Food Education Part 1: Juicing

During a year of this culinary rediscovery, one in which I preserved food, built upon my previous baking experience of just add oil and water, and explored the trend of juicing, I began to get to know food. Some of my "concoctions", as my sister would warmly describe my attempts at food creation, turned out better than others. In time, I started to get a handle of things. I began speaking with people more qualified on the subject of cooking, who became my resources for learning and my inspiration to challenge myself. In the cooperative grocery shop environment, the collection of teachers available was bountiful.

Each from diverse backgrounds, and in many cases interacting with food in very different ways than I had ever considered, the people I was in contact with had a profound impact on me. There was Lola Moonfrog, a co-op regular who I assisted one day in a quick therapy session (for both of us) and the bagging of her groceries in individual cloth bags. It felt intimate to be so carefully handling heirloom tomatoes and delicately placing the beautiful fruit into her shopping cart.
(Blog post on Lola Moonfrog and "listening")

There were folks who wouldn't allow you to scan their purchases or refused to stand next to the scanners, so I spent a fair amount of time typing in barcodes and conversing with people who held very different opinions than myself. There were, during this work experience, two people who influenced me the most: the first was a juicing advocate.

When people think about juicing, they may still be thinking about Lance Armstrong and steroids, but for those in the nutrition business, "juicing" emerged as a method of liquifying your fresh fruit, herbs and vegetables into a simple juice to be consumed as a dietary supplement or meal replacement. It is an amazing way to get a lot of the nutrients from your fresh veggies, consolidated into an easily consumed form.

I had the opportunity to chat with a customer who had severe diabetes and, as a result, had lost feeling in a part of his face. We started talking after I commented on the massive amount of fresh produce that was gliding down the conveyer belt toward me.

"My doctor said I would never get over the diabetes," he explained, "and he said that the feeling in my face would never return. Then, I started juicing."
I looked up at him from the rainbow spread of fresh foods that were now decorating the register. He smiled, "I juice every meal. I take my juicer with me when I leave town or go on vacation. My doctor can't believe it, but I cured my diabetes and the feeling is coming back in my face."

I was stunned. I grew up with a mom who I called a "health nut", because she was diligent about putting balanced and diverse food on our table. But, we still grew up with processed food. I call it hybrid cooking where packaged food and homemade meals are mixed together. For instance, we would buy a pizza crust and then top it off with broccoli and veggies that, as a child, I could have done without. I remember making complaints about not eating something "normal", but that same kid grew up thinking about healthy, nutritious food and would one day try to help those walking around the grocery store looking for "normal" bananas realize that they meant "nonorganic". And, we didn't sell that stuff.

Though, on the spectrum of food knowledge, I had a ways to go.