Two weeks ago I tweeted this photo of my soon-to-be green juice. I’d been feeling sluggish after all the rich foods, parties and crazy weather of the holiday season (and it wasn’t even Christmas yet!). Nope, I wasn’t strictly juicing. Nope, I wasn’t going vegan (though I do this from time to time). Nope, I wasn’t saying no to all the decadence the holidays bring. I was ADDING this juice to my life for 7 days because I needed an extra boost. I’m about to do it again through the New Year and wanted to post the recipe for y’all.
‘Tis The Season Green Juice (serves 2)
2 celery stalks
1/2 cucumber
Handful parsley
Handful spinach
1 pear (cored and seeds removed)
1/2 lemon (peeled and seeds removed)
1/2 cup water
Juice and enjoy! The lemon really gives this juice a refreshing, lemonade spritzer taste. Let me know what you think!
This year, I had the opportunity to participate in Just Food’s Teen Chef Community Program as a mentor. I worked alongside Andrew Chandler (pictured on the right) for the 2012 season at Malcolm X Community Farmer’s Market in Bed-Stuy. Andrew and I featured a new vegetable recipe each week to prepare and serve the market shoppers and passers-by. I provide recipe handouts, veggie tip sheets and bookmarks for the kids. Mentoring youth through food is something we can all do. Take time to cook for a young one (or an elder) and see what conversations come up. Just Food featured my work in their October newsletter, which you can read here. Good look, Just Food!
P.S. 10/27 is our last market day of the season, come through! We’re at Malcolm X. Blvd between Chauncey and Marion from 10:30am-12:30pm.
This beautiful bounty is from last Sunday’s market in Jackson Heights. It’s such a wonderful time of year at the farmer’s market. I want to buy everything in sight but know I won’t be able to eat it all. What’s a market-loving girl to do? I began blanching my CSA greens on the advice of a good friend. I was worried about my excess kale and collard greens going bad. Now I have a nice stack of greens waiting to be eaten in the winter. I wish I would have read this before I blanched, but oh well. I am also taking a workshop on how to ferment foods and hopefully a canning workshop as well. By purchasing & preserving your fruits & veggies now you:
-ensure yourself a bit of sunshine-y flavor in the cold, winter months
-help farmer’s economically by providing them with income for their winter hiatus
-get to pretend you live on Little House on the Prairie w/modern amenities.
I will post more on my food-preservation adventures as they unfold.
So many great conferences happening, and this one is FREEEEE! The Brooklyn Food Conference is happening Saturday, May 12th at Brooklyn Tech High School. Food policy, fracking, cooking demos, midwifery, food & faith, farmworker justice and so much more. You can also order a yummy lunch for $8. Hurry, there is limited space! Register here now. See you there!
This Saturday, April 28th, the good people of Duke University Alumni are hosting a FREE Community Wellness Day in Harlem. Yours truly will be conducting a “Healthy Food, Fast” cooking class. You know those times you come home from work tiredddd and don’t want to spend an hour and change cooking dinner? I’ll show you how to get it done in under 30 minutes, deliciously. Other topics will include How To Talk to Your Doctor, Ways to Reduce Stress, Get Fit at Home and lots more. And did I mention it’s FREE? See you there!
Photo: Marian Isel Wellness
I had the opportunity to hear anti-fracking activist Sarah Steingraber speak at SUNY Oneonta on Thursday. She is a biologist and a poet (what a lovely mix) and says that our current environmental crisis is a human rights issue. That’s right!
Fracking is a form of extreme energy extraction. Drills dive down a mile deep into the ground’s surface. Tons of chemicals have to get dumped in to make this possible (bad) and tons of caca gets seeped into our water (worse) and can remain this way for THOUSANDS of years. This can toxify our water, land and our bodies. What else will be left??
Sarah has a new book out called “Raising Elijah: Protecting Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis”. Sarah named her son after abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy. She compared the fight against fracking to the fight against slavery. Lovejoy did not believe in “phasing out” slavery. He demanded that slavery come to an end IMMEDIATELY. Sarah applied this view on the fracking fiasco occuring upstate. We have no time for building “safer” forms of this abomination on nature, it simply has to not happen and a sustainable national energy plan needs to be put into place. Wouldn’t that be a better use of our time and energy? (Pun intended)
This is how bad-ass Sarah is. She recently received an award for $100,000 and she donated it ALL to the cause.
Act Now: The Town of Middlefield needs help fund the appeals process of their recently won NYS Supreme Court case to keep fracking out of their town. Find out how to send your tax-deductible contribution by clicking here.
Stand in solidarity with farmworkers this weekend by demanding Chipotle sign the Fair Food Agreement. This agreement increases farmworkers pay by 1 penny per pound of tomatoes picked. McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods and most recently Trader Joe’s has signed on. What’s taking Chipotle so long? This is a company that claims to serve food with integrity. Let’s help them align with their motto!
When: Sunday April 15, 2012 at 12pm noon
Where: Chipotle and 17th Street and Broadway, NYC
Photo: www.foodchainworkers.org
I recently wrote an article for Mamiverse on CSA’s and how this model could serve as a tool against the growing (no pun intended) Latina/o childhood obesity epidemic. Getting children involved with growing and being connected to their food is a sure way of getting more vegetables into their diet. I had the wonderful opportunity of interviewing Ana Isabel Rodriguez Angel of Angel Family Farm and Jessica Cortes, Farm Network Coordinator for Just Food for this piece. Have you registered for your local CSA yet? Read my article (and find a local CSA) here.
P.S. That’s me planting baby kale at Conuco Farm last year at my CSA Volunteer Day. Baby kale!
The Brooklyn Free School is offering donation-based Vinyasa yoga classes three times a week. 50% of all donations benefit the school. Here are the details:
When: Mon & Thurs. 6:45-8pm, Sun. 11-12:15pm
Where: 372 Clinton Ave (btwn. Green & Lafayette) 2nd Floor
Contact: freeschoolyoga AT gmail DOT com
Namaste.
