Soup of the Day

Since I got back, I've been trying to use our veggies from the garden. Over the weekend I made a delicious soup with Swiss chard from the garden. I was a little nervous because I don't usually start soup with water, but I didn't have any chicken to make stock with or any veggie stock, so water it was!

• 3 cans cannelloni beans
• 1 lg bunch Swiss chard
• 5 links pre-cooked sausage
• 2 lg sweet onions 
• 3/4 stock pot of water
• 6 cloves chopped garlic
• dried herbs: thyme, sage, garlic, white pepper, sea salt, rosemary, thyme

1. fill pot w/ water, chopped onions, garlic, all herbs, chopped sausage.
2. bring to boil for 30 minutes
3. add beans, simmer for 2 hours
4. add Swiss chard, simmer for final 30 minutes

It took longer than I thought because I started with water. It takes a while for all of the flavors to meld together, but it's worth it if you have the time. If not, use prepared stock. I also cooked egg noodles and added them into the individual bowls topped with Parmesan cheese. It was surprisingly amazing! That was the first time I cooked a soup like that, and got a few compliments from my mom and some friends that were staying over. (Patting myself on the back)

Next up! Either black bean chili or chicken soup!

Garden Oppression

I heard about this story somewhere along my travels and it popped into my life again so I thought I would write about it because it makes me mad, and sad, and happy. This mom decided to turn her front yard into a garden where she can grow her own food. Shortly after that she was hit by a S-H-I-T storm of flack from the local government who claimed her garden was an eyesore and not in compliance with local zoning regulations.

"I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time planning, researching, advocating, documenting, and otherwise defending my front yard urban garden. Moments I could have better spent with my infant son, Kae. He arrived on February 4th, 2012, and at seven pounds even, weighed as much as my heart. Within a month of his arrival, I had decided to turn a large portion of my front yard into an edible landscape. Though it has been a battle ever since, I have no regrets. He was my inspiration to begin with, and it has been my sole motivation to protect his health and freedoms. This has become a cause, not an endeavor. I broke ground when he was 35 days old. 

A lawn, though seemingly lacking, has quite an ecosystem lurking just below the surface. Insects and worms that aerate, living in harmony with beneficial microbes among the roots of the ever browning zoysia grass. Rather than removing the lawn, I amended it into the earth. I could only go about 4″ deep the first time I cultivated the 25′x35′ area. I worked under the topsoil three full times before the sod had broken up and spread evenly. I then added roughly 15 lawn and garden bags of various tree leaves I collected. Last fall’s foliage was evenly dispersed and tilled into the ever improving “dirt”. Composted goat and horse bedding finally killed the 10 years young tiller. In all, every inch of the now redefined “soil” had been overturned roughly 8 times. 

In hopes of making my garden an art form and not an eyesore, I installed a mulch border around the entire perimeter of the soon to be yarden. This was held in place by heavy duty lawn edging, meticulously   wrapped around the outer edge. I sowed the seed of each edible and medicinal plant within. I positioned a flower and ornamental amaranth row along the sidewalk. I placed lush herbs to the east, squash and melons to the west. In between, rows of bush beans, various peppers, and more than a dozen tomato varieties. Hundreds of non- GMO, heirloom seeds. Towards the house, two small corn patches, infused with vining beans, and several grains including chia, flax, camelina, sesame seed, oats, and another amaranth. More than fifty different species and varieties, all sown strategically to benefit both themselves, and the outlook of the neighborhood. 

I’ve since laid landscaping cloth and wood mulch around many of the plants, and along the walk paths between. Weeding has been minimal, and watering has been greatly reduced by mulching. I’m pulling my first meals from previously unused space. Several pounds of green beans, a couple peppers, and various herbs have graced my dinner table so far, along with salads of amaranth and other greens. As dozens of quarter size tomatoes began to swell in the summer heat, I built a double trellis to support their ever increasing weight. Nearly everything is in bloom, and the beauty of the space intensifies more and more with each passing day."

On top of wanting to grow healthy cheap food for herself and her family, she is facing real illness and needs the healthy food that she is growing. It makes me mad that our government has come to harassing people who want to grow their own food on their own property. It makes me sad that she has to deal with this on top of being a new mom and trying to make herself healthier. It makes me happy that she is fighting them every step of the way. If you feel the way I do go over to her blog vegetableyarden.wordpress.com and drop some words of encouragement.

I hope she keeps fighting, wins, and continues to grow her own food.

FINALLY! I got food out of my garden

It is September 13th. The garden just started pumping out food that I can cook with. (I officially picked enough cucumbers to make 4 gallons of pickles.) Hopefully it does't get much colder and kill everything that I am hoping to gather. Today I got a bunch of tomatoes (some ripe some not), an eggplant, peppers, hot peppers, more cucumbers, and zucchini. I also have a giant amount of fresh herbs I need to start using.

There are plenty more eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes that should be ready in about a week. We also have 1 watermelon and 2 cantaloupe melons that I guess I'll have to pick soon. The one watermelon I picked last week wasn't close to being ripe enough. We'll see in a week!

So in honor of the "harvest" I made the 1st giant pot of sauce of the season. I fully plan on eating this until I'm utterly sick of it in about 2 weeks.

• olive oil- a lot!
• 6 lg. tomatoes
• 2 zucchini
• 1 eggplant
• 1 onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 6 hot peppers (this may be too much if you don't like spicy)
• basil, thyme, rosemary, sage
• salt & pepper to taste
• sugar to taste

Cut everything up, put in giant pot, simmer for at least an hour, season, and eat!!! The great thing about sauce is that you can make it with anything or everything. I don't think there has been a time that my sauce came out the same twice in a row. And don't be afraid to load up the olive oil. It is a healthy fat that helps your body assimilate the nutrients in the sauce. Hope this inspires you to get in the kitch!

I may not be Italian, but I make a mean sauce :)

Note to my garden that hasn't produced much of anything

Dear Garden,

I'm not sure what happened this year, but you didn't produce as much as you could have. If we depended on you we would be starving. 

With love, Jess

Whatever is going on it is not cool. With the amount of work I put in planting all sorts of things, we only got some strawberries in the spring, 2 ears of corn, some string beans, and a ton of cucumbers. The tomatoes are there, but not ripening, and the peppers and eggplant are just starting to produce. The carrots are not growing past little nubs. We may get enough cabbage to do something with...hopefully!

I am seriously hoping we don't get a hurricane before I can harvest all this stuff so I can feel like I got something out of all the effort besides jars of pickles (SOOOO good by the way!). If you want to make really good homemade kosher dill pickles read this. 

Hopefully next year we will get better results!

Living within Gardens

I'm going back to my architecture roots for a moment. I just came across a house built in Vietnam that is the coolest thing I've seen come out of the architecture world in a while. Even when I was in school and surrounded by design everyday, there were very few buildings that inspired me.

The front and rear facades are created by horizontal cement planters that run floor to ceiling. Isn;t this such a great idea? They are spaced according to the height of the plants in each. If this were my house I would plant  fruits, vegetables, and herbs. This brings urban gardening to a whole new level!

This really just goes to show that with a little creativity, you can put gardens anywhere. You don't need a huge swath of land, or a tractor, to grow plants. I guess in this case though you need an architect and a lot of money haha. But you can start small with pots in windowsills, or if you have access to a roof, make a little potted garden up there.

(source for all images)

LOVE IT! Going to put this in my idea box for when I design my own house :)

From seed to plant in 2 weeks

peas & kale

It's amazing how fast things grow. I planted everything just about 2 weeks ago and already we have major growth on some of the vegetables. It amazes me when you start out with a big patch of dirt filled with seeds and in a few short weeks you have plants you can eat. I'm really looking forward to being able to eat fresh veggies right out of the ground in a few short weeks.

mini tomato plants

I highly recommend everyone plant at least something of their own whether it's herbs, a tomato plant, or an entire garden with a variety of stuff. It is so important to get a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in every color. Each color is associated with different nutrients and all of them are equally as important from collard greens down to potatoes. I put together this little chart to show some of the nutritional info for each of the colors of fruits and vegetables... 

Some of that language is kindof technical, however, for those of you who need to know all of this stuff here it is. I have been reading about all of these different phytochemicals and antioxidants since I started researching how to eat to prevent cancer. While I am no expert, I have gathered that it is not as important to know exactly how everything works, but just that it does. I personally believe that most scientists don't even fully understand how all of these individual chemicals work together to do the magic they do.

TIME TO START PROJECT GET THE RAINBOW OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN YOUR FACE!

GOAL: Live to 110 years of age

Cutest centenarian ever!
(Source) 

I just finished a book called The Blue Zone that talks about the four areas around the globe where there are the highest percentage of centenarians (people who live to 100 years of age). The four areas are Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Pininsula, Costa Rica; and the Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, Southern California. This book interviewed many centenarians and their families over the course of several years to figure out what were the characteristics that set them up for a long, healthy life.

I am interested in this because of a couple of reasons. Just recently I realized that I want to live to be a centenarian. I wondered how does one do that? Also, even if I don't end up living that long, I want to have the best possible quality of life for as long as I can.

This book touches on both of those topics.

In a nutshell, here are the principles that people in these Blue Zones lived by:

• Surround yourself with family and friends. Almost all of the centenarians interviewed lived with their children and grandchildren and also had a consistent social obligations from playing cards with friends, to morning group exercises, to going to church. Each area had different customs, but all of the four areas were consistent in that they all put a great deal of emphasis on being with other people everyday. 
• Don't let stress get the better of you. Maybe it comes with age, maybe these people were born with a stress-free attitude, or maybe it is part of their cultures. One thing is for sure, the centenarians had a very care-free way about them. They also had downtime, either everyday or every week. It was built into their lives. Costa Ricans would rest everyday in the late afternoon. The Seventh Day Adventists would have a day of rest every weekend. No work, no homework, just family and fun activities.
• Be active every day. The stories of the centenarians in this book tells of them chopping wood into their late 90's, riding bicycles, walking for miles everyday, gardening into their 100's, sitting on the floor cross legged and getting up and down with ease and grace. (How many elderly people do you know that can do that?) 
• Eat unprocessed foods. All of the four cultures ate completely differently. But they ate real food, food that was culturally theirs. They didn't eat fast food. They made just about everything. The centenarians in Costa Rica ate eggs, coffee, tropical fruits, corn and beans. In Okinawa they ate fish, rice, seaweeds, sweet potatoes, and vegetables. In Sardinia, the people ate a diet of whole grain breads, beans, garden vegetables, fruits, and goat's milk. The individual foods were different, but the principles were the same- whole foods cooked at home.
• Spend time in the sun. When the sun touches our skin it starts a chain reaction in our body that ends up producing Vitamin D. Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin but a hormone that controls the absorption of all other vitamins and minerals as well as the function of our immune system. These centenarians all lived in temperate to tropical climates that allowed them to get outdoors and get Vitamin D for a large majority of the year. Since they were accustomed to working outdoors (farming, shepherding, relaxing) their entire lives, they were inadvertently making plenty of Vitamin D. 

This book really struck a cord with me. It's so SIMPLE!!!  How did we stray so far from what seems to create a happy and healthy life? I feel like I have been getting back to basics as of late. I feel the need more so now than ever to be happy and healthy. I have been thinking recently that health is about much more than the food you eat. It's the whole picture. 

"People talk about curing cancer and heart disease, and of course it is an important and worthy goal that can happen soon enough. But there are simple things everyone could be doing right now that would save so much money and suffering- like drinking enough water everyday, exercise, and eating healthy food. But hey, " Wareham said, suddenly catching himself in is fervor, "everybody has his own idea about these things- it's their lives, after all. You can tell somebody what to do, but it's up to them whether they do it. But you can tell them how good you feel."

~quote from The Blue Zone 

The Great Disconnect

In the past year since my father and I started this garden I became aware of how much work it actually takes to produce food. Before that, I had no idea! I just went to the grocery store and picked out whatever the hell I wanted anytime of the year and that was that.

It takes A LOT of work to produce enough food to live off of. And you have to have the right tools.

We are very fortunate (or unfortunate depending how you look at it) that we can drive to the grocery store and pick out over 50,000 items to feed our faces. In my life and my parents' lives we have not wanted for food. But I believe we are the exception not the rule.

I think that if Americans were more in touch with where our food comes from and how hard it is to physically grow your own food and knew what it was like to kill an cow and cut it up that we would be eating much much differently.

I'm not sure how it happened to be this way but there is absolutely no connection between the animal that was living and the perfectly packaged pieces of meat in the meat department. There is no connection between the farm and the produce we eat- especially considering most of our produce is now imported so we have a fresh array all year long. (I'm not complaining considering I live mostly off of these plants that we are importing.)

bet you never thought you would be staring into a bumble bee's ass
sticking out of a squash flower

Over the past 2 years of going on this "becoming healthier so I don't get cancer" journey I have done some things that I never thought I would do- stop eating meat, stop eating cheese, stop eating cooked food, live on juice only, meet the animals that would be my meat, grow my own food.

I have gone to extremes, and I usually bounce back to somewhere a little healthier than I started, but one thing is for sure... I appreciate real food and what it can do to my body and soul. I have heard people who are in the holistic health/food industry speak about how when you change the food you eat, your whole life will change. I didn't believe them at the time, but looking back over the last 2 years to before I started this, my life is completely different.

I am more aware of what food does to my body. I am aware of how food affects my mind and my mood. I am more aware of stress and how to avoid letting it get the best of me. I am happier. I am working on surrounding myself with people who will support me and lift me up and getting rid of the Negative Nancy's.

Is it a coinkydink? I don't know, but I'm sure as S-H-I-T happy that this is happening to me. (bet you thought I was going to get through this whole post without using the S word)

So a summer project for you all! Go to a farm and talk to a farmer about whatever it is that they grow- corn, cows, chickens, whatever! Ask them about how they care for their crops and animals, and what their beliefs are about what they are doing. Start to get to know where your food comes from and I promise you Oreos and frozen chicken tenders won't look as appetizing once you realize they come from a factory and are made of chemicals and animal "parts". 

Gardening Daze

Well, it's been raining like crazy here for the past 2 weeks, which has delayed the fence being put in, but it is finally done. So all we have to do now is rototil the beds and plant EVERYTHING! This will be a very short post because I am off to dig in the dirt for a while. Hopefully today the rain will hold off so we can get it all done.

But I'm not planning on it because....

Everything always takes at least twice as long and costs twice as much as you are expecting it to.

Words to live by.

On a juicier note... for the last 4 days I have been juicing up a storm with the exception of last night at my cousin's graduation party (CONGRATS MIKE!). But I weighed myself yesterday and am happy to say that I am at my lowest weight (153 lbs) since before college. I didn't weigh myself at the start of this but, I definitely lost a few lbs. I literally wake ups every morning and can see a change (it's little but I can still see it). AND I haven't been killing it with the workouts. I just drink a lot of juice and eat some fruit and raw nuts.  YES!!!

I probably won't be writing at all this weekend because I fully plan on being lazy at the beach for the next 3 days. Hopefully the sun will come out, but if the sun doesn't you will probably hear from me.


Happy long weekend everyone! 

MINT: Part 1

Let me start by saying that I'm not sure where this need for mint-in-everything-that-I-eat is coming from. It may be that I just figured out that I really like it, or it may be that my body needs it and is telling me by making me want to put it in everything.

And the best part is.... it can literally be put in everything!

And it grows like a weed so running out is not a problem if you plant a pot of it. Mint is one of the few things that you actually should put in a pot because it keeps it contained and from taking over your garden.

Health & Nutrition Benefits of Eating Mint 

• Dried mint leaves, boiled in water, form a strong concoction that helps in soothing the digestive tract and easing the severity of stomachaches.
• Drinking herbal mint tea reduces irritated bowel syndromes and cleanses the stomach.
• Mint is a strong diuretic and therefore, helps in eliminating toxins from the body.
• When included in the diet on a regular basis, mint reduces the growth of bacteria and fungus in the body.
• The anti-fungal properties associated with mint help in curing asthma and other allergic conditions.
• Crushed mint leaves helps in whitening teeth.
• Mint helps in getting rid of headaches and migraines.
• Inhaling mint gives relief from congestion problems, like sinus infections and common cold.
• Inhaling essential oil of mint provides a sense of calm and thus, helps one relax the mind.
• Menthol present in mint makes it an important component of many medicines and drugs.
• Mint has antipruritic or anti-itch properties. When added with camphor, it helps to cure insect stings and bites.
• Various researches indicate mint as having anti-cancer properties. The phytonutrient, called perillyl alcohol, in mint is believed to prevent colon, skin and lung cancer. (Source)

What are your feelings about mint? 

Thyme to plant herbs!

thyme

Ok, people. If you do no other gardening than plant herbs you are way ahead of the game.  There is nothing better than snipping off a sprig of thyme out of your own herb garden. If you are not a gardener or just haven't thought of it then please consider. Aside from the health benefit of eating fresh herbs, the flavors will add so much depth to anything you make.

mint & cilantro

And it is soooooo much cheaper then buying herbs in the grocery store! I would highly recommend planting herbs in clay pots because you can bring them in in the winter and as long as you still water them and they are close to sunlight you can have fresh herbs all winter long.

sage

All you have to do is buy the pots, the soil, and the seeds. It can be as small or as large as you like. The initial investment will pay for itself over and over again. So try it! Maybe you could make it your Sunday afternoon project hint hint.

rosemary wants you to plant her

Spring Thyme

cabbage flowers- they smelled amazing!

I took these pics 2 days ago when it was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L! It's really time to start thinking about the garden. We actually started doing things to prepare but as warm as it has been, today is a reminder that it's important to wait until the frost free date to plant outside. It is cold, windy, and raining. It's truly a RAW day.

lemon balm started growing mysteriously

I went into the garden and was actually surprised at how much was going on. Celery, cabbage, and leeks wintered over from last year. The raspberry bush is starting to blossom. The strawberry plants were green. There is kale and collards growing I guess left over from last year b/c I sure as hell didn't plant anything yet, and the carrots are still going strong. Definitely going to be juicing the carrot tops (super healthy!!!!)

I love the energy of spring. Warm days are ahead, the birds are back, leaves are starting to pop, and everyone seems to be in the clean out and clear out mode. I just planted a bunch of herbs in pots which will stay inside for a few weeks. A lot of good things are in the works. Juice is about to be flowing. I'm half way through school. Putting together a new program that I will be rolling out on Monday- stay tuned!

Ahhhhhh......