There was an interesting article in the New York Times a few days ago talking about “locavores,” a term I’d never heard of before. Locavores have a pretty sweet system of getting local organic produce with out the work of growing it themselves. This article was written for those of you who are afraid of worms, spiders and don’t like to get dirty;) It’s appropriately titled, “A Locally Grown Diet With Fuss but no Muss” I love it already!

I get excited and boarderline giddy when I see more and more options for purchasing better, real, true foods. For example, I was eating lunch in a cafeteria and they had a daily list of which foods were grown locally, organic and exactly where they came from. That simple list on a dry erase board made happy, it told me people as a whole want to re-establish the relationship between the food on their plate and the farmer that grew the food. Don’t you want to know where your food comes from? Did it come from China, Chile or New Jersey? Our produce buying, voting dollars are hard at work and they’re doing a great job. Thanks greenbacks, we support you. This goes to show our choices to by local organic foods really do make a personal impact, we are trend setting-whooohoo!

As for worms and dirt, things in the community garden are going swimmingly. I’ve got a thriving bunch of tomatoes, a great selection of lettuces, herbs, peppers, corn, squash and cantaloupe-yum. It’s amazing to see how quickly things grow and come to fruition. I’m no gardener so I’m really, really amazed:) Here is a photo of my latest and greatest harvest:)

Things in the garden haven’t been all peachy, pun intended. There was the ‘Mosquito Massacre of 08,’ I survived but not without a total of 26 bites, ugg, can we say itchy!?! There was also the ‘Green House’ incident, I came across two young and foolish East Village hipsters rolling in the so called hay, a.k.a my green house! It was a scarring blur, crazy New Yorkers! Gardening in the city has been a colorful and fun experience. It gives this concrete maze I call home a community. There are all walks of people who put in a lot of time and effort into this community garden so that it may be a functional and beautiful space for everyone to enjoy, that’s a great community.

I got a Vitamixer and I’m uber, uber, uber excited! I’ve been coveting these lean mean blending machines for almost a year now. I’m a hard core bargain huntress and hate paying full price for things, it’s just not in my nature. All my expensive raw kitchen tools have been acquired via Craig’s List for a significant discount. Most major raw tools are helpful and pricey, Craig’s List has really helped me live like a true rawkstar with out paying the hefty price.

The Craig’s List purchase that spurred my addiction to the ‘house wares’ section was a four tray Excalibur dehydrator with teraflex sheets and a copy of Sarma’s book ‘Raw Food Real World’ for 50.00$-BONUS! The dehydrator sells new for 119.95$ and the book is 37.50$ this is without tax and shipping!

My second Craig’s List find was a Cuisinart food processor bought for 15.00$ this same processor sells new for 149.00$ on Cuisinart’s website. I love this machine, it was in great shape when I bought it and it’s been well used ever since.

My best deal so for is the purchase of my Vitamixer 5000, a.k.a my new best friend. The seller was asking 399.00$, I offered 275.00$ and it was a done deal. I’ve been giddy all day:) The cool part about all of this is my Vitamix was brand new, unopened, in the box so I can get the 3 year warranty! It’s Crazy how this world works sometimes:) I wasn’t really looking for a Vitamixer because I wanted to wait till my blender died but this fell into my lap and I jumped on it like a tiger-rarrrr.

A shiny new box for my cat to sit in when it’s empty, he loves boxes.

The recipe and care book for the Vitamixer is full of neat tips and tricks. Did you know you don’t ever have to physically wash a Vitamix? I didn’t, all you have to do is fill it up with water add a drop of soap, turn it on high and it cleans it’s self. Yes, I’m in love:)

My very first Vitamix recipe is creamy sesame seed milk. I’ve been anxious to make this and hadn’t attempted with my standard blender because it couldn’t chop all the sesame seeds. The Vitamix did an awesome job.

Creamy Sesame Milk

~ 1Cup Sesame seeds soaked

~ 3 Tbs Coconut oil

~3 Brazil nuts

~ 2 Dates, pitted

~ 2 inch piece of vanilla bean

Place all ingredients in a Vitamix and blend till uniform. Pour the milk through a nut milk bag and squeeze out the milk. Store in the fridge and enjoy. I used the left over pulp to make cookies but crackers would be good too.

Sesame Snackers

~ Sesame pulp from making milk

~ 5 chopped dates

~1Tbs Mesquite Powder

~ 2 Tbs Agave nectar

Mix all ingredients by hand and shape into balls. Place on a dehydrator tray, use a fork to flatten. dehydrate to desired consistency.

Whats the difference between a tangerine and a Clementine? They’re both small orange and tasty but i feel like they are kind of the same thing? According to Websters dictionary tangarines originated from Tangier, Moroco and a Clementine is a hybrid of a tangarine and an orange. Hmmmm interesting!!!