Travels About Town

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  • And another thing……….

    Here is another excuse, but important new endeavor of mine:

    Snowline Health Dementia Connection

    I have volunteered to help out at this new service facility that has thankfully FUNCTIONAL Medicine to El Dorado County. Functional Medicine seeks to help you find out the cause and natural solutions of a condition rather than taking drugs to diminish the symptoms while the condition often continues to rage on. This new program in El Dorado County is aimed at brain health and total body wellness.

    I’m talking about a program designed by Dr. Dale Bredesen, one of my UTube medical doctor favorites who wrote the book: “The End of Alzheimer’s Program” and the program to prevent it. Dr. Sandra Fleming brought the invitation to our Heritage Community to link up with this program offered to us and I took them up on it.
    I wanted to see first hand how the PreCode (prevention) program works so I could bring information to my Healthy Lifestyles Club here. Basically, the program helps you to assess your personal cognitive risk factors and address them on your own and/or with the help of a practitioner. Start out on line with a series of written tests and then receive a lab request form to take to a local lab where a substantial amount of blood is drawn for a substantial amount of testing, including the one to see if you have the APOE gene. Thankfully, no copies of it for me.

    The fee for joining up to receive all this fabulous information is a heavily discounted one time charge of $334. + $39.95 monthly. The benefit of having these tests done with Apollo Health is that you then receive a 54-page Recode Report that spells out exactlly what the tests tell you and what steps you can take to resolve any off-numbers. For example, one important test is Homocysteine, a toxic amino acid in association with inflammation. My doctor said that it is still within normal limits. But the report goes on to say that bringing it to the optimal level or lower with specific supplementation they identify will help reduce the risk factors. Higher Homocysteine numbers can contribute to atrophic type 2 Alzheimer’s and is associated with vascular damage, and brain shrinkage.

    Additional tests can be done, such as a full brain scan order or others to investigate with your practitioner. Unfortunately, the few and far between Functional Medicine doctors available have prohibitively high rates for service. I will let you know what Dr. Fleming says to my comment about that during my alloted 5-min. chat with her today.

    Feel free to call for clarification: 916 260 5793

  • Travels About to take on Southern Italy

    I know. I know. You haven’t heard from me in years. Since moving to the Heritage gated community in El Dorado Hills about 6 years ago, life teamed up with too many activities to explain, a common comment in this overly-active elderly neighborhood. Also, it’s a common excuse I’ve found to distract oneself from life’s goals you might have set for yourself.
    Anyway, I’m going to try and get back on track in two of my life’s main arenas: travel and health.
    Our Healthy Lifestyles Club here in Heritage resumes March 11, 2025 with a series on Brain Health and Habits for Longevity. I have first hand experience now with the Dr. Dale Bredesen Program on Prevention of Dementia and Alzheimer’s.
    Most of February will be involved with a 17-day Road Scholar tour of Southern Italy “from the heel to the toe of the boot”. I’m especially looking forward to their sound bites on Matera’s caves, Bergamot Citrus, Orecchietti pasta, museums and ruins galore and the Albanians who settled in Calabria and still speak Hellenic Greek.
    Watch for culture blogs and photos.
    leave notes and comments on balbert7072@gmail.com
    Betty

  • “EL DORADO GROWN’ – A New Series that Champions our Agricultural Roots and the Perseverance of our Farmers, Growers, and Ranchers   

    by Betty Albert

    A FARMER’S STORY THAT NEEDS TO BE TOLD

    reprint of 2017 Special to the Democrat

    The year was 1947.  The place is Pasadena, California.  The people gathered around the bridge table are regulars.  The topic is a regular complaint about the lousy weather, and  the city congestion. It was, as L. G. “Frank” Beals put it at the time,  “making him sick.”  Frank was is one of the gang with a regular itch for country life and ,hopeful for a resolution to his “citified” complaints.

    Somehow the talkin’ got round to a piece of property in Placerville that was just not to be left alone. A couple of brothers in Placervile that were related to a woman at the table ended up helping Frank locate the place.   Before you knew it, Frank had transported his wife Louise out from a comfortable suburban Southern California environment, with its green lawns, white picket fences, and all the comforts of home into an 85-acre pear ranch complete with no hot water, a wood stove, an outhouse, and chickens running in and out. In addition, the property had been blessed with what seemed a ton of ash from the old Maidu Indian burial ground it once was.

    Eight years later, Frank bought a separate property on Green Valley Road with a 10,000-square foot chicken coop.  “Dad loved chickens,” Greg Beals says of his dad, Frank.   “I was 13 years old at the time, and I remember crying and begging dad not to sell the propery in order to get the chicken farm.  But he had to.”  

    ‘It was really my Grandpa Francis who taught me the love of farming and a lot of other things like being respectful and such, most of which I never fully realized until I was much older,”    Greg relates.  “He and I had so much fun in that barn milking cows, squirting each other so much we’d be covered with milk and laughing till our sides hurt.”  Greg went on to emphasize, “If it weren’t for my Grandpa, I might hate farming, pretty much like my dad did.  But with Grandpa, it was a whole different story.  He loved farming, and he made it fun. It was interesting and  educational.  I lived in the barn with Mel, dad’s best friend and a farm hand.   I learned grafting, how to butcher, crop rotation and so much more.  It became my passion as well.”

    Further impetus to eventually get his own farm when his dad made him work his way through college.  Greg learned to save and scrimp.  He earned a college business degree from Sacramento State, the first in his family to do so.  Greg worked for the State of California, Cal Trans and Dept. of Food and Agriculture, eventually  becoming Assistant Chief of the State’s Fairs and Expositions division.   

     The pear decline in 1963 did not alter the young man’s dream of farming the rest of his life and having his own orchard.  In May of 1973, Greg and Linda Beals bought 53 acres on Highway 49 and planted 750 peach seedlings.   Greg had his own orchard, but continued working full time, doing farmers markets on weekends, and even sometimes during the week.  Everything seemed a major challenge because the ranch occupied every moment of his early mornings and evenings, hauling pipe and elbow greasing all the other chores of farm life.  A butcher shop on the premises kept Linda busy helping to supply the custom meat cuts that were in demand.   

    He was grafting his own wood stock working on the orchard with his son Mike, enlarging his crop to include the 30 varieties of peaches, 30+ varieties of plums, 10 varieties of pluots, 20 varieties of nectarines and nectaplums, plums, pluots,  pomegranates, Meyer lemons, figs, rhubarb and persimmons the farm produces today.   Although farm work

    was his dream and fulfilled much of his life, it did not come without penalties.  There was little time to spend with his wife and children, and he and Linda were divorced, forcing him to buy the ranch all over again.

    Mike attended local and automotive trade schools, a natural for him since he had been fixing farm equipment most of his life.  He met and married Denise in 1986 and they have two children, Brandon,  27, a Civil Engineering graduate of Chico State and Pacific Infrastructure employee, and Brooke, 22, who has one more semester at Chico State and her eye on a career in agricultural administration.  Mike purchased Placerville Body and Auto Shop in 1992, and, like his father, attends to farming early mornings and evenings with farmers markets on weekends.  Greg retired in 2000 and he and Mike have partnered up sharing work and expenses, and making sure that the farmers markets go on.  Greg, Mike, Denise, Brooke, Brandon and additional members of the family help out.

    Who picks all this glorious fruit?  “Greg and I did it last year,” says Denise, “we had so much fun up in those trees, we just laughed all day.  I don’t like to eat figs, but don’t get me wrong, I love picking.  This year it’s Brooke’s turn.”  It is truly a family affair, with 10 of the 53 acres devoted to orchard production.  “We pick all week for the weekend,” Mike relates.  “We have 8 farmers markets to attend to:  Tuesday in Sacramento and Tahoe, Wednesday in Sacramento and Placerville, Saturday in Rancho Cordova and Placerville, and Sunday in El Dorado Hills and Sacramento.”  

    Future plans for Greg include retirement on his 59-acre Idaho property with nothing more to do than admire the elk congregating on his front yard on a daily basis.  Besides phasing out of the automotive industry, Mike is hoping to not only add new varieties to meet market needs, but extend the growth season opportunities.

    So the Beals story wraps up.  Yet another one of those interviews where the heir apparent is the passion for farming, passed on from one generation to another, sometimes skipping a parent or two, but getting picked up along the line as though genetic.   Look at this happy family, I thought.  How fortunate to have inherited this gift so that all of us can receive the bounty of their passion and their fabulous fruits.

    Visit more on facebook.com/bealsorchard

    Betty Albert is a local writer, author (“Lost in Italy and Loving It!”), and blogger.  Her vocations and avocations include corporate marketing at AT&T, Naturopathic Doctor certification, a 20-yr. portrait studio profession, personal chef and local catering to businesses and the farmers market.  Follow on www.greenchefpress.wordpress.com … email at bettyalbert@earthlink.net

     

  • MAKEOVER OF A SUPERMARKET

    RALEY’S ONE rates a big “10”

    It is amazing to me that an American supermarket would take such a big step. Years have passed since my first study of health and wellness prompted the process of getting my Naturopathy degree from Trinity College and developing a practice which included nutritional coaching and personal chefing. Trying to teach people who really were never interested in changing beliefs, attitudes or habits to achieve better health is totally frustrating. All the work I do in researching, learning and keeping current on health and wellness science is often disregarded without the offer of a magic pill or diet trend advice.

    The supermarket here at El Dorado Hills has taken a big risk doing all of our dietary research for us, bringing in and labeling 70-75% organic products fully certified. What I found missing was the marketing thrust that tells us the enormous nutrition education offered in tandem with the new store. Shelf labels show icon symbols to describe organic elements present in each product. Haley Duclos, the nutrition consultant, conducts tours of the store and regular classes in the store’s Event Center on subjects such as Brain Health, Hydration, Understanding Food Labels, Banned Ingredients, Diet Trends and more.

    The focus of a Raley’s ONE store is Organic-Nutrition-Education

    Quick Recap of Brain Healthy Class July 1:

    Haley described progressive conditions to brain health including PTSD, Bipolar, anxiety, depression, Dementia (precursor to Alzheimer’s) and stressed a proactive approach to symptoms, including the generic inherited gene Apolipoprotein (APO). Exercise (150 mins/wk.), or a combination of high/low Med physical activity (300-700mins), food choices and activity, including social interaction and stimulating hobbies, crafts, and challenging projects are essential for serotonin release, mood, memory, blood flow and brain cell regeneration. Adequate sleep, rest, and recovery help restore memories and wash away plaque. The fiber, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory importance of specific foods, such as fish, berries and “Active Form” turmeric were stressed as well as diets like  the
    Mediterranean or DASH diet (Dietary approach to stop Hypertension) and the MIND diet (limiting sugar and fried food to only 1500 mg sodium – the average American uses 24-2500mg).
    Aisle 7 at Raley’s ONE has a data base for customer use with researched health resources more accurate and reliable than one might find on their own. Some supplements available are gingko Gilboa, Omega 3 fatty acids and active form of Turmeric that carry FDA and/or USP, organic and non-GMO seals and recommended by your doctor/health practitioner depending on your personal health profile.
    “YUKA” is a smart phone app that tells you critical chemical contents of food and cosmetic products.

  • NOT ALL CREATED EQUAL

    Refusing the coup-up and having more time on my hands when shopping, what great inventions do I find but these higher protein products.  Of course you can avoid them altogether to help what I call “the Covid Weight Gain”.  However, I’ve also found that recipes with lots of variety and moderation does the same thing and makes life just a bit more interesting.  Tired of the same old thing for breakfast?


    These higher protein flours can make some delicious pancakes and other baked goods.

    Paired up with ghee for a higher smoke point in the pan, you’ve also  added even more flavor to these blueberry cakes. If you had to add sugar to any recipe, try the new and healthier alternatives to Sucralose like unrefined moscovy sugar, or the made from sugar alcohols, Erythritol and Xylitol or the natural extract of Monkfruit. (Simply stated manufacturing details via Google.) Who is still drinking “diet” anything with killers like saccharine, sucralose, and every other “ose” in it???

    Can an Italian live without pasta? Look what’s new and tasty! And Whole Foods/Amazon makes delivery prompt.

    I guess my lesson learned is that not all carbs and sugars are created the same.   People are not created the same, and our bodies do different things with the foods we eat.  But yes, Virginia, we do need Whole Grains. Many products SAY whole grains, but without the stamp it is not enough.  Look for the yellow Whole Grain Stamp on packaged products. It says 8g or more per serving and eat 48g or more of whole grains daily.  Why? Bob Moore (Bob’s Red Mill) spelled it out in my earlier post:  Your gut and master regulator needs whole grains to feed the good bacteria in your gut that keeps your immune system cooking and your digestion healthy. They act as nature’s own prebiotic.  Their key enemy is sugar that feeds the bad bacteria and causes many health issues. 

     Foods containing sugar can be moderated using the Glycemic Index, where the sugar effect on the body varies, especially if the food (like prunes) contains a high fiber content. Lean on high fiber and protein to keep any amount of carbohydrate in balance.

    This delicious breakfast fruit bread replaces some of the flour with the fruit and keeps fiber high for good digestion:

    Breakfast Fruit Loaf

    Preheat oven 350º

    ¾ c All-Bran© cereal
    1 1/3c milk
    1 ½ c whole wheat self rising flour
    1 tsp. baking powder
    ¾ c raisins
    2/3 c ch. dried apricots
    ¼ c ch. pitted prunes
    1/3 c muscovado sugar (alternate: monkfruit)
    4 T pure floral honey

    Pour milk over cereal in a bowl, soak for 30 mins.
    Sift flour and baking powder and stir in the cereal.
    Stir in dried fruit, sugar, honey and mix well.
    Spoon into 2 lb loaf pan, level and bake 1-1/14 hrs
    (Test with long toothpick) Allow to cool some then to
    rack to cool. Will store well wrapped airtight or frozen.
    170 cal.per slice, fat 1g, protein 4g, fiber 4g, sodium 207mg.

    Savory No Salt Herb Mix

    Select dried herbs in amounts to
    your taste; store in handy jar for
    use in saute’s, stew, soup, casseroles.

    Onion/garlic granules, thyme, basil,
    Dried parsley, oregano/marjoram,
     rosemary, ginger, dill, mustard,
    black pepper, fennel, mint, etc.

    Tip:  Prepare this warming spice mix and keep it handy for pancakes, waffles, muffins, cakes cookies. Top your vegetables with this or the savory herb one following. Both spices and herbs contain oils perfect for digestion, nerves and sounder sleep. Use the spice mix in warm milk those nights falling asleep is difficult or you simply need to calm down.

    Warming Spice Mix

    Start with ½-1 tsp ea.dried ground
    cinnamon, cardamom, orange peel,
    allspice, clove, nutmeg, ginger

  • Carnivale, Carnivale, Where Have You Gone?

    Carnivale, Carnivale, Where Have You Gone?

    Born in Italy, Carnevale is one of the world’s most celebrated events, especially in Venice and Viareggio. But every town, even the smallest, has it’s own parade, feasts of local specialities, dancing, masquerading and fun before the Lent season begins.

    Some experts claim the term Carnevale comes from the Latin “carne, vale” meaning “taking away meat” associated with the day Lent begins (Ash Wednesday).

    Carnevale origins can be traced to primitive celebrations 12 thousand years ago to honor the coming of Spring, or a period of transition.  The costumes and masks were introduced during the early Renaissance by both the masquerade ball introduced by pope Paul II in the 15th century and the human stereotypes (greed, vanity, cunning) brought tostage in the “Commedia dell’Arte”, home to the characters of Arlecchino, Pantalone, and Pulcinella.  

    The 17th and 18th centuries saw the creation and production of masks as a trade, sold in not only for celebrations, but for instruments of seduction by courtisans and wanto-to-be’s alike, often masking the wearer’s true intentions as well as their recognizable countenances.

    In the South of Italy, one of the most famous celebrations in Putignaro was born in 1394. The Farinella mask and character was created in the 1950’s.

    In 2021 the Traditional Carnevale in Venice is moved online, offering the celebration to an international audience. With the hope the Covid 19 situation improves, Viareggio aims for a September and/or October showcase event.

  • Are Artisan Pastas Worth the Price?

    Francine Segan’s article in Italy Magazine answers the question as she scours Italy, attends a major event in Umbria and gives us the step by step test you can do to tell so-so pasta from artisan.  Check out this site https://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/pricey-pasta-really-worth-it

  • It Started Ten Months Ago

    It Started Ten Months Ago

    After my return from the Positano Italy trip during October 2019, moving from Placerville became the priority, as planned. We need a more manageable home and yard. Luckily our realtor, Scott Derkson, projected our path quickly to find a 55+ community and lovely home in El Dorado Hills.  There followed a month or more of trips to and from home for realty matters, discard of household goods, packing and repacking and searching for suppliers to help with the move and storage of goods before the move.  It was March 25 before we set foot in what was now our property and more months would be taken up settling in, unpacking, organizing and downsizing to our 1712 square feet vs. 2300.  Thanks to many helping hands who got us there.  We added cabinets to the kitchen and found a place for almost every accessory and furniture item kept before turning our attention to the backyard, which was now our responsibility to construct.  We will leave comments about the front yard which the Home Owners Assoc. (HOA) maintains for another story.
    Click on pix to enlarge, and view as gallery.

    48×40′ A Bear of a Bare Backyard
    We didn’t count on a huge boulder burried in the backyard
    Two pads for patio and shed.
    Enlarged 12×19′ patio and another pad for a shed was in the design Betty built.
    Hard to visualize on paper
    Every plant must be approved.

    Months evaporated again while laboriously researching and selecting plants, finalizing the design, and waiting for the HOA to approve our yard design.  It was also some doing to convince the landscaper we hired to address the rock that appeared to be submerged like an iceberg in the middle of the yard.  They had to bring in the big gun, and hammer out a mountain of boulders which had to be removed.  I insisted they be replaced with 35 yards of good planting soil, which I further enhanced with gypsum, peat, alfalfa meal, and soil conditioner.  The crew (Edgar, Juan, Pedro and Gabriel)  was anxious to please and so happy in their work it was a pleasure to watch their efforts.  (more…)

  • A big decision

    This is a blogger I hear from who lives not that far from my own relatives in Lucca. From time to time, I like to repost her articles for your enjoyment. Click on titles to view more.

    Debra Kolkka's avatarBagni di Lucca and Beyond

    After much thought I have decided not to fly back to Australia soon. My original flight home was to be on 20th June. That flight was cancelled by the airline and there was confusion over subsequent bookings. If I go home now I will have to isolate in a hotel room for 2 weeks, which holds no appeal at all.

    My appointment at the Questura to renew my Permesso di Soggiorno is in mid August and I need to do that. There is also the possibility I might not be able to return to Italy in autumn as I planned to do. I am happy with my decision to stay in Italy, especially now that restrictions have loosened a bit.

    We have guests arriving at Casa Debbio shortly and I will be moving down to our apartment in Bagni di Lucca. I am going to miss my garden. It has…

    View original post 546 more words

  • Villa Rufolo

    Small towns like Sorrento, Ravello, and Amalfi are built into the craggy cliffs all around Positano, each with its own set of legends, myths, churches, villas and complex history going back centuries in time. With transportation having its own set of complexity, Pam and I opted for a driver to further us down the Amalfi Drive.

    Pro drivers like Alessandro are essential!

    Every turn is a tight squeeze.

    The gardens at Villa Rufolo are legendary and together with the views, it was a glorious day.

    A 13th-century Moorish Tower marks your entrance to Villa Rufolo in Ravello. The cloister with its colonnade of pointed arches is a perfect example of the Arabic-Sicillian style of the period. Some believe it to be a smaller version of Spain’s famed Alhambra.   The renaissance author, Boccaccio, wrote the story of the villa and published Decameron in 1353 and hints of hidden treasure and royal banquets were

    legendary.

    Imposing interior has not been restored.

    The famous German composer, Richard Wagner, wrote his second act of Parsifal at the villa. The town has become knows as a “city of music” and center for the  annual summer concert series that brings visitors from all over the world from March thru October to the grand orchestral performance stage on the villa’s piazza below.

    Floral patterns blend with never ending views.

    It is the gardens to which visitors flock and whose breathtakingly lush floral patterns beam proudly all year.