fermented food

The Miracle Cure for Staying Healthy This Winter

6 Comments

When I started Gracefulfitness I was all hooked on this phrase “if you know what’s good for you, do it!”.  Sounds obvious enough but I think the ability to actually integrate knowledge, intuition, and, perhaps most of all, follow through, is greatly underrated.

I was thinking about this yesterday in terms of how to prevent getting sick.

If I were to write a post “Top Ten Ways to Stay Healthy This Winter” it would include things like drink lots of water, get lots of sleep, exercise but not to much, eat vegetables and a variety at that, take a muli-vitamin, get outside, get sunshine everyday if possible, wash your hands very regularly, eat fermented foods, and cut back on coffee, sugar,  and alcohol.  All great things to keep you healthy however they are useless if you don’t actually tune into your body allow yourself to slow down and comply with what it’s saying.

In other words, the real way to stay healthy this winter is to prevent getting run down and sick in the first place rather than try to play fix-it once the crud has set in.

Take cold sores for example, I know what to do to avoid getting them (as I talk about in this post) yet maybe once a year I will still get a big one.  When an outbreak occurs I can ALWAYS look back and see the pattern; extra chocolate, nuts, and oats in my diet, stress, and right before my period.  Like most dis-ease, it is very preventable but not really treatable once you get past the tipping point.  So avoidable with different diet choices and an extra dose of Lysine and vitamin C yet I ignored my innate body intelligence and thought I could get away with it.

Occasionally I luck out and I do get away with it but often I don’t and end up run down and sick or with an uncomfortable and embarrassing blister.  Why is it so hard to take good care of ourselves? I know that I tend to get rundown in the fall and am susceptible to the fall cold/flu and yet I usually wait until I actually start to feel bad before taking what should be preventative measures in an attempt to get healthy again.

As with most posts I write for this blog,  I’m really writing this as a reminder to myself, as I am as ‘guilty’ as anyone else at ignoring my body’s cues and pushing on until I’m forced by illness to actually slow down and take care of myself.

I do know what’s good for me; I need fresh air, lots of water, fresh food, fermented food, to be moderate with coffee, alcohol, sugar and partying, lots of sleep (naps included!), vitamin supplements, good humor, regular exercise and regular rest and I need these things in different doses depending on the day and time of day.  You also know what’s good for you if you allow yourself to pay attention and be really really good to yourself, so do it! 😉

Lacto-Fermented Pickles

3 Comments

Pickles are pretty awesome in my book.   They are the veggie version of flavored chips; no need for dip, the salty, tangy, sour flavor is already infused!

I’m also a big fan of lacto-fermentation, the process of fermenting with salt in order to preserve and create good bacteria to promote good health.  I’ve been making kimchi and sauerkraut for years and was ready to expand my cultured horizons.

Enter Lacto-Fermented Radishes, Carrots, & Jalapenos.

.

Lacto-fermenting is easy.  Super easy.

You need:

  • Vegetables
  • Garlic (optional)
  • Salt
  • Water
  • Jars
  • Lids

The brine is 1.5 tablespoons sea salt:1 quart water.

Let’s say you are going to make 3 quarts of pickles, put 4.5 tablespoons of salt in the bottom of a quart jar.  Add about a half a cup hot water to the jar.  Wait for the salt to dissolve.  Help it along by swishing/stirring.

In the meantime fill three jars with your chosen veg.  I chose jalapenos, whole radishes, chunks of carrots, and a few cloves of peeled garlic.  One jar I filled with a mix of all three, the other jars I did just thinly sliced jalapenos, for which I used the food processor.

Pour the brine over the jars and make sure to leave about an inch of headspace at the top of each.  Screw the top on loosely.  Place jars in an out of the way location, like a pantry, for 3-7 days. 

Lacto-fermenting takes a little bit of time to work it’s magic and requires room temperature (I’ve read that 72 is the perfect lacto-fermenting temperature).  My house was in the mid-upper 60’s and my jars were perfect after 6 days.

How will you know when the pickles are ready?  You’ll have to taste them.  The first time I tasted a radish from the jar it was just kind of salty and not very interesting but a day or two later it had that familiar tang and sparkle of lacto-fermented goodness.

Once your pickles have reached a desirable level of fermentation you can move the jars to the fridge, which will slow down but not stop the process.  They will “keep” in the fridge for several months but I generally like to eat them within a month or two.

I ended up eating most of the radishes straight from the jar as an appetizer while cooking lunches.  The jalapenos were a super mild batch and I’ve enjoyed big forkfuls of the them tossed in scrambled eggs or on top of salads with black beans and avocado.