Erika's Blog
EmComm's Bethel Botanicals Team participates in The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life
The American Cancer Society's Relay For Life is an overnight community celebration of life dedicated to present and former cancer patients, their families and friends. Relay For Life raises funds for the American Cancer Society while declaring that cancer can and will be beaten. During Relay, Team members take turns walking, camping out, enjoying entertainment, food, and games in a party atmosphere!
Take a look at Emerson College's EmComm Bethel Botanicals team, led by Ashley Polchinski and Brianne Dyke, as they participate in AMC's Relay for Life on Friday which took place on April llth, 2008 in the Harvard Gymnasium here in Massachusetts. Special people, walking in a special event, for a special product!
Thank you EmComm from Bethel Botanicals!
So, these are the steps I follow in looking for products:
- First, I read the ingredients' label carefully. If there isn't an ingredients label (which is illegal, but does happen), I don't buy it. I look for ingredients that I know and can recognize. When I see certain words (and they sometimes are a part of a larger word), I steer clear of the products. Some of the words on products that I don't buy are: -parabens, pthylates, sodium laurel sulfate.
- Second, I look for some parts of the labeling that matter to me. I want no animal testing. I like when the product is USDA organically certified, and am glad when a product has individual ingredients labeled as organic, or a percentage of the product identified as organic. The integrity of the company can sometimes be seen by the ingredients in the products.
- Third, I look for companies that I like, know, and trust. Examples of some of these are: Avalon, Alba Botanica, Aubrey Organics, Burt's Bees (sometimes), Dr. Bronner Soaps, Tom's of Maine (sometimes). I don't look as a first step for the companies because there are a lot of good little companies (like mine, for example!) that are putting out high quality, sometimes higher quality products, than the bigger and better known ones. But some companies are safer than others. Companies, like people, have varying degrees of integrity.
- Fourth, I tend to, initially, buy small sizes to try the product. If I like it, I then will buy large sizes and often tend to stay with the same product for a long period of time.
- Fifth, I don't buy much. Keep it simple. It's easier and better for you.
Question: Why is The Healing Cream so effective?
Answer: It is the particular combination of the herbs, how they are integrated into the oils, and the complement of the oils to the herbs and other ingredients. The herbs were researched carefully for their healing properties, but the cream is better on a wider range of skin needs that I had anticipated.
Erika Keller Rogoff is the inventor of The Healing CreamQuestion: What is the difference between the Healing Cream and the Night Cream?
Answer: The Night Cream is filled with antioxidants and the Healing Cream is not. The Night Cream is more like products one can buy at a cosmetic counter for wrinkles, only much better for your skin; The Healing Cream is better for babies, for sensitive or delicate skin or for radiated skin. Many people use the Healing Cream as a night cream, but there are others who want the extra boost given by the antioxidants for their skin at night.
Written by Erika Keller Rogoff, inventor of the Healing Cream.
This Sauerkraut recipe shared by Julia Shanks is easy to prepare, and keeps for a very long time.
Ingredients (for 1 gallon):
5 pounds cabbage
3 tablespoons sea salt
Process:
1. Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like it. I love to mix green and red cabbage to end up with bright pink kraut. Place cabbage in a large bowl as you chop it.
2. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go. The salt pulls water out of the cabbage (through osmosis), and this creates the brine in which the cabbage can ferment and sour without rotting. The salt also has the effect of keeping the cabbage crunchy, by inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it. 3 tablespoons of salt is a rough guideline for 5 pounds of cabbage. I never measure the salt; I just shake some on after I chop up each cabbage. I use more salt in summer, less in winter.
3. Add other vegetables. Grate carrots for a coleslaw-like kraut. Other vegetables I’ve added include onions, garlic, seaweed, greens, Brussels sprouts, small whole heads of cabbage, turnips, beets, and burdock roots. You can also add fruits (apples, whole or sliced, are classic), and herbs and spices (caraway seeds, dill seeds, celery seeds, and juniper berries are classic, but anything you like will work). Experiment.
4. Mix ingredients together and pack into crock. Pack just a bit into the crock at a time and tamp it down hard using your fists or any (other) sturdy kitchen implement. The tamping packs the kraut tight in the crock and helps force water out of the cabbage.
5. Cover kraut with a plate or some other lid that fits snugly inside the crock. Place a clean weight (a glass jug filled with water) on the cover. This weight is to force water out of the cabbage and then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine. Cover the whole thing with a cloth to keep dust and flies out.
6. Press down on the weight to add pressure to the cabbage and help force water out of it. Continue doing this periodically (as often as you think of it, every few hours), until the brine rises above the cover. This can take up to about 24 hours, as the salt draws water out of the cabbage slowly. Some cabbage, particularly if it is old, simply contains less water. If the brine does not rise above the plate level by the next day, add enough salt water to bring the brine level above the plate. Add about a teaspoon of salt to a cup of water and stir until it’s completely dissolved.
7. Leave the crock to ferment. I generally store the crock in an unobtrusive corner of the kitchen where I won’t forget about it, but where it won’t be in anybody’s way. You could also store it in a cool basement if you want a slower fermentation that will preserve for longer.
8. Check the kraut every day or two. The volume reduces as the fermentation proceeds. Sometimes mold appears on the surface. Many books refer to this mold as "scum", but I prefer to think of it as a bloom. Skim what you can off of the surface; it will break up and you will probably not be able to remove all of it. Don’t worry about this. It’s just a surface phenomenon, a result of contact with the air. The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine. Rinse off the plate and the weight. Taste the kraut. Generally it starts to be tangy after a few days, and the taste gets stronger as time passes. In the cool temperatures of a cellar in winter, kraut can keep improving for months and months. In the summer or in a heated room, its life cycle is more rapid. Eventually it becomes soft and the flavor turns less pleasant.
9. Enjoy. I generally scoop out a bowl- or jarful at a time and keep it in the fridge. I start when the kraut is young and enjoy its evolving flavor over the course of a few weeks. Try the sauerkraut juice that will be left in the bowl after the kraut is eaten. Sauerkraut juice is a rare delicacy and unparalleled digestive tonic. Each time you scoop some kraut out of the crock, you have to repack it carefully. Make sure the kraut is packed tight in the crock, the surface is level, and the cover and weight are clean. Sometimes brine evaporates, so if the kraut is not submerged below brine just add salted water as necessary. Some people preserve kraut by canning and heat-processing it. This can be done; but so much of the power of sauerkraut is its aliveness that I wonder: Why kill it?
10. Develop a rhythm. I try to start a new batch before the previous batch runs out. I remove the remaining kraut from the crock, repack it with fresh salted cabbage, then pour the old kraut and its juices over the new kraut. This gives the new batch a boost with an active culture starter
