Grow Sprouts?

I have a sprout tower, 4 trays plus bottom water collector dish and top cover.  Here are my winter sprout growing tips:

Cover the sprout tower, or jar if you use the traditional jar and screen method, with a tea towel to keep the spouts warmer if your house is chilly.  The towel will also keep the seeds in the dark during sprouting stages.  You may want to let them have a day of light to increase their green chlorophyll content when they have tiny leaf buds.

Start with the best quality sprout seed you can get.  Even if your seed is organic, rinse it and clean out any visibly damaged seed.  I also rinse my seed a few times after soaking.
When you are soaking the sprout seeds at the beginning of the process, keep them covered and dark as they probably would be in nature.  Don't forget you have soaking seed or sprouts to water!  That's why I like to keep them on the counter, covered, instead of in a dark kitchen closet, where they may be forgotten.  Even in the dry desert, this time of year I can get away with watering my sprouts twice a day, morning and night.  I try to time the watering to 12 hours apart.  When I am off schedule  my sprouts have been forgiving.

Those of you who have been following my posts for a while know I started as a sprouts in the jar traditionalist.  I used the cotton "cheese cloth" and rubber band over the mouth of the jar to strain the water out of the sprouts after watering.  I propped the jar on the side of the sink for a while to let the water drip out.  After a while, you can set the jar on its side, on a counter, and wrap it in a clean cloth or tea towel to keep it warm and dark.  The seeds grow pretty well if drained, yet kept moist.  You may modify watering frequency for your climate and time of year.  I find I need to water more often in the summer.  I also find that the seeds like to stay close together the first day or two, away from the screen.  It seems to help them stay moist in little groups.  Judge your climate.  You may need keep moisture controlled differently than I do.

Most important of all, clean your sprouting jars or trays very thoroughly between crops.  Hot water and pure soap, a brush to get in corners or crevices (cheap toothbrush or dish brush may do), a clean cloth to clean the surfaces... Because the water drips down through the 4  trays of sprouts in my tower, after the soap and hot water, I clean the sprouting tower with rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball or little piece of paper towel to be sure there are no lingering evils.  If there is any discoloration in the corners, I use a toothpick to rub it out.  I also use a toothpick to dislodge any tiny seeds stuck in the tray water drip holes.  When all that is cleaned and rinsed, dry it or let air dry, and you have a clean start.

Glass jars are usually dishwasher safe.  Some plastic sprouting equipment is not.  Feedback from users of some brands of sprout towers and trays report that the equipment can withstand a few washings in the top level of the dishwasher, but after several dishwasher episodes, the sprout equipment may start to lose its quality.  Check manufacturer cleaning instructions for your particular brand.

I cannot stress the importance of keeping your sprouting equipment very clean.  It is your food you are growing.  If the sprouts look bad in any way, or smell bad, or if you are in doubt for any reason, do NOT eat them.  Just toss them, clean you equipment very well, and try again.  Even the old Southwest Desert Blogger has had a few bad batches.  Chalk it up to learning, and do better next time.  I have seen bad sprouts in the store on several occasions, so I happens to pros too.  If you see bad, slimy, or brown tipped sprouts in the store, report it to the produce manager so they can remove these potentially dangerous items from the shelf.

Check other internet sources for sprout safety, growing, and cleaning tips.  

Sprout on,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2013

End of the Unknown Caller, Sprouts, and New Year

I cracked the code of the Unknown Caller.  It was a collection company trying to find someone who I do not know.  I told them to take my number off their dang robo calling system or I'd notify various offices of the government.  Yep, the federal government of these United States.  Enough of the rant.

Been thinking of all you Southwest Desert Blogger readers.  I wanted to republish my Holiday Haiku, originally published around this time 2011!  Time flies.  I am not comfortable with this new fangled Blogger blog system... can't find a darned thing since they changed the system..  It is too frustrating, so I haven't been posting.

Now that it is cold in the Southwest Desert, i.e., in the 50s or 60s (Fahrenheit) by day and around freezing some nights, I am sprouting everything in sight: green peas, beans (mung, aduki, chick pea), red lentils, clover, alfalfa, radish, broccoli seed,and sunflower seed.  I have been letting the bean type sprouts grow to about 1/4 10 1/3 inch then clean any unsprouted or broken parts out and store in the fridge.  They continue to grow slowly.  I add them to salad, soup or broth such as miso, and you can sprinkle some on just about any dinner food, even pasta. 

I make a quick warm drink / broth of hot water, a spoon or 2 of tamari or shoyu (soy sauce to you) to taste (not too much!) a bit of sliced or diced garlic and ginger to taste (don't overdo it, can use powders), and a little helping of bean or lentil sprouts all in a small bowl or mug. You can add a little slivered or thin sliced green onion for color and flavor.  You can use Bragg's liquid aminos instead of tamari.  It's a quick and easy warm up.

I'm enjoying my 4 tier sprout tower.  It saves counter space compared to the sprouting in jars on the counter method.
Some folks sprout in the closet-- I mean put the jars of sprouts in the dark kitchen closet until they are grown enough to turn green in the light.  Just don't forget you left them in the closet or you'll find dried, hard, shriveled seeds there in the spring;)(:

We made it through that Mayan 2012 business, so let's have a Happy and Safe New Year.  You know what I mean?  Have fun...but not too much.  Maybe you can lassoo one of those Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons who's been coming to your door to drive you around tonight.  They can give out literature while you are in the bar.

Happy New Year from
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c) 2012

Got Winter Food?

My diet has been mostly raw, live food since the 7 Day Raw Food Challenge this summer (see July 2011 posts and http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344 for more info).  Now that the cold days and nights have set in I have added some warm food.   OK, it's the Southwest Desert so a cold night is around the freezing mark, 32 degrees Fahrenheit, zero degrees Celsius.  I realize you folks from the Northern US, Canada, Germany, Russia, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, and the Italian Alps, are laughing at me and thinking, "That's not cold."  I hear you.  Nevertheless, I found a list of warming foods, herbs and spices we can use.  *I know there are Southwest Desert Blogger readers in the Southern Hemisphere where it is summer, but most of the earth's population lives in the Northern Hemisphere, so you Southerners will have to store this warming food info for future use and scroll down to the raw cacao treats.
Warming foods:
cinnamon, garlic, ginger, cloves, coriander, cumin, chives, dill, fennel, fenugreek, lemongrass, mustard, nutmeg, oregano, pepper, spearmint, radish sprouts, fenugreek sprouts, quinoa sprouts, dried red hot pepper, cayenne powder, miso soup, peppermint tea and my own tamari soup.  Here is my recipe for quick and easy tamari soup.  The only thing that makes it quicker than miso soup is that you do not have to blend the thick miso paste with water.
Tamari or Shoyu Soup:
-one cup or mug of warm, pure water
-one teaspoon tamari (or more to taste)
-garlic and ginger to taste (You can use sliced, diced, grated, or powdered garlic and ginger; if using powdered, just a pinch or two will make a nice, flavorful, warming, quick broth.  If using fresh, just add a tiny bit so that you do not overpower the broth.  You can always add more to your taste.)
-optional: serve in a bowl and add bean or lentil sprouts, a bit of scallion (green onion) or any other thin cut veggies you have on hand.  Another option is to substitute miso or Bragg's aminos for the Tamari.

I know there is debate in the community as to whether Tamari and Bragg's aminos are pure enough products.  Are they raw?  As I see it, I do not use these things often, and if you are hard-core, you can just warm water (I said warm, not necessarily boil) and feel the comfort of holding the warm cup in your hands.  Personally, I have been making mild organic miso soup with sprouts almost nightly.

*I add organic powdered cinnamon to any sweet I make with raw organic cacao* and carob*.  David Wolf has written about raw cacao (chocolate) and lauds its virtues.  You can get *organic cinnamon, vanilla extract, nuts, raw cacao powder, beans,  and nibs, miso, Bragg's products, herbs, homeopathics, raw and natural vitamins, coconut oils, hemp seeds, chia, tamari, natural pet food, natural cleaning products, etc., all at discount at iherb: www.iherb.com/info/benefits  Use the discount code WAL660 for $10 dollars off first order of $40 or more, and free shipping for orders over $20. Also see their freebies pages and select one free item with your order.  There are product reviews that are helpful.  I have been buying from them for years.  They also ship to over 180 countries.

I like organic raw carob better than organic raw cacao powder at this point, however they mix well and may have synergistic action.  Carob has some calcium and cacao has magnesium as well as caffeine.  Cinnamon* has chromium which is said to balance blood sugar, so it is nice to add to sweets.  I have been mixing 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, a tablespoon of honey, generous dash of cinnamon, 1/4 to half teaspoon vanilla extract* (optional), and a blend of raw cacao powder and raw carob powder to make a desert.  If you blend in enough powders, you get the consistency of chocolate truffles.  I like to grind brazil nuts and sprinkle into the blend for added selenium and texture.  I have also sprinkled in a bit of hemp protein powder for added nutrition.  Even the carnivores will like this sweet.  You can just eat it with a spoon or shape into balls or other shapes for presentation.  Just be careful of the caffeine in the cocoa -- it could keep you up at night.

It is a challenge to be pure raw in a world that prizes preservation and shelf-life.  I believe the herbs and spices we purchase are heat dried and may be irradiated.  The vanilla extract is probably well cooked, but I have found a superior organic vanilla extract -- not raw, but delicious.  I like the taste better than the organic raw powdered vanilla I purchased at a fancy price.  Maybe some day I will get used to the taste and texture of the powdered vanilla.  It appears to be a purer product, but for now it does not work for me.  I found a nice quality organic cinnamon powder in a glass jar at a local store.  I have seen the same product, Simply Organic brand, available in other states, so look around and see what you can get.  The quality of the Simply Organic powdered cinnamon* has been consistently high.  I keep it in the refrigerator and it lasts a very long time.  Bottom line here is that we generally do not use much vanilla, cinnamon, etc., so if it is not raw and organic, the choice is yours.  These are surely exotic luxury foods to be treasured and used judiciously.

I enjoyed some baked winter squash and yams for the holidays.  I added raisins and butter to some, cinnamon and raisins to others, ground nuts, raisins, and cinnamon to some, and a dash of salt sometimes.  This was a very warming and physically satisfying winter treat.  Not raw, but festive.  Sometimes I juice yams and sweet potatoes with my fresh carrot, greens, apple, celery juice.  It adds a nice thicker texture and richness to the winter juice.  I prefer the smoothness of the juice I get from my old centrifugal juicer over the Omega VRT 350 HD juicer.  The Omega produces weird "pulp" and strings along with the juice.  For those of you wondering, the Omega VRT350HD produces pulp in root vegetable juice too.   

Unless noted, I try to get organic produce whenever reasonably possible.  In my daily mixed greens and vegetable juice with a bit of apple, the weight of the pulp (waste material) from the Omega VRT350 HD is noticeably more than the waste pulp produced for the same amount of juice using my 16 year old centrifugal juicer.  Perhaps results would vary based on the brand of centrifugal juicer you use, but I get more overall efficiency, i.e., juice versus pulp, from my old centrifugal juicer.  Plus, I like the clean, flavorful, pulp-free juice the centrifugal juicer produces.  Also, the centrifugal juicer is faster and does not jam or leak as frequently as the Omega VRT 350 HD.  Don't get me started on an Omega Vert rant.  There are at least 9 previous posts dedicated to my Omega vertical juicer and its problems. 

Another interesting thing I have noticed this winter -- I do not like my tea or soup as hot as I used to.  A high raw diet has made me more sensitive to hot food and drink.  My soups are warm and I allow my tea to cool to comfortably warm.  Conversely, I do not like my smoothies as cold as I used to, even in summer.  In other words, I am more sensitive to the temperature extremes of food and drink and prefer to consume food closer to "room" temperature.  This seems natural. 

Environmentally, I use very little energy or fuel for cooking as compared to a conventional diet.  Over 75 percent of my winter diet is raw, including daily, fresh, mixed vegetable juice.  In summer I was 90 to 100 percent raw.  The juicer uses energy, but I save fuel by growing sprouts.  The sprout seeds require very little packaging and shipping fuel.  They produce at least ten times their volume in fresh green produce.  Sometimes a rounded teaspoon of seed will produce one or two cups of sprouts, or more, depending upon how long I let them grow.  The seeds are compact and require minimal storage space.  I keep them in glass jars with tight fitting lids.

I have been reading You Are What You Eat by Dr. Gillian McKeith.  It is one of a wealth of raw food and transition diet books in my local public library.  This book covers a broad range of health and nutrition topics.  The author espouses adding more raw to the diet, but does include information on the best grains, herbs, and nutritional supplements to use for therapeutic purposes.  It would be a good book for beginners looking to improve the diet, get educated, detox, and add more raw, live foods, although it contains good information for anyone looking to fine tune what they eat.  Check your public library and online resources to educate yourself.

Be happy.  Be healthy.
Staying warm,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2012  *P.S.  Let me gift you a code for $5 off any purchase at www.iherb.com .  They sell nutritional supplements, raw supplements, raw and organic food such as tahini, coconut oils, energy bars, goji, etc., herbs, teas, organic and natural shampoos, conditioners, skin creams and lotions, cosmetics, dry skin brushes, Madre Labs acai and Cafeceps, soaps such as Dr. Bronner's Castile, raw cacao*, organic chia seed, hemp seed, seaweed, nuts, seaweed noodles, oils, homeopathics, organic pet food, etc. at discounts.  Currently, they ship free for orders of $20 or more.  They also ship internationally.  Just enter code WAL660 at check out.    Plus, there are helpful product reviews.   And more free:  iherb offers a variety of FREE PRODUCTS to sample, so be sure to select one with your order.  I think you will find iherb prices lower than your local store.  It is interesting to browse www.iherb.com so check it out.

Got Sprouts?

I grew some red lentil sprouts in a jar.  I covered the open end of the jar with cheese cloth fastened around the jar's rim with a snug fitting rubber band.  First I soaked a few tablespoons of seeds overnight in a generous amount of water, drained them through the cheese cloth in the morning, rinsed and drained them again, and covered the jar with a dish towel to keep the seeds dark until they sprouted.  Rinse and drain well at least twice a day.  Within 3 days the jar is full of beautiful lentil sprouts.  Rinse before use and throw away any lentils that do not sprout.  Store well drained, unused lentils in the refrigerator.  Use them in a day or two.  Their taste is mild.  I sprinkle them over a salad.  If they start to get a bad smell or unusual consistency, throw them away!  I make small quantities and always use mine quickly enough to avoid waste. 

Lentil Sprouts growing in a jar -- you can see some roots and tiny pale leaves

 lentil sprouts growing in a pint jar with cheese cloth fastened over the opening

The salad consists of a base of tender leaf lettuce, a small amount of thinly sliced cucumber, one half gala apple diced with skin, a sprinkle of lentil sprouts, a bit of oil (I use an unfiltered, highest lignan, organic flax seed oil -- use what you like) and a light sprinkle of pink salt.  Layer ingredients in the order listed.  Of course you can use any dressing and add vegetables you like.  Enjoy!

The Salad with Red Lentil Sprouts

As you have noticed, the red lentils are more of a pale orange color.  Nevertheless, they add interesting color, shape, and texture to a salad.
Lentil sprouts are also good sprinkled over soup or stew.  They are nice in a broth or miso soup.
Sprouts are said to have much more nutrition and are easier to digest than the un-sprouted seeds.

On another subject: today I saw the license plate "I AM" -- I had a fine day.
I AM
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

High Raw?

I have heard the term "high-raw vegan" bandied about.  I assumed these folks were raw foods vegans who were stoned high hippies or just on a natural high from all their raw vegan foods.  I have recently been told that the term high-raw vegan refers to folks who are vegans eating mostly raw food.  The term "mostly" is somewhat subjective.  A number of supposedly 100 percent raw vegans eat honey.  Honey, as I understand it, is not a vegan food.  It is made by the labor of bees.  Yet, honey can be raw.  Also, a food can be raw and not vegan or even vegetarian (think sashimi sushi).

It is a challenge to be 100 raw vegan.  There is too much thinking you have to do.  Is the product I purchased really raw as the label states?  Is it 100 percent raw, or is the word "raw" just a marketing tool to move high priced goods off the shelf and increase profit margins?  Has my raw food been kept at low enough temperatures during transport to still qualify as raw?  Does a supermarket scanner render it un-raw?  (I don't think so, as the seeds still sprout after being scanned.)

sprouted seeds grown in a jar

To simplify matters you could eat food you grow or harvest yourself.  Then, you know it is raw.  Barring that, you could eat only raw fruits and vegetables, and seeds and nuts that sprout.  If they are heated excessively, or  irradiated, they will not sprout.  Thus, if they sprout, they are alive and raw seeds.

You better get expert advice if you plan on being a long-term 100 percent raw vegan.  There may be hazards to your health.  One of the main hazards, assuming your sprouts are fresh and clean, is that the vegan (and sometimes vegetarian) diet may be woefully low in vitamin B12.  This can have serious health consequences.  I will give you a video link that explains it in more detail.  Personally, I take a good quality sublingual B12.
http://www.rawradianthealth.com/blog/?s=b12+
There is a lot of good information on this site, how to sprout, make almond nut milk (I just soak the almonds for 12 hours or more, drain the soak water and add 3 cups of fresh water, add 3 dates, blend all in a good standard blender, and strain through a fine strainer over a bowl; it tastes great in coffee, which I haven't had for 7 days!), other good, easy recipes, and interesting health related information.  Get the free e-Book of juice and smoothie recipes http://www.rawradianthealth.com/and stroll around the site for excellent free videos, easy raw recipes (save energy, use the stove less!) and info on the very well thought out, planned, and doable 7 Day Raw Food Challenge.


I have come to realize I AM (to coin a phrase) a high-raw omnivore.  The simple raw foods, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and raw oil have been good for me.  This week I AM a 100 percent raw vegan.  However, I cannot say that I will never spend time with Ben and Jerry again in my life.  They just aren't looking as attractive as they used to. 


Stay cool.  Have a nice salad, add few pieces of  apple, peach, nectarine, or orange and some walnuts. Add a few ice cubes to your smoothie.  It's easy.


I AM high-raw
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

Got Raw Food?

This week, starting Monday July 18, I am participating in a one week Raw Food Challenge.  I will be eating only raw food for one week.  The offerings are all vegetarian and vegan.  Generally, vegetarians do not eat meat, except for those like my sister in law who is a vegetarian who eats chicken and fish.  I did not want to argue with an in-law, so I let it be.  I am not sure her head is flexible enough to wrap around the concept that chicken and fish are meat.  Vegans, as I understand it,  do not eat animal by products such as eggs (from chickens), milk or milk products such as cheese and ice cream (from cows), honey (from bees), etc.  There are some vegans who eat honey.  Some eat maple syrup.  Usually these folks are very health conscious and do not eat sugar, or at least attempt not to eat it often.  It is hard to be a purist in an impure, fast food world.

Finally, there is the raw foods movement.  These folks eat only raw, uncooked food, or food that is cooked to 104 degrees (Fahrenheit) or less.  There are raw vegetarians (they can eat (or drink) raw milk and cheese, raw eggs, raw honey, perhaps raw grains, raw oils, raw chocolate, and other treats, in addition to raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds; raw vegans who consume only raw non-animal source foods such as raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, perhaps raw grains, etc., and raw foodists who eat raw meat and fish, in addition to the fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds etc.  Got all that?  OK.  Lets move on.

This week I will be a raw vegan.  It is over 100 degrees every day.  Why would I want to cook?  I will save energy and keep the house cooler because the stove is not on at all.  There will not be any pots and pans to clean.  I am ready to have the salads, smoothies, cold soups (think gazpacho), raw vegetables and raw dips, nuts, seeds, fruit, and more fruit.  That's all folks.

In preparation for the week of culinary rawness, I had my goodbye ice cream and all the little samples of the soon forbidden foods (as there are no forbidden fruits).  This mini buffet was at the big discount warehouse store that I lovingly call "Costlo" because the quantities are big and the costs are...
sort of low.  On an average day strolling through Costlo you may sample breads (sometimes with olive oil drizzled over it), cake, pie, mini cream puff, crackers and cheese, ham and cheese, tuna salad sandwich (about 1 inch square piece per person), one ravioli, a 1/3 inch slice of tortilla wrap, small slice of beef, 1/4 hamburger, 1/4 veggie burger, a tempura shrimp, fish, tiny cup of chili, smoothie, spaghetti with red sauce, chocolate covered blueberries or pomegranate seeds, popcorn (caramel, kettle style, etc.) a piece of granola bar, chips, dried fruit, nuts, candy apple pieces, etc.  Today they also had bacon and chocolate covered toffee.  No, the toffee was not covered with bacon, they were two separate samples: one was bacon, the other toffee.  To be clear, all of the above offerings were not available today, but there was enough to have a cooked food farewell while stocking up on raw food.

What did I get?  I got 2 pounds of organic greens, 2 pounds of organic baby spinach, 5 pounds of organic carrots, 6 pounds of nectarines, I don't know exactly how many pounds of plums and  organic apples, 6 very large tomatoes, lemons, limes, oranges, 10 bananas, 6 cucumbers, almonds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, a melon, and a few pounds of organic blueberries.  Although the nuts and seeds are supposed to be raw, I am skeptical.  I was surprised that the almonds appear to sprout little tiny sprouts at their pointy end after being soaked over 12 hours.

I still need to get more vegetables such as celery, red onion, broccoli, and grow some sprouts.  I have the sprouting seeds soaking.  I am the one who got soaked at the health food store when I bought the organic sprouting seed mix at $11.99 (USD) for an 8 ounce bag.  I have a feeling it would have been cheaper to buy sprouts that had already been grown in the sprout factory.

The fruits and vegetables that are not noted as "organic" are conventionally grown, i.e., with who knows what added to the soil and applied to it at various stages of growth and transport.  I had a talk with the local organic food co-op produce man who said he had some delicious cantaloupes.  He said they were the best he had ever tasted.  He selected one for me and it turned out to be tasteless -- at three times the price of a conventional cantaloupe.  I think young folks may never have had good fruit.  Perhaps they do not know that fruit should taste sweet and fruity.  A good strawberry should have a natural strawberry flavor, a blueberry should be blueberry flavored, melon should be sweet and melon flavored, not just colorful water balls.  I don't care how supposedly organic it is; if it does not taste like fruit, there is something wrong with it.  Take it back! 

The co-op said to bring the cantaloupe back and they would refund my money, but it would cost more in gas to drive there than the cantaloupe costs. This season I still have not had a blueberry that tasted like a blueberry.  They are just blue water balls masquerading as blueberries.  The produce man at the supermarket told me all the mangoes are picked green.  We are told the bananas are picked green.  Peaches and avocados are hard as rocks.  Will they ripen before they rot in your kitchen?  Sometimes.  Will they taste good?  Flip a coin.

Back to all that raw food I bought:  It is only a 4 day supply!  Think about it.  There is no bread, potatoes, pasta, steak, burgers, dairy product, or pastry to fill up on.  No cookies and milk.  No french fries (is this a good diet for patriots?).  No breakfast cereal, eggs, toast, English muffins (sorry Brits), Canadian bacon, ham, waffles, pancakes, or any other(breakfast - let them eat) cake.  Not even any lowly oatmeal.  No dried fruit unless, I suppose, it has been dried at 104 degrees or less and thus qualifies as raw.  No crackers. No brown rice, white rice, rice cakes, rice crackers, matzos, wine, beer, or any other booze. No pizza unless you create a raw art project that looks like a pizza pie.  No traditional carb fillers.  And no coffee!  Ouch.  And kiss Ben and Jerry goodbye.  Adios.  Hasta luego amigos.  Vaya con dios.

Actually, there should be no caffeinated beverages of any sort in this raw diet.  Some allow raw cacao (chocolate) which does have some caffeine.  Coffee beans are roasted, tea leaves may be heated, and the water used to make coffee or tea is often over 104 degrees.  I have been decaffeinating myself for the past 4 days by substituting green tea for coffee.  It has been working.  I enjoy the cold green tea with lemon, in the morning, in large quantities.  At first I had nearly a quart in the morning plus some later in the day.  Today I had only 16 ounces of weaker tea.  Quitting coffee is big for me.  It is something I have wanted to do for a while.  I have discovered that I just want to drink something in the morning.  Tomorrow I will see whether water with some lemon juice will suffice.

Now, back to washing all the non-organic produce in the special produce wash that is supposed to remove sprays, wax, and soils.  I could rant about how I hate waxed produce, but this blog is long enough.  In short, if you hate it, don't buy it.  If it is wilted, don't buy it.  If it is tasteless or never ripens, return it.

Giving thanks for all the food we have in the Southwest Desert,
(nearly raw) Southwest Desert Blogger
C.
P.S.  If I leave the food out in the sun, in the heat of the day, it will cook to over 104 degrees.  Some say, "When it is hot here, you can fry an egg on the sidewalk" -- that is, if you are not a vegan.
P.P.S.  Here is the link to the site sponsoring the 7 Day Raw Food Challenge (I completed it! It was, as cliche as this sounds, life changing.).  Feel FREE to check out the FREE juice and smoothie recipe e-Book, and all the other goodies, info, FREE blog videos, etc. at this site  http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344 .  Enjoy! 
Got plenty of raw food,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

Plant a Garden

We had a particularly cold winter.  Several nights in a row were below freezing.  This would not be unusual except that several of those nights in a row were, more or less, around 15 degrees (F) which is much too cold for ornamental cacti, succulents, and other plants which are not indigenous.  Even some of the southwest desert native flora suffered at 15 degrees and below.  Some of them died.  They passed on, kicked the bucket, went to plant heaven, took a dirt nap... Those nights were in the record-setting cold category.

All of this is great for the nurseries and other businesses that sell plants.  But after a period of mourning for the dearly departed, I decided not to invest large in flora this year.  One reason is that I keep hoping some of the trees and bushes will rise from the dead.  I'm giving them until Easter.  That's the deadline.  A couple of citrus have put out suckers.  Others are stiff and breakable, indicative of dead wood.  Due to its high water content most of the aloes froze despite being covered.  Yes, we cover our frost sensitive plants and young trees on cold nights.  A few hearty, well located aloes survived and are flowering.  However, most aloes were post-frost heavy, sad, sacks of liquid that left their root systems and underground runners to provide a next generation for me. 

Desert folk are weird.  On cold nights they not only cover plants with an assortment of old sheets, quilts, blankets, towels, cardboard cartons, and whatever else is available, including frost cloth that can be purchased for the purpose of covering plants, but they go without heat in their homes while heating their greenhouses.  I used to be a member of the local Cactus and Succulent Society.  Not heating one's home, but heating the greenhouse so that exotic, frost sensitive cacti and succulents would survive was one of the old timers' interesting quirks.  They were an strange crew, but then the yuppies moved in and took over.  Well, that's another story for another time.  Back to the garden for now.

I bought one small succulent at the 99 cent store.  It was rather like buying a lottery ticket in a 3 inch pot.  I wondered what quality a 99 cent plant would have.  Would this investment pay off?  I  re-potted it and it is blooming nicely -- best 99 cents I have spent in a while.  Next I purchased some wheat berries and planted a 6 inch diameter terra cotta pot of wheat grass for the dog to munch on.  I found an old packet of basil seeds and planted them.  They are crowded little sprouts that I've been thinning and adding to pasta and salad.  I had a dried pomegranate in a bowl.  It was harvested last year.  I cut it open, and planted some of the seeds.  To my surprise, those pomegranate seeds were still moist.  I went to town and bought a packet of chive seeds -- a wild impulse purchase.  They are fine, thin sprouts that I hope tolerate the heat.  They will be kept in the shade. 

I expect there will be more clearing of dead wood along with joy at late signs of life from the frost damaged plants.  For now, the seeds sprouting and 99 cent plant blossoming before the hard burn of summer heat is a delight.