“hempty” it’s a natural!
Hemp protein can be processed and flavoured in any way soybean
protein can. Hemp oil can be used to make highly nutritious tofu,
butter, cheese, salad oils, and other foods.
Hemp produces twice as much fibre per acre as cotton! Hemp fibreboard
is far stronger than similar wood products, and can replace almost
every item used in building a house. (Except electrical wiring
and glass windows). The Hemp plant has been used since the beginning
of time as one of the world’s most nutritious plants, second only
to the soybean. Hemp can be grown in almost any climate, allowing
for the world to be clothed, housed and fed! Hemp fiber, when
wet, swells and forms a natural water barrier. The Hemp plant
reduces soil erosion, thereby controlling mudslides and saving
mountains and rivers.
With these claims and more about the miraculous hemp plant, the
OpenMinder decided to find out how things are going with hemp
in this valley, since it was legalized a year and a half ago.
We will start off our investigation with a talk with Pavel Demitoff
of Brown Bear Medicinals, who has been promoting a tea made from
this plant and has been involved with the process from the start
in every aspect of its production and promotion.
OpenMinder: What brought about the idea of hemp tea?
Pavel: Childhood memories. I remember the hemp plant all
around. I remember cold teas out of the ice box. It was delicious
and brings back good memories when I think of it. It seemed like
a natural now that hemp is legal.
OM: Even though I’ve never heard of hemp as a tea before
meeting you, I assume that it has a long history.
Pavel: Well, to start off with, hemp has a history of 10,000 years
in the diet and medicinal aspects of our culture that we are able
to document, not to mention that this valley has its history with
hemp, too.
OM: When making the tea, do you use all of the plant when
it is full grown?
Pavel: No. We use only the young green growing tips of
the plant that gives the sweetest flavour to the tea. Picking
only these tips makes it such a unique crop to harvest because
you can start picking as early as 2 to 3 weeks after planting.
When you pick that growing tip, it doesn’t take long before there
is double the growing tips to pick again. This way you can get
many harvests per season. The plant, harvested this early, also
has no time to build up any THC (the psychoactive ingredient)
levels.
OM: How long does it take to get the tea to the customer?
Pavel: In 45 days from planting we’ve had it in the bags and on
the shelves for sale. I don’t believe that there is another crop
you can do this within that short of a time, kind of like being
on a 30-day credit plan. Being such a hardy plant, it can grow
well under most conditions.
OM: With the hemp plant being so versatile, are you trying
to develop other markets as well?
Pavel: There are so many aspects of this plant to experiment
with. We have experimented with hemp tea in ice cream and have
submitted a taste test to a representative of Baskin & Robbins
ice cream. Hempty ice cream tastes entirely different than ice
cream made with hemp seed oil. It is light and clean, with a green
gold color. Highly appetizing to the natural food connoisseur,
and the ice cream fanatic within us all. We have been trying hemp
sprouts, which have a wonderful zingy taste. I can’t believe how
good they do taste, I prefer them to the other sprouts on the
market. That is not even taking into consideration their nutritional
value which I believe to be far superior. In the early part of
this century New Zealand staved off starvation using the nutritional
value in the seeds and other by- products of hemp. More projects
include working with extracts and tinctures, to be used in teas
and holistic remedies.
We feel this is a pretty good crop not only for people’s health
and the land, but also the farmer’s pocket book.
OM: Can you elaborate on this last statement?
Pavel: The plant, being a high biomass producer yields
a harvestable crop in a short time and helps to clean the air
at the same time. Everyone has heard about the global warming,
so the faster growing higher biomass producing plants like hemp
are very beneficial. The fact that it thrives even more under
ultraviolet light means it will work even harder to repair the
depleted ozone. It is a way to reclaim lands lost to weeds, erosion,
and lack of funding. Hemp has nitrogen fixing abilities the same
as legumes, and can be planted as a cover crop or seeded in fall
for an early spring crop. There are strains of hemp that will
grow to more than 6 inches in diameter and 20 feet in height within
6 months.
OM: How much return for each acre could be expected for
the farmer growing hemp for tea?
Pavel: I’m not sure, I haven’t seen a crop grow a whole
season, we have been wildcrafting up till now. There are so many
variables to consider. It is a labour-intensive crop that is continuously
harvested throughout the season. One could give an estimate of
a 14 ton to 12 ton per acre.
OM: What is the best way to prepare the hemp tea?
Pavel: One could prepare it much the same a regular green
teas, but to get the maximum benefit from the tea, you would want
to add milk or a similar oil-based product while you are steeping
it. The active ingredients are oil-based and are therefore released
to a greater extent with milk.
OM: How much milk would you use?
Pavel: Not too much, about what you might add to your normal
tea or coffee.
OM: How has the response been to “hempty”?
Pavel: That depends on if they have tasted it or not. Before
they get to taste it, people are usually hesitant, but once they
have tasted it, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
As far as the stores handling it, they are putting it on their
shelves.
OM: The cannabis plant is under scrutiny for its possible
medical uses, does the hemp tea lay claim to these benefits as
well?
Pavel: The tea has always had pleasant associations with
relaxation, but now scientific research from around the world
is suggesting that the tea may have significant positive health
benefits. Hemp tea is considered to be one of the healthiest drinks.
It is a valuable provider of calcium and other minerals and vitamins
as well as having a high antioxidant content. Taken without milk
or sugar, it has no calorie or fat content, and is low in sodium.
It also contains traces of proteins and carbohydrates, amino acids
and lipids. The therapeutic benefits of this plant have been known
for generations. It has been shown to be useful in everything
from premenstrual syndrome to cancer therapies.
Scientific researchers are investigating how tea drinking can
protect us from certain diseases. Scientists believe that drinking
tea improves oral health by helping prevent dental caries. A British
study published in 1991 suggested that heavy tea drinking could
even provide some children with enough fluoride to prevent tooth
decay. It has also been suggested that drinking tea decreases
plaque. These effects are probably due to the tea’s antioxidant
components working in synergy with its fluoride content. Even
with a high rate of tobacco use, the low rate of cancers has been
attributed to the high consumption of green tea in China.
I’ve had very strong testimonials from people saying that it has
cleared their husband’s eyesight, that they have had their first
good night sleep in years, and were actually very excited that
now they could get this product.
We have been supplying compassion clubs with hemp tea for over
a year, to be used as an alternative to smoking or ingestion of
high THC strains, also with positive results.
OM: What do you see in the future for BBM (Brown Bear Medicinals)
and the hempty?
Pavel: BBM is currently able to process and store 200 twenty-serving
bags of hempty a week. In time we should be capable of processing
and shelving thousands. With an import and export license hemp
could be grown for the Canadian and world market. Japan and China
are natural tea markets along with India and England. No one to
date, at least as far as I know, is marketing hemp for tea. We
already have a local network of customers in Grand Forks, also
our other current retailers reach from Nelson to Victoria. The
Calgary Herald, Monday Magazine in Victoria, B.C. and various
other papers, both local and B.C.-wide have given us free ads,
and interviews and an article about the hemp tea will be published
in High Times magazine (Dec. 99 issue). We have been offered free
advertising in Cannabis Culture. The green tea market is a million-dollar
market in Canada alone and hemp tea can be a big part of it. Hemp
tea is a natural!
Did you know?
Astronauts wear underwear lined with water tubes to keep cool.
During your lifetime, you will shed about 40 pounds of skin.
There is a canyon on Mars that would stretch from New York to
San Francisco.
The lips of a hippopotamus are nearly two feet wide.
The energy given off by a hurricane in one day would power the
entire U.S. for three years.
An elephant’s trunk can hold two gallons of water.
The canopy of a rainforest is so thick, only 1% of sunlight reaches
the ground.
Sound Expressions
by Marcel
Frequency is an energy vibration that is measured in Hertz. An
interesting diversity of frequencies exist in our environment,
some so low we can feel them. Frequency we can hear ranges from
about 20 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz. An even higher frequency is what
we call ‘White Light’, which can be broken down into a spectrum
we see as colours. Higher than White Light is ultraviolet light,
radio waves, microwaves and so on.
Notice the frequencies that are playing upon your eardrums. Make
an effort to isolate or concentrate on each individual sound vibration.
Focus your brain on sound and its sense of hearing. It’s a wonderful
process to have fun with that capacity which, like seeing, touching,
etc. defines where and who we are.
Some people have acquired the habit of ignoring many sounds so
as to maintain their pattern of thought, to concentrate on a particular
achievement. So, to open up our sense of hearing may require practice.
Isolate and pay attention to the different sounds occuring in
your environment. Their subtle variances, character, frequency,
whatever it is about them that is peculiar. Not contriving what
they might mean to you but rather more immediately just how they
play upon your sense of hearing. This kind of exercise will open
up your mind in the field of sound perception and that will feel
good.
If you hear sounds you think are undesirable, these may be altered
or eliminated by making changes to your environment. Trying to
“block out” their existence is no more than becoming
an insensitive, dull, and unnaturally tolerant individual. Join
us next issue to find out about how some sounds are more harmonious
than others.
Just for a laugh
Insane Asylum Baseball
A doctor at an insane asylum decided to take his inmates to a
baseball game. For weeks in advance, he coached his patients to
respond to his commands.
When the day of the game arrived, everything seemed to be going
well. As the national anthem started, the doctor yelled, “Up
nuts!” and the inmates complied by standing up. After the
anthem he yelled, “Down Nuts!” and they all sat down.
After a home run he yelled, “Cheer nuts!” and they all
broke into applause and cheers.
Thinking things were going very well, he decided to go get a beer
and a hot-dog, leaving his assistant in charge.
When he returned there was a riot in progress. Finding his assistant,
he asked what happened.
The assistant replied, “well… everything was fine until
some guy walked by and yelled “PEANUTS!!!”
Insane Asylum
Walking past the big wooden fence around the insane asylum, a
guy hears everyone inside chanting, “Thirteen! Thirteen!
Thirteen!”
His curiosity piqued, he finds a hole in the fence and looks inside.
All of a sudden a finger shoots through the hole and pokes out
his eye, and the inmates start wildly chanting, “Fourteen!
Fourteen! Fourteen!”
The Smart Alec Bull
Once there was an insurance salesman from the city going out to
the farm community to sell insurance to the farmers. He was way
out in the country when he had engine trouble. Not knowing anything
about cars he gets out and looks under the hood anyway.
All of a sudden he hears a voice that says “It’s the carburator”
The insurance man jumps, and looks around, seeing no one. He then
looks under the hood again, hoping it is something visible that
he could fix himself, when he hears the voice again “It’s
the carburator”
The man jumps again and turns around only seeing a large Brahma
bull behind him. Scared out of his wits he takes off running to
the nearest farm house he can see
He knocks on the door, the farmer answers, the man immediately
goes into his spiel about the bull.
The farmer scratches his head and says, “Does he have one
straight ear and one floppy ear?”
The man nods “Yes, Yes.”
The farmer laughs and say, “Don’t worry about him, he
doesn’t know as much about cars as he thinks he does.”
Come to the
Grand Forks & District
Fall Fair!
Friday Sept.10th & Saturday Sept.
11th
Broadacres Facility on Carson Road
Schedule of Events
Friday Sept.10th
9 am – 6 pm Entry of exhibits – please note exhibit
entries will close at 6pm sharp – no exceptions! – Judging to
follow
Please note: Judging of exhibits – exhibits will NOT be open
to the general public during the judging – no exceptions.
Jam sessions with Ray & Glenna
from the original Rusty Buckle. Everyone welcome to bring their
musical talents and join in on the Jam! Phone Glenda Biddlecome
at (home) 442-3244 or (work) 442-3736.
Saturday Sept.11th
8 am – Opening ceremonies: with Bill Barisoff – MLA,
Brian Taylor – Mayor of the City of Grand Forks, and Rob Letkemann
– President of the Fall Fair Society
Oh Canada – sung by Christine Lewall
Continuous events throughout the day:
Horse show / Live entertainment / Midway / Horseshoe
pitch tournament starting at 11:00 am
8:10 am – Pancake Breakfast
9:30 am – Parade of all participating dogs, kid’s potato
sack race
10 am – Pet parade, dog singing contest
10:20 am – Best dog trick contest
10:30 am – Kid’s tractor pull, kid’s 3-legged races
10:40 am – most dog tricks contest
11 am – Dog owner look-alike contest, kid’s wheelbarrow
races
11:30 am – Movie dog behaviour demo, dog trick demo
12 noon – Kid’s tug-o-war 9 years and under, kid’s tug-o-war
10 and over
12:30 pm – Kid’s potato sack race
1 pm – Dog obedience demo. dog drill demo and frisbee,
dog trick demo, movie dog behaviour demo and kid’s potato sack
race
1:30 pm – Kid’s 3-legged races
2 pm – Senior’s tea – Children’s story-telling Watermelon
eating contest
3 pm – Barbeque begins
4 pm – Trophy presentation
4:30 pm – Women’s Centre entertainment
6 pm – Auction – Bob Smith auctioneer
6:15 pm – Dog agility – beginner
6:30 pm – Dog agility – advanced
7:20 pm – Dog flyball demo
7:30 pm – Children’s story-telling
8:30 pm – Fireworks
Don’t miss the Fun!
| BMX – Fun for everyone! by Sarah Wyatt |
When it came to BMX racing, I originally didn’t pay too much attention.
I was just one of those people who hoped these kids didn’t ride
on the sidewalk or over anyone. I have now been following the
racing with my camera for just over 2 months and in that time
I have come to appreciate the skill involved in riding and the
excitement in watching.
One also has to appreciate the time and effort it has taken everyone
involved into putting our local track together. My hat off to
all volunteers. The amount of work involved in keeping the regular
weekly events straight could wear a person out just thinking about
it. Add to that the logistics of hosting a provincial race and
I’d be ready to break out the aspirins.
August 13 – 15, Grand Forks did host a provincial race in which
close to 100 riders participated. Racers were from the age of
5 to 45. Dad-powered half-trackers – after all, some of those
hills can be mountains for a 5-year-old – were a delight to watch.
Winning or losing was not the intention of the young ones. The
intention was just to ride on the track like the big kids.
As far as the cruiser class goes, don’t let the name fool you.
In this category riders have 24-inch wheels rather than 20-inch
wheels. This minor difference did nothing to slow the racers down.
The 40-year and over riders are an inspiration for couch potatoes,
including myself, who have said in the past, “But I’m too
old.”
These races are anything but boring. From novice to expert, in
all categories, competition is strong and the racing exciting.
Something else that I noticed at the races: this is not just a
sport for the boys. Girls/ladies race as well and are just as
competitive as their male counterparts.
During the provincial races I spoke to a long-time BMX dad from
the lower Mainland. His description was “for a first-year
track it’s excellent!” If it’s excellent now, just think
of how much better it could be next year or the year after. Grand
Forks is famous for sunshine and borscht. It could be famous for
the BMX track as well. On a Tuesday evening, when you have nothing
to do, go for a walk or drive to City Park and watch these BMX
riders. Admission is free, so everyone can enjoy it. Just for
the fun of it, check out the age group of the rest of the crowd
there. You’ll notice what I did – this is definitely fun for everyone.
Volunteers are always needed and you don’t have to have kids or
spouses racing. Just wanting to help is the only requirement.
Internet History part 1
http://www.burnww.net/1998bww/HTM/CONTENT/internet_history.htm
The Internet, conceptualized in the 1970’s by the U.S. Department
of Defense as a functioning network, was embraced by the global
community in the mid 1990’s. The Department of Defense does not
own or control cyberspace, as the Internet is available to anyone
with a computer and a modem anywhere in the world. Users world-wide
share the Internet in a manner which can be explained as the largest,
most diverse, most informative, and most accessible public park
in history. As with all public places, certain expectations exist
for users and members of the Internet community. Therefore, understanding
Internet and Web vocabulary is essential when navigating through
the exciting, boundless, global network.
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a term used regarding information
and multimedia made available through a web browser. The WWW can
be used to find, search, view and download information.
A web browser is a software program that enables your computer
to navigate through hypertext markup language (html). HTML is
a universal computer language that links multimedia from independent
locations. Hypertext and hyperlinks connect bits and pieces of
information on web pages.
Hypertext on the web enables the user to jump from one subject
to the next simply by pressing a mouse key on the related word.
Hyperlinks are similar to branches on a tree. Some hyperlinks
lead you to an abundance of information, others to a finished
point. Jumping between hyperlinks and hypertext is commonly referred
to as surfing the web.
WWW History
The WWW was created in a high-energy physics lab in Switzerland
and was text based in form. The web was given a face-lift in 1993
in an attempt to gain mass acceptance. Netscape Communications
created a new web browser and incorporated graphics, animation,
sound, and video – all previously unavailable. This change was
the catalyst to a world surge in the use of the Internet and the
WWW. The number of pages published on the web grew over 8,800%
in one year. This number has doubled every year since 1994.
Internet Growth
In 1996 the Internet industry was accountable for over $190,000,000
in commerce. By the year 2001 that number is speculated to increase
to a trillion dollars. Unique sites have the potential to attract
limitless users. For example, the Pathfinder mission to Mars and
the subsequent pictures broadcast from the landing site attracted
over 100 million hits to NASA’s web site from amateur astronomers
all over the world.
In the U.S. alone there are over 40 million Internet users. The
booming growth of the young industry has guaranteed its place
in the world market and has forced corporate awareness of cyber
trade as an essential tool of business world-wide.
Bugs. It’s what’s for dinner!
Meet some people that have joined the growing swarm of folks who
believe bugs are better than beef.
Bugs. It’s what’s for dinner. Doesn’t sound very appetizing? Then
how about mealworms, the ‘other’ other white meat?
If that still doesn’t make you hungry, maybe it’s time for you
to hear from people who say insect cuisine might be for you, if
you’re looking for a healthy alternative to beef and pork.
Although bugs are relished in much of the world, people in most
of North America and Europe gag at the thought. But American bug
eaters say their numbers are growing among people who are interested
in a low-cholesterol, high-vitamin, high-protein source of food.
“Their nutritional value far outweighs fish, chicken, beef
and pork,” says Amy Cousar, 37. Grasshoppers have twice the
protein as lean steak by weight, according to Florence Dunkel,
Montana State University entomology professor and editor of ‘The
Food Insects Newsletter’.
A 100-gram serving of termites contains 67% of the recommended
daily allowance for riboflavin, she says. And bees are a good
source of vitamin B. Dunkel says, eating bugs is good for the
earth. “Raising beef cattle is hard on the environment,”
she states. Insects can provide a source of protein when other
meat products are unavailable, say bug proponents. If that pesky
Y2K problem or some other apocalypse disrupts conventional food
supplies, guess what we’ll be eating? “You can’t take a cow
in a space station. But you can take insects,” Dunkel added.
The final argument for bug munching: They taste good. They’re
not slimy, They’re really not. They’re meaty.
“At the present moment, it’s a food of the future in the
United States,” Dunkel says. Mrs. Cousar said she discovered
insects as food about 1 12 years ago, when she was selecting books
for her store, Sirius Books and Essence in Northeast Minneapolis.
She came across such titles as ‘Creepy Crawly Cuisine’, ‘The Gourmet
Guide to Edible Insects’, ‘Entertaining with Insects’, ‘The Eat-A-Bug
Cookbook’ and ‘Man Eating Bugs’.
Insect recipes also can be found on the Internet, including at
the Orkin pestcontrol company Website.
Intrigued, Mrs. Cousar visited the University of Minnesota insect
collection with her four young children, whom she teaches at home.
Then, they did a little grocery shopping at a pet store. When
the clerk asked what kind of pet they were going to feed the mealworms
and crickets, she handed her recipes for oatmeal-mealworm cookies
and crickets and mushrooms over rice.
Insect and food experts believe that there is a food taboo against
eating insects because bugs are relatively inefficient to eat
in places where there is an abundance of large mammals as protein
sources, as in America and Europe.
Mrs. Cousar said her desire to teach her children to be open-minded
helped her overcome her squeamishness against grabbing a bunch
of wiggling worms or crickets before dropping them into the soup
pot.
“They crawl. You have to run after your food,” she said.
“Yesterday was the first time I picked them up alive without
being psyched up.” But her kids are good examples of what
happens when you start them young. “I put a burger in front
of her and a scorpion in front of her, and I guarantee she’s going
to go for the scorpion,” Mrs. Cousar says of her 15-month-old
daughter. When her 3-year-old was asked what she thinks of mealworms,
she replied “Goood,” in a tone of voice that seems to
imply,”What a silly question.” “Oh, my God!”
said customer Stacey Gill when she saw a wiggling mass of live
mealworms in a container at Cousar’s store. But emboldened by
the example of Cousar’s kids downing roasted worms, Gill gave
one a try. “It’s like sunflower seeds,” she said. The
Cousar’s two oldest children, Maarya, 8, and Sha’yaa, 7, said
they like to catch and eat ants. But Mrs. Cousar discourages that
because you don’t always know where city ants have been. The kids
may be a little exceptional. They also like to eat vegetables,
Cousar mentions.
Mrs. Cousar says she now purchases live mealworms and crickets
in bulk from mail-order suppliers, such as Rainbow Mealworms Inc.
of Compton, California The 2,000 medium-sized mealworms it takes
to make a pound costs $9.75 plus $3.20 in shipping, or enough
money to buy a pretty nice steak. But she says she still thinks
the bugs are a good value compared to beef. The Cousars are thinking
about making and selling baked goods with insects. And they are
considering more exotic bugs to try, such as honey pot ants, praying
mantises and tarantulas. She is also thinking about raising the
bugs herself to save money. “It’s like having a beef cow,
except you keep it on the kitchen counter,” Dunkel says.
Dunkel warns that not all bugs are edible, however. Some contain
microtoxins. She says she only eats cooked insects, and she is
careful to use live suppliers with a reputation for delivering
healthy, vigorous insects. People who are allergic to shellfish
will be allergic to insects, she cautions. “I would feel
more comfortable if we had inspection or regulation or grading.”
But so far, bugs as food are below most nutritional radar screens.
When asked about bugs as an alternative protein source, University
of Minnesota Extension nutritionist Mary Darling said, “Jeez!”
followed by a peal of laughter. “I guess in this country
I’d be concerned where those insects have been. Here, we use an
awful lot of sprays and insecticides,” she said. “Typically,
most people would substitute beans,” said Bill Shafer, a
University of Minnesota associate professor and Extension food
technologist. The University’s Nutrition Coordinating Center’s
database has nutrient data on squirrel, seal and walrus meat,
but no insects, according to assistant director Nancy Van Heel.
Similarly, the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory has information in
its database on exotica ranging from goat to Chef Boyardee Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles. But there are no bugs in the computer.
Ron Eustice, executive director of the Minnesota Beef Council,
said he is not aware of any studies that show that bugs are superior
to beef. He thinks beef will survive the challenge of yet another
meat of the future. “I don’t see insects or ostriches as
competition for the beef industry,” he says.