Henny Penny Farmette

If you want to eat a heart-healthy fruit this the fall, don’t automatically assume it has to be an apple.

One medium persimmon is loaded with vitamins, contains about six grams of dietary fiber, and has more potassium, magnesium, manganese, and iron than an apple.

Although apples do contain less sugar, carbs, and calories than persimmon, the latter fruit offers higher concentrations of antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins A, C, and K.

Persimmon antioxidants neutralize and help remove the free radicals that can damage DNA inside cells.Cellular inflammation triggers and sustains chronic disease. When free radicals, a natural byproduct of cell metabolism, builds up, it results in oxidative stress and inflammation.

The polyphenols found in persimmons help scoop the “bad” LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream and protect blood vessels from oxidative stress–good for the heart.

Persimmons contain beta-carotene and lycopene. These are converted by the body into Vitamin A that protects the eyes against macular degeneration. The Vitamin C in persimmons, acting alongside the fruits flavonoids, boosts the body’s immune defenses as well as lowering blood pressure.

So, if you’re headed to the grocery store, farmer’s market, or local orchard to pick up some heart-healthy fruit this fall, consider the health benefits of persimmons. Better still, reach for both types of heart-healthy fruit–persimmons and apples. Your body will thank you.

If you enjoy reading about country living and growing heirloom fruits, vegetables, and berries or keeping bees like we do here on our farmette, you also might enjoy reading my Henny Penny Farmette series of mysteries. Each book includes delicious recipes and tips for growing and harvesting heirloom produce along with strategies for caring for chickens and bees.

The real Henny Penny Farmette is located in an inland valley east of the San Francisco Bay. These cozy mysteries as well my more than two dozen wellness and spirituality books are are available on Barnes and Nobles and Amazon or wherever books are sold. –ML

Honeybees love foraging in Spanish lavender

If you’ve ever wondered where honey gets its color and taste, think flowers. Or, more correctly, pollen from the flower and herb blooms and tree blossoms.

In the environs that encompasses roughly five to ten miles around the Henny Penny Farmette, honeybees gather pollen from blossoms on lavender, citrus, sunflowers, cosmos, fruit trees, and other flowering trees. Bees collect pollen from cultivated gardens but also from plants growing wild on hillsides and in the meadows and fields.

The first woodland flowers and wildflowers of spring yield honey that is a pale lemon color and tastes sweet and light. Later in the season, the pollen bees collect from citrus tree blooms such as orange blossoms becomes honey with citrus notes and aroma. When certain types of eucalyptus trees bloom in September, the honey takes on a warm amber color and a strong and earthy taste.

Honey can vary widely in color and taste, depending on the type of pollen the bees have collected

Dark honey is also found in a spring hive. It can be traced to the pollen that the bees have discovered and gathered from blossoms and blooms of flowers, trees, or herbs with a strong flavor and dark color.

If you want the health benefits from honey, purchase the raw honey. Raw honey is high in antioxidants and also has immune-boosting properties, according to Dr. Tasneem Bhatia, from the Atlanta Center for Holistic and Integrative medicine.

In a December 2012 appearance on the Dr. Oz show, Dr. Bhatia recommended  people take 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls of buckwheat honey every day as a natural remedy for cold, sore throat, and flu symptoms. See, http://www.prweb.com/releases/honey/buckwheat-honey-raw/prweb10242276.htm

Raw honey means it has not been heated or otherwise adulterated by processes that reduce or compromise the healthy benefits. Beneficial enzymes, propolis, pollen, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and antioxidants are destroyed when the honey is heated.

Drink your hot tea or warm milk with honey, but don’t put the honey in the cup of liquid and stick it into the microwave. Warm the liquid first, then add the honey.

It matters not whether your taste leans toward the light honey or the dark, the liquid honey or the honeycomb, have some honey every day. It’s good for you.