Veggie pHortification

Maintaining a slightly alkaline system is ideal for health and a properly running immune system. Your acid-alkaline balance is measured with pH, which is on a scale of 0-14. An alkaline pH is anything above 7 while an acidic pH is anything below 7. Optimally, you want to be a little alkaline, around 7.365. Certain foods make our blood and tissue more or less acidic, and I bet you can guess which ones are the acid trouble-makers and which ones are the alkaline love-makers! You got it – in general, veggies, green juices, raw foods, beans and unprocessed carbs are more alkaline while meats, dairy, eggs, sugary goods, highly processed foods, coffee and alcohol are more acidic.

In striving to be alkaline divine, downing green juices, veggies, nuts, quinoa and seaweed may come easily for some. But for partners, kids and neighbors who are still trudging up the learning curve, here are a couple ways to reach the 60 to 80 percent alkaline diet goal by veggie inception and misconception.

Shred or Purée Veggies and Put Them in Everything

Pancakes, pasta sauce, mashed potatoes, grain dishes and other baked goods are perfect vegetable vehicles. At my house, we dine every few days on confetti pancakes (recipe below), which include carrots, zucchini and collard greens. And if everyone is behaving, we may toss in a dark chocolate chip or two. All of a sudden we’ve got chocolate chip pancakes: “We’ve got the best mom!”

CONFETTI PANCAKES

Servings: 4

2 cups whole wheat or whole grain flour
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons unrefined vegetable oil
¼ cup shredded carrots
½ cup shredded zucchini
¼ cup finely diced collard greens

Mix all ingredients together, and add more almond milk as needed for thinner pancakes. Cook in a large skillet with a touch of oil. Add fruit, agave, stevia or nothing at all.

Sauce It Up

Marinara sauce can easily be injected with finely chopped kale or spinach and dried red lentils (more protein and fiber!), which dissolve almost completely if simmered in the sauce for about 15 minutes. Put the sauce atop quinoa or wild rice instead of pasta and your blood will love you. You want loving blood!

For the green averse, get cozy with steamed cauliflower and yellow squash. They mash well into potatoes, sweet potatoes and even pancakes.

Fruit Smoothies and Popsicles

If green juices aren’t popular yet, try tossing raw spinach, kale, wheatgrass, or pretty much any other green veggie into a fruit smoothie. Be warned that keeping the fruit on the yellow/orange side will simply make the smoothie a beautiful shade of green. Fruit smoothies with berries or dark-colored fruits, however, will become an interesting shade of mud. Either way, these may need to be served in an opaque glass, with a lid and an opaque straw – or maybe a blindfold! – especially for the green-averse or “color-sensitive” spirits. Here’s one that feels, looks and tastes incredible.

GREEN GODDESS SMOOTHIE

Servings: 4

1 cup chopped mango (fresh or frozen)
½ cup chopped pineapple (fresh or frozen)
1 ripe pear, cored
1 cup green grapes
1 ½ cups (2 large handfuls) raw baby spinach
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
Ice cubes for a thicker smoothie/chilled water for a thinner smoothie

Blend until smooth. Now take the leftovers and freeze them in popsicle molds.

Who could pass up a popsicle?!

Got other tips on sneaking in the veggies? Please share!

Photo credit: halfgeek

Crazy About Composting

I am crazy about composting. Each time I toss veggie scraps into the little ceramic compost crock on my kitchen counter, I am thrilled that every little morsel is going to good use.

We need good topsoil – the planet is desperately in need of it, which is why in countries like Sweden, composting is mandatory. It’s amazing to realize that topsoil is the earth’s skin and we are entirely dependent on it for our food supply. Over the past fifty years, much of the healthy soil that we used to have, due to intensive/conventional farming, has been rendered devoid of all the nutrients it needs to give us beautiful and healthy food. This is why so many of us now have to take a plethora of supplements. The crazy amount of veggies that you virtuously devour, are likely devoid of many of the minerals and vitamins that their ancestors possessed.

The best way that we can create the highest quality topsoil imaginable is to compost. All those scraps decompose into odorless brown gold. If you have a garden, you’ll be able to grow veggies bursting with goodness, and if you don’t have a yard, you’ll find someone who’ll take your compost in a jiffy.

So which compost bin is the best? I get asked this question weekly and I have honestly tried almost every model on the market. There are pro’s and con’s with all of them, however the Ecomposter is my current favorite and hard to beat for all it’s incredible attributes. It’s a bizarre looking globe on legs, which looks like something from outer space (in a cool way.) First and foremost nothing can get into it – so no more nasty furry surprises for those of us who have a few pesky friends running around our neighborhoods. Little finger like tubes direct oxygen right into the deepest recesses of the actual compost, which considerably speeds up the process. You’ll get good, rich compost in just 4-6 weeks. When you’re ready to get the compost out, you just roll the big green ball to the area of your yard where you want the compost, unscrew the lid and empty it out. It’s made of recycled plastic and is just fun to spin around every time you walk past it.

My husband and our stray cat Zoom were extremely cynical at first. My husband had had his fill of strange bins, “digesters” and worm towers appearing weekly in our yard, and Zoom was very partial to my old big black bin because of the hole in the back that had become the backdoor for a extended family of rats. After a few weeks, my husband was delighted with the new “space ship”, as nothing can get into it. Zoom, however, has abandoned his perch above the old bin. He has to content himself with chasing the sassy squirrels.

Now that I’m juicing daily (totally inspired by Kris,) I can empty the dregs, along with the paper filter, straight into the compost bin and know that this time next year, all that shredded carrot and beat mush, will be fertilizing my heirloom tomatoes – heaven!

Happy Composting,

Sophie Uliano

35 Years on a Small Organic Farm

A slice of Edible Heaven

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Nowhere is this truer than on a small organic farm deep in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. On Earth Day last week I craved a reality check, so I called my friends Rusty and Sue Nuffer, who have spent most of the past four decades with their hands deep in the dirt. When I called, Sue picked up the phone out in the packing shed. She was laughing watching Rusty across the field hefting irrigation pipes high against a tree to scare out any sleeping rodents about to be drowned. Sue had been planting rows of tomatoes in a new soil cocktail they’ve cooked up.  Each year they grow an ever-changing and wide variety of exotic gourmet vegetables.  It’s been over ten years since my last visit to their little slice of edible heaven, yet the picture they painted is just as I remembered it. Meanwhile the business of organic farming has changed dramatically over the years, with many of those changes – good and bad – coming recently and rapidly on the wings of technology. Sue and Rusty took some time out from under the spring sun to talk to me about the life of a small organic farmer in 2009.

“When we first started out, our goal was just self-sufficiency,” Rusty said. “We wanted to get out of the cities, live close to the earth.” Like so many others, they were burned-out on the 60’s and wanted to get off the grid, disengage from the system. “We were disgusted trying to do social change.” The back-to-land movement was happening all over the country and Rusty and Sue, from Michigan and Ohio, were part of a group that found cheap land in the remote Ozarks. “I paid ten grand for an old 80-acre hill farm that had been unused for years.” Rusty said.  The beautiful spot is surrounded by State Forest and to this day is still 20 miles from the nearest blacktop. Sue and her family were on another farm a few miles away. “We all became expert in gardening because we were growing our own food. It was instinctual,” said Sue, “we didn’t think to grow to sell. Everything was barter.”

Over the next decade, some of the homesteaders drifted back to the ‘burbs, leaving devoted earthies like Rusty and Sue to hang in for the long haul. Famous back-to-land pioneers Helen and Scott Nearing once told them the two simple rules to succeed: Find good land and find a good partner. You can’t do it alone. Each previously married with kids, Rusty and Sue were a perfect match. “We’re so fortunate we work together so well.” And work they do: for much of the year, it’s sun up to sundown, 6 or 7 days a week. “Bug infestation on the potatoes. No rain. Broken machine. It’s always something and you never get ahead of it.” Sue adds: “It’s like having 10,000 children and they all want attention.”

Making a Living

Their first taste of wide distribution came with Sue’s blueberries. “At that time, if you had an organic product, you could sell it – as long as you could get it shipped,” she said.  It was the early 80’s and organic distribution was still a quaint affair. “We organized 20 farms to sell together so we could get a truck to stop through Arkansas from one of the big national buyers.”

Then sometime in the late 80’s things began to change. The big boys saw mega green in their futures and started moving into organics. These corporate growers pushed for weak certification laws.  In California, for example, a farmer at the time only needed to stop spraying chemicals for a single year in order to be certified organic. “One year we’re getting $18 for a box of green peppers. The next year they’re coming out of California at $6.” Said Rusty. “The box alone cost us a dollar! All the big growers were selling below cost to knock out all us small producers.” The little fish continued to struggle under the price-war tsunami throughout the nineties. Many went belly up. “That’s when we started going to the farmers market.”

By the late nineties, organics had tipped into the mainstream. A feedback loop escalated between public interest and business, with Whole Foods leading the way. The company was on a Pac-Man roll, gobbling up Mom&Pop stores across the country. But many of the most devoted customers missed the intimacy and transparency of the old ways. Farmers Markets sprang up across the country so people could shake their farmer’s hand.  And for growers like Rusty and Sue, Farmers Markets became popular just in time.  Most Saturdays for about ten years they got up at 3am and drove two hours to the River Market in Little Rock. “It was like a rock and roll tour. Except our curtain went up at sunrise,” says Rusty. “We kicked butt down there.”  They hired extra help to deal with the crowds three and four deep at their long tables. “We had colors of things no one had ever seen. Five colors of carrots. People would take pictures” The duo became famous as ‘the potato people’ because of their exotic spuds – one year they grew 28 varieties. Some of the top restaurants in the area became devoted customers. They both speak fondly of their years at the market, and it’s about much more than money. “The people were just fantastic. We met so many good friends there. It was so satisfying to get the personal reaction when people love your food.”

But eventually the brutal schedule took a toll and Rusty and Sue had to fold up the tables and tent for good. “We weren’t much good on sundays, and we can’t afford to be dragging. We started burning out.”

Virtual Farmers Markets

In the handful of years since giving up the Farmer’s Markets, Rusty and Sue have had to innovate once again to reach customers. “We’re at a real disadvantage being so remote,” says Sue, “we’ve never been able to ship directly to customer and we can’t do the CSA thing.” Community Supported Agriculture is a big trend now. Customers are like shareholders. Paying a flat annual fee entitles them to drop by their farm each week and pick up a box of whatever happens to be harvesting. Despite their popularity, they aren’t ideal for consumer choice.

Enter the internet. Until last month, Armstead Mountain Farm was tethered to the brave new world by a raggedy dial-up connection that worked sporadically at best. They used it mostly to email their grown kids scattered across the globe. The Nuffers are not exactly techies anyway. Until a few years ago, Rusty loved plowing with his prized draft horses, even as a tractor sat nearby. They’d rather have the glow of sun on their faces than a flickering screen. But even this down-to-earth duo has found salvation in the web. They splurged on a satellite dish last month and it’s opened up a new world for their business.

Several years ago, a farmer and techno geek in Athens, Georgia put up a community site called locallygrown.net to help farmers and customers connect. In a short time it has grown to over serve 800 growers in 50 networks nationwide, with many more coming online this season. Last year Rusty and Sue gave it a try and helped create their local network. They also joined two other smaller online networks.  “We love it. It’s perfect for us,” says Sue. “On Sunday night we post what we’ll have for the week.  Buyers log on Monday through Wednesday and place orders.” Late in the week, they drive their orders to drop-off points manned by volunteers. “We pay a 10% fee to help maintain the network, but compared to the cost of gas and renting the booth at the real Farmer’s Market, it’s a bargain.” One familiar casualty of this virtual market, however, is the personal touch. “We really do miss the one-on-one connection. We get feedback through the volunteers, but it’s not the same as seeing the smile on their face.” Rusty and Sue feel better knowing that their carbon footprint has been drastically reduced now that they’re not driving all the way to Little Rock.

Staying Alive

I asked if it’s easier or harder to get into this game now compared to when they started.  Rusty said, “It was actually much more possible in the early days because things were cheap. Nowadays about the only way for young people to get started is to inherit some land.” While Rusty and Sue are too busy to follow every detail of the politics and policy of food, they do stay well-informed and activist.  They use the internet more and more to stay up to date. “The upcoming regulations are a little scary. It depends how it’s enforced,” says Rusty, “the most important thing to keep in mind is scalability.”  Indeed, what works for the little guy is not the same as what works for the big guy, and small farmers are carefully watching the legislation for signs of big-business power.

After the USDA took over the organic certification process, many small farmers, including Rusty and Sue, just couldn’t afford to use the label. “You have to keep so many records for every crop. That’s fine for the guy with one crop on two hundred acres. It’s a killer for us with fifty crops on four acres.” Of the dozen or so farmers in their locallygrown.net network, only one carries the USDA Organic seal – even though Rusty and Sue have actually always far surpassed the standards. “It didn’t make a bit of difference at the Farmer’s Market because everyone knew us. Now, with the online thing, it would probably help to get certified again.”

There are other roadblocks. The Whole Foods in Little Rock won’t buy from local farmers unless they have a one million dollar liability insurance policy. “I guess that’s in case somebody chokes on our carrot,” said Sue.  And so, not surprisingly, big trucks with California license plates dominate the store’s loading docks.

But despite the challenges, Rusty and Sue remain optimistic. “It depends which pages of the newspaper you read. There’s plenty of good news in between plenty of bad news.” They’re very encouraged to see so many people interested in their way of life and the role of food in caring about the planet. The Obama’s vegetable garden was something they never thought they’d see, and Sue was delighted that the White House involved local school kids. “Right now the average age for a farmer is 51.” But she’s seeing a whole new wave of enthusiastic, idealistic young people that reminds her of their early days all over again. Rusty’s daughter Rose is following in his footsteps, working on farms across England for an organization called WWOOF, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.

Rusty and Sue have been living sustainably since long before terms like carbon footprint, localvore, and slow food became bandwagon buzzwords. But they’re not the least bit tempted to gloat now that the rest of the world has caught up on the path they’ve blazed by gut intuition for years.  In an era when green-washing threatens to consumerize and water down the movement, the simplicity and beauty of the Nuffer’s daily lives are a rich reality check. “This year we’re excited about a new potato we’re trying. It’s called ‘purple majesty’ and it tests higher than any other food ever for one important anti-oxidant,” says Sue. Their world centers around the soil. They’re forever experimenting with new methods to enrich and re-mineralize mother earth. Lately Rusty’s been exploring an ancient Amazonian technique known as Terra Preta, where high-potency charcoal is carefully introduced over many years.

“We’re just pretty dang lucky, that’s all,” says Rusty. It’s their favorite thing to say when you praise them too much. “The perks are that you work in the freshest restaurant in the world!” Sue said, “and just being close to nature all the time – taking care of the planet is spiritual.”

So before I went back to my keyboard and they to their dirt, I asked what they did for Earth Day. They nearly forgot the date. “Every day is Earth Day,” said Rusty, “Earth Month. Earth Year…. It’s an Earth Life, I guess. That’s what it needs to be. Keep that awareness all the time.”

Further Reading:
Locally Grown.net
WWOOF
Helen and Scott Nearing
Terra Preta
Sue’s recommended gardening book:
John Jeavons’ How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine

Eat Your Vegetables!

Before introducing our super duper guest blogger today, I want to give a shout out to the Goddess Group fasters! xo, Kris

“If we don’t have time to be sick, then we have to make time to be healthy.” ~Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard a thousand times: “Eat Your Vegetables!” From the day we moved onto solid foods until we moved out of the house, we heard this culinary command at least three times a day. Yet at some point, we tuned it out.

A new study confirms this: Americans are eating fewer vegetables than ever. Researchers recently evaluated data from two large national health surveys and reviewed how many people ate three or more servings of vegetables a day. (French fries counted!).
In the first survey, 35% met the goal; in the second survey, 10 years later: 32%. So, why are we ignoring the most consistent message of our childhood? I have a few ideas.

I teach vegan cooking classes, and many of my students have no idea what to with a head of broccoli or a bunch of kale. Most of us were raised on a meat-centered diet, where vegetables played a minor role and either came from a can, were boiled to death, or were drowned in cream sauces and butter. It’s no wonder we didn’t get hooked on veggies.

We’re also ridiculous creatures of habit. Many of us rotate the same dishes over and over, and as the researchers discovered, most people demonstrate very little diversity when choosing vegetables. Here’s a secret: when I switched to a plant-based diet, I actually found more options. With meat, dairy, and eggs out of the way, a world of plant foods opened up.

Here are some recommendations I give to my students:

~ We should never decide what to eat for dinner at dinnertime. That will set us up for failure every time. We should know each morning (at the latest) what we’re having for dinner that night. Ideally, we should know the night before so we can plan in our brains what to prep when we awake and arise!

~ Aim to eat a pound of raw and a pound of lightly cooked fresh vegetables per day. Even if you fall short, you’ll be way ahead of the curve.

~ When you get home from the grocery store, never store all the veggies in the bin right away. Take a few minutes to chop them up and store them in the fridge before doing so. That way, when it’s time to eat, you’ll actually eat the food instead of complaining that it will take too long to chop them up.

~ Shop by color! All of the bright and beautiful hues of plant-based foods contain the powerful healing phyto (i.e. plant) nutrients!

~Celebrate the flavor of the vegetables themselves! The flavor in food comes from plants – not animals! The flavor is in the herbs and spices!

As people incorporate more plant-based foods into their diet and transition to a plant-based diet, questions and challenges often arise. Here are some tips for easing the process:

~ Identify the craving. I’ve heard people say they tried giving up meat but really started craving it. In response, I assure them that they were not craving meat. We’re not true carnivores. We don’t start salivating when we see a deer or a cow or a squirrel. We’re not lions. Lions would die without meat. We, however, thrive without it. It’s not the flesh of the animal we crave, but we do tend to crave fat, and we tend to crave salt. More than that, we crave texture, familiarity, and flavor – and all of these things are found in abundance in plant foods.

~Give your palate time to adjust. The more you leave off these fatty, salty foods, the less you actually crave them. Your palate definitely changes, and your body adjusts.

~ Repeat after me: “There is Life After Cheese.” Related to what I said above about identifying the craving, when it comes to cheese, it’s really about the salt, the fat, the texture, and the familiarity. So for instance, when people sprinkle a little parmesan on their pasta, it’s really about the salt and the fat. Instead, toast some pine nuts or walnuts, and mince them up with a little salt. This is just one example of identifying the craving and satisfying it through plant foods.

~ Get to know your spices. Most people have adorable spice racks lined with cute jars of spices and dried herbs that they never use. First of all spices and herbs do have a shelf life (about 6 months for dried herbs and 1 year for spices), and though eating stale herbs and spices won’t kill you, but they will have lost their flavor. Don’t be afraid of the herbs and spices. Don’t be afraid of experimenting with them. That’s how you learn. Experiment, and have fun.

I’ve found that eating healthfully does not necessarily take more time. Rather, it takes just a little more thought. Venture forth, and enjoy!

For the animals, both human and non-human,

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Colleen is a sought-after and inspiring public speaker on the spiritual, social, and practical aspects of a vegan lifestyle. She has appeared on the Food Network, is a columnist for VegNews Magazine, is a contributor to National Public Radio, and her first book, The Joy of Vegan Baking, won VegNews Magazine’s “Cookbook of the Year”; her second cookbook, The Vegan Table: 200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion is due out in June 2009. www.compassionatecooks.com

TIME Talks Veggie Power

Check out this amazing article from Time Magazine.  Its packed with cool facts about the positive impact of a plant-based diet on the environment and your health! Even if you take baby steps, find out the awesome ways you can benefit your body and the planet just by making some lifestyle changes.

Eat Your Greens by Bryan Walsh
Time Magazine
Thursday, February 12, 2009

If you really want to go green, the conventional thinking goes, buy a hybrid. Practically speaking though, there is a faster and cheaper option: shift to a low-carbon diet. The meal plan of the average American family accounts for 2.8 tons of CO2 emitted annually, compared with 2.2 tons for driving. Worldwide agriculture contributes some 30% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, far more than transportation. So when it comes to cutting your carbon footprint today, the truth is that what you eat is as important as what you drive. “If you can’t buy a Prius,” says Jonathan Kaplan of the Natural Resources Defense Council, “you can certainly eat like one.”

And here’s better news: eating green is good for you. The very foods with a high carbon cost–red meat, pork, dairy products, processed snacks–also tend to be laden with fat and calories. A green diet would comprise mostly vegetables and fruits, whole grains, fish and lean meats like chicken–a diet that’s eco- and waistline friendly. “[Eating green] can make a big difference for the climate and be more healthy,” says Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist for the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

It may be hard to believe that a meal at McDonald’s produces more carbon than your trip to the drive-through–until you consider just how vast and energy-intensive the global food system is. More than 37% of the world’s land is used for agriculture, much of it ground that was once forested–and deforestation is a major source of carbon. The fertilizer and machinery needed on a modern farm also have a large carbon footprint, as does the network of ships and trucks that brings the food from the farm to your plate. On average, it takes seven to 10 times as much fossil-fuel energy to produce and ship food as we get from eating it.

The most efficient way to shrink the carbon footprint of your menu is to eat less meat, especially beef. Raising cattle takes a lot more energy than growing the equivalent amount of grains, fruits or vegetables: most produce requires about 2 calories of fossil-fuel energy to cultivate per 1 calorie of food energy; with beef, the ratio can be as high as 80 to 1. What’s more, the majority of cattle in the U.S. are reared on grain and loads of it–670 million tons in 2002–and the fertilizer used to grow that feed creates separate environmental problems, including surface runoff that leads to dead zones in coastal waters like the Gulf of Mexico. Those grain-fed cattle then belch methane, a greenhouse gas that is 20 times as potent as CO2. “Reducing beef is the first step to a green diet,” says Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

That one step can make an enormous impact on the atmosphere and your arteries. A 2005 study by the University of Chicago found that one person switching from a red-meat-based diet to vegetarianism could save about the same amount of CO2 as trading in a Toyota Camry for a Toyota Prius. There’s no shortage of evidence that reducing red meat–Americans eat more than 60 lb. of dead cow annually–is also good for your health. CSPI estimates that replacing one 3.5-oz. serving of beef, one egg and a 1-oz. serving of cheese each day with an equivalent amount of fruits, vegetables and grains would cut your daily fat consumption and increase your fiber intake, all while conserving 1.8 acres of cropland and reducing animal waste by 11,400 lb. each year.

And while locally grown has become some eco-eaters’ mantra, what you eat matters more than where it comes from. Our food travels from 1,500 to 2,500 miles on average from farm to supermarket, but that journey typically accounts for just 4% of a food’s carbon footprint. “Focus on eating lower on the food chain, with more plants and fruits and less meat and dairy,” says Kate Geagan, a dietitian and author of the forthcoming book Go Green Get Lean. “It’s that simple.” Installing solar panels or buying a hybrid may not be possible for many of us, but we can change today what goes into our bodies–and those decisions matter, for the health of our planet and ourselves.

Feeding the Earth. Foods with a low carbon cost tend to be healthier as well

Foods that require a lot of energy to produce–like beef–leave bigger carbon footprints

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

4 oz. serving of … Steamed Vegetables Pasta Grilled Chicken Cheese Grilled Steak Calories 74 150 188.5 456 347 Grams of Fat 0.13 1.2 4.17 37.6 24.5 Carbon Footprint 0.18 lb. 0.39 lb. 1.27 lb. 2.26 lb. 10.5 lb.

Read the article online here.