A Duck's Egg

I wanted to share the good news on duck eggs (which I already loved). While a free range farm fresh chicken egg is a wonderful source of protein and nutrition, duck eggs are even higher in concentrated amounts of vitamin A and D, manganese, zinc, copper, potassium, sodium, phosphorous, calcium, and iron. This also means they are higher in cholesterol, though it is considered the "good" cholesterol i.e. monounsaturated fats. Duck eggs are an alkaline food while chicken eggs are more on the acidic side. If you are allergic to chicken eggs, you usually will not be to duck eggs. And, eggs are the perfect protein, full of high quality essential amino acids. Does it get any better? That is, if you love eggs to begin with.

In Chinese Medicine, eggs are considered yin in nature, nourishing all that is liquid in the body, such as blood and essential fluids. Eggs are thermally neutral which means they are neither warming nor cooling and can be ingested by people who are at one extreme of the spectrum or the other. Eggs are an excellent food for fertility purposes, both before (pre-conception) and post partum. According to P. Pitchford (Healing With Whole Foods), eggs should be avoided in an overly damp condition (i.e. someone who is very overweight or if you have a mucus overload).

I like to poach or make soft boiled duck eggs and serve them over a salad or a tender meaty dish like I did before the summer started in this pork chop braise. Once it got warmer, out came a salad of radicchio, chick peas, carrots, and onions with a lovely soft boiled sweet duck egg on top. Apparently you can also bake with duck eggs, though I can't share any recipes on baking as it's not my forte. I drizzled a tangy vinaigrette over the salad which consisted of : olive oil, honey, sea salt, fresh crushed black pepper, dijon mustard, and rice vinegar. Delicious.

Bring Out the Preserves!

Tis the season for all those lovely summer fruits and vegetables that were canned and preserved to make their way on to your table. If you happened to have a overabundance of strawberries and then just happened to make some strawberry jam, then you'll be a happy camper this winter. And it will help you if you have dry mouth, a sore throat, or hoarseness. Strawberries can also help with painful or difficult urination. And another wonderful use for a strawberry (though this has to be done in the summer months when they are fresh) is to cut it in half and rub along your teeth and gums, allow this to sit for 45 minutes and then rinse with warm water. This method was developed according to Paul Pitchford, author of Healing with Whole Foods, as strawberries help to remove tartar and strengthen your teeth. These beautiful red berries are the first to appear in the spring and can be used to cleanse your system. If you are like me and have experienced allergic reactions to strawberries it is likely because they were not vine ripened, but rather plucked too soon and then ripened in some warehouse. While we were in the UK in July we were lucky enough to be given a beautiful jar of strawberry jam made by our friends who have an allotment (part of a growing movement in the UK to provide city folk with the ability to grow their own food) in Bristol where they grew a lovely variety of fruit and vegetables. There are even more medicinal values to strawberries, and you can find more about them here.