Saturday, May 15, 2010 marks the opening of the Historic Longview Farmers Market and the beginning of a movement to bring fresh local and sustainable food to the city of Longview, a city that is in need of better quality food.

Grocery shopping in Longview leaves the most health conscious person longing for quality food and culinary artists in a state of great depression. More often than not, the food found in the grocery stores is from many miles away and is not organic. By the time the food reaches the store, it is not fresh or vibrant, which is disappointing considering Texas leads the nation with 247,500 farms and ranches that cover 130.4 million acres (Texas Department of Agriculture). Instead, Texas ranks fourth overall in agricultural exports and is a leading exporter of cotton, feeds, peanuts, live animals, meat, poultry, animal fats, hides and skins, milk, grains and nuts.

The Historic Longview Farmers Market will provide the many wonderful growers and producers from all over East Texas a central location to showcase local and sustainable food along with other non-food products, and enable them to sell their products directly to the community. According to the Texas Department of Agriculture, 98.5% of Texas farms and ranches are family farms, partnerships or family-held corporations. The farmers market will not only help build the local economy, but it will give people the opportunity to buy food directly from family farms and find comfort in knowing where their food came from and the conditions which it was raised.

The home of the new farmers market is the historic Kelly Plow Works parking lot in downtown Longview located on (read full article)

On Wednesday, April 28, 2010, Danielle Heard, MS, HHC, of Artemis in the City was featured in the food section of the Longview News-Journal. The article titled "The joys of garlic and soy," highlights garlic and soy during national garlic and soybean month. The article was written by feature writer, Glenn Evans.

Danielle was interviewed by Glenn as a health and nutrition expert on garlic and soy. The Longview News-Journal also published two of Danielle's Artemis in the City healthy recipes which include garlic.

If you would like to read the article on the Longview News-Journal's website please click here. To view the article as a pdf please click on the following links article page 1 and article page 2.

"The joys of garlic and soy," also ran on the front cover of East Texas Neighbors published by the Longview News-Journal on Tuesday, May 4, 2010. Please click here to view the pdf of the article.

Thank you very much Glenn and the Longview News-Journal for including Danielle and Artemis in the City in the great article! (read full article to view photo)

Robert and Antoniette Rozean of Wellness Productions, Co. produced another great East Texas Natural Wellness Expo. The event was a great opportunity for people of East Texas to learn more about natural health alternatives and to sample some delicious organic quality foods and other products.

The expo was held at the Harvey Convention Center in Tyler, TX on April 17-18, 2010 and included approximately 100 natural health and wellness vendors. The event hosted a wide variety of professionals with expertise in areas such as holistic health, fitness, nutrition, chiropractic, colon therapy, water and air filtration systems, therapeutic health products, thermography, skin care, body massage, essential oils, environmental wellness, personal growth, health food, natural supplements, natural health for children and pets, organic farming products, energy healing and more!

Each year the expo hosts many national speakers who are experts in their field. This year the guest speakers included Doug Kaufman, host of the television show "Know the Cause," Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and author of "Nourishing Traditions," Jordan Rubin, NMD, PhD and author of "The Maker's Diet" who healed himself of Crohn's Disease, and Robert Scott Bell of the "RS Bell Radio Show." During the two day event, there were many other guest speakers and demonstrators who presented educational information designed to help people take control of their health naturally.

I really enjoyed meeting and talking with the people that attended the expo. Some people traveled from many miles away to attend this special event in East Texas, especially those dealing with a serious health issue. I also enjoyed meeting many of the vendors, sampling their products and overdosing on the delicious food.

One of my favorite products at the expo was (read full article to also view photos)

I would like to bring to your attention a very serious subject - the quality of food in America that is causing people to develop many chronic diseases is also given to the people we love who are ill, sabotaging their ability to heal, regain their health or have a better quality of life.

A few weeks ago, on my way home from seeing Dr. Maya Angelou perform, I stopped to visit my very dear friend who is extremely ill. At the time she was staying at a hospice center but she has since returned home. The photo in this article is a picture that she let me take of her holding her toxic food. Every time I see her she is drinking sodas and eating candy or some other processed and sugary food. She is living on junk food and is slowly wasting away.

Seeing this kind of care being provided by a health care provider is very difficult for me, knowing what I know about food and the impact it has the body. Sugar especially is a leading cause of disease. It seems that when it comes to caring for the sick, our health care providers prescribe medications but give little consideration to the impact toxic foods have on their patients’ health that their own staff is serving to them.

It is unfortunate but hospitals are contracting with food companies that supply highly processed and packaged foods. I wrote about this on my blog last year when my own mother was in the hospital and was given the wrong food for diabetes and kidney dialysis. Please see the blog: US Hospitals Serve Toxic Food to Patients.

I wish that something could be done to change the quality of food that is being served in hospitals to patients as well as to the people that I love. Imagine all the lives that could be saved if people who were ill received nourishing foods that prevented the growth of cancers and (read full article)

On Sunday, April 11, 2010, I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Maya Angelou speak in person at The Northeast Texas Community College before a sold out audience. Imagine that, Dr. Maya Angelou, who is not well herself, traveling many miles by bus to a remote East Texas area near Pittsburg, Texas. She was amazing and I am so glad that I decided to go and hear her speak.

I have been very busy working and I didn't think I had the time to go. But then I heard very clearly a message that I must go because she would have a message for me. And she did!

During Dr. Angelou’s performance, she spoke about how we each have the ability to impact lives around the world just by how we live our lives and the help and kindness that we offer to people. The people we in some way help or influence then go on to impact the lives of others. Dr. Angelou also said to us that just because you are in a small town now does not mean that you will not end up somewhere like New York City.

When I was growing up in my small East Texas town, I never thought I would ever live in New York City, but I did for 10 years. New York City became my home that I loved and while I was there I had the opportunity to connect with and learn from many leaders in the field of alternative health and nutrition as well as communications. My years spent living, (read full article and view wildflower photos)