I was often ill as a child. It's not really possible to figure out why, but I surmise it was a combination of genetics and environment. The town where we lived was on a lake, and that lake, where we swam, fished, and dug in the sand, was unspeakably polluted with industrial chemicals like PCBS, benzene, formaldehyde, and dioxin. No one understood what that meant at the time, back then in the era of Love Canal and DDT, though later in the early 70's that part of lake was closed to human activites. I barely lived through my first decade. I have asthma, allergies, and a somewhat compromised immune system. As an adult, my thyroid functions poorly, my reproductive cycles stopped at an early age after a great deal of difficulty, and I began to have significant aches and pains in my thirties.

By 40, I was always exhausted. Pale, fat, dark circles under my eyes, anxious, angry, depressed. I reached a point where it was too painful to take a walk, and three years ago, despite a pretty healthy vegetarian diet, I tested pre-diabetic. Spring last year, I got an even more frightening diagnosis and decided to get serious about getting well. I quit a job I hated and took one that pays less but pleases my soul. I drink at least 1 quart of fresh juice a day, eat plenty of fruit and soaked nuts, plus one raw meal and one cooked meal a day. I have largely eliminated grains. Since I started juicing last April, I have lost close to 40 lbs. The weight loss was rapid at first but has slowed, to a rate of a couple pounds a month. Now, clothes I folded away more than a decade ago are loose on me. Strangers remark on my skin...and at 46, I got carded on New Year's Eve.
The funny thing that happened is that in a very short time, drinking juice changed my relationship to food. All my life, I felt hungry. It wouldn't matter how much I ate--I was always hungry. In an effort to control this, I have eaten a diet most people would consider healthy (vegetarian whole foods) since I was 16, yet still constantly, daily, hourly, struggled not to overeat. Within a few days of eating raw foods and drinking fresh juice, that gnawing feeling went away.
My new daily eating pattern looks like this: morning coffee followed by a quart of juice (mixed vegetables and fruits with ginger). I might have a piece of fruit or some nuts as a snack mid morning, and a meal--likely to be eggs with greens and roasted vegetables, or a kale salad--around 1 or 2 pm. Then dinner might be a stir fry or a stew, or if I've planned well enough, a raw extravaganza like turnip rawviolis filled with walnut & portabello pate, topped with raw cashew-creamy pesto sauce. If lunch is raw, dinner is more likely to be cooked. If lunch is cooked, I try to make a salad for dinner. And if I get home too late to properly digest a meal, I'll just drink another juice. Sometimes those evening juices are the best--I spoil myself with apple, ginger and cinnamon, or blueberry fennel beet, or whip up a soup like raw curried carrot or tomato fennel.
But even now, feeling relatively healthy and vigorous, sometimes I wake up in the morning and really wonder how I will get another 40 or 50 years out of this incarnation. These aching feet, these clogged sinuses, that creaking knee, wrecked more than a decade ago, that still won't reliably bear my weight going downstairs...or more distressingly, down a mountain.
What too do? Exercise. Sleep well. Enjoy the world, the fresh air, get outside. Rid your home and personal care of chemicals. Rid your environment of toxic thoughts. Eat good clean simple food that you make yourself, and to the extent possible, grown by you, or a friend, or a neighbor. Too often people are brutal and neglectful of themselves--care for yourself as if you were your own precious child.
For this New Year, the Last Year, maybe, of the old ways, let's focus on healing. Because the beautiful truth, the sublime synergistic reality, is that what is healthiest for people is also healthiest for our sacred planet.

Summer Bounty

109 today, with thunder on the horizon but no rain. Just the hot heavy breath of Summer, who always leads with his tongue. Okay, that's an obscure private joke you may not understand, but here's something cool, good and simple to ease your First Day of Summer.

Featuring all the bumper crops we know and love with a few cheats like avocado, lime, and pumpkin seeds to tart it up, it's a seasonal, vegan, raw, and nutritious full-meal salad.




Zucchini, Sweet Corn and Tomato Salad

It's a salad, so measurements are absolutely unwarranted. Chop, slice and squeeze until it looks right to you.

fresh sweet corn, cut from the cob*
cucumbers, diced
red ripe tomatoes, wedges
zucchini, sliced into ribbons or other noodle shapes
avocado, diced
as much cilantro as you want
some baby spinach or other tender greens
fresh squeezed lime juice to taste
a little salt
sprinkle of pumpkins seeds
drizzle of olive oil if you're feeling it

I hope you have some nice hoppy beer or a grassy little Chardonnay, really cold, to go with.

Incandescent Mango Cashew Cream

It doesn't have to be a lot of work to eat raw. It's true there's some daily or weekly maintenance to accomplish: soak your seeds for sprouting, rinse the sprouts, stick a a batch of seed bread or some tomatoes in the dehydrator. Today's lunch is a great example of how a little planning can result in a terrific meal in just a few minutes.
Sprouts take a few days to grow, and then you can keep them in the frig for a week or more, ready when you are. Romaine is a staple these days, always on hand. I scored a couple dangerously ripe mangoes yesterday, and used one to blend up a staggeringly great sauce to pour over the day's Monkey Nuggets, concocted this morning: carrot, celery, apple, cucumber, and ginger pulp mixed with the usual coconut oil, dulse, and salt plus shredded coconut and curry powder.

Incandescent Mango Cashew Cream

1 very ripe mango
a generous chunk of ginger
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 small handful cashews (15-20)
pinch of Himalayan salt
fresh habanero chilies, to taste

Blend it up, smooth and luscious. And so hot it will make you cry. For joy, of course.

Monkey Nuggets

Or, What to Do with All That Juicer Pulp.

I got this idea from one of Dan the Man’s “Healthy on a Budget” episodes. See the original video here.

I like to use the pulp from celery, kale, carrots, citrus, cucumber, spinach, ginger, etc. to mix up these tasty nuggets, and add nuts or seeds to take it up a level. Kale, cucumber, and celery are the heart of this—so healthful as juices, and their pulp provides a rich green background for the flavors you’ll add. Vary the mix to get different tastes. Imagine…dandelion, cucumber, garlic, and red chilies, with lemon. Kale, tart apples, walnuts, and celery. Carrots with poppy seeds and hemp.

Having done this once, I now find it hard to toss my daily juicer pulp out to the hens. Taste the pulp to see if it will be good dressed up. Your body will appreciate the fiber, and you’ll have instantly created two or three meals out of one.

Basic recipe:

(adjust all quantities to suit your purposes)

1-2 cups juicer pulp (from green vegetable juice)

½ tbsp coconut oil

¼ tsp sea salt

A few leaves of dulse, torn up

Fresh onion to taste (don’t be scared…use a whole onion!)

1 or 2 tbsp nuts or seeds (your choice)

My food processor is elderly and small, so I do this in two stages. If yours is larger or more vigorous, you can process all the ingredients together.

First, chop the onions, dulse, and nuts in the food processor. You may also add fresh herbs, hot peppers, or some spinach leaves at this point.

In a separate bowl, combine the juicer pulp with coconut oil and salt. Begin with small amounts—you can always add more, but you can’t take it out. Massage it all together, then add the onion-nuts-dulse-mixture.

Taste the mixture. Is it good? does it need more salt, a little spice? Fix it up to your taste.

Form the mixture into patties or “cakes” and enjoy with tomatoes, lettuce, cashew-miso mayo, etc. Or use it as a filling for mushrooms, peppers, chard rollies, etc. Flavors will develop if you refrigerate it an hour or two—just bring it back to room temp to serve.

Now then…additions & variations:

Cheery (not crabby) Cakes: Stir in extra dulse, and add some seafood seasoning or crab boil spices.

Cozumel: Make sure there’s some lime in the juicer pulp, use pumpkin seeds and chili peppers, and season with a little cumin and cilantro.

Thai: Cashews, garlic, chilies, basil, and cilantro.

Icaria: Lemon, sprouted lentils, sesame seeds, a couple oil cured olives, oregano, a smidge of olive oil.

Waldorf: Granny smith apples, parsley, and walnuts.

Tu-not: nori or wakame flakes instead of dulse, black sesame seeds, a bit of miso paste, nutritional yeast. Serve with pickled ginger and a schmear of wasabi!

Island: orange and lime pulp, shredded coconut, jerk seasoning.

Carrot Cake: make juice with carrots, apples, celery, lemon, and ginger. Blend the pulp with coconut oil, cinnamon, more ginger, one or two dates, currants and walnuts. Form into little cakes and roll in shredded coconut.

Two Hundred & Thirty Five Fires

Ugh, this WEATHER. I don't make it a habit to complain about our weather here in the environs of the Sanctuary. In fact, it's against my policy. I mean, sure it gets hot. It's humid. The winters can be absurdly cold for Florida. But let me just say, we have not been laid flat by tornadoes, crumbled by earthquakes, washed away by flooding, or buried under six consecutive blizzards. Most of the time, we have fabulous weather other sad locations can only dream of. But right now, and check out this map if you don't believe me, Florida is burning. We haven't had rain to speak of in I don't even know how long. The air is filled with dust...and smoke...and it's pretty dang hot. We're looking at 100 degrees tomorrow.

So, ugh. Limerock dust hanging in the air every time someone passes down a dirt road. Don't get me started about the moron who picked a windy day to disc his field of cowpeas. Smoke. Heat. Dirt. Yellowish, grody fog in the mornings....who wants to eat in such weather?
I do, naturally. So here's what sounded good today, or, How to Make a Meal from Three Leaves of Kale, an Avocado, and a Cucumber.

Lemony Cucumber and Avocado Soup
with Green-stuffed Mushrooms

3 nice big kale leaves (feel free to sub spinach)
1 medium organic cucumber
1 lemon, peeled
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 big thumb of ginger
2 tbsp raw cashews
1 ripe avocado
sea salt to taste

Juice the kale, cucumber, lemon, garlic, and ginger. My darling old Champion Juicer has a screen with bigger holes that yields thicker juice with more pulp, so I used that. Whatever you have will work. Save the veggie pulp.
In your blender, combine the vegetable juice with the cashews. Blend until smooth, then add the avocado and season to taste. You may wish to add a little more lemon juice, or some hot peppers.
That's the soup...cool, soft, thick, creamy, garlicky, salty, lemony.
Now for the fun part...Get out your food processor. In it, chop 1/2 a red onion and a couple pieces of dulse with a dash of tamari, a squeeze of lemon, and a tablespoon or so of coconut oil. Add the the kale-cucumber-lemon-garlic-ginger juicer pulp and grind it all together. Taste for seasoning, then use the pulp filling to stuff mushrooms (or tomatoes, or small peppers, or whatever you have). Enjoy!
P.S. I know you're skeptical, but honestly this juicer pulp trick is one of the best things ever. I'll post more about it tomorrow.

Zucchini Noodles Galore

It's summer, the time of year when the garden starts to get away from us...and that means it's giant zucchini time, and that means a million variations of my new favorite: zucchini noodles.

I admit when I first heard about this concept, I was dubious. I love zucchini--but substitute it for noodles? Are you crazy? Why would you want to?
Then I went raw (or raw-ish, anyway) and noodles went off the menu. Until I got a Spiralizer. That's when things got interesting. It takes like 15 seconds to make a huge bowl of noodles, and maybe 15 minutes to whip up a tasty sauce. Chop some veggies, and you've got a great, filling, fun to eat dinner. You can twirl these noodles on your fork. No lie.

If you have a zucchini (and I know you do!), a few staples, and a blender, you can make dinner in seconds flat. Here are two sauces to get you started.

THAI CASHEW CREAM SAUCE

½ cup cashews (not pre-soaked*)

1 large sweet bell pepper: red, orange or yellow

Large chunk of ginger

1 or 2 dates

1 or 2 fresh chili peppers (to your taste)

Juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp tamari

Handful of fresh herbs, especially basil and cilantro

Blend all ingredients except the herbs until smooth. Let stand while you prepare the noodles and veggies, then blend again until creamy and very smooth. Add the fresh herbs and process just long enough to chop them up. Taste for seasoning. A little agave nectar may be added if you like a sweeter sauce.

*using un-soaked cashews gives a thicker sauce.

SIMPLE RAW PUTTANESCA

4-6 Red ripe tomatoes

6 sundried tomato halves

2 tbsp dry red wine

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp capers

2 tbsp chopped green and black olives

Splash of olive oil

Fresh ground black pepper

Sea salt to taste (omit if using capers preserved in salt)

Handful of fresh herbs, including basil, sage, parsley, rosemary and oregano

Pinch of ground allspice

In a high speed blender, coarsely blend the tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, garlic and wine. Let the mixture rest while you prep the other ingredients (10 minutes or so), to give the sun dried tomatoes a chance to soften. Whir the sauce again until thick and nearly smooth, then add the herbs, capers, olives, black pepper, allspice, and olive oil. Blend just enough to chop the herbs. Taste and correct for seasoning.

Tomato, Fennel, and Zucchini Soup with Herb Pesto

This hearty, colorful soup is a feast of textures and flavors, from crunchy fennel to silky zucchini, all brought together with a sweet-tangy tomato broth and savory, fragrant pesto. We enjoyed it cold, with some seed crackers on the side to scoop up the extra pesto. Tomato, Fennel, and Zucchini Soup 6 to 8 very ripe tomatoes

1 date

3 carrots, freshly juiced

1/2 bulb fresh fennel

1 zucchini, sliced into noodles

1-2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

slivered sweet onion

white balsamic vinegar to taste Very thinly sliver the fennel into a bowl. Lightly season with salt and white balsamic vinegar, then set aside to soften. Juice the carrots along with the coarser fennel stems and leaves. Save most of the finer leaves for the pesto. If you have them, sweet red bell peppers may replace the carrots. Blend the dates with a couple of the tomatoes until very smooth, then add the rest of the tomatoes and process roughly. Combine with Carrot juice. Using a vegetable peeler, slice the zucchini into noodles. Combine tomato base with the fennel, slivered onion and zucchini noodles. Season to taste with sea salt and white balsamic. Top with a dollop of pesto and serve warm or cold. Herb Pesto 1/2 bunch parsley leaves reserved fennel fronds 1 /2 cup pine nuts 1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil 1 tbsp nutritional yeast dusting of sea salt Blend all ingredients in your food processor, beginning with the garlic, herbs, and nuts and drizzling the olive oil in as you go. Add yeast and salt last, correcting for taste.