Hawaiian Solfjäder

I don't have enough words to describe the meditative power of a good hike. I just know that the feeling of endorphins mixed with the sea breeze and the view of the turquoise oceans, lush mountains and dozens of butterflies is magical.

It must be monarch season... saw about a dozen of them drying their wings 

blissful...wondering why I'm on a mountain and not in the ocean !

Slightly voggy air gives a nice gradually changing blue...

Ugh... too beautiful for words

After the two-hour pump of sunshine and sweat I came home and steamed some beet greens and chard. From here one I will call chard, 'mangold', the Swedish/German name for it. Drizzled the beet greens and mangold with some toasted sesame oil and a bit of gomasio (crushed sesame seeds and salt.) 

And made a salad out of some raw beet greens and mangold with shredded yellow beet (!!), strawberries pumpkin seeds and goat cheese, same lemony dressing as yesterday.

I have been craving mangold and beets since summer. And I've been craving fresh vegetables/ fruits of ANY sort since moving to Germany. Since I believe in local/ seasonal food, my produce intake over the past few wintery months has been limited to apples and carrots, greenhouse grown tomatoes and cucumbers, and the occasional salad served with a side of guilty conscience. But now, now I can eat all the fresh food I want because it comes from my or the neighboring islands and it tastes so much better. 

I respect that in cold climates, winter food is based on grains, potatoes and cabbage. But that doesn't mean I necessarily enjoy eating those foods for months. This lack of varied nutrition combined with my inability to really exercise in Germany, has left me feeling kind of toxic. Time for cleansing! Lots of water, greens, beets, sunshine and sweating. I already feel a little relieved. 

I've been dreaming of my time wwoofing in Sweden these past few nights. I even spoke Swedish in my dreams. Cooking with mangold, beets and goat cheese reminds me of the beautiful cafe at the farm. Sometimes we had beet, mangold and goat-cheese pies. Mmm.. I miss it so much, being able to go out and harvest the food right before lunch. Running down to the greenhouses for herbs, or into the orchards for apples. Even going to pick flowers to decorate the platters with. It makes each meal so much more spiritual, especially when you yourself have worked in those very fields. I think the food tastes a hundred times better when it contains the loving, hard work you've put into it. Mmm simply delicious, and sustainable for the environment, and the people. 

Solfjäder is the Swedish word for fan. Literally translated it means, "sun-feather." A friend of mine and I were fanning ourselves with mangold one evening and the name "Solfjäder" fit so perfectly. The mangold soaked up so much delicious sun all day long and grew so vibrantly. When I think of "fresh produce" the first image that comes to mind is last summer's Swedish mangold. Here I am in Hawaii, fanning myself with the most scrumptious sun feather.  

Hawaiian Solfjäder 

For Hanna Hammarsten, puss