by Obiora Embry

Created on: May 22, 2009   Last Updated: May 29, 2009

Four years ago, I resurrected my "green thumb" and started gardening again after a long hiatus. When I began my organic garden, I was a novice gardener that did very little cooking. However, as my love for gardening increased so did my love for cooking, which prompted me to begin using fruit, vegetables, and herbs picked fresh my garden or one of the local community gardens in the meals, side dishes, condiments, and salad dressings that I created in the kitchen. As I began to cook and garden more often, I decided to take my health and well-being into my own hands.

In doing so, I quit making excuses for not having time to cook, let alone from scratch. I also decided to steer clear of genetically-engineered (GE) seeds and genetically-modified (GMO) "food"-not necessarily food in the truest sense as the seeds come from a genetic science experiment that produces a monster similar to what Dr. Frankenstein had created-for health, ethical, and intellectual reasons, and to minimize the amount of additives and preservatives in the food that I cook. This prompted me to begin making pizza crust from scratch as opposed to using a pre-mix.

When I make pizzas from scratch, I try to use as many organic, unbleached, natural, fresh, and/or local ingredients as possible. Often times, when I use a recipe, I modify it and give it some of my creative personality. For breads (rolls, pizza or pie crust, biscuits, etc.), this usually means that I use Whole Wheat flour, Hard Red Winter Wheat flour (locally grown and milled), locally produced yeast, and certified organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil. For this specific article, I chose the "Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust" from allrecipes.com.

The recipe for the crust calls for white sugar, warm water, active dry yeast, Olive Oil, salt, Whole Wheat flour, and all-purpose flour. I changed the ingredient list to organic cane sugar, organic and/or local active dry yeast, organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, sea salt, Whole Wheat Flour (preferably locally grown and milled or organic) and Hard Red Winter Wheat flour (preferably locally grown and milled or organic).

Even though I am not a vegetarian, I do little cooking with meat (primarily for financial reasons) and so the topics on the pizzas that I typically create do not contain meat. On top of the crust, I like to add a layer of organic tomato sauce and organic cheese (Mexican or Mozzarella). After these two layers are complete, this is when I begin to get really creative with the pizza depending on what I have in stock and what is ready to be harvested from the garden.

Two of my favorite toppings to add to a Whole Wheat pizza are freshly picked organic Sweet Basil (or dried organic Sweet Basil if fresh is not available) and organic bell peppers (green, red, and/or yellow). In addition, I like to add a combination of dried organic Cumin seed, dried organic Garlic powder or granules, dried organic Celery seed, dried organic Oregano leaf, dried organic Dill Weed, or organic dried Thyme, but it depends on what kind of flavor I want the pizza to have.

If you use some or all of the ingredients the next time that you create a pizza, you will be eating a pizza much healthier than what is commonly served and it may inspire you to create a garden.

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