Gleanings of the Week Ending August 29, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Home births save money, are safe, study suggests - I wonder how long it will be before the ideal location for low risk births will be at home. My daughter’s colleagues seem to lean toward birthing centers already (rather than a hospital). Eventually the only people going to a hospital to have a baby will be the high risk pregnancies.

Slow-Mo Lets Us See How Hummingbirds Use Their Tongues like Pumps - Wow! Not something you can see with just your eye. It takes filming with a high speed camera then slowing down the action. This article includes a video.

Glass paint could keep metal roofs and other structures cool even on sunny days - Originally developed for ships….but there are a lot of applications for a paint that is inorganic (will not deteriorate rapidly) and reflects all sunlight (passively radiates heat).

How clean is your spinach? - I think I’ll start washing greens even if the package says they are already washed (not just spinach, it seems like kale would have the same issue).

If These Bones Could Talk: The Stories Human Skeletons Can Tell - A brief article about the collection of skeletons at University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Inside the mind of a maze maker - Adrian Fisher builds mazes…all kinds of them.

Study: Air Pollution Implicated In 1.6 Million Deaths A Year in China - That is - 17% of the annual deaths in China are related to air pollution.

Warm, pleasant, LED lighting developed: LEDs cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions - I like lighting that comes closer to nature light rather than being ‘harsh’ like the fluorescents and the LEDs that came on the market earlier. This might actually be the improvement that has me moving my reading lamp to and LED bulb.

Top Protein Sources for the Plant-Based Diet - I am not totally vegetarian but I am getting there. I eat vegetation more frequently that just Meatless Mondays! This is a good reference for protein sources which is one of the more substantial changes when making the transition.

Here be dragons - A collection of images and historical perspective of dragons in art/culture from Europenea.

Beautiful Food to Savor

It is easier to eat well when food looks appetizing…looks beautiful either on its own or in the way it is presented. Over the past 5 years or so as I’ve gone from overweight down to ‘normal’ weight, I’ve become more thoughtful about making food that is beautiful and tastes good at the same time. It is easier to savor food and be satisfied these days. Here are some ways I have done that for myself:

Beautiful dishes. Even something as simple as hummus with pita bread wedges can look beautiful served in my Blue Tulip glassware!

Prepped to eat. Cutting up the pita into wedges as part of the preparation makes it easier to enjoy the act of eating. I cut of salad into smaller pieces that the regular bagged salads for the same reason; I dislike having salad dressing dribble off a too-large piece of greens.

Make it colorful. Spinach - strawberry - carrot - almond salad…beautiful in a clear glass bowl. The vibrant colors and melding of flavors made this one of my favorite salads in June. In July the ‘red’ veggie can be tomatoes. In the fall, the ‘red’ is apples with the skin left on.  I almost always add carrots or sweet potato for ‘orange’. When the leafy greens are scarce in the hottest weather - I use mint or basil or rosemary to contrast with the white cucumbers (if their skin it too tough to provide the green). Stir fries can be colorful in the same way.

Eat with a view. My favorite way to enjoy an orange for morning snack is to look out the window over my kitchen sink at the deck garden while I am eating. I cut it into wedges and then just observe the birds at the bird feeder and bath…the insects at the flower…the breeze moving the trees in the background.

Fresh is best. Now that I’m on the second year of belonging to a Community Supported Agriculture, I am a believer in the beauty and taste of just harvested produce. I love to eat seasonally.

CSA Week 2

The week 1 produce I got from the Gorman Farm CSA was almost used up by the end of the week. A few garlic scapes and part of the lettuce was all that was left by the time I went to pick up the week 2 veggies! I have become a huge fan of spinach salads (so much so that I didn’t cook any of the spinach in last week’s share). I like it with fruit and marmalade/olive oil dressing. This past week I combined spinach with:

• Strawberries and carrots
• Apple and peanuts and savoy cabbage
• Apple and almonds

Now for week 2 - Yum! The medium share this week included: Chard, Kale, Lettuce, Scallions and Spinach. I see salads, kale chips, and stir fries in my future! I used most of the kale for chips ---- made right after I picked up the new share to help clear the crisper a little.

CSA Week 1

Hurray for the first week of the Gorman Farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) yesterday! We had ‘special’ distributions of strawberries and lettuce the past few weeks but this was the first week of the normal variety of veggies. I have a medium share this year just as I did in 2014 and am looking forward to the fresh veggies every week.

This time of year - there are lots of shades of green except for the strawberries! I put them in the middle in the picture below. Going clockwise from just above the strawberries, there is 1/2 pound of spinach stuffed into a plastic bag, collard greens held together with a rubber band, lettuce, 1/2 pound of garlic scapes, tatsoi and pac choi. I already had a wonderful stir fry seasoned with garlic scapes and some of the other veggies.

A few days ago I was talking to my daughter about what we would miss the most if we moved from where we live now (she in Arizona and me in Maryland) and we agreed that our CSAs would be high on the list.