Tomatoes? Be Afraid, be very Afraid

Roughly 8 years ago, after Pat died, I started paying attention to what was going on in the tomato fields at the bottom of our mountain. Oh, I had watched them since moving here, but something did not click all of a sudden. In the spring, the ground is plowed, long black plastic runs are made, raised, to plant the tomatoes in. Poly vinyl chloride, likely. Like water bottles, harmful to your health.  The laborers plant the tiny plants, they grow rapidly, so must be fertilized, they stake and create twine cages. All summer, I see big trucks spraying the plants, weed and bug killers are prevalent. Then, what got my attention, the tomatoes are picked green. Hmm, are not vine ripened ones the ones that have good flavor?   Some research showed that of course, ripe tomatoes would be rotten after shipping across the country. So they are shipped, then put into a chamber to ripen them with ethylene gas. This is a naturally occurring gas, but used to ripen, if someone walked into that chamber, they would die. Then they are processed and canned, most of the time into cans with white lining, More poly vinyl chloride, deadly to our health.  After picking the green ones, the fields are sprayed with poison, that turns the plant brown and crackly in 24 hours, and signs are posted saying "IF you eat these, you will die"Then  a few days later,m they are plowed under, and left to ruin the ground all winter. Next year, it starts all over. In ground that is polluted with sprays. This year, in fact a week ago, on my way to church, I could see the fields had been sprayed, and the plants were brown and crunchy.  On my way home from church, I got a real shock. Laborers were in those poisoned fields, picking through the dead plants and packing every usable green tomato into crates, filling many trucks with those crates, to be shipped out.  Does this tell you anything about what Hunts, Lucks, Van Camps etc are feeding you?  If you can still buy a can of tomatoes,  tomato sauce, or paste, pizza  , spaghetti or any other sauce, or ketchup, if it does not say ORGANIC you are being fed a lot of cancer causing crap.  Corn, wheat, potatoes are just a few of the other crops that are loaded with these goodies,  you can pull up all kinds of references on line, it's scary.   We are lucky, grow a good share of what we eat. RIght now, Doug has a lot of cherry tomatoes. I cooked up some dried, organic black eyed peas,  mixed them with salad peppers and cherry tomatoes cut up, and red onion chopped, dressed with a splash of soy sauce. Makes a great high protein salad. We are all sad for the folk in Texas, hope they recover as soon as possible.  We should all be caring for their welfare, at least its nice to see all the heros helping with rescue, and less about the violence that wracks our country.  Those rains have arrived in TN today,  nothing grim, but steady drizzle this afternoon. We need it.  Should keep us from having fires.  Hope you have a good week, Labor Day already Monday, summer is ending soon. See spots of red and gold in the trees already. Have a great week, stay well, eat GOOD food.

A Theif in the house

 Monday morning, two four footed furries let me know it was time for food.  Sat up, swung my feet down and reached for my eye drops(dry eyes)  first thing I do every morning. What? No eye drop bottle, always keep it on the night stand. Looked on the floor, under the 3edge of the bed, no luck. Good thing I had a new bottle stashed.  After a sufficient amount of coffee, I stripped the bed and behgan cleaning my bedroom and bathroom. While I was down on the floor scrubbing the bathroom floor, I looked every place I could think of for those missing eye drops.  No luck.  A few days later, I reached for my big toe nail clippers, on a tray on the beside table. Guess what, no clippers.  I spent a long while looking for those and gave up. A few days later, I did find them
 under the rocker in the bedroom.  I still have not come across the eye drops.   It's been a busy week. Doug came down and moved a shelf in the laundry room down to where I could reach it, wopw, does that make life easier. And he helped me clean the screen on my washer hose, was taking over an hour to fill the washer. Yesterday I put clothes in to saok and went ot get breakfast, thinking I would have time for feeding the kitty girls, but the washer filled so fast I was right back to turn it off.  Kind of started a cleaning binge. My little modular has a pantry, and 5 walk in closets. Yesterday I stripped and scrubbed the pantry, the floor was really crummy, have some roll in cabinets I store canned goods in, had not moved them in a few years. Ok, that's now clean, and the coat closet in the hall is scrubbed an clean. Today I did the guest bedroom the girls use, tossed a lot of stuff.  Got two more bedrooms and the walk in linen closet in the bathroom to go. Maybe the end of the week, tired of closets for the moment.  Just started a fountain going  and Lillie is batting the water around, she can;t figure it out, Silly girl. Yesterday the girls had kind of a bad day, the neighbor seems to have a new kitten, cute little black thing with orange eyes and nasty looking claws. It decided to hang out on Libby's front proch. She was sooooo upset.  Good thing the week is about over, enough excitement for one period of time. And Monday is the eclipse, we are now being told it will be cloudy.  Did get glasses so if we can see it, we are ready.   Picked peppers, tomatoes and herbs yesterday, most of the garden has not done well this year, sadly.  Have a good week, take time to give someone a smil, it might just make their day. We are all here to help each other, how I wish the whole world could just be nice to each other.   What a difference that would make. Til next time, be well.

A look at Ayurveda

Most of you know I am somewhat of a rebel, following the rules are not always my thing. When I was 18 and newly married, I met a man who had been a doctor of medicine, but gave it up because he did not like what western medicines did to his patients. For the most part, this type of medicine masks symptoms but does not cure. Ayurveda however looks for the cause and heals the problem. Case in point, Dad had tinnitus for years, and a few years back it became part of my life. I follow a Guru called Yogi Cameron, he said to fix the problem, put 3 or 4 drops of sesame oil into each ear, letting it soak in for 10 or 15 minutes , doing it one side at a time. It took over a month, but the ringing left. Not only that, but soon huge chunks of ear was floated up into my ear, and I could just pick them out and dispose of them. The man I met when I was 18, told me how to avoid the horrific crippling arthritis my mom and dad both had suffered, and also prevent cancer and a host of inflammatory problems. As simple as taking a capsule of turmeric and one of ginger root every day. I have done that ever since. I have no joint pain or aches, no knarly hands, and so far no big health problems. A cheap, simple thing I wish every one could know and start doing young, it would stop so many problems later in life. So turmeric is an Ayurvedic herb, and used in many ways, I also keep a big jar of organic spice turmeric on my cupboard, and add it to all my soups and stews and most everything I cook. The 2nd herb I use is Ashwaganda.IT'S ALSO ANTI-INFLAMMATORY, ANTI-CANCER and enhances your immune cells. It's a sleep aid, a stress reducer and more. Ayurveda is a natural way of supporting your good health. Yoga and meditation are also a part of the practice. Lots of good information is available on line, and if you have not subscribed to Mother Earth Living, you really should, so much good information there. Are you getting ready for some fall cleaning? Have a recipe or two to share. To make an all purpose dis-infecting cleaner, and make your house smell amazing, combine 2 cups of water, 1 cup of white vineagr and 25 drops of essential rosemary oil. Pour into a large spray bottle and use to clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces. To make a scrub, for sinks, toilets etc, mix 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1/3 of a cup of castile soap(liquid)and 10 drops of rosemary essential oil, mix we.. apply a small amount to a cloth and use to scour surface. Rinse well. To brighten and strengthen your hair, heat 1 cup apple cider vinegar to almost boiling, pour over 2 T fresh rosemary and add 10 drops of lavender oil. To use, add 2 T to 1 cup of water adn massage your hair after shampooing. Rinse well. School has begun in all of our area, and most other places too now, hope we still have a good amount of at least warm weather before it gets cold again. Be happy, be healthy, eat real food. See you next time.