Mixing Bowl

VEGAN STANDARD Bay leaves added to this vegan rice and peanut butter casserole add just the right subtle flavor to make it interesting.

Bay Leaf and Carrot Casserole

By SARAH RINGLER

People and food—can you believe it? Babies discover right away the power of food; they cry and someone tries to feed them. Later, some children use food as a way of asserting their individuality sometimes to the chagrin of their parents. I remember when my granddaughter was a baby, she avoided any food that was green. Out of concern for her health, it used to drive me nuts. She has grown to about 5 feet 10 inches and I still think it’s rare for a green vegetable to cross her lips.

As adults, we can set our own diets. Sometimes it’s for health or spiritual reasons but other times, it comes as a trend. About 20 years ago, a man who called himself a Breatharian came to Santa Cruz on a lecture tour. There was a lot of advanced publicity that inspired interest as well as a big dose of skepticism. Before he could even give his talk though, he was exposed eating at the McDonald’s on Mission Street.

Personally, I can eat a fairly wide variety of food but I have friends who have dietary restrictions. When they come for dinner, it calls for greater creativity.

I have a few friends who are vegan so I have collected recipes that I hoped might appeal to them. Here is one recipe that has been a standard at our house since the ‘70s. It is from “The Lifestream Cookbook,” out of the Lifestream Natural Food store in Vancouver, BC. Any short grain brown rice can be used but Lundberg, a California organic grower, makes some wonderful blends that add ➝ 10

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Carrot Casserole

2 cups cooked short grain brown rice 2 cups, peeled and grated carrot 1/2 cup peanut buter, room temperature 1/2 cup vegetable stock, or water 1 onion, chopped 1 small clove garlic, minced 2 bay leaves 1/2 teaspoon sea salt pepper to taste 3/4 cup chopped walnuts Olive oil Make the vegetable stock by peeling the carrots and removing the outer layers of the onion and garlic cloves. Put the outer layers of the onion and garlic, and the ends and peelings of the carrots into a small saucepan and cover with about a cup or so of cold water. Bring to boil. Lower the heat to a low simmer and cook for about a half hour. Cook the rice according to the package. Grate the carrots, chop the onions and mince the garlic.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together in one bowl. Taste and adjust flavors. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. Spread a little olive oil in an 8-inch square pan. Pat mixed ingredients into the pan. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake about 15 minutes more. Serves 4-6.

GARDENING 6

that uncoated ceramic and wood containers dry out faster than metal, plastic, or glazed ceramic. Make sure your containers are safe for food before adding soil.

Soil is the lifeblood of your vegetable garden. This is the one area that warrants splurging. Since you are growing vegetables to eat, organic potting soil is your best bet. While there are plenty of pre-fertilized commercial soil mixtures available, some of those chemicals are known to cause health concerns.

What will you grow? Look in your refrigerator! What produce do you buy most frequently? Tomatoes are highly rewarding container plants, and cherry tomato plants can be prolific. You can get many of your seeds and starters from plants you already have on hand. Bell peppers and tomatoes are chock full of seeds. If you cut the end from your bunch of celery and plant it, you will end up with celery stalks with far more flavor than you are used to. Next time you take the seeds out of a jalapeño, push them into some soil and add a little water. Salad greens, radishes, and spinach are very rewarding vegetables from seed. Ask your gardener friends if they have extra seeds. I’ll bet they do!

Some plants need pollination to produce a crop. If your containers are outside, bees, wasps, flies, and other insects will provide the pollination needed. You can increase the likelihood of these helpful insects coming into your garden with flowers. If you are growing vegetables in containers indoors, you can still have a successful crop if you pollinate by hand. Simply use a small paintbrush and gently touch the tip of the brush to each flower head, making sure to complete two circuits of each flower in a different order. The pollen from one flower must come in contact with a different flower to create tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins, which are, in fact, fruits. True vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, do not require pollination.

Once you try your hand at growing vegetables in containers, you will become self-sufficient in delicious, rewarding ways that you never thought possible.