Gardening - For the Love of Chocolate - New Specialty Nursery Grows "Chocolate" Plants
Imagine a garden filled with chocolate ? chocolate mint; chocolate columbine; chocolate morning glories; chocolate nasturtiums; chocolate daylilies; chocolate foxglove; chocolate sunflowers and much more.Imagination becomes reality this spring at Chocolate Flower Farm where owners Marie Lincoln and Bill Schlicht specialize in growing unusual, rich, dark plants that add a spot of drama and exotic beauty to the garden.
Not just chocolate colored plants but plants in shades of maroon, purple and black and even several plants that smell like chocolate such as Chocolate Cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguiness), Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera lyrata) and Chocolate Vine (Akebia quinata). What came first, the chocolate or the flowers?
"Our nursery is named after Bill's love of chocolate and my passion for gardening.
I already was partial to dark plants and had quite a collection of them in our gardens, thus we combined our two passions and named our farm Chocolate Flower Farm.
When we decided to start a specialty nursery it made sense to specialize in ?chocolate' plants since that was already our farm name", says Lincoln.
"Bill must have chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner but gardeners cannot live on chocolate alone so we grow many complementary plants as well", adds Lincoln.Black plants have become quite popular with gardeners in recent years and Chocolate Flower Farm offers an extensive selection, including black hollyhocks; black columbine; black violas; black snapdragons; black poppies and black grasses.
After spending several years collecting rare specimen plants and seeds for propagation and with the recent purchase of an eight-acre farm in Langley on Whidbey Island Schlicht and Lincoln will move from their Redmond farm to the Langley farm and Chocolate Flower Farm will be opening there in April.
The new address and contact information will be posted on the nursery's website www.chocolateflowerfarm.com. Chocolate Flower Farm currently offers plants, seeds, garden accessories and specialty gifts such as chocolate candles via mail order from their website.
They can be reached via phone at 425.681.9758 or email e-mail protected from spam bots..
Lowering blood pressure in a natural way - eating dark chocolate
Of course this is not a joke, a study was made in the US by specialists and published in the Journal of the American Heart Association about eating dark chocolate to lower the blood pressure. One bar of chocolate is enough to lower the blood pressure in a natural and so enjoyable way. It is also helping to improve the insulin resistance.
It was already known that food rich in flavinols are lowering the blood pressure. Flavinols are also called in a medical scientific language as natural antioxidants, and the aliments that are containing these antioxidants are like tea and red wine, but from now on we will put on this list the dark chocolate, too.
The study was pretty simple. It took place at University of L'Aguila in Italy particular for lowering the blood pressure, so it wasn't an accidental discover.
At the study participate 20 persons, half men, half women, all suffering from high blood pressure. None of these persons took any medicaments...
Lowering blood pressure in a natural way - eating dark chocolate
Chocolate > Lowering blood pressure in a natural way - eating dark chocolate
New Orleans' Chocolate City Shirts Wear Well Across the Country
New Orleans, LA (ContentDesk) January 27, 2006 -- On Martin Luther King Day, Mayor C. Ray Nagin made headlines when he declared New Orleans will once again be a "chocolate city." Comments that have spawned a cottage industry of T-shirts.Within hours of Nagin's declaration, dozens of Chocolate City political satire shirts popped up. A search on Cafe Press for "Chocolate City" resulted in 63 original designs, including shirts, bumper stickers and coffee mugs. Cafe Press is an online merchant which allow a graphic designer to upload their original creations and begin selling immediately.Steve Apple, a New Orleanian who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina, hawks his "New Orleans a Chocolate City with Nuts" shirts at http://www.cafepress.com/chocolatecity2"The design was created purely for humor," Apple said, adding that he cannot wait for more inspiration at the Mayor's next speech.Other shops include imnotchocolate.com,...
New Orleans' Chocolate City Shirts Wear Well Across the Country
Chocolate > New Orleans' Chocolate City Shirts Wear Well Across the Country
What Halloween Candy Ranks #1 This Year?
In a shock to chocolate lovers everywhere, candy corn tops this year's list as the most popular Halloween candy.Hundreds of people from all walks of life have responded to ExtremeChocolate.com's new Halloween candy survey, which asks: "What Halloween candy is your favorite?" Reese's Peanut Butter Cups is currently in the #2 position.Previous studies from other sources have found Snickers to be #1 -- but Snickers ranks third this year."I'm stunned," says Dr. Audri G. Lanford, head chocoholic researcher and author of a new ebook called "Chocolate, Chocolate, and More Chocolate: The Ultimate Chocolate Lover's Guide For Enjoying, Cooking and Making Chocolate!" "The idea that candy corn is more appealing than chocolate amounts to sacrilege to real chocolate lovers. It's true that we didn't distinguish between plain and chocolate candy corn in the survey, but still..."This study provides three kinds of important data:1) Suggestions (based on real data) for what to buy for the trick-or-treaters'...
What Halloween Candy Ranks #1 This Year?
Chocolate > What Halloween Candy Ranks #1 This Year?
Is Chocolate A New Health Food?
Could it be possible that our beloved chocolate may actually be good for us? This is the nutrition news we have all been waiting for. So here is the scoop on chocolate and its health benefits. Yes, you read right, health benefits!Recent studies show that cocoa and dark chocolate with a high cocoa content contain many heart-healthy antioxidants. They contain a compound called flavonoids which may help prevent the oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels in the blood. There is also some evidence that these flavonoids may prevent certain cancers.
It is important that we are all on the same page here, not all chocolate have these health benefits. The healthy flavonoids found in chocolate are found in the cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Milk chocolate is diluted with milk and sugar and contains little amounts of these substances, therefore providing fewer health benefits. So, for those of you who love dark chocolate this is your lucky day! The darker...
Is Chocolate A New Health Food?
Chocolate > Is Chocolate A New Health Food?
How To Eat Less Chocolate
Chocolate contains important minerals, such as potassium and magnesium. It also contains vitamins B1, B2, D and E. It even contains antioxidants, subtsances that protect against cancer and old age. But let's not fool ourselves, you can get all these benefits in other foods: you don't have to eat chocolate to get these important nutrients.There's nothing wrong though with chocolate in moderation, but the key phrase here is 'in moderation', because unfortunately many people find it difficult to eat chocolate in moderation. If you're one of these people, try taking a good zinc supplement.
Many people find a regular intake of zinc, reduces their chocolate craving - you need to look for a zinc supplement that contains 10 mg to 15 mg of elemental zinc, and take one each day. Tea, coffee and alcohol interfere with the absorption of zinc, so make sure you leave a gap between taking your zinc supplement and drinking any of these.Zinc is a vitally important nutrient, so taking it is likely...
How To Eat Less Chocolate
Chocolate > How To Eat Less Chocolate
Chocolate
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