I will admit it I am fascinated by anything that deals with blood type, lectins and genetic links to health and food. I just don't feel smart enough to grasp it all and then communicate it effectively to others.

My family and I traveled this past weekend to visit my husband's parents. Jeff's father, blood type B, turned 85 this weekend and so it was an event that required a celebration. My husband is the youngest of four, all boys. They are 3 O's and one B.

Jeff's eldest brother BT O who I suspect is a Gatherer struggles with his weight, he has abdominal fat that has been hanging on inspite of dieting and excercise. He recently retired and has been working even harder to lose the weight. I began to tell him a bit about changing his diet and offered to measure him, for his genotype. I explained that if my assumption is corret he has a very thrifty metabolism as an O Gatherer. This is where it began to get sticky. With 4 sons comes 4 daughter in laws, who are all very strong willed they are two A's, one AB and one O.

My O sister in law loves to excercise she is dedicated to health and fitness. She ran the NYC Marathon at 50 and bicycles weekly over 10 miles each day. She is slim but has to work hard at it. She follows a SAD diet and is a practicing physical therapist. Because of all this her opinion is highly regarded.

She chimed right into my converstaion with my brother in law," All you need to do is excercise 45 minutes a day, you don't need to be measured for anything," she said as she sipped her soda.

I stepped away annoyed that she took over the conversation with her "one size fits all" approach to diet and fitness. My brother in law never looked back at me to find out the rest of the story. He had his ears tickled by, you can eat whatever you want as long as you excercise. I know I offered so much more then she did but I just couldn't defend myself against her.

In October I am attending the Micro Conference in Tennesse, with Larry Nesbit. I will be taking my certification test for the IFHI. I know this will boost my confidence and my ability to communicate the core ideas of the BTD/GTD to others. I look forward to that time to be with everyone. What a great time it will be, being with like minded people who share the same passion.

Early Saturday morning I roused my sleepy type O Gatherer husband from bed and we went to the Farmers Market in my town. I have been trying to remember to go for over two years, I finally wrote myself a note and pasted it to the shower curtain.

It is located at the "Town Dock" a scenic spot on the water as the name suggests. It is very small only 9 vendors total, it had two vegetable stalls, one bread stall, one local caught fish, one with plants, one local group of kids selling coffee and treats as a fundraiser, a breadbaker, and a local beekeeper selling his honey.

I slowly walked from booth to booth checking out the items. I was there for the vegetables and the eggs, but wanted to look at all the booths. It didn't take me long to decide which of the vegetable booths to buy from, the one with the dirtiest vegetables. Both of the vegetable sellers had lovely things but at one booth all the vegetables looked like they came from a store rather then just picked from the garden. The bits of dirt told me that the origins of the vegetables were exactly as the seller stated, "just picked".

The onions and garlic I bought still had the tops on them. The kale and dandelion was fresh and crisp, with just the hint of dirt on the bases. The eggs were warm, three different colors and multiple sizes in a cardboard carton. The honey for my A Teacher daughter was from local hives here in my town.

My husband stood on line at the breadbaker for about 10 minutes waiting to make his purchase. It was the only booth with a line. The Breadbakers, two scandinavian men, had really beautiful looking large loaves of bread. All the loaves had that rustic look of being freshly baked in a stone oven, probably here in Brooklyn. My husband bought a 100% rye loaf and the sticky cinnamon buns which he loves. In a frenzy people bought 5-6 loaves of bread each, I wondered what they would do with all that bread

I know I will go back for the vegetables and to support Long Island farming. I do wonder if I could have some sort of booth at the Farmers Market. It did look profitable and fun. I will add it to my Bucket List of things to do in the future.

For now I need to read the Genetics Manual to prepare for my certification test in October, for the IFHI.
I know some of you will be there and I look forward to meeting you.

White Beans

I have never been much of a bean eater, so including them in my diet takes some effort. Recently on the forums white beans came up as a topic of discussion. I had never eaten them much less purchased them. So I set out to find them in my local supermarket. I found them dried in plastic bags for only a dollar a bag right next to my beloved lentils (which are not really beans at all) so I bought two bags.

Sometimes with cooking I over do things, like cooking the whole box of pasta when I only really need a small portion. So rather then repeat the past, I made only one cup of the dried beans which comes to two cups once cooked. I rinsed them in water then soaked them for about 4 hours. I added an onion some carrots and a piece of kombu seaweed, put them in my pressure cooker because it is the most energy efficient method, it only took about 45 minutes till the beans were done.
They came out soft and creamy with a wonderful flavor sort of like bacon. I pureed some in my food processor with garlic, homemade mustard and salt. I dipped 100% rye crackers in the mixture. Wow were they good. If you have not made white beans I encourage you to try some.

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I spent the day shopping. I hate it. The crowds, the cars the salespeople, nothing is easy.
We needed a new dehumidifier because after three years of running almost constantly ours decided it had enough. My husband researched the different brands on the internet and it was my job to find one and bring it home. I went to 5 different stores and each time I came away disappointed. I am convinced that the ones that the stores carry are the low end brands because they can mark them up drastically for the most profit. I finally gave up and came home. Searching Ebay I found exactly what I wanted for a great price. I checked the feedback profile of the seller, they had good feedback, I hit the Buy It Now button, and in a few days I should have my new dehumdifier at my door. Gee, that was so much easier.

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Tonight we have a party at the neighbors house, to celebrate the 4th of July. From their backyard you can see the fireworks over the Long Island Sound, it is beautiful. Hope I can survive the mosquitoes long enough to watch the fireworks with my hubby.