Chocolate from Beginning to End

Around this time last year, I traveled to the Carribean side of Costa Rica. Since I am a chocolate fanatic, I had to visit the Cacao Trails! (Up until this point, I did not know anything about chocolate, except that it tastes good and I eat it frequently).

The cacao tree, theobroma cacao, produces flowers and fruit year-round. Unfortunately, the cacao tree has a tragic past with disease and is highly susceptible to Phytophthora, also known as black pod and monilia. To prevent disease, most of the world’s cocoa is grown on small farms of less than 5 acres.

Diseased cacao pods

Once the tree reaches maturity, fruit pods will sprout from its trunk and branches. The golden-red to purple fruit pods turn brown at maturity, at which time they are split open and the insides scooped out.

After the cacao beans are removed from the fruit, they undergo fermentation, a process that reduces their bitterness and helps develop their heady aroma. It takes a few weeks for the cacao beans to dry. After they are dried the beans are ready to be cleaned and roasted.

When the cacao pod is broken open, you can eat the slimy goo. It is sweet and delicious!

Nib

Once the beans are selected, they are roasted and shelled to obtain the center cacao kernel, or nib. 

After roasting the beans, they are ground into a fine powder.

When we made our chocolate, we used sugar and milk to make a thick paste. Because of the cocoa butter in the paste, our hands were incredibly oily, but smelled fantastic!

Lastly, I must say that the chocolate we made that day was the best chocolate I ever had (and that’s saying a lot because I eat a lot of chocolate!) I can’t wait to return someday.

If you’re ever in the Puerto Viejo area, I urge you to visit (and ask if Felipe is available for the canoe tour). For more information, visit www.cacaotrails.com/

To see more photographs from my trip to Costa Rica, visit http://touchofwanderlustart.weebly.com/pura-vida.html

Happy travels!

My Maternal Grandparents: A Tragic Love Story

I find an old photograph of my maternal grandparents, Jess and Hope Morgan. As I show it to my mother, she says that her dad used to remind her of Michael Rennie. I don’t know much about him, although I do know that he was born in New Mexico. This may partly explain why I have a fascination with the Southwest, especially the Land of Enchantment.

A few weeks earlier, I dream of my grandfather for the first time: I get to meet him and his goofiness in my dream matches the goofy smile on his face in the photograph. Once he makes peace with the family and sees my mom again, he leaves and waits for my grandmother on the other side. It is all a happy affair with no feeling of melancholy involved.


My grandfather died of tuberculosis when my mom was thirteen years old, leaving her to look after her four brothers while my grandmother worked. This picture was taken right before he got sick. I remember my grandmother as mean and bitter, but now I can understand why. As I look at the photograph, my mom tells me that my grandparents were madly in love. When my grandfather died, a piece of my grandmother’s heart must have departed with him. 

Need proof of Chronic Lyme and False Negatives? Here you go!

Reason for a false negative Lyme test:

Part of the Anapsid.org Chronic Neuroimmune Diseases Information Resources for CFS, FM, MCS, Lyme Disease, Thyroid, and more...Last updated January 13, 2013

Reasons for False Negative (Seronegative) Test Results in Lyme Disease

From the Lyme Disease Foundation and the Lyme Alliance

Compiled by Melissa Kaplan 2003

From the Lyme Disease Foundation brochure, Frequently Asked Questions About Lyme Disease

1. Antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) are present, but the laboratory is unable to detect them.

2. Antibodies against Bb may not be present in detectable levels in a patient with Lyme disease because the patient is currently on, or has recently taken, antibiotics. The antibacterial effect of antibiotics can reduce the body's production of antibodies.

3. Antibodies against Bb may not be present in detectable levels in a patient with Lyme disease because the patient is currently on or has previously taken anti-inflammatory steroidal drugs These can suppress a person's immune system, thus reducing or preventing an antibody response.

4. Antibodies against Bb may not be present in detectable levels in a patient with Lyme disease because the patient's antibodies may be bound with the bacteria with not enough free antibodies available for testing.  

For this reason, some of the worst cases of Lyme disease test negative -- too much bacteria for the immune system to handle.

5. Antibodies against Bb may not be present in detectable levels in a patient with Lyme disease because the patient could be immunosuppressed for a number of other reasons, and the immune system is not reacting to the bacteria.

6. Antibodies against Bb may not be present in detectable levels in a patient with Lyme disease because the bacteria has changed its makeup (antigenic shift) limiting recognition by the patient's immune system.

7. Antibodies against Bb may not be present in detectable levels in a patient with Lyme disease because the patient's immune response has not been stimulated to produce antibodies, i.e., the blood test is taken too soon after the tick-bite (8-6 weeks).

Please do not interpret this statement as implying that you should wait for a positive test to begin treatment.

8. Antibodies against Bb may not be present in detectable levels in a patient with Lyme disease because the laboratory has raised its cutoff too high.

9. Antibodies against Bb may not be present in detectable levels in a patient with Lyme disease because the patient is reacting to the Lyme bacteria, but is not producing the "right" bands to be considered positive.

---

Reasons Why A Seronegative Test Result Might Occur
Tom Grier, Lyme Alliance

1. Recent infection before immune response

2. Antibodies are in immune complexes

3. Spirochete encapsulated by host tissue (i.e. lymphocytic cell walls)

4. Spirochete are deep in host tissue

5. Blebs in body fluid, no whole organisms needed for PCR

6. No spirochetes in body fluid on day of test

7. Genetic heterogeneity (300 strains in U.S.)

8. Antigenic variability

9. Surface antigens change with temperature

10. Utilization of host protease instead of microbial protease

11. Spirochete in dormancy phase

12. Recent antibiotic treatment

13. Recent anti-inflammatory treatment

14. Concomitant infection with babesia may cause immunosuppression

15. Other causes of immunosuppression

16. Lab with poor technical capability for Lyme disease

17. Lab tests not standardized for late stage disease

18. Lab tests labeled "for investigational use only"

19. CDC criteria is epidemiological, not a diagnostic criteria

---

Melissa Kaplan adds:

The majority of laboratories, including state and county public health laboratories, use the CDC epidemiological criteria for reporting Bb Western Blot IgM and IgG test results. Some of these labs may automatically insert a statement to physicians similar to the following one included by the Sonoma County Department of Health Services Public Health Laboratory:

The diagnosis of Lyme disease must include careful clinical evaluation and should not be based only on the detection of antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi.

Unfortunately, however, most physicians do use these tests as definitively diagnostic, rather than making a clinical diagnosis based on patient symptomology and response to the various antimicrobial protocols used to treat Lyme and common tickborne co-infections.

Elephants- more fragile than you think

Before reading Love, Life, & Elephants by Daphne Sheldrick, elephants (along with turtles) were my favorite animals for no particular reason. I loved them for their emotions and their gentleness, but after reading the book, I respect them. There is a reason Ganesha, the god of overcoming obstacles, has an elephant head. Elephants are ruthlessly hunted for their ivory, which is used for various trinkets. The elephants are either shot or poisoned and the ivory is ripped out of their face. Oftentimes, baby elephants witness their mothers being murdered and are then orphaned. Most die from a lack of milk and food. This is where Daphne Sheldrick comes in- she and the keepers rescue orphaned baby elephants, nurse them back to health at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi (Kenya).

In the next few years, I hope to visit the elephant orphanage Tsavo, and the Masai Mara. And I am taking an oath to spread the word about the ivory trade and the horrific consequences of it.

To join the campaign to ban ivory, go to http://www.iworry.org/

To foster an elephant at the DSWT, go to http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/asp/fostering.asp. It's only $50 and in the next few months, it will be a perfect gift for a friend or family member.

"The death of this great elephant evoked in us a lament for all the wild creatures of Africa and the vanishing wilderness that had protected and sheltered them for so long. It was symbolic of the tenuous future all wildlife faced in a continent where poverty bred corruption and greedy people in faraway lands created the demand that fueled the killing." -From Love, Life, and Elephants (pg 225-226)

Nurse Logs and Hall of Mosses in the Hoh Rainforest

A couple of weeks back, I pitched a tent at my favorite place in Washington State: the Hoh rainforest. This magical place is located in Olympic National Park- tall trees with branches covered in moss and fungi growing on the trunks. While hiking the Spruce Trail and Hall of Mosses Trail, I photographed many nurse logs.

After huge trees are fallen, seedlings sprout on the logs because the ground is so densely covered. Throughout the years, with a little help from the yearly 140-170 inches of rainfall, they grow to be healthy trees.

When the seedlings are full grown, they take over the nurse log forming a colonnade 

and the trees fight with each other like siblings for space.

 

Walking through this area of the Hall of Mosses is like stepping into a real life fairy tale.

Nature is capable of many amazing things. We just have to pay attention.

Elementary Schools and a Book City

I have a picture of my 2 year old self packed away in storage. In that picture, I have piles of books stacked on all sides of me, including an open book in my arms. I didn't realize how obsessed I am with books until I visited Powell's books in Portland yesterday. That place is unbelievable. The main store takes up an entire city block. I was a bit overwhelmed when we walked in, but also feeling ecstatic to be surrounded by millions of books. Surprisingly, I just bought one book; it might have been because if I stayed any longer, I would not want to leave!

My guy and I drove to Portland for my 26th birthday. I'm ashamed to say I have never really explored Portland, OR. I've been downtown and to the surrounding towns and cities including the coast. Luckily, we only live 2 hours away from Portland so we can see quite a lot in 2 days and one night. For my birthday, I chose the Kennedy School, an old elementary school turned into historic hotel by the McMenamin brothers. It has such rich history and most of the rooms are in actual old classrooms!

Love for succulents

I started loving succulents before it was cool (go to any garden boutique or floral shop and you'll know what I'm talking about).  Succulents became appealing to me when I was a little girl. From what I can remember, sempervivums (hens and chicks) and aloe plants were the first types of succulents I ever saw. My mom had a huge aloe plant. I would break open the leaves and rub the smelly slime on my arms.

Today, I have a small collection of potted succulents and since I moved into my new house, I am surrounded by typical small succulents like sedum and sempervivum (the owners have them planted everywhere).

As an adult, I appreciate the repetitiveness and shapes of succulents- some remind me of fractal art like the stacked crassulas, spiral aloe, and aeoniums. I don't have any of these in my collection yet.