Finding food is easy even when you think there's none, so super lucky to live here

I keep missing market day and so my fresh food stocks were almost totally empty today. But I searched around and found if I went for good wholesome cooked foods (instead of raw) I could pull something enjoyably delicious and sustaining together. Harray for food!
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2 pieces of frozen chia bread (I call it cake bread, it's like
poppyseed cake), toasted
One freshly laid egg from my friends nest
Organic eden yellow dijion mustard
Biodynamic mount zero beetroot and orange relish
Fresh baby tatsoi

Breakfast smoothie

Similar to the midnight smoothie but Value added with greens (without tasting too green!)
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1 banana
1 mango
1 cup of water
1/2 lemon juiced
small handful of coconut flakes
2 spoons of mesquite (deeper mid range flavour to balance the sour lemon/mango)
few handfuls of cos lettuce and lemon sorrel from garden

Wrap with mustard greens from Mikoto's garden

Raw 'stirfried' buk choy

Inspired by a recipe I read but then adapted to available ingredients, I made this for lunch today and it was so delicious.
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3 buk choy's chopped up
juice of half a lemon
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spoon of genmai miso
spoon of coconut oil
spoon of golden raisins
a few spoons of water
blended together into a sauce and poured over the buk choy
I also threw in a few raw pistachios.

Oh yeah, green is what I needed!

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neatly snipped specimens from my glorious coriander tree, and diamond leaves of spinach
a banana and one kiwi fruit unwrapped from it's brown furry hiding place
a glass of water, blended until it is a thick smooth and gritty delight (grit = kiwi seeds)

Conscious Nutrition Classes

The wonderful Heidi is giving three workshops at Prana House in Thornbury soon, they look really awesome. Im going, you should come too!

Monday 8th November 7.00-9.00 p.m. Raw Vegan Dairy Alternatives 
Learn how to make delicious milk, yoghurt, cheese and cream using nuts and seeds. Sample a variety of dairy alternatives that tantalize the taste buds and stir the imagination.

Monday 15th November 7.00-9.00 p.m. Beyond Greens
Learn how to make salads that use not only traditional salad greens but also incorporate weeds, medicinal herbs and edible flowers. Discover how and where to finds these ingredients, how to identify them correctly and their amazing nutritional, medicinal and spiritual benefits. Samples of these truly amazing foods will be available to try on the night.

Monday 22nd November 7.00-9.00 p.m. Raw Vegan Desserts
Learn how to make a raw vegan cheesecake and a divine chocolate mousse. Decadence has never been more beneficial to mind, body and spirit. It’s worth turning up for the samples alone!

To book or read more go over to Heidi's website Conscious Nutrition
Bookings Essential - Please phone 0415 626 893 or email info@consciousnutrition.com.au to register your interest 




Rainbow mustard wrap ups Holly and I made!

Holly came over with produce from her garden, including a super huge purple coloured mustard leaf. It was quite magnificent. Recipes I have seen for raw food 'soft tacos' came instantly to mind, so we made something of a wrap up. 

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Walnut meat like bit (haha)

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Shelled walnuts, ABC butter (almonds, brazil, cashews),

olive oil, salt, fresh time, ponzu sauce (japanese dipping sauce that we found in the cupboard, anything like tamari would work or whatever)

a little coconut oil and amy's morrocan spice

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wrap in mustard leaf with avocado, capsicum and red cabbage.

Delicious and mustard firy, we were really super happy that the avocado was in our lives.

Complete urban farmer #4 COMPOST

Things I learnt today
* there are four main ingredients needed to make compost - Carbon, Nitrogen, Moisture & Oxygen
* the difference between hay and straw -
Hay is when the whole plant is harvested and cured, such as lucerne, this means the nitrogen is retained
Straw is the fibrous part of a plant that is left after the peas/beans have been harvested, such as pea straw, which means it is mostly carbon
* humus is the stable end product after the decomposition process, ie what compost becomes when is cooked and ready
* Nitrogen - greens, grass clippings, food waste, manure
* Carbon - straw, cardboard, wood chips, leaves
* if anaerobic (if not enough oxygen is present), it is not compost, as the beneficial fungi and bacteria are asleep or dead and some other crazy creatures have taken over
* Fungi store carbon in the soil
* fungi can send out toxins and enzymes across distances to break down leaves and organic wastes so the conditions are favourable for when they arrive there later

Making hot compost

Hot Aerobic Compost
is a method to make a lot of compost in a fairly short space of time, it involves an optimum "Carbon Nitrogen Ratio" and because of the "heat" it kills weed seeds and pathogens, which is particulary useful if the source of any of your ingredients is questionable. The heat in this process is created from microbial production, as the little single celled bacterias eat and reproduce they create heat. If they create too much heat and there is not enough oxygen for them to breathe the compost goes "anaerobic" and thus this method is quite labour intensive as you need to keep an eye on it's internal temperature, or if you have a special compost temperature probe this makes life easier. If the compost is too hot or too cold, the entire pile needs to be turned. A pitch fork is good for this. The ideal is 55-65•degrees.
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The compost our group constructed (as seen in photos above) consists of
6 month old compost (which hasn't completely decomposed)
straw
grass clippings
hand harvested weeds (nettles, grasses, mallow)
dried chicken manure
wood chips we found in a pile that had some fungi growth
400 liters of water

Rainbows growing in the hot house

I found mâché seeds!

When we picked up the straw today I noticed the store had a stand of imported Italian seeds, I had a quick peek and there they were! Mâché feldsalat, valeriana, lambs lettuce, corn salad (all same thing different languages)! Harray finally! And only $2.30! And just down the road!

Stellaria media, Chickweed

Chickweed has been esteemed as an internal cleanser and external healer. It is a soothing and healing herb for the entire digestive system, helping to relieve conditions such as inflammation, ulceration, and bowel disorders. It is said that chickweed possesses many of the healing properties of the valued American Indian remedy, slippery elm. All respiratory complaints can benefit from chickweed. It also has been used as atea and the leaves are eaten for arthritis, rheumatism, blood poisoning, constipation, colitis, gastritis, acid indigestion, diabetes, candida, cancer, fatigue, fractures, mouth ulcers, to strengthen the heart, improve eyesight and to assist the function of the thyroid, liver, gall, kidneys, bladder and lymphatic system. Stellaria media, the plants botanical name, means little star and this plant with its star flowers, in herbal folklore is a 'star' at helping, when we need to gently dissolve something, or to relieve and cool inflamed tissue. As a folk remedy, taken daily over a number of months, it has been known to dissolve cysts, lumps in the breast and elsewhere in the body. Chickweed also thins the membranes of the cells, so that nutrients are more readily absorbed and utilised.

Thrives in the cooler months and in shade, as a sprawling ground cover with soft 1cm long, ovate-shaped, lime green leaves; a line of tiny white hairs runs down the opposing sides of each stem, between each pair of leaves; star- like, tiny white flowers form at stem terminals. In some areas of Europe, chickweed is encouraged in orchards, as it is believed to increase yields of fruit.

From this article 'Getting to know and use edible weeds' from Isabel Shipards's how can I be prepared With Self Sufficency and Survival Foods? book

Stickyweed paw paw smoothie

I managed to save a little of yesterdays paw paw for this mornings green smoothie. I chose stickyweed for this mornings harvest as I haven't ventured into it's culinary potential other than a little nibble yesterday
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1/6 yellow paw paw
Small handful of stickyweed, garden lettuce and fresh mint leaves
1/6 avocado
1 cup of water
Dash of lemon juice

Garden + sprouts + tahina

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Dandelion greens, milk thistle, spicy rocket, curly lettuce, parsley, nasturtium and calendula flowers.
Mung, buckwheat and lentil sprouts, soaked almonds.
grated carrot, a little avocado and a bit of fried organic tempeh
Tahini miso sauce (1 tbs tahini, 1 tbs genmai miso, water, 1 tsp hemp oil)
thankyou

Morning greens

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Blended with 2 cups of water and 1 banana

Wishlist

a bicycle powered blender
a spatula
a tart case or pie tin
a mentor
more food sharing adventures

some mâché seeds so I can grow and eat it,
in Deutsch it is called Feldsalat and its really good, ive never seen it here only on adventures in Europe.

Daikon green smoothie

these beautiful daikons were grown in the Ceres market garden. I love it when you buy vegetables and the greens are still attached.
I made up a big batch of green smoothie this morning and filled a few glass bottles for the rest of the day.

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3/4 bunch daikon raddish greens (greens from 2 raddishs)
2 large stalks of celery
3 small pink lady apples
1 orange (peel removed)
juice of 1/2 a lime and 1/2 a lemon
5 cups of water
1 banana as an after thought to bring it together.

This was quite a thin smoothie, with more water than thickness, and a lot more fruit than I would normally have. I have noticed if you don't drink it right away the bitter flavour seems to intensify a little over the day and so adding more fruit helps this.

I'm not sure if tofu could save the world

But it's nice to eat it sometimes.
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brown rice cooked in water, when 3/4 cooked
add this - (in a blender, blend together carrots, pumpkin, garlic, lemon juice, pink salt and water)
let the rice continue it's cooking until the pumpkin is also cooked
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this bowl is
pumpkin brown rice (from above)
fried smoked tofu
red cos lettuce
a sauce made with:  Loving earth brazil nut butter, genmai miso, hemp oil and waater

enjoy with chopsticks in the sunshine.

2nd bowl green

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Same soup as before (raw carrot soup)
Just added some sunflower seeds (blended with water separately for a milky affect), a few leaves of dinosaur kale, tiny bit of raw Ginger and a dash of hemp oil to serve