Quick Guide to Sugar Content in Common Foods

I found this helpful infographic to share from Dr. Mercola's article about how much sugar you should have per day. Some of the numbers below are quite shocking. Hope you find it helpful for meal planning. For optimal health they recommend no more than 6 teaspoons or 24 grams of sugar per day, unless doing vigorous exercise.

Organic DIY Chicken Feed Recipe

A couple of months ago we switched from buying chicken crumble feed for our hens to an Organic mix of bulk foods.  Since we made the switch our hens have much darker yolks and they want to start eating this feed mix as soon as we bring it out to them.  They are mostly free range bird and had lost interest in the crumble feed, so it seemed like a waste to keep buying it for them.  This recipe is a modified feed recipe from Farhan Ahsan who is the owner at The Poultry Guide blog.  Farhan's original recipe also calls for corn, but we still put out a little bit of scratch grains for our birds. I am thinking to switch to Organic corn when we run out of scratch grains.  Last year I had some luck growing small grained Cherokee popping corn.

Organic Chicken Feed 

• 16 cups of Organic Winter Wheat

• 12 cups of  Organic rolled oats

• 4 cups of whole Organic green lentils

• 1 cup Organic Sesame seeds

• 2 cups Organic brown Flaxseed

• Quarter cup kelp* granules

*I only use Sargasso sea weed from our Florida beaches.  I am not comfortable using seaweed from the Pacific Ocean due to the ongoing radiation releases from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.  

The great thing about this recipe, is all these ingredients are whole foods that you can also use for the rest of your family.  We buy most of these ingredients in 25-50 pound bags at our local Organic grocery store.  The wheat can be made into bread, sprouted grain bread, wheat grass, or cat grass.  We use the Oats for either oatmeal or no bake cookies.  The lentils are great for sprouting.  The sesame seeds we buy in a bit smaller quantity from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Our 2 birds take about 1/2 cup of this mixture per day, plus garden scraps, weeds and other foods that they forage in our backyard.

Plant Moringa Trees for Hunger and Hope

Moringa oleifera is a nutritive fast-growing tree, which is native to India. I learned about this tree a couple of years ago from my friend Aminu Ibrahim from our SolarNetOne project at Katsina State University in Nigera. and I just had to try growing it. This tree has been shown to be capable of reducing malnutrition in areas of West Africa where 25% of children die of malnutrition or related diseases. This plant grows well in areas such as these with drought and poor soil, and it grows wild in many areas where hunger is a severe problem. Locally grown Moringa was used in Senegal to significantly reduce malnutrition in infants, nursing mothers and pregnant women in Senegal by adding a small amount of leaf powder to the diet. Moringa is exceptionally nutrient dense. It has the highest protein ratio of any known plant, and contains all essential amino acids (those that the body cannot synthesize). There are no known side effects to taking Moringa, and it is very easy to digest. 25 grams (0.88 oz) of dried Moringa provides the suggested daily requirements for children: 42% protein, 125% calcium, 60% magnesium, 41% potassium, 71% iron, 272% vitamin A, and 22% vitamin C.

Here is a video that I found about Moringa's use in Senegal.


I have been growing Moringa in Central Florida (USDA zone 9a) for the last two years. I purchased my seed from Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO) in Fort Myers Florida. ECHO is a non profit whose mission is to network with community leaders in developing countries to seek hunger solutions for families growing food under difficult conditions. I was very happy that my Moringa trees survived the freeze we had over the winter. The Moringa tree pictured in this blog post is of my largest tree a couple of months after the freeze. New branches grew up from the base after the freeze killed the above-ground portion. I am told that this tree will grow very well from woody cuttings. I have also learned that this plant can be grown indoors if UV light is available. My brother has started a facebook group to promote growing and sharing about this plant. My next step with this plant will be to get trees started from seed or cutting at the Fair Share Garden in Daytona Beach. "Fair Share" is an Urban Garden Project of Salt of the Earth, Inc. a 501(c)-3 nonprofit organization. The purpose of the garden is to grow food for local low income families in need.