To help celebrate and honor the season we devoted this issue to LOCAL food. We have written several articles on our journey over the last year, committed to eating at least 80% of our diet from food grown with a 50 to 100 mile radius from our home. Most of the dishes we have prepared have been very good. Those are the ones that we will continue to share with you in future issues of Natural Balance

Magazine.

Thank you to all of our readers, we value your support. Please continue to read and ask for our magazine to be displayed at the businesses you frequent.

Traditionally this time of year, the farmers go into the fields to harvest the abundance nature and their hard work has given them. This fall we urge you to slow down for a moment and prepare a harvest dinner with your family. Have everyone sit down around the dining room table to enjoy the

abundance nature and the farmers have given us. Oh, and don’t forget to buy your produce locally or better yet, shop at your local Farmers’ Market.

Joy, Peace & Natural Balance

Bobbie & Rick DeBlecourt

 

Welcome to the web home of .... Natural Balance Magazine Welcome to Southwestern Michigan's NEW Healthful Living Magazine   We're happy and excited to provide you with easy access to a whole new resource of information to help mold a healthier life and community for all of us. Our mission through Connecting People, Local Sustainabilty, Sharing Traditions, Wisdom, Stewardship and Volunteerism, is to provide a wide range of information from the quality of our physical lives to our spiritual lives. Various topics will be addressed by local contributors with the primary intention of helping us find Natural Balance in our lives and in our interactions with others in the world around us. This magazine is also interested in the creative consciousness of others to express their dreams and hopes for themselves and their communities. Through sharing and applying ideas we can begin to realize new possibilities for ourselves, others and our earth. Starting with local changes we can create global changes. Joy, Peace and Natural Balance   Bobbie and Rick DeBlecourt VISION STATEMENT

 

Pumpkin Cookies

2-1/2 C            Flour (I used 2 cups organic all purpose flour & 1/2 cup organic whole wheat flour

1 tsp                 Baking soda

1/2 tsp              Salt

1-1/2 tsp          Cinnamon

1/2 tsp              Nutmeg

1/4 tsp              Allspice

1/2 C               Butter (melted)

1/2 C               Organic sugar

1/2 C               Maple syrup

1 C                  Pumpkin (cooked and mashed)

1                      Large egg

1 Tbsp             Vanilla 

1 Can               Cream cheese frosting (or you can make any white frosting)

Mix all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl mix together all wet ingredients until well blended. Make a well in the center of the bowl with the dry ingredients and slowly mix in the wet. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake until edges are slightly browned. Bake 350°

9-15 minutes.

Looking for other LOCAL & SEASONAL recipes, click here!

Flowerfield Enterprises located in Kalamazoo, has been famous for years for their Worm Composting Bins. They have a new sustainable product that they are offering to everyone who has a yard, garden, farm, orchard, or even turf for a golf course. Or if your just trying to grow the healthiest vegetables, tomatoes, trees. The product is Compost Tea. 

No Pesticides, Fertilizers or Herbicides.

The Flowerfield Enterprise's web site is chalked full of interesting articles and information, including worm composting bins. I bought one this year, and yes worms are eatting my garbage!

www.wormwoman.com

 Garlic harvest at Blue Dog Greens in Bangor, 2008

Check out other pictures on our local pictures page