The Zen and Art of Salad Making

I am not a gourmet chef by any means. I do not read recipe books like romance novel. I know some people who do. I'm a mad pinner over at Pinterest, but only a smidgen of my pins are ever recipes.

But for me, salads = summer.

It was through summer salad making after my first year at Eagle Cove School when it first happened. That was the summer I began composting. At Eagle Cove, every classroom composts daily. After a school year of teaching about composting, and daily reminding what goes into the class bin that's destined for the campus compost, I started to feel a li'l guilty in my house when making a simple salad. It seemed a shame for all those pepper cores and celery leaves to go in the trash, then ultimately the landfill. A-composting they would go!

Summer salad making goes beyond my compost though. Summer is the time where we step away from the soccer (or other sport) field. Likewise, its the time we step away from the fast food that too often accompanies the sports. Time (& therefore meals) opens up, becoming a more savory event.

So the chopping begins, and the cutting board gets a workout. In the rhythm of radishes, the cubing of cucumbers, the sprinkling of spices, you become very "in the moment"... which I think becomes harder and harder to do in this overly-connected, technology and time-crunched world in which we live.

It is through the Summer of Salads that a little bit of health, relaxation, and true self-restoration return--at least for this girl! Healthy for me AND my planet.

Speaking of which...it's that time! Lunchtime. My compost bucket awaits! I'm off to go Zen me a salad.

Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salad