exert from Tom Robbins' "Jitterbug Perfume" ISBN 0-553-17161-5

The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The onion has as many pages as War and Peace, every one of which is poignant enough to make a strong man weep, but the various ivory parchments of the onion and the stinging green bookmark of the onion are quickly charred by the belly juices and the bowel bacteria. Only the beet departs the body the same colour as it went in.

Beets consumed at dinner will, come morning, stock a toilet bowl with crimson fish, their hue attesting to beet's chromatic immunity to the powerful digestive acids and thoroughgoing microbes that can turn the reddest pimento, the orangest carrot, the yellowest squash into a single disgusting shade of brown.

At birth we are red-faced, round, intense, pure. The crimson fire of universal consciousness burns in us. Gradually, however, we are devoured by parents, gulped by schools, chewed up by peers, swallowed by social institutions, wolfed by bad habits, and gnawed by age; and by the time we have been digested, cow style, in those six stomachs, we emerge a single disgusting shade of brown.

The lesson of the beet, then, is this: hold on to your divine blush, your innate rosy magic, or end up brown. Once you're brown you'll find that you're blue. As blue as indigo. And you know what that means:

Indigo

Indigoing

Indigone

Cabbages are Kings....

..... when it comes to antioxidants!

That's right! They rank up there with the so called superfoods such as goji, acai and blueberries. So don't worry if your budget is restricted because economical RED cabbage is just as high in antioxidants... having the same phyto-nutrients that give berries their beautiful vibrant hue. These antioxidants trigger the body's own detox enzymes and also neutralize harmful free radicals.

Red cabbage is the highest ranking cruciferous vegetable on the ORAC list (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity).

It's a great food for those who are watching their weight as the anthocyanins increase your body's production of 2 important hormones: adiponectin, a fat-burning one and leptin which serves to reduce appetite. That's over and above the rich fibre and water content which serves to help the feeling of fullness.

Red cabbage is full of essential minerals: Potassium, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium , Phosphorus , Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Selenium, and others and is also a very good source of the following B vitamins: B6, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate, and these too: Vitamin A, Vitamin C(a cupful contains 85% of the RDA) & Vitamin K.

Red cabbage contains Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids and one must remember that the leaves of plants are the best sources of protein.... red cabbage contains a profile of 9 different amino acids. Nutirtiondata.com gives its caloric values as 85% carb : 4% fat : 11% protein which is very close to the recommended 80:10:10 by Doug Graham.

Please do eat it raw. I like to use the leaves as a wrap in place of Pita bread... chop tomato, cucumber, peppers, sprouts and spring onions to fill the leaves. If you aren't on a weight reducing stage of life then the addition of mashed avocado is very yummy and satiating.

Add torn leaves to brighten and crisp up a salad or even juice the leaves with carrot, apple and celery.

When entertaining I make Thai Stir Live

Thai Stir-Live

4 cups red cabbage chopped

2 cups cauliflower chopped

1 yellow pepper chopped

2 cups white mushrooms sliced (I used baby button shrooms and they were good)

½ cup parsley chopped

½ cup tomato chopped

1 avo diced

2 inches ginger grated

2 medium cloves garlic minced

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1 pinch cayenne

¼ cup olive oil

4 Tbsp Bragg Aminos

2 Tbsp honey

Mix all together. And enjoy!

Baby Spinach and Fennel...

A lovely salad idea.... well... main meal actually (for those of us eating Raw Vegan)

Throw a handful of baby spinach in your bowl
Add half a fennel bulb very finely sliced

Matchstick a crisp apple and sprinkle over
throw a handful of walnuts onto this
and scoop out the seeds of a pomegranate to top it all and add the sensual sweetness ... mmmmmmmmmm

In Port Elizabeth, the Figtree Fruit and Veg has a large and lovely pile of ripe pomegranates.

Woolies have nice Fennel... I only have 1plant growing in a pot outside the kitchen door so I just pick fronds from it.

Apples are always available everywhere but if you want to be sure they're good and crisp it pays to get from Woolies.

Important note! Buy shelled nuts from someone who keeps them refrigerated. Nuts are high in oils that can go rancid - and there are only 2 places in PE that I know of who keep their nuts cold... Health Matters in Prospect Rd Walmer and Valley Harvest also of Walmer. Once you've had a taste of a fresh nut you won't be able to eat the stale nuts off Supermarket shelves ever again.

The baby spinach came from sowing I'd made into a half drum behind the garage. Gladly the soft occasional rain we've been having in PE has kept it watered.

Namaste... here's to a summer of wonder, merriment and quiet rain

I hadn't wanted a new pet and certainly never thought I'd ever pay as much as I did for one! But it does come from good heirloom stock that has been passed down in a family for hundreds of years. And I'll be able to sell the offspring for a hefty sum too.
It's white and lumpy.... could be fluffy when dry.
Today I started breeding my new pet... or is it a new pot plant? I'm not quite sure. Flora or fauna? It's Kefir.
Fortunately I can leave it unattended for from 12 to 48 hours so weekends away will be in order. After that I need to drain and feed it milk of some sort... I would like to try coconut milk or almond nut milk. It's going to be fun experimenting. One has to remember tho, that the grains of kefir may stop reproducing if it doesn't have all the necessary growth factors required by the bacteria. Traditionally the medium to grow your Kefir is raw milk... any mammal milk.
I have found my digestion greatly improved with the addition of a couple of tablespoons of Kefir to my smoothies and green energy soups. It boosts the number of healthy micro organisms in the intestinal tract. The longer its left to ferment the greater the folic acid content. It also has antimutagenic and antioxidant properties.

Greens are not fruit or vegetables... they're in a class of their own. Hence, for those who are concerned about food combining... don't worry!
Leafy greens are the only food that help to digest whatever food they are eaten with and greens help stimulate the secretion of digestive enzymes, and they are indispensable for helping alkalize the body, which is so very important.
For those of us who are vegan... greens are our major source of protein and calcium, and according to Victoria Butenko's research we need to eat 800g of these healthful leaves every day which is 2 of those huge pillow packs of lettuce mix. However, eating one type a day is best for digestion, while making each day a different variety will give you the range of nutrients needed.
I have found a wonderful source of organically grown vegetables and greens in the PE area... such exciting types of lettuce like Radicchio and Romaine that I have only read about and never seen, and 5 other varieties of lettuce!!! That means a different variety every day of the week. There is also Rocket, Coriander and spinach in the form of Chard and Baby leaf.
These are a great compliment to the wonderful Eco-certified organic citrus from Addo. The Clementines and Navel's are over but Valencias are in and make wonderful jugfuls of juice.
Weekly orders will be taken for collection on a Friday!

The Cape Gooseberry grows in my garden like the natural I thought it was! How surprised was I to discover it is named for the Cape of South America not South Africa. It has an extensive list of common names and I love the South African one of Golden Berry and the Cape Dutch names of pompelmoes or apelliefie. In Chile it's known by the romantic moniker - bolsa de amor which I delightfully presume means "bag of love". (The husk that encloses the fruit is large and loose)
I remember picking bowlfuls as a young girl when staying with my Aunt Iris in Natal. The straggly bushes grew abundantly at the bottom of the garden around her compost heap and Aunty Iris stewed them with sugar and served them that night with ice cream after dinner. It was Angel's food to me! Nowadays I snack on them whenever I walk past and see a ripe and ready berry. I look forward to the day I can harvest a cupful of berries to blend with frozen banana which is my ice cream now that I am eating Raw Vegan.
There are half a dozen bushes growing in various places around the garden that thankfully withstood the heavy rainfalls and several hail drops experienced last week. They are all laden with berries in the process of ripening. I have read that these fruits are poisonous when green. And when ripe they have a golden oily skin filled with delicious sweet and tangy seedy pulp.
Gooseberries are very high in phosphorus and vitamin C and have a good dose of calcium and Niacin and appreciable levels of carotene, iron, riboflavin and thiamine.
In South Africa, the heated leaves are applied as poultices on inflammations and the Zulus administer the leaf infusion as an enema to relieve abdominal ailments in children. In Colombia, the leaf decoction is taken as a diuretic and antiasthmatic.

Shall I try Gooseberry leaf tea? or chiffondale the heart-shaped greens in my salad? I know that, come Spring, I will certainly be having blended pompelmoes sauce on sliced bananas..... or blended frozen banana served with apelliefies..... and will continue to enjoy the odd sun-warmed bolsa de amor out in the garden.

Come dance with me......

I have sent you my invitation,
the note inscribed on the palm of my hand by the fire of living.
Don’t jump up and shout, “Yes, this is what I want! Let’s do it!”
Just stand up quietly and dance with me.

Show me how you follow your deepest desires,
spiralling down into the ache within the ache.
And I will show you how I reach inward and open outward
to feel the kiss of the Mystery, sweet lips on my own, everyday.

Don’t tell me you want to hold the whole world in your heart.
Show me how you turn away from making another wrong without abandoning yourself when you are hurt and afraid of being unloved.

Tell me a story of who you are,
And see who I am in the stories I am living.
And together we will remember that each of us always has a choice.

Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be … some day.
Show me you can risk being completely at peace,
truly OK with the way things are right now in this moment,
and again in the next and the next and the next…

I have heard enough warrior stories of heroic daring.
Tell me how you crumble when you hit the wall,
the place you cannot go beyond by the strength of your own will.
What carries you to the other side of that wall,
to the fragile beauty of your own humanness?

And after we have shown each other how we have set and kept the clear, healthy boundaries that help us live side by side with each other, let us risk remembering that we never stop silently loving those we once loved out loud.

Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart.
And I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again.

Show me how you take care of business
without letting business determine who you are.
When the children are fed but still the voices within and around us shout that soul’s desires have too high a price,
let us remind each other that it is never about the money.

Show me how you offer to your people and the world
the stories and the songs you want our children’s children to remember, and I will show you how I struggle
not to change the world, but to love it.

Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude,
knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging. Dance with me in the silence and in the sound of small daily words, holding neither against me at the end of the day.

And when the sound of all the declarations of our sincerest
intentions has died away on the wind, dance with me in the infinite pause before the next great inhale of the breath that is breathing us all into being, not filling the emptiness from the outside or from within.

Don’t say, “Yes!”
Just take my hand and dance with me.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer