Greetings everyone,

From here on out I will be breaking my entries into three sections, Gardening, Food and my weekly reading. They are all so connected in my life, that it would not make much since to not include them.

Garden: A Sista Gotta eat

Like I posted last week, we (my son and I ) have moved forward to New Orleans. As soon as I got here, I dove full fledged into my goals, one of which happens to be to grow food for me and my family. At first I thought that it would be more of a way for me to prep myself for my future dream farm, but once I saw the prices of the food here, I knew that planting and growing produce will have to become much more of a priority than it ever was. I have lived in the bay area for the past five years and I have never paid these prices for food before--ever. And the bay area is one of the most expensive places to live in the country. I guess this was to be expected post-Katrina, but how are people who are still not getting a living wage, to find healthy affordable food? This is one of many examples of the inequities that so many locals are faced with. But I’ll rant later. And if ya’ll know me, you know that I am not one to stop at a wall. There are a few organizations in the city who are addressing the problem. Here are a few:

As far as the progress on the garden, I came back to see that I had a lot of baby carrots that grew and tons of mint. See below.

I had to pull all the weeds up and lots overgrown grass. I turned the dirt over and knew that there was some other things that I needed to do to the soil since it is so clay like. See below.

I did some research on the current status of the land post Katrina and I was advised to get the soil tested, so I will be holding off on any planting, growing seedlings indoors and growing compost until I get the results of the test back.

Here’s the beginning of my garden. I can’t to see what it looks like six months from now.

Although it is a major blow to have to pay 2.99 for a bunch of organic kale, half the size it is supposed to be, I intend to maintain a healthy diet, comprised of lots of vegetable and fruits. And speaking of food, here is a “living” date torte that I made with a cashew butter frosting--Heaven!!!
Date Nut torte:

(from Living-foods.com)

Base of Tort:
2 cups raisins
2 cups walnuts
Frosting:
1 cup dates, pitted and soaked
1/2 lemon, juiced
For Base:1. In a food processor, combine raisins and walnuts and blend until well blended and moist. (This will take a few minutes and you may see it forming a ball. Just make sure the raisins come out looking like a fudgey mixture and are not still grainy)2. Remove from processor and mold onto a plate in a round circle about 1 1/2 inches thick.For Frosting:1. In a food processor, combine dates and lemon juice until smooth and creamy.2. Spread the frosting on top of the torte

Cashew Butter Frosting:

2 tbl raw cashew butter

1 tbl agave nectar

a dash vanilla

a few dashes of water until smooth and creamy

Note: I like this served at room temperature as the frosting and torte are still sticky, but if you want a firmer texture that will be easier to slice, refrigerate it for a few hours.

GaBrilla’s Weekly Reading

Moving forward to New Orleans, and close to my family, having grown and learned so much, I feel a need to approach my relationships differently. My relationship with my family, my community and the city that I was born and raised in has changed, because I have changed, yet I feel as if I am approaching some things in that same reactionary emotional way that I did five years ago. Some friends of mine and I had a conversation about the thing that kept us coming back to the bay and I thought about it for a while. I realized that we all “grew up” in the Bay. Yes we went there as “legal” adults, but many of us got our first apartments, paid our own bills and had our first children in the Bay. So for the Bay I will always be thankful for all the experiences and all the wisdom gained. I will always consider Oakland my second home. But how does one return home grown and stand in your wisdom and growth without apology or regret?

I said all that to talk about the book (s) that I am reading. As usual, there is always a health book that I have my hands on. This week I have been referencing a gem I picked up called “The Essene Science of Life” by Edmond Szekely (same author of “The Essene Gospel of Peace--Book 1)

But the book that is challenging me the most to grow in ways I assumed I had, is "Nonviolent Communication: a language of life" by Marshall Rosenberg, with the workbook (by Lucy Leu)that goes with it. It is both an empowering book and one that breaks everything I thought I knew about communication fall to pieces. If you practice NVC than you are ahead of most, but if you are like me, I am being broke down, are at least the illusions that I believed in are. And I give thanks for it. It is making me re-evaluate how I communicate with my son, the messages I tell myself and others who are close to me. It makes it very hard to judge and makes me get very clear on how I am feeling. I feel really good when I can hold myself back from raising my voice at my son and get on eye level with him and ask him to something in a loving, but firm tone. Sometimes then yelling slips out, but I am conscious of it and I go back to NVC and he responds so well.

My bedtime book is “Conversations with God” by Neale Donald Walsch. I can’t and won’t explain. Read it for yourself.

Next week, I will give you all the results of my soil test. And some more pics of the great raw and some cooked foods that I have been making.