Organic Granny

  Enjoy the vibrant flavors of this Lemon Zest Soup, a refreshing blend of Fall vegetables and buttermilk (or vegan-friendly alternative). This cold soup is delicious and makes use of the abundant vegetables found at a Farmer's Market (or in your own backyard), The original recipe contains buttermilk. I suggest that you find the best source (organic if possible) of buttermilk around. If you are vegan, you can substitute a nut milk, soy milk, or rice milk instead, squeezing some lime or lemon into it for about 15 minutes before making the rest of the recipe..   Ingredients: 4 C. Buttermilk (or substitute) 2 C. vine-ripened tomatoes (could be 2 large tomatoes) 2 C. fresh, young (milky but not green)corn kernels 1 C. fennel root (or English cucumber if there is no fennel available) 18 fresh basil leaves 1/4 lemon skin, chopped-- should be a fairly tender skin (organic preferred) Celtic Sea Salt to taste 1/4 tsp. black pepper Method:  Add all ingredients to the Vita-Mix®...

So, this is something I learned last week at the Vermi- culture workshop at the Comox Valley Regional Compost Education Centre : If you have a regular composting bin you don't have to buy your red wigglers!  They live in your backyard! Years ago I bought a pound of red wigglers, a squiggling ball of them in an ice cream pail, from the local Oxfam group in Saskatoon, just around the corner from my then-workplace.  I think it cost $5.  The profits went into programming for youth in the community, one program of which was actually learning to operate a worm farm and to do other forms of composting. I thought that the worms I bought were different from the worms in my garden, a more exotic variety perhaps. Turns out they are the same critter.  And if you want to start your worm colony you only need three things: *the worms *the plastic bin with holes drilled in it and a lid on top *a bed of newspaper and food Use newspaper with vegetable ink print and not th...