Organic Granny

 My current favorite quick black bean-taco hummus made with organic black beans, taco spice, peanut butter, garlic, lemon juice, and salt. Delicious with corn chips, veggies or on crackers or bread.  This scrumptious hummus is Mexican-influenced. The taco spice by Clever Crow contains paprika, cumin, coriander, sea salt, black pepper, oregano, garlic, and chilies. It is gluten-free. To order go to their website at Clever Crow Farm. INGREDIENTS: 2 14-oz. cans of black beans, drained and rinsed 2 teaspoons Taco Spice 2 tablespoons peanut butter 2 minced garlic cloves Juice of 1 lemon or 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon sea salt Put all the above ingredients in a blender carafe and whirl until smooth.  Add in a little water or more lemon juice or cider vinegar to blend if needed. Store in a jar or dish with a lid in fridge. Enjoy as a dip with chips or vegetables, or as a spread on tortillas, buns, bread, crackers, pitas, or a homemade pizza.       WHAT IS LYCOPENE AND HOW CAN

O Canada!  Our safe sea home and pristine land! Apparently NOT... Take a gander at the plastic gunk garnered from our "pristine" waters: A man-made garbage hill like this is known as "ghost gear" and is the lost, abandoned or trashed gear -- mostly plastics--of the fishing industry, that ends up as a disgusting 58% of marine macro debris.   Want to be part of the solution and not the problem?  Learn More →   . Learn More →   Marine Sea Glass Crafters and Collectors -- today only-- 39-piece sea shell and sea glass collection from Vancouver Island beaches. From Etsy Canada Also take a look at Natalie McIntosh's London, Ontario enterprise: Canada Needs A Strong Global Plastics Policy Friend, I signed a petition calling on world leaders to support a strong global plastics treaty. As you know, plastic pollution is everywhere. Scientists have even found microplastics in the air we breathe and the food we eat. We need a solution that matches the scale of the problem.

  And there are the windfalls that need to be sorted before the bunnies gather to dine. Apples, a popular fruit worldwide, are categorized in many ways from the sort of peel through whether they taste dry or wet, sweet or tart, their colors, their time of harvest, where they originated... and the list goes on. Some apples are wonderful for eating from the tree. Some apples are more memorable as perfect 'sauce apples' or 'cider apples,' meaning, quite frankly, that they are not tasty or crisp and crunchy or juicy enough to pass the high standards for an apple eaten out of hand. The apples that are currently falling on the ground in my yard are called Yellow Transparents. They are from Russia and have a very thin, almost transparent, peel. Local friends describe them as great juice and/or sauce apples. I bake with them, put them in smoothies, and have made soups and sauces with them. They taste and smell like apples to me, and that is the point... or, for me it is. If yo

  Such a surprise today to gently reach under the 6-inch layer of straw in our garden planter box and pull out a perfectly-shaped, flawless little potato! How did that happen? In the Spring when we were getting ready to plant our veggie garden, I brought out a plastic bag with 4 eye-laden spuds in it. Could we plant these? I asked my dear husband.   The punky potatoes in the bag were organic Yukon Golds that we would have eaten, had they not so quickly sprung eyes.  Besides being full of little white googlies, they were also a bit wizened up, not at all attractive as a possible dinner item. We thought about the idea for a couple of minutes and asked ourselves: What if the potatoes whack out and go really deep and have to be dug-- somehow-- out of the planter boxes? That could be an awkward and disabling experience for two old folks like us. So, back to the drawing board (in this case, the Internet), went I. I soon came across a youtube, about someone who had planted potatoes on the top

Salad and Tzatziki with Quinoa + Sun-Roasted Soy Curls It is hot and humid again today. The temperature is 30 degrees C. in the morning. Way too hot for us. I am sorry for complaining about the blue skies and sunshine when some of you read my woes about our long Winter and Spring with low temps and lots of rain (even some snow that stayed around). Is there any pleasing me? Well, a real blessing for us is to have this nifty American Sun Oven that harnesses the power of the Sun (immense power on a sunny day) for FREE! (Well, after you've paid for the oven-- you'd have to do the Math for that). Keeps your kitchen cool. Keeps the rest of the house cooler. Good for the environment. Excellent when you are off the grid on a fishing trip or on a research assignment or just like using your backyard for something besides the garden and the selfies with the flowers. And the food cooks just right, there is NO burning-- you might experience a little food dryness when you are getting used to

For the last few days we have not used the oven or stove for cooking our meals. We aren't doing the "raw vegan" thing either, or only in a limited way. Instead, the delicious coconut rice in the photo above was cooked by the Sun outside in our backyard. Free Power. The recipe for the coconut rice and the cucumber-mayo sauce (like Tzatziki) above are below. You can find the recipe for the sun-roasted Moroccan Vegetables HERE. FLUFFY NO-FAIL COCONUT RICE SOLAR-COOKED If you have a Sun Oven, set it up, position it for the sun, and wait for it to hit 300 degrees Fahrenheit before putting in the rice. Using one of the black speckled (granite) pots that come with the Sun Oven (or that you can purchase pretty handily), put in the following ingredients: 2 cups of regular rice (I used Jasmine) 1 tablespoon turmeric powder 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup coconut shreds (I used unsweetened, fine shreds) 1/4 teaspoon sea salt zest from one small lemon (optional) 3 1/2 cups water (1 3/4 cup of wat