Organics

Super Time at SuperFoods PR

December 16, 2013 by Lucymfel

Since we moved to the Metro Area of San Juan, Puerto Rico, I have been on the lookout for restaurants that serve vegetarian and vegan options for lunch or dinner. Prior to Raul @rj_c becoming vegan, we would share desserts at @PFChangs if we dined there. But there are few places that offer vegan and vegetarian treats that please both our palates while being nutritious. Add to the mix our almost three year old daughter, who will try food from mommy’s plate, we want to make sure that what she intakes is delicious and healthy.

I came across the SuperFoodsPR Facebook page from someone who visited the place when we moved to the area. SuperFoodsPR creates smoothies and fruit bowls with Açaí berries as one of its main ingredients. The Açaí berry is considered one of the top ten super foods you could consume. You can find more information about this berry here.

To SuperFoods We Go!

From the outside it looks like a small store, but when you enter, there are plenty of stools and three counters for clients to sit and see how the smoothies and Açaí bowls are made. There is a table in the middle with another seat made from wood pallets. There other tables in the back, the music is relaxing, and it is always filled with customers. The menu is listed on a chalkboard, reducing paper waste. Their bowls are made from wood and they use eco-friendly cups for their smoothies.

Christmas Coquito Bowl

They have seasonal bowls and recently Raul had the vegan version (sans Gingerbread cookie) of the Christmas Coquito Bowl. The açaí is mixed with coquito, topped with pomegrante, granola, banana, and coconut shreds. Our daughter enjoyed this bowl with her dad and she can help eat half of the bowl. If you need to pick-up some organic foods or vitamins, you can find a variety of items for purchase.

You can look at their menu to see other options available along with a list of organic ingredients you can add to your bowls. We will definitely go back and try other bowls.

Have you gone to SuperFoods Puerto Rico?

We’ve Got Collard Greens

May 24, 2012 by Lucymfel

Collard Green plants St. Isabel, Puerto Rico — Collard Green plants

For a major part of the year last, I was reading about the leafy greens that were going to give us a nutritional boost. My mission was to find as many leafy greens as possible. I wanted collard greens but they did not sell them at the local stores and read about the benefits of eating kale but did not have any luck getting them at the supermarket either.

Talking to a few of our friends we found greens at the local organic market that we visit every first and third Sunday. When we first started purchasing seeds, we bought them from a farmer called Raul Rosado who owns Desde mi Huerto. He has all types of seeds that he grows and sells. You can also buy the seedlings from him via his website or from the organic market.

I decided I wanted to start with collard greens and planted them with Daniela. Well our dog JuanGa decided that the planter was a toy and spread the seeds around the yard. I told Raul not to be surprised if something sprouted somewhere. Well several weeks passed by and we finally had some much needed rain. After the rains came, I noticed a bunch of thick leaves in the corner of the yard.

I told Raul that they looked like the collards we planted in a pot and the ones we had been purchasing. Well we confirmed what we thought. We had collard greens growing in the ground thanks to JuanGa. They were actually bigger than the ones we had re-planted in another pot.

Raul and I decided that we were going to start growing the rest in the ground as we saw how quickly they sprouted. So far we have eaten from them three times. Just recently one of the plants started sprouting flowers. I see more collard seeds to be planted in the near future.

What have you planted recently and what have you made with what you have grown?

Grosellas Puerto Rican Gooseberries

April 8, 2012 by Lucymfel

Yesterday we had the pleasure of being invited to the home, office, and workspace of @TropicalBloom . Owners and Environmental Biologists Jennifer and Osvaldo, opened up their home and land for us to relax and enjoy.

We walked with Osvaldo who showed us around the workspace where they cultivate the bromeliads, house fish, turtles, guinea pigs, and eleven rescue dogs who are part of their family.

Our daughter enjoyed all the plants and animals she got see, especially the cats (one of her words for all four legged animals including JuanGa.)

Exif_JPEG_PICTURE — Bromeliads growing in Añasco, Puerto Rico Tropical Bloom

Grosellas

Jennifer had mentioned that she was going to make us some Grosellas and I had no clue what she was talking about.

Before their clients left with their new bromeliads, Osvaldo and Raul went Grosella or what you would call Gooseberry, picking. They grow on a tree in bunches almost like grapes and the tree was packed with them.

I had never eaten a gooseberry but have seen a variation of the gooseberry that is yellow or orange on one of the cooking channels. I ate one raw and it almost tasted like a green pepper.

Jennifer said they are packed with Vitamin C and are usually cooked in water and sugar as a treat. That evening she made some with brown sugar and water. Put them in the fridge and let them cool a bit. What you get is a semi-sweet tart fruit.

Cooking Grosellas

We packed up some breadfruit, bananas, and gooseberries for the ride home. This morning I decided that I was going to make my gooseberries with a little bit more flavor. I added some cinnamon, vanilla extract, brown sugar, confectioner’s sugar, and some freshly squeezed orange juice and added this to the water.

I let it cook and waited until the gooseberries took on a brownish color and had separated. I also tasted them to see if they were soft.

I put them in the fridge and since the gooseberry soaks up the flavors added in the water, you get a semi-sweet tart, cinnamon tasting treat. I didn’t measure anything; I just added and tasted. But if you want to have a recipe to follow, here is one that I found this morning on a site called @VeganInTheSun .

Thanks @TropicalBloom!

Thanks to Jennifer and Osvaldo for teaching me something new about the fruits and vegetables that grow in Puerto Rico. If you would like to visit Jennifer and Osvaldo’s shop in Añasco, Puerto Rico, write to them here , you can find them on Twitter @TropicalBloom and on Facebook .

Have you ever had Grosellas or Gooseberries?

What did you think of the taste and how did you use them in your cooking?

Thanks to Raul @rj_c for taking the pictures.

Plant, Grow, and Eat!

April 2, 2012 by Lucymfel

This is a guest blog post by our friend Dwight Santana. @Slayerkun on Twitter.

Lately I have discovered a passion for plants. Throughout the process I realized that I can plant, grow, and depending what seeds I purchase, eat. Mostly I have been planting flowers and other type of decorative plants, until I tried to grow some plants with actual purposefulness. I mean not to underestimate the miracle that are flowers, but they are mostly decorative, and I wanted something more with a purpose.

Plant and Grow

So on my “gardener” journey, I started experimenting with cultivating some plants that are either edible or they grow some type of produce. I planted herbs, a tomato plant , lettuce, peppers (Regular and sweet), culantro (coriander), mint, “Yerba Buena” (that stuff that looks like mint and it is use to make mojitos but its not mint), “Anis” and Albahaca blanca” (white basil.)

Sweet Peppers Bail Me Out

At first I thought it would just be cool to plant them and grow them and make it a hobby. Until one day I was cooking a potato salad and I realized I had not bought some peppers. In my frustration that I’d have to change to mashed potatoes, I remembered that my sweet pepper plant had flourished!

It had green, red, and some yellowish ones. This was perfect I thought, so I picked them, really cleaned them with some water and soap, an proceeded to use them. Let me just say they were delicious and fresh. But a different kind of fresh; a fresh you can only get from just picked produce.

The fruits of my labor

Then I realized that this hobby had turned into something else, something with an actual purpose. This plant completed my meal and it saved me from running out to the store to buy peppers. This part about not going out saved me gas, supermarket parking fee, time (important) and having to actually buy the peppers that would have costed me around $3 dollars. I thought I could be onto something. The thought that I had was not just in the monetary savings; I knew that they had grown naturally without any help of fertilizers or everything else they are used at the farms. It was easy, fun, and the space I used for them is minimal.

Where I live there’s not that much space for planting but I used pots and they are doing really well.

I also thought this might be a good resource for saving some money and if you are vegetarian it helps a lot since organic food at places like “Freshmart” are more expensive.

Here is an opportunity to actually see what you are growing and what you’re going to eat.

Some plants that can grow fast are: beans, pumpkin, corn and a variety of vegetables. And here on the island many of them have a perfect weather to grow.

I may not be vegetarian, but fruit and vegetable are a great part of my meals, so slowly I might change and start a project, where I can eat just what I plant. I’m betting I’ll be saving a lot when that happens, and the best part, I really don’t need a farm, just some time, pots, and good weather.

All Photo Credits thanks to Dwight Santana!