Fresh flowers are always winners for any holidays, especially as a gift of Love and Appreciation for a fast approaching  Mother’s Day. These beautiful masterpieces of Nature are appreciated by many women even more than diamonds and other pretentious gifts.  Anyway, how many people will buy these expensive “rocks” now, in dull and gloom, uncertain and psychologically tiring economic time?!

For me there’s no better gifts than fresh and colorful flowers with gentle scent reminding me how magnificent and generous is our green Earth.  Flowers have always given to me the best feelings I know, and they remind me to be cheerful. Some women want to have different gifts to lift their spirits and feel cheerful.

I researched what kind od natural, inexpensive and useful products for women are available today on the market. As a result, here is my List of Mother’s Day Gift Ideas that you can buy online under from $13 to $60 and make dear women in your life happy with your attention, care and love.

1. Frida Kahlo Bars created by Painter Girl Chocolates to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Remember a movie about her? These delicious, dark, earthy chocolate bars (70% cocoa) feature a portrait of Frida and her famous motto, “Viva  La Vida” which means “Long Live Life.” So, with this great motto you’ll have the best wishes of long and, I have to add, a healthy life, too,  because good quality, dark chocolate is good for you, especially if it is spiced with dried chilies and cinnamon. This specialty food comes in a pack of six bars (5 oz) and packaged festively with ribbon and flowers. Price: $24

2. Fine & Raw Chocolate Bars Series made by Fine & Raw

You can choose three different flavors: 78% Ecuador cocoa, 78% & nibs, 83% & nibs, Raspberry (76% Ecuador cocoa) and Lucuma & Vanilla (75% Ecuador cocoa).

Ingredients: cocoa, virgin coconut oil, raw blue agave, cocoa butter, himalayan sea salt.  Price: $25.50

3. All Things Sweet by Bubble Letters NYC

Say something sweet, romantic or inspiring to your Mom, wife or daugther using these are offset printed, folded, luxurious white cards 3.5″ x 5″  8 blank notes come packaged in a clear acrylic box with 8 brown envelopes and 10 kiss stickers to seal your envelope with a sign of love and elegance. Price: 15.00  

4. Total Body Therapy Gift Set, a luxurious four items line for $47 by Mother’s Delight.  Liquid Herbal Body Cleanser, Body Massage Oil, Belly Butter and Tingling Tushie Spay. It is a real Mother’s Delight which is hand-blended and will help Moms to take good care and nourish their delicate skin.

• a) Body Cleanser (4 oz), a herbal body wash infused with coconut, jojoba, olive, lavender and tea tree essential oils that clean, moistirize and revitalize your skin. Put this cleanser over your body, take a shower and your skin will get a fresh look and will feel soft and silky.

                                        b) Body Massage Oil (4 oz), a blend of coconut, almond, soy, nettle, horsetail, rosemary, sage, lavender, Indian hemp and tea tree essential oils.  This luxurious combination of natural oils is best to use for massage or after you take the shower. It will help to protect and hydrate a dry skin of your whole body, crying for nutrition, and is a great aid for relaxation and rejuvenation.

                                        c) Belly Butter (4 oz), an easily absorbing moisturizer not only for belly, but for a whole body. It is created as a blend of shea butter, coconut oil, mango butter, lavender and tea tree essential oils to replenish and retain moisture in your skin and improve its elastity. The best use it after a shower or bathing by massaging Belly Butter gently into your skin.

                                       d) Tushie Spray (4 oz), all-natural antiseptic and anti-inflammatory, cooling and soothing mist. It contains a delicate balance of tea tree oil and witch hazel oils combined with aloe vera gel and lavender to ease discomfort of soreness or itching skin.

5. Mother’s Day collection of cookies by Elenis. Pamper your Mom with all nice and relaxing treats she can use in her special day. Do you think these are soaps? No, these are 13 hand-iced sugar cookies in a form of a bottle of oil, relaxing mask for tired eyes, refreshing pieces of cucumber, a cushy pillow and other shapes. You can choose from Mother’s Day collection gift sets with fancy cookies like “I love Mom,” “Happy Mother’s Day,” “Designer Handbags,” “Designer Shoes for Mom,” “Tea Time,” “Blue Ribbon,” “Spring Flowers,” and “Match Point.” One gift box cost $59. 

6. Bella Jardin Cards

These are the most popular cards from Bella Muse’s  garden and nature collection. They come with preprinted text: a) Butterfly Blue card reads: “Wake butterfly, it’s late. We’ve miles to go together.” It comes from a poem by Basho, a Japanese poet (1600s). Born in a prominent samurai family, Basho refected that word of nobility and became a wandere, studying Zen, history, and classical Chinese poetry. b) Home Card reads: “Home is the place”; c )Bird Song card reads: “Nesting a verb:to nest; the act of nesting”; d) Thank You Bee card reads: “Thank You”; e) Simpleness & Duty card reads: “For never anything can be amiss when simpleness and duty tender it.” It is a quote from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Price: $20

7. Morning Dew Stationary

Elegant design with gracious pink blossoms swaying in the light breeze and sparkling with tiny drops of morning dew adorn these folded cards. Send your Moms these beautiful folded note cards with green background that capture the beauty of nature. You can personalize each card when you order. There is a space for it. A fresh, green background of the card is juxtaposed with a dark violet band and is available personalized with your recipient name.

These cards measure 5.5″ x 4.25″ Made by Fubabee. Price: $13.

8. Herbal Salves First Aid Kit

A gift every woman will be happy to get for her kitchen green pharmacy.  This trio, especially “First Aid Salve, are packed with antiseptic, antibacterial and healing properties that help in emergency with any minor injury or bruises, cuts and scrapes.

My favorite is Calendula Salve which is an exceptionally effective for inflamed skin, skin ulcers and irritations, and for slow healing wounds. Calendula is an effective medicinal plant. It is strong and efficient, but gentle in the skin and can be used for baby (older than 2 years of age) skin care needs. This salve doesn;’t have any essential oils in its content which makes it an available aid for children and adults with sensitive skin.

Arnica Salve is good for overworked muscles, bruises, minor injuries and sprains.

Manufactured by MJ’s Herbal with all herbs, organic olive and essential oils, natural vitamin E,  pure beeswax to stabilize the salves and the highest grade (premium grade A) shea butter. Certified organic herbs used in salves are grown in the US or “grown without chemicals,” are infused in organic olive oil for three months with the moon phases for added energy and potency. Unprocessed beeswax comes fresh from New York State pesticide free land. Important to notice: these salves are packaged not in plastics, but in glass jars, so you should not be worried that essential oils used in these products will break down, and allow our bodies (like it happens in plastic jars!!!) to absorb toxins from plastic packaging, and poison your blood and body.

Price for Herbal Salves First Aid Kit: $39, but if you want to buy just one, for example, Calendula Salve cost only $13.

These products can be ordered directly from manufactures or from Local Labels made in NYC representing them and many other from New York area, http://www.locallabels.com/catalog

Copyright 2009.

ShareThis

Sometimes your life is so busy and you don’t have time for picnics or any activities outdoors in the beauty of nature, but the Stream Garden will always be there for you with its healing plants, berries, fruits and vegetables. Ancients used every piece of the plant: seeds, flowers, roots, stems, bark and fruit to treat common ailments. For centuries plants were used in cosmetics, in religious ceremonies, and as decorations in homes. With the Stream Garden, an innovation of Swedish scientists, once again we can return to these green plants, and have them as our herbal first aid and raw ingredients for homemade remedies, as healthy foods and natural adornments for our homes and offices.

Now, let’s see what can we plant in our home garden?

Basil (Ocimum basilicum) , of course.

Grow this plant, which is also called sweet basil,  on a sunny windowsill. Generally basil’s usefullness is associated with our digestive system. Herbalists believe that this herb can help to treat stomach cramps, vomiting, constipation, even headache and whooping cough.

Mix fresh basil leaves with olive oil, pine nuts, choped garlic and parmesan, and you have delicious, aromatic pesto. Dry its leaves and make medicinal infusion. Steep 1tsp dried herb in 1/2 cup spring water for 3-5 minutes. Drink 1 cup a day, sweeten with organic honey and take it to treat cough.

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)

Plant in a pot on a sunny windowsill and harvest before it starts blossoming with flowers. Medicinal part: Leaves. Chives help to stimulate appetite and promote digestive function. Rich in iron, it is helpful in treating anemia. Always use fresh leaves and never boil them, especially in soups. Just chop fresh leaves and sprinkle them over your homemade salads, sandwiches, omelettes or any other dish before you serve it, and  if you want to substitute an onion with chives.

Mint (Mentha spp.)

Mints love also to grow on a sunny windowsill. There are at least thirty species of mint and all of them were popular until 17th century.  Today peppermint (Metha piperita) is intensively used in the West. The Russians and Chinese use field mint (Mentha arvensis), known  as miata in Russian and bo he  in Chinese. Garden mint which is spearmint (Mentha spicata). It is delicate and not so strong as peppermint, but can be used in the same way as mint other species, and is good for children.  

Sage (Salvia officinalis)

Place this plant on the sunny windowsill. This lovely herb is well known for its great medicinal qualities, such as enhancing memory and supporting longevity.  The leaves can be harvested all year round. Infusion made from leaves (1 oz leaves and 2fl oz spring water) makes a tonic, liver stimulant and gargle or mouthwash for sore throats, mouth ulcers, and gum disease. It improves digestive function and circulation. Use them also to make fresh, hot tea or chop and  to lamb chopsticks, and other meals. 

Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

Like many other herbs, this plant prefers sun and warm environment. Melissa is the Greek word for “honey bee“ Since ancient times, balm and bees have been linked together because lemon balm has similar healing properties as honey and royal jelly.  Touch its fresh leaves and you’ll smell a gentle citrus scent. This plant was ancient doctors’ favorite for making “elixirs of youth” and  to “renew youth.”  Today herbalists use fresh leaves of  lemon balm to make infusion to treat the early stages of colds, and depression, tension, and anxiety, digestive upsets and nausea. Lemon balm is cooling, so It is very helpful as a natural aid to relieve painful swellings, such as gout. If you want a refreshing drink, especially in summer, use its fresh leaves and make a hot lemon tea.

Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana)

Sounds familiar? You can see boxes of Stevia powder in our supermarkets. But better grown this extraordinary plant on a sunny windowsill in your kitchen. So you have it right there, available for healthy use. Stevia has been used in South America for many years as natural sweetener. Use fresh leaves in your tea as a substitute of sugar. If you are craving sweets or have “a sweet tooth,” just take a couple of fresh leaves and chew them.

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum)

This small annual plant also likes sun. It has been cultivated for thousands of years. It is still grown in Europe, and the Mediterranean are, in North and South America. Medicinal part is seed. It can be used as apperizer, antispasmodic, and if applied externally, make a good aid for treating rheumatism and painful joints. Even if some people think that coriander tastes like a soap, this delicate herb with spicy aroma improves the flavor of other medicinal preparations.

You can make infusion by steeping 2 tsp. dried seeds in 1 cup water and take 1 cup a day.

Tomato (Solanum hypersicum)

Choose a small tomato that can grow into a small plant. Otherwise, it can grow so tall that it will be difficult to support it in your house conditions. Eat them as they grow. Add to your sandwiches, make salads or dry them in the oven and save for your other dishes. Fresh tomatoes make a nutritions meal with goat cheese.

 Buy goat cheese log. Cut on rounded pieces. Put several thinly cut tomatoes on a piece of cheese,. Then sprinkle choped parsley or dill (which can also be grown in your garden) on your sandwich, and you have delicious and nutritious meal You can also put all ingredients on a piece of rye or wheat Italian five grains bread, and have a healthy breakfast or lunch without worry of gaining extra pounds. 

Chilli Peppers (Capcicum annuum) also love to be placed on a windowsill with plenty of sun. There are lots of different chillies grown around the world.     

If you like spicy food, the hottest peppers are Habanero. Use it in main course meals. If you are curious,  to taste hot pepper in combination with chocolate, put a tiny piece of it in a cup with hot chocolate. This is very popular trick in South America, and it helps to boost metabolism. But be very careful because it is really hot!!!

The sky is limit in your choice of these green wonders you can grow in your home organic garden. My List also includes parsley and dill, strawberies and raspberries. So, don’t waste your time. Reward yourself and your family with green stimulus! Start your organic garden today for your health and wellness. 

Source: www.greenfortune.com; The Complete Medicinal Herbal by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, 1993; Honest Herbal, A Sensible Guide to the Use of Herbal and Related Remedies by Varro E. Tyler, PhD, Pharmaceutical Products Press, 1993

ShareThis

Popularity of vegetable gardens started around the globe long ago. This spring, First Lady, Michelle Obama decided to digging up a patch (1100 sq.ft.) of the South Lawn to plant an organic vegetable garden. Long before, in 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt realized a need for fresh fruits and vegetables in everyday diet, and created her victory garden in World War II. 

In the new White House organic garden shell peas, shallots, onions, varieties of lettuce, spinach, different herbs, raspberries and even rhubarb will be grown.  The New York Times reported that there will be no beets in Obamas new garden because president does not like them, but arugula will make the cut. Doesn’t he know that the beets are well known superveggies from the time immemorial?!

A new organic garden will provide food for the President’s family’s meals and formal dinners in the White House, but the main goal of the First Lady is to educate children, families and communities about healthful herbs, fruits and vegetables, grown by local farmers.                

It is especially important when obesity, diabetes and other diseases have become a national concern. In addition, growing fresh, organic food locally will lead to healthier and mindful eating. And reliance on huge industrial farms using more oil for transportation and chemicals for fertilizer will be significantly reduced.

As you understand, not everybody has the South Lawn to digg up an organic garden, it is a privilledge of few. Not everybody has a piece of land to plant organic superfoods, but thanks to Swedish scientists. They came up with an idea of creating a Stream Garden. Now you can have your own organic garden, create a green home and healthy lifestyle, save money on expensive organic foods, and our environment overall without owning a piece of land or even having a backyard.

Stream Garden is a small personal garden for your home or office. This miniature of a garden is based on hydroponics. It means that you can fast grow fresh herbs and  plants without soil, but in just circulating water. Hydroponics have been used by NASA on space stations and other extreme conditions, and in commercial green houses around the world for growing cucumbers, tomatoes, other vegetables and flowers. Now you can enjoy eating your own fresh, organic superfoods all year round. By the way, it is a great gift for Mother’s Day, too.

Swedish researchers transferred this industrial cultivation technique into the urban environment and adopted Stream Garden to the needs of working people living in cities. So, now you can have your green garden in your house or office without any worry how to keep your plants in good condition.        

 Stream Garden makes you life easier. The system requires only an electric pump, water and organic fertilizer. Instead of giving your plants water every day, as you usually do when you grow them in soil, all you need to check the water level and refill the pots once a week. There is one condition: every third month you should replace water with fresh and add nutrition for your plants. It is easy to manage, isn’t it?

It is  an excellent solution for people living in metropolitan areas,  big and small cities, in cold or hot, tropical climates, and working long hours outside of their homes, or travelling very often. With Stream Garden there is no worry to keep your plants happily growing and bringing you the best green gifts of nature.

In my next post I will tell you about herbs, fruits and vegetables you can grow in your Stream Garden.

Source: The New York Times, Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House by Marian Burros, March 20, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/dining/20garden.html? ; http://www.greenfortune.com

Photos of White House and Plan of the organic garden are in public domain

Copyright 2009.

ShareThis

For many centuries humans have developed a close contact with the world of plants, but even so we have strayed far from Mother Nature. Increasingly, as time goes by, we lose this valuable connection with the perfect world of trees and herbs. More and more our precious rain forests with their abundance of healing plants are being destroyed by the bulldozer’s bite. Each day we inhale the toxic fumes of gasoline and other chemicals and the living aromas of natural plants disappear from our homes in exchange for the so-called beauty of silk flowers.                                                        

Less and less we breathe in the marvelous natural scents of trees, earth, ans snow that bring us health and energy. When I was a little girl, we always had plants, such as eucalyptus, or a branch of a coniferous tree in our home. Near our house grew a proud pine which we knew always gave us energy and oxygen. In our garden Grandma cultivated mint and lavender; the modest, but fragrant chamonile; oregano; and King’s clover or thyme. She sewed by hand small pretty cotton sachets, which she stuffed with fresh herbs and hung in our closets and on nails throughout our house. They emitted an intense aroma that made us feel as if we had come to change our clothes in a fragrant garden.

Now we have a great solution to get close to nature: Stream Garden.  Read my next post about it. You’ll learn how to start a real, green garden in your home or in your office. You can plant there so many herbs, berries, fruits and vegetables and save lots of money on expensive organics, start eating healthier, and go green with your environment.  Look at these pictures of the garden. Don’t you want to have the same or even better?!   

 Source: Mama’s Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living by Svetlana Konnikova, page 211. Aurora Publishers

Photos: Tiny Daffodills by Petr Kratochvil; Promenade in the Forest by Peter Griffin

ShareThis

 Today is the 39th Earth Day. This sunny day is started as a holiday of celebration of our green planet and nature in 1970 to honor our generous earth, to promote sustainable living and ideas of ecology, to encourage people to respect our planet and express our concerns about preservation the soil without chemicals, keeping air and water pure, and taking good care of natural resources.

140 nations around the world celebrate today Earth Day. Colorful exhibits, outdoor dancing,  performances and picnics, state fairs. Everything today is about environment and how to preserve it and our Earth in healthy condition.     

Honor the Earth Day and get outdoors. Celebrate the magnificent beauty of nature around you. The Green Generation is the global theme for this year’s Earth Day. Here are some Green living tips:

• Go to a state park where you live. Spend some time there and explore the beauty of nature.                                                                    
• Exercise outdoors to cleanse lungs and bronchi.
• Walk and move your body.
• Have a picnic in your local park with fresh food from local farmers.
• Discover what trees are growing in your area.
• Get on the bicycles and ride through the park or towards the ocean with your loved ones.
• Go to the flower shop and buy fresh flowers.
• Make green, healthy meals.   

American poets Robert Frost and Joyce Kilmer, naturalists Henry David Thoreau and John Muir, and many others have penned their reverence for nature and our earth. As a naturalist, explorer, and writer, Muir left us an enduring legacy. He founded the well known Sierra Club while lobbying as an activist and a writer for the establishment of Yosemite National Park. John Muir shares with us his observations and some of the wonders he found in the great forests of the West.

We all travel the Milky Way together; trees and men; but it never occured to me until this stormy day, while swinging in the wind, that trees are travelers, in the ordinary sense. They make many journeys, not extensive ones, it is true; but own little journey, away and back again, are only little more than tree-wavings–many of them not so much.

When the storm began to abate, I dismounted and sauntered down through the calming woods. The storm-tones died away, and, turning toward the cast. I beheld the countless hosts of the forest hushed and tranquil, towering above one another of the slopes of the hills like a devout audience. The setting sun filled them with amber light, and seemed to say, while they  listened, “My peace I give into you.”

                         Let’s we all give our peace and love to our precious Earth.           

Source: From John Muir The Mountains of California, New York, The Century Co., 1894; Excerpt Mama’s Home Remedies:Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living by Svetlana Konnikova, Aurora Publishers, 2008

Photos: a) Sunrays Through Green Leaves, b) Sunrise and c) Fresh Green Leaves by Petr Kratovchil;  Sunset by Anna Cervova; On the Forest’s Path by Peter Griffin

Copyright 2009

ShareThis

If you think you need to buy a bottle of fancy dressing for your salads in a grocery store. Look at the listed ingredients and think again. They don’t look good to me, especially high sodium content. So I make my own, 100% natural,  nutritious and tasteful dressing that I call “Olivedilly.”

It is the easiest and healthiest way to make your own dressing with all  natural ingredients: organic, first cold pressed olive oil, organic lemon or lime, and several tiny stems of dill, a herb with tender aroma.  If you don’t like dill, don’t add it. Dill is one of favorite herbs, so I use it in my soups, salads and many other vegetable dishes.                                                       

Do you see? “Olivedilly” looks very pretty in a clear glass, sparkling with soft and earthy, greenish-golden colors of olive oil and lemon. Prepare 3 tablespoons of organic olive oil, 1 organic lemon or lime. Pour olive oil and squeeze one lemon. Add a pinch of iodized sea salt and chopped dill. Mix it. In several minutes you have the best 100% natural dressing. I make this dressing for all my salads which are the constant meals in our every day menu.

Here are my yummy, green salads that Moms can easily and rapidly make for lunch or dinner, and teach their children to do the same.

• Salad “Health”: 1/2 cabbage head, 10-12 baby carrots, dill, Italian parsley, homemade “Olivedilly” dressing.

Wash all ingredients. Cut thin and small cabbage. Grate carrots. Chop dill and Italian parsley. Mix and sprinkle “Olivedilly” dressing. Serve 4.

Salad “Green Magic” (see photo above).  Grate 10 baby carrots, cut small fresh green onions, cut on cubes Granny Smith green apple. Add “Olivedilly” dressing. Serve 4-5.

Text, recipes and photos of ”Olivedilly” dressing, Salad “Health” and “Green Magic” by Svetlana Konnikova. Copyright 2009.

ShareThis

This vegetable called Bonbon de Nature  (Nature’s Candy) by French  and make delicious meals using it. Russians call it svekla or buriak, and also make lots of delicious salads and appetizers. I am talking about beets that are not the favorites for some people. But you want or you do not want to recognize and appreciate the value of these amazing vegetables,  beets are your buddies, no matter what.

For centuries raw beets have been a souce of producing sugar in many European countries. Red beets have been known as powerful medicine, too, for many centuries. Ancient physicians knew them for healing intestinal complaints, lymphatic gland diseases, anemia, fever, nettle rash and many other ills. Modern science has confirmed what the ancients knew–that beets, preferably organic, contain a number of biogenetic acids which increase peristalsis of the intestines, betain, which helps break down protein, and also help form choline, which imporoves liver vitality.                                                           

• Fresh juice mixed with two teaspoons honey helps heal hypertension, and has a calming effect;
• Eating three to five ounces of cooked beets before breakfast, helps with constipation, liver diseases and indigestion;
• 1/2 glass fresh beet juice mixed with 1/2 glass of fresh carrot or black radish juice will combat anemia and improve metabolism

In your kitchen you will most likely find a vegetable that sailors have used for ages to treat burns, stomach ailments, and scurvy while navigating the high seas–the potato. Potato (Solanum) is a perennial plant. In many countries it is “second bread.” It is almost impossible to find another plant that is so similar to the simple bread we eat every day.

As a main food product, the potato is also one of the favorites in “people’s medicine,” and it can usually be found right in our pantries. Potato is a diuretic, and if cooked, can successfully treat respiratory diseases and other health problems. Do you know that these modest vegetables are also good for more than just French Fries of Hashbrowns?

• Got hemorrhoids? Stop wasting your money on suppositories. A Russian way to solve this problem is to cut tubular cylinders from organic, raw potatoes with an apple corer, and use in place of suppositories before going to bed each night.

Yes, many of us love coffee. Every morning delicious aroma of freshly brewed coffee wakes us up, gives energy and just pure pleasure. But curious minds around the world finally discovered a healthy use for coffee!

Strong black coffee, made with freshly ground coffee beans, can be used as a hand bath and to treat nail fungus. Now, I ask you, why would anyone want to bathe their stomach and intestines with anything that will kill nail fungus?

I would love to hear your opinions, advices and suggestions. If you want to quote these tips, please credit as follows: Excerpted from Mama’s Home Remedies by Svetlana Konnikova (ISBN:978-0-9791758-1-7; ISBN:978-0-9791758-2-4). Available in bookstores, on the web at www.aurorapublishers.com, on www.amazon.com or by calling Independent Publishers Group at 800-888-4741. Price is $19.95 (paperback) and $24.95 (hardcover).

Photos: Apple in Blossom, Coffee Beans, A Cup of Coffee by Petr Kratochvil

Photos: Bunches of Beets in the Fresh Market;  A Glass of Beets Juice; Red & Yellow Potatoes by Svetlana Konnikova

Copyright 2009

ShareThis

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), an American ecologist, forester and environmentalist, philosopher, educator, outdoor enthusiast, who was well known as the developer of modern environmental ethics and was called the father of wild life management and wilderness preservation in the United States said once, “Land, then, is not merely soil: it is fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals.”

This fountain of energy inspires many people to spend hours and hours observing the natural world, writing notes in their journals, shooting amazing pictures and creating sketches of the most remarkable places and creatures of Nature. Other people prefer to restore marches and prairies, plant thousands of pine, oak and cypress trees, study everyday changes in the flora and fauna of the earth. Click on the link below and enjoy your true communication with the natural world. It’ll inspire you to treat our green planet, her inhabitants and yourself with love and respect.

                                                                     photosincroyablesek

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”–Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), India

“I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the “lower animals” (so-called) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me.”– Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), USA

“When a man has pity on all living creatures, only then is he noble.”–The Buddha (c.563 - c.483BCE), India

“Animals in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars and lies in a very narrow compass.”– Joseph Addison (1672 - 1719), England

Video, Power Point, Une Presentation De Paco En Musique

Photo In Florida Park by Svetlana Konnikova, Copyright 2009

ShareThis

Now it’s time to forget about it and learn that this plant helps people to stay healthy.  Nettles are good for you not only as natural healers, but as main ingredients for tasty and  nutritious soups and other delicious meals!

These soups are made with young nettles’ leaves. At the beginning of spring these leaves are especially tender,  rich with vitamins A and C, calcium and iron and other minerals. Want to gather  yourself fresh nettles’ leaves from nature for your delicious soup and avoid being stung? Wear cotton garden gloves. While the nettle leaves are covered with water and  blanched for 15 minutes, until tender, they loose their ”tool” to sting you, it just disappears. Once cooked, they’ll be safe to touch. Here is my recipe for a healthy Green Spring Nettles Soup:

About 30-40 fresh, bright, young nettles’ leaves, 2 medium size red Idaho organic potatoes, 2 sticks organic celery, 2 medium size organic yellow onions, 5-6 organic baby carrots, 1 tbsp organic, unsalted butter or 1 tablespoon organic, cold pressed olive oil, organic fresh dill or Italian parsley, 4-5 cups spring water, 2-3 cloves garlic cut small, 2 hard-boiled eggs, salt and black or paprika pepper.

• Wash the nettles in cold water and drain them well. Put the leaves on the clean cotton towel and let them dry for 5 minutes. Cut potatoes on small cubes, chop onions and celery sticks, slice baby carrots and red bell pepper into thin rounded pieces.
• Pour one tbsp olive oil into a saucepan or melt the butter over medium heat. Then add potatoes, onions, celery, carrots, red pepper and nettles and stir for 4-5 minutes. Pour 4-5 cups spring water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 12-15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Finely chop 2-3 cloves garlic.
• Throw on the top finely chopped garlic, cut small fresh dill or Italian parsley. Your soup is ready for 4-5 people.
• Serve garnished with organic sour cream or sliced hard-boiled eggs,  and eat with crusty French baguette, Whole Wheat 5 grains bread, polenta, whole wheat organic crackers or

          just crash delicious organic blue corn tortilla chips instead of bread and add them into your green soup. See photo below.

Some recipes suggest to place all cooked ingredients into a blender or food processor by making a nettle paste, saute the onions in oil, heat butter and flour together, add 2-3 tablespoons flour, chopped chives, dried thyme, white pepper, ground nutmeg, and beef or chicken stock. But I prefer do not overload this soup with so many different ingredients, including chicken or beef stock. The best is to make nettles soup as a light, tasty, vegetable juicy and colorful meal, but not heavy. It can make a great addition to any healthy diet and be eaten at lunch or dinner.

If you cannot find fresh, young leaves of nettles, you can substitute them with baby spinach, similar in texture or other leafy greens, and make delicious  ‘a la nettles’ soup in spring.

These green soups are very popular in Sweden, Ireland, Russia and other European countries, where nettles are used in other recipes, such as pesto and polenta. The high protein content and vitamins in nettles’s leaves makes this plant a valuable nutritional ingredient in any diet, especially kids and vegetarian.

Photo American Stinging Nettles by Ben Cody; 2 pictures Nettles Soup and 1 picture Spinach Soup by Svetlana Konnikova

Copyright 2009.

ShareThis

Today we read hundreds of articles recommending people eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and promising that these gifts of Nature will reduce your risk of cancer and other illnesses. If you’ll seriously research where and what kind of studies are conducted to proof  the “fruits and vegetables panacea,” you’ll find very little evidence of studies conducted on a vegetarian diet. So, to eat five portions of fruits and vegetables a day or not to eat? This is a question.

Recently BBC News published an article that vegetarians ‘get fewer cancers.’ Study conducted in UK suggests that a vegetarian diet may help to protect against cancer. Health of about 53,000 men and women who did not eat meat was analyzed. Study found that this group had significantly fewer cancers than those who did eat red meat. But the article gives us another surprise: “…the researchers also found a higher rate of colorectal cancer–a disease linked with eating red meat - among the vegetarians.”

The American Journal of Clinical Research mentioned that these findings were worth to review. In the meantime, professor Tim Key, study leader and a Cancer Research UK epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, said that “…there might be some reduction in cancers in vegetarians and fish-eaters and we need to look carefully at that.” The researchers were surprised at the finding for colorectal cancer that vegetarians have a significantly higher incidence of this condition than any other groups. It contradicts previous evidence about a link between eating lots of red meat with the disease.  Did they analyze a lifestyle of the study’s participants?

Even if that no previous study had looked at diet in this way and there had been a lot of confusion between scientists about the issue, they have to study different participants, like vegetarians and vegans, meat-eaters, chicken-eaters and fish-eaters. As an example, red meat is a very heavy product for our digestive system. It contains lots of fat, blood and hormons which are absorbed by meat-eaters’ bodies, and goes into their blood, and brings more damage to a person’s health as no one other product.  It doesn’t make any sense to compare the vegetarians with this particular group.

As Dr. Joanne Lunn, a senior nutrition specialist at the British Nutrition Foundation said the findings highlight the fact that cancer is a complex disease. And not only that. Many different lifestyle factors play an important part in determining a person’s risk. What it means? Look at a whole person and his lifestyle in small details which will compose a full picture. What should we do?                       Eat fresh fruits and vegetables a day to ensure you follow up the health experts’ recommended five portions daily minimum for you and your family.

Source: Story from BBC News, http://news.bbc.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/7942479.stm

Photo of fruits, grapes by S. Konnikova

Copyright 2009.

ShareThis