My best friend has an extra layer of enamel on her teeth. Yes, I hate her.  Seriously, I am envious, but we all have our kryptonite.  It only means that for my oral health, I need to work harder at it.  Keeping the mouth alkalized is important, as well as clean and steering clear of sugars and acids that erode enamel.

Things that alkalize your body don’t always alkalize your mouth, for example lemons.  Adding lime or lemon to water creates a refreshing alkalizing water, great for your body, but not great for protecting the teeth.  The healthy mouth is continuously producing saliva to help break down foods, clean the teeth from deposits and remineralize and protect your teeth.  Think of your teeth like gears in an engine, you need lubrication to keep them from breaking down.  I read that night time is the hardest time for the teeth and was curious why.  Well, for one, saliva production is reduced.  And if you sleep with your mouth open, you are in trouble right there, not to even touch on grinding.  In a dry mouth, teeth can become severely worn and without a help out from saliva, there is no natural repair.  I read the book Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye, author Ellie Phillips, which had a lot of great information.  I even tried her recommended program for daily oral care. Not all her advise on oral care worked for me.  Firstly, her recommendations include products with questionable ingredients from my place of organic living, reduction of chemicals etc.  Next, they flat out stained my teeth and I believe mostly due to the fluoride.  I say this because I used to use a prescription fluoride on my teeth and for years experienced ‘heavy coffee drinker’ staining.  Even though I didn’t drink coffee, had perhaps a daily cup of tea, coffee perhaps once or twice a month.  Additionally, Fluoride is a carcinogen in the body, derived as a byproduct of making aluminium.

Once I kicked the fluoride curbside, my hygienist suddenly stopped complaining about ‘heavy stain’ and instead complimented me on how clean and free of stain my mouth was.  Now suddenly I was back to complaints about heavy stain.  So here are my tips on taking care of your mouth.  Oil pulling takes time but works great.  If you floss, be thorough, but very gentle around and in between your gums.  Before you brush your teeth, rinse with water to alkalize your mouth first.  Even better oil pull with organic coconut oil for 20 minutes prior to brushing.  Zellies mints are not bad tasting and contain Xylitol, which is a natural sugar substitute from the birch tree.  You can also buy a bag of it and I did both via Amazon.  Pop the Zellies between meals, after meals to alkalize your mouth and protect your enamel.  You want to shoot for about 6.5 to 10 grams a day of Xylitol for oral benefit.  What I like to do is take a teaspoon in my morning tea and then pop the mints throughout the day till I have hit close to the above number.

Sticky spots and stains –  Over the years, I have had areas of heavy stain, such as behind my front teeth (thanks, fluoride) and a couple of areas with deep crevices where my dentist has spotted sticky spots which are would be cavities in the making.  Each time I ask, I am told the stain is too ingrained or the sticky spot will be a cavity, not much I can do because the crevice is so deep etc.  By applying the methods here and spending the next 6 months adding extra and gentle diligence to those concern areas, I have always found my very next bi-annual visit to be completely free of those troubles.  The dentist doesn’t even bring them up!

Root canal warning – Root canals aren’t ‘Big Fillings’ but are very serious and affect the entire root system of the tooth the root supports.  This can lead to root reabsorption as the body no longer recognizes a tooth there.  Per my beautiful hygenist, Gabriella,  while the plan is to keep the root intact to save the teeth and keep them still functional, the nerve, also called pulp, dies.   While the nerve is killed off,  there may still infection or decay.  This is why they typically prescribe antibiotics.  And it can be very challenging to remove all of this infection.  Root canals are typically done on molars because they are harder to reach back there and do a lot of heavy lifting where food particles and sugars can rest and hide.   Don’t forget to brush and floss all around the back teeth.  You want to avoid a root canal like the plague (or plaque) that it is.   Once the pulp is killed, a rare condition called root reabsorbption can take place, which is what happened to me.  The body does’t ‘see’ a tooth and re-absorbs the roots holding it in place.  Also, you can still get rot and decay under the gumline affecting the root as well.

Now, at night, for whatever reason, I began sleeping with my mouth open and ended up with dry mouth.  This is bad because you can wear your teeth and erode your gums this way!  Freaked out, I researched a solution to this and it’s medical tape. You can cut a piece of medical tape about a 1/4 inch in length or so and place it just above your upper lip onto the philtrum, over the mouth and secure the tape just below your lower lip. This will help you keep your mouth shut at night but you will still be able to breathe or speak if necessary.  With the AC on and the nights my mouth flew open and dried right out (so attractively) where my tongue felt like a freaking caterpillar, this simple thing, taping my mouth, has helped greatly!  I apply lip balm ahead of adhering the tape.

Remineralize  – I use Hailicare Mineral Sticks.  I add them to a vat of drinking water in a lovely glass vessel for home and for office, I put one in my canteen.  Your body needs minerals and our soil levels are depleted of them and so, therefore, our food is too.  The reason is primarily factory farming and all the soil erosion this has caused.  Crops used to be rotated with supplements added, soil allowed to ‘rest’ etc.  For the most part, all this is gone to greed.  Nobody cares about your body, well, I do.  Honestly, it began selfishly worrying about my own teeth and bones but now has become a thing I need to share out and help others with.

Non-Fluoride & Natural Toothpastes that help!
Apagard Premio Toothpaste –   It comes in a 2 pack for savings, and as well as an extra strength.  The nanohydroxyapatite helps remineralize your enamel, thus making it much stronger, as well as filling in those sensitive exposed dentin areas. I used this product most evenings.  Once a week I use Magic Mud which has purifying charcoal which helps to minimize staining as it polishes and detoxes too.  Every morning, I use Himalaya Neem and Pomegranate, which is tasty and fluoride free with all natural agents that go to work in your mouth.

Other Helpful Tools

What you don’t see, you won’t work as hard at.  Get a Gum Dental Mirror with Light, the light is super bright making it very easy to see stained areas that you may be missing in your daily brushing routine. Just by using this tool, I have significantly reduced stains on the inside of my teeth which you may think is no big deal but clean teeth are healthier teeth and I want to minimize my time in the chair!
You cannot go wrong with a portable Waterpic Cordless water flosser!  I use mine twice a day, prior to brushing and after I floss with typical floss. It is amazing what you get out even when you think everything is clean.  I love all the options as well, the in between teeth flosser with a brush and being able to control the jet stream.

Gum Stimulator/Massager – The one I actually use is pointy at the tip.  This one is round with little nubbies for massage.  Either way or both (they’re cheap) the object is to gently go around the gum surface, around the teeth to help stimulate blood flow to the gums and this helps prevent gum erosion.

Your Toothbrush – Check out this Oral B Genius.  I’ll admit I own 3 electric toothbrushes and they are all a bit different and have different brush heads.  I alternate them as they each clean a tad differently.  Now, I use a soft bristle regular toothbrush that you get for free at the dentist office, for using such things as the Magic Mud noted above.  It’s a polishing agent and I want to be super delicate when I use that.  I want to gently work that in and around all my teeth and I want total hand control there.

Click here for RINSES – I personally rarely use one, but I like Toms as it has a fresh taste and isn’t full of potentially carcinogenic chemicals.

Never think just because everybody in your family has cavities or lost their teeth or kept them, that your story will be likewise.  It is all up to you, your diet, your health and your gentle diligence in grooming the mouth.  Isn’t this so much better this, and so many other things in life, are really completely or mostly up to you?  🙂

I’ve had the unfortunate experience of losing a brother in 2014 and my mother in 2015.  As a friend put it, ‘Let me know if you need anything, but I guess you’re pretty much an expert at it now…not that you wanted to be an expert at this.’   When you are in agony over loss, having a checklist helps.  This list helped me greatly so passing it on.

Prior to Death
Bank – Add your name to the checking/savings account. Ideally, ahead of time, get your name added as a cosigner on their bank account.  This is much easier than setting up an account after death in which to receive checks and make final payments and simply makes paying for things, closing final business as well as closing the account later far easier.  Everyone should have a plan because we don’t live forever and things happen.  Planning ahead is an act of kindness.

Monthly Bills – If you don’t already know, get acquainted with who they have phone, gas, electric services with.  For my brother and mother, I set up online access to pay bills and view their accounts so I would suggest getting user and passwords ahead of time to simplify.

Credit Cards and Debts – You are NOT responsible to pay off credit cards of the deceased unless you are a spouse.
IF you are on any credit card accounts, after you handle any final business such as getting the card cancelled, have the rep you speak with remove your name as a final item.  Once your name is removed you can no longer speak on the decedents behalf because you are no longer on the account, but also, you cannot be held responsible for any balance due (except spouse see above).  When mother was very sick under hospice care, we knew she could no longer use her credit cards and took care of closing her credit accounts.  In my mothers situation, she had a ton of bills and no money to pay them, so I alerted all folks and repeatedly, that there was no money to pay off her debts.

Nursing Homes and Medicare – The way this works is that one must qualify for Medicare, get approved for payment and the nursing home gets paid 2 ways.  Firstly, they take all your monthly earnings, all but $40-60.00 in spending money per month (I know, right?).  This is based on all monthly payments your loved one gets direct deposited in their checking account, any VA or SSI or pension payments.  Whether your loved one gets 10k a month or 1k a month, they end up with $40 bucks and the rest goes to the nursing home.  The nursing home told me they wanted me to sign agreement so that they would take payment monthly directly out of mothers account. What I did is write the checks myself for my mother because I did not trust the system and I was very glad I did because the nursing home WOULD have taken mothers final January SSI check and left me stranded to pay the difference!  They said and I quote “We don’t refund money, it is up to the family to deal with paying back the VA or Social Security.’  So, pay it monthly yourself!!!  DO NOT allow a nursing home direct access out of the checking account ever!!!  Secondly the nursing home gets paid via Medicare, once they get all their paperwork in order.  The nursing home mother was in was slow and didn’t bother filing until after her death, even though we’d already moved her back home!  They may try to get you to pay but you do not have any responsibility to pay for nursing home care unless you sign documents that say you do! Read everything and ask questions.

After Death
You will ultimately need a death certificate and this comes from the crematorium or funeral home you use.  It takes time and longer depending on the burial or crematorium you use.  I used Acremation for my brother which was less than a grand, his ashes placed in a nice box and death certificates quickly provided. For my mother, who donated her body, I still have not received her ashes.

1) Funeral choices – There is a wide birth of choice here.  I chose simple, cremation which is what they both wanted, with a simple memorial at our home to honor them.
2) Obit in the paper – I did not announce their deaths in the paper because all their friends were alerted that needed to know but this is a step in the process so putting it in the checklist.
3) Death Certificates –  Order more than you think you will need right up front as this is the cheapest approach.  They get a lot more expensive to order later.  That stated, also understand that most places accept a copy rather than an original so most of us own a printer that copies and scans docs, makes things easy.  Both of my family members lived simply, did not own real estate or have any assets, just bank accounts and credit cards so I ordered 5 each. I still have all originals as I was able to use a copy for everything, just to give you an idea here.

1) Social Security – If your loved one is getting SSI payments, you will want to alert them to the fact your loved one has passed.  Please note that even if your loved one dies at the tail end of the month, if they do not live through the entire month, the money deposited will be taken back!  They don’t care that your brother had a car payment or mortgage due or the very simple fact that bills don’t stop at time of death here.  Send in Death Certificate once available. DO NOT spend that last SSI payment.
2) VA payments – Same as above.
3) Cancel the monthly bills, water electric, gas, phone, cell
4) Get all receipts ready to prep the final taxes.  On this note, I got mixed messages here but what I ultimately found out is this: On the final taxes, if doing electronically, such as via TurboTax, you will be asked the question regarding death.  If doing by hand, or via mail, write the words Deceased along with the decendent’s name, and date of death across the top of the tax return.  You would need to sign the forms as the appointed personal representative of the deceased.
But they died owing money to the IRS
*****Unless you are a spouse, IF the decedent died owing final taxes, and they died leaving nothing to pay off the debts, as my brother and mother both did, then you are not responsible for paying out of your own pocket.  This is per Lane Mullinax CPA.  I was quite nervous as my brother had apparently cashed out a small IRA to pay off personal debts he owed and plain giving money away to people he liked, realizing his death was imminent.  He despised the IRS and paid no taxes on the cash out and thus ended up owing taxes on it.  I was so relieved to know that I was NOT responsible to pay off the IRS on his behalf.
I want to stress that this situation is if the person has no assets, no cash left after bills, no home to sell off etc.  In my brothers case, he left a car payment, medical debts, monthly bills that needed covering.  Although his finances were considerably better than mothers, there were still earthly concerns to address at his passing that evaporated what was left in his checking account from his monthly VA and SSI checks.

A note about body donation – A lot of folks think this is easy peasy lemon squeezy.  I’ll donate my body to science, to a school, it costs my family nothing and at time of death, the family just makes a phone call en voila, my body will be whisked away, all take care of for free and they will get death certs and ashes later.  No, no, not quite.  Mothers body was donated to a school.  I will be kind and not mention them here.  But let me state that yes they finally agreed to take her body after I threatened to go to every retirement home in the vicinity and post a blog to re-educate folks about how the ball gets uncomfortably dropped at time of death.  Here’s why:  Schools and med facilities are always looking for different things.  They may not want your dad’s cancer riddled body because that is of no use to them right now, they have enough bodies with cancer for example.  So while someone may have indeed been ‘Pre-approved and accepted’ that actually is a false message and the school or med facility, at their discretion, may go back on their promise right when you are at your most vulnerable time. If your loved one is in a hospital or nursing home, they MUST be moved immediately!  This means planning ahead.  I was tipped off by my hospice rep that things are kind of ugly with body donations and called ahead, got flack and baracudaed past all of that with threats.  Not a great thing to sort through 11th hour either when one wants to be as calm as possible and be there for their loved one not on the phone arguing about taking the body later!  IF your family member has agreed to donate their body, I would seriously look at other options that fit your situation, ahead of time.
5) On this checklist is yourself, from planning time off for bereavement, PTO time, to also taking time to be alone and with friends and family for support and maybe a trip to the SPA.  Your loved one would want you to be happy and healthy so as much as this time just God awful hurts, do take some time to love and nurture yourself.  Do it for them!
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Time to chill, even for a minute is so important to be quiet and get in touch with you and with your inner peace and calm, or, let’s be honest, even your inner crazy.  The world of chores, business, expectations, take us literally up and away from so many delighter opportunities if we let that happen.

I was laid off after 26 years at my telecom company where I was a high functioning Project Manager over Implementation of large Voice and Data networks for strategic companies.  I loved my work, I loved most of my customers, I loved putting out fires and calming nerves, getting everybody to play nice in the sandbox.  I loved making it fun, business should always have some fun in it.  I especially loved pulling rabbits out of hats and numerous times making the near impossible actually happen for my customer.  But I did not enjoy the long hours at all.  I only rarely had times where I could take a break.  And my health suffered after 2 straight years of working 16+ hour days, 7 days a week, including every holiday too.  Ironically, even being so very sick as I was, I had too much work to stop and take sick leave so I kept on working, but gained a full appreciation for cutting it way down wherever that was possible and focusing way more on me time.

While I (thankfully) did not have someone standing over me demanding those hours out of me, as some of us do, I was, nevertheless ‘overemployed’ as I have named it.

It is a very tricky place to be.  So here is what I see, the nut of it.  If you work for a large corporation, as I did, they will use you up, just keep squeezing that tube of paste until it all comes out.  Regardless of how your direct manager feels about you, he can only protect you so long.  Once you hit 50 your days are numbered. You need a back up plan.  But way ahead of this, you need to spend some time on a daily/weekly basis, just focusing on yourself and personal items and pleasures. Getting in touch with who you are and finding your passions is paramount.  Many lead you to new revenue streams which diversify those eggs that may all be sitting in one corporate employer basket.  We go around once and our life should be about life and living not working for the man, no matter how rewarding it may be.

I was exemplary at my job, had perhaps 4 sick days since 2000, was a team player, got along with everybody, my customers loved me and although we had a health plan, I personally had not ever used anything other than dental cleaning twice annually, a few pairs of glasses and a checkup every 8-10 years.  That’s it.  Cheap!  When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, I located a volunteer organization to shuttle her to most of her daily radiation appointments, thus maintaining my presence and my focus on work. When my brother was sick with Cancer I did a similar thing to remain focused on the workload.

My mother and brother are now dead and I was just laid off in February.  Nope, nothing is permanent, particularly our time with loved ones.

So what I am saying is that, no matter who you are, how young and vibrant you feel, how dedicated and loyal you are or how reasonably paid you are or how little you cost the company in healthcare etc, or how greatly motivated and stellar at working autonomously with little to no need for a manager to, well, manage you, your days are indeed numbered.  Most importantly, your time on earth is.  So why not stop, smell those flowers and get some me time in?

The issues is that so many of us find ourselves being paid for an 8 hour day but feel stuck doing way more because this has become an accepted expectation.  If a man beats his wife and his wife goes along with that, guess what?  That man now believes that beating his wife is accepted behaviour because that behaviour is being allowed when it should not be.  The beat down is still there, just in a different form.  Each one of us has our limits, our line in the sand.  I am asking that you find yours and then do what you can personally do to assure that line stops getting rubbed out.  Only you have the power to do this, to enforce your line.

Depending upon the company, I have seen folks mandated to work a set amount of non paid overtime hours.  I find even the idea of this expectation rude.  My husband works for such a company.  While they love him, and that’s all great, he is exceedingly over worked.  To my mind, we want to be productive at work, get the job done and well.  That stated, if we have a rare opportunity to cut out early one day out of the month then why the heck not do that?

For my personal situation, I had no help, I was knee deep in my clients kimchi, and was brilliantly stuck sideways doing the hours if I wanted to assure that what was on my plate didn’t blow up for my customer and, ultimately me.  To stop work would mean failure and nobody was going to ultimately realize the truth of it, that it was enough work for 3 people so 3 should have been hired.  No, rather, it would have become a black eye for me.

I know a lot of you are in this camp, on this mission, paddling this same boat. While we may rarely feel like it, in these moments, I am telling you right now that we are in control of our choices.  If enough of us scale our work back, we win more personal time in our day.  Frankly, if we are doing the job of 2 people, another person should be hired and that is a mismanagement issue not an underachieving employee one.  For each employee who routinely works a 12 or 16 hour day, that is the same as taking one full time job away from someone who needs work.

Work to life balance has been a buzzword for years.  But so much of what I see is just the words spoken with no real meat of intention behind them.  I see open door policies that really aren’t open at all, because they are not really open for change.  I once reported  (anonymous) an issue to our ethics hotline.  They were zero help, they told me to contact HR.  HR was zero help, they wanted me to discuss the concern with my director and offered to set a meeting up.  I was also advised that I should go back to my manager even though the concern wasn’t about me, not even about a member of my direct team and was not about anybody that rolled up under my new director.  It was about policy being flagrantly ignored that could lead to a lawsuit!  Two people that I knew of  had been recently denied their bereavement time.  My suggestion to HR,  was for the company to send out a refresher to all management on policies.  Don’t single anybody out, just mandate that all managers refresh themselves on the policies in place and then refresh their teams too.  Everybody on the same level playing field knowing what the rules are.  Those in violation of said rules would be educated and further transgressions minimized but this refresher would absolutely open a logical door up to single those folks out the next time they denied their staff bereavement or comp time etc.

Sometimes you are purely in a situation where, regardless of intentions, you are not going to fix what is broken.  You are, however, always in control of how you think, feel and act.  I will always look out for justice being done to people and animals but for those individuals, my advise was to brush up their resume’s and move on because nobody cared to listen.

If you feel stuck, just look for ways to create space in your day for you, even if it is just a ten minute break with a cup of tea and a book.  Scheduling times you check email and times you do other work really helps too.  We don’t have to be engaged in email all day long.   Pick and choose your battles, what must happen today and what could wait until tomorrow, so that you can locate some kind of stopping point for your day and finally rest.  Feed yourself healthy food, drink water, get up from your desk and move around every few hours. Deep leg thrombosis IS a thing and it can kill.

When all is said and done, you take yourself with you wherever you go, so it is vital that you and your health come first. Whatever company you work for, I can pretty much guarantee the corp is putting itself first.  Copy that and put yourself as priority #1!  If you have poor management, where things are broken and nobody cares to fix that, don’t stress over it.  Bring it up the once.  If you don’t gain an ear take that as your clue to move on. Try not to take it personally if you get no place with some advise.  Be thankful for the paycheck and do your best but get your resume updated and out the door as you continue to still work there.  Try hard not to put yourself in a situation where you may end up bitter.  If you are going to be bitter at working 12+ hour days, then just don’t do it.  Leave instead if you must. Our lives are insane enough without adding bitter to the flavor.  And be patient, things can take time, but persevere.  Take a long look at your skills and how those translate to other opportunities.  Sometimes we feel stuck when really, we only need to look at ourselves (and our situation) with fresh eyes.

Breath work and being in the present is so amazing for calming right down whenever stress strikes.  I’ve been doing yoga now for 15 years and love it.  Doing Vinyasa Flow (there are many yoga options) taught me how to breath deeply, expanding the lungs, which is great for longevity and aging but also how to control my breath and I learned breathing techniques.  Doing yoga truly is a moving meditation and helps one tie in the mind, the body and the spirit.  For this reason, I feel Yoga is the best form of exercise out there and should certainly be incorporated into whatever other work out you engage in on a weekly basis.

Regarding meditation, here are a couple of videos on both the breath and meditation.  Try taking a break for a minute to watch just one.
Namaste

– check out this 13 minute Ted talk

And for the breath, if you feel that RIGHT NOW you really just need to BREATHE –  close your eyes and breathe through a short 10 minute meditation from a Vipassana meditation teacher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHERQ1Mt9_w

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Eternal health and happiness begins in the gut. The heart has a few words to stand up and say about what I just typed, but frankly, if your gut isn’t happy, everything else in your life becomes secondary.

Most of us were raised in homes with busy and well meaning parents who did not understand proper medicine.  Food is medicine.  Food is also poison if we are eating the wrong stuff.  The foods we Americans eat on the SAD (Standard American Diet), is acidic in our bodies.  For optimum health and to eschew cancer and other bad mojo diseases, we must create an alkaline environment inside our Temple.

Examples of acid foods would be meat, poultry, milk, cheese, packaged foods, bread, pasta, pastries, soft drinks, most snack foods.

Vegetables, plants, sprouts, sea weeds and fresh water algae are highly alkalizing.  Veggies neutralize toxic acids in our blood and tissues. Chlorella, blue-green algae (From Klamath Lake is the best source) helps chelate and pull heavy metals from the body.

Try not overcooking your food.  Cooking it destroys the natural enzymes which are life giving!  Heating above 118 kills off the enzymes.  Shoot for an 80/20 diet where 80% of your food intake is alkalizing foods, preferably raw.

Work toward weaning yourself off over processed foods.  Avoid: Excess alcohol, caffeine, salt and sugar, especially avoid anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup.

I recently began growing my own sprouts and wheat-grass which I am very excited about! Part of my work as a Holistic Health Consultant is to assist clients with ways to optimize their health and growing things in your kitchen are a terrific start.  All this stated, I realize not everybody knows how to get started or may have the time to do this, particularly a challenge for people who travel a lot or work very long hours as I did for the last 15 years.

If overwork and travel put you in a time famine, look for ways to mind your diet by eating the least processed most raw menu items and supplement with a body tonic!  Miessence has a few body tonics to explore that you can check out on my website: DeepGreen which you add to water or juice to alkalize the body.  Berry Radical is an antioxidant Superfood and InLiven is a gluten free 13 strain Probiotic you can mix into a smoothie or juice.

Look for products which are raw, freeze dried and cold pressed so that you are ingesting quality ingredients to maintain the maximum benefits for yourself, not just the company you purchase from.

All the very best in health!
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Loved it, hated it?  My husband is really fine with the flavor.  Me?  Gag, not so much. Even with these adorable skull glasses, I am still nonplussed with the flavor.  No, I realize how freaking healthy it is to do, how the mineral content can even change gray hair back to your natural colour, so I force myself to shoot it down.  Because it is so detoxing and works quickly, some people can feel a bit nauseated after a shot of the magic green.  I feel fine after getting it down….it’s the getting it down I struggle personally with.  With my Hippocrates Training I learned a few secrets lately to help get the best mineral and vitamin content as well as the best (ahem) flavor.

Growing your own wheat grass is going to be, by far, the least cost and the freshest.  One way is with organic soil in a 10×10 Tray with 1 cup of wheat grass and about 1/2 inch of soil.  After 3 days of soaking and rinsing them, it take about 7 days for the grass to be ready.  If you go this route, with soil, you will find that most of it gets absorbed by the plant so its really not as messy a process as what I was initially envisioning when I decided to go hydroponic.

I use the Prodyne appetizer tray to grow my Wheat Grass.  This system can also be used for Mung beans and Sunflower sprouts.  For the mineral content, I use SeaCal fertilizer in my water mixture as I am not using any soil.  You should get about 4-6 shots out of this method depending upon how much wheat grass seed you lay down. This may mean that you, as I did, purchase 3 or 4 appetizer trays so you always have a rotation going.  You will have the best results using just one layer so I began using 2 cups, per tray, but now I have less yield, less dense but better overall results with 1 or 1.5 cups of seed.  NEVER place ANY sprouts you are doing in direct sunlight.  For Wheat Grass, it will turn bitter and that absolutely isn’t good for anybody (Think bitter beer face).

Instructions as follows:

Step 1 – Germinating the seeds
Day 1 Rinse seeds and place in container, cover with 3xH20 and soak 12 hours.
Day 2 Drain and rinse and soak another 12 hours.
Day 3 Drain rinse and soak a third time 12 hours.
The seeds expand which helps germination, hastening sprouting and minimizing mold.
Day 4 Drain and rinse a final time.

Step 2 – Line the bottom of your tray with paper towels (you can cut them to size) This helps to keep them from falling through the tray vent holes.
Step 3 – Lay down your layer of soaked seeds.
Step 4 – Fill the appetizer dish with water
Step 5 – Spray them morning and evening with water.  I like to add a 1/4 tsp of baking soda which helps inhibit mold.  If you do end up with a bit of mold on the root system, that can be rinsed off.  You are cutting above the root line anyway.

I like to add just a bit of water to my appetizer tray at the beginning, then toss it and renew with the vitamin water (adding the SeaCal)

In a few days, you will see a green blade appearing.  In about 7 days (after placing in the tray) you should see the joint or where there is the very beginning of a new leaf coming up after the first original blade.  NOW is time to harvest, the grass is at its peak.

So the key things are 1) Never direct sunlight.  Your kitchen counter is perfect. 2) Spray 2x a day 3)You want it to be the very freshest which means growing it yourself is best and finally 4) Harvest at the beginning of the joint, once you see that 2nd blade begin to pop up, harvest the entire tray!  Keep it in a bag in the fridge, keeps for a week or get a green grow bag for nearly double the life.

Let me know please if I can help answer any questions too.  When I first began this journey I had a plethora of them and am still learning as I go along.  Cheers!

So, I had just given a never used composter away to my neighbor.   For those of you following me, I am in the midst of Hippocrates Health Institutes Life Transformation learning program.  This means I went out a few weeks later and purchased a new composter after learning how I really needed one.  I am growing an organic garden and while I have a good organic fertilizer I did not realize I needed to apply it bi weekly.  Yep and while I had heard of compost tea, I did not realize how badly I needed that either.  Apparently plants really take in a ton of nutrients from their leaves when sprayed with compost tea.

But I am lazy or you could say busy if you are being kind. I did not want something that was hand crank, as that could get heavy and cumbersome and perhaps hard on my hands. And regarding making the tea, while I learned in class how to take some compost material out, place the compost in a mesh cloth, tile with twine and suspend it in a 5 gallon bucket of water for 2 weeks, then remove the mesh cloth, fill a misting bottle and spray upon the leaves with abandon, that sounded like steps to me.  Gee, I wondered, why can’t both be combined somehow into a composter where I wouldn’t (or you either) need to jack with all that?

After much research, I am now the proud owner of the Envirocycle Most Beautiful Composter in the World.  Well, it is darn cute, even in the larger size which I opted for.  It comes in 17 or 34 gallons.  Other than the size, they are identical.  Many folks buy 2, one can be ‘cooking’ while you are using the other that’s ready.  For now, I have just the one.  AND, and this I am truly madly deeply excited about, it makes compost tea!!!!  You use little plugs, save your tea inside the base. You just unscrew a little lid in the base that creates and stores your tea.  It’s concentrated, so you add water to it in a spray bottle and spray upon the leaves with abandon.  Yayee!  What is NOT to love here?

Even if you are, like me, just starting out with your home organic gardening, it is really important to impart your produce with the most nutrients possible.  Hippocrates also recommends augmenting your soil with minerals too.  This can be stone dust or go purchase minerals. I have very rocky soil and wonder if that counts.  For now, I am hooked on composting.   The company has amazing customer care, the product is a joy to use and because it rolls right off its base to wherever you want to lay down some compost, it is easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Oh, and I did title this post Vegetative Composting, and the reason why is that I want you to avoid meat products.  This will cut down on bugs and flies but also, it is important to note that most compost is animal byproduct.  Not only this, but most come from factory farming, which means pesticides and loads of antibiotics.  This crap doesn’t break down so when you use this stuff, you eat it when you harvest.  Ick.  Let’s avoid all that unpleasantness and just do 75% green (all your veggie scraps, wheat-grass root bed, lawn clippings) and 25% brown (leaves, cardboard)

Compost happy!

Come and listen to a story about a gal named Suz
She wanted to go organic but didn’t want the blues
Then one day she found the most beautiful composter in the world

And oh the Envirocycle made her a happy girl!
Bubbling crude, there was!  Black gold, Texas ‘compost’ tea.  (Seeing if y’all are reading me.)

A friend of mine has been in great pain carrying a heavy burden. Let this burden be lifted, and if you or someone you know is suffering, may the light of loved ones around you and them shine and joy and peace reign.

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