Farmer's Market and an Old Find, Salad Kicks, Where to Get a Decent Knife?

We're having an intense and lovely time here in London. Phil is missing the intensity and extent of strenuous physical activity that is normally the center of his lifestyle, but he is the most wonderful, charming, delightful companion: it's a privilege to introduce him to my family members and old friends. And it has been a continuing delight to meet up with wonderful old friends whom I haven't seen for three years or more, to see their kids growing up into fine young people, see more of them having bought houses, taken off in their careers, or discovering that they need a change of career. And the bedrock of that friendship, that is still strong, firm, sure and loving even without regular get-togethers or much in common in our daily lives.

There were no farmers' markets that I knew of in London three years ago, except maybe the Spitalfields market mostly for traders. Now, it seems like they are a thriving and vibrant scene. I went with my mum to the Alexandra Palace market, near her home, on Sunday.

[Blogger's giving me problems again refusing to upload some of my photos, but]  I was excited to see so many beautiful apples and pears. And those are_figs_ second from right on that front table! We got some and I've eaten a couple: my first figs in over a year (man, those fruitarian days I used to eat so many figs)...

Not a huge market, but plenty of stalls, produce, humanely-raised meat and eggs, goat cheese, olive oil, an awesome-smelling stall of chocolate truffles, food and drink vendors, ethnic clothing...

I was impressed by the variety of greens and veggies available, including shiso and jerusalem artichokes, that I'd never seen in England outside of Chinatown before.
And I found an old favorite that I used to love buying when I lived in Berkeley and haven't been able to find since:

Aged, fermented black garlic. Sorry I'm not a great photographer, but if you look to the left of the shaft of the head of garlic, you'll see a peeled black clove. Shiny, black and gorgeous texture. It barely tasted like garlic at all: almost a chocolatey note to it.  Back when I lived in Berkeley and thought I loathed garlic, I loved it then - even garlic haters can enjoy it. It was expensive just for two small cloves, but worth it!

Although my dad and brothers will hardly touch salad, my mum loves any and every salad that I make. She even loves my spirulina/soaked-dried sunflower seeds/sea salt/nooch sprinkle! I went on a bit of a salad-making kick today. Marinated mushroom medley with green onions/lemon/balsamic vinegar/olive oil/sea salt:

Massaged salad of purple kale, chard (that I bought labeled as 'spinach' at the farmers market!), savoy cabbage, leek and olive oil/apple cider vinegar.

Marinated cauliflower with curry spices and lemon zest (no picture); Cilantro pesto (or coriander, as I'm calling it here in England) with cashews, coconut oil, leek, peppermint, lemon juice, a dash of cayenne pepper and a whole bunch of cilantro.

Spread some of the pesto on a sunflower/flax/chives cracker I brought from home, top with the marinaded mushrooms: instant mini-pizza!

I'm really a terrible photographer...

I'm suffering from a dilemma in terms of wanting to get some nicer accoutrements for my mum's kitchen. I'm used to a nice, big, heavy chef's knife, and it felt funny doing so much chopping this morning with a little, dull serrated knife that has been around since I was 7, on a cutting board that has been in the house since before I was born and is now thoroughly concave, maybe better potential as a metate than as a cutting board... And the knife sharpeners... I remember when my brother got them when we were teenagers they were great, but 15 years later they actually don't make any difference to a blade at all!

Not my usual neat, thin slices...
But aside from the etiquette and potential awkwardness of getting something for my mum's kitchen that she might not appreciate (I might think it's an improvement but she might be quite happy with status quo), I don't know where I would go to get a decent knife or cutting board here! The local stores in my parents' neighborhood have almost all bottomed down to the common denominator of '5 pounds and under' stores, cheap and obsolescent stuff, and that's not what I'm after! And I'm a terrible shopper, the big, posh stores downtown intimidate the heck out of me and turn me into an involuted blitherer.

Any suggestions?

Amazing Grass Product Reviews #1; Are You a Pessimistic Label Reader?

Are you a pessimistic label reader? I know I am - I read every label pretty much in the expectation that sooner or later, I'm going to run into something that rules the item out for me. Too much sugar, some gluten or dairy, soy, rice - almost everything has something like that. This is why, when I first came across Amazing Grass Green Superfood, I thought it was too good to be true!

Not only is it full of good quality powdered greens: it also contains antioxidants, probiotics, enzymes and  fiber! And it is sugar free, and uses stevia (several other sugar-free mixes use alternatives that I really wouldn't prefer!) The type that grabbed me was the chocolate flavor: as I mentioned the other day, mixing chocolate with tons of greens and superfoods is the best strategy. I was a little hesitant about the small amount of oat fiber in the fiber complex, but gave it a try anyway (gluten is a protein, and is unlikely to be present in the fiber). And the product is certified gluten free (which gave me more courage around the oat ingredient) and vegan, and seems to be raw too. So, this pessimistic label reader found something to try after all!


It is a little pricey, but I love it so much that I get it anyway. It featured in my no-sugar raw birthday pie, and I often add a little to my morning smoothie (except when I'm completely avoiding cacao). Sometimes mid-afternoon, I have a tablespoon of it with a little nut milk or herbal tea - it's remarkably filling and satisfying for the low calorie count. I really enjoy the complexity of the green-ness and how it balances the chocolate flavor.


So when the folks at Amazing Grass sent me a package of samples to review, I knew I had a delightful opportunity. I think it's going to take several posts to cover all the products they sent - what generosity!

There are energy bars, superfood powders of several different kinds, and meal replacement powders. I couldn't possibly have tasted them all in one go, let alone given a fair reflection of how they felt after consumption, so I'm going to do several review posts over the next few days once I have tried them. Since the green superfood powder is where it all started for me, and since I've already reviewed the 'chocolate infusion' green superfood powder above, I'll start with those powders.


I started out by trying the wheatgrass powder. It's labeled as gluten free and vegan: this is reassuring to me, since I'm very much allergic to wheat and have often been nervous about trying wheatgrass products even though I understand that gluten is a protein formed within the grain, not the grass.

This powder was a rich, dark green - much darker than my wheatgrass powder from Wilderness Family (I don't know if this is a good thing but I enjoyed the color). A little taste of the powder 'straight' showed it to be sweet and full-bodied in flavor.


I mixed it up with my little balloon whisk (works best if you put the water in the glass first).

I really enjoyed the taste and that calm-buzz feeling of having just had something very green. I have to say, this is a big serving of wheatgrass! In retrospect, I should have had it on an empty stomach: I had it as part of my mid-afternoon snack, after I'd had half of one of the energy bars (to be reviewed soon) and one of my own no-sugar cookies, and my tummy felt a little insulted by doing things in that order. Wheatgrass is so detoxifying... I think that in future, I would take this on an empty stomach, and maybe only take half the serving at once, until I got used to it.

Well, wheatgrass is the very basic, but the next most basic is their unflavored Green Superfood powder. 

I've talked before about how I generally prefer to add my own flavorings/protein powders/superfoods to something basic, rather than using someone else's formulation, but I love the mix of ingredients in this green superfood. I wanted to try the unflavored version to see how it is without the cacao (to see whether potentially I could get this kind and add my own cacao at times when I'm actually able to tolerate a bit of it). This would be a great addition to a smoothie, I thought - but this afternoon, I tried it straight up, mixed only with water. This was part of a mid-afternoon snack, but I ate my no-sugar cookie when we were hiking on the beach and drank this when we got home, a little later.

Whisked it up with my balloon whisk just like the wheatgrass - and whoops! Had drunk half of it before remembering to take a picture! Yes, it was really good. I love the addition of peppermint to the formulation. I love the slight grittiness of the texture - it disperses very well in the liquid but has enough of a texture to remind you to really 'chew your juice' - to savor every mouthful. To me, this is an important feature when you're taking in green products: mindful consumption, whole body at attention.

It tastes satisfyingly 'green' without any bitterness. I felt a clear, calm energy after consuming it, fairly satisfied without being too full to eat a few raspberries from our garden! (There are still two more flavors of green superfood powder I have to try: I'll update this post when I've tried them.)

OK - Update #1 - Lemon-Lime Energy Drink Green Superfood. With mate and green tea. Sugar free, stevia sweetened, but 85mg caffeine in the serving - I'm supposed to avoid caffeine. A point I'll probably make a couple of times during these reviews: aside from the superfood powders, there are ingredients in some of these samples that I ordinarily have to avoid (caffeine, sugars, rice). I am exercising caution and sampling them anyway, so that I can give a good reflection of each product. However, products, like the bars and meal replacements, that contain extra sugar, will inevitably taste very sweet to me. I also have a high tolerance for gritty textures (because, as I mentioned above, I generally think they enhance your appreciation). So please bear in mind that my reviews are inevitably going to be somewhat subjective and idiosyncratic.

I love green tea but it's hell on my adrenals at the moment, and whilst I like the taste of mate, I really don't do well with it. I know that this is not the standard story, so please understand the idiosyncrasies of this tester! I tried this mid-morning, and just used half the package with a small amount of water. Straight up, the powder has a pleasantly 'green,' citrus-enhanced taste. Mixed with water, I found that it didn't disperse quite as well as the 'original' green superfood powder. The mate flavor was intense to me, as were the citrus notes - a good combination, I think. I was surprised that it didn't seem to mix as well, considering that I only had half the amount of powder - but it could have been that I didn't whisk it as well! Just this small amount definitely put me on the 'adrenal edge,' like drinking green tea or eating a lot of cacao, but I suspect that for a person without adrenal problems this would be a great, and great-tasting energy boost!

Just one more flavor of superfood powder to try - berry - and then this post will be complete!

And for my final update: Green superfood drink powder - berry flavor. Again, I simply mixed this with water. I'm sure it would be great in nut milk or smoothies too. I noticed that they say 'natural flavors' in the ingredients, without divulging what these ingredients that produce the berry flavor are. In addition to the acai that all the flavors have, this one also has goji berries in the antioxidant blend. 

Just like the 'natural' and 'chocolate' flavors, I liked both the taste and the texture of this - I enjoyed how well it dispersed and yet how it retains enough of a texture to remind you that 'this juice is food.'

Another thing I noticed was that only the chocolate flavored superfood powder contains oat fiber in the fiber blend. The rest of them contain just flax and apple pectin. For me personally, this is yet another signal that I should get the 'original' flavor and add my own cacao when I'm actually better able to tolerate it (or use the flavor essence!), since the cacao flavor alone has that one ingredient that is questionable for my system. I do think that this is a wonderful superfood powder.

Speaking of our garden, we're still harvesting herbs, beets, lettuce, chicory, cauliflower, broccoli, those weird carrots, kale, chard, peas, raspberries. We've been making delicious mint tea with fresh leaves from the garden. I froze some raspberries today and am going to make raspberry jam for Phil this evening. I've been eating massaged chard/kale salads lunch and dinner the last couple days. 

And we're taking advantage of the fall tides to fertilize our gardens in preparation for over-wintering and for next year! Phil loves any excuse to do some more strenuous, heavy work, so our beach hikes have been featuring the truck and a pitchfork, he loads up with kelp (sometimes has me drive alongside the tideline very slowly as he loads) and has been putting it on the garden beds back home!

It was a beautiful day here again! Happy Sunday...