Oh - my aching dogies!

By the end of the day I am SO ready to sit down and kick off my shoes.

We work our feet harder than any other part of our body. They carry our weight through everything we do, often confined in shoes they only want to escape from. Especially in the heat of summer, when we spend a lot of time outdoors in sandals or flip-flops, they can get dry, callused, and cracked - making them even more sore. It's important not to neglect our poor dogies, happy feet make for a happy person!

Keeping feet healthy and in good condition is easy. First of all, there are simple daily stretches you can do to maintain flexibility and circulation in both feet and ankles.
Pick a time when you have a minute or two and sit in a comfortable chair. Remove your shoes and, simultaneously with both feet, perform the following moves holding each position at least five seconds:
• Point your toes, extending them as far as you can.
• Bend your feet up, pointing toes toward your head.
• Rotate feet at the ankles slowly making circles to the right, then to the left, repeating at least three times in each direction.
• Drop a hand or bath towel, crumpled, on the floor in front of you. Grip the towel with the toes of both feet at the same time, at least one foot (12 inches)apart and lift until your legs are straight out in front of you. Hold for ten seconds, then drop the towel. Repeat 10 times.

Massaging your feet at the end of the day brings up your spirits, helps you relax, and feels oooohhh sooo good.
Proponents of acupuncture and reflexology believe that areas in your feet connect to all parts of your body. Pressure points are stimulated to relieve stress and ailments elsewhere, so a good foot rub could help with other sore spots as well.

Pampering feet with a regular pedicure keeps them smooth and supple, healthy and beautiful. Including massage as part of a pedicure will give you the best of both: Relaxed, refreshed, beautiful feet!

You don't need a spa to get the best treatment, here is a perfectly simple natural pedicure you can do to yourself or a friend (It makes a very special gift):

Start by washing feet, then prepare a soothing foot soak in a tub large enough to easily accommodate both feet.

Use water that is comfortably hot. For added benefits, add a few drops of essential oil to the soak, epsom salts, or a tea made from herbs placed in a muslin bag and infused in the tub of water (see herb chart below for a few suggestions).

Relax and, when feet have softened, use a nail brush to clean cuticles & nails followed by scrubbing all over with a mildly abrasive cleansing cloth, loofa, or ayate to remove dry skin. You can even use the bag of herbs as a washing cloth.

If needed, a pumice stone, terra cotta foot stone, or pedicure file will gently remove rough spots and calluses on soles and heels.

Dry feet thoroughly and trim nails and gently push back cuticles, as needed, then rinse and dry again.

Now massage deeply, paying particular attention to the instep, toes, & ball of foot. To leave feet in top condition use massage oil based on vegetable oil with essential oils (as noted in chart below) or use Simmons Cocoa Butter Creme.

Follow up with Simmons Duck Butter™, as part of the pedicure and other times as needed, rubbing it on dry heels and other problem spots to rejuvenate the skin and protect them from further damage.
If you paint your toenails, do it now, giving 2 coats for luster and adding a topcoat of clear polish, if you like, for extra shine. Make sure to relax and give ample drying time before putting on your shoes and resuming your day.
You can get foot care tools and Cocoa Butter Creme and Duck Butter™ at SimmonsNaturals.com.
Happy feet make for a happy you!

Herbs for foot care:
Chamomile - A, C, 1
Clary Sage - B, C, D, 5
Eucalyptus - B, C, D, 1, 2
Geranium - B, C, D, 2, 4
Peppermint - A, B, C, D, 1,2
Spearmint - A, B, C, D, 1, 2
Rosemary - A, B, C, D, 1, 4, 5
Thyme - B, C, 1, 3


Key:
A - Herb
B - Essential Oil

Use in:
C - Foot Soak
D - Massage oil

Properties:
1 - Deodorizing
2 - Antiseptic
3 - Antibacterial
4 - Antifungal
5 - Relieves stress, soreness

More easy exercises you can do while standing:
• Walk on your tip toes for 30 seconds, relax, and then from a flat footed stance, roll your feet out so you are standing on the outside edges of your feet. Hold this posture for fifteen seconds. Repeat this sequence 5 times.
This will help relieve aching arches.
• Place feet about one foot (12 inches) apart and squat down so you are resting on your toes. If needed, hold on to a chair or other steady furniture to steady yourself. Slowly roll back so you are resting on your feet, then slowly roll back up onto your toes. Repeat this as many times as you comfortably can, working up to 10 repetitions.
This will stretch and exercise your entire lower body as well as your feet, improving balance and flexibility while it strengthens and conditions the muscles.
Overall, walking is the best exercise for feet. It stretches, strengthens and improves circulation. Try to walk 4-5 times weekly for ½ hour or more.

The Teddy Bear's Picnic...

Here's to a spectacular Independence Day! An American summer holiday classic: Barbeque; family; fireworks; red, white & blue.

We love it and take the day off with family. But for us it really is just a prelude to going up to the Oregon Country Fair.

We have had a booth there since 1983 and can't imagine missing this counter culture celebration of life, conscious life, and living the dream.

Of course, that's assuming your dream is as ours - a sustainable green future with peace and tolerance and art and music and juggling for all.

See us at booth 73 at the fair, outside of Eugene, Oregon, the second weekend of July.

Summer's arrival...

in actuality, if not weather.

42 degrees this morning and all day cool, foggy, & gray. Even some drizzle.

Our spring has been unseasonably dreary and cool. From earlier thunderstorms to recent days of coastal fog (but we are NOT on the coast!), it sure doesn't feel like tomorrow is Summer Solstice.

On the one hand we yearn for sun and warmth and all that can be done outside on these long days. On the other it is making it a little less painful as we wait to complete a garden retaining wall to plant the bulk of our vegetable garden. But even with only 1/3 of the garden in production we have been harvesting quite a bit of food.

Last night we ate the first of the artichokes from the plants we planted in March. We have lots of kale and Swiss chard and radishes are now in every salad. We are on our third planting of lettuce and arugula, and the garlic is close to harvest. We have picked broccoli, the cauliflower is ready, and cabbages are heading up (already time to start seed for the fall cole!).

To get us a bit ahead, both of the wall project and the cooler weather, we have been planting our greenhouses with peppers, basil, cucumbers, and squash, as well as a few tomatoes. I am sure we will end up with more than we need (that is, plenty to share) as we usually do (despite the fact that the gophers ate 99% of the onions). Gardens are like that. Not to mention an addiction of the best sort.

If you have followed the news, you will know that 73 pounds of lettuce & 12 pounds of peas were picked this past week from the White House garden. The little organic garden Michelle Obama started at the White House has been feeding them for some time.

What a great example for the country. How to eat well, get exercise, and save money at the same time. Here's to an addiction that actually improves your health!!

Decisions, decisions...

For years we have tossed around the desirability of making all organic soaps, but the cost is so high it conflicts with our goal to make quality all - natural soaps affordable for everyday use.

How to keep natural and non-toxic products easily available to the most people...
Can you help?

Should we switch to all organic? Should we add an all organic line?
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I'm All Mixed Up...

...With herbs and spices that is!

We are cooking a pot roast in the solar oven today and when I reached for my seasoning blend (Meat Treat) I found the jar almost empty. Time to make more of this and my other blends as well.

I find myself a rather lazy cook. I want to have my herbs and spices pre-blended so I don't have to formulate them for every meal. Over time I have learned of or invented herb and/or spice blends for everything from steak to tofu, Mexican to Chinese. For us the process begins in the garden.

Here are 3 blends of herbs we grow, dry, and combine to brighten our meals:

MEAT TREAT:
Rosemary - Easy to grow perennial in the ground or a pot. Impervious to bugs or deer.
Sweet Basil - Hot weather annual, easy to grow, pick repeatedly to keep from flowering and it will grow back.
Thyme - The regular sort, varigated or plain, perennial with tiny leaves. Harvest before it flowers.
Bay Leaves - Mediterranean Bay (the kind you get in stores) is milder. If you use the west coast native Bay Laurel, use it sparingly. We have a Mediterranean Bay tree in a large pot!
Garlic - OK, we buy garlic granules by the pound and use that. It is slightly coarser than garlic powder, and is definitely NOT garlic salt. I store it in a glass jar with airtight lid.

FISH FEST:
Lemon Thyme - Wonderful fragrant perennial, easy to grow and harvest as for Thyme (above).
Lemon Basil - Another wonderful basil. Loves hot weather. Annual that you can harvest it repeatedly and it will rapidly grow back as do all the basils. Just remember to cut it above 2 new leaf shoots.
I have never found Lemon Basil or Lemon Thyme in a store, so plan ahead and grow your own if you want to try this blend.
Dillweed - The feathery leaves, not the seeds. Plant this annual once and it will re-seed and grow forever.
Oregano - Another hardy perennial. Greek is milder, Mexican stronger, use accordingly. We prefer Greek.
Sweet Marjoram - Very fragrant annual. Relative to Oregano, used with eggs, vegies and meats.
Celery leaves - I actually grow a specific type of celery that mainly produces leaves. When I have tried to grow nice stalks of celery I always got wimpy stems with lots of leaves anyway - it just does not like our climate. I also save the leaves from celery (organic) I buy at the market and dry them in a colander after trimming them from the stalk.
Garlic - (See above)
Onion Powder - this we buy as well.

ITALIAN SEASONING:
Oregano, Sweet Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, Garlic
See above for all of these.
Fennel Seed - We buy this, toast it lightly in a small, heavy pan (we use cast iron) and then crush it slightly with a mortar and pestle.

PREPARING THE HERBS:
All the herbs listed here are harvested early in the morning after the dew has dried off of them, and hung in bunches by their stems in a well ventilated place out of direct sunlight. I like to use a rubber band to hold the bunch and a twisty-tie from vegetables I purchased at the store, or string, tied on to hang them by. The rubber band conveniently stays tight as the herbs dry and the soft stems of basil and others shrink in diameter. Woody stemmed plants such as rosemary and thyme have no problem. As to the bay, I just prune off a very small branch full of leaves and dry it and that lasts us a year or 2!

When dry, strip the leaves from the stems and store as whole leaves in airtight containers (we use glass jars) in a cool, dark cupboard. When you make a blend or use the herbs directly in cooking - that is the time to crush or chop them. Once broken they will lose their aromatic and flavor qualities faster.
By the way, you can save the stems and bundle them, tie with cotton or jute string, and throw on hot coals when grilling for herbally smoked meats.


ASSEMBLING THE BLENDS:
This is the inventive part. I never measure anything unless I have to, and cannot begin to give you exact measurements for any of these, but I do have some "rules of thumb". In all the blends you use equal amounts of the large leafy herbs (basil, oregano, dill, celery).
Grind these coarsely with a herb grinder (there are many styles, I like the Mouli Parsmint best - shown in photo) or chop with a knife. Thyme, more condensed, should be around 2/3 the amount of one of the others after grinding. Ditto rosemary. You can run the rosemary through the grinder as well.
To 1/2 cup blended herbs add 1 large bay leaf, ground, and/OR 1 Tablespoon garlic granules OR 1 Tablespoon onion powder, or 2 teaspoons fennel seed, as called for. If you use bay laurel, use less.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, then store in an airtight container until used.

USING THEM:
Sprinkle Meat Treat over chicken, turkey, whatever, before cooking. Add 1 or 2 teaspoons to oil and vinegar with 1/2 teaspoon salt for a nice herb vinaigrette.
Sprinkle Fish Fest over any kind of seafood before cooking. Also sprinkle with a bit of lemon pepper or a squirt of lemon juice.
Italian seasoning can be added to tomato sauce for pasta, lasagna or any tomato dish.

YUM! I'm hungry just thinking about it all. Now off to transplant my basil plants (sweet, lemon, purple (for salad dressing), mammoth (mild - good in salads), and Thai). I think ahead, as I work in the garden, to the harvest and culinary delights ahead.