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We opened the pages of the Wall Street Journal (May 15, 2013 ,A7) to read of a woman in the springtime of life who chose to have her breasts removed as a “preventative” measure. This made us feel inexpressibly sad. The woman had tested positive for a certain genetic mutation BRCA1 tied to breast cancer. Also her mother had succumbed to the illness. In reading on we learned that women with such a mutation have about a 60% risk of breast cancer compared with 12% for women without such a mutation. Some studies put the risk as high as 87%, the figure she cited as leading to her decision. The woman’s name is Angelina Jolie, an actress. We have the deepest reservations over what she has done. We are convinced that she could have considerably reduced the odds. We hope, how we hope that she has not set a precedent for others to follow.
In other words, why not change entirely the way she lives? Leave the drear and pollution of Los Angeles behind and move out to one of the most wondrous regions in all of California? In place of acting why not take up biodynamic, French intensive gardening?! Imagine a mini farm replete with ducks, geese, chickens and even cows and goats. Think of it! The former Hollywood star is now milking cows twice a day! She grows her own salad greens throughout the year and in the summer tomatoes melons and squash grace her table. Then there is a fruit orchard featuring heirloom apples, pears, peaches plums and nectarines.What's New At Living Tree
We are delighted to introduce our California Historic Eight Fruit Olive Oil. It is created from eight varieties of old time, historic olives. The result is an oil with a mild, smooth, buttery profile. We are offering this in place of our Organic California Olive Oil made from Ascalone olives. Due to changes in climatic conditions the crop has largely failed for two years in a row. This is the oil we began offering over 15 years ago and we are sad to see it go. (For those of you who will deeply miss it we still have have a few 500ml bottles left.)
We are pleased to introduce our Berkeley Breakfast Muesli. It features organic quinoa puffs, mango, banana, and chocolate. We invite you to start your day with its clean, alive taste. Kids will love it, too! Maybe it will inspire you with the tenacity of John Muir defending the wilderness, the prophetic vision of Martin Luther King and the genius of Steve Wozniak! Maybe it will set your creative energies flowing and inspire you to think outside the box!
Our World Mind is alive with a story from the Wall Street Journal, "Bee Deaths Put Crops at Risk". Then there is "Fracking: A Silent Death Sweeps Across the Nation".
Master Live Food Chef Barbara Shevkun shares her recipe: Coconut Champagne Mango Crackers and we conclude with a meditation from the Wall Street Journal on the impending ObamaCare train wreck.
This May We Celebrate Organic Cinnamon
True cinnamon is called Cinnamomum zeylanicum (Ceylon), and originates from the island Sri Lanka (formerly called Ceylon). Ceylon cinnamon is harder to find in the US but is gaining popularity in Europe and South America. It has a less strong, bitter taste than the cinnamon we are accustomed to in the US, which is Cinnamomum aromaticum (Cassia).
May Special Bonus - Alive Cashew Butter 8oz with Orders Over $150
An $11.99 value
This offer is good through May 31st.
We are happy to present a special offer to our esteemed customers! Purchase over $150 worth of Living Tree products and receive a complimentary 8oz jar of our Alive Cashew Butter 8oz.
Taste the Intentionality!
New! Items For May
 Eight Fruit Heirloom California Olive Oil |
Eight Fruit Heirloom California Alive, Organic Olive OilThis deliciously light oil is created from eight heirloom olive varieties - Arbosana, Sevellano, Lucca, Frontoio, Mission, Arbequina, Manzanillo and Itrnana. The result is an oil with a mild, smooth buttery profile. Our Heirloom California Olive Oil has its roots in California's historic past. It's signature is the devotion of its producers and the life force of the wondrous fertile soil, water, air and sunlight of California's Central Valley. Once a great inland sea. This is some of the richest farmland in the US. |
 Berkeley Breakfast Muesli and Alive Chocolate |
Berkeley Breakfast MuesliOrganic Quinoa, Mango, Banana and Alive ChocolateAwaken to the snap, crackle and pop of quinoa puffs, the luxuriance of mango and the delight of raw cacao! Rouse your creative energies! Go forth to heal, build and repair! Restore the buffalo! Reforest the Great Plains! Restore Hetch-Hetchy to its primordial glory! You can do it! You have reached a point in history where you can accomplish anything you set your mind to do! |
 Alive, Organic Mango Slices |
Alive, Organic Mango SlicesWe are sold out of our Mango Cheeks; we offer, instead, Mango Slices. Taste and flavor are the same. They are dried in an evaporative cooling system and the pulp temperature never exceeds 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Moist and Chewy. Very sweet. |
 Alive, Organic California Peach Slices |
Alive, Organic Peach SlicesThese magnificent peaches are moist and chewy. What fruit salads you will make! Grown by a family farmer in California's great Central Valley. |
 Organic Kona Gold Coffee Chocolate Bar |
Organic Kona Gold Coffee Bar
Dear Jesse |
May Victory Garden Sale
10% off, Additional 20% discount for 3 jars
[or any multiple]
 Organic Cashew Butter 16oz |
Organic Cashew Butter 16ozIt's really sweet. It's perfect with cucumbers and celery and even peppers! It's really creamy! Incredible! Made from organic cashews. A great topping for fruits and desserts. Try it on apple slices or carrot sticks. Also be sure to try our cashews. What a delightful addition to school lunches! |
 Alive Organic Coconut Butter |
Alive Organic Coconut ButterOur alive coconut butter is created from alive coconut. Savor its fragrance. Ponder its texture. |
 Black Sesame Tahini |
Alive, Organic Black Sesame TahiniOur Organic Raw Black Sesame Tahini is a glorious, shining black. Made from organic UNHULLED black sesame seeds.The taste is profoundly sesame - robust and enlivening. This is our original creation (others have since tried to copy it). We presented it to the organic food industry at the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, California in March 2003. People were delighted, they called it "caviar"! |
 Alive, Organic Pumpkin Seed Butter |
Alive, Organic Pumpkin Seed ButterA delightful pumpkin seed spread made from American pumpkin seeds. Very nourishing and energizing. A balanced source of good protein. High in zinc, a mineral that aids the healing process. |
 Alive Organic Walnut Pesto |
Alive Organic Walnut PestoA new creation, Raw Walnut Pesto, is a savory blend of walnuts, sesame, olive oil, basil, thyme, cumin, curry, cayenne, garlic, rosemary and Royal Himalayan Pink Crystal Sea Salt that will tantalize your palate. The main ingredients, walnuts and sesame are rich in both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. |
Recipe: Coconut Champagne Mango Crackers
by Master Live Food Chef Barbara Shevkun
Please visit Barbara's magnificent Rawfully Tempting website.
Oh, the joy of Raw Food preparation. Remember my "Award" winning recipe for Pasta & Champagne Mango Cream Sauce? (If not, check it out). I was preparing it for a demo and had some leftover "sauce." What to do? Add a few more ingredients...and make crackers! This delicious treat is a cross between cracker and roll-up. I encourage you to add other ingredients and experiment with different textures. I've included the items I added to the sauce to make these crackers...but there are so many variations you can choose.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup RAW cashews
1/2 cup coconut water (or filtered water)
1/2 cup young coconut meat (or 1/3 cup desiccated coconut)
2 Champagne mangoes (or 1 regular mango )
1/2 Tbsp honey, date sugar (or favorite sweetener)
1/8 tsp sea salt
1 teaspoon nama shoyu (or tamari)
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
1 Tablespoon lime juice
6 Tablespoons sunflower seeds, crushed
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup sprouted buckwheat flour (or almond flour)
2 Tablespoons flax, ground
2 Tablespoons sprouted buckwheat (optional)
pinch cayenne (optional if you want to make it zippy)
Add more water or coconut water as needed to blend only.
2 Tablespoons walnuts or almonds (soaked overnight)
1/4 cup unsweetened dehydrated coconut
Directions:
Blend cashews, coconut water, coconut meat and mangos until creamy. (Add water if needed to blend).
Add remaining ingredients, except dehydrated coconut and walnuts. Blend until creamy.
Add coconut and nuts, and pulse blend, leaving chunks of these in mixture.
Spread mixture on non-stick dehydrator tray to about 1/8" thick. (Using a an offset spatula for ease)
Dehydrate for 6-8 hours at 115 degrees F. Flip over onto mesh sheet and peel off non-stick sheet. Using a dull edged knife, score squares, or just break into pieces when done. Continue to dehydrate another 12 to 18 hours until dry and firm..
Store in airtight container or zip lock bag for up to 2 weeks.
Applying for ObamaCare—Still Not Simple
By Grace-Marie Turner, Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2013, A13
During his news conference last week, the president sounded defensive in trying to tamp down fears of an impending ObamaCare train wreck. One positive note was his boast about whittling down from 21 pages to three the application for subsidies that individuals have to file. But even that may need some defending.
The three-page application is for people who don't get health insurance at work and are seeking coverage and subsidies for themselves. One big reason the new form is shorter: the type is smaller, with less space for answers.
The much-derided 21-page application was for families. It is now down to 11 pages, thanks to a trick. Eight pages in the longer application called for filling in information for four additional family members. The new form cuts these pages but says that if you have children, "make a copy of Step 2: Person 2 (pages 4 and 5) and complete." The work required of the applicant remains the same.
Then there's a 61-page online application form that is in the draft stage but hasn't been officially released. This is the drill-down version of the three-page and 11-page printed documents. It has all of the if-then questions the government may need to have answered before it can determine if an applicant is eligible for subsidies.
For example, this online form has nine pages of questions and instructions to determine what a family is and how everyone is related. It announces that it is "governed by complex logic in order to ask the fewest number of questions possible." Twenty-eight different options for family relationships will be displayed in drop boxes, including first cousin, former spouse and collateral dependent.
The family application (the paper version and the online draft) assumes that someone in the family has a job that offers insurance. There are two pages the applicant must complete on that front.
One question asks: Does your employer "offer a health plan that meets the minimum value standard*?" Following the asterisk is an explanation of how to make that determination: "*An employer-sponsored health plan meets the 'minimum value standard' if the plan's share of the total allowed benefit costs covered by the plan is no less than 60 percent of such costs (Section 36B(c)(2)(C)(ii) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986)."
But back to the new, 11-page form. It contains a strong warning not in the earlier, 21-page draft: "I'm signing this application under penalty of perjury . . . I know that I may be subject to penalties under federal law if I provide false and or untrue information." That threat may unsettle applicants already not sure they're correctly answering complicated questions. If they don't, the consequences could be costly. If an applicant understates his income and receives a larger health-insurance subsidy than he is eligible for, the money must be paid back. That may mean thousands of dollars.
Applicants may be further disturbed when they encounter, on the signature page, this message: "We'll check your answers using information in our electronic databases and databases from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security, the Department of Homeland Security, and/or a consumer reporting agency. If the information doesn't match, we may ask you to send us proof."
Given the complexity of the questions, many people will need help with the application. So there is a handy Appendix C that allows the applicant to "choose an authorized representative" who can gather information and sign "your application on your behalf." You need to be very sure you can trust this person with the required confidential information (Social Security numbers, income, etc.). Many of those providing help will be footsoldiers in ObamaCare's newly formed army of hourly-paid "navigators."
But this being an Obama administration undertaking, the new application will provide a Web link to "complete a voter registration form."
Our Secret Ingredient is Self-Conscious Spirit.
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Remember you receive a 20% discount on all Living Tree Nut Butters, Olive Oils, Olives and Honey with a purchase of three jars or any multiple of three of any one item.
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