Germinated Brown Rice - The More You Know!

GBR, or germinated brown rice, also known as sprouted brown rice, is a big part of our diet. It makes its appearance at least four times per week in dinner and lunches made of leftovers. All of our Indian recipes, such as Dahl and Chana Masala are served with it. It makes up just under half of the volume of my Vegetable Fried Rice dish, and takes the place of toast when I make Boston Style Baked Beans, among other things.

What's so special about GBR that it calls for it's own post? First, it makes the rice lighter, softer, and less sticky, but let's start with what it is. GBR is brown rice (hopefully organic) that has been germinated, or sprouted. It is not the type of sprout that you might add to your salad, but it has dramatically increased the bio-availability of some pretty serious nutritional components such as GABA and calcium. It has approximately 400% more calcium than regular brown rice, and astronomically more than white rice.

The function here is held in the neutralization of phytic acid, which is the enzyme inhibitor present in all grains, beans, and seeds.

Phytic acid in grains, nuts, seeds and beans represents a serious problem in our diets. This problem exists because we have lost touch with our ancestral heritage of food preparation. Instead we listen to food gurus and ivory tower theorists who promote the consumption of raw and unprocessed “whole foods;” or, we eat a lot of high-phytate foods like commercial whole wheat bread and all-bran breakfast cereals. But raw is definitely not Nature’s way for grains, nuts, seeds and beans. . . and even some tubers, like yams; nor are quick cooking or rapid heat processes like extrusion.

Anti-nutrients exist in these plant foods because they are part of the process of life. The natural world requires them in order to perform many important tasks, including protection against insects, maintaining freshness of seeds for germination, and protection against mold and fungus. In order to consume these foods on a regular basis we must remove the phytates and other anti-nutrients through processing in harmonious ways. Many people in the health field assure us that if something is from nature, then it doesn’t require processing. Phytates act as the seed’s system of preservatives, like the impossible-to-open plastic packaging of many consumer goods. To get to the item we need—namely, phosphorus—we need to unwrap the phytate-phosphorus package.

Phytic acid is the principal storage form of phosphorus in many plant tissues, especially the bran portion of grains and other seeds. It contains the mineral phosphorus tightly bound in a snowflake-like molecule. In humans and animals with one stomach, the phosphorus is not readily bioavailable. In addition to blocking phosphorus availability, the “arms” of the phytic acid molecule readily bind with other minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc, making them unavailable as well. In this form, the compound is referred to as phytate.

Phytic acid not only grabs on to or chelates important minerals, but also inhibits enzymes that we need to digest our food, including pepsin,¹ needed for the breakdown of proteins in the stomach, and amylase,² needed for the breakdown of starch into sugar. Trypsin, needed for protein digestion in the small intestine, is also inhibited by phytates. - Weston A. Price Foundation

For information on sprouting and fermenting your own grains you can start here:

The most complete source of information on the why, how and history of traditional food preparation that I have found lies within the Nourishing Traditions Cookbook

Nourished Kitchen - a truly fantastic site on knowing your food, and how to prepare it for greater health.

Radish Boy

Instructables: How to Make GBR

If you're not interested in sprouting your own grains you can check your local organic/natural food market for GBR. Though we lacto-ferment our legumes, whole oats, and nuts, we haven't yet graduated to sprouting our own rice, so we turn to our market's bulk department.

The more you know, Baby!

The Mother of All Releasing Ceremonies

'Yule' is the ancient word for the Winter Solstice, which is the shortest and therefore darkest day of the year. It is the proverbial 'darkest before the dawn' time in our Solar year. It is something that has been celebrated throughout human history, from the Japanese to the Welsh, nearly every culture boasts Solstice rituals. This year the Solstice falls on December 22nd.

'The transition from Roman and pre-Roman paganism to Christianity, with its similar rites, took several centuries. With the Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in the fourth century, customs were quickly appropriated and refashioned, as the sun and God’s son became inextricably entwined. Thus, although the New Testament gives no indication of Christ’s actual birthday (early writers preferring a spring date), in 354 Pope Liberius declared it to have befallen on Dec. 25.' -The New York Times

"Mithras, the sun-god, was born of a virgin in a cave on December 25, and worshipped on Sunday, the day of the conquering sun. He died and was resurrected in order to become a messenger god, an intermediary between man and the good god of light, and the leader of the forces of righteousness against the dark forces of the god evil. Since earliest history, the Sun has been celebrated with rituals by many cultures when it began it's journey into dominance after it's apparent weakness during winter. The origin of these rites, Mithrasists believe, is this proclamation at the dawn of human history by Mithras commanding His followers to observe such rites on that day to celebrate the birth of Mithras, the Invincible Sun." -Mithraic Faith Newsletter

This Yule / Winter Solistice we will be doing our usual rituals to celebrate the rebirth of the sun. Our alter is growing upon the mantle, and we've begun our cleansing inside and out. The house gets a deep clean, rugs are beaten, down comforters are shaken out, sills are washed, lampshades blown clean, all hard surfaces are washed in a rosemary water, etc. Inside, we check our diet and remove all non-seasonal food items, all the while thinking of what we are releasing and cleansing to enter into the new year along with the newly 'born' sun. On the night of the Solstice we smudge ourselves and our house, including inside the cupboards, closets, and appliances, and I read Yule stories to the children before bed. As a last measure we each toss a paper, written with the things which we are releasing along with an offering of organic tobacco (or dried red willow bark) into the fire. Then Jeff and I stay up into the transition to the next day as a symbolic keeping of company with the Great Mother as she labors to bring forth the birth of the sun.

This year we will also be participating in Pixie Campbell's Mother of All Releasing Ceremonies. We've been discussing what we will be releasing, and tonight will begin the week long process of writing each of these things down upon tiny slips of paper to be placed in our releasing bundles.

Two days later (just as we did last year) we will be attending the Christmas Eve Procession of the Virgin at Taos Pueblo
Though this year we will be lucky enough to be within a large group of friends and their children.

More on the Pueblo's Christmas Eve procession: http://www.hawk-media.com/stories02.html

Do you celebrate the Winter Solstice, and if so, what are your rituals?

The More You Know - Cyber Security

The Stop.Think.Connect. Campaign is a national public awareness campaign aimed at increasing the understanding of cyber threats and empowering the American public to be safer and more secure online.

Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. We each have to do our part to keep the Internet safe. When we all take simple steps to be safer online, it makes using the Internet a more secure experience for everyone. If we each do our part online, we are protecting ourselves and helping to make the Internet safer for everyone.

The Campaign’s main objective is to help you become more aware of growing threats and arm you with the tools to protect yourself and your family.

Mindful Security Resources

Internet Security for the football fan

The DHS take on 'Cyber Security'

Friend Therapy, Showing Up, and More 'I Love Winter'

*edited to add pictures*

As we drove up the driveway yesterday I looked across the slopes and wished that we'd get a heavy dose of fluffy snow to cover the patches that had melted bare. No matter what, I can't help loving dramatic weather. All the better if it has some kind of direct effect on our life, so last night as we made our way through the dark streets searching out lanolin tubs and groceries I was secretly thrilled when the wet snow started to freeze and flutter and the roads became just the tiniest bit slick. Yes, I like it. The chance to throw the truck into four wheel drive and drive extra slow... extra careful. I love knowing that if it's snowing in town it's likely a storm in the canyon where we live. When I had to run across the huge parking lot (and back again) of the fuel station a second time because our pump was not responding I secretly enjoyed the reason to pull my parka up around my face and focus on how my feet hit the slick surface of the blacktop.
'Weird like that' I guess ;) What can I say?


After I had a good 30 minutes to myself in the forest Quinn caught up to me. It was nice to hang with just him for a while. We had a snowball fight, ganged up on the puppy, watched a woodpecker, and guessed which tree was going to drop its snow load next.


After Quinn and I sat on the ridge watching a woodpecker for a while it started to snow more heavily on the pond

It's been an extra good few days. Some much loved friends came for a visit and stayed longer than planned. The kids built igloos and I got to have the kind of conversation that I live for while I learned to knit with the help of a very talented knitter who also just happens to dye and spin her own yarn. We talked of values and ethics, of human nature and guilt, of perceived failures and small victories. Twas great. After Jeff towed their stuck car up our slippery drive we stood, slipper clad, and waved good bye as the walked up to the road until we were just cold enough for the fire to be extra delicious.


Zeppelin stuck with me after Sheriff took off up the mountain after a coyote.

We also had homeschooler ice-skating this week and opted to sit it out with another mama and her too little to skate babe. She (with four children), and I (with three) talked of how life is altered so dramatically with each child, of being surprised and fearful by the arrival of the last, of the remembrance of being 'single' and the ease it carried that we couldn't truly appreciate until we attempted to have a restaurant dinner with a table full of children. We laughed uproariously, I held a wee baby, and we both admitted to being grouchy mothers that morning. It felt so good and the world was a different place for me than it was when I woke up that morning.


The path to the pond

I showed up for my art this week too. It's funny... the mental games I have about this. Another mom suggested that I was an artist and wanted to know what my art was. I know I looked like a deer in the headlights at this question because not only could I feel my panic, but she laughed and told me that she was guessing because she had seen some of the home-dec pieces that I made for our cabin. I still had a hard time answering the question. My brain threw up all kinds of options along the lines of, "naw, I don't really do anything, and that's stuff's not art..." but in the end I had to admit that I had a sketchbook and pencils in my purse and that yes, I draw, paint, write, and have been dreaming of taking up stained glass again. I likely blushed and know that I couldn't make reasonable eye contact, but I'm not truly sure what that's all about. There seems to be some thought or emotion connected to my art that I'm afraid of uncovering, but before the kids finished skating I managed to take out my book and sketch something. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to sketch an eye without having one to look at! Not having an eraser was a bit of a challenge too, but I stuck with it, and I felt better for having done it.
Baby steps. I keep telling myself that I'll get there. I'm not sure where I'm trying to get to, but I feel certain that I'll know when I get there, and a hunch that I'm trying to get to Confidence.



The snowflakes are extra fat and heavy now, and it seems like a good day for a solitary walk over the bridge, and through the woods to the pond. I know two dogs that will keep me company...


Quinn met me near the pond after a while and we spotted a woodpecker about 15 feet away.


Our crazy cat tried to follow me. When the snow got too deep she just sat on it and cried. Crazy she is.

How 'Bout Some Comfort Food?

(Vegan) Curried Carrot Soup w/ Roasted Cashews & Coconut Cream
by Edible Aria

Boy, oh boy, do I miss cooking with my dad. He kept me inspired and trying new things.

Christmas in the Southwest

Last night, after hitting the library, we headed down to the lighting of the historic Ledoux St. Ledoux Street is a winding street of art galleries, museums, and boutique shops. In the second week of December, at dusk, the street is lined on both sides, and along walls and roofs, with farolitos. Here in northern New Mexico a farolito is a small paper bag filled with an inch or so of sand, and a lit candle. In addition to the glowing little lanters each shop entrance boasts a welcoming luminaria, a small pinon wood fire, to warm your fingers, toes, and tushes.

Every year hundreds of Taoseños mingle on the street, make their way in and out of the open doors, join in with the candle holding carolers, partake in a cup of cocoa, cider, or wine, and catch a performance. This year, as well as last, our favorite was the fire dancers. To the music of a beautiful woman's banjo they danced, flung, and twirled with their fire to everyone's awe and delight.

Top hats and long overcoats abound giving the feeling that perhaps we've just stepped into a Southwester Dickens novel, and we ignore frozen toes just a little longer. And boy were they frozen this year. It was many degrees below freezing and even our gloves held to the luminarias couldn't keep our fingers warm for long. When we had finally had our fill of merriment we made for the truck at a good clip and couldn't resist a trip to the market for cocoa fixings.

Once home the kids thoroughly warmed their frozen skin by the woodstove while I made the cocoa and Jeff pulled out some old Christmas movies. Then, thick, rich cocoa in hand, we settled down; the kids on the bed with The Polar Express, and Jeff and I curled on the sofa with The Family Stone.

It was late when we finally slipped into crisp, icy sheets beneath our down comforters, and pulled our heads under to keep our breath contained and warming. The puddle around the snow boots would dry itself, the animals were safely curled on the rugs, and the temperature slipped farther and farther below zero without our notice. Yes, there is something magical in knowing that you are surrounded by nothing but forest, wild creatures and snow. Something more magical about a woodstove than central heat, and in living the kind of reality that makes up storybooks. Yes, I would take a great many hardships to never let this go.

Recipe from a Self Described Cocoa Snob/Spiced Drinking Chocolate

5ish cups of whole milk
1 Tb real vanilla extract
1 cinnamon stick
1 whole star anise
1 knob of organic salted butter
7-10 Tb organic, fair trade baking cocoa powder
6 egg yolks, well beaten
5-8 Tb honey
pinch salt
pinch cayenne powder

In a saucepan heat milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and star anise to boiling. Turn off the heat and steep for about 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and star anise, then bring the milk up to a simmer. Add the desired amount of cococa powder and butter, whisking well.

With a spoon add very small amounts of the hot milk to the egg yolks, bringing them up to temperature slowly. Once the eggs are tempered add them to the pan and whisk constantly until the mixture is thickened.
Remove from heat and add desired amount of honey and salt, and if you like a little kick, add a pinch of cayenne pepper. Taste and adjust the cocoa and honey as desired.

This is just as good cold as it is hot. If you put it in the fridge it will thicken considerably and you can then eat it with a spoon like a thin pudding. You can't imagine the yumminess!

Let me know if you try it!

Heart's Dream

I'd like to talk about values. I feel like that word should be capitalized. Values.
Values. They are what make our lives what they are. They determine how our lives feel, how our family functions, what friends we have, how we spend our time, how we relax, eat, drink, sleep, live... everything. Values are the embodiment of what a person stands for, and the basis for their behavior. The trouble really comes in when our choices don't actually reflect our true values. Now I've gone and thrown a game changing word in there. True. True Values.

Almost decade ago I looked around at our shared life and had the distinct feeling that it had nothing to do with what we really wanted for our lives. Values wasn't a word that I assigned to this thought yet, but I have come to know it on the long road since that day. Our life looked okay on the outside. We had a much too large, expensive house, a new car and a vintage Corvette, money to waste, new clothes, gadgets, a respectable career, etc., etc.. But, these things really had to do with values held by our culture, not by us. I could feel this in my unease, fatigue, and mild but ever present sense of anxiety and depression. I looked around me and was deeply troubled that most women that I knew took prescription drugs for depression despite the seeming affluent ease of their lives. They took these drugs, but they weren't really better for them. Sometimes for a few weeks someone would say that they felt better, but it always failed shortly there after.
Why?
Why? was the question that rang in my head all the time. One afternoon while tiny baby Quinn napped I decided to write down what I wanted for my life. What was important to me? What did I want my life to look like? I can't recall anymore what that list looked like, but once it was completed I felt the need to organize it in order of priority. I'm sure that I struggled a little here because my list was a mix of basic values and valued things. 'Happiness in the family' vs. 'a yard for Quinn to play in'. You see, there were things on the list that represented values that I didn't understand yet. A yard for Quinn to play in was my idea of what the values of connection to nature and exercise looked like. It was my limited solution to a value that held infinite possibilities. Connection to nature and physical release of energy can be found in any situation, but I didn't yet know that this was the real question. Therefore, limited options, limited thoughts, a veritable box I couldn't think my way out of because I wasn't asking the right question yet.

When our baby went to bed for the night I asked Jeff to make a list too. We then we spent a few hours going over our lists. We compared, we fretted, we worried, but ultimately we came to the very clear understanding that our life, made up of the choices that we were making, was not what we really wanted for ourselves. Some of the solutions were obvious, others seemed overwhelmingly complicated or confusing. I can't really say whether or not we made any lasting changes at this point in our life, but I can recall it so very clearly, and I know that it was an initial attempt at waking up from the dream of the culture we lived and breathed within.

Today, my list is written deeply across my heart and mind. It is the answer sheet against which all of my decisions/actions/thoughts/desires are checked. This checking happens in a second, without effort, moment by moment, these days. This list is my life, and it is what allows me to find comfort in each aspect of my life. I live according to my True Values. I don't make allowances or excuses, and I have a low tolerance for things which upset the balance.

This does not mean that I live without suffering. This doesn't mean that life is easy. That comes from something different. Many times it means quite the opposite of ease. Living by my values often goes against my whims, Western culture, family, friends, convenience, and ease.

Our values have brought us to this life we live here in the mountains. They have brought me from the misery of Fibromyalgia into health, gaining strength, happiness, and a freedom that is all new to me. They have also brought us to meeting our basic survival needs head on. Life has a new kind of intensity to it. Jeff has a 16 year corporate career on his resume which means very little in a tiny town surrounded by hundreds of miles of mountains and desert. There is no local work for a man who's job has been to care for companies with technology to match their budgets. In a town where most people work for themselves, and the desire to work for themselves is why they are here, there is no employment for Jeff that uses his skills as they have been used in the past. Our values have led us here, and now we learn how to live in a whole new way. Money is no longer the answer to our questions. Heat? Learn to log and split firewood. Food? What can we barter for? Clothes? With no reasonable thrift options, we get most of the girls' stuff in hand-me-downs. Quinn's must be saved up for, planned, and searched for. Jeff and I? We depend on the few pieces we have, and wait for such things to make their way to the top of the purchase priority list.

Why? Because our number one priority is Health. Nothing else comes in equal with, or over, Health. Therefore, we make many sacrifices in other areas so that we may eat a completely organic diet, keep our home completely free of products which contain chemicals, carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, etc. We don't have any kind of governmental support, so this value rides as a top heavy head to our household budget. To hold this value we must refuse to choose cheap and convenient over whole, clean, and nutritionally dense. If we forget to soak the beans for dinner we do not go to McDonalds, we make a meal of what we can find for the evening. When apples soar to $2.99/lb in the summer we buy stone fruits and tomatoes. We don't go to a different store and buy apples grown with pesticides and chemical fertilizers, shipped over from Costa Rica, because they are $0.89/lb.

In one way you could say that this is an easy choice for us, but it is not easy. It is obvious. Obvious, frustrating, and sometimes painfully straining. To eat this way we go without new clothes, we wait months or a year to fix our very old truck, we don't go out to eat, etc. Sometimes it's hard, but mostly it is the way things are because we wouldn't change any of our choices. It's the way that it is because what we WANT is health at any cost. What we WANT is to support our values of a clean planet, clean bodies, protected children, family farms that succeed in sustaining themselves, an end of corporate farming. What we WANT is to live deeply connected and surrounded by wild space. What we WANT is the peace that comes with each new step in the direction of self sustainability.

It's that list. It's that list, which is different for each of us, which drives our lives. It's the balance and peace that I feel from living within the boundaries of that unalterable list created by my heart, mind, and soul, that brings me through my tantrums about having no socks, the struggle of passing up the pile of $4/lb summer peaches, and waiting for the citrus price to drop when they finally come into season. It's the list that lives and breathes in each moment of my life that has brought me to a life that, for all it's struggles and sacrifices, finally, finally leaves me happy. Actually happy. Happy in my breath, my sleep, my strength, and my struggles. It is this list that I can rest upon when I really need to step back and see the beauty in what can feel like drudgery, work, and sacrifice.

This is the life that my heart and conscience has written.

Holiday Recital

Quinn and Nichola had their holiday ballet performances this past weekend and it was wonderful! Nichola was the tiniest little ballerina there, more than a year younger than the next youngest. It was adorable and the compliments from her teacher made me feel all warm and fuzzy. She practices so much and loves it as much as food and air. I'm so happy that she was invited to join 'the big kids' for this. Her dance was the Snowflake dance from the Nutcracker. It's a very moving piece.


Nichola is in the center front


That's Nichola on her knee in the center

Quinn had a part in The Nutcracker's Russian dance and it was fantastic! It's such a fast dance that I could hardly get pictures, but I tried. The dance went over so well with the audience that they kept clapping and whooping during the dance. I was afraid it would distract them, but they loved it! So much fun! He practiced so hard to make sure that he was keeping his posture and gestures straight and proud. After they were done he was positively beaming.



This year the company owner has started a Junior and Senior Ballet Company program. It allows the kids to get a feel for what it would be like to be a part of a company. Every few weeks they put on a performance for the community. They learn a ton of choreography, have rehearsals in addition to their regular classes and learn to be a part of a show from concept to completion. It's a great opportunity and Quinn just makes the age cut. I think after being invited to join this company performance he is really considering becoming a permanent part of the Junior Company.