Seeing the Big Picture

I wanted to talk about macrobiotic living in this blog - about seeing the big picture. Sometimes this is a difficult thing to do as we get caught up in the small details of our lives. It was brought home to me early last Friday morning. I woke up very early to a storm; as the thunderstorm passed the wind started to blow and I knew I would get up and see lots of broken branches and damaged flowers. The window was open and suddenly I could smell smoke.

I ran outside and saw that the cottage that we had been painstakingly building for the last four years was on fire. There was nothing I could do. I was devastated. For three hours I waited until the fire department was gone and I could safely sit down and cry; only to find that the little pond at the side of the cottage was filled with rubble. I remembered the frogs and several hundred tadpoles inside. With two helpers I cleaned for the rest of the day. We took out the tadpoles one by one, put them in a bucket of water and drained and cleaned out the pond.

All that clean up work had been a good thing for me. I realised that I felt differently; it was not the end of the world after all. My family, my friends, my pets were all safe and, after all, the cottage could be rebuilt. For a few hours I had been unable to see the big picture; I had forgotten what macrobiotic living means.

So when you take the kids to school, run to the store, send that e-mail, remember to stop just for a moment. Take that moment and breathe deeply. Smell the flowers, feel the warmth of the sun, talk to your neighbor or co-worker and consciously still your mind. Those little in-between moments when you seem to be doing nothing are the most important moments. That is when time stands still and that is macrobiotic living.

To see the world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour

William Blake

Auguries of Innocence

Kohlrabi and Carrot Salad

I am always looking for new recipes for some of those summer vegetables that I grow every year for the enjoyment of seeing them grow and because I know they are healthy. Kohlrabi is one of those vegetables.

If you are buying it at a store or farmer's market pick the smaller bulbs and make sure the leaves are still attached. Kohlrabi is very high in Vitamin C; 1 cup has almost 100% of your daily requirement of Vitamin C and is also very high in fiber.

I found a great recipe on Orangette's blog. It was adapted from The Farm to Table Cookbook, by Ivy Manning, and Chef Fearn Smith of The Farm Cafe.

I often have a habit of trying to reinvent the wheel but this recipe was perfect as is. I decided to leave out the pea shoots because I did not have them and I also left out the garlic. The second time I made this recipe my carrot and kohlrabi pieces were a little big so I steamed them for about three minutes and that worked out really well. The fennel seeds and the toasted sesame oil give this salad a really interesting flavor and the crunch of the carrots and kohlrabi is very refreshing. Try it as a side dish or even a snack by itself.

Kohlrabi Salad

2 medium red or green kohlrabi bulbs
1 large carrot, peeled
1 tsp. fennel seed
2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt, or more to taste
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 small garlic clove, pressed (optional)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
2 cups pea shoots (optional)

Trim away any stems from the kohlrabi bulb. Using a sharp chef’s knife or a sharp vegetable peeler, cut and discard away its tough outer skin. Then julienne the kohlrabi, using either a mandolin or the same sharp knife. Julienne the carrot too.

In a small dry skillet, toast the fennel seeds over medium heat until they begin to brown slightly and smell toasty. Transfer them to a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, and grind them into a coarse powder.

In a small bowl, combine the fennel seeds, vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic, if using. Slowly whisk in the olive oil and sesame oil. Pour over the vegetables and toss to coat. Taste, and add more salt, if needed.

Chop the pea shoots, if using, into 1-inch pieces and toss into the salad immediately before serving.

University of Michigan's Solar Car Team

The University of Michigan Solar Car Team is one of the most successful solar car teams in North America, having won the North American Solar Challenge (NASC) five times. The team has also placed third in the World Solar Challenge (WSC) three times. University of Michigan students have high hopes for the latest solar car.

"They hope to win the World Solar Challenge in October," said John Federspiel, who will be a senior in mechanical engineering in the fall and is the crew chief on the solar car project. The annual race across Australia from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Adelaide draws college teams from across the globe. It will will be the first test of the car, dubbed Infinium.

They will need lots of energy for both the trial run in the US in July as well as the actual event in Australia. GoMacro will be providing MacroBars for all the team members for both events. We hope that the extra nutrition and energy contributes to the success of this great environmental project. We wish them all the best.

Garlic sculpture

Immune system boosters

Today has been a rather dreary day. It's raining and I feel the beginning of a cold. That got me thinking about how important our immune system is. It helps get rid of infections and helps us heal faster. For it to function properly we need a lot of nutrients and the older we get the more we need, but our body does not absorb nutrients as well as it did when we were younger; so what to do. I am not a believer in taking lots of pills; I prefer to get my nutrients from natural sources.

My mother was a firm believer in warm milk and honey. That was a long time ago and the milk was from our own farm. Today after my bout with breast cancer I avoid dairy products but healthy drinks in between meals seems like a good way of boosting our intake of nutrients. I have a jar of shiitake mushrooms on my shelf that I use in soups and sauces. Full of nutrients and protein it has been prized in the east for thousands of years. A great book, Japanese Foods that Heal by Jon and Jan Belleme, has lots of interesting info. on these mushrooms, so I decided to try their very simple recipe for shiitake tea.

Shitake Tea

1 dried shiitake mushroom
2 cups water
Pinch of sea salt

Soak the dried shiitake in the water for 1 hour. My dried mushrooms are sliced so I just took a handful. If you use the whole mushroom then remove and discard the stem and thinly slice the cap. Pour the water and the mushroom slices into a saucepan and add salt. Recently I have been using Himalayan sea salt from Sustainable Sourcing. I used to measure out salt but it is such a pleasure to hold these crystals between your fingers that I now eyeball my recipes and use a pinch or several pinches of salt in my recipes. Many people think salt is salt but I swear that this salt actually tastes better. I used to put salt in everything but now I am more careful. Less sodium is better for your health. Anyway simmer for 10 to 20 minutes over medium heat until the liquid is reduced by half. This tea will keep up to two weeks in the refrigerator. I enjoyed the mushroomy taste and I even ate the mushrooms. I always enjoy their chewy texture; probably satisfying my subconscious meat cravings. A great medicinal tonic and a good way to imbibe extra nutrients.

The following recipe is from The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack . It is a healing drink incorporating many nutrients. Some of the ingredients are a little more difficult to find but they are available at most health food stores. Nori is rich in protein, Vitamins A, B and C and calcium and iron. Umeboshi plums have many medicinal uses and an umeboshi plum a day is considered to be one of the best preventive medicines. British author Robbie Swinnerton considers the umeboshi to be the culinary equivalent to a cold shower. He writes, "The abrupt, searingly tart, tangy, salty taste jolts the eyes open, shakes the stomach awake, sandpapers off any staleness from the taste buds, and gets the day off to an unforgettable start." Daikon radish is a popular Asian vegetable, very low in calories, high in Vitamin C and a great digestive aid.

Carrot-Daikon Drink

1/2 cup carrots
1/2 cup daikon
1/3 nori sheet
1/2 umeboshi plum

Grate 1/2 cup each of carrots and daikon. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a gentle boil. Add nori and the umeboshi plum (minced). Simmer for about 3 minutes. If you want a little more flavor add a few drops of tamari. Drink it while warm and definitely eat all the vegetables.

There are also many invigorating herbal teas. They are great pick-me-ups and you can drink them at any time of the day. One of my favorites is lemon balm tea; probably because it grows wild in my garden so I have a steady supply throughout the summer.

Lemon balm is great for treating colds and flu and is reputed to enhance longevity. Fresh leaves are best but you can also use dried. Steep it in boiling water for 10 - 15 minutes. Experiment with the quantity of leaves. It is a very relaxing drink. Sweeten with maple syrup or agave nectar if you wish.

Following is a link for nettle tea from the adventures of a 21st century forager. I have not tried this myself but in the area of rural Wisconsin that I live in, the Amish are paying $10.00 a lb for stinging nettles. Supposedly, somebody had to crawl through a field of stinging nettles to get home after having hurt himself. Miraculously his arthritis was cured. I cannot attest to the truth of this but if you have arthritis it might be worth a trial.

I think you will be surprised by how much better you feel after trying some of these tonics. Even better, put aside fifteen minutes every day to relax and enjoy them.

MacroBuzz - A Blog With An Attitude

A blog with an attitude is like a room with a view or a life with a purpose....it is not a necessity, in fact, we can live our lives quite happily without it, but it can also make our spirits soar and expand our horizons in ways that we could not have imagined.

So I have discovered some blogs with an attitude. They are inspirational, opinionated and entertaining with useful information about health, nutrition, food and a love of life. The adventures of Langdon Cook, a 21st century forager on fat-of-the-land. as he makes dandy bread with dandelion petals. Rhubarb revelation at tea and cookies and pan-fried gnocchi with morels and fiddleheads at veganyumyum. I have added these and many more to my blog list.


All of these blogs will provide us with insights and inspiration as we look at macrobiotics, health and nutrition from a fresh perspective. Of course, a strict macrobiotic diet can be great if you are sick but, I think, on this blog we are going to relax a little and look at other aspects of macrobiotics; we will expand the diet by looking at other traditions and cultures, we will look at eastern philosophies and their benefits, as well as trends that incorporate biodiversity and a more ecofriendly approach to our busy lives. We hope to have a blog with an attitude so stay tuned.

The New Organic

Words express the importance of, and give dimension to, the important aspects of our traditions and cultures. The mesquite pod was a staple part of the diet of the Seri Indians. They had seven words to describe the stages of ripeness of the pod while we have only one. The word "organic" is important. For much of the 20th century it has meant a way of farming without pesticides and antibiotics; producing food that is wholesome and healthy without additives and preservatives.

It started as a way for small farmers to produce healthy food and counter the effects of agribusiness. In the last fifteen years agribusiness has seen the profits in organics and now we have huge so-called organic farms. We do not have the security of knowing any longer whether our organic food is GMO free, whether there is sewage sludge in it or traces of pesticides. We learn that most of our food travels an average of 1,500 miles to reach us, often picked green and lacking in nutrition. Freshness, quality of soil, the variety grown and where it came from can probably tell us more about what we are eating than the label “organic”

We can now become "locavores" eating food grown locally and purchased from a farmer's market, or a CSA box of fresh vegetable goodies from a neighborhood farm that we pick up on a regular basis. Of course, there is nothing better than digging in the dirt and harvesting the veggies that we have lovingly grown ourselves. We even have other options; Wildman Steve Brill who has been foraging in New York’s Central Park for decades will tell you that you do not have to grow it yourself. It is there for anybody that cares to look. He can find wood sorrel, tasting like lemonade at West 107th St and sassafras tasting like root beer in Central Park.

Although we do have other options you have to decide whether eating local is worth the extra effort needed to gather all your food from local but varied sources? It is so much easier to go to the local supermarket.. Yet, there is nothing like putting a face on one’s food, for every item on your plate will have a story to tell. Your meal has become an adventure and a source for dinner time conversation. As many of us try to save some money in a difficult economy we should look to the simple pleasures of a home cooked meal and a return to the enjoyments to be had from "hearth and home".