The many advantages of raised garden beds include, but certainly not limited to the following;

• Establish & maintain ideal soil conditions. Soil is managed through the introduction of compost, worms, companion planting, mulch etc
• Beds will warm earlier in the spring & easier to cover/warm in the cooler months
• Watering is designated to a specific area. In my case, I routed the hand wash overflow through the raised bed- grey water recycling.
• Minimizes soil compaction
• Increased productivity per square foot. In line with permaculture practices…”stacking & packing” is easily achieved when dealing with raised beds.
• Following the initial construction, raised beds are easier to maintain.
• Raised beds can be made from recycled timber or building materials (keep chemical leaching in mind when selecting materials), one of the founding fundamentals of sustainable practices- to Re purpose.
• Connecting with the earth. There’s something about (& it’s clearly documented through the research of David Wolfe & his team) having your hands/feet in contact with the soil- we’ll call it “Grounding with Gaia”
• And my favorite- Community. The whole family can be involved in any or all aspects of the project; from the initial construction, the planting & maintaining process, watering, trading veggies with neighbors to selling your produce at the local farmers markets…it’s all about community

                                                                            The raised garden beds at PCC were the re-purposed timbers from a friends demolished deck. Cutting the 2 x 8’s in half made for each end (2 high) while the full 8′ length made for the side, again 2 high. Once a base of heavy mulch was laid I weaved a 50′ soaker hose before more mulch & soil. The soaker hose was tied into the grey water (hand wash) system or a 50 gallon barrel so I could water when out of town for a week. Although limited in orientation, when planting consider the layout of taller crops (& the requirement for trellises) with regards to shading other sun loving plants.

Our beds were planted with tomatoes (7 different varieties), peppers, basil (2 types), egg plant, marigolds (& numerous other flowers), peas, okra, strawberries, cucumber, watermelons, broccoli, spinach, lettuce & swiss chard to name a few.

Raised beds don’t have to be large, thanks to the wonderful world of CraigsList I purchased a couple old water troughs with holes…excellent raised beds, a few peas trellised on a southwestern window providing afternoon shade.

If you have have any more questions on raised bed gardening let me know, I’m off to pick a few more tomatoes- yes, tomatoes mid December!!

Have a sensational day, cheers.

On those cool days I lean towards a raw version of old favorites. Some of these include;

Mushroom teas- a pot continuously stooping throughout the day.

Season veggies & fruit on low in the corner dehydrator, a tray never quite finishing a cycle as the contents is consumed warm

A soup, again from seasonal veggies & herbs with spices to taste. Place raw ingredients in blender & run an extra 30 seconds or so, it takes the chill off without cooking, soaked seeds or sprouts thickening it up & transforming into a stew or dhal like texture

Probiotics & cultured foods; your coconut kefirs, seed cheeses, sauerkraut, live crackers all excite & ignite our core…warming us from the center out.

One of my new favorite ‘go to’ reference ebooks for the season is from the enthusiastic Tonya Kay- Winter Warming Diet, click on the book for more details:

There’s enough information in here to not only get you through the winter months but possibly have you coming outside the better than when you went in! Enjoy & let me know what your staple winter warmer is.

Cheers

I was out to dinner the other night with a few buddies and Norm mentions “Beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes all the way to the bone” we laughed as it was all part of a side joke but on the drive home I got to thinking about this. beauty, real and natural beauty, does come from the inside out.

Our diet, level of toxicity and lifestyle all affect our external appearance. The cleaner we are on the inside, the brighter the glow on the out. Whenever I undertake a juice feast or liver flush I notice how clear my eyes become, skin tone changes & overall appearance is softened….that’s for the inside, lets come up with a few for the outside;

• You’ve seen my blog on shaving with honey, a sure winner for the blokes but can be just as easily used by the ladies.
•  Topical application of wheat grass is one of my all-round favorites. Juice the wheat then apply immediately to face, hair, skin…drink what is left. I find it especially good on any wounds, scratches or bug bites. It’s green, its fun & the whole family can get involved.

• For those with thinning hair (& I need to raise my hand here) I use either rosemary or oregano oil. Apply to a small skin brush & massage into the scalp. I’ve been monitoring my hair growth & slowly but surely my hair has stopped falling out & is starting to re-grow, some of this I account to green smoothies.
• Cleaning is a physical process & not chemical, I avoid all soaps & shampoo. To aide in the scrubbing I simply use a dry skin brush before bathing. Use the brush before getting wet as skin will stretch when damp & promote wrinkles… & no one wants that! There are numerous techniques to follow but to summarize, start at the extremities- stroke along your arm or leg towards the core, your solar plexus. My ’soap’ mix is home made, 3 parts water to 1 part organic apple cider vinegar. To this I add essential oils, in my case a masculine blend with sandalwood & others to stimulate the mind & aide circulation. Play around with the mix until you get something you like. I keep mine in a small applicator bottle & apply a few squirts as needed, under the armpits is great & it avoids the use of ‘deodorants’ as pores are left to breathe & not clog up with foul smells (a clean inside with intensive detox irradicates body odor). The ACV scent soon disappears & the essential oils linger throughout the day.
• MSM is a new find for me, I’ve been using it in a lotion form for just over a year now. I also take a powdered version of msm in smoothies. The lotion can be used same as you do standard moisturizer, I use it in between wheatgrass masks.

Drop me a line if you’d like more information on any of the topics above.

Have a sensational & beauty-ful day!

I’ve recently returned from a short stint in Merida, the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. During my stay I visited both the site of Chichen Itza & Uxmal, both extraordinary in their own right.
The Mayan history lesson was interesting but what held my attention the most was the application of sustainable practices. Uxmal was constructed upon elevated foundations, those foundations contained water cisterns.

Surrounding structures incorporated gutters & swales were evident in the landscape. Those structures were made from stone found in the area. Interesting enough, the cisterns were also tiered, an overflow as such. Once the overflow reached the third tier that was a sign there was sufficient water for the crops & construction activities could begin.

While there’s hundreds of possible answers, the only correct one is yours. After playing with Veganism & raw food for well over a decade now I know how ‘good’ feels & how ‘really really unbelievable’ feels. The down side of that is I know first hand what it’s like when the wheels fall off, when the daily grind of life- corporate or otherwise, chips away at us & for once we just want it to be easy. And at a time when we should move the emphasis back to US, to go within & strengthen the soul through meditation, through breath work, through yoga & support this with healthy eating habits…we try a piece of fresh, warm French Baguette & while there’s a slight after taste, it momentarily satisfies.
To our detriment, once that first little sample has been tried it sends a signal to our subconscious that “owe well, now that I’ve had one ‘taboo’ thing, let’s try another & another & another”…you get the picture & I’m sure most of you starting out on a new lifestyle can relate to same. It happens to me & over time I have come to  know the things to avoid, the places not to go & the temptaions to steer clear of.
This time of the year is especially challenging; Thanksgiving celebrations, work parties, festive season get together. The list is ongoing & then the big one- New Years Eve! I read an article by Aarona recently & she has some fantastic pointers on handling this time of year, here’s the link for you to enjoy 5 Easy Tips
We all have a catalyst, that indulgence that leads to more. For some of us it’s a small walk of the path that can be turned around in days or weeks, some it takes months.
Remember though that where you are is just right for you, the stress associated with “trying to be better” is as detrimental to your health as eating poorly.

Set long term health & well being goals that you can achieve…then be sure to live long enough to achieve them!

Have a sensational day

Thankfully that walking the halls with fresh juice & our bi-weekly wheat grass + treats has sparked some interest & we’ll chat more about juice, juicers and juicing.

WHY?

The juice itself requires little introduction and I have found Norman Walker explains it best in his book “Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices”, there’s a link at the bottom of this article. I will quote an opening paragraph or two from this to set the scene:

“The basic key to the efficacy of nourishing your body is the life which is present in your food & of those intangible elements, known as enzymes. Enzymes are an intangible magnetic Cosmic Energy of Life Principle which is intimately involved in the action & activity of every atom in the human body, in vegetation, & in every form of life”

While the fiber available in vegetables & fruit are valuable, juicing the produce instead of eating whole accelerates the cell nourishment process without the many hours of digestive activity…leaving the body not only nourished but with available “energy” to handle everything else that is required- including the fighting of disease & ailments.

HOW?

Numerous juicer are available on the market today. I have a small manual juicer easily stored in the draw at work that I use often for wheat grass. Easy to clean & silent…& the exercise required to crank the handle doesn’t hurt either!

At home I have a larger electric juicer- a twin gear, slow revolution (& low heat) machine that masticates the fruit or vegetables then squeezing the juice out & passing through a screen into the bowl. Any pulp is discharged into another bowl. A friend has the state of the art (& expensive) NorWalk juicer that is a two stage process- stage one pulverizes the fruit or vegetables as they fall into a bag, then stage two the bag is placed into the hydraulic press & the juice squeezed through the bag & into the bowl…certainly superior juice. I have had the high speed centrifugal juicers in the past & although quick & easy to use the juice quality is just not there. This can be accounted to the temperature (high RPM) & the ‘cutting’ process does not extract all the nutrients attached to the fibers.

For starting out I’d try one of the single or twin gear juicers, a good selection of juicers are available here. Contact me if any of you are interested as I get bulk order discount on the prices shown & have a couple others ready to go.

All juice deteriorates & depending on the method used for extraction, the rate may differ. As a rule of thumb, juice only what you intend to drink immediately & where that is not practical or you want to have throughout the day- store in an airtight glass bottle & refrigerate.

What?

Fruit juice is for cleansing & vegetable juice for building. I find carrot is a staple for all my (vegetable based) juices.  Carrot juice has the effect of helping to normalize the entire system, including your weight. It is the richest source of Vitamin A which the body can quickly assimilate & contains also an ample supply of Vitamins B, C, D, E, G & K.  Late 2008 I carried out a ‘juice feast’ in excess of 4 weeks…what else does one do in Norway for a few months!

I find fruit juices very refreshing, especially in the hot Texas summers. I use them extensively when carrying out a detox and cleansing program.

When selecting fresh fruit & vegetables, target seasonal organics for the maximum benefit. Experiment & have a little fun. I’m quite sure you can’t over do it on juice…bit if you find a way to do so I’d be excited to hear!! Let me know how it goes and drop me a line if you have any questions.

Any fresh-raw juice is better than no juice at all…cheers!

At the moment I live in a small (~800 sq feet) apartment in Houston while maintaining a paying day job. Everything listed in part 1 I undertake along with the following;

Rain barrel

- Available at any recycling depot or on craigs list, a 40 gallon barrel. Connected to the down spout or direct to the gutter, this provides an excellent source of water for plants. Make sure you have an overflow draining away from the building. Bottom of the barrel is a tap with short hose, I’ve made this out of clear plastic so I can raise up along the side of the barrel, open the tap and check the water level. Primary purpose of the hose is for watering. When leaving town for an extended period I push the hose onto a makeshift dripper line and the plants on the balcony are watered in my absence.
- Grow your own herbs and vegetables. Note the few in the barrel picture. I have aloe, mint, basil, lemon grass, rosemary, oregano, tomatoes and geraniums on the balcony.

Living furniture

- Minimalistic is the term I’d use to describe the contents of my apartment. This does provide me the space for plenty of greenery in my bedroom. Large leafy greens and flowers, gently lighted with an efficient 12v system. The bed for the garden came from a felled cedar out the block. Plants remain potted and are watered from either the rain barrel or shower grey water. Plants are fertilized from the compost pile. 

Compost pile

- With all the juice and salad I eat there is plenty of veggie scraps for composting. Out the block I have a compost pile, made from recycled pallets of course- roughly 4′ x 4′ and could fit in most back yards. If your in an apartment, a composting bin (like the bokashi bin) is a great alternative. I use the compost to fertilize existing plants and as a potting mix when transferring or planting new. When building your pile, start with greens (veggie scraps, grass clippings etc), browns (dried leaves, straw etc), greens, browns alternating until you run out of either. Finishing with browns atop, this will keep any smell and pests out. Thoroughly dampen the compost pile.

If you want more details or some drawings on how to make any of the items listed here please contact me. In addition, I have one spare barrel and a few fittings in the garage to give away if you would like to try this.

Cheers, Mat

Bedside color

Plant lighting

Don’t be surprised if the flowers follow you as you walk bye- Enjoy!!!

We wont go raw in the first blog, most aren’t up to that- actually we wont even hit vegetarian or vegan, but what we will do is spend a few blogs on a tiered approach to changing what you eat.  As with all things in the media today, go with your instinct on what sounds right in general, then what sounds right for you now. I have read and applied techniques, and I think that is an important point to note- we’ve been there and done it, continue to do it, and can relate to many of the experiences you’re about to have… and the challenges.

My sources of reputable information was varied, in no particualr order;  N. Walker, H. Diamond, A. Wigmore, J. Robbins, P. Bragg, H. Shelton, T. Fry, J. Brandt, H. Hotema, A. Ehret & D. Reid to name a few. These covered everything; fasting, sprouts, wheatgrass, food combining, raw food, juices, natural hygiene, exercise, breathing (yep- we need to keep doing that…correctly!), spirituality, longevity…  you can now see how the word ‘diet’ doesn’t quite cover how important what we consume, or don’t, really is! If you would like a detailed list of the books themselves, please contact me.

The Basics,whether you’re single or feeding a family of 15, young or old, male or female… you can start with this and see/feel noticeable changes. You don’t need any new appliances, to upgrade your kitchen, or stop going out… after all, eating is a very social scene.

- Increase the amount of fruit you eat. I hear it often, people telling me that fruit bloats them or causes stomach aches. Eat fruit early in the day and by itself as it digests faster (high water content) than most foods. Don’t have fruit after a heavy (thinking meat and potatoes here)meal, where possible don’t have fruit after any cooked, meal.

- Skip the grain based breakfast a couple days a week and have some fruit instead. Your body has just spent the evening assimilating yesterdays food so give it a chance to take a break and get ready for todays bombardment. Grains, especially processed grains, are very taxing to the digestive system.

- Milk, glorious milk… or so they’d have us believe. Cows milk is fantastic for baby cows, or calves as we know them- why do we think that milk specific for one mammal, when pasteurized, is good for another? We’ll discuss milk and dairy in later blogs but for now, start cutting back your dairy intake…and trust me when I say it’s in a lot of food products!

- Eat a fresh leafy green salad for lunch 3 days a week. You’ll feel much better in the afternoon and wont need a ’stimulant’ to keep you going. It’s easy to have at the office, no offensive odors, and remains quick and simple to prepare. If you’re looking for a salad dressing try some of Braggs Liquid Aminos or a squeeze of lemon.

- Swap the soda out for a fresh squeezed juice…they have drive through’s as well! If you’re not lucky enough to have a juice bar near by (or work in the Marathon building and can share mine!), then pick up an inexpensive maunal one and squeeze some oranges- the taste is awesome.

- Cut back on the bread and flour based products. We’ll go into that in a later blog.

- Eat slowly and chew your food, sit up straight when doing this. Sounds real simple I know but in todays rat-race, who has time to eat slowly? Masticating (chewing) food is the first stage in the breaking down and absorption process of what we eat. Salivary juice is mixed with the food during this which activates the gastric and intestinal juices to carry out the remainder of the work.

- Gerneral rule of thumb; Fruit in the morning, Salad for lunch and if you’re going to cook food, do that for dinner.

That should be enough as a starter. A few small changes and you will feel a difference. Over the coming months we’ll transition into the world of feeling ’alive’ all the time… and who doesn’t want to feel like that?!!

Let’s start with a few basics, the easy green ones that anyone living just about anywhere can do:

- Have a 20 gallon bucket in the shower, collect the cold water that comes out while you wait for it to get hot. This water can either go onto you plants or throw it into the top of your toilet cistern for the next flush.

- Do the same as above for your sink with a smaller bucket

- Change all your light bulbs out for the energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFL’s), not only will they reduce your monthly electricity bill but will cut back on the amount of pollutants going into the atmosphere to generate that electricity

- Buy in bulk to reduce the amount of packaging. Bulk is generally cheaper on a per item/quantity and it should save you a trip to the grocery every month or so… more money in your pocket and less gas in your tank.

- Recycle, recycle, recycle. Everything from your plastic bottles to paper. Most towns have a recycling depot, some even offer road side collection… doesn’t matter how you get there just do it!

- Ride your push bike to work. Not all areas are set up for cycling (I struggle in Houston!) but if at all possible give it a go. There’s the obvious exercise benefits and once again the car stays in the garage. Carpooling has a similar effect but the exercise aspect will be missed…unless we’re talking jaw aerobics!

- Buy local, whether it be a hardware store, Ma & Pa’s grocery or the local farmers market… money exchanged within the community stays in the community and promotes a micro-economy. Farmers markets are so much fun, the kids will enjoy it and the produce is generally organic or minimal pest/herbicides used.

- Return coat hangers to laundry/dry cleaners…it’s easy and makes a difference.

- Leaving the clothes drier off and hang ‘em up. In Australia we had the ‘hills hoist’, a back yard clothes line that would be included in every house plan. If you’re in an apartment and don’t have the luxury of a patio or yard for an external clothes line, use a clothes horse- one of those folding plastic coated wire racks. Saving energy is the primary purpose and a fantastic bi-product is your clothes lasting longer (and not shrinking!) having not been exposed to the heat and turmoil of a drier.

- Take your own re-useablebags to the grocery, the hardware, local markets… anywhere a plastic bag would be required. I always have a few of these hanging around the car.

- Dishwashers make for great storage places in the kitchen- Enough said on that one.

- If you use bottled water buy it in bulk and decant into a glass bottle… plastic permeates.

- When leaving the house for work or play, turn the AC up (warmer)… you wont notice a big difference when you walk in from 100++ outside if the place is 70 or 80, it will still feel cooler initially and you can turn it down (cooler) once inside.

- Check, or have a professional check, your AC ducting for leaks etc. Make sure all the energy going to create that cool air is reaching the vents for distribution and not cooling the attic!

- Close the blinds/curtains on eastern side of the house in the morning and western in the afternoon. It minimizes the heating of your house through convection  and will reduce the amount your AC has to work. A tree planted or some greenery outside the window providing shade can do the same… preferably a perennial to let the warmth (sun) back in during the cooler months.

- Eat more salads and raw foods, again plenty of health benefits and it combines a lot of the points above. Minimizes the dishes, no cooking (energy efficient), local produce and the ’scraps’ can go into the compost bucket…we’ll touch on that when we go to the next stage.

There’s a handful of things that will make a difference and can be implemented immediately. I’ll a be adding another blog soon taking it to the next level incorporating composting, rain barrels etc.