Bed and Chocolate?

Photo: Cocoa West, Organic Chocolate Cafe on Bowen Island

Could there be another reason for giving your sweetheart chocolates on Valentine’s Day, besides the romantic? Yes, absolutely! The reason is chocolate “cures” stress. This is scientific fact, apparently.

In a recent clinical trial the ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research found that eating “an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed.” Chocolate partially corrects biochemical imbalances. How cool is that! This comes from a Health Freedom Alliance newsletter article called the “Chocolate Cure.”

So, eat your chocolate! And we know just the place for your romantic, “stress reducing” get-away! It’s the Organic Chocolate Café on Bowen Island, Cocoa West. You can even stay in a room called the “Chocolate Suite.” Forget the Bed and Breakfast, try a Bed and Chocolate!

“Milk Man” Wins!

Photo: from Ken Kirkwood’s “Raw Milk: Public Health Issue or Crying over Spilt Milk?” 

This is from a Toronto Globe and Mail article “Victory for the Milk Man”:

“In a surprise verdict that stunned even the defendant, a justice of the peace has dismissed a slate of raw-milk-related charges against Ontario dairyman Michael Schmidt and simultaneously delivered a boon to Canada’s food-rights movement.

Mr. Schmidt supplies raw milk to a small network of people with ownership shares in his dairy cattle. He was facing 19 charges related to public health and milk marketing….The judgment, the culmination of a legal battle that was launched in 2006 after a raid by the Ministry of Natural Resources on Mr. Schmidt’s farm in Durham, Ontario, does not mean raw milk can be commercially sold in Ontario….However, it gives a boost to the burgeoning sector of creative farm-to-consumer food delivery-programs, including “cow-shares,” which have grown in popularity as mistrust in the industrial food system has increased.

Score ONE for “food choice freedom” in Canada. Yea, Michael Schmidt!

[For more information, see "Victory for the milk man" and "Raw milk fight becomes a symbol of food freedom."]

Certified Organic Pineapples!

Photos: Dole Organic

There’s a new tag on Dole pineapples: “Certified Organic.” Like all smoothie addicts, I consume lots and lots of pineapples. But, this is the first time I’ve seen a “Certified Organic” tag on any pineapple. Welcome! Apparently, Dole Pineapple now features an entirely “Organic” Program.

Here’s more from the Dole website:

“Dole produces organically-grown bananas in its own farms and sources from independent organic growers located in Honduras, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Peru for the European and North American Markets and recently in the Philippines for the Asian Market. 100% of Dole’s organic bananas are certified organic and follow the organic production standards as set by the law in the US, EU or Japan.

Dole is also working on an Organic Pineapple Program, a limited volume of which is now available in US, Canada and Europe. Consumers can find these under Dole’s “YOURCHOICE” label or “Dole Organic” label.”

[For more information, see Dole Organic Program.]

Fabulous Food Art!

Photo: image courtesy of All-Art , ”food art” by Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Artist’s have been “playing with food” long before Internet started circulating images. The image above is from the Renaissance!  Giuseppe Arcimboldo was the artist who provided this piece, done in the style of the time. Here’s more about Arcimboldo from the WebEgoist:

“Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo was perhaps the first artist to use food to create a mosaic image, though his work was in paint, not made of food itself. This image, ‘Summer’, is part of a seasonal series and features a human profile made up of fruits and vegetables.  His work had a surreal quality long before the advent of the Surrealist Art movement.”

[For more "food sculpture," see "15 Fascinating Food Artists and Sculptors."]

All “Vegetable Orchestra”!

 Photo: “Vegetable Orchestra” performing LIVE!

Presenting the Vegetable Orchestra LIVE! Yeah, really! All instruments played in this orchestra are VEGETABLES!  Good beat! Great vibe! Organic or not, the Vegetable Orchestra rocks!

Here’s the WEBSITE: “Vegetable Orchestra“