10 lbs ripe tomatoes
3 bell peppers
1 red onion
1/8 to 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper

1 cup cider vinegar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 1/2 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp celery seed
15 black pepper corns

1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar – I use caster, have also used honey and agave at other times but feel sugar works best
1 – 2 tsp salt

Wash the tomatoes and place in bowl, bring large pot of water to boil, pour water over tomatoes and let stand for 1 minute. Remove vine connection and peel tomatoes, set in separate bowl. You may have to boil water several times depending on the size of your tomatoes and bowls. When all tomatoes are peeled,  remove seeds and drain water from tomatoes. Best way to do this is squeeze them relatively hard in your hand, possibly breaking them open to be sure most of the seeds are gone. I do this step over yet another bowl to save the tomato juice for drinking later. Place the seeded and drained tomatoes in a sieve and press down firmly to remove a bit more water.

Chop the bell peppers and onion into medium-size bits. Place the tomatoes, peppers, and onion in a large pot and bring to boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to medium, add cayenne pepper, simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Into a small saucepan place vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, celery seed and peppercorns on medium heat, bring to boil, reduce to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain vinegar, throw out the leftover spice mixture and put spiced vinegar to the side.

After tomatoes mixture has cooked for about 20 minutes, puree mixture using a hand blender and continue cooking the final 10 minutes. Remove from stove. You must use a food mill at this point. I have tried using a sieve and a fine mesh strainer and they don't work. Ladle tomato mixture into food mill and turn, turn, turn until you have worked all of the tomato through the mill, except some minor amount of pulp that will still remain.

Place tomato sauce back into pot, add 1/4 cup of sugar and bring back to boil over medium high heat, continue cooking for 15 minutes. After experimenting with making ketchup with poor online recipes and instructions I have come to the conclusion that it is best to to add the remaining ingredients in small portions until you achieve the flavor you desire.

Start with adding 4 or 5 tablespoons of the spiced vinegar, this will change the character of the ketchup most dramatically; it will also change your perception of sweetness. Before adding more spiced vinegar, add maybe a half a teaspoon of salt and stir. Taste. You might want to add more sugar at this point, you will most probably be adding more vinegar, and then a bit more salt, and finally tasting once again. Adjust amounts as necessary, this is very arbitrary here and I'm sure that further experimentation on my part will once again change this recipe but after a number of attempts, I feel this experience on my part will be of help to others who are trying to make ketchup.

My apologies but travel planning for a family member and our upcoming trip to Hawaii have taken away any time I might have otherwise had to posting here on my new blog.

We have been working on adding GPS coordinates to our photographs so the 3000 - 4000 images we take of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, and Kauai will find their way onto Google Maps for easier viewing and the knowledge of where we took each individual image. Don't worry, I won't be posting 3000 photos, only the best couple of hundred.

In the mean time, take a look at our beautiful travel photos at my other site JohnWise.com or check out some of the more than 450 Photos of the Day I've posted. Caroline also has her own site although it hasn't been updated in a very long time. It does though have many travel photos not posted yet on my site, check her site at www.karakolina.com.

Upon getting back from Hawaii I will post an extensive review of shopping at Chinese grocery stores. At John Wise.com I will be catching up with Photos of the Day from the trip to Hawaii, and shortly after that I will launch a travel photo blog with Google Maps, routes, trails, and location photos at www.scenicpath.com.

While I may not eat as healthy as I would like to and all too often find myself partaking in the worst elements of the standard American diet (S.A.D.), I do try to start my day with a nutritious beginning. I have long known I need more nuts, seeds, fresh fruits and fresh vegetables in my diet, but like many Americans I do not find an easy way to accomplish eating the recommended daily portions.

A year ago, after visiting a local smoothie shop, I was enjoying my smoothie but at the same time was feeling guilty about the ice cream that was added as a sweetener. I enjoyed the juice, frozen fruit, and maybe even a nutritional supplement but this wasn’t exactly a very healthy drink. I felt I could do better and from that moment started making my own smoothies.

Remembering those nuts and seeds, I began my recipe with the idea I could drink the nuts and seeds and be done with my daily requirement. I took a handful of walnuts or about one cup, two tablespoons of flax seed, and two tablespoons of wheat germ – placed them in a blender and ground the mixture into a fine meal. By the way, this recipe is for at least three portions, my wife also starts her day with this healthful drink.

Next I add some fresh fruit. I might add banana one day and banana and pineapple the next. I have tried watermelon, which turned out to be a mistake, while mangos and papaya are great. Fresh raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries when they are in season also work well in this concoction. A ripe peach or kiwis also make for nice additions.

Frozen fruit is essential to the smoothie as it is not a smoothie without that slushy texture. I had watched the smoothie shops in Arizona most often add ice and thought why not use frozen fruit instead so I get more of those daily allowances of dietary fruit requirements. Frozen fruit is good as fresh and when it is out of season it is a great choice because the fruit is packaged and frozen shortly after harvest. I use a total of one and half to two cups of frozen fruit. Today I used a handful of frozen blueberries, blackberries, and a cup of frozen strawberries.

With all of the talk of antioxidants I wanted to check that one off early in the day, too. Flax seed oil appeared to be one of the best natural methods of getting the omega 3 fatty acids into the system, and so I add two tablespoons of cold-pressed organic flax seed oil into the blender with the ground nuts, seeds, and grain, fresh and frozen fruit.

This would be a dry mixture if I were to throw the switch on the blender right now, time to add some juice. There is nothing like fresh squeezed orange juice for this. When oranges are in season I can get all the free oranges I want by visiting a neighbor with an orange tree as most people can’t use all of the oranges a single tree yields. Sometimes we can even pick them up at the store for as little as a dollar per seven pounds. When all else fails, we buy orange juice (preferrably not from concentrate) and add between one and one and a half cups of orange juice to the blender before hitting the mix button.

An alternative to just using orange juice while boosting the nutritional value is to add some fresh vegetable juice. We have an masticating type juicer as opposed to a centrifugal juicer but any veggie juicer will work. The recipe for fresh veggie juice varies, depending on what I have in the fridge. Today I used six carrots, half a large beet, and a large handful of spinach. I have been known to use tomato, parsley, kale, ginger, garlic, mint, orange beets, and celery or whatever else might be on hand to make about four to six ounces of fresh veggie juice that I substitute for an equal amount of orange juice before putting the entire mixture to blend.

With the lid tightly affixed, the blender goes to work grinding the smoothie into a refreshing and healthy start to our day. If the smoothie is too thick, try adding some more juice, not slushy enough, add more frozen fruit. This recipe makes three large smoothies, delivering 500 calories each. Dietary fiber is about 8.5 grams and protein is approximately 10 grams or 20% of the daily recommended allowance. Made with orange juice this smoothie offers 175% of the vitamin C, 17% of the Iron, 25% of B1, 26% of B2, 33% of Folate, and many more vitamins and minerals needed in your diet.

Add the veggie juice to your smoothie and the nutritional value skyrockets. Now you get 400% of the vitamin A, 200% vitamin C, 40% vitamin E, 38% of B6 and additions to a wide range of other vitamins and minerals. The cost to make this smoothie with orange juice is about $1.50 a serving, the addition of the fresh veggie juice adds .30 cents per serving.

Last Thanksgiving Caroline and I had plans for a road trip that would take us on one of our favorite drives, up the California coast from San Louis Obispo to Monterey. On highway 1 we would meander the curves, stop to gaze upon the surf, and break out a Tofurky with the Elephant Seals near San Simeon.

Well, the day we are getting ready to leave, I finally decide to read the instructions for the Tofurky I’m about to throw into the ice-chest. What, I have to let this thing thaw for 24 hours and then bake it for 2 hours? Oh well, so much for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, we will have to compromise, and thus I throw the Tofurky back in the freezer; that is where it has sat since last year.

Of course it is still good, this lump of tofu is good for more miles than a good set of tires or until July 2007, whichever comes first. This time I’m prepared and whip that plastic bird out of the freezer a good 24 hours in advance. Finally, the moment is upon us, I stoke the fire in the hearth and get ready to, to, well, to take my stuffed Tofurky and simply put in the oven.

With some carrots, potatoes, onions, some left over cauliflower that turns out shouldn’t be baked for two hours, the Tofurky is placed in a large casserole dish and covered with the recommended basting sauce of orange juice, soy sauce and a sweetener. I actually used orange juice, tamari, and honey – to be honest I do not know what it really added to the Tofurky. One hundred minutes later I prepared the rest of the provisions that would accompany our unorthodox Thanksgiving meal.

Mmmm, the Brussels sprouts are turning out great, and so is the asparagus. The dumplings that came with the Tofurky are in the boiling water and the gravy is simmering. As the dumplings begin to float the dinner is ready to be served. Out of the oven, actually smelling pretty good is the Tofurky looking much the way it did when it went in.

I pull out the carving knife to perform the honors and the magic veggie turkey is loaded with a secret chamber packed full of stuffing. Great, this is like a special American holiday version of the kinder egg! I hesitate trying to build something out of the stuffing instead proceeding to bring this meal together and find out, just what does a Tofurky taste like?

First of all, don’t think of this Tofurky as a giant drumstick and chomp off a giant mouthful.You may not ever finish chewing before you decide to attempt a world record for largest single swallow of a solid object! Secondly, don’t forget the gravy. While I may have made light of this adventure, it turns out that Tofurky isn’t half bad. As a matter of fact, as I made smaller cuts of the Tofurky and ate it with some of the stuffing and gravy, it was quite ok.

The texture is not very familiar. It is not like tofu nor like meat. The large bite was a bit rubbery, but the smaller portions are adequate at hinting that you might be eating turkey. With gravy and stuffing you are right there, just close your eyes and don’t think very hard about it. The taste is turkeyish, well I think it is. Being months after Thanksgiving and even longer since I actually ate some turkey I suppose my taste buds are rusty and not very accurate in comparing this to the true flavor of what the old gobbler tastes like.

Would I eat it again? Yes, I would. Although I am a meat eater, this Tofurky, while it is probably the butt of many a joke, is pretty good. One taste will not win over the avid turkey eater, but come next Thanksgiving, if we find ourselves out on the road, I wouldn’t hesitate bringing along a Tofurky with us. I probably shouldn’t commit to this yet as I haven’t warmed the leftovers yet and don’t yet know how well this will revive from the cold of the refrigerator.

Oh yeah, those dumpling that come with the Tofurky. Do not cook them, they are a waste of the energy required to take them out of the deep freeze. Send them back to the manufacturer as a revolt against them being packaged as fit for human consumption. Comparing the dumpling to Tofurky, the Tofurky is three star cuisine.

When you think of Eastern European food, sauerkraut and sausage or stuffed cabbage might be some of the first things to come to mind. I suppose if we didn’t have a growing demand in America for foods from Russia, Romania, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, and other Eastern European countries, our knowledge wouldn’t improve.

Here in Phoenix, Arizona, our growing Eastern European community is growing large enough that a new market has opened in the north of Phoenix called the European Food Market. This place on the corner of 12th Street and Bell Road is so new the shelves are not fully stocked yet, although they do have a good selection already. The shop is open seven days a week.

The standard sausages and deli meats are all available at the European Food Market and I have already tried a couple and will try more in the future, but this website is to help those of us who are living with a vegetarian or are looking at making part time vegetarianism more palatable. For sure, an Eastern European market is not going to supply the breadth of vegetarian product you are going to find in an Indian grocery, but the additional choices you will find can only add another layer of flavor to our diets.

Start with the many appetizers and pickled foods. The East offers great flavors for making cold plates. Popular choices are eggplant, red peppers, and squash. One of my favorites is Ajvar which is a roasted eggplant and garlic paste, great on bread, as are so many of these mixtures. My all time favorite though is Lutenica. Lutenica is a chunky relish made of peppers, tomatoes, and carrots, it’s slightly sweet and with a slice of cheese and a bite of kalamata olive you are on your way to a wonderful dinner.

Breads are an integral part of the European diet. None of that fluffy white stuff called Wonder Bread will do, Europeans need firm heavy breads. Bread with a strong flavor such as rye or the dark richness of pumpernickel are favorites while poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, and a wide variety of whole wheat and whole grain flours can be found, too. Even the white breads are heartier than the American varieties. The European Food Market brings in a lot of their breads from Los Angeles, California, where established Eastern European bakers have long been at work. Local bakers are few but you will find samples of their work at the shop. Another good choice for bread and pastries is the Polish bakery on 13025 N Cave Creek Road in Phoenix called Jana’s Bakery also try Karls Quality Bakery at 8847 N 7th Avenue in Phoenix.

Butter and cheese on our bread would make for a nice touch. I love trying new butters (Dutch and French are my favorites so far), but I’ve not yet tried this Russian butter. Butters vary in taste depending on what the cows have been eating, where they have been hanging out, and how long the cream is allowed to age. As for cheese, anyone who has eaten a European Feta can tell you, location does affect the flavor. Here in America most Fetas are quite mild as where in Europe you know the goat went the extra mile to add maximum goatiness to its milk just for you.

Well, our East European table is coming together, its now time to check into the soups. I recently tried a Russian soup made of mushrooms, veggies, and barley. It was surprisingly good. I say surprisingly because I think like so many other Americans, we have not learned very good things about East Europe and I suppose I thought a lot of these foods would be bland like the weather over Moscow in February. The labeling of these products is not perfect yet, while my wife Caroline and I ate the soup and she too thought it was yummy, we can’t be 100% sure if it was vegetarian. The label only listed five or six ingredients, while it didn’t list any meat products it also didn’t tell us what broth was used or if was just water.

To wash down the meal you could try Russian seltzer water, various fruit juices, or one of the unique sodas these shops carry. Our first venture into the flavors of the East was with a tarragon flavored soda, for me it was simply different, not unpleasant, but not a flavor you expect in a soda either. Would I have it again? Absolutely, as for Caroline she loved it; it reminded her of a cough medicine she took as a little girl in Germany. For the more easy going drink challenge, try the sodas pictured here. I like the berry cream soda, the only one I’ve tried so far, but the pear and hazelnut have my curiosity.

Time for dessert: Honey from the Old Country on warm bread, crepes, or cake. Well honey-on-bread route is the easy way out. And to be honest, my Cyrillic reading skills are not what they should be, but probably as good as anyone else’s who is reading this. The box of crepe mix and the cake mix are short on English instructions, although I am certain that if I were to want to try either I would find all the help I need from other customers in the store or a person behind the counter.

So you see, finding an angle into an otherwise apparently vegetarian unfriendly ethnic cuisine is not impossible. Just take some time to scan the shelves. Ask shoppers or the cashier for some tips. If you see someone pick up something you think you might be interested in, ask the person what they do with the item. Tonight Caroline and I had a cold plate of Balkan Pickled Salad, homemade sauerkraut (I have been fermenting this for more than four weeks now!), pattypan squash, Lutenica, roasted eggplant, a red pepper relish, olives, two aged cheddars, a Russian bread, some tomato, avocado, and red onion. It sure is nice the world is so big and varied.

To the Mexican grocery store we go. I keep calling it that, although it might be more correct to say “Hispanic” as this ethnicity of grocery caters to more than Mexicans but includes food items used by many Latin Americans.

For those of us who are bringing more vegetarian meals into the repertoire of meal planning, it is the variety of ingredients and the additional spice that really kicks in the appeal of many a vegetarian dish. Mexican food may have a strong reputation for fiery foods due to the classic salsas and the usage of jalapenos, but truth be known, it is Thai and Indian cooking that holds the distinction for the hottest flavors.

I am not saying that Mexican cooking doesn’t have a kick, it surely does, and thanks for that, as I am a big fan of spicy and in turn Mexican foods. What I am suggesting is that many a Mexican dish can be prepared in a variety of methods, not all of them requiring buckets of butter milk to put the fire out on your tongue. With a wide variety of chiles and piquant flavors, the foods found in Mexican groceries are a great addition to making the world of veggies more enjoyable and tolerable for vegetarians and non-vegetarians, such as myself.

In the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area with such a large population of Hispanics, we have many choices for finding Mexican groceries. There are nearly 60 small carnicerias, which are traditionally butchers, but today are small grocers with a little bit of everything needed for most Mexican cooking. The great size of this ethnic group has created the opportunity for large grocers to cater primarily to a Hispanic clientele, principally the Ranch Market and the more ubiquitous Food City with more than 60 locations across the state of Arizona.

Food City is part of the Bashas' grocery stores, a local Phoenix company run by the truly inspired Eddie Basha. Not only does the company cater to the Mexican market through the Food City chain, they also operate AJ’s Fine Foods delivering gourmet and specialty items, as well as Basha’s Dine Markets (pronounced dhi-NAY) specializing in the needs of the Navajo, Apache, and Tohono O’ odam Native Americans. But today, we are visiting Food City.

The Food City grocery store is typically as large as a standard conventional grocery and there is much overlap of product offerings. Food City though has a wide selection of food ingredients not found in those other stores; these items traditionally used in Mexican kitchens are what sets Food City apart.

A visit to your local Mexican grocery can be quite an experience as you are probably going to be introduced to some new sights, sounds, aromas, and flavors. From pop or traditional Latino music playing and piñatas hanging overhead to the occasional mariachi band or chiles being roasted in front of the store, you are sure to glimpse some of the Hispanic culture.

Here you may find a larger selection of fruits and vegetables than at your conventional store and in greater quantity. Mexican families still cook at home, even when both parents work multiple jobs. Not only are you going to find this abundance, the variety is impressive too. At Food City you will see the standards, broccoli, corn, spinach, cantaloupe, onions, and carrots but you are also going to find more types of chiles than you will initially know what to do with. You will see what appear to be a kind of paper wrapped tomato, which is actually tomatillo, used in salsas and sauces. Garlic, tomatoes, avocado, and the rest of ingredients for salsa will be nearby.

On the next display you might scratch your head as to why thorny cactus pads are for sale; no, they are not used for disciplining naughty children. Cactus pads are called nopales, and while they offer a bitter taste they are popular in a number of dishes. Prickly pear fruits from the prickly pear cactus, used in the making of candy, syrup, and a flavoring for drinks, can also be found when they are in season. 

Chiles come in many different shapes and heat ratings. Habaneros are the hottest of the chile family while Anaheims are generally quite mild. Jalapenos are popular in salsa and if smoked are known as Chipotle, adding a great smoky and spicy hot flavor to any and all cooking. I’ve tried using Chipotles in Indian dishes with wonderful results. The mild Poblano chile is popular stuffed for Chile Relleno whereas the Chile De Arbol is a fiery monster related to the cayenne pepper. Many dried chiles will also be found in store, the unique flavors of both fresh and dry chiles can add a nice zip to an otherwise dull meal Try experimenting with adding a little to recipes you already use or try searching for recipes on the internet that use these great spicy little fruits from the nightshade family.

Cilantro, epazote, banana leaves, Mexican grey squash, chayote gourd (prepared like squash), mint, hibiscus flowers (used for making the refreshing cold drink Jamaica – pronounced ha-mike-ah), sugar cane, and many other herbs and vegetables are often found in most Mexican grocery stores. Many of these items found in the produce department of Food City and Mexican grocers around the U.S. can make a flavorful impact on your cooking and should be explored for the possibilities they hold.

Look a little longer and the more you will see. Past the melons you might spot the sweetly aromatic guavas sitting next to the mangos. Guavas make a great addition to arroz con leche or rice pudding. The limes will probably be smaller than you may be accustomed to, but they are all lime, very popular, and usually a lot cheaper than your regular neighborhood market. Keep looking and if are wondering what the strange shaped fruits are, you might be looking at the cherimoyas. Many people would say they taste something between a banana with hints of pineapple and strawberry; this fruit was quite popular with American writer Mark Twain.

Rice and beans are a staple in Latin American diets, and the Mexican grocery will have plenty of both to choose from. Bulk bins of pinto beans, black beans, and white rice are plentifully stocked at our local Food City. An isle over and other varieties of beans along with ten to twenty-five pound bags of rice are on sale. Ask for a recipe for beans and you are likely to find out that is no such thing as ‘the’ recipe. It would appear that every family has their own favorite recipe for preparing beans, the same goes for rice.

You don’t need Mexican vegetables to enjoy great Mexican cooking either. Using corn and zucchini you have the beginnings of calabacitas. Calabacitas has its roots amongst the Pueblo Indians of the southwest but is now a popular dish with Hispanic households and restaurants alike. The dish is often served with beef or chicken, while the little restaurant El Conquistador around the corner from us serves it with pork. This dish is easily made vegetarian and can be served as a side dish, a casserole, tacos, or as an ingredient for making fajitas.

And if all these fruits, vegetables, and dry rice and beans sounds like a lot of work, there are plenty of short cuts to be had for quick preparation of a meal. Using a prepared sauce such as pipian, a green pumpkinseed sauce similar to the more widely known mole (pronounced moe-lay), you could prepare a dish in minutes by pouring the pre-made pipian over some veggies or, if you are so inclined, meat and veggies, and simmering for 20 minutes for a quick and healthy dinner. Adobo sauce is made from smoked jalapenos while mole is a nutty chocolaty sauce.

Not so easy, matter of fact, this takes some work, are tamales. The tamale is a brilliant piece of work, most people probably know the garden variety tamale stuffed with spicy beef but in reality there is no limit to what you can place into a tamale. I have had the slightly less common green chili and corn tamale, but have also sampled mushroom tamales and a mixed veggie with olive tamale. I think it is only a matter of time before someone concocts a spicy Indian mixture that finds its way into the tamale or the Korean version stuffed with spicy tofu and Kim chi.

As versatile as the tamale is the quesadilla. A simple enough snack, appetizer, or meal, the mighty quesadilla is made from one or two tortillas. Small to large tortillas, corn or flour, it doesn’t matter. One of my favorite quesadillas I learned to make was from our friend Guadalupe Silva. She would take two small corn tortillas and place a piece of Mexican cheese between the tortillas and grill a few minutes until the cheese was well melted. I modified this for breakfast by adding some fresh sliced avocado after cooking and we now indulge with some of our favorite salsa from Herdez.

From grilled veggies to various meats, the quesadilla can be filled with nearly anything. Kids love them with butter and cinnamon sugar, Caroline my wife loves a flour quesadilla warm and full of the Mexican caramel Cajeta made from cows and goats milk as where I prefer spicy green chili and a Mexican white cheese such as Menonita. This brings to mind the burrito as it too can be stuffed with a wide variety of fillings and is open to interpretation as to just what we could try putting in the burrito or quesadilla.

Bringing the burrito and quesadilla together is the famous tortilla. In a Mexican store you are going to find many brands, sizes, and types of tortilla. While homemade tortillas are always going to be the best, stores like Food City have onsite Tortillerias. Walking into Food City while the tortillas are being made is like walking into an old fashioned bakery as the air is filled with the steamy aroma of baking bread.

Tortillas made of corn are typically the favorite for making tortilla chips used for scooping up salsa and for making tacos. Corn tortillas are also popular with fajitas. Flour tortillas come in small, medium, and extra large sizes for truly overstuffed burritos. As more people become health conscience you will also find greater offerings of whole wheat tortillas.

At our local Food City across from the Tortilleria is a juice stand, offering some of the unique beverages found in Mexico. My favorite is Jamaica made from the hibiscus flower. This drink is an easy one to make at home, all you need is a handful of hibiscus flowers, some boiling water, and sugar to taste, let cool and it’s ready to drink.

The juice bar offers other Aguas Frescas or flavored waters, such as horchata (cinnamon rice milk), sandia (watermelon), and tamarindo. Also on offer are fruit shakes, snow cones, and Jugos Naturales or natural juices. Juice flavors include papaya, banana, nopal (cactus), fresa (strawberry), apio (celery), and guayabas (guava). The only thing missing is a live mariachi band and a lounge chair.

If your community is fortunate enough to have a Mexican grocery, a carniceria, or even a little tortilleria, you should take the time to familiarize yourself with the ambience and the wonderful products these places offer. Not only do they present a wealth of new flavors, they are in general less expensive than conventional grocery stores. Food City here in Phoenix, Arizona has brought all of the amenities of the conventional American grocery store to the Mexican market. This grocery store is also a great place to ask for recipe help from the patrons or if you see something you are unfamiliar with, just ask what the item is and how it is used. The Latino people I have known and those I have encountered have always responded kindly to a smile and a genuine interest to know something more about their culture, and food.

Special thanks to Gee Zaran the Store Director of Food City at 3202 E. Greenway Road in Phoenix, Arizona

Today I am visiting an Indian grocery store. Here in Phoenix we have nearly a dozen to choose from. While some Indian foods will be found in subsections of larger Asian stores, which are primarily Chinese in their offerings, the small local shop is still the best place to meet friends, learn of new Bollywood dramas or love stories, pick up phone cards for calling Delhi or Hyderabad, and buying homemade puris and chapattis.

My favorite Indian grocery is Indo-Euro Foods on 16th Street and Bell Road in Phoenix. While India has been independent from British rule for over half a century, the connection of the two countries lives on, including a mutual admiration for each others foods. Indo-Euro not only sells Indian foods but also a wide range of English foods, more on that later.

For many of us Westerners, Indian food is known as “curry”. The closest the majority of us have come to familiarizing ourselves with Indian food has been to smell it and announcing our dislike for all things “curry”. Turns out that Indian food is as diverse across India as American food is across America. Just as American Southerners eat mixed greens, corn bread, catfish, sweet tea, while New Orleans’ Cajuns enjoy jambalaya, etouffee, beignets, and crawfish, and Californians enjoy their unique brand of fusion cooking, India, too, has a wide range of cuisines.

From fish and fruits of Goa, to the coconut-heavy foods of south India, up to the fiery dishes of Gujarat in the northwest, India is alive with extraordinary cooking diversity. After all, India is the spice capital of the world and well hopefully you already know a thing or two about the history of the spice trade.

A good Indian store will cater to all of the tastes of India. Unfortunately this is also dependent upon the makeup of the local population. If the initial Indian population is coming in for high tech jobs, the community may see more southerners such as Bengalis, Telugus, and Tamils but if the jobs are for doctors, dentists or service industry companies, northerners from Gujarat may be dominant. The grocery store owner will typically know who the bulk of her customers are and cater to them, but as the community broadens, so will the offerings on her shelves.

Most Indian stores have little to no meat products on their shelves or in the freezers because the majority of Indians are vegetarians. If you have eaten at an Indian restaurant your eyes have probably fallen on many a chicken korma or lamb vindaloo, but these dishes are primarily consumed by westerners. Matter of fact, most of these restaurants are owned by Punjabis who are Sikhs and have no problem handling meat.

What you will find in abundance at the Indian grocery are legumes, beans, rice, fresh vegetables, and more spice than the average American would know what to do with in 100 years. At Indo-Euro Foods you will find an entire wall of lentils, beans, rice, and flour. It is a good idea to buy a cookbook of Indian recipes, though I must warn you, it is not easy to find an authentic Indian cookbook that is not catering to westerners tastes. The best luck I have had in getting the real home-cooked-like-grandma-used-to-make recipes is direct from Indians themselves, second best is skim the internet.

Another popular item in Indian stores is pickles. You will never believe in your wildest dreams that so many variations of pickles exist. Indians pickle everything, carrot pickle, mango pickle, lemon pickle, chili pickle, mixed veggie pickle, “stuff you won’t know what it is” pickle. These pickles are served as condiments to meals, some are spicy, some are pungent, while others are sweet, it is best that you just jump right in and start trying anything that strikes your fancy as words are not going to suffice in explaining the flavors.

Somewhat surprisingly, Indians appear to live for eating snacks. While America has potato and corn chips, pretzels, and cheetos, Indians have more variations of chili covered banana chips and cashews, to flattened rice with nuts and raisins, and these tiny thin yellow things mixed with a bunch of other stuff with more stuff and spices, and nuts, that if I were to try a new bag of snacks once per week I’d be busy for the next few years.

Veggies are not your typical corn, potato, and lettuce. You will find bitter melon, dhudhi, drumstick, tindoora, sinqua, okra, Indian eggplant, and guvar. Some veggies are not always easy to find or in season and so a wide range of frozen vegetables should be on hand. No Indian store would be complete without offering curry leaves, ginger, garlic, fresh methi (fenugreek leaves), and green chilies (also known as Thai chilies). Over the course of the year you are also likely to find guava and fresh mango which is an all time favorite Indian food.

If you are looking for inexpensive spices, Indian grocery stores should be your first stop. In your average commercial grocery store you are likely to pay $5 to $8 for a 3/4 oz bottle of any given spice, compare this to buying cumin for $2.99 for 14 ounces!  I buy mustard seed, cumin seed, red chili powder, fennel seed, cumin and coriander powder from Indo-Euro Foods and save tons because of it.

Some people no longer have much time for cooking. Indian stores are great for meeting people under time constraints too. At Indo-Euro, the shelf below the pickles displays dozens of pre-mixed spice mixes you can use by just adding veggies and/or meat. And if this still isn’t easy enough, Indo-Euro now offers more than a dozen Ready-To-Eat meals.

The competition for the appetites of busy programmers, dentists, and engineers whose wives have not yet come into country is fierce. But not only they are buying the heat-and-eat dishes. More and more couples who are both working need to save time and pick these up by the handful. I’ve seen quite a few Westerners trying them as a quick alternative for lunch at the office.

Sweets are in abundance. Indians are experts when it comes to mixing milk, cashews, pistachios, and sugar into a wide variety of offerings. You will find jalebi, gulab jamun, rasmalai, and ice creams coming in flavors such as mango, pistachio, and saffron.

As I brought up earlier, Indians like English foods, and the English love Indian food. Due to this relationship, Indo-Euro offers English candies, potato chips (crisps), cookies (biscuits), drinks, baked beans (an all time favorite and necessity for British expats), sausages (bangers) and the uniquely popular Marmite and HP sauce. The English also make a number of ready-mix Indian cooking sauces that are popular. Needless to say, tea is another essential item for both Brits and Indians, and the most popular brands can typically be found wherever Indian foods are sold.

This brings us to what I love most at my local Indian grocery. First is pani puri, this snack food from the coastal area of Bombay (Mumbai) never fails to overwhelm me. Next would be the variety of lentils as it opens up so many different opportunities for cooking a wide range of dishes. Tea masala is another favorite, add a little fresh ginger, a few crushed cardamom pods, a couple whole cloves, a quarter teaspoon of tea masala to a boiling cup of tea, strain, mix in a teaspoon of sugar and some milk and you have the greatest Indian-style chai ever. Finally, talking about Shah Rukh Khan, Priety Zinta, and Big B (Amitabh Bachan) with Indo-Euro customers regarding the latest movies coming out of Bollywood is a great pleasure. Seeing the looks on peoples face as they can’t believe their ears that a dorio (white guy) knows anything at all about Indian cinema makes them next beg the question, ‘and you understand these movies?’, no, but I can read the subtitles just like your kids do. My wife's favorite pastime at the Indian grocery is checking out the jewelry and occasionally the better looking actors in the movie magazines.

Alright, so this was one long winded introduction to an ethnic grocery store, I promise the others will be shorter, more succinct and to the point – not. Do yourself a favor, go hang out and take in the ambience of one of your own community’s ethnic grocery stores, they really are the next best thing to going to Disneyland.

Ethnic grocery stores are playing a vital role in our communities; not only do they supply the growing immigrant population; they also expose the entrenched residents to new and wonderful tastes and smells. I will present a series of reports over the coming few weeks into these local ethnic small grocery stores including features about Indian (Hindu), Hispanic, Asian, African, Japanese, German, and Middle Eastern grocery stores.

Many times I see people walk by the windows of these small shops, reminding me of times when I too would walk by and wonder just what was on sale here that drew these people from another culture. I felt that if I were to enter I wouldn’t know what to ask for or where to begin or simply be unwelcome. Heck with that, all you have to do is swing the door open and almost without fail someone will eagerly help you, maybe sharing a recipe or two. On more than one occasion, we have been invited for dinner from striking up a conversation with a customer. Now I look far and wide to find new stores that might have something different and exciting to try or we might just enjoy a walk down the aisles wondering, what is all this stuff?

Metropolitan Phoenix is part of Maricopa County, an amalgamation of some 30 cities and towns. Most of our cities are unknown to people outside of Arizona but a couple such as Scottsdale and Tempe have some recognition factor. With more than three million people living here and many more moving in all the time, Phoenix is now the sixth largest city in America. While just 15 years ago we were one of the most ethnically bland big cities in the west, today the population is shifting. Not only is there a large Hispanic population of about 765,000 Latinos, we now have more than 4,300 Pacific Islanders living amongst us. The Asian community now counts over 66,000 residents living in and around Phoenix, while 114,500 people of black or African descent make the Valley of the Sun home. Almost 57,000 Native Americans live here, and another 365,000 people are from somewhere else altogether. Over 1.3 million residents of Phoenix are of an ethnic background that is recognizable for its cultural diversity and unique customs.

Our city of Phoenix now offers these citizens social gatherings and festivals, places to practice their religion, concerts featuring musicians from their countries, film showings, and grocery stores. Grocery stores in particular are a great place to find out what is going on in any given ethnic community. It is here at the store where local ethnic-supplied services are often advertised. If a new film or musician is coming to town, you will likely find a flyer at the store. If the community is large enough, you might enquire about the availability of a newspaper that caters to this group. And if you want to meet new people, there is no better way to do it than via the stomach.

Visit any bookstore in America and you are likely to find only a small handful of magazines dedicated to the environment or ecologically sound living. A search of the internet will obviously turn up ninety-two trillion articles about the subject. But the best places to find daily fresh information from all corners of the globe condensed into formats that make it easy for us to bring this news into our lives - are the blogs.

While I subscribe to sixteen blogs that I categorize as healthy planet, the list is growing and the writing is only getting better. There are a few stand out blogs that are becoming as competitive if not surpassing some better known print publication. Maybe the most obvious blog worth checking out for it’s eco-factor is Treehugger.

By name alone, Treehugger let’s you know precisely where they stand. This online green magazine now brings in contributions from more than a dozen writers with many more people lending their help by way of offering tips to Treehugger which show up in the feed. Treehugger is also probably the hippest of the blogs with regular attention paid to fashion, trends, and the all around cool factor of being green. Green, it’s not just for treehuggers anymore.

World Changing has been a constant favorite since I first stumbled upon it. Lofty ideas permeate the plan for this blog. Bring in writers from around the globe and focus on those things that are making ecologic and environmentally dramatic change to peoples lives. Not focusing on pointing fingers at polluters or poor policy, World Changing keeps an eye of positive developments that lend encouragement, hope, and inspiration to those who are already trying to bring change and if we are lucky, to those individuals who are about to start doing their part to make a positive impact to the world we live on.

Blogs such as Treehugger and World Changing are truly at the forefront in the publishing world as traditional media typically ignores the type of news these services are focusing on. Most if not all of these stories are absent from television and while the occasional story will find its way onto a lifestyle program or get mentioned in one of the four or five magazines that touch on such subject matter, none can offer the immediacy of offerings and the ability to discuss, comment, or otherwise bring dialogue about these things the way blogs are currently doing so.

Then there are the individual bloggers such as Shea Gunther who publishes his Musings of an Eco-Entrepreneur. As a one man show, Shea brings forth between one and five or six postings a day that he has culled from around the internet. People like Shea are the timesavers for people like me who simply don’t have the time to track the many sources to find the interesting tidbits of news that make some blogs more relevant to us readers than anything in traditional media.

The City Hippy blog is a diary on living green. Combining original writing heavily laden with links to useful green information, this blog from the United Kingdom is relevant to all people of the world who are participating in a consumerism driven economy. From articles pointing out the benefits of using compact fluorescent light bulbs to discussing using fair trade coffee to maintain sustainable agriculture for people coming into globalism from third world countries, City Hippy becomes one more viable source of useful currency as I too try to do my best as a city hippy in Phoenix, Arizona.

Greener Magazine focuses on the American home, garden, and family as it's target for ecological enlightenment. While similar to City Hippy - from time to time you just may see some overlap between online publications - all of these blogs will see great change in the coming years as some simply drop out, others mature and become large entities in their own right. The formats are not set in stone, designs may change frequently, but this growing movement in self-publishing is a phenomenon that is allowing far greater choice and an unrestricted voice of opinion on information that more often than not has historically had a difficult time seeing the light of day.

Finally I am featuring Planet Save which jumps into the gamut of planetary issues. From politics and oil to solar and agriculture, Planet Save is making an aggressive push to get into the lives of people who may want to make a difference to inefficient and wasteful living and consumption. Even Coldplay has thrown its considerable weight behind the website in featuring a link on their DVD ‘Coldplay Live 2003’ and the CD ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’, and on the Coldplay website.

A great service many of the blogs have in common are the links to other blogs that they find helpful or interesting. Of course if you subscribe to the above sites, most of what is going to be found as great news regarding the environment and green living will be found right there. But there are always other sites coming online who are offering new and exciting writing, perspectives, and news not found elsewhere. It pays to occasionally peruse these other sites and see if as they mature they don’t offer you something that lends you a new point of view you’ll find nowhere else.

Other sites of interest:

SolarDweller at http://solardweller.blogspot.com
Sustainablog at http://sustainablog.blogspot.com
The Green Life at http://www.thegreenlife.org/blog/
The Greener Side at http://greenerside.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Unplugged Living at http://www.unpluggedliving.com/

In our continuing effort to eat healthier and because our CSA supplies us with a lot of salad requiring ever more ingenious salad dressings, we have added miso to our diet. Looking for new salad dressing recipes I had come upon a number that included miso. We know miso from eating at Japanese restaurants where we have often had a small bowl of miso soup with a few pieces of tofu and some thin slices of green onion, and our first encounter with a miso salad dressing was at Eddie McStiff’s in Moab, Utah. Their house dressing with miso has made us detour through Moab on more than one trip to allow us to pick up more bottles. But, until now we had never made an attempt to make our own miso based dressing or soup.

Our local major grocers do not only not carry miso, but also are quite ignorant about it. Even our healthy organic farmer’s market type stores are short on knowledge or available product. One store has miso, but it sits on the regular un-refrigerated shelf, which suggests to me this is a pasteurized product and hence lacking the real nutritional benefit of miso. I found miso at another store from the organic category, but there it is quite expensive and does not come with information about genetically modified ingredients. The Asian grocery stocks four or five brands featuring different types of miso, including red, white, yellow, and brown. All of them were short on (English) data regarding ingredients, manufacturing, or pasteurization.

Thus I started looking for healthy organic miso on the Internet. Miso is a living fermented food. To a base of soy beans or, as hinted to just above, chickpea, rice, adzuki bean, barley, or wheat, the maker of miso adds a yeast mold known as koji along with a few other ingredients, starting a fermentation process which for some misos can take upwards of three years before its ready for consumption. Koji is created by inoculating rice with the synthesizing bacteria, Aspergillus oryzae. Because this bacteria is high in vitamin B-12 it has often been recommended as a good source of this vitamin for vegetarians, who often do not get enough of it. B-12 is typically found in meat, dairy and egg products.

If that alone wasn’t enough though, researchers have shown miso to be a truly potent medicinal food. During the 1960s, after many years of treating atomic bomb victims in Nagasaki, Dr. Shinichiro Akizuki came to believe that neither he nor his staff suffered from the effects of radiation due to their consumption of miso. In 1972, Dr. Akizuki’s theory was validated by the discovery of dipicolinic acid in miso which is an alkaloid believed to chelate or dissipate heavy metals such as radioactive strontium.

In the late 1980s, medical researchers discovered ethyl ester in miso. This fatty acid is produced during miso’s fermentation and acts like an anti-mutagen. It is known to counter the effects of nicotine and burnt-meat mutagens. Then, in the 1990s, the plant isoflavone called genistein was found in miso. Compared to other soy-based foods also containing genistein, miso contains about 25 times more genistein. Genistein is now believed to be an active anticancer substance. Studies have shown that genistein reduces cancer cells’ ability to form new blood vessels and attacks the cells’ reproduction mechanism. There is much more writing concerning miso and the effectiveness of genistein in fighting cancer readily available on the internet.

Finally, miso acting to alkalize the body helps neutralize acid to bring the body to a healthy ph. Miso is a tremendous source for linoleic acid and lecithin, and if you are eating unpasteurized miso you are also benefiting from miso’s lactobacilli. Miso is believed to be an essential part of a long healthy life, promoting stamina and an all around feeling of well being.

All of this made me more and more excited about finally trying out living miso. Fortunately, I soon found South River Miso which appeared to be the miso maker for us and so an initial order of four different flavors was made. On first taste straight out of the bottle I knew I had to order the other flavors. South River offers Dandelion and Leek, Red Pepper Garlic, Chickpea, Brown Rice, Adzuki Bean, Barley, and a number of other flavors of miso that are all extraordinary.

Buying a healthy living miso today is not that easy since commercial food producers are more interested in cost savings and bulk to satisfy demand than in providing quality. While foods such as miso, which undergo a lacto-fermentation process, have been consumed for centuries, their method of production is less than convenient. A good strong miso as stated above can take upwards of three years before it is ready for consumption.

Using chlorinated water, table salt, or substandard ingredients all have an impact on fermented foods. Some techniques are meant to standardize consistent yields, not deliver consistent healthy benefits. Olives for example should be fermented using the natural lactic-acid fermenting method of sea salt alone, but nowadays, for the sake of expediency, mass-produced olives are treated with lye to remove bitterness before getting packed in salt and sold to the consumer.

Finding healthy and conscientiously produced products is becoming more and more difficult especially as the majority of consumers care more about convenience than flavor and health. Fortunately for those willing to make an effort to find such products, they do exist. Miso from South River Miso in Conway, Massachusetts is an example.

South River is a small operation, taking the time and patiently using skills learned from Naburo Muramoto and his School of Oriental Medicine and Traditional Fermented Foods in California to make a high quality living miso. In a massive masonry stove in the farm’s purpose-built post-and-beam shop a wood fire gets the process underway. Founders Christian and Gaella Elwell work hard to fill over 20 wooden vats with over 150,000 pounds of fermenting miso for those fortunate enough to learn of their precious product.

Our favorite use for any of the flavors of miso from South River so far is this salad dressing:

Miso Happy Salad Dressing

¼ cup Braggs raw cider vinegar or rice vinegar – I prefer seasoned rice vinegar
2 tbsp Sweet White Miso or other light variety
2 tsp honey or rice syrup – we enjoy honey most of all
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup fresh basil

Mix all ingredients in blender on high except oil.
With blender on medium speed slowly add oil.

This is a slight variation of their recipe. Regarding vinegar, we tried Sherry and balsamic vinegars but would not recommend it since both tend to overwhelm the subtlety of the flavors in the finished dressing. We have tried other flavors of miso, both light and dark, and all have produced great results. Instead of olive oil, the original recipe calls for sesame or vegetable oil, but we have found that an early harvest olive oil is the most complimentary, due to its much fruitier taste! However, walnut oil does NOT work, the flavor is too strong. In the original recipe, the basil is optional, but in my opinion it shouldn’t be as it perfectly rounds out the dressing.

So, if I got you interested, get to it and order yourself some of the best miso you are likely to find in the United States. Do it soon, before it gets hot, because South River only ships during cool months. I would recommend starting with several different flavors to sample the varieties and different aged products. Consider the Barley or Chickpea Barley misos from their three-year dark miso selection and from the one-year light miso selection try the Sweet White or Adzuki Bean misos. If you’d like a real treat and it’s still available try their unique Dandelion Leek miso!!!

To learn more about South River and order their fabulous products, contact them at www.southrivermiso.com or call 413-369-4057

References
• www.clearspring.co.uk Miso Medicine – Health Giving Properties of Miso
• www.whfoods.org The Worlds Healthiest Foods – Miso
• www.mercola.com The Incredible Health Benefits to You of Traditionally Fermented Foods

Palak Paneer is a North Indian dish of palak or spinach and paneer – an Indian cheese. Like all dishes from India there are many, if not infinite ways to prepare a dish. No two dishes are the same from cook to cook. If you are fortunate to watch a number of grandmothers preparing Indian dishes, you will see there are no measuring spoons or specific measures, everything is prepared by lessons learned over the years. The best advice I can give to someone who is interested in Indian cooking is to become familiar with the basics and improvise from there.

The basic essentials are oil, mustard seed, cumin seed, ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, curry leaves, onion, garlic, ginger, green chilies, red chili powder, tomatoes, and cilantro. Then you merely need choose the bean, lentil, or vegetable you want to prepare and within these ingredient you can make many a dish. After making a few Indian dishes by recipe you will start to see the order of the process and maybe begin to understand how to adjust spices to better fit your own taste.

My cooking tends to be on the spicy side, so I will make extra effort to cut down on green chilies for the recipes I present. If a recipe calls for a teaspoon of red chili, I will recommend you begin with ¼ teaspoon and adjust up from there. Considering that not every city in America has an Indian grocery I will try to offer alternatives to items that may be difficult to find. In some circumstances you may have to buy items online as some recipes simply cannot do without particular flavors.

One more note, typically what is served in Indian restaurants in America is Punjabi style food. The reason being, it appears that many Punjabis are Sikhs and as such are not necessarily vegetarian, on the contrary, quite often they are omnivores like the majority of the U.S. population and so have no problem preparing meat based dishes. If you are lucky enough to live near a large Indian community you may have access to Gujarati cooking which tends to be on the spicy side and is always vegetarian. Gujaratis cook with ingredients Westerners may find difficult such as bitter melon, drumstick (no, not as in chicken), okra, and guvar. South Indian cooking such as what the Tamils or Telugus eat is a much more mild vegetarian diet featuring coconut, rice, idli, dosa, and vada. As you become more aware of Indian foods, you may find it interesting to explore the regional differences India has to offer.

How to make Palak Paneer:

14 oz. paneer, cubed
1 pound fresh spinach, cleaned and chopped
2 tbsp fresh chopped ginger
2 -3 cloves fresh crushed garlic
2 green chilies
1 red onion diced
2 medium or 3 small tomatoes, chopped
1 medium potato peeled and diced
3 bay leaves
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp sugar
1 – 2 tsp sea salt
Grape seed oil or oil of your choice
Garam Masala – see recipe below

In medium frying pan with 2 tbsp oil, brown cubed paneer until golden. Drain and set to the side.

Place half the spinach in a large pot and cover with 2 cups of water. Add chopped green chilies, chopped tomato, ginger, and garlic. Boil for 10 minutes. Carefully pour contents into blender and puree into a coarse mixture.

In large pot or large frying pan, heat 3 tbsp oil on high heat and add mustard seed and cook until they begin to splutter. Add chopped onion cooking until lightly browned. Add cumin, coriander, turmeric, bay leaves and fry for 1 minute.

Add pureed spinach mixture, the reserved chopped spinach, the potato, salt and sugar and cook on high heat for 5 to 8 minutes. Add browned paneer, reduce to low and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until potato is soft or dissolved. Fold Garam Masala into dish 2 minutes prior to serving. We serve palak paneer with rice, Indian breads also make a nice accompaniment.

Garam Masala:

4 whole cloves
8 black peppercorns
Seeds from 2 green cardamom pods
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
A few strands of saffron

Lightly toast cloves, peppercorns, and cardamom seeds in dry frying pan. Using either a mortal and pestle or a clean coffee grinder to grind the toasted spices along with the cinnamon until mixture is ground fine. Stir in nutmeg and saffron. This recipe makes only enough for the above recipe.

Yesterday I visited The Little Farm in Gilbert. This little patch of land in Gilbert, Arizona is part of the wave of CSA’s or Community Supported Agriculture. This service delivers subscribers a weekly bag of fresh farm-raised, organic produce, free of pesticide, with only the occasional gopher nibble.

Lauren Cathcart is the proprietor of this enterprise; she welcomed me onto her farm and gave me a detailed tour and explanation of the ups and downs of running her CSA. Community Supported Agriculture has actually been around for quite some time now, although the general public is only slowly becoming aware of their existence. A typical CSA might charge between $15 and $25 per week, some payable weekly, others requiring payment for a season in advance. Lauren allows monthly payments.

With the help of volunteers and a heartfelt desire to do some good for a small handful of people who are trying to do something a little bit better in their lives, Lauren keeps her prices low and works hard for the eight months she supplies fresh veggies to her forty-odd subscribers scattered throughout the Phoenix Metro area.

The Little Farm in Gilbert is about five acres in total in size, although most of that land is used for pasture, home, and working areas. Only about three-quarters of an acre is used for growing veggies. Starting at the end of summer, Lauren, who must be aware of our strange growing season in Arizona, starts planning the process of growing a sufficient amount of veggies with enough variety to satisfy the regular customers as well as the excited new recruits, who think they are ready to eat more greens.

In November the first bags start going out. Utilizing three drop-off / pick-up homes, subscribers visit these volunteers’ homes after 10:30 in the morning to collect their week’s worth of veggies. Earlier in the day, Lauren sends out an email notifying us what will be in this week's share. Our share might include, lettuce, spinach, arugula, carrots, beets, broccoli, dill, green onions and for those of us who want them, eggs. The following week we may see the addition of tomatoes, lemons, mint, or any other combination of what Lauren has maturing on the farm.

Visiting the farm was a pleasure. It made me long to trade the keyboard for a shovel. On her small three-quarters of an acre with many an empty row awaiting seeding, weeding, or the sprouting of seeds or potatoes, Lauren is able to supply at least fifty subscribers and have enough food for her family. Visitors to the farm don’t leave empty handed either as Lauren is quick to offer a couple of things for free for those who make the journey to her small farm.

We walked around the farm for 90 minutes and lamented the lack of concern about quality and nutritional value that is traded for price savings. I heard about schemes trying to be implemented with new laws and regulations that are making it more difficult for small farmers to remain in operation. Lauren is also being squeezed out by developers who want her land to build track homes. As some of these small farmers sold the remaining ones were quickly surrounded by urbanites, and those same people who bought rural now want the farmers to pack it in and allow higher density communities to add value to their property or want more convenient shopping.

This little farm is no cake walk. Not using poisoning pesticides, Lauren is constantly battling insects, although weeds, gophers, and birds appear to be the more ornery pests. Lauren is trying to do more hand-tilled field work, leaving the roto-tiller to gather rust and so is pulling out finished crops and prepping soil by brawn and sweat. There is no doubt this endeavor is a labor of love. Unfortunately it does appear that state, local, and federal government regulations will bring this community benefit to an end sooner than later.

Until that day when this one of only a small handful of CSAs in the Phoenix area closes shop, I will cherish the salads, steamed broccoli, beets and carrots that we turn into juice, dill I use to make salad dressing, mixed greens that make savory Southern style greens, arugula we add to our grilled cheese sandwiches, and the smile I recognize on my face every time I get in the car with my bag of veggies. I peel it open like a child on Christmas day to look at the treasures awaiting me.

I finished my visit with a walk amongst the farm animals. Her newest steer who might actually be a bull in need of some ‘work’ back there shook his head in warning at me while her sweet pot-bellied pig nudged and worked my ankles and shins for a treat. An unfriendly turkey and an equally mean goat let it be known that I was close enough for their comfort so I stayed my distance. Chickens went about their business, a couple of Jersey cows came over, sniffed at me and gave me a lick and that pot-bellied pig followed me around like we’d known each other for years.

It is sad that in our routine of fast-lived habitual treadmill existence that these things, these lifestyles, processes, smells and sounds will for most of us remain an absolute unknown. For thousands of years of living on this planet our distant relatives knew and lived this way. Today most of us know Walmart better than what cauliflower or artichokes look like when they are growing. We can name movie characters and repeat dialogue from TV shows, but wouldn’t know what an heirloom plant was, where organic seed come from, or what fresh garlic looked like to save our lives.

Our neighbors who take this time to make a CSA work deserve more than the few dollars they might be making supplying us a few healthier veggies. We should demand that our communities cherish this craft that is disappearing. These islands of agriculture should grow into islands for vacationers, bed and breakfasts for weary workers, a place to learn what it takes to grow food, take care of land, feed animals, and feed each other. Our very connections to the lands and earth we have sprung from are close to being forever broken.

To learn more and find a CSA where you live visit www.localharvest.org.

Today’s entry features two recipes, one for rice-nut milk, and the other plain nut milk. Making your own milk falls into the wow category of ‘I can’t believe I did this’. This is so simple, apparently quite healthy, very inexpensive, and all together satisfying knowing precisely what you are drinking or adding to your children’s breakfast cereal.

First off, why would you want to make your own milk? I for one am allergic to cow’s milk, the side effects are horrific – ask my wife. Not only are many people allergic to cow’s milk, often the buyer does not nor will not know what chemicals, growth hormones, antibiotics, or quality of feed or surroundings the cow lives in, so just what’s in that bottle of milk? The milk industry has been requesting that the government not allow organic milk producers to advertise that their organic milk is free of rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) because the milk industry say its safe. Others believe the cows’ udders become damaged and inflamed by milking it so long in the industrial milk production process that it is producing pus, which the government allows to some degree.

You could drink soy milk, but you’d better start reading your labels as genetically modified soy is in heavy use in the U.S. marketplace. And, while I can ‘drink’ soy milk when it is mixed in a hot bowl of oatmeal, I do not like the taste of soy milk in coffee or on cold cereal. Rice milk is popular in Mexico where it is known as Horchata, but this sweetened milk with cinnamon goes better with a meal like a soft drink than put on granola. Nut milks are becoming more popular and hence here we are at today’s entry.

In order to make your own milk there is one thing you will need before all others, a Nut-Milk Bag. This amazing little white fine mesh bag allows you to filter the nut and rice matter, leaving great tasting milk. The Amazing Nut-Milk Bag I use comes from Elaina at Pure Joy Living Foods and only costs $8.50 a bag which is easily rinsed out and used again and again. You can reach Elaina at www.purejoylivingfoods.com or by calling her at 831-423-4557.

Buying almond milk is getting easier with stores such as Wild Oats and various health food stores now offering a few different brands. These milks are packed in Tetra Pak, and to preserve the liquid the manufacturer must bring it to a temperature of 275 degrees Fahrenheit, which is going to have an impact on the health and nutrition of the milk, hence the necessity to add chemical variations of vitamins and nutrients. Then there are added sweeteners. The second ingredient in one brand of nut milk is evaporated cane juice, in the other, brown rice sweetener is the third ingredient.

Making your own rice nut milk or nut milk you control the amount of sweetener, the type of nuts used, whether you want to use organic or conventionally grown products and the quality of the water. Not only that, you know precisely how old your product is.

I am presenting rice nut milk and plain nut milk recipes, as these two seem the most popular with people who are making their own milks. After analyzing the costs and nutritional content, it’s a tossup as to which is better or cheaper. Almond milk costs .30 cents per serving and is higher in Vitamin E and 20 calories less than rice nut milk, while rice nut milk costs .28 per serving and has slightly less protein per serving. Some people say rice milk is grainier but with my recipe I haven’t experienced that. Both recipes use sprouted nuts and or rice which many believe is the healthiest way to eat nuts, seeds, and grains. So let’s get started.

Brown Rice and Almond Milk

½ cup medium grain brown rice
¼ cup raw almonds
¼ cup raw cashews
3 tbsp raw honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
7 cups filtered water

24 hours prior to making this milk, start the brown rice soaking. First rinse the rice thoroughly and then cover with water and allow soaking for 24 hours. I usually start this around 8:00 p.m.

Next morning, start soaking the almonds and cashews until evening.

After approximately 24 hours rinse the brown rice and nuts and place mixture in a blender with 4 cups of water, 2 tbsp honey and 1 tsp vanilla. Blend on high for 2 to 5 minutes and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Come back and blend for another 2 minutes.

Pour this mixture into your Amazing Nut-Milk Bag over a large bowl and gently squeeze the fluid out of the bag. Take remaining pulp and return it to the blender with 3 cups of water, 1 tbsp honey and 1 tsp vanilla. Blend on high for 5 minutes. Pour into nut bag, squeeze bag gently to drain. Pour milk into 2 quart size mason jars and refrigerate.

Almond Milk

1 cup raw almonds
3 tbsp raw honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
7 cups filtered water

Soak almonds for 8 hours and prepare as described above

Both milks will separate and require re-mixing (you can just shake the jar). If the flavors are not strong enough for your tastes, try decreasing the water or adding more sweetener.

You have now made raw, natural, possibly fully organic homemade milk that tastes great and it also feels great to take back these things in life that have been institutionalized, to become more self-sufficient and to be in control of what and how we bring food into our life.

Making fresh orange juice during the winter is an absolute pleasure to those of us in the southwest that may have lived somewhere cold and wintry. Having family with citrus growing in their yard or better yet, having your own trees makes this all the better. Fortunately for us we have family in Santa Barbara, California who are willing to give us more citrus than we have room in our car to bring home and family in Phoenix that let us pick all we want, as long as we pick some for them.

If you don’t have your own trees or family with citrus, ask someone whose trees are overloaded and you can see the citrus hitting the ground. Local markets are likely to have great sales on citrus this time of year as crops come in. Henry’s, a local farmers market was recently selling 7 pounds of oranges for $1.00.

A reasonable citrus juicer such as the Braun MPZ 9 starts at $19.50 online and has worked for us a couple of years without incident. Of course if you want something more professional, check out the Metrokane Chef’s Juicer for $99.98.

Typically the best prices and time for harvesting citrus is from January through March, this is when we find the sweetest juiciest oranges around. If you have not had fresh squeezed, and I do not mean store bought that claims ‘Fresh Squeezed’, you have not had truly great OJ. Pasteurized sour store-bought juice with added nutrients (they have to that because the pasteurization removes a lot of the healthy benefits) will never hold up in comparison to fresh squeezed juice, especially when you have picked the oranges yourself. And when you can’t pick your own, a close second is fresh oranges from your local store.

*updated November 8, 2007

In not too distant a past I would have been one of the first idiots out of the gate to blurt – this is a granola site.  So it may be fitting that my first real posting here is precisely about that, granola.

Following a recent visit to the awesome San Francisco restaurant named Café Gratitude I became a convert to wonderfully healthy living raw granola. After checking dozens of websites and a nearly equal amount of books I am now offering my version that has been inspired by many a skilled un-cook. This recipe has been scaled to feed two people, my wife and I, plus our dehydrator is rather small and this recipe fills it.

Other recipes fall into either asking you to soak various seeds, nuts, and grains at staggered times which isn’t at all convenient, or they only use a couple of grains which I find kind of boring or they don’t want you to use any sweetener. So, if you are a foody purist, you might want to work with someone else’s recipe.

Start with soaking the following, use organic where you can afford to:

12oz (350g) whole raw almonds
8oz (225g) whole raw walnuts
2.5oz (75g) raw unsalted sunflower seeds
3.5oz (100g) raw pumpkin seeds
5.5oz (150g) raw quinoa

You may substitute or omit any of the above by adjusting the measures of the other nuts, seeds, or grains to make up for or replace. Adding 3.5oz of flax seed is surely a health benefit to this recipe.

I use quart-size mason jars and divide the above into two jars and cover with filtered water. Soak for 8 hours. Some recipes call for longer soaking times, but I have experienced a sour taste if soaked too long, you might also want to rinse the mixture half-way into the soakr. Regarding instructions from others to soak certain items for 12 hours, others for 4 and yet others for 24, well as I said, I soak for 8 hours and have no complaints yet.

After soaking, rinse nut, seed, grain mixture. Next, you will want to place a portion of the rinsed mixture into a food processor, but don't put too much in at a time, as grinding this will turn to paste if you blend too long. On my first batch I nearly had peanut butter in my blender. On subsequent preparations I adjusted blending times to match how large of pieces I want. Place ground mix into large mixing bowl.

When all nuts, seeds, and grains have been blended to your satisfaction mix in the following:

2.5oz (1 cup - 75g) shredded coconut
9oz (3 cups - 270g) rolled oats

Mix well and add the following:

½ cup organic cold-pressed coconut oil
¾ cup raw unfiltered honey
2 tsp vanilla extract

Before folding in the above, I mix the coconut oil, honey, and vanilla until I have a smooth even cream, add it to the large mixing bowl and then mix thoroughly  to ensure even distribution of all ingredients.

Our dehydrator is a small Excalibur ED2400 4-Tray dehydrator we purchased from www.877myjuicer.com for only $117 including shipping. You will need a dehydrator of some sort to make this above recipe. If space is a concern or you are making this for yourself or for a couple, the above unit is adequate. A larger 9-tray unit is available for $185 also including free shipping. The Excalibur brand is the most popular line of dehydrators. Ours is pictured right with a lemon, apple, and orange on top so you can better judge size of the unit.

My recipe requires four trays to be used and you must also use Teflex sheets, be sure to request and order these before your dehydrator arrives. Divide the granola into four portions on the teflex sheets that should be sitting atop the plastic trays from your dehydrator.

Distribute the granola to form a flat square, approximately 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick layer of granola on the teflex sheet. Tear a piece of plastic wrap large enough to cover the entire tray and place atop of the granola, using both hands press down on the plastic wrap to compress the granola. Be sure to keep the granola about a ½ inch from the edge of the tray.

Place the four trays in your dehydrator, set the temperature at 105 degrees Fahrenheit and dry for 48 hours – sample all the time. After about 12 hours you should be able to slide the teflex sheet out from under the granola, this allows a much more even drying - this step is essential, you can also try turning over the granola, carefully. When granola is finished, break it into smaller pieces and store in sealable containers. I do not know how long you can store this type of granola as ours doesn’t last more than a week. Serve with your favorite milk, we prefer homemade almond milk or homemade brown rice, cashew, almond milk – my recipes for these will appear in the next days.

Yields: 3 pounds / 24 - 1/2 cup (55g) servings

Nutrition facts: 334 Calories, 4.79g Dietary Fiber, 9g Protein,

Cost: Depending on where I purchase ingredients this recipe has cost as little $14.70 up to $21

Variation: I have added a cup of frozen crushed raspberries with wonderful results!

Welcome to HappyBumbleBee my new blog. I am John Wise and have been blogging at www.johnwise.com posting a Photo of the Day since the beginning of 2005. Today though I need more space, specifically I wanted a site dedicated to easing the way for us meatatarians to find peace in the world of the vegetarians and health enthusiasts.

Learning that a healthier, plant-based diet can extend beyond eating a few raw carrots with a side of sprouts has taken me quite a while. With HappyBumbleBee I hope to help those looking for options that include more organic, veggie, raw, and vegan choices.

I will post recipes, ideas, thoughts, tips, reviews, photos and whatever else might come my way that pertains to a more healthy lifestyle. Along the way I will also update this About page to be more informative. I had to start somewhere and I have been excited just to get this new blog off the ground, so here it is.