ANO: The Seed

MAKING 'BUCKIES'

These are the unhulled, buckwheat groats draining after being soaked. The seeds will need to sprout overnight. They need to show their little tails before you dehydrate them.

This lovely trio of seeds is coming to life: The tray on the bottom with light green sprouts is WHEATGRASS, the other two trays are half BUCKWHEAT (hulls on) and the other half SUNFLOWER SEEDS. Pete is growing them inside the living room in front of the window. We have the radio on the table next to them and already this morning they have listened to a musical tribute to ODETTA who passed over just last week. They DON'T listen to the news!

This is how we use the stove in the kitchenette. Three jars of seeds (wheat grass, buckwheat and sunflower) already soaked and turned upside down for sprouting.

The rest and refueling that comes from an `ole cycle doesn’t mean there is no movement. Pete is always in motion, and I keep a running internal dialogue with ideas and new adventures. The four-day `ole cycle in early December was a time to call on practices we have done in the past – practices that have sustained us, practices we have set aside because life has changed/become busier and found us in different circumstances.

In a life not too far past, seeds were an essential and everyday part of our day and night. It all began shortly after we left Kuli`ou`ou Valley, my family land and the three-bedroom Hicks house that was home. I had not yet been correctly diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivities or environmental illness, but my body knew it all along. I knew it was time for us to leave the valley, leave the place that had been our family home for decades. It was my thyroid – messenger of love, who sent me clear and undeniable evidence that something was not right. Rather than accept the surgeons’ recommendations to remove my thyroid I found another option: Anne Wigmore’s Living and Raw Food Lifestyle.

This option and my choice to learn whether living foods could restore my health without surgery was the beginning of our life with ano … the seed. That was nearly five years ago. We learned and lived a completely raw and living foods lifestyle for more than a year and experienced the benefits of eating only organic, living and raw vegetables, fruit, seeds and grain. As with everything we learn, we shared what we had learned, created a wonderful small business teaching hands-on, play with your food classes from our rented cottage in Manoa Valley and met wonderful people who were curious about the healing qualities of living and raw foods. Our old living and raw foods website ALOHA LIVING BENTO is still alive (at least till March of 2009) so if you’d like to see what we were up to a few years ago, pre-MCS full-blown, link to it.

Our life and journey have been complicated with the daily reality of multiple chemical sensitivities. It takes time to re-group and regain a level of health and comfort. The Kitchenette is giving us a place to do just that. Building and sharing VARDOFORTWO gives us hands-on connection with a community that doesn’t need to pass the sniff test and is an antidote to isolation. What’s fun to do now is to add back more time with seeds. They (organic seeds of many kinds) are part of the 100 Items we’ll keep with us … we’ll grow some, sprout some and do all kinds of things with seeds.

Here’s one of our favorite living and raw seed recipes:

We call ‘em BUCKIES. Sprouted organic hulled buckwheat, that are dehydrated for a crunchy cereal.

BUCKIES

5 C. Hulled Buckwheat Groats
Gallon container (glass is best)
Filtered Water
Screen (large enough to overlap the mouth of the jar)
Heavy rubber band(s)

Fill gallon container:

With buckwheat groats and fill the jar with filtered water
Cover jar with screen and secure with heavy rubber band
SOAK FOR 15 MINUTES

DRAIN THOROUGHLY AFTER SOAKING TIME.
RINSE THE GROATS (groats are the buckwheat seeds).

Put the jar into a dish drain tipped on end.
It will continue to drain.

LET GROATS SPROUT at least over night.
You want to see the tails sprout at least half as long as the seed itself.

DEHYDRATE

Pour the sprouted groats onto dehydrator screenS. Spread the groats evenly over as many sheets as necessary (usually 5 cups of groats will spread over 4 trays).

Dehydrate for approx 4 hours or until groats are crispy. We needed to dehydrate them almost 12 hours because we did this outside where the temperature was not a 80 degree Hawaii day, but rather a near 40 degree Seattle night.

Use these as a breakfast cereal with fruit, sesame milk, coconut oil, flax or other milk you enjoy in the morning. Buckies are also a great healthy snack anytime, and add crunch to a salad or favorite cooked dish.

ONO! (Delicious)