A recipe for health!

The Cancer Resource Center is pleased to present this article to promote colorectal cancer awareness and prevention. This article will concentrate on prevention strategies focused on something we all enjoy - food! To discuss screening recommendations and options for colorectal cancer, please contact your health care provider. If you are seeking a health care provider, contact the Ukiah Valley Rural Health Center at 707-463-8000 or the Mendocino Community Health Clinic. For more information regarding colorectal cancer or any other cancer, please contact the Cancer Resource Center of Mendocino County by clicking on this link, or at 937-3833.


A nutritious diet is recommended beginning in childhood. It is not too late at any age, however, to make dietary changes as a way of reducing risk factors associated with colorectal cancer. The nutritional guidelines outlined in this article are reccommended prevention strategies in lowering your risk factors.

Using the following guidelines as your prevention strategy will not only reduce your risk for cancer, but also improve your general health

1. Eat a healthy diet emphasizing plant foods
- 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day
- Limit meat, avoid processed meats, cured meats
- 3 servings of whole grains
-25- 40 grams fiber daily

2. Achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

3. Engage in at least 30 minutes of exercise 5 times per week

4. Get regular colon cancer screenings Studies show a reduced colon cancer risk from eating whole fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and nuts. Health promoting components in these whol foods and good food sources include:
- Phytonutrients- organic plants which can help protect the cells of the colon from damage.
- Fiber- indigestible part of fruits, vegetables, whole grain, legumes, nuts and seeds. Fiber helps move waste through the colon, and some types may help detoxify potential cancer causing substances.
- Cruciferous vegetables- contain anti- cancer properties thought to reduce colon cancer risk. Highest content is in broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and radishes.
- Colon Protective Foods: Citrus fruits, berries, cantaloupe, papaya, pineapple, tomato, raw pepper, carrots, winter squash, yams, spinach, chard, whole grains, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, turmeric, ginger, curry.

Studies using supplements have not shown the same preventative benefits as eating whole foods for reducing colon cancer risk. There are probably other unknown benefits in whole foods still to be discovered.

Enjoy the following recipe!
Quinoa Salad with Corn and Black Beans

Ingredients
1 1/2 dry quinoa
1/3 cup finely diced red onion
1 can low sodium black beans
1 cup fresh or frozen sweet corn kernels, thawed
1 cup grape tomatoes

Vinaigrette

2 TBS olive oil
3 TBS lime juice
2 TBS water
1 fresh garlic clove
1 TBS cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp sea salt
fresh pepper to taste

Directions
1. Cook quinoa according to package
2. While quinoa is cooking, prepare vinaigrette by combining ingredients and whisking in small bowl
3. In a large bowl combine cooked quinoa and remaining ingredients
4. Pour vinaigrette over qunioa mixture and combine

Serve and enjoy!

Sharing The Bounty

April 10th is almost here and so is our annual fund raising dinner (also on April 10th..weird)

This years dinner is sure to be just as great (if not BETTER) than last year. This year you can expect to see some local grandiose grains, fervent foraged foods, luscious lemons, ruddy rhubarb, blistering black beans, wondrous wines, and other local ambrosial foods and wines that you might have no realized are from Northern California, let alone our county.

Haven't gotten your tickets yet? Contact our office: 462-2596 x 185 or email us here: kburwell@ncoinc.org. Hope to see you there!

Mendo's New Food Policy Council

It's official, Mendocino County has joined the growing number of communities around the country working together to build healthy, community-based, local food systems by creating a local Food Policy Council.

Thanks to the committed efforts of local food advocates in Public Health, The Gardens Project of NCO, School Nutrition coordinators, and many others, the Food Policy Council was born from the planning committee of Mendocino County's Local Food Summit in May of 2010. Seeing the need to continue collaborating and network to develop policies and practices that support a local food system, the group brought the following resolution to the County Board of Supervisors, Ukiah City Council, Fort Bragg City Council, and soon to Point Arena and Willits where they were unanimously approved! To find out more about the Mendocino County Food Policy Council, read Lucy's Something to Chew On article here or contact The Gardens Project.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors hereby recognizes and supports the establishment of an independent Mendocino County Food Policy Council, which will advise the Board on food and farming matters at least twice yearly. The Food Policy Council’s mission is to collaborate with institutions, businesses and the public at large to create a sustainable local food system that reduces hunger, increases health and expands economic vitality. The Food Policy Council will increase food security for all current and future generations, especially the least served, by ensuring the availability and accessibility of a wide variety of local, safe, sustainably-grown and nutritious foods.

Youth Engage and Initiate Policy Change

Twelve local teens from Willits and Ukiah volunteer for the BEANS program (Better Eating, Activity, and Nutrition for Students). They have been busy presenting interactive nutrition and cooking lessons to elementary and middle school students in their after-school programs since the fall of 2010. As the teen peer educators continue their weekly lessons to area students this spring, they have also begun to spend a couple hours a week doing research about access to healthy foods and opportunities for physically active play in our schools and in our towns.

The teens are approaching their research through a process called PhotoVoice. This process involves developing research questions, focusing the research on a manageable topic, teens using a camera to capture their perspectives about food and play access, a peer review of all photos, narrowing the photo selection down, then writing a reflection for each of their chosen photos. The process culminates in a presentation of the photos and essays. The BEANS teens want to make a difference; they want to use this project to initiate some policy change in our local communities.

Teens would like to make presentations of their PhotoVoice projects to their school boards, to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, to City Councils, and also to display their work at the Mendocino County Museum and/or the Mendocino County Library. If you have connections or ideas that will facilitate any of these presentations, please email Tarney Sheldon, BEANS coordinator, at sheldont@ncoinc.org .

March Garden Tips

What to do in your garden this month:

Now is a great time to get out in the yard in between the rain showers and refresh your garden. Thinking of expanding your garden?? Now is a great time to add a few new raised beds and to fill them with fresh soil and compost. Consolidating? Try some vertical planting if you are out of room but still want to add new plants this year. Climbing plants such as vining cucumbers and beans are great candidates for vertical gardening. You can use objects that you have laying around the house or yard to create solutions to garden space problems. For example, you can make great plant supports from leftover pig fencing, twine, strips of wood or bamboo.

I also love to add unique plant additions every year to see how they do in my microclimate just south of Ukiah. This year I am trying my luck at Horseradish root.

What to plant? (This is where things get really exciting!!!!!!!)

In March, spinach, radishes, carrots, turnips, beets, peas, lettuce, broccoli, fennel and Asian greens such as bok choy and mustard greens can all be directly sown into your garden.

You can start seeds indoors for onions, lettuce, brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, cabbage, etc.), chard, kale, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, melons, zucchini, summer squash, pumpkins.

This month you can take your lettuce, leeks, onions, brassicas, peas and Asian greens that you started last month outdoors to transplant.

Brighten up your yard and home by starting flowers from seed. You can start Lobella, Alyssum, Limonium, Zinnias, Amaranth, Petunias, Marigolds, Cosmos, Tithonias, Ageratum, Strawflowers, Calliopsis, Cleome, Celosia, Sanvitalia, Morning Glory, Nasturtiums, Dahlia, Heliotrope, Gomphrena, Geraniums, Sunflowers, Impatiens, Nicotiana and Thunbergia.

Final thoughts…

Rain brings weeds! Take a few minutes each morning or evening to pull up a few new weeds in your garden area.

For year round tips on what to plant, click Greater Hopland Planting Guide (Peter Huff and Kate Frey's Monthly Planting Calendar for Inland Mendocino, also found at the "How to - Grow Food" page on The Garden's Project Website).

As always if you have a question about what to do in your garden, there is a tremendous body of knowledge about gardening in California, provided by University of California Cooperative Extension. This site, geared toward the home gardener can be found at http://cagardenweb.ucdavis.edu/.

Happy Mendo Gardening!!

New Community Garden in BrookTrails!!

March 8th marked the first day of life for the new Brooktrails Community Garden! At approximately 7:27, after presentations from The Gardens Project and community gardener Tim Ramming, the Brooktrails board of directors voted unanimously to approve the building of a community garden at the old tennis court site on Birch street and to allocate $3,000 towards the project. The board of directors cited the incredible community participation, the self organization principle, donations from the community, and the self resilience of the garden as key reasons to move forward. SanHedrin nursery agreed to donate $100 and 10% off merchandise, Ramming and sons Heating and Air Conditioning is donating $200, W.E.L.L is donating $1,000, Round Tree glass will donate glass for hot boxes, J.D Redhouse will donate at cost tools, the California Conservation Corps is donating hours, and The Gardens Project is donating staff time, compost, and drip equipment.

The Brooktrails gardeners would like thank the above organizations for their support and donations.

The Brooktrails garden would also like to invite everyone who is interested in the garden to attend their next meeting. We are still looking for new gardeners and will select plots and discuss the guidelines that work towards creating a harmonious community. The Brooktrails lodge graciously has agreed to let the gardeners use the atrium room as a meeting space. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 29th at 6:30 PM at the Brooktrails Lodge.

Please mark your calendar for our first fundraiser! On Wednesday, April 20th at 7:00 PM. Hosted by the Brooktrails lodge and as a benefit for the new brooktrails community garden, the Benefit Bash will include health conscious vendors, live music, DJ's, and a good time! Look for the Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=155538991171115

Peas and Carrots,

Mason