Fall is all in its golden beauty! The birch, cottonwoods, and willows are displaying their fall colors. Unfortunately, as soon as we get a fairly brisk wind, the leaves will come floating down. Then we’ll have barren trees until next May or June. The temperatures have been fairly mild, sometimes reaching sixty degrees daytime and in the thirties at night. A few weeks ago we did get below freezing, but we’ve not had another freeze since then. We’ve had lots of rain, but also several beautiful partly sunny days, too.

While going into town the other evening, I crossed the bridge during high tide. Our highest tides are around the full moons and new moons. April, May, September, October and November have the highest and lowest tides. This week, the high tides have flooded the river’s banks and flowed onto the flats (wetlands). During those times we may have a 28 foot water depth difference between the high and low tides. Anchorage has even a greater difference between their highs and lows (by almost 10 feet more). In April the high tides help melt any remaining snow so the snow geese will have food for their rest during migration to Siberia, and for the Canada geese, cranes, ducks and swans, too. I suppose the winter over-flow helps protect the vegetation during the winter.

With all the help from people on the BTD forum, I’ve learned a few things this week. Although I have followed the BTD for two years, there were many beneficial foods that I either didn’t eat or ate rarely. This week I learned that you can roast root vegetables much like you would potatoes and then freeze them for other meals. I’ve never seen frozen beets, turnips, parsnips, etc. in the grocer’s freezer, so I assumed they wouldn’t do well. I roasted lots of beets (my favorite), turnips, rutabagas, carrots, and parsnips. My freezer is too full of salmon to freeze them now. My refrigerator keeps food very well chilled, so we are eating from this prepared bounty at every meal!

Greens are another food category which has been under utilized. For the most part I would use the greens in fresh vegetable juices, but not much else. Well, some nice people on the forum gave me a couple recipes and I found more in some recipe books. Per a forum suggestion, I’ve reheated about a cup or so of braised kale or collards then used them as a ‘bed’ for some fried eggs. Wow! Although I am still getting used to eating greens for breakfast, I must admit that I am very pleased to report that they keep me full for hours! They really curb my appetite! What a surprise!

Also, my nighttime snack has been sliced and reheated beets in olive oil, sprinkled with nutritional yeast and kelp! Very tasty and satisfying! Another impressive discovery! If I have a late night snack, I find that I do sleep better. Breakfast occurs for me about three hours after I wake in the morning. Someone on the forum suggested that was a “Warrior’s” meal plan.

I looked around at all the health issues in my family and with my friends. I decided that I really don’t want to experience them. I truly believe that health is found in the foods we eat, therefore, I made the decision to strictly follow the O Blood Type Super-beneficial and beneficial food lists for the health risks to which I am inclined. That includes learning to enjoy foods that seem foreign. So, on to the next step!!!