Pesto - Raw Food you may already eat

Yesterday was Meatless Monday, and I guess today is Italiano Tuesday.

I love pesto. Did you know it is often made raw, and can be made with any number of ingredients? I first fell in love with pesto as a child, but didn't know what was in it. Later, I started asking restaurants where I found it particularly delicious, what is in this stuff? And soon I realized it can be as simple as 3 little ingredients, olive oil, nuts, and basil. It can also have cheese in it like Parmigiana or Romano, but I don't think cheese would qualify as raw. I'll have to look that up. Anyway, I left it out of this recipe, as I figured it's easier to just shake some on and know the measurements since I keep track of exactly what I eat on at least 3 days a week. If you choose to add cheese, I'd add about 1/2 an ounce, taste, and see if you want more.

Today I made some with Thai Basil from my neighbor's garden, (Thanks Amy!) and some pistachios that needed to be used up. We have a tiny food processor, so here's the slightly more complex recipe I used:

Ingredients:
1 cup of Thai basil (just the leaves, flowers and stems excluded) 

1/2 cup of green pistachios

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Spicy Pasta Olive Oil 

The Spicy Olive Oil is a seasoned oil from The Dipping Well, a locally owned store that just opened down the street from us near 26th Ave and Baseline I believe. It basically has roasted peppers, basil, and sea salt infusing the oil, so you could add the above to some olive oil if you're not in the Phoenix, AZ area.

Instructions:

Pulse a bit to begin mixing, adding olive oil between pulses, and then using a spatula, push ingredients down and pulse until it is the consistency you want. You may need to push it down a few times to get all the leaves and nuts well chopped and blended. I chose to use less olive oil than most recipes I've found, because I am watching my weight and pesto is a high fat food. All good fats, but still, something to be aware of. 

For lunch I had some on flaked salmon with wilted spinach and arugula and a pear. BtW, we got some amazing pears from a neighbor recently. DELICIOUS! If I had my aquaponics system up and running, I could have had everything grown at home or from neighbors. But we canned some of those pears, and today I gave a can to the wonderful lady who gives me as much basil as my heart desires. Why spend money on food, when you can share your excess with neighbors! I call it being neighborly, but I suppose in a way, it's a form of Freeganism. I am not freegan myself, but I try to incorporate as many sustainable practices in my life as I can. Step by step, I've been learning and adding more. 

Who knew Thai Basil would be so good in pesto! It has a more floral scent and taste than Italian Basil, but is very good. Everyone who has tried it today has enjoyed it. And I didn't end up putting any cheese on my meal, which means I can have some on my chicken spaghetti later for dinner. Hooray! 

Armenian "Cucumber" - a melon?

Recently we heard from a member of our local gardeners group that Armenian Cucumbers are starting to be ripe in the area. We don't have any growing in our yard, so we headed over to Amadio Ranch where they happened to have some. I've mentioned the Amadio's place before. They grow delicious fruits and vegetables. They also have chickens, a cow and some really friendly big dogs who let me hug and pet them (I miss my golden retriever, Roman it's just not the same hugging our little dogs) So for me, it's a win win! They have decent prices and sometimes they slip fun things into an order for us to try. The first Armenia Cucumber we got came to us as just such an add on I believe, and since then we've gone back for more.  The first batch was eaten by Patch because I was sick and unable to eat vegetables. But recently I've been adding veggies back into my diet, and this is the first thing I tried. YUM! I ate them rind and all, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Patch used a mandolin slicer and put them in her salads. They looked very unusual and I don't know why more people aren't using them in salads around the valley, fun! This picture shows some sliced but with the seeds still inside. I removed the seedy parts from the middle, and it leaves you with interesting looking green bits. They taste pretty much like a cucumber, but it's not and I didn't have an allergic reaction, which is always a plus in my book!


Now technically I'm allergic to cucumbers, so you'd think I would be to these. But I was told they are actually not a cucumber but a melon which explains the lack of hives. You can bet I did my research before biting into them, and then I just tried one bite to play it safe. If you're allergic to a lot of foods you learn to first test things out for yourself as well as reading about foods. I test by first touching the new food to my lips to see if there is any itching or swelling. If nothing happens, I take a small bite and hold it in my mouth waiting for an allergic response. If I still have none, I eat a single bite and wait 20 - 30 minutes. If I still have no allergic response, I eat a small serving and wait for a day or two. Sometimes I have sort of a delayed reaction, but this time I did not. One of the delayed reactions I get is a sort of fuzzy headed feeling. It becomes difficult to concentrate and later I sometimes get a migraine. The fuzzy headed feeling could be stage one of a migraine actually, it's called a pre migraine aura.


Here is one page from the Backyard Gardener that explains a bit about Armenian Cucumbers: http://www.backyardgardener.com/plantname/pda_bef7.html I am very excited to find something delicious, healthy and crunchy that I can add to salads or eat on it's own. I may try looking up some recipes online using these and see what I find, but for now I'm perfectly happy eating them like I would a cucumber.


This one was about a foot and 1/2 long or so, and about as thick as a tennis ball although it varies in size from end to end as you can see. It's shown here near a rather large cucumber if memory serves. (tho that could be a zucchini, I don't remember)  Eric Amadio suggested we save the seeds. I did so by removing the seeds from the melon by hand, placing it in water, and separating the seeds from the slime a bit by hand under the water. Here is some information on seed saving and why the bad ones float: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080731021023AAHGFfP You can bet I am going to save the seeds out of this one, because he says they grow really well in the desert heat, and in my experience, most melons do! I love having edible plants in my backyard, and if you plant them in different months, you have something producing almost year round. Here they are on seed savers: http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1357 in case you'd like to try them out yourself and don't live in our area.


I'll be planting some of them that I just saved from dinner, although who knows what will grow as they were grown near other melons, so I may get some sort of hybrid melon due to cross pollination, or it is possible they will just grow a lot of leaves. Either way, it sounds like a fun adventure, so I'm going to give it a try and see what comes up. Worst comes to worse, I'll learn from the experience but who knows maybe I'll get some weird Armenian Cucalope LOL!


Next year I may get some seeds from seed savers or some similar place that I know will produce Armenian Cucumbers and plant the melons at different times so that there is only one pollinating at a time. We'll see how that goes for reducing cross pollination in a small area.


If you grow some of your own food, here are some general tips about some delicious plants: http://www.naturallifemagazine.com/9504/seeds.htm but I would recommend you look for a planting calendar that is specific to your area and plant in season, remembering that your yard may have some slight differences such as I have a 10 x 10 portion of my yard which is in shade most of the day and most of the year due to it's position, so this is where I have planted a tree which filters the little light that does get to that area, and beneath it, some berries. I personally use a combination of planting calendars including the one from Gardeners World down the street which of course recommends the plants which they sell, but so far has always been very helpful info, and mostly I use a combo of the information from the http://www.urbanfarm.org/ and the one from the University of Arizona's Agriculture Department:

http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1005.pdfood

Bare Simplicity

Recently I have begun a second blog to explore simplifying our lives. I may eventually move my adventures in cooking there as well, but for now I am keeping up the two blogs. If you wish to follow my adventures in DIY-ness, building community, local shopping, green/energy saving trial and error, growing our own food, organizing, paring down, tiny houses and the like, you can find my posts on Simplicity at baresimplicity.blogspot.com I suspect some of you will enjoy the article about harvesting our own Aloe.

Food, a Mindful Meditation

Some of you who read my blog may realize that I am a person who does not consider myself religious, but does consider myself spiritual. I have a very eclectic spiritual practice, from many different methods. One of my favorite methods is Dharma Punk meditations. You can learn some great ones here: http://www.dharmapunx.com/htm/mp3.htm

The Buddha said "I was hesitant to teach because this spiritual awakening that I've had is so against the stream of ordinary untrained human consciousness that I doubt the many will be able to comprehend the subtle and profound path." Meaning it's not as obvious as it might seem. I like to remind myself of this, and to find new and interesting ways to meditate and to be mindful in my practice whatever that may look like. I am not at this time in my life meditating daily, but I am starting to become more aware of and make more conscious decisions around that.

One thing I have really found a beautiful practice in being mindful is a mindful meditation around food. It is really simple to do, and is to a large extent about gratitude. I don't do this every time I eat, but every time that I do it, I find myself enjoying my meals even more than when I do not. Feel free to try this yourself, I didn't make it up, but I don't know where  I got the idea. Probably one of my friends who practices daily gratitude.

I make my food mindful of what I am trying to accomplish. I choose ingredients that lead to health and well-being in my body, and if I focus on it, in my spirit. Each meal I have the opportunity to think through what I am preparing and how will it benefit myself and the others eating it, and the world around me. You may not think the food you eat can impact the world around you. I used to think this. The closest to understanding this as a child, was when my mother would say "finish that food there are starving children in china." Which never made much sense to me. But what this mindful meditation on my food teaches me, is to think of where the food came from and what kind of impact that has on the world we live in. Rather than talking about it any more, let me describe the actual act of mindfulness. Let's say I chose to eat hummus with pita and bell peppers that I did not grow the ingredients for or make myself. It can make a simple meal last longer, but it is so worth it.

I look at the pita bread and think or say out loud, "I am grateful for this pita bread." I pause and think about what it takes to make the pita bread and get it to me. I take a bite and then I continue to think, "I am grateful for Patch preparing this meal for me... I am grateful for Carlie buying this food" I pause and experience the bread I am eating fully feeling it's texture in my mouth, it's flavor on my tongue, it's nourishment as I eat. "I am grateful for the bakers who  made it" I pause and visualize the act of baking bread.  "I am grateful for the farmers who raised the ingredients ... I am grateful for the earth from which the ingredients came and the workers who built the equipment it was farmed with... I am grateful for water, without which we would not have the wheat which feeds us." I dip the pita into the hummus and think about the ingredients with which it was made and I think, "I am grateful for the workers in the store we bought this hummus from... I am grateful for the farmers who grew the sesame and garbanso beans... I am grateful for the person who prepared the hummus."

It is important to pause between bites as you think about what went into creating that bite. And before combining parts of the meal, I taste each part of the meal. Each ingredient may have come from a different place. One thing this has made me mindful of as well, is that some food travels great distances to get to us. If I shop without being mindful of where the food is coming from, it might take a large amount of fuel and time to get that food to the store's warehouse, and then to the store. The act of bringing food long distances can add polution to the world we live in. I think about that, and if I feel guilty, I let my guilt go and focus instead on how I might do things differently so that less stress and trauma go into the preparation of my food.

Doing this has helped me to become more aware of things. Where does my food come from. How is it grown? If it is grown with non GMO seeds in healthy soil with healthy water but travels around the world to get to me, is it worth it? Making healthy decisions for me, my family, and the world we live in is all about being mindful. I may not meditate on each piece of food I eat, but doing so on occasion has really helped me to become more aware. It has inspired us to grow more of our own food and be conscious of what we are putting in the earth we grow it in. Recently we have resumed planting and composting and we try to buy locally produced foods if we can. It's a great experience and when it comes time for harvest, it will be some of the best food we've eaten all year.

You may think this post is silly and it may not be up your alley, but I thought I would share for those who this speaks to. I hope it helps.

It's a start

The other day Carlie and I stopped by the Fruit and Bread Barn, and they gave us some empty fruit pallets which make some great starter boxes with a bit of ingenuity and working in the dirt, I'm looking forward to seeing plants start growing all over the place in Phoenix! To start with, we are working on raised beds at some friend's place on 1st Ave. We just call it the 1st Ave House.

Michael D. brought some compost soil, Tamara brought some recycling bins, and we brought the starter boxes. Tammy cut three bins apart I believe. One she cut the bottom off, and left the top so it became a composter. I don't have a photo of that right now, although I did take pictures with my nice camera, I haven't uploaded them yet. For now you can check out the 1sts Ave garden of past, present and future in this video where Mellow and John gave me a tour. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/21018943

After some urban hiking around Phoenix (John walked and pushed my chair, thanks John!) where we picked up some trash, talked with locals, etc. We came back to the house and did some night gardening. Here's a starter box full of sweet corn kernels.

It's not yet a full garden, but it's a start!

Urban and Mobile Gardening - Potatoes

We've been growing fruits and veggies in our backyard as much as we can since moving to Arizona. Ironically, we had citrus and herbs in LA, but that's about it. One thing we've never tried to plant is potatoes. But since getting together with some other urban gardeners, I've discovered some neat techniques for planting potatoes like verticle potatoe gardens that start out as just a 2 foot by 2 foot box of 2x4's filled with dirt, potatoes are placed in the dirt, and when the sprout grows above the top the dirt, another box of the same size is placed on top and dirt is added, and so it continues. Much like #6 in this post:  http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/7-ways-plant-potatoes?page=0,5

This is the method I'd most like to try, and I think it could be made using scavenged wood pallets and the like. Tomorrow we are going back to the Fruit and Bread Barn, and we will see if the fingerling potatoes we spotted there the other day are still around. Unfortunately they were unable to take our debit card so this time we're going to bring cash.

P.S. Was up too late with the kittens (bottle feeding) and overslept this morning when Carlie and Patch took over feeding for a while, so didn't get to the store *sniff* BUT some friends stopped by and they're going to this place that sells compost and potting soil in large amounts for less money and some huge sturdy bags you can use as raised beds that are only 5 bucks each!!! I'm super excited!