Tornado

A tornado hit and took out ½ of both of the big maple trees. In the pic the big branches on the ground in front are from the front maple, and the branches in that tree are from the other maple in the back. The big branches on the ground were all twisted around one another. It was exciting watching this big funnel cloud form in the northern sky—which surprised me that it then came over the house because usually storms come from the south or the west. Glad the house didn’t get hit, although the rain blew in sheets and got the fuse box wet, so we had to shut the power off and dry it out. I guess the fuse box circuits will need replacing. Actually, I think it was a blessing in disguise, as apparently water has been coming down the outside pipe and into the main fuse box for quite a while anytime it rained and was causing the electricity to “leak” into the plastic and wood, heating it up. That would have eventually caused a fire. Plus we have all kinds of wood to build seating for the fire and a wigwam. You read me, a wigwam. LOL something Tris and I have been wanting to do for a while.

Tristen is looking healthier. He’s dropped about 10 #s without even trying. He’s been eating all raw—smoothies, nutmilks, fruits, juices, and veggies—until he’s full. He eats whenever he’s hungry, so I’m not worried that the weight is coming off too fast. God, how I wish I could medically document this! At least Tristen won’t be visiting his dad again for any length until winter break. I can relax until then.

Today the kids ate:

bananas

orange juice

green smoothies- OJ, apples, bananas, cucumber, romaine, celery

fresh salsa with garlic-corn-flax crackers

turtle brownies

brazil nut milk

more smoothies

mango-apple-coconut chutney

banana milk

Stayin’ dry,

~Tristen, Rowan, & Sharilyn

How To Make NutMilk

Nut milks are wonderful for your body. Each different nut or seed of course provides different nutrients and attributes. Brazil nuts and almonds are alkaline. Pumpkin seeds are antiparisitic. Sesame seeds are know for their calcium content. Hemp seed is a complete protein, containing all the essential amino acids that your body can’t make. It helps to reduce your “bad” cholesterol and had lots-o antioxidants. Cashews have a high amount of magnesium. The list goes on. I try to vary my milks, but favorites are hazelnut, almond, sesame, hemp, and pumpkin.

It all starts with raw nuts or seeds—about a cup. I use about ½ a cup for sesame seeds. In a pinch I’ll use a raw butter, usually 1/3 to ½ cup. Pictured from top left: Hemp seeds, sesame seeds, Raw cashew butter, raw almond butter. Next from left: Hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews, brazil, pumpkin seeds (green), macadamia, and sunflower (tiny white in bottom right). Toss your nuts into a blender (tee-hee) and add about two cups of water. Blend on high for up to two minutes (in a regular blender).

Strain it in a paint thinner bag and pour it back into the blender. Then add:

1 tablespoon honey or the equivalent. Pictured is: honey, agave, refined stevia, and powdered stevia leaf. I also use maple syrup on occasion.

1 tablespoon cold-pressed oil. Pictured is: coconut, olive, hemp, flax.

A dash of himilayan salt, sea salt, or powdered kelp (my preference).

Blend it baby!

Add enough water to equal 4 cups of milk and your done.

This is how much milk I got from today’s nut/seed (I scooped all the nuts/seeds pictured up top into the blender for today’s milk). I filled one large canning jar, plus about a cup left over. Added some cacao powder and a banana for chocolate banana milk.

What’s left after I filled Rowan’s cup.

Yum!! Drank it all, pausing only to let me refill her cup!

Now you don’t have to add the sweetner, salt, and oil. You could just blend the nuts and strain it. I prefer the fuller, more like milk taste with everything added.

And if you don’t have a milk bag, use a mesh strainer. Better yet, add a little more sweet, some cocoa/cacao/carob, and ice to make it thick like a milkshake. Then you don’t feel the graininess in the back of your throat. A banana helps too.

Hope you try some nut milk, as it’s super yummy as well as beneficial and nourishing to your body. Have a great day!

~Rowan and Sharilyn

Fruiting Pineapples

My pineapple top has rooted and now needs to be planted, which I’ll do today. You never knew you could grow a pineapple bush? Here’s how:

Twist the top off a fresh pineapple, don’t cut it. Let it dry out for 5 days or so.

Stick it in a glass of water, changing the H2O every 3-4 days. I put my cup in an east windowsill. It took a couple of weeks to start the roots, then I just left it in the cup for about another month I think. If your top doesn’t root, it may be too old—try another.

After it roots, pot it up. Eventually, a red bud is supposed to form containing over a hundred tiny flowers that open into velvety blue blooms, each lasting a day. Each spent flower bract then develops into one segment of the fruit.

But before the pineapple top will flower, I’ll have to put a bag over the pot with an apple, tied tight so no air escapes, for about 5 days, thus allowing the ethylene gas from the apple to force the pineapple to flower.

After the bag is removed, new leaves will form from the center of the plant and rows of pineapple fruit will begin growing at the bottom of the new leaves. It will be golden yellow and about 6 inches above the old plant on a stalk about ¼ inch thick. (Staking required.) And if the plant doesn’t flower, I’ll repeat the apple procedure.

I’ll keep you all posted how this project develops, but hopefully we’ll be eating fresh, ripened on the plant pineapple in about . . . 11 months or so, as (I believe) it takes about 9 months for a pineapple fruit to ripen. Can’t wait!!

Today Rowan ate:

banana

chocolate hemp milk

carrot salad: carrots, onions, celery, thyme, garlic, parsley, ACV, EVOO, maple syrup, braggs aminos, sea salt, cayenne, . . . . . ? (Going by memory here)

Mango coconut chutney: mango, apple, coconut, honey, cayenne, tumeric, salt, cinnamon, pepper, ????

raw cookies: hazelnut, coconut, hempseed, sesameseed, apple, raisin, goji, salt, cinnamon, honey

green smoothies—orange, apple, banana, spinach

fresh peas

blueberries

strawberries

~Rowan and Sharilyn

UPDATE: 7/13/2011 I have a small pineapple growing!!! yeah!

Bring On the Heat!

It’s been super humid-hot the last couple-few days and I’m loving it!! We (Rowan, Rich, and I) have been working outside tending to the lawn, the gardens, and the bugs. Peas went POW overnight. Sugar snaps are sooo sweet and crispy—not like what you get in the store. And Ro-Ro can’t get enough of the sweet pod peas. Every batch I’ve brought in she’s gobbled up, so I guess I won’t be freezing any!! Maybe I’ll plant a bunch more for a fall crop.

Most of the lettuces have bolted, so we’ve had salads, wraps, and green smoothies. What I won’t be able to use up right away is being frozen for smoothies later. Carrots are ready and Ro munches one every time she’s out to the garden. Green beans have a ways to go yet, which is good because I’m still looking for some raw green bean recipes. Anyone know a good one?? Send it and I’ll post it. Parsley’s growin’ well and I look forward to fall harvest and Jinjee and Storm’s tabuli recipe which is one of my favorites.

Rowan’s been in her kiddie pool every day---and mommy’s joined her a couple times as well!! She’s so funny to watch as she tries to squirt me with water from the rubber duckie’s bottom—but get’s it turned the wrong way and squirts herself instead! LOL . . . but she’s learning fast. She also discovered that mommy screams and daddy runs away when she squirts the coooold water from the hose at them. Giggle, giggle, giggle says Rowan.

I made a batch of what have you cookies. Started with the hazelnut pulp leftover from milk and just kept adding. They have: nut pulp, juice and pulp from 3 oranges, cinnamon, raw honey, vanilla, flax seed, black sesame seed, chia seed, hemp seed, and coconut flakes. I can’t wait to taste them as the batter was super yummy. Rowan helped and it was all I could do to keep the spoon and her fingers out of her mouth, then out of the dough again! It’s not like cookies that are baked, so germs that won’t get destroyed in an oven are not wanted in the dough.

Today Rowan ate:
lots of green smoothie—a full blender, as she couldn’t get enough.
two salads—red leaf lettuce, onion, and carrot pulp
lots of peas
a carrot from the garden
hazelnut banana milk with flax oil, vanilla, and sea salt
¼ of a huge watermelon
the rest of the cookies I made on father’s day—about 7 cookies

Enjoy your evening!
~Rowan and Sharilyn

Dad’s Day

Happy Dad’s Day to all the dads I know!!! Rowan and I have been busy getting a couple gifts together for Rich. We (I) put together a shadow box to remember Bo, Rich’s dog (a.k.a. his ‘son’) who passed away a couple years ago. Twelve great years with a best friend that always loves to see you, even when you’re crabby. We miss you Bo!!
Rowan and I are also planning on making dinner for pops, of his choosing.
We had inquired about a lawn mower listed in the classifieds and yesterday went to inspect. OMG. Suffice to say, we came home with a verrrrry clean, excellently conditioned Troy-Built w/ instruction manual still in the plastic folder for a song. As we drove home, I noticed the slight smell of gas, oil, and cut grass mixed together and immediately thought of my dad and all the summers working together mowing lawns. Strangely enough, it’s one of the best smells in the world to me, kinda like fishy hands in 50 First Dates.

Here’s some things I love about my dad:
He’s largely responsible for my love of plants and gardens; landscaping and chocolate; garage sale-ing and campfires.
He’s goofy.
He’s sentimental.
He’s strong enough to turn his life around from a crazy downward spiral into a positive and upstanding existence.
He’s entrepreneurial enough to start his own business, again and again trying new ideas/professions.
He inspires me to seek out my dreams and try new thoughts, new foods, new paths, and to get up and brush myself off and try again.
He can’t hardly stand keeping a surprise a secret, the way he flutters around until the reveal is so funny!! Just like a four-year-old!!!
Some of his words of wisdom that I’ve adopted include “Everything in moderation,” and “When you think you have it bad just remember that someone out there has is worse,” and “If you fall flat on your face, at least you know you had the courage to try,” and “Do your best.” Or something to those effects.
If I ever need a pick-me-up, my dad’s always there with encouragement.

When I think of my dad I conjure up:
his clock that has the coil and hammer in the back
blue spruce trees
crossword puzzles
odd smells
dad singing loudly and off key while perched on a lawn mower
wiggling feet propped up in a recliner
spices, spices, spices
spaghetti sauce, spare ribs, and butter pecan ice cream
volumes of scholarly books
garage sales
tinkering/fixing things with paint, oil, or grease, or anything that smells along those lines
going out in a boat. Any boat—rowboat, pontoon, motorboat.
watching dad rototill the garden, then making holes for seeds with a stick and helping to plant all the babies
Gee Farms
Japanese maples
Lily of the Valley bells “ringing”

Happy Father’s Day Dad! I love you!!! xoxoxo

Rowan’s menu plan for the day:
green smoothie—fresh parsley, kelp, orange, apple, banana, coconut water
mangos
hemp or nutmilk w/ flax oil, sea salt, honey
mix salad with fresh what-have-yous from the garden
avocado w/ chia
flax ka-krs
cashew ‘cheese’cake with strawberries, blueberries, coconut, date-pecan crust
cantaloupe
anything else she might want

Enjoy your day! Call your dad or spend a few minutes thinking about or remembering him!!

~Sharilyn

Naked Chocolate

I LOVE getting stuff in the mail. Today was doubly great, because I received a pound of organic vanilla beans from the organic vanilla bean company and the book Naked Chocolate by David Wolfe and Shazzie. I can’t wait to digest both.
I’ve been on a raw chocolate kick I guess you could say. You see, ever since the reception of the bag of Chocolate Bliss and the afore said consequent Happy Energy Buzz, I’ve wondered if it was just the raw chocolate or the combo of all the other super ingredients. And since I’ve had raw cacao beans—2 large bags—for the last year or so that I didn’t know exactly what to do with (and because I’m out of the Bliss already!!!), I figured I’d try to make a chocolate shake with mainly the raw cacao beans, even though it’s a bit grainy. (I only have a regular blender.) But, blend for a couple minutes, add ice, and it turns into a milk shake thick enough that you hardly notice the grainyness. And since I also have quite a few “super” ingredients that I’ve had for forever and not quite known what to do with, into the shake they go. Today’s super shake was super packed since I went to the store yesterday and totally stocked up on every kind of nut and seed that was raw that I could find. Normally I wouldn’t blend more than one or two nuts together, but I figured what the hell. Plus, I overstocked from the bulk bins a bit and couldn’t quite fit everything into the containers I had at home.

Today’s Super Chocolaty Super Good For You Shake:
raw cacao
hazelnuts
pecans
macadamia nuts
cashews
brazil nuts
hemp seeds
pumpkin seeds
black sesame seeds
maca root powder
tahini
goji berries
golden berries
carob
coconut
coconut oil
agave
honey
maple syrup
vanilla
sea salt
flax oil

Wow. Didn’t realize how much stuff was in there. Think I got it all. Blended the nuts and berries, strained it, added the sweetners and oils and salt and vanilla. Oh, and saved the pulp, added some flax seeds (ground) some coconut flakes and some soaked oat grouts, a little agave and vanilla, and made cookies for Rowan, which she loved. And mom loves that a cookie (or three) can be a healthy and filling on-the-go meal. Basically it’s a raw protein bar in the shape of a cookie that my baby loves!!

Today Rowan ate:
green smoothie w/ mixed greens, carrots, apples, bananas, kelp, orange, strawberry
raw chocolate ‘elixir’
more ‘elixir’ (actually she wouldn’t leave my shake alone and drank half my glass when I wasn’t looking!! - - AFTER finishing her own glass!!!!!)
fresh sugar snap peas from the garden
more smoothie
fresh carrot, asparagus, and more peas from the garden
raw cacao-oat-coconut cookies
apple slices

~~Rowan and Sharilyn

Why Not to Drink Milk

Check out this link--http://www.notmilk.com/kradjian.html for an interesting read, then to the home page http://www.notmilk.com/ for some info-surfing "fun." Perhaps some of the brainwashed "Milk is necessary, milk is good for you" crap will wash away. Oh, and here's an FYI for you: In the early '50s, the USDA created the four basic food groups in which food industry representatives like cattlemen and dairy farmers were integral in developing. Ever look at the bottom of the food pyramid? It says, "Brought to you by the American Dairy Association." Things that make you go "Hmmmmm." But don't take my word for it. Do your own research--and break away from the brainwashed millions.

Enough ranting. Have a fruity day!!

~Sharilyn

How does your garden grow?

Here’s a pic of the garden, and one of the four foot square beds, which is planted in 16 individual square feet. In this photo there are 16 varies lettuce plants, 32 onions, radishs, 2 collard plants, 3 kale plants, 9 arugula plants, a mix of 16 parsley and cilantro plants, 4 marigolds, and 1 green cabbage plant. Tiny little plot, huge amount of food. :o}

Salad anyone? My spinach bolted w/ in a day and I didn’t catch it, so I pulled all of it out and stripped the leaves to freeze for smoothies. I decided that the other lettuces couldn’t be far behind, so I harvested quite a few leaves off each plant: arugula, dandelion, red leaf, some curly leafed, simpson bibb, and a couple others that I can’t think the name of. To that I added fresh asparagus, radishes, and green onions, and some tomatoes, avos, and sunny seeds from the store. There’s a two day salad there—for at least 2 people!!

Later, Rich helped me did a long bed for all the squash babies that need a homes. 13 plants!! We'll be in squash heaven. Oh, and Rowan helped too. She would get mad if we didn’t leave clods of excavated sod for her to put on the tarp. She was so funny about it!! And she would say ‘Thank you’ whenever we left a clump for her.

Tristen is off to his dad’s for 3 weeks, then home for a short visit, and back again for 2 more weeks. Though Rowan and Rich are here, the house seems empty at night. The ghosts have also been more active of late. Wonder if they miss him too.

Here’s Ro-Ro’s menu for yesterday:

Green smoothie w/ spinach, apples, bananas, kelp

cherry tomatoes with chia seeds

Chocolate Bliss shake

banana

salad as described above w/ ACV dressing (apple cider vinegar, raw honey, extra-virgin olive oil)

leftover smoothie

dried coconut and blueberries

more salad

~~~Sharilyn and Rowan

Chocolate Bliss

Yesterday I received my anxiously awaited package in the mail: Chocolate Bliss and Vanilla Agave from http://www.highvibehealth.com/. Today I made “Bliss” shakes (I’m still waiting to get back my ice cream maker, otherwise it would have been Bliss ice cream.) and Oh My Holy Mother! This stuff is unbelievable! I was only going to taste it since I’ve been fasting and trying to come off gently, but after that taste I had to have a small cup. Rowan did her Happy Dance and mommy joined in. What a buzz!! After about 10 minutes I felt Super Happy. I could literally feel the difference—it was huge!! As I was thinking about calling Stephanie at HealthVibe to thank her, the phone rang. Guess who!! She was calling to see make sure I had gotten the package. I totally went off telling her how wonderful it was and how incredible and happy I felt. (Come to think of it, ‘Bliss’ is exactly fitting.) She told me this stuff actually pulls toxins from the body, and to drink a cup of water with it. How great to have coming off a fast!! There’s something like 25 different ingredients, mostly superfoods, in this stuff—acerola berries, maca, hemp, rhodiola rosea, cacao (of corse) just to name a few. The kicker ingredients are ‘love and intention’ and Oh can you tell!!

Steph, you have bottled happiness. Namasté, my dear, namasté.

Get your own superbuzz from here: http://highvibehealth.com/Chocolate_Bliss.html

I had quite a full day. I was outside by 7 digging out the sod from the bed I cut last night and planting all the splits and babies from yesterday’s plethora. Then the potato bed got extended to include the corn babies that needed to get in the ground, so I turned the 4 x 4 foot bed into a 4 x 7 or 8 foot bed and tilled the soil down about 2 feet with a shovel and my sweat. That’s a load of work! Planted the corn and heard Rowan awake, so went to get her. We picked some fresh greens from the garden and made green smoothies. Later, we watered plants and weeded. Took care of some IRS business and bills. Then the Chocolate Bliss and dancing.

Rich came home early from work, so I took off to try to finish up at the retreat center. Six hours later it was getting dark, so home I came to pot up some more splits that there wasn’t room for. (I’m thinking plant sale to raise funds for this retreat or church affiliate.)

I’m beat. I’m going to stretch and go to bed.

‘Night!

~Sharilyn

UPDATE: Got the ice cream maker--should've seen the kids faces!!

Raw Chocolate Bliss Ice Cream

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad’s B-day and he’s made it . . . 62 times around the sun I think. (47 . . . 97 . . 2007 . . . + 2 years for 09) Yeah, he’s 62 years young. Here’s a big bunch of yellow roses for you daddy. Don’t know if there’s 62 of them, but it’s a digital picture so you can duplicate it if you want to. LOL. :o}

I had quite the busy day, a result of a spontaneous encounter. Last fall I noticed a small pear tree beautifully endowed with some of the most luscious looking fruit just down the road from where we live. I had stopped to inquire about the over-ripening pears and to see if we could pick them, but no one was living at the house. I kept an eye out, but never saw anyone there and, as realty signs were posted on the property, figured nobody resided there. Fast forward to last Thursday: A man was out cutting up a tree and on a whim I stopped again to ask about the pear tree. The tree wasn’t theirs, it was the neighbors, but they had a pear tree in back that was a help-yourself. I commented on the beautiful landscape (With my 15 years experience in the field, I was quite sincere on this point. The place is gorgeous.). One thing led to another and I had a job, sort-of. The flower garden needed some serious attention. It was overgrown and plants needed to be split and moved, weeds needed to be pulled. I offered to straighten things up in exchange for some of the splits and babies that decided to seed themselves in less than optimal locations. The man who maintained the place (it turned out to be a retreat center, religious based) said he’d pay me for any work, and to help myself to some of the extra plants. Just what I asked the universe for: Free perennials!

So I spent four hours there today and came home after dark and had to cut a new 20 or so square foot bed to temporarily store all the splits that couldn’t find a home in the garden at the retreat center. And more to do tomorrow!! I’m pooped. I’ve been fasting for the past three days—mostly water and a little watered down lemonade, and some herb tea for my head cold. Oddly enough I haven’t been energy deprived like I sometimes was on other fasts.

Now a weird part: An hour or so after I was there it began raining, and as I looked down at the ground, I noticed what I thought was hail bouncing back up after it hit. It was quite warm, so I thought that was odd. On closer inspection I discovered that it wasn’t hail, it was what looked like larvae. Imagine the Mexican jumping bean without the bean. Tiny white threadlike worms or larva, each about a centimeter long, were bending themselves into little balls and then popping open, causing them to pop up 3 to 4 inches off the ground. Strange. I asked Dad and my former business associate Joe about it, but neither had ever seen this before. Anyone know??

Today Rowan ate:

tahini/sesame seed milk w/ flax

grapes

oranges

green smoothie with fresh picked spinach, lettuce, arugula, kelp powder, bananas, apples

whatever else dad made as I was “working” (Yea!)

~Sharilyn

Happy Mom’s Day

Goji babies!

Hope all you mom’s did exactly what you wanted today. We were outside most of the day morale hunting and enjoying the sun.

Garden news: I dug the Jerusalem artichokes up ---I planted 3 tubers last fall. Three. Tres. Toi. I dug up . . . around 30. I hope I got them all. I’ll be replanting a few out in a separate area. Talk about invasive!! Perhaps I’ll move my mint over with it. The mint shoots along in the top three inches of soil, while the Jerusalem artichoke tubers grow about six inches down, so they sort of compliment each other.

Tristen has finally gotten his garden dug and planted. He’s growing: 16 carrots, 9 spinach, 9 radish, 1 fennel, 9 bush beans, 1 popcorn, 2 cucumbers, 1 tomato, and 4 basil plants. This is all planted in a 9 square foot bed.

The strawberries aren’t doing too well—I wondered when I saw the rootstock if I should return them. Perhaps I’ll try seeds yet this year. 5 of the 9 blueberry/raspberry bushes haven’t leafed yet. X yer finga’s for us.

Beyond food stuff: I’ve been working on a shade garden under the two big maples. I’ve split 4 large hosta into at least 50 plants, maybe more. I’ve added some transplanted wood ferns collected from the forest, and have recently found columbine as well, so that will be added soon. I have 8 seed trays holding between 30 and 40 seedlings each coming along, and I can’t wait until I can have cut flowers for the table (and for salads) every week.

Morals abound. The family’s collected over 10 pounds this season, and as none of us really eat them, they’ve made great gifts for neighbors and friends. Tristen found an extremely large moral this week—as big as a dollar bill. Kudos kiddo. What we haven’t given away, we’ve dehydrated to pass along later.

Other activities: Soccer season in here, and this is Tris's first year at it. He does well, particularly as goalie, and is picked often for that position. It’s so entertaining to watch all the kids running after that little black and white ball!

Rowan and I often go foraging in the woods. I'm trying to identify as many potential wild edibles and herbals as possible, as well as locate any thing else of interest--Like the fort on the top of the hill (really just a deep ditch surrounded by shrubs) which Tris has claimed as his own.

Hope you're keeping as busy.

~Sharilyn

Happy Birthday Rowan!!

I did it again. Posting at the library got put off yet a few more weeks due to a number of factors, the biggest being that I couldn’t find my memory stick. Sorry, anxious readers. I’ll try to be more consistent with my postings. I aim for weekly, but life gets in the way sometimes.

Little Miss has finally attained the age attributed to her attitude of late: She’s two!

Here’s what I love about Rowan:

She usually greats you with a “Hi Ro-Ro” in the morning or after nap time.

She is eager to help when asked.

She makes the best messes in the shortest possible time.

She tries new things eagerly.

She is determined and headstrong, constantly checking her boundaries.

She gives all kinds of presents, from flowers to bugs to little specks of dirt or a dropped morsel of food.

She shares her wonder at the world, in turn making me wonder too.

Her wonderfully large blue eyes.

The way she talks, using sign language and not fully pronounced words that are too adorable.

She has the best pout that will melt the firmest of resolutions.

Rowan had a plethora of presents, from elmo videos to a tea set. Plastic fruit and books to devour. A beautiful white party dress that managed to survive chocolate cake.

The cake was an experience. I half-followed a recipe from one of my raw books, using nuts, carrot and apple pulp and such. It turned out well and tasted wonderful. Not as fluffy as carrot cake, but much softer than the first nut cake I made. LOL. That one was a rock!!

So two years have passed in a blink. Soon it will be decades passing as quickly. Enjoy your moments. Do it now. They pass all too fast.

In Love,

~Sharilyn, Rowan, and Tristen

We’re Back!

It’s been a busy, busy month. The garden, of course, has taken up most of my time, digging new beds (all with a shovel, not a rototiller—we love our worms!), planting seeds and transplants, moving sod from the newly dug beds to the bare patch in our yard, and so on. Illness struck Tristen for about five days—fever and sore throat, then hit Rowan, though she was sick only a day. (Hmm, could that be because she eats 99% raw and he eats only about 75% raw??) Car troubles, tax return troubles (The IRS screwed my return up, still haven’t received our refund and it was in by the 2^nd week of February. Hrrmmmph! ), other paperwork issues, yadda, yadda, yadda, rent, rent, rent.

We’ve tried a few new raw recipes--strawberry granola, sour cream and salsa, corn-lime chips, bbq chips, garlic-almond crackers, cashewbutter squares, goji-maca-cacao bars, and Portobello sausages. All turned out great. I plan to attempt a mashed potato using jicama. I’ll let you know how that transpires. The best discovery was the garlic almond crackers. This has the BEST TEXTURE of a cracker, and with some tweaking, I could probably come up with a good soda cracker. Here’s what I do, to the letter:

First I make almond milk using a cup of almonds. I grind almonds with water and pour this into my nutmilk bags (I use doubled up paint thinner bags --MUCH cheaper than nutmilk bags, 2 for a buck and a half). I squeeze the milk into a bowl then I pour the milk back in the blender and finish adding my salt, oil, honey, and water, and dump the pulp into the bowl. Nutmilk done, I grind about half a cup of flax seeds in the coffee grinder and add it to the pulp. At this point, I could mix and spread for a plain cracker (soda crackers!), but I blend a clove or two of garlic with just a little water and add that to the batter. You may need a little more water, but I like a thick consistency. This is then spread with wet hands on dehydrator sheets (the wet keeps your hands from sticking) in either small round spoonfuls or larger sheets that are then scored before drying. Sprinkle on a little salt, and again later when you flip ‘em. Again, the texture is remarkably like a Ritz or a heavy soda cracker. But don’t take my word for it!

The berry rootstock is/are planted: 40 strawberries, 5 blueberries, 4 raspberries, a gooseberry and a boysenberry. Most of my veggies are in or started indoors for transplant later. Next on my todo list includes digging beds for flowers—chamomile, bachelor buttons, zinnias, cornflowers, and other cut or edible flowers. The herb garden is pretty well established. The best surprise was finding out how much rootstock I had in my overwintered parsley! Whew! I was able to plant 16 plants in the veggie beds and kept about 5 larger plants in the herb garden by the house. I will definitely pot some up again next winter.

Hope you’re keeping as busy! We’re off to hunt for morales.

Keep it raw,

~Sharilyn

DID YOU KNOW: The Jerusalem artichoke contains inulin. which helps stabilize wildly erratic blood sugar levels, keeping them smooth and even. Diabetics, take note!

UPDATE: Another plant that contains up to 36% inulin is chicory--you know, the common roadside weed with the stunning blue flowers. You can add the leaves to a salad. The root is used medicinally, and some add the roasted root to flavor coffee.

Warrrmmm!

Well the snow lasted all of a day, totaling about an inch. Yeah!! Now maybe it’ll warm up and I can plant the rest of the gardens! Unfortunately the cold and the potato shoots didn’t mesh well, but I’m hoping those taters ‘ll sprout new buds.

Sunday’s menu:

strawberry flax xrs

pear apple banana parsley smoothie

banana almond milk

romaine and celery ‘crackers’ with sun-pumpkin-almond-lemon-sesame-garlic-pepper-broccoli spread

apples w/ cashew butter and blueberries

veggie salad-broccoli, cuke, celery, romaine, onion, garlic, carrot

bananas

mulberry lemonade

~Sharilyn

Coooold!

Snow flies again in northern Illinois. Yesterday Tristen went to his school’s spring carnival. Today I remulched the newly planted potatoes and some of the plants that I had uncovered on Thursday because we’re supposed to get 3-6” of snow by Sunday. Hopefully this will be the last snow of the year.

Dorothy Domestic strikes again—or perhaps it’s just spring cleaning fever. I’ve been a crazy cleaning woman lately. Maybe it’s the fasting, I don’t know, but I just need to deep clean everything and can’t seem to stop. Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you.

Rowan’s been seriously cranky today—another tooth perhaps? Or maybe just an off day. Tris worked on his state project. Each student has a state to report about and he chose Michigan, so he’s been on the computer encyclopedia, jotting down info, and talking to grandma who lives in Michigan.

Here’s the kids’ menu for the day:

strawberry flax xrs with cashew butter

brazil nut milk

banana-apple-parsley smoothies

strawberry shortcake-strawberries, dates, brazil nuts, vanilla, agave

cherry tomatoes w/ chia seeds

potatoes

celery with cashew butter

~Sharilyn