Many people assume that organic farmers are the healthiest people on the planet. With pretty much limitless access to organic produce and other products, farmers do have the opportunity to eat a really healthy (and delicious) diet. Unfortunately, even though the opportunity exists to eat healthily, that doesn't always translate into an entirely healthy lifestyle. Too often, farmers (such as myself), get so caught up in the work of farming, that we actually forget to take care of ourselves. I can't tell you how many times customers and friends would look at me with concern due to the bags under my eyes, my dirty and often disheveled work clothes, and my sun and wind exposed skin. The worried glances were warranted because, caught up in the busy schedule of farming, Jeff and I stopped taking the time to care for ourselves so that we could care for the farm and Marley. Sure, we always ate plenty of healthy, nutrient rich fruits and veggies that we grew and only eat organic and/or grass fed meat, but that's where the self care stopped. We had to get the work done and if that meant not sleeping, missing breakfast and lunch, not exercising, and working seven days a week, so be it. I suppose some farmers are able to lead a balanced life, but Jeff and I, we were ambitious and always felt the need to grow as much as possible and make as much as possible so that we could be able to buy our own land and afford the start-up of our eventual farm. We farmed with a sense of urgency, because we knew that our land situation was unstable and we needed to be able to rebound when it eventually crumbled.
If and when we farm again, we've vowed to not lose track of ourselves. Farming needs to be sustainable, not just for the earth, but also for the farmer. If you overtax and poison your soil, never feeding it, resting it, and replenishing it, it will get sick and will lose its fertility. Just so, if a farmer works so hard that they make themselves sick, they won't be able to produce food any longer.
When last season ended, we felt pretty beat up physically and decided it was time to rebalance and get healthy. We started exercising more and decided to clean up the way we eat. Although we've always eaten a ton of vegetables, we also ate our fair share of junk just because we'd be hungry and would end up eating whatever was at hand. With more time on my hands since we weren't farming, I started doing a bunch of reading and I learned some truly terrifying facts about conventionally grown/produced food (I'll touch on those on a later date). I realized that it's not enough to just eat organic fruits and vegetables. No, you need to eat A LOT of local (because everything is more nutrient rich when freshly picked) and organic produce and NOT eat conventional grain products, anything with corn syrup, anything with GMOs, and, well, pretty much anything that isn't organic. To be healthy, we need to limit our exposure to pollutants and toxins, which means we really shouldn't eat food that is grow and produced in a toxic and poisonous way. So to that end, our family stopped eating our beloved loafs of french bread, switched to organic pasta, cut out the candy, and looked for ways to eat more veggies. I'd always heard people talk about drinking vegetable juice and thought, "yeah, yeah, yeah...that's a little overzealous." Nonetheless, I decided to break out the Champion Juicer and try my hand at juicing veggies. It was a game changer. I was quickly hooked on my morning "green drink." Within a week, my vision was significantly and noticeably better, my skin was clearer and healthier, I had more energy, and was even in a better mood. All of a sudden, I couldn't get my hands on enough kale and beets! I still can't believe that there had been times farming when we had too much kale and too many beets to sell and I didn't just juice them.
So why is veggie juice so awesome?
The nutrients in vegetable juice are absorbed and accessible to the body immediately. There's no waiting for your digestive system to separate the fiber from the nutrient filled juice because the juicer does it for you! Drinking vegetable juice is like hooking yourself up to a vitamin i.v - the effects can be felt instantly. Of course, drinking vegetable juice does not satisfy all your food requirements. You still need to eat whole veggies for all their good fiber and roughage, healthy sources of protein, and organic whole grains to achieve a balanced diet.
Drinking vegetable juice allows you to take in a huge amount of nutrients found in vegetables. The quantity of vegetables in a tall glass of veggie juice is astounding and it just wouldn't be a good idea, let alone very much fun, to eat that volume of vegetables in one sitting.
With juicing, it's easy to incorporate a larger variety of vegetables into your diet. Beets, kale, carrots, fennel, cucumbers, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, sweet potato, ginger, parsley, mint, cilantro, cabbage, watermelon, apples, oranges, lemons, limes, pears, you name it...you can juice it! I also find that there are vegetables that I don't really care to eat that often, but I love them in my juice. Carrots and celery, for instance, are not things that I often eat whole. But now that I juice, I guarantee that I get at least one carrot and two stalks of celery every day, which are filled with beneficial nutrients and minerals.
Juicing allows you to never waste vegetables ever again! Juicing is a great way to go through a backed up supply of veggies quickly, ensuring that things don't go bad sitting in the fridge. The juicer also doesn't care if the fruits and veggies don't look pretty and are a little worse for wear. Bruised apples, juice them! Wilted lettuce, juice it! Adopting a juicing habit will take you from feeling overwhelmed by too many veggies to always wanting more. I wish I had discovered juicing when we were running our CSA because I could have countered complaints about too much produce with a suggestion to juice.
Basic Green Drink Recipe
Makes enough for two 16 ounce glasses
Note: When juicing, it's important to only use organic fruit and vegetables and to always wash everything before you use it.
1 bunch of organic kale, washed (leave the stems, I juice them too)
2 organic carrots, washed and trimmed
4 stalks of organic celery, washed
1 organic grapefruit, peeled and broken into 4 segments
1 organic orange, peeled and broken into 4 segments
1 organic apple, washed and cut into quarters (no need to remove the core or seeds)
1 organic lemon, washed and cut into quarters (no need to peel)
Optional: Parsley, cilantro, cucumber, beets (roots and greens), and lettuce.
Run everything through your juicer and drink it up!
