Hibiscus Tea Hot or Iced

Living on un-ceded lands of many tribes including Clackamas, Cowlitz, Multinomah (to name a few) and the lands of the Duwamish people past and present, it’s impossible to ignore the wildfires raging up and down the coast.

Today we are feeling grief for the genocide that was intentionally committed by our European ancestors against native peoples on this land. We’re feeling grief for the land that was kidnapped and held hostage by colonists separating it from loving tribes who had deep relationships with this place. We’re feeling the sadness of lack of tribal burning practices and increased global warming that have led to fire seasons which feel out of balance.

Camille’s mentors at Holistic Resistance are often using song as they ‘holistically resist’. So, today Camille’s been listening to and singing this song to the trees.

In addition to singing and feeling our grief, we are working on staying hydrated and flushing the grief and smoke through our bodies. Below is a recipe for hibiscus tea because that’s what Camille had in her house and she is avoiding going outside. If you are looking for pre-made tea blends to support your lungs Camille loves adapta-lung tea which is being sold sliding scale from an herbalist who is a friend of the family. We also recommend getting tea from Clary Sage which is a local apothecary run by Laurie Lava-Books, who is a member of the Karuk tribe.

Serves: 16 oz

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp hibiscus leaves

2 inches ginger, finely chopped

1 tbsp agave (or to taste)

Ice cubes

Water

1/2 small lime (optional)

mint (optional)

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For hot tea: add 16 oz of boiling water to the hibiscus leaves and ginger. Steep for five minutes and strain. Add agave to taste and enjoy!

For iced tea: add 3/4 cup of water to a small sauce pan with the chopped ginger. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the hibisucs leaves and turn off the heat. Add the agave and let steep for 5 minutes. If you are using mint, add this after 2 minutes so that it only steeps for 3 minutes total. If you are using lime, squeeze this in at any time after the heat has been turned off.

While this tea is steeping prepare a 16 oz glass and fill to the rim with ice. Anne likes to add a long metal spoon to the cup of ice which can help absorb the thermal shock and potentially prevent breaking the glass when you add hot water over ice. Camille uses mason jars and hasn’t had an issue with breakage since they are designed to take more thermal shock. Once the tea is finished steeping, strain the liquid over the glass of ice. The hot tea will melt the ice leaving you with perfectly iced tea! If you want more ice, add some, if you want less ice add some cold water until you have 16 oz of tea (or to taste).

Note: A special thank you to our houseplants who are helping us filter this air!

Watermelon Slushie

This August we are soaking in the heat and all the delicious watermelon. If you have a Vitamix and a tamper (an attachment for the blender that allows you to push the things you are blending into the blades while it is running), here is another delicious way to consume your watermelon! We prefer different levels of sweetness, so the agave is optional. Make sure to taste and add sweetener to the level you prefer.

Makes: 16 oz

Time: 15 minutes (but the watermelon needs at least a night to freeze)

Ingredients

2 heaping cups cubed frozen watermelon

3/4 coconut water (or sub tap water)

1 tsp agave (optional)

1 pinch salt

Heavy squeeze lime

1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves

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Add all the ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Serve and enjoy!

Sweet N Salty Pitaya Bowl

This week our hearts are heavy and our bodies are exhausted as we continue the process of unlearning. We didn’t mention the 4th of July (Independence Day here in the U.S.) last week because we didn’t remember that it was coming up. Camille has many fond memories of celebrating this day with food, fireworks, and family. Never once did she stop think what this holiday is actually celebrating. She was taught that we were celebrating a great feat of independence, but today we are wondering independence for whom? While the core values claimed by the Declaration of Independence ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ seem worthy of pursuit, the fact is that it was only White cis-gendered heterosexual Christian colonists who were meant to receive these benefits. On July 4th, 1776 when the colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence chattel slavery was both legal and integral to the economy of the colonies. As the settlers claimed independence from the British Empire, we did so on stolen lands while committing genocide of indigenous people. This year we are seeing amazing protests sweep the world asking that our institutions stop killing Black people because of the color of their skin. While in 2020 chattel slavery isn’t supposed to exist anymore the prison industrial complex partners with police brutality to a similar affect. Feeling lost at how to reply to well-intentioned folks wishing her “happy 4th of July”, Camille used Rachel Cargle’s wise words “happy for who?”.

We are sitting with the questions of how to hold all of this knowledge. How do we hold the fond memories, the love of the values that should be core to our existence as a country, and also the death and brutality that this nation is built on. And, as we face this knowledge, how do we move forward? What do we do now that we know this? If you’re also having these thoughts reach out to us through email or text. If you’re also wondering how to hold the complexity of the life we are living, we are too. Let’s do this together.

This week we are celebrating with gratitude the full moon, the long July nights, and having fresh berries in season! In honor of these berries we’ve decided to share Camille’s favorite pitaya bowl recipe. We recognize that this bowl will be pretty expensive if you don’t already have a number of these ingredients on hand, and we don’t recommend trying to make it without a Vitamix with a tamping attachment. Feel free to play around with your own base and toppings and let us know what you love best!

We cook at home for a number of reasons including the pandemic, food allergies, money, and our love of cooking. Also, sometimes it makes more sense to eat out. For example, some recipes require so many ingredients that buying all of them to make one dish is very expensive and creates a lot of waste. For us, pitaya bowls often fall in the ‘makes more sense to eat out’ category. However, if you do want to make pitaya bowls from scratch at home, have some money to spend on ingredients, and have a Vitamix blender with tamping attachment then we highly recommend this pitatya recipe. It is sweet, fruity, salty, hearty, and delicious!

Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 1

Ingredients

for the pitaya base:

6 oz almond milk

6 oz frozen banana (if you have 24 hours you can chop your own banana and freeze the night before)

6 oz frozen mango

1 pack of frozen pitaya

1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)

1 tsp maca root powder (optional)

for the topping:

1/2 cup granola (gluten-free option)

2 tsp coconut oil, melted (optional)

1/4 tsp spirulina powder (optional)

1/2 banana, sliced

2 strawberries, sliced

12 blueberries (roughly)

1 tbsp chopped salted almonds, lightly toasted

2 tbsp peanut butter (we love Once Again for the flavor)

1 tbsp coconut flakes

2 tbsp coconut whip cream

1 tsp bee pollen (optional)

honey drizzle (as much/little as you like, if you don’t have coconut whip you might want extra honey)

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If you want to experience the spirluna coconut ‘shell’ then start by melting the coconut oil and stir in the spirulina powder. If you aren’t using this you can start by slicing your almonds, and toasting them lightly in a dry pan.

Put all the pitaya base ingredients in Vitamix blender and blend on high using tamper to make sure everything gets fully incorporated. Be careful not to over-blend. Aim for a sorbet-like texture.

To assemble, layer the granola then the pitaya base. Next drizzle the warm coconut oil/spirulina mixture over the pitaya base (optional). As it cools it will form a coconut oil shell. On top of this, put sliced banana, sliced strawberry and blueberries around the bowl. Add the peanut butter in a clump and the coconut whip cream in a clump. Sprinkle the toasted almonds on top of the peanut butter and then sprinkle the whole bowl with coconut flakes. Top the whip cream with the bee pollen and then drizzle the entire bowl with local honey. Enjoy!

Cardamom Mango Smoothie

Anne first had a mango lassi when they were twelve and loved it. Their body does not enjoy mango lassis made the way that first one was made, but this mango smoothie is reminiscent and delicious without the ingredients that don’t work for our bodies. Feel free to play around and make it your own!

Serves: 1 16 oz drink

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup (8 oz) of your preferred non-dairy milk (soy-free option, nut-free option)

3/4 cup frozen mango

3 - 6 pitted medjool dates, pits removed

1/2 tsp freshly ground cardamom

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Add nut milk and dates to a high speed blender and blend until the dates have incorporated into the liquid. Add mango and cardamom and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Nut Milk

We love making our own nut milks and here’s why:

• For us, they taste better than anything you can buy in a store.

• Milk with zero packaging (if you buy the nuts in bulk with your own jars).

• Affordable: cost is $4.50 for 32 oz of organic almonds and $2.25 for 32 oz non-organic almonds at our store. Plus, you can use the pulp to cook with and stretch that savings!

We use almonds and cashews most often because we like the balanced taste this combination creates. Most nuts can be made into nut milk and we look forward to hearing about your favorite combinations! Let us know in the comments what you like!

Serves: 4 cups

Time: 15 min (nuts need to soak for at least 6 hours in advance)

Ingredients

1.25 cups of nuts, soaked for at least 6 hours (recommend 1 cup almond and 1/4 cup cashew)

4 cups water, plus more for soaking

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Here are three options for making nut milk. Unless you are going with option #3 you will need to soak the nuts at least 6 hours and I find it easier to do this overnight. If in the morning you don’t want to make milk, just rinse and re-fill with clean water. When you finally get to making the milk, strain the nuts and use 4 cups of fresh water to blend.

Options:

1. Peel some or all of the soaked almonds (not necessary but makes for a sweeter, more amaretto flavor). Put through a masticating juicer with water. If you don’t have a juicer, use method 2!

2. Add all the ingredients to a high powered blender (Vitamix recommended) and blend on high. Then strain with a nut milk bag.

3. If you have the money to spare and know you want to always have home-made nut milk and nut-butters there is a machine that does just that and it works really well: TheNutraMilk. This is a great option especially in commercial environments.

Save the pulp to use in cashew cheese or throw it in with some veggies and beans for home-made veggie burgers. The nut milk is best if used within 4 days.