January 2011

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Lavender Sorbet Recipe

01/25/2011 in Cooking, Food, How To, Recipe by Evelyn | No comments

Cooking with essential oils is delicious and fun provided you’re using food-grade essential oils, such as Young Living Essential Oils – please do NOT substitute other brands of essential oils in cooking as it is an unwise choice. Lavender deserts, particularly sorbet is refreshing and soothing to the soul.Lavender essential oil

I’ve been using essential oils for over 25 years and if you’re interested in learning more about cooking with essential oils please visit my essential oil website for guidelines.

Lavender Sorbet

  • 18 ounces water
  • 1 drop Young Living Lavender essential oil
  • 5 oz. granulated sugar
  • 2 TBS. Agave syrup
  • Pinch of salt

In saucepan, combine water and lavender and bring to simmer. Remove from heat, let sit 10 minutes and strain through fine-mesh sieve. In separate saucepan, combine lavender-infused water, sugar and glucose and bring to boil. Stir in lime juice and salt and cool over ice water bath. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours. Process in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Store in freezer until ready to serve. Garnish with mint leaf or fresh strawberry.

Evelyn Vincent Evelyn Vincent

Native Plant Landscaper, Gardener, Labyrinth Design, Feng Shui Practitioner,  Aromatherapy / Essential Oils, Big Fan of Nature and Living Simply.

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

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Growing Flax: a story of beauty, health, prosperity and ruin

01/22/2011 in Food, How To, News, Plants, Preserving Food, Things that Suck, What Matters Most by Evelyn | No comments

Flax flowerFlax, Linum usitatissimum, seeds are used whole, roasted and ground in cooking. This beautiful and delicate looking annual, I believe, deserves a place in any garden or landscape. It’s easy to grow in a sunny location and prefers cooler temperatures making a good early season crop.

Flax was one of the most important crops to early American farmers and to the economy of our emerging nation. Grown in almost every state east of the Mississippi River.

Flax was literally the fiber and preservative that helped sustain the early Europeans who brought flax to America from Europe. Before the spread of the mechanical cotton gin in the early 1800s, most Americans had a choice of two clothing fibers – wool or linen. Even after the advent of inexpensive cotton, linen fiber from the stems of flax would remain an important source of fiber for clothes and other products.

In addition to being a fiber source, flax was also an important oilseed in America until the mid-1900s. Linseed oil, squeezed out of flax seed, can still be found in most hardware stores and is used as a preservative finish on wood. Despite the valuable characteristics of both linseed oil and linen fiber, flax began to fade from American farms after the development of the petroleum industry, especially following World War II. Continue reading “Growing Flax: a story of beauty, health, prosperity and ruin” »

Evelyn Vincent Evelyn Vincent

Native Plant Landscaper, Gardener, Labyrinth Design, Feng Shui Practitioner,  Aromatherapy / Essential Oils, Big Fan of Nature and Living Simply.

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

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Silence

01/19/2011 in Living in Beauty, Reflections & Discoveries, What Matters Most by Curt Siters | No comments

Ohiyesa - Dr. Charles Eastman- Santee SiouxSilence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood is ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence…

If you ask him: “What is silence?” he will answer “It is the Great Mystery. The holy silence is his voice.”

If you ask: “What are the fruits of silence?” he will say: “They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character.”

Ohiyesa (Dr. Charles Eastman)

1858 – 1939

Santee Sioux

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Lentils: nutritional info and a Lentil Salad Recipe

01/18/2011 in Cooking, Food, Health, How To, Recipe by Evelyn | No comments

Red Lentils from Bob's Red MillCompared to other types of dried beans, lentils are relatively quick and easy to prepare. I think they look more like baby dried peas than dried beans. Lentils readily absorb the flavors from other foods and seasonings in your recipe. Lentils are high in nutritional value and are available throughout the year.

Lentils are legumes and grow in pods that contain either one or two lentil seeds that are round, oval or heart-shaped disks and are oftentimes smaller than the tip of a pencil eraser. They may be sold whole or split into halves with the brown and green varieties being the best at retaining their shape after cooking.

Lentils are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering dietary fiber. Not only do lentils help lower cholesterol, they are of special benefit in managing blood-sugar disorders since their high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal. Lentils’ contribution to heart health lies not just in their fiber, but in the significant amounts of folate and magnesium. Continue reading “Lentils: nutritional info and a Lentil Salad Recipe” »

Evelyn Vincent Evelyn Vincent

Native Plant Landscaper, Gardener, Labyrinth Design, Feng Shui Practitioner,  Aromatherapy / Essential Oils, Big Fan of Nature and Living Simply.

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

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Portobella Mushrooms Stuffed with Chevre Cheese

01/15/2011 in Cooking, Food, Recipe by Evelyn | No comments

I love Portobello mushrooms with warm soft cheese, this recipe being no exception! You can also do this recipe on a grill, which is very nice. Here’s how to make this easy and yummy recipe…Portobella mushrooms

Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed with Chevre Cheese Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 4 Portobello Mushroom Caps (approx. 4” inches in diameter)
  • 6 oz. Chevre Cheese (crumbled) (see how to make Chevre Cheese)
  • 3 Roma Tomatoes (sliced 1/4 inch thick)
  • 1/2 Cup Basil leaves, fresh
  • 4 Cups Onions (sweet, sliced fine)
  • 2 Tbsp Butter
  • 2 Tbsp Garlic (fresh cloves, sliced fine)
  • 1 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
  • 1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 Cup Olive Oil
  • 1 tsp Chili Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Cumin Powder

Preparation

  1. Wipe mushroom caps clean with a damp cloth, turn over and remove stem and inner “gills” with a small spoon used in a gentle, scraping motion.
  2. Mix together balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, olive oil, chili powder and cumin and pour over mushroom caps coating well. Marinate caps for 4 to 6 hours.
  3. After marinating 4 to 6 hours wipe caps clean of excess marinate.  Place the caps former “gill” side up on a non-stick baking sheet and layer on top of caps, the onion, chevre cheese, tomato, basil leaves then more chevre.
  4. Bake caps in a preheated 375 F oven for 7 to 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the mushroom cap and its toppings are heated through.
  5. If using a grill, place the caps directly on a medium heat grill and close the cover of the grill to add additional top heat. The length of actual time may vary depending on your grill.
  6. Garnish with more basil if desired just before serving.

Serves 4.

Other favorite recipes;

Evelyn’s REAL Veggie Burger Recipe

How to make your own Kefir

How to make Goat’s Milk Chevre Cheese

Evelyn Vincent Evelyn Vincent

Native Plant Landscaper, Gardener, Labyrinth Design, Feng Shui Practitioner,  Aromatherapy / Essential Oils, Big Fan of Nature and Living Simply.

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

Follow Me on Pinterest

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The Training of Children

01/12/2011 in Living in Beauty, Reflections & Discoveries, What Matters Most by Curt Siters | No comments

Luther Standing BEarTraining began with children who were taught to sit still and enjoy it. They were taught to use their organs of smell, to look where there was apparently nothing to see and to listen intently when all was seemingly quiet.

Luther Standing Bear

(1868-1939)

Oglala Sioux Chief

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Intelligent Designing: Room Volume and Heating Spaces

01/11/2011 in Intelligent Designing, Natural Building, Reflections & Discoveries, Saving Energy by Curt Siters | No comments

Karl Bodmer watercolor of Sioux tipisA simple fact that seems overlooked is the room volumes when it comes to heating and cooling. When a house is being designed they look at square footage primarily – only to size the heating and cooling systems. With the bigger/more mentality that pervades the consumer market who really cares about how much volume a room has.

It should have a lot to do with it.

I was thinking about this the other night as an exercise and created a spreadsheet to run the numbers. You can download the Room Volume Calculations for Heating and Cooling spreadsheet and see for yourself. If you don’t have Microsoft Excel you can download Open Office for free and that will open it.

Here is what I came up with in order of least volume to most volume with the same rough square footage (about 201.1 sq.ft.): Continue reading “Intelligent Designing: Room Volume and Heating Spaces” »

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Lighting with LED bulbs and toxins

01/10/2011 in Natural Building, Reflections & Discoveries, Saving Energy by Curt Siters | No comments

LED Light BulbI was at a friends house the other night and the topic of LED lights and toxins came up. He showed me printout from Science Daily showing that LED lights are toxic. This came up because a CFL light he was using broke and needed to be cleaned up.

I read the article and something struck me as being peculiar. When I got home I looked it up on the internet and it hit me. There was something at the bottom of the article that makes me pause…

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California – Irvine.

Editorial adaptations. This means the article was changed in some way to reflect some desired result by the editorial staff. Exactly what I cannot say.

After following the links and reading the article again here is what I found…

  • The original research is referencing high output LED’s only – like those used in traffic lights
  • The chemical amount of toxins is very low per kilogram – on the order of .4%
  • LED’s weigh on the order of milligrams – if that much – so we are talking in the order of nanograms per LED
  • The toxins are locked into the physical structure of the LED and are not released if the LED bulb should break

So, yes, LED’s contain elements that are toxic. However, even if you were to eat an LED chances are very likely that you would not get sick because it is so small and the body does not know how to digest them.

I do know this tho’…

I sat here writing this with an LED bulb that draws .9 watts – a great source for task lighting.

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Intelligent Designing: Kitchens and Refrigerators

01/09/2011 in Food, Intelligent Designing, Natural Building, Reflections & Discoveries, Saving Energy by Curt Siters | No comments

I was thinking the other day about appliance life and remembered a refrigerator that my parents used to have.

When I was very young my family moved into a house that my parents had just built. It had most of the amenities that most people had – indoor bathrooms, stove, fridge, etc. Many years later mom & dad bought a new fridge and moved the old one into the laundry room in the basement where it had a fairly constant temperature.

About ten years ago my father passed on and mother lived in the house for a few years until she remarried and moved to North Carolina. A few years after that she sold the house. That old fridge was still going strong after 40 years.

My fathers parents had an old fridge (built in the 1940′s) in their basement and it was still working 50 years later!

This got me to thinking about house design and doing it smartly.

Houses today, and retro-fits of old ones are piling more heat generating devices into the kitchen – larger fridges, 6 to 8 burner stoves, dual ovens, massive lighting systems and so forth.

The way a fridge, and freezer, work is to remove heat from the inside to the outside. Using the laws of thermodynamics we can see that it is harder for the fridge to move lower temperature energy into a space with higher temperature energy.  The fridge will run more using more energy. Place that fridge into a space at or close to the inside temperature and it will have to work less to maintain the internal temperature.

The same principle applies to the insulation but in the reverse way. When it is warm outside the fridge, the warm energy will want to transfer to the inside of the unit. The higher the temperature the more that heat will want to get inside. The lower the outside temperature the less the outside temp will want to get inside.

These two things greatly affect how much energy the fridge will use.

To do it smartly, you should have a well insulated pantry where you store dry goods and canned goods (cooler temps will help them last longer as well) on the north side of the house (or south side if you are in the Southern Hemisphere). You should place your fridge and freezer into this pantry to reduce the electrical load and save you money – whether you are off the grid or not. Or if possible have a root cellar with a section just for the fridge and freezer.

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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Laundry – at least the drying thereof

01/08/2011 in Health, Intelligent Designing, Reflections & Discoveries, What Matters Most by Curt Siters | No comments

Growing up I loved laundry day – not because I love doing laundry, but because in the summers mother would hang clothes out on the line to dry. The smell was fantastic and I loved climbing into bed at night because the sheets were so soft.

One of the great things about drying clothes on the line is that it costs nothing in the way of energy. It does take a bit of time on your part, but it is well worth the time spent.

This winter, in Western North Carolina, it has been a bit on the cold side which makes drying clothes on the line a bit harder, if not almost impossible. The water would freeze or the clothes would not dry during the short daylight. This prompted me to start experimenting on how to dry clothes on the line in cooler weather.

Here is what I have come up with:

  • If possible have 2 clothes lines – each perpendicular to two of the prevailing wind directions – but as close as possible to facing south as you can manage.
  • Have a washer that wrings/spins as much water as possible out of the clothes as can be managed – Bosch front loading washers do an incredible job.
  • When hanging the clothes, use a separate clothes pin for each sock.
  • With underwear, use 2 clothes pins if possible. If not use the pin to attach the waistband of the seat of the undies to the line with the front hanging open to the prevailing wind.
  • For shirts and jackets the open on the front, hang so that the opening faces the prevailing wind.
  • Pants need to be hung so the zipper opens to the prevailing wind and need to be hung with the waistband up.

I have not yet figured out a way to dry the armpits of long sleeve shirts without draping the arms over the line and taking up more room than needed.

These are just some simple tips for drying laundry on the line in cooler weather.

When clothes come of the line they may seem a little stiff, but a simple shake will soften them up quick!

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Curt SitersCurt Siters

Webmaster

Shoals Creek Village - a new build intentional community.

My Eco Oasis - the hub for what will be a network of many ecovillages.

Big fan of living simply

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.  ~Standing Bear

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