Vegan, Chemical-free Ready Meals - Weekly box scheme for Kilkenny Carlow started today!

Vegan Ready Meals

What an exciting day today - the first week's box of vegan ready meals went out.

The Complete Freedom Stir Fry Soy Not Oi 2 Cookbook - page 75

Radical Lentil Chowder Soy Not Oi 2 Cookbook page 103

Carrot, Ginger and Orange Muffins Soy Not Oi 2 cookbook page 203

Spelt Sandwich with Humous

Spelt Sandwich with Mushroom Pate

Rice Crispy Cakes

Chia Seed Crackers Soy Not Oi 2 cookbook page 203

5 pack lunches for €20

I didn't have time to get merchandise together so I used my Healing by Franc business cards and scribbled out 'Franc' and wrote in 'Food'. 'Healing by Food' seemed like a good enough brand name for vegan, mainly organic products. Then someone pointed out that maybe I should have scratched the 'Healing' instead and called it 'Foods by Franc'.

Either way, the priority is to make the meals and freeze them. I want to establish the box scheme for those in the Co. Kilkenny and Carlow area who are transitioning to a plant-based diet. I heard that lunches are often the difficulty, as once you get home to your own kitchen in the evening, you can cook yourself. Many people are destined for crisps and peanuts as their midday sustenance. I know that I was for a few years and still on road trips, they call out to me as my snacks of choice!

The other people that the box scheme might suit  are those that have vegan children for health and allergy reasons and people who are exploring a plant-based diet themselves but who still have to live with a non-vegan family.

I know this is the time to start the brand. I hear that within two years, there is going to be a massive demand for plant based, chemical free nutrition. There are some lovely foods around, like meat substitutes by Moodley Meats, Danette's Magic humous and pestos, Linda McCartney sausage rolls and sausages, Natasha's Living Foods and the Happy Pear brand. I also love Plamil (their logo is a polar bear which says it all about their environmental values). But there is room for more, lots more, vegan food availability, lots more cooking classes, recipe ideas, nutritional information and support. As everyone will know, I would like to make plant-based food the norm and halt the exploitation of animals once and for all. So it is about facilitating that in as many ways as possible.

Thanks as well to the organic vegetable box scheme from which I am getting my ingredients. What a moment to start! For soon there will be a glut of tomatoes and green beans and I will be ready to transform whatever comes my way in this abundant season for a year's worth of good tasty meals, the mineral and vitamin profile frozen in time to activate when they're eaten.

The happy start involves my first customer being a food technical manager from a corporate. I think this could mean two things. An avenue for serious expansion in future plus a standard of food safety and quality that I could stand by and build a business on.

Please spread the word and contact me if you would like to try the scheme 083 144 3978 info@healingbyfranc.com

   

I was asked today, as a tutor, for my No.1 tip for getting one's research written up

Bring your topic to life for the reader. Do not narrow yourself down to academic language and reference, on the assumption that that person reading it knows the context anyway. Instead, go back one or two steps and describe each term and the content you are going to be working with.  The fact is the more you look into a subject, the more interesting it becomes and yet doubt hovers in your mind if it would ever be of interest to another. Imagine describing the significance of the research question and the possible difference the answer might make. This can obviously be from the sublime to the ridiculous.

In the instance of the girl I spoke to she mentioned a couple of my favourite words. 'Lamina flow bubble' to be exact. I love the concept of a lamina flow, it is a stream that flows in the opposite direction to the main current but creates no resistance. It is a flow I have often stepped in to energetically, since I heard about it. It is also a word I suggested that my brother in law should include in the Oxford dictionary…what a classic job, revising the dictionary and definitions and new inclusions!

Still, the girl said that this lamina flow bubble was a time consuming scientific process for the hygienic preparation of eyedrops with no preservatives in them, that allows them to remain sterile for 7 days after opening. It had turned out that even leaving the process out, the safe period shelf life remained the same. There are so many fantastic things about this research, for example that it might save time, save money, promote chemical free pharmaceuticals, reduce cost etc etc. the key is draw these elements out.

Be excited, give detail, give background, describe your scientific and social context and pretend that you are telling your Dad or your best mate. Someone anyway who was always interested in what you had to say but you always make the effort to make sure you were good company for. I would go as far as to say, don't let the truth get in the way of a good story… but colleges are so picky about literature reviews and referencing these days, you better adhere to all that carry on so that your work ticks all the boxes as well as engaging your reader. Be your marking tutor for a minute having to really read 5-25,000 words at a time...Make it interesting!

If you need help getting started or someone to sharpen up your work, give me a shout.  

Reflection Practice…made plain…if not simple!

How does one go about reflecting … on the last 10 months? It is so tricky to be systematic. One's mind just gets stuck on a central theme that has dominated proceedings … or in fact precede-ings! I came up with the idea of just jotting down the months as headings and allowing a bit of time to recall what I was doing during that time? Its not revolutionary but we do tend to rush through our lives, from project to project (if you're proactive) or from dramatics to dramatics (if you're long since overwhelmed). Without reflection, we glance at our surroundings in a linear way, noticing how close or far away we are from where we want to be. So thinking about what you've put your heart and mind into is enriching on a couple of levels; giving it value a second time around. Even if you've just endured the last few month, give yourself credit for that!

So at the 'Subtle Body Yoga Teacher Training' retreat at Harmony Hall recently we started with a meditation like this down in the meditation garden

We had to identify one old concept we'd successfully let go of and one or more areas of great potential to allow through in its place or a dream that can now be brought to realization. Essie May of the Kilkenny School of Yoga led the meditation and teacher training. The yoga took place at Kate & James Powell's lovely yoga space, recently finished in beautiful wood, passively heated and with really wonderful views that would give everyone a far away look in their eye, unless of course they're super disciplined about staying present, through the practice!

So I wrote down the ten months and an activity beside each to reflect on. Then I identified three things I'd come to terms with. Then I considered dreams to go for.

The last 10 months

November 2015
Horticulture Plant Identification Module - Learn Latin basically and draw 100 plants.

Masters In Composting, run by Stop Food Waste

Master Composters Course Post This has most of the information…I take good notes!

December 2015
Spent 3 Full Weeks with my Parents - for the first time in years!

January 2016
Two major Masters assignments in Business and Early Years Psychology
People often book tuition through my profile on First Tutors

February 2016
Hand Drawn 100 Plant Profiles
So much flipping work for that Fetac level 5 Horticulture, I am making it into a book!

Orchid, money plant, jade plant, basil, aliums, peace lily and AVOCADO (I have tried at least 400, this is the first one to become a little tree)

March 2016
Produced a Daily Radio Show upcoming to the Election, to raise awareness of issues and choices
A show for each demographic, notice how they pause straight after the election as I had no idea what actually happened!

April 2016
Helped build Meditation Garden at Harmony Hall

May 2016
First Concert at Harmony Hall

Greenside Up wrote this great article about it and took the photos!
David Corley
Chris Brown
Pick any album, totally unbelievable!
Coming back to Ireland with Suzanne Jarvie in September, also brilliant!

June 2016
First Yoga Retreat at Harmony Hall

This was Kilkenny School of Yoga's last event - Free yoga at Kilkenny Castle for World Yoga Day.
31st July is the next information day in Kilkenny, if you're thinking of becoming a yoga instructor

July 2016
Arts Week Exhibition in Stone House Books, Kieran Street, Kilkenny

Kilkenny Arts Festival 5th-14th August 2016

Evening Drinks

Who Let The Dogs In?

Leave Her Alone! She's With Me

Fleeting Joy

Plato's 32-Sided Water Form

Kids In The Stream

Then ask yourself have you come to terms with anything new?

So, what had I come to terms with in the last 10 months? Well, loads but these were a couple of things:

1. My serious tenacity - Stop holding on, let it go!
2. Whereas I had joy and enthusiasm, I now had acceptance as well; less action-packed but more content.
3. I'd dispersed the crisis energy that I had been carrying around, feeling that the planet and animals and indeed people were kind of fecked.

Then draw down and draw up your dreams

Then I drew down 13 dreams from the universal stream of consciousness that could come to realization.

1.  An enjoyable love life
2.  To have a human family, in addition to my animals
3.  To facilitate a vegan world
4.  An art exhibition to wake people up to animals' love
5.  To come to full consciousness, no blind spots
6.  Formulate a 'transition to organic farming' course.
7.  Clear the threat to the planet and humanity, by current inhumanity and HAARP, nano technology
    Archon and balakan interference.
8. Teach how to hold on to one's soul and remember the divine spark we all have
9.  Hold an ever-fixed magnetic core of love.
10. Learn how to teleport
11. Become a breatharian
12. Be happy and fearless in passionately defending that which I love
13. A sanctuary.and team to help run it well.

Then, the contradiction started to arise: The buddhist way is to 'let go of desire and thereby free yourself from sorrow'…and here I was clarifying desires, to help with their manifestation. With a little further reflection I realized that there's only one or two things wrong with 'desires' and plenty of things right with them! Starting with what's right, they propel you forwards in to your future with regenerated gratitude for what might be in store. They also are a much better use of head space than all the bleak accumulation of ideas from the past or from the media. Don't forget you have a powerful magnetic core, so to be attracting peace and love should definitely be a priority.

On the down side, desires amount to a description of where you'd like to be and therefore provide a contrast to where you are now. This means you are stepping out of oneness in a belief that there is somewhere else to be. It also means you are indulging in self judgement, on the quiet, that you are not where you should be, doing the things you should be, having the life experience you should be, at the moment! Also, on an energetic level, you're living in a negative magnetic polarity, a sort of aversion. Concepts like 'wanting', 'needing', 'wishing for' and 'hoping' all re-affirm the absence of the thing.

Then let them all go too

So then I sorted that too. I went through the list of personal dreams and cleared the unconscious attachment to each one. In the words of Billy Connolly in his incontinence pants (after 17 pints and stuck in the middle of a gang, in a pub snug, with not a chance of reaching the toilets) 'It matters not a jot'...

My heart rests easy. I will enjoy the momentum of having purpose, clarity and a massive accumulation of energy to follow my dreams and get some positive results for other life forms too … but also savour the surrender to what is, already - right here, right now.

This is an average day at the office for me but the yoga retreat itself wasn't. There was a lot to get ready, to accommodate nine people and provide vegan breakfast, lunch and supper - to a group that included an air-borne nut allergy and a soya allergy. Plus, to hold a space for the subtle energy bodies to align for the new yoga teachers and to provide an environment where they could also celebrate their graduation.

I love to see the car park jammers with cars and so many ready to detox and explore the plant-based oneness and talk about all the things that matter and the many dimensions beyond the 3D we're usually trying to work with.

Classic

So many friendships and ideas have come from it. Most lately, the idea of a vegan organic brand - which I've been repeatedly told needs to be up and mega within two years, has got started. The attendees all said that they'd like to come back and learn vegan cooking. Then I connected with Sinead the organic farmer and thought, why not just start small and do a box scheme of vegan meals for those who want it? I started cooking with my first lot of produce! The very same day, a few B&B guests came with their amazing second edition of Soy not Oi. I prepared 'Dani D's Rad Red Lentil Chowder' (pg 103) and 'The Complete Freedom Stir Fry' (pg 75) and I have my first corporate customer! What a result…not bad for someone who has given up looking for a result altogether!

Poor Americans - Not just force-fed but also to be injected now with pesticides

California Passes Bill For Mandatory Vaccinations

C-Ching for the pharmaceutical companies and early death guaranteed for the r

esidents. What will they do with those that refuse? In Australia they cut their family support but I don't think they offer any family support in America anyway.

 I will attach my favourite 'ingredients list' of what's in vaccinations so people can see how savage this new law is. 

Vaccination Ingredients and Their Effects

Yes, it includes Borax (pesticide) Formaldehyde, Mercury (second most toxic substance on the planet) and many more….but also spare a thought for the pointless animal testing that precedes these products. None of them will last long enough to prove that a vaccine works. Oh yes and the animal ingredients - cells from an african green monkey, chick embryos, pig gelatine and many more but I can't find the complete list just this list, which is damming enough More ingredients and how they're derived.

And spare a thought for the countless people suffering from vaccination repercussions. You will never have seen such pain as in this girl and I hope you never will. 

Excruciating Pain and Damage For Life Caused by Vaccines

So what I'm saying is demonstrate immediately or move away but do not do this to yourselves.