Fall is upon us. Mornings begin with crispness in the air. Days begin and end suffused with a special light that emphasize the reds and blues in the landscape. Leo, our golden retriever, has a lovely redness to his fur this time of year.
The waning garden is decorated with the last of our tomatoes and peppers. The garden is, for me, such a learning place. This year I discovered that zucchini do not like to be crowded. Since they were less plentiful this year, I wonder if this could be due to the drought here in California? Remembering my zucchini overload of years past, I'm thinking this may not be such a bad thing. All in all: happy garden, happy gardener!
We Californians look forward to a wet winter; we rejoice in rumors of a strong El Niño on the way. But then, the countervailing prattle amongst the meteorological fraternity about the duel between a Ridiculously Resilient Ridge (that has been steering storms away from the West Coast since 2013) vs. a Truly Tenacious Trough (that has already begun battering the West Coast of North America with Hurricane Patricia, and may move its effects northward as winter arrives) plunges us into confusion.
Global Wierding! Some of you may know that my sweet little northern Napa Valley community was right at the edge of the disastrous Valley Fire, the third most damaging fire in California history. We pray for rain, lots of it. This is likely to be a winter to remember. Buckle up!
We always find ourselves talking to everyone we meet about our More Than a Nut Milk Bag project and we decided to make a short video clip with highlights. In our own small way we feel we are making a difference -- one bag at a time. Let us know what you think and please share it. Thank you for your purchases, truly, they help real people in very real ways and we are grateful for each bag we sell.
Fall also means my annual trip to Bali to visit with our production team and charities. This trip was extra special as my sister Deanna came along for her first visit to this magical island. As I might have predicted, she is smitten and ready to head back any time. As my unofficial photographer, she captured so many special sister moments (check them out in our Facebook album) as well as a great portfolio of pictures of our team hard at work, and our special friends at the charities.
In addition to much needed funds for the charities this year we delivered 30 lbs of pre-natal vitamins to Bumi Sehat. What an adventure! New Chapter donated over 70,000 lbs of prenatal vitamins -- Bumi Sehat's Robin Lim said "these are the perfect vitamins for our mothers." The vitamins are stored here in the US, and getting them to Bali is always the challenge. To ship and store them in Bali would be hugely expensive, and so each time we go we are allowed to take 15 pounds of vitamins, the Indonesian customs limit. My sister and I, experienced travelers both, packed lightly so we could carry our full 15 pounds each. When we arrived with our suitcases bulging with 30 pounds of pre-natal vitamins, Robin was truly thrilled. Since she's one of my heroes, I am still tingling.
PLEASE if you or anyone you know is going to Bali in the future get in touch with us and we'll help you ride the Magic Vitamin Carpet to Bumi Sehat, the trip of a lifetime!
We have exciting news: Our new shipment has just arrived, and it is loaded with new products.
Our original More Than a Nut Milk Bags continue to meet with success in the marketplace and through the years some customers have asked for bags made with a slightly finer weave for smooth sauces, creams, who knows what? I'm still experimenting with the prototypes, and agree that a finer weave nut milk bag does come in handy. You cannot imagine how complex is the world of nylon netting! The complexity comes in part from the fact that most of the world's nylon netting is manufactured in China in accordance with metrics laid down in the early 1900s by a Canadian. Our search for a reliable, quality source that could communicate in English as well as Bahasa Indonesia, and ship to Bali was comical. But now, finally, the Rawsome Creations Superfine Nut Milk Bags are available for purchase. Packaged as a two pack, these soft nylon fabric bags are the same size (10x12) as the original bag, but with a fabric weave about 15% finer. Our initial experience is that these bags may be slightly less robust than our flagship bag. They certainly reduce the particulate load in anything strained through them.
Last month we introduced another new product -- our Multi-Purpose Net Bag. They are made with a weave that's 15% coarser than our standard More Than a Nut Milk Bags. We find them to be perfect as produce bags when shopping, and excellent storage bags in our cupboards for garlic, beans, grains, and other staples that last better when they can "breathe." We find these bags to be useful for just about any kitchen straining project where our standard bags strain a bit too much of the desirable solids out of the mix. I find the coarser weave perfect for infusions of fresh herbs and soothing soaks, and my husband Mike fills them with hops when he makes beer. One of my Napa Valley team reports they're brilliant for making sprouts from larger grains like lentils and soy beans.
We are proud to announce a new partnership with Tribest, the makers of Sedona dehydrators. Tribest's slogan is 'making healthy living easy' and you know that's what I'm all about. I am happy and honored to join the Tribest family of partners and look forward to more joint projects. Tribest wanted custom versions of my templates for their Sedona Dehydrator. The set of four includes templates for wraps, crackers, pizza crusts and cookies.
Immediately following my Bali trip, I zipped back to Baltimore and my first Expo East (the eastern edition of the Natural Products Expo I attend in Anaheim each March) to debut the new templates with demos and discussions. The four new Sedona template models are available now through our website shopping page.
We are very excited to debut a new Excalibur Cracker Template with 25 2 inch wells. Available exclusively from our website, it is perfect for crackers, cookies or chips. Many of you using our original Excalibur 6" Wrap Template have asked when we would make a template with smaller wells. It's here!
In addition to the Excalibur Wrap and Cracker Templates, we also have them in Sedona sizes with the addition of a 5 inch (1/4 inch thick) pizza crusts and a 3 inch cookie template. They are sold individually or as a packaged set of four. Sedona templates can be used with the Excalibur dehydrator. The tray size is slightly smaller so the Sedona templates fit just inside the Excalibur trays. You will lose about an inch of usable space along one side of each tray.
We are always distressed to hear the a multi-national company is laying off workers ... or any company, for that matter. It's a sad commentary about our times that large companies will often sacrifice people to profits.
We were, however, not so sad to read that Monsanto, the company that's trying to ram a federal Dishonesty in Labeling Law (H.R. 1599) through a receptive legislature (receptive in the sense that they are always happy to receive large untraceable donations!), is on the ropes and laying off an eighth of their 22,000 employees. 19 European nations have called for bans on Monsanto's proprietary GMO crops in order to protect their farming heritage. Reuters reports that Monsanto's RoundUp Ready seeds fell 5% this year, and sales of RoundUp are down a whopping 12% after the chemical was declared a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
H.R. 1599 is a naked, desperate play to pass a law that protects Monsanto's toxic GMO and chemical products at the expense of the public health and our constitution. We are appalled by the "show trial" antics of Senators like Stabenow, Brown, Klobuchar, and Gillebrand mouthing the corporate line about "GMOs indistinguishable from natural crops" and their disregard for the cancer findings of the IARC. While the honest food movement regards this set-back as a great opportunity to defeat efforts to institutionalize dishonest labeling, it's obvious that the "of, by, and for the wealthy" business of Washington is so entrenched. If you've some extra coin you'd like to throw into the effort, Food Democracy Now! are the folks to check out.
It takes a village both here and in Bali to keep the More Than a Nut Milk Bag project and products thriving. With the season of Thanksgiving fast approaching I'd like to share my gratefulness for everyone in our little village and give an especially BIG thank you to the core team in Bali -- Iluh Sri, Iluh Putu and Pak Wayan -- and in California -- Michael and Sienna, my web team and editors, and our newest member, Christina, Rawsome Creations' Ambassador to the World of Social Media.
Homeschooled in the Santa Cruz Mountains and raised a pescatarian since birth, Christina tells me she spent a lot of time outdoors and loved to read and write. In school, journalism seemed like a natural fit, so she quickly took to the editing, web production, and multimedia aspect of Social Media. Christina focuses on content marketing and, with Rawsome Creations, is branching out to brand and product marketing. She's a graduate of my alma mater, San Jose State, with a BS in Journalism. We are having fun exploring the possibilities of social media, reaching out (we hope) to a whole new demographic. We invite all of you to join the chatter on social media via our Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook platforms.
Like Rawsome Creations on Facebook.
Follow @Rawsome_Creations on Instagram. Just use #MoreThanaNUTMILKBAG on Instagram and @Rawsome_Creations will follow you and re-post.
Get pinning with the Rawsome Creations boards on Pinterest.
With the holidays just around the corner, guests sometimes find their way to your doorstep. Having some Banana Crêpes on hand helps if they happen to be hungry, and this recipe makes crepes that can be stored for weeks. Whether for breakfast, afternoon snack or an elegant dessert these easy crepes feature one of my secret ingredients ... Yep, you guessed it: zucchini. While at Expo East last month I demoed the Tribest Wrap Templates with this recipe, serving them filled with thick cashew cream. Happy guests all the way around. Get the recipe.
A favorite tonic throughout the year but especially in winter is one I found in Bali many years ago. Served cold or hot, Jamu, a dark yellow-orange colored tonic, often called Indonesia's cure-all elixir, is commonly made in household kitchens and cafés throughout Bali. The simple primary ingredients of turmeric root and lemon juice mixed with honey form a powerful medicinal tonic. Adding ginger in my version of this wonder juice helps keep my immune system working well and fortified for the winter months ahead. Get the recipe.
Thank you for reading this news and sharing with us on social media. We always enjoy your comments, stories and suggestions. Your requests sometimes make it into new product ideas and we are happy to share some of those with you as they debut this month.
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It's August and my happy garden is producing like wild.... |
I have a few moments before my kitchen calls me back to wish you, valued reader, a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving.... |
