You Never Know Until You Try

People sometimes call me crazy, but I don't mind. I guess I just really love dancing to the beat of my own drum. If I get an idea to do something and it seems impossible, I go for it anyway. After all, if you don't even try, then you've already lost. 

So, when my family and I enjoyed a particularly sweet and delicious pineapple a couple of years ago, I thought how wonderful it would be if I could grow more like it. Now, I should tell you that we were at corporate headquarters in Oregon at the time, in a region that experiences snow and freezing temperatures for several months of the year.  But, I didn't let that stop me. 

I twisted the top of the pineapple off, pulled off the leaves, leaving a 3/4 inch of the stem bare, then planted it in a big pot using organic bagged soil. I wanted to give it the best chance of success that I could, so I put my little plant in a northwest corner window, knowing that it would get regular sun in the afternoon all year long. I watered it once a week, just like all of my other houseplants, and gave it no fertilizer at all.

Well, wouldn't you know it? My patience finally paid off. Two and a half years later, my efforts were rewarded with a little 5 inch pineapple springing right up from that original pineapple top. Now, I don't know if it will grow to be big and delicious like a Hawaiian pineapple, but just the excitement of my very own pineapple growing in a pot in Oregon is reward enough!

You can try it for yourself. If nothing else, you'll have an exotic plant to enjoy, and who knows, you might get gifted with a baby pineapple just like I did.

Like I always say, you never know until you try.

Think Twice! Carrageenan

This is the first blog post in a new series I’m calling Think Twice, in which I’ll be writing about food ingredients that may be doing us more harm than good. I hope that this will give you the tools to help make better-informed choices. Let me know if there are any ingredients you’d like me to write about!

I’ve always been a do-it-yourself type of girl. Once, I showed up to a dance class only to find it cancelled due to the absence of a teacher. In my small town of Klamath Falls, there weren’t many places to take dance classes. So I decided to start my own dance school. And I was pretty successful at it, too. Twenty-five years later, my dance school is still a vital force in the community (though I did eventually sell it to my partner to focus on my other pursuits).

This hands-on attitude permeates every area of my life  -  I grow much of the produce my family eats, my sewing machine is always at the ready to make or repair clothes for my children, and hey, I even have my own company to harvest and bottle the fresh blue-green algae that we enjoy every day. Until recently, I also used to make my own nut milk. But, between running my company, relocating to a new state and keeping up with the ever more hectic schedules of three growing children, I decided that, once in a while, when travelling, or running very short on time, I could just go ahead and buy it pre-made from the store.

And now, I’m realizing that that may have been a bad choice. You see, I’ve started reading about carrageenan, which is added to many processed foods. I took a quick look at the ingredient list on my favorite brand of almond milk, and wouldn’t you know it? There it is.

What’s so bad about carrageenan? As it turns out, a lot.