2014 Garden

Finally here the time has come. Just a few months ago from seedlings into the ground they go just a wee plant to nourish our bodies, minds, and soul. 

I've got a Garden...

With the move I now have a backyard for my dog Freyja to play in but I also have a garden. 

Here's a photo of the work we did yesterday to get our fall greens going. Off in the back is a gate to a bigger garden, but that's not quite ready yet. If you are like me than you know how growing brings out a whole other level of love, compassion, and appreciation. We are truly blessed, and I am very excited to share as we continue growing within. 

Eastern Garden Vegetable Soup

A hearty blend of garden vegetables simmered in stock seasoned with garlic and a unique spice blend. (Medium Spicy - Spicy)
This soup has a surprising flavor when you think of a traditional vegetable soup. It's delicious!   


Ingredients: 

onion

garlic
celery
carrots
potatoes, 

asparagus, 
parsnips, 
yellow squash
red bell pepper
pealed stewed tomato 
brussels sprouts (whole)
cabbage (shredded)
baby spinach

butter
olive oil
tomato paste

stock 

flour

red wine vinegar
sea salt
pepper
garlic powder
ginger powder
curry powder
turmeric powder

Forks Over Knives 2011 - Movie

I personally just got around to watching the movie and felt as though I needed to share this information with a few people in my family that also suffer from dis-ease. I highly recommend watching/buying/sharing the movie and hopefully make some wonderful changes to your diet so that you are around the people that love you the most a lot longer.  xoxo love Tania  

The idea of food as medicine is put to the test. Throughout the film, cameras follow “reality patients” who have chronic conditions from heart disease to diabetes. Doctors teach these patients how to adopt a whole-foods plant-based diet as the primary approach to treat their ailments—while the challenges and triumphs of their journeys are revealed.

FORKS OVER KNIVES examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods. The major storyline in the film traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering yet under-appreciated researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.

http://www.forksoverknives.com

Growing Within - Winter Months and DIY Hydrofarm

diy hydrofarm

set up in the dining area in front of the window. 

the shelves are holding the hydroponic DIY container, the blooming tomato and pepper plants,  some house plants, and the budding lemon tree :) 

This will be home until spring. 

UPDATE PHOTO January 14th 2013. 

See how fast we are growing! 

The peppers and tomato plants are growing so fast. See the difference between the two smaller plants in the front of the photo not in the hydroponic system and the ones that are in the system. I started them from seeds all the same day. Things grow much faster in the system. Very excited. 

UPDATE PHOTO January 26th 2013. 

Now, two are 19" tall ready to switch into individual grow buckets on Monday.

(I'll have a post on that next week.)  

My Vegetarian Lentil Soup

My Vegetarian Lentil Soup

by Tania Calderón

click on photos to enlarge

Happy New Year!!!! This 2013 will be a very exciting year in the world of food and growing within. Some of you may know I started sprouting a few months back and We've also started a small hydroponic system which will hopefully grow our tomatoes and peppers indoors.

I'm very excited about the new year and all of the new magic it will bring into our lives, and belly. So, today I'm starting off this blog with a simple Lentil Soup recipe.
There are several types of Lentil Soups, they are a great source of fiber, protein, and iron. During the winter I really enjoy hot soup like many others and especially love the smell of my home when food is simmering on the oven for a few hours slow cooking that nights dinner.
This is one I threw together late this morning to cook in my new crock pot.
Since I've only used the crock pot once it's an experiment because I'm using dry beans that I didn't soak the night before hand.

(uncooked) 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium celery stalk, sliced
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and small dice
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, small dice
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• Kosher salt (to taste) 
• Freshly ground black pepper (to taste) 
• 1 quart vegetable broth
• 14-ounce caned San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes in SM puree 
• 1 1/4 cups dry beans (I used 3/4 cup brown lentils, 1/4 cup chick peas, split peas) 
• 1 bay leaf
•  chopped fresh thyme leaves and stems (to taste) 
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar 
• 5 medium large brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut in two. 

So let's get started...  

I have an assortment of dry beans that I used although I call this lentil soup because I used more of them than the others. 

I boiled the dry beans about 5 minutes on the stove before adding them to the crock pot.

Then I added my other ingredients in the order listed above. 

(uncooked) 

I'll let that simmer for a few hours and by the time I'm ready for dinner my delicious vegetarian lentil soup will be done. No fuss, and what I like about this recipe is all of the ingredients are simple and in their natural form (unprocessed). 

Here we are 5 - 6 hrs later. 

Bon Appetít! 

(btw Basic Lentil Soup Recipe here By Aida Mollenkamp) 

Easy traditional Hungarian Goulash (Gulyasleves / Gúlyas)

This is how I make Goulash. I have used her recipe over and over always with the same satisfaction. Try it!

Juicing OJ & Sprouts

JUICING ORANGES

After watching a video on youtube about the flavor packs put into 100% natural OJ I decided to try and make our own as often as possible. Since we both have family in the sunshine state how blessed are we. 

Here's a typical amount needed to fill a full carafe. We have blood oranges and tangerines. I prefer mine at room temp because you can taste more of the flavor than when it's been in the fridge for some time. I love the colors in this photo I took in the kitchen. Window lighting is my best friend and I suggest all new photographers experiment using it to meet their goals. 

SPROUTS

Easiest way to have healthy greens all year long. 

I'm a big fan and have been sprouting non-stop for the past two months with all kinds a seeds.

I use the jarring method and usually have 1 - 3 sitting on the counter top at a time. 

We put them on salads and sandwiches. Healthy... yummy... Grow your Food!!!  

  

Two tablespoons of a mixed salad blend and they are bulging out ready for eating at any stage you prefer. On this day I made salads for lunch so here they are hulls and all, and I just pinched a bit off the top, and used the salad spinner. Fast no hassle, you could actually eat the hulls with no problem. 

adding and .....

Voilà,  Bon Appetít!

Oh... here's some lentils too. 

different day... different meal still fantastic. 

Sprouts Baby

I have been harvesting all sorts of sprouts grown in my kitchen in a few mason jars on the counter. Have a look at these mung beans harvested today.

After 5-6 days look how long they've grown

washing / de-hulling

into the compost the hulls go

Drying- Salad Spinner on the way. 

Here are the dry beans with the freshly washed mung beans as they dry.

In the salad for lunch along with a generous dollop of homemade red pepper hummus 

You would be surprised if you didn't know anything about sprouting how easy it is to get the micronutrient rich energy from sprouting in your own kitchen. 

Most of the info I've learned I read on sproutpeople.org They are wonderful and offer plenty of useful info and videos to get you started. 

I've eaten sprouts but I never thought about growing my own until a few weeks ago. 

It's an easy way to have fresh greens all year and since our raised bed wasn't successful this seemed like the next BEST thing. 

This is something I'll commit to for life so if the mason jar method one day wears on me I'd like to buy this. EasyGreen Sprouter 

Happy Sprouting!

Tomatoes, Raw Recipes, Enemas

Hello Blog Readers, 

I know it's been some time and do feel a bit guilty for not having shared some updates from the new garden, which by the way isn't growing anywhere near as well as when we had the greenroom in the loft, oh well. I'm still enjoying the the house and the work that we put into creating the space to grow food, as well as our passion for healthy food choices and lifestyle. 

It's already June and tomatoes are abundant everywhere. Even here thanks to special friends Courtney & Landon who shared their beautiful heirloom tomatoes with us. I took this photo earlier today just before slicing into it. It is so delicious, I'll have to make the drive to Pine Mountain from Atlanta for more. 

On another note I've been reading some food blogs and landed on one in particular that I'm really impressed with by Angela & Matt Monarch from "The Raw Food World" who both live a100% Raw Vegan life and have so for years. They are a very sweet couple, and I've enjoyed watching their You Tube Videos learning more about raw food, detoxifying and their life in beautiful country somewhere in Ecuador I think, still not sure but it is beautiful.   

Angela has a nice treat which is an e-book cookbook of raw recipes which I downloaded today and immediately found things that looked good to me, so I thought I'd share. You can find her e-book by clicking on the link below.                                                                The Profoundly Raw Recipes eBook                 This FREE ebook contains a collection of over 35 fabulous raw recipes, contributed by 12 well-known raw food chefs.

While amusing myself watching their videos I found one on Detoxing/Enemas that I really liked. 

For example, in the past I've gone to the health food store and purchased a 2 week or whatever detox cleansing kit that did nothing. Have you? Since watching a few videos and doing my own research,  I've purchased a water bottle kit so I can perform routine enemas at home. It is simple enough and the health benefits outweighed any hesitation I had. Today is day #2 and I'm feeling good. I'm using purified water only. No organic coffee for me. I might try chamomile tea in the future but for now just water. 

If you plan on doing this at home I suggest talking with a professional which I am not :) 

I watched this video below which helped me understand the water bottle.  

I think that's all for now. I've been super busy but I hope to make it back here again soon and share a little more on Growing Within. 

We have a T-Shirt Shop!

click to enter store

Well... we now have something like a shop online. In the spirit of growing this spring I thought it would be nice to design some shirts for my people who share our passion for food.  Fun times!!!
Without knowing how to get started I found my way through one site spreadshirt.com 
and here we are. Since they cover all costs and shipping they make quite a nice penny leaving me with a small percentage that I can assign as I like. Who knows, it's  just fun to do even if I never sell one of my LIVE, LOVE, GROW t's.

This Spring

Since moving in to this beautiful home which I like to call "a cabin in the city", because we are still in the city but also surrounded by the tallest trees. Let me share that is was vacant for a long time so everything on the property was overgrown and just lush with life by the end of summer 2011. Experiencing the changes of the season from the comfort of a cozy sofa on the back deck where I'm able to look out into the trees and watch the leaves fall, and return. I sit here now listening to the many song birds echo for miles in the light rain. Spring has blessed our home  with a birds nest inside the drain pipe against the side of the back deck. Friends for my beloved Cat... Consuela. There's a stream that wraps around the long half of the property which adds that extra sound of water trickling off in the distance. The wild coyotes that use it's path to cross the stream and freely roam over the back 1.5 acre which we don't use is now completely hidden for safe passage. They were so beautiful to watch during winter with tan coat of fur.

Since this post upon moving in, We've answered the question. "Where will our garden go?"

Right here.... well partially. ;) 

click on image to enlarge

Say hello to our raised garden bed. We used large and small rocks found scattered around the property without disturbing the grounds foundation. We also have the large pots from last year we can use so we washed them out and gave them a good scrub with a small bit of all natural dish soap and a scrubber. 

click to enlarge images

Here are the tomatoes we started indoors while there was still a bit of cool weather and frost. This year we bought our seed from a company in NC, Sow True Seed who sells open-pollinated/non-hybrid and untreated seed. So what you are looking at are the Native Cherokee and the Yellow Pear tomatoes.   

photo courtesy of sow true seed

photo courtesy of sow true seed

I plan on jarring plenty of tomato sauce using old authentic Italian recipes ;) Yummy, and hope to share them on etsy.com Who knows... Is there a market for that? 

Where was I? who knows here's some more photos and we're done till next time. 

wild strawberries 

The warmest wishes to the 4 people that read this blog.... May you be inspired to start growing within. 

Chickweed Salad

(click image to enlarge, look closely you'll see the flower)

Chickweed Salad 

Over Thanksgiving it was pointed out that I have tons of chickweed (an edible leaf) growing all over the new property. Today I made a salad and threw a bunch in for fun. Free food - who doesn't love that idea? 

Give it a good rinse and there you go. 

Ingredients: 

• red leaf lettuce 
• chickweed
• avocado 
• cilantro
• onion
• green pepper
• sunflower seeds
• shiitake sesame dressing :)

I've learned there are medicinal benefits to eating this common weed. It tastes a bit like corn but I also felt some kick as in a peppery flavor. Well last month Fox News showed a clip from Central Park NYC. with Steve Brill on foraging, and yes chickweed was a part of the many natural plants they found. 

Here's the link to watch: 

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/10/health-benefits-chickweed/

 Let me know if you find some outside your door. Don't be afraid to try some. ;)