It Is Snowing on my Kale

About the only thing left in my garden is the Kale, and I have plenty of it. I didn't do the garden this year, My sweetheart did it. I wanted a 4 ft row of Kale because I like it in my green drinks and juices. He planted all the seeds and it is about 40 feet. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I have been glad for it. Kale is a cool weather plant and I thought it would bolt when the weather got hot. It didn't . I learned that it is also a biannual plant. That means it will grow this year and wait till next year to go to seed. This past spring we had a few plants that wintered over and first thing this spring we had fresh kale before the rest of the garden got mature enough to harvest.

It is so nice to have fresh greens in the spring. After the long winter our bodies are ready for some good pick me up food. Kale in my juice did that for me. I also had some spinach that came up volunteer in the fall and was ready to harvest about the time the ground thawed in the spring. Even though I am never ready for winter to come, I know I can still harvest the kale for a while and it will be there in the spring until the rest of the new little seeds grow big enough to give us the fresh food our bodies crave. The Swiss chard that has already frozen will also come back and give us greens until the new plants are ready. Then it too, will go to seed and the cycle begins again.

How do I juice my greens? I actually have 3 machines I use and they all work well to do the job. The three I have and use regularly are a power blender, a centrifugal juicer, and a wheat grass juicer. What I choose to use will depend on what I may be putting with my greens to make my drink.

The Vitamix blender is my appliance of choice if I am wanting the fiber in my diet. I always use it if I am using the soft fruits and the fruits I have frozen. This blender breaks up the seeds and skins so small you don't recognize them in the smoothie. My daughter prefers the Blendtec blender. Both of them do a fantastic job of making what you put in the blender smooth. They are both power blenders, but the difference that is most noticeable is in the size and shape of the jars. Vitamix has 2 jars. One is designed to mill grains, the other is designed to make smoothies or chop food like a food processor. The jars are the same size and shape. The Blendtec also has 2 jars. One is square and 64 oz, the other is 5 sided and 96 oz. They are both shorter and broader so that when not in use they will fit on the counter top under the upper cabinets. One or more of the Blendtec models has the motor part that will mount right into the counter top.

If I want to have juice without the pulp, I will definitely use the centrifugal juicer I have. Mine is the Breville, but there are many on the market above and below the Breville in performance and price. I use the Breville to juice hard vegetables like carrots and beets, and also apples. The feed chute is large and takes less preparation time than the smaller chute models do. This juicer also has the pulp collection bin off to the side which makes it so I can juice more without having to empty the pulp out of the juicer. This juicer will juice the kale quite dry and I also have put the tougher Swiss chard and spinach through it as well. It does great with celery and other medium hard vegetables. My juicer is 2 speed and will handle fruits if I don't want the pulp. Sometimes I have put the cores from the pineapple and the pineapple rind through this juicer. The rind gives it a slightly different flavor which doesn't bother me if I am putting other flavors with the pineapple. I also throw a part of lemon or lime into the mix when doing vegetables, and sometimes ginger root.

If I am juicing grasses as part of the mix, I always use my wheat grass juicer. Mine is an electric model, Tribest solo star. My daughter has one of the Omega wheat grass models, and hers works very well. They are masticating juicers with a single auger. The auger type juicers, and there are many to choose from, are the very best for juicing the grasses and getting the most juice from them. The grasses aren't highly juicy, so you want a juicer that will give you as much as you can get. My brother has a steel hand wheat grass juicer. He tells me he earns every bit of juice that he gets. It definitely takes more time to juice with the hand model. I have juiced my kale in the wheat grass juicer and it does a good job. It is slower and if I am going for volume and no grasses I don't choose it. I need to learn patience, because the centrifugal juicer heats the juice as it spins so fast, and the auger doesn't do that. Heating destroys nutrients and enzymes. I have juiced carrots with the auger and although it will do the job, it is harder to get the pulp as dry. With this machine, you can make sorbets and that leaves the pulp in after it is pureed, similar to the blender machines, but definitely dryer.

The wonderful thing about getting a juicer machine is that you can choose one that is right for you and your family from the many available on the market. For pulpy products you can choose the blender types or the masticating juicer. For straight juice you can choose the masticating or the centrifugal type machines. All of them are wonderful as you learn how to use them right. The most important thing is to do it, take the time to learn to use them and then make it a daily habit. This is a very healthy habit. Now the snow has stopped and the kale is waiting for me to make my next juice or smoothie meal.

Vegetables for Juicing-part 2 C Vegetables

Vegetable juices are so good for soothing the nerves and to gently carry away toxic and accumulated waste matter. Raw Vegetable juices are good for many common health problems. Drink vegetable juice at least half an hour after meals. Follow the general rule to not drink vegetable juices before meals or with fruit juices.

Use these favorite vegetables for good health.

CABBAGE, both the red and white, are valuable ingredients in a salad but only in reasonable quantities, because the sulfur and chlorine content is high. Red cabbage has 50% more sulfur than white. White cabbage has about 65% more potassium, nearly ten times more iron and about three times as much silicon as the red cabbage. If not properly chewed, cabbage will cause gas, and if you combine cabbage with vinegar, salt, or sugar it can irritate the digestive tract.

CARROTS are one of our most complete foods. Finely grated pulp of raw carrots is one of the most soothing, efficient ways to heal a diseased colon. Raw carrots contain all the elements and all the vitamins that are required by the human body. This is not true of cooked carrots. Carrot juice is a good cleanser of bile and waste matter coagulated in the liver from years of wrong eating. If the skin becomes discolored, after drinking carrot and other juices, it is a result of coagulated bile in the liver dissolving so fast that sluggish kidneys and bowels were not able to take care of its elimination quickly enough, resulting in the lymph carrying this toxic matter out the pores of the skin. If this happened to me I would be grateful to have the cleanse going on rather than the alternative. Drinking raw carrot juice will bring relief to eyes and reduce fatigue resulting from working or driving in bright lights.

CAULIFLOWER is very good to eat raw. It is high in potassium, phosphorous and sulfur, and protein. Like other members of the cabbage family, it has the tendency to irritate the kidneys if you eat too much. It is nourishing and used sparingly is good for you.

CELERY, the stalks along with the green leaves should be used because in addition to very high sodium content they contain insulin. Celery, our best food for organic sodium chloride, has four plus times more organic sodium than calcium. This is why raw celery juice is a wonderful drink for hot weather. It provides organic salt which is much better for the body than inorganic salt. It helps with nerves, sleeplessness, and sobering a drunk. Eating too much starch leaves deposits of inorganic calcium in our bodies. When we eat celery the organic sodium in celery aids in maintaining the inorganic calcium in solution until at least some of it can be eliminated from the body before it accumulates and causes trouble. The high magnesium and iron content of celery is good for the blood cells.

Food Helps For A Healthy Body

My Cousin D sent this to me a year before he passed away. I just love it. I think whole food is the best way to go for good health. There are some people who don't believe in the creation and all that it means, but I do.

GOD first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... all before making a human. HE made and provided what we would need before we were born. These are best, and more powerful when eaten raw.

GOD left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys. Note: Parsley is good for the kidneys.

C elery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23 % sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you do not have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocados, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility. Note: bananas and cucumbers are also good for the male genitals.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics. Note: Cinnamon is also good for balancing blood sugar.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries. Note: Pomegranets are good for the ovaries also.

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female, and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body. Note: Pineapple is also good for the cells and the skin of the pineapple looks like cells look under a microscope.

Note: The juice of a potato is good for lung and bronchial problems.

Lemons are good to help the liver and clean out toxins.