Raffle: Maine Sea Vegetables

Sea seasonings? Okay, it sounded a little gross to this land lover.  I'll admit that I'm pretty particular with sea food, as the fishy smell of the ocean is a little overwhelming to this Midwestern-raised girl. So hear me out when I tell you that even I have been won over.

I went seeking a natural way to support my thyroid.  As someone who has watched a number of family members struggle with thyroid issues, as well as read about the increasing concern over American thyroid conditions, I already had it in my head that iodine was an important piece of my diet.  But when my husband and I decided to move to the landlocked country of Zimbabwe a few years ago -a country so wrought with power outages that the idea of a fish actually making it safely from the coast was beyond questionable- figuring out supplementation was important.  We packed a few of these Maine-made gems found at our local co-op into our shipment, and could not be happier we did.  Now that we're back in the US, we're still using dulse in everything!

Government surveys show a 50% reduction in adult iodine levels since 1974.* Though there are a variety of possible reasons, one theory is that a number of pesticides affect how well our bodies are able to absorb iodine. Though most people don't want their pancakes tasting like seaweed (so don't pour too much!), adding a small amount of seafood flakes into batters, doughs, eggs, or salads can be an undetectable way to add some of the health of the ocean to your food every day.

Sea Seasonings, a New England company based in Hancock, Maine, has been helping its customers connect with the health benefits of sea vegetables since 1971. They work to maintain sustainable practices in harvesting, processing, and merchandising, producing more than they consume in an effort to give back more than they take.

Check out this great Maine company for more info about its practices and products: Maine Coast Sea Vegetables

Click on the button below to ENTER a rafflecopter giveaway of two free Sea Seasonings products:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Iodine, Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It, by Dr David Brownstein, MD, 2009.
**I am not sponsored by the company featured in this post.

New England, we love your oceans!

My child Jonas bakes a cake in our African kitchen-
a quarter teaspoon of dulse flakes included!

Meet A Local Farm: Buell's Orchard

"Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower." -Albert Camus 

I could not be happier to live in New England during this time of year. The flurries may be starting (sigh), but the landscape's colors are still better than ever.  With an enthusiastic six year old in tow, and having gone without a fall for the last three years abroad, my family has been soaking in as much of the season as we can get.

Our morning pit stop to a Connecticut family farm on Columbus Day turned into what I hope is a yearly tradition.  Known for their yearly Columbus Day bash, Buell's Orchard knows how to do fall.  Though the orchard is open much of the year for a variety of picking, touring, tasting, and shopping, their harvest festival pulls together a number of fun fall activities into a huge family event.  We arrived on a busy Columbus Day morning to fields of cars with enthusiastic locals and tourists wandering about, getting busy with hay rack rides, pumpkin picking in the pumpkin patch, free apple cider donuts and cider, face painting, apple picking, enjoying the barbecue and rolling fiddle and banjo music. As we made our way from the car, I said loudly to my husband, "We have got to know some people here. I think half the state is at Buell's this morning!" And sure enough, fifteen minutes later we were sitting down on  hay bales, gabbing away with old friends in a rustic fall paradise.

 Don't like crowds?  Buell's is known for its for garden-fresh veggies, peaches, plums, pears, strawberries, blueberries, pumpkins, and apples during their picking seasons.  They are open much of spring, summer, and fall for touring, picking, and field tripping, and I highly recommend them if you'd like to see a small family farm producing in a huge way for East Coast Consumers. Family farms that open their doors, sharing exactly where food comes from and how it makes it from the earth to the table?  They have such a piece of my heart! 

I could go on and on, but for more information on Buell's Orchard in Eastford, CT:

http://www.buellsorchard.com/

 

 

Casting My Silent Vote

I won't get started on the sadness of this truth, but sometimes it feels like our dollars are some of the most powerful things we have.  When we purchase products we cast silent, but telling, votes about what we find beautiful, what we put value in, and perhaps most importantly, what we support.   

When I lived in Africa, people back in the US asked me all the time how we shopped and how we dealt with "the market thing." It was a hard question to answer, and one that greatly evolved as I found myself making a different continent home for a few years. Transitions were huge, and our purchasing power and consumption changed greatly.

But I’ll admit it.  When I lived in the States before Africa, I would occasionally drive to a MegaMart or a different grocery store across town, all to save a dollar.  Though I always preferred to support smaller businesses and local (which were almost always more high-quality) products, there were many times my wallet spoke louder than my ideals.  I had to be realistic.  MegaMart was convenient.  I knew where to find things fast, and, especially, to find what I thought were bargains.  This is the story of any family making ends meet with little ones at home. I didn't love MegaMart.  But I didn't know how to scrape by without it, and so my dollars silently cast their vote the MegaMart direction.

But Africa unintentionally reminded me in new ways about my previous life living next to conveyor belts in US stores. In Africa, I could go to the market and chat with vendors about their process and goods.  I could kindly negotiate,  and I was reminded repeatedly that a dollar does make a huge difference to someone who is supporting their entire family with one small business.  The small market thing was more personal; I had to say no to someone’s face instead of to a numb MegaMart shelf.  There was inherently more guilt associated.  But I came to understand that there was also more humanity. 

The MegaMart shelf is eternally more comfortable; there is a price and you take it or leave it while throwing packaged products into a pile in your non-judgmental cart. But what we forget when we shop like that is that there is still a little man or woman making the item. He/she’s just a few more steps removed, so the potential guilt at knowing someone is being paid pennies for their hour of work is farther away from our conscious thought.  And remembering the gallons of petroleum used to ship our mass-produced items across oceans?  Those silent things are even easier to ignore when it's just us and our cart.   The Mega-Mart shelf is certainly the easier option. Thank goodness Africa reminded me, though, that not only is there something very powerful about the human interactions and learning that come from the process of purchasing face to face, but the quality of handmade items is often far superior.  

Shoes are a great example. In the time I wore out twelve pairs of cheap shoes (always purchased in clutch MegaMart moments when I felt I should not spend money on a higher quality pair), I could have worn through one high quality hand-made pair. Not only would money have been saved in the long run, but so would landfill space, supplies, and petroleum to ship my many pairs of shoes to my MegaMart.  When we buy super cheaply mass-produced items from far-away factories we must remember: while one item is cheap, we often have to purchase it over and over to get the same wear out of it as if we would have just bought the slightly more expensive product in the first place.  It has taken me years to understand this... and thirty pairs of shoes!  

Wanting to represent your family’s budget smartly in contrast with wanting to give a small local vendor their fair share can feel challenging, but I am starting to understand that buying local quality items the first time means less consumption and smarter spending power in the long run.  Better yet, I'm able to cast my silent votes these days towards what I really want to support.