The eclectic learner

Although I don't seem to have any free time to post, I am still trying new recipes with raw food, vegan delicacies etc. My journey into natural healing continues and I am learning new things every day. One simple truth is that I feel much better and much more energetic when I eat mostly those things that Mother Earth has created - with no processing.  Sometimes people come to me and ask for one specific item that will make them feel better. Some think of a superfood or a formula or a new pill that might restore their failing health to its former glory. It would be nice to have such a product but in this moment in time it does not exist. So far I am not aware of any product which can revert overnight years of processed food, lack of exercise and toxin loading. Our body needs constant care and love just like our cars, computers and gardens do. However many excellent formulas Dr Christopher and Dr Schulze have created, none of them can work properly if we are daily polluting our...

Well! Long time, no see. I've been busy designing fabric and uploading my projects to Spoonflower and to Zazzle. Have a look and tell me what you think!!!!!!! It's so fun! Franz http://www.zazzle.co.uk/franzsunshinestudios http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=247 http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/sunshine_creations

Garlic  and Echinacea tincture - Cold and Flu Fighters!  We’re coming up on winter time again, and for many that means more colds, flus, coughs, sniffles and other annoying ills .  What natural remedy helps to keep you healthy during this time?  The answer is probably sitting in your kitchen cupboard.  It’s garlic. Garlic has been touted as a health booster for a long time, that’s nothing new.  Anecdotal evidence , old wive’s tales, and folk medicine are full of uses for the herb .  Turns out though, that they are actually pretty accurate. A study done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham sheds some light on exactly why garlic is such a powerful herb.  In the study researchers extracted juice from supermarket garlic and added small amounts to human red blood cells.  The scientists discovered that the cells immediately began emitting hydrogen sulfide (HS2) which acts a cell messenger. Interestingly, hydrogen sulfide is ...

Healing Broken Bones With Herbs This is from a student at the School of Natural Healing.  Just shows what is really possible using herbal remedies: It has now been three weeks since my daughter broke her collarbone, and if I hadn't seen her healing with my own eyes I wouldn't believe it. The medical profession says  a collarbone typically takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal.  My daughter’s took two. Many of you, like my wife, won't be surprised by this, but having not come from an herbalist's background, things like this still amaze me. My wife has been studying herbs and natural healing for quite a while, so as she saw this healing occur her reaction was simply “Well yeah, that's the way it works.” On a Monday morning my 4-year-old little girl fell off the couch and landed just right to break  her collarbone. She immediately began screaming in pain, and not just the kind of screaming when a kid falls down and gets bumped. This was the type of screaming where you...

If you are good at designing things or with photography/illustration etc, I suggest you try uploading your designs on Zazzle. Simply create a new account with a memorable store name, upload your photos or textures etc and apply them to any item on offer on Zazzle. When enough items are in the store send the link to your friends and to your favourite sites (twitter, Facebook etc) and see if anyone would like to purchase your very own creations. If you are successful, you could create a profitable business with Zazzle. Many blogs describe just how to do it and some sellers have around 150,000 items! You will be competing with Disney and Hallmark but there are also some very simple designs. take a look at my little store if you wish! Have a good day, Franz http://www.zazzle.co.uk/franzsunshinestudios

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/a_modern_and_upbeat_design-223851679971437642 My very first fabric applied to a toiletry bag....

Hello! One of my children's favourite treats is a fruit roll, or fruit leather. This is made by preparing any smoothie and then dehydrating it until it's a soft and pliable fruit roll. If by mistake you dehydrate it too much and it becomes too hard, don't worry! You have just made your first batch of fruit crisps - delicious! To make the fruit roll in the photographs, I made two smoothies: one with peaches and one with strawberries (fresh or canned is your choice, of course keeping in mind that fresh doesn't contain added sugar and it's probably yummier). When your smoothies are ready, pick up the teflon sheet of your dehydrator and spread a very, very thin layer of olive oil or coconut oil, using perhaps a silicon brush. Slowly pour one smoothie occupying only one area of the dehydrator tray (the centre or one half). Then pour the other smoothie, avoiding mixing the two. Now to have some fun use a fork or any tool that won't scratch the teflon sheets, and gentl...

Good afternoon! Many people would like to learn how to dehydrate their food so they can preserve it. Others would love to learn some dehydrated raw food recipes. I am posting here some bits from my book, "Back to Basics", where an entire chapter is devoted to dehydrating. Happy reading! How do you use dehydrators? It’s quite simple; there are detailed instruction books, but anyway just slice fruit or veggies to achieve slices of 2 mm, spread them evenly on the tray and keep going until all the food is sliced and ready to be dehydrated. Then plug in/turn on and set the temperature to medium (for most foods), low for herbs and high for meat. That’s it. It’s easier to set the dehydrator before going to bed and when you wake up everything is ready.  Create your very own “ready meals” cheaply Regarding soups, you can prepare a soup roll up, make it really dry and brittle, then put it in a good blender to powder it and then store it. If you are good at cooking you can create your v...

Good evening! As we are soon starting a second round of war  against Candida, I thought we would first of all ditch wheat, the great cause of inflammation in so many people. This is because modern wheat has been crossed pollinated zillions of times, to achieve a highly productive, dwarf plant which is completely different from the ancient wheat that people used to eat, say, sixty years ago. The new wheat we eat now, according to Dr. Davies (author of the best seller "The wheat belly") contains something like 37% of gluten instead of the old,3%, plus it contains a substance called I think glialine, which is an opiaceous. Ooops. This means 'addictive': the more wheat you eat, the more wheat you crave. Now that you know what sparked our decision to ditch wheat for a while, don't feel guilty if you do eat it: apparently not everybody reacts badly to it. So, here we have our recipe for wheat free, crispy and crunchy crackers. Spelt crackers Ingredients: 500 gr. spelt f...

In the last couple of months we have really grown to like this green smoothie, so it's time to share the recipe. Green Smoothie Ingredients: - a couple of leaves of kale (without the hard bit in the middle) - Apple juice or other fruit juice you prefer,  filling 1/4 of the Vitamix jug - 3 ripe bananas - a handful of almonds - optional, 1 bananas and 3 pears instead of 3 bananas - optional, fresh and tender lettuce instead of kale - optional, a bit of crushed ice Preparation: Put kale and apple juice in the blender and mix until the liquid is perfectly smooth Add the other ingredients, then mix If you wish, add a bit of ice but don't crush it too small Pour and enjoy!

It looks like everything I do is for the others and I keep the rubbish stuff for myself. Mmm. Years ago...again.....a friend of mine got married and was about to move to the USA with her young husband, who comes from Hawaii or Tonga, sorry can't remember, just a robust guy with very exotic looks. I got thinking about the beautiful environment where he came from and I chose a fish pattern in a cotton fabric, to make a cute apron for her. I know that she's a good homemaker....and I hope she still wears my apron! I also made a Japanese one but I forgot to take a photo (typical of me!) Franz

When a friend of mine had a baby girl, who then became a pretty toddler and a young girl, I loved making her little presents. This is one of them. It's knitted in acrylic yarn on my Passap Knitting machine (which has  a double bed). I added the fringes and some sequins as this girl loves sparkly things (I do, too). It was fun to make and definitely something that most people can make in one day or two. Franz

Many years ago a friend donated me a strange fabric in a weird violet hue, and it was a really tough fabric. I really didn't know what to do with it. In the end I made a large, embroidered shopping bag, and also a little bread bag (embroidered) where to slid in those French baguettes we used to eat. Sadly, when we were diagnosed with a wheat allergy we found out that we can't eat the majority of artisan breads as they all contain milk in some form. So eventually I gave away the baguette bag and also made 5 more, which I donated to friends. So, fabric can always be used for fun things! Franz

When a friend had a baby girl, I was dying t do something girly for her as I had no daughters then. I had a look in my fabric pile and I found just what I was looking for. Without thinking about measurements I just put together this really silly dress and I sent it to my friend. She actually liked it! I was amazed. Here it is: have a laugh! Franz

Five years ago I designed and made an Indian dress using a white fleece blanket that was on offer in our local supermarket. It was just a fun project but I ended up adding a fringe, beads and the lot, plus some embroidery, and I even lined the entire dress with satin. When it was finished and I tried it on, it was like being enveloped by a warm white cloud. I loved it and I tend to wear it once a year, when it snows. :) Wicked sense of humour, I know. That dress is special to me also because in the month when I worked on it I became pregnant with my now five ear old daughter, Kim. Making the dress was fun and it costed me only £5,00 for fabric and probably £5,00 for beads. There is so much we can do when we have time, passion and a good idea. I'm not saying that you should go around dressed like American Indians though! Franz

Good evening! I just wanted to share a really good recipe which is helping us to eat more greens effortlessly. Not many people would eat a kale salad, but guess what: a kale smoothie can be rather tasty. Just mix the following the blender, in this order: 1/2 lt fruit juice (apple juice works well) 3 leaves kale then add: 3 bananas Blend for 1 minute if you have a Vitamix, and for 3 for less powerful blenders. It's a rich, creamy drink that my children love. And it's packed with vitamins and proteins, with no added sugar. Yum!

I have signed up for the Herbal Nutritionist course at the School of Natural Healing in Utah. One of the books I have to study as part of my curriculum is "Eat to live" by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. I'm only on page 140 but I can see all the myths about meat and dairies debunked. The discovery that even a humble Romain Lettuce leaf contains more proteins than steak has been the highlight of my day. Plus Joel Fuhrman quotes massive scale studies proving once and for all that if a person gets more than 10% of his calories from animal products, that person risks cancer, heart attacks and metabolic disease far more than other people. He suggests that we don't look at the media to learn about health. Guess who pays for those articles pushing us to buy animal products? My breakfast smoothie today had almonds, bananas, an entire lettuce, cinnamon, a pear and a few dates. It was full of vegetable proteins and it sustained me from 7 a.m. to 12:00. (With no low sugar headache...

Nowadays most children can't do anything "naughty" or they instantly get labelled with autism, asperger's etc which is connected, by the way, to a leaky gut syndrome. Sometimes just cutting off dairies the behaviour will return to normal and guess what, you don't need cow's milk for your bones, greens will give you calcium. Opps I shouldn't say that because of course there is a lot of money in the dairy industry. Have a look at what happened to a little boy when he had his dairies taken away. Guess what? His diagnosis of  Asperger’s Syndrome, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anxiety Disorder and possibly Tourette’s Syndrome is no longer valid. He is now normal. Just how many children do we have who are suffering emotionally and could get better by cutting dairies? And what about wheat, gluten, corn and soy, the big four causes of problems? Read along.... http://dogtorj.com/testimonials/the-glaring-example/ T...

Fork over knives: why we've been brainwashed about our diet Today we were stunned by this video produced by two medical doctors. Watch and prepare to be surprised! It is worth every minute of your time - we promise. There is a scientifically proven connection between an animal-based diet and cancer/metabolic disease. The host talked about Japan. Japan prostate cancer cases: 18 a year. USA  prostate cancer cases: 14.000 a year. What's the difference? Lack of meat and dairies in the Japanese diet. (They do eat fish) The same concept of the benefits of being careful with meat was clear when Hitler confiscated all the cows from the Norwegians (largely meat and dairy eaters) As soon as he confiscated them, their rates of cancer, diabetes, stroke etc dropped. When Hitler died….and they ate cows again, the disease went UP. And just WHO is sitting today on the board of the US government telling us what to eat and encoring wide use of animal products? Kraft,...

I must say that this course has changed my life. My family and I have not been to the doctor since I completed it last year.  Today I found a great movie where two medical doctors prove Dr. Christopher right: animal products are the main cause of modern disease. Can I dispute with statistics… .? Fork over knives - vegan is best, really