Organic Living and Lifestyle Blog

Green and Black’s Organic Chocolate Recipe Challenge

Prize-winning organic recipe: Chocolate basil shrimp

Other winning entries in the Green and Black’s Organic Chocolate Challenge:
Chocolate espresso dream parfaits
Roasted jalapeno peppers stuffed with Brie cheese and raspberry preserves
Organic banana chocolate cherry brownies flourless
Lemon, cardamom and white chocolate fool with rasp

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Add comment July 10th, 2008

Cheapest Alkaline Water Ever

Alkaline water can be so expensive and I’m delighted that you can easily create your own alkalized water that is practically free!

Baking soda is the most alkaline ‘food’ and you simply add a teaspoon to a litre (2 pints) and shake it up. At a dollar or two for a large box it’s definitely the cheapest way to make your own alkaline water.  I’ve also heard that sea salt is good too and it’s also highly alkaline.

But start off slow. Don’t do what I did - I immediately put a whole teaspoon and felt sick.  After that I started off at a quarter of a teaspoon and slowly built up. After the first day I didn’t even notice the taste anymore and now water tastes funny to me without it.

I just have a cheap basic water filter to take out the chlorine and other baddies and then add the baking soda. Easy!

What are your other options?

“The Ultimate Baking Powder” - $30 month Dr Robert Young (author of the pH Miracle) now sells what he calls “The Ultimate Baking Powder”. It costs US$30. A friend of mine uses this and it lasts her 1 month.

Bottled Water - $2 bottle  If I’m out and about, I’ll buy a mineral water or a bottle of Evian or Fiji water as they’re the most alkaline out of the bottled waters.

Teabag - $50 month There is also a ‘teabag’ you can put in water, shake it up and 5 minutes later your water is alkalized and has magnesium and calcium in it. It’s from a company called Xooma and from memory costs about US$50 per person a month. Not the cheapest option but it’s one of those MLM programs so if you get a heap of people to sign up you’ll get yours for free and maybe make some money.

Filters - $500 - $10,000 You can spend literally thousands of dollars on water filters / ionizers that will alkalize water.  The Rolls Royce version would have to be the Wellness water filters which originated in Japan. (When I did my research years ago I discovered that the Japanese take their water very seriously - makes sense when you think about it.  Check out their site, the before and after pictures of the water are incredible.)  You can get a range of water filters from a simple convenient filter for the kitchen tap which is about $1,000 to a complete home system $10,000.

The water from the Wellness filter tastes beautifully sweet and my friends who have the complete home kits say they can really notice the difference in the shower and even in the laundry.  I know it’s a good idea for the shower, I’ve had many people say their hair completely changes when washed in alkaline water but I wasn’t ready to shell out that much money. I did buy the little travel water bottle and loved it. I was very disappointed when they stopped selling it.

The Nikken Pi-Mag water filters are pretty good too and are a lot cheaper at around $500. The water tasted good but I’m not so keen on having the huge thing that sits taking up so much room on the kitchen bench. A former flatmate of mine had one & I nicknamed it R2D2. Apart from the size it was also a bit annoying to have to keep topping it up.

So there you go, if you’d like to try it out for yourself & spend your cash on other things pop down to the store and buy yourself some Baking Soda.

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Add comment May 27th, 2008

Certified Organic Seedless Watermelon

Each year, as spring pushes winter aside and the air warms, there are certain thoughts, certain cravings that return after months of absence. For many, one of those cravings is for watermelon.

Watermelons are grown in 44 of the continental United States. If you purchase watermelons in a western state, chances are they were grown in California or Arizona. If you purchase them in a mid-western or eastern state, they are more likely to have been grown in Florida, Georgia, or Texas. If you really crave watermelon for New Year’s Day, you can probably get one, since they are imported from Mexico. Domestic melons, however, come into season in May and are around until the end of October. The season’s peak is from May through August.

While watermelons are abundant, it isn’t so easy to find certified organic seedless watermelon.

Up-front Advice

If you research carefully, you will learn that, technically, there cannot be such a thing as a certified organic seedless watermelon. Why? A certified organic seedless watermelon is a genetically altered watermelon. The genetic alteration is done chemically.

To create a seedless watermelon, seed producers treat natural watermelon seed with Colchicines, a chromosome-altering chemical. Colchicines changes the chromosome number in the seeds from 2 to 4. Once this is done, the seeds are pollinated with the natural 2 chromosome watermelon. The result is an un-natural, genetically modified watermelon with 3 chromosomes.

Continue your research and you will learn, as I did, that plants must have an even number of chromosomes to reproduce. Since the un-natural, genetically modified watermelon now has 3 chromosomes, it cannot form seeds. You get a seedless melon.

A watermelon that is touted as certified organic seedless watermelon may be grown organically, but chemicals were used in the production of the seeds. You will have to decide your own definition of “organic” to decide whether or not you want the melon.

If you still want to find certified organic seedless watermelon, you have options.

Order Online

The Internet, which seems to have about anything you could want, includes stores that will ship certified organic seedless watermelon to your door. Of course, it has to be in season.

1. Cherry Moon Farms offers organic fruit delivery, and guarantees that the fruit will arrive fresh or your money back.

2. Diamond Organics offers “next-day” delivery of organic fruits, vegetables, and a host of other things. They guarantee that everything will be as you want it. If it isn’t, they will replace the item on your next order, or issue a refund.

Farmer’s Markets

If there is a farmer’s market in your area, you may be able to buy certified organic seedless watermelon there. If you know someone at your farmer’s market who grows organic produce, you could call them early in the spring and request that they plant certified organic seedless watermelon.

Grocery Stores

Check your local grocery stores for certified organic seedless watermelon. More and more are establishing an organic subdivision in the produce section. Some grocery stores try to honor customer requests, too, and may order in certified organic seedless watermelon if you ask for it.

Plant Your Own

You may want to plant your own certified organic seedless watermelon. Names of choices to ask for include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Everglade Hybrid Watermelon

2. Lemon Ice Hybrid Watermelon

3. Orange Sunshine Hybrid Watermelon

4. Big Tasty Seedless Hybrid Watermelon

Watermelons With Seeds

If you decide that certified organic seedless watermelon is not organic enough for your tastes, you might want to grow a container or row of your own organic watermelon. An easy, delicious melon to grow on your patio is sugar baby – and yes, organic seed companies such as Main Street Seed and Supply have certified organic seeds for this watermelon. It produces round watermelons, about 7″ to 8.5″ and weighing 8 to 12 pounds. The name tells you what to expect. It’s probably worth the seeds!

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1 comment May 1st, 2008