Today's Smoothie - Carrot/Ginger/Mango
Ingredients:
1 cup carrot juice (buy or get from a juicer, I'm so luck Jason has one!)
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 cup mango chunks
4 ice cubes
pinch of salt
1/2 cup shredded kale
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender, and puree until smooth. Serve immediately.
Yields: two tall smoothies
I need to eat more vegetables in my diet. I do eat about 2 portions for dinner most nights, but that is not enough, so I needed to come up with alternatives on how to get more veggies. At first I was going to commit to adding a smoothie a day to my diet for the next month, but I have to be honest with myself - I lack follow through on such commitments. The first day I miss, I'll feel like a failure and want to stop. Instead, I've decided to make smoothies as often as I can for the next month, aiming for every day but not beating myself up psychologically if I do not. So each time I make a new recipe, I'll share it. This morning's smoothie was DEE-licious! Upon first reading the recipe and seeing Kale as an additive, I immediately thought, Gross. How wrong I was and I am glad I was. Kale adds protein and minerals to the sugary goodness of the mangoes and honey. At first I was trying to make a traditional Carrot Ginger smoothie, but it morphed into a new idea. I'll probably make the traditional one next.
There has finally been some gardening of sorts growing in my activities. I attended the Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN) sponsored meeting of the Community Garden Council last Thursday night. If I can't dig into the dirt of a plot, I'll dig in the Community Garden planning plot instead, just to stay connected and involved. There were five other people there, a very motley crew if ever there was one. A married couple sat to my right, the husband going by the name "Angel" though his sign in spot on the sheet was filled with something much more normal, like Ronald. This man interested me from the moment he started talking because never before had I met someone who was so like the manager from The Office (Brit version) in appearance and awkwardness.A woman named Pat was the organizer of this meeting, but was quickly usurped by another woman who came in late. Pat was of the soft spoken, meeker varieties that this other get-down-to-business, brusque talking woman was not in support of. She didn't want to waste any time until it came time to brain storm ideas for a session she might write up, then she was all about tangents and ideas and thinking.
Over all, the meeting was probably viewed as productive in the minds of those who regularly attend these meetings. To me, a first time participant and being able to stay for only one hour, I felt a little frustrated, but could see future opportunities if I continued with this group. The agenda said "discussion of March Garden Meet Up workshop" and "future Council event in April", both vague and broad topics, so my hour commitment seemed long enough for a meeting of this type. My expectations, no, more like my hopes were to meet other youngish gardeners and garden related people who were making the lively community garden system of Boston work. The reality was five middle aged to older people slogging through the nitty gritty details of already planned happenings. If I can stick with this though, I see myself bringing a new perspective to the group, having a say in what and how the resources for the gardens are handled, and broadening the scope of this council to be more than just behind-the curtain-people to fully involved and interactive with the Community Garden members. I'll just have to remind myself over and over that this will all take a looooong time and a loooooot of patience. This is my motto - Peace is Every Step.
While there, I met one of the garden coordinators from JP, how convenient! She recognized my name immediately from the consistent emails I have been sending to any coordinator in the JP area. Upon learning of my plot-less-ness, she eagerly scribbled her personal email on my notepad as I left and told me to write her again. Of course I did the very next day and learned I am at the TOP of her garden's wait list, so I will know by the end of March if I will have a garden! These were the types of connections I hoped to make through the BNAN and the Garden Council and not just to further my own goals and aims, but to be able to know how to do that for others in my situation as well. It doesn't hurt to be connected to the Wizard, after all.
Here is my seed wish list, all from High Mowing Organic Seeds -
Provider bush snap beans
Shirofumi edamame beans
Danvers carrots (though I've had two years of growing 3 carrots out of a plot of tons of seeds!!!!!)
Lemon cucumbers (the BEST cucumbers I've ever eaten and if you haven't tried one, please do!)
Astro Arugula
Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress (I kid you not, that's its name)
Champion collard greens
Red Sails lettuce
Salad Bowl lettuce
Pirat lettuce (it comes up out of the ground saying, Arrgh,I'm lettuce!)
Mini Purplette onions
Mammoth Melting snow peas
Baby pam pumpkins
Crimson Sprinter tomatoes (early season)
Cosmonaut Volkov tomatoes (main season)
Joan, a rutabaga (yum!)
Golden Globe turnips
and possibly some winter squashes, but those are undetermined as of yet
As a small side note, I posted new paper at my etsy shop called Where the Green Fern Grows and it was immediately bought up! It is still showing there because it has become part of a custom order I am making, but I wanted people to see it...it's lovely. In my mind I was thinking of the forest, the ground, and the landscape and how I could transmit that into a natural white, to off white paper. What you see is the outcome.
