Presented by: Michele E. Mukatis
One of the most common questions I field is, “How do you eat local in the winter in Colorado?” The answer, while not simple, is that it can be done. I choose to use what I need and supplementwith produce that I’ve frozen from the harvest season and there are a plethora of Colorado-raised foods to seek out right now. If you are a meat eater, of course there are all of the wonderful locally-grown meats available through purveyors like Ranch Foods Direct, Larga Vista Ranch, Frost Farms and Lasater Grasslands Beef You can get highquality, pasture-fed
meats, frozen at their prime, everything from beef and bison to lamb,
pork and chicken. Next, find produce that keeps through the winter. Apples, many kinds of winter squash, root vegetables and potatoes are what people would store to eat through the winter. Their higher natural sugar content gives you an extra boost to help your body manage the cold, dark months. Many greens can handle a freeze, so if you have a greenhouse, a cold frame or some other type of covering, you can harvest fresh kale, spinach and salad greens all winter long.
These veggies provide necessary vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, C, E, and K as well as other trace nutrients such as iron,
zinc, potassium, and phosphorus. Greens are great for blood purification and provide lots of energy, so adding those
to the sugary vegetables gives you a nice boost while, at the same time, balances out the heavier tastes of winter. In Colorado Springs, Ranch Foods Direct sells as much local produce as possible throughout the year. They also have a nice selection of value-added products (I know, an industry term) such as salsas, honey, and sauces. The ingredients may not all be sourced locally, but the businesses are likely to be Colorado-based and therefore supporting our local economy more than some of the wellknown picante sauces. Sourcing local foods
takes a little more work than just going to the grocery, but it’s worth it since you get fresher, more nutrient-dense
meals. Searching online or contacting your local Slow Food Chapter,
as well as the Peak to Plains Alliance in southern Colorado is the quickest way. In Denver, the first winter farmers market has opened. In Boulder, there are many farms such as the Cure Farm that grow through the winter and supply the local restaurants like The Kitchen. In Colorado Springs,restaurants such as Pizzeria Rustica and
Adams Mountain Café source locally in the off-season. Create the demand, and it will come! Happy New Year!

For A great recipe by Michele:

http://www.equinaut.net/?p=780

by Michele E. Mukatis

Seasonal availability of foods exists fora reason. Each food’s nutritional components promote seasonal health.For instance, bitter greens help you cleanse and are more readily available in the spring
when your body needs to clean out after the sluggishness of winter.

If you find yourself always hungry, it may be due to a
lack of nutrient density in the food you are eating. For instance, if the food has traveled to get to your market, it loses nutrients, and your body could be asking you to eat more to gain what it’s looking for as far as nutrient content.

This seems to be true in regards to theomegas as well. Omega-
3s are fatty acids found in green plants, fish, specific
seeds and nuts, and animal fats from grazers.They are not as readily available in the winter,when our bodies would slow down and we had less need to be out working hard. Omega-6s are abundant in corn and soy, found in most processed foods.

We use their oils as well as the grains themselves to createcrackers, cookies, salad dressing and sauces. Additionally, animals that grazed would be ready for processing in the fall, after eating a diet high in omega-3s all summer. We could preserve the meat, which would give us the energy we needed to make it through the winter.
Because processed food is available year ‘round, Americans are experiencing what I call nutritional winter. We consume far
higher amounts of omega-6s and are out of balance with their omega-3 intake.

To put this in perspective, omega-3s regulate many of the body’s functions and are the essential building blocks for the body’s cells. They reduce inflammation as well as protect against heart disease and
other chronic illnesses. We need these omega-3s to be more prevalent in our diets from whole foods or supplements. Make no
mistake, however: We cannot live on a diet of hamburgers and French fries, and take supplements thinking that it will make all
the difference.

“How should I get my omega-3s?” you ask.Humans can digest omega-
3s from plants such as flax seed and walnuts, for instance. However, my research indicates that in those foods, it starts out
as an omega-6 fatty acid that our bodies must convert to omega-3
through a multi-step process. If you are vegetarian, it’s a good alternative. If you are not, eat food items in which omega-3s
are already intact: pasture-raised meats, eggs from pastured chickens and cold-water fish with fewer toxicities like herring, canned
light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish.

The more I read and research, the more eating whole foods, available in their season, makes sense. What better way to honor your body and its desire to get energetic or to relax and rejuvenate.

Michele E. Mukatis
Cultivate Health, Owner/Consultant
Peak to Plains Alliance, Administrator
Slow Food Colorado Springs, Steering Committee

By Sherry Dell, PhD, CN
Certified Nutritionist
November Newsletter: The Spiritual Practice of Conscious Eating

The holiday of Thanksgiving is such a great occasion. When better to take some time out to count blessings, practice gratitude, and in general, reap the limitless benefits of a thankful heart. And because Thanksgiving is a very food-oriented holiday, I’ve always thought it is a great time to practice what I call Conscious Eating.

What is Conscious Eating? Well, the technique is quite simple. First, just take a moment or two before each meal to consciously remember all the people who have brought you the food on your plate.

Think about the farmer who plowed the soil, planted the seeds, watered, weeded, and hovered over the crops until harvest time. Think about the harvesting, loading of baskets and boxes, loading of trucks. Think about the truck driver who transported the whole food to a grocery store or to a factory for processing. Think about the factory workers who may have ground the grain or processed the sugar to put in the cereal that comes from the box. The more processed the food, even though it may be less healthy for us to eat, the more people that have been involved in bringing it to us. And of course, think of the person who made the money to purchase this food for you, and the person who went shopping and brought the food home, and the person who did the menu planning and cooking and cleaning up before the food made it to the table. And don’t forget to put yourself on the list, for taking the time and energy to give your body the gift of a good meal.

There was a time in our history when most of these jobs were completed by people we knew or even by ourselves. This is not commonly the case today. Today, the list of workers bringing us our sustenance is long. And it’s hard to go through this list of people without being filled up with awe and gratitude. I think meal time is a great time to send some of that gratitude radiating back out toward that multitude.

Now for the second part of Conscious Eating, take another moment to feel the life in the food. Remember how it grew from the warm soil, used the sun and the rain to grow and grow. Or perhaps more profoundly, remember how it was born and grew to walk on the land and felt the breezes and ate and slept and ultimately gave its body for your meal. Take this life force into your own body so that it might grow strong and live and help you to fulfill your destiny.
In this way, two or three minutes before eating can turn into a moment of awakening our awareness to the incredible acts of nurturing and caring that take place with each meal. Whether you’re sitting down to a home cooked meal or grabbing an Oreo in the car on the way to your next meeting, the process of feeding yourself is no small event when you look at it in this spiritual context.

For me, Conscious Eating is a way of expanding and deepening my relationship with Source energy. It is a way to remember my place in the cycle of life. And maybe most importantly, it is a way to remember that I am giving myself life in a very literal way when I eat. And I don’t do that alone. So, so many others feed me every day.

The feeling of gratitude and appreciation that this awareness brings me fills me with upliftment, contentment, and a deep stillness. Ultimately then, the practice of Conscious Eating can feed us with a deeper sense of connection to the life force, and I think, make our food even more beneficial to our cells. Happy Thanksgiving.