What's the point of this thirsty green lawn?

Way back in 1989, Michael Pollan wrote an essay in the NY Times entitled “Why Mow?” in which he outlined the case against lawns. Now more than ever, the time has come to re-think the value of our suburban lawns.

You might be surprised to learn that grass is the most common irrigated crop in the US. We grow 3 times more grass than we do corn! 30% of our drinking water is used to water this grass. 70 million pounds of pesticides per year is used on this giant lawn of ours.

Global weirding is shifting our weather patterns, last summer saw record droughts. This winter in the northeast isn’t even a winter while in Rome, the Colosseum got 8 inches of snow yesterday.  These shifting weather patterns can play havoc on our food supply. Here in suburbia, the average irrigated lawn can consume close to 90 gallons of water daily and doesn’t produce a single serving of food.

It’s time to grow food, not grass.

Even if you don’t have a green thumb to transform your lawn into a highly productive vegetable garden, there are people in your community with these skills. Many small farmers are looking for land, if you have an acre of sunny lawn, it wouldn’t be hard to set up a win-win situation with a local small farmer.

I’m not the only one with this brilliant idea and desire to turn the lawn into a food producing oasis. Here are two books I’d like to refer you to.

Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn was published in 2010 by Fritz Haeg  His book and website has beautiful photos of edible transformations, click here.

Food Not Lawns by H.C. Flores

Food Not Lawns is an organization that was founded in Eugene, Oregon in 1999 by a small group of activists who had been cooking Food Not Bombs (free meals in the park) for several years and decided to start gardening too. The book, Food Not Lawns came out in 2006, its an inspiring resource to turn your yard into a garden and your neighborhood into a community. There are chapters of Food Not Lawns all over the world, click here to find out more.

I hope this will be the year that more thirsty lawns are turned into veggie gardens. Everyone wins with this green strategy. With skyrocketing gas prices  and wacky weather that show no sign of slowing down, for now on the best food will be grown closest to home.

Not long ago, keeping backyard chickens was a patriotic duty. Perhaps that time has arrived once again.

These days, I believe the best food grows closest to home. Raising chickens can be a great way for families to enjoy healthy fresh eggs and develop a deeper connection to their food.

Last year, I helped to make a film called Chicken Flick. The purpose of the movie was to shine a bright light on families raising backyard chickens and to help change zoning laws so that everyone can enjoy a small flock in their yard.

We’ll be screening the film at the Greenburgh Nature Center next Wednesday February 8th at 7:30. If you can’t make it to the Nature Center, I hope to post the film online here on this blog on Thursday of next week. Stay tuned!

Here’s the info:

CHICKEN FLICK – BACKYARD CHICKENS FOR ALL
WED, FEBRUARY 8, 7PM REFRESHMENTS / 7:30PM PROGRAM
Imagine your breakfast omelet made from your own fresh, organic, Omega-rich eggs! Come watch “Chicken Flick”, a short film made by local environmentalist filmmakers Nikki Coddington and Susan Rubin. You will meet four Westchester County families who are enjoying the fun and benefits of raising chickens in their own backyards. After the film, you can ask questions of the filmmakers and the panel of local chicken owners – You may even walk away ready to take up this easier-than-you-think, fun and profitable hobby yourself! Chicken Flick was made by Coddington and Rubin at the Jacob Burns Film Center and Media Arts Lab on behalf of Transition Westchester, a grassroots initiative that seeks to build community resilience. This program will be held at the Nature Center in partnership with the Sierra Club Lower Hudson Group. FREE

The Wovel gets its first workout of 2012

Here we are 21 days into 2012 and we’re finally getting some seasonally appropriate weather. While I’m not a huge fan of winter and snow, I do realize that the cold dark stillness of winter is necessary for a green and vibrant spring. One thing I dislike more than snow is snow blowers. I can’t stand the noise and I despise the toxic stinky fumes. Quite frankly, I harbor a deep concern whenever fossil fuels are burned. We’ve got to cut our addiction to gas, coal and oil on every level if we care about future generations surviving on our planet.

Last winter, when hubby threatened to buy a snow blower, I took swift and decisive action. I bought a wovel online before he could get his act together and purchase a snow blower!  He rolled his eyes skyward as he watched me assemble this crazy combination of wheel and shovel in our living room.

This contraption was Time magazine’s best invention of 2006. The Wovel is super green, it is recognized by Co-op America and National Green Pages™ for its positive, pollution-free environmental standards and zero carbon footprint in usage. This wacky snow removal device performs equal to or better than a snow blower, and doesn’t hurt your back at all.  Woveling  clears away snow much faster than shoveling but is no more stressful than walking.  Unlike most things, it is manufactured in the USA.

Last winter’s frequent snow storms gave our Wovel a run for the money. It worked so well that my hubby admitted to me that the Wovel was one of my better wacky ideas.

Today’s 6 inches of snow was cleared quietly and effortlessly with my Wovel. I strongly urge you to buy one. Share it with your neighbors, so they don’t mess up the air and the planet with stinky snow blowers either!  Click here to learn more.

Happy Woveling!

“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Perhaps I got a wee bit to political with you on the last blog post talking about Mitt Romney’s lack of compassion for his dog. So I figured I’d follow up with the story of a woman and her pet grooming studio. This is a story that is filled with loads of compassion for canines, they are doing the right thing for a little Yorkie named Beckham.

Last winter, Tara and her shop,  Pawfection Pet Grooming in Bedford Hills, NY played a key player in our adoption of Edgar. Our Westie, Skippy, had been a Pawfection customer years back. Although Pawfection is not an official rescue organization, Tara and her team do everything they can to make sure that dogs and cats in the area who need a home are adopted to good homes.

Little Beckham needs surgery on his knees

Just a week or two ago, I was thinking of stopping by Pawfection to see if they could help find us  a dog to adopt. Later that afternoon, Tara called me with info on some Yorkies that might need new homes. Funny how things like that happen, huh? That weekend, I brought hubby and one of my girls to Pawfection to meet a potential new family member.

There were some super cute Yorkies at her shop that had been rescued. The biggest boy of the bunch was an 8 month old pup who had a little bit of a skip in his walk. Tara, who has extensive experience with small breeds as a groomer, pointed out that this little guy needed to get that limp checked out. Yorkies and other breeds with short legs can suffer from luxating patellas, which is basically a knee cap that slips out of its proper position.

Luxating Patella (loose kneecap!)

If left untreated, an extreme case of this tricky knee problem of a could result in painful arthritis and severe lameness. Tara’s staff provided a foster home and Tara herself offered to take the little guy to a vet to see if he’d need surgery and what that would entail.  As it turned out, both of the pup’s knees are in pretty bad shape. He’ll need surgery on both of them and it will entail some serious physical therapy to fully recover after the surgery.

Sadly, this pup with trick knees that need surgery and rehab was too much of a commitment for me and my family to take on. Tara and her staff are now providing a foster home for Beckham (his new nickname) and is working with a local vet to move forward with the knee surgeries. Pawfection is dedicated to doing the right thing for this dog, taking extraordinary steps to make sure this dog can lead a healthy life in a good home.

Pawfection will be holding a fund raiser on Monday, January 23rd

This  Beauty Event will Benefit Rescuzilla, which is a NYC animal rescue organization that is pals with Pawfection.  100% from the sales and raffles will benefit Rescuzilla Animal Rescue of NYC-a 501(c)3 non-profit.

Date: Monday, January 23rd 11 AM to 3 PM OR 6 PM to 8 PM

Location: PAWFECTION 51 Babbit Road Bedford Hills, NY 10507 914.242.8422

Special appearance by Sabria Brows. She will be on hand to shape your brows for an instant beauty lift. Contact susan@mybeautyberry.com to set up an appointment. (Sabria has cut her price for this event & will donate 50% of every brow shaping to Rescuzilla!) Many popular brands from lip balms to mascara to hair products, body creams and skin potions. Price range: $5 and up! We will be raffling off some great gifts including a 3-Day BluePrint Cleanse!

Remember: A little can SAVE a lot of dogs.

Checkout these links:

www.mybeautyberry.com

Pawfection Pet Grooming Boutique on Facebook

Rescuzilla on Facebook

Earlier this week, I started a little online Sustainable Book Sale. So far so good. It’s turning out to be a win win win as my readers are getting great books at great prices that will help their health. And no new trees are being destroyed to make more books.

As I shift my focus in 2012 onto growing more vegetables and learning about permaculture principles, I feel its important to make way for new books. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share my beloved books with you, knowing they’ll have a good home and will be appreciated.  Today I took a look at my library and noticed that I have a huge amount of books that help with stress reduction. For more than a decade, I’ve been a student of meditation and guided imagery. I’ve got a ton of books on these topics.

I feel that stress reduction is as important as the quality of the food we eat. Stress plays havoc on all facets of digestion and is implicated in worsening most chronic disease states.  And besides, it just plain sucks to be stressed out!

I’ve bundled my books into small collections that can help to transform your life in a good way. Here’s the latest batches:

Meditation Classics

Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. This timeless book on mindfulness meditation will help you to see opportunities for mindfulness in all facets of your everyday life.

Comfortable with Uncertainty by Pema Chodron. This little book contains 108 short essays on compassion and fearlessness. Pema is an American Buddhist nun, she offers strategies for seeing and thinking differently. Really useful in these tumultuous times.

Pass It On: Five Stories That Can Change the World by Joanna Macy I picked up this gem last fall when I was fortunate to attend weekend retreat with Joanna Macy, a spiritual activist and huge environmental inspiration. This sweet little book of inspiration and possibility will help you to be hopeful in difficult times.

Asking price $14  A savings of  $25 off the original prices

When it comes to meditation, there are many, many paths up the mountain. Way back in the summer of 2001, I spent some time in Pune, India at the Osho Meditation Resort. Osho was one wild dude, a truly spiritually incorrect mystic, who had a lasting impact on how I look at life. This collection of meditation and stress reduction books is a little more offbeat than the one above.

The Eclectic Meditation Collection

Meditation: The First and Last Freedom by Osho  This practical guide offers many many different meditations that are great for beginners or seasoned veterans. Open up any page at random and see if the meditation suits you!

The Tao of No Stress: Three Simple Paths by Stuart Alve Olson I found this little book to be very helpful in using Taoist principles to eliminate stress completely. In addition to philosophy, it gives step by step instructions on how to massage stress away and breathing techniques as well. This tiny book packs a wallop of good info.

Unclutter Your Mind: 500 Ways to Focus on What’s Important by Donna Smallin.  Books like this can keep you off of anti-depressant meds! This collection of one minute tips can help you to enjoy a simpler and more rewarding life. The world would be a better place if everyone read little gems like this one!

31 Words to Create a Guilt-Free Life If you’re like most people, myself included, guilt can find a way to cloud a sunny outlook. This tiny portable book offers up 31 strategies to help you release that guilt and put a little more light and freedom back into your life.

Asking price: $14   A $30 savings off original prices

Meditation isn’t just for grown ups! In my years as a parent and as a teacher of children of all ages, I’ve worked to include forms of mindfulness, creative visualization, relaxation and stress reduction into my work. I have a feeling that this collection of books for children will be snatched up quickly!

The Children's Meditation and Imagery Collection

Mindful Movements: Ten Exercises for Well Being by Thich Nhat Hanh This simple illustrated book is great for both kids and adults. It includes a DVD of Thich Nhat Hanh, a well known Vietnamese Buddhist monk, and members of his Plum Village Sangha demonstrating the Mindful Movements.

Teaching Meditation to Children by David Fontana and Ingrid Slack  This book is a practical approach to teaching meditation to children from 5 to 18 years old. Its loaded with practical exercises for kids, I’ve used some of these when I taught 8 WAH!-  8 Weeks to Amazing Health to middle schoolers in NYC. Also good info for using meditation for kids with asthma and insomnia too.

Guided Imagery for Healing Children and Teens by Ellen Curran Visualization is a powerful tool, guided imagery is a way to use imagination in a focused way to help the mind and body to self-heal. Good stuff!

Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children for Learning, Creativity & Relaxation by Maureen Murdock This book is loaded with exercises designed for ages 3 to 18 to help build strong self-image, stimulate creativity and cultivate inner peace. Both parents and teachers will find this book very useful.

Asking price: $21   A savings of $61 off original prices

Contact me via email if you’re interested in any of these book collections! DrSuRu@me.com

If you’re local and want to suggest a barter instead of cash, I’m open to that too!

A note about shipping: if you live outside of driving distance, I can mail you the books. Shipping costs should run about $3

You already know I’m a stickler about clean food. I do my best to prepare most of my food at home from scratch and so far I’ve posted over 60 of my recipes on this blog.  I’m a stickler for clean water too. Even though your water may come from a town water supply, it may contain some questionable elements that are actually added by municipalities in the interest of your health. The two elements I’m talking about are Chlorine and Fluoride.

My new Berkey Filter

Chlorine is added to water supplies to disinfect the water in transport pipes, just like the chlorine you put into a swimming pool to kill unwanted germs. But it’s not as cut and dried simple as that! Chlorine introduced into the water supply reacts with other naturally-occurring elements to form toxins called trihalomethanes (THMs), which eventually make their way into our bodies. THMs have been linked to a wide range of human health maladies ranging from asthma and eczema to bladder cancer and heart disease. The good news is that chlorine dissipates rapidly when water is boiled or left standing and exposed to air, it can also be easily filtered. Just about every filter system takes out 99.9% of the chlorine in your water.

Fluoride is another matter. It is not as easily filtered as chlorine is, it also does not simply evaporate like chlorine does from water. Fluoride is added to municipal water system under the false assumption that it can help to decrease tooth decay. As a retired dentist, I’ve done extensive research about the problems with putting fluoride in municipal water supplies. Last January, I wrote Why Your Dentist Doesn’t Know the Scoop on Fluoride. If you need more convincing that fluoridated water is not good for your health, visit Fluoride Action Network and you can spend days reading all the research and info there.

Most basic water filters do not take the fluoride out. Up until now all I’ve been able to find are expensive reverse osmosis systems that often require a plumber to install. I just recently discovered the Berkey Filter which has an additional filter that takes out fluoride. I bought one. It was reasonably priced, easy to assemble and looks cool on my kitchen counter.

Being a non-stop idealist I’ve been trying for years to convince my town to take the fluoride out of our municipal water supply. It would save money and protect the health of the community.  Instead of continuing to bank my head against the wall, I’ll just tell my friends and neighbors to get a Berkey Filter instead.

Do you think 2012 will be a year with less stress than last year?

HA! Fat chance!

Stress causing events will continue to happen. As a matter of fact, they may even increase in magnitude and frequency. My prediction for 2012 is that we’ll have a year of big changes. Many people stress out big time when confronted with changes. The real secret to stress is learning to respond to it in a way that does not drain you.

Perhaps this is the year to embrace change and to use stressful events as a grand opportunity.

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
-Charles R. Swindoll

This is part of my three fold intention for the new year. Stay tuned to the blog as I share my adventures in stress reduction in the year ahead.

Eat More Kale T shirt dude

In light of the recent David and Goliath battle that the Eat More Kale dude is waging against fast food chicken giant Chick Fil-A, I thought it might be a good idea to post a few ways to cook kale. I hope that you’ll support kale in many ways.

Eat it as often as possible!

Grow it in your garden!

Buy an Eat More Kale T shirt to help spread the word!

Sign the petition to support the Eat More Kale T shirt dude in his intellectual property fight against the fast food chicken giant, click here.

If I had to name one vegetable that is the all time best veggie, I would have to say it would be kale. It is easy to grow here in the northeast, it actually gets better tasting as the temperatures plummet. Although I’m not one to get suckered into terms like “superfood”, I’d have to say that kale is truly a superfood. Deeply green colored, this leafy is an exceptional source of chlorophyll, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C.

There are many ways to enjoy kale. One simple way would be to toss it into your soup! Its the kind of green leafy that holds up nicely in warm liquids.

Another way is to steam it. Super easy and quick. I would recommend stripping the leaves from the stems first as the stems take longer to cook.

My youngest daughter, Mikey loves kale sauteed with carmelized onions. The slower and lower that you cook the onions, the sweeter they get. Toss the leaves of the kale in at the end.

Here’s the recipe that we use many times each week to get our kale fix:

Mikey Rubin’s Sauteed Kale & Onions

1 small onion, cut into thin slices

1 bunch kale

extra virgin olive oil

Heat a saute pan over medium low heat and add about 2 teaspoons olive oil.  Add onion slices and saute slowly until onion is soft and translucent and just beginning to brown. This should take about 20 minutes.  (Shorter if you put the heat up a little higher, but stir and watch carefully that the onion doesn’t brown.)

 Wash the kale, cut off the stems and chop into small pieces.  Tear the leaves into bite size pieces.  Add the stems first in with the onions and cook an additional 5 minutes until beginning to soften.  Add the leaves and mix well, cover and cook another 2 – 3 minutes , stirring occasionally, until the leaves have wilted and are bright green.

Happy kale eater

This has been one rough week. Much of CT is still without power due to the freak snowstorm that did more damage to our area than Hurricane Irene.  My students in the Recipes and Strategies for Better Health class at Gilda’s Club will be looking for some nice warm food that will boost their mood.

Here’s what we whipped up. A simple Miso soup, some steamed baby dino kale, roasted carrots, parsnips and onions, and some kasha with roasted sweet potatoes.

A gluten free, meat free meal loaded with nutrients and plenty of protein for under $3 a person. All with completely pronounceable ingredients!

Miso soup, roasted veggies, steamed baby dino kale, kasha with sweet potatoes

Miso Soup with Shiitake
Shiitake stock lends an especially rich flavor to this hearty soup.
6 cups water

5 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 carrot, sliced

1 1/2 cups chopped greens (such as kale or mustard greens)

1 cup barley or brown rice miso

Soak shiitake in the 6 cups water overnight or for at least two hours. Remove shiitake, cut off and discard tough stems, thinly slice the caps, and place in a pot with the soaking water. Bring to a simmer, add sliced carrot, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Add greens and cook for 5 to 10 minutes more. Turn off heat. Dilute the miso in a little of the broth, then add to soup. Allow to steep briefly before serving.

Kasha with roasted sweet potatoes and some sauteed onion. Delicious

Kasha with Roasted Veggies
Cut any or all of the following vegetables into small chunks:

Sweet potatoes, Parsnips, Carrots, Rutabagas, Turnips, Cauliflower, Onions, Shallots
Toss the cut veggies in some olive oil and salt. Place on a cookie sheet or  roasting pan and put into a 400 degree oven.
Check every 10-15 minutes and  turn them over a bit.  They should be done within 20-30 minutes, depending on how they were cut.
While the veggies are roasting, dice 1 medium onion. Sauté onion in a small amount of coconut oil until golden
Add 1 cup buckwheat groats. Brown the groats lightly,
Add 2 cups veggie broth or another liquid. Sauté 10 minutes until broth is absorbed.
When root veggies are roasted, toss them into the kasha mixture and serve.

Here’s some additional info about buckwheat courtesy of Rebecca Wood’s  New Encyclopedia of Whole Foods
Buckwheat is not a wheat or a cereal grain, but it is treated like a grain.  In medieval Russia, the word kasha which today means roasted or cooked buckwheat, signified “meal” or “feast” because a meal was complete only with this staple present.       Of all the grains, buckwheat has the longest transit time in the gut and therefore is the most filling and stabilizing for blood sugar.  Since it is gluten free, many people with food allergies rely upon buckwheat.  Buckwheat contains a high proportion of all 8 essential amino acids and 100% more calcium than other grains is rich in Vitamin E and contains almost the entire range of B-complex vitamins.

Kale and Spinach happily growing in my garden October 24, 2011

October 24th is Food Day a day to to promote healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. There are many events going on around the country to highlight this concept of finding a solution to America’s food-related problems.

It’s really really simple. Find some land and grow some food. It could be a sunny front yard, a bed in a community garden, some containers on your windowsill. It won’t cost a huge amount of money but it will pay great dividends.

See the four kale plants in this photo? I bought them as a 4 pack of seedlings for $3 back in May. Since July, I’ve been harvesting the bottom leaves twice a week for dinner for my family. They’re still growing and will continue to thrive even when it gets colder!  The return on this $3 investment is huge both money wise and health wise.

See the spinach in the foreground? I popped some spinach seeds into a bale of hay that I used as a garden bed this summer. Its happily growing, a spinach salad waiting to happen.  This is not rocket science! If I can do it, so can YOU!

The best way to save money, improve your health and basically build a better world for your kids and future generations is to grow food nearby. Its as simple as that.

But don’t take my word for it! Have a listen to Roger Doiron. This mellow guy is one of my most favorite heroes. His activism helped to convince Michelle Obama to rip up part of the White House lawn and grow a veggie garden. His organization, Kitchen Gardeners International is extremely informative and inspiring.

Here’s the link to Rogers TedX Talk in case the video doesn’t pop up for you. Click here.