This college ditches football for farming

Paul Quinn College only has 250 students, so a football field is not really necessary (or financially prudent). Plus, the Dallas college is in a federally recognized food desert, with no supermarkets or restaurants nearby. So the administration made the awesome decision to turn the 1.3-acre football field into a working organic farm: 

Yes, the goalposts still stand where the field once was — but the hashmarks and logos have been replaced by sweet potatoes, kale, cilantro, even a chicken coup. 

 Students get $10 an hour for working on the farm, and it’s also integrated into academia: “Students work on the farm as a part of their biology and social entrepreneurship curricula,” writes the college. The fruits of their labor go to the school cafeteria, food pantries, the community — and even get turned into salsa for Dallas Cowboys games.

 What started as something modest is now a huge success: The school estimates it’ll sell 17,500 pounds of food this year, and its profits are now in the six figures. What a cool transformation.




Author: Holly Richmond

Article Sources: Grist.org, Msn FoxSports

Nine Food Cures You Can Grow at Home

Aloe Vera
Grow it: Plant in pots placed in full sunshine. Water well.
Use it: Break open the thick leaves and apply the gel that seeps out to your skin to soothe sunburn. “It’s 96 percent water and 4 percent active ingredients, including amino acids and enzymes that nourish damaged skin,” says pharmacist Margo Marrone, founder of The Organic Pharmacy in the United Kingdom.

Basil
Grow it: This sweet, fragrant annual is ideal for growing in pots. Pull off the white flowers as soon as they appear to keep it from going to seed and your herbs from tasting bitter.
Use it: Rub crushed leaves on your temples to relieve headaches. Pour boiling water over basil leaves for a pain-relieving foot bath.

Lavender
Grow it: This sun-loving plant needs good drainage. Use a small pot filled with gravel and a light soil.
Use it: It has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. Crush a handful of the heads and add to a bowl of boiling water to use as a steam bath for your face. You can also dab the oil from the flowers on blemishes, says Marrone.

Lemon Balm
Grow it: Pot it, or it will colonize your garden.
Use it: Use for healing and preventing cold sores. Also, rub leaves directly onto skin as a natural insect repellent or to soothe bites.

Mint
Grow it: Use a sunken pot, because it grows vigorously.
Use it: Ideal for treating the collywobbles, which you might know as butterflies in the stomach. Sip tea made with fresh peppermint leaves to soothe stomach cramps, nausea, and flatulence. For a natural decongestant, place a fistful of mint leaves in a shallow bowl and cover with boiling water. Lean over it, drape a towel over your head, and breathe the steam.

Parsley
Grow it: Thrives in a pot in the sun as long as the soil is kept moist. Feed with organic fertilizer.
Use it: Immune-system booster. Eat one tablespoon of chopped flatleaf or curly parsley daily. Chewing parsley neutralizes mouth odors.

Rosemary
Grow it: This hardy perennial loves basking in sunshine.
Use it: Tea made from a thumb-sized piece has been known to lift spirits in people suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and hangovers. Infuse warm red wine with rosemary, cinnamon, and cloves to soothe winter colds.

Sage
Grow it: Needs full sun and a dry sandy soil. Sage means “to be in good health.”
Use it: Gargle with a broth made from a quarter-cup of leaves (and cooled) to relieve sore throat.

Thyme
Grow it: Plant in dry, light soil. Needs sun.
Use it: A powerful antioxidant as well as an antiseptic. Drink a tea made from lemon thyme to treat colds before bed. Warning: don’t use thyme when pregnant.

Source: Organic Gardening

Signs & Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance

Could you be suffering from a gluten intolerance? Over 55 diseases have been linked to gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley, and in lower levels in spelt, kamut and oats), and around 99% of individuals suffering from gluten intolerances or celiac disease are never diagnosed. These individuals, unfortunately, fail to ascribe their ill health or symptoms to gluten sensitivity and instead try treating symptoms (with drugs) that otherwise never go away.

Gluten is a staple of the American diet. It is in pizza, pasta, bread, wraps, rolls, and pretty much all processed foods. It also causes serious health complications, with up to a 72% increased risk of death in those with gut inflammation related to gluten.

In fact, one study compared the blood of 10,000 people from 50 years ago to 10,000 people today and found that celiac disease rose by up to 400% during that time period. This is great news for the American healthcare system who claims millions of dollars off the drugs used to treat gluten-intolerance symptoms many individuals suffer from today.

The New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 “diseases” that can be caused by eating gluten. These include osteoporosis, irritable bowel disease, inflammatory bowel disease, anemia, cancer, fatigue, canker sores, and rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and almost all other autoimmune diseases. Gluten is also linked to psychiatric and neurological diseases, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, dementia, migraines, epilepsy, and neuropathy (nerve damage), as well as autism.

If you have any of the above diseases, or any of the symptoms listed below, you may have a gluten intolerance:

- Digestive Issues: gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation

- Nutritional Deficiencies: due to malabsorption (e.g., suffering from anemia (iron malabsorption) or “chicken skin” on back of arms (result of fatty acid deficiency and vitamin A deficiency secondary to fat-malabsorption caused by gluten damaging the gut)

- Weight loss or weight gain: gluten protein disrupts metabolism functioning

- Fat in stools: gluten prevents fat absorption

- Aching joints: gluten triggers inflammation in the body, causing swelling and pain in your joints

- Depression: intestinal damage caused by wheat leads to malabsorption, and prevents our guts from absorbing zinc and B vitamins which are crucial for regulating our moods

- Eczema: related to the inflammation that gluten triggers in the body

- Headaches: inflammation from gluten puts a lot of pressure on our blood vessels, which can cause pounding headaches

- Exhaustion: gluten is incredibly hard to process by the body, and slows our digestion, thus making us tired

- Irritability & Behavioural changes: same as depression, our bodies cannot absorb minerals and vitamins when our gut is destroyed by the gluten we eat. These vitamins and minerals help regulate our mood

- Irregular menstruation, infertility, miscarriages: gluten intolerance creates imbalances to our hormones and can lead to a myriad of female fertility and menstruation issues

- Cramps, tingling, & numbness: triggered by inflammatory response the body has to gluten protein

- Slow infant and child growth: due to nutrient malabsorption

- Decline in dental health: gluten sticks to our teeth and this causes bacteria to thrive

Test yourself for gluten intolerance:

Eliminating gluten from your diet for a few weeks to a month is a great way to tell if your body has an issue with gluten. Gluten is a very large protein, so it is important to recognize that is may take months or years to clear from your system, so extending this gluten-free fast longer than a couple months before introducing it (if you so choose) is best.

If you feel much better off gluten than you do on gluten, then gluten is likely a problem for you. Eating a whole foods diet, high in raw fruit and vegetables will ensure the levels of gluten in your diet are significantly cut back.

Source: Live Love Fruit