Diabetics – Egypt’s National Dish – Koshari

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For diabetics, even though Egypt is reaching out to enter a new epoch in its long history as a nation, its recent events brings up the issues of navigating the modern world for diabetics. For those with diabetes, worrying about family in Egypt during the recent revolution probably found their diabetic blood sugars upset or even out of control blood sugar levels. Stress does this. Those diabetics caught in the midst of the unrest also potentially found access to medication, food and medical care upset. All this means you always have to have a personal back-up food and medication plan and when you travel, even doubly so.

In solidarity with the hopes of the Egyptian people, in their quest for clean elections and honest self-government, I will share a recipe for Koshari – Egypt’s national food.

Like our hamburgers and fries, this is the food Egyptians love. It is usually vegetarian, filling and inexpensive. With fewer Egyptians eating at home, especially for lunch, the Koshari cooks work from street carts in the marketplace.

Their clanking serving spoons on the bowls holding the diverse grains, legumes, spices, and sauces makes a tapping sound, like music, and that draws the hungry shoppers and workers walking by. For the humblest workers, a breakfast of Koshari may be the only meal until just before bed, late at night.

Usually Koshari is a combination: of lentils, garbanzo beans (chickpeas, ceci), Egyptian basmati rice and a macaroni pasta. It is topped with: spice blends, garlic and  tomato sauce, then garnished with caramelized onions, vinegar and a tangy traditional Shatta salsa.

The preparation is important – all the legumes, macaroni and rice must be kept to small dollop-size portions, and each must be cooked separately, so that each item holds its flavor.

Rinse the cooked beans ( matpe or brown lentils) in boiling water, after cooking to remove any residual starch film – the impact of that technique is to feature each item’s taste, purely, then enhance them with a generally applied sauce that elevates the  dance into a whirlwind of flavor and aroma.

French green lentils (preferably organic) may not be a traditionally-used lentil, but these are much more nutritious.

This is a dish with many sources of vegetarian protein, so in the combination, there’s probably sufficient amino acids BUT as Egypt is not a wealthy country for the general population, the balance of carbohydrates in the dish is very high. This would be better to bring the meal more in a Zone recipe balance by adding 4 – 6 ozs. of a steamed or poached or grilled fish fillet, and a large green salad (including deep greens like kale, romaine, parsley and cilantro) which can stand up to Koshari’s spicy sauce while adding a counter-point.

I first saw Anthony Bourdain enjoying this dish on his series No Reservations and I was intrigued. It was hard to decide which Koshari recipe to use to represent a nation, but you’ll easily find more online if you want. Just remember, as diabetics, carbohydrates are the issue! Carbs must be fewer in quantity and frequency if they are from grains, period.

By adding oil and the fiber from beans and the salad, the blood sugar response timing is slowed down. Then, by only having a small portion of Koshari, bolstering the meal with healthy lean protein from fish and incorporating a salad, you have a better Zone meal, safer for those with diabetes.

There’s approximately 360 calories in the Koshari portion of the meal, along with about 63 grams of carbohydrate and only 14 grams of vegetarian protein — that’s why you need the 4 – 6 0z. portion of fish. My notes are included in parentheses.

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Guardian.co.uk Koshari

AHDAF SOUEIF’S TRADITIONAL EGYPTIAN KOSHARI

Serves 4

2 C  pasta (macaroni and broken-up angel hair pasta)
1 C Egyptian basmati rice, washed
1 handful vermicelli, cracked (this is like angel-hair pasta or thinnest spaghetti) (or chicken flavored Rice-A-Roni)

1 C brown lentils, washed (I suggest French green lentils)
2 medium onions
2 tomatoes, juiced (or equivalent of organic canned tomatoes)

1 T sunflower oil (or organic, extra-virgin olive oil is even better)
3/4t sea salt
1t   pepper

chili powder (optional)
chicken stock bouillon cube (optional)

tomato paste concentrate
4 cloves garlic
3 limes (or small lemons)
1 heaping teaspoon cumin

Additional Garnish: Bragg’s organic apple cider vinegar, cilantro, parsley
4 – 6 oz. fish fillet – poached and put on the side
Salad ingredients – as desired, in a separate dish

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• Boil the second set of pasta, separately, in salted water till cooked (less than 10 minutes or instructions on box).
• Meanwhile, bring the lentils to the boil in water then simmer (20 minutes), taking care not to over-cook.

• Fry the rice and vermicelli briefly in 1T of oil then add 1C of water. Bring to the boil and season with a little salt. When the water recedes so that it is just a film on the surface, put on the lowest possible heat and cook undisturbed for 20 minutes. (OR you could use a box of chicken flavored Rice-A-Roni, if you want.)

For the Basic Red Sauce

• Put the juiced tomatoes into a saucepan.
• Heat some oil in a frying pan. Dice one onion finely and fry till golden.

• Pour the onion mixture into the juiced tomatoes. (You could now add the chicken stock cube to the mixture if desired.)
• Add 1t of pepper and 3/4t of salt. (If you like your food hot, this is the moment to add chili powder, to taste.)

• When the sauce has reduced nicely, add half a small carton or can of tomato paste concentrate and 1 ½  cups of water. Simmer.

For the tangy sauce – the “takhdi’ah” or “shatta”

• Peel and crush 4 cloves of garlic.
• Mix with the juice of the limes (or lemons).

• Season with salt and up to 1 teaspoon of cumin (add in increments).
• Add spoonfuls from the red sauce into the shatta mixture. Start tasting after 12 spoonfuls. When you like the taste, stop. Finally, add a drop of oil to give it a shine.

Poach, steam or grill your fish portion, to balance the meal.

For the garnish

• Slice 1 onion into fine crescents and fry it dry in a frying pan for about five minutes (this is to get rid of the water in the onion).

· Add 3T of oil and fry till dark brown, but not burned. You must watch the pan!

• Drain the onion of any excess oil and spread on some kitchen paper towel.

To serve

• Place on a flat plate or in (rimmed) bowls. Put 1 layer of pasta, followed by 1 layer of rice, followed by 1 layer of lentils. Each layer is slightly smaller than those below. You make a dome.

(OR, add as dollops of the pasta, pasta mix and lentils, with the sauce and garnishes just in the center, so you can mix and combine more individually. This is the way I believe I saw the plate Anthony Bourdain was served.)

Spoon over the tomato sauce, then add some takhdi’ah in the middle. Add the fried onions on top of the  takhdi’ah sauce.

• Serve with the poached fish and a green salad on the side – preferably dark green, like rocket, spinach or watercress and fresh serve a non-acidic juice or water.

Follow with a glass of fresh mint tea. (This is very traditional end to an Egyptian meal.)

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Enjoy!

Next week, it will be 4 years since I started writing this blog. I hope I will continue to be able to be of service to you, Dear Reader.

Best to all — Em

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Holy Times – Natural Rhythms

“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)

The last couple of months of the year are filled with celebrations and it will help world Peace if we try to understand one another better, so here you can learn more about others, what they celebrate and why. I hope that it will encourage you to learn more and integrate with the people of our planet. The diabetes articles will continue in the new year. Make good food choices for your celebrations!

This is a shared month of holy times:

___   Devali, the Hindus Festival of Light and celebration of the Hindu New Year. was celebrated the first week of November in 2010. Diwali is a five day festival which also honors the victory of good over evil, and brightness over darkness. Also, the festival marks the start of winter.

On the third day of the festival, lots of small clay lamps (diyas) and candles are lit and placed in homes giving Diwali hence its name of “Festival of Lights”.

People also clean and decorate their homes with Rangoli – Hindu folk art.  They give each other gifts during the festival, and other rituals vary according to region of India.  However, in most areas, people send special blessings to Laxshmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity, and to Ganesha, the remover of obstacles.

The Goddess Laxshmi will visit every home during the Diwali period, bringing prosperity and good fortune. It’s said she visits the cleanest places first, therefore people make sure their homes are spotless, before lighting lamps to invite her in.

___   On December 1 -9 in 2010, the Jews started to celebrate Hanukkah, the Hebrew Festival of Light, a universal holy time for celebration of the triumph for the battle of religious freedom. More about the 8 day celebration can be read at in the Titles Archive above.

The 2,200 year old festival is based on a mixture of historical actions and a religious miracle, during the time when the Jews fought the first battles for religious freedom and tolerance, which have managed to endure, for all of us. It is also known as the Festival of Light and candles are lit on the menorah (hannukiah) for all 8 days.

___   The Muslims started to celebrate on December 7, with Al-Hijira —  Islamic New Year.  This holy day marks the migration of the Prophet Mohammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina, and it is the first day of the month of Muharram. The Journey, the Hijra (or Hegira),  happened in 622 CE, and it was in Medina that Mohammad set up the first Islamic state.

Logically, as the new year, the Muslim calendar counts dates from the Hijra, which is why Muslim dates have the suffix A.H. (After Hijra). It is a low-key event, celebrated less than the two major, recent festivals of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha.

Muslims regard this as a good time for ‘New Year Resolutions’, reflecting that the Hajira marks the start of Islam as a community in which spiritual and earthly life were completely integrated. A people could be bound together by faith, rather than just by tribal bonds, and as a consequence, tribal and family loyalties became less significant compared to the bonds of Islam.

Because of the lunar calendar, Ramadan sometimes falls in December (the actual date for the start of Ramadan depends upon the sighting of the crescent moon).

This is the holiest period in the Islamic year, for Ramadan honors the lunar month in which the Qura’n was revealed by God to humanity. So Muslims observe the Fast of Ramadan, which lasts for the entire month. Fasting during the daylight hours and eating small meals in the evening, allows for visits with friends and family and using the time for worship and contemplation

___   On December 8 (or on the Sunday immediately preceding), the Buddhists celebrate Bodhi Day (also called Rohatsu). This recalls the day in 596 BCE, in India, when Prince Siddartha, the Buddha, achieved enlightenment.

The Prince had left his family and courtly possessions behind, at the age of 29, and went to seek the meaning of life — particularly the reasons for its hardships.

For many years, he studied and learned from many spiritual teachers without success. Finally, he sat under a bo tree and made a vow, saying that he would stay there until he found the answers he was seeking.

The morning of the 8th day dawned, and he realized that everyone suffers due to ignorance — but ignorance can be overcome through the Eightfold Path which he advocated.

So, celebrate the birthing day of Buddhism. The Buddha achieved enlightenment, and escaped the endless Karmic cycle of birth, death, rebirth through reincarnation — themes that are observed in other religions in December, as you will see below.

___   December 21 — The Solstice — is the first, official day of winter because it is The Winter Solstice (Northern Hemisphere, longest night) and Summer Solstice (Southern Hemisphere, longest day).

This is a very important time for Druids, Wiccans and other nature-based religions, like Shinto, as well as many major religions also reflecting this longer tradition, too —  emphasizing this same time-frame for celebrations of “Light” and the “Light of the World” in the longest time of darkness.

All of this is evidence of an underlying human commonality below what seems to be a diversity of belief.

This year, there was an important lunar eclipse on the Solstice, the first time this has happened since 1638. So it is a very eventful time.

In Celtic culture, which spanned from India to Ireland, Druids and Druidesses formed the professional class in ancient Celtic society. They functioned as: priests, teachers, ambassadors, astronomers, genealogists, philosophers, musicians, theologians, scientists, poets and even judges.

Druids led all their people’s public rituals, which were normally held within fenced groves of sacred trees or at a powerful natural energy source, like the ring of stones at Stonehenge or Avesbury or the Neolithic cave at New Grange in Ireland.

For Druids, the Solstice is the time of the death of the old sun and the birth of the dark-half of the year. Calling it “Alban Arthuan, it is the end of month of the Elder Tree and the start of the month of the Birch tree.

The 3 days before Yule is magical time, when the Serpent Days or transformation occur. In their cosmological view, the Elder and Birch trees stand as guardians at the entrance to Annwn (the Celtic underworld — where all life was formed).  Now, it is time for the Sun God journey’s through the underworld, to learn the secrets of death and of life, and bring out those souls to be reincarnated.

In prehistoric times, and also in times of modern turmoil, winter was a very difficult time for peoples.  The growing season was over;  everyone had to live off of stored food and whatever animals they could catch. See how hard this is to do just by watching “Survivor”!

In earlier times, the people would become troubled as the life-giving sun sank lower in the sky each day.  We can understand their fear that it would eventually disappear and leave them in permanent darkness and extreme cold.

Only after the Winter Solstice, could they have a reason to celebrate. They saw the sun rising and strengthening once more. They were encouraged that the return of the warm season was inevitable.

Even the equitorial based Inca Empire realized the special time, as it moved southward. The ancient Incas celebrated a festival of Inti Raymi at the time of the Winter Solstice. Since the Inca Empire was mainly south of the equator, the festival was held in June, their winter, and it celebrates “the Festival of the Sun;  the god of the Sun, Wiracocha, is honored.  The ceremonies were banned by the Roman Catholic conquistadores in 1572, and the Conquistadors forced conversions of the Inca people to Christianity. But, about 65 years ago, a local group of Quecia Indians in Cusco, Peru revived the festival and now it is celebrated in an ancient amphitheater a few miles away.

In North America, the Pueblo tribe observe both the Summer and Winter Solstices. Specific details of the rituals differ from pueblo to pueblo, but the rites are built around the sun, the coming new year and the rebirth of vegetation in the spring. Winter Solstice rites involve: prayerstick making, retreats, purification and prayers for plenty.

The Hopi tribe dedicates itself to give aid and direction to the sun, which is ready to ‘return’ to give strength to budding life. Their ceremony is called Soyal and it lasts for 20 days. Activities include: prayerstick making, purification rituals and a celebratory rabbit hunt, feast and blessing.

In Iran, Shabe-Yalda (Shab-e Yaldaa) is celebrated by followers of many religions. It originated in Zoroastrianism, the state religion which preceded Islam (and still practiced by the Parsi of India). The holy day’s name refers to the birthday or rebirth of the sun, and Iranians gather at home, all night,  around a korsee (a low square table). There, they tell stories, read poems, eat watermelons, pomegranates and a special dried fruit/nut mix. Bonfires are lit outside which help to illuminate the darkened world.

So, it’s logical that all around the world, the concept of birth and or death/rebirth became associated with the Winter Solstice. Ancient powerhouse civilizations: India, Egypt, Iran (Persia), Brazil, Peru, Greece and Rome, all had these festivals at this time.

And the sophisticated civilizations developed astronomy, to determine accurate time for The Solstice.  So we have Egyptian, Celtic, Irish, American, Mayan, Incan and Brazilian tribal architecture to determine when the Solstice would happen.

There are countless stone structures created by early peoples in the past to detect the Solstices and Equinoxes — e.g. Calendar One, from an unknown American tribe.  This is in a natural amphitheater of about 20 acres in Vermont. From a stone enclosure in the center of the bowl, you see a number of vertical rock structures and natural features on the horizon (which formed the edge of the bowl). At the Solstices and Equinoxes, the sun rises and sets at either a notch or a peak in the ridge, which makes it a  calendar.

But most Prehistoric Aboriginal peoples had no instruments for detecting The Solstice. Astronomically astute, they noticed a slight elevation of the sun’s path within a few days after The Solstice — perhaps by December 25th and this is why celebrations were often timed around the 25th — which is significant to the “chosen” day for Xmas.

___   For Christians, December 25 is an officially agreed-upon time for the Christmas — set aside to celebrate the birth of the Jewish rabbi, Jesus (Yeshua) of Nazareth, known to Christians as “the light of the world”. There is sufficient evidence in the Gospels to indicate Yeshua was actually born in the autumn, but this seems to have been unknown to early Christians.

By the third century CE, many religions and spiritual mysteries were being followed within the “known-world’s” Roman Empire. Most, celebrated the birth of their god-man near the time of The Solstice; it was a common, ancient religious theme.

The Roman Emperor Aurelian (270 to 275 CE) blended a number of The Solstice celebrations of the nativity of such god-men/saviors as: Apollo, Attis, Baal, Dionysus, Helios, Hercules, Horus, Mithra, Osiris, Perseus and Theseus into a single festival. It was called the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” and was held on December 25.

At the time, Persian Mithraism and Christianity were fierce competitors for the hearts, minds, souls of the Empire’s peoples. Aurelian declared Mithraism to be the official religion of the Roman Empire in 274 CE. But, Christianity finally won, by becoming the new official religion in the 4th century CE, from a different Emperor’s edict, just before his death, too.

So, with new stature, Christianity at the beginning of the 4th century CE, found intense interest in actually choosing a day to celebrate Yeshua’s birthday.

The western church leaders of the time selected December 25th because this was already the date recognized throughout the Roman Empire as the birthday of various gods; it was a way to be able to celebrate unfettered. That is why many symbols and practices associated with Christmas are really of non-Christian origin: holly, ivy, mistletoe, yule log, the giving of gifts, decorated evergreen tree, magical reindeer and more.

With no central Christian authority at the time, it took centuries before the tradition of December 25th was universally accepted:

___   Eastern Christian churches began to celebrate Christmas on December 25th after 375 CE.

___   The church in Ireland only in the 5th century CE and churches in Jerusalem started in the 7th century CE.

___   Austria, England and Switzerland started celebrating it then the 8th century CE and in Slavic lands in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.

Even now, not all Christians acknowledge December 25 or celebrate it e.g. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not. And, the English Parliament even abolished Christmas in 1647.

___   Kwanzaa – honors universal African-American heritage and culture. It is observed from December 26 – January 1 each year, and features activities such as:  the lighting of a kinara, libations and a feast, and gift giving. It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated on December 26, 1966.

The entry in Wikipedia says the goal was to “give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history”. The name Kwanzaa is a Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning first fruits of the harvest.

Kwanzaa celebrates 7 principles of Nguzo Saba, which Karenga said “is a communitarian African philosophy”. These consist of “the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world.”

The 7 principles comprise Kawaida, Swahili for “tradition and reason”, and each of the 7 days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one individual principle:

* Umoja (Unity):  Strive for and maintain unity in: family, community, nation and race.

* Kujichagulia (Self-Determination):  define oneself, name ourselves, create and speak for ourselves.

* Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility):  Build and maintain community. Make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together.

* Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics):  Build and maintain our own businesses and shops, and to profit from them together.

* Nia (Purpose): Make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community. Restore our people to their traditional greatness.

* Kuumba (Creativity): Always do as much as we can, in any way we can, to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

* Imani (Faith): Believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers and our Journey.

And, I hope this long article will foster good will and more awareness.

My hope: May all of us be Blessed with Peace and Health and Understanding and Compassion as we follow and work in the light of the Sun, each new day. Make it count!

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Diabetics Need To Garden – Hydroponics 4E

“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)

The statistics are staggering! In America, one out of every 400-600 elementary school aged children has type-1 diabetes, and 2 million adolescent Americans have it, too!  And, although these 2007 are the “latest” statistics available, I am sure that the numbers are far worse in 2010! We have to actively search for solutions.

It may seem strange that I have spent SO much time talking about gardening on my blog recently, and finding techniques with the best chance of success and greater yields, but a lot of the source of diabetes and pre-diabetes is because of poor food choice.

That food choice may or may not be from ignorance about what constitutes a “healthy diet”. Certainly everyone needs to be taught what a healthy diet is, — early in school and then updated all the way to high school graduation.

But, along with moderate daily exercise (just the chance for kids to “play” outside, for at least an hour), there are economic factors, worsened by the current financial downturn and parental unemployment. Sometimes, too, even in good times, individuals and families do not have enough money to buy enough healthy food, even though they know what they need to buy.

So, the answer, for many reasons, is to grow-your-own!

Fresh, alkaline, organic food from plenty of healthy vegetables and a few fruits can make a difference for everyone’s health. And, it is like money in the bank, to tide your family over rough finances and other emergencies.

Accommodate your lifestyle to learn these skills and teach these basic survival skills to your children!

Knowing how to garden and accurately forage are critical. If you don’t know how, you are putting your whole family at risk.

Eating more fresh, organic food is very likely to help you if you are overweight or obese, as alkaline vegetables are your first line of defense. They are calorically small, nutritionally huge and alkaline to help you get rid of acidic pH tissue toxins (which need to be encased in fat to protect the rest of your body).

So, before it’s too late, this month get started on this garden project.  Transplants will become harder to find as the season continues (and then you’ll need to grow from seed, which means you will be “late” with smaller chance to harvest).

Get organized, then go-with-the-flow of Life. Gardening is usually considered stress-reducing and good therapy.

The techniques I show let you get away for a few days of traveling, and not have your whole garden at risk, but you should get someone to check it daily in summer (it may or may not require any water for most days with this technique, but when the plants NEED water, they MUST have it!).

Both youth and seniors need this superior nutrition from fresh food, even more than the rest of us do.

Whether you are pre-diabetic, undiagnosed diabetic, a type-1 diabetic or type-2 diabetic, this is fundamental to returning to Health: 70% of your diet must be green, leafy vegetables, low glycemic fruits and vegetables and a few higher glycemic vegetables once in a while. The rest of your plate should be the equivalent of a palm size portion of protein and about 2 teaspoons of a monosaturated oil (organic canola or olive oil) or flax or hemp oil, per meal. Never cook either flax oil or hemp oil; just use them in dressings. Other articles here on the blog will help you. See the archive.

Now, for this week’s hydroponic technique which utilizes, specifically, RUBBERMAID brand totes. These are made of LDPE type plastic and are made to food-grade specifications. You should only use food-grade plastic in food production and preparation.

Most plastics are not food-grade. You can use clean, recycled food containers and buckets OR items like the Rubbermaid totes which are made properly.

Use no PVC and nothing which has housed chemicals, kitty litter etc. There are instructions to set up gardening systems all over the Internet which use PVC and these other items. Do Not!

Polypropylene is an acceptable plastic when food-grade, as is PET or PETE. This is the plastic used in clear water bottles. HDPE and LDPE are used in milk jugs and (maybe) distilled water jugs. Check the recycle number on the bottom of the container. HDPE and LDPE is OK when it is food-grade (already having been used only for food, and sometimes labeled as such). The manufacturer will only have been allowed to use designated food-grade for American food products. Bets are off if the food is imported.

In past sections of this series, I have explained these designations. See links below. Double-click on the images to enlarge them.

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There are 2 forms of gardening in Rubbermaid totes. One system uses potting mix and can use rainwater or tap water or a combo.  The second system uses a “growth medium and must use hydroponic nutrient solutions, only.

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System 1 -  Gardening with Potting Mix and Water:

And, I do mean “potting mix” NOT “potting soil”; there are important differences.

In your 10 – 18 gallon Rubbermaid tote, photo 3, if you are using potting mix, you can leave the tote’s rim + about an inch just inside it, and cut the rest of the lid’s center section off, in one piece, to become a support platform between the potting mix and the air / water reservoir (photo2). Or, you can keep the lid intact, as in Photo 1. Instructions are below for each set-up.

You will need to drill holes into the lid cutoff to make the horizontal  “aeration bench” platform plastic. And, you will need to cover the top surface of the tote’s soil mix with a white plastic bag in summer and a black bag in winter. A hole must be cut in the bag for EACH plant to come completely through, when planting.

The plastic bag needs to be brought all the way down the side to protect the Rubbermaid tote, as UV rays will destroy the tote, otherwise, in about 3 years if your sunshine is strong. This is needed in both systems.

Notice, in Photo 2, that you must also have a food-grade perforated “wicking pot” filled with potting soil, sitting all the way down to the bottom of the tub OR suspended well into the liquid reservoir (in this case, cotton string wicks must reach from the base of the wicking pot all the way to the bottom).

Drill a support hole for the basket in the horizontal “aeration bench” center. Perforated large yogurt containers work well for “wicking pots”, or you can get large perforated pots (net pots) at a hydroponic supply. The size holes used to perforate the yogurt containers is about 7/64 inch. Start with 4 – 6 per container and see how that works for your climate.

NOTE:

If you keep the lid intact, as in photo 1, this lets you use either potting mix OR growing medium*in any future season. However, you must then use other options to make the “aeration bench” platform:

___   plastic pegboard exists, but I doubt it is food-grade plastic

___   plastic needlwork “canvas” from craft store -  would be unknown plastic

___   moderate-size surgical stainless steel mesh or fiberglass screen – good

___   perforated steel gutter covering strips – may contain unacceptable metals in the alloy, but also might be a possible choice – ask alloy questions

___   surgical-grade perforated stainless steel (but you will have to watch the pH of your hydroponic nutrient solution, in any of the metal suggestions, as metal may require you to balance pH) – otherwise, good (unless you have a real allergy to nickel, which is the metal used to prevent the iron in the steel from rusting).

___   “landscape fabric”, “shade cloth” – of unknown content

___   untreated polyester** quilt batting OR organic cotton batting OR coconut coir mat to serve as a filter barrier – good. Use it in combination with the next idea; let it rest on top of the following …

___   PREFERRED: a number of perforated plastic milk jugs and juice bottles to cover the whole bottom of the tote, to serve as the platform, and the vertical fill tube will be inserted in one. The perforations are at all levels as the jugs lie. The water flows into and back out of all the jugs, eventually, through all the holes. Use an amount of water which will leave about 1/2″ – 1″ airspace at the top of the bottles. There must also be one potting mix-filled or “growing medium-filled” “wicking pot” sitting on the bottom, too, connected to the rest of the soil mix (open a circle in the barrier fabrics mentioned immediately above). This “wicking pot” will get all the moisture to the bottom of the tub, when most of the containers are nearly empty, as long as there are holes in the jugs on all sides.

The perforated platform “aeration bench” barrier ideally rests on the “connected milk jug fill-tube system” described, or you can just leave a big, undifferentiated water reservoir  area, which is fed by the fill-tube (bottom end cut on the diagonal) as long as the horizontal aeration-barrier is supported above the air-water reservoir, probably by 4 – 6 vertical, totally perforated juice bottles,  to the floor of the tote, as well as by side-pressure (as the tote is tapered). Again, one, potting-mix filled  “wicking pot” must reach all the way to the bottom, suspended from the platform. Look at the diagram in Photo 2 and just pretend the water is encased in perforated bottles, as I have described.

There must be airspace.

An overflow hole must be drilled. This is explained below, as it is needed for both systems. Suggested hole-size for all holes is 5/16 inch. Use a drill.

I believe that the system using potting mix and regular water / rainwater is by far the easier system. It can grow any vegetable, plant, flower or dwarf tree, as long as organic fertilizer is used to replace soil mix nutrients through the season.

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System 2 – With just Growth Medium and Hydroponic Nutrient Solutions

Acceptable soiless growing “medium” = perlite, washed pea gravel, “rockwool”,  or coconut coir. This replaces the spaces shown with potting mix in Photo 2, above.

If using  a growing medium, then you cannot use regular water.

Larger systems like the 5 gallon buckets and 10 quart to 18 quart Rubbermaid tote need to aerate the roots, in either system.

You also must use nutrient solutions mixed up from ingredients found pre-made, just for hydroponic growing. So, for this type of totally soiless system, you will need to set-up an air pump outside, and submersible aquarium pump and airstone in the tote.  And keep the original lid, with desired number of pots inserted.

There are more instructions to set-up this equipment, on the Internet.

Using pure hydroponics, you will also need to segregate your types of plants.

Group 1 – leafy vegetables, which do not flower in order to make fruit e.g. salad greens, lettuces, parsley etc.

Group 2 -  tomatoes, eggplants, melons etc. which produce flowers which then produce the fruit or vegetable.

Each of the 2 groups requires different hydroponic nutrient solutions, in a completely hydroponic system, so any individual planter can only grow one group type.

In a totally hydroponic solution system, without soil, use the top of the Rubbermaid tote to have holes and hydroponic “net pots” or perforated large yogurt containers, with a plant and medium inside the small pot. Most of the tote will be nutrient solution, with wicks from each pot to the bottom of the tote. Leave an airspace pocket, too.

The plant roots need to dip into the nutrient solution for at least 1 inch, after seedling stage is finished; they automatically will grow as long roots as they can, but you still need the wicks, as insurance.

The hydroponic nutrient solution needs to be changed every 2 weeks, as well as having healthy liquid levels at all times

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Either system needs an “overflow hole” with a piece of drinking straw inserted in it to keep it freely flowing. The height of the hole is just at the lower level of the airspace near the platform, as shown in Photo 2. The hole size should start at 5/16 inch.

Either system needs a fill-tube indicator — this is just a the thinnest diameter wooden dowel with a cork inserted in the end. It sits in the vertical fill tube and you mark the level on the dip-stick which correlates to the tote being at 25% full of liquid in the reservoir. When that mark is level with the top of the fill-tube, at that point, I recommend watering!

Both systems need a vertical fill-tube which is cut on a 45-degree angle at the base. All over the Internet, the plans ‘just use PVC pipe’ for this, but I have taught you NOT to use PVC! So, what you will do is to use PET or PETE clear plastic 1 liter or 2 liter water bottles to “make” the tube.

This can be made either by cutting the bottoms off and have them all wedged together in a tower — using food-grade silicone sealer on the outside seams, only if the bottle seams leak.

OR, you just make a small hole in the bottom of each bottle, smaller than the bottles’ opening. Push hard to insert the open bottle neck into the bottom of the bottle above it. It should be snug from starting with a slightly too-small hole.  Same deal with the food-grade, kitchen silicone.

There’s no set height for how tall the fill-pipe should be. It must reach up just beyond the top of the tote as a minimum. Method 2 will make a sturdier fill-pipe and use fewer bottles.

In photo 1, the number of holes cut into the intact, whole lid of the Rubbermaid tote depends on which plants you are growing. For guidelines, please see the EarthBox site (link in Part 4D). The tote box can support the growth of an amazing amount of food.

As the seasons change, sometimes not all the holes in the lid will be used. Make sure to cover all unused holes and the fill tube top with shade cloth, fiberglass screen or a piece of panty hose, to prevent access by mosquitoes to lay eggs!

REMINDER:

A plastic bag needs to be brought all the way down the side of the tote or taped around the outside (lid and sides). This is to protect the Rubbermaid tote, as UV rays will destroy the bin, otherwise, in about 3 years, if your sunshine is strong. This is needed in both systems.

The Rubbermaid totes can be made to contain tomato cages and trellises, either internally or nearby. They can be placed on movable pallets, but mobility is confined if it is a truly hydroponic system with pumps and electrical connections. That’s another reason why I prefer the potting mix – regular water system.

Personally, I think the potting mix, liquid fish emulsion fertilizer and regular water is the way to go. It does not require pumps or aeration, either. And, if you do not want to have to check the fill-pipe everyday, then except in the hottest days of summer, having an external reservoir connected (see diagrams in Part 4D), will give you more time between waterings.

I am not going to provide instructions for more complex ebb and flow or NFS (Nutrient Film Systems) hydroponic systems, but this information is on the internet.

If you want to buy commercial units to replicate the tote systems shown here, then check into Earth Tainer(TM) and EarthBox(TM), Emily’s Garden (TM) from hydrofar,.com and AeroGarden (TM) online.

* acceptable soiless growing “medium” = perlite, washed pea gravel, “rockwool” or coconut coir.

** PET and PETE plastics are made into polyester fabric, often, when they are recycled. Top tier fashion designers are now using this recycled bottle-cloth!

LINKS:

Diabetics Need to Garden, Part 1
Diabetics Need to Garden, Part 2
Diabetics Need to Garden, Part 3
Hydroponics with Safer Plastics
Small Food-grade Self-watering Planters Part 4B
Hydroponic Gardening in Glass Bottles Part 4C
5 Gallon Bucket Hydroponic Gardening Part 4D

Please read the Titles Archive to find 3 years of posts to help you learn more about alternative ways to help your diabetes.

(c)2010 Em at http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com

If you desire to quote more than 2 short paragraphs of my article, then please write for permission at the About Me tab on the upper navigation bar. Thanks!

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Diabetics Need To Garden – Hydroponics 4D

“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)

Diabetics need to monitor their Health very closely and cannot slip-by with little indulgences. Your diabetic diet plan needs to be in place 24-7, and that means eating PLENTY of fresh vegetables and a few fresh fruits! Many diabetics are having to make trade-offs between buying their medications and testing equipment and eating healthy food. Now, there’s a few more choices to keep healthy and organic food as the foundation of your diabetic diet. Keep reading.

Hydroponics is a form of container gardening. It uses soil and a water reservoir in the root zone OR it uses no soil and then requires nutrient solutions (not just regular water) in a reservoir. It is one of the easiest ways to grow anything, but for our purposes, this discussion mostly deals with growing vegetables, as 70% of every meal should be low-glycemic index vegetables, preferably raw or lightly-steamed. That’s true for a diabetic diet and just about everyone else’s diet, too.

Alkaline food, like most vegetables, is essential for helping to neutralize the overly acidic tissues most diabetics have. Big Pharma and their drugs just make you more acidic, so if you are taking the “usual” medications, this makes action on your part even more important. Detoxification and pH balancing is a daily need for you.

This time, the gardening lesson for diabetics is about using 5 gallon, food-grade plastic buckets OR Rubber maid 18 gallon storage totes, which are made from food-grade plastic. Do not use other totes, buckets etc. which are not known to be food-grade.

Also, please be aware of the danger posed to small children by deep buckets and totes and make sure that water reservoirs are unable to be accessed by children. 5 gallon buckets are required to carry drowning hazard labels — if yours is a used bucket, the label may be damaged or removed, but children have tragically drowned even when people are washing their cars with buckets. Just remember how curious small children are! This is a silent, senseless death. Be watchful and eliminate the risk while you are putting your containers together!

Here are some diagrams of the equipment and the process, and then written input follows. Use this strategy to eat organic food, which you have farmed, saving our planet with less use of gasoline to haul your food an average of 1,400 miles to your table. Be concerned for you and our planet, please. Double-click on the photos; this usually enlarges them.

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Everything used inside the bucket needs to be food-grade plastic, too. See my past posts in this series for the explanation of what that means and where to find it. Links are below.

In the middle photo, the large hole in the perforated, trimmed bucket lid is to insert a perforated yogurt container, perforated large water bottle bottom section or “net pot” (which is a perforated plastic basket in various sizes, purchased from a hydroponic supply store). Without this internal barrier lid platform, you need the over-turned plastic colander technique described below.

Either of these internal barrier systems prevent wasting a second bucket for the top-tier plant section, as many Internet sites have you waste in their designs. You would only need a full 2 bucket system for deeply rooted large plants, if ever.

Any of these smaller perforated containers let the roots actually grow down into the solution (or just water, if soil mix is above), over time. Meanwhile, the water or nutrient solution is brought up to the soil mix or “medium” of choice’s interface via the fact that the little pot extends to the bottom of the bucket, wicking up the moisture into the rest of the soil above.

Popular “mediums” for soiless growing (and then you must use real hydroponic nutrient solutions) would be made from: washed pea gravel, perlite, rockwool or coconut coir or a combo of these. The “medium” supports the plant, but heavy, large plants may still need to be “caged”, “staked” or tied to a trellis or deck railing.

Note: vermiculite is a forerunner of natural asbestos, so it is not recommended as a medium or in anything else.

As you can see from Gymgirl’s garden in photo 3,  she sometimes punctures the bucket lid to insert the plant; sometimes leaves the lid off completely (then the lid may have been used as the perforated divider between soil mix and water reservoir (as in photo 2). And other gardeners cover the soil (with hole for plant) and also the sides of bucket with a black plastic bag.

This “bag” technique is in order to save the bucket plastic from degrading from sun exposure. The plant’s leaves are NOT covered by the bag.

In winter the bag also warms the bucket’s soil, as black absorbs heat, for a winter garden.  Use a white plastic bag in summer when weather is hot, to lessen heat gain; the plastic bag also helps retain water in summer as it prevents fast evaporation from the soil (the lid, with a hole per plant,  would do this, too).

The containers in the illustrations above all use potting mix (made for containers). Do not use regular soil or “potting soil”.

The reservoir barriers can be made from the punctured, trimmed bucket lids or as I prefer, from food-grade 6″ or 7″ plastic colanders turned upside-down and trimmed to fit the BOTTOM of the bucket.

You will cut off the colander handles and snip the rim in a few places with cuts heading toward the center. This lets the colander flex as you put it into the bucket. The colander must rest on the floor of the bucket with it oriented as a dome.

The perforated barrier lets you use either medium or potting mix to anchor the plant.

You can make it longer between waterings if you also include an external reservoir. See photo 1 diagram. Buckets can also be linked together with tubing and then all you need to do is fill the external reservoir. But the system still needs watching and you need to make sure the height relationships allow for the siphon action to work in all the tubing. Use black fish aquarium tubing as the safest choice.

In a totally hydroponic solution system, without soil, use the top of the 5 gallon bucket to have holes and net pots or perforated large yogurt containers, with a plant and medium.

As mature plants, the roots need to dip in the nutrient solution by at least 1 inch. At all stages of growth, the solution needs to be changed every 2 weeks.

The number of holes in the 5 gallon bucket lid or draped plastic bag depends on which plants you are growing and how many per area. For guidelines, please see the EarthBox site.

This means that sometimes, in future seasons,  not all the lid holes will be used. Make sure to securely cover all unused holes and the fill tube top with shade cloth, fiberglass screen or a piece of panty hose to prevent access by mosquitoes to lay eggs!

The sides of the 5 gallon bucket can also be cut to make a strawberry pot. See the link to the article, below.

In the protected colander dome (filled with soil mix or medium) or area below the perforated lid (with inserted yogurt container filled with soil mix or medium), the water reservoir meets the potting mix or medium above it and around it. This is how the bucket becomes self-watering, through osmosis.

A third watering system option is in 5 gallon buckets, the water or nutrient reservoirs can also be made from 4 side punctured clean juice bottles or milk cartons, lying on the bucket floor and connected by drinking straw sections, to the first jug which receives the  fill-pipe,  instead of using the colander. Soil or medium tucks around the perforated bottles.

In these illustrations, you should note that they used PVC pipe for the fill tube. This is NOT food-grade! Do not use PVC, some versions of which contain lead in the recipe.

Instead, use water bottles in a column as a fill-tube – either cut the bottom and top off  and fit together OR puncture the base (to insert the next, open, uncut bottle). Use these connected in series of PET / PETE clear, #1 (recycling code) 1 liter or 2 liter water bottles. The lowest bottle must have base cut off on an angle to let water come easily into the reservoir space.

Also, the fill tubes do not need to be this high above the soil, as in Gymgirl’s example. Note, look at photo 6 and see the placement that at the divider between soil and water reservoir, there is an “overflow” hole drilled and a cut-off drinking straw will help to keep it open. Double-click on the photo to see it larger.

The “overflow hole” can drain into a protected reservoir, as in the illustration above. Then disconnect and repour liquid when needed, this will also help capture rain water, to use later, rather than sit there and water-log your plants. To do this, the 5 gallon bucket has to be raised to help create the siphon effect. See the illustration.

You can also include a float stick in each bucket’s fill-tube to indicate fluid level there. It is critical to know what’s happening in the reservoir so you know when to add liquid! These should be available at a hydroponic supply.

These individual buckets can also be set-up to be watered in series, using aquarium tubing, from bucket-to-bucket, with a larger external reservoir and pump, too. You’ll find information on the Internet as to how to set it up, but I have tried to stay with the simplest system!

Barring adverse weather or you forgetting to keep the reservoir filled, you should get a fabulous return for your effort. These types of container gardens are far more efficient, and can bring in amazing amounts of food.

As a diabetic, I recommend that you always wear gardening gloves and proper shoes when outside. Diabetes tends to compromise skin and especially for feet, this can become serious, often resulting in impossible-to-cure infections, which require amputation. Sandals are not appropriate shoes.

As an example of what to add to the standard container potting mix – if you use the soil method – here is a recipe. The potting mix / perlite should last 5 to 6 seasons, but the nutrients will need to be added each season.

TO potting MIX only (not potting soil – which can still contain rocks – and not garden dirt), add:

___   Perlite to Potting Mix in a ratio of 60% potting mix to 40% perlite. Then add the items below.

___   2 cups fertilizer, any three numbers between 10 and 15. Most people use 10-10-10, but 14-14-14 is also possible.  Pour in a strip farthest away from your seedlings, so as to not burn any roots. See the Earthbox website for pictures of where to place your fertilizer strip depending on the organization and number of plants per container. Their diagrams are very clear.

___   2 cups  Dolomite Lime Pellets, mixed into the top 4-6 inches of your potting mix. Powdered lime turns into a concrete slab or rocks if it’s not mixed in well

___   2 tbsps. Epsom salts mixed in with the Lime, if you are growing tomatoes.

By gardening with potting mix or hydroponically, diabetics can garden more safely. And, the buckets can be raised so even those in wheelchairs can still garden and harvest the great foods they need in their diabetic diet plan. See photo 5 of the handicap accessible garden, above.

With the 5 gallon food-grade buckets, you can garden anywhere: on rooftops, balcony, concrete patio, deck, attached to fences etc. I hesitate to say “driveway” because there is still chemicals exuded from car exhaust and gasoline excreta, but people do garden on and near their driveways. I do not recommend doing so.

You may see hydroponic systems on the Internet using roof gutters or long sections of PVC plumbing pipe as hydroponic trays. Neither are food-grade plastic! I do not recommend them.

Other pre-made systems, like the EarthBox, use “recycled” plastic. You need to confirm what kind and if it is still designated as “food-grade”, if it ever was.

Many systems depicted on the Internet also use styrofoam as a barrier and place to insert perforated net pots. This is a styrene product and has been associated with cancer-causing chemicals, even though it has still been allowed near food. This needs to change, and you can do it for yourself; don’t wait for Government to ban its use next to food. We already know there’s a problem!

LINKS:

strawberry 5 gallon bucket planter. Be sure to use day-neutral, everbearing plants.

University of Maryland Master Gardeners 5 gallon bucket PDF, excellent

Rubbermaid Tote with Food Container Reservoirs

Green Rooftop Growers

More About Plastics and Hazards

Earthbox – More Growing Instructions for Containers

Diabetics Need to Garden, Part 1
Diabetics Need to Garden, Part 2
Diabetics Need to Garden, Part 3

Hydroponics with Safer Plastics Part 4A
Soda Bottle SIP Gardening Part 4B
Glass Wine Bottle Hydroponic Gardening Part 4C

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Learn more at the Title Archive tab — there’s 3 years of information on all kinds of ways to help diabetics!

(c)2010 Em at http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com

Please respect my copyright. If you desire to quote more than 2 short paragraphs of this article, please write for permission at the About Me tab, on the upper navigation bar, above. Thanks.

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Diabetics – H1N1 Swine Flu Scare

“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)

Diabetics need to act quickly on this issue; it’s literally a matter of life and death. Dr. Mercola, other physicians and concerned independent scientists have begun to speak out about the irrational actions being taken by the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in regard to forced vaccinations for “Swine Flu”.

Even though the Media is hyping it differently, among the about 20,000 cases of Swine Flu this year, there have only been around 100 deaths. So, why the desperate campaign to “vaccinate” / to  “protect”?

It’s either an audacious plan based on Greed on the part of Big Pharma OR part of a much more nefarious agenda. Either way, you have to act on behalf of your Life and those you love.

As you read some of the same articles and see the same videos I watched just before writing this, come to your own conclusions, but I’ll just highlight a few of the facts that courageous people have brought to light.

As the Swine Flu vaccine campaigns are due to begin with our children (!) in just weeks, you must act now! Learn everything you can.

Things that cause concern:

___   Individual scientists have determined that the “Swine Flu” virus was created in a lab! It is NOT a virus from Nature.

They see that the 1918 pandemic flu virus has been gene-spliced into this virus. It appears to have been taken from an Inuit ["Eskimo"] who died from it back then; the body was probably naturally-frozen, so provided an amazing source.

Why did “the perpetrators” put that deadly virus material in to their genetically-engineered creation?  And, evidence shows they included the Bird Flu / SARS deadly virus, too!

___   LewRockwell.com reports that the “vaccine” to combat this (man-made) virus which was submitted for “approval” by the FDA was NOT the real vaccine.

It was the first time that a mock-up vaccine was allowed to be entered for approval. The vaccine we get will NOT be the same! What’s in the one we get?!

More on that below.

The drug companies were allowed to do this mock-submission under the new powers of the bio-terror // war powers agenda approved during the Bush administration.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kent Holtdorf, Infectious Disease expert, says there’s lots more that concerns him about this vaccine – especially the levels of deadly mercury and the use of squalene (which concerns Dr. Mercola and several other physicians I’ve read comments from).

Early in the 20th century, controversial genius, British citizen, Sir Bertrand Russell, said that mercury should be used in injections to dumb-down the public. Indeed, on YouTube, there is a University of Calgary video that shows how instantly mercury kills nerve cells (neurons). Dr. Haley, of the University of Kentucky, a mercury expert says ‘its amazing to consider using in at all in humans’. Meanwhile, they’ve had generations, with increasing numbers of vaccinations, to accomplish the dumbing-down, to produce easier-led citizenry. Wake up.

W.H.O. requires these dangerous adjuvants.

___   Some of the 4 government labs (in Canada and the USA) that evidently secretly created this virus have a troubled history. In effect, they have created a bio-terror weapon, for use on people everywhere.

___  The main company given the contract to produce the “vaccine” against this (man-made) “virus”, Baxter International, AG, also has a very troubling history (see below). Baxter’s vaccine is called Celvapan.

Other companies involved in producing the “vaccine” are Novartis (makes Focetria), Glaxo-Smith-Kline (makes Pandemrix) and 2 other European Big-Pharma companies, 1 French (Solvay), the other Swiss.

If this vaccine is part of a world-wide plot, as it seems to be, then I would be looking out to see if any of my diabetic or other medications came from these companies, and switch! They’ve shown their colors; we now know which side they’re on.

___   In 2005, the United Nations got unheralded power. This was likely pushed through as part of the Elite’s Globalist agenda. Whether we call them the Illuminati, New World Order, Globalists, they are the power in the world, as they have been for 8,000 years — beyond the reach of Governments and rulers, although those entities and people do their bidding or are henchmen.

The Elite want One-World Government. And, they want world depopulation, to about 500 million, from 6 billion. That means 11 of 12 of us have to die!

It will be easier for them to control us with depopulation in place. The United Nations’ World Health Organization (W.H.O.) will be their instrument, and it will be accomplished likely via the use of this manufactured virus.

Since 2005, the W.H.O. has had the power to demand that sovereign countries follow their mandatory vaccine and quarantine procedures. If it were a real emergency, all that sounds good on the surface, until you know more who’s behind it all, the Globalists and their nefarious agenda.

The Meiji Emperor in 19th Century Japan had the courage to speak out about the Elite Globalists’ existence, as Japan re-opened to the world after centuries. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Carter, also outed the “Military-Industrial Complex” as “a government within the government answerable to no one” and President Carter said that ‘the President is not the real head of the American government’ (I saw and heard President Carter say that!).

Now, we are seeing this secret-government within the higher echelons of the World Bank (David Rockefeller) (and the other Banksters at major banks and Wall Street firms), Trilaterial Commission, Bilderberger Group, Council of Foreign Relations and Council of Rome, actually is so. This “financial crash” was orchestrated by these upper-echelon puppet-masters.

___   The laws that were passed in America under the 3 Bush Administrations were designed to further the Globalist agenda and to erode our Freedom. It lately was done under the guise of the “war on Terror”, real or imagined, but the results are the same. Basically, the American Government can do pretty much anything it pleases to its citizens, once an “emergency” is declared. Guess what the “emergency” is going to be!

___   The “vaccine” program is scheduled to begin by giving a LIVE (man-made!) virus “medicine” to every school-child in America in just a few weeks!There is NO reason for the need to use a live virus, except to spread the disease. SARS kills by incapacitating one’s lungs — easy target when you shoot something into someone’s nose, instead of their arm!

The stuff is called FluMist and it is the way the REAL PANDEMIC will actually be started! This is not conjecture (see actual incidents documented below).

___   We must start a grass-roots, citizen campaign of non-compliance. Do not let your children get this FluMist and do not get the “vaccine” yourself!

If millions of people do not comply, we will thwart them. But, if most people are haunted by Fear, or are ignorant, or are just sheep, then the fewer who won’t comply can be rounded-up. It’s the same technique that was very effective for the Nazis (and of course, this is the same crew that brought you THAT war).

___   Baxter International already has been caught red-handed, twice, trying to unleash this virus into the general population, once in Switzerland and once in Austria and Czechoslovakia. This was exposed a little bit in the mainstream press (which is “controlled”, worldwide by the Globalist Cartel), but investigative medical reporter, Jane Burgermeister, ferreted out the Truth.

Jane has been published in the prestigious British Medical Journal and the equally well-regarded Lancet. She knows how “controlled” the world media is. So, she went digging, herself, after seeing a small story about how Baxter International, during a “Bio-Safety Alert Level 3″ (the highest) was transporting a box of the “Swine Flu” virus (man-made version) on a crowded Swiss train at rush-hour — completely illegal during an Alert Level 3 . And, then, the box mysteriously “exploded”,  conveniently spewing virus all over the people and the car.

The Swiss response shows it was “pre-planned”. They did NO follow-up to make sure the people were OK after exposure. The “experiment” showed that releasing it into the general air didn’t work well enough; it needed to be misted into the nose or injected. Now, that’s the present plan.

Baxter had applied for a “hybrid influenza virus” patent one year before there ever even was a Swine Flu concern. Baxter’s patent # US20090060950A1 includes “more than one antigen… such as influenza A and influenza B in particular selected from of one or more of the human H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, H5N1, H7N7, H1N2, H9N2, H7N2, H7N3, H10N7 subtypes, of the pig flu H1N1, H1N2, H3N1 and H3N2 subtypes, of the dog or horse flu H7N7, H3N8 subtypes, or of the avian H5N1, H7N2, H1N7, H7N3, H13N6, H5N9, H11N6, H3N8, H9N2, H5N2, H4N8, H10N7, H2N2, H8N4, H14N5, H6N5, H12N5 subtypes.”   As you may recall, the first swine flu case in Mexico didn’t emerge until way after “flu season” is normally over.  It appeared in mid-March, 2009, and the mixture of human-avian-swine viruses was considered to be quite an anomaly and not likely to occur through natural mutation, says Dr. Mercola.

Jane says Baxter International, through W.H.O.,  then sent 72 grams (an enormous amount of virus!) of the so-called “Swine Flu” virus to a lab in Austria, (where Jane lives) and then the Austrian Lab sent some on to the Czech Republic. Both labs were to begin making Swine Flu vaccine for Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany and other nearby countries.

Luckily, an alert Czech scientist investigated the sample and outed the scheme. He found the virus was not the natural Swine Flu version, instead he found the MAN-MADE, gene-spliced irregular virus!

Baxter now only owns up saying ‘It was a contaminated batch’. But, now we know. But who’s going to stop the Juggernaut?

Baxter International’s starter virus would have been made into “vaccine” to kill off everyone on Austria, Czechoslovakia and beyond, except only the strongest and fittest, maybe.

___   Jane Burgermeister has filed court suits in Austria and has given the American FBI her information. Three parts of the Austrian government are responding. Not surprisingly, the FBI is not. Nothing new there.

She is encouraging citizens everywhere to file criminal charges against those in their countries in charge, as they have been derelict in their elected duty to perform their job with their citizen’s well-being foremost. Her site has the legal papers to file, and to file for injunctions to get the Courts to stop the vaccination campaigns, too!

___   Another permutation of this scenario is that nano-technology exists to have radio chips tiny enough to be injected by needles. Learn more about this RFID technology, and some say these chips have been stockpiled to be used in the vaccine, in order to track the survivors, later, in a Brave New World. I hope not!

One commenter on Dr. Rebecca Carly, MD’s blog stated: “One of my clients, whose husband owns a medical supply company, called me today to tell me that he received a call from a government agent informing him that it is ILLEGAL for him to sell any syringes or needles to be used for the H1N1 shot, as the government has chosen one company to supply them (Em: obviously because the needle will be preloaded with the RFID chip).”

So, now you have some of the basic facts, I’ll leave you to learn more at the links in the Reference section, below.

Meanwhile, I’ll explain what I am trying to do to protect my family and myself. Please consult with your physician. This is not medical advice, but it’s based on the reading I have done from responsible sources.

My family and I have bought and are using the following natural supplements to boost immunity or will be using masks if needed, later:

___   NIOSH approved medical face-masks N95, made by 3M as a particulant respirator mask. These are the most-affordable good masks. Get them now. They sell out in emergencies!

___   at least 2000 mg of Vitamin D3 a day. Dr. Mercola says you can take 30,000 units of Vitamin D a day for 3 days (only), if you get sick with the virus. Clinically, the 2,000 -5,000 mg level was shown to be effective with regular seasonal influenza viruses, depending on your starting Vitamin D levels. If you are not out in the sun much, with lots of skin exposed or if you are elderly, your levels are likely to be low.

___   200 mcg of selenium

___   125 mg of L.Glutathione,  up to 4 times a day or what you can afford to take. I take it at least once a day, at this point.

___   Milk Thistle extract, to help your liver — which is your detoxification organ.

___   Alpha Lipoic Acid 100 mg,  1-3 times a day

___  N-acetyl Cysteine (NAC) as on the bottle

___   Biotin 600 mcg

___   Hyland’s BioPlasma cell salts 7  under tongue, without touching them (tip them into the cap, then into your mouth), up to 3 times a day – 20 minutes of no eating or drinking, before or after.

___   Ester-C a very gentle on the intestinal tract form of Vitamin C. It is chelated as calcium ascorbate, making it easily absorbed. up to 2,000mg (work up to this dose, over a couple of weeks if you are not used to taking much Vitamin C).

___   Vitamin E, as Mixed d-alpha tocopherols. Use Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids, too, from cold-water fish or from molecularly-distilled fish oil.

___   Quercitin – 235 mg

___   Kyolic Garlic capsules or Olive Leaf Extract, if needed. Both of these are natural antibiotics. Those on Warfarin or Coumadin blood-thinning regimen should use Olive Leaf, with your doctor’s blessing, as garlic in supplemented amounts,  is also a blood-thinner.

___   Chelated alkaline minerals: calcium, magnesium and potassium — if your doctor says your kidneys are healthy. Get forms with  ___ate for example calcium ascorbate, magnesium gluconate. That shows they are chelated and most absorbed.

___   Co-enzyme Q10 200mg if you can afford it, otherwise 100mg. Get these especially if you are on ___statin drugs.

Also, ask your doctor what to do about weaning off your drugs if you can no longer get them due to civil emergency. Scaling down and not going off them “cold-turkey” is really important for some drugs, especially blood pressure medications like Atenalol.

Ask your doctor about practical substitutes for your drugs in emergencies, and get as much of a supply of your medications as you are allowed and can afford.

As Dr. Carly, MD says: ” Pharmageddon can only occur if most of roll up our sleeve” (or let them use FluMist on us). Fight this!

With all that in mind, let’s pray that this worst-case scenario is not what comes to pass — but rather that this has been based on Greed. But, even if that is the reason, the campaigns need to be stopped!

So, get crackin’! Make it happen, and spread the word!

Best Regards,

Em

REFERENCES:
Dr. Mercola – Swine Flu — Why You Should NOT Vaccinate Your Children Against the Flu This SEason

Dr. Mercola – Journalist Accuses W.H.O. of Plan to Commit Mass Murder

Dr. Kent Holtorf -
Infectious Disease Expert Worries About the Swine Flu Vaccine

Lou Rockwell

More Lou Rockwell

Jane Burgermeister’s official blog

Jane Burgermeister’s back-up blog

Dr. Carley’s blog

VIDEOS:

Jane Burgermeister Part 4 Interview is helpful – start here and then others.

Jane Burgermeister Part 5 Continue to watch, only the others in series.

Barbara Loe Fisher – NVIC non-profit advocate

Jane Burgermeister Part 1

Jane Burgermeister – Part 2

Jane Burgermeister Part 3

Another Jane Burgermeister 4 part series – from Dr. Carly

Ray Madsen

Dr. Mercola – 9 Natural Ways to Prevent Flus

(c)2009 Em at http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com

If you want to quote from or use my article, please ask for permission beforehand by writing to me at the About Me tab, above, Thanks.

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Diabetic July 4th Alert – Guy Fawkes, too

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“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)

Well, thanks to Providence, we are all here and OK after fire hit our row of arborvitae trees. More about this and why it should concern you, for July 4th, Guy Fawkes and EVERYDAY, follows, as a cautionary tale!

Life’s little adventures are meant to be shared so we all profit from the lessons learned. I appreciate being here today to relate my lessons and warnings, for sure! There was no guarantee that we would have the wonderful outcome that saw us through this adversity. Luckily, when this happened, it was daylight.

The word I want you to get in time for tomorrow, and every fireworks night after this is the following:

1) ___   supervise your children and use good judgment, yourself! This is the third neighborhood fire I have had in in 40 years which involved people sending off illegal rockets. The first nearly totaled a home about 6 away from us about 33 years ago. Next, was about 4 years ago, when it hit our back-yard neighbor (whose home was really close!). We were out of town, and couldn’t have saved anything, if it had jumped to our home. Then within last week, it finally came to our home.

2) ___ Our neighbor, Tom, saw the fire as he left for work, and it was only about 1 foot high, in the arborvitae needles, and a garden hose could no longer put it out, once he had told his wife to call 911 and get a nearby garden hose to return to use!

The whole row of trees shot flames into the air that were more than 20 feet tall, and  flames raced the length of the planting, straight to our closest point, in less than 4 minutes. The first engine took 10 minutes from Carol’s first call to get there and then the firemen were amazing at how fast they got hoses off the truck, connected and started to hose the fire, but by then, the cedar roof of Tom’s garage was well involved.

3) ___ I had called in a second emergency when the roof  ignited, for I knew that it could be a sustained source for fire, and at the widest, our homes are only about 12 feet apart. The first engine had not yet arrived, and I could see our home going next and Tom’s other neighbor (who also has a cedar roof) would follow fast!  In the end, they sent about 7 fire engines and a paramedic crew, but people with fires on July 4th will be lucky if anyone arrives in time, as crews will be spread thin! So, you likely WILL have to defend your own home.

As the fire raced down the line of trees, it came within 7 feet of our home; burned all the siding over 3 stories and it sent toxic gases and soot all around.

The heat of the fire also impacted the area of the main electric panel (see tagged photo above) and main gas line so there will be lots to check out when the walls are opened up more.

Within less than an hour, more crews were out — utilities,  damage-control, investigators, inspectors. There’s been a solid line of visits, for days, even without the insurance adjusters from all the companies etc etc.

4) ___ The fire investigators come over FAST, for their initial inspection and come again later! Tom, another neighbor, said he had heard fireworks many times the previous night, and all we can guess is that an ember from one of their careless and illegal rockets landed in the duff; proceeded over hours to grow, and finally reached true flash-point among a row of trees which are naturally laden with copious amounts of resin.

The fire inspectors noted that the heat of the fire came our way, due to the winds, but that did not stop one or more sparks making it ‘against the wind’ to ignite Tom’s quickly-flammable wood roof.

Arborvitae’s resin is like natural gasoline, and even though the line of trees was being constantly watered, and leaves were green, these plants are dangerous, and should not be sold. If you have arborvitae in your yard, remove them, as we are doing for the row on one other property line!

5) ___ Our roof is fire-resistant composite tile (not as good as the slate-style concrete tile of the home we built and lived in, for 20 years, to protect us from Mt. St. Helen’s eruption ignition); but, this time, the thinner tile bought us enough time that the fire department were there before our roof took off. Even fire-resistant roofs will ignite, if enough time and or temperature. If you have a wood roof, make sure you wet it down well for July 4th and when its time to replace it, consider something more fire-resistant. And, check everything on your property before you go to sleep.

6) ___   When Tom came to tell us there was a fire, which he could not put out, Rob dashed to see what was going on and ran back to tell me to get my Mum and I out of the house, immediately! We had one minute to start to leave and 2 minutes to accomplish it, if that! We only did it OK in that time because I got my Mum started downstairs, at her best-pace, (she’s handicapped), while I took the moment to grab her always-packed bag of meds and my photos which are set-up as an escape album (it’s a careful variety of our memories).

Mum went out to the front porch to sit, where the firemen could pick her up fast, if she needed to be further away from the house. She sat there for about 2  1/2 hours, with her meds and our most-precious memories at her side, until we had an all-clear, after all of Tom’s roof was removed; and the remaining structure was sprayed with fire retardent foam.

The inspectors told us how to watch for any flare-ups (which had happened many hours later in the first neighborhood fire I told you about, above). And, they sent a fireman with a heat-sensing infra-red gun in to search all the interior walls near the fire, from inside our home. That machine is SO sensitive, it even picks up your footprints, even when you are wearing shoes. There’s still enough “heat” coming through your soles! If he’d “said” that, I’d have wondered, but I saw our footprints on his screen!

So, we felt comfortable that our walls had nearly been breeched but were safe. We watched for re-emergence of embers, but they had hosed the area well to try to protect us from that eventuality.

7) So, to coalesce all this —  DO the following:

___ Wet down your roof and all your garden plants and tree foliage well, in time for July 4th., even starting today and keeping it up until the day after the fireworks (after all, “our” ember incubated overnight!).  Preferably stay home; you’ll be the one who defends your home that night!

___  Have a satchel or back-pack with a week’s current doses of your meds always packed and ready to grab. Use them last, and replace with each new batch of prescriptions. Keep your meter etc. there too, or have a second one packed. Include shelf-stable snacks in there, too, as you won’t be able to easily find food or water during the chaos of the emergency.

___   Have a quick-grab satchel of your valuables — in my case, I chose photos and camera photo cards. I left all other valuables, but have them documented in an inventory — written and photo — to leave in your safe-deposit box! If you haven’t done this, DO IT NOW!

___   Make sure your smoke-detectors work and that you have them in each bedroom, halls and kitchen, as well as garage. It’s always recommended to sleep with bedroom doors closed.  Preferably have both kinds of detectors. Most units only detect one kind of fire, but you need both kinds. As I am hearing-impaired, I also have a special strobe-light smoke-detector (which requires an electrician), but it would have saved me. Have both battery operated and in house-electrical units.

Many home-improvement centers only carry one type of sensing unit — I can’t remember if it’s the type that only senses smoke or the one that senses heat. There used to be dual units, and I’m hoping there still are (even though they are more expensive, you NEED both kinds, so why not in just one unit).

After all the TV crews left us, within days, in the state capital, another home went up after someone tossed a still-burning cigarette onto the wood porch — the single Mom inside never heard a smoke detector, and luckily her neighbors came to save her via the back door. She hadn’t realized her home was already fully engulfed. She must have had the wrong kind of smoke detector for the type of fire, I guess. That’s why you need both types of detector!

___   Another thing the firemen told us: get an envelope (preferably red — use Valentines Day left-overs!), and attach it to the window next to your front door or on the window of the door. On the side you see from the outside, write “For Fire Only!” Inside the envelope: put a diagram of your home’s floor plan and mark all rooms where people sleep and highlight and describe where babies and children sleep as well as handicapped people. Mark the room “handicapped person”, “baby”, “2 toddlers” etc.

He said they are trained to look for that envelope and it may make the difference between them finding your baby in the smoke or getting someone out with time enough to be able to survive smoke inhalation!

___   you should also have a family escape plan, which you practice with your children, and they need to be taught to feel their closed door, before ever opening it and know where to meet outside. If you have a multi-story dwelling, each bedroom needs its own fire-escape metal, collapsible ladder to hang out the window.

___   start looking online for lists of fire-resistant plants. FEMA and many local authorities have lists ready for your area. Take down the hazardous plants and replace them with better ones, but all plants require care — water and pruning to help keep you safe! The plants near our siding helped deflect the heat, and protected the walls, at the distances involved for us. I expect the plants will die, but I appreciate that they were well cared for; were safe types which “bought” us Time — the most valuable gift in a fire.

___  since our fire, we have been looking to see road edges, vacant lots, ill-cared for gardens or commercial property etc. in the journey between our home and our kid’s home, and we were amazed at how much the counties involved have not used their (short) staffs to cite these land owners. Call the owners out yourself. The emergency information says grass should be no more than 2 inches high, anywhere!

___   have a hose already on a tap ready-to-go on every side of your home. If Tom’s hose had been ready, he might have been able to douse it in time. Once he couldn’t, he should have used the hose to start wetting his roof, but I think he went inside to get his wife and her “stuff”. Everyone makes choices, but him wetting the roof would have protected us all better.

Anyway, I hope at least some of you will act on this! And, if you only see this after the holiday, then still DO these steps!

Best to all — Em

Please read more in my archive at the Titles Tab on the upper navigation bar.

(c)2009 Em http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com

If you want to use the photos, quote from or use my articles, please contact me for permission via About Me tab, above. Thanks.

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