Chili Peppers: Pleasure & Pain

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Chili Peppers: Pleasure & Pain

On November 3, 2014 · Add Comment

Many of us, who can handle and who enjoy the heat, love chili peppers for the way they can enhance the flavors of our food. But if we look a little further into a chili pepper’s unique repertoire, you can see that in some ways – the chili pepper embodies the very nature of the Yin and Yang symbol. Not only can they function as a medicine but they can also be used as a weapon (pepper spray used for self defense, during riots, so on.) Read

by Jill Blakeway and Noah Rubinstein

Varieties of Kale for Every Meal

On September 11, 2014 · Add Comment

Kale is definitely one of our favorite vegetables. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it is a culinary and nutritional workhorse in our garden, and we use it for everything from juicing to making chips for snacks. Best of all, we are able to get it in the ground and growing early. Kale is a “cut and come again” vegetable so we just pick what we need and it keeps growing. It is also very hardy so it keeps going until well past the first frost when nothing much else is still producing. Kale actually thrives as the temperature drops and the cold seems to make the flavor richer. Read

by Jill Blakeway and Noah Rubinstein

Five Healing Herbs you can Grow on your Kitchen Windowsill

On February 18, 2014 · Add Comment

Growing a small herb garden on a sunny windowsill means you’ll be able to snip some herbs as you need them to cook. Many culinary herbs also have medicinal benefits, so you can make them into healing teas, tinctures, salves and washes. Thyme, sage and mint make an excellent cough syrup when mixed with ginger and honey, for example. Here’s my top five culinary herbs that are also medicinal and easy to grow indoors. Read

by Jonathan Welch, Contributing Editor

What do I do with All These Gourds?

On November 11, 2013 · Add Comment

Here we are, smack in the middle of pumpkin season, and you’re probably finding yourself knee-deep in festive orange, gold and green displays all over your home or apartment. I’m the same way. I love a good gourd, but good GOURD what do I do with all of them after Thanksgiving ends and Christmas or Hanukkah comes comes around?

I went searching for ideas, and I think you should know the possibilities are endless. Read

by Jill Blakeway and Noah Rubinstein

Grow a kale plant in your apartment

On September 22, 2013 · Add Comment

I think it’s fair to say that we at YinOva have a hefty kale habit. We juice it, we steam it and one of us was even caught chopping it into her oatmeal. We’re particularly fond of kale chips, which satisfy our cravings for something salty and crunchy without having to resort to potato chips. Read

by Carlin Greenstein

Eating for your Fertility Type: Dry

On April 9, 2013 · Add Comment

The characteristic qualities for the Dry type are lowered estrogen levels, dehydration, internal heat, hyperthyroidism and a need for follicle building. To build internal moisture, Jill suggests 40% fruits and vegetables, 40% complex carbohydrates, 10% legumes and vegetable protein and 10% animal protein. Read

by Jill Blakeway, M.S. L. Ac.

It’s apple picking time

On October 23, 2011 · Add Comment

I love the rhythms of the country and the way the passage of time is marked by the fruit Pears

s and vegetables we grow and the foods weeat. I look forward to each crop from the early summer peas and beans to the autumn pumpkins and squashes. However, nothing generates more excitement in our house than the apple harvest and recently Noah and I took advantage of a sunny fall day to pick enough apples and pears to last us through the winter.

In Chinese medicine both apples and pears are considered to be cooling and moistening and are used medicinally to treat inflammation and dryness. Modern scientific research seems to agree with the old adage that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” because various studies have shown that apples can protect women from osteoporosis and breast cancer whilst also preventing asthma and lowering cholesterol. Pears meanwhile can treat a sore throat, reduce inflammation, boost the immune system and lower blood pressure.
We spent a happy afternoon pi Apple Picking

cking the fruit and arrived home tired and in the mood for an apple crumble and some home-made pear juice. Suitably fortified, we set about preserving the rest of the fruit for later use. We canned the pears in spiced red wine and the apples in syrup to be used as pie filling and talked about how happy we will be to open these jars during a freezing New York winter and briefly recapture the autumn sunshine.

Canning is daunting the first time you do it, but it’s actually very simple and it makes economic sense to use fruits when they are plentiful and cheap and preserve them to eat the rest of the year. Our grandmas did this because they had to and I’m happy to carry on the tradition and even pass it on to the next generation. My daughter Emma has inherited a passion for preserving and is an enthusiastic jam maker. You can read her favorite jam recipe here.

Apple or Pear Crumble

Ingredients:

Topping
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts eg. walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds (or a mixture of all three)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar (or 1/3 cup of date sugar, if you are avoiding processed sugars)
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour (or gluten free bake mix, if you are avoiding gluten)

Filling
5 tablespoons canola oil
3 1/2 pounds ripe pears or apples, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons lemon juice.
Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Prepare the topping by combining the oats, nuts, brown sugar and flour (or gluten free bake mix) in a medium bowl.
Stir in the oil and mix until all the topping ingredients are moist.
Prepare the filling by combining the pears, maple syrup, cardamom, raisins (or dried cranberries), cornflour and lemon juice into a large pie dish. Mix well.
Sprinkle the topping over the pears.
Bake the crumble for 45 minutes. The pears should be soft, the juices should be bubbling and the crumble topping should be golden and crisp.
Take the crumble out of the oven. Ideally it should stand for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to develop but this never happens in our household where everyone digs in the minute the crumble is ready.