Tag Archives: diet

The Life Changing Magic of Squash Soup

19 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by in How-To, Not a Garden Post, Nutrition and Diet, Recipes

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There are a few things that were introduced during my lifetime that can be considered truly life-changing…the internet, smart phones, fourth generation antihstamines, and some others. These are really great and all, but today I am reminded of a two other “discoveries” that have significantly changed my life, specifically in regards to the autumn season: no-peel winter squash and the immersion blender.

The pureed squash soup is like the elixir of fall. There is something about that warm, slightly sweet orange silky squash liquor served in a big bowl or just a mug. Its something I look forward to every year when I see the piles of butternut squash and pumpkins at every store in town. Every season, I make up batch to kick off the shorter days and cooler temps. I have tried many a recipe, and have come up with an adaptation that works for whatever I have on hand. The only real requirement is that you have squash, and a preheated oven at 425°F.

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See that pretty dumpling above? This is the ultimate of winter squash (in my opinion). This little nugget is the French heirloom potimarron squash. The name is a combination of two words: potiron (pumpkin) and chestnut (marron), and the flavor is a delightful marriage of the two as well. It is by far not only my favorite winter squash but also my favorite pumpkin, hands down. This squash is also called red kuri or hokaiddo or onion squash, depending on where it is grown. Beyond the flavor, the best part is that this is a thin-skinned squash which means…NO PEELING (enter sounds of crowds cheering! alarms blaring! fireworks exploding!)

If you have never experienced the wonder of not peeling a winter squash, I implore you to get on this. My first no-peel squash was a delicata I received in a CSA box many moons ago, and it was an eye-opening culinary experience to be sure. I looked for that squash for years in two different cities, and nary a grocery stocked it. I knew the solution: grow my own. While I intended to grow delicata squash my first year of the garden, the seed company I was using only had it available in their membership program, which I was not a part of. Instead, I found their potimarron in the seed catalogue which said no peeling was required so I took a chance. I have never looked back since. Granted, these do not store well because of the peel (two weeks at best; probably why there is no commercial presence), but two weeks is about all I can hold out for anyways.

So let’s get started on this special soup journey. To start, take the little squash and just cut of the top and bottom, scoop out the seeds and strings (save for the broth later), cut into chunks and mix with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Easy like Sunday Morning.

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To flavor our soup, I like to use this combination of pear, tomato, garlic, and leek. But you can also use apples, onions, ginger, peppers, anything. I happen to not have any leeks on hand, but I do have sweet onion. The combination of sweet and savory really enhances the sweetness of the squash but not in an over the top way.

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Cut the vegetables in half so they are all roughly the same size, removing seeds and stems. You can peel anything that requires peeling, but I tend to be a no-peel advocate if I can get away with it.

 

Just like with the squash, toss in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

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Lay everything out onto a large roasting pan, and stick in the oven for a good 30 minutes at 425°F, or until the squash is nice and tender.

While that is roasting, heat up 6 cups of broth (chicken or vegetable or whatever you have) to boil. I am woefully out of my homemade broth, I have some bullion cubes that will do fine in a pinch. To enhance the flavor, you can add the squash seeds and guts to the broth, reduce to a simmer, and let it mellow until its time to add the vegetables and then remove.

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The thing about a squash soup is that it needs to be pureed. Chunks of squash and other vegetables in a bowl of loose broth would just not translate the same way, nor be as beautiful or delicious. The flavors have to marry to make it truly enticing. Typically, this is done by using a blender in batches and you see directions that suggest at any time the hot soup and chunks will explode in a furry of chunky orange projectile blender vomit if not done properly. I have no intentions to clean squash off my ceilings, thank you very much.

Enter the greatest kitchen utensil since the slow cooker: the immersion blender. This bad boy is not just a God-send, it’s a life-changing soup instrument. It also reduces post-soup making cleanup by 5 dishes, which in and of itself, is a gadget worthy of an extra trip to Bed Bath and Beyond.

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Once your veggies are roasted up, just pop them into the simmering broth (after removing seeds/guts). Hook up that immersion blender, and BLEND BABY BLEND.

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Look at that…

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Golden colored…

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Lovely silky and smooth…

At this point, you could just add a big straw and be done with it. Or you could add a few enhancements. I like to top each bowl with a handful of crumbled gorgonzola and some chopped hazelnuts. You could also do a dollop of whole milk Greek yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup. You could also do a sprinkle of fried sage and prosciutto. You could also do sharp cheddar and apple chips. Whatever floats your boat.

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How every you top it off, you won’t regret it. Simple, sweet and savory, no-peel immersion blended winter squash soup. If only every day could be like today.

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…and Repeat.

Life-Changing Squash Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 potimarron squash, about 3-4 lb., stemmed and seeds and strings removed and set aside (can also substitute butternut, pumpkin or acorn but peel these first!)
  • 2 medium pears (or 4 small), stemmed and cored
  • 2 medium tomatoes, halved
  • 1 medium onion (or half large), chopped into wedges
  • 3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp pepper
  • 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 2 oz. Gorgonzola or blue stilton cheese, crumbled
  • 2 oz. chopped hazelnuts

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  2. Cut squash into small wedges, toss with half the olive oil, and half the salt and pepper. Arrange squash, skin-side down, on a baking sheet.
  3. Toss prepped pears, tomatos and onion in remaining olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange on a second baking sheet skin-side down.
  4. Put both sheets into the oven for 30 min. to roast.
  5. Heat broth in a large pot to boil. Add reserved pulp and seeds to broth, and reduce to simmer. Let simmer until vegetables are done, then remove pulp and seeds and discard.
  6. Add roasted vegetables to broth. Use immersion blender to puree entire batch to a consistent texture so that there are no lumps or large pieces. If you want a thinner soup, add water as needed.
  7. Serve immediately, and top with scant crumbled cheese and scant chopped hazelnuts to taste.

Live to Eat, Eat to Live

10 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by in Garden Concepts, Nutrition and Diet

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It has been a while, dear garden blog friends, and so much has been happening. This summer has been a little nutty and rather busy and now its over, dead, gone and my lawn is strewn with brown decaying leaves. Ah, autumn and its beauty.

The garden, this year, has been productive in many ways, and less successful in others. For example, my irrigation system worked better than I could have imagined and took all the guesswork out of watering. I set up a timer, which was just supposed to last for the month I was traveling in July, but it was so darn handy I never took the thing off. Sure it has its flaws, like it leaked a bit and the water-encroachment caused it to reset every once in a while, but the time-savings and reduced stress while traveling was worth it. Another success was my insect management program this year. I inter-planted the crops in order to “trick” the bad bugs, and generously spread marigold seeds around the garden border, specifically to manage the fiendish Cabbage Moth and friends. I also opened the garden up to the 4700 wild birds in the yard. The moths were able to find the brassicas after a month of searching, but barely a kale leaf was sacrificed. I loved watching the robins and bluejays and sparrows and chickadees and warblers dive-bomb the bushy plants. Hell hath no fury like a hungry birdy.

What didn’t work so well this year? Well, I opened up the garden to the 4700 wild birds in the yard, and doing so, opened it up to other hungry critters. After a year of not seeing any deer on the property, they have returned, and they returned with empty bellies. Without the bird-tight netting, the garden offered a 24-hour Vegas-style buffet without the two-hour time limit. The deer, sight-unseen, feasted and left the garden in shambles in the course of one night in late August. It was official, the white (tailed) walkers were back, and winter was coming. Would you like to know the damage tally?

  • Corn: gone
  • Tomatoes: gone
  • Swiss chard: gone
  • Pole beans: interestingly, leaves were gone, but the beans remained.
  • Winter squash: leaves gone, too early for fruit
  • Peppers: gone
  • Fall seedlings (cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, broccoli): trampled

What they didn’t take: kale, carrots, basil, fennel, eggplant, parsley. This leaves the score, Deer: 7, Me: devastated.

The only saving grace was the eggplant, which is needed to fulfill one of my New Years resolutions, to eat as much eggplant as possible. They left me the five plants untouched, undamaged, maybe because they know they are toxic, or maybe because they got too full on the tender greens. The tomatoes were hurtful. Seeing my four ready-for-the-picking, full-fruited, prized tomatoes gone in the course of one night was like being stabbed in the shoulder and thigh. It doesn’t kill you, but it is really f-ing painful.

I am not going to lie; it was hard to not be thoroughly angry at the deer. I put a lot of time and thought into that garden, and a lot of sweat and blood. No, that’s not a metaphor. There were a few times I bled into that garden. But, in the end, what was I going to do about it? The deer were doing what deer do: survive the Hunger Games that is their life. The truth is, their entire species has had a tough go at it in Wisconsin. Cronic Wasting Disease is no fun, and neither is the reintroduction of the gray wolf and the coyote. Seeing as how many deer starve to death in the winter, I have to meditate this away, and find acceptance. The garden will continue to grow, and they will continue to feast, and maybe we can find a happy medium.

Swiss Chard after the deer.

Swiss Chard after the deer.

Leaf-stripped pole beans. Makes the bean picking easier.

Leaf-stripped pole beans. Makes the bean picking easier.

In other news, after an embarrassingly unhealthy summer of travel eating, I am reaffirming my commitment to vegetablism. What is that you ask? Who knows, I just made it up. I love all things nutrition, and I love reading books on new diet fads, and trends. Can’t get enough! I mean, all fad diets are absolutely, completely ridiculous, but as a student of life-knowledge I want to know about them all. It is my personal belief that any “diet” that requires a person to take handfuls of vitamin supplements is just not cutting it. Neither is any diet that tries to mimic the diet of our Neanderthal ancestors. We all know that Neanderthals went extinct right?

I used to try these diets a lot in my twenties and the only change they caused was the onset of food-anxiety. I have accepted that I will never be the 120 lbs I was on my wedding day, but that’s okay because the papers were signed and half of CFOs money and property is mine whether I later go on to star on TLC’s 600-lb Life or not. I remind him of this routinely.

But in all seriousness, part of my love of gardening is that I have learned over my life that I feel best when my diet consists of mostly vegetables and fruits and other plant foods. I do love meat too, and would find it challenging (and a little sad) to be fully vegetarian. (Being vegan is not remotely possible because I live in Wisconsin, and if I don’t meat the minimum criteria of 250 lbs of cheese consumption a year I will lose my benefits card.) I don’t need to eat meat all the time, or even every day and I also think the American obsession with protein is a little wackadoo, when clearly the people that can afford to eat only bacon and steak are not the sub-group at risk of protein deficiency. But I digress…

I recently read the China Study by T. Colin Campbell and found its premise fascinating: all diets that are not vegan will give you cancer and kill you. Okay, maybe that’s a broad generalization, but I think that some of the info presented has merit. An animal-free diet was found to significantly reduce the risk of many cancers, heart disease and diabetes and other acquired health diseases. Now, because of the aforementioned Wisconsin benefit card, I will not shun all animal products quite yet. The study does provide me with some merit for my pro-vegetable lifestyle, and validation always feels good. If you were not aware, the China Study is the basis for the book and documentary Forks Over Knives, which advocates not using olive oil or drinking wine. To that I say, I don’t need to live forever.

Now that the garden is heading to its close for the year, keeping seasonal produce the foundation of my diet will get challenging, but for health and personal satisfaction its important to me. So, I am reaffirming my commitment to this semi-vegetarian vegetablism, right after I use up the 245 lbs of venison meat in the freezer.

The Delicate and Complex Intricacies of the Dinner Salad

18 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Nutrition and Diet, Recipes

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As of today, June 17, 2015 7:10 PM CST, there is enough lettuce in the garden to feed me and CFO dinner salad for 37 meals. I have lettuce growing out of lettuce. Lettuce birthing more lettuce. Lettuce is mating with other lettuce, creating new genetic strains of lettuce, and the baby lettuce is reproducing by binary fission. As fast as I can harvest, the remaining lettuce expands and fills the empty space. Its like the vegetable garden version of the Big Bang. Or the Book of Genesis. On the 6th day: LETTUCE. 

And, it’s not just lettuce, but all of my leafy greens are really making something of themselves. We had a bit of a cold, rainy spell for the past 2 weeks. It dipped down into the 50’s and low 60’s for so long I was worried I made a rookie mistake planting out in April. Well the rains stopped and the clouds parted, and now I have Swiss chard, spinach, and beet greens taking over like they own the place. (But they don’t; that would be the lettuce.) In truth, I tripled my Swiss chard planting because it is one of my top 5 plant foods, along with eggplant, tomatoes, basil, fennel, sweet corn, summer squash, winter squash, fresh peas, pole beans, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, beets, kale, peppers, and…wait, is that more than 5? Well, maybe I have never met a vegetable I didn’t like (except for iceberg lettuce. not even on tacos.), but I do really like chard. Not only because it is beautiful and delicious, but its a cut-and-come-again kind of vegetable and will keep giving you food every. single. day. But, I digress.

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Chard leaves the size of my head.

Now back to lettuce. What to do with so much lettuce? I think of myself as a vegetable maverick, a wild card, I like it all and will try anything if its edible and won’t kill me. I once make an entire stir fry with just lovage. Seriously. It was disgusting and I learned something. But my brain just can’t go beyond the simple SALAD with lettuce. Yes, you can wilt it, yes you can roll things into it, but really it all comes down to salad. In the end its all salad. Because, cooked lettuces are just not appetizing. Nor should they be. Fresh lettuce is something to savor and dream about, because it will never get better than it is in June. So, how do we make the dinner salad exciting?

There are a quadrillion salad recipes out there. Maybe even 10 times that. I know, because I have tried every single one. They all have the same formula. They all have the same formula to the point that now cook books just give you these formulas.

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BAM! Makes you feel like you have solved the mystery of the sphinx! But we know the salad formula, don’t we? Its not quantum physics, its food. All you need are these five things:

1. Lettuce.

2. Other stuff.

3. Dressing.

4. Open-mindedness

5. Alcohol (in case you are too open minded).

I have found over the years that the more I try to follow any set recipe, the less successful I am. The best dinner salads are those where I collect my lettuce, look around the kitchen/pantry/garden to see what I can add, and top with the most basic dressing possible.

Take tonight for example. Start with a healthy mix of greens (which happens to be a combination of at least 6 varieties tonight). I had radishes (tail end of my month in radishes), corn, grape tomatoes, Italian farro, and garbanzo beans.

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I whipped up some dressing using this recipe:

The Only Dressing You’ll Every Need To Make:

  • 1 part Vegetable oil (I like the extra virgin olive variety)
  • 1 part Vinegar (red wine, white wine, rice wine, balsamic, whatever)
  • Squeeze of emulsifier (dijon mustard is good, you could use mayonnaise)
  • Salt and pepper and any other seasonings you like (spices, herbs, tabasco, go crazy)

Mix well and done. I shake up in reused jam jars. Add or adjust any flavor components as needed and taste before you serve.

Top the salad with the dressing, and add anything else you may want. I cooked up some shrimp, and voila! Dinner is served.

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I only talk about dinner salad because not only is it what we have eaten every day for dinner in June, but there is usually a point when CFO asks me “What’s for Dinner?” and the “salad” response results in a downtrodden, disappointed “oh,” to which I correctly, and justifiably respond with “Oh I am sorry, did the KING want his WOMAN SERVANT to make something ELSE FOR DINNER!?!?!?” Again, I digress.

There is a point when salad is just not exciting, so we gotta try to make it exciting. Keep it simple, keep it tasty, and order wine in bulk.

My Month in Radishes

08 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by in How-To, Nutrition and Diet, Recipes

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Radishes. Ahhh, the spring radishes. What a delight! One of the first vegetables in the garden, seed-to-harvest in 30 days, this makes them great to interplant with any longer-season vegetables like squash. I did that, and by the end May had radishes,

IMG_1821 And radishes….

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I have so many radishes, that even Jessica is all radished out.

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This, from an animal that literally did a backflip when I first gave her a bowl of the greens. So…time to get creative.

What does one do with so many radishes? First, don’t toss away those greens! If you are, you are missing out on a really SUPER food. Radish greens, like beet greens and turnip greens, are not only edible, but packed with vitamins and minerals. Actually, the greens have more Vitamin C than the roots. They have some kick to them and are more in the flavor category of arugula than beet greens. If you like that, use wherever you would use arugula, but if you don’t like that, use like cooked spinach or chard. Or try these:

Radish Top Soup 

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Sautee one cup chopped onion in 2 Tbsp butter, add 3-4 medium peeled, diced potatoes, cook for 5 minutes, add 3-4 cups chopped radish greens, cook 1 minute, add 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes (until potato is cooked). You can add seasonings that you want, I used minced garlic, red pepper, black pepper, and salt. I also added a can of white beans for more protein. Once cooked, puree with an immersion blender. If you want a thinner soup or don’t like the consistency of a bean soup, you can leave out the white beans, and add cream to taste after blending. Great when served with bread to dip.

This soup is surprisingly tasty. CFO balked at it when I made it, but then mistakenly put the left over cold soup on his salad the next day instead of the avocado dressing I made, and said it was a fantastic salad dressing before realizing his mistake. It was both my proudest moment as a home cook, and my weirdest.

Radish Top Pesto 

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Now we are talking! I love pesto. I mean, reeeaallllyy loove pesto. Its on the same level as Italian cured meats, olives and wine. The greatest hits. Pesto literally means ground or crushed, and, while traditionally refers to Genovese basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmagiano-Reggiano and olive oil, can really be made with anything. I like to swap up the vegetable (try parsley, cilantro, artichokes, anything green, anything purple!), nuts (almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios), and cheese (umm…just kidding don’t do this). I always have some form of pesto on hand in the freezer for those quick dinner nights. Pasta, pesto, boom. Its also a great way to preserve too much of a good thing.

For this pesto, I used 4 cups radish tops, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup mixed almonds and pistachio kernels, and grind in a food processor. While processing, slowly stream in extra virgin olive oil until the mixture becomes smooth. It should be thick, but still have some movement to it. Add salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, and briefly blend to mix. If the flavor is too bitter, you can add a splash of white wine vinegar or a pinch of sugar to mellow it out. Or more cheese. Can’t go wrong with more cheese. Top pasta, vegetables, pizza, spread on sandwiches, eat with a spoon. So good.

Now for those radishes. Raw radishes are divine, but you can also cook them. However, the absolute best way to eat radish roots, and this is proven by the French, is with butter and salt. I swear, you will no go back. But you might have to, because this way significantly increases your butter consumption. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Petit Radis au Beurre Sale (Breakfast Radishes with Salted Butter) 

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Soften some butter, dip radishes into butter, sprinkle with sea salt. Enjoy! You will feel 85% more French after this experience.

For something more challenging:

Pickled Radishes 

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I made these after a friend recommended them after I complained to her of not knowing what else to do with radishes. This recipe was simple enough: thinly slice about 2 cups of radishes and place in glass jar. I used a mandolin and nearly lost a finger, but I got very thin radishes. I recommend this method but strongly discourage texting and slicing. Mix 3/4 c white wine vinegar, 3/4 c water, 2 Tbsp salt, and 3 Tbsp honey, bring to a boil on the stove to dissolve the salt and sugar. Pour over radishes. Loosely top, let cool about 1 hour, then place in fridge. Full pickling will take about 1 day, and these babies should always be stored in the fridge, and eaten within a week. No one wants botulism.

Keep in mind when you open the jar, it will be pungent. I think these taste phenomenal, but unfortunately, CFO does not. I did learn through this radish ordeal that he hates anything pickled that is not a cucumber. So, not only do I have a bucketful of fresh radishes to eat, I also have a pint of pickled radishes.

Tonight, I will be trying out some roasted radishes, which will go along with salad as we enter the Month of Lettuces.

Happy fresh eating!

Locavore, or Just Loca?

22 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by in Cost Cutting, Not a Garden Post, Nutrition and Diet

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I often find myself in conversations talking about eating local, because I like the idea of my money supporting my economy. Sometimes I get those looks, you know the kind I am talking about. The kind of look that makes you feel like you just finished taping an episode of Portlandia…

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Now don’t get me wrong, part of me does really care about Collin and how successful he feels his short life was, but let’s be honest, that is my own guilty feelings of conventional chicken farming projected onto my food. If Collin knew that 8 months from his birth he would be beheaded, plucked and boiled into Sunday dinner, I suspect his outlook on life would be grim regardless of how many cabbage worms he found in his 4 acre playground.

No, my version of being a “locavore” is less bleeding heart, and more fiscally responsible. Americans, it turns out, spend less on food than anywhere in the world. In the WORLD! According to a study from 2009, we spend on average 6% of our household expenditures on food. I suppose by comparison, CFO and I are out of bounds by spending about 15% of our expenditures on food. How dreadfully European of us. That, or we are ridiculously cheap in all other household expenditures. The odd part is, I am constantly battling our monthly food budget to see how I can lower it and cut waste. I think I do very well, for example, this week I spent $67.00 on groceries for two people and a rabbit child. That’s pretty damn good, even for American standards I think. So if we already spend less on food than anywhere in the world, why do I care about eating local? I will give you my top 5 reasons.

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Local bounty crate at major chain grocery store. The farmer’s pictures are an added bonus.

Reason #1: Culinary Adventure

I love to cook. Love. To. Cook. I don’t know what I am doing in the kitchen half of the time, and have no actual training apart from experiencing home cooking as a child, but the appearance of food makes me giddy to an extent that CFO questions my normalcy. I shouldn’t even be allowed at farmer’s markets anymore because I get so overwhelmed by all the bright colors and produce choices that I get heart palpitations, need to breathe into a paper bag, and down a glass of orange juice so I can stay upright. And, my farmer’s market only has 12 vendors. My point is, when I try to stick to what is available locally, I get to try vegetables and fruits I may never have otherwise. Had I never purchased 2 lbs of tomatillos, I would never have experienced fresh salsa verde in the summer. And trust me, summer salsa verde, that’s the dream.

Reason #2: Smart Home Economics

I am lucky enough to live near food Paradise, an employee owned grocery chain that carries every possibly kind of food ever wanted needed or invented. Paradise also happens to have the best produce prices year round. Produce is a commodity item, which means the price fluctuates with the market, and why you see prices of green beans fall in the summer when there is high production and soar in the winter when they are shipped from Mexico, and then fall again when they get moldy sitting in those water spray bins. Many grocery chains are beginning to carry locally sourced produce in the summer to appease a demanding public, but if you are lucky to have your own Paradise, you may be able to find year-round local produce at rock bottom prices. For example, in February, celery root, parsnips, turnips, parsley root, and rutabagas are being stocked by the bin full and they make delightfully filling meals. And, at less than $1.00/lb for these, it’s a pretty cheap way to eat in the desolate months. Compare that to $3.99/lb for out-of-season asparagus. For me and CFO, not a tough call.

Reason #3: Local Economy Feeding

The Wikipedia definition of a locavore is one who only consumes food harvested within 100 miles from their home. That is fairly limiting, and I am not one to collect wild dandelion greens from the elementary school playground. But, I do make a point to purchase products that are grown and/or manufactured within Wisconsin and the mid-west when I am able and can afford to, because the money I pay goes back into my own local economy. More money to the producers, means more production, which means more jobs to fulfill the demand, and more people earning money to spend money. Yes, friends, this is how we can resuscitate a broken economy.

Reason #4: Diet Diversity

The sad reality is, commodity produce that we see at grocery stores are cultivars that have been specifically bred to withstand long transportation rides and bad conditions, and they are often harvested before they are ready, and artificially ripened during shipping. Think about all those green bananas from Argentina. The negative of this, is what we end up eating is a bland, nutritionally flat diet. You know who you are, if this sounds familiar: you eat a half chicken breast with 10 asparagus spears and a quarter cup of brown rice on Mondays. On Tuesdays you change it up with green beans and quinoa. The rest of the week is a similar remix. Sounds healthy, the problem is that it’s extremely limited on nutritional content. Yes, chicken breasts are good and yes, so are asparagus and green beans, but they do not have everything we need to sustain us. This is why so many doctors recommend multivitamins, because they know we don’t eat properly. By eating with the seasons, you are made to vary your diet because asparagus is not meant to grow in snow banks. By purchasing foods locally, you get the best seasonal produce available and the most nutritionally complete because it was harvested at its peak.

Reason #5: Self-Sufficiency

I want my food to be local and I don’t want to rely on horse pills to stay healthy. This, and home economics, is one of the big reasons why I grow vegetables and fruits. I also want to be able to feed myself, CFO and any future bambinos wholesome, good foods and not just corn, 175 ways. Many of the foods we now purchase from stores were once made exclusively at home by our mothers, or grandmothers, or great grandmothers, and we have lost some of those skills. I think if we care to, we can relearn them. I am not a housewife, I work full time, and travel every other week, and I have no time to do any of this because, you know, I have a very grueling Netflix watching schedule when I finally get home. It’s a struggle not to eat frozen pizza or take out some days. But I try to keep in perspective that I do these things for me and CFO. I know that I can make chicken stock, bread, fresh cheese and yogurt, ice cream and almond butter, and I can do it with less ingredients and less cost than anything I can purchase, even from my Paradise. This gives me more control in a world where we increasingly have less control. And that makes me feel good at the end of the day. No matter how many dishes are left to wash.

I encourage you all to go buy a locally grown rutabaga, and report back.

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I only eat locally grown wheatgrass in my smoothies.

Safety Testing Conducted on Rabbit

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Nutrition and Diet

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I had an “AH HA!” moment yesterday. It was one of those ah-ha moments where a lesson is reiterated, not learned, but reiterated and reinforced in that slap-in-the-face way. It all started 7.5 years ago on a farm in Sun Prairie, WI. The day was cool, crisp and I was lonely in my Madison studio apartment, and needed some companionship. Companionship of the fury, but silent kind [cue excuse to show adorable baby bunny photo].

Ooooohhhhhh look at that cute bundle of fur-baby! Jessica at 3 months old.

Ooooohhhhhh look at that cute bundle of fur-baby! Jessica at 3 months old.

Ok ok ok…I’ll get to the story. Ms. Jessica Rabbit was adopted from that farm at 3 months old, and is now 7.5 year old. I have had her since she could fit into the palm of my hand. Now she fits into both of my hands, with some spillage. As a poor graduate student, I fed her foods that I could afford: carrots, parsley, and green beans. Turns out, that is rabbit gourmet. Her entire life she has eaten vegetables and hay, hay and vegetables, and not much else. Every once in a while I would run out of real food, and would give her pellets, to which she would ferociously inhale like it was her last meal and then literally throw her food bowl in disgust, and refuse to eat pellets for a good week. That is kind of how I feel after a McDonald’s value meal, when they used to Super Size it for $0.35 more.

Now that Jessica is, ahem, older she needs to see a doctor (vet) every year. And by needs to, I mean they won’t let me board her at the clinic when CFO and I travel if she doesn’t. So last night, I brought her around for her annual physical exam and she, as always, was a sassy feisty trooper. She takes after her mama. After many questions regarding her lifestyle, exercise, diet, sex life (she will live in a cage until she is 25 just like my future children), the vet came to this conclusion: she is the healthiest rabbit the clinic has ever seen. Did you get that?…EVER SEEN. I image that is among hundreds of rabbits…well…ok…at least 15. But still, that’s healthier than the young, spry rabbits. I was actually surprised because I am fairly ignorant of what ills may befall well aged rabbits. Turns out, according to the good doctor, rabbits age much like humans, and acquire a lot of old-age related health problems. The doctor’s conclusion was that a lifetime of fresh vegetables and minimal processed foods has kept Jessica’s health in peak shape. She even maintained a solid 4 lb healthy weight since her last check up a year ago, no gain or loss. I can’t  even maintain the same weight from one week to the next. Amazing, Jessica, amazing.

So here is some math, friends. The average female lifespan in the US is 81 years old. The average female rabbit lifespan in the US is 10 years old. That means that there are approximately 8 rabbit years for every human year, and Jessica is roughly 60 years old. I must say, she has barely aged a day. She takes after her mama in this as well. This is her diet:

  • Carrots and tops
  • Parsley
  • Cilantro
  • Green beans
  • Basil
  • Mint
  • Radish tops
  • Raspberries leaves
  • Blackberries  leaves
  • Broccoli
  • Leafy greens
  • Pea pods
  • Corn husks
  • Cherries, Apples, Pears, Berries (in moderation)
  • And any number of fresh vegetables that I happen to have

This 60-year old rabbit model shows perfect health, which is considered

Long day of work. After this is over, another nap.

Long day of work. After this is over, another nap.

abnormal for her age, due solely to a diet of whole, minimally processed foods (trust me, she’s not bending over backwards to exercise). If we, humans, did the same, can you even imagine what 60 would be like?

The doctor used this metaphor: imagine a 20-year-old man eats nothing but wholesome, unprocessed foods, and another otherwise equivalent, 20-year-old man eats nothing but fast food low-nutrient garbage. At 20 years old, they will probably look the same and feel the same. But, fast forward 40 years, you can image the toll those diets will take? I mean…mind blown. Am I right? Ok, maybe not so shocking, but to see the effects of a long-term good diet in my sweet baby really opened my eyes to the actual, tangible effects of food on health. This is one of the major reasons I choose to grow my own. That, and it makes me feel god-like in my ability to both create and destroy life as I wish.

The Food Bible. Part encyclopedia, part cook book.

The Food Bible. Part encyclopedia, part cook book.

My favorite health-food reference is the nutrient tome, The World’s Healthiest Foods from George Mateljan. I got this in college when I first started becoming a whole-foods fan. It spoke to my special brand of scientific presentation and cheapness. It is literally the size of a college textbook at 880 pages, but 1/75 the cost. All of the content of this book is found for free at the non-profit website, www.whfoods.com. It has a plethora of information regarding nutrient content, cooking technique, recipes, selecting and storage, and Q&A about the foods. It’s not just vegetables and fruits, but also meats, dairy, seafood, nuts, seeds, grains, beans, etc. My one complaint is that they include “raisins” on the list and simultaneously ignore my letters and emails about the danger this poses. I am serious. If this keeps on, we run the risk of raisins masquerading as food when we all know they are poison.

I have used this reference primarily to decide what foods would benefit me and CFO nutritionally, and thus can plan a wholesome, nutritionally balanced garden and kitchen to achieve a healthy diet. Each food has a breakdown of nutrients by content, so you can easily find the best foods for, say, fighting a cold, or fighting the disease of turning 30. Whatever you need, there is a whole food for you, nutrients, and a complete reference list.

I know this post doesn’t cover too much gardening, but seriously folks, its -30 deg F windchill outside. Nothing is growing anytime soon. Stay warm and eat tasty vegetables every day, and lets come back to this in 40 years.

Don't forget about healthy beverages. Eight cups of fluid a day.

Don’t forget about healthy beverages. Eight cups of fluid a day.