ENERGETIC GREENS
Remember how huge wheatgrass juice was – ten to fifteen years ago? Walk past a local café
and there’d be people tossing back tiny shots of emerald-green chlorophyll as if it were a
virtuous vodka. According to Avi Karny, qualified engineer and plant scientist and for the
past two years owner of Energetic Greens, fresh wheatgrass juicing ‘takes a fair bit of time
and material as well as a specialised juicer’ – and yet since his business started reintroducing
it at the farmers markets he’s seen a steady increase in its sales.
It's only one of the wildly nutritious offerings at the stall. Organic sprouts and micro-greens
are all available, sprouts in a dazzling range I’d not known existed. There’s broccoli and
snow pea and radish sprouts, sunflower and buckwheat sprouts, barley grass and salad mix
sprouts, all certified organic, neatly and cleanly packaged, the wheatgrass in serried ranks of
vibrant green. Sprouts are the germinated seeds of plants like alfalfa and mustard and
clover, their nutrient content increased 500% when the seeds sprout, bursting with vitamins
and antioxidants and enzymes. They truly are a superfood, and yet I’ve often wondered
about their uses, apart from in salads. Avi, however, is educating me. ‘The more delicate
ones such as broccoli and radish’, he says, ‘are mainly used to enrich sandwiches and salads.
The hardy ones such as sunflower and snow pea can also make a great stand-alone snack,
being so crunchy and full of flavour.’ What’s more, he adds, ‘some varieties go really well in
hot dishes such as soups and stir fries – add them on top and mix in, they will remain
crunchy and add to texture.’
He himself consumes sprouts every day. ‘With some olive oil and balsamic vinegar: such a
delight!’ I can well imagine.
Energetic Greens are at Mullumbimby on Fridays from 7 – 11am
Victoria Cosford
