The reason why you didn’t hear from me last
week was because I had nothing to say! I was in ‘do’ mode, with a week to go
before our food Market opens and so so much to finalise, the only thinking I’ve been
doing has been the full-steam-ahead-toward deadline kind. But one strategically
placed day can disarm that crazy autopilot and that day was yesterday.
If I could have taken a colouring in pencil
and coloured yesterday in on the calendar, it would have been green. Green kept
making cameo appearances! It started with green juice. Green juice made to
order! My husband and I had two different needs, he’s got ‘The cough’ that’s
going around and I had a homemade rusk episode yesterday which would be of no
consequence if I weren’t in the process of doing away with an insulin
intolerance issue.
I juiced lettuce, nasturtium leaves (good
for sore throat and coughs), mint, whole lemon (try it, just juice the whole
thing, you won’t regret it!), ginger, Californian poppy petals (we have so
many!) green beans (breaks down insulin), coriander (good to get Mercury out of
the body).
I poured enough for myself and then juiced a bunch of pears
(alkalizes) for my husband and mixed the balance of the super greens mix in with
that. Mine was great until I had a sip of his! My son loved his too, which was a
big surprise as it was still a mean mix.
In between all this I was going to make our
yoghurt for the week but when I poured the milk into the pot it had already
turned sour. I considered throwing it out but then remembered a friend telling
me she had made Paneer, an Indian cheese prepared much like you would prepare
haloumi, out of sour milk and it had worked well.
Normally you bring the milk to the boil and
add lemon juice to it and then wait for it to separate but it just separated on
its own.
I waited for it to separate completely, removed it from the heat and poured it into a pillow case over the sink.
The whey drained through and once the
cheese inside had cooled enough for me to handle; I left it in the pillow case
and kneaded all the whey out of it.
I put it in the sink and then placed a
heavy pot full of water on top of it to compact it nicely and left it to drain.
It came out solid and perfect and it was so easy to
make. It also freezes very well.
When making it with fresh milk I usually keep
the whey and freeze it in ice trays. It can be used in smoothies, added to cooking
rice or in any sauce to add flavour. Millet cooked in whey is so yummy.
Harkerville is a forest reserve on the cliffs looking out over the ocean. There are several single track cycle routes through dense indigenous forests and many hiking trails that zigzag along the coast. It’s a magical place. And as we passed under the boom I felt something happen in my system that I could only liken to the process of photosynthesis, the trees receive energy from the sun and I felt my body’s answer to being in the presence of green lush trees as a deep internal setting to let go of the static electricity I’d generated around myself all week and at the same time received this beautiful transfer of life force from the trees!
I felt so clearly that this was the optimal state for my body to operate from, that ‘relaxation’ is not a luxury but the natural default setting of our bodies. We ran down to the coast and up a rocky staircase before lunch, a mere three kilometres but I can feel those steps load and clear! To be surrounded by all that green was what I needed to recharge for the week that lies ahead of me! The next time you feel the need to ‘Go pick tomatoes’ (see ‘The Ultimate in Stress management’ post) make them green! It’s the new black!
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