Our article today is from Norman Walker's book Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices - it is about an herb that builds up both animals and humans into a healthy, vital, and vigorous old age, and builds up a resistance to infection that is almost phenomenal.

Our recipe this week is Amazing Alfalfa Avocado Antipasto - this salad is so tasty you may want to eat it as a snack!  It may feed two, but only if the person who gets to it first is willing to share!

Many of you have herbal or natural healing questions and you aren't sure where to turn.  The School of Natural Healing offers a free call hour once a week, but it isn't enough to get to everyone.  Because we can't offer natural healing or herbal questions via e-mail, we have built a Community online where you can come and discuss things with other like-minded people.  Read the News section for more information.

From Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices
by N.W. Walker

Alfalfa is a particularly valuable leguminous herb, not only rich in the principal mineral and chemical elements in the constitution of the human body, but it also has many of the trace elements obtained from deep in the soil where the roots reach down 30 to 100 feet.

Of specific value, I would point out the rich quality, quantity and proper balance of Calcium, Mangesium, Phosphorous, Chlorine, Sodium, Potassium and Silicon in Alfalfa.  These elements are all very much needed for the proper function of the various organs in the body.

While Alfalfa is widely used as forage for livestock, it is nevertheless of immense value, in the form of juice using only the leaves, when it can be obtained fresh.

Because Alfalfa adapts itself to widely varying conditions of soil and climate, even thriving on alkali soil, there is no excuse for not growing it on one's home grounds, as it is usually difficult to obtain when living in the city.

When we are unable to obtain fresh Alfalfa, we sprout Alfalfa seeds and eat the sprouts with our meals.  They sprout easily and they are very beneficial.

Vegetation miraculously transforms and vitalizes inanimate substances into living cells and tissues.

Cattle eat vegetation, raw, for nourishment.  They take into their system one living organism and convert it into a still more complex live organism.

Vegetation, on the other hand, whether vegetable, fruit, plant, or grass, takes inorganic elements from the air, water, and earth, and converts them into live organic elements.  To be specific, in order for vegetation to flourish, it needs nitrogen and carbon from the air; minerals, mineral salts, and more nitrogen from the earth in which it grows; and of course, oxygen and hydrogen from water.

The most vital and potent factors in this process of conversion are the elements and the life-giving influence of the rays of the sun which generate the chlorophyll.

One of the richest chlorophyll foods we have is alfalfa.  It is a food that builds up both animals and humans, all things considered, into a healthy, vital, and vigorous old age, and builds up a resistance to infection that is almost phenomenal.

The juice of fresh alfalfa is too strong and potent to be taken by itself.  It is best taken with carrot juice, in which combination the individual benefits of each juice are intensified.  It has been found very helpful in most troubles with the arteries and disfunctions connected with the heart.

Besides benefits to blood and heart conditions, chlorophyll is most useful in the relief of respiratory troubles and discomforts, particularly in the sinuses and in the lungs.  Mucus is the underlying cause of sinus infection and pains, as it is of bronchial and asthmatic conditions, including hay fever.

INGREDIENTS:

·         4-6 cups salad greens

·         2 carrots peeled and grated

·         1 cup alfalfa sprouts

·         1  whole ripe avocado, sliced

·         ¼ Cup blueberries

·         1-2 Tablespoons chopped red onion

·         Olive oil

·         Sea Salt and black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1.       Make a bed of salad greens.

2.      Sprinkle grated carrot on top.

3.      Next spread the alfalfa sprouts on the carrots, leaving a ring of carrots visible.

4.      Add avocado slices on top.

5.      Sprinkle blueberries and red onion over entire salad.

6.      Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and add a pinch of Sea Salt and ground pepper.