The Return to All Natural and Organic - Essential Cane

Hi Followers.

I have neglected the feel good All Natural/Organic healthier way of life for a while. See I got this job where it is really hard to not stress - eat and not much offered in the store is good for me. That statement could be all encompassing, and I'm not the black sheep of my co-workers in this thought train either. I mean the poor ventilation in the building is reason enough alone to feel sick, and to have a daily headache from the inability to take fresh water breaks dries up your heart. Not to mention the fluorescent lights, the occasional mean comment from customers... oh boy I digress. I also have this mild allergy to nuts and basically if I want something semi good for me there, it contains nuts. (no pun intended, but highly amusing!) Happy health wise it's misery. The upside is I get to make pretty crafts all day, so until the "Biz" picks up for me again... here's where I am, most days, with an non intentional glue high.

I have decided to honor less of the paper tissues in the box crying it out, and to heathify my inner body tissues by flushing the toxic stuff I have let invade my body for the past year. I'm back on the organic/all natural hay ride of nutrition :) I never stopped buying Organic Sugar however, so there is the one constant. And without further verbose delay here is my new favorite thing:

It's an all natural cane sugar called "Essential Cane." Aye Ca rumba the Raspberry flavor parties on my tongue buds. It all started because I wanted to put a pure Madagascar vanilla bean in my organic sugar cane granules to make my coffee taste like "French Vanilla" in a real way. (OMG $25 for 8 oz!) And then I found this on the shelf at Market Basket (photo). For copyright issues I would like you to take a moment to check out their photo on their website since when I buy this sugar, it is gone before I think to take a picture.

They have plenty of flavors! Now, here is the drawback of this most delicious raspberry sugar. There is only one. The raspberry seeds floating at the top of your coffee. It TASTES amazing, and is well worth the skimming of the seeds off the surface. I found it works best if you skim before you splash in your half and half/creamer/milk/soy/Vario/Lactaid/eggnog/Organic Cow (now owned by Horizon). I'm not a seed snob, but it equates to crunching on coffee grounds in the bottom of your cup, only it happens at the top. FLOATERS!

Once you get past the seeds...

Oh sorry I zoned out in raspberry flavored coffee heaven.

Check out their whole deal here. Suggest to your local grocery to carry it, if you can still do that sort of thing these days. :) Until next time, love from me and Jasmoos Kitty. (who scarfs up Newman's Own wet catfood daily. NOM.)

P.S. I splash Horizon Vanilla small lunchbox size milks into my coffee when I make Starbucks Instant Coffee at work, just an FYI. So the good.

"funemployment" series: Nicole Anderson

We who work in the “Biz” sometimes have maddeningly long forced vacations on “funemployment.” As I get to know my coworkers better I find we all have some intense creative projects to fill our time. My friend Nicole found herself googling flower jellies in her down time and was overtaken by inspiration to fulfill her desire to make violet jelly.

I first met Nicole three years ago on second unit of "Underdog." She was carrying around a platter of a billion exquisite cheeses and crackers decorated with grapes and strawberries. The platter was such a beautiful sight I never forgot her OR her brilliance in introducing me to my now favorite cheese Dill Havarti. Nicole "Crafty", (Local 481 craft service) and I have worked together on a few shows since, last being "Edge of Darkness” on which we bonded over some conversations about our tastes in Men and of course our tastes in food.

On her social networking site this past spring she posted photos of this violet jelly she made and I thought it a great story to get out there on the good ole blogtastic. This particular blog entry has been only brewing in the thoughts of Jessica Therrien since spring, but flower jelly has been 2o years in the thoughts belonging to Nicole Anderson. She divulged "I have a friend from Iran who made rose petal jelly. It was such a beautiful light rose flavor, with a pretty pink color that it never left my mind. I always thought about making a flower jelly since I make a lot of "pick your own" berry jellies, and I grew up IN a flower shop and there is that deep connection to flowers. I had time since I wasn't working and undertook the making of it"

Violets grow in the wild yards of New England in the spring, so she put out an ad on “craigslist” for people's violet harvestings. A New England independent film producer who also collects “face up” pennies as a Set PA, offered to gather the plethora of violets growing in her pristine backyard for Nicole. Claire’s yard does not get touched with pesticides, Miracle Grow or any of those other crazy “supplements” our over fluffed suburban yards do. Nicole now had her all natural violet supplier.

As a side note, it’s peculiar to me that these two would take part in this granola project, but on the same token I can’t imagine these goofnuts not teaming up. The yield (or “shit ton” according to Claire) of white and purple violets would arrive under night’s veil. The Supplier would deliver the goods at the predetermined drop off point (under “crafty’s” porch, in the “cooler”) at random intervals throughout the harvest season. Nicole was very amused by these drop-offs from “someone who doesn’t even live CLOSE to where I live. At all, she lives about an hour away. One time it was her whole family piling out of the car to make the delivery” Now that’s a film “community” stretching over the miles for ya!

It ended up being 5 batches of violets that yielded 60 small jars of jelly. Nicole removed the flowers from the stems and used the flowers fresh and made violet tea from the petals. Adding lemon juice is necessry for ph balance and makes the color bright pink. She then adds pectin, brings it to a boil, then adds cane sugar, and boils for a minute more... and voila violet jelly. (note: photos by Nicole)

Nicole says “flower jelly is more about the novelty of using a flower, than the flavor. The Jelly only has a slight hint of violet flavor.” She is a seasoned do-it-yourself berry jelly maker. She likes to use “the pick your own” variety of wild berries for the experience of getting in there and picking from the yields of the earth, and also to support the local growers efforts. She completes the whole food full circle aspect by sometimes mindfully using organic sugar and, feels better when she can give away her finished foodstuffs in full confidence that she oversaw the whole process, giving the people a great all natural product. She notes "it is very rare for people to make their own pectin. There are purists who do this, extracting it from citrus peels themselves." Nicole uses store bought pectin.

Organic heads would agree with her methods. I myself like this thinking of building from scratch as best as you can the “old fashioned”, but now very much back in fashion way. While we are talking she feeds her cat organic catnip and comments on the wildcat padding around her kitchen during our phone call. I will also note for fun that our interview was scheduled to pleasantly pass time while she waited for the Oil Man to arrive.

Her Jelly is a delicacy definitely to be sold on the Etsy that I am sure would be fruitful. I personally put in an order for clover flower jelly this spring.

Blogs to come

Hello Monster of Some followers. I am gathering information on my next series of blogs which are going to be about film industry people and their passions off set. This business is one where it does us good to have time consuming hobbies. Otherwise, and I am speaking for myself here, we would go insane during the unwanted months of time off collecting funemployment.

I started this blog when I was recovering from what shouldn't have been, but turned into a life threatening case of gallbladder stones and attacks. Having the wrong health insurance in Massachusetts will get you killed. F the state health insurance, get yourself Blue Cross Blue Shield or they'll let you die. I am serious. I almost died. I would miss you, so switch your insurance TODAY. I could have blogged about that, but instead it was more fun while recovering to talk about what I was up to and my new found passion for all natural and organic foods. So my time-off hobbies include lots of connection with nature, because the Earth is my passion, this is why I live somewhere that there is the Atlantic ocean on one side and the sprawling Walden woods on the other. I'm so happy to be here.

So it's only NATURAL haha, that I would after almost losing it, reclaim my life and try to be true to sustainable practices in my own life, but celebrate others who do so also. I'm happy that all the opportunities that came my way this year were (are) positive, and those that were not so pleasant or easy to understand ended up being the fertilizer and sunshine to help me grow.

I have also become quite the survey taker in my time off, and deal finder. I soon will be heading to a rock gym to climb rocks, which I have ALWAYS wanted to do! I am making plans to visit Acadia Park this coming year and and stowing away money for both my Scenic Artist exam, so I can have my scenic card and for my life long dream of going on a South American rain forest tour with either the Sierra Club, World Wildlife Federation, or some other (portions of my cash go to conservation) club. I also would like to get more involved with the New England Aquarium again (I worked there for 2 years, it was the best time of my life, besides... you know... working in film alongside Hoyt Yeatman and David Goldberg in VFX...) My plan is to have the survey taking pay for at least the airfare or cruise fare... and scenic painting to complete my soul by making art, and the organic eating and research to feel better about reducing the toxins in my body, and of COURSE blogging so I can feel more connected to my friends, family and blog followers. I want to hear your feedback and I want to read your blogs and thoughts so don't forget to tell me about your stuff! And your life! Share!

Without further adieu ~ The first blog in this series is going to be about the passion of a dear friend of mine in the biz, Nicole Anderson (Local 481 Craft Service). I will be interviewing her soon about her unique violet jelly she makes by plucking violets from Claire Severence's (Producer/Set PA for the exposure) all natural backyard. It's going to be great so please check back... I am going to try to get it up this Thursday!

Three Wines, Six Hours Later. Part 1.

Forage into Organic Wine
Ever had a Cliff Bar? Ever taste its grain goodness? Oatmeal, soy, the general organic mish mesh of brownies or peanut butter, and nuts of all kinds? Ever have a Luna Bar? I live off those things. Candy bars with vitamins right? Well those Cliff Climber Lunatic Nuts also have a wine. (I know! I just found out too!)
I love white wine, so nach I chose The Climber vin 2007. Now I like my wine, but I’m not a fancy Sommelier, and don’t know the protocol or the verbage the wine tasters of the word use to talk about wine. The best I do is write it all down in a book I keep close by on wine tasting nights. Bear with me. If you would like to hear what Cliff says about it, click the above link before you are horrified by my description.
Non-snobs who are still reading… this is definitely for you. There is nothing snobby about this wine. It’s exactly the same flavorful experience you get with the bars. It more like Raisins meet Grape peels. Definitely on first sniff and sip you are tasting clean air, fresh oatmeal cooked slow, and next time I go climb say Mount Tom in Western Mass, or Mt Washington… I’m sneaking this up the mountain. Prolly go for the red wine for mountain top. Food takes you places. Why shouldn’t I return the favor. I feel like this wine should be experienced under the stars. It’s definitely crisp like a New England Fall night, clear, full of crickets and wind blowing through trees with a fire and a few of your best outdoorsy, don’t care if you washed your hair today friends. And it’s blended from four different varietals, so it’s already used to good company, and I bet it would love your company. Highly recommend.