6 Benefits to Clean Eating

When we last met, we launched a communEATi New Year’s Resolution Challenge: to eat clean in 2016. And while we gave you some guidelines on how to go ahead and get started, some of you might still be waiting on the why before you make a complete lifestyle change. So we found six of the most important benefits to ditching the overly-processed foods and green-ifying your kitchen!

Boost Your Mood
Feeling mopey? Down in the dumps? Getting unnecessarily irritated over these questions? If your mood is constantly more “woke up on the wrong side of the bed” than it is “Disney princess awoken by singing birds,” it could be because of what you’re eating. A New Zealand study found that a higher intake of fruits and veggies resulted in more energy, calm, and greater feelings of overall happiness, and that these effects lasted past the days more produce was consumed.

Reduce Your Environmental Impact
While eating meat isn’t strictly prohibited from when eating clean, it does require more processing for human consumption, so eating less tends to be a natural side effect of a clean diet. Which is good news for the Earth, because meat preparation takes a significant toll on the environment. Animals raised to be eaten require far more land and resources than raising vegetables do (although fish farming can be fairly sustainable when it involves fish lower on the food chain, like tilapia and shellfish). Eating mainly vegetable-based foods rather than meat greatly reduces your environmental footprint.

Sleep Better
More and more sleep research is indicating that eating the right foods can help you get better sleep at night. And as numerous studies have already pointed out, better sleep improves overall wellness. Not surprisingly, many of the staples of a clean diet - like fish, whole grains, nuts, and dark leafy greens - have been linked to getting a better night’s sleep.

Start Glowing
University of Nottingham scientists found that healthy, clean eating really does give you a natural glow. And another study at the University of St. Andrews found that people who ate more fruits and vegetables daily over the course of six weeks were rated as more attractive than those who didn’t eat as many. So it’s true: if you’re feeling good on the inside, you’ll look your best on the outside too!

Get the Most from Your Workouts
It’s not surprising to hear that several healthy foods have been shown to enhance athletic performance, either by building muscle, boosting recovery, or improving endurance. After all, diet and exercise are the keys to healthy living, right? But did you know that beet juice is great for stamina? Or that honey can provide time-released “fuel” for endurance if eaten before exercise? Or how the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish like salmon can help build muscle while fighting off heart disease and Type 2 Diabetes? If you’re really serious about your workout, start with what you eat.

Optimize Your Brain
You may have heard people talking a lot lately about the Mediterranean diet, which is a good starting off base for clean eating. This diet requires eating a lot of vegetables and fruit, along with fish, beans, whole grains, olive oil, nuts, and seeds and requires you limit your intake of fatty meats, dairy products, refined grains, and sugar. Sounds familiar, huh? Well, the research shows those who eat a diet similar to this were less likely to have brain infarcts, which are small areas of dead tissue in the brain linked to cognitive problems. Mediterranean diet eaters were also found to be 36% less likely to have brain damage and have a 28% lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment with aging, with a 48% lower risk of cognitive impairment progressing to Alzheimer’s.

“You are what you eat” is much more than that weird vegetable man poster from high school health class. What you eat affects essentially every part of your life: from your mental to physical health, from your skin cells to the whole, wide world. Isn’t it time to start putting in the effort to eating your best so you can have the best life possible? We certainly think so!

So let communEATi help you as you take the steps toward a happier, healthier you! Follow us here, on Facebook, and on Twitter for more healthy food and lifestyle tips. And keep an eye out for the launch of our app, which is guaranteed to help you stock your kitchen with some of the freshest, cleanest, healthiest food around.

Read More »

Happy Holidays from communEATi!

Merry Christmas from communEATi!

We hope this seasons’ greeting finds you in the company of friends and family, sharing a delicious meal with love and laughter. We know you want to get back to them, so we won’t keep you too long, but we didn’t want to let the day go by without sending you and yours some holiday cheer! And what better way to wish you all the joys of the season than with some of our favorite holiday movie quotes?

“It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes, or bags! Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. ‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought, ‘doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” -How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

“Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.” -The Polar Express

“Sometimes, things look good on paper, but lose their luster when you see how it affects real folks. I guess a healthy bottom line doesn’t mean much if to get it, you have to hurt the ones you depend on. It’s people that make the difference.” -Christmas Vacation
“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” -It’s a Wonderful Life

“It’s Christmas Eve. It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be.” -Scrooged

“That’s what Christmas memories are made from. They’re not planned, they’re not scheduled, nobody puts them in their Blackberry, they just happen.” -Deck the Halls

“Christmas isn’t just a day, it’s a frame of mind.” -Miracle on 34th Street

“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!” -Elf

“Another crisis solved, Yeah, there sure are a lot here. Well, all families start to come together. We always get together at Christmas. Yeah, life would just pass in a blur if it wasn’t for times like this.” -A Muppet Family Christmas

We’ll be back next week with some more of our regularly scheduled gardening and cooking blogs. In the meantime, enjoy this weekend with all the love and warmth of the holiday season!

Read More »

Build Your Community Through communEATi

Think of your favorite holiday movie. Now think of your second favorite. Now think of the one that’s kind of okay, but you mostly watch it because of tradition. Now think of the one you hate but you watch it anyway because your family loves it. There’s a point to this, we promise.

Whether you thought of It’s a Wonderful Life, Elf, Love Actually, Home Alone, or any of a slew of other holiday movies, you probably already know at least one common theme between them (aside from the obvious): bringing people together. In fact, that’s a common theme throughout the entire holiday season. With songs like I’ll Be Home for Christmas and (There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays playing on the radio and stories like A Christmas Carol to share, the warm feelings of togetherness and love are certainly in the air. And not to seem too sappy, but we at communEATi are all about that.

In Fact...
We’re working very hard at communEATi to keep this feeling of togetherness going year-round! It’s the main reason we’re called communEATi, not Local Food Finder App or something else equally as, uh...straightforward.

We’re called communEATi as a reminder that what we eat can help grow and support our communities, and because breaking bread together has always been a part of the human story. With communEATi, we wanted to remind you of the power a shared meal can have in forging relationships or burying anger, provoking laughter or providing comfort.

Community to communEATi
communEATi works to put you in direct contact with local gardeners and farmers ready to provide the freshest, best tasting foods for your table. Or, if you’re the grower, communEATi provides a virtual farmers' market for you to share your harvest with the people close to you. Ultimately, at the heart of communEATi is a sense of togetherness, of community, that extends beyond a monetary transaction.

We’re reminded of this sense of togetherness every year during the holidays when we actually do take the time to come together to eat, drink, and be merry. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to carry that feeling throughout the whole year? Local food, buying and selling it, helps to build communities, keeping a long established connection between local growers and consumers. By taking part in this connection, you’re able to help strengthen the support system of your community and bring people together.

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. -Charles Dickens

We wish you a very happy holiday season and new year of friendship and prosperity. If you’d like to join the communEATi family, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep an eye out for updates on our program and for more information on locally grown food and growing your community.

Read More »

3 Phases of Growing Cranberries

If you’ve been keeping up with communEATi lately, you’ve probably seen us feature cranberries, everyone’s favorite holiday fruit! Tart and tasty, cranberries are commonly used in a variety of sauces, pies, and juices. Cranberries are also well-known for their healing qualities, due in large part to their high concentration of vitamin C and antioxidants. And while growing cranberries may bring to mind acres of flooded bog land, that’s actually not necessary to the cultivating process.

That said, cranberries aren’t exactly an “easy” fruit to grow either. They require a lot of attention and a lot of water. So if you’re up for a gardening challenge, here’s how to grow cranberries:

Planting the Cranberries
First you’ll need to choose what variety of cranberry you’d like to grow. We recommend Howes cranberries (smaller) or Stevens cranberries (larger) for first time growers.

Cranberries are best grown in cooler climates, between zones two and five. Cuttings (1-year-old plants) and seedlings (3-year-olds) can be planted throughout autumn (Oct.-Nov.) and in springtime (Apr.-May). Cranberries need soil with a low pH and a high level of organic matter. It’s often necessary to replace your existing soil instead of trying to alter it:

• -Plan your plot for 4’ by 8’. You can also use a 2’ by 2’ planter for a single plant.
• -Dig out the existing soil to a depth of 6-8”. Fill the plot with peat moss, then mix in ½ lb. of bone meal and 1 lb. of blood meal. Wet the soil thoroughly without saturating it.
• -Plant cuttings 1’ apart and 2” deep; plant seedlings 3’ apart and 2” deep.

Caring for Your Cranberries
Cranberry plants do not compete well against weeds, so it’s very important to weed the bed regularly. Luckily, the peat moss used in your plot will inhibit the growth of most weeds.

Make sure to keep your plants well-watered. The soil should always be wet or damp to the touch, but be sure not to oversaturate or submerge your plants. Too much water can slow down root growth and prevent them from reaching the necessary depth.

Soon after planting, your cranberry plants will start to put out runners, which will fill the bed before taking root and sprouting “uprights,” which is the part of the plant that grows flowers and fruit. You’ll need to fertilize your bed well to encourage the growth of these runners:

• -For the first year after planting, fertilize your bed with a high-nitrogen fertilizer 3 times: at the beginning of growth, when the flowers bud, and when the berries start forming.
• -After the first year, use a non-nitrogen fertilizer to encourage the runners to take root.
• -At the start of the second year (and every couple years after that), cover the soil with a thin (½”) layer of sand to help root the runners and prevent weeds.

Pests and diseases are relatively easy to deal with if you know what you’re looking for with cranberries. A common pest is fruitworms, which come from gray moths eggs in the berries. If you spot gray moths around your plants, spray the plot with insecticides to kill the eggs. Other common diseases are red spot and berry fruit rot. You can treat these by spraying the plants with an organic, copper-based fungicide between late June and early August.

From the third year of growth onwards, you’ll need to prune your plants each spring to control the runners and encourage uprights. Comb the cranberry plot with a landscape rake until all the runners are going in the same direction, and cut the longest back. Don’t prune existing uprights.

Harvest Time
If you planted seedlings, your cranberry plant may be producing fruit by the following autumn. If you planted cuttings, however, you may need to wait 3-4 years before your plant produces fruit.

• -Your berries should be ready to harvest in September and October each year
• -Ripe berries will be a bright or dark red color (depending on variety) with brown seeds.
• -Fresh cranberries keep up to 2 months when stored in the fridge in an airtight container.
• -Cooked cranberries can last in the fridge for up to a month.
• -Dried cranberries can keep for up to a year.

Cover your plot with a heavy layer of mulch to prevent your plants from freezing over the winter. You can uncover the plants in springtime (around April 1st), but cover them any night you expect frost. Never cover your plants with clear or black plastic, though, as this could kill them.

Once your cranberry plants are in place and thriving, imagine the uses you’ll find for them throughout the holiday season! What are some of your favorite cranberry-inclusive recipes? Tell us about them in the comments! And don’t forget to follow communEATi on Facebook and Twitter for more information on all things homegrown.

Read More »

The Benefits of Buying and Eating Locally

At communEATi, we’re pretty big advocates of eating locally grown foods. That probably could have gone without saying, considering our program is all about connecting buyers and sellers of locally grown foods, but it really is important to your health, the economy, and our world that people start buying and eating local. Keep reading to see why!

Health Benefits
Fresh food, overall, is better for you. Eating local and organic food means you are eating fresh food that is rich in a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and enzymes. Foods that need to be transported long distances are often harvested prematurely to increase shelf life, which sacrifices their nutritional value. And the more steps between you and your food’s source, the more chances there are for contamination.

Foods grown and harvested by corporations can also be genetically modified and/or contain chemicals and residual pesticides to ensure their crop is grown according to their regulations and will remain fresh when it’s sent to far off places. Local and organic foods, on the other hand, offer you a wide variety of fresh, nutritional food without any modifications or additives.

Taking care of yourself by becoming consciously aware of where your food comes from and what’s put in it can empower you to continue to make healthier decisions and improve your overall health.

Help the Environment
Not only are they harmful to human health, but GMOs and pesticides dramatically impact the environment. In commercial farming, the use of pesticides and GMOs obliterates biodiversity which contributes to major issues like bee colony collapse disorder. Well-managed family farms are places where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued; according to some estimates, farmers who practice conservation tillage could sequester 12-14% of the carbon emitted by vehicles and industry. Commercial farms, however, follow a commercial monoculture when it comes to agriculture, which is a major contributor to soil degradation as well as air and water pollution. Save the environment, eat local.

Protect Future Generations
Nearly all of the processes in the modern food system are reliant on oil, which, if we’re not careful, could be exhausted by 2040. If we don’t change our ways, our planet will not be able to sustain future generations. Norman J. Church says in his article on food and oil dependency, “One shopping basket of 26 imported organic products could have travelled 241,000 km and released as much CO2 into the atmosphere as an average 4 bedroom household does through cooking meals over eight months.” Agriculture is also considered the thirstiest industry on the planet, consuming 72% of all global freshwater.

By supporting local farmers, you can help decrease the use of oil, water, and carbon emissions in our food system, as well as help ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow and that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful, and abundant food.

Build a CommunEATi
When we buy locally, we have an amazing opportunity to support our neighbors and nourish our bodies at the same time. Today’s farmer receives less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar. Buying locally and using communEATi to eliminate the middleman ensures a higher profit for the farmer, who will then circulate his/her profits throughout the community with local merchants, creating a cycle that helps to build a strong local economy. Community gardens, farm shares, work exchange, and other co-operatives allow us to connect with one another and perpetuate sustainability. When we buy directly from farmers, we’re engaging in a time-honored connection between eater and grower, and working together to improve the world in which we live.

Become a part of our communEATi, and watch your community flourish! Give us a like on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates on our launch and to learn how you can #GrowYourThanksgiving!

Read More »

Veterans Day and Victory Gardens

Happy Veterans Day from communEATi!
This week, the communEATi team would like to take the time to focus on a very special November holiday: Veterans Day. It might not be the most fun holiday in November, but Veterans Day is incredibly important to our nation as it gives us the opportunity to honor and thank those who have served in our Armed Forces in a way that will never be able to match the risks they’ve faced.

The celebration of Veterans Day began after World War I as a way to commemorate the ceasefire that occurred November 11, 1918 between the Allied nations and Germany that ended the war that was to end all wars. Less than 25 years later, the United States would enter into World War II and, once again, call upon its citizens to become veterans.

As has happened in other times of conflict, the American people rallied and riveted, doing everything they could on the homefront during these world wars in an effort to help their loved ones overseas. Part of this effort came in the form of Victory Gardens.

How Homegrown Foods Aided the War Effort
Victory Gardens, also called war gardens, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks during World War I and World War II in order to reduce pressure on the public food supply. Posters and ads were everywhere, urging citizens to “Dig On for Victory;” trains, which would normally transport goods between states, were now being used to transport soldiers; and canned vegetables, which could be sent overseas, were rationed. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil morale booster because gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor.

At their peak, there were more than 20 million Victory Gardens planted across the United States. People with no yards planted small gardens in window boxes or larger rooftop gardens, and many schools across the country planted them on their school grounds and used the produce in school lunches. By 1944, Victory Gardens were responsible for producing 40% of all vegetables grown in the US.

Many different types of vegetables were grown in Victory Gardens: tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, beets, and peas, to name a few. Victory Gardens are also considered responsible for bringing Swiss chard and kohlrabi (a type of cabbage) onto the American dinner table because they were easy to grow.

Victory Gardens Today
While Victory Gardens lost their steam after World War II, there are efforts to revive the movement today. Victory Garden Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering communities to grow their own food, sees the new Victory Gardens as a fight of their own: “We are fighting for food security and the health of our ecosystems. We are fighting for resilient communities that support one another and for strong local economies,” their website states. And Food Not Lawns, an all-volunteer organization, works to educate communities about the health and economic benefits of using your yard for gardening, not landscaping.

The benefits of Victory Gardens - and their modern-day equivalents - definitely seem worth the effort. So if you plan on getting a modern-day Victory Garden up and running, you should really get to know communEATi; we’ll help you make the most of those homegrown goodies!

Read More »

Introducing communEATi!

Have you ever been snooping around Craigslist and thought, “Now this is nice, but what it needs is homegrown produce, like fruits and vegetables, to really round it out.” Okay, maybe not, but think about it: freshly grown foods and other homestyle goodies available to you from farmers and growers right in your community. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

Well that’s the premise for SPAN Enterprises’s newest product: communEATi! An online marketplace available on any device, communEATi aims to bring small farmers, hobbyists, and others together with local consumers. Think of communEATi as your Craigslist for crops.

You can easily buy or sell homegrown foods through communEATi’s program. communEATi accepts sellers of all kinds, whether you’re an established farmer selling multiple crops or a backyard grower with an overly fruitful tomato plant. And we’ll set you up with all sorts of buyers too: from individuals, to restaurants, to farmer’s co-ops, all in your community.

We’re starting out a little small at communEATi, but that’s the best way to grow, isn’t it? We’re currently offering buying and selling of fruits and vegetables through our program. Once we’ve gotten through the legalities, you’ll be able to sell other homegrown goodies through communEATi, like meat and dairy products, nuts, and flowers.

communEATi is a great way to make a little extra money and/or get deliciously fresh, local foods for your kitchen, but we admit we do have a hidden agenda. In addition to this and all of the other benefits of selling and eating locally grown food, communEATi aims to bring people together, to honor that long-standing connection between eater and grower, between the persons who make up a community.

communEATi is available online and can also be downloaded to your smartphone through the App Store or Google Play, that way you’re never far away from homegrown produce, or from potential customers. So what are you waiting for? Give communEATi a try today!

Read More »