Oatmeal is simply hands-down one of the healthiest foods you can eat. It is high in fiber and has no fat and sugar, and you can buy it for pennies.  It is easy to digest and has a hearty flavor. Many a cold winter morning Mom would make a pan of oatmeal to start the day right. She always said, “Hot oatmeal will stick to your ribs,” and se was right. It would keep away the hungries for hours. Whether winter or summer, oatmeal is always a welcoming way to start the day.

Little did we know that oatmeal was actually health food in disguise! According to the American Cancer Society oatmeal has lots of healthy nutrients, including protein, vitamin E, zinc, copper, selenium and magnesium to name a few. It lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol, fights heart disease and has cancer-inhibiting nutrients too.

Another reason oatmeal is outstanding is the value-added accents that enhance its flavor. Milk with fresh blueberries, strawberries, raisins and chopped apples are favorites in our house. For those with a diehard sweet tooth a teaspoon of sugar sprinkled over the top brings it to life. But to really get it going try a small lump of brown sugar with its deep, rich, complex flavor! Finally if your palette is finely tuned, try a couple of tablespoons of Vermont maple syrup after stirring in the milk. The delicate flavor of the syrup and the hearty goodness of the oatmeal are unforgettable! Now THAT is quality food.

Recipe:

Bring 2 cups of water to boil (adding oats when water is heating gives the oatmeal finer consistency)

Add 1 cup oatmeal (I buy organic in bulk at my local Coop).

For quick oats bring to a boil and cover for 5 minutes. For old-fashioned oats, lightly boil the oats for 5 minutes. Cover, set for 5 minutes.

Do you have your own oatmeal recipe variation? We’d love to hear about it below.

Be sure and check out our other healthy recipes in our Foodies category.

Nestled on a south-facing hillside farm in Tinmouth, Vermont July 16th, 17th an 18th check out Solarfest.

What is Solarfest? It is impossible to describe in a paragraph or even a blog post. In one word: wellness. If I had to put it in a nutshell I would say Solarfest is the Northeast’s premier renewable energy and arts festival—a three-day, family-friendly festival that combines world-class entertainment with not-to-be-missed workshops in renewable energy, sustainability and community engagement.

A small slice of what I found last year includes artists, performers, vendors,activists, yoga, incredible local food (my personal favorites were the solar-powered slushies and American Flatbread pizza), and tent sites for all who want space, and ‘drumming’ into the wee hours of the morning! What will you find at Solarfest? These short videos sum it up. Enjoy!

Image: Glenn Fay

Why did the chicken cross the road? It is commonly known that chicken litter, an organic fertilizer, is a better soil conditioner than synthetic fertilizers, but no one has been able to quantify it and assign a number to the value of that benefit. Aparently chicken litter rules the roost when it comes to high quality fertilizer, according to a recent Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study.

ARS agronomist Haile Tewolde along with a team from Mississippi State University and Bowling Green, Kentucky found that cotton yields fluffed up 12 percent higher with organic fertilizers, compared to peak yields with synthetic fertilizers. When the researchers kept pecking away at the data, with all benefits factored in, they found that chicken litter has a value of about $78 a ton, compared to $61 a ton, without the benefits factored in. (more…)

Image: ruiqing, flickr

What is your favorite potato recipe? French fries? MacDonald’s fries? Home-made hand-cut fries at home? Late night fries with vinegar or ketchup? Most people can’t pass up french fries – the yummy crunchy salty flavor seems almost addictive. But let’s face it, there are plenty of downsides including risks for heart disease, high blood pressure, and gaining weight. Donna and I have a solution to the downside risks without compromising the great potato flavor and seasoning.

Meet healthy home fries. A quickie prep and leftovers can be easily stored for future breakfast or side orders. We like rew red potatoes as they are sweet and tender. They can include salt, pepper, garlic, dill or other spices to suit your taste. And they only cost pennies to make. (more…)

My son recently arrived home for part of the summer, to spending and book money, visit friends, and enjoy R&R from the busy life of a college student. Each break when he comes home is a swirl of 20 years of memories of a baby who has now become a man, negotiating the world and learning how it all works. No reunion would be complete for me without some time outdoors together to catch up on where we are in life.

And so off we went to the country- which isn’t very far if you live in a place like Vermont. There are very few moments in life more satisfying than tromping through the woods with your son and hearing all about his new adventures. And of course the camera is there to record images of the place and time.

This is a set of photos taken during the past year that show four seasons in Vermont. They may be pretty enough to frame as landscape art. You can buy Glenn’s Vermont landscape photos as a set of beautiful note cards from the LoveEarthAlways store here: Vermont Scenery Note cards.

Buy this beautiful set of note cards from the LoveEarthAlways store here: Vermont Scenery note cards.

Water Is The New Oil

Image: Lake Champlain, glennfay36, flickr

Did you know, according to  NASA that 97.5% of the Earth’s water is too salty and less than 1 % is drinkable?. This is kind of scary, knowing how much water we use and how we depend on water for survival. And drinkable water is becoming scarcer worldwide for several reasons. (more…)

What’s That In Your Potatoes?

As I sit down to my barbecue chicken dinner with baked potatoes and broccoli I don’t think twice about the leftover pesticides I am eating. My potatoes, chicken and broccoli don’t look any different do they? And as far as most people are concerned, out of site, out of mind. But on the nanoscopic level, there are chemicals that linger longer than we would want.

A common pesticide in use since the 1950′s, endosulfan, has just been banned by the EPA, even as about 1.4 million pounds of it are used in the US every year. Although endosulfan is volatile and accumulates in fatty tissues there is no proof yet that it is a threat in food. But it does ‘migrate’ long distances in the atmosphere and is found in some human breast milk and in drinking water. The EPA has decided to ban the use of endosulfan due to unacceptable neurological and reproductive risks to farm workers and wildlife.

(more…)

Scanning for Champ, the Lake Champlain Monster on a relatively calm day.

Vermonters are already wondering if Champ, the legendary monster of Lake Champlain, will make an appearance this season as the lake warms from freezing to a comfortable 72 degrees. Since the lake’s namesake, French explorer Samuel deChamplain reported a 20 foot serpent, with a horse-shaped head and a keg-thick body during his explorations in 1609, dozens of people have people have spotted a large animal in the lake.

In 1819, near Port Henry, New York the second sighting of a large unidentified animal happened. Another sighting occurred in 1873 when a railroad construction crew saw an enormous serpent heading their way from the opposite shore. The crew actually ran away, not knowing if it meant to do them harm. Apparently the animal submerged and disappeared. (more…)

One of the magical aspects of spring in the woods of Vermont are the spring wildflowers that pop out of the ground, in places even before the mud seems to be fully thawed. They are hardy little beauties and they can expect to be blasted by late frosts, cold rains and even snowfalls before their flowering cycle is done. With all due respect to these delicate little starlets I should know all of their names but I confess I do not. I admire them for their courage and beauty and not as much for a common name that someone before us suggested.

This is the White Trillium, one of the first flowers to appear, with 3 leaves and three flowers. After a few weeks they white flower morphs into a pale pink shade. There is also a deep red Trillium variety.

These are unmistakably Wild Strawberries. I know because when I was about 12, I stayed with my grandmother at her family cottage and we picked wild strawberries for an hour or so, then made strawberry shortcake, with Gram’s homemade biscuits, butter and of course whipped cream on top. The Wild Strawberry explodes with the deepest flavor and is about 10 times more flavorful than even native garden-grown strawberries. YUM! Thank you Gram! The berries, which come in mid-June, are about the size of a medium blueberry.

These delicate flowers seem to seem to personify perfection in a small package. They are known as Forget-Me-Nots. This photo was taken on a very windy day and it was difficult to get a high quality shot.

Blood Root was used for body paint by Native Americans and also used by early settlers to cure cancer, sore throats, warts, fungus and ringworm. The FDA has approved the root for use in toothpaste as an anti-bacterial and anti-plaque agent.

These flowers are Myrtle, also known as Periwinkle, some of the earliest and hardiest flowers to be found in the north country spring. The day I took this photo it was 45 degrees and windy!

Is it the Buttercup or Evening Primrose or Marsh Marigold, or none of the above? It is small and golden yellow. A little help here- can you confirm what it is?