- On today's Fit to Eat, I'll be preparing pan-seared tomatoes and avocados with fresh fruit collage and stir fried brown rice.

We're going to chat with Kia Williams, owner of Mama Nature's in Jackson, to learn about how local businesses can work with local farms.

We're also going to check back in with Wurmworks Farm.

Registered Dietician Rebecca Turner will share some great tips about buying and storing frozen vegetables.

It's gonna be a great show, so stay tuned.

(mellow music) Welcome back to Fit to Eat.

I'm your host, Rob Stinson.

Today's guest is the owner of Mama Nature's in Jackson, Kia Williams.

What a pleasure.

- So excited to be here.

- Yeah.

I'll tell you what, look at how pretty the food is for today.

- I know.

Look at that beautiful color.

- I know.

I tell you what, this is so at home for me.

What we're gonna do today is kind of a variety of vegetables and fruit.

We're gonna grill some tomatoes and avocado.

That's gonna be kind of the entree.

Then we're gonna do a stir fried tricolor pepper brown rice, where you've got a lot of good vegetables and flavor, with rice.

Then we're gonna end and make some beautiful, fresh fruit collage.

We're actually gonna kind of pan-sear the fruit - Oh.

- Yeah, it gives us such a good caramelization.

It's gonna be a lot of fun.

The first thing we're gonna do, I'm gonna get a pan warm over here and I'm gonna make up... Now, we don't use salt, okay?

- All right.

- [Rob] So what we're gonna start off with is a no-salt seasoning, black pepper, white pepper.

I always tell people, white pepper, I use about half as much of the black pepper, 'cause it's that stronger.

Garlic powder, salt-free, and onion powder, again, salt-free, so that way, we don't end up needing anything.

We're gonna do this.

Then the simple thing we are gonna do, and mixing this is so easy, we're gonna take our plate and I'm gonna season the tomatoes with some of that seasoning.

- [Kia] Is that fresh basil in the middle?

- [Rob] That is, yeah.

I love it.

You know what?

It's so nice to have somebody who recognizes, 'cause I'm actually going to take the time to show people how simple it is to really dice it fresh.

Some people are scared, and they don't need to be scared once they get used to using a knife at home.

- [Kia] Exactly.

- [Rob] It makes it so simple.

We're gonna do a spray of zero-fat spray and then I'm just gonna lay those tomatoes in the pan.

Now you have got to tell me how on earth you got started in this whole concept of doing a juice bar, I guess, first and foremost, and the whole vegan lifestyle, too.

- Oh, wow.

It definitely started from a place of need.

Myself and my children were dealing with our own health issues, if you wanna say.

My daughter was dealing with chronic asthma.

I'm talking going to the doctor every month, steroids, medications all the time.

My son was dealing with just an upset stomach, and myself with fatigue and headaches.

So at that time, I'm looking around for all remedies to just assist us, going to the doctors, trying to figure it out.

My mom, at the time, was vegan.

She was also a truck driver.

She was a vegan trucker.

Imagine that.

- Yeah.

That's almost just a conflict.

That's an oxymoron.

- Exactly.

- [Rob] How wild.

- She was a vegan trucker.

If you know anything about anyone that goes vegan, they become the vegan police, because you learn so much about nutrients and food that you're trying to tell the world and you're trying to teach everyone.

So that's what Mom did.

She became the vegan police.

- At first, I'm sure, there was a little opposition on your side?

- [Kia] Oh, definitely.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Definitely.

- Talk about, keep going, 'cause this is great.

- For me, I was a big ribs and pork fan, but that was actually helping and what caused the fatigue and everything that I was dealing with.

So my mom was like, "Hey, just change up your diet and see how it goes."

I said, "Hey, what could it hurt?"

So we did.

Two months in, we saw drastic changes.

My daughter was no longer on her medication.

My son was eating plenty of fruit and veggies and loving it.

So I said, "You know what?

We're going to stick to this lifestyle.

Even if we don't stick to vegan, we're gonna stick to that plant-based lifestyle."

- [Rob] Right.

- Ensuring we're getting those nutrients.

- Right.

Where you found such success.

- Exactly.

- What a great story, 'cause it's your whole family.

All right.

So here's what we've done on this side.

All I've done is pluck the basil.

I know, the aroma of the basil, isn't it incredible?

- [Kia] So good.

- [Rob] I wish people could really get that at home.

All right.

All I'm doing now is I want to show people how simple this is.

I line 'em all up, as much as you can.

Doesn't have to be perfect.

It's a sharp knife that makes the difference, but all we're doing, and this is the part where I thought it'd be kind of fun to show, you can kind of make your own little chopper.

This is gonna be put onto the tomatoes and avocado at the end, just to give it a little fresh flavor, and that'll be the first thing that hits your taste buds when you're eating this.

I'm all about making something that looks pretty, so to use fresh herbs... That's gotta be part of where I would imagine your skills have come in in the juice bar, because... - [Kia] Definitely.

- It's a lot about how things look, you know, and the pretty, vibrant colors and everything that goes along with it.

All we're gonna do is take this now and save this on the side.

I'm gonna use that at the end to garnish.

We're gonna kind of put this off to the edge.

I trained with a chef who hated that I used my cleaver like this, but you know what?

It works.

It's a good way to clean my cutting board.

I love using fresh herbs.

Again, I know we said we don't have any kind of salt, no white sugars, no white flours, and a lot of details, probably more than most in this recipe.

So you can go to mpbonline.org/fittoeat to find the full recipe for everything you see here, as well as more information on what we're talking about today.

Now it's time, you notice I didn't really touch those, 'cause I kind of want them to sear.

You know what I didn't do?

Let's season the backside of these as well.

- [Kia] Oh, yes.

- [Rob] Give 'em all that good flavor, 'cause there's really nothing in here.

You can't eat too much of this.

The avocados, listen, these are small avocados.

Guys, this is one thing I like to tell people.

When you go to the store, don't be disappointed if you can't find exactly what you want.

I wanted some big, beautiful avocados.

They just weren't there.

That's okay.

We're gonna make do with what we have.

Oh, perfect.

- [Kia] That looks beautiful.

- [Rob] Isn't that great?

- [Kia] That looks beautiful.

- [Rob] You're gonna enjoy this one, I know.

Then we're gonna do the same thing with the avocados.

Look how pretty.

And who would think that that could be a meal instead of a steak?

- [Kia] Exactly.

- It is.

- It's all about the way that you prepare it and season it.

I think a lot of people miss that.

When you use those fresh herbs, it really makes a difference.

- There's no doubt about it.

The beautiful part to me is that you're not missing anything.

- At all.

- By eating the way in.

We, jokingly, were talking beforehand, and I kind of eat a Seagan-style.

- Yeah.

- It's seafood and then all of what we're doing today.

- Exactly.

- But it's unbelievable, the change it's been.

I've lost weight.

I don't have the problems.

So I kind of try to preach it.

But you know, there are those people who are not gonna listen.

- They don't wanna hear it.

Yeah.

- But, my God, this, when this is plated, it's gonna be so beautiful and there's gonna be so many different flavors.

So the nice part about this right now is all we're doing is kind of giving what you would think of as some traditional vegetables and the avocado.

I mean, you're gonna give it a whole new twist.

- [Kia] Yeah.

- I guess that's probably part in your brain when you're doing some of your juices.

- Oh, definitely.

- How they can combine together.

What's your favorite juice?

We didn't talk about that yet.

- My favorite juice is one that customers run from, and that's Beet It.

It's beet, apple.

- [Rob] Red beets?

- Red beets.

- [Rob] Oh, wow.

- Fresh red beets.

'Cause people - They're scared of it.

- Eat pickled beets.

But fresh red beets, apples, and ginger.

It is so delicious.

- You know, I've used fresh beets on this show, and people, they think I'm crazy.

- [Kia] Yeah.

- But if they ever ate 'em fresh, as opposed to what you're getting, I know everybody thinks of what they get at Thanksgiving.

- [Kia] Yep.

- It's not even close.

- They think about the pickled beet.

So they just run from it.

They just think about that flavor.

- That's really cool, too.

And I bet, the vibrant color that's gotta be.

- Oh, it's beautiful.

I think that's what actually draws people to it.

'Cause they run from it when they hear beet.

But when they see the color... - As they close their eyes, put aside, and taste it, I bet they like it.

- Exactly.

So that's one thing we do.

We introduce people to the produce and the veggies and the fruit that they would normally never touch.

- That's probably one of the best things, too, because I really want to tie in with your interaction with local farms and how that all comes to play with the farmers markets and all that.

I mean, because that's the cycle.

That's the cycle, the urban cycle, that is so cool, that's evolving here in Jackson.

It really is.

And you're a big part of that.

So we're gonna talk more about that as we go forward.

I think that what we have here right now, this is basically to the point where we don't really need to do anything more with them.

'Cause the backside is cooking.

It's not a matter of if you have to wait and see if the temperature is right on 'em.

It's just that I want to see 'em seared like that, 'cause that's what really gives it the flavor.

- [Kia] Yeah.

- We're gonna have a riot on this though, but I'm dying now; I've gotta try that juice.

I mean, that just sounds incredible.

- Oh, definitely.

You have to stop by.

That's one of the ones that everyone falls in love with.

- That is too cool.

Too cool.

We're gonna take a short break and travel back to Wurmworks in Jackson.

Matt Casteel is going to give us a tour of the farm and he'll tell us a little bit more about how important healthy soil is to grow healthy produce.

Take a look.

- Hey, I'm Matt Casteel, and you're at Wurmworks at the Ecoshed.

Welcome to the worm farm.

Why don't we check out and see what's going on with the worms today?

(gentle music) All of these raised beds are worm beds.

In each worm bed, there's a substrate we call bedding.

It's a very technical term for woody materials and also feed stock.

By those things, I mean, check it out, pine, straw, pieces of leaves, hardwood chips.

We try and get it all in here for the bedding.

The feed stock can be green growing plants that are feeding microbes from their roots or it can be things like food waste.

Here in Mississippi, we have one of the worst rates of waste per person in the nation.

We're here to combat that because organic waste that goes to the landfill, that doesn't get processed correctly like it is here, emits tons of greenhouse gases.

So that contributes to climate change, which we want to curb.

(gentle music) This big guy right here is our harvester.

We harvest each bed, each batch, through the harvester at a particular time in its decomposition.

Once that's harvested, it goes and is stored and cured.

What we're doing here is a lot of experimentation.

These flags denote specific things about the beds: what state of decomp they're in, if they've been seeded, if they're ready to get harvested.

It lets me know what's going on.

Maybe we want to check out the other tunnel.

Even in our worm beds, we need to monitor temperature.

Here, we're reading 85, which is really about the top range; 65 to 85 is really when your worms are gonna be the most active.

So let's take a look.

Let's see what they're doing.

Oh, yeah.

They're in there, taking care of business.

Look at that, how much that's broken down.

We've got earwigs and rollie pollies and mites.

Here's a little baby worm, red wiggler.

(Matt laughs) We try and recreate the forest floor.

Mother Nature has it figured out, and we just need to bio-mimic.

We want to practice biomimicry in a way that's responsible and that gives back in a regenerative way.

What we're doing is building living soil, perpetuating a process that gives life back and recycles energy.

When we recycle energy, pssh, man.

- Welcome back to Fit to Eat.

If you're just joining us, Kia Williams and I are right in the middle of preparing today's recipe.

All right.

You mind if I put you to work a little bit?

- I'm here to work.

It'll be okay.

- All right.

If you will put that in that small pan.

That is brown rice.

That is raw brown rice.

Now the trick, and this is the cool part that makes it really good, flavorful, and healthy.

This is zero-salt vegetable stock.

- I love it.

- All organic.

You can make your own at home.

Maybe we'll do that on a show.

But the bottom line is all we do is set it and forget it.

That's gonna cook.

- [Kia] Awesome.

- [Rob] 'Cause I cheated.

I cheated in that I already have some cooked, 'cause I figured this part, I want more to focus in on how really tasty these peppers are.

Here we go.

Let's go ahead.

This is gonna be about a half a teaspoon of canola oil.

The first thing, we're gonna get that pan again hot.

We're gonna throw our garlic in first.

I love black pepper.

You gotta have a little bit of flavoring in there, and you can see that pan is already starting to sear.

There we go.

It's about a half a teaspoon.

Now we're gonna add in our onion next, 'cause, again, that one I love to get more brown.

But we can throw all these peppers in, and look how pretty.

That's the part, to me, I love, 'cause everything needs to be visually appealing.

If you're gonna take somebody's steak away or their pork away, I want them to see, "Hey, look how pretty this food is."

'Cause you eat with your eyes so much.

- This is a very easy way to get some nutrients in rice.

You know, when you think about rice, this is an awesome way to add some nutrients in with it.

- [Rob] It really is.

All I'm gonna end up doing after this is deglazing this pan with a little of the vegetable stock.

That just means getting the seasoning off of it.

And I'm gonna add the brown rice in there.

Now we're in your life.

I'm going back to you.

I gotta now talk about the beginning of the juice bar itself.

You got me intrigued.

- We started in 2016, after me becoming plant-based, getting into that lifestyle, taking a trip to New York and being introduced to juice bars, because we didn't have any in Mississippi.

So when I came back home, I was like, "You know what?

We need one here, and I'm gonna start it."

So that's what we did.

- [Rob] I love that.

- 2016, we started out, I was actually making juices and smoothies for my customers while I worked at a mental health facility.

I made juices, smoothies, introduced my clients to super-foods.

- [Rob] You were practicing on 'em and they didn't realize it.

- They didn't realize, but they enjoyed it, and they had so many benefits from it that I'm glad I did.

- It's kind of funny, 'cause I have a huge portion of my restaurant Salute's menu that is food like this.

I have a whole vegan section and heart-healthy dishes, but I didn't put the little hearts on it for a long time, 'cause I was practicing on the customers.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause if they see that heart, they get scared.

"Well, no, it can't taste good."

So continue.

Then what was the next step?

- So after that-- and you saying that people always says it doesn't taste good is the reason why we started, because I was telling my friends and family about health, but they were all afraid of the taste.

So, 2018, we opened our first store and we were in Ridgeland at that time, and we were super excited.

The amount of feedback that we got was tremendous.

We blew up in our first year because we were the first juice bar here, the first juice bar to be here that's plant-based, at that.

So when people were coming in, none of this has dairy or meat or anything like that in it, but our stuff was so good that they didn't miss it.

From there, 2019, we opened our second location.

- [Rob] That's so cool.

- Yes.

- It shocks people that something healthy can taste so good.

- [Kia] Yeah.

It does.

- Isn't that great, though?

We're at a point right now with this where I'm gonna take and put some stock (stock sizzles) in there.

- [Kia] And you call that deglazing?

- [Rob] Yeah.

That is deglazing.

That's that big word.

All it really means is getting all the good stuff that has burned on the edge of the pan into the food.

- Okay.

- That's literally all it is.

Now we're tossing that cooked brown rice right together with those veggies.

- Oh, that's so beautiful.

- I know.

Isn't it pretty?

- So pretty.

- And the flavor and everything is so alive and it's healthy rice.

That's the difference.

Now it's become so much the norm, where before it really was not as anywhere near, kind of like what you just talked about.

People ended up finding out that it was okay drinking something that was a meal.

- Exactly.

From there, they coined the term "Juice Lady" for me, because I went around to every event, everywhere I went, just promoting juices and smoothies.

- So you became known as the Juice Lady?

- The Juice Lady.

I just said, "Hey, let's roll with it."

- Right.

Right.

You know what?

Honestly, I get called the TV Chef, down on the Coast, and I'm kind of like, "Well, it'd be nice if they knew my name was Rob," but half of 'em don't.

- I know.

- I don't really care as long as they enjoy what they're eating.

That makes it all worthwhile.

- I know.

- When you see people come in there and they're smiling and they're not having something that's got any kind of cream or any kind of protein.

It's a great thing.

We've talked all about everything on here.

You can go to mpbonline.org/fittoeat to get all the recipes.

At this point, we are gonna take a quick break and check in with Registered Dietician Rebecca Turner.

She's got some helpful tips to make sure you've always got plenty of healthy ingredients on hand by buying and storing frozen vegetables.

Check it out.

(mellow music) - Frozen fruits and vegetables are often considered an affordable and convenient alternative to fresh vegetables.

Not only are they cheaper and easier to prepare, but they also have a longer shelf life and can be purchased year-round.

However, you may be unsure if frozen vegetables can be a healthy addition to a well-rounded diet.

Well, the answer is yes.

Because vegetables are usually frozen immediately after harvesting, they generally retain many of their nutrients.

The trick, though, is knowing what to look for in your grocer's freezer section.

The healthiest frozen fruits and vegetables are single-ingredient ones.

Flip over and find the ingredients list and look for just vegetables.

No added salts, flavorings, or fats are needed in frozen produce.

You'll add that when you cook it.

You can also get more out of your fresh finds at the farmer's market or when your grocery has a good sale on your fresh favorites by freezing them yourself.

Vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, peas, corn, onions, peppers, and summer squash galore will freeze well.

Just make sure they are washed and dried.

I mean fully dried.

Leave them sitting out on a towel, or I want you to blot with a paper towel 'til all the moisture is gone.

You don't want wet produce going into your freezer.

Go ahead and prep them how you typically eat them.

I like to chop my onion, slice my bell pepper, and half moon my summer squash.

A little extra work on the front end will make dinner much easier on a weeknight.

Then you're just gonna store it in a freezer-safe bag.

I recommend no more than one to two cups.

That is the perfect amount for just about most meals.

Just because it's in the freezer section doesn't mean it'll keep forever.

Make sure you label and date your bags and try to use them within six months.

Use these steps and your farm fresh produce will stay fit to eat.

- Welcome back to Fit to Eat.

I'm here with Kia Williams from Mama Nature's and we are almost done with today's recipe.

I tell you what, it's coming to a close, - It looks beautiful.

- I've kind of taken the liberty while we're off.

Now here's the twist.

I love hot fruit and cooked fruit.

To me, this just gives it such a unique flavor and the most important one that I sear well are the oranges so that the sugar, that natural sugar that's in the oranges, will kind of caramelize.

The flavor, it just, to me, brings the orange to life.

- You're introducing me to something.

I've never pan-seared an orange.

- I know you're gonna go home and try this.

Let me tell you.

The apples are good.

The strawberries.

Where I got the idea of all this is from working, in my past, in a very upscale restaurant, where we did like banana foster.

We did strawberry crepes.

We did all these fancy desserts that had fruit.

Then I started thinking, "Man, that would be a great dish on the side of an entree."

Why waste it on dessert when I can't eat it?

So I think it's really, it makes it kind of become fun, that it's all part of the meal.

We're gonna have this heaping plate of just goodness over here.

Let me just get one last thing that'll make it really pop in.

This is just water.

- [Kia] Water.

- [Rob] It's gonna help just get everything a little bit hot.

Let's continue on now with the farm talk.

- Yes.

- And that interaction.

- Yeah.

So at the juice bar, we use about four to five local farmers here.

We really push that narrative for people to use and just visit the local farmers much more, because they have that fresh produce that is actually farmed here in our own state.

We do our honey from a honey farmer.

- Oh, how cool.

- Really, really tasty.

It actually changed my entire outlook on honey, because I just thought it was something sweet until I realized it has those nutrients in it.

- Right.

- [Kia] We also use our local farmers, where we actually do produce and different things that they have.

Once we use all of our fruit, we use all of our juices, and in our juicer we have a lot of pulp.

- [Rob] Right.

- Yeah.

We give that to a worm farm here.

- [Rob] Oh, how cool.

- We compost.

We're a juice bar that composts.

- Right.

Right.

I mean, exactly.

What's so nice about that, though, it comes back to where we started the whole show, the cycle.

The cycle of a good urban cycle is to make use of all that.

Wow.

I think that's so cool.

All right.

Well, here we go.

So what we're gonna do now, and you can see, we're gonna kind of layer the oranges here.

This is what's so cool, 'cause they get all the juice of all the other fruit.

Then we're gonna put the apples right across.

- That plate looks beautiful.

- Strawberries and the berries.

We got plenty of those.

I tell you what, look at how pretty.

Is that incredible?

- [Kia] One thing I love about healthy eating is afterwards, you feel rejuvenated versus feeling the itis.

- But yeah, I mean, look at how beautiful.

Now we're gonna take and put the fresh basil that we chopped so carefully as that flavor that you will get on the front end.

I use cilantro, fresh diced cilantro.

Watch what this does in the flavoring.

It's incredible.

That's the final touch, if you would.

You know what?

We're out of time.

But I think everything turned out great.

I want to thank Kia Williams from Mama Nature's in Jackson for joining us today.

If you wanna learn more about anything you've seen in this episode, than head over to mpbonline.org/fittoeat, and don't forget to follow and like our Facebook page.

Until next time, I'm your host, Rob Stinson.

Eat well.

(mellow music)