Kids, Herbs and Vegetables

A special article for KidMarket from Cheverly Community Market herbalist/nutritionist Bevin Clare... I remember mushy grey brussel sprouts as a kid, but they didn’t stop me from loving farm-fresh veggies as an adult. Vegetables and herbs can be a fun and interesting part of any kid’s diet (never mind an important one for their growth and development). With the right ideas and strategies, you can make KidMarket this week the beginning of your child’s love affair with veggies. Below I share some practical ways to add veggies and fresh herbs into your little one’s diet. Most importantly, share a love of fresh foods and herbs and the abundance of summer. Teach your children about the growing cycle and watch plants around you. Discuss why plants make vegetables (to disperse seeds and reproduce), and help them look for seeds in each of the vegetables they find. Inspiring a love of nature and the seasons will help them to connect with their food in a whole new way. If they see you loving fresh foods and reveling in the abundance of the season, they may learn to do the same. Prime your little one to be ready to shop ‘til they drop this weekend since they will be “in charge” of one of your meals. Get them a basket and assign them to find two or three vegetables for the family this week. Once they choose their veggies, they can also help to pick out a recipe and to make the meal. This can be a fun and rewarding way to connect farm to table. Beyond turning all vegetables into ice cream, there are a number of ways to encourage copious vegetable eating in kids. Try making a rainbow vegetable pizza with whole grain dough, and pile it sky high with rainbow colored vegetables. See if they can find each color of the rainbow at the market. As root vegetables become in season, make healthy baked fries out of anything but potatoes. Any squash, sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, parsnips and turnips will work if you cut them into strips, lightly coat with olive oil and bake until browned. Salsa is good for all of us and so easy to make! Just chop and combine almost anything you can find at the market including peppers, corn, fruit, summer squashes and zucchini and tomatoes. You can also add a can of rinsed black beans for extra protein and flavor. You can also make a great dip from plain yogurt and fresh herbs or use fresh herbs and a spice mix, and dip veggie sticks in for a healthy snack. Lastly, soups are always a hit, so you can lightly cook almost any vegetables and puree. Fresh corn makes a great base, and is so sweet and creamy in the summer you don’t even need to add cream. To drink, try making a variety of herbal teas and adding a little bit of juice. Once your kids get use to this they can create their favorite combos, and you can add the tea to the bottle in the fridge so they get more nutrients and less sugar in each cup. Be sure to have fun with your kids this weekend and build that rainbow of veggies, and after Saturday's KidMarket, every market can be kid market!

Did you get a chance to read this?

Last week, Cheverly Community Market herbalist/nutritionist Bevin Clare wrote a fascinating article about the Nightshade family. We're worried it didn't get its' due and that many of you didn't get a chance to read it. Click on the salsa to the left or on the link above to learn all about these highly beneficial plants. And make Bevin's salsa: take raw corn, peaches, tomatoes and chilis (you decide quantities). Dice everything, mix and serve. She put this together in just a few minutes at the Market and it garnered rave reviews. If you tried it, you wanted the recipe. If you didn't try it, you're going to want this recipe!

Late Summer is Nightshade Time

Here's a great article from Cheverly Community Market's very own herbalist/nutritionist Bevin Clare: The nightshade vegetables: tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers, and chili peppers, are abundant and tasty in Maryland this time of the year. All members of the family Solanaceae family are native to the New World—that’s right—there were no chilies in India, no tomatoes in Italy and no potatoes in Ireland before the plants of the new world were spread around the globe. In addition to the vegetables, this plant family has a number of interesting and occasionally poisonous or hallucinogenic plants, including tobacco, datura, and mandrake. I hardly need to expand on the delight of summer fresh heirloom tomatoes, ripe purple eggplants, and crisp peppers (see suggestions below for eating!). One of the nutritional principles I often share with clients is to make sure you are eating a rainbow each week (of fruits and vegetables). If you look down at your basket or cart and see a rainbow of every color you will know you are getting the full array of vitamins and micronutrients you can get from your plant foods. A meal of grilled purple eggplant with fresh heirloom tomatoes of yellow and red and green, along with some orange peppers and green basil spread over the top is beautiful on the plate and inside of your body. This is an excellent time of the year to practice this, so try to gather your own rainbow (maybe in the rain!) at the market this weekend. The nightshades weren’t always as loved as they are now. When they first moved to Europe they were considered poisonous and raised only to feed the livestock. Many of the nightshade family are still used for stronger purposes. Alkaloids found in this plant family are used to create motion-sickness patches, treat pesticide and chemical warfare poisonings, and to prevent allergic reactions. Tobacco, a sacred Native American plant traditionally used in ceremony, is also used widely as a drug around the world. What to do with your rainbow of vegetables? Let them shine as themselves. A simple dressing of olive oil, salt and lemon can be enough for many of these vegetables to be fabulous. Add a sprinkle of whatever fresh herbs are available. Nightshade vegetables this time of the year are fresh and strong enough to stand on their own, you don’t need to do anything fancy. Heirloom tomatoes should be stored out of the fridge until they begin to get too soft as they loose their delicate flavor in the fridge-- place them on a kitchen towel out of sunlight and in a cooler area. Add to salads, salsas, or slices and serve, or eat like an apple and get messy for fun! Eggplants can be roasted, entirely whole on the grill or in the oven until soft with a charred outside. Carefully transfer it to a bowl, pick off some of the skin and the top and puree with olive oil, lemon, tahini, salt and garlic for a warm and dreamy baba ganoush. Make a salsa with everything else you have, multi-colored peppers, tomatoes, green onions, cherry tomatoes, and some chilies and you can eat this with beans or meat for a healthy and lovely dinner. Be sure to stop by the (indoor) market this weekend to grab your rainbow of nightshades!

Basil is summertime in a leaf

from herbalist/nutritionist Bevin Clare ... Basil (Ocimum spp.) is a tender annual herb native to Iran and India whose name is derived from “king” in Greek (basileus). The herb certainly reigns in this season of tomatoes, but there are many more medicinal and culinary uses for basil beyond a simple caprese salad. Like most herbs in the mint family, the essential oils provide most of the flavor in basil. However, the compilation of oils in basil varies dramatically in growth phase and in variety. Basil plants taste differently before they flower, and there are many different basils on the market including lemon basil, holy basil, Thai basil, cinnamon basil and many more. The most commonly used is sweet basil, a delicate basil which looses its oil quickly when heated. If you are using fresh sweet basil in a summer recipe, be sure to add it just before serving; and if that bunch of basil looks like more than you can imagine eating, you can make pesto and freeze it, or you can quickly blanch the whole leaves and immediately freeze them for later. While the use of basil in Italian dishes is popular, my favorite place for basil is in certain Asian cuisines. Basil imparts a complicated, sweet flavor to spicy stir-fries when added just at the end. It is also lovely in cold noodle salads and rice dishes. There are few rules when cooking a summer stir-fry, so when you are at the market this weekend choose some of your favorite vegetables (eggplants, peppers, squashes and chili peppers are a good combination and should be available this weekend) and a giant bunch of fresh basil. While Thai basil is best for this, any basil will do beautifully. Stir-fry the veggies in peanut (or other) oil with soy sauce, lots of fresh ginger, chili peppers or chili sauce, and add in the basil at the last minute and serve. Beyond its culinary uses, I use holy basil (Ocimum sanctum), also known as tulsi, in my clinical practice. Tulsi is used predominantly as an adaptogen, helping the body to adapt better to the stress it is experiencing. I also use it to help balance blood sugar, and human research has demonstrated its blood sugar stabilizing and cholesterol lowering properties[1]. Additionally it is a nice tasting tea which aids digestion and is anti-inflammatory, and is safe and well tolerated. Since the chemistry of basils are similar, I would imagine most basil would have a related effect in the body. Remember to stop and smell the basils this Saturday at the market! [1] Effect of Ocimum sanctum Leaf Powder on Blood Lipoproteins, Glycated Proteins and Total Amino Acids in Patients with Non-insulin-dependent Diabetes Mellitus. Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine. V. RAI MSC, U. V. MANI MSC PHD FICN AND U. M. IYER MSC PHD. Volume 7, Number 2 / June 1, 1997. p. 113 - 118

Cheverly Community Market has a new addition...

We're so glad to introduce Bevin Clare, our very own house herbalist and nutritionist. Bevin will be contributing articles to the blog about ways that we can use herbs to enhance our lives. We hope you'll take advantage of her expertise!

Bevin Clare, MS, is a clinical herbalist and nutritionist living in Cheverly since 2005. She is the Herbal Division Chair in the Masters of Science degree program in Herbal Medicine at the Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, Maryland, where she also has a clinical practice specializing in wellness. Bevin serves on the board of directors of the American Herbalists Guild, and the United Plant Savers, a group supporting international preservation of medicinal plants in their native environment. Bevin lives with her husband Richard and their many plants on Joslyn Place in east Cheverly.

As a way of introducing Bevin to you, I posed a few questions to her -- she was kind enough to answer! 1. What got you interested in herbal medicine? I grew up in the woods of New Hampshire and always had an attraction to plants. As I got older, I realized that their impact in our bodies (be it coffee or ginger or poison hemlock) was much more than a coincidence. As I realized that people and plants co-evolved together I also realized the therapeutic potential of plants in our lives, and went on to study herbal medicine from both a traditional and contemporary evidence-based perspective. 2. What's an easy thing that we can do every day to make our lives or homes more healthful? Grow something useful! Herbs such as rosemary, thyme and sage grow so well outside in Cheverly, and are all incredibly good for you. Each day you can go outside and pick a spring of rosemary and add it to anything you make, from eggs to salads to marinades. Kitchen herb gardens are easy to care for, take little to no water, and cut down on the amount of lawns we have. Plus, pollinators love the flowers on these herbs, and our butterflies and bees can use all the help they can get. 3. What is your top concern for our health? From a big picture, I would say the challenge is a lack of cultural interest in wellness itself. While we know we need to exercise and eat better to prevent health disease and cancer and all of the other things we are scared of, the motive is rarely to just feel great and be well. Most people come to see me to try to fix something they think is wrong with them, and I would someday like it to be the opposite-- that we take the time to do the things that are good for us because we want to. I would like to see each person strive to create their life in such a way to feel vibrant, happy, and healthy just for the sake of being well. 4. What plant do you recommend everyone cultivate in their homes or gardens? There are a few things which grow really well in Cheverly, as I mentioned rosemary, thyme, and sage above for food and medicine. Medicinal plants such as yarrow, echinacea and milkweeds are prime food for butterflies. And for the cost of a couple of packets of seeds morning glories (sun), zinnias (sun), and forget-me-nots (in shade) are all lovely and bring a lot of color. 5. What's your favorite thing to cook? Anything involving herbs! I use a lot of herbs and spices from all over the world. At the moment I would say the combination of fresh basil (usually holy basil) and fresh chilies is amazing and a core tradition of Thai cooking. The holy basil (or tulsi) is an herbal medicine used to promote energy and blood sugar regulation, and the chilies are also good for increasing energy and detoxification, are high in anti-oxidants, and have loads of other medicinal properties. Plus, a nice spicy meal can help turn on your body's own cooling on a hot day.

Keep reading the blog for more great advice from Bevin (and if you have a question for Bevin, email us). We're sure she's going to be a real asset to the Market community!