Morning Fruit

We enjoy eating fresh organic fruit every morning. Grapefruit usually forms the base. This week, we're adding our homegrown blueberries and blackberries.

This is so much prettier (and I'm sure more nutritious) than a vitamin pill.

Fennel, Apple and Avocado Salad

I served this fun crunchy salad the other night with a meal of leftover beans and rice. It added a great counterpoint to the meal.

The bashed peppercorns add a zest when you bite into one, and the tart granny smith apple plays well with the fennel and mild Susanna avocado. The fennel adds a good crunch.

I suppose the pink grapefruit zest is not essential, but it added a citrus note without any juice.

Altogether a delicious side salad.

Fennel, Apple and Avocado Salad
2 tsp crushed peppercorns
2 tsp chopped drained capers

¼ tsp fleur de sel

¼ tsp pink grapefruit zest

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tsp chopped dill

1 avocado, cut in thin wedges

1 cup thinly sliced fennel

½ granny smith apple, thinly sliced

Combine peppercorns, capers and salt in a small bowl. Separately, whisk the grapefruit zest with the juice, oil and dill. On a serving plate, layer the avocados, fennel and apple. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and sprinkle with some of the salt mixture.Serve immediately, passing the extra salt at the table.

Serves 2

Black Bean and Orange Salad

I picked a couple of oranges off our tree to combine with black beans in this colorful salad. Grapefruit, corn and cherry tomatoes added to the festivity, and the zingy dressing of lemon and lime juice made it fun to eat.

As usual, I recommend adding some red onion (maybe a quarter cup) to add a little bite. I used an anaheim pepper, because that's what I had, but a red pepper would work too (although then a jalapeño to add some punch would be nice). One morning I added some diced avocado to the container I was taking to work - that was a nice addition.

Bean salads are very flexible. The key is to use lots of good flavors, and enough salt to help the flavors shine through.

Black Bean and Orange Salad
1 cup black beans, cooked (or 2 14-oz cans)
1 cup frozen corn, defrosted
1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes
2 oranges
1 grapefruit
1 anaheim pepper
1/4 cup cilantro
1/4 cup lime juice (from 2-3 limes)
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

If using dried beans, cook them in plenty of boiling water until they are tender but not mushy, about 2 hours depending on the age of your beans. Drain them and put in a large bowl. (This can be done ahead).

Add the corn and cherry tomatoes to the beans.

Slice the ends off the oranges and grapefruit and then slice down each side to remove the peel and pith. Then you have 2 choices of how to proceed.

For the very beautiful look, hold the orange over the bowl of beans, and cut from the outside to the center along one of the membranes. Then turn the knife so you're cutting the segment away from the membrane on the other side. Let the juice drip into the beans. Cut the segment in 2 or 3 pieces and add it to the beans too. Once you've segmented the whole orange this way, throw away the pith.

The second option leaves some of the pith on the segments. This is not as pretty, but it is healthier. The pith is where the bioflavanoids are, and we need those to enhance our immune systems. Once you've peeled the grapefruit as above, cut in half from top to bottom, and then cut each half in four wedges (as if you were cutting them into segments, but not worrying about cutting along the membranes). Then cut the pithy core off the wedge, and cut the remaining wedge into pieces and add them to the bowl. (This is way easier to do than to describe.)

Seed and dice the pepper and add it too, along with the cilantro.

Make a dressing by whisking together the lime and lemon juices, olive oil and salt. Add it to the beans and stir gently. Taste and add more salt or lime juice to taste.

Before serving, taste and season again. The beans absorb more flavor as they marinate in the dressing.

Serves 6

Winter Fruit

Winter fruit is extra high in Vitamin C, very useful in cold and flu season.

We juice oranges on Sundays, and take tangerines and apples in our lunch bags.

Our bowls of morning fruit are full of the excellent grapefruit we get from Jorge at the Hollywood Farmers Market - both pink and white. I add color with pomegranate seeds, and an extra zip with kumquats from the dwarf meiwa tree mum gave me for Christmas. The fruit is a little larger than a regular kumquat, and a little sweeter.

All these vitamins help us feel stronger during this virus and bacteria laden season. And eating the fresh fruit is much more fun than swallowing a vitamin pill.

Isn't it cute? This is the dwarf meiwa kumkuat we got at Bellefontaine Nursery in Pasadena. It was tough to come home with only one citrus tree - talk about a place of temptation!

Summer Fruit

 The Hollywood Farmers Market is piled with peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, pluots, grapes, melons in more varieties than I can name, and strawberries.

That's along with all the apples and citrus fruit that I now take for granted.

It's hard to limit my fruit shopping. We eat fruit once a day - for breakfast - so we don't need basketfuls. I rarely cook fruit - it's too darned hot to cook, and why waste all that nutrition? So I control myself as I walk through the market buying two of this and two of that, restraining myself to a small basket of strawberries, two - oops actually three - melons.

The stone fruits tend to be hard - flavorful but not completely ripe. I leave them on the counter for a few days until they are fragrant. I check them each every day, looking for mold, squeezing gently for ripeness. When they are really ripe, I either put them in our morning fruit, or refrigerate them until we need them.

Melons, however, can be bought completely ripe and ready to eat. Last Sunday morning we bought strawberries and cantaloupe at Finley Farms stall and ate them for brunch. They were so sweet they tasted like candy. The accompanying omelet was a good counter-balance with heat from a homegrown anaheim pepper and some salty cheese.

We had the remaining strawberries and melon for breakfast on Monday morning, Tuesday was grapefruit and last week's Santa Rosa plums - finally ripe and incredibly juicy. Then on to the nectarines and peaches, and the other cantaloupe we bought. We still have a white Japanese melon that Mr. Ha says is good to eat now but if we can wait a week or two until it is soft it will be unbelievably sweet. Let's see how long we can wait.

Summer fruit: there's nothing like it.

Eat organic

I'm fortunate to be able to eat a wide variety of organic produce. It helps to live in southern California and shop at the Hollywood Farmers' Market.

I know that not everyone is as lucky as me, so here is the annual list of foods that are safe to eat even if they are not organic.

Every year the Environmental Working Group tests US-grown food for pesticide residue. Although we don't know what long-term use of pesticides does to the human nervous and endocrine system, there are standards as to what is too much to consume.

The first list, The Dirty Dozen, refers to foods that should never be eaten unless they are organic, because the pesticide residue is too high in the conventionally-grown kinds.

The second list is of foods which have a minimal level of pesticide residue when conventionally grown.

Notice that greens must be organically-grown. Don't let that stop you from eating greens. Instead ask your produce manager or favorite organic farmer to stock organic greens. They're available, they're delicious and they're healthy. And even at $2.50 a bunch, they're a better deal than a multi-vitamin.


Dirty Dozen: eat only if organic
apples
bell peppers
blueberries
celery
cucumbers
grapes
green beans
kale / greens
lettuce
nectarines - imported
peaches
potatoes
spinach
strawberries

Low Pesticide Residue: These 15 foods are lowest in pesticide residue, and are considered safe to eat even if not organic.
asparagus
avocado
cabbage
cantaloupe
corn (probably gmo if not organic)
eggplant
grapefruit
kiwi
mangoes
mushrooms
onions
peas
pineapples
sweet potatoes
watermelon

Reducing pesticide exposure

I make a point of eating organically-grown food because it is better for me, the farmworkers and the planet.

However, I realize not everyone is fortunate enough to have a great farmers market nearby, or a family who is willing to eat seasonally.

Since it is always better to eat non-organic produce than to avoid fruits and vegetables, I present here a list of produce which is safe to eat even if not organic.

The list is compiled by the Environmental Working Group, which tests fresh U.S.-grown produce for levels of pesticide residue.

You can find their full report here. They mention that if you choose your daily 5 servings of vegetables from the Clean Fifteen list instead of the Dirty Dozen, you will reduce your pesticide intake by 92 per cent. That's worth doing.

New on the toxic list from last year: spinach, blueberries, potatoes and collard greens. Make sure to find those in the organic section of your supermarket. Grapefruit, mushrooms and cantaloupe are new on the safe to eat even if conventionally-grown list.

Dirty Dozen - eat only if organic
apples
celery
strawberries
peaches
spinach
nectarines - imported
grapes - imported
bell peppers
potatoes
blueberries
lettuce
kale / collard greens


Clean Fifteen - safe to eat even if not organic
onions
sweet corn
pineapples
avocado
asparagus
peas
mangoes
eggplant
cantaloupe
kiwi
cabbage
watermelon
sweet potatoes
grapefruit
mushrooms

Breakfast fruit

Pomegranate seeds are fun to eat - the bright red color, the crunchy flavor pop. We've been enjoying them on our breakfast fruit. Paired with the fabulous grapefruits we get from Jorge at the Hollywood Farmers Market, they give us a flavorful and nutritious start to the day.

I resisted pomegranates for years because of their tendency to squirt staining red juice all over me. But in recent years I've been practicing my technique, and am now pretty comfortable with them. Early in the season, I was timid in my preparation. I submerged a pomegranate in a bowl of water, then scored the skin in quarters with a paring knife, pried it apart and pulled out the seeds - all under water. The pulp fell to the bottom, the seeds floated on top. No mess.

Now, however, I'm feeling more confident, and I do it without the water. I score the pomegranate, pull it apart, and gently, with the flesh away from me, open up the sections to reveal the seeds. I gently flip these out into our bowls of fruit.

We don't drink fruit juice - except freshly-squeezed on Sunday mornings. Fresh fruit has more vitamins, bioflavanoids, enzymes, minerals and other phytonutrients than any juice or pill. I cut the grapefruit so we get some of the membranes - rich in bioflavanoids which boost the power of the vitamin C.

Plus, the seasonal variety makes morning fruit an ever-changing and interesting part of the day.

Starting the Day off Right

Every morning I prepare bowls of fresh organic fruit for Larry and me.

This morning I sectioned two grapefruits - they looked white but were very sweet. Jorge, who farms in Temecula and sells his produce at the Hollywood Farmers Market, grows more varieties of citrus than I knew existed. Even his grapefruits vary throughout the year as different kinds ripen. The colors change from white to pink and all shades between. The flavor ranges from sweet to puckery. I enjoy the uncertainty of never knowing what I will get when I cut the grapefruit.

I credit Jorge's grapefruits with keeping Larry and me healthy. Larry works in a cubicle surrounded by people who pass viruses and flus around, yet he rarely succumbs.

All fresh fruit is known for its stress-busting properties, so it’s a great way to start the day. Citrus fruits contain phyto-chemicals that are thought to prevent everything from cancer to strokes. Grapefruits are also rich in Vitamin C, bioflavanoids, and lycopene (another cancer-preventer) -- the pinker the grapefruit, the more lycopene.

While it’s interesting to know what compounds are in the food, I think nature (meaning our bodies and the plants) knows better than we do how nutrients work together. Eat the whole food to get the whole nutrient package.

So I don't make us grapefruit juice in the morning. Instead, I cut the grapefruit in a way that maximizes nutrition and flavor.

First, I carve off the peel and thick white pith. I then cut the grapefruit lengthwise first in half and then each half into four or five pieces. Each piece has some of the thin, bioflavanoid-rich membranes in it. There is often a thick bitter pith at the core of the grapefruit with the seeds. I slice this away, and then cut the fruit into bite-sized pieces.

This morning I added a nice tang by sprinkling some organic blueberries from Forbidden Fruit Farms in Santa Barbara County (also from the Hollywood Farmers Market) on top of the grapefruit.

I don’t sweeten our morning fruit. We eat it as it comes. Sometimes, if the fruit is extra tart, we get the bonus of doing facial exercises while we eat, eyes squinching, face contorting -- it's a great reminder that in life there is some sweet and some sour, and the secret is in finding the balance.