The Winter Garden

Our summer veggies are waning...just a few tomatoes and some peppers left. Now, it's time to start enjoying our winter gardens!

With biodynamic seeds from Steiner College bookstore, and organic seeds from Smith & Hawken, we have created three beds filled with:

Savoy Lettuce, Spinach, Chard, Beets, Golden Beets, Scallions, Parsley, Romaine Lettuce, Bok Choy, Carrots, Kale, Leeks, Cabbage, Arugula, Fava Beans....

Well, at least those are the seeds that we planted! We'll see what actually comes up. So far, some are doing well, and some have not come up at all. It's tricky here near Sacramento where one day it can reach 100 degrees, and another day be in the 30's at night in Sept. Now that October is here, we are hopeful for cooler temperatures to nurture our baby seedlings! Some creature ate 4 heads of lettuce the other night and left some type of prints around...hmmm, wonder what it was? The raccoons and wild turkeys are known to dig, and we don't see any signs of deer....

The kids help prepare the layers of soil, plant the seeds, weed, and harvest the veggies. We've found some interesting worms and centipedes in the soil! This interesting stick bug was crawling around in the hay...looks just like hay!

Since the lovely greens are not their most favorites to eat, we make "vruit" about every other day. Our vruit ensures that we are all getting the amazing nutrients from the fresh, raw veggies on a regular basis! If we don't have a key ingredient in our own garden, we will purchase biodynamic veggies from Sacramento Waldorf down the street, or organic ones from Trader Joe's or a farmer's market.

Here is our current vruit recipe (quantities vary, depending on what is available). We run everything through our juicer machine, mix with a whisk, and then drink it right away!

* Leaves or bunches of lettuce, chard, beet greens, kale

* Sprigs of parsely

* 1-2 red or golden beets

* 3-4 carrots

* 3-4 apples

* Fresh squeeze 3-5 oranges, or add organic orange juice

Yummy!

We are placing some of our special crystals in the gardens, welcoming the energies of the earth and the fairies to help us out (couldn't hurt, right?...makes for fun stories with the kids). Next on our list is for Mommy to take a Biodynamic gardening classes at the college. We also are learning how to compost!

Raw Juicing and Smoothies!

Mommy is a raw food vegan, so we eat lots of fresh fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds in our family. Joey is a vegetarian. All of the boys (Daddy, too!) are omnivores. We help with juicing about every other day. We either make our famous "vruit", a smoothie, or we do fresh citrus juicing (take a looks at these beautiful oranges!). This helps us get our vitamins and minerals naturally, even when we don't feel like eating salads all the time. It's also a fun way to learn the names of the fruits/veggies, count, cut, and help out with preparation. We figure out which ones are roots, which ones are fruits, and which ones grow on vines/bushes/trees. We look for spirals and patterns and we talk about seeds and growing. Our rabbit, Rabbee gets all of the leftover goodies from our juicer!

We purchase most of our fruits and veggies from natural food stores, the organic sections at conventional grocery stores, and farmers' markets. Once per week we visit the Sacramento Waldorf School where they sell their bio-dynamic, organic leafy greens and other seasonal fruits and veggies. Their kale and collards are up to 3 feet in length! Yummy.

Syrendell Vruit

1. Juiceman juicer or other high-quality juicer machine, bowl, wisk, glasses

2. Slice and wash 2 apples, 1 beet (if you leave out the beet, the color of the drink will be more green instead of pink/purple)

3. Wash leaves of kale, spinach, collard greens, chard, dandelion greens, watercress or other dark, leafy greens

4. Wash a handful of parsley or sprouts (alfalfa, clover, broccoli)

5. Wash and lightly scrub with your hands 3 carrots

6. Run all items through the juicer

7. The mixture will land in a bowl. Wisk the mixture.

8. Pour into glasses and drink as is, or add a bit of orange juice to taste!


Syrendell Chunky Monkey Smoothie

1. High speed blender, such as Vita-Mix

2. Place chunks of 3 frozen bananas inside of mixer (when your bananas start to turn soft, cut them up and put in a container in the freezer to save for future smoothies)3. Add 2-4 tablespoons of raw cacao powder

4. Add 2-3 tablespoons of raw organic almond butter (not roasted)

5. Pour chocolate or vanilla almond milks or vanilla soy milk until the blender is 3/4 full (even better, make your own raw almond milk!)

6. Blend on low, then speed up the blender until the consistency is right

7. Serve in glasses and enjoy right away!