals.

One of the prominent ruts we find ourselves in is the breakfast and lunch rut.  For many, what they eat for breakfast is absolutely routine and unchanged for years.  I know some adults who now cannot abide oatmeal, as they had it everyday of their childhoods.  For many, the car is practically on autopilot to their nearest Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks on the way to work.  There is comfort in having these patterns; they've become rituals, a preparation our inner life almost depends on to bear the boredom or sameness that they are meeting everyday.  For better or worse, these are habits we cling to, often at the expense of the subliminal life force that begs for something different, found in the curiosity of what is now, how I am on this new day and what I might need.  We habitually turn to the familiar as we are far from the caring for the immediate self and we desperately want  something easy, fast and (usually) mindless so we don't have to take the trouble to drop into ourselves.

So breakfasts become a hot grain, granola with fruit, yogurt is a common addition. Every so often for variety of flavor and nutrition, it's a good idea to switch up your oatmeal.  This activity opens the palette and curiosity.  Would cinnamon or cardamon or turmeric go well with millet or amaranth?  what's the best fruit with it?  The trial and error is an interesting process, and it's nice to get to know a new anything.  Most of our breakfasts are sweet, rarely savory.  How different is it for the body to start the day savory as opposed to sweet.  In my experience, sweet wants more sweet, calls for it during the day.  Savory is more a blank canvas and doesn't set me up for "like" during the day like sweet does.

With breakfasts, rarely do you see vegetables. SAD (Standard American Diet) breakfast is usually high in complex/simple carbs and proteins.  Open your hearts and mind.  Vegetables can be a soothing addition, as I found on a trip to China.  Vegetables (baby bok choy and spinach specifically) are at every meal there.  And it was the only food I ate that was reliably good from meal to meal.  By week three, dreading the 100th Chinese meal (not ever my favorite cuisine) of the trip, I always thought, well, at least there will be the simple, delicious, bok choy and spinach.  Since that trip, I regularly include vegetables in my breakfasts. In fact, I sometimes exclusively eat them for breakfast.  They're clean and sustaining; a good way to start the day.  I found a gorgeous head of baby kale at the farmer's market, sauteed it up with some garlic, tahini (protein) and a shot or two of tamari.  So good.  For those wanting more protein, dry roasting some nuts of choice topping it off that way, or some sauteed mushrooms (high in protein) with favored fresh herbs.  Adding some heat via a hot sauce with yogurt on the side is another version.

For those devoted to their oatmeal, other  hot cereal or granola every morning, try adding some innocuous cooked squash (acorn, butternut, delicata), throw in a few frozen cranberries, use maple syrup (lower glycemic value) instead of sugar or honey, add roasted/unroasted seeds or nuts.  These additions not only give you more vegetables and whole foods in the day, they up the nutritional anty of the meal; always a good thing.  these veg don't collide; they are sweet and gentle and not loud.  They know how to elevate the hero of the meal.

Lunch ruts.  I remember (not so fondly) the years and years and YEARS of the routine sandwich.  Followed by the years and years and YEARS of boxed salads.  Ugh.  So tired.  Organic lettuce in a big see- through box has become popular because its so convenient.  But that's all it is.  There is no flavor to be found there and it's totally uninspiring.  So disappointing.  If you are enthusiastic about salads, you'll burn out fairly fast unless you change it up.  Slaws are flavorful, variations relate to all seasons, can be a complete meal and can be pretty to gorgeous in appearance.  They even improve in flavor on day 2 and even day 3. And with roasted cashews spilled over the top, well that's an invitation to nirvana. Using good, honest real lettuce makes a real salad.  Using a blend of three types of leaves makes it more interesting; include texture and color in your choice (ie: raddichio, endive, tender chard). Scissor in some fresh herbs like basil, tarragon, mint; it brightens the flavor.  Don't even think about dressing it with a bought bottle.  No matter it's organic. Simple apple cider or balsamic vinegar after drizzling evoo (extra virgin olive oil), add (pink) salt and pepper.  Clean, bright and delicious. A simple half of a perfectly ripe avocado, salt and pepper, with a squeeze of lemon is the height of luxury and satisfaction.  Chop up a bit of tomato sprinkle it over the avocado with some fresh parsley, cilantro or basil and you have a love variation encapsulated.

Soups are a winter staple, but can wear out their welcome after the 2nd or 3rd month of overuse.  Believe it or not, counterintuitively, going streamlined simple is a way to address thick, hearty winter soup burnout.  Miso is easy and full of nutrition; scoop a tablespoon from the miso box and pour boiling water over it, mixing well.  Top with scallions, tofu if you must and some scissored fresh herbs like chive to makes a complete impression.  Likewise, roasted beef bones made into a deep, rich broth with some rice noodles and scallions is another thin soup that packs a hearty wallop, enriching kidney chi to boot.  Variations would be to add some thin sliced jalapeño pepper, a squeeze of lime, whole tai basil, cilantro, bean sprouts and parsley gives a filling impression to our yearning selves.

Proteins proteins proteins.  We're obsessed with getting our proteins.  Nutritionally, proteins are needed in small amounts.  A portion of animal protein should only be the size of a deck of cards.  Nuts and legumes or whole grain (ie: rice)  make a complete protein.  Again, not a huge amount gives you what is required.  7-10 nuts with a quarter cup of cooked rice does it.  In these terms, proteins become a condiment-size to a meal not the big kahuna.  Proteins ARE in vegetables and herbs as well. Check the nutrition content in herbs I listed in my last post, Herbs: Nutrient packed flavor.  It was surprising to me how much protein is found there and in many greens.

The old standby lunch foods wedged between two pieces of bread (egg, tuna, chicken salad) have other possibilities than what we once knew.  We're used to a dense tuna, chicken, egg salad.  Dense in texture and flavor, combined with usually sub-prime mayonnaise.  In this state, we're used to eating 3 or more eggs at a sitting, or almost a full can of tuna.  Give some breath to these old standbys.  Combine any of these proteins with several vegetables.  Radish, dakon, scallion, 1-2 herbs, chopped spinach, celery, onion, different colored peppers, shredded carrot, capers, pickles.  The choices are almost limitless.  Your final effort should yield 1/3 protein to 2/3 veg.  Keep it all together lightly; a little yogurt/mayo combo (flavored with chive, curry, mustard, hot sauce, etc).  Or try a little evoo (extravirgin olive oil), balsamic, salt and pepper.  It doesn't have to be dense.  It begs not to be dense.  Take one or two gorgeous, generous pieces of whole lettuce (or delicate chard, young kale leaf), put a few tablespoons of the protein mix on it and roll it, tucking in ends like an egg roll or burrito to make a fat cigar shape.  It keeps it all together, is a delightful size and easy to handle, plus the addition of the lettuce gives you more vegetable/fiber.  Pack a few of them for lunch.  They keep and travel well.  You can add toasted seeds or nuts, a little grated cheese to the filling.  If you need more complex flavor, make a dipping sauce that is related to the "moistener" of the contents (i.e.: curried yogurt, evoo/vinegar).  Once one's attitude is altered to protein possibilities and portions and the larger role vegetables should play in our daily diet, we start to think differently, be more creative, think outside the (lunch) box.

If you are able, keeping a few often-used products in a work desk drawer is handy.  A small olive oil bottle to refill as needed, a small favorite vinegar, a whole lemon, an avocado for the week, some dry roasted nuts (an additional salted variety) and/or seeds, some pink salt, a piece of whole fruit or two, some dried fruit.  These can stave off raiding the snack machine indefinitely.  When you open the lemon, throw the used part into a glass of water to get a subtly spunky drink and some alkaline while you're at it.

Having a melt down?  Winter blues setting in? A sorrow anniversary has come around again?  Comfort and joy is required.  We don't have to turn to mac and cheese, sugar cookies and icecream to assuage the low spirits.  We've grown up and we have other options (some of these can be used for lunch as well!).

The simple ("gift of the gods") sweet potato, baked to carmelized perfection hits the spot.  Just bake it 400 degrees for a real long time, 1-1.5 hours, and eat (melts in your mouth goodness).  You don't even have to add butter, but if you have to, you have to.  Adding cinnamon at the end is a treat as well (good antioxidant, too).  While we're on veg, the good ole winter standby of roasted root vegetables is good hot or cold.  Potato, onion, carrots, parsnips, yams, beets, rhutabaga turnips.  Cut one of each up in pleasing shapes and sizes, toss all with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary,  and thyme.  Bake in one layer on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 1h+; flip them midway.  They are really yummy if they're browned nicely; this means giving them lots of room on the pan, lots of heat space in-between components (might need two cookie sheets). If you make this a lot, try varying the vegetable (ie: pearl onions whole instead of sliced onions, parsnips instead of carrots, etc.).  Because roasted veg is always good, it's the perfect time to try unfamiliar vegetables like rutabagas, turnips, brussel sprouts, even cauliflower;  it's almost impossible to mess up roasted vegetables. Variation experiment with hot sauce, herb variations.  "Himmel und Erde” which means “Heaven and Earth, is a great German comfort food.  Equal parts potato, turnip, apple, peeled (if you have to), boiled together, mash w/ evoo or butter, salt and pepper, splash of (butter)milk or dollop of yogurt, maybe a little cinnamon. Yes, it's where heaven and earth meet, that is for sure.

Moving onto the complex carb hankering... ah, pasta; it in the past has assuaged all forms of boredom, depression, frustration and anger.  Weather unrelenting?  A bowl of pasta is a very good defense.  But, we know how habit forming this is (breaks down into sugars quickly, begging for more before long).  So, a good alternative is baked spagetti squash, turned out of shell, evoo'd, salt and pepper, topped with  homemade tomato sauce (opague some onions and garlic in evoo, throw in some cut up tomatoes or whole cherry tomatos, himalayan pink salt, red pepper flakes. scissor some fresh herbs--basil, parsley).  Sautee some wonderful. fresh mushrooms with sherry, top the squash with this dynamic duo. Bliss it out with shaved parmagiano.  Go to heaven.  

Then there is always the satisfying bowl of rice.  Leave the white rice behind for now and choose brown rice, dirty rice, black rice, Lundberg's red rice, etc.  Grate a couple of teaspoons of fresh romano over it, drizzle with olive oil, pink salt and pepper, fresh chopped herbs of your choice (cilantro, parsley, thyme) and some toasted nuts/seeds. It is the best comfort food there is especially if you're in a mood... lots of vitamin B in there to help with the lows.

Sour moods call for sweetness to offset.  It's easy to feel guilty here, we know we're supposed to ward off sugar.  But, a little "forbidden fruit" goes a long way, and with practice, one gets used to natural sweetness, additional sugar eventually feels like overkill.  Apples cooked in a variety of ways can be very satisfying.  Apple crisp is a delight;  use a lot of seeds, nuts, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, cardamon, oats and a healthy dollop of butter in the "crisp" part; sweeten if you have to with maple syrup. This is very comforting.  To make it extra decadent, eat warm with a dollop of whipping cream or coconut creme.  Beats out in spades cheap cookies and commercial sweets.  Baked apples have a similar composition, but they come in their beautiful, compact packages (and travel well!).  They can even be had for breakfast on the run with no guilt attached.  Often a cup of hot Rooibus tea with a little honey nips the sweet hankering in the bud.  But if you're at the end of the winter and have pretty much "tea'd" yourself out, a cup of hot cocoa with a dollop of coconut creme makes the inner child very happy.  Make it fresh with high grade cocoa, try using almond or coconut milk, grate a bit of fresh ginger, sweeten with honey or maple syrup and make it very rich and dark.  Add a pinch of cinnamon and/or chili pepper to give it some heat, bringing out the flavor exponentially.  The floating cream (coconut or heavy cream) is such a nice thing to sip through.  It puts the tea-blahs in their place.

As you may tell, my food philosophy doesn't include deprivation, or rigidity; nor should yours.  There is no absolutely bad anything that nature created for our sustenance  Bringing a black and white thinking to the table of nourishing ALL of me, just clamps down on exploration and pleasure.  What we eat should be fully pleasurable, fun and nourishing to body, mind and spirit.  

These are just a few suggestions to help switch up what might have become entrenched eating habits.  Making an attitude adjustment about what constitutes lunch, comfort foods and the "main course" (proteins) and how we can include more vegetables (happily!) through our eating adventures, will help us maintain our immune systems and overall wellness.  Curiosity is key.  Experimenting with this readjusted attitude, having some fun, trying unlikely choices opens us up.  This makes us more available to what we really want to eat and how we want to be.  Surprises are around every mealtime corner.

Plating: Procurement to Plate, the Joy of Partaking III

Why do we bother to imagine and intend how a plate presents?  It's the food that matters, right?  It's the  components  we bothered to prepare that get our saliva started, bile juices turning, that promote the digestive process.  What does it matter what it looks like as long as my body and a meal are in gear?

We humans discount the impact of subtle (and gross) impressions on our being.  Impressions are a food unto themselves.  They satiate a deeper hunger, a hunger that isn't always at the forefront of ourselves.  I saw this when I was a nurse in a hospital.  Patient's fragile states and reduced appetites were often impacted not by the food so much as the presentation.  I saw patients lose their appetite if the meal was huge (imposing, overwhelming).  Countering this, I saw patients gain an appetite when color, care and balanced portions were presented.  It's an energy thing, I think.  A patient's energy is so sensitized due to their illness; they pick up on, register (possibly assume?) the energy of the plater, the server, the preparer of the meal.  When it is mechanical, uncaring it's unappetizing.  Institutional food is not unappetizing solely because it's mass produced, but also because it's mass delivered in an often coarse way.  The automatic and unmindful way we partake of meals or food as a general population has become commonplace.  And so it is reflected in our institutions.  When we become more sensitized to the sacred event in a meal and all the parts thereof,  the event becomes something else.  We become something else other than food shoveling automatons.  A meal is (could be / should be) a sacred event; a nurturing of our being through deep nourishing impressions and thoughtful, balanced nutrients.

When imagining a meal, the long view of how it will be served and how it will end up on a plate is necessary.  Whereas three components on a plate are traditional, a fourth (or more) component makes it a party, a feast.  Keeping intact the original shape and size of at least one component supports the other components which have undergone chopping and/or shrinking (a transformation).  Alternately, if all the components are roughly the same size and whole, it is less interesting and appealing than when one or two have been altered in size and/or texture.

It might be helpful to look at the components of a meal as playing a role.  There is the "hero" on the plate and the supporting players.  The supporting players enhance, even elevate the hero.  They are sometimes the sublime foil for the hero or each other.  They do this through complimenting color, texture, size and shape and of course flavor.  An example of this would be the sweet/sour/pungent accompaniment to meat, such as a chutney or a sauce/gravy.  This is a complex foil.  Complex in color and flavor.  Often the simplicity of a steamed vegetable unadulterated, brings relief to one's gastronomy when the other offerings have more complexity.  

As far as plating goes, harmony and balance are achieved in a meal when proportions are considered in relation to the whole, when colors are complimentary, when texture and shape are varied.  This might seem like a lot to consider and possibly fussy.  Fuss happens when tension moves in.  In a relaxed state, the right everything is available.  There is no hyper considering, worrying, over-concern.  Hence, no fussiness.  Considering the relationship of the meal's components as full and dimensional as well as being sometimes complex, is not the same thing as being overdone or fussy.  Overdone can be loading a pancake with so much fruit, that it does not allow the complex carbohydrate to have a voice of its own.  Or drowning the hero (protein) in a sauce that overbears upon the prime attraction.  Too much.  Not enough thought, restraint, or care-- or perhaps a capitulation to impulsive desire.  The food's end result will always show us the truth of the matter.

There are always surprises in cooking.  The colors you thought you were going to get don't happen or aren't pleasing.  Something shrinks in cooking you didn't expect.  The relationship of the components isn't finding balance on the plate.  Wonderful quandaries!  It allows us to reconsider what is required.  It asks us to sensitize ourselves to what is and to move from there in an open inquiry.  Quite often, the simplest of things like a leaf of parsley, a sliver of orange rind pulls everything together.  What to use?  How to decide?  Relationship should be what dictates the creative impulse.  If parsley was used in one of the components-- to have parsley at its simplest, expressed on another component would speak volumes.  It would be sublimely related. We aren't bringing something entirely foreign, but something, somehow related.  It's an interesting study to soften and open to what is and what the plate asks for.

photo credit:  Lalu Danzker

Service is an interesting consideration.  Do we plate before reaching the table, attempting to  control the received impression?  Or does the meal call for a family-style delivery?  Platters and bowls of the meal's components on the table to individually serve from?  This latter prospect invites a sense of abundance and also a different type of interaction among the meal's participants (things have to be passed to others, conversation ensues).  Every meal calls for its own type of service.

This post and most of the posts I write on food (hopefully) invite you into a sensitization, a receptive mode:  this state is the human gift.  All people have this as a propensity, it is part of our human inheritance.  Receptivity to impressions of food is just one facet of the prism of our existence.  It's a good place to practice the process of opening, sensitizing and receiving impressions and will carry over to all relationships (inner and outer) as its value is recognized.

Procurement to Plate: the Joy of Partaking (part I)

I’m inspired by several conversations I’ve had over the last few weeks.  The conversations haven’t been about one area of life or another.  The vibrating thread through all of them has been the attitude and the relatedness we are willing to bring to the journey, any journey.

The very fact we would look at anything (such as a medical/health treatment, our upcoming meal, a room’s renovation, a child’s education) as a journey is already an attitude adjustment.  A journey, an adventure, assumes a process, an interest in the aspects of the process, possibly an excitement and a curiosity.  Once we are aware of a process being present in our life, we begin to ask questions, identify the beginning, middle, end and inbetweens of the adventure.  Already, there is a palpable life around the process.  A sense of vitality around the questions of what do I/we value, what is a priority, how am I related to other, the process and myself.  Life!  Interest!  Attention!  The Chi/Prana is flowing; I feel more of my life inside and outside of myself.  I begin to recognize by this activation the life all around me.

When I consider the nourishment (and healing) of my body I think and consider the journey of procurement to plate; that is how and where I buy the raw ingredients for a meal, how I consider them (and myself) in their preparation, how I plate, how I serve, how I imbibe what has been prepared and even go as far as to think about how I store leftovers.  Each of these steps on the adventure of feeding myself and others (body and soul) can be layered and complex.  The adventure is solidly centered in:  how can I optimize my health, my received impressions, my well being and pleasure in the engagement with nature, other and myself.

Market Madness.

One of the things that has helped me at the beginning of any procurement journey is to make sure my curiosity is up and running.  There is no place for the automatic, knee-jerk self when I am trying to resonate and sensitize myself to the important job of opening (especially to food and people). 

Because of food sustainability, a reality in USA food sourcing, curiosity is almost required.  Health, sustainability and wellbeing are dependent on diversity; diversity of food sources and the willingness to engage with the unfamiliar.  Market shopping, in this light, becomes an adventure.  I try consistently to purchase one unfamiliar thing from each food group I am buying.  This could be a vegetable, fruit, protein source (ie: an up to now, unknown type of fish), or grain/complex carbohydrate (ie: amaranth, millet).  I try to buy local.  I try to buy seasonal, organic when possible.  I try to be present to what is available; to sense the vibration and aliveness of the food, to have the food come to me, for me to be attracted to its freshness/life (it’s so beautiful!  do not resist!).  I often opt to pick up “bugaboo” foods I hated as a child to see if I have a different experience of them now (ie: brussel sprouts, lima beans, peas). I notice what foods have not traveled well, or were not treated well farm to market.  I notice what was harvested too early and too late.  

Already the relationship has begun.  

If something jumps out at me, makes me smile and be excited, I pick it up, even if I don’t know what it is or what to do with it. To enjoy the curiosity more, I inquisit with the grocer, start a conversation with the other hovering shoppers about this curious food product.  In addition, via the internet, I can find out anything; what is it, nutrition content and what to do with it.  I’ve discovered very interesting, nutritious foods; foods that add color, texture and add an interesting variety to a meal (tomatillos, prickly pear, dragon fruit, unfamiliar melons or squash, several Asian greens I now recognize, but still don’t know their names—can’t read Chinese).  This is important:  Important for diversity of nutrition and source sustainability.  Important for keeping my culinary field open.  Boredom and repetition leads to disinteresting dining, ruts and a lack of diet diversity.  I am feeding my body, spirit and soul.  I want to care and be excited about my engagement with food.

photo credit:  Lalu Danzker

Switching up where you shop, trying new places encourages the curiosity factor.  Try not going to a supermarket for a month; shop only farmer’s markets, farm stands, food coops, non-industrialized food sources.  Yes, it is inconvenient sometimes.  Yes it is a different experience that sometimes is not easy (the selections may be limited, prices pricier).  But again, one’s culinary field is opened, more receptive.  Mindful eating is hardly ever about convenience or what is comfortable.  It’s about interest, joy and pleasure.

In this endeavor I have found relationship.  Relationship with farmers, small market purveyors, local artisan cheese makers and bakers. I ask questions, they ask me questions. They know me, I know them.  We have a mutual appreciation.  This is soul warming. It does my heart good (as it probably does them).  It is more fun, more interesting.  I feel more connected to my food, because I am.  I know the source.  I know where the fish came from.  I know how the fish was treated because I know the guy who trucked it.  This impacts my well being.  This infiltrates my preparation (I think of them as I chop and cook); their efforts are closer to me.  I feel a fuller connection, I feel a Oneness.  I have a sense of obligation to them, the food and myself to cook well what has been provided. 

photo credit: Lalu Danzker

I have only had remarkable outcomes and experiences doing this.  Buying a chicken from a small poultry farmer, getting to know her in the process, how she treats the chickens, what she thinks and feels about her chickens have given me a transformative culinary experience. I glean her excitement and love of her work, her relationship with her birds.  When I eat her chicken, it is like eating a miracle.  I taste its domestic wildness in the fiber of the flesh, the deep, earthy flavor. I feel its realness; I feel the farmer’s love and investment in the flesh.  The chicken’s good life is transmitted to me.  It is an experience.  This is a joy. It almost feels like receiving a sacrament, a total privilege to partake.  Also, a small portion goes a long way, leaving me fully satisfied and satiated.  Most ordinary chickens (even the organic ones) I am left with wanting more, because I am missing its essence, lost in its poor treatment in life and death.

In following posts, I will continue with the related processes of Partaking:

Preparation, Plating, Service, Leftovers; how does more engagement in these ordinary efforts feed more of me, enhance my wellbeing, and support joy in living.

A Healthy Sexuality

We are sexual beings.  From birth to death.  And from birth to death our sexuality impacts our wellness. From the broad picture related to our sexual identity and orientation, to the more subtle sensual perceptions of the world around and inside us perceived through our six senses.

The influences of the world on us, from birth to death pose deep impressions on our sexuality.  The way our parents are in their sexual selves (as their parents before them), the religious/spiritual/ education indoctrination we receive through our continuum, the ethnic culture we harken from as well as the general culture at large.  We are saturated by these influences (often distorted, superficial, negative).  In our nature's quest to heal this misinformation as adults, our chosen partners affirm and reinforce those indoctrinations magnifying the messages learned (in your face "heal this already!").  And luckily sometimes, our partners are instrumental in healing those deeply ingrained messages.  And to complicate things further, our learned and healed sexuality changes.  It changes as our cells and bodies change, as our hormone levels soar and drop off.  It changes as we change.  This happens because we are our sexuality and our sexuality is us.

Our sexual selves are not represented anywhere but in ourselves.  Movies, music, media, commercials, clothing designers have always tried to depict it; but they never are near accurate even in broad, generalized terms, because it's an intensely personal and intimate experience that is as unique as the singular person that is each one of us.  These external attempts at commercializing the sexual experience are coarse at best.  The subtle and sublime truth of a person's sexuality is connected to our qi, our prana, our subtle energies which coarse through our bodies and our layered energy fields.  Mostly, this subtle experience is lost on us, as we are not even aware of it half the time.  One of the reasons why sex attracts us, is that in our depths, we need to experience this finer energy in ourselves, and the possibility of exchanging it with another.

Recognizing that the first 50 years of life is an organic quest in manifesting and externalizing just about everything to the -nth degree, including our understanding of our own personal sexuality.  And recognizing the following 50 years, there is a natural quest in doing quite the opposite.  Whereas the early decades are a movement out, the later decades are a movement in.  Maturity makes it possible for sexuality to be energetically layered, subtle and more fully embodied.  Because sexuality, the movement of its energy are series of moments, ever in flux, it would be difficult to understand this unless you were there, at that age, in that moment. I remember in my late 20's an older woman mentor telling me this.  And I remember not having a clue, not being able to imagine what she was describing.  My youthful self imagined and projected the loss for all that spark and flame to something that sounded opaque and boring. Wow.  What's the saying? Love/life is lost on youth?  And so it is.  One's future sexual self is an unknown, veiled by the immediacy of the present.  Or is it?

And what does this have to do with health and wellness?

Because we are sexual beings in our nature, understanding and nourishing the interior aspect of what this is for us is important.  Those that are celibate, experiencing a fallow or inactive period in their sex life, are still sexual beings.  If an appreciation and nourishing of this subtle self isn't nurtured, human perspective on sexuality ultimately becomes distorted, frustrated and agonized.  Living an even sometime tortured existence in this way negatively impacts our health and well being.  How do we nurture sexual health?

Sexuality is not limited to the bedroom or sex act.  Sexuality is not limited in external connection to self or other.  Sexuality can't be compartmentalized nor appropriated into a neat forum; it is pervasively in our being.  Cultivating a layered awareness during our life's spectrum of the movement of one's qi, prana and sexual energy-- outside the bedroom, is key.  Normally, we don't identify sexual energy as such unless it is overtly sexual.  Sexual energy is Big.  It covers a lot of ground in subtle to gross measure.

A frequent connection to our six senses invites us into the sensual world, which opens the sexual energy field in oblique ways.  We are surrounded by the essential nature in all things: art, architecture, flow and movement in ordinary life, which are reminders of our own energetic flow.  Not acting on chemistry with others, but taking stock, noticing the movement, appreciating the flow is a way to bring an intimate awareness to one's sexuality.  This requires a maturity in self, and subsequently, these types of practices internalize the life of our sexuality, allow it to flourish on a deeper level.  It's a type of self-nourishment.  It opens our world.

As young children and even as young adults we explore our sexuality from a more pure perspective.  As mature adults, the search continues, adjusting to our more grounded understanding of ourselves and our energies and how this impacts our sense of wellness, our health and our being.