My dear cousin Bob is a deacon in NY, USA. Here’s a beautiful story Bob shared with me earlier today.
Here’s a true story that occurred yesterday:

After Mass, the Priest and Deacon usually go to the door of the church and greet those leaving. Yesterday, I was doing that when a family approached. Father, Mother, two daughters (about 8 and 5). I know the family.

I heard the Mother whisper to the 8-yr-old: “ask him.”

The girl looked shyly at me but said nothing. So the Mother said a bit more loudly “Go ahead, ask him.”

The girl looked at me and asked: “Are you a veteran?”

I replied, “I served in the Army but it wasn’t war-time. Does that make me a veteran”

The girl looked at her Mother questioningly and the Mother nodded her head “yes”.

The girl reached out her hand to me and said “Thank you.”

Thank you to all those who have served our country. Your sacrifice and dedication is incredible. At Lucid Practice, it’s our hope that this type of gratitude is present on all days, not just Veterans Day.

How to Store Fresh Herbs During Winter

No one likes paying $3-4 USD for herbs in the winter. And most of us prefer not to buy and consume herbs that have traveled thousands of miles in the back of a truck or bottom of a boat before reaching us. And if you’re like us you might have the “problem” of an overabundance of herbs in your garden at the end of harvest season. What’s one to do with an herb surplus when temperatures reach 35 degrees Farenheit (1 degree Celcius)? Well, this is a good problem to have. You have a few options:

• Dig the plants out of the garden, place them securely in a pot and bring them inside until next season
• Freeze your remaining crop and tap into your fresh herbs all winter
• A combination of both options

The first option of digging the plants out and bringing them inside requires careful transporting and a window with a lot of light. This option often results in a quick death (~1 month) of your herbs and a high electricity bill.

How Can I Store Fresh Herbs During Winter?

As for the second option, you wrap your garden fresh parsley in a sealable plastic bag, effectively forming a “parsley stick.” Be sure to remove as much air from the bags as possible. Whenever needed, you can remove the frozen parsley sticks.

Here are pictures of me washing, storing, and freezing a “parsley stick.”

Fresh Picked Italian Parsley from our garden

Washed Parsley

Remove as much air from bag as possible before sealing

Place Parsley in Freezer

Whenever you’re ready to use the parsley, remove it from the bag and cut your desired portion from your parsley stick and put the remainder back in the freezer for later use.

Another method is what I like to call “parsley popsicles.” Fill an ice tray with parsley and add water on top. A good ratio is 90% parsley and 10% water. You essentially create “parsley popsicles.” When you’re ready to use the herbs, just pop the ice cubes out of the tray and let them melt or pop the cubes right into a soup or stew. Thank you to our friend Gerri for the tip on this method. She’s been gardening for years and effectively uses the parsley popsicle method each year.

Parsley Cubes, Image via Rebecca Moss Gardening

So what approach will we take? We’re going to freeze most of our parsley, mint, and rosemary but we’ll also keep a portion of it alive in a pot inside. For new gardeners, it’s important to experiment. Experiment (whether failed experiment or not) is the best teacher. We’ll keep you posted on our progress. 🙂

Note: It’s best to use frozen parsley in dishes that are independent in the aesthetic aspects of parsley. In other words, use frozen parsley in stews, shakes, soups and marinades but do not use as a garnish since it doesnt look as beautiful as fresh parsley.

All of these options present viable winter season options for organic, local, low cost, home grown herbs, as opposed to store bought mystery herbs. The same method can be applied to other herbs such as cilantro, rosemary, thyme, and mint. Happy storing! 🙂

What are some of your successes, failures, and adventures you’ve had in your garden while preparing for the winter?

The Connection Between Ashtanga Yoga Student and Teacher

I had the fortune of being an Ashtanga Yoga student at Jois Yoga in Greenwich before it closed recently. Two aspects that stood out at Jois were:

• Universal respect for the traditional yoga practice
• High degree of respect/reverence for the teachers

Sarath and Saraswathi Jois at Jois Yoga in Greenwich, CT

Most of the practitioners I befriended seemed to be extremely dedicated and well read. They followed Krishnamacharya/Pattabhi Jois guidelines such as:

• Practice Mysore Style Ashtanga each day (ideally first thing in the AM) with practice beginning at the same time each day
• Practice asana every day except Saturdays
• Follow the eight limbed path, live by the yamas and niyamas
• Teacher Led Ashtanga Primary Series on Fridays
• No asana practice on Full Moon or New Moon Days (click here to find out why)
• Practice mostly with one teacher and form an intimate student/teacher bond

The final bullet point on the list stood out to me the most. One of the students made a gift in the form of a Sanskrit mantra on a slab of wood for her teacher.

The Sanskrit yoga mantra translates to read:

Let us together be protected

Let us together be nourished and blessed

Let us together join our mental forces in strength for the benefit of all

Let our efforts be luminous and joyful

May there be no discord between us

Let there be peace in all realms

This mantra comes from the Jois family and is featured in Sharath Jois’ book (see book review here). This gift from student to teacher speaks volumes to the impact that the teacher has had on her life.

It’s a touching piece that beautifully articulates the importance of a harmonious relationship between the student and the teacher. The mantra also speaks to peace (in the final line) in a broader context, which I think is a beautiful intention. If you identify with this mantra, you’ll probably enjoy this version of the Ashtanga Yoga Opening Mantra.

If there’s been an important yoga teacher that you’ve had in your life, consider reaching out to him or her and express your feelings. A gesture like this can go a long way.

Has there been a specific teacher in your life who has had a profound impact on you? We’d love to hear your story 🙂

Compost Tea as a Fertilizer

We experimented with our own version of compost tea this summer. It happened organically (haha 😉 ) when a tub of our compost (mostly banana & orange peels) started to form liquid nutrients at the bottom. Upon researching this topic, it turns out that compost tea is a well known method for growing and protecting an organic garden. In fact, compost tea making companies and centers have started to sprout up in the US on the west coast.

Our Compost Tea

Side Note: Notice that we have several pieces of newspaper built into this compost tub. The reason is that the newspaper provides carbon and prevents our compost from growing mold. Eventually the newspaper decomposes and it too becomes part of the soil.

After a couple days of letting the organic liquid accumulate inside the tub, we poured the compost tea into the soil surrounding one of our kale plants. Our rationale was that providing liquid nutrients directly to a plant’s root system will help it grow. Thus we’d create a natural way of improving taste, quality, and yields.

As humans wash down supplements with water to increase absorption, we did the same with the compost tea and kale plant, giving the area ample water to let the compost tea seep into the roots. Three weeks later, we could see a noticeable difference in growth.

We added compost tea to the soil surrounding the second plant in from the left:

Little did we know that the effectiveness of compost tea is a widely debated topic in the organic gardening community. Some believe this to be an effective practice for growth and insect repelling while others believe its effectiveness is overstated.

Research is well underway in determining answers to these questions and our readers might ask where we stand on the issue. We’re firm believers in the belief that the quality of the soil is strongly correlated with the quality of the food grown. We can only speak to the above experiment and as you can see the kale plant we fertilized with compost tea absolutely flourished (as did the entire row compared to the row behind it.)

Two months later, the plant that we applied compost tea is still the biggest yielder:

We’re far from experts on this topic but felt that this experiment was worth sharing with our readers. Before embarking on the compost tea journey, be sure to research the safest and most prudent way to do so but also beware of outlets trying to sell aquatic pumps and all sorts of unnecessary gadgets.

Have any of you used compost tea in your garden? What have your experiences been like?

Pumpkin Spice Chia Pudding

We’ve talked about the benefits of adding chia seeds to your diet in earlier posts.

Dry Chia Seeds

Here’s a quick, fun, healthy recipe that Danielle and I often make:

Pumpkin Spice Chia Pudding

1 Cup of Raw Chia Seeds

1 1/2 Cup Almond Milk (or coconut milk)

1/2 Chopped Banana

2 Teaspoons Cinnamon

2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger

2 Teaspoons of Nutmeg

2 Teaspoons of Organic Raw Local Honey

Combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

**The primary ingredients are necessary, they are: Chia seeds and Almond Milk. The recipe will work even if you don’t have one or two of the exact secondary ingredients.

Our Premixed Chia Pudding

Mix all ingredients and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. If you’ve ever eaten chia seeds, then you know about their tendency to expand once combined with fluids. Accordingly, you’ll notice that the volume of your pudding will have doubled during your 30 minute wait. Enjoy 🙂

This can easily serve two people unless one is a former American football player. 😉

Thanks to Culinary Colleen for the awesome dry chia seeds image at the top of this page. Check out her blog for interesting food photographs, unique restaurants, info on catering, and much more.

Key Lessons from Lao Tzu Poem

Danielle made this card for me over the summer at a time when I was working probably “too hard” on a few projects.

The card features a beautiful poem by Lao Tzu:

Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm at the end
as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.

I’ve referred to this poem often over the past few months when I felt myself grasping for control of projects.  Any time you’re feeling stressed with work, with a relationship, or any other situation, read this poem. It brings calmness and helps us surrender.

Earlier this week, I discussed this poem with a few friends I love and respect. Each person provided insights as to how the poem speaks to them. We came up with several key takeaways from this poem:

6 Key Lessons from Lao Tzu Poem

• Trees don’t rush, they still grow. Water doesn’t rush, it still flows. We are like nature, rushing is not needed.
• Help other people see themselves as light and love.
• Relinquish control and surrender to God and/or the Universe. (Thank you for this one, my dear friend, PM)
• Clinging to current and/or future possessions (money, objects, ideas) leads to unneeded suffering.
• Be open minded and humble with what you think you know
• Once you realize there is a larger force at work, you can be at peace.

How does this poem speak to you?