Celebrating 40 Years - #EarthDay, Part II

This post is dedicated to a new friend and partner in a like-minded business: cherishing and preserving one's health - Leslie Kirchmeier with Hallelujah Acres in Fallbrook, CA. I found her while reading the newspaper, "Good News, etc". She has a health column. Eight months ago I asked to be added to her email distribution list for her culinary classes. She offers evening and morning classes, weekend and 5 and 10 day retreats. She is a Certified Raw Food Chef.  I've been wanting to attend one of her evening classes since last October and just this week I attended one. We made Rawvioli, Ceasar Salad and Coconut Cream Pie. All vegan foods! Wow! My palette was amazed - taste buds were soaring heights they've never soared before. 

I am relatively new to the Vegan approach. I went to my first Raw Foods Meetup in February and was hooked ever since. I'm not a Vegan. I am actually considering the Flexitarian Lifestyle - a term coined by Michael Pollan, where I eat meat dishes from time to time and I'm considering only fish. 

Back to Leslie though. So I asked her in March if she would want to serve as one of my guest speakers for an Earth Day inspired wellness talk. I asked her if she could demonstrate a Vegan dish and she chose Spaghetti with Marinara. At the talk, she addressed the importance of eating whole, living foods. 

I asked her to return for my wellness talk this month focusing on Pregnancy Health. I asked her if she could share some baby food preparation recipes and give the new moms some viable options of what nutritious foods to eat that are easy to prepare, serve and eat. 

Leslie's personal testimony:

Ten years ago I was diagnosed with cancer, and after enduring traditional medical treatments I was given 1-5 years to live.  It was at that time I changed my diet and lifestyle to a plant based diet and healed my body from cancer.  I have been passionate about teaching the good news of health for the past eight years and was the owner of a Lifestyle Center in Fallbrook where we taught people hands-on how to heal themselves.  I am very concerned for the upcoming generations being raised on processed, chemical laden food and look forward to sharing my knowledge with others.  ~ Leslie Kirchmeier, Health Minister 

Items used in the demonstration:

Vitamix 5200

Spiral Slicer

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Celebrating 40 Years - #EarthDay, Part I

For my health and wellness home business, I held an Earth Day inspired talk on April 22nd titled: "Taking It Back to Nature" - ('It' was for "Health & Wellness"). 

The event was sponsored by my business and I discussed the importance of eating whole foods. I also provided a sample of a whole food supplement that I wholeheartedly endorse and am proud to represent. 

I prepared tri-fold flyers for all the guests addressing 40 years of celebrating Earth Day and how we can reduce our carbon footprint along with other helpful links on avoiding plastics,"green" toys, where to find a CSA, 'eating right', among many others. 

For Part I of this posting series, I am going to share with you some verbiage (borrowed, permission granted) from my first guest speaker, Jan Tucker, owner and president of White Lotus Living:

"Yes, I am looking to educate people, but also to offer safe products (not containing harmful chemicals) to get more people in the habit of using only the safe ones. If people stop buying from companies that use harmful chemicals, manufacturers will be forced to get on board and produce only safe products (another major theme of a presentation I give).

Before I started White Lotus Living, I noticed there were many places I could go to get info about the topic of harmful chemicals. However, when I went to do something about it ... namely to replace the products in my home with safer ones, there was a real lack of info to help me do that practically. I started White Lotus as a one-stop-shop where people could come and feel safe about what they buy from my shelves. It's a practical solution for busy people who can't take the time to scour the landscape for safe products themselves.

There are a number of manufacturers whose policies won't let them produce products that rank higher than 2 or 3 out of 10 on the Cosmetics Safety Database (lower ratings are better) ... it may be strict, but those are the only ones available at [my online store]. I'd prefer not to contribute to a company that isn't being conscientious toward this important cause. Again, it emphasizes the fact that manufacturers will go where the money is ... if we buy only safe, they'll make only safe!"

She put on a nice presentation that discussed how many chemicals (ingredients) the FDA has banned in the U.S. --- 10, and that our philosophy here is "we must prove that the ingredient is Harmful, before we can remove it". Whereas in the EU, over 1800 ingredients have been banned because their philosophy is the direct opposite of ours: "we must first prove that the ingredient is Safe". Ridiculous isn't it?

Above, Jan said something that has stuck with me and that is she will not purchase any product that scores higher than a 2 on the Cosmetic Database. She said some product brands like Burt's Bees (just an example of the many out there) where many of their products are a 2 or less but they also manufacture other products that score a lot higher. She said she will not "support" businesses who aren't consistent across the board. Why create a few products that are "natural" but yet offer different ones that are harmful to the skin? She has strict protocols in place to pick the "cream of the crop" and real, natural skin / personal care products for her business with White Lotus Living. There are some personal items that she's researching to replace what she is using currently, like shaving gel.

Her website was unveiled at this wellness talk. Support a female-owned business and help teach these "natural" manufacturers a lesson by spending dollars with businesses that are truly organic, or natural, or in her words, beyond green!

In my part II of celebrating Earth Day - 40 years, I will cover my second guest speaker, Leslie Kirchmeier. 

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Beginnings in #Nutrition #Awareness

Over a year ago, I became interested in eating well in order to live well. Over the last twelve months, I have gone from just being aware of bad food choices to actually making healthy food choices and then educating others on how to do the same. I'm plugged into a supportive network through the Dr. Sears Family and that's what has really opened my eyes to a lot out there but, I want to take it a step further and actually help people in their journeys that are right here in my community. 

What did it take in your wellness journey to transform you? 

Dairy Farm Tour - DeJong's, Wildomar, CA

I attended a tour at De Jong’s (pronounced de young’s) Dairy Farm in Wildomar, Riverside County, California. They are the only true dairy farm in the area. What I mean by “true” is that they milk the cows there, bottled the milk and sell it from their property. They do not have the organic label on their products due to the expense behind the label but I believe they are as close as you can get without the fancy label. 

They have large 2 pens that keep 36 cows at a time. The big dairies have 150 cows or more in each pen. They feed the cows hay and grains twice a day and in the cooler months of the year provide fresh water twice a day. In the hotter months, they are provided water three times a day. Any cow that is sick and on antibiotics is removed from being milked until they’re 100% well - about 8 days. They milk the cows twice a week – Mondays and Thursdays (and twice a day). Each day yields between 1500 and 2000 containers of milk. They said that their water bill each month is $8,800!  

The company has been in business since the early 60s. They are a family owned business and do not have a website but I found an article about their business through a local newspaper and you can learn more facts about this place. 

Their cows life span is on average 9 years. One cow they had was 15. She gave them 13 babies. The cows must be pregnant every year to keep up the milk supply. The owners have not bought a cow in 30 years!

If you are ever in the area, it’s worth visiting. They only offer tours in the cooler months of the year because as you can imagine when the heat comes the smells … well you get the picture. They are open 7-days a week, 12 hours from 8a to 8p. They are open every day of the year - there are no holidays off.  Call ahead for their hours before visiting. 

Their whole fat milk also comes in chocolate. They don’t use Hershey syrup but rather real cocoa. They take the fat from the cow’s milk and add it to the chocolate milk so you can imagine how yummy it is and should be drank in moderation, of course. They also sell 2% milk in chocolate.

Have you ever been? Please leave a comment and share your experience.