Are these sweet potatoes or yams?  They are really sweet potatoes and come in various shades of orange to yellow. I just love them!

Dr. Cordell believes they are a super food. Here’s his interesting list:

-One cup of cooked sweet potatoes provides 1,922 mcg_RAE of beta carotene (Vitamin A). It would take 16 cups of broccoli to provide the same amount.

-Sweet potatoes are a great source of vitamin E, and they are virtually fat-free, which makes them a real Vitamin E standout. Most Vitamin E rich foods, such as vegetable oils, nuts and avocados, contain a hefty dose of fat.

-Sweet potatoes provide many other essential nutrients including Vitamin B6, potassium and iron.

-Sweet potatoes are a good source of dietary fiber which helps to promote a healthy digestive tract. Sweet potatoes have more fiber than oatmeal.

-Sweet potatoes are a complex carbohydrate which means they digest more slowly than white potatoes and therefore will not cause your blood sugar to spike.

My sweet potato vs yam story:

When I bought these I thought they were yams because the grocery store sign said “Yams -  69 cents per pound”. The cashier lady rang them up as “Sweet potatoes - $1.29 per pound”.  I told her they were yams.

I walked her over to the sign and pointed it out.  The sign did say “YAMS” but the young cashier didn’t want to sell them to me as yams.  She waited around for the grocery guy and they talked for at a while. There weren’t any other yams or sweet potatoes to compare it with.

She didn’t void the purchase, just gave me back $1.80 in cash (in this case it was 60 cents x 3 lbs).  It’s really not about the money, it’s about doing good business. She never apologized for the mistake or even gave me a smile. She was young, maybe 19 years old.

In this case, I just want the store to admit they made a mistake and correct it.  They didn’t even bother to take the sign down or fix it.  The only reason I’m complaining is because this is the 2nd time it’s happen to me.  At that time they also did not fix the sign.  Next time it happens, I’ll point out the name of the place, for now I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

I really don’t like to fuss about much and am pretty easy going. I really did let the whole thing go after about 10 minutes. But this incident had me thinking… “there goes the sweet potato vs yam story!”.

Back to sweet potatoes… they make great healthy snacks.  It seem the state of North Carolina produces the most sweet potatoes in the U.S.

The orange variety I have in the above photo looks to be ”Evangeline” with it’s moist deep orange flesh. This version was softer after being cooked, the yellow one was more firm. But both were good and sweet.

Speaking of yams, I had to include Popeye, my childhood cartoon hero.
Image from Turbeau Curbeau.

Scientific name: Annona cherimola a.k.a. Custard Apple, Chirimoya

This is one of my favorite tropical fruits and I’ve probably written too much about them. But these were such usual shapes that I had to mention it here. Cherimoyas usually come round, but looking at these you can say they come in all shapes and sizes.

It goes by many names in tropical countries around the world.  The following notes is from Purdue University Horticulture:

“In Venezuela, it is called chirimorrinon; in Brazil, graveola, graviola, or grabiola; and in Mexico, pox or poox; in Belize, tukib; in El Salvador it is sometimes known as anona poshte; and elsewhere merely as anona, or anona blanca. In France, it is anone; in Haiti, cachiman la Chine. Indian names in Guatemala include pac, pap, tsummy and tzumux. The name, cherimoya, is sometimes misapplied to the less-esteemed custard apple, A. reticulata L. In Australia it is often applied to the atemoya (a cherimoya-sugar apple hybrid).”

And in it’s Lao is refer to as “mak keiup”. Read the rest of this entry »

RFID stands for radio frequency identification and have been showing up in many things. They can also be found in identity cards, debit and credit cards. Also commonly found embedded in pets with their owner’s contact information.

I personally don’t have any credit cards with the new RFID chips. But I have noticed the reader at some places such as gas stations and restaurants. As convenient as this sounds, there is a price to pay for it all. And that is identity theft.

Identity theft occurs when the cards are being skim. This is done when someone uses an RFID reader (can be bought for $100) to scan data from an RFID chip without the person being aware of it.

In order to protect your personal information from skimming, you can put them in RFID blocking case or wallet (as seen from photo). I bought this one by Travelon from Amazon for about $12. It looks nice and sturdy. I like the extra pockets for other cards.

The one drawback is that it doesn’t close up, so I’ll probably have to sew on some type of closure.

Read the rest of this entry »

Summer is almost here and that means I am ready to experiment with a  new facial moisturizer.

For the past few weeks I’ve been using Aveeno’s new Smart Essentials Daily Nourishing Moisturizer SPF 30 made with southernwood extract, vitamins A, C, and E.

I’ve always liked Aveeno products for their natural ingredients and affordable prices.  This one retails for about $14.99 for 2. 5 oz.   One thing I didn’t like about Aveeno products is the strong fragrance.  But with this new product the scent is actually okay.  It smells like a combination of fruity floral and fades quickly.  I think it would be better if it was unscented.

The best things about this product is that’s its lightweight and sinks into the skin easily.

SPF 30 is also great since it helps protect skin from sun’s harmful UVA/UVB ray.  I love that doesn’t leave a white finish unlike most other facial sunscreens with SPF 30.

A few more info from Aveeno:  ” Sun exposure, free-radicals environmental toxins and a hectic lifestyle can rob your skin of essential nourishment, resulting in noticeably stressed skin.

Formulated with antioxidant Southernwood extract,  SMART ESSENTIALSâ„¢ Daily Nourishing Moisturizer with SPF 30 helps keep what’s good in and what’s bad out, replenishing and helping to protect your skin wherever the day takes you.

In fact, in a clinical study, 100% of women showed an improvement in the look of stressed skin.”

Oil Free, hypoallergenic, and noncomedongenic (won’t clog pores).

Even though I rarely use stamps these days, I was happy to find these “Go Green” stamps from the USPS.  I’m also glad they are FOREVER stamps too.

Just simple little tips for everyday living.  Some of my favorite of all the tips is plant trees, buy local produces and reuse bags.

Artist  Eli Noyes of San Francisco is behind these drawings.  From an interview with the SF Gate, Noyes stated, “Stamps are gentle, subliminal fundamentally political art.  They’re also immensely fun.”

Noyes and his wife lives in an environmentally friendly house in Noe Valley.  They grow roses, quince and peppers alongside worm bins. They also have solar panels on their roof.  Sounds like they are doing their part.

And a note for the USPS, these stamps are great. But I really like to see the USPS recycle more and waste less!

The last time I saw this Rat Tail cactus, there may have been at least 20 buds. I was just counting the days to a bouquet of cactus flowers.

Then the next time I checked, there were only a few buds left. It turned out mom had tossed almost all of them. She thought they were dying!

Fortunately she kept some that had buds and now it’s blooming. I almost missed the last bloom as the other two are already fading out.

I guess I can’t blame her as the buds do look a bit dry and brown. Just imagine the whole cactus covered with these furry buds.

As pretty as they are, the little spikes are annoying. Touching them by accident could be painful.

Knitting these mittens was a challenge. I had to use 4 double pointed needles in a small area. Just too much strain on the shoulders and hands, so you have to stop and stretch often.

One of these days I’ll figure out how to knit these with 2 circular needles.

If I kept on knitting, it would have become mittens. But I stopped just enough to become fingerless mittens. They are also knitted long enough to be consider wrist and arm warmers.

Simply knit using 4 dpn casting on 30 sts.  When you get to making the thumb gusset and decide where you want to place it, just divide up 2 stitches with 2 stitch holder.  Then knit around normally.  But for every other round you need to  “make 1″ on the 2 sts between the stitch holders.  Knit to desired length.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been wanting to grow Seabuckthorn for years now.  So I finally reserved 2 plants in the fall. They came all the way from a nursery in Oregon.

Seaberry is such an amazing plant that bears healthy orange berries. I hope to make jelly, tea, and other yummy stuff with them. But that may take at least 3-5 years to see any fruits from these plants.

The female plant has more leaves and is 2 years old.  The male plant just has tiny little brown buds and it’s 1 year old.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes by dozens and hundreds.

Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers, and sisters, aunts and cousins, but only one mother in the whole world.”

-Kate Douglas Wiggin

I was happy to see the Goji berries (Lycium barbarum) plant at the International Fruit Orchard.

And there are little green berries too. I’m sure the birds will be eating them once they ripen.

It’s doing very well and looks like it’s double in size since last year.

There are many health benefits to eating goji berries. In Chinese medicine, the berries and bark are used and believed to strengthen the immune system, help with eyesight (beta-carotene), protect the liver, and improve circulation.

A healthy inside means a healthy outside as goji berries also benefit your complexion and skin. So it’s overall a superfood.

Most of the goji berries in the market are cultivated in China. But they also grow well in Mongolia and at the Himalaya valleys of Tibet and Nepal. The people from that area have been consuming these berries for centuries and refer to them as “happy berries”.

Dried riped goji berries are really expensive at American shops, especially at health food stores. But most of the time you can find them for more reasonable price at Asian supermarkets.

If you’re interested in growing goji berries, read more at Veggie Gardening Tips.

Resources: The Telegraph, UK. “Goji berries: The new superfruit”