Rowan Aquaponics Tour

 Rowan Aquaponics Tour

Happy National Nutrition Month®! Today my nutrition class celebrated NNM by learning more about sustainable agriculture for growing herbs, edible flowers and vegetables, namely hydroponic and aquaponic farming. 

Special thanks to our guest speaker, Stephen Ordog, for speaking to Rowan's Contemporary Issues in Nutrition class! We learned so much! I especially loved the greenhouse tour of Rowan's operation.

  

Aquaponics involves a self-contained system that includes fish. Rowan uses separate tanks for Large Mouth Bass and Koi fish. They have several tanks for various size fish in different stages of development. One tank has small young fish, another tank features medium size Koi, and two other big tanks hold larger sized fish. Steve said that they started with 40 fish in 2024 and now have 800 fish!

 

Automatic time-controlled feeding stations are attached to each fish tank. The fish were super excited when the food shot out from the pipe dispenser positioned over top of their tank. A few splashes of water could be felt from the splashes as the fish bolted towards their food!

This growing method is sustainable because of a scientific Nitrogen cycle. 1) Fish waste produces ammonia. 2) Ammonia gets converted to Nitrite by bacteria (Nitrosomonas) living in the water. Another bacteria turns the Nitrite to a safer Nitrate that fertilizes the plants. 3) The nitrate is absorbed and filtered by the plants before going back into the fish tank resulting in healthy fish and healthy plants.

 

Hydroponics, to quote Steve Ordog, "Is a soil-less cultivation of plants". Hydroponics requires less water than conventional growing methods and does not depend on weather since it is indoors. Steve's focus is to grow plants that can absorb nitrogen well, such as leafy greens and herbs like bok choy, chard, lettuce and basil. He is also growing some edible marigolds and is planning to grow nasturtiums.

 

Below is a video for more information about Rowan's sustainable agriculture program. The produce that grows is harvested, washed and donated to Rowan's food pantry called The Shop.

 

Related links:

Drop the Beet Farms

Why Sustainable Agriculture Matters 

Blogpost, Koi video and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved. YouTube video property of Rowan University.

 

Nutrition Data - #Cabbage #GardenCuizine #NNM #NationalNutritionMonth @eatright @kidseatright

Nutrition Data - Cabbage

All your food and beverage choices matter! Go further with your food selections by eating foods that are nutrient-dense. Nutrient-dense foods provide superb nutrition. Eating a healthy diet helps maintain a healthy body weight and reduces the risk of chronic diseases. 

According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, vegetable consumption is lowest among boys ages 9 to 13 years and girls ages 14 to 18 years. But, in all ages vegetable consumption is below recommendations. Vegetables contain many important nutrients. Cabbage provides many nutrients, including:  

• Vitamin C for a healthy immune system. 
• Folate, which is especially important during pregnancy to prevent birth defects. 
• And, plant sterols that help keep cholesterol within normal limits.

Pediatricians are referring more and more children to dietitians because of abnormal lipids (fats) in the body. Common causes are either genetics, or even more often obesity - more than any other risk factor.*

Many adults and kids are deficient in adequate dietary fiber from plant foods. Dietary fiber is a nutrient to get more of. Soluble fiber in particular, has been shown to lower bad (LDL) cholesterol. Cabbage provides both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber and can easily be added to foods and snacks that your family will enjoy.

Check out my recipe for homemade sauerkraut (link below). What kind of cabbage is your favorite? What are your favorite ways to serve cabbage? 

GardenCuizine Nutrition Data Cabbage: 1 cup chopped (89 grams) - 22 calories, 0g fat, 2.2g dietary Fiber (9% DV), 33 mg Vitamin C (54% DV, WOW!), 68 mcg Vitamin K (86% DV), 38 mcg Folate (10% DV), 10 mg beneficial plant sterols

Excellent Source: Vitamin C, Vitamin K
Good Source:  Folate

*Reference:
EXPERT PANEL ON INTEGRATED GUIDELINES FOR CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH AND RISK REDUCTION IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS 
Related Links 
What states grow the most Cabbage?
National Nutrition Month® St. Patrick's Day Party! 
Phyto (plant) sterols
Homemade Sauerkraut with probiotics! 
10 Ways to Cook Cabbage
Blog Post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved. Go Further with Food logo used with permission.

Happy National Nutrition Month® and Happy Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day! #eatrightNJ #RDchat #RDNday #NNM @rutgersalumni @eatright @kidseatright

March celebrates National Nutrition Month®
and Happy Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day!

We do have a day for everything, don't we? I wanted to share a Happy RDN Day with you today, especially since I'm a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics designated today, March 14th as National RDN day. 

One of the happiest days of my life was when I found out I was accepted to a dietetic internship at South Jersey Healthcare - now renamed, Inspira Health Network. 

I am grateful to all the dietitians who mentored me and who continue to inspire me. I am grateful to my nutrition and health teachers at Rutgers New Brunswick. They guided me on the competitive path to becoming a Registered Dietitian.

For me, this RDN day is in memory of Barbara Tangel, RDN who was an assistant teaching Professor and my advisor and mentor at Rutgers. She was the Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) Director. She passed away Jan. 21, which made me so sad. I feel like so many important people in my life have died much too soon. She was only 67.

Our time on this earth is much too short. RIP Professor Tangel.

3 key messages about what RDNs do, featured on the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics website:

• Registered Dietitian Nutritionists are food and nutrition experts who translate the science of nutrition into practical solutions for healthy living.
• Registered Dietitian Nutritionists use their nutrition expertise to help people make personalized, positive diet and lifestyle changes.
• Registered Dietitian Nutritionists work throughout the community in hospitals, schools, public health clinics, nursing homes, fitness centers, food management, food industry, universities and in research and private practice.

Happy RDN Day! Happy NNM Month!
Many blessings for good health and happiness to you and your family!

Blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved. Go Further with Food logo used with permission.

Seed starting for Summer harvest #GardenCuizine #NNM #NationalNutritionMonth #CSOWM

Veggie and Flower

Seed Starting 

for Summer Blooms 

and Harvest

National Nutrition Month, every March, is a great time to start growing veggies, herbs and flowers. Yesterday, we got some seeds started indoors, under grow lights, for our summer garden here in NJ USDA zone 7a. I'll post the germination time next to each plant as they germinate. It is not too late to start veggie, flower and herb seeds indoors for your garden too.

Typically I start seeds on St. Patty's Day, but this year I was side-tracked from the late season ice storm 'Stella' and studying for an exam to become a Certified Specialist in Obesity and Weight Management (CSOWM). 

I am proud to be among the first healthcare professionals in the US to qualify to test for the new Academy of Nutrition interdisciplinary credential. I took the 3-hour exam Friday and won't know the results for 6 to 8 long weeks. 

In the meantime, I'm happy to fit in some gardening and much needed yard clean up. Last weekend, we hauled a lot of tree limbs to the curb. Harry had a chance to use a newly purchased chain saw. We still have a fallen pine to deal with. Planting seeds was good therapy in dealing with the sadness of so much storm damage.

Around Mother's Day, after danger of frost, we will plant seedlings that were started inside, outside. Some of our seedlings will be added to our veggie garden; some will go in flower beds, some will be traded with garden friends and some will go into pots on our porch. Here is what we have started indoors under grow lights:

1. Black Krim heirloom tomatoes - germinated ?
2. Goldberg's heirloom tomatoes - germinated 4/3
3. large yellow heirloom tomatoes (not sure of ID) - germinated 4/3
4. Leslie's French Petit Moineau heirloom tomatoes - germinated 4/3
5. Zebra heirloom tomatoes - germinated 4/2
6. large red cherry - germinated 4/2
7. Pomodoro San Marzano (seeds from Italy) - germinated 4/2
8. Chianti Rose heirloom tomatoes- germinated 4/4
9. Chocolate Cherry heirloom tomatoes (love these!) - ? plant again
10. large red heirloom tomatoes (not sure of ID) - germinated 4/3
11. Jamaican Hot Chocolate peppers
12. Chiltepin peppers (they are super HOT, 100,000 Scoville, pea-shaped) 
13. Coronado hyssop (love the smell; hummingbird favorite!) - germinated 4/4
14. Salvia viridis 'Marble Arch Rose' - germinated 4/1
15. 'Fragrant Cloud' Nicotiana
16.  Hollyhock single pink
17. Cardinal flower vine - germinated 4/7
18. Capers (another try from seeds from a special visit to Cape Cod in 2013)
19. Salvia fariosasa 'blue salvia'
20. 'Lady in Red' salvia (must have for hummers!)- poor germination, try again!
21. Coral Nymph salvia - germinated 4/1
22. large white salvia
23. Nepeta tall pink (seeds from a Dave's Garden swap in 2010)
24. Amsterdam Seasoning Celery
25. Italian basil - poor germination 4/6
26. Black poppy 2012 - germinated 4/2

Seeds started indoors 4/1/17

1.  Korean Hyssop - germinated 4/14
2. Mina Lobata Spanish Flag - germinated 4/18

Seeds started indoors 4/9/17 

1. Chocolate Cherry heirloom - germinated ?

 More started indoors 4/14/17

1. Leslie's French Currant Tomatoes Petit Moineau- germinated 4/20
2. Lavendar Breadseed Poppies
3. Purple Majesty Millet
4. Mexican Sunflower - germinated 4/19

... replanted 4/16

1. Lady in Red - germinated 4/20

Seeds direct sown in veggie garden 4/9/17

1. Arugula! Rucola seeds from Italy 

Happy Gardening! Stop back for updates!
Blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved. National Nutrition Month® is a federally registered service mark of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.Used on GardenCuizine with permission.

#NationalNutritionMonth St. Patty's Cooking Class @InspiraHN enjoyed GREEN foods! #NNM #SaladinaJar

National Nutrition Month®

Cooking Class

Thanks to all who attended Inspira Health Network's National Nutrition Month® Cooking Class in Vineland, New Jersey today. The class focused on vegetarian green foods. 

It warmed my heart to chat with a woman who remembers my health food store and restaurant that was my pride and joy for over a decade! I really enjoy meeting people who remember The Garden - Garden of Eden.

Inspira's cooking class featured GREEN foods in celebration of National Nutrition Month® and St. Patrick's Day. Our menu included a Shamrock Salad featuring blanched asparagus, snap peas, snow peas, shelled edamame, chopped celery, fresh arugula and baby spinach. The Shamrock Salad Dressing was a blend of: garlic, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, lemon juice and whole seed mustard.

Participants learned about nutrition and healthy cooking methods, such as blanching and steaming. Each person made their own Salad-in-a-Jar and tasted a variety of nutritious, green foods that included: steamed whole edamame pods with a green dressing made from avocado, spinach, olive oil, Greek yogurt, garlic, onion powder, lemon juice and salt and pepper. 

Diana Alvarado, RDN, CDE demonstrated how-to-make a green Salad-in-a-Jar. The technique is to start with the dressing on the bottom so the greens at the top remain fresh and crisp.

The dietitian also showed the class how to prepare healthy Shamrock Shakes using coconut milk, avocado, spinach, vanilla extract, fresh mint leaves, banana and ice.

It was interesting to learn more about Mason Jars and the history that began in Vineland NJ thanks to John Landis Mason in 1858!

Special thanks to Inspira dietetic interns who helped us present this NNM cooking class.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 
Happy National Nutrition Month!
Related Links
Well Preserved Birth of the Mason Jar
John Landis Mason
Who Made that Mason Jar NY Times 

Blog post and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved. National Nutrition Month® is a federally registered service mark of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.Used on GardenCuizine with permission.

Grow Turmeric #GardenCuizine #kitchengarden #garden #NationalNutritionMonth #NNM

Grow Turmeric

in your Kitchen Garden

We love cooking with mild and spicy curry seasoning. Turmeric is one of the main ingredients in curry. Turmeric (Curcuma longa Linn.) tubers look similar to ginger. I bought some at Wholefoods quite some time ago with the intention of planting them to see if they would grow.

I placed the finger-like rhizomes on our plant rack until I could find the time to plant them in a pot. Time went by: they were forgotten. The turmeric sat on our plant rack exposed to light and air for several months. 

waiting for the turmeric to grow...

One day, as I was watering coleus cuttings, I noticed a smooth green stem emerging from the wrinkled, old turmeric rhizomes (see above photo). It was a bud! The turmeric was alive and calling me to plant it asap.

The shriveled turmeric rhizomes got planted a few weeks ago. After a good watering and nourishment from the soil, guess what? Our turmeric is growing! A strong green stem is about a half-inch tall already and growing up towards the grow lights.
 
Ginger and Turmeric like to be shallow planted. I barely covered the rhizomes with soil - they seem to be growing just fine so far.

Ground turmeric (Indian Saffron) adds natural yellow color to foods and may provide some health benefits as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.
Related Links
About Curcumin
Blog post and photo Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.