I’ve been asked to put my smoothie and tonic recipes on the website. Along with my curry sauce, this food has stopped me from getting sick these past few years.

Apples and blueberries grow really well in the Catskills region and there are plenty of U-pick places, like Blue Sky Farm & Winery in Stamford, who have 5 acres of blueberries. You can pick as many as you’d like and freeze them for the winter. I picked 20lbs of blueberries this summer and I have almost finished them. I put them in a smoothie – straight out of the freezer – that I eat every day.

I also make a high-calorie smoothie for the maple tapper in my life. Jake – who is 6 ft 6 – has to hike all over the mountains working in the forest, fixing lines and tapping trees in freezing cold weather. This smoothie gives him energy and stops him from getting sick. It’s made in a Nutribullet.

The curry sauce recipe that I developed over the winter has also helped keep illness at bay, but you will find this in the winter issue of the print version of Upstate Dispatch, sold at Roxbury General, Diamond Hollow Books and Tree Juice Maple Syrup.

High-Calorie Blueberry Smoothie

2 tablespoons of chia seeds
2 tablespoons of flax seeds
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 pot of pomegranate Noosa yoghurt
1 cup of water
Half-cup of probiotic yoghurt. (I use Foragers mango flavor organic probiotic cashew milk yoghurt)
1 cup of frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon cashew butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Grind the chia and flax seeds into a flour-like consistency in the Nutribullet using the milling blade. The ground seeds lose their nutrients quickly, so you have to grind the seeds on the same day. Put the meal to one side. Put the other ingredients, except the water and the yoghurt, in a large Nutribullet cup. Mix the ingredients together with a spoon and push them into the cup to get the level lower. There’s only so much you can pack into these large cups. Add as much yoghurt as will fit and fill in the gaps with the water making sure that everything’s below the max fill line. You may have to add a little more water. Blend for ten seconds.

My Go-To Blueberry Smoothie

My go-to smoothie is lower in calories and far less sweet. You may have to add extra mango yoghurt drink or a tablespoon of maple syrup if you like a sweeter smoothie.

1 cup of frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons of chia seeds
2 tablespoons of flax seeds
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
2 pots of lemon cream Chobani yoghurt
1 cup of water
Half-cup of probiotic yoghurt. I use Foragers Organic probiotic cashew milk yoghurt mango flavor

Grind the chia and flax seeds in the Nutribullet using the milling blade. Put the meal to one side. Put the other ingredients in a large Nutribullet cup, then add the flax/chia meal. Again, you might have to mix everything together with a spoon to reduce the level to below the max fill line. Blend on high for ten seconds.