Alyona is a recipe maker, photographer, gardener, and advocate for a healthy home. She promotes a plant-based diet and spends much time in the garden and in the kitchen creating interesting recipes from ingredients found in the garden or the local farmer’s market found throughout the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan. She is originally from Ukraine but has lived in the United States for over 13 years.
What are your favorite places for groceries?
My favorite places to grocery shop are at one of the local “farmer’s markets” in the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan. These are basically local supermarkets which offer a large variety of fruits and vegetables not found in typical supermarkets, along with many other specialty products from cuisines all around the world. Two of my favorite are Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market and Buford Highway Farmer’s Market. If you are passing through Atlanta stopping by one of these places is a MUST!
My favorite everyday supermarket is Sprouts, which offers great everyday fruits and vegetables, as well as bulk grains and nuts, all at a reasonable price.
Where do you get ideas for your recipes?
Sometimes experiment with a non-vegan, non-plant-based recipe to come up with a plant-based equivalent. This could be a popular dish here in the states or a cultural dish from another country. Other times I do a variation with my own ingredients based on a recipe online.
What fruits and vegetables grow in your garden?
I love to grow garden berries such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I also grow vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, cilantro, onion, green onion, peppers, lettuces, and mint. We regularly use these ingredients in our recipes.
My husband grows several varieties of grapes as well as two healthy fig trees: a Kadota fig and Celeste fig.