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"Expect
your every need to be met. Expect the answer to every problem,
expect abundance on every level. "
Eileen Caddy
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Hello
Fellow Gardeners,
The
first principal of “Aparigraha: A New Economic Paradigm for a
Culture of Peace” is Abundance as opposed to Scarcity. This
beautiful economic paradigm (check it out on www.globalcoalitionforpeace.net)
recognizes that Mother Earth is willing to provide all of us with
everything we need if we just take care of Her and learn to share the
wealth.
If
you've gotten the most from your lettuce plants by harvesting the
outside leaves and they've continued to produce more and more, then
you've had a good example of the abundance of Mother Earth. (Remember
the tiny seeds that produced those beautiful bouquets?) But now you
probably have lettuce 'trees" growing in your garden and, although
saving the seed for your next garden is a great thing to do, you will
have more than enough seed from just one plant. So what do you do with
the rest?
Your
tomato plant(s) may be loaded with the long-awaited fruit of your labors
but in a few weeks the windowsills will be filled with the ripening
results and your family may not be too enthusiastic about an all-tomato
diet.
And what about that
beautiful basil plant? A little bit of basil goes a long way. What to do
with the rest?
Here are a few suggestions for what to do with your garden bounty.
Share
with your neighbors:
Vegetable gardens are a great way to build community. My next door
neighbors love radishes so every year we provide them with radishes and
lettuce and they cut our grass. Not a bad deal, huh? There's no contract
or anything. They like cutting the grass and we like growing veggies
and, of course, we would be happy to share our abundance, even if they
didn't cut the grass. One of the nicest things about this arrangement is
they've been bitten by the gardening bug themselves and are now growing
peppers and basil.
Save
some for the winter:
Most vegetables can be blanched (briefly steamed or boiled) and frozen.
Onions and peppers do not need to be blanched, just chop and
freeze. You'll be able to use them in any cooked dish for about six
months. Squash, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin should be thoroughly
cooked before freezing. All other vegetables should be blanched if
you're going to freeze them. Here's a link to a good article on
blanching. http://www.ochef.com/617.htm
Freezing
tomatoes is easy. Just put them in a pot of boiling water for about a
minute and then plunge them into an ice water bath. The skins will slip
right off. Then cut them in half and remove any bruised or tough spots.
Give them a little squeeze to get out the excess water and shake or
scoop out most of the seeds. It's not necessary to get them all out. You
may want to continue to drain off the water for a while, especially if
you're planning to make a nice thick spaghetti sauce from them. Then
just drop them in a freezer bag, squeeze out the excess air and put them
in the freezer. You'll have tomatoes to make sauce with all through the
winter.
If
you're like me and can't get enough of chopped basil on a sliced tomato
with a little olive oil and garlic, you may not have to wonder what to
do with your extra basil. Basil can be frozen too, and it makes a nice
addition to those cold-weather soups. For details check out this site: http://www.ehow.com/how_4528635_freeze-fresh-basil-winter-use.html.
Making pesto is another easy and rewarding way to make the most of your
basil harvest. Here's my favorite recipe:
Ingredients:
-
2
cups fresh basil leaves, packed
-
1/2
cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
-
1/2
cup extra virgin olive oil
-
1/3
cup pine nuts or walnuts
-
3
medium sized garlic cloves, minced
-
Salt
and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1
Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times
in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of
pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a
few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic,
pulse a few times more.
2
Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the
food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the
food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated
cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt
and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Makes 1
cup.
Serve with
pasta, or over baked potatoes, or spread over toasted
baguette slices.
By
the way, when the basil starts to flower, pinch the buds off right above
the tiny leaves and it will continue to grow and grow and grow.
Make
soup:
You can make soup out of almost anything that grows in your garden and
most soups freeze very well, too. Last year I made a big batch of
lettuce soup and served it to a group of friends and, despite their
good-natured skepticism, many of them asked for seconds and the recipe.
After
shucking a large batch of peas and wondering whether there was anything
creative that I could do with the pods, I even found a recipe for
pea-pod soup. So if you've got an abundance of beans, or squash or chard
or beets or...well, anything, saute some onion and herbs in a little
butter or olive oil and get creative.
One notable exception: After my own experiment, I don't recommend
making soup out of hot peppers.
Composting:
Of course, you never ever have to throw anything from the garden away.
If you can't do anything else with your excess bounty put it in the
composter and let it feed next year's garden.
Reflection:
Here's the Essene formula for a long and healthy life:
"So
eat always from the table of God: the fruits of the trees, the grain
and grasses of the field, the milk of beasts, and the honey of bees.
For everything beyond these is of Satan, and leads by the way of
sins and of diseases unto death. But the foods which you eat from
the abundant table of God give strength and youth to your body, and
you will never see diseases For the table of God fed Methuselah of
old, and I tell you truly, if you live even as he lived, then will
the God of the living give you also long life upon the earth as was
his.
For I tell you truly,
the God of the living is richer than all the rich of the earth, and
his abundant table is richer than the richest table of feasting of
all the rich upon the earth. Eat therefore, all your life at the
table of our Earthly Mother, and you will never see want.”
Essene Gospel of Peace Book 1, page 41
Until next week,
Peace be with you,
Rose Mirabai Lord
In
case you missed any of the previous entries,
go to www.makegardensnotwar.com,
click onto Angels
in My Garden in
the left side bar and scroll down to the bottom .
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