The secret to refreshing summer wraps?

Shaved cucumber slices (use your veggie peeler).

Seriously.  It's that easy.

The avocado, tomato, yellow pepper, lettuce, mustard seed salami helped too.  All piled on top of a plain corn tortilla.

Add a splash of lemon juice with a dash of hot chili pepper and grind some fresh white pepper corns and it is really an easy masterpiece to pull off when the temperatures outside are hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk and you can't bear the thought of any food being heated.

Cucumber is a 'cooling' vegetable too, did you know that?  That is why Indian food often includes a side dish of cukes, usually with plain yogurt.  So shave away those cucumbers and keep the heat down.

Hemp Seed Butter, Green Onion, and Garlic Dip: It IS easy being green ;)

April is always a busy time for me. I have projects to mark. Exams to concoct. Panicky statistics students to soothe. Exams to mark.

And this year there's the garden :)

The weather earlier this week was up to 15 degrees celsius. So out came the shovel. After about 1/2 an hour I waffled. This was challenging me physically and I feared slinking back into overwhelming helplessness. I went back to the safety of my kitchen and took a long drink of water. I contemplated the realism of what I was undertaking. Between the last slurp of my water and my short walk back to my abandoned shovel something else was planted....my own inner resolve to just try my best. I parcelled out my garden in my head and asked myself if I could just dig a small enough patch for the onion and garlic bulbs. Some of the bulbs were from the remnants of my garden of 2 years ago and some from my fridge - purchased last year but never planted -they will keep for two years I was told when I purchased them.

In about 4 hours work (2 hours each day it was warm) I managed to turn over and weed about 1/5 of my small 'farm' in my backyard. The yard was completely neglected last year so there is a lot of clearing out of old weeds and roots.

And here are a few of my babies in their freshly turned earth :)

All of this planting of onions had me hankering for a taste of 'fresh' spring onions. So I headed out to the local grocery store and got me some. This dip is very simple and absolutely delicious with the cucumbers, organic baby spinach and organic blue corn chips I had with it.

I can't wait to make it with REALLY fresh and completely local spring onions ;) Perhaps those cucumbers and spinach seeds will make it out there too. The perfect locavore-ish lunch!

Hemp Seed Butter, Green Onion, and Garlic Dip
The ingredients are given per serving. Adjust accordingly - you can make extra and keep it in the fridge.
2 - 3 Tbsp hemp nut butter $22.00/kg MB ManitobaHarvest
1 minced clove organic garlic $11.15/kg ON Karma
1 finely chopped spring onion, green part only $0.59/bunch USA local grocery store
Hot chili pepper/cayenne to taste
Sea salt to taste $1.06/kg ? Karma
splash of organic cider vinegar (Filsinger's ) $2.90/L ON Karma