Home-Steeped Hope

Toxic Peanut Butter

Published by Mary March 9th, 2010 in Cooking and Food and Health. 7 Comments

Cancer causing toxins in peanut butter…what next? They are more correctly called: aflatoxins. Peanuts, and certain other crops such as corn contain the highest risks of aflatoxin contamination, because they attract the molds Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. Aflatoxins are the most toxic, naturally occuring carcinogens known. Yikes!

FYI–”Afla”toxin takes its name from the short hand of its causative agent, the mold A. flavus, A. fla.

A little side trip…

I have always wondered why so many people had peanut sensitivities. But I reasoned my doubts away, thinking peanuts were just highly allergic, like milk. After all, there are so many lactose intolerant people out there, right?

Well, a few months ago, we were introduced to the wonders and health benefits of drinking raw milk, and educated by Mark McAfee on why lactose intolerant people can drink raw milk without any reactions whatsoever. It’s as simple as this: in raw milk, the lactase enzyme hasn’t been killed in the pasteurization process. This enzyme is necessary for many people to be able to break down the milk sugars they drink. Very exciting for certain members of our extended family who haven’t been able to drink store milk for decades! Believe me, they are cured and can drink raw milk all day long now with no adverse reactions.

So I revisited my questions on the peanut butter problem. See, God stuck me with this “inquiring mind” that just won’t stop. I can’t help it. And here’s what I found out. The question is…

Do you really want to know?

Lest you think I’m basing this on internet drivel–please verify it all at the Cornell University website where you will learn wa-ay more than I have room for in this post!

The FAO, Food and Agricultural Organization, estimates that 25% of the world’s crops are affected by mycotoxins, of which aflatoxins are the most notorious.

Aflatoxins are sometimes detected in milk, cheese, corn, peanuts, cottonseed, nuts, almonds, figs, spices, and animal feeds . Milk, eggs, and meat products are occasionally contaminated because of the animal consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated feed.

Most people agree that aflatoxins should be considered very dangerous, and not at all allowable in food, if detectable. However, the United States FDA has set the allowable concentration for aflatoxins in human foods at 20 ppb (parts per billion). Foreign markets let far less get past them, allowing only 4-15 ppb. Animal feed can contain up to 100 ppb, which as we saw previously, sometimes allows for contamination of our dairy products and eggs. Because these molds are colorless, and don’t break down in cooking, it’s difficult to know if our foods are contaminated in these ways. And who knows what slow and steady exposure to aflatoxins will lead to over many years time?

SHOCKER: Evidence exists that Iraq used aflatoxins in their biological weapons–specifically in bombs and warheads! Agh!They evidently think that aflatoxins pose somewhat of a danger to humans!

But back to peanut butter…

Supposedly humans have a high tolerance for aflatoxin exposure, but I’m not willing to take that risk, when the lab results have shown such carcinogenic effects on animals. And not when the experts are also saying that children are at risk from chronic exposure (pb&j anyone?), with such side effects as stunted growth and delayed development.

So you might want to check these things out for yourself.

Personally, our family loves sunbutter made from sunflower seeds. Almond and cashew butters are some other delicious nut butters, great with apple slices, in smoothies, or spread on romaine lettuce leaves and then drizzled with a bit of raw honey! Mmm! We haven’t yet tried to substitute these for peanut butter in cookies…but it’s on our can’t-wait-to-try-this list!

P.S. Since I brought up nut butters, it might be of interest to clarify that peanuts aren’t actually nuts, they are legumes… ;O)

Něco z historie: A Little Bit of History:
From Frustration to Joy

Published by Mary April 18th, 2007 in Home Schooling and Writing. 7 Comments

My daughter learned the rewards of perseverance today…and I did too.

She had a book report to write, and even though it referenced a book she loved, she just really balked at getting it done. Messy handwriting, complaining about every step in the process. It didn’t help that today’s sunshine spilled onto the kitchen table whispering of all she missed while cooped up in the house. In fact, to make matters worse, her sisters were out enjoying the latent spring weather without her.

I almost caved, but decided she needed to apply herself and finish a job started. After all, if I give in to every complaint I’m just asking for trouble, right? And now I’m so glad I didn’t.

Here’s what she wrote, and my praise/disbelief that she’d written it had her beaming on her way out the door. Don’t you think she’s got a bright future in the writing biz?

What I Liked About Champ

by 9 year old aspiring writer

Champ by Marcia Thornton Jones was so interesting that I could not put it down, but I’ll warn you there are some bad words in it.

It is about a boy named Riley and a dog named Champ. Champ lost his front right leg in an accident. The accident was caused by Riley. Riley feels really bad and cannot forget, so he goes to the vets to see how the dog feels. But when he gets there, the owner of Champ is about to put him down! Riley says he will take Champ! What about medical bills? What will his mom and dad say? Will the dog get along with him? You will have to read the book to find out. The moral of this story is never give up! You will really want to read this good story about a boy and his best friend Champ.

The reason I share this, is not only to brag–hey, I know your children are perhaps even more brilliant–but it’s to encourage you to persevere through the challenges we face whether it be in homeschooling or parenting.

Before my daughter headed outside we shared many smiles and hugs, laughing about how the experience had started and ended. I mean, we’d gone from spitting at each other (basically), both frustrated at each other…to laughing and hugging each other in excitement over her achievement and her future.

One of the many hidden joys of homeschooling…

~fyi: the bad words she referred to were just slang words for anatomy that we don’t use in this house! They really bothered her! Anyway, the line was too funny to edit out…

Barley Biscuits

Published by Mary March 2nd, 2010 in Cooking and Food and Health. 2 Comments

Manna from Heaven would be so lovely, in my opinion. We’ve had such a snow-laden winter, that the poor chickens haven’t wanted to free range much. Why bother when the ground is covered with cold, white stuff, right? Sometimes I walk through the drifting snowflakes to do my twice a day chores, and dream of manna. Yes. If those snowflakes were only manna, I’d never again have to pay organic feed prices for my flock!

I did have a manna experience this past week, when our Bible study friends came by and blessed us with their stash of organic grains, and even several bags of milled flour, kinds I’d always wanted to experiment with, but hadn’t yet! Hard red winter wheat, millet, rye, barley, spelt–which is one of our all time favorite grains! Sadly, my friend is giving me these things because her young son has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes…and because of this awesome site’s life changing info: Living Without Type 1, she is finding great success in eliminating grains and dairy from their diet. I encourage you to check the site out yourselves, it’s amazing, people are dealing with Type 1 by changing their diets–eliminating grains, dairy, going raw and organic and as a result, no more insulin shots! This is the delight of “food therapy”–as opposed to drug therapy, check it out!

So tonight we gave barley flour a try…and WOW! We are hooked…fly thee to thy nearest health food store, get some barley flour and hie thee home to bake these…

Barley Biscuits–makes 9-10 biscuits

1. Blend the following dry ingredients in a mixing bowl:

2 cups barley milled from whole barley (or buy barley flour)
4 tsp baking powder (I recommend low sodium and aluminum free)
1 1/2 tsp salt (we love Farmer John’s “real salt”)

2. Blend together in separate bowl:

1 egg, well beaten
1 cup buttermilk (I keep powdered buttermilk on hand, as well as kefir which can be substituted for buttermilk)
1 1/2 TB oil
1 1/2 TB melted butter, unsalted

Or, instead of separating the last two ingredients, you could use 3 TB oil, or 3 TB melted butter–but it’s delicious half and half.

3. Blend liquid ingredients into dry ingredients just until mixed. Dough will be quite soft, like batter, and very light.

4. Drop spoonfuls of batter on lightly greased cookie sheet or stoneware, and bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden on the bottom.

These are the fluffiest, lightest, whole grain biscuits ever–with delicious taste that will appeal to the whole family!

(and while you eat them, pretend you’re one of the 5,000 being fed on five small barley loaves and two fish…)

Next thing I want to try…Ezekiel bread!

Why Homeschool? A Christian’s perspective.

Published by Mary February 23rd, 2010 in Christianity, Culture, Home Schooling and Parenting. 9 Comments

oldkitchen

This morning as I slipped and slid my way to the chicken house over ice and snow, hurrying to get my morning chores done, I realized how cool it is that I was excited to get back to the house, back to my hot cup of black currant tea and my 9 year old and her ‘highest common factors’ math worksheets.

[Even if you don't homeschool, you can imagine with me how it might be hard to be excited about math! *wink*]

But I was. It’s my dream job, one that I never would have taken on without God’s pressuring me to do so! Sometimes I even marvel that in His perfect plan, our finances have never allowed for us to afford private school tuitions. I’m sure I would have caved and enrolled my firstborn at the first opportunity if so. And we would have missed out on this awesome family bonding adventure! And spent so much time on the road, carpooling. Ugh.

I know some of you might be saying “Ugh” to the homeschooling lifestyle, as you read this! Never fear, I’m not here to condemn, just to reason. Please be forewarned though, the following might require a little blindfolding of our cultural prejudices and misconceptions…here is a little of what led my husband and I to choose to home educate.

As a young Christian parent, Deuteronomy 6:5-9 was unsettling to me, when I thought about trying to raise godly children according to this kind of standard. How can you (paraphrasing here) “diligently teach your children to love God with all their heart, soul and might, when you sit and when you stand, when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when you rise up…” That’s a tall order no matter what your lifestyle!

Then, too, my husband and I were surrounded by homeschooling families with bright minds, genuinely loving relationships, and sincere hearts for God. What an advertisement, right there. God spoke to us in many ways, nudging us in the home educating direction, and I’m so glad we listened! He used scripture, videos, Christian family radio, among other things. We were surrounded by good reasons!

Now, this many years later, when I think about all the religious lies being taught in public school, it breaks my heart. Evolution IS a religion, and it IS an unproved theory. In fact, more and more tenets of evolution have been proven wrong in the last fifty years, yet it is still taught as a fact in public schools, in museums, in zoos, etc. Wasn’t it Hitler that said, “The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it?”

What bothers me the most about this, is that if you lined up the basic teachings of evolution with what is taught in God’s word, they are complete opposites. Satan at work, no doubt. It takes a lot more faith to believe that we all came from rocks than to believe that there’s a significantly intelligent engineer behind this universe. In fact, if you really want to be scientific about it, the proof is all over the place. Maybe I’ll go into that in another post.

Guess what God had to say about evolution and public schools, way back in the early church age?

“They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” Romans 1:28

Well, in 1963, God was no longer welcome in public schools. And evolution moved right on in. Interesting that as a result, in the 30 years following this switch off, there was a 500% increase in violent crimes, 400% increase in the divorce rate, 400% increase in illegitimate births, 300% increase in single parent homes, 200% increase in teenage suicides, and a 75% drop in SAT scores. (Heritage Foundations 1993)

Even more scary, is that studies are now relaying the appalling news that75% of all children raised in Christian homes who attend public school will reject the Christian faith by their 1st year of college.

Excuse me? NOT on my watch! God forbid.

2 Thessalonians 2:11 says,

“God will send them strong delusion, that they shall believe a lie.”

[For instance, believing we came from a big bang, billions of years ago?]

Some more heart-sick things to consider…from opposite poles of humanity so to speak:

“I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.” –Martin Luther

“Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state.” –Adolph Hitler

I know this is hard stuff, remember, I said you might have to shed some prejudices to get through this with me…

If you are still here…bless you, I hope you get where I’m coming from.

I know many people who say that they could never homeschool their children. That’s true for some, yes, but not true for the majority of Americans. Yes, it has to be a husband-wife-God decision, but even single moms have pulled it off. I even know of a single mom with cancer who kept homeschooling through it all. Homeschooling is a passionate movement, and yes, it takes dedication.

I haven’t always wanted to hurry inside and snuggle on the couch over math problems with my 9 year old. Every good thing is going to come under attack by the enemy. Nothing worth doing is easy. Yes we’ve had our struggles, but God has been so faithful in all the ways that really matter.

If I can ever be of assistance to you on the subject of homeschooling, drop me a line!

Feel free to air your honest and respectful thoughts in comments. :O)

Parenting Q & A Column

Published by Mary February 16th, 2010 in Christianity, Parenting and Writing. 2 Comments

funny_road_sign Doesn’t this sign capture the sad hilarity of what many people believe is the inevitably bumpy road of parenting?

Let’s face it, there really is a crush of godless parenting advice out there, and sometimes I think the devil just brainstormed up every parenting lie possible that completely opposes scripture and like Hitler’s cronies, we buy the outrageous lies with no questions asked. And the fine print on the price tag demands our children’s souls.

A biblical worldview is crucial to raising godly children in this culture. This simply means putting on your “God lenses”, becoming familiar with His words, seeking His will for every facet of your life. It may be old-fashioned and unpopular, but it’s obedience! God tells us in His word to “come out from them and be separate” yet how is this done exactly?

I’m ever so thankful for my Christian upbringing by loving parents, and for the several older and wiser couples along the way who weren’t afraid to stop alongside and share what God had shown them about this great adventure of parenting. It’s so easy to get discouraged, confused, off-track and just plain exhausted when it comes to raising kids with a Biblical world-view, a heart for others and that genuinely want to obey and respect God and their elders. I do firmly believe it is possible, yes, even in 2010, to accomplish this because in spite of many failures on my part, I’m seeing the sweet fruit in my children every day. We’re not talking perfection, ha. But parenting by the “Book” does reap radical rewards.

I love opportunities to encourage other moms to take to heart the Biblical direction found in Titus 2 to “…love their husbands and to love their children…” and to “Train up a child in the way he should go…” so I was excited when a pastor friend asked me to contribute to the Parenting Q & A portion of his website, WordExplain.com. So far I’ve contributed two articles, the most recent one is titled, “When Life is Not Fair.” If you have any questions you’d like addressed in the column, please email Mary[@]homesteepedhope.com–without the brackets, and I’ll do my best to share the bottom line of what’s worked for our family. If you do take time to stop by his site, I want to add that there are many more parenting articles archived there covering a variety of subjects.

“What God is to the world, parents are to their children.”

–Philo

It’s a big responsibility, but let me ask this…what in the world are we doing for God’s sake? If you’re a parent, there’s your answer.

Celebrating our January heat wave!

Published by Mary January 11th, 2010 in Life. 11 Comments

After weeks of gloomy skies and single digit nights, we finally saw the sun today! 44 degrees honestly felt like 75 to my sun-starved psyche.

So this evening before dark, my husband hooked up the hillbilly sleigh–an old pick-up truck hood padded with horse blankets and strapped to the back of the four-wheeler (yes, I know, we’re insane). From then on it was a whirl, ride after ride swooshing down our curvy snow-packed lane,with us spinning halfway around the ATV on each side and oh, we had to hang on tight to jump the ditch into the fields and then: heart in your throat time! Somehow I still managed to scream plenty. FUN times! Scary times. Reminded me of all the times hubby and I used to goof around like that in our dating days, with his dad and older brother. Hilarious wipe outs galore.

Family bonding of the best sort!

After the wild rides were over, we gathered wood and kindling and built a cozy fire in the grill pit. Though the temperature had dropped to 28 degrees, we were plenty warm inside! I’d thawed a stack of KC Strips and we happened to have half a bag of large marshmallows to roast. Meat and sweets! I ran inside to put the tea kettle on for hot drinks, when the UPS truck rolled up the drive bearing my Christmas order of Black Currant tea from First Colony Coffee! Happy!

If you’ve never sipped a hot beverage in 28 degree weather, let me say you are missing out! Mmm. And the still night air, so crisp! And snow everywhere…made the steamy, fruity essence that much sweeter!

Oven baked fries will round out our winter frolic here in a bit, eaten inside, of course, with frosted mittens and snowsuits hanging in the laundry room to dry…

And I’m off…

January Planning

Published by Mary January 4th, 2010 in Home Schooling and Homemaking. 2 Comments

09houseSnow Got a yen to organize thy household? Well, step right up. There’s nothing wrong with a little “New Year’s” motivation…and with single digit temps and snow everywhere, there’s not much to do outside. Wish you could see the curvy path I’ve tramped through the snow to the chicken barn each morning and night the past two weeks…it’s not quite a tunnel yet…*smile*. The chickens won’t even venture forth in this weather. They peek out at the bright snow and blink.

So, I’ve been having fun printing off a slew of great organizational helps at donnayoung.org this morning. For instance, her month-on-a-page household planner would be a great way to track monthly bills and “mental notes” in a binder from one year to the next. Need a greeting card registry, or a telephone number chart? How about refills for your yearly planner? She has several sizes and choices. She also has chore charts for kids, homeschool planners of every kind. We discovered her site this past fall, and have really been blessed by her generosity. Everything there is free, AND, it’s a Christian website!I personally like her “checklist” for a semester at a glance–it’s all on one page and what a way to see how much you’ve accomplished and how far you have to go!

So how is your New Year shaping up so far? Cold like mine?

Blessings,

Mary

Between Christmas and New Year’s…

Published by Mary December 26th, 2009 in Christianity and Cooking and Food. 0 Comments

I love year’s end!

Right now we’ve got snow drifted everywhere…enough that it completely blizzarded us in on Christmas day. Since Christmas dinner for the family was to be at “our place” we’ve got a lot of leftovers to enjoy! It’s a good thing we all love turkey…

So I have a couple of 2009 parting gifts for you…

First, here’s my favorite turkey soup recipe, dug up from the Weekend Kindness archives. Enjoy!

Wendy’s Pumpkin Soup

Melt 2 TB butter or margarine in a large kettle
Add 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper (optional) and 1 small chopped onion
Saute bell pepper and onion in melted butter till soft, not brown
Blend in 2 TB flour and 1 tsp salt
Add 2 cups chicken stock, 1 15 oz can unsweetened pumpkin, 2 cups milk, 1/8 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp parsley, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 1/2 cups precooked poultry (chicken or turkey), 1 cup precooked brown rice.
Cook till heated through and enjoy!

And second, do any of you have any encouragement for the rest of us concerning your personal or family devotion time in 2009? If you remember, I posted a New Testament reading schedule a year ago, and I’m just a bit curious to know if any of you pursued that in any way. Here’s a funny…someone I don’t even know personally, but knows a friend of a friend, challenged her Sunday School students to read through the NT in 2009, supposedly after reading my blog post last year. Exciting! Happily, our family made it through the New Testament too. Now we just need to decide where we’re going to start in 2010! Everybody seems to have their own ideas on what we’re doing. We only have five days to figure it out!

In looking through past posts, I found this one that has some ideas in comments for how you guys fit time for God’s word into your day. It might be worth re-reading! I know it blessed me! It’s titled, “When you are cut, do you bleed the Bible?”

Here’s what Tommy Nelson says about the subject,

“Live life on purpose! Get up at 6 A.M., and get you an addictive substance.” (That would be coffee) “5 pages a day will get you through most Bibles in a year…”

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Merry Christmas 2009!

Published by Mary December 25th, 2009 in Christianity. 0 Comments

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince Of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

Ahh…this is my favorite portion of the music in Handel’s Messiah. Majestic, isn’t it? All month it’s been singing in my heart. Though tonight, with the blizzarding and wind gusts slamming into my drafy old farmhouse, the lyrics going through my head are more along the lines of Winter Wonderland. Sure is “frightful” out there! But so cozy to be inside, out of the cold.

This Christmas with so many of us feeling the reality of this economy on an already tight budget, it’s a good time to take the focus off of ourselves and our needs and wants, and instead be grateful for the many blessings God’s granted to us. Number one: our Savior! The world is truly a “frightful” place without Him reigning supreme in your life. If you haven’t already, come into His “light” and find peace and warmth, and eternal security by believing that Jesus died for you personally, that day at Calvary.

I am so grateful for His loving mercy and grace in my life. He’s blessed me with a godly husband, and three pure-hearted daughters, and though living on one income these days is a challenge, we’re reaping the benefits of all this time spent with each other. My cup is so full.

Let’s remember the wisdom from Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest,

“Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives.”

Probably of all the thing competing against keeping Jesus the center of Christmas, self-centeredness or “self-awareness” is a biggie.

Praying for a day of Christ-awareness in your life and mine today!

Blessings,

Mary

Let’s talk organic!

Published by Mary December 1st, 2009 in Cooking and Food, Health, In The News and Life. 3 Comments

Okay, the bottom line is age related problems and diseases are widely thought to be caused by two things: consuming insufficient nutrients and adding on top of that, a lifetime truckload of toxic chemicals. This alone is a huge argument for eating organic food when possible–firstly because it is chock full of nutrients, antioxidants and Omega 3’s compared to your non-organic foods and secondly…it contains no toxic chemicals or heavy metals–while unorganic foods are saturated with them in various forms, thanks to fertilizers, pesticides, etc.

(Go read this article at Science Daily for just one example of how toxic chemicals found in pesticides cause things like Parkinson’s disease, and for more stats on just how much healthier organic foods are than their unorganic counterparts visit this article.)

Yet, very few people–at least in my experience here in the mid-west–want their family and friends to label them as organic fanatics! So here’s my disclaimer to all my family and friends: going all organic is my *someday* goal, but never to the point of “bringing my own snacks to parties” etc. Our family loves food, loves fellowship and we have plenty of unhealthy eating habits. That said…I have to write this post. It’s pretty important info in today’s McDonald’s “dumbed down” culture where kids are raised loving refined products made from white flours and sugars, where genetically modified foods abound, and grocery stores sell HFCS everything and milk-flavored drinking beverages. What has happened to real food??? And why aren’t more people demanding answers?

I’ll tell you what happened…this profit driven, fast-turnover, long shelf life agenda happened. Sadly, going “organic” has had a bad rep in past years, but as more people get educated about health, they’re seeing how valuable real food really is. Organic is simply the way people grew food before the chemical ways became the norm. Back when dirt was dirt, and honeybees weren’t dying from all the pesticides.

I recently viewed The Truth about Organic Food, a 75 minute 2007 DVD interview of David Getoff, a Traditional Naturopathic Doctor with a full time health and wellness practice in San Diego, California. Wonderful introduction and overview of what “organic” is, why it’s beneficial and necessary for a long, healthy life, and how to know which “organic” products are worth buying. For instance, grass fed, free range, cage free and natural all mean varying degrees of “good for you”…and certain organic beefs were only organic (hormone & antibiotic free) for their last 90 days on this earth, according to organic standards in labeling. Organic labeling can be tricky, and just because something is organic does not mean it is healthy. Sure an organic candy bar is probably more healthy for you than a normal one, but as David Getoff says, “Cobra venom is organic–mercury, arsenic, and lead get pulled out of the earth and they’re organic!” So do your research, or better yet, grow your own!

Interesting history regarding fertilizers…

Chemical fertilizers replaced “green manure crops” as a way to put minerals and nutrients back into the soil, more time and cost effectively. Farmers and scientists must have put their heads together to find a way to grab back those seasons spent raising rye grass or other “green manure” crops that would then be plowed under as a way to naturally replenish the soil of all the goodies that crops take in their making. Somebody did the research, and found that the top chemicals the soil needed were N, P, and K–the ones found on all the fertilizer bags you buy at the farm store: Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus. So they reasoned, let’s just pour this on, and get things back in the ground. Money talks, and this would be cheaper than growing a green manure crop, not to mention, you’d get those months back for growing a cash crop. Makes a lot of sense. Problem is, there are SO many minerals that our bodies need for health that are not contained in a bag of NPK fertilizer! For instance, one that Getoff shared in the DVD was Boron–Boron is a deficiency duly noted in osteoporosis patients. Selenium is another, if you don’t get enough Selenium, the cancer rate goes way up.

But on the outside, these plants grown with chemical fertilizers look great. They are cheaper for the farmer, but they are not giving the people what they need–trace minerals and nutrients, AND the foods don’t taste as good.

Organic growers have found a wealth of minerals still in the ocean and use soil amendments such as kelp meal, crabshell meal, fish meal to put the minerals and life back into nutrient robbed soil. Visit www.groworganic.com for more info. For even more info, check out the book: Worms Eat My Garbage.

Interesting thoughts regarding pesticides…

Okay, so in the beginning, somebody wanted to keep the bugs from eating plants. As in a lot of things, no one seems to have put a lot of thought into the far-reaching effects of dumping chemicals in the ground. How would insectisides affect beneficial insects, birds, bees and pollination…the soil itself? It is interesting to note, that on big organic farms, pests aren’t a terrible problem. It almost seems as if the pests are attracted to the wilting, unhealthy plants, leaving the others alone. However, if today’s conventional farmer were to give up using his pesticides after years of use, all the insects in the world would demolish his crop. David Getoff likens it to the way a shark is attracted to a dying fish. I know personally, if I remember to put newspaper collars on my tomato seedlings, I never have cutworms. Good-bye Seven’s dust forever…now if only there were an easier remedy for squash bugs than squashing…

Avoid unorganic fats because of pesticide saturation

Another biggie that I took away from watching this DVD was the fact that pesticides are fat soluble. This means that the pesticide residue on our fruits and veggies (which by the way, is not easily washed or soaked off) binds to our fat cells. Fat soluble, NOT water soluble…these buggars are not going to be eliminated via sweat or urination. And so many people are on low-fat diets, that these toxins are going to sit around in their fat cells indefinitely. The good news, is that you can let go of these old fats by eating new, organic ones. And it’s a pretty important step to take in the organic process…switching to organic fats. Because so many toxic chemicals bind to fats, David Getoff recommends definitely switching to using EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), organic butter, and buying organic eggs for the high-fat content in egg yolks, and organic pastured poultry meat for the good fats found in the skin. Same thing with nuts, since they are very high fat. Buy organic.

To sum up, make changes where you can. Our family has been taking small steps as we’ve found the avenues to support this way of eating. Okay, maybe butchering my own chickens hasn’t been that “small” of a step, but it sure didn’t happen overnight! Switching to organic fats (EVOO, Coconut oil and butter), organic free range eggs and raw milk are things we definitely all should look into, as these things contain more toxic residue that sits around in our bodies causing trouble.

Yes, organic costs more. So put less money into the less important things. Do you really need that new car? Good health is more important. Organically grown foods have more vitamins, no toxins, and thousands of percents more minerals. There are ways around the cost, one of which is to grow your own foods without pesticides, etc. Or find a CSA farm in your area and see if they’ll let you work off part of a season’s food share. Find a food co-op at which you can purchase all your favorite health store goodies at wholesale prices, and so much more!

Finally, if you aren’t yet convinced, a Rutgers University study compared commercially- vs. organically-grown fruits and vegetables. They were astounded at how organic produce whopped the competition!

Commercially grown fruits and vegetables are less expensive, are prettier to look at, contain approximately 10-50% of the nutrients found in organic produce, are often depleted in enzymes, and are contaminated with a variety of herbicides, pesticides and other agricultural chemicals.

In comparing organically and commercially grown wheat, researchers found the organic wheat contained 20-80% less metal residues (aluminum, cadmium, cobalt, lead, mercury), and contained 25-1300% more of specific nutrients (calcium, chromium, copper, iodine, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sulfur, and zinc).

Why should we buy organic? Why indeed…

Blog Tour: The Swiss Courier

Published by Mary November 27th, 2009 in Book Recommendations. 19 Comments

swiss_courier

Want a fantastic read over the holidays? I highly recommend The Swiss Courier, which, as reviewer Bob Welch said, “sizzles like a 24 episode with a World War II twist”.

Based on the 1944 Stauffenberg assasination attempt on Hitler’s life, co-authors Mike Yorkey and Tricia Goyer plot a heart-stopping, espionage-filled historical in which two sides of a major manhunt race to get their man. Full of surprises, good and evil find their match in a stunning conclusion to the best fiction I’ve read this year.

The Swiss Courier has it all: “you-are-there” historical detail, a heroic and gutsy Swiss girl– who underneath is just your everyday citizen willing to sacrifice for her country, and a hair-raising rescue to save a German scientist, unaware of his Jewish roots, from the Nazi’s. And all before his brilliant development of the atomic bomb falls into the wrong hands.

Back Cover Copy

It is August 1944 and the Gestapo is mercilessly rounding up suspected enemies of the Third Reich after an attempt on Hitler’s life. Gabi Mueller is a young woman working for the newly formed American Office of Strategic Services (forerunner to the CIA) in Switzerland. When she is asked to put herself in harm’s way to safely “courier” a German scientist who is working on the atomic bomb out of enemy territory, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

About the Authors

Tricia Goyer is the author of twenty books, including Night Song and Dawn of a Thousand Nights, both winners of the American Christian Fiction Writer’s Book of the Year Award for Long Historical Romance. She lives in Kalispell, Montana, with her husband, John, three children, one foreign exchange studen, and her grandmother. She loves talking with World War II veterans, doing drama in children’s church, and mentoring teenage mothers. Visit Tricia’s website at www. triciagoyer.com.

Mike Yorkey is the author or coauthor more than seventy books, including the bestselling Every Man’s Battle series and By the Sword, a thriller set in the Mideast. He lives in Encinitas, California, with his wife, Nicole, a Swiss native. The Yorkeys previously lived in Switzerland. Visit Mike’s website at www.mikeyorkey.com.

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