Ordinarily, I have a therapeutic, lofty or otherwise brainy reason for a food choice. This time, however, I just wanted some carby goodness.

Blah blah blah about how stinging nettles are a mineral-rich herbal delight growing freely as a weed which cure a myriad of complaints. Yeah, its diuretic, astringent and a blood building hormone balancer. Just check Wikipedia. Whatever.

Honestly, this time I was just thinking about how good stinging nettles would be cooked with garlic and onions and rolled into handcut noodles, then slathered in the precious sour cream I knew we had in the cabin and sprinkled with the Three Stone walnuts which had been originally ferreted away as an emergency snack for the kid.

Everyone else seemed to have their own response to the concept.

This is Dad: “You’re eating WHAT?! Doesn’t that stuff sting? Honestly, Sri. There are grocery stores.”

Dad, its like sauteed spinach, only way tastier. Dad, it is my husband’s favorite pizza topper. Dad, I read that this lady suggests topping it with eggs and I can’t even deal with how good that sounds. This is a veggie-that’s-an-herb-that’s-a-veggie; its ridic, Dad.

This is Lil’ Huck: “Let’s go sting ourselves AGAIN!”

Yes, of course I egged my kid on until he would touch the stinging hairs on the undersides of the leaves. I urged him to do it until he overcame his fear. Then, we quickly chewed up plantain leaves and spat the hasty poultice onto our sores. The pain subsided. Magic which involves parentally-condoned spitting? Win and win.

Have you tried this before? Are you too chicken? Or, maybe you don’t have nettles around? Sure you do. I’ve personally seen it on three continents and I wasn’t even trying. Look by the creekside or in the forest. Failing those places, check the web. Once some lady on craigstlist.com offering her roadside nettle bounty for free to whomever had gloves and a free Saturday to collect it.

Here’s how you do it. The recipe is easy and forgiving. I’ve provided an easy sauce using what I had in the cabin. Its not gourmet or anything, but it was yummy and no one would know better. That said, don’t feel compelled to make a trip to the store to make this cheater cream sauce. Butter and salt and maybe some sauteed garlic and you’re done, if you want.

Rachel from Clean’s Beet Ravioli Recipe provided the template for the dough. I took it from there, improvising with what I had.

Harvesting and Cooking Stinging Nettles

Look near rivers and creeks, roadsides and forests. Use only the freshest, brighter green tips, the top cluster of leaves or so. Below that can be fibrous. (Wear gloves or cover hands with a dish towel. Sometimes I just let myself get stung. It isn’t all that bad. In fact, the presence of formic acid can be medicinal for arthritic conditions.)

Rinse in cool water. Steam-stirfry with a clove of smashed garlic in a tiny bit of water (no oil) over medium heat, covered. It will cook down like spinach. Discard garlic or reserve for sauce and chop nettle finely.

(P.S. Optionally, stop here. This alone makes a delicious side dish.)

Stinging Nettle Pasta

Combine 1 cup of chopped cooked nettles, drained, with 2 eggs.

Mix 2 1/2 C flour with 1 tsp salt. Make a well in the center of the flour and add nettle mixture. Stir and knead (adding extra flour as needed) until well combined and no longer sticky. Cover with a damp towel and allow to rest for 1/2 hour.

Roll out and cut into desired shape. Sprinkle well with flour if you don’t intend to use it right away.

Cook until tender in boiling water. Drain, reserving some liquid for the sauce.

Easy Sauce:
Saute diced onion in a nonstick frying pan. Add minced garlic reserved from cooking the nettle. Add cooked pasta and stir in approximately 1 cup sour cream. Thin the sauce as desired with starchy pasta water. Salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with walnuts. Serve immediately.

It’s hot. They are bored.

Oh, those kids.

“No, child. You cannot watch tv.”

Think fast. They need something to do. Something low tech, cuz you’re not in the mood to have a big messy ordeal.

Painting with water.

Thanks to mom for this idea. I have fond memories sitting on the patio out back when it was sweltering-hot back in Virginia. Out there with a plate of water and the paintbrushes. It was so hot, I remember watching the line I was drawing literally evaporate before I had finished drawing it. The fade was fascinating and I know now that it gave mom 20 minutes. It’s not so hot out here, but it’s keeping lil Huck occupied for sure.

There’s more than just cooking going on in the kitchen. We’re reading, too.

This is what lil’ Huck was up to while I was getting breakfast on the table: One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes.

We pretended the beans were ants. Get it? The dish towel with the banana and peach? That’s the picnic blanket. That’s where the ants are headed, first in one row of 100, then two rows of 50, etc.

Of course, we started with 10 to get the concept going before we went for it with the full 100.

Huck is way into numbers. He is always asking me to count to 1000 with him, sometimes to infinity. We usually count to 100 instead.

I know: slacker mom.

I guess I’m going to file this as a parenting post. After all, we’re trying to raise a well-rounded, community-oriented, grounded-yet-spiritual individual around here.

But I admit, I’m bragging a bit with this one.

First, this picture:

Is my little Huck Finn look-a-like darling?

So, that’s what was happening in the breakfast nook. ‘Huck’ and I and the microscope we dug out of the garage on a lazy, sunny Sunday afternoon. Kind of heaven. (Ok, bragging.)

Meanwhile, hubs over here is across the room chopping about a million heads of homegrown cabbage to whip up some kraut like in the mother country. (I warned you in advance about the bragging.) Then, 5 minutes after I took the above picture, hubs cuts his finger. It’s deep. Not as if he cut it off, but I’m kind of a knife snob, so you know it was sharp. Think through-the-nail-and-then-some kind of deep.

He had to be hurting.

What does he say? This is my man, right? He says, “Ow, *#%^!” Obviously.

But then, “Quick, grab the slide! I gotta put a drop of blood on there so we can look at it under the microscope!”

Braggable. No?

Anyway, happy almost anniversary, babe. The last five years have been real.

I am frequently approached for information about how to start infants with solid foods. While there are a variety of books about making your own baby foods and different food mills and devices and recipes available, I think keeping things as simple as possible is the best thing for a busy, young family.

Make it easy, keep it real (real foods, that is): this is the foundation to giving your child lifelong healthy tastes.

When our son was starting solids, we believed it was important not only to recognize the latest in research on allergies, but also focus on digestible food combinations, the same way that we ourselves do in consideration of Ayurvedic principles. I didn’t want to give the usual first foods that were offered to my generation, which were principally carby warm cereals like rice porridge; I didn’t want my child to develop a habit of reaching for the sweet taste too preferentially so early in life. After all, although breastmilk is quite sweet, it is balanced with protein and fat in a way that rice cereal is not.

The Traditional Signs

We first offered solids when our son showed the traditional signs:

• he was over 6 months old,
• had broken his first tooth,
• and showed interest in eating.

When I say “interest in eating,” I mean he would watch us eat intently and excitedly. His little eyes would follow the fork as I loaded it up and brought it to my mouth and back as if he were watching Agassi at the US Open. He would reach out and grab the utensils. He would teeth on a spoon. He would drool and hunger not just to eat, but to get involved with the fun and exciting mealtime ritual.

The first foods were mashed or pureed root vegetables. Not white potatoes (which are too vata-provoking and may cause gas). We stayed on the side of carrots, sweet potatoes, taro, parsnip, celery root, squash (which is obviously not a root, but still). Sometimes to add some protein, I would offer homemade bone broth separately or mix it into the mashed roots.

After a few weeks of this (really not long) we saw that he was doing fine with eating. Call me crazy, but I was already getting tired of separate meal prep. We have a rule in the house: no special interest eating groups. (I’m kidding. Sorta.) Besides, his bounding enthusiasm for inclusion in the social aspect of family mealtimes was an ongoing good sign. So, we gave him bits of our dinner, straight from–well, not exactly our plates, but our mouths. Actually, just mine. It is supposed to be from just the Mom’s, according to traditional lore.

The “Mama Bird” Method

I’m not sure how modern dentistry views this old approach*, but I first saw what I can only refer to as the “mama bird method” when I was out for dim sum when I was 6 months pregnant. We were sitting across from a new family who spoke only Chinese. The mother mimed that the baby boy in her lap was 6 months old. She would eat a little herself and then, offer baby some by basically taking a bite of veggies and meat and noodle and chewing it and the spitting it back on the chopsticks and giving it to the baby. A bite for her, then a bite for him. A very pleasant family outing. He looked like a little prince there in Mama’s lap, facing the table, pleased to be able to pretend to be grownup and do and eat and sit as the grownups did around him.

I did it and it worked very well. A dear friend who grew up in Romania says that they feed children the mama bird way in her homeland. Another friend of Mexican decent says that the Mamas and Grandmamas from Mexico fed babies this way, too.

Anyway, I checked in about it with Liu Ming, our favorite local Orthodox Daoist teacher in Oakland who is a specialist in the realm of nutritional, traditional eating, who gave me the huge thumbs up to being your child’s own food processor. To condense what he said, he basically thought that when parents ignore a child’s desire to grow up and eat real food, they do it a disservice.  He also okayed a wide variety of food relatively soon after introducing food. Obviously, he meant in proper combinations and real food forms (fresh, homecooked, warm, balanced, combined using the basic tenets of Ayurveda or TCM and some understanding of season and personal constitution). Oh, and the whole root veggies thing that we started with was partly what Dharmanidhi trained us about in the Ayurveda apprenticeship. So, basically, props to Ming, Dharmanidhi and Nam Singh–they are my inspiration and basis of my training in most food-as-medicine approaches. Since kids are people, too, the specifics for infants and children are really few.

The way I see it, this kind of approach is ideal for most normal, healthy kids. Obviously, if you are concerned about an allergy, you can introduce foods one at a time and even sticking to that food for some time (a cycle of several poops, for instance) so that you can easily trace any potential reaction directly to the food source. My nephew has extreme and life-threatening food allergies, so I’ve seen the horrors of food allergies and it is really no joke. There is definitely value in taking a progressive step-by-step introduction of food substances in cases like his. Still, in his case as in many like his, there were many signs of sensitivity long before he got a taste of solid food (usually seen on the skin if not also in the diaper, the behavior, etc.) that guide how you would offer solids. Listen if your doctor is concerned and use your intuition.  For our family, a one-by-one introduction of food substances was luckily not necessary.

I think the main benefit to our more old world approach (regardless of whether you will actually chew for your kid or not) is that the child learns to eat and accept and even like a wide variety if tastes (provided that you include them in your diet). Your kid WILL pick up your food habits.

We now have a 3.5 year old whose only food preference is not liking tomatoes. That’s it. And that preference only emerged a few months ago. Yes, there were mild food struggles here and there that we guided him through, and really most of those issues were really about him trying to use food to press our boundaries and see where he was with us. But, by and large the kid will chow on anything: sauerkraut, olives, bitter greens, all manner of veggie and meat. He eats unsweetened yogurt just fine. I don’t have to hide greens in a smoothie. I don’t have to beg him to eat or negotiate or bribe. His proper eating habits and varied tastes are absolutely natural, but every bit trained. It is convenient for me and also one of the best gifts for lifelong health that we could have given our child.

*Note: Ok, I fibbed. Actually, I have read something about what modern dentistry thinks about spit swapping with your kid, whether from mama bird feeding practices or whatever other reason your slobber might get mixed with theirs. I can’t find the research, so I hesitate with this, but basically what I remember is that babies end up with the bacteria present in mom’s mouths no matter what, but not dad’s. So, you want to limit the introduction of different strains of bacteria so as to prevent future gum disease later in life. Therefore, it is better for children to share a cup with mom, but not as much with dad and grandma, etc.

Birth is more than just the labor. It is more than the first day of a mother’s relationship with her child. It is the beginning of a much larger process: motherhood is not something that a woman gives to just her child; it is a capacity that opens within her to serve the whole world.

The weeks (and months) of physical and emotional adjustment after the gross birth experience, however, is helpful to stabilizing this capacity. A protected, supported postnatal period is essential to having a relaxed and healthy mama and baby. A new mom is a very, very, busy person, but she may be busy in a different way than she was before she was a mom. Instead of running around with a big to-do list or killing it at her career, you’ll see her with her mind and heart tirelessly occupied with her child’s needs. It may look like she is quietly sitting for long stretches with baby, puttering about the house for a few minutes here, resting there. Still, she is ever alert to her new child and building intimacy with him. The sleep deprivation is intense and what looks very “chill” may not feel that way to her.

The most important thing for the family and community to remember around a new mom is that she has very little opportunity to do anything for herself. She is there for baby alone. She only has the opportunity to adjust her reaction to what is happening around her as she cannot control her environment herself or go get what she needs. This puts it on the family around her to create a safe and sacred space for her in which she can thrive.

Herbs help. Proper foods help. Relieving her of anything you can so she can do something for herself really helps.

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The “Ayurvedic Guidelines for Postpartum Health” document below is meant to help the family plan the right orientation around the birth and postnatal period. It is meant to help the family understand how they can contribute to an environment that will protect the mother from external stresses and allow her to heal from labor and delivery. If the new mom knows her Ayurvedic constitution and understands the season in relation to it, it will help tremendously. The more smooth and relaxed the environment, the better mother and baby will be able to adjust and the best bond will be created between mother and child.

Consider posting the following “Ayurvedic Guidelines for Postpartum Health” document on the fridge. Share it with family and friends who will be an integral part of the first stage of baby’s life.

Women are power. No act reminds us of this more than birth.

Surrendering to the chaos of labor and then pushing a child through is an incredibly empowering experience. We can help new mothers reveal this as a powerful transformation and successfully integrate it into their lives by offering life-affirming midwives and natural birthing options and protecting the postnatal period as a sacred window with proper support, nutrition and herbal support.

Demedicalized Childbirth: Supporting Women as they Embrace Nature

In 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for the demedicalization of childbirth due to the increase in unnecessary interference with the natural process of birth related to the advance of modern medicine.

Statistics show that medical interventions at birth tend to snowball, leading to further interventions. This makes it difficult for a woman to have the natural birth she planned, while increasing the chances for complications with nursing and general healing that frequently come with drugs usually employed in the hospital birthing process. While we can be truly grateful for lifesaving medical technology when it is applied appropriately, natural childbirth is clearly safer and therefore preferable for most normal births. In a culture where natural childbirth is less common and homebirth can seem extreme, how can we support women to embrace nature?

Birth–and death, for that matter–used to be a common and visible part of daily life right in our homes. Simply by proximity, we as a culture used to know what to expect with birth and the postnatal period. Mamas and sisters and aunties and nieces were there and ready to help out with the familiar territory of birth. Men knew their roles and provided a supportive and respectful space for women. This is in sharp contrast to today’s cultural landscape, where we often don’t see the full range of life anymore. The birthing and dying and eschewed away to the doctor’s domain and labor and birth is depicted as an emergency situation on TV ranging from the Cosby Show all the way to ER. It has bred a kind of pervasive, cultural fear where it seems only the “experts” have the answers about grounded, real-life womens issues–not just at birth, but also in the healing period afterward.

Even outside of the doctor’s office, new moms today are often expected to adjust to their new role as Mommy largely on their own; this compounds the problem. Cut off from a living women’s tradition of community support and with the office demanding Daddy and possibly even Mommy back at work ASAP, the modern world refuses to make space. To make matters worse, women often feel that their experience is unique and therefore irrelevant to other women–from the medical particulars of their birth to the individual family situation and beyond–and therefore moms might not readily talk about their experiences with other women, especially those who are not moms themselves. It all adds up to making having a baby in today’s culture often isolating and strange, even in liberal enclaves where lip service is given to community support but where people actually live quite separately from one another. What’s worse, it also robs women of their inherent power.

This is why it is critical that we offer women safe, natural, life-affirming birthing environments whenever possible, rather than fear-driven ones. After that, it is essential to provide a loving and supportive postpartum environment in which she may recover and integrate her birth experience, whether she was able to have her child naturally or not. Expectant women can help themselves by creating thoughtful birth plans for Labor Day and informing those they are close to of their wishes. For the postpartum period, they can teach their friends and family to stock their kitchen with nutritious foods-as-medicines like bone broths and teas to promote healing and a good, basic home herbal pharmacy with simple, safe herbs for lactation support and to combat baby blues. A postpartum choice growing in popularity is to take a retreat and media fast for mom, dad, new baby and siblings only, with only the very closest best friend, caregiving family member or postpartum doula entering the home to help with meal preparation and cleaning.

What Does This Mean?

If a woman trusts that she can birth naturally, a woman trusts that she can meet any challenge in raising that baby–and in fact, many women report after birth that they believe that they can do anything. When a woman is allowed to stand in the power of her birth, she can stand in the power of her life. The cultural implications of that statement are staggering.

When a woman is empowered by the full, natural birth process, she is biochemically, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually better equipped to make the bond with her child that can lead to a deeper bond with humanity. In birthing a child, it is possible recognize the tear between this world and that: from Dao to one, one to two and so on. When she can intimately connect with this new child which only a few minutes, days or weeks ago was the stuff of her own body, her own being, and now is literally ‘other,’ she has the opportunity to dissolve the very sense of separation that we feel with all others–the family, the community, and beyond.

Properly framed, birth is a spiritual act. Not a medical one.

A mask? A spacesuit? A hermitage? Let’s re-evaluate.

The recent swine flu outbreaks are a wonderful reminder of the fragility and precious nature of life. Every day brings opportunities to honor the gift of life and the everpresence of death.

How? The answer is in our conduct. When we nurture ourselves with the appropriate daily habits in food, rest, exercise and relationships, we boost our life force and are able to relax more deeply into our natural place in the larger web of life. This is the best thing we can do to enhance our ojas, our immunity. Working from this place, what can we do with all of the hysteria surrounding the swine flu? We can commit, yet again, to our dinacharya–our daily health practices.

What Can I Take?*

Yes. Of course. Boost your immunity. Take natural, preventative measures.

Vitamin D has been shown in studies to prevent or at least minimize influenza in particular. I have seen recommended dosages ranging from 2,000 IU up to 10,000 IU.

Banyan Botanicals makes a nice formula called Immune Support, which can be taken on and off for two week periods. (Don’t stay on your immune boosting herbs constantly, but stagger them instead.) The Echinacea and Osha contained in this formula are excellent immune enhancing herbs. According the legendary herbalist Michael Moore, Osha was famous as a remedy throughout Northern California in treating the Spanish Flu during in the 1920′s.

Alternatively, use Astragalus and Echinacea together. Astragalus is another herb with antiviral properties and is found in the classic Chinese formula Jade Wind Screen which is easy to find in many herbal shops. Put that with Echinacea and you’ll have a pretty great combination.

Another good one is Yin Chiao Echinacea Complex, a nice formula by Planet Herbs. It has both Echinacea and Boneset (also antiviral) as well as Elecampane (to benefit lungs). Take this if you think you’re coming down with flu-like symptoms. This one and the Jade Screen can be taken together. In fact, I think Planet Herbs makes a Jade Screen that is glycerine-based that kids like.

As a more general recommendation, I can’t stress the importance of Vitamin C and Cod Liver Oil and probiotics for maintaining general balance in the body. Vitamin C is an antioxidant which is necessary for basic maintenance. Omega-3′s in Cod Liver Oil are necessary for the proper balance of fats, functioning of the nervous system, and lubrication of tissues. Probiotics help your gut efficiently and effectively digest, absorb and assimilate nutrients. Remember, according to Ayurveda, *all* disease originates in the digestive system so healthy GI flora is foundational to good general health.

What Can I Do?

With this as with any influenza, do your part to minimize the spread of the pathogen. Wash your hands. Cover your mouth with you cough or sneeze. I have seen that it is recommended to wear a mask if you are traveling. But, don’t forget that a ‘bug’ needs an imbalanced host in order to do its mischief. That means that if your channels are gunked up with ama, your mind is bogged down by stress, your bloodstream riddled with free-radicals, then your entire system is already under duress. Avoid congesting foods like cheese, alcohol and fried or processed foods. Do not depress your immune system with sweets.

Equally bear in mind the importance of reducing stress. Having good, home cooked food as well as the appropriate, rest and exercise for your dosha goes a long way to unwind subconscious tension. Pursue natural health care such as massage, acupuncture, Ayurveda and chiropractic care.

Meditate. Or pray. Or both.

But do this: eliminate fear. Follow your bliss. Find your niche and live it proudly. This is the main thing you can do to tonify your ojas.

*Please remember that these are all just suggestions and it is prudent to check with your doctor before embarking on any herbal course or change in lifestyle or diet.