Marinated Beet Greens and Arame on Zucchini Noodles
this is a favourite raw recipe that i keep playing with and elaborating the more i play... it is definitely in season right now, what with all that kale and chard coming in from the farms... i leave out the exact proportions so that you can experiment and make it to your taste. enjoy!

To make the Marinade:
Mix together olive oil, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, and a dash of nama shoyu (tamari)
Mince some ginger and garlic
Mix in some maple syrup or agave nectar

Noodles
Grate zucchini into long noodles (you can also grate some carrot and red and/or yellow beet to make a tri-colour noodle combo)
Put aside for now

Greens

Finely slice or grate beet greens (or any greens such as swiss chard, kale, collards)
Grate 1 carrot and 1 small beet
Slice a handful of onion such as green, red or sweet white onion
And combine these in the marinade for at least 30 minutes, but you can leave it for hours!

Soak arame and/or kombu seaweeds for 5 minutes, drain and add to the marinade

Serving it up:
Take a handful of zucchini noodles and cover with the greens from the marinade, as a main course or as a side dish.
Garnish with Hemp seeds or Sesame Seeds and freshly chopped coriander

Make sure you serve it with garnish that adds colour, so if you’ve not already got yellows from yellow beets or purples from the swiss chard, grate a bit of red or yellow beet or grate a bit more carrot on top.

Tips:
You can use any dark green such as kale, dinosaur kale as they are great when marinated
You can also marinate Portobello mushrooms for a delicious variation.
Can add red, yellow peppers to the marinade or as a topping
Fresh corn looks beautiful!

conscious kitchens

the beauty and bounty of late September was a time of creating and cultivating conscious kitchens.
 
at our farm in the Gatineau hills in Quebec, affectionately known as The Barn, i joined 8 other women in a weekend-long harvest cooking spree hosted by our neighbour, vegetarian chef and healer, Tanya and her 2 daughters. feasting and festing, we created intentional practices around our food, its preparation and presentation, and consumption. conversation, meditation, silence, edible flowers infused our harvest weekend with such delices as .... salted herbs and herbed oils, soups and quiches, espresso chili and root veg stews, crumbles and cakes, picking and cooking wild mushrooms, salads and salsas, flower drinks and elixirs...
http://www.the-barn.ca/

that same weekend, i went down to the Kripalu yoga centre in Lennox, Mass for Conscious Kitchens: Feeding Ourselves, Sustaining the Planet to join food activists, authors, filmmakers, nutritionists, and chefs for five days of experiential inquiry into the personal and global implications of our food choices. .... conversation around healthy eating, whole foods, environmentally sound agricultural methods, and how our approach to food can change our lives and our world...

through cooking demonstrations, panel discussions, interactive workshops, and organic food tasting, we explored the healing effects of a whole-foods lifestyle, cultivating consciousness around food, and focused on aligning beliefs and actions.
Our days included lots of yoga and delicious macrobiotic meals as well as nourishment for mind and soul:
Keynote by mother-daughter team Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé who wrote Hopes's Edge: the new diet for a small planet

Viewing of The Future of Food with filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia
Cooking demonstration and talk by Bryant Terry, chef, food activist, and coauthor with Anna Lappé of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen
Out of the Kitchen, Into the Fire, a workshop with Anna Lappé about bringing awareness into our local communities
Viewing of the grassroots film The Real Dirt on Farmer John
Spiritual Alchemy, Food, and Health with Annemarie Colbin
Ideas for incorporating whole grains into your cooking routine, with Kripalu Executive Chef Deb Howard
From Plate to Farm with Dan Barber, chef and owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns
Sourdough and Wheat-Free Bread Baking workshop with Richard Bourdon
Harvesting Abundance and Planting New Seeds, with nutritional coach Danny Arguetty
Yoga in the Kitchen, a workshop on eating according to the seasons, with gourmet organic chef Leslie Cerier
An organic food tasting.

http://www.kripalu.org/article/408

we talked of the integrity of food and how its integrity feeds us; how technology and ancient wisdoms can work together and how Flavour can be the basis for sustainable and whole farming practices... i learned about the small actions in towns and cities in the US that are resonated across state lines, and how The Boston Food Project and B-Healthy work with young people who become advocates, farmers and chefs to inspire their families and communities to nourish themselves... stuff is cookin' both in the extreme conglomeration of multi-nationals owning life sources like seeds and genes and the proliferation of local actions building a web of systemic change~
 
integrity. eat it, have it!