Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[<yarrow@sfo.com>]

On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:12:43 -0700, "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
wrote:
> > Barb and I feel the one thing that would help our clueless country more
> than anything is spreading simple and varied ways to cook the common
fruits
> and vegetables. The healthiest and also cheapest part of the diet - but
not
> using a lot of storebought or imported ingredients or spices.
> 

What I do is to add vegetables to everything. I love lentil soup, but along
with a cup of lentils and water, I add a couple quarts of chopped-up
vegetables in season (sweet potatoes are fabulous, carrots, celery tops,
etc.) and then for crunch, add more celery and carrots and garlic after
it's done cooking. Also perennial kale -- the heat of the soup cooks it
just enough.

For years I've done the same thing with a pot of rice: to a cup of rice,
add a third to a half cup of lentils, then lots of chopped up vegetables.
Onions, carrots, celery, sweet potatoes this time of year, tomatoes and
peppers in the summer, parsley when it's taking over the garden, and always
a few leaves of kale sliced thinly. A hot pepper now and then.

If you eat this way for a couple weeks, you will be able to taste real food
and not need to salt everything (like a "friend" who visited and
immediately reached for the salt shaker!) or add grease.