I love this time of year. (I say that each and every season, but it's true.) As the weather takes us inward into a sort of annual hibernation, contemplation beckons. We have time to process all that's happened during the past cycle of seasons and summon fond memories of time with friends the world over sharing healthy happy lifestyles.

This year has been especially exciting for me with the publication of the More than a Nut Milk Bag Recipe Collection. Thank you so much for your support and wonderful words of encouragement.

I keep hearing from readers that my little More than a Nut Milk Bag Recipe Collection is a goldmine of ideas for raw food preparation. I set out to write a sort of User's Manual for my Nut Milk Bag, because newsletter readers and others told me how useful they found the bags,

Book & Bag Packages Book Only $15.00 USD Book & Bag $25.00 USD Book & 3 Bags $35.00 USD

and kept coming up with uses I never thought of . . . causing me to change the name of the product to More than a Nut Milk Bag!

Now the book is enjoying the same kind of evolution. By itself, the book only works for people already in possession of a bag or three. When I started working through my Holiday list I realized I needed a bundle -- a book plus a bag, or better yet, since I never seem to be able to get along with only one bag, a book and three bags. What better combo to help friends teetering on the edge of bettering their food intake than the wherewithal to make almond milk, sweet corn chowder, and spiced biscotti?

Brenda with a friend at Widya Guna Orphanage

Here's what I came up with: The Book + Bag Bundle for $25 includes attractive packaging AND free shipping from now until December 15th. But if you use bags the way I do, consider the book plus THREE bag bundle for $35 including a pretty package and mailing to your address in the US.

As always, a major part of this story is that a good share of the proceeds from sales go directly to our charities in Bali.

Subtitle: War Stories from the Local Food Front tells the story.

Joel is one of my food heroes, and the voice of his family's Polyface Farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The book covers in considerable depth the obstacles put between us and our food from the perspective of the conscientious local food provider. As was demonstrated recently in the Prop 37 initiative, the entrenched industrial food system is the darling of the government, and can get by with pretty much anything, including feeding poison to We the People. Joel's story showed up in The Omnivore's Dilemma by another of our heroes, Michael Pollan, who memorably calls most of the products available in our local megamarts as "food-like substances." Joel recounts his struggles to provide his neighbors with pastured poultry and beef, making the point that most of the health problems people get from eating meat are the result of the CAFOs -- Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations -- and the cruel way animals bound for the commercial meat counter are brought to market. The USDA (Department of Agriculture) is, in Salatin's well-informed view, the lackeys of the agribusinesses that lobby congress and take the Agriculture Secretary out to lunch. Haven't we heard this story before?

Even for someone who's devoted to buying any food I can't grow myself from farmers' markets and, worse case (in the winter) from the selection of organic and local offerings in my enlightened supermarket, Salatin's book sounds an alarm, as increasingly the idea of "organic" is invaded and devalued by agribiz interests in league with the USDA, and sources for local food, along with raw milk and unwashed eggs, are either over-regulated or flatly illegal.

If you have a copy of my More than a Nut Milk Bag Recipe Collection, and haven't investigated the book's online pages -- look for your invitation on page 102 -- let me urge you to check them out. This month there are five new full-page recipes (for those of you who want them printed for a loose-leaf binder or are cooking from your tablet) for holiday entertaining:

Cashew-Brazil-Hempseed Milk -- where our cheesecakes all begin
Vanilla Cheesecake
Raspberry Cheesecake
Chocolate Cheesecake
and the Rich Carob Sauce to add that touch of decadent swirl to the inside your cheesecake or a topping along side.

For those of you who don't have a book and wonder what's in it and if it would be useful, please take a tour of the book here.

Thank you for joining us here each month. I say 'us' because it takes a village to do anything and I'm grateful for mine. Michael (my collaborator and editor) and Sienna (my webster) join me in saying thank you for reading each month. Thank you for letting us share what we love. We hope you've enjoyed the reading as much as we've enjoyed the writing.

Whether you are striving to change your own health story, helping a loved one conquer theirs or simply making yummy plant strong recipes at home, I hope you've found some things in the pages of each month's news that have been helpful.

In whatever way you celebrate, and whatever way you remember, this year has been special in so many ways. Thank you for being a part of ours.

Thank you for being part of my dream.

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next: January 2013 The New Year is off to a rousing start. Sort of snuck up on us: POW! right into that energy of newness once January hit....