THE VEGAN NEWS
THE VEGAN NEWS
FEBRUARY
1999
- Recipes
- Vegan Product Review
- Vegan Nutrition - Folic acid
- In The Veganic Garden
- Queries
- Vegan Websites
- Book Review
- The Wildlife Database
Recipe of the MonthHempstar Milk (Soma)
Ingredients:
- 4 oz (125g) organic hempseed
- 1 pint (550 ml) warm, distilled and/or filtered water
- Optional Flavourings: Herbs, spices, soaked nuts or seeds, fruit (e.g. figs, bananas, dates, apples), vegetable juice, chlorophyll rich herbs, wheat grass, nettles or green vegetables.
Method
1. Cleaning
Scan seed on a white background, picking out any small, pale, light green immature or dark damaged seed. (Immature seed will pop if squeezed between forefinger and thumb.) Next pour good seed into a bowl and cover well with water. Move the seed around and any grit should sink. Scoop floating seed off into another bowl and compost any grit collected at the bottom of the first bowl. Repeat until you are satisfied that the seeds are clean.
2. Soaking
Allow hempseed and almonds (use 7 almonds) to be soaked for between 8 and 36 hours in distilled and/or filtered water (at a ratio of 3 or 4 parts water to 1 part seeds). Be sure to change the water every 8 hours (more frequently in warm conditions) to prevent fermentation. Best results are attained when the hempseed shells have split and the babies are just starting to peep their tails out (usually just before 24 hours). After soaking, drain and rinse the seed thoroughly.
3. Grinding / Blending
Make Soma in a low light area, away from artificial light . The seed grinds/blends best after approximately 24 hours soaking. We recommend using a granite mortar and pestle if possible, but for those for whom time does exist, a food processor/blender may be the next best thing. Add a little water to facilitate blending or grinding. Chlorophyll rich greens may be blended and strained with the seed.
4. Straining
After blending or grinding, strain through a damp sack, cloth or sieve, into an opaque jug or deep bowl, submerging and massaging sack to further extract the sacred elixir. Be sure to strain gently and thoroughly. Your 'Huoma' is now ready to be enjoyed or flavoured with vegetables, fruit, herb or spice which should be prepared before or with the milk. Both sweet (fig, banana, date) and sub-acid (apple, pear, mango etc..) fruits make excellent 'food combinations' with soaked nuts or seeds, as do all vegetables. (High-acid fruits may cause curdling). Hempstar Milk has no shelf life and should be drunk immediately.
Proven Properties of Hempseeds -
Approx 30% of hempseed is fat. However hempseed is low in saturatated fat and is a good source of Essential Fatty Acids (Omega 3 and Omega 6) and Gamma Linoleic Acid (GLA). Hempseed has the potential to increase metabolism, aid weight loss, reduce cholesterol, protect against heart disease, stimulate the growth of hair and nails, reduce inflammation and arthritis, boost the immune system and can also help to regulate menstruation and menopause and ease pre-menstrual syndrome.
Certified Hempseed
When making your hemp milk use only organic hempseed from a reputable source. Hempseed is available from various outlets, much of which is imported as bird food or fish bait and not from established varieties, developed to produce quality, edible seed. Much of this seed is of poor quality, is grown using chemical fertilisers, is often rancid (therefore toxic), immature, old, improperly stored and/or packaged. Fumigation with pesticides for transportation is yet another concern.
Many thanks to Hempseed Organics for allowing me to publish their hemp milk recipe in Vegan News.
Suma Ecoleaf Forest-Friendly Toilet Tissue
Suma Aloe Vera Fragrance-Free Shampoo
You can find out more about Suma products at the Suma website. Quite a few of their products are suitable for vegans.
Vegan Nutrition - Folic Acid
What's Happening in the Veganic Garden This Month?
Sowing and Planting Outside
It is often possible to make some outside sowings this month, although the soil temperature needs to be about 10 degrees centigrade for many kinds of seeds to germinate. Around mid-February, I usually make an early sowing of 'Feltham First' peas. This winter-hardy, dwarf variety will stand frost, but because the weather can be rather unpredictable at this time of year I usually cover my early peas with envirofleece for extra protection. (Delay sowing peas until early March if the weather is very bad, particularly if you live in the North of England.) Broad beans, such as the varieties 'Aquadulce claudia' and 'The Sutton' are also quite hardy and can be sown from the end of February. These early sowings of peas and beans should be ready for eating around mid-june/ early July. Also don't forget if you would like to grow some garlic this year, then February is your last chance to plant garlic cloves. Try the variety 'Printanor' which can be obtained from the Organic Gardening Catalogue and plant the cloves in a warm, sunny position.
Shallots, Jerusalem artichokes and new rhubarb sets can also be planted outside in February and I also plant my onion sets, under a fleece, sometime towards the end of February unless the ground is frozen. (If you don't have a fleece then it is better to delay planting onion sets until March). Plant baby onions in firm soil leaving only the tip visible and inspect them daily until they are well-rooted, replanting any that the birds pull out of the ground. 'Stuttgart Giant and 'Turbo' are both good varieties to use, or try one of the red onion varieties for a change. It is also possible to make early sowings of summer spinach and parsnips this month. Summer spinach grows best on well-composted, rich soil and can be intercropped between rows of broad beans which will provide some shade.
If you have some established rhubarb crowns, then these can be forced by covering the rhubarb crowns with compost (or fermenting leaves) and then placing an old bucket or barrel over the top of them. Young sticks of rhubarb should be ready for pulling by April.
Seed potatoes should be spouted this month. Place them in shallow wooden boxes (or old seed trays) with the best eyes uppermost and keep them in a frost-free and fairly light place.
Indoor Sowings:
- Strawberry plants - try sowing seeds of Temptation F1 in gentle heat this month. The young strawberry plants can be planted outside in April.
- Pepper seeds should be sown indoors this month and plants put outside in early June.
- Lettuces can also be started off indoors if you want to reduce slug damage. Plant the young lettuces outside in the spring, perhaps underneath plastic bottles for extra protection. Try 'Little Gem', Lolla Rossa (a frilly red lettuce) or 'Winter Density'. I am also going to try out the oakleaf variety 'Cocarde' this year which is available from 'The Organic Gardening Catalogue'.
Crops Which Can Be Harvested This Month:
Brussels sprouts, celery, corn salad, kale, Jerusalem artichokes, landcress, leeks, parsnips, sprouting broccoli, winter cabbage and winter cauliflower.
Any Queries?I would like to know more about a daily diet, all the different stuff that I should be taking. I saw that it is important to take iron, but what else?
Rebekha Jennings, Atlanta, ga.
I have covered the main vitamins and minerals which are of special relevance to vegans in recent issues of The Vegan News. Vegans particularly need to make sure that they obtain adequate supplies of calcium, B12, iron and iodine. And if you are thinking of having a baby, then you also need to make sure that you obtain sufficient folic acid. However, it is better to obtain these nutrients from your daily diet, whenever possible, rather than relying on taking supplements. I am going to e-mail the relevant extracts about the above vitamins/ minerals to you. If you feel that you need further information, then I would recommend that you obtain a copy of 'Vegan Nutrition Pure and Simple' by Dr Michael Klaper which covers the basics of vegan nutrition and also contains some vegan recipes and meal plans. There is a review of this book in the March 1997 Issue.
Other Interesting Vegan Websites
You can find a more up-to-date list on the Links Page.
- Rice Vegetarian Club
- Vegetarian Resource Group Recipes
- The Low-Fat Vegetarian Archive.
- Small Household Vegetarian Recipe Index
- Tom's Vegan Dessert Page
February Book ReviewThis nicely illustrated and clearly written book covers the basic principles of organic gardening in some depth. Dig into it and find out how to improve your soil with organic fertilisers and how to deal with weeds and pests naturally without recourse to pesticides and weedkillers.
And if you are not sure what to plant in your garden, throughout this book the author recommends numerous varieties of shrubs, trees, perennials, fruit trees, soft fruit, vegetables and herbs and lists many plants which will encourage beneficial, pollinating insects and birds to come into your garden.
February Product Review