Healthy Lifestyle Blog

In honor of Interdependence Day, I prepared a green smoothie to represent the wonderful abundance our earth provides for us.

You may recall my Garden of Weedin’ from last summer. This year, I heavily mulched the garden, and I planted it on Memorial Day. When when I returned after a month (I live in NY and my garden is in VT) there were weeds, but it was certainly manageable.

One of the most abundant weeds that I found is commonly known as lemon clover. I remember a housemate who would pick it and eat it right from the garden, so rather than discard the mounds of lemon clover, I decided to make something with it. At first I thought I’d make a pesto, but as I worked in the hot sun, a frozen dessert seemed more appropriate. Here’s a video showing you what I did.

Lemon Clover Granita

lemon clover – remove roots – all other parts are edible
water – enough to blend
honey or other sweetener to taste

1. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend at high speed. Adjust for sweetness.
2. Strain the liquid through a fine strainer or nut milk bag.
3. Pour the strained liquid into a glass pan and place in the freezer.
4. After about an hour, run a fork through the mixture, loosening it from the edges. Repeat every hour until all the liquid is frozen.
5. Store in a sealed container in the freezer.

This  year in the Northeast, it seems that the tomatoes are abundant and exceptionally delicious. I learned from my neighbor, who is a farmer, that the drought we experienced contributed to the abundance of tomatoes – it seems that tomatoes like dry conditions.

My neighbor’s farm is one of the only farms left in Nassau County. Rottkamp’s Farm is a real gem. Although the farm is not an organic farm, I believe buying locally grown can be more important in some instances than buying organic, especially when you can enjoy produce picked the same day – the flavor is one benefit, but considering that most of the produce we purchase is picked anywhere from 5-7 days before it gets to the store, the nutritional value of fresh picked produce can’t be beat. Buying locally grown food also is much kinder on the environment. There is no need for all the energy that is used for packaging and transporting, and the diversity of crops typical of local small farms is much healthier for the environment for many reasons. And of course another benefit is that you are supporting the local economy.

One of the first things you see when you get to the farm is a field of corn, with rows of sunflowers growing in the distance. The corn is amazing. The first summer after I adopted a raw vegan lifestyle, I missed running down to the farm to get 4-5 ears of freshly picked sweet corn for dinner. It was not until later that year that I learned that I could eat the corn raw. And how delicious it is! I don’t know why anyone would eat it any other way, especially since I typically burned the roof of my mouth because I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into the fresh cooked corn.

The heirloom tomatoes are also amazing. This year’s crop was so abundant that my neighbor gave me a box of “seconds” because they were going to end up in the compost. I decided to make marinara sauce and gazpacho. In my quest to find a good gazpacho recipe, I came upon the one below, which I modified a bit to make it raw vegan.

There’s much much more at Rottkamp’s farm. Some of my favorites are their melons, particularly the watermelon (sweet and crisp), kale, basil (huge bunches with the roots intact), zucchini – both green and yellow, “cheese” peppers – very sweet, and an incredible variety of squash.

I’ll return with some ways to enjoy raw squash, but for now, here’s something you can do if you can get a few pounds of freshly picked tomatoes.

Andalusian Gazpacho
adapted from Epicurious.com

1-2 cloves garlic
2 tsp. Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
2 Tbs. Sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon organic raw sugar or evaporated cane juice
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
2 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored, seeded and quartered
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Place all the ingredients except the olive oil in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Add the olive oil and blend again,
3. Optional – pass the soup through a sieve. This step is unnecessary if you are using a high-speed blender.

Transfer to a covered glass container and chill until cold – about 3 hours. Garnish with diced cucumber.

Note: This soup freezes well. I pour it into gallon zipper bags and lay it in the freezer. Thaw it out and then blend it again before serving.