Sustainable Living Solutions

The focus of this eco tour video-pod is on the Ecovillage Training Center, a learning center for sustainability founded by Albert Bates. The Ecovillage Training Center is a living workshop environment where you can learn organic food production, natural building, permaculture and how to create and live in harmony within the means of nature. This video pod is an educated walkthrough intended to create a window into some of these eco methodologies and green technologies as well as thoughts and ideas by Albert regarding the creation of an ecovillage and the need to scale down our wants and needs.... I lived here!!!

Healthy Home Cooking

You are: A professional or full-time parent who truly values and understands high-vibrational food, and who is having trouble providing the healthy meals you and your family deserve.

I am: A home cook dedicated to the highest quality ingredients and cooking methods... Excited for the opportunity to live my passion and at the same time support you in creating a more healthy lifestyle for yourself and your family by providing a few vegetarian meals a week.

Healthy Home Cooking
Serving Hillsborough, Princeton, New Brunswick areas.
Click here for my current meal and price list

Contact: healthyhomecook [at] gmail.com --> replace [at] with @

Meals are prepared in my home Monday night and delivered to your home Tuesday in the early evening. Groceries are purchased Sunday evening or Monday. Eliminate much of your shopping, cooking, and clean-up so you can have more time caring for yourself, your family and home.

More about Healthy Home Cooking....

To me, preparing food is a devotional act. I believe that my energy goes into the food, and so I create meals with love and gratitude. I promise when I create a meal for you it will be the highest quality that was possible for me at that time.

I am a very conscious consumer and have the same standards when shopping for my clients. I prefer to buy produce at farmer's markets and support small health food stores. I purchase organic and local ingredients whenever possible, and I also try to support small businesses and family farms. In the summer much of the produce will either be grown organically by me or friends. I prefer bulk goods or items with minimal packaging. I only use high quality sea salt, soy sauce, organic oils, etc. I also only use natural cleaners that biodegrade quickly.

***

I am currently attending the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC and will soon be offering Health Counseling services.

Treating Burns Naturally

My friend Shannon got a terrible burn on her wrist, from over 200 degree water. The people she worked with wanted her to go to the hospital, and her mother wanted her to take antibiotics. Luckily for me, her desire for natural remedies presented me with an opportunity to put to use my herbal medicine training. And here I extend to you our natural treatments and her healing progress. I encourage you to do your own research as well and choose the treatment you feel most comfortable and safe with.

The first thing to understand is that the area that has been burned is intensely heated and aggravated, and so you want to cool and soothe it. Most people recommend running your burn under cool water. I have heard that you may not want to do this for a severe burn. Please consult your doctor or use your best judgment on this one.

For me, the easiest and most accessible treatment for burns is honey. Honey is not only soothing and cooling, it also contains antibiotic properties and provides a protective barrier over the burn. Cover the entire area with a thick layer (though not too thick that it drips off). Continuously add honey as needed. I personally would use raw honey because I believe it is more medicinal and moisture-rich, or another high quality honey, but any honey would be helpful.

Some people recommend wrapping plastic wrap around your honey-covered burn. Feel free to try this treatment if it resonates with you, however for me I would think that wrapping your burn in plastic wrap would trap heat in and suffocate it, and what we want to do is allow your wound to breath and cool.

Aloe vera is also a great external natural burn treatment. You can sometimes find an aloe vera leaf at a farmers market or health food store. You can also plan ahead by having this beautiful and easy plant in your home. If you cannot find an aloe plant or leaf, then you can buy aloe vera gel at many different places. Take care to look at the ingredients and try to find one that is 100% aloe, or only a few other natural ingredients. The one I have contains sunflower and safflower oil.

Herbal Remedies for Burns...

Now for some less-accessible, but very effective burn treatments....

I have learned that St. John's wort oil is superior for burns. St. John's wort contains, among other chemicals, hypericin- a powerful antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory substance. As my teacher Gail Edwards states in her book, St. John's wort "promotes rapid

healing of the skin and prevents infection. Studies of people with severe burns found St. John's wort oil substantially cut healing time and significantly reduced scarring. I once pourned an entire pot of boiling potatoes on my foot (don't ask me how). I used honey and St. John's wort internally and externally. The discomfort was soothed and I healed beautifully... Today you cannot see a trace of that burn."

I have an infused oil of St. John's wort that I made in Maine in my medicine chest. You can purchase the oil and tincture from Blessed Maine Herb Farm, click here. You can also make it yourself. All you need is to know where to harvest the plant, olive oil, and a ball jar. Infused oils need to sit for about 6 weeks so this is something you have to prepare ahead of time in case you or someone you know gets burned!

To be sure that the plant is St. John's wort, pick off a yellow flower and crush between your fingers. If it gives off a purple dye, it is St. John's wort. You can also identify it by holding it up to the sun- you should see tiny holes and little red dots. Gather the top part of the plant, both the leaves and the flowers, on a sunny day. Any dew on the plant can cause your oil tooil. Stir to make sure all parts of the plant are covered in oil and to release any air bubbles. Fill to the brim with oil, doing your best to keep all plant material under the surface. Cover with lid. There should be no air in the jar, which for me usually means a little oil spills

over when I fill it. For St. John's wort oil AND ONLY FOR ST JOHNS WORT, you want to leave it in the sun for about an hour to activate the medicinal properties. Then leave in a cool dark place for 6 weeks, checking on it every once in awhile. It will be purplish. If mold appears at the top, scrape off the top layer of plant material and fill with oil. If mold is throughout then the oil is ruined and you must throw it away and start again. Use topically on your burn. Shannon liked to mix it with honey. Gail used the tincture internally and the oil externally to aid in healing.

If you want to make an oil for your medicine

chest and you can't find St. John's wort, another

great plant for burns, and very easy to find, is Plantain. It is soothing, cooling, and healing.

Follow the directions above, omitting the part where it is left out in the sun. THE ONLY OIL YOU LEAVE IN THE SUN IS ST JOHNS WORT. Again, this oil is for external use only.

To help reduce the risk of infection while treating your burn the natural way, be sure to eat lots of antibiotic raw garlic and honey.

How To Stay Young

Found this in some old papers of mine... I don't know who wrote it or where it came from but I like it! Read on....

How To Stay Young

• Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight, and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay her/him.

• Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

• Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

• Enjoy the simple things.

• Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

• The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

• Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever... your home is your refuge.

• Cherish your health: If it's good, preserve it. If it's unstable, improve it. If it's beyond what you can improve, get help.

• Don't take guilt trips.

• Tell the people you lve that you love them, at every opportunity.

And I would add to that list:

• Pick your battles. Most of the time its just not worth it.
• Be silly. Get in costume and go to a halloween party. Or throw a costume party.
  
• Let go. Life is what we take out of it. Take out the good things and leave the bad.
• And the obvious... EAT WELL! Use your kitchen. Eat lots of vegetables, mostly raw. Keep organic dark chocolate in your house. But also go out to a yummy restaurant and thoroughly enjoy the food, atmosphere, and the company you are with. Rich restaurant food and junk food can be good for the soul as long as you don't loose control, and as long as you don't feel guilty while eating it.

Make Your Own Personal Pizza- Simple and Healthy!

My friend Shannon made this one for me, and I liked it so much I prepared it for one of my personal chef clients. It is simple and delicious....

Buy whole wheat pita bread.

Saute a little garlic and onion with olive oil in a frying pan for a few minutes and add tomato paste mixed with a little water until it reaches sauce-like consistency. Add salt, pepper, oregano, marjoram, and basil. (If you don't have marjoram or basil don't worry about it, but in my opinion the oregano is key.) Saute on low heat for 10 or 15 minutes, stirring as to not burn the sauce.

Spread the sauce over the pita bread. I leave a little space around the edges for a crust.

Add grated cheese (I like cheddar)

Cut some zucchini and mushrooms thinly and add to the pizza. Chop broccoli, red peppers, and whatever else you like and add it as well, pushing it gently into the pizza.

Put the pizza in the oven on 350 for 15 minutes, checking a few times to make sure it doesn't burn.

Take it out and add feta cheese and olives.

Time Flies- plus another American Roadtrip

It has been too long since I last posted. Since August I finished up the fall season at the yoga retreat center, participating in retreats like the the Raw Foods and Juicing 10 day cleanse and the Thai Massage workshop. During the Thai Massage retreat (led by Jason Beasley) we flew in a beautiful Thai cook who provided one authentic Thai meal each day. We were also blessed by the visit and prayers of Lao monks dressed in bright orange robes. To top it all off we had an incredible costume dance party Saturday night to celebrate halloween.The fall provided us with a local bounty of fresh vegetables to cook for our guests. I breathed deeply as I walked the leaf covered path through the forest from my cabin to the main lodge each morning and every night. It was the best I've ever lived, ending with bittersweet goodbyes just 1 week ago.













I rented a car with a silly friend and we headed north out of Tennessee into Kentucky, stopping first at the Blue Grass Brewery in Louisville. From there we followed our princess feet and the stories of strangers to Daniel Boone National Forest. Unable to find a highway on the map, we stopped at a gas station where a gatekeeper showed us the hidden way. When we entered the 70-foot one-lane rock tunnel portal we discovered ourselves amidst the magic and beauty of the famous Red River Gorge. We were soon running and playing and climbing on the different rock formations and sky bridges, finally nestling into the ovary of Princess Rock.

Our next stop was Athens, Ohio to visit a friend from the Ecovillage Training Center who just finished building his 30 ft. yurt in the beautiful country outside town. I was impressed with the countryside with its dairies and farms that provide locally, and also fell in love with the town and the Farmacy- a food coop, a used book store, a trade-conscious coffee shop, and a worker-owned restaurant called Casa Nueva. While in Athens I bought locally-made soap, a used book, and a vintage green cashmere sweater.

From there we drove through Pennsylvania to Willow Pond herb farm, just in time to view a live lavender pruning----- demonstrated, to our shock and amusement, with a chainsaw. It is a pretty farm that specializes in lavender (they have over 100 varieties) and also grows other herbs, providing products like bulk medicinal herbs, homemade soap, tea, potpourri, and more.

Just a 10 minute drive from there and we traveled back in time to civil war era Gettysburg, walking amidst women in bonnets and protruding skirts, men in uniform smoking cigarettes on grassy knolls, some with small children also dressed the part, others getting drunk on the porch outside the pub... Confederate flags waving in the wind... It was a site to see and experience...

Our last destination before my vagabond traveling companion and I parted ways was Annapolis, capitol of Maryland and beautiful little city. I spent the night there, got a yummy cup of coffee at City Dock in the morning and traveled north by myself to my final stop- Colts Neck, NJ.

And here I am, searching the internet for a vehicle to maneuver my way through this driving culture, and either an apartment a walk-away from work or a work-trade scenario for a room in an old farmhouse in exchange for rent. The journey continues as I search for a sustainable solution for living in this place and these times.

Raw Food and Juicing Cleanse

I am currently in the middle of a juicing cleanse, and I am feeling great after a slump in energy and attitude yesterday. I began changing my diet last week, consuming a large amount of raw foods, and not going out to eat. On Friday I began eating only raw, live foods, which believe me was not at all what you would call squirrel food. We had crackers and spreads and dips and kimchee and a fat salad. Saturday for breakfast we ate soaked oat groats blended with dates, banana, and ginger, and a large fruit bowl. For lunch it was spring rolls, veggies wrapped in collard greens and smothered in the most delicious almond butter sauce, and dipped in a pineapple red pepper flake sauce (recipes to follow). Another one of my favorite dishes was baby portobello mushrooms, marinated and stuffed with pesto, then put in the dehydrator for an hour. For breakfast on Sunday we had crepes- with an incredible coconut sauce.

Dinner on Sunday was liquid, and since then I have been drinking 3 different juices a day followed by an evening smoothie treat.

A nurse came by to give us a check-up. She was concerned about my low blood pressure: 74/59. I have known for a few years now that I have low blood pressure but that was the lowest I've ever had. She asked if I felt tired and I told her that I'm tired almost every day, sometimes I feel too tired to stand, but I just push through it. So she thinks I may be anemic and (she is vegan) recommended blackstrap molasses to raise my iron levels. I searched through my herb bible- Gail Faith Edwards' Opening Our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs- to search for herbs that are good for anemia. Her book has an awesome index and I easily found what I was looking for. I decided to go to her website www.blessedmaineherbs.com and was pleased to see that it had been redesigned and was now easily navigable. She offers TONS of information, like articles on building healthy heart and bones, herbs for women, herbs for mind and spirit, etc.

I found her Mama Roots Iron Tonic- blood building, iron-rich, building strength and vitality for those who are easily fatigued. For $22 this tincture contains yellow dock, dandelion and nettle.
The cleanse also consists of dry brushing your skin to scrub away the toxins, getting sunshine, rebounding exercises to help clear the lymph nodes, saunas, yoga, and plenty of good spring water. (see my post What the Doctor Ordered)

The Sledgehammer Approach To Spiritual Awakening

Emerging at dawn from my solitude in the Pine Barrens to join again with my fellow vision-questers, I can barely contain my joy as I rush back to base camp for warm hugs and miso soup. I am thrilled to be out of my 10' diameter circle I called home for the 4-day fast. My chigger bites no longer itch but BURN. I will never again say there are not enough hours in the day. Every thunderstorm that comes my way I will recall dancing naked in the pouring rain in complete acceptance of my spot between the two largest trees I could see. Malcom calls the vision quest the "sledgehammer approach to spiritual awakening," and this is not to be taken lightly, for if you choose this it will most likely be the most difficult thing you do, both during and after.

Today I feel sick with this modern culture and its chemical-filled food, advertising images, florescent lighting, abandoned strip malls, and ever-growing concrete. In my culture shock I see clearly how much change I would love to see and help create, yet the change that is needed is so drastic and so massive in this moment I no longer believe it is possible. Maybe our only real hope is the mastering of primitive skills and permaculture. I am so thirsty...

Looking at my nightmares.... My feelings of instability run so deep- deeper than getting thrown into an entire new family dynamic in my pre-teen years, deeper than my mother leaving, deeper than my brother dying... The very nature of Earth, spinning in space around an immortal star, meteors flying by, ocean levels rising, hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, tornados, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, nuclear war, the evil that government is capable of, pollution, irradiated food, street violence, air plane crashes... How can I feel stable in this life? Sometimes there is so much fear and insecurity in me it is almost crippling...

Everyone wants to be happy
Don't keep serving them your pain!

If you could untie
your wings and free
your soul of jealousy
(and fear, and anger, and blame)

You and everyone
around you would
fly up like doves.

-Rumi

And I realize, all you can really do is nurture yourself, love the people you share their life with, be kind to those you meet along the way, and try to make the most conscious and compassionate choices possible in this crazy world.

A New York Saint

Jorge Munoz is a bus driver in Queens, NY, who provides the homeless in his neighborhood with a home-cooked meal every night. With roughly half of his $700/wk paycheck, Munoz and his family's personal outreach program have provided 120 to 140 meals every night over the past four years, an estimated 70,000 dinners.

Imagine what the world would be like if there were people like Munoz in every neighborhood? We don't need big bucks to make a real difference, just big compassion and dedication.

Watch this video or read the article here

Dancing With Discomfort

How relaxing and rejuvenating yoga can be. I lie on the floor, first on my back, then on my belly.... Taking my time I gently roll around, taking notice of tightness in my neck, shoulders and back. A downward dog gracefully maneuvers into an upward dog and back again. I sigh deeply. Life is good... One leg swings forward into a lunge and suddenly,

as if all the trees had been ripped up from Earth like in that Star Wars movie,
I hold my breath I start to sweat my face gets tense with struggle as a silent groan emerges from the depths of my hips which I swallow before it can leave my lips and as quickly as my stiffness lets me I move back into the safety and relative ease of downward dog.

Who likes discomfort?

It is the parts of our bodies that ache the most that we need to give the most attention to. It is in these areas that we store our stress and our fears. Sure, our ego feels really good when we can touch our toes or stand in headstand for 5 minutes. But by ignoring the areas that cause us discomfort we are turning down a beautiful opportunity to really learn something and progress in our yoga.

Growth doesn't occur when we always take the easy way out. A seed must fight through the dense darkness before emerging into the light. It is by practicing the postures that are most difficult for us that we can begin to explore our intimate selves- How do we handle stress? What images do our minds drift off to in order to avoid discomfort?

Dance on the edge of your limits. This applies to more than asana. Where in your life are you avoiding discomfort? Perhaps you still haven't called someone back. Maybe you're avoiding having 'that talk'. Move forward with your intentions, sit in your discomfort with a gentle smile of acceptance, and be open to the beauty this experience can bring.