Shea butter comes from the nuts of the Shea tree fruit which grows in Africa. The nuts contain oil that when extracted becomes Shea butter. It is a “superfood” for the skin; rich in vitamins A, E and F, along with essential fatty acids and nutrients for healing.
Shea Butter Benefits
Shea butter has three main benefits that no other natural seed oil has. Other oils or creams may be good moisturizers, but will not heal the skin like Shea butter.
Moisturizing – The high concentration of vitamins, essential fatty acids and nutrients closely match what the skin’s sebaceous glands produce. This makes pure Shea butter the best choice for dry or damaged skin.
Reducing inflammation – One of the unique compounds in pure Shea butter is cinnamic acid, closely related to the cinnamon in your kitchen. Cinnamic acid is a strong anti-inflammatory agent. Pure Shea butter has exceptionally high levels of cinnamic acid bound to other compounds, making it effective against skin inflammation.
Smoothing – Pure Shea butter works with the skin’s natural collagen production to protect and nourish the skin. The high concentrations of oleic, palmitic and linolenic acids naturally found in Shea butter help protect the skin as well.
Only pure, Grade A Shea butter that has been prepared without chemicals or heat will have all of the above qualities.
Once Shea butter is exposed to chemicals for extraction, bleaching or excessive heat for refining it loses its healing qualities.
Why Shea butter is Better Than Other Natural Oils
Most seed oils have two important parts, or fractions. The first fraction contain the moisturizing properties and the second has the healing qualities.
Pure Shea butter has an exceptionally large healing fraction, the largest of any natural seed or nut. This healing fraction contains important nutrients, vitamins and phytonutrients required to heal the skin. The best quality Shea butter has a healing fraction up to 17%, but is usually significantly over 5%.
Most other seed oils have a healing fraction of 1 to 3%. They will have an excellent moisturizing fraction, but little to no healing qualities.
This is why pure Shea butter has been studied and recognized as being effective for skin conditions including blemishes, itching, sunburns, small cuts and abrasions, eczema, skin allergies, insect bites, frost bite and surgical wounds.
Daily use as a face and body moisturizer – lasts much longer than any commercial lotion. Apply to rough spots 1/2 hour before bedtime.
Provides anti-aging properties for skin by boosting skin cell regeneration and collagen production which strengthens skin.
Superb as a special spa treatment. One or two teaspoons in a hot bath leaves your skin nourished and hydrated, feeling luxurious all over.
Massage butter. Melt a teaspoonful amount in your hands and massage into a sore or tired area.
Pregnancy stretch mark reducing and healing cream. Remember the healing and increasing collagen production qualities above?
Baby care – wards off diaper rash and keeps skin healthy.
Pre-treatment and after care for sunburn or windburn.
Excellent make-up remover, moisturizer and healing cream – all in one! The oil will melt and remove long-lasting mascara without stripping your skin’s natural oils and moisture. After make-up removal, massage a small amount into your face for a rejuvenating treatment each night.
Best under eye wrinkle reducer and skin toner. Continued use has shown to noticeably improve skin tone and condition.
Overall wrinkle fighter. Studies show increased skin tone, tighter skin due to increased collagen content and brighter skin after daily use for four to six weeks.
Natural cuticle cream and nail conditioner. Heals rough or torn cuticles while moisturizing and conditioning nails.
Surgical wound healing aid and scar reducer. The healing fraction works on speeding the healing of post-surgical scars while the collagen production reduces scarring.
Soothes sore or raw noses during cold and flu season. Also heals and moisturizes dry nasal passages, reducing bloody and itchy noses. The British Journal of Pharmacology found Shea butter treats nasal congestion better than nasal drops and lasted longer.
Pre and post shaving treatment. When applied before shaving, softens the beard and lubricates skin to minimize razor burn and nicks. Soothes, moisturizes and conditions skin after shaving, giving a refreshed feeling all day long.
Hair treatment. Many high end hair treatments from salons contain small amounts of Shea butter, but without the healing qualities. Pure Shea butter seals in moisture, conditions the hair and scalp, reduces dandruff and dry scalp, helps define curls and reduces frizzy hair.
Ease delicate skin conditions such as acne and eczema without inflaming the skin.
Repair cracked heels and dry itchy feet. Either the Original Shea butter or our Happy Feet work wonders overnight!
Insect bite and itch relief. The powerful anti-inflammatory properties work on insect bites to reduce the swelling and itch.
Finding the Highest Quality Shea Butter
We have spent most of the past decade working with a dedicated small company who has developed personal relationships with the best Shea butter producers in Africa. They are members of the American Shea Butter Institute and will only accept the finest batches for their use.
We only source Grade A Shea butter – the finest raw and unrefined, handcrafted Shea butter that retains its full healing and moisturizing properties. These are tested for purity and healing quality by the Shea Butter Institute, assuring us there is no heavy metal contamination or chemical impurities.
You have the finest quality available at your fingertips! Simply click the link below to visit our store and choose which Shea butter suits you best.
We want to share GrowHaus with you. During recent travels, we toured this amazing micro-farm in the northeast section of Denver, CO. Starting with an old flower greenhouse in an isolated immigrant neighborhood, this is now a model of innovative urban farming.
Healthy Food is a Right, not a Privilege
GrowHaus is a non-profit indoor farm, marketplace and educational center in north Denver, CO. The neighborhood of Elyria-Swansea is a historically working class immigrant community. It is surrounded by industrial manufacturing and transportation industries. As a result the neighborhood is listed as the most polluted ZIP code in Colorado.
The Elyria-Swansea neighborhood has been a first home for recent immigrants since the 1880s. It has always had one of the lowest household incomes in the city with low education and employment levels.
The area has endured a lack of access to healthy and affordable food with high rates of diet-related illnesses. This is due to their isolation within the industrial manufacturing and heavy industry areas.
Their motto is “Healthy food is a right, not a privilege.”
GrowHaus developed out of an old flower greenhouse. It incorporates several methods of growing food for local residents and restaurants in Denver.
We saw this is still a very busy industrial area with a large roofing and asphalt company and 4 lines of railroad tracks across the street.
The large hand-painted “Mercado” sign above a roll-up garage door indicated something unusual. The sign shows that vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy and more are available inside. Spanish and English are the predominant languages spoken here now, but historically this area has been a settling place for many different nationalities.
Challenging Conditions
The map shows just how crowded things are. A major rail line with multiple tracks is less than 50 feet from the front door. A large roofing and asphalt company are across the street to the east.
The modest sized homes are clear, with the line of older single wide mobile homes just to the right in the photo.
Just outside of the photo to the bottom is I-70, with its update and expansion just beginning. Much of the neighborhood to the south of the GrowHaus will be lost to the expansion and re-alignment.
When completed, I-70 will come within a couple hundred feet of the greenhouse. Two new light rail lines will be built in the next 10 years, cutting through the neighborhood.
Click to expand the close-up photo of the greenhouse and see just how tightly packed in the GrowHaus is.
The amount of food, education and community improvement that happens in this space is nothing short of amazing!
Our tour guide was an employee who is also a local resident. His insights and comments were very beneficial, having grown up in the neighborhood.
The food grown in the greenhouse is a world better than the boxed and fast foods he grew up eating!
Serious Food Production in a Small Space
There is both a hydroponics and aquaponics operation in the greenhouse. By partnering with local residents to grow food, provide jobs and education, everyone lives better.
Residents gain a valuable skill while earning money growing food they share with their families.
The hydroponics operation is 5,000 square feet and grows leafy greens. The customers are residents and local markets and restaurants throughout Denver. They grow about 1,200 heads of leafy greens per week using 90% less water than conventional farming.
The aquaponics side is 3,200 square feet, growing more leafy greens.
A commercial mushroom farm produces fresh specialty mushrooms year round for local use, restaurants and markets.
There is also a seedling starting nursery that’s just getting started. The nursery provides seedlings and young plant starts to area gardeners.
GrowHaus is a vibrant and essential part of both the local and extended community in Denver.
Our tour guide explains the growing, marketing and distribution of the butter lettuce from the hydroponics farm. Local residents who qualify buy food at cost with a sliding scale for other customers.
A closer look at the butter lettuce and packaging. It is marketed as “living” lettuce because the roots are still attached. It stays fresher longer than conventionally grown lettuce that is cut from its roots when harvested.
This brings a premium price from restaurants and markets in Denver, increasing the earnings of the hydroponics farm.
Easing the Food Desert
The Elyria-Swansea neighborhood is classified as a “food desert”. This is defined as “an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.”
GrowHaus works to overcome this through three food distribution programs. They are food boxes, the GrowHaus market and Cosechando Salud, a free food pantry and cooking class.
Food boxes are like a traditional CSA with food from GrowHaus and partner organizations. They have fresh fruits, vegetables and other items. The program is open to anyone in the greater Denver area.
The Mercado de al Lado is the neighborhood market, offering fresh produce, meat and dairy products year round.
The pricing is unique, using a tiered pricing system so that everyone has the maximum access to the healthiest foods possible.
Those that qualify can buy food at cost or a small percentage above the production cost. This gives greater access to healthy and fresh food to those who really need it.
Those who can afford to pay slightly below retail up to full retail prices, bringing profits to the program and keeping it running.
The Cosechando Salud is a free food pantry and cooking class. It is supported by the profits of the distribution programs. It teaches cooking essentials while providing healthy food that was not sold at the markets, avoiding excess food waste.
Permaculture and Classroom Space
The class space and common area are a permaculture design. It is a self-regulating edible ecosystem with figs, bananas and papayas. There are composting systems with worms, along with rabbits and chickens.
Growing bananas and papayas at a mile high in Denver’s climate is pretty impressive!
People Making a Difference
It is inspiring seeing the scope of the operations at GrowHaus, along with the number of programs and organizations they partner with.
A small group of dedicated individuals have accomplished much with a challenging environment in an isolated neighborhood.
They have created a working, local, sustainable healthy food system which lives up to its mission. In doing so, they have also created a model of how inclusive participation and open cooperation with other like-minded organizations can expand the positive impact.
We left with the realization that one person can make a difference, even if it is in one other person’s life. That difference, and the results, are worth it!
https://underwoodgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/GrowHaus-Sign.jpg478850Stephen Scotthttps://underwoodgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Survey-Header.jpgStephen Scott2016-10-17 11:20:532024-04-30 17:34:00GrowHaus – Making Good Food Happen
Cindy and I recently visited the kitchen garden at the Forest Highlands Meadow Clubhouse. Forest Highlands was established in 1987, with the original raised bed concrete forms poured shortly afterward.
We don’t know how long they were garden beds. They were filled in and covered with sod for a children’s play area and family picnic grounds.
In 2015 the kitchen staff uncovered half of the original concrete terraced raised beds. They kept the upper part in sod, using it as a reception area for weddings or parties with 4 large raised beds.
This kitchen garden is just south of Flagstaff, AZ in a very short season climate. Some years they have less than 60 days of growing time, while others are just over 70 days.
This limits what they can grow. Creative use of existing advantages helped them be successful in their first year. The result has been a surprising amount of fresh vegetables and herbs for the kitchen.
They grow unique and unavailable varieties showing the chef’s talents with heirloom flavors.
Let’s look at some of the techniques used to create a successful kitchen garden in a challenging climate!
Original Beds Revealed
This uphill shot shows the concrete forms of the original stepped landscape garden beds giving way to the remains of the sod used for the children’s play area and picnic area. Four raised beds grow vegetables needing a deeper soil and host a reception area.
The raised bed soil is rich and fertile while the terraced beds need improvement. Rains left standing water in the beds on the lower right which made growing difficult this season. The staff is planting our cover crop mix to help. The mix will open up the moderate clay soil and improve drainage, soil structure and fertility.
New Raised Beds
The terracing is harder to see from this angle, but the size of the raised beds is clearer. Each raised bed is about three feet deep, giving plenty of water drainage and depth for root crops.
The semi-intensive planting has gone well with a successful harvest considering it is the first full year of growing there.
The concrete retaining wall topped with solid fencing is at the far end of the garden, providing wind protection as well as shelter from hungry critters ranging from rabbits to deer.
Carrots, beets and radishes are growing in this raised bed. After harvest the bed is mulched with straw and left dormant until early spring. The mulch protects the soil from temperature extremes, allowing earthworms to be more active.
The raised beds are full of earthworm activity. If you create the proper environment the earthworms will appear!
This left side view shows how different the soils are just 10 feet apart from the right side. The growth is lush and full, unlike the right side beds holding water with struggling plants.
There may only be 2 – 3 weeks of growth for our Garden Cover Up Mix before the frosts kill them. This is enough time to establish a root system and mulch cover, starting improvement for the soil.
Next season they will interplant cover crops among the root vegetables. The cover crops go in once the vegetables are a month old so they don’t compete with each other. This gives more time for better soil improvement.
South Facing Thermal Mass Wall
Cindy next to a long bed of pattypan squash. These summer squash are very cold sensitive and love warmth. This planting bed takes advantage of the concrete walls thermal mass, effectively moving this bed two or three zones south. It is unusual to see such vigorous and healthy growth in a colder climate.
This thermal mass technique has been used just outside Paris, France for over 300 years. Farmers grew extensive fruit tree and grape orchards in the cold climate of Paris.
Thick south-facing brick walls kept fruit trees and grape vines warm. Horticultural books showed why these orchards were so productive and grew such delicious fruits.
There are still remnants of these horticultural walls still standing outside of Paris today. Many of the current residents do not know why the walls are there, or what function they served!
When we looked in the bed, sure enough there was a large pattypan squash ready for harvest! This is about 2 – 3 weeks prior to the first expected frost.
The same concept is used for the tomatoes and basil, for different reasons.
This east facing retaining wall supports the pool and is not a traditional thermal wall. This growing spot is unique because the pool provides the moderating temperature. The pool has a lot of thermal mass, maintaining a steady temperature to the concrete.
In the summer, the wall absorbs warmth during the morning and gives shade during the hot afternoons. The water temperature is cooler than the air, so the wall’s effect is shading and cooling.
During cooler weather, the pool temperature is warmer than the air, warming the bed. The sun warms the bed during the first part of the day.
Up at the top of the herb garden section, the same technique is at work helping the snap peas have a good second season. They are climbing twine strings in front of the south-facing driveway retaining wall. The gardeners use this spot for an early planting of peas using the warmth as a jump-starter, transitioning to herbs later in the spring and back to peas in the fall.
Pretty clever to coax three plantings out of a 60 day growing season!
A different angle gives another look at the upper herb garden section. Notice the peas don’t extend past the warmth of the concrete retaining wall.
Some of the herbs are in pots, while others grow as annuals in the beds.
Notice the high fencing, which acts as walls for wind breaks and critter proofing. The garden is protected from chilling and drying winds and breezes, allowing more vigorous growth than if it were more exposed.
The hanging buckets are at the top right, seen in more detail at the top photo of the article. Individual herbs grow in each bucket, giving more fresh herb variety to the kitchen.
Your Turn
Now you see how simple techniques are used in creating a successful kitchen garden, no matter the size.
Take a close look at your garden to see if some of these approaches would work for you, or with a smaller container garden close to the house!
Cover crops – also called green manures – have improved soil for thousands of years. 3,000 years ago Chinese agriculture began planting horsebeans and sesame for soil improvement. Much later the Greeks and Romans sowed special crops to increase soil fertility.
The past 60 – 80 years has seen an incredible amount of knowledge emerge from small farmers experimenting with planting different cover crops and learning from what resulted. This knowledge was built on a foundation of several hundred years of European trial and error.
We now have access to detailed information about how to use cover crops for the maximum benefits in our gardens, pastures and fields.
Our Garden Cover Up Mix was developed from research into the specific benefits we wanted to bring to the home garden soil, as well as what species supported each other.
This photo essay is a look at what one month – 4 weeks – of growth provides in an average raised bed.
After sowing we began watering with our drip system, but the monsoon rains provided a good amount of water over the month. This helped the plant growth along, so your results may be a week or two behind these photos.
Week One
At one week, the mix has almost all sprouted and shown vigorous growth. The oats and rye are shooting up, looking like grass while the buckwheat spreads its leaves and the clover hugs the soil. The peas were just beginning to show up, as they took a few days longer to absorb moisture and begin germinating.
We planted the different parts of the mix separately to get an idea of how they grew by themselves and with other species in support.
The rye and oats both shot up rapidly, germinating within 3 – 4 days and showing good soil coverage.
The crimson clover was also up fast, creating a fluffy green blanket over the soil with its tiny green leaves. Even with only an inch of growth it was easy to feel the temperature differences between the tops of the leaves and the soil temperature – it felt like 15°F difference!
The buckwheat was a couple of days slower coming up than the oats or rye. Once the sprouts appeared they immediately opened their leaves and really started growing.
Week Three
After three weeks the mix has almost completely covered the raised bed. The root system is about 3/4 of the top growth at this point, so the root density below the soil is almost as much as seen here. This is why cover crops are so beneficial to soil fertility.
A closer look shows how much shade the soil has and how thick the mix is growing. This out-competes most weeds above the soil while the roots choke out weeds below.
The young seedlings have just finished emitting auxins, a natural root hormone that inhibits other seeds from growing.
This mechanism gives the cover crops a head start over any other weeds for the next 2 – 3 weeks. When weed seeds can’t germinate, they will often rot as the soil fertility improves.
Week Four
The growth accelerated going into the fourth week, as these photos show. The white PVC stake is about 14 inches tall. Last week the growth was about 3 – 4 inches, but this week it shot up above the top of the stake.
Besides putting on a lot of height, the mix also completely filled in the raised bed. Weeds have no space to grow and we could only find one or two after searching for them.
The soil is much cooler than the surface of the leaves. It is also moister, but that could be due to the amount of recent rains and not the cover crop. The buckwheat is starting to bloom and is attracting bees as seen in the top photo detail.
The buckwheat is the tallest of the mix at about 21 inches tall. The mix is extremely full and thick up to about 16 inches, completely choking out any weeds. The root system is still about 3/4 of the height of the plants, so there is an amazing amount of roots below ground! This shows why planting cover crops does so much to improve the physical structure of the soil.
As the roots die and decay they add organic matter to the soil, open up moisture and air pathways where the roots grew and increase the carbon content – all at the same time!
Pretty good for a few minutes spent planting the seeds and a months’ worth of growth!
Both the rye and oats look like really lush grass. They completely cover the soil and top out at just over 15 inches at one month. We couldn’t find any weeds in this test plot.
Looking closer at the density of the rye planting, it is easy to see why weeds don’t stand a chance. There is no room for anything other than the rye with this dense seeding rate, which is the point.
Next Steps
If a killing frost happened tomorrow there is enough growth to create an excellent mulch while the root system will feed the soil and its microbial populations.
Our first frost is still several weeks off so the cover crops will keep growing both above and below the soil level. The flowers need watching to prevent setting seed and creating another crop next season. We will clip or mow the flower heads as they develop if there isn’t a frost soon enough.
If the rest of the mix can develop before mowing or a killing frost, it gives more nutrition and benefits to the garden bed.
Cover crops will increase the bio-available nutrition in your soil for next season, even if you use a well-aged compost. Both approaches have benefits but if used together support each other and create a better, more fertile soil sooner than if only one is used.
You don’t need a lot of time to grow a good cover crop and seriously improve your garden soil – a month will do! Even if you only have 2 – 3 weeks you will be better off with a shorter planting than none at all.
Go plant some cover crops. Your garden will reward you handsomely next season!
Growing fall onions is sometimes confusing – should you choose the long day or day-neutral ones? When should you plant? Does the color of the onion matter? How to avoid growing non-bulbing onions again this year?
Most questions come down to, “What onions can be grown this fall?”
The short answer is the sweet onions will do best in almost all locations, but there is more to the answer!
Most gardeners can successfully grow the sweet Candy onions for cooking.
Conditions for Fall Onions
There are three conditions fall-grown onions need – day-length, time to mature and temperature.
Day-length
Candy is a day-neutral onion, meaning it forms a bulb with 12 – 14 hours of daylight. The map above shows approximately where the Candy onion will grow. The southern limits are short day length and the northern are too cold too early for a sweet onion in the fall.
Our grower has had excellent results in almost all regions of the US. The exceptions are south Florida, south Texas and the extreme northern states bordering Canada. Even parts of Maine have been able to grow good sweet onions in the fall!
Time to Mature
Our sweet onion needs about 90 – 100 days to mature into good sized bulbs ready for harvesting. This is just over three months, so check your freeze dates to see if you’ve got enough time.
Light frosts aren’t a concern with onions as they continue growing until the first hard freeze.
If you aren’t sure of your medium frost dates, take a few minutes to read our article on understanding your frost dates. How to Plan for Fall and Winter Gardening will get you up to speed!
You are looking for the Fall 24°F date (the orange circle) from your local historical weather data.
This brings us to temperature…
Temperature
Onions are remarkably tolerant of frosts and even moderate freezing weather. They go dormant and then resume growth when favorable conditions return. Winter temperatures down to the early 20’s won’t damage onions if mulched and protected.
An old grower once told me some of the sweetest onions he ever grew were over-wintered ones.
He planted bulbs in the early fall, let them grow and mulched heavily 6 – 8 inches deep just before the first frosts. They went dormant in the winter and when spring came he removed the mulch. The onions resumed growing as spring warmed up. He had the earliest harvest of incredibly sweet, delicious onions.
He would never sell these, as they were too special! He shared them with family and close friends.
So – can you grow onions this fall?
You can have sweet onions this fall or early winter if –
You are not in the extreme southern or northern parts of the US &
have at least 100 days before your area expects to have a freeze of 24°F (or below).
OR
You can have sweet onions in early winter or early spring if –
You are not in the extreme southern or northern parts of the US &
don’t have 100 days before you expect to have a freeze &
don’t get below about 20°F winter low temperatures.
OR
You can have sweet onions for early spring harvest if –
You are not in the extreme southern or northern parts of the US &
don’t have 100 days before you expect to have a freeze &
do get below 20°F winter low temperatures
by growing under heavy mulch.
Knowing these 3 factors, you will be more successful growing your onions this fall.
As the famous radio host Paul Harvey used to say, “Now you know the rest of the story!”
Slow cooked caramelized onions are great, but what if you took that further?
Like, a lot further. Say, six hours full of slow cooked, caramelized goodness.
You would wind up with what Chef Michael Solomonov makes at Zahav, his Israeli-inspired restaurant in Philadelphia.
The ingredients couldn’t be simpler –
1â„2 cup olive oil
6 lbs yellow or sweet onions (about 12 large), chopped
Kosher salt or sea salt to taste
Place the onions in a heavy heat-retaining pot. I’ve used cast iron for over 20 years and haven’t found anything better for this type of cooking!
Pour the olive oil over the top of the chopped onions, then sprinkle the sea salt and stir well.
Here’s where the magic happens – for the next 6 hours, you will cook this very low and slow.
During the summer (when I wrote this) I do a lot of cooking outside on our Kamado, a Japanese ceramic grill fired by charcoal. I use native mesquite charcoal and keep the temperature to around 250°F with a volcanic heat diffuser stone just above the charcoal for indirect heat. The mesquite gives a really nice, intensely smoky flavor without being bitter or over the top.
Yes, it truly does take 5 – 6 hours for the full flavors to develop. You can caramelize the onions faster with higher heat, but will miss the incredibly complex flavors – starting with a deep, rich and sweet note, a quick hit of smokiness, then moving to blackberries or dried cherries, followed by balsamic vinegar sweetness and finishing out with more long, lingering smoke.
The first time someone tastes this, they think it’s a very complex spread and are surprised at the 3 ingredients.
Let’s walk through how to make this yourself!
Chop the onions into smaller pieces. I love using sweet onions as they add a layer to the flavors, but any mild onion will work well.
Of course, growing your own onions will give you the absolute best flavors, but a close second is your local Farmer’s Market. Look for the large, fat, sweet onions for this recipe. Yellow or sweet onions give excellent flavors, but red or purple onions will do just as well with a different color and flavor.
Early fall is a great time for planting onions to over-winter and finish growing next spring – giving you an extra dose of rich flavor and sweetness.
Add the chopped onions to the pot, add the olive oil and salt, then give a good stir to coat the onions.
Put on the covered grill or oven set to 250°F.
The pot of onions has just been put on the Kamado, where I was pre-roasting a chicken for a clay pot dish with onions and Poblano chiles.
Note how full the pot is – within a half inch or so of the top. As we progress, you’ll see how much this drops!
Smoking means cooking! The smoke always means a delicious meal is on the way.
The beauty of slow cooking outside is the freedom it gives you. There is no need to stand around the grill, you can do projects, read or take a nap and check the progress every so often. I try not to lift the lid more than twice an hour, to not lose heat and smoke.
After a couple of hours the onions begin to caramelize. Give them a stir at this point, then about once an hour.
See how much the level has dropped?
The lid is left off so the moisture evaporates and the smoke can infuse the onions.
No, these aren’t burned – they are finished!
What started out as a full pot has cooked down to just a couple of cups. All of those flavors have condensed and intensified, mellowing with the gentle heat and smoke from the grill.
Remove from the pan, let cool and store in the refrigerator for up to a month. They won’t last past a few days, but they will keep up to a month!
Now that you’ve got some smoky caramelized onions, what do you do with them?
Almost anything you want!
They are delicious as appetizers straight on crackers, spread on the bun of a fresh-grilled hamburger or as a remoulade on a steak. Mix half-and-half with our 30 Second Mayonnaise for a sandwich spread that will amaze! Chef Michael serves them mixed with salads, slathered on roast chicken, spread on toast with ricotta cheese, or swirled in sauteed chopped collard greens as a rich side dish.
I like them straight, spread on crackers for that full blast hit of flavors and smokiness. Spread on burgers is sublime as well.
Give this a try and let me know how you like them and what you use them on!
18 Shea Butter Benefits
Shea butter comes from the nuts of the Shea tree fruit which grows in Africa. The nuts contain oil that when extracted becomes Shea butter. It is a “superfood” for the skin; rich in vitamins A, E and F, along with essential fatty acids and nutrients for healing.
Shea Butter Benefits
Shea butter has three main benefits that no other natural seed oil has. Other oils or creams may be good moisturizers, but will not heal the skin like Shea butter.
Moisturizing – The high concentration of vitamins, essential fatty acids and nutrients closely match what the skin’s sebaceous glands produce. This makes pure Shea butter the best choice for dry or damaged skin.
Reducing inflammation – One of the unique compounds in pure Shea butter is cinnamic acid, closely related to the cinnamon in your kitchen. Cinnamic acid is a strong anti-inflammatory agent. Pure Shea butter has exceptionally high levels of cinnamic acid bound to other compounds, making it effective against skin inflammation.
Smoothing – Pure Shea butter works with the skin’s natural collagen production to protect and nourish the skin. The high concentrations of oleic, palmitic and linolenic acids naturally found in Shea butter help protect the skin as well.
Why Shea butter is Better Than Other Natural Oils
Most seed oils have two important parts, or fractions. The first fraction contain the moisturizing properties and the second has the healing qualities.
Pure Shea butter has an exceptionally large healing fraction, the largest of any natural seed or nut. This healing fraction contains important nutrients, vitamins and phytonutrients required to heal the skin. The best quality Shea butter has a healing fraction up to 17%, but is usually significantly over 5%.
Most other seed oils have a healing fraction of 1 to 3%. They will have an excellent moisturizing fraction, but little to no healing qualities.
This is why pure Shea butter has been studied and recognized as being effective for skin conditions including blemishes, itching, sunburns, small cuts and abrasions, eczema, skin allergies, insect bites, frost bite and surgical wounds.
Original Grade A Shea butter this way!Best Uses for Shea Butter
Finding the Highest Quality Shea Butter
We have spent most of the past decade working with a dedicated small company who has developed personal relationships with the best Shea butter producers in Africa. They are members of the American Shea Butter Institute and will only accept the finest batches for their use.
We only source Grade A Shea butter – the finest raw and unrefined, handcrafted Shea butter that retains its full healing and moisturizing properties. These are tested for purity and healing quality by the Shea Butter Institute, assuring us there is no heavy metal contamination or chemical impurities.
You have the finest quality available at your fingertips! Simply click the link below to visit our store and choose which Shea butter suits you best.
Original Grade A Shea butter this way!GrowHaus – Making Good Food Happen
We want to share GrowHaus with you. During recent travels, we toured this amazing micro-farm in the northeast section of Denver, CO. Starting with an old flower greenhouse in an isolated immigrant neighborhood, this is now a model of innovative urban farming.
Healthy Food is a Right, not a Privilege
GrowHaus is a non-profit indoor farm, marketplace and educational center in north Denver, CO. The neighborhood of Elyria-Swansea is a historically working class immigrant community. It is surrounded by industrial manufacturing and transportation industries. As a result the neighborhood is listed as the most polluted ZIP code in Colorado.
The area has endured a lack of access to healthy and affordable food with high rates of diet-related illnesses. This is due to their isolation within the industrial manufacturing and heavy industry areas.
GrowHaus developed out of an old flower greenhouse. It incorporates several methods of growing food for local residents and restaurants in Denver.
We saw this is still a very busy industrial area with a large roofing and asphalt company and 4 lines of railroad tracks across the street.
The large hand-painted “Mercado” sign above a roll-up garage door indicated something unusual. The sign shows that vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy and more are available inside. Spanish and English are the predominant languages spoken here now, but historically this area has been a settling place for many different nationalities.
Challenging Conditions
The map shows just how crowded things are. A major rail line with multiple tracks is less than 50 feet from the front door. A large roofing and asphalt company are across the street to the east.
The modest sized homes are clear, with the line of older single wide mobile homes just to the right in the photo.
Just outside of the photo to the bottom is I-70, with its update and expansion just beginning. Much of the neighborhood to the south of the GrowHaus will be lost to the expansion and re-alignment.
When completed, I-70 will come within a couple hundred feet of the greenhouse. Two new light rail lines will be built in the next 10 years, cutting through the neighborhood.
Click to expand the close-up photo of the greenhouse and see just how tightly packed in the GrowHaus is.
Our tour guide was an employee who is also a local resident. His insights and comments were very beneficial, having grown up in the neighborhood.
The food grown in the greenhouse is a world better than the boxed and fast foods he grew up eating!
Serious Food Production in a Small Space
There is both a hydroponics and aquaponics operation in the greenhouse. By partnering with local residents to grow food, provide jobs and education, everyone lives better.
Residents gain a valuable skill while earning money growing food they share with their families.
The hydroponics operation is 5,000 square feet and grows leafy greens. The customers are residents and local markets and restaurants throughout Denver. They grow about 1,200 heads of leafy greens per week using 90% less water than conventional farming.
The aquaponics side is 3,200 square feet, growing more leafy greens.
A commercial mushroom farm produces fresh specialty mushrooms year round for local use, restaurants and markets.
There is also a seedling starting nursery that’s just getting started. The nursery provides seedlings and young plant starts to area gardeners.
Our tour guide explains the growing, marketing and distribution of the butter lettuce from the hydroponics farm. Local residents who qualify buy food at cost with a sliding scale for other customers.
A closer look at the butter lettuce and packaging. It is marketed as “living” lettuce because the roots are still attached. It stays fresher longer than conventionally grown lettuce that is cut from its roots when harvested.
This brings a premium price from restaurants and markets in Denver, increasing the earnings of the hydroponics farm.
Easing the Food Desert
The Elyria-Swansea neighborhood is classified as a “food desert”. This is defined as “an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.”
GrowHaus works to overcome this through three food distribution programs. They are food boxes, the GrowHaus market and Cosechando Salud, a free food pantry and cooking class.
Food boxes are like a traditional CSA with food from GrowHaus and partner organizations. They have fresh fruits, vegetables and other items. The program is open to anyone in the greater Denver area.
The Mercado de al Lado is the neighborhood market, offering fresh produce, meat and dairy products year round.
Those that qualify can buy food at cost or a small percentage above the production cost. This gives greater access to healthy and fresh food to those who really need it.
Those who can afford to pay slightly below retail up to full retail prices, bringing profits to the program and keeping it running.
The Cosechando Salud is a free food pantry and cooking class. It is supported by the profits of the distribution programs. It teaches cooking essentials while providing healthy food that was not sold at the markets, avoiding excess food waste.
Permaculture and Classroom Space
The class space and common area are a permaculture design. It is a self-regulating edible ecosystem with figs, bananas and papayas. There are composting systems with worms, along with rabbits and chickens.
Growing bananas and papayas at a mile high in Denver’s climate is pretty impressive!
People Making a Difference
It is inspiring seeing the scope of the operations at GrowHaus, along with the number of programs and organizations they partner with.
A small group of dedicated individuals have accomplished much with a challenging environment in an isolated neighborhood.
They have created a working, local, sustainable healthy food system which lives up to its mission. In doing so, they have also created a model of how inclusive participation and open cooperation with other like-minded organizations can expand the positive impact.
We left with the realization that one person can make a difference, even if it is in one other person’s life. That difference, and the results, are worth it!
Forest Highlands Kitchen Garden
Kitchen Garden in a Challenging Climate
Cindy and I recently visited the kitchen garden at the Forest Highlands Meadow Clubhouse. Forest Highlands was established in 1987, with the original raised bed concrete forms poured shortly afterward.
We don’t know how long they were garden beds. They were filled in and covered with sod for a children’s play area and family picnic grounds.
In 2015 the kitchen staff uncovered half of the original concrete terraced raised beds. They kept the upper part in sod, using it as a reception area for weddings or parties with 4 large raised beds.
This kitchen garden is just south of Flagstaff, AZ in a very short season climate. Some years they have less than 60 days of growing time, while others are just over 70 days.
This limits what they can grow. Creative use of existing advantages helped them be successful in their first year. The result has been a surprising amount of fresh vegetables and herbs for the kitchen.
They grow unique and unavailable varieties showing the chef’s talents with heirloom flavors.
Let’s look at some of the techniques used to create a successful kitchen garden in a challenging climate!
Original Beds Revealed
This uphill shot shows the concrete forms of the original stepped landscape garden beds giving way to the remains of the sod used for the children’s play area and picnic area. Four raised beds grow vegetables needing a deeper soil and host a reception area.
The raised bed soil is rich and fertile while the terraced beds need improvement. Rains left standing water in the beds on the lower right which made growing difficult this season. The staff is planting our cover crop mix to help. The mix will open up the moderate clay soil and improve drainage, soil structure and fertility.
New Raised Beds
The terracing is harder to see from this angle, but the size of the raised beds is clearer. Each raised bed is about three feet deep, giving plenty of water drainage and depth for root crops.
The semi-intensive planting has gone well with a successful harvest considering it is the first full year of growing there.
The concrete retaining wall topped with solid fencing is at the far end of the garden, providing wind protection as well as shelter from hungry critters ranging from rabbits to deer.
Carrots, beets and radishes are growing in this raised bed. After harvest the bed is mulched with straw and left dormant until early spring. The mulch protects the soil from temperature extremes, allowing earthworms to be more active.
The raised beds are full of earthworm activity. If you create the proper environment the earthworms will appear!
This left side view shows how different the soils are just 10 feet apart from the right side. The growth is lush and full, unlike the right side beds holding water with struggling plants.
There may only be 2 – 3 weeks of growth for our Garden Cover Up Mix before the frosts kill them. This is enough time to establish a root system and mulch cover, starting improvement for the soil.
Next season they will interplant cover crops among the root vegetables. The cover crops go in once the vegetables are a month old so they don’t compete with each other. This gives more time for better soil improvement.
South Facing Thermal Mass Wall
Cindy next to a long bed of pattypan squash. These summer squash are very cold sensitive and love warmth. This planting bed takes advantage of the concrete walls thermal mass, effectively moving this bed two or three zones south. It is unusual to see such vigorous and healthy growth in a colder climate.
This thermal mass technique has been used just outside Paris, France for over 300 years. Farmers grew extensive fruit tree and grape orchards in the cold climate of Paris.
Thick south-facing brick walls kept fruit trees and grape vines warm. Horticultural books showed why these orchards were so productive and grew such delicious fruits.
There are still remnants of these horticultural walls still standing outside of Paris today. Many of the current residents do not know why the walls are there, or what function they served!
When we looked in the bed, sure enough there was a large pattypan squash ready for harvest! This is about 2 – 3 weeks prior to the first expected frost.
The same concept is used for the tomatoes and basil, for different reasons.
This east facing retaining wall supports the pool and is not a traditional thermal wall. This growing spot is unique because the pool provides the moderating temperature. The pool has a lot of thermal mass, maintaining a steady temperature to the concrete.
In the summer, the wall absorbs warmth during the morning and gives shade during the hot afternoons. The water temperature is cooler than the air, so the wall’s effect is shading and cooling.
During cooler weather, the pool temperature is warmer than the air, warming the bed. The sun warms the bed during the first part of the day.
Up at the top of the herb garden section, the same technique is at work helping the snap peas have a good second season. They are climbing twine strings in front of the south-facing driveway retaining wall. The gardeners use this spot for an early planting of peas using the warmth as a jump-starter, transitioning to herbs later in the spring and back to peas in the fall.
Pretty clever to coax three plantings out of a 60 day growing season!
A different angle gives another look at the upper herb garden section. Notice the peas don’t extend past the warmth of the concrete retaining wall.
Some of the herbs are in pots, while others grow as annuals in the beds.
Notice the high fencing, which acts as walls for wind breaks and critter proofing. The garden is protected from chilling and drying winds and breezes, allowing more vigorous growth than if it were more exposed.
The hanging buckets are at the top right, seen in more detail at the top photo of the article. Individual herbs grow in each bucket, giving more fresh herb variety to the kitchen.
Your Turn
Now you see how simple techniques are used in creating a successful kitchen garden, no matter the size.
Take a close look at your garden to see if some of these approaches would work for you, or with a smaller container garden close to the house!
Cover Crops – Better Soil in a Month
Can cover crops improve garden soil in one month?
Cover crops – also called green manures – have improved soil for thousands of years. 3,000 years ago Chinese agriculture began planting horsebeans and sesame for soil improvement. Much later the Greeks and Romans sowed special crops to increase soil fertility.
The past 60 – 80 years has seen an incredible amount of knowledge emerge from small farmers experimenting with planting different cover crops and learning from what resulted. This knowledge was built on a foundation of several hundred years of European trial and error.
Our Garden Cover Up Mix was developed from research into the specific benefits we wanted to bring to the home garden soil, as well as what species supported each other.
After sowing we began watering with our drip system, but the monsoon rains provided a good amount of water over the month. This helped the plant growth along, so your results may be a week or two behind these photos.
Week One
At one week, the mix has almost all sprouted and shown vigorous growth. The oats and rye are shooting up, looking like grass while the buckwheat spreads its leaves and the clover hugs the soil. The peas were just beginning to show up, as they took a few days longer to absorb moisture and begin germinating.
We planted the different parts of the mix separately to get an idea of how they grew by themselves and with other species in support.
The rye and oats both shot up rapidly, germinating within 3 – 4 days and showing good soil coverage.
The crimson clover was also up fast, creating a fluffy green blanket over the soil with its tiny green leaves. Even with only an inch of growth it was easy to feel the temperature differences between the tops of the leaves and the soil temperature – it felt like 15°F difference!
The buckwheat was a couple of days slower coming up than the oats or rye. Once the sprouts appeared they immediately opened their leaves and really started growing.
Week Three
After three weeks the mix has almost completely covered the raised bed. The root system is about 3/4 of the top growth at this point, so the root density below the soil is almost as much as seen here. This is why cover crops are so beneficial to soil fertility.
A closer look shows how much shade the soil has and how thick the mix is growing. This out-competes most weeds above the soil while the roots choke out weeds below.
This mechanism gives the cover crops a head start over any other weeds for the next 2 – 3 weeks. When weed seeds can’t germinate, they will often rot as the soil fertility improves.
Week Four
The growth accelerated going into the fourth week, as these photos show. The white PVC stake is about 14 inches tall. Last week the growth was about 3 – 4 inches, but this week it shot up above the top of the stake.
Besides putting on a lot of height, the mix also completely filled in the raised bed. Weeds have no space to grow and we could only find one or two after searching for them.
The soil is much cooler than the surface of the leaves. It is also moister, but that could be due to the amount of recent rains and not the cover crop. The buckwheat is starting to bloom and is attracting bees as seen in the top photo detail.
The buckwheat is the tallest of the mix at about 21 inches tall. The mix is extremely full and thick up to about 16 inches, completely choking out any weeds. The root system is still about 3/4 of the height of the plants, so there is an amazing amount of roots below ground! This shows why planting cover crops does so much to improve the physical structure of the soil.
Pretty good for a few minutes spent planting the seeds and a months’ worth of growth!
Both the rye and oats look like really lush grass. They completely cover the soil and top out at just over 15 inches at one month. We couldn’t find any weeds in this test plot.
Looking closer at the density of the rye planting, it is easy to see why weeds don’t stand a chance. There is no room for anything other than the rye with this dense seeding rate, which is the point.
Next Steps
If a killing frost happened tomorrow there is enough growth to create an excellent mulch while the root system will feed the soil and its microbial populations.
Our first frost is still several weeks off so the cover crops will keep growing both above and below the soil level. The flowers need watching to prevent setting seed and creating another crop next season. We will clip or mow the flower heads as they develop if there isn’t a frost soon enough.
If the rest of the mix can develop before mowing or a killing frost, it gives more nutrition and benefits to the garden bed.
Cover crops will increase the bio-available nutrition in your soil for next season, even if you use a well-aged compost. Both approaches have benefits but if used together support each other and create a better, more fertile soil sooner than if only one is used.
You don’t need a lot of time to grow a good cover crop and seriously improve your garden soil – a month will do! Even if you only have 2 – 3 weeks you will be better off with a shorter planting than none at all.
Fall Onions Made Easy
Best Onions in Fall
Growing fall onions is sometimes confusing – should you choose the long day or day-neutral ones? When should you plant? Does the color of the onion matter? How to avoid growing non-bulbing onions again this year?
Most questions come down to, “What onions can be grown this fall?”
The short answer is the sweet onions will do best in almost all locations, but there is more to the answer!
Most gardeners can successfully grow the sweet Candy onions for cooking.
Conditions for Fall Onions
There are three conditions fall-grown onions need – day-length, time to mature and temperature.
Day-length
Candy is a day-neutral onion, meaning it forms a bulb with 12 – 14 hours of daylight. The map above shows approximately where the Candy onion will grow. The southern limits are short day length and the northern are too cold too early for a sweet onion in the fall.
Our grower has had excellent results in almost all regions of the US. The exceptions are south Florida, south Texas and the extreme northern states bordering Canada. Even parts of Maine have been able to grow good sweet onions in the fall!
Time to Mature
Our sweet onion needs about 90 – 100 days to mature into good sized bulbs ready for harvesting. This is just over three months, so check your freeze dates to see if you’ve got enough time.
Light frosts aren’t a concern with onions as they continue growing until the first hard freeze.
If you aren’t sure of your medium frost dates, take a few minutes to read our article on understanding your frost dates. How to Plan for Fall and Winter Gardening will get you up to speed!
You are looking for the Fall 24°F date (the orange circle) from your local historical weather data.
This brings us to temperature…
Temperature
Onions are remarkably tolerant of frosts and even moderate freezing weather. They go dormant and then resume growth when favorable conditions return. Winter temperatures down to the early 20’s won’t damage onions if mulched and protected.
An old grower once told me some of the sweetest onions he ever grew were over-wintered ones.
He planted bulbs in the early fall, let them grow and mulched heavily 6 – 8 inches deep just before the first frosts. They went dormant in the winter and when spring came he removed the mulch. The onions resumed growing as spring warmed up. He had the earliest harvest of incredibly sweet, delicious onions.
He would never sell these, as they were too special! He shared them with family and close friends.
So – can you grow onions this fall?
You can have sweet onions this fall or early winter if –
OR
You can have sweet onions in early winter or early spring if –
OR
You can have sweet onions for early spring harvest if –
Knowing these 3 factors, you will be more successful growing your onions this fall.
As the famous radio host Paul Harvey used to say, “Now you know the rest of the story!”
Six Hour Caramelized Onions
Slow cooked caramelized onions are great, but what if you took that further?
Like, a lot further. Say, six hours full of slow cooked, caramelized goodness.
You would wind up with what Chef Michael Solomonov makes at Zahav, his Israeli-inspired restaurant in Philadelphia.
The ingredients couldn’t be simpler –
Chop the onions into smaller pieces. I love using sweet onions as they add a layer to the flavors, but any mild onion will work well.
Add the chopped onions to the pot, add the olive oil and salt, then give a good stir to coat the onions.
Put on the covered grill or oven set to 250°F.
The pot of onions has just been put on the Kamado, where I was pre-roasting a chicken for a clay pot dish with onions and Poblano chiles.
Note how full the pot is – within a half inch or so of the top. As we progress, you’ll see how much this drops!
Smoking means cooking! The smoke always means a delicious meal is on the way.
The beauty of slow cooking outside is the freedom it gives you. There is no need to stand around the grill, you can do projects, read or take a nap and check the progress every so often. I try not to lift the lid more than twice an hour, to not lose heat and smoke.
After a couple of hours the onions begin to caramelize. Give them a stir at this point, then about once an hour.
See how much the level has dropped?
The lid is left off so the moisture evaporates and the smoke can infuse the onions.
No, these aren’t burned – they are finished!
What started out as a full pot has cooked down to just a couple of cups. All of those flavors have condensed and intensified, mellowing with the gentle heat and smoke from the grill.
Remove from the pan, let cool and store in the refrigerator for up to a month. They won’t last past a few days, but they will keep up to a month!
Now that you’ve got some smoky caramelized onions, what do you do with them?
Almost anything you want!
They are delicious as appetizers straight on crackers, spread on the bun of a fresh-grilled hamburger or as a remoulade on a steak. Mix half-and-half with our 30 Second Mayonnaise for a sandwich spread that will amaze! Chef Michael serves them mixed with salads, slathered on roast chicken, spread on toast with ricotta cheese, or swirled in sauteed chopped collard greens as a rich side dish.
I like them straight, spread on crackers for that full blast hit of flavors and smokiness. Spread on burgers is sublime as well.