I have some truly ingenious friends on FaceBook, and Kent Lee Ivey is one of the best, he loves nothing more than to travel around, pick up seemingly unrelated junk and turn it into really useful stuff. Earlier today I saw pictures he posted about how to build a reflector oven, these are really cheap items, but with a bit of effort, it is transformed. Here is how he did it in his words (and pictures):
Two sets of cheap baking trays from Wally World, a pack of brass fasteners from their office supply, and a cheesy trellis thingy from the garden section..
Whalla !
A reflector Oven for $15
Folds back down and nestles together for easy travel.
It’s so nearly spring, I am itching to get out and do some gardening, I’ve been getting seed catalogs, the siren song of the gardener. About a year ago (+/-) I discovered another method of raised bed gardening, it’s called a keyhole garden for obvious reasons, it looks like a keyhole from above.
From what I can see, you make a round raised bed with a notch in it that goes to a central basket that holds compostable materials, kitchen scraps, fruit & veg, egg shells, coffee grounds (including the filter), paper, cardboard, grass clippings and the such. The garden is watered through this middle part, transferring the nutrients from the decomposing material in the middle to the garden that surrounds it.
The notch is important, it allows easy access to the central basket to add more compost and water, you also need to be able to reach every part of the garden area, so don’t make it too large, you can always build more keyhole gardens as needed.
I have seen many materials used for the outside, from bricks, to pavers, rocks, some are cemented in to make a permanent structure, others are just dry stacked so they can be removed later, it can even be made from wood, metal or plastic. I watched many videos on how different people make theirs, some do it very simple, others more elaborate, one I saw this evening looks pretty good, but I saw the builder do something I probably wouldn’t do, after marking out the circle, he used a fork to dig up the soil, the reason I wouldn’t do that is because you aren’t using THAT soil to plant in, you are placing layers of cardboard, paper and mulch type materials in the base, you don’t add soil until the last foot, so disturbing the base layer of soil is not necessary and it seemed to me it would be counter productive.
Here are a few videos you can watch to get a better idea of how this is done, enjoy!
You may:
– already be following a raw food diet (100% or less)
– know about raw food and want to learn more about how to prepare certain dishes
– be completely new to it
Regardless, this post will get you through 50 delicious raw food recipes as they should be eaten, leading you to a life where you:
can eat tasty meals everyday without putting on weight.
can have deserts that don’t make your insulin spike in your blood stream.
can enjoy creamy dishes even if you’re lactose intolerant.
can still eat ‘pasta’ and be gluten-free!
Processed and junk food are too easily available and marketed outrageously, it is difficult to
follow the path of health. That’s why we want to share our passion for healthy and real food
with you and make you aware of the infinite possibilities that the raw food diet allows.
In the raw food diet you will find only:
– vegetables
– fruits
– nuts and seeds
– seaweed
In the raw food diet you are avoiding all the “bad foods” which are unhealthy for you:
– dairy
– gluten
– animal products
– refined and processed food
When eating or juicing raw food you will need to choose organic food as often as you can in
order to eliminate:
– pesticides,
– herbicides,
– synthetic fertilizers etc
These chemicals are harmful to your health. And you wouldn’t want it anymore once you
realize that organic products may be tastier and more nutritious.
With the raw food diet, you are making the most of the “good foods” by not heating above
115degrees. In fact, you are dehydrating instead of cooking the food. Why is cooking above
115degrees bad? Several reasons:
– It destroys enzymes. Enzymes are essentials molecules in the digestion process and
the absorption of food nutrients
– It changes the molecular structure of the food. The food then becomes
unrecognizable by the body which triggers a defensive reaction by sending white
blood cells for protection
– It destroys the nutrients of the food
By cooking the food above 115 degrees, you are making your food “dead”, i.e.: without
enzymes or nutrients.
The satiety feeling we have is caused by the body’s demand to have enough nutrients to
function for a certain period of time. With food deprived of nutrients and enzymes, your
body will keep on telling you to eat until it feels it gets what it asks for. Your tendency is to
eat more that you should really be eating.
Raw food is the ultimate diet for achieving and maintaining good health and ideal weight, a
great well-being and staying young so go ahead and immerse yourself in the kitchen with all
the recipes you are about to try!
Enjoy!
Table of Contents – Download Link to full PDF at end
1- STARTERS…
Not away, but outside, I’m still using it, but with the colder temps and the more overcast days, I decided to let nature work for me instead of against me. A couple of weeks ago, PB moved the chest freezer to fridge conversion out on the front porch, it’s right next to the grill, it seems my front porch is really turning into an outdoor kitchen minus the plumbing.
“A forest full of food” has a nice ring to it, and the concept is realized using permaculture farming techniques.
Grant and Kathy Curry of Dolores are creating an innovative farm at the head of Trail Canyon in Dolores, Colorado that they hope will produce food for generations while skimping on water.
This past week was a hard one, my work partner and I worked extra long days so that we could have a few extra days off over the weekend, that meant 12 and 14 hour days, I’m not complaining though, it’s work, I enjoy doing it and I get paid well enough to be happy with it. I don’t have to go back to work until Tuesday, so that gives me a few extra days to catch up on some needed rest and chores.
For the longest time, I’d buy my produce at the farmer’s market over the weekend. When the next Friday rolled around and I hadn’t used everything, I’d regretfully throw away the excess.
Now I’ve invested in a low-energy freezer, powered from my local year-round creek. It was a big budget item but its changed my life and as I learn how to properly freeze produce, I’m giving new life to my budget — and my cooking.
Earlier today, after church, I was getting ready to lay down to take a nap, the radio was playing softly in the background, I typically don’t care for what is played on the only local radio station we can get, it’s a bit too liberal for my tastes, but they were playing a show that I enjoy, it was America’s Test Kitchen, a show I used to watch on TV and am still getting used to listening to it on the radio.
Today’s show was all about fermented foods, something that I am getting more and more interested in, fermenting takes ordinary foods and turns them into super foods as well as helping them store for longer periods of time-preserving food. Fermentation has been something that has done for generations, from creating wine, spirits and beer, to pickles, sauerkraut, yogurt, kimchi, and many other foods & drink.
This video is titled, “How to start a farm with no money”, well I’m here to tell you that you need SOME money, but if you are creative, you will not need near the bundle you would need otherwise.
I watched this video with a jaundiced eye, I have seen many claims that often fall under the “too good to be true…” well I am more impressed with John Suscovich than I have been with many other people making these sorts of claims.
Ben Falk is a permaculture designer based in Moretown, Vermont. In this video, he speaks about different aspects of homesteading and cold weather, notably his wood cook-stove which also heats water, and his compost-powered greenhouse heating system. He also talks about the importance of being engaged with the land around us, and how gardening is just basically awesome!
About a week ago, I got a phone call from one of my neighbors and friends out here, it was time to do another gardening roundtable. That’s where a bunch of us gets together to discuss our gardening experiences. Living in the high desert mountains in far western Texas, we have a unique growing area, and within this area, there are even microclimates to deal with, so my garden may have different qualities (temperature, moisture, wind, soil conditions…) than someone who lives at the same altitude as I do but just around the corner from me…
So today after church and our second Sunday church potluck lunch, we just had enough time to get over to the community center just up the road. There were about a dozen of us there, most are experienced gardeners, a few were very new to gardening, a few had gardened out here for many years.
Mother’s Day passed last weekend, for me it’s a bittersweet day, I’m happy because I’m a mother, but it’s sad because my mother is gone. Be that as it may, my mother taught me many things, one of the more important things was how to cook from scratch, I can follow a recipe but I’m quite capable to straying from the recipe to improve it, or to substitute for something I don’t have. I can even cook by the seat of my pants, meaning I can take a few kitchen staples and make a dish, it’s not difficult if you learn some basics.
Knowing how to cook (and bake) from scratch has so many benefits, first off it’s going to taste better, it’s going to be cheaper, and it’s going to be healthier for you. Buying food basics rather than food products, you KNOW what is going into your dish and consequently what is going into your body.
