Healthy Eatting

Here is a great list of ways to help your child become a healthy eater. My favorite tip: They won't eat the way you want all the time. Have an occasional treat, and allow your child to experiment with all foods. Most important of all, don't take the pleasure out of food. Create healthy eating memories, and at the same time, don't surrender or become a short-order cook. If they don't eat what you've offered for one meal, hunger will eventually kick in.

http://www.superkidsnutrition.com/nutrition_answers/pr_10-mindful-eating-tips.php

Reminder: CityMamas meeting this Thursday!

June 10 Meeting: Food Preservation 101

Food Preservation 101

June 10 @ 12:00 – 1:30
1900 Bldg., Room 4A  <--------- NOTE LOCATION!

Join cityMamas to learn about freezing, jamming, drying, pickling, smoking and pressure canning. We will highlight equipment, tools, talk generally about steps for each process, and discuss the best foods to use for each technique and where to get them. Recipes and tips to take home.

There will be food! We will bring some samples including pickled cucumbers, pickled green beans, smoked salmon dip and more.

Hope to see you then.

June 10 Meeting: Food Preservation 101

Food Preservation 101

June 10 @ 12:00 – 1:30
1900 Bldg., Room 4A

Join cityMamas to learn about freezing, jamming, drying, pickling, smoking and pressure canning. We will highlight equipment, tools, talk generally about steps for each process, and discuss the best foods to use for each technique and where to get them. Recipes and tips to take home.

There will be food! We will bring some samples including plum jam, pickled green beans, smoked salmon dip and more.

Hope to see you then.

May Meeting Notes: Three Pillars of Optimal Health

This month, CityMamas joined the Women's Affinity Group Meeting on May 13th.  Dr. Greg Nigh, a Naturopathic Doctor and Licensed Acupuncturist from Nature Cures Clinic presented three strategies that can dramatically reduce stress and increase your health.  Here are some notes I jotted down from his presentation:

In Naturopathic practice, there are a few basic principles:

• Find and treat causes of symptoms (not symptoms)
• Symptoms are the clues and not the problems to cover up.
• Avoid suppression
• Bodies are good at being healthy, if we stay out of their way.

*****************************************************************

He presented 3 pillars of optimal health: 

  

1.  Eliminate anything that isn't supposed to be there.

• allergens, infections, heavy metals (such as mercury or lead), hormonal imbalances, and most importantly, FOOD
• FOOD is the most important clue that pushes people out of balance
• Dr. Nigh practices elimination of foods and then reintroduction to determine cause
• a book on the Nature Cures Clinic website takes you through elimination dieting
• the brain is made up mostly of oil.  Unhealthy oils = unhealthy brain
• occasional mild short-term stress is good.  chronic heavy stress is very bad.

2.  Provide whatever isn't there in sufficient amounts.

• vitamins, minerals, oils, sufficient blood (circulation in general), and other nutrients
• basic vitamins: B complex (6 & 12), A, C, D, E
• basic minerals: magnesium, potassium, lithium, boron, zinc.
• for instance, most people don't get enough magnesium.  When magnesium deficient, blood pressure goes up, hypertension.  Epsom salt bath helps!
• basic herbs: ginkgo, green tea
• Labs are essential for understanding the underlying cause of symptoms

3.  Remove stress.

• Stress isn't a thing; it's a way of thinking or a pattern of thinking about our circumstances
• Stress management is THOUGHT management
• Stress is one of the single greatest contributors to poor health.
• Stress is a choice we make about what will occupy our thoughts in this moment NOW.  
• Thoughts + physical reaction to thoughts = stress.
• Time and effort spent in meditation that occurs earlier in the day can carry over in stressful situations that occur later.

Dr. Nigh's take-home exercise (to practice any time, all the time).  He uses a pill-timer that vibrates in his pocket every 20 minutes to remind him to do the following:

• Stop.  Stop thinking what you're thinking.

• Notice, categorize, and scan your body.  Notice what you're thinking and categorize it to see if there are patterns, e.g. I'm remembering an argument with my child, I'm feeling right about something that happened today, etc.  He says you will start to notice the same types of thoughts occurring.  It helps to be aware of what is causing you stress.  Scan your body to determine what contracted with that thought, and to relax the muscle that contracted. 

• What are you doing now?  Start to narrate what you're doing now, e.g. I'm reading this blog.  I'm sitting.  I have my legs crossed.  The longer you can keep up the narration, the more you can manage our stress, because it is challenging to hold "present awareness".  

This whole process takes just a few seconds.  It may help you to stop the stressful thoughts, and to think and live in the present.  It may even stop you from thinking the stressful thoughts before they happen. 

There were about 8 CityMamas in attendance.  
  

Any thoughts on the presentation?   Has anyone tried the exercise?  Anything to add that I've missed?

Gardening

Gardeners,

We want to combine your love of growing things, spring fever, and your desire to help those in need. Mark you calendars for April 15th and May 20th.

This is an inter-agency effort here in the 1900 Bldg., including BPS, BDS, BES, Water, Fire, & PBOT in partnership with IRCO (Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization). We are planning two charitable events -- vegetable plant swaps and sales. These will benefit refugees and immigrants in Portland, via IRCO. The goal is to assist immigrants and refugees in getting started with growing some of their own vegetables.

Here's how it works:
1. You are encouraged to start extra vegetable plants from seed in the coming weeks. Now is a good time to start them inside.

2. On the 3rd Thursdays in April and May (April 15th and May 20th), bring your extra veggie starts to the 1900 Bldg, 4th floor kitchen.

3. You can take one plant for free for every plant you donate or you can buy the veggie starts your colleagues bring in.

Here's how it benefits refugees and immigrants -- The extra plants that aren't swapped or sold will be donated to IRCO for them to distribute to those in need so they can grow some of their own vegetables this spring and summer. The money raised will be used to buy trowels, gardening gloves, and other gardening tools, and distributed to those in need by IRCO.

If you have questions, please contact Rebecca Esau or Chris Scarzello.

We hope you'll participate either by planting seeds now and donating the starts, or coming to buy some veggie starts!

Meeting Notes: Ready, Set, Garden - February 11, 2010

February's meeting brought a roomful (twelve Mamas and one baby Ruby! Thanks, Colleen, for bringing her in) all ready to start gardening.


**Announcements**

• COPPEA is in the middle of contract negotiations. All options must be on the table by March 1. Questions? Contact Lora Lillard.
• Daycare for city of Portland employees children remains to be a challenging prospect. Contact Colleen Jenkins if you want to discuss daycare issues with the City.
• Mayor Adams wants to expand benefits to include gender reassignment surgery - why not fertility treatments? Discussion?

CSA Information
Lora shared some information about CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture). For more information about CSAs and Portland area options, click here. Some things to consider when you contact the CSA or browse their website:

• Location and pick up times - if weekday is not convenient, can you pick up at a nearby farmer's market?
• What do they grow? Will you eat it? For example, does it have only vegetables? Are eggs important to you?
• Cost/week - comparison
• How long is the season
• How much food? Should you share a box?
• Is there an open farm day/work days/educational opportunity for your family?
• What's the history of the farm? Family owned?
• Newsletter and recipes?

City Mama recommended from the CSA Coalition List:

• Deep Roots Farm - Kristen Erbes: "I used Deep Roots because they offer a Farmer's Market Credit - buy a share in advance and then use that credit at their stand @ the Farmer's Market. Works for me because we often travel - might not use something in a box, etc. I get to choose what/how much of what I need & will use. And they allow credit to be carried over from season to season if you don't use it all."
• Vicki's Harvest Box at Sungold Farm - Lora Lillard: "Recommended! Joined last year - loved that they include fruit (berries!) and veggies and had open farm day for families. Wish they had eggs too. Newsletter & recipes a plus!

There are also two charity CSAs that you may consider using:

• Living Goddess - donates all proceeds to SafeChoice for domestic violence resources
• Project Grow - provides employment for adult's with developmental disabilities, inner NE

Have you used a CSA? Care to comment/share your experience?

Ready, Set Garden!

Mindy got started on a lively discussion for What to do in February, assuming that you have a garden spot now. She passed out a worksheet and proceeded to dive right in. The worksheet had a lot of great tips and notes, but here are some additional highlights:




What to do in February?

• Now is the time to get your garden spot ready - turn over the soil and add compost.
• You should compost in between plantings as well.
• Great resource for buying seeds: Territorial Seeds - they also have great how-to videos! Check it out.
• Plant fruit trees/ berry bushes now.
• Prune existing fruit trees now.
• Rotate your garden every year. Never plant the same plants in the same spot every year. For many reasons, but some plants are hard on soil, or extract too many of one type of nutrient from soil - needs to be replenished with a different plant.

Design your garden:

• Write a list of what you want to eat from your garden
• Make sure it will fit.
• Figure out what things need to grow and how long they need to grow.
• Think about companion plants (Worksheet has some good tips.) Pay attention to things that are BAD companions.
• Also, decide how you want to eat your food, what freezes, what can be preserved, etc. E.g. Lettuce must be eaten when it's ready - can't preserve or freeze it.
• Think about perennials that come back and don't need replanting, e.g. asparagus, rhubarb, etc.

Specific crops:

• Corn. Don't plant corn unless you have LOTS of space. They need 4 rows at least, and they have a large growing season (85-100 days). If you want corn, try "Precocious" variety. It has a relatively short growing season, 65-75 days.
• Winter Squash. Trails a lot. Needs lots of space. 100 day growing season. It does well here, because it needs late summer heat.
• Tomatoes. Prune the heck out of tomatoes when they start flowering. They hate getting bushy. Cut the leaves above the flowers. Later in the season, you can cut the flowers so that the plant can concentrate on fruits that are already there. Heirlooms are easy to grow, and expensive at the farmer's market. Recommend growing from starts (not seeds).
• Peas. Grow on a trellis. Don't trim them. They can grow very early. Should go in now. Use stakes - wood or metal - and twine. Can use this system for cucumbers as well, once peas are done. Cut twine when ready to harvest and retwine.
• Pole beans. Plant in a round - 3 stake tee pee, 6 feet tall. They grow all the way up. "Kentucky Wonder" a good, standard green bean.
• Lettuce - Grow in thirds, so that you don't have all your lettuce at once. Mezcalin, "Cut and come again" variety. Grow now until June, and plant again in September. Tuck into places near other plants.
• Green onions/leeks. Ready when they look like you want to eat them.
• Cilantro and mint (and other "weeds"). Yummy but take over. Grow in containers.
• Parsnips, carrots, and beets. Overwinter. Better to eat if you leave them.
• Marigolds and basil. Tuck these in the garden. Marigolds bring good bugs.

Other notes:

• Liquid fence helps against deer, rabbits, etc. A combination of egg white, garlic, etc. fermented. Reallly smells bad.
• Slugs - Ground up egg shells around the stalk of plants or copper or hand-removal works best!
• Avoid weeds by agitating the soil with a stirrup hoe (or regular hoe). Walk around the plot, and "agitate" - hit everything that is not a plant, once a week (all soil and weeds). Seeds of weeds do not have a chance to sprout.
• Tip from Spin Gardening class for planting and weeding rows: Stand with legs wide apart, squat, plant 2 rows at a time, back up, repeat. The paths you create with each foot becomes a walking path. Can weed this way too.
• How much is soil by the yard? Around $90? With a minimum delivery. Share with your neighbors to cut costs!
• Planting strategy: Plant now - peas and lettuce, broccoli, radishes, spinach, cabbage.
• Mother's Day: Plant tomatoes and peppers.

Urban Growth Bounty Classes - sign up here. Classes now until fall.

Happy planting! Thanks to Mindy Brooks for all her wisdom, and for sharing these great tips! Share your planting stories this year as you garden!

Upcoming CityMamas Meeting: February 11th

Our very own food and garden guru/Mama, Mindy Brooks will lead the discussion, and we'll have information about the new Urban Growth Bounty classes offered by BPS.

Also, if you belong to COPPEA and want to collaborate on recommendations for the upcoming contract negotiations, we will have some information at the meeting!


Hope to see you there!

Note: Our new meeting day is the second Thursday of each month at noon.