Today... & Rethinking Winter Veggies

Rethinking Winter Veggies:

Here are two questioning comments I hear often around changing the diet to a whole food and seasonally based one:

1. There are no vegetables that grow in Northern NY in the winter time. I have to purchase kale, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other vegetables that are grown in Florida and California. Otherwise, what would I eat?
2. OK, so I am getting to know the local vegetables that are available in late fall and winter but what do I do with them?

My root veggie picture,

inspiring me from the kitchen wall!

A list of winter storage vegetables available in Northern NY:

• cabbage: red and green
• winter, hard squash (there are many varieties)
• beets
• carrots
• turnips
• rutabaga
• celeriac
• radish
• salsify
• burdock parsley root
• parsnip
• potato
• onion
• garlic

Farms and stores to purchase local (winter) vegetables in Northern NY: (I am certain this is not an all-inclusive list; investigate and find a farmer who grows good food near you!)

• Martin's Farm Stand
• Potsdam Food Coop 
• Nature's Storehouse

CSA Farms for Winter Veggies: (Again, not an all-inclusive list BUT to find more, go to www.gardenshare.com, Gardenshare's Local Food Guide and find a farmer near you who offers what you are looking for.)

• Kent Family Farm
• Birdsfoot Farm
• LittleGrasse FoodWorks

OK, now for the cooking part. I am not going to put recipes here. I am more in favor of people learning to improvise in the kitchen: grab what you have and be creative based upon time honored methods of cooking and seasoning. Trust me, it is easy. Take a deep breath and just relax and let the cooking flow!

1. Mashed potatoes are yummy! Try any of these root veggies in the mashed version, adding milk and butter. Try several root veggies steamed up and mashed together. Hint: When you steam, simmer, or boil the root veggie: use the least amount of water necessary and simmer gently. Maybe an inch of water in the pot, depending on the pot size and the amount of veggies. (Do not "rolling boil" them to death; it kills the flavor and the nutrients. As you boil off the nutrients you are boiling away the flavor!)  Pour the "simmer" water off into a coffee mug and drink it. There will be just a little bit of water left by conservatively adding water and simmering gently.
2. Roast any or all of the root veggies. Chop into bite size chunks, coat with your favorite oil sturdy enough to handle the oven heat, and roast for 35-45 minutes. Stir every 10 to 15 minutes and stab with a fork after 30 to test for tenderness. You want to create crunchy, cooked veggies, not mushy veggies.
3. Soups, stews, stir fries are always good options.
4. Squash, well... it is squash, roast it up. Steam them if you are short on time. Oven roasting can take 1 hour or more, steaming takes 20 minutes. A butternut squash, raw, grates up nicely into a winter veggie slaw. Just add chucks of apples, maybe a few raisins, and an olive oil - apple cider vinegar dressing seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and nutmeg.
5. Cabbage is yummy in soups, stews, and stir fries. Saute' a pan of onions, potatoes, and cabbage and serve with your favorite protein.
6. Make cabbage and grated root veggie slaws. (If you click that link back there, you will get one recipe from me! But... it is one I have given you many times!) This is my nightly favorite to add a "raw" salad to the winter meal fare: good fiber, good nutrients, and good enzymes from raw foods!

The above slaw is grated: red and green cabbage, celeriac, purple and orange carrots, and a Braeburn apple. The apple was so juicy I only added a bit of olive oil, a dash of cinnamon, and called it "dressed!"

Signs of Fall in the Kitchen

Some signs of fall, in my kitchen, are:

• Squash, squash soup!
• Root veggies of all shapes, colors, and flavors... yummy beets!
• Brussels Sprouts (Create a soup with b. sprouts using the Kale soup recipe, roast the b. sprouts before pureeing into soup.)
• Cabbage!

• Sauerkraut... the crock has come out of its summer hiding spot:

          To make the first batch of fall sauerkraut, cabbage from the Martin's Farm Stand.

The close up, below, displays the green bits of parsley from my front yard herb garden, the green bits of stinging nettles harvested from my yard (I am assuming the sting will leave during the fermentation process much like it leaves during the cooking process), and the chunks of local apples from the Martin's.

I make sauerkraut because:

1. Sauerkraut is good for gut microbes,
2. I can use local cabbage and preserve it for weeks,
3. It is quick and easy to make a batch that will be about 3-4 quarts (takes me about 30 to 40 minutes including clean up),
4. and, after sitting for 10 to 14 days I have 3-4 quarts of food that will enhance meals and fall root veggie salads for 2-3 weeks.
5. I have just enough time to ferment another crock with different goodies added to the cabbage: beets, carrots, celeriac, grated (raw) squash, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga.... before the current batch is gobbled up!

For a kraut recipe, click here. No crock to ferment in? No worries, use wide mouth ball canning jars.

Enjoy!

PS  I confess, I no longer use the hand grater (see my grating picture in my kraut recipe blog post that I linked above) to grate my veggies. I use my food processor. It cuts the prep time in less than 1/2!

Weeds, To Eat or Not To Eat!

www.HandsOnHealthHH.com

Holistic Hugs & Peaceful Blessings!

Paula M. Youmell, RN, MS, CHC

Holistic Health, Nutrition & Fitness Counselor      

(315) 265-0961

"Just lift the corner of the clouds and the sun is 

ALWAYS shining!"          Eli Schechter

Spring Nettles poking out of my home garden plot,  Spring 2014

Weeds to one person are another person's medicine!

I love spring for the wonderful green plants shooting out of the earth around my home, in the woods and fields.  These plants remind me of the ever changing and newness of life, the bounty of good food right outside our doors, and the nutritional value and healing properties of what many people consider weeds.  I personally await the spring's wild leeks, dandelion greens, first nettle shoots, plantain leaves, rhubarb shoots, and so many more spring edibles.

These spring edibles awaken our taste buds, livers, digestive tracts, and each and every body cell.  The incredible amount of nutrients in the plants adds to our nutritional stores and cleans our winter blood, liver, and digestive tracts.

What a relief to move away from my beloved winter root veggies (beets!) and begin incorporating our natural spring foods.

For more thoughts on the whole food-ness of herbs (weeds) click here.

  Dandelion greens and flowers; good for liver health!

Fun Food Focus

Spring Greens Soup

I gather several kinds of spring greens: dandelion, plantain, lambs quarters, nettles, mustard greens, sorrel, violets... the list goes on.  (Learn to identify them, pick and enjoy!)

I gently wash them, throw them in my blender with some raw goat's milk and wild leek shoots and leaves.  Blend into a puree and warm gently.

You can also saute' the wild leek, ever so gently, then toss in the green and saute' for 1-2 minutes before blending.

Easy greens to start with are dandelion, plantain, nettles and violets.

Another idea:  mix them in a salad with local, mixed baby greens - they should be available soon!  Dress with raw - apple cider vinegar, organic - extra virgin olive oil and a few dried spices.  Yummy!

This picture taken today, 5-16-14.  The nettles are getting larger!

Bonus information:  Check out Martin's Farm Stand website, you can pre-order your fresh, local, seasonal produce, on-line!  Cutting edge - local food access!

http://martinsfarmstand.locallygrown.net/welcome

Winter Food Blues

It is that time of year... I am sick of winter root veggies, squash, and cabbage.  I know, on the tail end of it, there IS good things coming.  I get impatient. I long for the green things sprouting out of our local soil.  To survive until the local farmers and my garden has some stuff to offer up, I play around with food. (Truthfully, I play around with food all the time.)

I am waiting, very impatiently, for the wild leeks.

I do have tiny stinging nettle tops poking up in my garden.  I have popped off a couple of nettle tops and indulged in the raw green-ness of it.  They are so young that they leave no sting behind on the tongue or in the throat.

Dandelion greens are out there too.  All survival food to nourish my cells and my soul!

So a dear friend turned me on to Balela, a Mediterranean salad. Immediately I thought: "What a fun idea and release from winter food."

David's recipe, displayed above:

Ingredients:  all ingredients are organic

• 1 15-oz can black beans
• 1 15-oz can garbanzo beans
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 stocks green onion, chopped
• 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar (white or apple vinegar should suffice)
• two organic tomatoes chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp chopped mint
• unrefined sea salt & pepper to taste

My improvised Balela, using what I had on hand:

Ingredients: again, all organic

• 1 15-oz can kidney beans (no black beans in my cupboard)
• 1 15-oz can garbanzo beans
• 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup organic lemon juice, Lakewood Organic from the Potsdam Coop
• Chopped chives from my herb garden
• 1 1/2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar from Martin's Farm Stand
• about 25 frozen cherry tomatoes from The Kent Family Growers winter CSA, thawed and chopped in 1/2
• 2 tbsp chopped oregano from my herb garden (no parsley yet!)
• 1 tbsp lemon thyme from my herb garden (no peppermint, deer ate it!)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• red pepper flakes to taste
• unrefined sea salt & pepper to taste

Just before I indulged, I placed pine nuts on top and some sheep milk feta.     Very YUMMY!

I know David is eating and enjoying Balela, as well, in LaFayette!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Winter Food Blues Recipe... how I Spring up the root veggie kraut to make my taste buds sing (instead of them whining about more winter food and thinking the green stuff will never grow!).

Hang in there... local, spring food is right around the corner!

Celeriac LOVE Update!

Celeriac LOVE Update

I am determined to create celeriac lovers out of you!  The below saute' was made with 100% Kent Family Growers veggies and Kerry Gold butter from Ireland (not very local but I am having a tough time finding local butter from grass fed cows!).

Dinner:  

1.  Gently saute' onions in much yummy butter, 2-3 minutes.

2.  Add grated celeriac and saute' gently for 2-3 minutes.

3.  Pop in some chunks of frozen red peppers and green beans (Thank you Megan Kent for putting these veggies up!).

4.  Crush one large clove of garlic and stir it all up.

5.  Cover cast iron pan & turn off heat.

6.  Finish making my root veggie slaw, the rest of dinner selections, and serve up the yummy celeriac dish, see below!

My Advice:  LOVE your celeriac.  It will LOVE you back!

Check out the Kent's interview on North Country Public Radio!

PS  For those of you who have been following my lust of root veggies, fear nothing, I have not abandoned my love for the humble beet!

Gospel of the Slaw

So, you may be wondering if I have lost my mind, maybe a new chapter has been added to the Bible that you did not hear about yet, or something weird is going on... well, it is none of the above.

I have the best encounters with people I work with, one on one and in group settings.  People are truly amazing when we allow them to be at their very best.

I am often encountered with the "I eat nothing but salads and I still cannot lose weight" issue.  I try to explain that summer vegetable salads, in the fall and winter, are very cooling to our body.  Summer veggies are for summer eating.  When we summer cool ourselves, in the winter, we also slow our metabolism.

Want to rev up that metabolism with warming, winter nourishing veggies?  Try a root veggie and cabbage slaw.  Recipe below.

Now for the title, it goes back to the people I meet thing I mentioned above.  An endearing client labeled my slaw recipe as the "Gospel of the Slaw" and paid the good recipe forward to many friends and family members.  The slaw is a great way to get yummy, raw veggies into your winter diet and keep it all seasonal.

Be well, eat slaw.

PS  Grating a butter nut squash and spicing the salad dressing with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, and vanilla is another fun way to enjoy raw winter veggies.

Root Veggie & Cabbage Slaw

Assemble enough vegetable to feed the people who will be gracing your dinner table, red and green cabbage and root vegetables:  beet, parsnip, rutabaga, celeriac, carrot, purple carrot, turnip, winter storage radishes (bigger than the summer salad radishes), kohlrabi, salsify, burdock, horseradish, etc.

Fine chop red and/or green cabbage

Grate, on a metal cheese grater, root veggies. Pick root veggies you grow or can acquire locally.  I use 2-4 root veggies with the chopped cabbage, choosing different root veggies with each meal.

Add a grated apple.  My kids eat more, and more willingly, when the juicy sweetness of a grated apple is part of the salad.

Mix together in a bowl with the above dressing

Cover and refrigerate until meal time.  I make this dish last and serve immediately with every fall and winter meal.

Optional:  add a few raisins, add walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds… just make it yummy for you.

Salad Dressing

1 cup organic extra virgin olive oil

1 cup raw apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. organic prepared mustard; preferably made with apple cider vinegar, not grain vinegar

Dash unrefined sea salt

Dash fresh pepper

Crush clove of garlic

Herbs to taste:  rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, parsley

Optional: 1 – 3 tbsp. dark maple syrup or sucanat unrefined sugar

I make this dressing in a Ball, wide mouth, quart canning jar so I always have it available for dinner salads, whatever the season.