Coffee

[seedcorn]

@baymule ”healthy food, lots of vegetables and an active lifestyle puts us, as a group, way out in front of the majority.”

Agree 100%. Pains me to see son eat so many meals fast food and he’s put on 60+. He & his wife just don’t cook at home. When they do, a lot of starch. He is starting to fight health issues due to that. Don’t say anything as it’s of no value.

 

[digitS']

We are products of our parent's diets, our early adulting inclinations, and our older adulting observations. Of course, "we are what we eat," as well

Mom was a healthy eating person (by her definition, at least). Dad - meat and potatoes.

I have spent probably a good hour, while doing the laundry and prompted by @Artichoke Lover 's post , reading about diets. If you want to see an absolutely ridiculous & HUGE collection of ... whatever, check the "Fad diet" list in Wikipedia. Nah, I am gonna pay attention to the Mediterranean diet that have been around for about 60 years and those newer DASH and the American Heart Association's ideas. BTW, those ideas are not only commonly shared by dieticians, nutritionists, physiologists but also advanced by the public healthcare organizations of more nations than one can count on fingers and toes.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

@digitS' We are products of our parent's diets, our early adulting inclinations, and our older adulting observations.

Not sure I agree with this. My children currently eat completely different than us, our parents, etc. They have become addicted to the hi salt/sugar diets of Americans. So many have. I’ve known people that complain of headaches IF they don’t get their pop. I’m comfortable they have become addicted.

 

[digitS']

Trying something different today.

The lemon verbena is a young plant. If there was one herb that I would be happy with by itself, as a hot drink, it would be lemon verbena. Need to leave it alone so it is a strong enough plant to go through the Winter. I have more anise hyssop but, for my tastes, it needs something. So ... I bought some chamomile tea .

First sip ... Oh! That's okay ... The cranberries with the chamomile - very sweet. Fragrance is different. Taste ... I need more time. Not thyme! I'm reluctant to say too much on first impression but it doesn't quite take me back to the hay barn . I think i had better use less of the chamomile so that licorice flavor of the hyssop comes thru.

You know. Chamomile has something of an apple flavor. It's like I'm feeding a couple of apples to Willy the Horse.

Steve, Good Morning!

 

[digitS']

I can imagine that it would be very suitable for that, @Alhads . Welcome to The Easy Garden!

With only one plant at a time, I have not ventured into the culinary uses for lemon verbena but understand that it is commonly used there. Lemon and limes are easily available at the market. And, I have lemon balm in the yard but don't really appreciate it and haven't found any special uses.

My wife made some sachets at one time. I'm sure that the mints were primary in her choices. Of those that we have, I don't care for any for a drink ... altho, I suppose that I could include both anise hyssop & catnip in the mint family and admit that I like those.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

@seedcorn , I think we can change our eating habits. When DH had his triple bypass heart surgery (2006), he had to get a pacemaker 10 years later and drop almost all salt from his diet. THIS IS WHY I have been canning broth, which may have the salt that the animal consumed, but I add no additional salt to it. He doesn't miss it.
Eldest DD likes salt on the tomatoes I grow. I don't.
I had never touched okra until my MIL made it fried. Now I grow/harvest/freeze it every year, some 30 quarts currently in (one) of my 3 freezers.
Can't stand skim milk in my cereal. I don't eat it often, but I like it with 1/2 and 1/2.
Nobody in my family ever ate yogurt, but I do, and my DD's make a slightly fermented oatmeal lunch with it.
Just fried up 5 yard long beans in bacon grease that got...too long...first time...very nice!
My mother would never save a baked potato for late, but I do, and when I want to cook up fried potatoes from fresh I will microwave them before cutting.
She also toyed at gardening, but gave up on it and filled in the NW corner of the small, rectangular bed. I started growing tomatoes in the 1/4 acre shady backyard of our previous house, and they often grew into our neighbor's yard.
I keep adapting all of the beds I have created to grow something new and several of them have become premanent vegetable beds. It started with my hatred of the weedwacker. It works 5 minutes, then it takes an hour to restring--Total waste of my time. What to do? I created beds next to all places that needed weedwacking, and lined them with bricks at ground level. I can run my push mower over to it and get the edges.
So, I keep trying new vegetables out in my new beds, therefore, stuff my family would never eat when I was growing up.

 

[Marie2020]

I can imagine that it would be very suitable for that, @Alhads . Welcome to The Easy Garden!

With only one plant at a time, I have not ventured into the culinary uses for lemon verbena but understand that it is commonly used there. Lemon and limes are easily available at the market. And, I have lemon balm in the yard but don't really appreciate it and haven't found any special uses.

My wife made some sachets at one time. I'm sure that the mints were primary in her choices. Of those that we have, I don't care for any for a drink ... altho, I suppose that I could include both anise hyssop & catnip in the mint family and admit that I like those.

Steve

I have catmint, would that make a tea? I don't think I would like that somehow

 

[digitS']

catmint

= catnip - I'm quite sure.

Marie, I didn't think so either. However, I noticed a difference in herbs that were dried and knew that would be a simple process, hanging as a bunch under my deck roof.

For my tastes:
I won't say, 100% better than the fresh but close!

Steve

 

[digitS']

My children currently eat completely different

Even those who don't lead a different life ... DW influences me in a gardening way. She is a fresh fruit and vegetables person. One might think that we live a thousand miles, 2 thousand miles South of where we do.

She has learned the value of frozen foods; canned, not so much. Cooked veggies, sure. We all have our kicks and oatmeal for breakfast is her current one but that is a cereal uh serial.

I'm having cream of wheat for breakfast, this morning . Galia melon on the side. There are raisins in the cereal. I recently purchased 3 big bags of raisins - probably foolishly because I'll likely eat them all myself. Still, I don't know the "shelf life" of raisins but it must extend thru the Fall and Winter.

Should have some figs . @Cosmo spring garden is canning homegrown figs ... I'm jealous. I like them every way! They are almost unknown in the produce aisles around here ...

It was just before I met DW that I finally learned that it was bok choy that was on the plates served to me at the Chinese restaurants where I enjoyed eating. 30+ years later, I have my fingers crossed that the plants growing in the greenhouse bed don't run through their lifecycle before cold temperatures slow them down. Ain't gonna survive on my mother's Scotch kale alone!

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

How Long Do Raisins Last?

An unopened bag of raisins lasts for a couple of months past the date printed on it. Once you open up the bag, raisins should keep quality for about 6 months if you store them in a sealed bag. Without a tight seal, they will dry out sooner.
My Googlefoo is strong, indeed.