Papaya Growing

If you are into nutrition, you know how important it is to eat your daily fruits and veggies and this article is about how you can grow your own, from the pot.

Ever since we moved to Florida, I have been dreaming about growing my own tropical trees. The fact is that some properties in Florida have tropical trees, but as it often happens, some owners could care less about those fruits falling down uneaten. BTW, here it is a great business opportunity for you! Contact several owners and make a deal with them to collect all the fruits and offer us freshly squeezed lemonade! I will be the first customer :)

Another fact is that tropical trees/plants grow pretty well on the Floridian soil, at least in the South West. I am talking about orange, papaya, grapefruit, mango, tangerine, pineapple, avocado, rosemary, etc. I have a friend who successfully planted each of the above from a seed and now she has a beautiful garden in her yard. I had an attempt to grow a mango from a pit but for some reason it did't go well, I never saw the sprouts. Do you have any experience with the tropical tree growing? Please share.

A few days ago, I found Best of the Best description with pictures on how to grow papaya. It seems easy, check it out: http://www.all-creatures.org/pics/papaya.html. I really liked the details and the pictures and how they thoughtfully guide you through the process. The site even suggested to collect the seeds for a salad dressing. I did put the seeds in my juicer and added that juice to my salad. It tasted like a tangy black pepper, definitely brought a kick to my salad dressing, pretty cool! If you add some diluted tahini souse, olive oil, and lemon to it, it will become a gourmet raw dressing!

I planted four papaya seeds on Friday, March 19, 2010, as suggested in the website above. We will see in a week or two if I am lucky to see the papaya sprouts :) 


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Update. April, 2010
Look at these sprouts. Three of four survived and are looking pretty good! It's been a month now and I am excited to see them grow..

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Update. August 25, 2010
I am so happy to report that at least 2 of my papaya trees are growing and striving.  The third one I gave to my parents for their new house and apparently it's not doing so well. These 2 survived through our absence (our vacation away) and hopefully will keep growing. New leaves show up almost every day. I am not a gardener but this is a fun project!

Becoming Raw, Tip 2

Healthy Snacks 

Snacks are an important part of anyone’s life, but they take on even greater importance when you become a parent! We don’t realize how much we actually snack during a day. As a stay-at-home mother (who never stays at home), I am always on the go. Consequently, my toddler is too. While I am not sure if it is a good thing, we have an active lifestyle and need to have snacks in tow. Having a child makes me more responsible about healthier snacks than I ever had been before. I remember the picture from my past career life - about 10 years ago - sitting at my computer desk for at least eight hours straight, six days a week, sipping several mugs of coffee a day, snacking on a variety of cookies with occasional chocolates convincing myself, “Well, working in audit/accounting, my brain works a great deal and it needs energy for thinking so much so the sugar is definitely a must!” I can’t believe I used to think that sugar is beneficial to my body! More importantly, I can’t believe I survived on that diet with no exercise, just long hours at work. 

I know there are millions of professionals, stay-at-home moms, teenagers, and others who are extremely busy and don’t pay attention to their snacking. Maybe they are too busy, maybe they think they have no other choices or they think they are healthy, for now. 

Everything you put in your body leaves an imprint on your health and I would like to share with you a few helpful snack ideas. If you are able to make it your routine, you’ll be better off in the long run creating a younger, healthier, beautiful self! 

Here it is in random order: 

* Avoid the bakery/dessert section in every grocery store at all costs! 

* The nuts section should be your favorite for snacks, especially raw nuts. The intake should be a maximum of a hand full. 

* If you have sweet tooth like me, you can start by having fruits, sweetened nuts or dry fruits and then gradually reduce the amount. Nuts are tasty and easy to pack or store in your cabinet, purse, or car. 

* Avoid vending machines at work at all costs! There is no nutrition in them. 

* When you are hungry and have nothing else in your drawer but cut vegetables – you’ll be happy to eat them! Just try it. Cut them up at home (you can buy already cut veggies like small carrots) and bring them to work. 

As an experiment, I once brought a bunch of veggies and dip for a three hour drive with my business partner and I thought we wouldn’t touch them. To my surprise, we ate all of it in the very beginning of our trip. It turned out no one had the time to eat before the long drive. In this case, people usually drive through a fast food chain. They think, "Oh, it's just today I'll eat here." because it is so important to save time and be efficient. Unfortunately, this scenario will repeat itself until you say, "NO" to fast food restaurants and, "Yes" to veggies! It is hard in the beginning, but later on you'll think that your favorite fast food sandwich tastes like poison. Needless to say, I was happy I didn’t bring chips or crackers to that trip. 

Btw, I do put these snacks to my salads to make them testier – dry apricots, cranberries, all kinds of nuts, sunflower seeds, sprouts, etc. 

Stay healthy and surround yourself with nutrition! Your active body needs it.