Several Supper Suggestions to Savor Spring Spinach OR Why we're having frozen pizza with black olives and spinach for dinner

Most weeks, I make tentative dinner menu for each night of the week. It's not an elaborate process, I just jot down four - six entrees. Most nights I cook dinner, and so it simplifies my life to plan ahead in this way. One less thing to think about! I am married to a farmer, so dinner always centers around what's coming out of the garden. If there is one thing coming on strong, then we are happy to eat ridiculous amounts that vegetable night after night. It's just what we do.

As springtime yields to summer, variety arrives. But right now, it's all about the spinach. The spinach is not only happening, the patch is--dare I say--opulent with oversized leathery leaves, which means we are devouring big bags of spinach everyday until it sends up its seed stalks. 

This week's list of dinner menu items looked something like:
--spinach soufflé (made this, it's a family favorite--I use the Joy of Cooking recipe but I double it),
--spinach quiche (another egg recipe, we're egg customers of neighbors Rebecca and Barb, but this got axed from thus week's menu--I've been too busy/lazy to do the crust),
--steamed spinach with orzo browned in toasted garlic and kale tops (added plenty of Parmesan to this--yum),
--spinach with lamb sausage over rice (haven't made this yet, but we buy artisan LinkLab sausage, made in Seattle, from 2nd Street Wine Shop),
--Rockwell beans with spinach (Chris froze more quarts of this local heirloom as shelly beans than I could count), and last but not least,
--ramen soup with, yes, you guessed it, lots of spinach.

But this evening, I am tired! I'm training for a half marathon so started my Sunday with a six-mile run. I headed up to our property and spent about four hours with our land partners staking out the lot sites in what will become Upper Langley Affordable Housing Community. Chris has been working like crazy getting the gardens going and finishing his movie, Dancing with Thoreau, while also overseeing the heavy equipment operators working on our housing project.

So tonight, we bought a frozen cheese pizza from The Goose, our community grocer, which we will lovingly adulterate with sliced black olives and the spinach Chris brought in, still dripping wet with rainfall.

If our economy should grind to a halt...I’ll still plant beans for the winter

Chris finally finished shelling our beans--fresh shelled beans filled the freezer, and dried beans will be for seed, and also for eating. Big white creamy Italian cannellini beans, and Rockwell, a 100-year-old purple and white heirloom, native to Whidbey Island, that cooks up similar to a pinto.  

"For the past several nights I’ve been shelling black beans. Hours of my time have been spent snapping these brittle husks to try and fill what seems to be a bottomless bowl. It’s not like I’m creating any economic stability for my family here. Lets say that I could shell three pounds of beans in an hour (which I can’t). I can buy organic beans for $.80 a pound. That would give me a net worth of $2.40 an hour and that doesn’t include spreading compost, planting, cultivating, and harvesting. So why waste my time? Several reasons really. First, it feels right. Work the ground, add some seed, water, light, work, and love, and I’ve got nourishment for my family though the winter. Second, beans are an important rotation crop for the fields, as they build fertility. Third, I don’t believe that I can even buy beans of this quality. Besides the biodynamic preps, I’ve known and tended them their entire life. Fourth, it’s real, or I should say it grounds me. It brings me closer to reality. If we run out of oil, if our economy should grind to a halt, if the lights of the city flicker and are extinguished, I’ll still plant beans for the winter. And fifth, I have rarely seen the true correlation between the actual value of real food and the work that it takes to create it reflected in its actual price.

Some things cannot be expressed in terms of monetary value. Their worth actually transcends it. It is both priceless and free, depending upon the circumstances."

Excerpted from Awakening to Nature: Gardening and Nature Observation as a Path of Spiritual Development, Chris Korrow

 

Rockwell Beans, heirloom native to Whidbey Island.  

Eat your greens--Six ideas!

Here are our suggestions for how to use the greens which are now being harvested and are for sale on the farm stand!

GREEN IDEAS

ESCAROLE
Considered a bitter green, don’t let that deter you. This is a mild green with FLAVOR. Chris’s mom was Italian, and she always made a traditional in Italian chicken soup, just chop the escarole and cook well. OR--slice head down the middle lengthwise, braise in a skillet with hot olive oil, serve with lemon, garlic, chopped walnuts and parmesan cheese.


SWISS CHARD
Great substitute for spinach in cooked dishes. Chop the stems and stalks, cook until soft before adding the greens to cook until tender.


COLLARDS
Like kale, it holds up well in hearty soups and stews. Delicate brassica flavor and nice texture. Cook well in a little water, drain. For a southern favorite drizzle bacon grease and a splash of vinegar or California style with olive oil, chopped garlic, and salt.


MUSTARD
Surprisingly light, but with a wonderful extra zing. Great in stir-frys combined with other veggies. Try adding a scoop of black bean paste. We like them well cooked in with a pot of beans (with ham or vegetarian).


KALE
Smoothie and massaged kale salad are our two favorite ways to eat kale. It holds up well in hearty soups and stews.

ARUGULA
Great in salads, or substitute for basil in your favorite pesto recipe then serve fresh on baked winter squash!

Front Yard Farm Stand or How Farming Followed Us to Whidbey Island

This is the fourth day of our new Front Yard Farm Stand. It has a nice ring to it. The table is filled with garlic, green beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, and kale.

Two years ago when we sold our farm of twenty-plus years, and chose village life on an island in the Puget Sound, I thought we would leave farming behind. We would become the prosperous supporters of local farms, the city dwellers who turn their front yard into a garden, living a life of urban semi-self sufficiency. This felt like a relief to me, after an entire adult life committed to rather radical self sufficiency, including putting two children through cloth diapers with no washer or dryer, no indoor toilet, really living off the grid on the food grown by us and our neighbors. It was a good life. Nevertheless, our daughters grew up and Chris and I decided it was time to move to “town.” I am now a five minute walk from the best latte in the world, Yes, it’s true, many people who have traveled through Europe say they have not had a better espresso or cappuccino than that served by at Des at Useless Bay Coffee Company. But, I digress, such are the distractions of lively village life.

No sooner had we arrived, and in fact before we rented our first house in Langley, Chris had secured a plot in the local Community Garden at the Anderson Farm, turned the soil, planted seeds. My mind traveled back to the first weeks on our farm; we were living in a tent. The first work project was planting pecan trees, and the first structure built was a green house. Priorities.

And now, twenty-five years later, here we were, planing a garden before we had a home. Word spread that Chis had been a farmer, and a few people started to offer him land on which to farm. A minute later, he was on a plane, returning home to Kentucky retrieve his tractor and other farm equipment.

So, here we are again. Drying onions and garlic are strewn about the yard, our extra bedroom served as storage for a bumper crop of squash. The fridge is filled with goat milk, wine, local sausages, and cheese, all “purchased” from neighbors or local merchants in exchange for Chris’s vegetables grown just up the road a piece, at his market garden on the Anderson Farm.

We still puzzle with the real-number economics of farming—fully embracing the ideal of local food production, but also too experienced to ignore the reality that a $3 head of lettuce probably took $20 to produce. A young couple we know puts in 60 hours a week each on their CSA farm. Maybe they gross $30-40k? We wonder when the social and environmental value of local food will catch up with the economic value.

But, we keep at it. It turns out, farming followed us here.

And thus we have the new Front Yard Farm Stand. Please stop by and pick something up for dinner!

—Christy Korrow

What's For Sale?

Chris still has a few slots open for those who want to sign up to buy vegetables from now, through fall and winter.

Call him at 221-0430 or email 90acres@whidbey.com.

The two regular pick-up days are:
Thursdays from 4 – 6 pm
Saturdays from 10 am – 12 pm

If you cannot come on one of those two days, Chris can make other arrangements with you. He can schedule a pick-up on another day, or orient you to the garden so you can come and harvest your own food, and note what you picked on a ledger pad he will keep in the shed. You can pay in advance and buy down your credit, or note what you take and he will invoice you at the end of the month.

Here is is current list of fantastic organic/biodynamic veggies: 

Lettuce

Lettuce Mix

Diakon radish

Mustard

Spinach - is going crazy!

Snow Peas

Sugar snap Peas

Carrots - (let me know if you want some, I have them at my home garden)

Kale (three different varieties)

Swiss Chard

Bok Choy

Potatoes

Patty Pan Squash

Zucchini

Parsley

Cutting Celery

CeleryKohlrabi

Cauliflowers, Broccoli & Cabbages in the next week or so.

Chris's New Farming Adventure!

—Christy Korrow

Exciting news from Chris! After relocating from Kentucky, our home for the last 20 years, we have been warmly welcomed by the wonderful community of Langley, on south Whidbey Island, Washington. We had not planned to farm commercially here on Whidbey, though we knew we would still be growing a large family garden.

After being here just a short time, Chris had three people offer him farmland where he could develop a market garden. The offer was too good to pass by! In December, we bought him a one-way ticket to Kentucky, where he rented a large Budget rental truck, loaded up our tractor, bush hog, front end loader and Italian spading machine, braved the icy mountain roads, hauling the equipment back to Whidbey.

Fast forward to the first day of spring...

A hot box is now built up against the rental house where we live, filled with seed flats-- flowers, brassicas, early tomatoes and herbs.


Chris will be developing a 1/3 acre market garden in the city limits of Langley, on the property of the Anderson Family Farm. Dorothy is the third generation to tend this family farm. The farm is home to the Langely Community Garden, beginning its third year. Twenty families/individuals each tend an 18 x 18 foot plot. There is also a group who manages a small herd of milk goats, another group who raises chickens and there is a heifer and a young steer being raised for beef. Compared to running our own farm, it is a welcome change, and such an honor to have the opportunity to participate in this kind of community run farm, where many hands make light work.

The ground is about turned, and I just sprayed the first barrel compost on the soil, to celebrate the first day of spring and to welcome in Persephone's return.


The field is a sandy loam, with predominantly rhizome grass, which will be determined to keep growing, even after it has been plowed up. Chris is going to plant cover crops this spring, and plans to get the vegetables going later in the summer. The growing season is quite long here, and though the winters are quite dark, the temperatures remain mild, making it easy to grow into an extended summer season, fall and on into winter time. Our spinach patch thrived uncovered all winter, as did our cabbages. The vegetables don't grow much during the winter, but they hold well. It seems similar to what we are used to with our winter growing in Kentucky.

The land is on the corner of two somewhat well-traveled roads. Chris is planning to keep marketing simple, and by word of mouth, people will know that he is there in the field on certain days of the week. Maybe we'll try an honor system farm stand as well.

I honestly have to say I have mixed feelings about selling food again after so many years. On one hand, I am firmly committed to local food security, I believe it is one of the most important necessary social deeds for our time. I am also keenly aware of the continuing price disparity between what we pay for food on the grocery store shelves, and what kind of price a farmer can ask for vegetables so that he or she can actually come close to making a living wage. The joy of knowing we will be producing food for the community, the excitement of experimenting in a new climate where daylight goes on until after 9pm in the summer, to grow food in the city limits of a town, and be part of such an active community farm are the thoughts I am holding onto for now....

Random Localness

This yummy sauce is made here on Whidbey Island.


Gabbi and I picked blackberries today, she made tarts and cobbler.


Chris picked this horsetail yesterday, so we brewed up a big vat of tea for the garden. It's one of the nine biodynamic preparations, also known as BD #508. It helps combat fungus and mold, and regulates water forces. We'll spray it on plants, and use some in the compost piles.



Amy gave us these big green apples from her tree on Maxwelton. I can't remember what they are called. They taste like a yellow apple! So crisp and sweet.

Local Food Challenge or Boy Am I Glad Washington is a Wine Producing State

—Christy Korrow

September, (starting now!) Chris, Gabe and I are participating in Transition Whidbey’s local food challenge to, as much as possible, eat foods grown within a 100 mile radius of our home on South Whidbey Island, Washington. Mind you, I have only lived here for six weeks, so I thought this challenge would be a good chance to learn more about our local food shed, and the rest of the family agreed to give it a try.

I also want to use this challenge as a chance to become more aware of what we eat in general. I expect it will be an interesting exploration and take me to the next level with my commitment to making the right food choices and remind me of the social and economic consequences of my and my family’s food choices.

I don’t want to attempt to eat “only local” for the month, instead I want to use the challenge time to examine my non-local food choices, and to discover new food choices that we can integrate into our family diet for a long time to come.

We are blessed to grow all of our own vegetables in a community garden within walking distance from home. Right now we have plenty of potatoes, chard, spinach, lettuce, carrots, onions, green beans, beets, what else...assorted herbs, cucumbers, zucchini. Right around the bend, we’ll have kale and collards with broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage coming on before winter. This seems to provide us with more than enough variety of vegetables. We buy an occasional avocado and also fruit. Neighbors and friends either give us eggs or we trade for produce.

Last month we ate a lot of bing and Rainier cherries (organic were available for almost the same price as conventional). Now plums, pluots and peaches are all for sale at the farmer’s markets. Since I am new to the area, I am not sure how long these fruit trees of Eastern Washington continue to produce. Blueberries from Oregon have been for sale at the grocery store, and yesterday, a friend brought by some apples from her tree.

With all of that, we still eat a lot of food that we don’t grow, and there are a number of foods we eat which might or might not be available locally.

I am hoping to meet with Georgina, a woman who is producing kamut, hard winter wheat and barley on a seven acre plot in the historic Ebey’s Landing National Historic Preserve. While her land is not Demeter Certified Biodynamic, Georgina uses biodynamic farming practices. I’d like to buy some locally grown wheat from her, although I have no grinder, so I am not sure how we will put it to use. I think she offers flour. The barley we could put in soups.

I spent over an hour on the internet trying to find out how to buy lentils grown in the Palouse region Eastern Washington, even though it is the (self-proclaimed) lentil capitol of the world and home to the National Lentil Festival. I finally did find a couple of sources, but nothing organic so far. Go figure.

So the challenge begins!

On Obtaining Nutrients from Plants

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OBTAINING NUTRIENTS FROM PLANTS AND ANIMALS

—Christy Korrow

“There are no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not better obtained by plant-based foods.” —Dr. Colin T. Campbell

This is a surprising statement to many, but a basic study of nutrition shows that this is actually true. Both animal and plant foods contain essential nutrients required for human health, for instance, both contain fats, protein and calcium. But, once one analyzes the metabolism and subsequent function of nutrients from both sources, a marked difference can be observed between plant and animal-based foods as sources of nutrition. The scientific studies of Dr. Campbell have shown that, once metabolized, plant-based foods are the optimum source of nutrients for human beings for creating health, including an optimum source of protein. Though nutrients work in concert with each other, and not in isolation, we can learn a lot by examining the function of individual nutrients.

Nutrient quality

Protein: The research of Dr. Campbell and his associates showed time and time again how, even though animal protein is thought of as high quality protein, once metabolized, the function of animal proteins have the ability to foster the growth of cancer and the catalyze the formation of cholesterol. Whereas plant proteins showed the opposite—tumor growth was arrested in laboratory tests where animals with cancer were fed plant proteins, and those people who ate plant-based diets had low cholesterol rates—the data from The China Study confirmed these findings.

Fiber: One reason that plant-based foods are an optimum source for nutrition is the high fiber content. High fiber diets are correlated with lower rates of colorectal cancer. Meats and other animal products do not contain fiber. Though we do not produce the bacteria and enzymes to break down the molecules in fiber (as do ruminants), this unbroken down fiber remains in the intestinal lumen and performs important health-related functions in the body. Different fibers have different activities, for example, fiber will bind up unwanted substances such as chemical carcinogens, other toxins and bile acids, and remove them.

Fiber also we helps us manage the rates at which we absorb sugars and other nutrients into the bloodstream. As the body attempts to digest the fiber, more enzymes come in and this slows down the digestive process, thus metabolism is regulated, and nutrients enter the blood stream at a more controlled pace, will not spike blood sugar, etc.

Antioxidants: Evident in the beautiful colors in plants, antioxidants are manufactured by plants as a mechanism of self-protection to counter the formation of free radicals, rouge molecules which cause cell damage and are harmful byproducts of photosynthesis. Humans also generate free radicals as a result of aging, and exposure to agricultural chemicals and environmental toxins—to name just a few of the ways. Free radical damage can lead to many many diseases, ranging from cancer to cognitive disorders. But, unlike plants, we do not generate our own antioxidants. Meats, on the other hand, do sometimes contain small amounts of antioxidants if the animals has eaten plants and stored them. More significant though, is that meat and animal products actually “tend to activate free radical production and cell damage.” (The China Study, p. 219) Therefore, not only do animal products not aid us in the defense against free radical damage, they add to our free radical load. Clearly, plants can’t be beat for their generous doses of health-bringing antioxidants.

ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A VEGAN DIET AND A PLANT-BASED DIET

Based on people I have known, many who have adopted a vegan diet have done so for moral reasons, and may or may not have a strong interest in or understanding of health and nutrition. There is the likelihood of a vegan diet to be high in soy products and gluten based meat substitutes which have been shown to cause adverse health and digestive conditions in some people. There are no parameters indicating that a vegan diet should be primarily based in vegetables and fruits, therefore a vegan diet can include refined cards, sugars and processed foods, or it can mean a strictly plant based whole foods diet as described in The China Study.

On the other hand, those who adopt a plant-based diet, and who try to include a high percentage of raw fruits and vegetables in the diet, typically have a strong interest in nutrition. Many people have come to a plant-based diet because they had chronic health problems, did not get results with pharmaceuticals. In this case the plant-based diet is actually a therapeutic measure. And while the science in this course shows that an optimum diet would contain no animal products, there are no hard and fast rules. A person would ideally have the understanding of the nutritional values of the food they eat, and are therefore able to at least make an informed decision if they did decide to continue to eat meat in some capacity.

I can’t speak from experience, but I doubt there are many vegans who stay on an unhealthy vegan diet for the longterm, I would imagine that the results of the diets would manifest in low energy and possibly other health problems, which might prompt further exploration into nutrition.

So....what's next? Get eating and better yet, get growing! Chris has a nifty little booklet that only costs $5 called The 30 Square Foot Garden, it teaches you how to turn a patch of lawn into a patch of green edibles.

4 Reasons to Eat Plants

Hello,

This is part of an assignment for a course called Nutrition Fundamentals, part of a series of courses in Plant-Based Nutrition (nutrition as a science and a component of medicine, to both maintain health and prevent disease) authored by Dr. Colin Campbell, which I am taking through eCornell. Dr Campbell is Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University (wow!) and many people know Dr. Campbell for his seminal work, published as The China Study, considered the largest and most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. What I love about the course is the data and science to back up every claim!

Christy

My motivation for taking this course is my desire to be able to communicate clearly the facts and science behind the health benefits of a plant-based diet.

My strategy for provoking interest in this topic is to first begin with myself, and lead by example, and eat a plant-based diet as the basis for keeping myself in optimum health. As many have already mentioned, it is detrimental to push new ideas on a person who is not open to them. Additionally, if that person is already in the midst of an illness, he or she is struggling with so much already, therefore it is best to always leave people free to make their own choices, and understand that we might not always know what is best for another, and to still treat him or her with kindness and compassion.

Alternately, to those looking for answers, a few of the most convincing arguments for adopting a plant-based diet as a way of bringing about health are: it’s inexpensive; no side effects; it’s scientifically proven; it not only benefits your health, but also the health of the world.

It’s inexpensive:

As Dr. Campbell stated, we are currently spending more in the US per capita on healthcare than any other country in the world. Yet, we are not getting better health for all of this spending. We have been using costly pharmaceuticals for the last 50 years, substances which can only provide us with short term benefits, as we can see from the continued increase in disease rates. There is no evidence that these expensive treatments are bringing disease under control, and in fact cancer, obesity, diabetes and heart disease are all on the rise.

No side effects:

Medical care itself is the third leading cause of death in the US (with prescription drug adverse affects accounting for 106,000--almost half according to the JAMA).

Science:

Adopting a plant-based diet is not a fad, there is substantial scientific data showing the progress of plant-based diets in not only preventing, but reversing advanced late stages of heart disease—an example of the power of the dietary effect. Though the scientific community resisted accepting this, it is no longer disputable that advanced cases of heart disease can be reversed. Data has also shown that in societies where a Standard American Diet has crept in, high in meat and processed foods, a simultaneous rise in the diseases of cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart disease has been evidenced. Diet is a proven risk factor for both cancer and diabetes.

Worldwide implications beyond your own health:

By adopting a plant based diet, you are not only doing something for yourself, you are doing something for others. There are environmental, economic and political and implications to large-scale industrial meat production—ranging from overuse of resources, pollution, and disenfranchisement of peasant cultures.

Taking responsibility for your own health can be a big step for some, though the rewards are great!

Chris Harvests Winter Cabbage

Mature cabbages have stayed solid, healthy and sweet under a double layer of Reemay (agricultural fabric) this winter. They were mature by late October, and have kept wonderfully.

Gabbi's Farm Internship at a Biodynamic Farm

Gabbi helping Earl to get going

While we have lived on a farm for 20 years now, for about the last 9, we haven't been a "working farm"--meaning we do not generate income from our farm. So while we have 3 horses, chickens, and grow a large garden, we no longer milk a cow, raise animals for meat and grow a few acres of vegetables like we used to. So when our 16 year old daughter, Gabbi, thought she would like to visit a neighboring farm and be an "intern" for a week, we thought it was a great idea.

Paul and Robin run Hill and Hollow CSA, delivering vegetable twice a week to Nashville, TN and Glasgow, KY. They have a milk cow, raise pigs, sheep, chickens, a donkey named Earl, and a pet turkey named Manly. Plus they grow many acres of vegetables, make compost and biodynamic preparations. There is a crew of 3 interns, along with their family of 4 (which includes their daughter Madeline and their son Sasha who is a full-fledged farmer at age 11). They are your typical bright wide-eyed brilliant children who have never been to school, raised on home-grown food and no television.

Sasha and Earl

In addition, Paul and Robin host the Nashville and Louisville Waldorf schools for their thrid grade farm visit each year, and pioneered the KY CRAFT (Collaborative Alliance for Regional Farmer Training) program, a program where the interns on organic farms from around the state meet each other, and visit and learn from other farmers.

It's very cool bit of trivia that Paul and Robin met when they were themselves interns at John Peterson's Angelic Organics (Star of The Real Dirt on Farmer John).

Gabbi was up at 5:30 am each morning to milk Addy with Sasha. After that, they spent an hour working with Earl. After a full day of farm work, the day came to a close, with Gabe again milking with Sasha and another session with Earl at dusk. (Video from John Bela)



For the last 5 years or so, Gabbi has practiced Parreli Natural Horsemanship, and received her Level 2 certificate last year. Parreli teaches how to solve train a horse and solve horse problems without force or punishment. Part of the reason Gabe wanted to head to Hill and Hollow was to have the chance to work with Earl, to begin to teach him how to pull farm equipment. He was pretty much spooking when something was behind him, kicking and hadn;t tied to pull anything. On her last day, Earl was fully hooked up in his tack, and successfully pulled the harrow around a dirt area. It was a good start. She hopes to go back in August for another week.

Earl about ready to pull the harrow

Paul and Robin had a send-off celebration for Gabe with a batch of homemade vanilla ice cream, and sent her home with a gallon of raw biodynamic milk and a 1/2 gallon of yogurt!

Instant Garden New Video from Chris

Chris created this little video as a companion to his booklet "The 30 Square Foot Garden." And look how much fun he is having! By creating a garden patch as he shows here in fall, you will have a spot ready to plant in spring. Or create one later in the winter and once the grass has dies back and most of the leaves have broken down, it should be ready to plant in. But for complete info, consult the booklet!

Late January Garden Harvest

These root crops are thriving in the garden despite sustained below freezing temps during the first weeks in January. They are covered with Reemay (agriculture fabric).

Ravioli Making or Time Well Spent

Food has always been something to celebrate in our family. Even in our earlier years of farming, when, as a family of four, our income was $7,000 a year, we always ate better than most people we knew. Good food was a priority. Besides the vegetables we grew (and still do) we would source raw milk, local beef and chicken. Most of the time we had our own chickens for eggs and for many years we kept our own milk cow.

The fact that organic food was expensive never mattered. I am not sure how we did it, but we always stocked our pantry with organic food. I think we were able to budget so well for two reasons--one was that we grew most of the vegetables, and produced some of our own meats, dairy and eggs. But the other reason that we were able to afford to eat organic is that we cooked from scratch. Staples and whole food ingredients, even organic ones, will work out to be less expensive than buying prepackaged or processed foods.

To people who still complain that organic food is too expensive, I would point out that food is a reflection of our core values. It is one of our few central needs. So much of our life now revolves around nonessentials, to the point that food, exercise, quality time with those we love, and maintaining a healthy earth ecosystem don’t make it onto our “to-do” list of life. Is there a correlation between the fact that food spending has dropped from 25% of our income at the turn of the century, to now less than 10%, while spending on health care has risen from 5% to 18%? Our health, our desire for vitality, our ability to nurture and experience a sense of place are reflected back to us in our relationship with food. An additional aspect of this is the extent to which we are willing to invest both time and money into high-quality foods--aka fresh, local, organic or biodynamic. (Chances are if it is even one of those, there will be superior nutritional value and more life forces.)



Things have changed for our family, we are not so exclusively oriented towards a chop wood carry water lifestyle, although we do still do both of those activities. One thing that hasn’t changed it that we still love to cook from scratch. Sure, we sometimes eat out, especially when we are out late at night, keeping up with our two busy teenagers.

Last night we thought it would be fun to make raviolis. I am always amazed at how food and art can merge, and then, after all that preparation, it’s eaten and it’s over with. Spending time in the kitchen with my family, for me, doubles as entertainment, and it’s a tangible way to express love--and this doesn't cost anything at all, yet I couldn't put a price tag on it if I had to.

Flour water salt and eggs (from our neighbor Cynde) filled with some ricotta and mozzarella cheese, and viola! —Christy Korrow

Photos by Chris Korrow

Time to Prepare Your Garden for Spring

This is the perfect time to prepare a garden bed for spring, and Chris has written out easy instructions in his booklet, the 30 Square Foot Garden. The booklet is printed on 100% recycled paper, and costs only $5. It shows how easy it can be to get started in organic vegetable gardening.

We have sold a few hundred of these so far, which makes us feel wonderful knowing that there will be a few hundred new gardens around the US! It would make a perfect and inexpensive Christmas gift! Don’t forget the Garden Insects dvd as another gift idea for gardeners or children!

(Lettuce photo by Chris Korrow)

Cosmic Cabbage, Conscious Cauliflower

Give thanks for the beautiful cabbages and cauliflower in the fall garden. So much more than just vegetables, these are substantial foods. According to Rudolf Steiner, cabbages and cauliflower, the head of crowded flower buds, will support our lungs and heart. He bases this on the role that sun forces play in plant growth. Leaves grow up toward the sun, or rather, are drawn up by the forces of the sun, and the sun has a strong connection to our heart.

Cauliflower has developed past the leaf stage, to the blossom stage, although still closer to leaf than to fruit. Research done by Dr. Rudolf Hauschka using capillary-dynamic patterns shows that cauliflower, and also plants in the blossom stage, have been energetically “cooked” by the sun to their state of blossoming, or more eloquently put, ripening and warmth forces are infused into the plant at this stage from the cosmos, and thus needs only light steaming, or can even be eaten raw. Where as cabbage, still in the leaf stage, also affected by the heating affects of the sun’s warmth, can be brought to the state of raw cauliflower also with light steaming, or eaten raw. Cooked beyond light steaming, both foods tested as being “dead,” void of nutrients and enzymes, in other words, carried too far over into realms that equate to overripeness or rot in nature.

If left in the garden, and allowed to continue to grow own, the cabbage would eventually shoot up a stalk from out of its packed round layers of leaves, and the cauliflower, would unfurl itself into a million blossoms. Yet, even though they will never reach their potential, it does still exist, as Goethe described, in the archetypal plant, existing in completion, as an imprint, in “space” or the akashic realm. Each plant has its guiding spirit, and star to coax it toward its fulfillment.

So much we take for granted when we go out to the garden or to the shop and buy produce, often hurrying up with our chores, ready to rush home, pressured to make supper, worried about spending so much on groceries. For all of that “important” mind clutter, we miss out on the richness of participating in the experience of the life of a vegetable, which is so much more interesting, rhythmic, filled with contributions of fairies, gnomes, sylphs and undines, the beings of the four elements, who embody the elements, the “clay” who make these nourishing manifestations come about, grow in the dirt, sprout, blossom and even sometimes rot. A vegetative state of mind can be more enlightening than the cliché would lead us to believe.

Coleslaw and creamed cauliflower never tasted to good.

Drinking sunshine

I make juice with kale, carrot, apple, celery and parsley. I will drink it and a mysterious process will take place inside of me that neither science nor mystics can explain. I taking something foreign, break it down and assimilate it into my own body, with a wish for health for my own thoughts, creativity and activity. Sun, soil, water, millions of microorganisms, gnomes and fairies, acting together, to create an amazing natural something: vegetables. I can’t leave out our beautiful horses who contribute their manure to our compost piles. A domestication of a process long known to to this planet—animals graze, stride past, dropping their dung or manure, leaving the ground more fertile than when they arrived—sustainability. Someday maybe we will no longer need to eat them.

Rudolf Steiner described two “streams” of nutrition that flow into us. One is the earthly nutritional stream, it comes into us from our food, and builds our thoughts, while the cosmic nutritional stream is what we take in through our senses and builds the substance of our physical body. It seems impossible at first that we might be able to absorb actual substance through our eyes nose and mouth, and that food is primarily building thoughts, but I like to imagine this to be true.

What kinds of thoughts will be supported by this colorful vegetable juice?

Five ways to add living protein to your salads

An up-and-coming patch of fall greens

Lettuces and salad greens grow ever so happily in cool fall weather, so take full advantage of their generosity! Instead of having a salad before your meal, add a few of the high-protein ingredients below, double the size of your salad and make it your meal! When I eat only salad for dinner, I notice that I need less sleep, dream more vividly, and wake up feeling alert. Protein from raw food is easy to absorb since the food still has all of the enzymes intact needed to break down the protein into amino acids. (These enzymes are destroyed when food is heated over approx. 105 degrees.)

• Kale Many people don’t realize that nutrient dense, dark, leafy greens have high quality, easily to assimilate protein (22% of the calories in kale are from protein). Chop them small and bruise them up a bit (rub with fingers).

• Sprouted Lentils We prefer the small French lentils, soak overnight, drain and let them sprout for a day or two, just until a small ‘tail’ forms.

• Avocado Provides protein, enzymes and healthy unsaturated fats.

• Nuts Walnuts, almonds, pecans (soak overnight to neutralize enzyme inhibitors).

• Raw Milk Goat Cheese

• Hemp Seed Delicious nutty taste, contains valuable essential fatty acids.

Chris checking on the cabbage and broccoli

There is an important book called The China Study that presents research that causes us to question whether we do indeed need the high levels of protein commonly prescribed by “government experts,” and that in fact, high levels of protein may correlate with cancer and other diseases. The research in this book also points to the benefits of plant-based proteins.

Have a great day! —Christy Korrow

Eating Meat or Not

I do believe we will eventually evolve out of the need to eat meat, I was once told by Hugh Courtney, who runs the Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics that “biodynamic farmers will be the last people to stop eating meat,” because their lives are so intertwined with the cow. But, our soils are now so depleted of both nutrients and life forces that it is utterly impossible to rebuild them without animal manures, therefore it seems natural that a sector of our population will continue to eat meat, making an immediate conversion to widespread vegetarianism unlikely. (Building soil through only cover-cropping would take 15 -20 years).

Ostensibly, as people evolve, we will eat less and less meat, and more of that meat will be raised on small scale farms, where animals and vegetable crops are once again integrated, so that there are only enough animals raised needed to produce compost to raise the vegetables on that farm. In time, more and more people will decrease their meat consumption, and perhaps eat only eggs and raw milk, still maintaining a domestic animal population.

My own experience is that when we were farming full time for over 15 years, I expended a lot of energy, and ate a lot more meat. Now that I am in publishing full-time, I notice my body does not require as much meat, and I am eating a much lighter, raw food based diet. So, there are not only the environmental impacts to keep in mind, but we can also ask how what we eat affects our consciousness, and does it support what are we trying to create in the world? And also, in the realm of consciousness studies, there is much judgment towards our food choices, judgment against ourselves and others. Rudolf Steiner emphasized that is was important not to become fanatical when it came to diet. He said that he was a vegetarian, that indeed he needed to be in order to do his spiritual research, but was once reputed to order a steak in a restaurant to make this point. He gave many teachings on the results of dietary choices, but was clear that what one eats is an individual choice, depending on where that person was in their own evolution, and he said he could not prescribe a “diet” that is right for everyone. —Christy Korrow