Eat. Drink. Better.

Going Meatless on Mondays doesn’t have to mean deprivation of all your favorite foods. By making some simple changes to recipes, you can easily swap out the animal products for vegan options. Here is a simple veganized muffin recipe, so you can start your Meatless Monday off with delicious, healthy, energizing and decadent baked good.

Tibetan Goji Berries are regarded in Tibet as the “Fruit of Longevity and Well Being”. Goji berries have been traditionally regarded as a food that offers your body longevity, strength-building, and sexual potency. Goji’s are a complete protein source and a low calorie snack that strengthens your immune system, increases energy and helps to curb cravings. It has one of the highest antioxidant contents in all food, which helps to fight free radicals, keeping you young and vibrant. Goji’s contain 18 amino acids, vitamin C, beta-carotene, 20 rare trace minerals, vitamin B1, B2 and B6 and vitamin E.

In honor of this Meatless Monday, let’s boost our energy, keep ourselves looking and feeling young and chow down on some delicious vegan, anti-aging muffins.
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A couple of weeks ago, Rachel did an awesome writeup of wine pairings for vegetarian meals. Why not really get your veg on and make sure your wine pairing is vegetarian, too?

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Summer brings out life’s busy side for all of us, from garden duties to a packed outdoor agenda to sunny social gatherings. But don’t solely blame our modern lifestyle for the jammed summer schedule. Living a busy, abundant lifestyle during the warmer months is completely in flow with living seasonally; the key right now is to recognize and embrace the signs of fall and slow things down.

“Summer signifies a time of high energy, spending time in the outdoors and strong creative and social output,” explains Charlene Torchia, co-owner of Journey Inn, a green bed and breakfast in west central Wisconsin where she and her husband, John Huffaker, lead workshops helping folks connect with seasonal living. “Fall ushers in a time of slowing down, building our energy reserves, reflection and renewal.”

Our food choices play an important role in embracing this seasonal lifestyle. “Eating local and fresh directly connects you with the season,” explains Torchia. “In the peak of summer, our menus focus on raw, fresh items like salad greens or outdoor grilling. The fall crops naturally bring our cooking indoors, with soups and stews simmering on the stove.”

But in today’s 24/7 world, such natural, seasonal transitions can often be neglected. Between the busy, advertising-hyped “back to school” season and the bustle of the holidays around the corner, our fall schedules are often no different than the peak of summer. Here are some tips from Journey Inn to embrace the autumn season and savor the inspiration of fall:

1. Show Gratitude
“Draw inspiration from this harvest time of year and express gratitude, especially for the abundance of food and flavors we’ve enjoyed all summer long,” suggests Torchia. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are thinking about going vegetarian, here is a list of things that should help you to actually do it,… and to stick to it once you’ve started.

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One leaf on the maple tree turned bright orange. The apples on our trees now droop with bounty. The local drive-in went to weekend-only hours and starts movies around 8:00 pm because that’s when it gets dark now here in Wisconsin. Deep sigh. Yes, those bittersweet signs of fall are in the air.

My advice on how to deal with this transition? Throw a potluck party celebrating the abundance of summer while you still can. Call it post-gardening season therapy. There’s nothing more cathartic than feasting with friends, savoring and reminiscing about the bounty of this year’s harvest –- while undoubtedly starting to plot for next year’s growing season.

Here’s a mini-cornucopia of ideas to get you started. For more detail, check out my piece in Hobby Farm Home magazine: The Community Table: Celebrate your local bounty with a potluck meal of regional fare.

1. Focus on Fresh Bounty

Tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, salad and spinach greens. Read the rest of this entry »

A quick trip to the farmers market Saturday afternoon netted me several more pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables. The canteloupe vanished soon after arriving home. My daughter had me cut it open and scoop out the seeds for her and she sat down on the sofa with a melon baller. Ten minutes later, it was gone.

While she gobbled down the melon, I surveyed the fridge for dinner. I needed to use up some leftovers from a party earlier this week where I served dips and chips. I had a half jar of salsa and some sour cream left over. With the red potatoes and jalapeños I bought today, I had the makings of a good side dish for dinner. Read the rest of this entry »

Indian food is my favorite, so I may be a little biased on this one. Nonetheless, the following is a delicious meal that I think most people can enjoy.

I am calling this “Homemade Indian Yum Yum” because it is full of spices often used in India, but it isn’t actually based on any specific Indian dish. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the best things about sourcing locally grown farm produce is that you’re guaranteed to get a variety of different items as the seasons change.  Pulling the first new season Discovery apples out of my fruit and veg bags a few weeks ago put such a smile on my face. This week’s enormous cabbage also made me laugh, partially because the basketball-sized monstrosity was even larger than my face.  Which of course left me facing an interesting question: what does one make with an excess amount of English cabbage?

It’s another installment of the Veg Bag game, where I explore new recipes to use up the array of organic fruits and vegetables that I pick up every week. Carrots and potatoes are a familiar arrival (which have gone into crispy pancakes and veggie fritters) but this week’s cabbage presented a new challenge.  I also received some lovely green beans about the length of my forearm - who says organic vegetables have to be smaller than conventional? With all these excellent British vegetables in hand, I had to go for an old-school British classic: bubble and squeak!

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We all know we’re supposed to get a few good servings of fruits and vegetables in our daily diets. Here are a few fun ones in the vegetable category. Hope you enjoy these eclectic stuffed vegetable dishes.
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Pear pie. Pear ginger muffins. Pear cordials made from fruit, sugar and vodka. Pears canned in sugar syrup. Pear jam.

When my senior neighbor Mary calls me every year at the end of August with her annual message of “The tree is ripe – come pick,” I turn into the Bubba Gump of pears, gratefully using the four bushels of pears I harvest off her abundant backyard tree.

As the country whines about escalating food prices, there’s often rotten apples falling from some tree near you. Or pears, plums – name your fruit. You know the tree I’m talking about – the one you pass by every day in someone’s yard that is practically falling over with ripe fruit and you think to yourself, “Someone needs to do something with that.” How true – and that “someone” is you.

Talk about an organic homerun: By connecting with and harvesting a local fruit tree, you not only garner more organic, fresh, local fruit booty than you know what to do with – and put something to use that would otherwise have gone to waste. You build community by connecting with others. We’re talking community at its core, most sustainable essence, sharing abundance with others, relishing the gifts of the land.

Step up to the plate – or bushel – and tap into these unwanted fruit on trees in backyards across the nation that could be making the world a better place through more pie – or jam or cobblers or muffins – you get the picture. Here are three tips for foraging a fruit tree near you:
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