Organic Granny

When I was a young girl I seem to remember my grandmother talking about "a poultice". To my ear it sounded like something to do with the "milk toast" that was part of Grandma's comfort food outlay when children were sick.  I have no idea where the association came from between 'poultice' (A soft, moist mass of material, typically of plant material or flour, applied to the body to relieve soreness and inflammation)and 'milk toast' (a soft, milky mass of white toast and warm milk, butter, and sugar applied to sick children to relieve them of hunger and boredom). But just recently I began to be interested in the idea of poultices again.  That is not to say that before this current interest I haven't read a little about poultices, seen some simple ones demonstrated, and even tried my hand a messy one or two myself. I have. The operative word has always been "messy".   My husband and I use activated charcoal for a number of sit

Fragrant Flowers on our Morning Walk (**identified in bottom of post) In my more youthful days of gardening I was all about organic food plants.  As I get older I have begun to enjoy planting and caring for flowers and herbs more. That is not to say that I do not have organic food gardening as a priority!  This year my husband has stepped into the gap in a big way (the 'gap' being my spending less time in the garden).  He has a 5-gallon pail of compost tea burbling away at all times, another pail of comfrey tea brewing under the grape arbor, and is experimenting with strewing agricultural lime in any patch of ground my eyes have fallen upon.   We have just put in  Saskatoon berry bushes, a few Sea Buckthorns, and 3 Sour Cherry trees (or bushes or whatever they will be) as well as the usual assortment of greens (kale, chard, collards, cilantro, parsley, romaine, etc.) and beans and a vast forest of little tomato plants, many donated by kind friends and neighbors. 

Here is a recipe for a delicious and nutritious steel-cut oats recipe for those who like banana pudding more than porridge: INGREDIENTS: 1 C. Steel-cut Oats 2 C. filtered Water 1/2 C. unsweetened organic Coconut shreds 1/4 C. organic dry Cranberries (or raisins) ripe organic Banana cut into 1" chunks dash of Coriander METHOD :   Combine all above ingredients except Banana and Coriander and cook until boiling.   Add the Banana and the Coriander, and mix in.   Cover pot and reduce heat to Low.  Continue to cook for another 15-25 minutes (making sure it doesn't burn).  Stir with a wooden spoon when done. Dish up and pour on Coconut Milk.  Serve. ADDITIONAL DELICIOUS GOURMET VEGAN PORRIDGE RECIPES: Company Porridge (Baked) Blueberry-Carob Macaroon Porridge Cheery Pie Oatmeal Crazy Carrot Cake Oatmeal Deluxe Apple Pie Oatmeal Nut Jam Toppings on Oatmeal Pumpkin Pie Porridge Slow Cooker Porridge

The older I get, the more freaked I am about getting dental work done (also called  dentist phobia ).  I know, such high anxiety doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, but I figure it has to do with (1)blowing my adrenals in my past role as a social worker and (2)having too many frickin root canals along life's way.  In any case, today was the day where I had to go and get the prep work done for a new crown. A couple of days ago I called the dentist to let them know that I would like to have some Nitrous Oxide.  Two friends told me it was like "a twilight sleep" and that sounded good.  I checked out some of the forums online and was careful not to read the ones that complained about the Nitrous Oxide not working for them, or causing more anxiety or whatever.  I just knew that I needed something to handle all the tension in my shoulders, my racing heart, my rapid breathing, my dry mouth, etc. etc. etc. And of course I worried that it would also affect my new