Coconut Kale Morning Smoothie

Morning smoothie, garnished with pumpkin blossoms.

This morning we started out the day with a refreshing Coconut Kale smoothie.

The first order of business was opening the coconut. Working over a large bowl, we sawed at the coconut's seam until we could easily press a knife tip into the coconut flesh. After emptying the coconut water into the bowl, and subsequently pouring it into our Blendtec blender, we got lazy and took the mostly-unsealed nut outside and dropped it onto the driveway. It separated nicely and the hull even broke away from the meat on one side.

Into the blender we added the following:

•  a large chunk of rinsed meat 
•  two kale leaves, a handful of parsley from the garden
•  a tablespoon of raw organic maca root powder
•  a scoop of Action Whey
•  a handful of chia seeds
•  a tomato from the garden
•  a few snips from a hot red pepper
•  less than a cup of fresh kefir
•  and a tray of ice cubes

Lesson: do not put a large chunk of coconut meat at the bottom of a pile to be blended. The meat kept the other ingredients from circulating until it had been fully blended into milk. Once that occurred, the rest of the blending process went quickly.

The result was delicious! The rich, creamy, coconut-flavored drink gave a delightful start to this destined-to-be-glorious day.

Squash Blossom Snacks

Drive-thru snack.

Yesterday when I was leaving the farm in the late morning, I had to get out of the car to close the front gate; the car waited for me beside some self-sown pumpkin vines--very conveniently. Each day the vines' new growth migrates toward the warmth of the driveway's blacktop surface, and each day that I pass by I try to redirect the vines. (Those that resist redirection get run over or just cooked in the midday heat.)

In the mornings, when the blossoms are freshly opened, their cups often hold drops of dew of even puddles of rainwater. (Lord, bless the clouds for the rains that have washed much of our drought conditions away. Please help the rains to continue.) Still-wet blossoms offer an added layer of sensory delight to morning snackers. Yesterday I picked a handful of spent blossoms from along the edge of the driveway--after all we don't need pumpkins growing that close to potential calamity--and stacked them along the car's console before pulling out.

This pile quickly vanished as I snacked.

What a delightful sensory treat they offered! Crisp, gently soft, lightly prickly (the blossoms wear spiny protectors to shield them from snack-craving humans such as myself--didn't work!), and with a burst of unchlorinated water--Yum! Although I tried to make the pile last a bit, the last of the blossoms had vanished before I got into town.

Snacking directly from one's garden and/or yard is a treat everyone should be able to enjoy. Even those with no yard whatsoever can use such clever devices as the AeroGarden or vertical hanging planters installed along a wall. The plants freshen the indoor air and provide a dimension of greenery so necessary to human well-being. We am blessed to live where gardening and farming are not only possible but usual.

Squash blossoms are often served battered (tempura style) or lightly sauteed. I prefer the freshness provided by fresh-from-the-vine snacking. For calorie-counters out there, an entire cup of squash blossoms has only 5 calories. Unfortunately, the flowers offer little in the way of nutritional value--but they are tasty and, when picked from organically maintained gardens, certainly not bad for you!

A pumpkin flirts with danger along the driveway's edge.