A new era in cultured vegetables

Grate
A million carrots (8-10)
Half a large purple cabbage
Throw in some garden fresh herbs, oregano and thyme

Blend
2 pieces of fresh tumeric
Juice of one lemon
Fresh oregano and thyme
2 spoons of ground pink salt or thereabouts 
Half a cup of the grated vegetable mixture
With one large glass of water

Pour the brine over the grated vegetables and mix in  
1 tsp of polybac 8 probiotic powder (used as a starter to establish a universe of exciting microflora quickly)

Pack into a jar, submerge and seal. Wait for one week. 
Inspired by watching Donna Gates YouTube videos on cultured vegetables. 

Dried blueberry almond chia pudding

Complete Urban Farmer #10 PRESERVING

Today's class was on preserving, I guest facilitated our classes adventure into the world of home food preservation.
We talked about dehydrating, sun drying and solar cookers and making live culture food as a way to add value and preserve produce.
We made green cabbage apple and carraway sauerkraut, Kim chi, sour pickled beetroots with Rosemary, and preserved lemons with fresh bay leaves and peppercorns. Everyone had a little jar of kraut and lemons to take home and watch ferment/come into their preserved being.

What I'm eating for dinner is really good

There is no picture.
It's dark, nightime.
Sometimes we don't need pictures.
--
1/4 green cabbage grated
grated heritage turnip
one largish grated carrot
a ripe Roma tomato chopped
something like four tablespoons of sprouted quinoa (red, white and black)
fresh lemon thyme
pink salt
lemon juice
spoon of hemp oil
3 tsps of unhulled tahini mixed with a little water and mixed through

In addition to their ability to multi-task, there’s something comfortable and nice about having a jar of vivid lemons on the kitchen counter to keep tabs on their progess every morning, like a flowering Amaryllis bulb or a family of Sea Monkeys coming to life. I’m keeping a vigilant eye on my lemons daily, noticing how much juice they’re giving off, how soft they’re getting, and enjoying how they gently deflate and nestle themselves against each other as they settle nicely into the corners of my vintage glass canning jar (which I barely rescued from the clutches of some madame at a flea market last summer.)
David lebovitz

By Diva on January 1, 2007 5:04 AM
David… lemons are much better than sea monkeys!

Although I have never tasted a sea monkey….
I learned to do mine in slices, from a Moroccan girl nearby where I am in Tuscany, she also mentioned that her mom sometimes freezes the lemons to speed them along.

I use extra virgin olive oil to cover the top too, and preserve them even just a little more!
I don’t throw away the lemon part, but also use it in my dishes.

It does give a real WOW to anything it is served with.

Parsley mad

Raw auli ous-ous (c-c-c!!)
with baked baramundi in ta-hini-ini sauce.
--
raw c-auli c-ous c-ous
-
1/2 large cauliflower shredded in a food processor lemon juice, pink salt
parsley, walnut and pepita pesto-like thing mixed through the cauli
1 tsp blue manna honey, 1 tsp yellow mustard, 2 tbs hemp oil mixed into a dressing and poured over (adjust to taste)
green gordal olives, 1/2 avocado cubed, a few more dark green pepitas
pink salt, ground mountain pepper leaves

Baked tahinied fish
-
put lemon juice and salt on piece of raw fish, I used baramundi and let it soak for 1/2 hour
rinse and fry in coconut oil, fry brown Swiss mushrooms and leek, add to the fish
mix up a sauce of unhulled tahini, lemon juice, salt, mustard, lots of fresh parsley and mineral water (can also add garlic, pepper...) and pour over the fish. If you have an oven bake it in that, I just use a ceramic crock pot with it's lid on on the stove.
This is amazing if you cook it really slowly for a long time, today I ruses the process a bit so I could disappear and catch an arts festival performance. I'm not sure I like this fast life, want to find other ways of being, slower ones.

white chia seeds and 1/2 tsp rooibis soaked in water overnight
a little salt
a few tablespoons of paw paw smoothie from below (lemon, paw paw, water)
a tsp agave nectar

Paw paw, lemon, water

Chewing

Chewing is definately good for you.
--
Massaged curly kale, salt, lemon juice,
1 tsp hemp oil,
2 carrots,
handful buckwheat sprouts,
dulse,
tahina.

Off to the potluck

Today is incredibly sunny and quite hot. In a slightly frenetic action warrior way I tried to make the most of the sun and comply with the lame Sunday public transport timetable. You can see the potential need of actively staying calm and being somewhat strategic with these parameters. I watered the garden, fed the chooks, washed and hung out m clothes and sheets, gave my futon the air and sun it has been craving all winter, delivered eggs and sprouts to my friend, shared breakfast with him (see previous post), talked about our current focuses, made a plan to start 'preparation day' soon (all processed foods can be made from scratch this is more fun and productive when you do it with other people), picked lots of lemons, climbed the fence and offered lemons to my neighbours I'd never met before, made kale, carrot and coriander soup, made another sushi rendition to take to the potluck, sprayed my germinating seed trays every time I thought of it, washed my sprouts, brought futon back inside, brushed teeth, harvested flowers to take with me, put everything in a box and walked up to the bus. Almost an hour apart on Sundays, but I amazingly made the one I was shooting for with 5 minutes to spare, waiting in the hot sun. I hope me and all my produce arrives safely at the end of this long journey to the otherside of the city. There is no air conditioning on the bus and the windows aren't made to open. I'm really excited about attending the botanical cuisine potluck, okay now time to calm down and enjoy the bus ride.

Karottensuppe

There is something in this carrot soup idea, the development of possible genius. I will keep experimenting until I run out of ideas, as it is delectable and I live eating it!
Today's soup was very similiar to yesterdays though I added 2 small new season parsnips to the blender and garnished with three kinds of sprouts. Rote linsen, puy linsen and buchweizen, if we wanted to talk deustch about our lebbensmittel. The sprouts added a great chewy texture and a sense of protein. I think the garnishing possibilities of a simple yet profound suppe such as karotten are wide open.

I love carrot soup

I really love raw carrot soup. The main ingredients are carrot and soup (aka water) whatever else you want to add is welcome. Some people out there make carrot soup by juicing their carrots and then blending it with an avocado to make it lovely and creamy. I'm a bit rougher and perhaps more primitive than that, and I don't mind the fibre element. I blend my carrots whole with a little water add some lemon and call it soup.
--
3 medium size carrots
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of chia gel (2-3 tbs of chia seeds soaked in 1/2 a cup of water with a little salt and agave)
grated lemon rind
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt
serve with quartered cherry tomatoes and a few freshly cracked walnuts and more lemon rind.
This was perfectly delicious for my afternoon sunshine purposes, herbs, greens and something creamy could also be fun to play with with this soup.

Direct fuel bites

'Direct fuel bites' are a Brendan Brazier concept of a pre-exercise snack, particulary useful for high intensity exercise lasting one hour or less, as the energy is readily available and they are very easy to digest.
The ratio of carbohydrate, fat and protein in the pre-exercise snack is determined by the intensity and duration of the activity. Brazier grades exercise into three levels and explains the nutrition the body requires during exercise, the science behind it and some handy whole food recipes.

The recipe on page 125 of Thrive is
5 dates
2tbs coconut oil
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
sea salt to taste
Combine ingredients in a food processor, make into bite size pieces / tiny balls, store in fridge or freezer.
They provide a direct source of simple carbohydrate. The body gets the fuel from the glucose and MCT's (Medium-chain triglycerides) even before the dates and coconut butter are digested.
There is lots of interesting information and exercise specific tips in his book, I reccomend reading it if you are interested.
I make something like the recipe above and eat one or two before I go for s run.

This dish gives me so much joy

I can't explain it but this is the most perfectly right thing I have perhaps ever eaten, on a soul nutritional level! Haha, how is that for exaggeration or exclamation? At least the best thing that I have eaten lately, it truly makes me feel joyous and nourished. I made it a few days ago and only posted the photos but haven't written up the recipe. It is loosely based on recipes I have brushed past for raw cauliflower 'cous cous' but I wouldn't call it that rather just 'something delicious that occurs when a very fine cauliflower enters your life,' a much longer meandering title but more apt.
Just now this is how I made it, but I'm sure you'll encounter your own
brilliance if you find a good cauli specimen to work with.
--
process a whole cauliflower in a food processor until fine and grainy, put into a big bowl and add lemon juice and salt, not too much as you will need to adjust to taste as the process continues.
add some de-pipped biodynamic kalamata olives, lots of fresh lemon thyme, a tablespoon of hemp oil, quartered cherry tomatoes...
Then back to the blender, this time either a handful of soaked almonds or sunflower seeds and lots of fresh parsley, blend until it becomes a bit like pesto, mix this thouroughly through your cauliflower and it will make the whole thing go a bit green instead of the pure white of a lone cauli.
one very tiny purple coated garlic, hulled and minced and some lovely big leaves of parsley for texture. It's good to taste it along the way and see how you feel, adjust olive-lemon-salt ratios until delicious and you can't stop 'tasting' it, this means it's ready and you should sit down and enjoy it with a spoon.
I'm sure olive oil and pepper would love to be in on this party and you may choose to invite them. Due to not having much oil around I didn't use it but surprisingly I actually really love the beautifully light and airy quality of this dish as is. Sometimes (quite often) simple really is perfect.

Lunchbox on the bus

Cooked millet with lemon juice, mountain pepper leaves, parsley, sultanas.
Cooked pumpkin, raw green capsicum. Tahini miso sauce.

So long since I've cooked something

After an active day of running, planting seeds and working on a mural in the city I decided that I wanted to eat something warm, cooked and hearty for dinner. Lately I've been eating mostly raw, and mostly smoothies and a lot of greens. A simple highly digestive carbohydrate was called for and so I went down the buckwheat and tempeh bolagnaise route. It was very good, I'm really happy I went there.
--
In one pot cook whole buckwheat, when it's ready add salt, lemon juice and fresh thyme.
In another pot fry chili tempeh (crumbled) with coconut oil and pink salt.
Add lots of grated jap pumpkin and continue frying,
after a little while add juice of 1/2 lemon, handful of sultanas
and when your ready add a tin of canned tomatoes, mash them up and mix through so it all goes nice and saucy, add few tbs of water and allow it to cook a bit further. At some point, perfectly timed the buckwheat will be ready. Serve sauce on top of grain and top with fresh lemon thyme. Olive oil would be a good option.
The pumpkin and coconut oil created a wonderfully sweet and fragrant flavour, buckwheat is very grounding, easy to digest and contains Vitamin P - Rutin.

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.

--
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.

Today I followed a recipe

No substitution, invention or omission. It was really good and definately satisfying after a run.
--
"Lemon-Lime Recovery Drink" by Brendan Brazier (p127, Thrive)
juice of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1/4 lime (actually I did omit this just because I didn't have any but I bet it would add another level)
4 dates
2 cups of water
1 tsp agave nectar
1 tbs hemp protein
1 tsp ground dulse flakes
1 tsp hemp oil
1/2 tsp lemon zest
in a blender, process until smooth
"approximately four parts carbohydrate for every one part of protein...this is the ideal ratio to help speed recovery immediately after exercise"

Serious chewing

Massaged kale with sprouts and tahina
--
Cut kale into inch pieces, sprinkle with salt and lemon juice, then massage with your hands until juicy.
1 tbs hemp oil
2 organic Roma tomotatoes (bought in Daylesford yesterday)
A small handful of sprouted quinoa and sunflower seeds
1 tbs hempseed protein
6 or so biodynamic kalamata olives
Topped with a simple tahina (tahini, water)

Delightful drink

This is light and really lovely, while secretly replenishing your electrolytes.

-- in a blender blend together
handful of herbs (parsley, sorrel, thyme, mint)
1 lemon (skin cut off), or just the juice i you prefer
1 tsp raw honey
pink salt
2 cups of water

-- This drink is also very very lovely, adjust amounts to taste
1-2 tbs grated ginger
2 tsp coconut oil
2 tsp raw honey
1 lemon
2 cups of water
pink salt
-
please note that there are many suitable replacements for honey if you don't wish to use it. I think it's one of the most incredible things ever and cherish it's taste and healthful properties but I respect the choice not to use it - fresh dates, agave, fruit or stevia are some other options to play with.