Sebentar lagi kita akan memperingati tahun baru China. Gong Xi Fat Cai !!!

Pada kesempatan ini, saya akan mencoba membahas tentang asal usul mooncake atau kue bulan yg biasanya menjadi makanan tradisional saat tahun baru China. Well…memang rasanya ga lengkap tahun baru China tanpa MOONCAKE !!!

Well, ini sedikit info tentang mooncake sekaligus cara membuatnya yg saya ambil dari berbagai sumber, selamat menikmati

Bulat keemasan, sering kali berisi kuning telur asin, bisa juga cokelat atau bahan bercita rasa manis lainnya.Kue ini menjadi tradisi khas masyarakat China.

Dongeng populer China berkisah, pada masa pemerintahan Kaisar Yao (2000 SM), terdapat seorang pemanah ulung bernama Hou Yi. Kala itu, bumi dikitari 10 matahari yang bergantian menyinari bumi. Namun, suatu hari, kesepuluh matahari muncul bersamaan sehingga bumi pun panas tak terkira.

Sang kaisar memerintahkan Hou Yi memanah sembilan matahari hingga tersisa satu matahari saja. Singkat cerita, atas keberhasilannya, Hou Yi pun diberi ganjaran pil keabadian.

Pada suatu hari, seorang penjahat bernama Feng Meng menyelinap ke kediaman Hou Yi dan bermaksud mencuri pil keabadian. Agar tidak jatuh ke tangan yang salah, Chang Er (istri Hou Yi) menelan pil itu. Tiba-tiba, Chang Er mendapati dirinya terbang ke langit menuju bulan.

Untuk menghargai pengorbanan Chang Er dan menyerukan perdamaian di muka bumi serta sebagai ungkapan rasa syukur, masyarakat China mewujudkannya melalui kue yang manis dan buah-buahan. Tradisi ini lalu berkembang menjadi Festival Kue Bulan (mooncake), yang diperingati setiap hari ke-15 bulan kedelapan kalender China.

Konon, hingga kini dipercaya bahwa selama pertengahan musim gugur, saat bulan bulat penuh dan bersinar benderang, tampak siluet bayangan Chang Er, yang kemudian dikenal sebagai Dewi Bulan.

Itulah sekelumit kisah si kue bulan, yang merupakan salah satu versi dari sekian banyak versi asal-usul kue manis bundar berukir tulisan China itu.

Mooncake lazim dibuat untuk memeriahkan pesta atau sekadar berkumpul bersama keluarga sambil meneguk teh China yang pahit. Mooncake juga kerap dihadirkan dalam perayaan rutin tahunan sebagai penanda akhir musim panen.

Fillings

Secara tradisional mooncake isinya bisa dibagi menjadi 4, yaitu:

• Lotus seed paste (lian rong): yang dianggap paling mewah, paling berharga dan paling lezat. Di beberapa tempat, karena tingginya harga lotus seed paste yang jarang terdapat, maka kadang juga digunakan white kidney bean sebagai bahan tambahan pengisi.
• Sweet bean paste (dou sha, sering dilafalkan tau sa di Indonesia), paling banyak terbuat dari azuki beans, sehingga dikenal dengan nama red bean paste. Tapi di beberapa tempat lain terbuat dari Mung bean atau black bean. Ini juga banyak terdapat di Indonesia, yang dibilang isi “tau sa” biasanya berwarna hitam.
• Jujube paste: berbentuk pasta yang manis, terbuat dari buah yang masak dari tumbuhan jujube. Warna dari pasta ini biasanya merah gelap, sedikit asam, ada aksen rasa seperti diasap. Kadang bisa dibingungkan antara jujube paste dan red bean paste. Isi jujube paste ini hampir-hampir tidak pernah dijumpai di Indonesia, karena tidak populer sama sekali.
• Five kernel: isinya 5 macam kacang-kacangan dan biji-bijian yang dicincang kasar, dan direkatkan satu sama lain dalam mooncake dengan maltose syrup.

Jenis-jenis Kulit Mooncake

• Chewy: inilah yang sekarang paling populer di mana-mana dan banyak dijumpai di seluruh dunia. Seperti nampak dalam foto-foto di atas, seperti inilah kulit mooncake yang disebut dengan chewy ini, yang paling banyak disukai dan sudah menembus lintas batas benua. Terbuat dari bahan-bahan sirup gula kental, lye water, tepung dan minyak.
• Flaky: jenis yang ini lebih dikenal dengan nama Suzhou-style mooncake. Adonan kulitnya dibuat dengan menggulung adonan yang terdiri dari minyak dan tepung. Rasa dan tekstur hampir sama dengan model pastry barat atau puff pastry.
• Tender: di beberapa provinsi di China dan beberapa tempat di Taiwan, jenis ini banyak juga.

Mooncake Styles

o    Cantonese-style mooncake: ini yang paling mendunia, berasal dari provinsi Guangdong, dan di tempat asalnya terdapat lebih dari 200 variasi.

o    Suzhou-style mooncake: bermula dari ribuan tahun lalu, campuran yang royal dari lemak binatang dan gula serta tepung. Model yang ini banyak juga terdapat di Indonesia.

o    Beijing-sytle mooncake: ada 2 variasi, yang satu disebut dengan di qiang, yang lebih mirip dengan Suzhou style. Dan satu lagi disebut dengan fan mao, di mana rasanya cenderung lebih flaky.

o    Chaoshan (Tiociu)-style mooncake: ini juga flaky tapi lebih memiliki diameter yang lebih besar daripada Cantonese-style, tapi lebih tipis. Aroma lemak yang digunakan akan lebih kuat untuk style ini.

o    Ningbo-style mooncake: lebih khusus di provinsi Zhejiang, rasa lebih cenderung ke asin dan spicy.

o    Yunnan-style mooncake: cenderung lebih manis.

Mooncake modern sekarang lebih banyak lagi variasinya, ada yang dari agar-agar, ada yang dari ketan/glutinous rice, ada yang isinya keju, chicken floss (abon ayam), tiramisu, bahkan ice cream, coffee, dsb, dsb.

Resep Mooncakes

Classic Moon Cake

Bahan Kulit:
250 gr terigu
130 ml sirup
60 ml minyak kacang
1 sdt air abu

Bahan Sirup :
1 kg gula pasir
750 ml air
1 buah jeruk lemon, ambil airnya
Bahan Isi :
500 gr biji teratai, rebus dengan air secukupnya kemudian blender
sampai halus
1 sdm air abu
350 gr gula pasir
2 sdm sirup
400 ml minyak kacang
50 gr kenari
12 kuning telur asin

Cara membuat :

1. Sirup: Campur semua bahan, masak sampai kental, dinginkan.
2. Kulit: Campur terigu dengan sirup, minyak, air abu, uleni sampai tidak lengket ditangan. Tutup dengan serbet basah. Istirahatkan 3 jam.
3. Isi: Panaskan minyak kacang dengan sedikit gula pasir, masak jadi karamel, masukkan pasta biji teratai, air abu, sisa gula pasir, sirup, aduk rata. Tuang minyak kacang sedikit-sedikit hingga tercampur rata dan bisa dibentuk, angkat dan dinginkan.
4. Masukkan kenari, aduk, bulatkan adonan isi, beri bagian tengah dengan kuning telur asin dan bulatkan kembali, ambil adonan kulit, pipihkan, beri isi, bulatkan masukkan kedalam cetakan yang ditaburi terigu, keluarkan.
5. Panggang kurleb 15menit.

Bahan olesan:

2 telur campur dengan 1sdm air, kocok.

Berbagai Macam Mooncakes dengan Variasi Isi:

Adonan Dasar Kulit Moon Cake /Kue Bulan
Sumber: Sedap Sekejap

BAHAN A:
100 gram gula palem
50 ml air
50 gram madu

BAHAN B:
100 gram tepung terigu
85 gram minyak kacang tanah

BAHAN C:
175 gram tepung terigu diayak bersama 1 sdt baking powder

CARA MEMBUAT :
1. Rebus gula palem, air, dan madu sampai mendidih.
2. anas-panas masukkan tepung terigu. Uleni sampai tercampur lalu diamkan 30 menit.
3. Tambahkan tepung terigu yang terdapat dalam bahan C. Uleni sampai lemas. Tuangkan minyak tanah kacang tanah lalu uleni sampai rata. Adonan siap dibentuk dan diisi.

The Benefits of Jujube

Camelia says “I love red dates”

1) Jujube (Ziziphus zizyphus) is one of the most widely used herbs in Chinese traditional medicine, and not without good reason.
2) Jujube has been cultivated and used by Indians, Chinese, Korean, and Eurasian communities for thousands of years, and crossbred into hundreds of cultivars.
3) Dried jujube dates can be found and purchased in almost any Chinese medicinal shop.
4) Red Dates are the dried fruit of the Chinese jujube tree.
5) Chinese date is sweet and warming and when added in a formula, prolongs, enhances and harmonizes the effects of other herbs.
6) It is used by the Chinese to invigorate the spleen and stomach and is indicated for those with poor appetite, fatigue and loose stools. Chinese date also nourishes the blood and calms the mind.
7) Brown date – this has the least medicinal value. It is often added to soups for sweetness and also taken as candies and sweetmeat.
Red date – It’s red in color after being harvested and dried. The fruit comes with or without kernels.
9) Therapectic effects: Nourish blood and calm the mind for insomnia and restlessness; invigorate the spleen and stomach with poor appetite; promote secretions of vital fluids; retard aging; warming; moderating the toxicity of potent drugs. It is best for fatigue, hypertension, physical exhaustion and malnutrition.

Source : website

When we begin a network marketing venture we face many obstacles and emotions. I assure you the learning curve will never end.

There is a level of chaos, tension and excitement. It is critical that we play the game within our abilitles. Some have skills to begin at a high level and some take a little longer, like me. To be honest you make more money when you learn to ride this wave efficiently. The more you learn to ride larger and larger waves of chaos, tension and excitement efficiently. The greater your income will be. Start by following the proven system. Learn some skills and grow your business at your own speed. I don’t want to slow anyone down, yet I don’t want to push anyone out of this business a failure.  Teaching our people what to expect and how to cope with the learning curve will help improve the percentage of team members that actually become the few that make it in this business.

In the beginning we work with a warm market. Most of us are taught to cut our teeth here.  Many, like Greg Arnold throw us in and teach us to swim quick. The most successful, like Tom Chenault, teach us to honor the relationship in our approach. In a book written by Mark and Rene Reid Yarnell “Your first Year In Network Marketing”, we are taught how to generate, manage and expand our list of 2000 warm prospects in a way that will keep you busy growing your business for years. Later in the book there is a brief outline of how they always start and train their team. Create a simple business plan to share with your team to follow.

You will also learn how to quickly achieve success and grow your business. Two mentors or leaders I follow have created a system that classifies levels of involvement in networking.*  We all have our own desire level. Understanding this will help you in tailoring training and involvement with each team individual. Pay attention to your team before you approach them with the business, when you sponsor them, and while you train them. A valuable I lesson learned from one of my team members, Jim. I had to learn this when hit with a verbal two by four. Let them do it at their comfort level. Please. This is a relationship business from start to finish. Listen, Listen and Listen so important I mention it 2 times in my first post.

As technology and trends evolve. Our job is to evolve and change with them. The internet is a good and yet dangerous resource. The bombardment of new opportunity and training/enrolling systems can be confusing. Not to mention the questions that will rock your confidence and undermind your success. Stick with your program and successful leadership for at least two years before considering a change. Even then, it is most likely better to stick where you are then to change to the next hyped “no work” involved  pot of gold at the end of the ever evasive rainbow. Most successful companies have a few successes and many more failures. A few get rich quick in this business. But most successes have worked and learned for years to stick with it to the prize. A hugely successful member of our team hit it big with our company. When I asked him, he mentioned he learned by failing at 8 others first. If I didn’t ask. I would have assumed that he just started and wham instant success. Your tempering against short term thinking will guide you to success. In, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, is an example of one of the greatest wealth builders in America who learned the hard way about quitting just shy of the prize. He lost a fortune in gold buy quitting a few feet from the finish line. A constant in this business. Did Dan quit the others too soon? Learn to stick with it. There is a reason we hear the story of the turtle and the rabbit when we are kids.

Eliminate doubt, fear and any negative thoughts. That will be my next blog

* To learn more on the levels of involvement. Please visit www.callmerichierich.com. The site created by Tom and Denice Chenault and Greg and Pattie Arnold

This week I learned to tie a wolly bugger at Bass Pro Shops free fly tying class. Tomorrow my wife and I intend to try it out at one of our favorite rivers in Colorado

I found this jujube while I was sitting under  a jujube tree at one of my aunt’s home. I thought I would take a photo before I eat this.

www.GardensByBrendan.com

Brendan@gardensbybrendan.com

(239) 687-9337

I’m quite the lazy gardener, so I like things no maintenance.  I tend to prefer growing things like Papypia, Herbs, Ginger, Turemeric, and fruit which requires little of my attention.  I just plant them and they totally look after themselves.  Below are some fruits you can easily grow from trees available at Hopkins Nursery.

Puncia granatum “Dwarf” The dwarf Pomegranate

• Dwarf Pomegranate  is one of the best shrubs for a courtyard garden, its striking fruit always being the center of attention.
• This photo shows the funnel shaped flower, and the start of a young fruit.
• Easy to grow, it’s compact habit will make a statement as a specimen in the ground or container.
• Drought tolerant once established.
• The magnificent funnel-shaped, coral-red flowers attract hummingbirds.  Free food for them and us too, later.
• Same flavor and intensity as the regular sized pomegranate fruit .

The jeweled-toned fruit of dwarf Pomegranate.

The beautiful red color of dwarf Pomegranate.

Two fruits in the palm of your hand.

Read on to learn about growing and uses of Turmeric, Avocado, Lemongrass, JuJube…

• The flower of Turmeric (Curcuma longa)
  Some health benefits of turmeric include the fact that it is among one of nature’s most powerful healers, having been used in India for over 2500 years originally as a valued dye.
• It is a natural antiseptic and anti bacterial agent.

Turmeric grows well in SWFL

• It is a natural detoxifier of the liver.
• It works as well as many anti inflammatory drugs, but without the side effects.
• It has been used in cooking for centuries adding a yellow color and earthy flavor to curries.  I brought a piece of fresh Turmeric into Ingrid Aielli, owner of Sea Salt Restaurant on 3td St South, Naples, for her chef-husband Fabrizio to include as a fresh, locally grown ingredient, in line with their philosophies of only using the freshest produce.  They loved the possibility of having Turmeric avaliable in it’s fresh form.  I definitely recommend a great evening of fine eating at Sea Salt.  I’ve eaten there with my wife and some clients, a number of times.  We enjoyed the food immensely, and look forward to going back.  It’s inexpensive food realtive to it’s quality, freshness and excellent service, in the heart of the great atmosphere of olde Naples.  Make a reservation at  www.SeaSaltNaples.com
• It is most commonly available in powdered form, especially good as a main ingredient for a firm fish stew, made from swordfish for example, with coconut milk, hot fresh green chilies finely chopped, garlic and ginger finely chopped, salt to taste, and 1/2 cup of lime juice (add more for tartness or to reduce heat of chilies).
• A relative of ginger, its root structure of rhizomes are the part of the plant used for commercial production of the powder.
• Plant pieces of the rhizome in the spring, water well to get established.
• May need to be irrigated in areas with low rainfall, but Florida Summer rains normally suffice.
• Needs good free draining, sandy-loam soil, and will die in waterlogged soils. Rhizomes will have difficulty growing in heavy clay soils. Full sun produces more rhizomes.

Avocado “Red Russell”

• “Red Russell” (Persea americana) originated in the Florida keys of Ilsmorada, pear-shaped at the apex, but with a longer slender neck.
• Heavy bearer of fruit in Florida, it’s season beginning in July.

“Red Russell” is a slightly sweet variety.

• It is remarkably versatile to many soil types.
• The erect tree can grow above 30 feet tall, produces more fruit in full sun.
• Enjoys the humid climate of Florida.
• This variety is slightly sweet with good avocado flavor.

Lemongrass (Cybopogon citratus)

• Native to India, the citrus flavor herb is used in tea, Asian soups, and curries.
• Equally versatile in the garden it is an attractive ornamental grass which would make an informal addition to any perennial border, herb garden or patio pot.
• It can form dense clumps growing to 6 foot tall, its leaf tips gracefully drooping.
• Grows well in many soils, but particularly in fertile loam. Simply mix in some organic compost with half the native soil you dig from the ground, and it will be happy as Larry.
• Will grow in semi shade, preferring full sun. It can withstand some drought, but does better with some moisture.
• Dogs love to chew it for ages with an added benefit of being a natural breath freshner for your pooches.

Jujube fruit. (Ziziphus jujuba)

• This fruit tastes like a sweet crabapple.
• Small fruit, almost the size and shape of a date.
• Commonly referred to as the Chinese date or Jujube.
• Cultivated in China for over 4000 years.
• Suitable for very high temperatures.
• This small deciduous tree of drooping, graceful habit has small oval leaves 1-2 inches long.
• The plant needs only a short period of vernalisation (winter chill) in order for it to produce flowers, and subsequently fruit, generally being a self pollinator.
• Easy to grow without special care in sandy and well drained soils, tolerant of drought.
• For good fruiting, regular irrigation is recommended.
• Grows fine in low nutrition soil. Supplement with a little 8-8-8 a few months after being planted, during growing seasons.
• Prune once every couple of years to maintain a compact habit.

Some fruits from Hopkins Nursery (239) 658-0370

All of these fruits and a whole lot more, are grown here locally by Billy Hopkins and his family business.  You’ll have to call Billy, who is extremely knowledgable about growing all these tropical fruits.  He’s been into horticulture most of his life, and genereations of his families before him too.  In fact, he knows so much about all the cultural requirements of these fruits, that I’ll be learning a lot from Billy.  Don’t forget, I’m from Ireland.  We know apples, pears, rasberries and goosberries.  We don’t know much about the wonderful varieties of mangoes that Hopkins Nurseries grows, nor much about what are seemingly exotic to us Celts like Sugar Apple?

BBQ Ribs, served with crispy, fresh plantains, smooth Avacado “Red Russell,  and potatoes finished on the grill.

For the BBQ sauce, many ingredients for which, you can easily grow in your own garden, available at Hopkins Nursery.  You’ll need the following:

• Fresh Turemeric root, about a 2inch piece, finely chopped.
• 2 Hot fresh green chillies, finely chopped.
• Fresh ginger, 1 inch piece finely chopped.
• 1/2 cup soy sauce.
• 1/4 cup honey and a little brown sugar to suit your own taste.
• 5 or 6 cloves garlic finely chopped.
• Tamarind paste aprox 1tbs.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  Let ribs marinate in this sauce overnight.  Slow roast the ribs, and finish on the grill.  Reduce the sauce to thicken in a pan over high heat, and serve with ribs.  Delicious!!

Black pepper (Piper nigra).  Grows and produces well, needs regular water.

Piper nigra.  This vine is tender and frost hardy to 32 ˚F (0˚C), growing happily in full sunlight to shade.  It needs regular watering.  Seeds are ripe when black in December-January.

It’s sunny and finally like spring out there and who wants to think. So I decided instead to write about candy.

I think that since I was a child candy has changed but I wouldn’t say there is more variety. Maybe some but overall there are just more chocolate bars, all a confection involving chocolate and nuts or chocolate and wafers. A few exceptions are the Lowney’s Eat More bar, molasses and nuts (okay so nuts are also a big part). I loved the Eat More’s for their chewiness. Over the years I think the nut content went down some and the chewiness lessened.

The coolest items were these wax thumbs or lips. They were made of some sort of soft parafin wax (probably cancerous for all we knew) and filled with a sweet juice. You would bite into the wax and suck out the juice and often chew the wax, sometimes with the juice in your mouth so it would mix together. Maybe I swallowed the wax and maybe I spit it out; I don’t remember but it was sort of like a chewier bubble gum.

Gum itself hasn’t changed a lot. Different flavors, soft, hard, coated like a gumball, a stick like Wrigley’s or filled with jelly. Oooh, gold mine gum (gold nuggets in a cloth bag) and bubble gum cigars (pink, green and yellow). Most of these still exist as do jawbreakers. I think there was less of what I would call the adult gums then except for Wrigley’s, and that particular brand I haven’t seen in a while. If it’s still made they don’t seem to come in the stick packages like they used to. But then, I don’t like chewing gum much anymore because some types stick to my crown and the texture is…meh.

We used to be able to get packs of candy cigarettes (also gum cigarettes) but I think they were discontinued as being politically incorrect. There were two types, one at least had Popeye on the pack. The one type had almost a slightly fruit flavor and more chalky in texture though not chalky in flavor (akin to but not as acidic as candy necklaces) and I preferred it. The other was a harder, shinier white candy with a red tip. It was crunchier but not as flavorful.

There was also this long (like a ruler) flat piece of taffy or nougat, usually in the Neapolitan colors/flavors of vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. Something else was stringy and I have visions of pulling off the strings of sugary goodness but I have no idea what it was. There were of course various licorices, including black licorice pipes and cigars, and strawberry shoestrings, which somehow tasted the best. And Necco wafers (still available in the US), each color tasting differently. The purple (lavender?) and black (licorice) and brown (chocolate) were the best. And of course there were Cracker Jacks, carmelized popcorn with a prize inside. But even better, Pink Elephant popcorn, sweet and pink and with some sort of cool prize.

Those were the corner store variety of candies. Oddly I really don’t remember the chocolate bars. There were still candy counters in the department stores like The Bay and Sears and Eaton’s. Chicken bones were peanut butter flavored, crunchy candies. Jordan almonds were nearly hard enough to crack teeth with the hard sugar coating. I was never big on jellies, jujubes or gumdrops but there were these orange and lemon slices, gumdroppy, sugared and with a rind like the real fruit but just harder sugar. The best part of these was that they had a tang like the real fruit. In later years they degenerated to just being sweet. And there were the little ice cream cones with a marshmallow in them.

Once in a while you can still find these things in a larger supermarket but they’re getting rarer. Which makes me believe we’re getting down to just varieties of chocolate bars. There are still chocolate shops, and a few more than there used to be. My favorite chocolate memory was of these Easter eggs my mother would give us. They were about the size of my hand, decorated in hard, sugar icing and when cracked open, had about four or five real chocolates in them. They were made by a chocolatier in Calgary and they were beautiful. I’ve seen some mass produced versions of late but they’re not the same.

Many of the corner store items still might exist. There is one store (with two locations) in Vancouver called the Candy Aisle. They specialize in nostalgic candy though sadly I don’t see most of the ones I remember. http://www.candyaisle.com/index1.html And one aspect of nostalgia that’s long gone is cost. Ahhh, the confections of yesteryear.

- Aún siendo tan amplio y competido el mercado de la nutrición, personalidades de la talla de Donald Trump estan considerando ingresar a este segmento comercial. De hecho Donald está por introducir en Octubre su compañía. Esto habla de el tremendo potencial y la enorme necesidad de este tipo de productos en el consumidor.

- Entre las compañías más grandes del mundo, la mayoría son empresas donde su división de nutrición son parte vital de su crecimento como Amway y Nuskin y empresas de nutrición 100% como Forever Living, Herbalife que son de las wmpresas que facturan mas de 1 billon año.

- La linea creciente de las bebidas funcionales ha dado mucho de que hablar, mas de 100 empresas introdujeron bebidas saludables en su catálogo debido a la tremenda demanda que se ha generado por compañias como Tahitian Noni, XanGo, Freelife y Monavie principalmente. 

- De hecho entre las compañias de más rápido crecimento no solo en multinivel sino en la historia de los negocios, se encuentran en el top empresas de multinvel y que posicionaron bebidas funcionales. El primer fenómeno fué Tahitian Noni, XanGo ha roto todos los records establecidos por Noni y Monavie llego a establecer los nuevos estandares de crecimiento en la industria. Esto es generado por la facilidad para enfocar a las organizaciones en una sola información. (Un solo equipo, una sola visión). Estas empresas son interesantes porque aunque nacen con un enfoque especifico en un solo producto, es importante observar que todas tienen una vision a largo plazo para introducir nuevos productos a la linea que puedan sostener el crecimiento. Tratamientos para la piel, suplementos nutricionales y otros productos refuerzan el crecimento futuro de las empresas. El objetivo de iniciar con un producto es poder establecerlo en el mercado rapidamente y es mucho mas sencillo para los distribuidores conocer todo de un producto en vez de un poco de muchos.

- La industria de la nutrición ha crecido enormemente en los ultimos años. Mientras que la compra de productos para el hogar disminuyó su porcentaje en el volumen de las ventas totales segun la DSA del 33.5 al 25%, los productos nutricionales crecieron del 15% al 22% del volumen total de ventas mundialmente. Considerando esto, este segmento como ustedes sabran, es uno de los mas atractivos para desarollar el negocio.

- Las tendencias mas fuertes en nutricion son: a) capsulas y pastillas y b) jugos funcionales. La ventaja de las empresas con capsulas y pastillas es que proporcionan una serie de nutrientes escenciales. La ventaja de los jugos es que su absorcion es mucho mas rapida y mejor que cualquier otra presentacion. Las companias que tienen jugos estan introduciendo complementos multivitaminicos en capsulas para potenciar los efectos del jugo y por el otro lado quienes tenian suplementos convencionales han optado por introducir jugos en su linea para mejorar el efecto de sus otros productos. Una reaccion muy interesante del mercado es que todas estas companias estan presentandno crecimentos record. Con Bazi lo que encontre es que se desarrollo el producto pensando en eficiencia y conveniencia. Se penso en un suplemento que proporcionara la nutricion sin necesidad de tomar pastillas y que al mismo tiempo proporcionara los beneficios de las frutas exoticas que ya han sido validadas por la ciencia. El resultado es un suplemento que combina ambas tendencias de la nutricion en la manera mas efectiva que es la liquida.

- Uno de los retos que enfrentan los suplementos es que vende uno ciencia para justificar el funcionamientno del producto. Durante mas de 60 anios, la industria de los suplementos ha avanzado en la introduccion de informacion cientifica que respalda los beneficios de los productos. Con XELR8, al tener el producto como uno de los elementos principales en la operacion del Sistema Hospitalario Greenville y del Instituo Steadman Hawkins, le dan a Bazi una posicion aparte en la industria y en la historia de la nutricion. El sistema hospitalrio Grenville es el 5o. mas grande de los Estados Unidos ( Bazi es recomendado, respaldado y administrado a los pacientes en todas las instalciones por todos los medicos de el plantel a todos los pacientes en las etapas pre-operatorias ypost-operatorias. El sistema hospitalario Greenville cubre toda la Costa Este del pais.) y el Instituto Staedman Hawkins es el mas importante en el mundo en investigacion de tratamientos ortopedicos yotras especialidades. No solo la validacion cientifica, la validacion de la medicina tradicional antigua sino que ahora cuenta con un respaldo medico real. No mas vender ciencia. Por un lado el respaldo medico, cientifico y en la practica los testimonios y la preferncia de atletas profesionales y olimpicos quienes lo compran y pagan por el por el beneficio que les proporciona.

- Bazi no solo es un producto, es un suplemento que une todas estas lineas de productos en uno solo: capsulas de vitaminas, capsulas de minerales, productos con antioxidantes, productos con acidos grasos omega, suplementos de goji, suplementos de acai, suplementos de granada, suplementos de la bay de espino; todos estos son los que forman la larga lista de productos de muchas companias. De manera que al desear tener una nutricion completa es necesario adquirir muchos productos. La belleza de Bazi radica en la simplicidad y potencia del producto. Completo, efectivo y al final resulta bastante barato para tener el perfil completo de nutricion que requiere tu cuerpo.

Para finalizar en relacion al producto:

1. Ciencia detras de los ingredientes.
2. Respaldo de instituciones medicas de clase mundial
3. Respaldo de consumidores entre los que se encuentran atletas profesionales y olimpicos.
4. Obtienes toda la nutricion necesaria en un solo shot (30ml)!
5. Extraordinario potencial antioxidante
6. Conjuga las tendencias grandes del campo nutricional (suplementos de vitaminas, minerales, aminoacidos, acidos grasos, etc y las beidas funcionales).
7. Muchas personas lo sienten en los primeros 20 minutos ytodo mundo lo siente en la primera botella!

Durante el mes de mayo hemos visto cristalizar cosas muy importantes, tanto para XELR8 como empresa asi como para el mercado latino.

Bazi ha ido ganando terreno y desarrollando un crecimento vertical en la venta del producto en una temporada donde genralment el movimentno es bajo. Esto ha sido debido a los poderosos benficios saludables de este singular producto que es diferente a lo disponible en el mercado. Un producto completo, poderoso y con respaldos del calibre de atletas profesionales yolimpicos asi como de instituciones medicas de renombre mundial, sin lugar a dudas estamos frente auno de los futuros gigantes con ventas billonarias de la industria.

En el mercado latino no nos quedamos atras. Se ha completado la primera fase de desarrollo de negocio para Puerto Rico, William de la Cruz posee un prestigio que va mas alla de las fronteras de la Isla y vermos proximamente como despega yse convierte en uno de los lideres mas importantes de la compania. Seguramente con la introduccion de Bazi y XELR8 en Puerto Rico se abriran nuevas puertas de oportunidad para desdoblar de mejor manera el mercado latino en los Estados Unidos, estamos muy entusiasmados por los logros obtenidos hasta el momento y por los beneficios que proporciona el producto.

Si eres una persona que esta buscando en realidad un negocio seguro a largo plazo con gancias substanciales desde el inicio, la respuesta se encuentra aqui. XELR8 tiene una oportunidad segura para obtener exito en las Redes de Mercadeo. Un poderoso plan de negocio para el profesional y para el que comienza. En los meses por venir podremos observar la magnitud de esta compania que se ha comprometido con nosotros como lideres  a respadarnos con la mejor oportunidad de negocio.

Que esperas? comunicate HOY mismo con nosotros y TOMA ACCION!

Zongzi, Sticky rice with filling wrapped in bamboo leaf

It is the Chinese dragon boat festival, celebrated all over China in various ways, often accompanied by dragon boat races. There are races in Wuhan too, or so we’ve heard. Despite my best efforts to find out where and when the races take place I have been utterly unsuccessful in obtaining any information relating to it. My Chinese friends agree that there are races somewhere but they seem to be as uninterested as unknowing.

They have however not failed to remind us that on this holiday people eat zongzi. Basically sticky glutinous rice with filling wrapped in bamboo leaves. I had tried it years ago in London of all places and I remembered it to be more than anything a meal in itself.

The Hubei version however is a sweet story. The filling, ranging from bean paste to jujube – also called red dates or Chinese dates – was sweet, the sticky rice itself was sweet and our host insisted that the zongzis themselves should be coated in sugar before they are served.

With such sugar halt in our blood system, we decided to forget about the dragon boat races all together and contend ourselves with a nice game on Wii.

Recientemente, lideres latinos han visto el tremendo potencial de negocio de ésta compañía y están listos para despegar la red a lo largo de Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico. La experiencia de este equipo ha creado redes de miles de personas a lo largo de el continente creando volúmenes en varios millones de dólares para diferentes compañías.

William de la Cruz. William ha liderado redes de miles de personas en Puerto Rico, uno de los líderes con mas prestigio en la Isla, ha tenido éxitos extraordinarios en algunas de las compañías de mayor crecimiento en la historia de esta industria. Con Tahitian Noni estuvo considerado entre los 25 mejores distribuidores del mundo en 1998. Consiguió que el mercado puertorriqueño fuera el de mayor consumo per capita mundialmente con un desplazamiento de 10,000 cajas en producto. En el 2004 se une a XanGo convirtiéndose en el segundo latino en lograr la calificacion de Premier – una de las más altas de la empresa. Ha sido asesor y pionero introduciendo compañias como Xooma Worldwide y Zija en Puerto Rico y posee amplia  experiencia en el desarrollo de redes internacionales, entre los paises donde ha construido organizaciones se encuentran: Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Republica Dominicana, Estados Unidos  y Mexico. William ha decidido tomar las riendas para hacer de XELR8 el éxito mas grande de su carrera profesional en ésta industria.

Anita Castañeda. Anita ha disfrutado de una reputación extraordinaria al formar una red de mas de 10,000 distribuidores en ¡tan solo 9 meses de esfuerzo! Habiendo participado en algunas de las empresas mas exitosas del Multinivel se retiro algunos años para disfrutar de la familia. Diversos ofrecimientos de negocio se le presentaron en este tiempo y fue que decidió por XELR8 regresar a la actividad. En palabras de Anita, “XELR8 es el negocio mas impresionante que haya yo visto en mis mas de 20 años de experiencia!”.

Fernando González. Fernando tiene más de 15 años de experiencia en Multinivel, con amplia experiencia en la creación de redes en diferentes países como Guatemala, Colombia, Estados Unidos, Mexico, Chile y Australia. Fué uno de los motores para introducir a México una de las compañías de mayor y mas rápido crecimiento de la historia de los suplementos nutricionales. Con éste éxito en mano, posteriormente fue reclutado para formar el grupo hispano directamente por  el Presidente de una compañía revolucionaria de nutrición. Tras conversar por algún tiempo con un gran amigo y el  líder mas grande de XELR8, Garrett McGrath; Fernando decide tomar las riendas y juntar un equipo de líderes experimentados para crear la red en el mercado latino con Bazi. Fernando comenta: “XELR8 lo tiene todo, un equipo corporativo con leyendas experimentadas no solo en multinivel sino en el mundo de los negocios tradicionales, con amplia experiencia posicionando marcas; un grupo de atletas que ponen sus manos al fuego por un producto considerado como ‘La siguiente generación de  nutrición liquida’ que además es aceptado y utilizado por hospitales…es único en su tipo!, un plan que esta diseñado para el mercado hispano – que necesita urgentemente opciones para producir dinero que en verdad le ayude a resolver sus retos financieros, una compañía publica e incentivos de primera clase… que razón habría tenido yo para resistirme a tomar este reto?”

Descubre por ti mismo la información de una oportunidad que puede cambiar tu vida!

Contáctanos HOY mismo!

baziglobal@drinkbazi.biz

281-253-2602

El Mercadeo en Red ahora es sinonimo de ACTIVIDAD EMPRESARIAL

1. Los Beneficios del Mercadeo en Red

• Confianza en si mismos
• Libertad en el uso del tiempo
• Libertad Financiera
• Ingresos Residuales
• Tiempo Invertido Multiplicado.

En este nuevo milenio, el tiempo es nuestro recurso mas valioso, Es mas importante para nuestra seguridad que logremos alcanzar un buen retorno sobre nuestro dinero invertido.

El nuevo paradigma de poder se esta convirtiendo en un paradigma libre de deudas, que nos permite sacar provecho de nuevas oportunidades. En el futuro, las deudas seran el unico obstaculo primordial que evite que las personas saquen provecho de las oportunidades.

2. Actividad Empresarial

La nueva economia esta siendo impulsada por millones de pequenos negocios. El mercadeo en red proporciona un negocio a millones de personas que nunca antes habian considerado esta idea.

Al surgir de los ultimos 100 anios y ver hacia el futuro, volveremos a examinar nuestra definicion de seguridad. Tendremos una verdad muy clara:

Unicamente estaremos seguros si tenemos control de nuestro propio destino. Esta idea creara nuevas ideas e inyectara un interes renovado en el mercadeo en red.

3. Otra fuente de Ingresos

En este nuevo milenio, nuestro unico ingreso esta siendo substituido por un portafolio de ingresos. Mas aun es un deber y una obligacion el considerar otras opciones para no ser victimas de las crisis. Este portafolio de ingresos contiene multiples y diversas fuentes de ingresos, un protafolio tipico consiste de lo siguiente:

a. Un salario
b. Intereses, crecimiento y dividendos sobre los fondos invertidos
c. Un flujo de ingresos proveniente de un pequeno negocio.

Cada persona busca la seguridad que proporciona este tipo de portafolio de ingresos, haciendo que cada uno de nosotros sea menos vulnerable a una sola parte de la economia.

4. Multiplicacion

El concepto de multiplicacion o combinacion es el factor mas importante en la generacion de rqueza. El mercadeo en red esta fundamentado sobre la idea de impulsar la multiplicacion. Piensa en lo siguiente:

Si tu ejerces influencia en 5 personas en su vida con una idea y cada una de esas 5 personas influye a 5 mas con una misma idea, etc., a lo largo de 8 niveles de influencia, su idea llegara a 488,280 personas!

Si intentaras hablar con toda esa gente personalmente y lo hicieras en grupos de 50 personas por dia, todos los dias del anio; te llevaria casi 27 anios poder llegar a tanta gente.

Al desarrollar el negocio con XELR8, estos conceptos de poder cobran vida con un modelo de negocio simple y accesible y que abre puertas por si mismo.

Toma accion y contactanos HOY mismo!

baziglobal@drinkbazi.biz

Here are some garden photos I took last week of some of the promising new developments to come along in March. Spring things are happening in the garden! Arranged in alphabetical order… apologies for my blurry cell phone pictures.

The Distinctive Maroon Bloom of Amaranth

Amaranth is one of plants that you grow once and it generates enough seeds to keep popping up in various places in your garden each year. This one is about 2-3 feet tall, but it can get taller than I am (6′3″) sometimes. I’ve never harvested the actual tiny grain (anyone out there have simple instructions for this?) but I do use the young leaves in salads. I’ve also heard (from Ysanne Spevack of Organic Foodee, whom I met through Erik Knutzen of Homegrown Evolution) that the flower itself is edible, too – just cut it up and put it in salads.

First Baby Artichoke Begins to Emerge

I grow a lot of artichoke – one of those great perennials that just keeps giving. The first of the chokes are starting to develop… though it will still be another month or so before the early ones will be ripe enough to eat. The one in the photo is in the middle of the my biggest, seemingly nearly monster-sized plant. The fruit pictured though is only maybe 2-inches in diameter.

Bright Blue Borage Flowers

Borage is one of those old-fashioned companion plants that you’re supposed to grow somewhere in your garden (also in this group are rue and yarrow… and some others that I will remember as soon as I hit “publish”.) Like amaranth, borage comes back year after year, a bit more than I really want it to. Mine grows out of interstices in in urbanite bed-wall. It has little blue flowers that face downward. They’re edible, tasting like a mild drop of honey. I put them in salads to add a little color.

Yellow Calendula Flowers Starting to Bloom

Calendula is just starting to bloom. Another simple-to-grow plant that keeps coming back year after year (do you detect a theme here?) It has some medicinal uses, though I just grow it for the bright yellow flowers.

New Jujube Growth

In mid-January, we planted a jujube tree. At the time it was completely dormant, bare and a little spindly-lookin’. I just had to trust that it would happily re-emerge from its slumber. I was a tiny bit worried about it for a month and a half, while I built a fancy-looking, perhaps overly-eleborate and formal rainwater harvesting ring to direct water toward its roots… thinking that it would sad if my high expectations for the tree might be unmet. Now, as you can see from the photo, it’s leafing out nicely.

Peach Blossoms

The peach tree that I was pruning in December is flowering and leafing out. The bees love it. Below it is California poppy and yarrow. A few times I’ve had to trim back broken branches as it gets abused by passers-by.

Yarrow A-blooming

And how could it be an area that Joe stewards unless there was plenty of yarrow? The very earliest of the yarrow flowers are already in bloom, with plenty more about to burst open.

Por primera vez en la historia de los suplementos nutricionales un producto es aceptado, respaldado y utilizado dentro de instalaciones medicas. Durante decadas la ciencia medica ha revisado centenares de productos por sus beneficios (promovidos en las herramientas de venta de las empresas) y en la mayoria de los casos han optado por hacer algunas sugerencias a los pacientes (en el caso de algunos medicos) para que tomen un determinado producto.

Sin embargo, el utilizar un producto por sus beneficios como parte de los procedimientos de un hospital es algo inedito. Bazi es utilizado como parte de la rutina pre-operatioria de los pacientes y como parte de la terapia post-operatoria para la recuperacion.

Esto muestra el campo tan amplio que tiene Bazi en el mercado. No solo los beneficios de las Super Frutas y las vitaminas y minerales que contiene. Un sistema nutricional completo en una onza.

El Sistema Hospitalario Greenville es el quinto mas importante del pais. Despues de mucho tiempo de revisar y analizar suplementos hoy en dia estan utilizando y recomendando Bazi a sus pacientes.

La Clinica Steadman Hawkins es una de las principales donde se realizan algunos de los descubrimientos medicos mas sobresalientes en el mundo en terminos ortopedicos. Atletas profesionales y olimpicos son atendidos ahi de las lesiones delicadas. El Dr. Richard Hawkins esta considerado como la eminencia mas importante en el mundo en este rubro y tambien es considerado 1 de los 100 medicos mas renombrados del pais.

“El Dr. Richard Hawkins y yo invertimos varios años buscando un producto que fuera potente y que no tuviera contaminantes – una de las principales preocupaciones tanto de los atletas como de las personas normales,” dice el Dr. Jim Silliman, Presidente y CEO de la Clinica Steadman Hawkins y Director Medico del Instituto para la salud Muscoloesqueletica en el Sistema Hospitalario Greenville. “Queriamos una linea completa de productos, y cuando vimos XELR8, estaba el paquete completo. Lo estudiamos y comprobamos su calidad y eficiencia, ahora nuestros dietistas ofrecen BAZI en todas nuestras instalaciones. Además de utilizar BAZI en todas nuestras instalaciones médicas, me siento satisfecho al decir que mi familia entera lo usa tambien. “

De esta, manera, tienes una ventaja importantisima que respalda la eficiencia de este innovador y revolucionario producto. La medicina tradicional como la ayurvedica y la china reconocen las propiedades y beneificios increibles de sus ingredientes como el mangosteen, el jujube, la granada, el seabuckthorn y el goji. La medicina tradicional en America del Sur ha apreciado por siglos los beneficios del acai, y en Europa, America y otros lugares han sido veneradas por su nutricion el arandano azul y la frambuesa.Y por el otro lado no solo la ciencia moderna ha encontrado respaldo de los beneficios de estas frutas en estudio tras estudio, sino que tambien por primera vez, el eslabon que faltaba ha sido agregado… el tener al alcance esto en los hospitales.

El futuro de tu negocio sera enorme. Ponte en accion y toma la ventaja!

Fernando Gonzalez

Lider Fundador XELR8 para el mercado Hispano

I arrived in Taipei the evening of February 17th, after almost 24h on planes and airports. I only slept 4-5h on the plane, to try to adjust my body to the new timezone (7h before). I also tried to eat almost nothing during the trip, and when I arrived in the evening, I had a big burger meal. This also helped to adapt to the new daily rythm.

The morning after I showed up at the Yahoo! offices. I had woken up quite early, feeling well rested. I had a nice breakfast, and crossed the street to the Yahoo! offices at my usual arrival time of 9am. A bit too early, it seemed, as there was nobody from the Search Team around But I asked at the reception desk where I was supposed to sit, and found my place. After a short while the search team started arriving, and several people were quite helpful in getting the practicalities sorted out, with network connectivity and stuff like that. So I soon got settled. My cube looks a bit barren at the moment; all the other people have a multitude of little trinkets and personality items decorating every square inch of their walls and desks. But give me a few weeks, and I’ll try to catch up

I was lucky enough to arrive in the Yahoo! offices on the day of the yearly Search Team Spring Banquet. I was invited to this fabulous event, which consisted of a fantastic dinner at “A Cut Steak House”, and a Lucky Draw event afterwards. To see photos of this event, go to Hsu Ming-Yen’s Flickr Photo Set from the Spring Banquet. Lots of good food, delicious meat and happy people!

Thursday was registration day at the Mandaring Training Center, where I am enrolling as a student. I had gone to the area the day before, just to make sure I could find it. And thanks to the availability of online satellite images I knew pretty well what to expect from the area. Registration started at 08:30 and I was one of the first people in line. The registration started at a desk where you were assigned a student number. The lines where divided in two from a total of 500 students, but this covered all levels and both the Regular and Intensive courses. After the initial handout of papers, it was standing in line for copying and validation of passports, and paying tuition. Then it was onto sitting in line for an oral interview and the written placement test. Given that I have never studied Chinese before, the actual interview took only 10 seconds, and I skipped the written test. But I still had to wait half-an-hour in line No problem, though, as I got to talking with the guy before me. His name was Jim, from Chicago, but he had been a history teacher in Taiwan for 20 years, and in his retirement he had finally decided to get formal Chinese training. So the waiting in line was definitively not wasted for me, as we discussed a lot of interesting topics about Chinese and Taiwanese culture in general, and language in particular. I just hope that some of my fellow students in my beginner class will be half as interesting to talk to

Some random culinary events from the week. During “fruit day” at the Yahoo! office, I was served something I at first believed was some kind of apple. It was very crunchy and not as juicy and sweet as a typical green apple, in a good way. Turns out it only had a single big seed inside. It was in fact a date fruit called a jujube, or to be more specific: 蜜棗 (mìzǎo). In Norway, I think we are more familiar with the aged, dried variety, called “daddel”, which I have never liked. Just goes to show that you should not judge the dog by its (dried) skin.

I also got reacquainted with Taiwan Beer, which was a fond memory. The price in the hotel minibar was actually quite reasonable, at NT$30, or about NOK 6.

I can also report that the lavish lunches enjoyed while at the Vespa summit last year is not the normal kind of lunch in the Taipei office. Thank the Gods! I’ve joined a few of the guys going to a some of the local backstreet family restaurants for simple and tasty dishes, such as the “fried rice with mixed stuff” shown here. This particular lunch also included side orders of snails boiled with spinach, and pig’s intestines with ginger strips; wonderful small dishes, but I was too busy eating to take photos

Of other notable events in the office, I bought a new Apple Wireless Keyboard with Chinese character layout. Unfortunately, Apple has chosen to not include the 大易 layout that is included on most Taiwanese keyboards. I have decided that this one is the best to learn for me, as it is based on decomposition of characters in stroke order, so most closely resembles the way characters are written. But it turned out to be less of a problem, when I got help from one of the guys in the search team to find a small shop specializing in laser engraving keyboards. So I got the Dàyì layout added to the keyboard. Now, some may say that it is sacrilegious to point a laser at any Apple product. And I would definitively not laser engrave the outside lid of my aluminum MacBook Pro. But in this case I found it acceptable, not in the least because I already own an American layout Apple Wireless keyboard, which is even cleaner looking

My main project for the first week, was to acquire a set of “The Girls of Wretch 2009″ calendars. With the help of mr. Fix-It on the search team, I got a few calendars for free from the Wretch representative. I will send a few to the Trondheim office as promotional material, but will keep one for myself as the start of my cube decoration. Shown here is a picture of the front page of the Wretch calendar installed on my cube shelf.

I also started looking at apartments for rent during the coming 3 months. There is a wide variety of apartments on offer. Some are very cheap, but old; some are very nice, but small; some are very big, but pricy. I’ll spend the weekend looking at a few options, but I also have all of next week to find somewhere to stay. The sooner the better, though

Saturday I also managed to attend the start-up of beginners classes in Taekwon-Do in ITF Taipei. The resident Sa Bum Nim is Daniel Obon. There was about 12 people attending the session, at the Taipei Mixed Martial Arts center. Most of the people seemed to have previous experience in MMA, as their fighting style was somewhat accomplished, but much more “boxing” like, and “mixed”, than ITF TKD. The session was mainly to give the class an introduction to ITF TKD, and Daniel talked about the differences between ITF/WTF, and also presented the different diciplines of TKD, such as basic techniques, self-defense, forms, and sparring.I guess I will continue training there, just to keep up with the TKD, but let’s hope the sessions become more focused once we get going; I need to practice for my yellow belt graduation!

Ripe Jujube Fruit - Photo from Papaya Tree Nursery

There’s a spot at the top of the trincheras garden (in the front yard of the Bimini Terrace building where I live) where a tangerine tree was planted. The tangerine struggled there and never really did well and never yielded fruit. I had hoped that, as part of the trincheras project, I could build a sort of berm around the tree in order to help capture and infiltrate rainwater… but… alas… before I got there the tree pretty much died.

I say pretty much died, because the entire top of the tree did die, but there was one sucker alive that was coming out of the rootstock. Like most nursery-bought fruit trees, the tangerine tree was grafted. The top is a clone of a good fruiting tangerine tree; the bottom is a tree that grows more rigorous roots… so it’s not really worth saving if just the rootstock is growing, because it’s very unlikely that that will provide good fruit.

All this to say that there’s a spot at the top of the trincheras where I’ve been thinking a new tree needed to be planted. Fall/winter is the best time of year for planting trees (and other perennials), so I had been thinking about wanting to get a tree into the ground there.

Enter, stage left, Erik Knutzen. Erik is the co-author of the Homegrown Evolution blog. I also highly recommend the book he co-authored The Urban Homestead. Erik and I work out together at the downtown YMCA. He mentioned that he was hoping to visit a couple of unusual nurseries in the valley and I requested to tag along. We planned to visit the Theodore Payne Foundation Nursery (in Sunland) and the Papaya Tree Nursery (in Granada Hills.) I needed to pick up some native plants at Theodore Payne for a landscaping project that I am doing for a friend’s mother – but I will leave that story for another blog entry.

Homegrown Evolution in the Papaya Greenhouse

On to the Papaya Tree Nursery. Papaya is located in the middle of an unassuming suburban neighborhood in the northwest end of the San Fernando Valley – about as far from LA Eco-Village as you can get and still be in the same city. It seemed like we might have the wrong address, but we pulled up and the proprietor Alex Silber was unloading bundles of bare-root trees being delivered by a big truck. Turns out the place is open by appointment only… but Silber was nice enough to accommodate us. He needed to finish unloading and watering the trees being unloaded, so he invited us to go back and explore. The home has a very large backyard, which is highly organized and packed to the gills with all kinds of wonderful trees – pomegranate, tangerine, cherimoya, jakfruit, coffee, caperbush, sapote, Persian mulberry, and much much more. It’s actually pretty incredible that we can grow all these exotic fruit trees in Southern California. On the left is a shot of Erik in the walk-in greenhouse that covers a small portion of the yard.

Erik was looking for quince (which they actually don’t carry) and gojiberry (which they do carry.) Erik has black walnut trees in his backyard. These walnut trees’ roots secrete a substance that inhibits many plants from growing nearby. Quince and gojiberry are two plants that aren’t inhibited growing by walnutes.

I asked Alex about jujube. He responded asking me if I had read about his special jujube trees – a variety called Chang. I’d heard that one needed to plant two jujube trees for them to fruit well. His variety didn’t need two trees. It fruited heavily. It’s drought tolerant. It grows in a “columnar” shape which makes it pretty manageable to garden under, with mainly vertical growth it shouldn’t get too huge and shade too much of the garden. It’s a variety that was given to his father by a old Chinese man. If you’ve never had a jujube (pronounced “jew-jew-bee,”) it’s a bit hard to describe – but it’s more-or-less like a sort of nutty apple flavor. The fruit can be eaten fresh and crisp, though it’s also very common dried. In Asia, I am told, dried jujubes are used for soups, teas, and medicines.

I also asked about citrus, and managed to hear stories about sapote and mulberry (all of which Papaya Nursery has incredibly special versions of) before ultimately deciding to purchase a jujube tree. We picked out a tree that had a relatively thick trunk, and was a little taller than I am. With no small effort, we loaded it into Erik’s car and brought it back to eco-village.

Semi-Circle Ring of Urbanite around the Jujube

Last Saturday, Federico and I planned out where it would go. We put a placeholder stick in the ground, tied a string to it and traced a circle. It’s a fairly large space (about 5 feet in diameter.) We lined it with a level semi-circle of urbanite, allowing an opening at the upstream end for rainwater to enter and soak into the root area. Federico, eco-village’s mushroom aficionado, suggested that we use old phone books that would serve a double purpose – acting like a sponge to soak up water and serving as a matrix to grow oyster mushrooms. You can see some phone-books buried spine down in the lower left of this image. We’re actually going to rework the phone-book scheme, though, because it turns out that we need to inoculate the mushrooms into the phone-books before we bury them, then we need to cover them with mulch. We’ll have to report more on how that goes in a later installment.

Somer and Hunter watering the newly planted Jujube tree

On Sunday, eco-villagers Hunter, Jimmy, Somer, and I dug out the circle and a much deeper portion in the middle and planted the tree. I have to say that nearly every time I’ve planted a tree, it has been after digging and digging and deciding that it’s about deep enough… then later I regret that I didn’t dig just a few inches deeper, so the tree would be ever so slightly below grade, so it would actually collect rainwater, instead of shedding it. This passive rainwater harvesting strategy is a trick that I learned from hearing presentations and reading books by Brad Lancaster. Once we got it plenty deep, we planted the tree, which, once out of the pot and into the ground, was just shorter than I am.

There are still some edge treatments that I plan to do around the circular root area, and we’ll add the phone books, mushrooms, and plenty of mulch… but I was really happy to get the tree into the ground… and look forward it fruiting, hopefully starting this summer.

The Jujube tree. Image credit: Phillip Merritt

When I wrack my brain to pinpoint individual plant species which have a large large number of uses, I can only think of a few (possibly due to ignorance on my part).

The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera)  is one such plant. It is used in virtually all aspects of human livelihood: food, beverage, clothing, construction material, tinder, oil etc.

Another plant would be the neem tree (Azadirachta indica), for the seemingly endless list of pharmacological products it bestows to mankind. Another two are hemp (Cannabis sativa) and soybean (Glycine max). But all these plants are well known and mainstream. Today the star is a humble fruit tree called Jujube (Ziziphus zizyphus).

A childhood association

Dried jujbe fruits, often refered to as red dates in Chinese. Image credit: Marco Schmidt

Ziziphus zizyphus (read about the curious name) hails from the dogwood or buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae) and is cultivated all throughout India, Russia, the Middle East, southern Europe, and especially China.

The plant is not well known in the West. Being Asian however, I am not a stranger to this plant.

As a teen I was a great fan of dried jujube, processed into a sweet and salty snack with the appearance of dirt pellets!

Then also, there was the whole dried jujube fruits called red dates (Hong Zao, 紅棗) which is a familiar addition to chinese soups and medicinal recipes.

I didn’t think there was more to jujube but I was wrong.

The myriad uses of Jujube

The wood is strong, durable and smooth, and has been used to make a wide variety of things ranging from combs to musical instruments to ships.

Incredibly, jujube has been used medicinally for ~3000 years. All parts of the plant has found some form of medicinal use.

Culinary-wise, the fuits of jujube has been consumed in just about every conceivable mode: candied, dried, fresh, in teas etc. Jujube is also used to make wine and vinegar and is a major source of honey in China. What a variety of flavours!

Whats left of the jujube tree can also be used as fodder for cattle, camels and goats.

Would it be then that jujube is less cultivated and known because it is a fastidious tree?

Hardly.

Jujube is cold hardy, takes to a wide variety of soils and tolerates a wide pH range. It has few pest and fruits precociously. The only few problems might be potential weediness and susceptibility to certain fruit flies in some places – nothing, I’d say, that can’t be fixed with some effort in selection.

I am exhausted already but I haven’t exhausted Jujube’s list of uses (see more here)!

References

Outlaw, W.H., et al. (2002). The Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.), a multipurpose Plant. Economic Botany 56, 198-200.

(see also Wiki article)

Sadly, October marks the end of the jujube season, a popular Asian fruit, also known as the Red Date or Chinese Date.  A fruit season not many Americans will probably ever get to enjoy.  Even though the fruit is one of the world’s oldest fruits, used in Chinese medicine for over 4,000 years, I’ve never seen a jujube in a grocery store — not even in the “exotic” fruit sections.  You won’t even find fresh jujubes in an Asian market — most likely because of their short shelf life of only being able to last at it’s ripened state for about 2-3 days before it begins to dry.

I’m fortunate enough to have about 7 jujube trees growing in my family orchard and once the fruit ripens we can never eat enough of them.  There really is nothing like being able to pick the fruit directly from the tree and enjoying their wonderful crisp and sweet taste, which is similar to an apple.  I always feel so lucky to be able to enjoy this delicious fruit.  Maybe it’s the fact that I can eat them straight from the tree or maybe it’s the rareness of the fruit that I find delicious — whatever it is I wish I could share this taste with everyone.

ripe jujubes

So if you don’t have a jujube tree growing anywhere nearby you probably won’t get to enjoy this delicious fruit at its peak state.  However, you can find the jujube in Asian markets dried or canned in a liquor or syrup.  Dried jujubes can be used to make a sweet tasting and fragrant tea.  I often use dried jujubes to make a tea with ginger and ginseng when I get a cold or sore throat because of the jujube’s known throat soothing and calming effects.  In fact, that’s what I’m drinking right now to get over this annoying cold.

Hopefully, you’ll come across this tasty fruit sometime but if you don’t the trees are very easy to grow and can tolerate many different climates.  Here are some links to more information on Jujubes:

Some Jujube fruit facts:

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/jujube.html

http://www.squidoo.com/jujube

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujube