Hemp Hearts

I popped in to Shannon's store, Mystic Mountain, to drop off some new wish candles and a small piller candle. She is almost sold out of my hand-dipped bee's wax tapers, so I have to get working on making more. She had hemp hearts in sample bags for people to try. She also had other stuff like hemp granola and hemp cremes (for chapped lips I think). Hemp can be used for so many products, it should be made manditory that every farmer grow some, like they did in our North American history. In China they sell the seed by the ton for bird seed. Getting back to the topic of hemp hearts, we (my girlfriend and I) were at a family gathering ( her dad's birthday) and I got talking about hemp hearts. One of the family is diabetic and another has alergies to wheat so when we gather the topic of different types of food comes up often. Since I have been eating hemp hearts on my cereal and in soups and yoghurt, I feel I have an informed opinion on the matter.

It tastes kind of nutty and it can be eaten by itself. It does not need to be refridgerated and it can be used in all types of food. You can grind it up to make a paste or flour or buy it as flour ready made. It is high in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids (the good fats),high in protean and has lot of calcium and fiber. This stuff is great for low carb diets. I have found it gives me lots of energy. A whole other factor that the hemp hearts I consume where made here in Canada, so the money stays here in Canada.That just happens to be a bonus.

Local farmers got all excited about growing hemp and they got a buyer in California lined up to sell everything they produced.They lost their shirts! The border guards stopped it because they ( big business and big government)do not want us little people to A) make money and prosper B) grow crops that require very little inputs and is good for the environment C)grow something that would but the cotton industry in a downward spin and D) grow something that we could eat and be healthy, requiring less health care and pharmacies. Big business knows it pays to keep us down, poor and sickly. Governments around the world can't stand any people who want to be ( Oh My Gosh) self-supporting. Look at the persecution heaped on the amish and other back-to-the-land groups.

I am starting to rant so I will shut up now-DON'T get me started.

Michael J. Kaer, president of Kaer Enterpises (.com) and www.mikesworms.com

Ma and Pa

I was out with my mother and father today. This is somehing I do on a weekly basis since they live about 45 minutes outside Chatham. Dad is not hobbling around quite as much as he did before the hip replacement and the other two operations he recently had. We did the rounds of the local discount shops like goodwill and in the process went to the pharmacy to get their meds filled. We always have fun and it is a cheap day out. If I need anythng out at the Big Box stores that is the time I get it. They have to go out there to fill their scripts anyway...

I don't like the big box stores but I often cannot find the item I need at the local downtown mall or local(bike riding distance) stores. After viewing a documentary called "The high cost of low price", the Walmart movie, I try hard not to give them any business. If you saw the movie, you would not want to either.

On the way back into town we stopped into a store run by a friend of mine, Shannon, called Mystic Mountain. They sell alot of hemp clothing and other hemp items as well as fair trade items. In amongst all that good stuff is some of my Siver jewelry, Bee's wax candles and drums. She is doing a brisk business and creates an outlet for local craftspeople like myself to sell their items. That is the way more business should be. Ken Bell's picture was smiling at me from her counter where she had his fliers and Green party buttons to hand out. The Green Party and Hemp go hand in glove, in this case hemp mitten (made by hand).

I pray for a day when hemp and hemp products are cheap and abundant so we can all have clothes that last 10 times longer than cotton and it does not cost the environment dearly in the form of herbicides,pesticides and huge amounts of water, like cotton does. I look foreward to a day where I can build myself a car with a ceramic engine block and hemp materials make the body, interior and produces the gasoline or alcohol to run it. That is a wonderful future.

Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com), www.mikesworms.com, www.mjk-private-income.com and www.onthespotmassage.biz