Covenant Natural Health Care

3 Simple Ways to Preserve Your Summer Harvest

Summer is flying by way to quickly! It's hard to imagine that September is right around the corner. It's the time of year when most gardens are producing much more than you can eat. The last thing you want to do is for it all to spoil before you get a chance to enjoy it. Preserving your food is a great way to ensure that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor or the taste of summer (if you don't have your own garden) all year long.

1. Freeze: Freezing your fruits/veggies/herbs is one of the fastest and easiest ways to preserve. It requires minimal effort and time. Tomatoes, for example can be washed, dried and put into freezer-safe ziplock bags. They make great additions to soups or stews in the winter. Most vegetables and fruits will freeze nicely, but there are some, like cucumbers (and other vegetables with high water content), that just don't freeze well. Herbs also freeze well—they will lose there texture and become soggy, but they do not lose there flavor or nutrients. Check out this resource for foods that freeze well. The only downside to freezing is that if you would lose power you run the risk of losing all your produce and may have to throw it away.

2. Dehydrate: Purchasing a dehydrator is a good investment (they are not that expensive). It is wonderful for drying herbs, fruits, vegetables. This process takes a little longer to preserve food, but worth the wait. Herbs can then be stored in containers, vegetables put into soups, stocks, or other recipes, and fruits can be used for muffins, oatmeal, granola, etc. Dehydrated foods store nicely and last a good while when properly sealed. Click here for more information on dehydrating foods.

3. Canning: This process is a little more labor intensive but a great way to store things that you want to have a long shelf life. You can even can soups, jellies and salsas.This process requires purchasing a pressure canner, which can range from $60-$90 plus supplies like jars, lids, seals, and a few other little things. It is well worth the investment if you really plan on preserving your food via this method for years to come. The one resource for canning (and other preserving methods) that I always come back to is pickyourown.org.

For me, having a good combination of these three ways to preserve food is a way to not put all my eggs in one basket. If the power goes out, I won't lose everything, If my jars don't seal tightly while canning, I haven't lost everything, etc ... Ultimately, though, find what works best for you based on the time and resources you have.

Preserving food definitely takes time and patience, but it's worth the time and effort as you get to enjoy nutrient-rich, local and fresh foods all winter long until the next growing season comes around.

Gardening to Cut Food Costs—1917 Poster

I came across this poster last week. It's from 1917, can you believe it? It begs the question, why don't we see more posters like this from the government today?

Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Anymore, though, it's not just about cutting food costs, it's about gardening for food safety and fresh foods. If you didn't start a backyard garden this year, Covenant Natural Health Care encourages you to buy as local as you can this year and plan for a garden next year.

 

Time for Farmer's Markets and Fresh Produce!

It's my favorite time of year! CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and local farmer's markets are starting up, it's time to move plants that were started indoors, outdoors, and time to plant direct-sow seeds. Fresh, local produce is truly around the corner.

It's easy to find most farmer's markets via a search online, through local advertising or through LocalHarvest.org. Buying locally has many advantages (see my top-10-reasons list), the most important one being that you know exactly where your food comes from and you know it's fresh. Too much produce these days is being shipped from other countries and you just can't rely on the government to police the shipments like they should—there is too much coming in and too little resources to make that happen.

If you didn't get a chance to start seeds indoors or wasn't considering starting a garden, it's not too late to either start seeds directly outdoors. Or, you can buy plants from a trusted, organic nursery that are ready to plant outside. My absolute favorite nursery to buy organic plants from is Marvin's Organic Gardens up in Lebanon, Ohio. I know it's a little drive from Northern Kentucky, but well worth it—especially if you want healthy plants ready to go in the ground for a good price. My husband and I are heading up there tomorrow to get some strawberry plants and maybe a few other things.

I encourage you to shop as locally as possible for all your food needs this summer. It supports your local farmers and ensures you are getting great food! And, don't forget that you can freeze/can/dehydrate foods and herbs to store for winter months.

Health News Roundup

Reading these articles is a great way to inform yourself with what's going on in both natural and traditional healthcare. The more educated you are about these topics, the better you'll be able to make informed decisions regarding your health and the health of your family.

• Market Lighting Affects Nutrients in Salad Greens, Researchers Find: Many people reach toward the back of the fresh-produce shelf to find the freshest salad greens with the latest expiration dates. But a study led by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists may prompt consumers to instead look for packages that receive the greatest exposure to light--usually those found closest to the front.

• Is This Common Activity Poisoning You?: Widely used fragranced products, including those that claim to be "green", can give off chemicals not listed on the label. Some of these chemicals have been classified as toxic.

• South Korean Study Suggests Rate of Autism May Be Underestimated: In the first large-scale study of its kind, U.S. and South Korean researchers report that the rate of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may be significantly higher than previously thought, affecting as many as 1 in 38 children. The findings suggest that many youngsters may be going undiagnosed and untreated for the developmental disorder.

• Conventional farmers won't eat their own food: In this interview with organic vegetable farmed "Brad," he explains why conventional farmers won't eat their own products. Why? Because "they know what's in them!"
 

• Many types of organic compost are really packaged human sewage: Do you want everything that goes down your drain winding up on your backyard produce? Well that's what happens to those who use organic compost made with municipal sewage.

• New study: Nations requiring the most vaccines tend to have the worst infant mortality rates: For example, the United States requires infants to receive 26 vaccines -- the most in the world -- yet more than six U.S. infants die per every 1000 live births. In contrast, Sweden and Japan administer 12 vaccines to infants, the least amount, and report less than three deaths per 1000 live births.

• Plastics chemical in packaged foods linked to asthma in babies: BPA, also known as bisphenol-A, is a chemical compound often used in the production of a large variety of plastics. The widespread use of BPA has come under public scrutiny due to known connection to a host of health problems, including heart complications, cancer, neurological issues, diabetes and fertility and sexual issues.

• My New Warning: Avoid THESE Medical Treatments Whenever Possible: Americans' overall (declining) health and their access to state-of-the-art medical facilities factor into these exorbitant yearly health care expenditures. But a majority of these costs, when put under the microscope, clearly have more to do with promoting ever increasing corporate profits than with making Americans healthier. From government agencies like the FDA to the insurance empire, to health care providers and big pharma, the new primary goal of health care industry in the US has transformed into making money off of sick people.

• If You Can Never Seem to Get Truly Well, This Could Be Why...: This environmental medicine expert uncovers a frequent underlying cause of many persistent AND serious health issues - not only allergies, but cancer, diabetes, and thyroid disease, too. Know what symptoms to watch out for in you or a family member, how to detect the presence of this insidious culprit in your home, and what you must do to save your health - and possibly your life.
 

Read last weeks Health News Roundup here.

Are your eggs really organic?

Your best bet for good, high quality, nutritious eggs? Buy them from your local farmer!

 

Find out why eggs are really good for you here.