The Wheatgrass Shutter

Have you ever experienced that uncontrollable shutter you get when you take a shot of wheatgrass? I can get that shutter if the juice simple touches my skin. There’s something about it that just sends – what feels like – bolts of energy up and down my spine making my body uncontrollably shutter.

What’s funny about it is that it happens to just about everyone. At least, everyone that I’ve ever seen drink the juice goes through the same sequence of events: apprehension – as they hold the juice in their hand, bravery – as they shoot it down, and then the uncontrollable shutter – as the body accepts what it’s just been given.

If you haven’t experienced the wheatgrass shutter you’ve got to give it a try. Why? Well…

This morning, I juiced some new grass and religiously took my two shots and promptly performed my own shutter. Two more ounces I poured into a to-go cup to take to a friend. Fifteen minutes later, I delivered the fresh juice to my friend and she promptly drank it down. I was standing across the room from her and noticed that when she shuttered, I shuttered!

This time, I thought it strange in a curious way. I wasn’t in contact with the juice, I wasn’t drinking it. And yet, her shutter made me shutter!

After thinking about the experience a bit more, I decided to share what I felt with Lori. She quickly discounted the feeling as a sympathy shutter. She said that it would be like the feeling that you might have when someone else is sad or happy.

I thought about that for a little while, but couldn’t quite relate. The shutter doesn’t really come across as an emotional energy, but some other type of energy. It’s almost as if act of taking a shot of wheatgrass makes a person bloom.

The more I thought about this, the more I started to relate that the shared shutter is more like an orgasm. It’s not an actual orgasm, but has a similar characteristic. That is, if you are sensitive, and you’re having sex, you know when you’re partner is in the process of ‘blooming’ and their ‘blooming’ makes you bloom at the same time!

The shutter effect on your body, after taking a shot of wheatgrass, is completely uncontrollable (much like sex) and that energy flow radiates in such a way as to affect others that are in close proximity. It’s as if the juice is so powerful that the body immediately recalibrates its energy flow and the recalibration reverberates into the environment aligning or recalibrating everything else!

There’s some magic in wheatgrass that is powerful enough to change others that are close by. I’m going to pay closer attention to this energy to see if I can pinpoint more details.

Its little things like this that really brings out the philosopher in me!

Best Mint Smoothie Yet!

It feels like harvest time already! The garden mint is nearly a foot tall and it’s finding its way into the kitchen every morning now. There’s nothing like fresh young mint in the early spring. Ok, well, it’s nearly summer, but everything is nearly 45 days late this year so I’m still thinking of it as early spring. I just hope we get a summer before fall comes around.

But, don’t let me get off track with this smoothie. I absolutely love the fact that I’ve got a lot of different things to mix up this year. As it turns out, this combination is a real keeper. I’ve been looking for something where when you drink it your taste budds say “wow, … savory, … sweet, … rich, but what is it?” That’s what this one is! You can taste the mint, but it’s not too strong. The orange, and it’s subtle too. The sweetness shines through, but it’s just enough. And finally, it’s creamy.

Unfortunately, I’m out of oranges. I guess I’m going to have to go shopping again. This time, I’ll pick up twice as many for the mint is coming on strong.

I highly recommend this smoothie. When you pick your mint, get more than you’ll ever think will work! I picked a big handful. And, make sure that its spearmint. When I asked Lori what she thought she said, “Did you put mint in it? I wasn’t too powerful. I think you put in just the right amount this time.” When I told her it as a huge handful, she was a bit shocked.

Let’s get on with it.

Recipe:

  • 2 Medjool dates (remove the seeds)
  • 3 oranges
  • 1 larger mango
  • 1 inch slice of pinapple
  • 1+ cup water
  • 1 large handful spearmint
  • ½ lb fresh young baby Spinach.

This is a recipe that needs some pealing. Peal orange, mango and pineapple the best you can and make sure no seeds make it into the smoothie. Remove the spearmint leave from the stocks adding only the leaves. Turn the fruit and then pack in the spinach. After a go 60 seconds on high it should be ready to go.

As you can see, it made more than a quart and I’ve got more pineapple left for next time.

I really like this combination. Notice that there is no cacao in it! As much as I wanted to add it, I refrained in order to see what it was like without. Well, it’s best without!

I’m sure you’ll love this one too. Let me know.

Good day!

Melt in your mouth Raw Granola

I normally don’t like granola. It’s not the taste of it that bothers me but, rather, how my body processes it. Even though I chew everything like a million times, something just doesn’t digest the best as it goes through me. All the power bars that are packed with dense calorie based ‘nutrition’ I usually just leave on the shelf.

Well, the other day I decided to give a raw version a try. I’m not sure what attracted me to the recipe, but it felt like the thing to do so I gave the “It’s RAW granola …. gRAWnola time!!!!” recipe from The Raw Seed website a try.

The thing that stands out about this recipe is that it’s mainly sunflower seeds, pumpkin (squash) seeds and raisins!  No grains, no nuts and a little bit of flavorings. Meredith, from The Raw Seed, calls this recipe Cinnamon Raisin Banana Granola. I would call it Orange Raisin Banana Granola with a hint of cinnamon!

Recipe:

Visit The Raw Seed Websites Granola recipe.

Meredith mentions that “using sprouted seeds is optional.” Well, I took that option.

As you can see, I made a little modification to the recipe. Not only did I add a few almonds, but I also added the two cups raisins to water to rehydrate them.

Sticking with the ‘option’ on the recipe, After getting the seeds started and rinsing them off really well, they went straight into the dehydrator until the next day.

I don’t have any pictures of mixing this stuff, but that all happened in the food processor. I ran the seeds just long enough to break some of them down but not all of them.

After placing the dry ingredients in the big mixing bowl, I rain the rest of the ingredients through the Vita-mix. That’s where the soaked raisins really broke down well.

Another thing that I did that was a slight variation on the recipe is that I used a little extra orange juice. Next time I’d probably just through a pealed orange in the mix for the pulp would probably to the mixture good.

After 12 hours per side, you get crunchy granola!

When Lori tasted this, her eyes lit up. I think I remember her saying something like: Hey, I could eat this stuff! Can you tell she has some reservations with regards to some of the things that I experiment with? Not everything is good enough to blog about! Lol…

Lunch time!  I think I’ll nibble on some homemade raw granola!  Thanks Meredith for sharing!

Mint Chocolate Orange Spinach Smoothie

If you remember from a few days ago, I wrote about trying oranges rather than apples in my Mint Chocolate Spinach Smoothie. Well, this posting is that variation. I have to admit that I like the orange base much better than the apple one. Apple is good, but orange mixes so much better with the cacao.

If you have fresh mint and some oranges laying around, this one is worth a try.

Recipe:

  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 oranges
  • 1 banana
  • 2 medjool dates
  • Heaping spoon full raw cacao powder
  • Big hand full fresh garden spearmint
  • ½ lb fresh baby spinach

Remove the leaves from the mint stocks, remove the seeds from the dates and pretty much mix everything up on the blender.

As you can see, I added the cacao last. Everything else is just packed it.  Got to love that Vita-mix!

Got a little bit more than this, but the tastes all come together to make something that’s sweet and minty.

If I were to make this one again, I’d use orange juice as the base in order to really bring out the orange flavor. But even with just two, the orange flavor comes through and it balances out nicely with the cacao and mint!

I love mint!  It’s the first thing I get out of the garden every year. Yum…..

Heart bleeds for gardening time

Felt like Saturday morning was our first day of spring! The skies were clear and the air was warm. To contrast that with the evening and all day today – we’ve set rain total records again! Yep, 1 ½ inches in less than 24 hours. But the few hours where the sun shone, it felt like the heavenly days I’ve been waiting for. I guess you can’t really appreciate sunny days if you don’t get rainy ones!

Fortunately, I found the spirit to get up early Saturday and play in the garden. The morning project was the potato garden. Two weeks ago, I cleared some scrub brush and leveled the ground. I had really good luck with the ‘wild’ potatoes that came up on the compost pile that I figured I’d make it a little more official. Thus, two weeks ago, I moved a large pile of compost, setup a fence that was to now receive a couple hundred starts!

As you can see, it’s pretty simple. I picked up 50 feet of 5 foot high fencing that almost circled the entire area. I came up about 4 feet short and, well, figured that would be where the gate goes. The fence posts where cuttings from a couple of the small trees I needed to remove. I sharpened one end and drove them into the ground to make them good and solid. I’m sure they’ll hold up for the area is pretty sheltered.

A week ago, I took the potatoes that I’d stored in the garage refrigerator and placed them in flats on dirt in order to get them ‘thinking’ about growing. It worked great! The spuds that were a little soft, firmed right up and the eyes started to grow. Some of them even set out some roots. Looks like they were more than ready to get on with their lives.

If they do well, I’ll get: German Butterball, Yellow Fin, Red Pontiac, Purple, Katahdin and four other types that taste great, but I don’t remember the names of.  I’m really hoping that the German Butterball an Yellow Fin do well for they both have such a great taste and look. Everyone that’s had them absolutely loves them.  

I’m also totally excited for the raspberries! Last year I bought Southern Bababerry and Anne raspberries plants. I went all out and built raised beds, but the deer walked by a couple times eating all the leaves off the stocks leaving bare twigs. That shouldn’t happen this year for I’ve fence them behind a 5 foot high wire fence.

The best part is that the new starts are coming up thick, strong and healthy! The Anne stocks that were skinnier than a pencil last year are now thick like raspberries plants should be. Check this out.

In the above picture you can see the old stock behind the new one. That old stock only grew a foot tall. The new ones that are coming up should get at least 5 feet tall!

The Bababerry plants are doing great too! Last year’s plants where thin, but they grow a few feet tall. This year, I’ve got at least two very healthy starts from each one. I expect these plants to get the full 6 to 7 feet as the season progresses.

The other surprise that I got last year was a ‘wild’ raspberry plant start that came with some strawberries that I got from my sister. The one start that I nursed in order to get it to stand up 3 feet tall spawned 10 new starts! I have no idea what the berry is like, but I’m sure I’ll find out this year! 

Even though the season has been unusually cold this year, I’m on to my second planting for the cold frame.

This round has beans, zucchini, basil, carrots (that’s right, I’m transplanting carrots!) and parsley.

The previous starts have all been transplanted into the garden and they’re starting to take root.

There must be 200 green lefty plants nicely spaced around the garden. I’ve got two types of kale, collards, two types of spinach, red and green chard, red beets, and salad lettuce. Even with all these plants, I’ve still got nearly 4 beds worth of space left. I figure what’s in the cold frame should just about fill in the remaining space – except for tomatoes. I buy those every year.

Every once in a while I get a surprise plant that comes up.

This year it was a beautiful bleeding heart in the middle of the raspberry patch. These plants are so delicate that normally they would have bloomed and died by now. Not this year.

Can’t wait to blog showing mature plants. Hopefully that will only be a couple months away!

In any case, I just wanted to share. The trees are blooming out so there is a great feel of spring in the air. Getting my fingers dirty sure helps me feel grounded. I loved eating greens out of my garden all last year. Hopefully, these year will be just a fruitful!