September 2009

  • Washington Wild Chanterelle Mushrooms

    By lisala on 9/28/09 4:14pm
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    It's mushroom season in Washington, and I'm beginning to see the first ads from people with chanterelles for sale. Late September and early October are peak wild-mushroom season, especially in Western Washington around the Olympic Peninsula. There are several varieties of wild mushrooms that "fruit" in the fall—including boletus and the somewhat rare matsutake—but in this area the chanterelles, in both the yellow and the white variety, rule. The yellow variety is especially common on the west side of the Cascades, particularly under the cover of second growth forests rich with Douglas fir and hemlock. The chanterelles look similar to other mushrooms when they first push up from the conifir's roots; small "buttons" of fungi.

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  • The Power of Garlic

    By sarajean on 9/15/09 10:35am
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    I could really care less about how garlic makes me smell. To me, it’s one of nature’s greatest foods—and not simply because it’s freaking delicious. Sure I put it on toast, pasta, and just about everything in sight—and have since I was old enough to reach it—because it’s yummy. But it’s also got the bonus of being completely full of health benefits.

    While some cultures have claimed that garlic is a “cure-all,” I wouldn’t go that far. I have yet to see it wipe out AIDS. But research has show that it can help you out in the following ways.

    Heart Health: Garlic can help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. It can also lower your cholesterol, which is good because I’m not so into Cheerios.

    Joint Relief: An anti-inflammatory food, garlic can help relieve asthma, osteoarthritis and other inflammation symptoms.

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  • Vibrant Versatile Vinegar

    By lafeeverte on 9/13/09 2:12pm
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    Embrace it!Embrace it!Are grandmothers ever wrong? Never. Mine used to tell me that nothing was better for washing windows than white vinegar and newspaper. And that rinsing my hair with a half a cup of vinegar and a cup of cold water after a shower would make my hair glow like the sun. Did I listen? No. Was she right? Yes, naturally.

    Sometimes it is hard to believe that the simplest and most inexpensive items on the shelf are in fact, the most efficient. We buy in to the marketing of companies selling expensive cleaners, conditioners, cosmetics, and medicine; when the one product that we have had all along, does not only a comprable job, it does a better job.

    Vinegar is one such product.

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  • Yerba-Maté avec moi

    By lafeeverte on 9/12/09 6:31pm
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    Oh, Yerba to the rescue... maté me. My brain falters down long miles of beached motivation and the sandy scramble of my thoughts threatens to backlog my day with one wasted hour after the next. My shoulders are tense as I flinch from too much coffee and hypochondriatic tendencies. You are the holy tea of anti-cancer and mental alertness mixed with physical relaxation, are you not? The treasured drink of Argentina designed to invigorate and be savored with others, hot or cold, it is impossible not to enjoy your earthy flavors and subtle rush.

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  • Can a Health Drink Really Be a Meal Substitute?

    By becksta on 9/8/09 11:46am
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    VegaVegaI am not a Vegan or even a vegetarian, can not claim to be a health-food junkie by any stretch of the imagination, and am not always into "green food". I live in Seattle, so it is unhip and unwise to admit to liking any food that a foodie or health-conscious person would not approve of, lest my contemporaries judge me too harshly for my unethical, unhealthy, or uneducated eating. I am not a gourmand, and have yet to appreciate the reasons why a small bottle of truffle oil should cost more than a large bottle of olive oil (unless it is due to a world-wide truffle blight which I am not aware of) or why the cheeseburger I had yesterday in Ballard cost me $13.


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