Ambrosia recipe and Plot Update

Oh, you are in for a treat.  I just realized that I've passed my 400th post (I also missed the 100th, 200th, 300th...), so to celebrate and thank you who actually read this journal, here is a favorite recipe of ours.  I would make a batch for you personally if you were here, and we would sit down and eat the entire thing. 

1.5 cups raw cashews
1/4 cup raw sesame seeds
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup safflower oil (I use whatever lighter oil I have on hand, or double the olive)
several pieces of roasted bell pepper
several squeezes of lemon or lime
a dash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce)
6 cloves of garlic (more or less to your taste!)
fresh jalapeno if you have it
1/4 - 1/2 cup of water (to bring it to your desired consistency)

Blend. Eat.

We enjoy this rolled in a tortilla with fresh basil, fresh arugula (ah! I bought some at market this morning!), or leftover salad greens.  You can use it as a dip for veggies or chips...you could throw it on pasta...the possibilities are endless.  It is also a fairly forgiving recipe, so if you are short on cashews and use almonds, or substitute different oils, it usually turns out just right anyway!

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Dan has spent the day with us today, which is just...so nice.  After market (arugula, nettles, ramps, eggs, coffee, summer sausage and organic cheese from grass-fed and finished cattle) we headed to the garden to work on the fence, water, weed and plant a little more kale and carrots, and some flowers we bought this morning as well.

don't you garden with a handbag?

 tiny lettuce

amish snap peas

turnips!

This we refer to as the comfrey jungle.  It is on my list of "things to learn about" - this is an amazing plant, both for its medicinal uses (its other name is "boneknit") and its ability to THRIVE. It also makes wonderful green compost, apparently.  I would like to learn how to use this herb this year.

Yarrow is another herb (like the lemon balm and comfrey) that has come back full steam in the garden; it also has many medicinal uses that I am only beginning to learn about.

Dan is building the fence around our plot with bamboo; today he was trying to figure out a trellis for where we will vertically grow melons and squash.  Our garden already looks and feels so much more like a real garden than it ever did last year.  I am still ready to be disappointed, but I'm working on turning that around and imagining abundance! It would be really nice to have enough to share a lot with other people - it is one of the requirements of having a garden there, that 10% go to someone else who needs it - neighbors, friends, the local food banks.  Last year it was like, "here's a handful of beans and 5 onions."  I think the garden can feeeeeel the love this time around...