Day 41 - Greens to the rescue

June 5, 2008


Here is the big colander full of GREENS, mostly from the garden, but there were some beet tops from store bought organic beets in there. I juiced all of it for my green juices today. I think that must have been 2 pounds? I don't know, but it was a lot of greens! Plus, of course, the bunch of celery and the cucumber.

Our garden is amazing this year. I am in awe of it! The cilantro - which I've tried to grow many times - unsuccessfully - in the past, is flourishing. The spinach, lettuces, kale, chard and collards are overflowing. And then the wild things...! Last year I really started getting into wild edibles, combing our yard for lamb's quarters to add to my green smoothies. They were there, but I had to search and once I harvested them I had to wait for them to grow back to harvest again. This year: there must be well over a thousand, WELL OVER, little plants shooting up all over the place! It's like they said, "You want us? Here we are!"

And then our tiny tomato sprouts that I was lamenting over a few weeks ago...they are still small, but starting to grow. But, we have found two much bigger tomato plants that we did not purposefully plant...one growing in a large pot on the porch with a cucumber, and one in the garden in the beet patch, that are doing very well! And then...Dave moved our big compost barrel (not an easy task, but it was taking up prime sun/gardening space in our little 20 by 60 foot yard), and now, where the compost was, hundreds of little tomato shoots are coming up. Wow. I am so in awe of the abundance of nature.

So, today I made a gallon of green veggie juice. Celery, cucumber, tomato, ginger, garlic, onion, yellow pepper, green apple, and greens galore. Included were beet greens, cilantro, spinach, lettuce, chard, (I didn't even make it over to the collard patch today!), lamb's quarters, comfrey leaves, plantain leaves, quickweed...hmmm, what else? There was just so much to harvest out there! Oh, I thinned the carrots (carrots! we have never been able to grow carrots either!) and I didn't use their greens because I don't know if they're ok to eat or not (though I know I have sauteed them in the past when I was macrobiotic), but I put the tiny baby carrots in my juice. Fun! So, I made three quarts of that green juice (and drank it today), and then I used some of the greens in a carrot, beet, apple juice, which I did not get to today. My fourth quart was: apples, strawberries, raspberries, mint and plantain leaves. In that juice I added bee pollen and chlorophyll. In the GVJ I added hemp oil. I also had my coconut oil, honey, and spirulina "dessert."

But, I must admit, I did eat some raw food again today...and felt so full! I nibbled a couple peas right from the garden this morning (sooo good). Later I had a bit of avocado and the homemade sauerkraut, two small tomato slices with dulse, some green salad from the other day, and a grape or two and a strawberry. I was thinking, "Should I just be on a modified juice feast?" But then I think if I decide that, I'll just give myself permission to skimp on the juice and eat more, and it's a slippery slope from there to cooked foods (the pita pizzas (lunch), potatoes and peanut noodles I made for my family today sure smelled good!) So, I'll just buckle down and keep cheering myself on.