Oodle Salad

I know that we haven't been posting very much lately, and I apologize for that, but I plan to make up for it with this delicious new recipe that I invented!  

We recently purchased a Spiralizer.  There are lots of different brands out there, I haven't compared them all to be able to make a particular recommendation.  I just went online and read lots of reviews and picked one.  I LOVE it!  If you don't have a spiralizer, you can probaly use a grater or peeler, but the long twirly oodles are really fun to eat, and much faster to prepare.  I took a variation of this to a potluck and everyone loved it.  I even craved it for a couple of weeks, until I made it again.  I'm eating it now!

Right now is the perfect time to make this salad.  Zucchini and cucumbers are starting to invade people's gardens, the first tomatoes are starting to ripen, and the basil needs to be pinched back so It doesn't totally go to seed.

For the store bought stuff, don't skimp.  Use a very high quality extra virgin olive oil.  We buy ours from a fantastic restaurant, where the owner's family has their own olive orchard in Greece.  You want a nice, deep gold color, with a hint of olive flavor.  We absolutely love Penzy's spices, I recommend three Italian Dressing mix, but use it in the perportions that I note here.  You want a stronger sense of the spice mix than their regular recommended recipe.  For the basil, use fresh, right out of your own garden or windowsill if possible.  The fresher the better!

We love Penzy's Spices!

Dressing:
3 oz white or rice vinegar
1 oz olive oil
1 tbsp penzys italian dressing mix
1 tsp fresh tumeric root or 1/4 tsp powdered

Shake dressing ingredients together in a jar.

Veggies:
1 medium zucchini (zoodles)
1 medium cucumber (cucoodles)
1 large carrot (rotoodles)
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 cup diced yellow or red pepper

20 grape tomatoes, quartered
15 fresh basil leaves, chopped fine

Make zoodles,  cucoodles and rotoodles with spiralizer.   Cut up any leftover bits into the mix.

Cut your celery and tomatoes into small pieces.  finely cut the fresh basil leaves

ZOODLES!

Throw all the prepared veggies into bowl. Top with dressing. Mix (I use tongs).  let sit a few minutes before eating.

This is great for potlucks, or for picky eaters.

91 calories, if divided into 6 servings.

You can add parmesan, if you want.

Here is a version without cucumber, but with parmesan cheese.

This picture has nothing to do with salad, or oodles.  It is all about love.

Variations:
Add Boodles (fresh spiralized beets)

Add thinly sliced sweet onions, red onions, or scallions
If you like a less tart dressing, use rice venegar and add up to a tablespoon of agave nectar to the dressing.
Parmesan cheese or feta cheese can also be added if you want.

MindFull Meal for Friends: Creamy Dreamy Spinach and Artichoke Mac N Cheese

Our blog, Essential Living MindFully, is about living mindfully around food, wellness, and life in general.  Part of life is sometimes simply and fully enjoying yourself.  Often that joy comes while dining with friends over good (occasionally decadent) food and stimulating conversation.  Sometimes it comes in the garden or kitchen with the beauty, smell, or taste of something delicious.  The dish we are sharing today encompasses all of that.

Some of the recipes we share here use healthy, fresh foods and sometimes essential oils.  Once in a while, we will share something decadent.  This is one of those dishes, yet it also contains veggies and dairy to keep essential nutrients in reach. 

This Creamy Dreamy Spinach and Artichoke Mac N Cheese is vegetarian, but not vegan.  You can add chicken if you want, but really, it is a complete meal in itself.  Perfect for entertaining, this is quick and easy to prepare, allowing time to set the table or enjoy a cocktail while it bubles away in the oven.  And you get to join your guests at the table without lingering in the kitchen with last minute preparations, leaving plenty of time for dinner conversation.

If you like the artichoke spinach dip found in restaurants,  you will love this dish.   It has a similar flavor without the saltiness of most of them, and it has pasta! 

INGREDIENTS:

16 oz. Box of macaroni noodles
6 cups chopped fresh raw spinach
2 small jars artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
4 cups milk
1 cup sour cream
4 oz. Cream cheese
8 oz. Shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
6 oz. (6 slices) Smoke gouda cheese
4 oz (4 slices) sharp white cheddar cheese
2 oz swiss cheese (2 slices)
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3-6 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 Tbs real butter
2 Tbs flour

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350

Cook pasta only 2-4 minutes in salty water.  It should still be firm.  Drain and Cool until no longer too hot to touch.

Cheesy Sauce

This is a good time to start the cheese sauce:  melt butter in a large saucepan.   Add garlic, onions and nutmeg until fragrant.   Add flour, stirring until incorporated with the butter (a minute or less).  Stir while adding milk, cheeses and sour cream.  Cook on medium low until everything is melted together.  Stir frequently to keep from sticking or burning.

Fresh Spinach, Canned Artichokes and Lighly cooked Macaroni noodles

Place chopped spinach and chopped artichokes in a large bowl, add macaroni and combine well.  Pour the cheese sauce over the this and combine until all pasta and veggies are coated.

Put into a buttered 9x13 pan, or individual ramekins.  Cook 45 minutes to an hour (less time if you are making individual serving sizes). It should begin browning on top and have an irresistible smell.

Ready to Bake!

Smells Amazing!

Steaming Hot Ready to Eat.

Remove from oven, and scoop from large pan into bowls or onto plates while still steaming.   Add garnish if you wish.

It won't be long before it disappears.

Where Did It All Go?

NOTES:  You may substitute similar good quality cheeses for some of those listed here.  If you want a saltier flavor, you can add more parmesan.   You can also add more spinach or artichokes if you see fit.  If you use frozen spinach, drain it well.  Frozen artichokes will also work.

Spring Blooms, Bugs and Oil Blends

It's spring! The flowers are blooming, and the insects are beginning to wake up. We are nurturing pollinators this spring by letting our dandelions do their thing. What are you doing to nurture your environment this spring? I read in a magazine last year that if you want to attract pollinators and your blooms are a bit late, put a drop of wintergreen essential oil here and there near the plants you want them to work on soon. As the insects wake up, it's also time to pull out the Terra Shield oil blend to help repel fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. When i experimented with the killer mosquitoes last year, the arm i sprayed with Terra Shield and water had about half the number of mosquito bites than my untreated arm. Then, I put lavender and fresh aloe or Balance Oil Blend to help with the itch. Peppermint oil placed into mole holes is supposed to repel moles. They supposedly don't like the smell. I tried that last year, too, but our two terriers took care of them first. The amazingly intricate trenches and craters are evidence of this. We may have to buy dirt this year to fix the yard. It reminds me of the old kid's rhyme that starts, "there was an old lady who swallowed a fly..." I think our rhyme would end something like, "there were two old ladies who brought home some dogs to catch the moles that dug the holes that housed the grubs that grew to beetles that ate the grapes that would have been juice that the old ladies hoped to swallow, I don't know why the craters were dug, I guess they'll fill with rain and become bogs." Another good springtime use for peppermint oil is as you throw open your windows to get ready to add new color to your walls, add a couple drops to your gallon of paint to help reduce the odor. And, before you paint, Lemon oil, Purify blend or Citrus Bliss added to your vinegar, castille soap and water cleaning solution adds a bright, uplifting scent to your home. And, if a friend's dog happily happens to pee in your shoes, use some Purify Oil Blend and vinegar and castille soap to scrub them well. We did that, and our shoes smelled great! Thanks, Jake for peeing on our shoes, they are clean and fresh now! (The tennis shoes went into the washing machine with our homemade laundry soap and Purify Blend, but Deb's leather dockers just got a good scrubbing inside and out. How do you use essential oils in the spring?

Dehydrated Apple Snacks

Dehydrated Apple Snacks

This is a recipe for pure deliciousness.  These taste like candy!  These dehydrated apples have a bit of an orangy flavor with a hint of clove and cinnamon.

INGREDIENTS:
about 1 cup lemon juice
about a quart of water
about 10 drops of doTERRA On Guard Essential Oil Blend
about 3-4 pounds of apples (use at least partially tart, definitely firm type.  Honeycrisp, Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith, etc.)




EQUIPMENT:
dehydrator (I use an Excalibur, but any one will work, even a solar one)
mandala or other slicer to get even, fairly thin slices
glass 9"x13" cake pan (not metal, it reacts with lemon)


PREPARATION:
1)  Wash apples very well to remove any wax or chemical residue (organic is best, but if not, wash well).  To do this, you can fill a pan with water and add several drops of doTERRA Lemon Essential Oil, or you can use Wild Orange Oil or Grapefruit Oil.  The essential oil helps to break down any waxes, oils, or pesticides.  Rub apples well with your hands or a very clean rag while in the oiled water. Rinse apples well under running water, just to make sure all of the residue is gone.

2)  In the glass cake pan, combine the lemon juice, water and On Guard. There should be enough liquid to fill the pan 1/2-3/4 of the way (enough to cover the apples.  You can re-use the liquid for more than one batch, but add more On Guard for each batch, since it sticks to the apples).  I give approximate measurements because basically what you want is something like unsweetened lemonade. The acid in the lemon juice helps to keep the apples from turning brown.  If you don't have lemon juice, you can use citric acid or ascorbic acid.  I prefer lemon juice though.

3)  Slice the apples into approximately 1/16" thick pieces.  You don't need to peel them.  I sliced mine on a mandala and just pulled out the seeds for a pretty star shape in the center, and the parts without pretty stars, I just cut in half trimmed out the core bits.  Doing it this way created a lot less waste than cutting wedges and coring the apple.  However, you can also just slice wedges, but try to keep them even in their thickness so that they dehydrate evenly.   As you get them sliced, drop them into the lemon/oil/water mixture.

4)  Lay out slices on your dehydrator trays without overlapping them.  Do not rinse them, just take them out of the liquid and place on the trays.

5)  Dehydrate at 95-100 degrees for 6-8 hours.  Slices won't get crispy (I tried), but will be slightly flexible.

6)  Eat.  Enjoy.


NOTE:  I developed this recipe and made these dehydrated apple slices and they are amazing!  When I tasted one of the slices after I had dipped it, I was afraid I had added too much On Guard because it was a bit bitter and strong.  Instead of wasting the slices, I put them in the dehydrator anyway, and they taste amazing.  Addictive even!  I'm looking forward to tucking them into care packages or munching on them through the winter.  I'm not sure if the 100 degree temperature is too hot to maintain the health properties of the oil or not, but the taste is amazing anyway!

On Guard is 10% off for the month of November 2012!  You can order yours at www.mydoterra.com/livingmindfully

One Year Healthier

Deb and I just celebrated ONE YEAR as Independent Product Consultants with doTERRA!!!  We get amazing benefits as IPCs, also known as being a Wholesale Member.  I’d like to share some of these benefits with you, and give you an idea of why we are so enamored with these oils and this company.

The first and foremost benefit we get from our membership with doTERRA is that we have access to some of the best essential oils we have ever experienced.  doTERRA checks every bottle of oil with a mass spectrometer.  You may have seen this process on CSI or Bones, or another super high-tech forensics show.  In case you haven’t, the mass spectrometer is a thingy that checks the chemical composition of whatever is being tested.  doTERRA has rigorous standards of specific chemical compounds before they will put their label on it.  When someone asks me if they are organic, I happily tell them that it is BETTER THAN ORGANIC because this process of approving only the best oils assure that there are no contaminates such as GMOs, pesticides, herbicides or weeds.  Plant sources for doTERRA oils only come from the finest plants grown in the most ideal conditions for that particular type of plants.  doTERRA only distills the most potent plant parts in order to ensure that only the purest, strongest essential oils become doTERRA Oils.  Only the very best make it through their process to make sure each bottle of oil is CERTIFIED PURE THERAPEUTIC GRADE (CPTG).

Through these amazing oils as well as doTERRA’s Lifelong Vitality Pack (a daily regimen of vitamin, mineral & herbal supplements along with essential oil capsules that also include omega 3’s and antioxidant oils), our lives have radically improved.  Aimee has been able to better manage the Epstein-Barr virus that she carries, has been able to better manage mood fluctuations and menopause symptoms (including hot flashes).  Despite working with kids, she has not gotten half of the infections and crud that her coworkers and kids at work contract and spread to each other and back to themselves.  Deb has been able to work with her doctors to greatly reduce her prescription drugs and over the counter supplements.  Her pain levels are reduced, her moods are better, she is getting fewer migraines and illnesses even though she has an incurable immune disorder (common variable immune deficiency) and she cannot take the only treatment available through conventional medical means.  Her doctors are amazed and excited to see how well she is doing.  (Before using doTERRA, she was visiting the ER an average of once every 5-6 weeks needing treatment for chest pain, migraines, upper respiratory infections, etc.  We have gone once in the past year). Deb now has a vitality that she hasn’t had in years.  Woohoo!

Although there is absolutely no minimum monthly order (unlike most multi-level marketing programs), we get another series of benefits since we do place an automatic monthly LOYALTY REWARDS ORDER, which we can change at any time just by jumping online.  With each order that we place, we get a certain percentage of “Loyalty Rewards Points”.  These points can add up.  After being consistent with ordering for at least 3 months in a row, we can start using those points to get FREE PRODUCT (we pay $3.00 for $100pv worth of product per 100 points.  It may seem to take a while to accumulate points at first, but as the months go by, the percentage you get in points increases.  Next month, we will be up to the maximum of 30% free pv (personal volume) for every Loyalty Rewards Order (LRP) that we place.  If we place an LRP worth 125 pv before the 15th of the month, we get a free product-automatically!  This month, we got a 5ml bottle of On Guard, a product that we use every single day and order every month anyway.  In the past, we have gotten lemon, oregano, peppermint, Breathe blend, Balance blend, white fir, and other amazing gifts.  Every once in a while, they add other offers as well.  By increasing our December order, we even got a free bottle of Frankincense oil.  (We actually didn’t order more than we expected to for that one, because, being December, we were buying lots of great CPTG oils as gifts for our friends and family.)  We have also gotten fantastic sets of essential oils for cooking.  (see some of our recipes in an earlier blog post or check out these recipes highlighting doTERRA's summer sensations oils.)  

As WHOLESALE MEMBERS (IPC), we get 25% off the retail price of all doTERRA products.    That means that with a typical Loyalty Rewards Order for us, we save about $50 per month.  That’s not bad for paying an initial $35 sign up fee, which includes the $25 annual fee plus $10 for a start up kit.  With our $25 renewal fee, we also got a free bottle of peppermint!  So our membership has already pretty much paid for itself!  (See my earlier blog post about peppermint to learn why this is well worth the price!)  As IPCs, if someone wants to take advantage of these amazing products and signs up under us, we get a percentage of whatever they spend, as long as we maintain our Loyalty Rewards Orders at a minimum of $50 (which are keeping us healthier, happier and even flavors some of our food, so of course we maintain our LRP orders).  With all the products that we use and love from doTERRA, we easily spend at least that much. And, this month (August 2012), for the first time, we are getting a $50 bonus check because 3 people that signed up through us as IPCs placed qualifying LRP orders.  Adding theirs to ours gave us the 600pv our team needed for doTERRA to cut Deb, whose name the account is under, a check.  If we had been pressing it, we probably could have earned this earlier, but we just let the amazing products and company standards sell themselves for the most part. 

I must add here, that even with adding a Lifelong Vitality Pack each month for each of us, along with the oils that We are using to keep Deb healthy despite having a compromised immune system, we are still paying less than we were for all of her prescribed drugs and Dr ordered supplements.  (Do not alter your medications without consulting your doctor and going very slow with this process.  You may not be able to get the same results that Deb has.  She has some great doctors who are open minded about complementary modalities and who open more as they see her improve.)  She feels so much better than she did when dealing with all the negative side affects of multiple medications, and the expense of the supplements she was having to take-Ugh!  

We use doTERRA oils for so much more than massage or air freshener.  We use them as mood stabilizers, pain relief, cleaners, antibiotics, perfumes, cooking and diffusing into the air to clean and refresh the house.  Even the animals use them.  For example, Sky, one of our dogs, had a badly damaged nail, and we treated it with On Guard.  She didn’t get an infection or anything, even though she runs outside in dirt and who knows what germ-ridden stuff, every day.  You can read an earlier post about relieving Sky’s trauma with Balance Oil after we rescued her from being tied up outside in the cold and rain without food or water.  Like me, Balance is her favorite.

doTERRA is committed to using not just the best oils, they are also a company that supports its members with webinars, seminars, essential oil news, conventions and up to date information on the most recent and exciting scientific studies being conducted on essential oils.  They are committed to not just relying on ancient wisdom or anecdotal evidence, they also look for scientific studies to support their work and our education.  I never knew essential oils were so powerful until I started reading their educational materials.

We would love to help you get discounts and earn free products from an amazing company.  We have tried a lot of different essential oil brands, from very expensive, rare ones, to inexpensive off the shelf at the health food store.  By far, doTERRA is the best oil for the best value that we have found.  The superior quality makes us confident to use them in and on our bodies.  Their soaps, body wash, diffusers and educational tools are all exceptional.

There are a lot of links included in the text of this blog entry.  click on any of them to get more information on the subject highlighted.  Most of the links connect to our business website, www.mydoterra.com/livingmindfully

Blessings,

Aimee

Finding Cool Relief with Peppermint Oil

Candy canes.  Toothpaste.  Tea.  Patty.  These are a few of the things I used to think of when I heard the word "peppermint".  Since being introduced to doTERRA essential oils a year ago, I now think of words like:  cooling, pain relief, alertness, chocolate bark, headache and moles. (Moles?  Keep reading).

This summer in particular, we have been using peppermint oil every day. 

When I get too heated while working in the yard on these hot, dry days of 2012, and when I get hot flashes, or when the air conditioning at work isn't quite low enough, I take a cool damp rag or bandana, sprinkle a few drops of doTERRA's CPTG peppermint oil on it and drape the cloth over the back of my neck.  It feels like my own personal cooling system.  (Who'da thought a minty spicy oil would have a cooling effect?)  I am sitting on our deck right now, watching the dogs play in the 79 degree weather at 9:30am, with a damp, pepperminted purple bandana on my neck to cool off as I write this.

If I don't have Deep Blue or Past Tense oil blends with me, I pull out my peppermint to ease aching muscles or headaches.  Since being introduced to doTERRA oils, in the past year, I have only taken a dose anti inflammatory medicine twice.  I used to take them daily, often every 4 hours for chronic pain.  The only times I have taken them since joining doTERRA was this spring, during the first really heavy lifting and grunt work of the yard and garden. 

I must confess that sometimes, if I am getting ready to meet someone after work and I haven't gotten a chance to brush my teeth, or if my mouth tastes off from being too dry when I forget to stay hydrated, I'll put a drop of doTERRA peppermint oil right in my mouth, either on my tongue or under it.  I get an instant, powerful, WHOOSH feeling in my mouth and up through my sinuses.  I love to take a couple of open mouthed breaths to feel the coolness, run my (now minty) tongue around my gums or swish a swig of water around my mouth to spread the sensation throughout my palette.  Yum.

I work midnights, and some nights, no amount of daytime sleep or strong black coffee can clear my head.  At those times, I am so grateful to uncap my doTERRA Peppermint Oil and breathe deep.  It makes me more alert and energized than any amount of caffeine can do. The aroma goes up my nose, through my sinuses and straight into the limbic part of my brain, the seat of emotions.  The peppermint aroma in my brain makes me more alert, uplifts my mood, and sometimes, even transports me back in time to my kindergarden year while making peppermint cookies with my mom (I took them to school to share).

I read in a couple of different organic gardening articles, that moles don't like peppermint oil.  So, I took another reputable brand of peppermint oil outside with me one day, determined to put a couple drops in every mole hole that my dogs had dug up, before refilling them with dirt.  And, as I worked in the 90+ degree heat, even though I was drinking water, my mouth still had that stale taste you get from being dry.  So, I put a drop of that other reputable brand peppermint oil on my tongue, and I gagged and rushed into the house to brush my teeth with doTERRA's On Guard Toothpaste because the taste of that other oil was so horrible!   It had a rank, sour taste with barely a hint of mint flavor.  We had used this brand for years, but never cooked with it or took it internally.  DoTERRA oils were the first essential oils we had ever thought to take orally, they were the first essential oils we ever felt confident enough in to know they were safe and pure.  We had used that other peppermint oil for things like massage (never again because whatever goes on your skin goes into your bloodstream, and I no longer trust that brand), taking the stink out of latex paint when redecorating the house, and things like that.  Since I have been using doTERRA oils for a year now, inside and out, I guess I had a momentary lapse and figured this other oil would bring me at least a measure of relief from my skunky breath.  Although this other company advertises. "Purity tested/quality assured", their quality and purity are nothing like doTERRA's Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils.

I should have had my first clue the very first time I received an Aroma Touch session.  As soon as the peppermint and Wild Orange oils were applied to the bottoms of my feet, I tasted the flavors of both in my mouth and felt the refreshing coolness of the peppermint, as if I had brushed my teeth through my feet.  In all my years with using that other oil for massage and to cool my feet, I have never experienced that cooling sensation/taste when it touched my skin.  The fact that I taste the wonderful minty fruitiness of the oils on my feet are great evidence to me of how putting something on your skin goes directly into the blood and other permeable tissues throughout the body.  The skin is, after all, the largest organ of the body.

I should have had my second clue when the website of the other "pure peppermint oil" said that you can use it for aromatherapy in diffusers but to carefully mix with a carrier oil for any other use.  DoTERRA's CPTG Peppermint Oil can be diluted with Fractionated Coconut Oil, or another carrier oil for sensitive skin, or for children, or just to make it go further when used topically.  And, it can also be ingested as is, right from the bottle!  I have sensitive skin, yet I  use doTERRA Peppermint oil (and any other dTERRA oil or oil blend) directly on my skin without being diluted by a carrier oil, and I have never had an itch, rash, or any negative reaction.  (That is not to say you won't.  Everyone is different and allergies or other sensitivities may come in to play for you.  Click here for some basics on using essential oils safely.)  

Even though that other brand of peppermint oil is less expensive, it is pretty much useless to us now.  Deb and I now understand the wider range of amazing benefits we can get from Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade Peppermint Essential Oil, and now that we have experienced the difference, pretty much the only thing we will use that other peppermint oil for is to scare the moles.  I hope it doesn't make them sick if they accidentally ingest it.  I doubt if I could get them to brush their tiny teeth (do moles have teeth?) with doTERRA On Guard Whitening Toothpaste to get the taste out of their mouths either.

Some uses for doTERRA Peppermint Essential oil:
Use in cooking (see our recipes for peppermint bark, and peppermint "tea" that we posted this past winter)
Reduce Nausea
Relieve Diarrhea
Ease Sciatica/nerve pain
Minty fresh breath (I said that already, but I can't help it.  I love the phrase)
Increase alertness
And more

*these statements have not been approved by the FDA and are not intended to treat, diagnose or cure any of the above issues or illnesses (although there has been some research that supports many of these uses)

MindFull of the Forest AND the Trees

"Mindfulness takes many forms and always leads toward more skillful action."  This one sentence from the second of a two volume set of books entitled Edible Forest Gardens, took my breath away, and also sums up my gardening actions and thoughts since reading these two texts by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier.

We have just crossed the sun's path at the solstice in this year of 2012, and I am still planting my gardens for the summer.  As I weed and sow, I find myself being more mindful in the way I sow and with the plants that I cull as "weeds".  The emphasis of these volumes is on promoting healthy polycultures in which more than one species is planted together, hopefully complementing or even helping one another.  Although they are focused on perennials and woodland plants, Edible Forest Gardens has inspired me to plant as much diversity as possible within each of my annual vegetable beds in order to better cultivate "plant communities" in each area.  For example, in one bed where I have grown tomatoes for too many years in a row, I planted corn, peas and lettuce.  The peas will help to feed depleted nitrogen back into the soil when I leave them to decompose after they are spent.  The corn will not only provide us with juicy ears to eat fresh or cut off the cob and frozen, their height will help to shade the lettuce which is sensitive to excessive light and heat.  The spent corn stalks will either get composted for next year's vegetable garden, or cut up into mulch for the forest.

Dave and Eric (I have fondly come to feel that I am on a first name basis with them through their writing!) pack these pages full of valuable information as basic as how to properly plant a tree and why.  They also tell you amazing facts like that there are up to 14 different species per square yard in old growth forests.  I guess sometimes it is hard to see the forest for (or among) the trees!  There is so much information, I had to keep stopping to assimilate it all, and it was such a good read, I couldn't wait to get back to it.

Even though this set is crammed with information, Dave and Eric seed in stories of mishaps and successes, photos, diagrams, philosophy, ethics, and ecology among the tightly grown canopy of facts.  Books like this, full of research figures and technical detailed “how to” instructions can often be so boring that readers just want to jump to the parts that they deem relevant to their very narrow immediate needs.  Honestly, I did do that.  I didn't skip around out of boredom though, I did it out of enthusiasm.  Although both volumes can be read individually, each makes reference to the other in a way that connects them, like roots of different trees that grow together and graft naturally underground, sustaining one another with an ongoing dialogue (you can read about that phenomenon in volume 1).  As I came across each cross reference, I was like a dog with a bone and grabbed for it, sometimes finding myself reading a few chapters before, at last, returning to the other.  This is not a criticism of the way the volumes are constructed, rather it is a compliment to the seamless way one can swing from one branch of the tree book to another without losing any of the depth or intricacy.  The only problem with this compelling urge to follow these cross references is that I wanted to carry both hefty volumes at the same time, which made my burden heavy, but also worked as training for the carrying and other work I am doing as I ready our own edible forest.

Their idealized vision of living in a culture where edible forest gardens are the norm and where is bounty enough for all, resonates with my own belief that we are all connected and that each of us can do good in the world, if even on a small scale. 

Their Edenesque vision also reminded me of the idea posited by John Hick, in which the garden of Eden is in a future to look forward to, to strive toward creating, rather than as a lost Utopia.  Also, Dave and Eric’s level headed approach to native species vs non-native vs invasive, reminds me of the conversation I once had with an autumn olive, an invasive species of bush with yummy berries that can be found all over Michigan.

Eric and Dave provide facts for all kinds of things having to do with edible forest gardens, including site preparation, root system structures, the role of fungi, the importance of bugs, and what can grow under a black walnut tree.  Yet, they make no claims at all that this is everything there is to know about forests or gardens or dirt or mushrooms or…  In fact, right from the get go, they acknowledge that there is not enough research or resources to instantly know how to build the perfect forest garden.  Even if such a formula was possible with variations in soil, nutrients, microclimates and existing flora,  I would guess that if anyone claimed to know such a formula, that the adventure and natural magic of growing and discovering how to create such a masterpiece would disappear for them.  Much of the allure is, yes, in becoming more food independent and locally focused, but the allure is also in the mystery of not knowing exactly what comes next, or how the garden will grow.

They talk a lot about observation.  Observing your own forest garden, old growth forests, and groupings of plants, to see what works and what doesn’t.  Observing which plants attract the beneficial insects and animal partners you want, which plants like one another, and which ones appear at war.  With this observation, naturally, comes questioning.  Toward the end of the second volume, they extend this to mean even more than questioning the roles of the ecological niches within our forest garden, but an even deeper mystery-that of our own inner landscape.  “What does what you observe in the forest garden tell you about yourself?”

SOME CHANGES I'VE MADE SINCE READING EDIBLE FOREST GARDENS:

I have left some “weeds” in my raised beds,

like violets and catnip to confuse pests

and attract beneficial insects.

I took all of the pine mulch out of my blueberry beds,

added worm poop, 

and planted tomatoes and peppers with the blueberries.

      

                 I now know that dandelions and other deep-rooted "weeds" 

                  are "dynamic accumulators"

                      which will add lots of extra nutrients to my compost.

I let last year’s carrots to flower and go to seed for the insects to enjoy.

Thanks to my sister Mig's generosity, we have gotten and begun to spread our first ten yards of mulch to begin our own forest garden!