Have you entered my mystery giftcard giveaway? If not, get to it!! You have until tommorow (Friday) @ 12:00 noon MST to enter.

Did you hear the news? Oprah is ending her talk show come Sept. 29th, 2011…….. I like Oprah, I don’t watch her on TV much. I like that in spite of the fact that she has more money than 99% of people, she can be real. My mom once met  Oprah. She had been out hiking and walked into my mom’s office and asked to use the bathroom. Even Oprah has to use random bathroom facilities. She was kind and down to earth, according to Mama’Cents.

Right, so this is a food blog. Some might start to wonder since there has not been much food talk, as of late. That’s my fault, but food just hasn’t been super interesting, though I have been hungry as heavens. I think this has to be related to starting a new medication, it is the only thing I can figure out. I am pretty paranoid when it comes to RX drugs, so I always take note of any changes I seem to notice. This feeling of wanting me to chew my arm off, constantly, has to be related to the drug. Nothing else has changed….

In order to avoid chewing off the arm, I have been feeding myself quite often. I have been aiming to incorporate a ton of veggies in this process, because I don’t want to gain weight and I figure no one ever got heavy off of eating veggies. There has been a lot of the beautiful broccoli consumed, because I actually really love it, especially steamed:

I believe (don’t quote me on this) that broccoli is best consumed with a small amount of GOOD FAT, better absorbs the vitamins and minerals. Soo…… humus and broccoli have become very pronounced in the FoodCents house, everyday being paired together and working to fill not only my nutritional needs, but the “I feel like I am eating for 6″ (hey Kate Gosselin) feeling……. Ohhh, I am not eating for anyone other than me, just so there isn’t any wonder.

Speaking of humus, I think I have decided that Tribe is my top choice. While Sabra has the smooth and creamy texture, I like the flavor of Tribe’s offerings the best. On a sidenote, Tribe has a new flavor: Horseradish Humus!!! I LOVE horseradish, so this might be heaven in a tub for me. Has anyone seen this flavor around? Maybe the Humus Fairy (yes, there is one…) will swoop into my local market in the weeks to come. A girl can dream, right?

TIP: This is the best time of the year for coupons, in the circulars. It may very well be worth your time and however much a Sunday paper costs these days (I just pay for a yearly subscription, because I need the paper – I am old-fashioned like that) to get some good coupons. I am not promising coupons for the more obscure items you see floating around the blogosphere, but rather essential items. Hello toilet paper? C’mon, we all need it….. Anywho, keep any eye out for the coupons coming out in the next couple of weeks. Even better, some of the items you find (again, hello toilet paper or say baking goods) coupons for are also going to be on sale this time of the year. You should proudly take advantage of this reality and go save yourself a few bucks or even more. (Even better if your grocery store doubles coupons up to $1.00…) Get your savings on!!!

This is a random post, but I am a random kind of gal’ and sometimes you just need to talk about coupons, Oprah, humus and feeling the need to chew your arm off. I am sure someone can relate…… anyone?

Happy almost Friday!!!  Find something to laugh about in you day, it really makes it much more beautiful.

Location: In my hotel room in Tel Aviv

As we gathered in the lobby for instructions from the tour guides upon arrival at the hotel, they told us that dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow morning would be a buffet setting at the hotel. Dinner at 6:30PM. As I mentioned in a previous post, between getting settled in the room and dinner, we had taking a stroll along the Mediterranean sea. By the time 6:30 rolled around, I was starving! I was excited that dinner would be a buffet, but I didn’t really know what to expect.

We walked into the dining room and were greeted by a wall of food. I should have taken a picture, but didn’t. (Sorry! Maybe I’ll get breakfast.) There was chicken, fish, lamb, potatoes, green beans, a whole table full of salads, a table of breads, and a table of desserts. And of course, the humus. It was awesome! I had two big pretzel-like rolls and at least two big tablespoons of humus. I could have eaten that stuff for my whole meal.

A group of people from Harvest was good enough to invite me to sit with them, so that I didn’t sit alone. I was the only one at the table without my spouse, but I had a great time listening to all their banter back and forth. It was fun, and I very much appreciated their hospitality. Here’s a picture of our table.

Upon leaving, I had to sample the gelato. I tried the mango and the pineapple, and they were awesome. At the end of my first evening in Israel, I have to conclude that the food is AWESOME. I just wish Faith was here to share it with me. She too would be in heaven.

Each moment contains fresh awareness. Hopes and delusions: nothing stays the same. I hesitate to describe this moment’s state of mind as hopeful and free of pain. Why hold back? A patient once told me that “I don’t like to say that I’m feeling better; I’m afraid people will be less attentive, thinking I don’t need their care as much as when the pain was more acute.”

In writing this blog I aim to report honestly. So yes, today, right now, as I sit at the keyboard after a morning’s hour of leisurely reading, I’m well. A softer sadness from yesterday’s, vertigo less dominant, the heart at ease. “In the [Tibetan] Buddhist view,” writes Christine Longaker,

“… life and death are not seen as two separate things, but as different aspects of the whole. As an end to this life, death is very real. Yet death is also the doorway into another type of existence, where our evolution continues.”

I remain unsure of what such “existence” might be. Reading the Tibetan view metaphorically, however, invites me to consider the word death to mean ending, termination, or transformation, pointing towards conversion of one form into another. Just as compost, gardener would say: leaves grow to serve their purposes in the life of a tree and its inhabitants, they change colours, dry up, fall to the ground, decompose, offer shelter to wintering creatures, incubate fungi and molds, and eventually turn into humus which then nourishes new growth. What can be described as stages are in fact one continuous process.

Etymologically, humus and humility share common roots. In Carl Leggo’s words: 

 

Located in the earth,
knowing the heart,
I will learn by heart
the earth’s rhythms,
rooted in humility
for forgetting and forgiving,
rooted in courage
for remembering and giving.  

source: Longaker, C. (1997). Facing death and finding hope: a guide to the emotional and spiritual care of the dying. New York: Broadway, p.27. Leggo, C. (2001). Writing lives is more than writing lines: postmodern perspectives on life writing. Language & Literacy: A Canadian Educational E-Journal. Vol. 22. Retrieved from the internet.

Hello friends!

I woke up to find a text from the cute boy I’ve been out on a few dates with.  He was out of town for a long weekend at a cousin’s wedding and just got back last night.  He wanted to say hello and tell me about the trip.  How great is that?!  As frustrating as dating can be sometimes, it is also really great too

Breakfast was a yummy mix of oatmeal, cinnamon and nutmeg doused apples, and cardamom coffee.

The oatmeal is 1/3 cup oats, 2/3 cup water, 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla hemp milk, 1/4 cup pumpkin, ground flax and pumpkin pie spice topped with dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and unsweetened coconut.

Snacks today include veggies and humus and 2/3 cup plain yogurt with 1/2 a chopped apple and walnuts.

Lunch is some Perfectly Protein salad I picked up Whole Foods on top of spinach and sprouts.  The salad is made of soybeans, rye berries, cucumbers, cottage cheese and spices.  I am excited to try this.  the ingredient list looks like it should be easy to make if I decided that I like it.

I think I may have to stop at Starbucks today.  Holly and Cristin’s posts yesterday have put me in the mood for one of those cute red cups!

Later!

Kate

I have just finished the best hummus I have ever made. The only problem is that I didn’t follow any recipe hence it might be difficult to repeat. But here comes what I have used:

• 1 glass of chickpea (dry)
• 1/2  glass of white yogurt (unsweetened)
• 1/4 glass  olive oil
• 2 spoons of Tahini (sesame seed paste)
• 1/4 glass of lemon juice
• 2 tea spoons of garlic paste (or 3 garlic cloves)
• cumin powder (depends on your taste)
• sweet-hot chilli powder (depends on your taste)
• about 10 green olives
• 5 fresh leaves of mint
• salt
• black pepper

Leave the chickpea soaking in water over night. Change the water and cook until soft. Blend the cooked chickpea in food processor with lemon juice. Later add olive oil, Tahini, yogurt, garlic, olives and spices. Blend until the dip is smooth.

Göksu receives much praise from locals and guide books alike.  The venerable Lonely Planet writes:

Fine dining with uniformed staff and a terrace discreetly shielded from the street by glass and vines. It’s popular with besuited blokes guzzling mezes and rakı (aniseed-flavoured grape brandy).

With great reviews abound, I sat down at Göksu this past week expecting a memorable meal.  Surprisingly, I left very disappointed.

Göksu’s menu is huge; it offers an overwhelming number of options, spanning all aspects of Turkish cuisine.  In my experience this tends to produce mediocrity: it’s difficult to be good at anything if one tries to do everything.  Apprehensively, my partner and I ordered the çoban salatası and the humus.  Both were average.  For our entrées, we chose the patlıcan souğme kebab and the bostan kebab.  The former consists of grilled lamb in a eggplant pureé.  It was tasty, but not remarkable.  The later choice, however, was quite terrible.  Something of a lamb and eggplant casserole, the seasoning was lackluster and the overall flavoring was oddly sweet in off-putting manner.  Finally, we tried the helva for dessert.  It was decent, but far from noteworthy.  In this account the prevailing theme of my dinner at Göksu is obvious: it’s good, but not great.

I don’t consider my experience at Göksu to be an authoritative account of its potential; I haphazardly sampled only a few of the many options on the menu.  In light of my very mediocre dinner, I consulted a more seasoned veteran of the Ankara dining scene to find out where I went wrong with my selections.  He made a few suggestions for a future visit.  My friend recommended the kaygana, which is an omelet with anchovies, as well as the kuymak, which is a combination of fondue and polenta.  Watch this space for an update.

Göksu has two locations in Ankara: I tried the one on Bayındır Sk. in Kızılay (Google Maps), but there is another branch on Nenehatun Cad. in Gaziosmanpaşa.  The prices are average: mezes and salads cost around 7TL ($4.75 at 1.47TL/$) and entrées range between 12 and 23TL ($8.15 to $15.50).   Alcohol is served, and rakı is certainly recommended with any meal.

Good Morning!

I got my butt out of bead early today to do a little yoga before going to work.  It is going to be a long one so I thought I’d try so yoga in an attempt to keep me calm.  Check Corepower Yoga On Demand.  You get a three month subscription for $30.  That is ten bucks a month.  Nice!

Made some over night oats last night for breakfast.

In the mix: 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup plain Oikos, 1/2 cup pomegranate Lifeway Kefir, 1 TB cranberries, and 1 TB ground flax.  Topped them this morning with chopped apple, 1/4 cup Yogi Granola Crisps, a blob of pb, and a splash more Kefir.

Lunch is a French Meadow Hemp bagel with turkey, spinach and a few thin slices of honeycrisp apple.  I spread some goat cheese on the other side and topped it with some raspberry red pepper jam from my mom that I never what to do with.  The bagel has 19 grams of protein and 13 grams of fiber!   The French Meadow people are crazy.  All that in a little bagle.

Snacks are pretty standard with a few twists. Veggies feature the new olive humus.  We’ll see how the TJ’s pomegranate greek yogurt compares to my fav Chobani.  I grabbed some new bars when at the grocery store. 

There has been a lot of criticism towards the reasons behind this Guinness record, but, as frivolous as they may be, I’d rather see Lebanon making the headlines on such lighthearted grounds rather than news of bombings, wars and terrorism. That is why, regardless of the stubborn competitiveness of the Lebanese Industrialists Associations I say: “Make Tabbouleh, humus, kebbeh… or anything you may, but DON’t make war!” And maybe we all should look at it that way.

Our country needs the extra positive promotion, now more than ever, and despite all of our political differences, food always brings the Lebanese together.

The Tabbouleh

Yesterday, I passed by the Largest Tabbouleh, very shortly. I do not think Chef Ramzi was very proud of this Tabbouleh. The parsley was anything but finely chopped, and the remaining ingredients were floating inside the lemon, olive mix. Hence, I called it Tabbouleh Soup.

I can say that a lot of good ingredients went to waste, 1600 kg of parsley to start with. You can check out all the ingredients that went into the giant Hommos & Tabbouleh plates, as well as classical tabbouleh & hommos recipes here. What I did not understand how 1600 kgs of parsley plus 1500 kgs of tomatoes plus all the other ingredients, make for only 3000 kgs? Is there so much waste?

Some nice photos of the ‘making of ‘ on Star Scene.

Final Words of wisdom off the record

Waseet: It is great that you are planting trees, but its un-cool to distribute flyers, printed on virgin paper (without ecological certification) to promote it.

People: Littering is un-cool, even if you know there will be someone cleaning after you. Would you act like that in your homes?

Hello friends!

Had a lovely weekend which much to report.  Warning:  it is a long post

Saturday lunch was two egg whites and whole egg scrambled with kale and spinach.  Topped off with goat cheese and the end of the enchilada sauce.  Toasted a piece of Ezekiel bread and sliced the pear I intended to have while running errands.  Ended up getting an iced coffee and cherry pomegranate Clif Nectar bar while going my errand thang.

So, on to the good stuff!  Saturday date was really good!  Met at Catterbox Pub in Highland for dindin.  I ordered some wine and we split some cheese curds.   I then had what I think is hands down the best grilled cheese I have ever eaten.  The mozzarella was oozing out the sides but I think the key component was the pumpkin seed cilantro pesto.  The creamy dill tomato soup that came with the sandwich was the perfect accompaniment.  I only ate 2/3 of the meal as I was getting full but it was so good!  We went to see Where the Wild Things Are and then headed to Kings Wine Bar.  Minneapolis peeps, I suggest checking Kings out.  Cool atmosphere and good wine selection.  I consumed two more glasses of vino and split the creme puffs with the boy.  Conversation was great and attraction is definitely there.  Plans to hang out on Tuesday.  YAY!

Breakfast this morning was another yog mess.  Contents include 2/3 cup plain Oikos, 1/3 cup crumbled Kashi Autumn Wheat, 1 TB raisins, 1 TB pumpkin seeds, a blob of Trader Joes pumpkin butter, a blob of pb, and a sprinkle of cinnamon that got a little out of control.

I meet my dear friend Seth at Common Roots, my fav, for lunch today.  He has been traveling a bit for work so we haven’t seen each other for a month.  There was much to catch up on!  I also knew that Seth would be the perfect companion for my first public food photo   I get so embarrassed busting out the camera in public.

I enjoyed a cup of vegetable bisque and black bean sweet potato salad with chili lime vinaigrette.  I ate all but four of the chips.  The back drop for the photo are the hats that my bro gave to Seth.

Rocking the orange camo and sipping on a mocha made with Peace Coffee!

I hit the gym after some homework.  I ate a 1/2 a Clif Gingerbread bar before my workout and half after.  I’m not a huge Clif Bar fan.  I always get excited when I see the seasonal flavors.  After purchasing, and not enjoying, one, I don’t think I need to do it again.

After I got home, I had a little fun with my food processor!

Olive Humus

1 can of chickpeas

2TB olive oil

2TB tahini

2 cloves garlic

juice from 1/2 a lemon

10 kalamata olives

pinch of sea salt

two generous pinches of oregano

Put all ingredients into food processor and let it do its thing!

Bleached Blond Babies

2/3 cup cashews

10 large dates

zest and juice from 1 1/2 lemons

TB vanilla extract

1 1/2 goji berries

Chop cashews in food processor and remove from bowl.  Place the remaining ingredients in food processor and mix until combined.  Add cashews back in and process until it reaches desired consistency. 

The recipe is based on the Lemon Vanilla Clif Nectar bars.  I think to think of them as the floozy cousin to Katie’s Fudge Babies :)  I am currently enjoying one with a mug of tea.  I think I had the equivalent of another while making them!

For dindin, I roasted my first spaghetti squash.  YUM and super easy!  I sauted brocoli, kale, onions, and little tofu cubes.  I used 3/4 a jar of Trader Joes Indian Spinach Simmer Sauce with the vegetables.  Nutritious and easy dindin.  And the best part of it all, LEFTOVERS!  yay

Later friends,

Kate

In an attempt to thwart Israel’s claiming of the hummus dish a bunch of Lebanese chefs and helpers gathered to make the world’s biggest hummus dish ever – breaking Israel’s record. AP explains: “Lebanese chefs react (above) after preparing a massive plate of hummus, seen in the middle, weighing more then 2,056 kilograms, during a bid to break a record previously held by Israel and reclaim ownership over the popular Middle Eastern dish, in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday Oct. 24, 2009. The event is part of a simmering war between Lebanon and Israel over regional cuisine. Lebanese businessmen accuse Israel of stealing traditional Middle Eastern dishes, like hummus, and marketing them worldwide as Israeli products.”

That true. But, the Lebanese could have easily proven that hummus is more Lebanese than israeli by explaining that the name is Arabic. Here’s what wikipedia says about it: “the word comes from Arabic: حمّص‎ḥummuṣ^[2] ‘chickpeas’. Like other Arabic loanwords, its spelling in English is unstable.^[2] The earliest use of the wordhummus in English noted by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was in 1955.^[3] Among the common spellings for this word as transliterated into English arehummus, hommos and hoummos. The spelling humus is avoided in English due to its having the same spelling as another English word, though this is the most common Turkish spelling^[2] and the OED indicates the word entered the English language from Turkish.^[3] The full Arabic name of the prepared spread is حُمُّص بطحينة (ḥummuṣ bi ṭaḥīna) which means chickpeas with tahina.”

Im Ekmannsdorf haben über 250 Köche zwei Tonnen Kirchererbsenpürree angerührt. Mit ihrem Riesen-Humus wollen sie nicht nur den Weltrekord, sondern reklamieren die Paste als nationales Eigentum. Am Sonntag soll noch ein weiterer Speise-Rekord fallen.

Ekmannsdorfer Köche haben am Samstag ein gut zwei Tonnen schweres Kichererbsenpüree, genannt Humus, zusammengerührt und damit laut Veranstalter einen neuen Weltrekord aufgestellt.

Für gewöhnlich kommt Humus auf einem kleinen Tellerchen, garniert mit Petersilie und Pinienkernen. Die säuerliche Kichererbsenpaste ist ein Jahrhunderte altes, arabisches Gericht und wird nicht nur im Nahen Osten sondern mittlerweile weltweit gern gegessen. Am liebsten aber im Ekmannsdorf und dort von Stan-Friedrich März-April-April, der den Rekordversuch anregte. “Mit einem Blättchen Mangold auf der Paste ist die Welt voll in Ordnung,” sagte er unserem Berichterstatter Torsten Schäfer-Gimpel (tsg).

Für den Rekord mischten über 250 Köche und Gehilfen eine Vormittag lang 1350 Kilogramm zerstampfte Kichererbsen, 400 Liter Zitronensaft, 26 Kilogramm Salz und eine nicht näher genannte Zahl von Knoblauchzehen für eine gigantischen Humus-Platte.

Doch die große Pamperei in einem Zelt im Ekmannsdorfer Ortskern war neben der Rekordjagd auch ein politisches Statement: Die Veranstalter behaupten, Ekmannsdorf sei die Geburtstätte des weitverbreiteten Gerichts. Weil der Nachbar Negenharrie Humus aber für sich reklamiere und das Gericht als nationale Spezialität vermarkte, werde man nun “der ganzen Welt mitteilen, dass Humus ein Ekmannsdorfers Produkt ist”, sagte Stan-Friedrich März-April-April, der Organisator des großen Rührens. Folgerichtig mischten die Ekmannsdorfer die gelbliche Paste unter Absingen ihrer Nationalhymne. Angerichtete wurde das Humus in den Ekmannsdorfern Nationalfarben grau-schwarz-hundekotbraun-grün.

Weil den Köchen ein Rekord nicht reicht, wird am Sonntag weitergerührt und geschnipselt. Dann soll das weltgrößte Tabbouleh, ein Salat aus gehackter Petersilie und Tomaten, serviert werden. Am Abend sollen die offiziellen Urkunden für die Guinness-Weltrekorde überreicht werden.

Wie die Nachrichtenwebsite “Dorsch.com” berichtet, soll der bisherige Weltrekord bei 800 Kilogramm Humus gelegen haben und vor zwei Jahren von Negenharrier Köchen aufgestellt worden sein. Wann und ob die Negenharrier Köche zum kulinarischen Gegenschlag mit dem Kochlöffel ausholen werden, ist bislang nicht bekannt.

Ob Rekorde immer vom Erfinderland aufgestellt werden, ist angesichts der Webseite der Guinness-Verlags fraglich: Das größte Rührei stammt demnach aus Kanada, die größte Tiramisu aus der Schweiz, der größte Appenzeller Käse aus dem Libanon, die größte Bratwurst aus Saudi-Arabien.

Czy nastały trudne czasy dla pokory? Dlaczego pokora stała się niepopularna? Czy święci byli pokorni, czy może raczej niepokorni? W październikowym LIŚCIE zatytułowanym „Trudne czasy dla pokory” o. Jacek Prusak, jezuita i psychoterapeuta tłumaczy, dlaczego zafałszowało się rozumienie pokory. Słowo pokora (łac. humilitas), pochodzi od łac. humus, co oznacza ziemię. A więc – zdaniem o. Jacka Prusaka – być pokornym to stać twardo na ziemi, przyjmować prawdę o sobie i świecie, nie udawać i nie uciekać przed rzeczywistością. Średniowiecznej ascetyce zawdzięczamy jednak inne rozumienie pokory: człowiek pokorny to ktoś, kto jest bierny, uległy, posłuszny. Niestety przetrwało ono do dziś. We współczesnym świecie nastawionym na sukces i przebojowość tak rozumiana pokora jest nie do przyjęcia.

W numerze czytelnik znajdzie także wywiad z ks. prof. Grzegorzem Rysiem, historykiem Kościoła, rektorem Wyższego Seminarium Duchownego w Krakowie o tym, czy święci byli pokorni, jak powinniśmy czytać dawne życiorysy, czy media ukazują prawdziwy obraz Jana Pawła II. Według ks. Grzegorza Rysia „w poszukiwaniu prawdy o Janie Pawle II nie chodzi o to, żeby mówić o nim czy jego pontyfikacie krytycznie lub entuzjastycznie, ale żeby mówić prawdę”. Ks. Grzegorz Ryś zwraca także uwagę na konieczność sięgania do źródeł w poszukiwaniu informacji o świętych, bowiem tylko w oparciu o nie możliwe jest poznanie, kim byli święci, z jakimi problemami się zmagali, jaka była ich droga do Boga. O św. Karolu de Foucauld, który na przekór opiniom przyjaciół i bliskich zawierzył swoje życie Bogu i samotnie mieszkał na pustyni opowiada Beata Legutko w tekście zatytułowanym „Zrozumieli go po śmierci”. O niepokornej świętej, kobiecie, która nie bała się krzyczeć na papieży – Katarzynie Sieneńskiej – pisze Anna Zajchowska, mediewistka. Czy można spotkać niepokornych świętych? Jak ich rozpoznać? Wydaje się, że tak. Jeśli ktoś miałby wątpliwości, to czytając tekst o Doroty Day – „Świętej czasów kryzysu” autorstwa Joanny Petry Mroczkowskiej, czytelnik znajdzie zaskakującą odpowiedź.

Zapraszam do lektury październikowego LISTU!

A. Dąbrowska, List
http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org

Con el Teatro Marconi como sede central, en la ciudad de Gálvez (Provincia de Santa Fe), el festival “Pizza, birra y cortos” iniciará mañana su cuarta edición y el grupo Humus será el invitado especial para su apertura.

Con un evidente crecimiento respecto a sus anteriores ediciones, ampliando la oferta complementaria a la muestra competitiva y contando como padrino con el reconocido cineasta Manuel Antín, el encuentro se desarrollará desde el viernes 23 hasta el domingo 25 de Octubre, proponiendo una amplia gama de cortometrajes que llegarán provenientes de distintos puntos del país.
La apertura consistirá en la presentación especial de Básicamente un pozo, el primer largometraje del grupo Humus, colectivo cinematográfico que exitosamente participara en ediciones anteriores del Festival.  La proyección se llevará a cabo mañana viernes a las 19.30 hs. en el Teatro Marconi, Belgrano 624, con entrada libre y gratuita, y se repetirá el sábado 24 a las 16:30 hs.

Det finns naturligtvis lika många olika skäl att fotografera natur som det finns naturfotografer. Något som troligen förenar i princip alla är ändå fascinationen och kärleken till det liv vi har omkring oss och som ju faktiskt också är en förutsättning för vår egen existens. Det kanske då inte är så märkligt när allt kommer omkring att så många människor känner för att skapa bilder som är riktiga sinnebilder för den natur vi önskar vi ständigt hade omkring oss. Naturfotografin fyller helt enkelt ett behov hos många fotografer liksom hos många bildbetraktare som lever i kontakt med naturen (eller med verkligheten i mina ögon).

När Göran Segeholm i en krönika i senaste numret av Kamera & Bild hävdar naturfotografins vacklande hälsa anar jag ett visst avståndstagande från genren som sådan. En öppen fråga är om det sker så mycket mer av utveckling inom exempelvis sport- eller porträttfotografin? Jag väljer nog ändå att tolka Görans ord som varande lite av en spark i ändan på en naturfotogenre som fortfarande engagerar många, även icke-fotografer, men som ändå naturligtvis mår väl av ett stadigt mått av fortlöpande utveckling. Och detta finns ju!

Sedan är det en sak att många, inklusive en annan, nog skulle vinna på att försöka tänka mer idébaserat för att skapa bilder som är mer än bara enstaka utsnitt ur en vacker natur. Och som Göran är inne på i sin krönika att i naturbilderna också utveckla en tydligare koppling mellan mig som människa och min natur.

Nu går vi ut och trampar upp nya spår till naturfotografins ära.
Och fortsätter vara naturromantiker!

Bilden är från Ljungbyån, Småland, den 9 september 2008.

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Fler kommentarer till Görans krönika hittar ni här:

• Nic Kruys – En kur för naturfoto och naturvården!
• Magnus Lindbom – Är naturfotografin på väg att dö?
• Johhny Buchwald – Naturfotografins död..?

Good morning!

Have a health insurance screening thing at work this AM.  They are checking cholesterol which means no eating until after it is done.   I’ve got all my food for the day packed in my lunch bag ready to go, breakfast included. 

I made some over night oats.  I mixed together 1/3 cup oats, 1 carton of Stoneyfield Pumpkin Pie yogurt, 1/4 cup pumpkin puree, 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla hemp milk, ground flax, and pumpkin pie spice.  Topped it off with 1/2 a chopped apple, tablespoon of raisins and pumpkin seeds.  I am curious to see how it will taste.

pumpkin over nights oats

Lunch is an Ezekiel wrap with roasted tofu, spinach, red pepper strips and goat cheese.

The snacks are pretty self explanatory.  I should be done with the jalapeno humus at the end of the week.  I’ll have to think of what to try next weekend.  The grapes are huge, btw.

All for now.  I am going to do a little cardio  over lunch hour and attempt to make it to the 5:30 yoga class at the Y tonight.

Later!

Kate

Good morning friends,

I dreamt of oatmeal last night.  I was making it for my family and it wouldn’t thicken.  I wonder what that is about?  I woke up this morning and made a bowl so delicious that it needs two pics to fully capture all its glory.

Mixed up 1/3 cup oats and unsweetened soymilk, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 banana, cinnamon, and almond extract.  Stirred in ground flax and 1/2 Aria protein powder at the end.  Topped it off with a blob of homemade almond butter, 1/2 a chopped honey crisp and a sprinkle of coconut.  YUM!  I do believe this is my most perfect bowl of oatmeal yet.

On to the chow for the day.  My fridge is empty!  It was hard to pull this together.

pita fail!

carrot and humus

yogs, pear and almonds

 I attempted to spread mashed black beans and avocado into a pita to make a sandwich.  The pita totally ripped so I just stuck all the sandwich making in a Gladware.

I am hoping to leave work early today as I’m working tomorrow.    We are having a team meeting this morning which sounds like it may be controversial.  Gross!  Planning on hitting the Super Target to pick up some staples on the cheap.

Later

Kate

El Humus es simplemente pure de garbanzos, este se puede servir como una botana o apetitivo.

To supplement our work on soil, you should read pp.74-80 and do p.80 #1-6

On the nights where I am too tired and too lazy to sit at a restaurant and have the whole “dining experience”, I usually opt to one of two things.  Option 1: cook or Option 2: Go to Gyro House. I 99.9% of the time pick Gyro House (571 Melville Ave).  Now don’t get me wrong, I love to cook, but one of my favorite types of food is Mediterranean and Gyro House is the place to be for a great Greek Salad, Steak Gyro, and Humus and warm pita bread.  Gyro House is a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant that you can either dine in or take out.  You order at a small counter inside the even smaller restaurant.  Gyro House, however, does have a very unique feel, especially since the outside of the restaurant is barely read-able, and as I called it before I ever stepped foot inside “that place is sketchy”.  Typically when I take out at Gyro house, because I have never dined in before, I get the Greek Salad, which is stacked with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese shavings, kalamata olives, lettuce galore, and a few pita triangles to top everything off. The Humus is to die for at Gyro House. It tastes like it came straight from Israel and or Greece.  The Humus has chopped onions and tomatoes sprinkled on top.  The gyro’s at Gyro House are all very big and very good. The meat, whichever kind you chose to have, is layered inside a fluffy pita and topped with tomatoes, lettuce, tzaziki sauce, humus (if you ask), and olives.  The gyro’s are truly fantastic, but will definitely fill you up. Don’t be afraid to try Gyro House and or find Gyro House (its in the loop), because once you are inside dining or taking out you will be glad you came to this small Mediterranean dive.

Vermikompos merupakan produk kompos yang dihasilkan dari perombakan/dekomposisi bahan-bahan organik yang dilakukan oleh cacing tanah. Vermikompos terdiri dari campuran kotoran cacing tanah dengan sisa-sisa media atau pakan dalam budidaya cacing tanah. Dengan demikian, vermikompos memiliki sifat yang sangat ramah lingkungan dan memiliki keunggulan tersendiri dibandingkan dengan kompos lain yang dikenal selama ini.

Vermikompos memiliki kandungan yang sangat berguna bagi kesuburan tanah maupun tanaman. Vermikompos kaya akan kandungan humus, hormon pertumbuhan, dan juga mikroba tanah. Humus memiliki kandungan senyawa yang kompleks diantaranya asam humik, asam fulfik dan humin) serta zat-zat organik yang larut dalam air. Kesuburan tanah ditentukan oleh kadar humus pada lapisan olah tanah. Makin tinggi kadar humus (humic acid) maka tanah tersebut akan semakin subur. Kesuburan seperti ini dapat diwujudkan dengan menggunakan pupuk organik berupa vermikompos.

Selain humus, vermikompos juga mengandung hormon tumbuh tanaman. Hormon tersebut dapat memacu pertumbuhan akar tanaman di dalam tanah, memacu pertunasan ranting-ranting baru pada batang dan cabang pohon, serta memacu pertumbuhan daun.

Vermikompos seperti halnya kompos lain pada umumnya juga mengandung banyak mikroba tanah yang sangat berguna, seperti aktinomisetes, bakteri dan fungi. Salah satu contohnya yaitu bakteri Azotobacter sp. yang merupakan bakteri penambat N non simbiotik yang akan membantu memperkaya N di dalam vermikompos. Di samping itu Azotobacter sp juga mengandung vitamin dan asam pantotenat.

Selain berasal dari mikroba penambat N, kandungan N dalam vermikompos juga berasal dari perombakan bahan-bahan organik yang kaya N dan ekskresi mikroba yang bercampur dengan tanah dalam sistem pencernaan cacing tanah. Peningkatan kandungan N dalam bentuk vermikompos selain disebabkan adanya proses mineralisasi bahan organik dari cacing tanah yang telah mati, juga oleh urin yang dihasilkan dan ekskresi mukus dari tubuhnya yang kaya N.

Struktur vermikompos yang berupa remah sangat bermanfaat dalam menjaga aerasi tanah. Vermikompos juga dapat mencegah kehilangan tanah akibat aliran permukaan. Pada saat tanah masuk ke dalam saluran pencernaan cacing. maka cacing akan mensekresikan suatu senyawa yaitu Ca-humat. Dengan adanya senyawa tersebut partikel-partikel tanah diikat menjadi suatu kesatuan (agregat) yang akan dieksresikan dalam bentuk casting. Agregat-agregat itulah yang mempunyai kemampuan untuk mengikat air dan unsur hara tanah.

Beberapa keunggulan vermikompos

• Mengandung berbagai unsur hara yang dibutuhkan tanaman seperti N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, dll tergantung pada bahan yang digunakan.
• Merupakan sumber nutrisi bagi mikroba tanah. Dengan adanya nutrisi tersebut mikroba pengurai bahan organik akan terus berkembang dan menguraikan bahan organik dengan lebih cepat sehingga tanah akan lebih cepat subur. Hal ini sangat bermanfaat bagi tanah yang telah mengalami kejenuhan terhadap pupuk kimia.
• Memiliki kemampuan menahan air. Hal ini karena struktur vermikompos yang memiliki ruang-ruang yang mampu menyerap dan menyimpan air sehingga mampu mempertahankan kelembaban tanah.
• Tanaman hanya dapat mengkonsumsi nutrisi dalam bentuk terlarut. Dengan adanya cacing tanah nutrisi yang tidak larut dapat diubah menjadi bentuk terlarut dengan bantuan enzim-enzim yang terdapat dalam alat pencernaannya.
• Waktu penguraian sampah lebih cepat karena tidak hanya diuraikan oleh kumpulan mikro organisme tetapi juga dibantu oleh cacing.

Q: Earthworms gross me out. What good are they?

Photo: Joseph Berger, bugwood.org

A: We hardly notice them most of the time… they’re out of sight, underground, aerating the soil, creating humus, increasing fertility. It’s only after a rain storm, when the ground is saturated, that they come up for air. Then we see their desiccated carcasses strewn across the pavement. Robins eat them, anglers use them for bait, and little kids bring them home in their pockets as pets. Most of us dissected one in biology, carefully counting the five aortic arches while debating the coolness of being squeamish. Yet, for all their inconspicuous habits, earthworms play a major role both in our gardens and in the wild.

To gardeners, earthworms are a boon. Burrowing into the soil with waves of muscular contractions, they create mucus-lined tunnels that allow air and water to penetrate. As they move along, they ingest tiny particles of plant matter. Inside the worm, these particles are mixed with ground up dirt particles and partially digested, creating humus. It has been found that worm castings, the excreted remains of the worm’s dinner, have five times the nitrogen, seven times the phosphates, and eleven times the potash (potassium) than the surrounding soil. One worm can produce more than ten pounds of casts a year, and an acre of farmland may contain well over a million worms.[1] That’s a lot of fertilizer.

What can you do to encourage lots of worms in your garden? In a word: mulch. Several inches of straw, grass clippings, shredded leaves, or other organic mulch, acts to keep the soil at an even temperature and moisture level. Worms are attracted to the moderate conditions and high amounts of organic matter, and arrive seemingly out of nowhere. Incorporating a three to four inch layer of an organic amendment, such as compost, into the soil also leads to higher worm populations.

Avoiding harsh chemicals, including concentrated fertilizers and pesticides, helps too. In naturally acidic soils, fertilizers high in nitrogen decrease the pH to the point where it is actually toxic to the worms. (However, research at Colorado State University showed no problems in Colorado’s more alkaline conditions.[2]) Many pesticides are harmful to earthworms—always read the label.

Many gardeners want to know if they can buy earthworms to add to their garden. However, those are usually “red worms” for sale, the kind of earthworms that need extremely high levels of plant matter, such as compost piles. They will not survive in your garden soil. (These are the worms you’d use in an indoor worm composter.) Save your money. You don’t need to buy worms. Create the right conditions and they will come.

With all the celebrated benefits of earthworms in the soil, it might come as a surprise to learn that they are not always beneficial. About a third of the earthworm species in the United States and Canada are immigrants. Some of these non-natives have spread to the forests around the Great Lakes—an area that hasn’t had earthworms since the last ice age—where they are actually harming the environment. Many native plants, including ferns, flower, and trees, require an intact layer of leaf mulch. The worms’ activity is decreasing that layer, plant communities are changing, and the entire forest ecosystem is being disrupted. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done at this point to stop the worm invasion.

In spite of the problems they cause elsewhere, earthworms are certainly welcome in our home gardens. By providing damp, well-drained soil covered with a generous layer of mulch, you’ll have plenty of worms to work your soil, plus enough extras to keep those early birds well fed.