Advertise on podcast: Cooking Subversive

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety101/ChemicalsinFood/4 This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  This post is from the chapter, Safety 101 and the final episode of a four part series. How sugar insinuated itself into the American diet is a fascinating tale that begins with the scientific community’s colossal error in choosing personality over substance, and how we’re all living with the ramifications of this onerous mistake. The Charm Offensive: Sugar vs. Fat In the 1950’s, two competing theories were being floated on what caused heart disease. A physiologist from the University of Minnesota, Ancel Keys, posited that fat (cholesterol) was the enemy. On the other side of the Atlantic, John Yudkin, a British professor of Nutrition, had a hypothesis that sugar was the culprit.  Ancel Keys was also the inventor of K ration, the packaged food America’s soldiers relied on.  When US President Dwight Eisenhower had a heart attack in 1955, his doctor gave a press conference instructing Americans to stop smoking and cut down fat and cholesterol to avoid heart disease, citing Ancel Keys’s theory.  Meanwhile, to buttress his hypothesis, Keys collected what seemed to be inarguable evidence that a diet low in saturated fat was key to a healthy heart.  What came to be known as the Seven Countries Study (which included countries like Greece and Italy), introduced Mediterranean diet into the gastronomic lexicon and became the foundation for vilifying fat.  Never mind that Keys may have cherry picked his data, having excluded France and West Germany which had high-fat diets and low rates of cardiovascular disease.  What followed was a bloody battle where fact-based data was not the winner.  In The Sugar Conspiracy, published by The Guardian, writer Ian Leslie describes how the scientific community gravitated towards Keys’s Fat hypothesis despite inconsistencies in data, attributing personality as a key determinant. He writes: “Ancel Keys was brilliant, charismatic, and combative. A friendly colleague at the University of Minnesota described him as, “direct to the point of bluntness, critical to the point of skewering”; others were less charitable. He exuded conviction at a time when confidence was most welcome. The president, the physician and the scientist formed a reassuring chain of male authority, and the notion that fatty foods were unhealthy started to take hold with doctors, and the public.” Don’t forget he was also the inventor of the all-American K-ration.  Yudkin, on the other hand, was of the quiet sort.  We all know who won that war. John Yudkin was ridiculed by the scientific community and when he published his book, “Pure, White, Deadly” in 1972 to warn the public that it was indeed sugar that was the enemy of good health, his reputation had tanked and his book, though popular at the time, languished into near obscurity. So “Fat is Bad” won, now what? Here’s where it gets dicey.  In 1980, the US government released dietary guidelines to cut back on saturated fats and cholesterol. The UK followed suit in 1983.  The verdict was loud and clear and resounded beyond the borders of North America.  FAT IS BAD AND CAUSES HEART DISEASE.  A surge of Low-fat and Fat-free food products began lining supermarket shelves and refrigerated sections.  Eggs were shunned, margarine replaced butter; skim milk was substituted for whole milk.  In Manila, I was using non-dairy creamers in coffee and avoiding avocados.   The thing is, besides physiological benefits like helping you feel fuller, fat is responsible for other positive culinary traits such as a smooth and creamy texture, delightful mouthfeel, moisture  and most importantly,  flavor.  Someone at one of my cooking classes told me that

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety101/ChemicalsinFood/3 This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  For the next few weeks, we will be covering topics from the chapter, Safety 101. This is the third of a four part series. Picture this: an expanse of lush green as far as the eye can see where cows graze in idle harmony. Nearby, chickens cheerfully pick at blades of grass and cow dung for their bug buffet, fertilizing their patch of pasture as they break up the bovine manure and deposit a bit of their own little black gold. The contented lowing and clucking of cattle and poultry accompanied by a gentle breeze completes the sensory experience for this bucolic paradise. Hogwash. This is the sort of fantasy Big Agri wants us to believe when we pick up their neatly-packaged chunks of meat in Styrofoam containers.  And while there are some farms that pasture animals free range like the one above, they are few and far between. Most meat and poultry found in supermarkets never had lifestyles this lavish. Here’s the reality check. Remember that BigAgri is all about the bottom line, which means maximizing efficiency and lowering costs. That translates to beef manipulation that begins prior to conception with cows treated with hormones that regulate the timing of conception so that calves are born within days of each other. The calves spend the first seven to nine months grazing on grass and then are taken to a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), which can be feedlots or windowless buildings housing hundreds to millions of animals. Jo Robinson described in a 2008 article from Mother Earth News: “Upon arrival at the feedlot, the stressed, thirsty and hungry calves are herded down chutes and subjected to a number of procedures, which can include dehorning, castration, branding and tagging. Then they are dewormed and vaccinated against various diseases. A common practice is to mix antibiotics with the feed, whether the now-stressed animals show signs of illness or not. Tetracycline, an antibiotic important for humans, is one of the most commonly used medications. Lastly, the calves are implanted with pellets that contain growth-promoting steroid hormones that lose their effectiveness in a matter of months. Many animals are given new implants of higher potency to replace them. The aggressive use of hormone implants can add 110 pounds of lean meat or more to a calf. Every dollar invested in implants returns five to 10 dollars in added gain for each animal in the six to 12 months they spend in the feedlot.” Meanwhile, the calves are shifted from grass to a high- grain diet to fatten them further.  Remember our earlier discussion on Roundup’s glyphosate being used on GMO produce like corn and soybeans?   GMO crops are principally grown for livestock feed, so everything we said that was bad about Roundup, including glyphosate, will be present in industrialized meat.  Besides GMO crops, animal waste (blood, offal, dead animals) are recycled in a process called rendering and is part of livestock feed. The (barely) good news is, as of 1997, the FDA regulated against feeding cattle euthanized dogs and cats (as well as other mammals) as a preventive measure against mad cow’s disease and other diseases transferred from sick animals. However, the rule doesn’t apply to poultry.  Speaking of which, in a 2012 study on rendered poultry feather meal sold as fertilizers and animal feed, multiple pharmaceuticals were found including Prozac, Benadryl, acetaminophen and personal care products.  Grain (not to mention all the other offending ingredients) is not a natural diet for ruminants like cattle, which makes them sick. The stress of being tightly confined in pens hooves-deep in pathogen-rich manure makes them sick.  What to

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety101/ChemicalsinFood/2 This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  For the next few weeks, we will be covering topics from the chapter, Safety 101. This is the second of a four part series. In part 1 of  “I’ll Have The Poison on the Side Please,” we gave an overview on how and why American agriculture had devolved into a monoculture landscape of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. We continue the discussion by introducing a poison used not only in commercial farms, but in home gardens. Have you wondered why “gluten-free” is all the rage these days?  In North America and Europe, an estimated 5% are either diagnosed with Celiac disease or are gluten-intolerant.  Symptoms include “nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, macrocytic anemia and depression,” and is “associated with numerous nutritional deficiencies as well as reproductive issues and increased risk to thyroid disease, kidney failure and cancer,” according to a study published by the US National Library of Medicine. Guess what it’s largely attributed to?  Glyphosate, the active ingredient in a product we all know: Roundup. Roundup, manufactured by Monsanto and recently acquired by Bayer, is the largest selling herbicide in the world.  Many home gardeners use it to kill weeds unaware that its main ingredient, glyphosate, has been linked to cancer, specifically non-Hodgkin lymphoma, currently the subject of several lawsuits.  But that’s not all. A team of French scientists from the University of Caen found that an inert ingredient in Roundup, specifically polyethoxylated tallowamine, or POEA was “more deadly to human embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells than the herbicide itself,” according to an article published by the Scientific American.  They concluded that the formulation itself-- the combination of various ingredients in Roundup, “could cause cell damage and even death [at the] residual levels.” In the US, many farm products have an inordinately high amount of Roundup.  According to an article published by the Environmental Working Group: “Most glyphosate is sprayed on “Roundup ready” corn and soybeans genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide. Increasingly, glyphosate is also sprayed just before harvest on wheat, barley, oats and beans that are not genetically engineered. Glyphosate kills the crop, drying it out so it can be harvested sooner than if the plant were allowed to die naturally.” The use of Roundup as a pre-harvest dessicant increases the chances of residuals, making wheat, barley, oats and beans particularly noxious.  Fortunately, there is some good news.   At the end of 2019, Kellogg’s, the ubiquitous cereals manufacturer, made a commitment to phase out oats and wheat treated with glyphosate by 2025.  Second only to General Mills, Kellogg’s holds enormous sway over farms and suppliers and one can only hope that this will have a positive ripple effect across the industry.  Even if a disingenuous marketing move (would you serve your child a bowl of poisoned cereal when you have an option that isn’t?), it is still a step in the right direction.  However, it does beg the question of how many children and adults were and are still being slowly poisoned by common food items containing glyphosate?      In tests commissioned by several groups including the Environmental Working Group, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Friends of the Earth and even the FDA, glyphosate was detected in most wheat-based products such as pizza, crackers, pasta and cereals.   So yes, your typical American commercial food is pretty toxic and we’re all getting slowly poisoned every day. Herbicides with glyphosate, are already banned or restricted in many pa

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety101/ChemicalsinFood/1 This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  For the next few weeks, we will be covering topics from the chapter, Safety 101. This is the first of four parts. While the idea of pathogens posing a danger to our health is established knowledge-- we’ve all learned about it in elementary science for one, my reference to many chemicals that are in our food system as “poison” may raise some eyebrows.  I’m referring to three kinds: toxic chemicals that go on our crops such as fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides; are present in our meat and poultry like steroids and antibiotics, and are in ultra processed foods like sugar additives and preservatives. While there’s a growing body of woke citizens, health professionals, scientists, environmental groups and even government agencies like the CDC that acknowledge the toxicity in our food production system, most Americans don’t realize the gravity of the situation for a number of reasons. It’s fairly new. Widespread chemical use in agribusiness is relatively recent, gaining traction only in the mid twentieth century.  The adverse effects caused by chemical fertilizers and additives in our food were not easily identified or immediately apparent, sometimes taking years to diagnose. It’s only in the last decade there’s been broad consensus that sugars, particularly high fructose corn syrup, are linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.       Corporate greed.  The main reason for the use of chemicals in our food system is to increase efficiency and lower production costs (but not environmental and public health costs), which means bigger profits for companies. Big Business loves its bottom line and will do anything to protect it. Large amounts of money are spent trying to convince the public their products are great or that studies showing harmful effects are conflated. Sound familiar?  We’ve been down this road before with the tobacco industry denying for decades that smoking cigarettes causes cancer.  Human nature.  Our tendency towards the path of least resistance means it’s easier not to change old habits or question previously established beliefs, despite growing available data that should convince us otherwise.  Plus, it’s not easy keeping up with food trends --margarine was in, now it’s out; wine was out, now in; coffee is…what now? It doesn’t help we’re bombarded with billions of dollars in unhealthy food advertising, brainwashing us since we were children. Sorting through the muck of false or misleading information is overwhelming.  To top it all, we’re not hardwired to be on red alert if we think the danger posed is far away.  Unlike e coli which could make you sick right away, toxic chemicals in our food system are a slow poison and it’s easy to believe we’re okay until we’re not.  Just like a lobster unaware it’s slowly boiling to death (also a good metaphor for why we’re not all panicking about global warming). Knowledge is key.  Stories can put things in perspective and convince us to take action. I hope that understanding how and why America’s food system is in crisis might be the nudge we all need to make food choices that benefit the planet and ourselves, and not just Big Business. Chemical Fertilizers, Herbicides and Pesticides It’s impossible to overemphasize the danger posed by many chemicals in our food system.  They are not only toxic to us, but to other animals, the soil, the environment. Why the US is able to legally serve its populace harmful food comes down to corporate greed, how big money can influence government regulations, and insidious marketing that’s shaped culture and tastes predisposed to unhealthy food that keeps co

Happy New Year everyone!  So a few days ago, I was super psyched to learn that my jazz ensemble was booked for the 2022 Boston Food and Wine Festival jazz brunches, to be held at one of my favorite locations, The Boston Harbor Hotel. With wine on my mind, I thought I’d do a post on it, especially since a lot of folks are curious.  As it so happens, I’m married to a wine and whisky aficionado, Jeff Hunter. Now this isn’t a proper interview at all.  We were about to settle down for the season finale of Mandalorian when it occurred to me I should see if Jeff was up for an impromptu interview, something he is more predisposed to do with a glass in hand.  He was.  So while he prepared for us to sample 2018 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon from two very different locales, one from Alexander Valley Vineyards California, the other from Penley Estate Phoenix Australia , I grabbed a mic.  I know wine events can be daunting.  There’s the odd swish and sniff of glasses; the confident gargle, and the spit.  And what about the knowing look you get when you opt to swallow your sip ‘coz goodness knows you’ve paid good money for this!   And then there’s the jargon—  “structured,” “hint of oak,”  “tannic,” that defines moments of deliberation. It’s easy to forget that a wine palate is cultivated.  Unless vinification is a family business or inherent in your culture, there’s a big chance your first sip of wine was disappointing and far from how you imagined it to be.  My parents let us have a sip or two when we were kids and I did not understand what the big to-do was.  Even in my college days it wasn’t something I enjoyed though I learned to tolerate it because I badly wanted to travel to Europe and I thought wine was something everyone had with their meals.  In the 70’s and 80’s in Manila, I remember drinking Blue Nun Riesling and Cold Duck champagne in our family events. Paul Masson Chablis was the main wine served at my 18th birthday party debut, an important milestone in Filipino society.   At the time, and in a nation of beer and whisky drinkers, any wine at a party was impressive, even if they all tasted like tart juice or downright vinegary. In a hot tropical country like the Philippines where houses don’t have basements, cellars, cool pantries,  nor any concept of proper storage, it’s highly likely we’d been blissfully toasting with turned wines and thinking that was cool. So we all start somewhere and my first point is, wherever you are in your wine journey is okay.  Second, over time and as you explore a breadth of varieties, your palate will evolve.  What you find pleasant today may not be so tomorrow, and the opposite could also be true. Third, what is considered “good,” even by experts, need not be expensive.  Though price point can be indicative of quality, it is also affected by supply (limited production usually is pricier), brand name, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.  Wine regions like Bordeaux (France) or Napa Valley (US) have more cachet with some people than Australian or Argentinian wines, hence my earlier example of two 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon wines we were comparing, both very good and under $20, with the Penley Estate Phoenix Australia rated #69 in the Wine Enthusiast top 100 wines. Learning about wines is fun and a lifetime activity. While I can barely remember vineyard names, I know what I like, am confident about food pairing , and am more articulate about my descriptions, which means, I can pretty much fake my way in an event.  I’m fortunate to have learned from others and most especially Jeff, who often cooks dishes with particular libations in mind, such as this evening’s Seafood Cioppino paired with 2006 Constanti Brunello di Montalcino, which means, a lot of our dinners are mini wine tasting events.   Since I have a resident (literally) wine expert on board, and he now has the mic, let’s see what

#WhyCookseries/MyHealth/1 #CSM1 This post is part of the Why Cook? Series: 6 Reasons to be a Lifestyle Cook, a discourse on the pillars of The Cooking Subversive Manifesto (CSM). Providing great reasons to cook are powerful motivators to make cooking a lifestyle choice especially when we understand how forces have conspired to make us choose otherwise. America’s obesity rate is 42.4%. The United States may lay dubious claim to being democracy’s chief champion of late, but when it comes to obesity, it is without a doubt the leader, and has been so for nearly 2 decades among countries tracked by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).  That’s not exactly something to be proud of. We’re inured to this data point because we’ve sat with this fact for far too long and it’s only becoming worse.  We’ve vilified the subjects—overweight people, because in the back of our minds, we’ve been taught to associate being fat with gluttony, poor self-control, laziness and other reprehensible traits we like to think we’re absolved of. Because we’ve appropriated blame to the wrong culprits, we’ve missed the real offenders, and they’ve been able to hide in plain sight.  Before we point fingers, let’s first understand the magnitude of the problem. Why the US Covid-19 death toll is so high We’ve just reached the grim milestone of 800 thousand deaths in the United States, with no real end in sight.  From the onset, the huge American death toll, disproportionately higher than in other developed countries, begged the question: why so high? In a John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center tally of global deaths attributed to  coronavirus, the US has 239.43 deaths/100,000 people.  It is the 6th highest in the world, preceded by Brazil, Romania, Czechia, Hungary and Bulgaria; and the highest among wealthy nations.  While we can debate on the ramifications of polarized attitudes towards masks and vaccines (we don’t have the monopoly on anti vaxxers and conspiracy theories), the data is clear on the primary causes of American deaths.  According to a study published by The Lancet. Consistent with reported COVID-19 outcome data from Europe, the United States, and China, higher caseloads and overall mortality were associated with comorbidities such as obesity, and advanced population age. Let’s unpack the comorbities part.  Comorbidy, the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases, entered our lexicon when covid-19 exploded.  Comorbidity is a bulls-eye target for coronavirus;   the chances of getting very sick or death is much higher.  But what diseases are strongly associated with covid deaths? In this screenshot of Covid-19 deaths with contributing conditions released by the CDC for 2020 and 2021, I circled 9 diseases linked to obesity.   That’s half of the top 18 (see note) diseases associated with covid-19 deaths that can be linked to obesity, which is directly associated with poor diet and unhealthy lifestyles. Even without Covid-19, 3 of the top 7 leading causes of death in the US, heart disease, stroke and diabetes, are linked to obesity. A recent report by the New York Times suggests that covid 19 lives in fat cells. If proven conclusively, that will be the most direct link yet of Covid-19 to a poor diet.   Covid-19 exacerbated what we’ve known all along: Americans are unhealthy and unless we make lifestyle changes, we are literally going to pay for it with our lives.  When I was a child, my mom told me her father had diabetes. She said that they would find ants gathered near the toilet, because his urine was so sweet. To an 8-year old, that was the sort of outrageous, fun and slightly gross family factoid to brag about to friends.  As an adult, the implications were serious.  Though my mom didn’t have diabetes, both her parents did; my father had it too, and two of my siblings are on medication for it.  The CDC says I am highly predisposed to diabet

#WhyCook #CSM #LifestyleCooking I came across an article published by the Harvard Business Review in 2017 with a data point that astounded me: only 10% of Americans love to cook.  The article’s author, a consultant for consumer packaged goods companies who did the study for one of his clients, also pointed out that of the 90% who did not love to cook, half hated it and the other half were lukewarm.  While I already suspected many Americans didn’t know their way around the kitchen, I didn’t expect how much in a minority avid cooks were and further, to find so disturbing the use of the strong sentiment hate to describe one of my passions. To add insult to injury, the author’s point was not that a valuable life skill was practically lost in this generation, but that groceries and food manufacturers risked market share decline and category obsolescence by not addressing the downward cooking trend.  He advocated for a ruthless portfolio strategy that calls for food manufacturers to identify “long-term losers, and exit by selling them while they can.”  My gig as a culinary educator had already began, but these data points upset me and fueled a desire to not just teach cooking, but to promote it as a lifestyle choice.  Teaching how to cook dishes is not hard—you introduce new ingredients, demonstrate and explain the scientific principles behind basic techniques and share the recipes so they can be replicated. But that doesn’t teach you how to cook without a recipe; to cook when you have a busy week or to have fun.  You don’t learn to fall in love with cooking this way.  You fall in love with cooking when you produce dishes you’re proud of.  You fall in love with cooking when you find it brings family and friends together. And you know you’re in love when cooking stops being the thing you have to do to eat; or  that instead of trying to fit cooking into a busy schedule, you make your schedule less busy because you’ve realized cooking is a worthier endeavor than other activities that fill your time: television, social media, video games.  You’re in love with cooking when you’re having fun.   That won’t happen to everyone and it certainly will not happen overnight.  Nothing worthwhile is instant, though we’ve been programmed to believe otherwise, since our culture worships convenience and speed. The barriers to entry are low: even dry, over-salted scrambled eggs, barely edible, will pass for cooking.  But good cooking—producing food you’re proud of that you prefer more often to restaurant fare or store-bought packaged foods, or that non-family or friends would willingly choose to eat, well that’s different.  It’s the same difference as when a drunk guest comes up to the band stand to say “hey, I also play in a band,” and I think, well okay, we’re professional musicians with decades of experience, so I’m not sure we’re talking about the same thing here. While there are plenty musicians better than I, I’m willing to bet it’s not this inebriated fellow. But hey, I’m glad he’s playing music.  Good cooking, like playing an instrument well, has a higher learning curve.  It will take my piano students many years of practice and scales before they can master a relatively simple piece like Fur Elise. But when they do, they will take pride, and that will be its own reward and a powerful motivator.  Most of my students will have given up long before they get to this level of proficiency.  It takes patience and commitment to play well. Like cooking, there’s a lot of competition for a piano student’s time—school, friends, social media.  Fortunately for cooking, there’s an immediate and practical payback—dinner!  It’s not hard to cook a simple dish well, but another matter to do it consistently and regularly.  All of which takes time, practice and a certain mindset. To get to the point where cooking is its own reward, we’ll need incentives and a game

In the wise, lyrical book, Braiding Sweet Grass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author describes how the children of the Onondaga Nation begin and end their school week. They recite the Thanksgiving Address, or as is known more accurately in the Onondaga language, Words That Come Before All Else. The following text is an excerpt from this beautiful book. May we choose to be grateful every day, and for our actions to be guided by these words. Words That Come Before All Else Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People. Now our minds are one. We are all thankful to our Mother the Earth, for she gives us everything that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she still continues to care for us, just as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect. Now our minds are one. We give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst, for providing strength and nurturing life for all beings. We know its power in many forms—waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans, snow and ice.  We are grateful that the waters are still here and meeting their responsibility to the rest of Creation.  Can we agree that water is important to our lives and bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to the Water? Now our minds are one. We turn our thoughts to all of the Fish in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. We are grateful that they continue to do their duties and we send to the Fish our greetings and our thanks. Now our minds are one. Now we turn toward the vast fields of Plant life. As far as the eye can see, the Plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. With our minds gathered together we give thanks and look forward to seeing Plant life for many generations to come. Now our minds are one. When we look about us, we see that the berries are still here, providing us with delicious foods. The leader of the berries is the strawberry, the first to ripen in the spring.  Can we agree that we are grateful that the berries are with us in the world and send our thanksgiving, love, and respect to the berries? Now our minds are one. With one mind we honor and thank all the Food Plants we harvest from the garden, especially the Three Sisters who feed the people with such abundance.  Since the beginning of time, the grains, vegetables, beans, and fruit have helped the people survive. Many other living things draw strength from them as well. We gather together in our minds all the plant foods and send them a greeting of thanks. Now our minds are one. Now we turn to all the Medicine Herbs of the world. From the beginning they were instructed to take away sickness. They are always waiting and ready to heal us. We are so happy that there are still among us those special few who remember how to use these plants for healing. With one mind, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect to the Medicines. Now our minds are one. Standing around us we see all the Trees.  The Earth has many families of Trees who each have their own instructions and uses.  Some provide shelter and shade, others fruit and beauty and many useful gifts.  The Maple is the leader of the trees, to recognize its gift of sugar when the People need it most.  Many peoples of the world recognize a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength.  With one mind we greet and thank the Tree life.  Now our minds are one. We gather our minds together to send our  greetings and thanks to all the beautiful animal life of the world, who walk

#gardenroutines #hugelkultur The falling leaves drift by my window, the autumn leaves of red and gold. As a kid growing up in the Philippines, I remember seeing photos of brilliant Autumn foliage in books and magazines, and often in calendars when October came around.  I remember thinking what a dream to experience the magic of Fall. Fast forward a few decades and I am living in New England, the heart of Fall foliage.  It is my favorite season.  I love everything about it—the nip in the air, wearing jackets and boots, the tease of the holidays, and yes, the color.  My home is surrounded by tall oak trees that have begun shedding their magnificent garb.  With the aid of blistery winds this last weekend, they’ve converted what once were my lawn, driveway and foot paths into a plush golden carpet. And the leaves, do I love the leaves? I posted a photo of my front yard covered with leaves on Facebook with the caption: “What do I see? Free mulch. Free fertilizer. Free critter homes. Free gym.” Someone commented:  “I don’t miss raking leaves.” I get it.  For many, leaves are just one more thing to add to a list of chores.  But perhaps I can help you see leaves in another light.  Why Leaves Fall First of, leaves don’t passively “fall.” As the days get shorter and colder, deciduous trees actively push out their leaves by sending messages to abscission cells (note the relation to the word “scissors”) located between the leaf stem and branch, to cut off.  If you recall, leaves, through photosynthesis, is how trees make food, requiring water drawn from roots to nourish them. But in winter, water trapped in leaves will freeze and expand, damaging cells which kill leaves. A tree with no leaves won’t survive.  It’s pretty much like how we have to shut off garden faucet valves in winter, making sure no water is trapped, to avoid a costly pipe burst. Knowing why leaves “fall” doesn’t help de-clutter my lawn, but it helps to see that a tree does this to protect herself, which ultimately benefits me, since having her alive and healthy ensures I will continue to receive not only the bounty of her beauty and shade, but all the wonderful benefits trees give, not least of which are clean air and carbon storage. But even in disrobing, trees leave us gifts with their leaves.  How are they gifts? Let me give you five ways. Free mulch   When I was new to planting, I did not understand what mulch was. I saw them in many gardens—a palette of dyed red or brown bark, dotted with a few plants.  I thought it was just an American aesthetic. Mulch can be made from a variety of materials: wood chips, straw, leaves, stones, gravel, even plastic. But while mulch can trim up a garden nicely, its benefits are mostly for its abilities to absorb water, prevent soil erosion, protect plants from temperature extremes and suppress weeds.  If you are using organic materials that break down easily like straw, wood bark or leaves (NOT stones or plastic), then you have the added benefit of providing food for the denizens of the underground: bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, earthworms, and arthropods.  In other words, you are providing a feast for the soil web.  Organic mulch is future compost. And we all know that compost is necessary for healthy soil and therefore, healthy plants. So how do I use leaves as mulch in my garden? For bushes and trees, I tend to just rake or blow leaves to their bases where fellow leaves are already gathered, partially sheltered from winds.  It’s like a party in there! But for garden beds I want neat, I shred leaves to top and then water them—or better yet, just mulch before the rains.  Once wet, the matted leaves will keep from blowing in the wind.  In addition, shredded leaves break down faster than their whole counterparts, so in no time at all, they’ll become compost.  Come Spring, I’ll layer black bark mulch (for aesthetics) over the decomposing shre

#SuperPowersOfTheGarden/2 Wildlife, nature and the environment have always occupied a special place in Marlene’s heart.  This passion has led her to volunteer at a rare animal breeds conservation farm in Bulgaria and an organic and permaculture farm in the South of France to learn more about working with nature.  In this special mini-series edition, she discusses a piece of nature closer to home: the garden.  In 2019, Marlene’s garden was certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.  In part 1 of Superpowers of the Garden, we said that to re-imagine a garden that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but functional to humans, wildlife and the environment, we need to get to know its superpowers. A garden can provide more than just beauty and food and when we understand her better, we can harness her superpowers to be part of the solution to global warming and declining pollinators.  We began our discussion on Garden Elements and Their Superpowers by taking a closer glimpse of soil, one of Earth’s most precious resources. Even with just the singular function of decomposition, the micro livestock that makes up healthy soil recycles nutrients so that living organisms can make use of them.  Soil is so fundamental that no life is possible without it.   As if that wasn’t enough, we also learned that healthy soil absorbs and holds rainwater for use during dry spells, filters and detoxifies pollutants and provides water, nutrients and the medium to grow in, for plants and trees.  Today, we’ll discuss the next garden elements and explore additional abilities of soil made possible through their symbiotic relationships.    Garden Elements and Their Superpowers  Plants and Trees All of us know some of the superpowers of plants and trees.  We know their value as food, medicine and as a resource for a whole range of items like textiles, paper, dyes, building materials; they also provide shelter and nourishment to wildlife.  While these are pretty magnificent superpowers by themselves, there are other hidden talents our mostly-green friends have. We’ve established that healthy soil is critical to sustain all life.  So it is all the more perplexing that the very serious problems of soil degradation and erosion are not given the attention they deserve.  Soil, though dirty, is not a sexy topic to most humans.  Thankfully, plants and trees know better.  Our green friends know that soil not only provides them a home, but supplies them with water and nourishment.   And so they return the favor in kind.     Plants feed soil We know soil feeds plants, but plants feed soil too. When vegetation dies, they are decomposed by the tiny livestock in healthy soils. But plants don’t have to die first to provide nourishment for the soil.  Living roots exude sugars and compounds and when the roots die (as a normal cycle and often when plants are stressed) they also become food for soil microorganisms.  So when we mow our lawn (plant stress), the clippings and dead roots become food for the soil.  And in fall, we use the copious fallen leaves as mulch for trees to eventually decompose and become food for soil’s microorganisms.  Oftentimes I bury them with fallen branches, twigs and compost in soil I want to rehabilitate, as an invitation for organisms to come enjoy the feast and do their magic.   Plants protect soil from erosion, compaction and water loss Plants keep soil from blowing in the wind or getting carried off by water.  Above ground, a plant’s foliage and stems shield soil from harsh elements while below, its roots anchor the soil.  In addition, plants cushion the effects of pounding rain and traffic (foot and hoof) which cause soil compaction. If you remember, compacted soil means there are little or no pore spaces to store water and air in.  That’s bad news not only because plants and organisms need these to survive, but because soil that can’t absorb wat

#SuperPowersOfTheGarden/1 Wildlife, nature and the environment have always occupied a special place in Marlene’s heart.  This passion has led her to volunteer at a rare animal breeds conservation farm in Bulgaria and an organic and permaculture farm in the South of France to learn more about working with nature.  In this special mini-series edition, she discusses a piece of nature closer to home: the garden.  In 2019, Marlene’s garden was certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.   It’s Spring and to continue celebrating Mother Earth,  I’m taking a little break from Cooking and Kitchen stuff to talk about gardening. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been starting seeds, preparing garden beds, planting bare roots and am in the process of reconditioning my backyard soil.  That’s a whole lot of information if you’re new to gardening, and later on, I promise to explain that in more detail.  So except for one surprising snow day a little over a week ago and a few blessed rainy days, I’ve been getting my hands dirty and soaking up a lot of sun.  Instead of talking about how I got into gardening, or that until we bought our house eight years ago I had no interest whatsoever in plants outside of their utility as food or decor, I want to jump start and talk about a new kind of garden. A New Kind of Garden We all have ideas of what gardening is, and most of them revolve around growing plants for either food or aesthetics: vegetables, flowers and landscape planting come to mind.  Some grow plants for medicine—in a recent post, I mentioned some plants I keep that are useful as first aid for cuts and burns.  Others grow plants to serve particular functions: to prevent erosion, mitigate flooding, remove soil contaminants.  And then there are those who grow plants to help the environment—planting trees to reduce harmful gases like carbon dioxide, native species as food for pollinators, bushes as shelter for wildlife.  Building a garden that does all of the above is not only possible, but is part of the solution to some of our biggest environmental problems: global warming and declining pollinators, particularly bees.  You might ask yourself, how does a little garden become part of the solution to such an overwhelmingly large problem such as global warming?  To answer that, we’ll need to understand the problems first, then get better acquainted with what makes up a garden. Two Big Problems Global Warming.  The last decade was the hottest ever in recorded history.  2020 tied with 2016 to be the hottest years ever, according to an analysis by  NASA.  Global warming is caused when certain gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide block heat radiating from the earth, trapping it in the atmosphere and causing a greenhouse effect.  We know disasters like hurricanes, forest fires, and droughts are attributed to global warming.  It’s overwhelming to comprehend problems of this magnitude, and when problems are too big or we’re not directly impacted, there’s a tendency to become paralyzed with inaction.  So I’ll scale it down to something simpler and immediate, at least to those of us who live in New England.  Global warming causes erratic weather patterns and disrupts life cycles as we know it.  For example, gardeners are guided by what’s known as the Plant Hardiness Zone map, so they know which plants are likely to thrive in their area.  The map is based on average minimum temperature and divided into 10 –degree Fahrenheit zones, from 1-13, with 1 being the coldest.  Eight years ago, I was on zone 5, now we’re at 6.  And the zone 7 anemones planted last Fall have blossomed.  On the up side, the warmer climate for my area has expanded the variety of plants I can grow; but it’s also caused a surge in ticks which prefer warm and moist conditions, and increased the risk for Lyme’s disease.  And it’s contributed to the next problem. Be

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety/KitchenDangerous/5 This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  This topic is from the chapter, Safety 101. In parts 1 to 4 of Kitchen Dangerous, we covered fire prevention, what to do if a fire occurs, preventing burns from frying and other hot items, first aid using ingredients you probably have at home and Knife Safety guidelines. In this final installment of Kitchen Dangerous, we’ll talk about First Aid for Cuts and add to our arsenal of home remedies. At the end of the post, we’ll summarize the rules from all five parts of Kitchen Dangerous.  Read Kitchen Dangerous:  part 1,part 2, part 3 and part 4.  First Aid for Cuts Minor cuts and burns are occasional nuisances for every cook and are often treatable at home. As always, seek medical assistance if injuries are serious.  For minor cuts or scrapes, here’s what to do: 1.      Control bleeding by applying pressure for at least 5 minutes 2.      Clean and Cover  Wash hands then rinse wound with running water to remove dirt and debris.  Apply a topical home remedy (see below) or over the counter antibiotic to minor cuts and scrapes that do not need medical attention. Cover the wound with clean bandage, gauze pad or tape to prevent infection and further injury. Don't tie or tape the bandage too tight. Seek medical assistance if the cut is too large or deep, is on the face or any area where scarring is a concern, or if you need protection from tetanus. For more information, check out St. Luke’s Health System. Home Remedies In  part three of Kitchen Dangerous, we covered some of the natural remedies you may already have at home that you can use as topical first aid for burns.  The good news is, most of them can also be used for minor cuts and scrapes. In addition to honey, moringa, broadleaf plantain, aloe vera and tomatoes, here are a few more kitchen superstars to add to your first aid kit. Garlic, generally believed to have originated somewhere in Middle Asia, was used as herbal medicine as far back as 2600 BC by the Sumerians. Its long history means it is universally known across cultures for its healing properties. It became known as Russian Penicillin during World War II because even though penicillin was already in use, the Russian Red army continued using it as a natural antibiotic. Allicin, the principal phytonutrient in garlic is responsible for the antimicrobial and anti inflammatory properties that help in wound healing.  But topical applications aside, it is also a superfood for many reasons.  According to this study from the US National Library of Medicine: The proven anti-oxidative, hypocholesterolemic, anti-thrombotic and anti-hypertensive properties of garlic help in the prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and lessen the risk of development of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.      In plain English, that means garlic prevents damage to cells by free radicals (anti-oxidative), lowers bad cholesterol (hypocholesterolemic) and high blood pressure (anti-hypertensive) and reduces blood clots (anti-thrombotic).  Pretty cool, eh?  It also has anti-carcinogenic properties. Turmeric, the golden yellow cousin of ginger, is also a superfood well-known in Indian and Chinese medicine. The yellow in curry powder that we use to make Indian-style curries is from ground turmeric.  Curcumin, the yellow pigment, is a phytonutrient that: “… has been linked with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, anti-diabetic, anti- cancer, anti-viral, and anti-Rheumatic effects.”[8] Anti-proliferative is the suppression of malignant cell growth.    Applied topically, turmeric reduces pain, inflammation and promotes faster wound healing. How to use Garlic