Crystal June Maderia - The New Seaweed Cookbook: Over 100 Gluten and Dairy Free Recipes for an Anti-Inflammatory, Nutrient Dense Diet

When we eat we know the worldthe world common to all living things. It is quite possible to submerge such knowing in foods that dampen or dull our senses. Instead, here is a cookbook that can enliven and enrich your palate as well as your sensibilities. The recipes here invite you to become a part of the world, the actual world of eating, sensing, and knowing what it is to be alive, to enjoy life. Seaweed, the focus of these recipes, is a nutrient-rich, often overlooked food that brings us to the ocean, the place where all life on this planet was conceived. The taste of seaweed brings the qualities of many worlds, both known and unknown.

You have in this cookbook the advantages of an experienced food adventuress, whose insights and creations can take you to the depths, while keeping good company with the many practicalities of cooking. In my work with health, I often remind people of the simple power of changing your diet. What you eat acts as medicine, as nourishment, as a political statement as well as the measure of nutrients consumed each day. Anything we must do over and over again gains momentum and strengthso, too, with our food. In opening our hearts and curiosity to where our food comes from and what energies it brings us, we can begin to harness that strength for our own growth and health. The most important change I ask people to make is to become conscious about what they are eating.

To know the energy of what you eat, notice how you feel when you eat it. I do this by asking people to begin eating foods that require preparation, foods that start out fresh, unadulterated. In the process of choosing, handling, preparing, and eating foods we come to know so much more about who and what we are. I emphasize a diet of simple foods prepared in a myriad of ways, bright with color and texture. In this way, even though for many of us some foods are restricted, we can enjoy and celebrate our eating.

Still, it is often hard. We think the known will protect us, nourish us, and yet it is precisely the known habits that have brought us to where we are. By learning where our food comes from and how it is cultivated we can start to loosen the habit of thinking that the unpackaged or unknown is unsafe, and begin to be excited by the world that demonstrates such infinite variety of flavor and color in our food. Invoking both beauty and wonder, these recipes ease you into a great adventure. Here in these pages through new foods and recipes you might awaken to the possibility that food can be a gentle yet profound medicine for changes you wish to see in your body and spirit.

Where I Come From

Throughout my whole life, food has been an essential element.

Where I Come From

Throughout my whole life, food has been an essential element.

When I was a child in Vermont, the seasons were marked with seasonal foods. Berries, cucumber salads, fresh herbs, autumn pumpkins, and apple feasts were enjoyed fresh during the summer and fall. In the winter I watched roots, venison, and turkey roasting in our wood stove that both heated our home and cooked our meals. Drops of fresh maple syrup came in the earliest bits of spring to mark the sweetness of summer that lay ahead; soon asparagus, wild leeks, and rhubarb would begin pushing their way through the newly thawed soil. Wild strawberries, concord grapes, golden apples, green beans, and blackberries drew me outdoors, stained my clothes, and gave me sustenance as my familys kitchen and garden offered me space to explore cultivation and food preparation. When, in my early adolescence, my family courageously ventured to Mississippi, I found myself consoled and inspired by food and drawn to black-eyed peas, crayfish, collard greens, fried chicken, catfish, cornbread, and fresh warm honey.