10 Superfoods for Age-Defying Beauty

The benefits from eating healthy are endless. Some foods can be eaten to help you look and age better! The sooner we all start the better :-)

Acai Fruit
This little berry is one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world. It can often be found in juice form in health food and gourmet stores.


Anything in the "Allium Family"
Garlic, onions, leeks, scallions, chives and shallots can all help the liver eliminate toxins and carcinogens.

Barley
This can be used as a breakfast cereal, in soups and stews, and as a rice substitute. Barley's also high in fiber, helping metabolize fats, cholesterol and carbohydrates.

Green Foods
Green foods like wheat and barley grasses can be bought in powder, tablet or juice form, and offer greater levels of nutrients than green leafy vegetables. They also help cholesterol, blood pressure and immune response.

Buckwheat: Seed and Grain
Buckwheat is loaded with protein, high in amino acid, stabilizes blood sugar and reduces hypertension.

Beans and Lentils
You can reduce cholesterol while beefing up on antioxidants, folic acid and potassium. Try red, kidney, black, navy, pinto, chickpeas, soybeans, peas and lentils. Soup recipes with these ingredients are abundant but any Nigeria will swear by a moi-moi or akara recipe. YUM!

Hot Peppers
Both bell and chili peppers contain antioxidants, have twice the Vitamin C as citrus fruit and work as great fat burners.

Nuts and Seeds
You can't go wrong with a handful of nuts a day—walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, macadamia and pistachio nuts contain Omega 3 fats, which are great for your heart. You can also take them as a vitamin supplement. Raw, unsalted nuts and seeds are best.

Sprouts
Numerous varieties of sprouts are great with any meal. They are very easy to grow in a pot. They're a great source of protein and Vitamin C. Try adding them to any dish and your immune system will get a boost.

Yogurt and Kefir
These cultured foods contain healthful bacteria that aid immune function, and the calcium helps burn fat. Try using them as a base for a smoothie.

Now you know the secret go out there strut your stuff!

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Recession Grocery Shopping & Eating Tips

You want to eat well—you just prefer not to hand over all your hard-earned cash to the grocery store cashier. There is some good news for both your wallet and waistline: You can eat a healthy diet without breaking the bank. Here are some smart, penny-pinching strategies. Try a few, and you'll find they really add up.

Shop around. Buy the Sunday newspaper and peruse the circulars, or check the Internet. You'll find store and manufacturer coupons that can save you quite a bit of money. And don't forget to check out warehouse stores and Internet grocers; they may offer competitive prices on specific brands and specialty foods.

One note: You may want to limit yourself to only a couple of stores. Think about it: If have to drive all around town to get the best deals, you'll end up spending all your savings on gas. Not to mention, shopping in an unfamiliar store can be time-consuming.

Plan ahead. Take a few minutes to think about what you'd like to cook or make for the week. Then, whip up a list based on this meal plan, and stick to it. Don't buy anything that's not on the list.

Limit your trips. If you can, try to hit the supermarket no more than once a week. That will automatically help you keep your spending under control.

Fly solo. When it comes to shopping, going stag is the best way to save your greens. If you leave your spouse and kids at home, you can easily take $20 off your total bill.

Go on a full tank. You've heard it before and with good reason: Eat before you shop. When your stomach is rumbling, you're more likely to fall for marketing gimmicks, which means you'll end up with a fridge full of food you don't even really like. Plus, if you've eaten beforehand, you'll be less likely to feast on all those supermarket free samples.

Buy in bulk. The more you buy, the cheaper it can be. Just be sure not to overbuy, because you'll be wasting your savings if you end up having to toss a bunch of spoiled food. Try to buy only what you can use at a time. Your other option: Freeze the extras. You can stash almost anything in the freezer, including meat and produce. Generally, things with a high-water content, such as tomatoes, don't freeze as well (they tend to be mushy when they thaw). In this case, you can freeze it and add it to dishes like chili, soups or casseroles. Just be sure to wrap things well and write the date of purchase on them before burying them in your freezer.

Do the math. The fact that something is on sale doesn't automatically make it a good deal. Make sure to look at the unit price of a product and compare it to other brands to see if it's truly a discount.

Cash in on good deals. When you do find something that's a great price, make sure to stock up on it. Products that are sealed, like Cheerios, will keep for a quite a while. And you can always freeze foods, like produce, that would spoil before you'd be able to use it.

Show your loyalty. It's fine to pick up a few sale products here and there, but you'll benefit more if you do the bulk of your shopping at one store. That's because most stores offer VIP or loyalty cards to frequent buyers. That means you'll get personalized specials with savings on brands frequently purchased. In fact, some stores have a computer that scans your card and prints out coupons for brands you regularly purchase right there.

Be choosy about your checkout. Consider this the final hurdle. If you have an option, pick a checkout line that's not surrounded by shelves full of candy. Often, there are choices there that may seem like healthy options (such as granola bars), but aren't. Avoid temptation by opting for the aisle loaded with magazines instead. Then, you can browse the latest headlines while you wait instead of salivating over that Snickers bar.

Happy Shopping!!!!

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5 Healthy Foods to Add to Your Diet

Start with foods that don't need a label, like fresh fruits and vegetables. If they're coming out of the ground looking the way they look when you eat them, they're good for you in general. This is why I strongly advocate gardening...

Antioxidants
You should also fill your grocery cart or garden with items that are high in antioxidants, such as tomatoes, broccoli, kidney beans, blueberries, artichokes and prunes. Whatever has that deep color like a blueberry, you know it's rich in antioxidants. Try to eat five to seven servings of these foods every day.

Omega-3 Fats
Increase your intake of omega-3 fats to 3 grams a day. Remember, 80 percent of our brain is fat. We need to have the right kinds of fats in our body to make sure our brain is the most resilient to stress and can learn the fastest. Some good sources include ground flaxseeds, walnuts, salmon, scallops, soybeans and squash.

Fiber
Dr. Oz says the average American gets about 12 grams of fiber a day, but he recommends double that amount. Oatmeal, 100 percent whole grain bread, lentils, pine nuts, peas and raspberries are all great sources of this nutrient.

Olive Oil
The last item to add to your shopping list is extra-virgin olive oil. Ideally, you should consume about a tablespoon every day. One nutritious—and delicious—way to eat olive oil is with tomatoes, made into a pasta sauce or stew. Cook with part of it then when the dish is done add more at the end. Heat tends to depreciate the value of it's nutrients. If you get that into your diet a couple times a week, you're getting these nutrients naturally.

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5 FOODS TO AVOID

When I initially started keeping a close eye on what I was eating. I started with avoiding these basics. There are a lot more, but I believe in taking one step at a time.

1) High fructose corn syrup
"We most commonly get this in soft drinks". "It's an inexpensive sugar, which means we're getting a lot of it in our diet." The "process" of making it is complex, leaving hardly any work for your body. It simply "passes" through your body. But wait; it also shuts down the brain's chemical ability to tell your body when it is full! A nightmare if you are trying to maintain or lose weight. I have no real scientific results to prove this besides myself, but when I stopped eating foods containing HFCS, I stopped feeling tired and started sleeping better.

2) Simple Sugars
When you eat sweets, your brain receives schizophrenic messages. It says: I got calories, but I didn't get any nutrients. Your body will keep craving food until it gets those nutrients. Foods with complex carbs tend to have nutrients. It is impossible to eliminate sugar entirely, limiting simple sugars goes a very long way in reducing cravings.

3) "Enriched"
Also watch out for products made with "enriched" flour, like white bread. Why would they take bread and have to enrich it? Because they take all the important vitamins out of it, and they sprinkle just a little bit back in there. What a fraud! There are no shortcuts here cut "enriched" ingredients out entirely.

4) Trans fat
Also known as hydrogenated fat, these are fats that were once in liquid form but have hydrogen added to make them solid at room temperature. It extends the shelf life of the product. Great for business; But it shortens the human life. Cut out any fats that can solidify, your ventricles, atria and arteries find it difficult to purge them from your body :-( A nightmare that causes future heart problems. I tend to stick with Olive & Fish oils.

5) Saturated fats
These fats come from four-legged animals like pigs and cows. Enough said!

I would personally like to know how folks out there feel after cutting these foods out. Let me know...

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My Rules For Eating

I have had a lot of conversations with various people about my blog. Many have asked me to discuss my eating habits in detail by including recipes and foods to avoid. I have also been cautioned against assuming that the information I give is known by all. I admit this is a mistake I make having sat down to read through it with an American dietitian friend of mine. I have an aversion to sounding condescending but good health is pivotal so I am now willing to tread on that fine line. Forgive me if some things I write about seem condescending.
Right now, I am anxiously awaiting a harvest of some tomatoes, peppers, peas etc. Meanwhile I will recap some "RULES" I have discussed in the past.

1. Plant a garden. Any garden. Be it in a pot, a box or a patch.
2. Eat a lot of herbs and spices consistently. They are healthy and they help curb an over- zealous appetite.
   
3. Appoint a food engineer in your home AND assign food tasks to EVERYONE.
   
4. Cook at least 2 meals per day from scratch: No cans or boxes.
5. Everyone in the home must cook and eat together no matter what.
6. Create a compost heap: Put only fruit and vegetable scraps in it.
7. Minimize beef, pork, chicken, turkey intake. It takes 3 days to digest! Is it worth the hassle? The less, the better.
   
8. Eat seasonally; it is cheaper and more environmentally responsible
   
9. Buy or grow vegetables in colors: Put them in EVERY recipe even if it does not call for it.
10. Make ALL snacks (except popcorn) from scratch: This includes cookies, potato chips, cupcakes etc. It tastes better and encourages conscious eating. Unconscious eating causes weight gain.
11. Consider cutting down dairy. There is a vast variety of foods that will fulfill the calcium loss: This is a dicey topic but here is my reasoning. A lot of us have lactose intolerance. Do you pop antacids like candy? Do you think cows would drink human breast milk ? Essentially this is what we do. I am not personally big on Soy but encourage alternatives like rice milk and coconut milk. I use these in baking, pancakes etc. and the foods taste just fine.
12. Consider eating organic.... The way your body looks on the outside is a reflection of what is going on inside. Does your body need to treated like a temple? Do you spend more on clothes than you do on food? Should you consider a balance of both?
    
13. Have you started REALLY reading the ingredients of the foods you buy? Can your grandmother recognize some of these ingredients? Consider the "grandma" test. If she can recognize it, you are fine, if not reconsider that food item.

My next blog will include a recipe. Please let me know your thoughts on this article.

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How We Eat: MEAT!!!

Today, the way we ate at my village would certainly be considered "different". Most folks then farmed for a living. As a lakeside village, beef was almost absent in our diet: Most folks did not want livestock around for hygiene purposes (the lake). Chicken was eaten maybe once a month. Beef was bought. No one raised cows. Turkey & Goat were eaten once a year. Pigs: NEVER. Nigeria is mostly Muslim and many do not eat "scavengers". They considered them dirty. The rest of the country like myself merely respected our neighbor's religious needs and avoided having pigs around. Hence I grew up never tasting it. (On moving to the west pork was everywhere and unavoidable. More about that later)
During religious celebrations, a lot of these neighbor's shared one third of their goat / beef meat with us. As you can imagine we got a lot so we shared most of it with family and friends. Many Nigerians will tell you that even though they eat meat, they do not consume the average 200lbs per person per year, that most Americans consume. I recently used a fancy tax program to check last year's receipts and figured that my family of 5 consumed about 40lbs! last year. That includes chicken, beef, lamb turkey etc. We also do not eat out. Yep we do not eat much meat in my home now and never really did while i was growing up. Fish is huge in our household. I can say so now because I know no one in my family is reading this. I flake it into everything. Steak/roast dishes are not the norm at home even though we live in the U.S. Traditionally we cut our meat into tiny stew pieces and everyone gets just a little piece or more. Most folks eat this piece at the end of the meal. It is the closer, like a desert and not part of the main dish. Right now skinless chicken drumettes and minced chicken are the staple chicken consumption. Bony meat is more time consuming to eat making one feel like they have had a bigger portion than they acually had.
Yesterday i was volunteering at a sweetgrass basket festival. My co volunteer asked me if i wanted some crab. I told her just one. She said are you sure? It is quite small. Yes i declared. When she got back she bought 4 for herself and 2 for another volunteer. We all ate together. I was the last to finish! I ATE my crab. Every little inch of it. Infact another lady planned to take hers home (because she thought it was too messy to eat in public), but because she watched how i unashameadly devoured mine, she plucked the courage to eat hers:-). I took my time and i enjoyed my crab. This is how we eat and this is why resturant eating in America is torturous for our family: we feel rushed.

Getting back, the wealthier folks while growing up were the ones that ate more meat. The bigger a person was, the wealthier they were. Size was culturally seen as an indicator of success. This explains why when we moved out to the western world initially, we started eating a lot of meat. I guess we finally felt "rich". I say a lot more but on average as a family of 5, with 3 teens, we probably did not eat more than 100lbs a year in total. Even though we were now in England, we just never bothered picking up pork. In fact I distinctly remembered eating the first susage my mom and I picked up at the butcher's. It was a fresh Irish susage, the best out there. When we sauted it, it made us all nautious :-( Until today, i am unable to eat a pork beacause of that. Ofcourse now that i am the cook in my own family, I don't buy it and I don't cook it. I write this because most folks do not think about how much meat they consume. Meat is the most difficult thing for one's body to digest. It takes about 3 days to work it's way through the average human being. That general feeling of not feeling great for 3 days after eating meat was beacuse my body was just not familiar with that "task". Now because I don't eat meat daily I am better able to "listen" to my body and can tell the difference. This is why "detox" diets work so well on Americans. They report feeling great. I never notice a difference. Imagine that same great feeling everyday. This is how I feel and I imagine how everyone I know in my family/village feels ALL the time. So when one goes from that to eating a quater pound of meat one day, followed by a 3 day "meat hangover" one starts to portion your meat intake. By the way, in recent times, a lot of wealthy Nigerian men started falling victim to colon cancer. What is refered to as "the rich man's disease". Now we know why. Research was never done, but we know for sure is that it was never common, only becoming so as Nigeria started having a promnent middle class. Don't quote me, but I feel there has to be something to be said for that.
Poverty may have led me down the road of limited meat intake, but education has kept me there.
In my next post I will discuss Dinner at my village and include recipes to try if you dare :-)...

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Installing a Raised Garden Bed

Raised bed installation / tips:
Double-dig the bed area. Turn over the soil to a depth of 16”. Leave soil piled up in the center, away from the sides.

Set bed in place and tap down corners. If the bed has built-in stakes, as in the 'build-your-own' model described above, drive one corner down a few inches, then go on to the others and do the same. Repeat this process until bed is at ground level. If you try to drive one corner all the way down before going on to the others, you put too much twist on the structure and may split out one of the stakes.

Level the bed. Use a level for this task. This may seem overly meticulous, but after several waterings the soil will settle to level, and you’ll want the bed to be the same. Set a stiff board (2x4) on top of the bed sides, across the span, and set your level on this board. Tap down the sides as needed till you get a level reading. Be sure to check for level both along the length and across the width of your bed.

Burrowing pests? If your garden has burrowing pests such as moles, a layer of 1" poultry netting (chicken wire) can be laid across the bottom, before soil is added. The mesh should continue at least 3" up along the insides of the bed and be stapled in place. If you plan to grow root crops, such as potatoes or carrots, you may want to set the chicken wire lower in the ground by digging deeper when you are setting up the bed.

Spread soil out evenly. Add any planned soil amendments, such as peat, compost or lime, and spread the soil evenly across the bed. Water the bed with an even, fine spray. This will settle the soil; add more soil to "top off". (Over time the soil will settle an inch or two more.) Rake the bed once more to even out the soil and you’re ready to plant.

Avoid stepping on the bed. Once the soil is added and the bed is planted, make it a policy to never step on the bed. Stepping on the bed will compact the soil, reduce aeration and impact root growth. Pets should also be trained to stay off the raised beds.

Pathway width. It helps when pathways between raised beds are wide enough for a small wheelbarrow. For grass pathways, make sure they are at least wide enough for a weedeater or a small mower. (In our raised bed garden the pathways are 21" wide.)

Mulch the pathways between beds. Weeding pathways is a nuisance which you can avoid by putting a double layer of perforated landscape cloth over the pathway, and cover this with a 2- 3" layer of bark mulch. When laying down the landscape cloth, allow it to come up 1" against the bottom board of the bed, and staple this to the bed. This will not be visible because the mulch will cover it.

Some weeds will still appear on your pathways regardless of the mulch. Wait until it rains before pulling them out, or you may rip the landscape cloth. The weeds will come out easily if the ground is wet.

Good Luck. I hope this helps.

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CRITTERS!!! Aaaargh!

Oh my goodness!!! The worst thing happened yesterday. My gardeners were cutting my grass and "edging" my lawn, and they found a snake trapped in the plastic mesh i use to surround my raised bed. I put it there to keep deer, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits and others away from eating our food. My home backs on to a protected forest area and it is such an educational treat for my kids and their friends. It also reminds us that we are essentially in their space. As population grows we inch into wildlife space. My husband had to go and cut out a 5 foot snake! What a brave man even my gardeners were terrified and did not want anything to do with it. They suggested we leave it there to die since it was stuck. That would have been inhumane. So i now have to write about critters. After the rains i make a mixture for my spray bottle. I blend habanero (scotch bonnet) peppers, garlic, vinegar and oil. I spray it on my vegetables to keep the critters away. Of course you must remember to wear gloves, sunglasses and a mask. I suspect that because most animals have a much stronger sense of smell than we do, this serves as an effective deterrent.

By the way....
My "gardeners" only cut my grass and edge my lawn: A Home Owners' Association must! I firmly believe that if you live in a neighborhood without stringent restrictions on "grass usage & maintenance", you should utilize every inch of land you have for food and plants. Grass is useless as far as i am concerned. I have heard about people who have fully utilized all their grass space for a vegetable garden and are able to supply local restaurants and even farmer's markets with their yield.
So for the record, my "gardeners" do not tend to my vegetable garden, I do and I LOVE doing it.

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The Importance Of Cooking

The Eden Project, Cornwall England. Where we all learned lessons about healthy, sustainable & ethical cooking.

Below is a New York Times article by Amanda Hesser. I like it because it emphasizes how cooking completes the picture when it comes to being healthy, environmentally conscious and maintaining family connection. It also chastises the current trend in our culture that creates a socially acceptable disdain for the craft. Many merely see it as a chore but fail to recognize it's undeniable advantages. I can appreciate that this trend may be part of the positive effect tof gender equality: I certainly remember being told as a little girl that "no man wants to marry a bad cook" (yikes!!!). How far we have come today. However we must all be cautious that every household (be it a family or house mates) needs a "Food Engineer". A term i have coined for anyone in a home who has the responsibility in ensuring that all meals are ethically & communally prepared.

The Duties of the Food Engineer

• Select & Consult with others about possible recipes
• Assign the task of grocery shopping
• Assign Food Preparation Tasks: washing, chopping, cooking & cleaning
• Policing the nutritional & Calorific Value of meals. A tip is that kids do this task well. Their job will be to determine that all meals (based on food pyramids) contain the adequate nutritional value. Once kids have to legislate this, believe me they are forced to follow their own rules :-).

Enjoy the article....

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UNTIL recently, Michelle Obama had carried out a seamless effort to get Americans to think about eating locally grown foods. By planting an organic vegetable garden at the White House and inviting schoolchildren to help sow the seeds (metaphor intended, surely), she made a bold statement: I’m going to eat in a healthful way and so should you. Consuming locally grown foods could mitigate problems like childhood obesity and the environmental harm caused by agribusiness. And Mrs. Obama — as a popular first lady with two children and roots in the working class — is the right person to lead the charge.

However, when The Washington Post asked Mrs. Obama for her favorite recipe, she replied, “You know, cooking isn’t one of my huge things.” And last month, when a boy who was visiting the White House asked her if she liked to cook, she replied: “I don’t miss cooking. I’m just fine with other people cooking.” Though delivered lightheartedly, and by someone with a very busy schedule, the message was unmistakable: everyday cooking is a chore.

Both times Mrs. Obama missed a great opportunity to get people talking about a crucial yet neglected aspect of the food discussion: cooking. Because terrific local ingredients aren’t much use if people are cooking less and less; cooking is to gardening what parenting is to childbirth. Research by the NPD Group showed that Americans ate takeout meals an average of 125 times a year in 2008, up from 72 a year in 1983. And a recent U.C.L.A. study of 32 working families found that the subjects viewed cooking from scratch as a kind of rarefied hobby.

This should come as no surprise. For most of the last century, Americans have been told repeatedly that cooking is a time-consuming drag. Companies like Kraft and General Foods promoted mix-and-eat macaroni and cheese, rice with mix-in flavor pouches and instant pudding. Pillsbury, the flour maker, became Pillsbury the biscuit, pie and cookie dough maker: baking just by turning on the oven. According to a 2008 NPD study, of all supper entrees “cooked” at home, just 58 percent were prepared with raw ingredients.

The twist, of course, is that convenience foods save neither money nor time. As Marion Nestle pointed out in her 2006 book “What to Eat,” prewashed romaine hearts cost at least $1.50 a pound more than romaine heads. And the 2006 U.C.L.A. study found that families saved little or no cooking time when they built their meals around frozen entrees and jarred pasta sauce.

As we lost our skills at the stove, we also lost something less tangible but no less important: the opportunity to spend time together in the kitchen, talking and cooking. Similarly, we gave up the chance to improve our children's eating habits by example. Studies by Harvard Medical School and the University of Minnesota show that children in families that ate together consumed more fruits and vegetables, as well as less fat and fewer snacks.

Which is why Mrs. Obama might want to expand her food message to include cooking. Just as she highlighted American fashion by wearing the clothes of young designers, she could call attention to cooking by bringing America’s talented young chefs to the White House for a food summit meeting. Then she could turn them into a national task force, asking them to reach out in their communities and give free cooking lessons to the next generation of cooks and eaters. (Her involvement might also focus the energies of her husband’s cabinet — his secretaries of agriculture, education and health, say — to embrace the cause.)

Of course, a cooking summit meeting alone is not going to change long-established habits. Mrs. Obama needs to keep the pot boiling. She could, for instance, take one of the White House chefs on the road, working the morning and talk show circuit as the president and his staff do. She could discuss her initiative while the chef showed viewers how to cook produce harvested from the White House garden. They could demonstrate that to feed a family well, all you need to know how to do is boil water, roast and season, three speedy skills that can be applied to almost any food from potatoes to salmon. Getting people to buy local ingredients is a relatively simple matter of changing purchasing behavior; getting them to cook will require a role model who really seems to mean it.

And it wouldn’t be surprising if, with a little exposure to the kitchen, Mrs. Obama took to cooking herself. Her progress could be our progress. After all, great cooking involves a blend of curiosity, determination and style, all traits she possesses. And with those arms, she could out-whisk anyone.

Amanda Hesser
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Herbs & Spices

It has been a long and busy 23 days. I had no intention of "abandoning" my blog for so long. A lot happened: It rained so much in Charleston, i got busy eating. Everything from bok choy to squash, bell peppers, tomatoes etc. Even my corn is responding to my love. I have never grown corn outside of Nigeria but it is happening. I am getting more confident about growing food that we eat back home, here in Charleston. The climate is very similar so why not?If you choose to try just go to your local African store and ask for yams for example. It is like Yucca only less starchy and a credible complex carbohydrate. Red beans (not Kidney) are the same too. The American staple menu of foods can be flat out boring. For me, if I spent a lifetime eating the foods here alone, it would be like living a lifetime without ever utilizing the right side of my brain. I find that it lacks "lingering taste". Perhaps the best way to describe this is the feeling one is let with after spending time with someone they love. Lingering taste is what keeps one from getting hungry too soon after eating. It curbs one's appetite and creates a "healthier relationship" with a dish. I think "lingering taste" ensues with the help of herbs and spices. For 4 days i kept a log of how much herbs and spices i used on typical Nigerian dishes. I used between 8 and 13! Amazing only when compared with American staple dishes. Now one can understand how eating like this can "wake up" one's taste buds.
As i detracted from eating badly this is a habit i had to re establish. Herbs and spices are the easiest to grow. Good quality garden soil, a big pot, sunny easily accessible location and your favorite herbs & spices. Good Luck!

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Miseducation: First things First

If I had any chance of undoing bad eating habits, i had to replace them with good habits from the past. I had to think more about how i grew up...
Even though i grew up in a very busy and congested city,we had a garden. Nigeria was colonised by the British and as colonisation goes, you learn that certain things you do are "babaric" and must change. Living in the city and growing food in your property was looked down upon but my father who was highly educated and way ahead of his time assured me that " we hail from a family of farmers... you can never take the farming instinct away frompeople like us". He grew everything at the back of our modest house": corn, plantains, bananas, mangoes, papaya, chilli and every time of green leaf vegetable you can think of. He started it initially alone but i looked over his shoulders. As he was a busy working man, gardening time seemed to be the only time i could get his undivided attention. In fact he talked to me about some of his challenges too. As a result on Saturday or Sunday morning when i go into our garden, I tend to take only one of my daughters because it gives us alone time to talk. When you have one of your kids alone in conversation, one tends to see more of their personality.

I learned a lot about my tribe, it's past struggles, his thoughts about it's future etc.
I come from a very small lakeside villiage in Eastern Nigeria: Oguta. We are extremely hardworking, driven and humble as a tribe. Family is HUGE for us in a way that many may not even understand. We believe that it it is the responsibility of THE success ful member of the family to ensure the success of the others:There is no word for cousin, sister/brother in law in my language. Everyone is simply either your brother, sister mother or father. This can get alittle confusing for outsiders so you can consider yourself fully acquainted with a family when you can easily identify the "blood mother, father brother, sister and yes cousins. I know many who didn't even realise that their "uncle" was rtealy their dad's cousin: I am even guilty of this!I think the reason might be two fold. Labelling was seen to be isolating, and alienation could put one at risk of marying a relative no matter how extended.

Although my village clan was small in population, it was big on land.We lived in smaller spaces but our farms were big. We took farming seriously solely because we grew what we ate. Traditionally my people are tall with slim builds. They panick if they feel sluggish during the day; For them it means illness. They eat a hearthy cassava and deep green vegetable soup with about 1lb of fish in the morning. They leave for the farm, markets, or even office work. Lunch at noon is not common instead a lot of snacking on fruits occurs until about 5pm when families converge to cook for dinner...

In my next blog, I'll tell you how dinner goes. Meanwhile I'll be posting information on building a raised bed.

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Shopping List:

• Organic Top Soil: You can buy this in bulk or in bags from a garden supply store. You can never have too much of this as soil is naturally "consumed" as a plant grows. When i went, i bought lots of damaged bags at half price. Even when i don't need soil i tend to stock pile this item.
  
• Flower & Vegetable Soil : This is also necessary to mix in with the top soil. It must look dark black and rich. The worse it smells the better. If not buy some manure to mix into it. Rich soil is VERY essential. It is well worth the investment.

• Organic Pesticide / insecticide: Many of the retailers on the side of this page carry this product and other products on this list.
• Organic Fertilizer / Food: My garden needs to be fed once every couple of weeks. My daughter spreads a small amount around the edge of each plant.
  
• Weed Prevention Mat: Usually comes in a black roll up to 6ft wide. (Sometimes more)

• Hand Shovel, Fork & Gloves. If you have kids, they appreciate tools in their size too!
  
• Raised bed materials: Most people do not need to create a raised bed. They are great if you want to prevent soil erosion. This is when soil is washed away by rain. I created one and i will be posting tips on how that went later.
• Container Gardening:
  
• Deep and wide Pots with drainage holes at the bottom. Plants vary with how much soil they need. So you'll need a variety, depending on what you want to grow. Salad greens, radishes, green onions, and herbs only need about five inches of soil to thrive. Tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers need 12-16 inches.
  
• Potting Soil. Be aware that this is different from top soil. Potting soil drains much better than top soil. A good tip if you need to give better drainage to your garden, is to mix in potting soil.
• Container gardens tend to dry out faster than the earth-bound variety. So be sure to water daily or even twice a day when it's really hot.

Is This Worth the Hassle?
At this point i got a little weary after i saw what it would take but here are some numbers for you to gloat about: You can harvest up to half a pound of vegetables for every square foot you plant on.
The average return on a home garden patch is $530 with a $70 average investment!

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My Epiphany... The Miseducation of Florence.

Convincing My "Farmophobes"
My Epiphany

Pretty much everyone in my family is a farmophobe. A farmophobe is a word i made up and it refers to any adult who wants nothing to do with gardening. I say an adult because children need direction and good habits can always be cultivated in them. I knew something was wrong with my lifestyle when i moved to this country and gained 38lbs. I knew i wasn't eating more but wandered what had caused this weight gain that nothing i did could shift. I started taking a closer look at the quality of food i was eating and realised that processed foods and "low quality" vegetables were doing me no favors whatsoever.

I was born and raised in West Africa then moved to Europe as a teenager. These were the factors that made the effect on my "change in diet" very obvious to my body. I never felt myself: energy level down, sluggishness, moody and challenged memory. Now these were not factors that would warrant the average person to go see a doctor, but they were certainly obvious enough to me. It meant that my weight gain was not my only battle. I started getting educated....

In my culture, cooking & eating has always been a group effort...

The Misedducation Of Florence

Growing up in Africa, then Europe meant that my move to America was literally "manna from heaven". I had arrived in the promised land where all dreams come true. This may sound over board to the average American but this is how every immigrant views their accomplishment after making the move here. Food was a huge part of what we envy about America. It seems abundant and abundance is a show of wealth, wealth is a show of success, hence the seduction. Food is everywhere here so this little African girl who thought of food as someting you ate when your stomach rumbled and as a chore (The African cooking process can be deliberate & elaborate) now started seeing billboards, T.V ads and celebrations where food was abundant but with little preparation effort. Back home the only luxury to food eaten with little prep effort was that one was a guest at the host's home. Food was everywhere i went when i moved here. When i say food, i don't mean raw vegetables, i mean prepared food was every where. It seemed so instant and easily available. I never saw ads with a basket of potatoes, kale and raw fish or meat, i saw it prepared and ready to eat in pictures and T.V. Happy people in media also always seemed to be eating.... Wow my epiphany occurred, i was always thinking about food something had to change. I had to "uneducate" myself. It seemed like this great land had gotten one thing wrong. I was dissapointed. I came here to learn new things.... modernize, drop old "primitive ways". This is the land with the best academics in the world. I want them to teach me. Surely the way they do things has to be better than ours. This is why i came here. Did this mean I had to turn back and re-adopt an old way of life? I realised with wisdom that not everyone is perfect. Life is give and take. I should not villify my culture because my country was unable to stabilize itself well enough to give me opportunities to remain. Perhaps it had gotten somethings right. Now that i am here i must find ways to incorporate these ways into my new lifestyle.


In my next Blog I will tackle Shopping for things you'll need for a garden & choosing what you need.

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Starting A Garden Anywhere

• The first thing to do is to make a list of what type of fruits or vegetables your family eats the most.

• The next thing is to establish your lifestyle: This helps determine how much time you have to devote to maintaining your garden. Include other people in your household: children partners etc. Talk to them about your intentions and the benefits of gardening. Let Farmophobes know that they need not cringe. Get them to do simple stuff like spray organic insecticides or water the garden if they rather not get their hands dirty. If your farmophobe is a kid, ignore their protests as the benefits will not be reaped until they see the end results.
• Kids have the most to gain both health wise, educationally and mere social consciousness. I know this because i have three two of which i battled with and one who simply joined our flow when it came to gardening.More importantly i am a working mom who has only been doing this for 2 years!
  
• Make a seasonal schedule e.g one that includes only the months in the season. Add the names of the participants. Define what each activity involves at the back so all the participant has to do is turn the sheet over and they know what to do when their "turn to tend" comes up.
• E.G Watering(W) could be described as: "Water and soak garden patch once weekly. Thyme & rosemary need not be soaked"
  

• Get an old plastic container and start stockpiling all your fruit and vegetable scraps only. Please do not add any dairy or flour based products.

• Choose a spot: Do you have ground space or container space? I do both because healthy eating is something that cannot be forced it is a slow process and a habit that is formed over time. Also having both is just more convenient.
• Sunshine is key so find a sunny spot.

• How Much Can You Spend? Spending more does not necessarily mean your garden will yield more; You must spend wisely initially to get a good yield hence the term you reap what you sow. Plan to spend the most on the soil and natural pest & weed prevention and of course organic fertilizers.
  

• The Quality of your soil is key: Fast draining rich soil is essential(not too much sand/clay). Organic nutrient rich top soil is a VERY important investment.
  

• Plant or Seeds? Seeds are great if you have time, kids or handle disappointment well.:-). For folks with kids, it is an invaluable learning process; Their little hands can feel the texture of the seeds, plant and watch the growing process. They can even photograph and keep a log. My 2nd & 5th grader aced this part of science recently just because of this learning experience. Also they learn the life skill involved with dealing with disappointment: Not every seed will sprout which is another disadvantage but seeds are by far the cheapest route. Later i will give you tips on which plants almost always sprout from seeds.

• Plants / Seedlings provide instant gratification if like me you don't have time or patience or you are a beginner. They cost more but the success rate is higher by far. The smaller the plant the better. Once you transplant it, the plant adapts and thrives better.

• My next entry I will introduce myself & the reasons that led me down this road...
  

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