Claire

Americans know they are the greatest people of the greatest nation on earth. They may not know it innately but they are told from their very early years and they internalize this truth at a very early age. They tell themselves this constantly and they tell each other just as constantly. It is the air that they breathe and the water they drink. 

It is so obviously undeniably true that it seems like the world must be made up of 2 kinds of people: Americans and people who wish they were Americans. I mean why wouldn’t everyone else want to be American? They are the greatest people in the world. Everybody agrees. Everybody says so. Except . . . Canadians.

Canada is a conundrum in this respect. Here are people who live close by. Who are more like Americans than any other people on earth. Who speak the same language and share many of the same cultural traits. People who should know how great America is and how great it is to be American and yet  . . . and yet they don’t. Or maybe they just won’t admit it.

Canadians don’t want to be Americans. This is perplexing. Of all the people in the world they should be the most envious; the  most desirous of all the blessings of being American and yet they are not. They are not Americans and they seem to be quite happy about it. They are happy to not be Americans. And they are all kinds of other things things just as improbable, and suspicious. 

They are polite. They take pains to be polite and inoffensive. How weird is that? They are polite, helpful, and hospitable. In 2001 when the World Trade Center went down, Gander Newfoundland, a town with a population of just over 11,000, took in 6,600 stranded travellers from 38 American planes for 6 days and asked nothing in return.

They take care of each other too. They have free health care. They all pay so that even the poorest Canadians can go to a doctor any time they want. No one in Canada goes bankrupt because of medical expenses. No on has to start a Go Fund Me if they break a bone. Medical care for everyone comes out of their taxes and they are okay with it.

They believe in fair play. It was a Canadian, Brad Katsuyama, who figured out that high speed trading had effectively created a rigged Wall Street stock market. Rather than using the system to his own advantage, Katsuyama, an advocate for fair trading, set up a new Wall Street trading platform that simply eliminates the problem.

And yet for all of that they are deadly in war and fierce in defence of their sovereignty. The last time (first, last, and only time) the USA invaded Canada (The War of 1812) they came and burnt the Whitehouse down and then went home! 

They are incomprehensible. They don’t want to be Americans. They’ve never wanted to be Americans. During the Revolutionary War Canada, a British colony, was the refuge of the United Empire Loyalists. Canada was made of people who left the newly independent states because they didn't want to be Americans. 

They don’t want to be Americans at all.
They never have.
And they are happy about it.

Black Lives Matter

No Human is illegal

Love is Love

Faith is real

What lives matters

No law is human

Talk is talk.

… or …

Science is religion

Colours are constructs

Law is not morality

TSW

… or …

Wotan is real

The ring matters

No opera is a put on

Wagner is Wagner

Cthulhu is Real

Eldritch Lives Matter

No Shoggoth is Illegal

Madness is Madness

Peak oil is real

Resource limits matter

No civilization is immortal

Decline is decline

In This House We Believe
Philosophy Begins In Wonder
The Soul Is the Form of the Body
A Friend Is Another Self
Metaphysics Is Real
Virtue Is Everything

Tautologies are tautological

Philosophy begins with Love

Wisdom recognizes its ignorance

The Truth is beyond mans understanding

But ideas can still be useful

In this narrow house we believe

*Undead lives matter

*The blood is the life

*Science is what the Master says

*Freedom is obedience

*Don’t buy the lie: not all must die

*They travel fast who travel with the dead.

In this house we believe

Bigfoot is real

I am going to kiss him

He will be my lover

I will be the little spoon

Me and Bigfoot will f***

And you can’t stop us

 In this house we believe that:
simplistic platitudes
trite tautologies
and semantically overloaded aphorisms
are poor substitutes
for respectful and rational discussions
about complex issues.

In this house we believe

Trump won the debate against David Muir

Kamala Harris was a terrible moderator

In this house we believe

Whatever Mama says

Go on

Ask her

Politely

I’ve had the Cobb cooker (https://mycobb.ca/) for close to 3 months now but I haven’t cooked on it very much. We have a solar oven, we’ve had for several years now, and it really is our go to cooking method when it’s sunny. 

I’m not an experienced barbecue/grill cook. I briefly had a hibachi grill in the late 1990’s. Other than quite a bit of campfire cooking, I’ve only cooked with electric stoves and small appliances. Not many of recipes in my repertoire are a good match for cooking with charcoal. 

Charcoal starts with a blast of high heat that has a long slow cool down. There is no easy way to control or adjust the heat. Figuring out how to use that pattern has been a challenge for me. It’s been difficult to find information for using it to cook the way I do, i.e., starting with ingredients rather than packaged food. I would appreciate any tips or recipes anyone wants to share.

The Cobb isn’t really a grill or a barbecue although you can certainly do both with it. It has a grill rack and a shallow teflon frying pan as well as a deep dish stainless steel frying pan/wok and a non-stick cake pan for baking. So far I’ve mostly used the deep dish frying pan for cooking and the cake pan for quick bread.

What I’ve learned so far:

1. Use much more charcoal than you think you need. Charcoal is a relatively affordable fuel. For longer cooking, add more charcoal as soon as the fuel is well started and you are ready to cook. It’s fairly easy to add charcoal while cooking but it’s difficult to judge when to add it to make sure it catches. I expect I will become a better judge of how much I need in time. Note: As long as it’s not “self lighting”* spent charcoal can be added to compost or dumped directly into a garden bed.
2. Have all ingredients completely defrosted and close to room temperature. Cooking with the lid off really drops the temperature of the cooking surface (see point 1 above), using partially thawed food without being able to crank the heat as you can do on an electric stove drops the temperature even further and slows down the cooking drastically.  
3. Give yourself some flexibility on when dinner will be served. There’s a reason why barbecues tend to be social events with everyone sitting around drinking and chatting. The cooker needs constant attendance (this will also likely be less of an issue as I become more experienced) and timing depends on too many variables (outdoor temperature, wind, cloud cover, volume of fuel etc) to really be predicable.
4. When baking,  follow recommended baking times and monitor it closely. Putting the baking in right away, when the charcoal is hot, can get the bottom and sides cooked more than you’d want. As far as I can tell this is due to the fact that, unlike an electric oven, it’s strictly bottom heat. I haven’t yet tried baking with the residual heat after I’ve cooked something else. That will be my next experiment.

For now the solar oven will still probably be our preferred outdoor cooking method in sunny weather. It’s not as flexible as the Cobb but it can be set up and left to cook while we do other things. It only needs periodic checks and adjustment.  

The Cobb is a redundancy that will allow me to cook outdoors in cloudy weather and in power outages which typically occur during the winter when it’s rainy and overcast. The variety of cooking styles possible on the Cobb are also appealing. Expanding my cooking repertoire is always inspiring. Cooking can get boringly repetitive sometimes. I haven’t yet tried “potjie”, a traditional African method of making one pot meals that seems to be well suited to cooking with charcoal.

A question on JMG’ covid open post about how to address bird flu using herbs and alternative health practices started me on a series of posts about the basic practices for building and maintaining a strong immune system. Having finished my musings on food, I was going to moving on to water this week but a few comments on the Covid open post https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/287066.html?thread=49752922#cmt49752922 has made me decide to shift gears a bit and talk about the immune system. 

To be clear this is for those of us who glaze over when the conversation shifts to IgG4 and ACE receptors. It’s a simplified overview of how it works and what it needs to do. If you have better information or can offer a clearer explanation of anything I mention I’m happy to refine my understanding. Please share it in the comments.

A couple of points before I begin. First, I don’t like mechanist and militarist metaphors for the living world but I do use them. They work because they take systems that are mind bogglingly complex and reduce them to simple ideas that are easy to express. They are metaphors not realistic descriptions. 

Second, it is impossible to actually separate the “immune system” from the “digestive system” or the “circulatory system” of any of the other systems that contribute to the functionality of a living body. This separation is entirely artificial. It’s another way to simplify talking about a complex, interrelated, and indivisible whole. 

Many other organs and systems are involved in maintaining good immune function. All the body surfaces inside and out have ways of defending us against pathogens, allergens, and parasites. The digestive system keeps pathogens and incompletely digested food particles that trigger the allergy response out. The lungs and sinuses physically trap pathogens in mucus and coughs and sneezes get them out. The  muscles, bones, and thymus are involved in producing immune cells. The liver, the blood  . . . it goes on and on.

Fighting off pathogens, that is, mounting a defence against infection, is only the immune system's most obvious function. It also responds to external damage like cuts and scrapes or burns. It controls the inflammation response in sprains and strains and other soft tissue injuries. It mops up and disposes of cells, including immune cells, that have been damaged by toxins or pathogens. 

Immune cells constantly circulate through the blood to every part of the body looking for viruses, parasites, and body cells gone wrong. They signal other specialized immune cells to come and deal with the problems and they signal when the problem is solved and the special forces can be dispersed. Immune cells remember invaders and can match newer versions of common pathogens to the older profiles for a quicker response.

The high toxic loads we carry means there are little fires everywhere. The toxins themselves need be neutralized and eliminated. The damaged cells need to be destroyed and the toxins released in this process must be mopped up, neutralized, and eliminated. Then the neighbouring cells must be evaluated for damage and processed if necessary.

The sheer volume of xenotoxins we have to deal with on a daily basis creates havoc in our bodies (literally; many are hormone disruptors) and reduces the effectiveness of our immune response. The signals become confused because there is so much going on; inflammation doesn’t resolve and becomes chronic; things that should get attention are missed and pre-cancerous cells are able to proliferate; or the immune system becomes hyper-reactive and starts attacking healthy cells. In this chaotic situation the resources available to fight off infective agents are reduced; the immune response is sluggish and poorly coordinated.

Clean water and foods are important firstly, because we want to minimize the toxins coming into the system. Secondly, good food provides the valuable micronutrient resources needed for all these operations and water plays a central role in the process of detoxification. 

The liver is the central processing unit for all substances coming into the body and a variety of micronutrients are needed to keep the system going. Anything that comes through the intestinal tract is conveyed to the liver via the bloodstream. The liver produces glutathione from specific micronutrients. The sulphur rich amino-acids cysteine and methionine and the mineral selenium are essential here. Glutathione is our main internal antioxidant (we produce it rather than getting it from food.) It protects our cells from being damaged by a variety of toxic substances. The liver also makes “decisions” about what to do with toxins that need to be processed.

The process of detoxification has two phases. In Phase 1 water and specific micronutrients are used to break down the toxins. In Phase 2  they are bound to other specific nutrients in order to neutralize them. This is why water fasting is dicey in the modern world. Water supports Phase 1, the break down of toxins, but some of the chemicals produced are even more reactive and dangerous than the original toxin. Without the glutathione to protect the surrounding body cells and the additional nutrients needed to neutralize these toxic by products (Phase 2) and extra support for elimination you can make yourself quite sick. 

The other issue is that many of the most dangerous and difficult toxins are fat based not water based. Some xenotoxins  are impossible to deal with effectively especially if elimination is sluggish. They get packed into lipids and stored in body fat. Persistent belly fat that just will not respond to diet and exercise programmes likely contains toxins that are easier to store than process. Body fat that is storing toxins is the absolute last resort for energy demands.

There are four ways to get the toxins out: the bowels, the urinary tract; the skin; and the lungs. The role of water in the urinary system is obvious. The kidneys specialize in filtering water, water soluble toxins, and excess minerals out of the blood and accumulating them in the bladder for elimination. Kidney stones form when there isn’t enough water to keep the minerals in solution. They can result from excess mineral consumption, chronic dehydration, or poor kidney function. Nettle and parsley, mentioned in my posts on superfoods are good sources of minerals and kidney tonics. Both are very safe herbs for daily use and prevention.

The bowels are the main elimination channel for fat-soluble toxins. The lower bowel reabsorbs the water from food wastes. Any water soluble toxins that haven’t been fully processed are send back into the blood stream for a second pass through the system. Insufficient hydration or lack of dietary fibre can slow bowel transit time, increasing the possible reabsorption of fat soluble toxins as well as giving parasites a chance to take hold.

Parasites are a drain on the system and they contribute the toxic by-products of their own metabolism into the system. Hot peppers, native to S. America have become ubiquitous in cookery throughout the tropics in the last few hundred years because they provide an adaptive advantage in reducing parasites. The capsaicin in hot peppers is anti-parasitic and eating them increases bowel transit time decreasing the chances that parasites will be able to settle in. If you live in the world, even if you aren’t anywhere in the tropics or sub tropics, you likely have parasites.

The lungs and skin are a secondary pathways for eliminating toxins. (More about lungs in the post on Fresh Air.) The skin is capable of both absorbing and excreting toxins and sweat is unique in conveying both water based and fat based substances out of the body. Chronic acne that persists beyond the hormone rollercoaster of puberty, or affects the back and arms as well as the face, persistent body odour, and bad breath are all signs of toxic of overload and/or sluggish elimination.

One more comment on skin and sweat. If you wear synthetic exercise clothes, it’s a good practice to strip them off as quickly as you can once you’ve finished your workout. Like pesticides and herbicides, the plastics in clothing  are hormone disruptors. You body heat speeds up the outgassing of these xenotoxins from the clothes and the open pores on your skin will readily absorb them as you cool down. 

So that’s it. We live in toxic soup. Doing the best you can to avoid additional toxins and supporting your body’s natural detoxification processes is one of the ways maintain a high functioning immunity, increase your resistance to infective agents, and free up resources for your immune defences. 

Next time, water.

1) The chlorophyll alone would earn Leafy Greens a place on this list. (If you haven’t seen the short video clip Scotlyn linked in the comments of last post check it out.) But chlorophyll is extremely fragile and leaves are packed with antioxidants to protect it. When it breaks down the green fades and you can see the yellow or red  pigments underneath. 

The ratio of surface area to volume tracks the nutritional value of foods very well. Kale is more nutritious than broccoli for example (apparently broccoli leaves are the most nutritious part!) Eat them fresh or lightly cooked. Light cooking can make some leafy greens more digestible and some nutrients more bioavailable. Avoid overcooking, when veggies go grey the chlorophyll has broken down and you’ve lost the antioxidants too.

2) Kale usually tops the list of nutrient dense veggies. Like parsley and nettle, it’s a great antidote to a SAD diet. The whole Cabbage Family is a powerhouse of nutrition that goes far beyond the green. The white in cabbage and cauliflower is another antioxidant flavonoid, more stable and with similar benefits to the other colours. 

The cabbage family contains a group of powerful anti-cancer chemicals called sulforaphanes. Sulforphanes, like other anti-oxidants, are part of the plant’s defence mechanisms. They are the source of that distinctive cabbage odour and they are activated and released when the plant is damaged. Chopping, chewing, or massaging (as is done for kale salads) is needed to get them going. Sulforaphane is also easily damaged by overcooking but is remarkably stable in ferments.   

3) Garlic, discussed last time, is the most potent of the Alliums and the other members of that family, onions, leeks, shallots, and chives, all share some of the same medicinal properties. Allicin, that distinctive onion scent and infamous tear-jerker, and it’s metabolites, are sulphur based molecules. Antioxidant, anticancer, and anti microbial, garlic also supports both heart and brain health.

4) I covered Mushrooms in part 2 of this series. Here I will just say that studies of health outcomes for people who work in mushroom production in Japan (and presumably eat more than average amounts of mushrooms) have confirmed the health benefits of the many kinds of mushroom popular there. Unfortunately, there are no studies of the button mushrooms and portabellos popular here.  Unlike veggies, mushrooms benefit from being well cooked with some sources recommending cooking them in both fat and water.

5) Oil rich Nuts and Seeds are top sources of fat soluble vitamins and anti-oxidants. Sunflower seeds top the list for Vitamin E; Brazil nuts are number one for selenium. Selenium is a precursor to glutathione the primary antioxidant our bodies produce. 

Nuts and seeds also contain lipid micronutrients called phytosterols that have immune modulating properties. They calm down overactive immune systems. Extracts of beta-sitosterol,  from sunflower seeds, are used therapeutically for auto-immune conditions.

Nuts and seeds are best eaten whole and fresh. They go rancid quickly once their antioxidants are depleted. Apparently our tastebuds can detect rancidity levels as low as 2%; an indication of how bad rancid fats are for us. Seed oils can go rancid in our bodies if we don’t have the antioxidants to protect them. Flaxseed, hempseed and walnuts are the most fragile as they have the highest content of desirable polyunsaturated fats. 

6) Cold Water Fish and Seafood contain another kind of polyunsaturated fat that is essential for heart and brain and a myriad of other things. Deficiencies of “essential” nutrients will have an impact on all kinds of body functions. They are also packed with antioxidants to protect those fragile fats. The pink in salmon (and flamingos) is a carotenoid derived from krill and other plankton that need the polyunsaturated oils to function in cold water and a way of protecting from sun damage.

7) Fermented foods are hugely popular these days and for once I’m all in with promoting the trend. Fermentation is the only food preservation method that increases the nutritional value of food. Every other technique involves some loss of nutrients. Ferments add probiotics and enzymes; they make fibre more digestible and they release nutrients that would otherwise require long chewing or long cooking. Regular consumption of fermented foods increases the proliferation of gut flora; your best defence from ingested pathogens. A strong intestinal microbiome is a key support for strong immune function.

Fermented foods are good for digestion; they are anti-inflammatory; anti-toxin; anti-cancer. The strong flavours may be unappealing to some but the value to your body is so great that, given the chance, your tastebuds will  adjust.

8) As well as the flavonoids that give them colour, organically grown grapes produce anti-fungals on their skin which have specific anticancer properties. Commercial growers use carcinogenic anti fungal sprays that eliminate the need to produce these protective chemicals. Grape seeds, crushed in your molars when you eat grapes, are the primary food source of the immunity enhancing anti-cancer flavonoid resveratrol. Grape seed oil, often recommended for high temperature frying, has a high smoke point because it is so rich in antioxidants. The oil doesn’t burn until they’ve been destroyed.

9) Brown Rice is similar to the rice that was available before the advent of mechanical polishing. In addition to the insoluble fibre which feeds the intestinal flora and has a critical function in scouring the lower bowel, rice bran provides several of the  B-vitamins and contains a substance called gamma oryzonol which has a myriad of health benefits including immune support . 

Other whole grains also have some of these benefits. Oats, either whole, steel cut, or slow cooking rolled oats, has many similar benefits as well as specific benefit for heart health and weight management. But grinding grains into flour changes the picture considerably. Even quick cooked oats don’t seem to deliver the same results. Finely ground flours go stale (or rancid in the case of an oil rich grain like oats) quickly and the fast absorption of easily digested carbs can play havoc with blood sugar levels leading to food cravings and binge eating.

10) Bone Broth is specific for boosting immune function. The quasi-mystical reputation of chicken soup for colds and flu is well deserved. Immune cells are produced in bone marrow. Broken bone broth is easy to make and well worth the effort especially if you are paying the premium for free-range or pasture raised animals products. (Save the fat too, every scrap has value). Freeze the bones with vegetable scraps (except cabbage family) until there are enough to make a pot of stock or add the bones directly to long cooking soup, stew, and chilli.  Soup bones are often available at a very reasonable price from local meat producers or butchers.

More could be said about all of these and many more could be added to the list. But I’m stopping here. I will end with a saying from traditional Chinese medicine from the book “Healing with Whole Foods” by Paul Pitchford: “Taking medicine when you become sick is like planting a garden when you get hungry.” 

That’s it. Eat, enjoy, stay well.

The word “Superfood” has become a marketing buzz word for any new or exotic food that hits the market. As you will see my list is much more prosaic. You may find that many of the items are things you are already eating, If not I encourage you to consider how you could add them into your diet.

Superfoods are nutrient dense foods that fall into the space between ordinary food and medicine. Tonics herbs, the medicinal herbs that strengthen and tone the system, straddle the line between food and medicine as well. They are medicinal herbs that are safe for and recommended for long term use. Tonics are medicines that can be used as food. Superfoods are foods that can be used therapeutically. The categories are blurred and overlapping. A couple of examples will help.

Nettle is possibly the best example of a tonic herb/superfood. It is not commonly used as a food but it is a popular spring tonic and people have found a number of creative ways to cook and consume it. Normally taken as a tea, this is a nutrient dense herb that is a perfect antidote to the nutritionally deficient modern diet. 

Historically used by pregnant women and nursing mothers as a tonic and nutritional supplement, it specifically benefits the urinary tract and is one of the best western herbal anti-histamines. The young leaves are generally wild harvested in the early spring just in time to prepare allergy sufferers for hay fever season.

The other example is garlic. Garlic is a strong flavour. It’s food but we don’t normally eat much of it. Used in higher doses it’s a medicine for a variety ailments. In really high doses it’s anti-parasitic. In the quantities we normally consume it is a mild antibiotic and heart tonic. Increase the dose to ward off colds and flu or to use as a mild blood thinner like baby aspirin.

Most of the herbs and spices we think of as “culinary” are medicinal herbs. The ancient Greeks had a saying “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.” I believe the practice of including small amount of medicinals in food was widespread in the ancient world but I’m most familiar with the European ones.

Herbs and spices are used as flavouring agents because they are stronger flavoured and more potent than superfoods. Sage, rosemary, thyme, and oregano all have specific micronutrients and phytochemicals with medicinal properties. All of these are used in marinates, and for seasoning meats not merely for flavour, but because they contain antimicrobials that prevents putrefaction. 

Oregano is well known medicinally as a antiviral but all of these have medicinal properties. The oil of oregano that you buy is much more potent than the oregano growing in your garden but being a bit more heavy handed when using herbs in cooking is a good strategy for protecting yourself from pathogens. I could go on endlessly: Thyme and rosemary clear congestion; cloves is the best for breaking up heavy mucus. Horseradish, traditionally eaten with beef as an antimicrobial and antitoxin, is a powerhouse against sinus infections.

Parsley deserves a special mention because it is the culinary herb that most neatly fits the “superfood” definition. It’s mild enough in both flavour and medicinal action to be used as a food not just as a flavouring agent. Parsley is the main ingredient in tabouli (or  tabouleh) a middle eastern salad. A close relative of carrots, it’s deep tap root draws up minerals from the subsoil into the stems and leaves. It is nutrient dense and, like all greens, is rich in chlorophyll. 

Chlorophyll, the green colour in green plants, is one of the most important of the plant pigments I mentioned last time. It’s a blood cleanser; it’s good for the skin (used for both acne and sun damage); and it reduces body odour and bad breath (skin and breath are both pathways for eliminating toxins). Parsley defies categorization; it’s a perfect example of a tonic herb too. It is nutritive and revitalizing. It’s also a mild diuretic and is specific for toning the urinary tract.

I mentioned colour last time. Pigments are produced by a variety of chemicals from several different chemical groups. Each one has a variety of uses in the body. They are significant here because they are antioxidants; anti-inflammatory; and have anti-cancer properties. There is even some evidence that they are anti-bacterial. This means support for all kinds of immune functions from detoxification to mopping up cancer cells. 

Chlorophyll mentioned above is huge. Beta carotene in carrots, squash, was in the last post, but there are many different carotenoids. The orange in calendula blossoms and hiding under the chlorophyll in greens is lutein. The red in tomatoes and watermelon is lycopene but the red in raspberries, ellagic acid, from a completely different chemical group. The purples and blues, and some other reds are from flavonoids called anthocyanins. Blueberries, blackberries, grapes, red cabbage, and purple carrots and potatoes are all anthocyanidins but the purple in beets is a completely different chemical: betalains. 

Fruit and vegetables aren’t the only source. The pink in salmon, shrimp, and other cold water sea creatures is from some of the same antioxidants. And vegetables contain a range of other beneficial micronutrients as well.

The point here is that if you look down at your plate and see nothing but white, beige, and brown, you are missing out and so is your immune system. Colours are also flavours. The deeper, darker, richer colours are the most nutrient dense and delicious. Not that white and beige foods are bad. There are a few less colourful foods and particular veggies and plant families that deserve a place on the list.  Next time .  . . 

mistyfriday

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/284778.html?thread=49359210#cmt49359210

Her intro was “As we are quickly leaving the era of easy abundance, I think it’s time to acknowledge specific durable goods that will make that transition easier.” and as that conversation unfolded I was reminded of a thought experiment we did a few years ago and have revisited from time to time since; an exploration of trade goods for the long descent.

The parameters for suitable goods we established are: 

1. Products of industrialization;
2. readily available and useful now (or in the near future); and 
3. likely to still be in demand as things unravel.
4. Not easy to recreate by hand using low tech tools and resources;  
5. nor easily substituted with something that could be easily made by hand with low tech tools and resources.
6. Non-perishable/durable enough to last into the time where industrial supply has either run out or become prohibitively expensive.
7. small/compact/easily stored (some exceptions could be made here.)

We spent some time brain storming items that might fit the criteria. Laser cut steel tea strainers didn’t make it because even though they are nice to have they aren’t really necessary and low tech substitutions (#5) are pretty easy. If you have to have one, a bit of cloth or a basket style bamboo strainers could be used.

Number 6, non perishable/durable is a stumbling block for some things that might otherwise fit. The question to ask are: How durable does it have to be? When is it likely to be needed? Is it possible to extend the useful life with low tech storage methods? 

I’m thinking about sewing machine thread here. It’s the weak link for maintaining the useful life of treadle sewing machines. Spinning thread for hand sewing is hard enough; getting a thread fine enough and smooth enough to run through a sewing machine without getting fouled up takes some serious skill. 

Any natural fibre thread deteriorates. I still have some cotton thread I bought in the early eighties that still seems strong enough to run through the machine but lately I have noticed seams in stress points giving away. I wouldn’t expect any natural fibre thread bought now to last long enough to still be useful once there is a shortage. Synthetic thread lasts longer so there is a slightly different equation there. The point being that there’s a balance between how durable something has to be and when it might be needed.

As for sewing/mending/textile repairs, needles for both machine and hand sewing; pins; all-metal (the plastic handles just break) scissors (snips and shears) are good choices. I’m not sure about rotary cutters. Although the blades certainly match most of the criteria and they may be in demand for a while after they are no longer being manufactured, I don’t see them lasting. As far as I know they are disposable once they are dull. How durable are the mats? They aren’t easy to reproduce or substitute (#4 and 5) but I suspect that whole technology will fade away as industrialism falters and fails. 

That doesn’t mean they aren’t good trade goods. Any investment of this kind is a gamble. Some are riskier than others. In this case you are betting that people will still want to use rotary cutters and mats for some time after they are no longer readily available or affordable. If you can get your stash to the people who want it at the right time you win.

Hand tools for gardening, in contrast, are readily available and useful now (#2) and likely to still be in demand as things unravel (#3) and for a long time to come. High quality garden tools are expensive but keeping tabs on what turns up in thrift stores and yard sales is well worth it even if you are just after back ups for your own use. As is the case with all tools, knowing what is worth having is key to making good investments in anything you are considering as trade goods.

Hand tools for carpentry are another example. Right now they are a niche market. They only marginally fit #2 but they are certainly likely to be in demand as things unravel (#3). Certain items, like hand saws, are not easy to make (#4, not impossible just highly skilled work) and they will certainly last until the power to run the alternatives is gone. Is it worth keeping them until they are needed? Your call.

Tools for working metal, especially files and stones for sharpening and maintaining other tools, are definitely in on almost all counts. Foraging a whetting stone is easy enough if you have the skills to use them; finding a nice flat one that is easy to use if your skills are marginal might be more of  a challenge (#5). Grindstones are useful now as are the skills needed to use these kinds of tools. Grindstones can be easily converted to any source of rotary power. They will continue to be useful with minor modifications but are they good trade goods? It might be better to hone your skills and offer a tool maintenance service. 

Other possibilities abound. These are just some examples to get your brain cells clicking. I’d love to hear your comments and feedback.

What I have in mind here is a series of posts that goes into more depth on each of these things. To be clear these will be summaries of my thoughts and ideas. If anything catches your attention or sparks your curiosity you must do your own research. Questions and comments are welcome and if you can contribute better information or a clearer understanding please chime in. Enjoy.

It is impossible to over-stress the importance of each of the things I listed above. It is just as impossible to say which is the most important. That's like asking whether your heart or your lungs are more important. That said, we must start somewhere and food is as good a starting point as any. Arguably, learning to cook whole foods from scratch with is one of the best things you can do for your long term health. (Humans are uniquely evolved to eating cooked food. In his book Catching Fire: how cooking made us human, primatologist Richard Wrangham, makes a compelling case that it was learning to cook that allowed us to develop as modern humans. As modern humans we are “obligate” cooks. We can survive on raw food but women on a long term raw food diet lose too much body fat to maintain fertility.)

Throughout most of human history getting enough food, quantity, has been the biggest challenge. For most of us in industrial nations today the problem isn’t quantity it’s quality. The Standard American Diet (SAD) typically provides has an over-abundance of calories but it is nutritionally weak. Getting enough of the micronutrients to support a high functioning immune system is very difficult when your food is SAD. Fortunately, decisions about what to eat must be made everyday and every meal is a opportunity to make a better choices.

I’m not going to advocate a particular diet program or regime. Working in natural food stores for as long as I did I saw too may diet fads come and go and met too many people with “holier than thou” attitudes to those who didn’t follow their particular dietary choices. What I would like to do instead is work from first principles and try to establish a set of guidelines that can help us get more good food into our diets. Please note: “good” and “bad” are not moral judgements in this context. “Good” food is delicious, nutrient dense, satisfying. “Bad” food is not.

Diet fads have a habit of demonizing particular foods or food groups. Although the details have changed the approach seems to be fairly persistent. Fats, meat, carbohydrates, and even cooked food have all been targeted.  That approach is not only unhelpful it can actually cause health problems. To be very clear all the macronutrients, carbohydrates, fats, and protein, are all essential to a healthy diet. 

You may have noticed that I haven’t included fibre on this list. That’s because fibre is a carbohydrate. Fibre is important; it’s considered an “essential” carbohydrate.  Nutrients are deemed to be “essential” if the body has to have them and cannot produce them itself. Polysaccharides are another kind of carbohydrate. They are also essential and they have a specific impact on immune health. (More on that later.)

My point here is that it is the quality of the nutrients that matters. Any food can be good (delicious, nutrient dense, satisfying) or bad ( damaged, chemically laden, and devoid of nutritional value). As I noted above most of the foods that make up the SAD are poor quality nutritionally deficient and usually rely on too much sugar, fat, salt, or MSG to give it flavour. The Standard American Diet cannot support good health and strong immunity. 

The two things that determine food quality are freshness and the amount of processing that has been done. The process of deterioration starts as soon as the food is harvested. How it is handled (processing) once it has been picked or killed  and how long it takes to get from the point of harvest to your plate (freshness) will have the greatest impact on the concentration of nutrients it provides and it can also have an impact of the amount of nutritional stress it causes. 

Nutritional stress is the  cost to your body of digesting and absorbing the nutrients and processing and eliminating the wastes. If your food has a high toxic load from agricultural chemicals or environmental contaminates the costs go up and nutritional stress increases. If your food has not been properly handled or processed it may contain “anti-nutrients” that cause nutritional stress. People around the world have consumed many “foods” that are toxic, even deadly, if not processed properly. Think of green coffee beans. 

Another example is dried beans. Most varieties of beans and lentils contain a substance called phytic acid. This is a chemical that reduces the digestibility and helps to reduce predation on these protein rich seeds. Without proper preparation, which can include soaking with many changes of water, sprouting, fermentation, and long cooking with a variety of additives depending on the cuisine involved (kombu, epazote, fennel, etc) beans can cause digestive problems ranging from mild discomfort to agony.

Processing food, whether it’s cooking or preserving (with one notable exception) alway involves some loss of nutrients. The advantages of cooking fresh whole foods far out weigh the loss of nutrients. Cooking has made a whole range of foods that are otherwise indigestible accessible to us. However, the more a food is processed the more nutrients are lost; the more a food is refined the more it is denatured. It becomes tasteless, added sugar, salt, fat and other flavour enhancements are needed in order to make it edible. These things all make more demands on your body’s ability to process and eliminate excess. They become anti-nutrients that  contribute to nutritional stress. They are also unsatisfying. They don’t give us the nutrition we need. They fill us up without assuaging our hunger. Craving real nutrition we overeat. 

This has gone longer than I had planned. I was hoping to move on to water next but that will have to wait. The next post will continue with food. I would like to share some general ideas about a good diet for human health and immunity. 

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