DIY Stevia Extract
It’s no secret that added sugar isn’t good for you. The refined, white stuff is the worst of all, but brown sugar, honey, and similar “natural” sweeteners aren’t as healthy as you might think, either. They add lots of calories without much actual nutrition. On the other hand, there are plenty of artificial, calorie-free sweeteners […]
Fudgy, Black Bean Brownies
The other day we had a tapas picnic outside in the dome to commemorate the nearing departure of several volunteers. The girls cooked all throughout the morning- creating a full spread of empanadas, cuadrado balls, falafel, bean spreads, tabouli salad, and much more. Of course, we couldn’t have all this savory goodness without something sweet […]
Tropical Plants for Making Tea
We have many plants for making tea here, they include the following list. At one point I purchased seeds of actual green tea plants, but was unable to get them to germinate. Apparently they will grow in the tropics, but the tea from hot-weather green tea plants (Camellia sinensis) doesn’t taste as good as when […]
Rosemary Veggie Farm Rice
Farm-Fresh Rosemary Rice with Farm Veggies and Egg Preparation Time: 15 minutes (excluding time of rice cooking) Serves: 4 This is a very fast, easy, and tasty way to use yesterday’s leftover rice and whatever vegetables you have around. The simple flavor of rosemary and garlic brings out the farm-fresh flavor in the veggies. In […]
Cilantro Purslane Pesto
Cilantro/Purslane Pesto to try Ingredients 1 cup cilantro 1 cup purslane leaves and small stems 1/2 cup olive oil 1/4 cup cashew nuts 1/4 cup sunflower seeds 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon vinegar 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or minced spicy peppers salt and pepper to taste Try adding the olive […]
Purslane Basil Pesto
Our Purslane Basil Pesto Recipe This is a wonderful, super-healthy raw vegan pesto that’s very inexpensive because it’s primary ingredient is purslane, which is perhaps the easiest food to grow on the farm. It’s so easy in fact that we never plant it or take care of it. It grows all over by itself since […]
Beet and Carrot Carpaccio with Homemade Pesto Goat Cheese
Every morning the goats get milked on the farm and every other day we will convert the raw milk into delicious cheese crumbles. For this recipe we decided to flavor the cheese with pesto made from freshly picked basil leaves. This recipe was first made by Fanny, also known as “Sweden”, and she is one […]
Avocado Salsa with Mango
I’ve never been a peculiar fan of sweet salsas, but when being in the tropics it is the time to think outside the box, play with new ingredients and enjoy the dynamic flavor of Costa Rica. Yesterday, we decided to make a avocado mango salsa, seeing as most of the ingredients were in abundant availability […]
Raw Chocolate-Making Class
Today we taught the volunteers how to make RAW chocolate. The recipe is fairly simple. The difficulty is finding the ingredients. All are made in Costa Rica, but it’s easier to find them in the U.S. than in this country! The volunteers attacked each other with the chocolate, led mainly by Divina. The ingredients are: […]
Thai Green Papaya Pad Thai
No Noodle Pad Thai is a personal favorite of mine, so coming up with a way to make it extra healthy here on the farm is super exciting, and we all ate mounds of it in full knowledge of it’s healthy freshness. Inspired by the success of the previous grated papaya recipe and spurred on […]