Cupid Candy

Even through all my purpose-driven, chemical-avoiding, Red 40-hating progress I have to admit that Valentine candy does me in. Sorta like the chocolate bunny at Easter, all I crave on Valentine’s Day is that one piece of strawberry or orange crème-filled milk chocolate. With candy in short supply at our house, I usually have to settle for a Be Mine message heart from the kids’ school party sacks, but it’s just not the same.

My dad always brought Valentines candy home for me and Mom each year. The big boxes. The kind that took a week to eat. I loved it! And Daddy would generously help us eat them. But that was before the days of labels under the box lid. So my dad would smash his thumb into each piece to see what the filling was like in order to decide if he wanted to eat it. I squawked, but I really didn’t mind. It just made it easier for me to avoid the nuts and aim for the pink and orange goo no one else wanted. I so wish I had a picture of some smashed-in Valentine candy, but we never took any pictures of it. Because, you know, that’s just gross.

At my office we are especially grateful when Valentine’s Day falls before the beginning of Lent so that we can continue our holiday indulgences guilt-free. And indulge we did! Then Cupid, disguised as Father Price, made the rounds and delivered tiny boxes of Valentine candy to each of us. And I KNEW I would find inside that heart-shaped box exactly what I craved.

And yes, I ate the whole box. All five pieces. I have had my fill of milk chocolate and Red 40.

For now.

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Today’s Farmers’ Market: The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Ugly

As planned, we woke up at 6:30 to make it to the Farmer’s Market by 7am this morning.  I was ready to buy another watermelon from pesticide-free PPP Farms for this Spinach Watermelon Salad recipe I found in a calorie counter app.  (Who knew?)  And, as promised, I planned to ask many more vendors if they were pesticide free.

I did not get off to such a great start.  As we strolled through the crowd I made my way to booth after booth asking, “Excuse me, but do you use pesticides in your farming?”  The answers varied.  But one answer in particular turned into a growling volley of attitude.

“NO! We don’t have no pesticides here!”  and she waved her hand in the air, half as a dismissal, half as a fly swat.

“Um…okay.  Thank you.”

I wasn’t sure if she was adamant because of her commitment to be pesticide free, or if she was annoyed by my question.  And then she rallied, eying my children standing behind me.  “WHY?!!!!!”

I pointed to said children.  “I am committed to buying only produce that is grown without the use of harmful pesticides.”

She pointed at her buckets of produce and rudely asked, “You gonna buy anything?!!!  We don’t HAVE no pesticides!”

“I’m actually asking everybody so that I can plan which vendors I will shop with for the weeks that the Market is here.  Thank you.”

At that she WAVED ME OFF, SCOWLED AND SHOOK HER HEAD!!!!!!!

As we walked away Dom whispered to me, “I didn’t think that was going to go well.  I wouldn’t have even asked her.”

“I know.  I had the same thought.  But I decided not to judge, and I asked anyway.  Her attitude is NOT the spirit of the Farmers’ Market.  Half the vendors here are all selling tomatoes.  It goes against the spirit of the place to get pissy because a customer is looking at your tomatoes and not buying them!  I wouldn’t buy from her if her farm WAS organic, which I highly suspect it’s NOT.” (See? I reserved judgement until the end.)

We moved on and made the rounds to several other vendors, all of whom graciously answered my questions with more than just a simple yes or no.  They all explained in some small way additional details that supported their answer.  I like that.  So for you locals, here’s a run-down of what I learned (in this much-smaller-than-opening-weekend Market).

Gator Dave Produce: Pesticide-free, but uses commercial fertilizer.  He will be switching to horse manure next year at his wife’s insistence.  His okra is not doing as well as he’d like, but he is focusing on how to keep the deer out of his area when the peas start producing.  I bought cucumbers from him, and he shared his grandma’s secret:  when you cut the end off of a cucumber, about the first ½ to ¾ inch, rub the pieces together until it sort of foams.  His grandma always said that would take most of the bitterness out of a cucumber before you slice it up.  Hey, worth a try, right?

McKissick Herbal Farm: Pesticide-free.  Tomatoes, watermelon, cucumber, blueberries, cantaloupe, and more.  I bought tomatoes and cantaloupe from them.

Anderson Produce and Plant Farm:  They occupied the largest space, and had A LINE of people that flowed past three other vendors FOR THEIR CORN!!  We were there at 7:10, people, and by 7:30 the corn was GONE from Anderson’s.  That must be some gooooooood corn!!  I did get a chance to speak with them, and learned that they are not pesticide-free, but that they are regulated each year by the state for certification that there is no residue on their produce.  Residue is not my issue, really, so that leaves more corn for the rest of the people.  But they were incredibly courteous, and like I said, extremely popular for their corn.  They sell plants too.

So there it is, folks.  My wrap-up of the Farmer’s Market.  Who wants some watermelon? 🙂

Day 362: What Went RIGHT at the Farmers’ Market

I know I said I would post “tomorrow” about all the cool stuff I found at the Farmers’ Market, but then life sort of got in the way and now it’s five days later and well…here I am again.  I still have not ironed out all the details of the berry re-seller, but I am prepared to ask a lot of questions next time I am there.  I am still aghast.

But how about some good news?  As we rummaged through the Farmers’ Market I managed to find an information booth where I asked if they had any “organic” farmers vending this year.  I was informed that in order to use the term “organic” the farmers must be certified (I knew that), and that’s just a helluva lot of paperwork and added cost, so our hometown farmers who choose to go the way of healthier produce prefer to be called plain-ol’ “pesticide-free.”  Fair enough.  So I began asking vendors if they were pesticide-free.

I only had to ask two, actually.  The first one was pleasantly truthful when he said, “Honestly, ma’am, we will use pesticides to control pests when we have to.  So far this year, we haven’t had to use any because it’s so early in the season.  But the minute we see a bug, we’re breaking out the pesticide.” I told him that I genuinely appreciated his honesty.  He replied by reassuring me that the pesticides he uses are “nothing you can’t wash off!!”  I smiled and thanked him again as I left his booth.

Yes, you can wash residue off of the produce, but it has already been chemically altered with harmful ingredients that will stay in your system and fry your sons’ sperm….you
know, worst-case-scenario-and-all.  But no, I didn’t say all of that to him.  I simply smiled, said “I understand,” and walked past the Driscoll’s re-seller to  the next produce booth.

It was at this next booth that I found my favorite vendor – PPP Farms.  I casually leaned in, smiled to the lady behind the table, and asked quite discreetly, as if it were some big secret, “Pardon me, but do you mind telling me if you use pesticides on your produce?”

“NOT ONE OUNCE. Never have.  Never will.  My husband here, [points at the man sitting beside her] he won’t even use weed killer in the grass!  Has the boys whack the weeds with the weed-eater.  No, ma’am, we just aren’t using any of that nasty stuff!”

How much do I love her?!! This wonderful lady just happened to be selling tomatoes, corn and watermelon – all of which I was happy to purchase.  I spent $8 on three  tomatoes, three ears of corn and a small-ish watermelon which we STILL have not consumed in its entirety.  The watermelon was the sweetest one I’ve ever bought.

Aside from the veggie success, I am also happy to report that I found the longhorn beef vendor – W. H. Longhorn Ranch from east Texas.  As the seller explained to me,  Longhorn beef is VERY lean, much like venison, and requires a different technique for cooking.  All the animals belong to her son, and she takes orders until she has an entire  animal spoken for before sending it to slaughter.  I ordered a roast and two pounds of ground beef.  I am really excited about trying the meat to see if it will be a good substitute for the regular meats at our grocery stores, since we can’t get much in the way of natural, no-hormone, no-antibiotic, grass-fed beef in the meat cases around here.

So there it is, folks: my victories at the Farmer’s Market.  I can’t wait to go back.  If you’re local to my area, you ought to check out these two vendors.  I know they’ll be glad to see you.

Day 358: Folly at the Farmer’s Market

Last week I was so pumped up about going to the local Farmer’s Market to find awesome organic veggies and grass-fed beef!  And while I did manage to find both (and will share the details on the good stuff tomorrow), I learned a lot that sort of burst my bubble about the market in general.  Here’s how Saturday morning went:

First off, Mom, Victoria and I met up with roughly half of the Shreveport population to shop opening day of our Farmer’s Market.  I wasn’t prepared for the crowd.  Last year when we went there were a lot of people, but I was still able to park within the first block near the market.  Not so this time around.  The Hubster had offered to let me use his parking space at his office garage, and I SCOFFED!  “Ohhhhh, no thanks, sweetie…that would be waaaaay too far for us to walk!”

I now admit…I have made more ignorant decisions in my life, but not many more.  This one ranks pretty high.

So after driving ALL OVER CREATION to find a parking place preferably less than four blocks away, Victoria and I opted to just try to get as close to Mom’s car as possible,  which basically meant just being on the same side of the river as her car.  (Okay, okay…so I exaggerate…a little.)  We managed to get about 200 yards away from where Mom parked, and considered our patch of grass by the bike trail a win.

Secondly, this was 8:00 in the morning on a Saturday.  You know I had Starbucks in my hand.  Yes, hot, hot coffee in near-90-degree cling-to-you weather. As I strolled around sipping my cup of hotter-than-hell java, I secretly longed for the refreshment of everyone else’s handy water bottles.  Note to self: drink the coffee at home in the A/C; bring water for survival at the market.

As we strolled through all of the farmers and vendors, I noticed signs on many booths that stated where the veggies had come from, i.e., “80% from our farm, 20% from  neighbors’ gardens, 0% from grocery stores.”  As I saw this mention of “No Grocery Store Produce” on more and more signs, I commented to Mom how odd I thought it was that they needed to say that.   She informed me that she had seen comments on-line about people selling grocery store produce at the market, and how customers didn’t think that was right.  I would have to agree, but I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone buying veggies at Kroger and hauling them down to the Farmer’s Market to sell at a higher price.

Imagine my surprise when I witnessed it LIVE!!  We stood near a van which was backed up to a vendor booth with the back doors of the van splayed open and towers of  Driscoll’s strawberries piled in the van.  One man was emptying the strawberries from grocery store containers into little wooden baskets and setting them on a table above a sign that read, “Fresh East Texas Berries.”

Dude.  REALLY?????

Raise your hands if you know where Driscoll’s strawberries come from. That’s right…California.  Driscoll’s are – in my opinion – the superior strawberry.  I fell in love with them back in my cake-biz days and I still purchase them regularly and exclusively…AT THE GROCERY STORE.

Were it not for the immense crowd around his table and my jaw resting on the cement ground, I wish I had said something to this vendor, if for nothing else than to literally  ask, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???????”  When I return I hope I see him again, because I want the full story on this deal, and “straight from the horse’s mouth,” as they say.

There were many positive things about the market that I still plan to share with you, and I don’t mean to just focus on the disturbing, but I have to ask – what is your Farmer’s
Market like?  Would a vendor re-selling grocery store produce be run out on a rail?  I am quite curious to know if this is standard practice everywhere, or if this does in fact violate the very premise of the Farmer’s Market in your minds as it does in mine.

Day 354: Look, Y’all!! A Veggie!!!

I wasn’t planning on posting anything tonight, but I got home to water my garden and LOOK!  We have a squash!  Granted, it’s a harvest of ONE so far, but there are more on the vine.  This one just plumped up so fast, it surprised me.  It’s about 7″ long, so I decided to pluck it from the plant.

First harvest. Small, but significant nonetheless.

I don’t quite understand what the braille-looking bumps are on the neck, but I’ll research that to make sure it’s a healthy squash.  When I walked inside with it tonight, Aaron looked puzzled and asked, “Where’d you get that?”  I replied that it came from the garden, and he exclaimed, “You grew your very own organic squash!  Mommy, that’s great!!”

I’ll bet my paycheck he won’t even taste it.  That’s alright…more for me.  😉

Day 122: A Little Complaining Goes a Long Way

Tags

chemical ingredients, Food

Some days I just have to vent.  This is one of those days, so please bear with me…Crunchy Granola Mom is on the warpath.  I’m going blind at the computer screen at night researching this stuff.  (And after staring at a computer most of the day at work, you can bet my contact lenses really love me!)  I am reading and researching and putting insane puzzle pieces together as if I were on some Survivor scavenger hunt!  Those are my symptoms; here is the cause:

We have kids all over the place diagnosed with ADD and ADHD, right?  The statistics are genuinely astounding.  We are medicating our babies!  Aside from my stance on medication for this condition, my real beef is this:  why is alternative treatment so hard for people to do/try/accept/give a fighting chance?

And, pardon my bluntness, but why in the hell is NUTRITIONAL PROMOTION considered alternative?!!!!

Are we a society that simply can’t wrap our heads around a solution that doesn’t involve pills??? Are we as parents so busy with our careers and our cell phones and our toys that we don’t want to work for a better solution for our kids?  Why do we automatically believe medication is THE BEST answer?

This makes me think of that 1969 song In the Year 2525 where the lyrics say, “Everything you think, do and say is in the pill you took today.” I can remember hearing that song when I was little.  I loved the song, but if I thought about it too long I would get scared.  I didn’t want our world to end up…artificial.  And yet, with each new thing I learn about our foods and medications, I wonder if that’s exactly where we’re headed. 

Along the line of foods, what I do not get – in any form of the concept – is why on earth we as a nation do not make it easier for parents to choose healthier foods. Why do we have to make it so convenient to downgrade our inherent internal chemistry with artificial colors, preservatives, and chemicals in every food we consume??? 

I am literally researching food nutrients as if I were going to perform some genetic mutation experiment on broccoli.  Should it really be this involved, this difficult? Shouldn’t my federal nutritional agencies be working with me in this endeavor, instead of making it harder for me by approving ingredients as well as medications that can ultimately harm my family? 

And along the line of meds, I DO understand that there are some extreme cases where medication has proven to be a lifesaver in some families.  I do not fault anyone for reaching up when they are at the bottom.  I just feel that not quite as many of us fall into that extreme category as are medicated.  And I’m not mad at parents who medicate.  I’m mad at a system that makes medication easier than natural solutions.  I’m mad at pharmaceutical companies who would rather make a buck now than give full dedication to researching a medicine to make sure it’s not going to render a child infertile as an adult.  Or that it’s not going to kick off some other chemical reaction in their bodies that steps up a cancer growth.  These are  my primary arguments for not medicating my child.  Aside from the shocking side effects of the popular medications, we simply do not know what these drugs will do to our children’s long-term futures.  We only know what they do to the present.  And for me, that simply is not enough information. 

Rant over.  I’ll be sweet again tomorrow.

Day 121: Protein and Omega-3s…Sign Us Up!!

Tags

Food

I made some time to chat last night with Victoria about the diagnosis.  The way I see it, any discussion that is about my children is warranted to be discussed with my children.  I step it down to a familiar level for them because I believe wholeheartedly in honesty between us; I have promised them this since the day they were born.

Victoria first asked, “So, what’s wrong with me?”

“Do you feel that there is something wrong with you?”

“No.”

“Neither do I.”

She smiled and relaxed a bit. We discussed the diagnosis and what it meant.  I explained to her that the symptoms of ADHD are found a little in most everybody at some point in their lives.  And I pointed out that the symptoms I have been most concerned with are things that she has been able to control on her own over the last two weeks.  And that deserves special note and praise for her efforts!

But I also offered her an experiment.  We are going to first play around with our food ingredients so that we can determine what foods serve her best in the areas of concentration and mental focus.  She’s up to the challenge of finding foods that will help her during the school day.  And I’m up for the challenge of fine-tuning the menus for her benefit. 

It appears, not to my surprise, that we need to center on meals containing higher protein, complex carbohydrates and omega-3 fatty acids.  Several studies have shown that many children with ADHD traditionally have significantly lower omega-3 levels. 

So how do you get a child to eat grilled salmon with you?  If you live in my house, you can hang that idea in the coat closet and never bring it out again.  Suddenly, this doesn’t sound as easy as I thought. 

But, I found a wonderful article that was written in words simple enough for little ol’ me to understand.   Jeannine Virtue wrote about dietary supplementation as alternative treatment for ADHD.  She suggests using flax oil and flaxseed to add the essential omega-3s to foods.  I’m going to try adding a tablespoon of flax oil to a smoothie in the mornings and see how that helps.  We will also limit cereal consumption in favor of eggs and other protein-rich foods at breakfast time.  As I have mentioned before, Victoria is not necessarily a big breakfast eater, but I have seen that incorporating breakfast into a steady routine produces positive results for all of us. 

For the information of those who choose medication, Ms. Virtue suggests that these dietary changes can be used in conjunction with prescribed medication.  And she further says to give it a good 10-12 weeks of effort to really see how it will work with a particular child. 

Looks like I’ll be able to report on this particular leg of the adventure sometime around Christmas.  But you know I’ll be chiming in about it long before then! 🙂

Day 108: Breakfast Menu Blues

Tags

Food

I don’t know why I can’t just let this go.  Breakfast is an issue, even though we have successfully enjoyed breakfast together since I last wrote about it.  But now I am seeing things that I need to correct somehow before breakfast becomes an outright problem.

My typical nature is to want to cook everything.  PLEASE UNDERSTAND this does not mean that I do cook everything, just that I typically want to.  But we don’t all want to eat the same things in the mornings.  Hey, it’s taken us a while to get to this point.  I don’t want to blow it just because I got all uppity about my role in the cooking.

Mornings are rushed – their very nature makes that so.  Ideally, I’ll have everyone in the kitchen by 5’til 7 so that we can set the table, gather our drinks and sit down.  My morning routine does not leave me time to prepare four completely separate meals.  (Actually, two meals.  The kids are pretty handy on their own with a cereal bowl!)  And yesterday morning, I wanted something unusual at the last minute.  I decided to make these awesome fat-burning oatmeal pancakes.  Ok, the magazine article called them awesome.  Dom called them anything but, and phrased it in his usual kind way: “We don’t have to have these again, do we?”  I called them tolerable.  Perhaps they were only tolerable because I didn’t have all the specific ingredients called for in the recipe – I kind of improvised.  I will do the recipe justice later and prepare the pancakes as they were meant to be so that I can offer a fair and final evaluation.  But yesterday morning as I juggled bowls and batter, that just wasn’t happening. 

So in the middle of all this, it occurred to me that I really do need a breakfast menu – one with lots of options for pre-cooked recipes.  It’s grocery day again (ugh).  Maybe I can come up with something workable between now and Wal Mart.

Day 107: The Perils of Halloween Decadence

Tags

Food

As the weather begins to turn and thoughts of Halloween begin to enter the picture, I have three major concerns:

1. Is it too early to put Monster Mash back into my playlist?
2. Will I gain all my weight back by my natural addiction to candy corn?
3. How on earth will I monitor the kids’ candy intake?!

I must admit the kids know what is in most all Halloween candy.  Victoria missed her cousin’s birthday party this past weekend, so Aaron came home with a goodie-bag for her.  Vic perused all the candy and announced as she prepared it for consumption, “Ooooh.  This one has Yellow 6 in it.  But it’s SOOOOO GOOD!!!!!”  (They particularly like Butterfinger candy bars.)

They have done so well at going without “all the bad stuff” that I hate to tell them they can’t have Halloween candy.  I was scolded by co-workers when I suggested disallowing Halloween candy.  And really, the scolding was quite warranted.  No Halloween candy?  Why don’t I just poison Santa’s reindeer while I’m at it?  No, I’ll be fair and allow candy.  But I will insist on limits.    

As for me…I have proven so far that if a sweet item has no chemically harmful ingredients in it, I am quite capable of over-indulgence. Need I mention the Newman-O’s again????  And I must confess that I have searched high and low for organic candy corn, and found it to be as mythical as unicorns.  So I am just waiting for the chance to pounce on some Brach’s, but I know that it could mean finding a few of the pounds I lost earlier.  So I will try very hard to avoid the candy aisle for another couple of weeks. Maybe I should just stick to lollipops and chocolate. 

Happy handy-dandy candy season!

Day 106: When Dessert Does Ya Wrong

Tags

chemical ingredients, Food

I remember it well.  Every time I see icing roses on a cake, I immediately travel back in time to a summer when I was around age 10.  I would spend my summer days at work with my mom, usually perched atop a filing cabinet in the front window of the animal hospital, or playing on the intercom system pretending to be collecting clients’ past-due bills.  One day, a staff member had a birthday and the celebration was made complete with a beautiful store-bought cake.  My child-eyes settled on the pink rose decorations, and being the youngest person at the “party,” I was of course offered my pick of the cake slices.  I eagerly selected the one with a huge pink rose balanced on the top and carefully retreated to a corner seat of the boss’s office to indulge in this heavenly treat.  I first ate the cake part, then the icing, saving the rose for the last bite.   And even though I had been meticulous up to this point, the rose was to be devoured in one swooping solitary bite.  I closed my eyes, raised the fork to my lips, and…

Chomp!

A fleeting second later, I knew something was dreadfully wrong.  What had posed as a sugary sweet, delicately shaped flower of butter cream icing was revealed to be something far different.  Worse.  Way worse.   It had the consistency of cake icing, but it tasted like…like…airplane glue!

(Allow me to clarify. If I had ever tasted airplane glue, I would imagine that it should taste exactly as this icing flower tasted.  I would expect absolutely no difference.  But no, for the record, I have never actually tasted airplane glue. That’s just gross.)

That single icing rose left an indelible impression on me, to say the least.  Twenty years later when I started my cake business, I would remember that pathetic excuse of a decoration as I carefully piped butter cream roses for my cakes.  I was single-handedly going to insure that no other person had to suffer the airplane-glue of cake décor.  Not if I had any say in the matter!

Now that you understand my disdain for abhorrent crap cleverly disguised as dessert, let’s move into the present.  I have a sweet tooth.  Got it from my grandmother, or at least that’s her story.  And I’ve seen her go after dessert, so I’m not doubting!  I have gone through most of this life loving chocolate.  (Um, actually, I’d swim in it if I could.  Throw in some cream cheese, and I would be perfectly happy to drown in it.  But that’s just me.)  However, I never knew how duped we were in our sweets until recently. 

My friend Jessica shared with me that Kit Kat bars tasted 100% better when she was in England than they did here.  Why?  Once again, it’s because of the fillers and crap that other countries don’t bother putting into their foods.  But here in the good ol’ USA, we do.  We add wax to our chocolate and artificial colors to just about anything that will stand still.  And we call it candy, dessert, snacks, and treats. I had no idea how prominent this fact was until I tried organic dark chocolate and organic lollipops. 

Seriously. Without all the added colors, preservatives and extra petroleum-based fluff, food can taste good.  Really good.  No, I don’t mean like McDonald’s-French-Fries good.  Waaaaaay better.  Get past what we are mired in every day.  Reach above it all and insist on something better.  Taste and see.  When real fruit is used to flavor candy, the result is amazing.  I’ll be honest with you, I’m not a lollipop kind of girl.  Hard candy really isn’t my thing, but I remember getting all excited when I’d go with my parents to the bank and the teller would send me one of those green suckers with the looped stick.  Cute, but pretty tasteless.  (The sucker, not the teller.)  Of course, I didn’t realize then how tasteless it was because I had never had anything better.  But now I have, and there’s just no going back. 

Now, while I’m on the subject of artificial colors, I’d like to point out that refrigerated pie crusts (the ones in the box where you can roll them out if you need to, or use as-is) have artificial colors.  If you’re like me, your first thought is, “Really?  They make an artificial putty color for pie crusts?”  Sort of.  They use Red 40 and Yellow 5.  Now, I can’t remember the last time I made a pie crust from scratch and said, “It’s almost ready.  It just needs a little more orange!”  So I’m tempted to lose my manners and ask a very serious “What the _____?!”  It’s flour and water and some butter, for Pete’s sake.  No one expects it to look like anything else.  Besides, I’m going to bake it to a near-brown anyway.  So why the extra colors?

In the end, I may not know why, but I certainly know why not.  I am just pleased as punch that following through on the why not has led me to some really sweet treats!  Now, go buy some SunSpire almond butter cups, or some Green & Black’s dark chocolate, or some Yummy Earth suckers.  Hurry…Halloween’s coming! 🙂