SUPPLIER SPOTLIGHT: HimalaSalt™

Ingredients

1 lb organic chocolate bits, sweetened
1/2 tsp HimalaSalt Fine Grain Himalayan Sea Salt
2 Tablespoon organic shredded coconut
1 Tablespoon raw cacao nibs
2 Tablespoon organic roasted almond slivers
2-3 Tablespoons of HimalaSalt Organic Pink Peppercorns (coming back soon!)

Melt organic chocolate over double boiler on low flame, add HimalaSalt and stir thoroughly. Prepare cooling dish/pan by sprinkling lightly with coconut, pour in melted chocolate, smooth with pastry blade, and sprinkle remaining ingredients. NOTE: save 1/2 tsp of each for finishing.

Add coconut, cacao nibs, roasted almond slivers, and run a warm spoon or knife through chocolate "marbling" to blend ingredients throughout. Press down lightly with a piece of cellowrap, and add organic pink peppercorns, remainder of almond slivers, coconut, and top with fresh organic orange zest. Let cool and harden completely, (this could take a couple of hours so plan ahead - depending upon how deep your dish is). Run a warmed blade around the edges to loosen, and either cut or break into "bark" chunks. Serve with fresh, cool mint tea in warm weather, or in winter, pair it with sumptious spiced red wine - that recipe will be coming next!

This recipe was originally posted April 21, 2010 on my old blog.  It is inspired by Chef Jose Andres of Jaleo, Washington DC and the SLS Hotel, Beverly Hills. My version is RAW, VEGAN, AND ORGANIC.

Refreshing, light, pallet cleansing, and super nourishing, it's a great way to introduce raw vegan dishes to your family and friends.

Combine soaked, skinned almonds, garlic, water, and remaining ingredients (except olive oil and garnishes) in food processor. Puree until creamy smooth, add olive oil while blending. Season to taste and refrigerate for at least two hours. Serve in martini glass or decorative bowls. Garnish with a single chive stem and carefully split the peeled grapes 2/3 the way up the center and place on rim of glass or bowl. Drizzle a dollop of olive oil, add a pinch of organic garlic HimalaSalt, and chopped chives.

TOTAL TIME: 20 minutes
Ingredients

Yield: 6 servings
1 cup organic almonds, soaked, blanched, and skinned
1 ounce organic garlic cloves
1 1/2 cups spring water
4 ounces freshly pressed organic white grape juice (run through juicer or food processor)
1 1/2 ounces sherry vinegar
½ cup organic extra virgin Spanish olive oil
HimalaSalt and HimalaSalt organic white pepper, to taste
Whole organic chives for garnish
6 peeled grapes (one for each serving as garnish)

The Benefits of HimalaSalt

ABOUT THE COMPANY

HimalaSalt™ is the only pink Himalayan sea salt to be ethically-sourced, artisan produced in our VEGAN-ALLERGEN FREE facility, and certified Gluten-Free, Non-GMO Verified, Kosher for Passover Year Round, with most of our products also Certified 100% Organic.  

We own our facility, do not copack as other salt sellers do, and are powered 100% by onsite solar.  5% of profits go to Regenerative Agriculture and Youth Farming Education.

ABOUT THE SALT

Pure salt is the foundation of life, and is key to creating all major elements of the body. Today’s air, water, and soil are increasingly compromised through pollution and toxins. It’s crucial to maintain a natural alkaline condition in order to metabolize and eliminate these substances, and to enjoy the health, wellbeing, and longevity we are naturally meant to enjoy.

More and more people are finding that they feel tired, more susceptible to colds and viruses, and autoimmune diseases are on the rise. Low-level toxicity from myriad sources is challenging our natural capacity to detoxify, which in turn, weakens the body through an overly acidic condition of the blood and tissues. When this happens, a proliferation of yeast, fungus, bacteria, mold and deeper viruses move in, releasing their waste by-products into the cellular fluid which distributes it throughout the body, disrupts our natural acid-alkaline balance, which can lead to disease.

Maintaining a healthy acid-alkaline balance is crucial to wellbeing, supporting health, vitality, and restoring the body's natural ability to heal. Living a natural lifestyle and eating a whole foods diet helps reduce our exposure to toxins, revitalizes our natural energy and vitality, and is better for the planet. However, busy schedules and stressful living often leave little time to prepare the most wholesome foods. If you can relate to this, just remember that the body is mostly made of water and minerals, so while choosing the best quality ingredients you can for food, make sure you are getting pure water and pure minerals, in the form of HimalaSalt for baseline wellness.

Using HimalaSalt, the finest of all Himalayan sea salts, helps to:

• Sharpens vital brain functions, improves mental clarity
• Anti-aging; rids the body of acidic wastes that cause degeneration
• Peaceful, relaxed quality of energy, better moods, positive thoughts
• Ease cramps, constipation, digestive disorders
• Regulates and purifies critical body fluid levels
• Purifying, detoxifying to the blood
• Stronger libido, sexual vitality, more vigor
• Essential minerals replenishes vital electrolytes
• Nutrients are absorbed more efficiently by the body.
• Foods cooked with HimalaSalt taste better, and their nutrients are absorbed better by the body.
• It's also good for your pet - whether you prepare their food from scratch or add just a pinch to their water bowls, it helps with hydration and assimilation of nutrients.

Originally posted on my old blog May 15, 2010, This delicious and visually stunning dish speaks of warm summer days and elegant, easy entertaining. I especially love and appreciate how these simple, wholesome ingredients can be combined in such a highly creative way for the most gorgeous artistic presentation and sensual flavor combinations. With less than 7 minutes of prep time, it doesn't get any easier than this – and, it reminds me of growing up in the south where salt on watermelon is the standard. In my version of world-renown Chef Ferran Adria's recipe, (often referred to as "the Salvador Dali of the kitchen"), we can now have watermelon on salt. This has become one of my summer favorites.

The subtle layers of flavor pair especially well with summer grilling and wine tasting. To finish the dish after the watermelon has vanished, soak up the remaining olive oil-yuzu, rosemary, and pepper mix with fresh cut sourdough bread.

Instructions:

Chill watermelon and cube to bite size pieces (approx 1 ½" cubes). Cut cherry tomatoes in half and scoop out seeds, set aside for garnish. In a bowl, add olive oil and yuzu or lime juice, and a pinch of HimalaSalt. Whisk with a fork to form an emulsion. Zest the lemon with long curls for visual appeal, set aside for garnish. Pick leaves, buds, and flowers off rosemary, set aside. Chop chives, set aside.

Arrange watermelon cubes on chilled HimalaSalt salt plate, spoon 1 tsp of tomato seeds on top of watermelon cube, drizzle olive oil emulsion over cubes, give about 3-4 grinds of HimalaSalt organic Tellichery pepper, grate the HimalaSalt Zen Cube over each one to fully open flavors. Place bamboo skewers into the center of each cube. Garnish by sprinkling with chives, rosemary leaves and blossoms, and finish with lemon zest.

TOTAL TIME: Less than 7 minutes.
Ingredients

Organic watermelon (seedless if possible)
4 organic cherry tomatoes
1 organic lemon
4 tbsp organic olive oil
Several sprigs organic rosemary with blossoms
HimalaSalt Organic Tellichery Pepper
HimalaSalt Zen Cube for finishing
4 sprigs organic chives
1 tsp Yuzu juice (or substitute fresh lime juice)
HimalaSalt Salt Plate (chilled for one hour in freezer)
Short bamboo skewers (enough for each watermelon cube)




* Prepared by Melissa Kushi

 

A Shopping Cart for Social Change?
by Melissa Kushi

Are you aware of the immense power your wallet wields in the natural food store? Beyond the factors of wellbeing, taste and pleasure, do the products you buy resonate with your values, beliefs, and dreams for a better world?

Organically grown, fairly traded products have been the benchmark for quality and social justice. However, more companies and consumers alike are now realizing that there are, even with the best of intentions, significant and often unappreciated costs to the planet. For each bag, box, pouch or jar of food produced, consumed and disposed of, there is a huge footprint created in getting those products into your cart.

Why Become a Conscious Consumer

Having worked most of my life in sustainable foods, alternative health, and ethical business models, I’ve traveled to some of the world’s most remote and deeply cultured regions of the planet. Working with indigenous people, I was inspired by their wealth of ancient knowledge, biodiversity and traditional heirloom foods, and firmly believe them to be key to our collective future. I witnessed the devastating effects of adopting a modern refined diet and western consumer habits, and how it eroded their health, culture, and the rich biodiverse regions they inhabit.

Around the globe, I saw how consumer culture is one of the primary forces harming the planet. It became clear that — as the third world is seeking balance for survival; the first world is seeking balance for meaning. As a social entrepreneur, this is where I believe conscious consumers have the power to bridge the divide and create immense change in the world. But as one person, where do we begin?

From Inspiration into Action

Every time you buy products that are organically grown, fairly traded, and ethically produced in ways that do not compromise the future, you reduce the gap between economy and ecology, people and planet. You are also supporting and improving the lives of producers, helping to preserve their regional biodiversity and culture, and creating a more level economic playing field for some of the poorest people on the planet.
By choosing products that reflect the values of sustainability; preserving and restoring the beauty and abundance of our living earth – you are also supporting companies whose values, combined with those of your own, creating a powerful vehicle for market-based social change. And while this shift is viewed by some as unrealistic or blue-sky, a values-based economy is really the fastest way to reduce global warming, create social change, and promote wellbeing for humanity.

In fact, making conscious choices in the check-out line are some of the most fundamental, yet powerful actions you can take at the most basic, every day level. When you choose to make a change in the world through your food purchases, you are shaping the decisions made in boardrooms around the country.

At HimalaSalt, we believe in transparency, superior quality, and as a company - we hold dear our mission of making a better product while making a difference on the planet.  We combine science, ethics, social justice and environmental impact into our every action - and the result are clear - one grain, ten thousand grains... We can each make a difference. 

As you work hard to decipher labels, brands, truth from fiction, we are working hard to produce the highest possible quality, with the highest social value.  We'd love for you to invite us to dinner!

Our salt containers arrive from the Himalayas with pallets made of exotic hardwood scraps like teak, mahogany, cherry, and other beautiful species.  Not one to waste, and certainly one to appreciate natural beauty, we bought a bench-top planer and got to work!

After having created a snackbar surround in my kitchen and sliding barn doors to hide our whole-building water system, a tradeshow booth was the next natural step.

From design, planning, and execution, we built a beautiful booth in-house that garnered ooohs and aaahs and loads of love and recognition at Natural Products Expo West this past March - for our forward thinking innovation and re-use of materials.  Thanks to our team, especially lead builder Brian Ross (we love you Brian!)

 

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• By Sarah Everts, Chemical & Engineering News on October 29, 2015

Diners in China who season their meals with sea salt may be unwittingly consuming microscopic pieces of plastic pollution.

When researchers analyzed fifteen brands of common table salt bought at supermarkets across China, they found among the grains of seasoning micro-sized particles of the common water bottle plastic polyethylene terephthalate, as well as polyethylene, cellophane, and a wide variety of other plastics (Env. Sci.& Tech. 2015, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b03163).

The highest level of plastic contamination was found in salt sourced from the ocean: The researchers measured more than 250 particles of plastic per lb of sea salt. The team, led by Huahong Shi of East China Normal University also found tiny particles of plastic in salt sourced from briny lakes, briny wells, and salt mines, although at lower levels—between 3 and 165 particles/ lb.

Shi and colleagues argue that plastic contamination originates from the vast amount of plastic pollution floating around marine environments where sea salt is sourced. For instance, bits of plastics might abrade from larger objects, such as water bottles, dumped in the water or they might come from cosmetic products, such as face washes, that use plastic microbeads as exfoliants. The researchers add that other points of entry for plastic contamination are also possible, including during salt processing, drying, and packaging.

Given that manufacturers typically extract sea salt from ocean water by evaporation—a process that leaves everything behind but water—microplastic contamination of sea salt is likely prevalent outside China as well, says Sherri Mason, who studies plastic pollution at the SUNY Fredonia. “Plastics have become such a ubiquitous contaminant, I doubt it matters whether you look for plastic in sea salt on Chinese or American supermarket shelves. I’d like to see some ‘me-too’ studies.”

According to Shi’s team, if a person were consuming Chinese sea salt at the maximal salt dose recommended by the World Health Organization, then that person would ingest about 1,000 plastic microparticles annually. This is still less than the estimated 11,000 particles of microplastic ingested annually in Europe by consumers of shellfish, which can get contaminated by the tiny bits of marine pollution, according to a report released last year.

Given that there are heavy metals and other chemicals of concern in plastic pollution, it’s wise to minimize the entry of plastic into the food chain, Mason adds.

This article is reproduced with permission from Chemical & Engineering News (© American Chemical Society). The article was first published on October 28, 2015.

 

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I originally published this recipe on February 24, 2009 on my old blog.  It's such a winner, it deserves a special place, especially around holidays, celebrations, and pleasing friends.

Ingredients
1 tbsp HimalaSalt Organic Peppercorns
1 cup Port Wine
Peel of ½ organic lemon
1 organic vanilla bean
6 organic bay leaves
½ bottle organic red wine
2 ½ tbsp agave nectar
6 ripe organic peaches

Place peppercorns in a square of cheesecloth and the tie securely with string. In a large saucepan, combine the port, lemon peel, vanilla bean, bay leaves, wine, pepper sachet and bring to a boil. Stir in agave and remove from the heat. Add more agave if needed, cover and set aside. Half fill large saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Plunge peaches into boiling water and let them sit there for one to two minutes, then rinse them under cold water and peel. Place them in the warm wine over medium heat and bring to simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and cool. Remove fruit from syrup and place it in shallow bowl. Pick out bay leaves to use as garnish. Cut vanilla bean into fine slices for garnish. Set aside in a cool place, (not the frig) until ready to serve. Get your ingredients at www.himalasalt.com

Food is at the root of all culture, and there's no food without farms...

HimalaSalt is proud to join FarmAid in making a powerful impact on the future of farming.  5% of HimalaSalt profits support Sustainable/Restorative Agriculture, Youth Farming Education, and Heirloom Seed Saving.

For 30 years, FarmAid has empowered family farms, and strengthened our food system at home.

Helping Farmers Thrive

Since 1985, Farm Aid has answered 1-800-FARM-AID to provide immediate and effective support services to farm families in crisis. Now Farm Aid’s online Farmer Resource Network connects farmers to an extensive network of organizations across the country that help farmers find the resources they need to access new markets, transition to more sustainable and profitable farming practices, and survive natural disasters.

Taking Action to Change the System

Farm Aid works with local, regional and national organizations to promote fair farm policies and grassroots organizing campaigns designed to defend and bolster family farm-centered agriculture. We’ve worked side-by-side with farmers to protest factory farms and inform farmers and eaters about issues like genetically modified food and growth hormones. By strengthening the voices of family farmers, Farm Aid stands up for the most resourceful, heroic Americans—the family farmers who work the land. Farm Aid’s Action Center allows concerned citizens to become advocates for farm policy change.

Find out more: http://www.FarmAid.org