Spring Fling with Nettles
Stinging nettles poking out of the ground, 4/16/15.
I grow nettles in the "flower" bed up against my home. I have been asked on many occasions: "What person in their right mind would plant nettles in any flower bed and the bed right up against the house?" The answer is obvious to me; I am not in my right mind and who wouldn't plant nettles so close to the house? They are oh so close when I need them for soups. stews, stir fries, pesto, tinctures, medicinal infusions, etc.
Now here is the double edged sword with this situation: they are close at hand but these 'lil buggers like to run and take over the world just like mints. They create this under soil runner that, well, just runs, and runs, and runs spiraling out of control. I spend the spring pulling the renegade nettles out of the rest of the flower bed in front of my home. When I planted them, 5 years ago, I politely asked them to stay in their space on the side of the house. I even dug down into the soil and planted sandstone pieces to deter them from running. They out smarted me.
As aggravating as this can be, I do have a steady supply of spring nettles that I do not feel guilty about pulling. I snip the leaves to eat and plant the runners along the yard's edge hoping for yet more nettles to eat and make medicine with.
My bowl of nettle tops and leaves.
A close up of 2 nettle tops ready for dinner.
Nettles in the pan, a gentle saute' in butter is all that is needed.
The stems that I gently cooked first; why waste the nutrients?
Cooked nettles waiting for me to consciously devour them.
The finished salad with nettles scattered across the top.
I have made mention of my Spring difficulties around food. All winter I graciously and gratefully eat local cabbage, root veggies, and squash. I save my frozen local summer veggies to tide me over when I can no longer stand the thought of a root veggie and cabbage slaw. Yes, it does happen. (My winter leftovers are waiting to be made into sauerkraut when I can dig enough wild leeks to enhance this kraut batch.)
I yearn for local food: asparagus, greens, fiddle heads, peas, strawberries...
To survive until the local food is bountiful once again, I buy food from California. There, I confessed. The above salad is Romaine lettuce, celery, carrots, and juicy red peppers from California. I also buy non-local fruits: mango, banana, kiwi, citrus, and canned organic pineapple. I am desperate for neatly gift packaged sunshine to tide me over to the local food scene. A ripe mango has a serious amount of sun waiting to burst out of its skin. I bow my head in gratitude to the people, the trees, and the soil that brings me these gems to keep me happy.
I plopped the above salad down in front of my kids, minus the nettles of course. They would have flipped had I expected them to eat Nettles! (They did each have a small spoonful that they chucked into their mouths and barely chewed before swallowing. Someday they will appreciate the things I have exposed them to...) Here was my salad response:
"Finally, a real salad. No more nasty cabbage - root veggie slaw! Yay!"
Poor kids, they suffer so.
"Wow, Mom broke down and bought something that didn't grow within 20 miles of our home."
When do they learn to not harass the person keeping them in food?
Tip for the day: Get outside. Snip some nettles. Hey, dig some wild leeks and saute' them together, ever so gently. Enjoy the taste sensation, the local wild food, and the spring nourishment for your body. Oh yeah, don't bother sharing with the kids!
To create your own female energy spring fling:
Join the Female ♀ Moon Cycle Wisdom Training
Tuition, this year, stays at $72 Bucks in honor of My Mom,
an awesome female, & her Birthday (April 17th)!
Coffee and My Calamitous Affair, Revisited
Dandelion Coffee jar on my front porch in Northern NY, USA
In August of 2014 I wrote a post on Coffee and my calamitous affair with it. Refresh your memory here: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/7/19/my-calamitous-love-affair-with-coffee
Moving forward a few months and seasons:
April 19th, 2015: My calamitous affair with coffee has continued, on & off. Who can resist the smell, the taste, the sensation in the mouth, throat, and belly? Ah, so tasty, warm, and soothing (well, soothing until the caffeine hits my system exactly 15.2 seconds after the first sip!).
I have tried many, many coffee substitutes and I have to say all may have been tasty in one aspect or another but all have never, ever, replicated the coffee experience (caffeine jitters aside, of course!). One has to enjoy them on a different level and not be thinking of them as coffee or you will be utterly disappointed.
On our family trip to Jamaica, April 2015, I find the most amazing, tasty, and coffee like drink ever: Sunburst's Products Dandelion Coffee. I picked up a jar at the Kingston Airport as we were preparing to depart Jamaica. I had no idea what I was buying as I obviously had not tried it. My thought was this: "If this stuff is even remotely tasty, it will help with my detox off the Blue Mountain coffee that I drank every morning at 6 AM. Seriously, despite my calamitous relationship with coffee - caffeine, what person in their right mind is going to say no to Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee? When in Jamaica, do as the Jamaicans do! (Thank You Mr. White at Great Huts Ecological Resort in Boston Bay, Jamaica. What a great man he is, greeting me every 6 AM with a "Good Morning Miss Paula, the coffee is ready. Where is Eli? I bet Jake is still sleeping!" All words said with the kindest twinkle in his eye. Mr. White was the person, while off work duty, he jumped to fix me up with a local remedy poultice to soothe my bee stung foot. Hugs to Mr. White for making awesome Blue Mountain coffee every AM and your sincere Jamaican kindness!)
So now I am home and must detox from coffee OR:
- put up with caffeine side effects every day
- suffer the caffeine withdrawal headache for a day or two
I opt for the wean down off coffee detox plan:
- 1st morning: 3/4 coffee, 1/4 dandelion coffee
- 2nd morning: a 1/2 & 1/2 blend
- 3rd morning: 3/4 dandelion and 1/4 coffee
- 4th morning: 100% dandelion coffee in my cup
Here is what I found upon brewing the dandelion coffee:
- smelled awesome, very coffee like
- looks dark and rich, how I prefer my coffee
- let's taste the stuff! I was not disappointed but pleasantly surprised! Dandelion Coffee is by far the best "substitute" I have ever tasted. I think, if I was given a cup and not told that it was not real coffee, I would not know and believe I was drinking coffee! I would soon be curious as to why the caffeine effects were not quickly kicking in.
When my current jar gets low, I will be ordering more and hoping the product becomes easy to find here in the USA. http://www.sunburstproducts.com/our-products/
Got Seasonal Allergies Healing Hint:
If seasonal plant and pollen allergies tend to drag you down, try this:
- 1/4 tsp. of raw, local honey every AM & PM. The honey must be cold extracted from the comb to preserve the properties that will ease your allergy symptoms. If the comb was heated up, as this makes it so much easier to extract the sticky honey, the heat cooks the enzymes, nutrients, and immune healing factors that help to ease seasonal allergies. Sometimes the challenge with this is stopping at 1/4 tsp. Think of it as mind-body-soul healing medicine where truly more is not always better!
- Stinging nettles. Most healers recommend freeze dried nettles in capsule form (You can find Ecclectic Institute's freeze dried nettles at Nature's Storehouse, Canton, NY). If you have stinging nettles around you, consider yourself fortunate, and indulge in your healing wild garden's bounty. Please be considerate of the plant and leave plenty for re-growth and to prevent soil depletion. With your nettles: make tea, make pesto, gently stir fry or steam.
My quart size bottle of medicine! This jar lasts a very long time. Local, raw honey is widely available in Northern, NY. Check farm stands, the Potsdam Food Coop, Nature's Storehouse in Canton, Martin's Farm Stand, and Garden Share's Local Food Guide for more local sources.
Longing for the Wild Ones: Nature's Medicine!
Every year I find myself in this same space: longing for the wild foods of spring. Above I am digging leeks on 4/16/13 and the field of leeks and box of leeks pictures are from 2014. I am anxiously waiting for the leeks to pop their 'lil green heads up again this year.
The return of the leeks means many things to me:
- spring IS here,
- summer will follow sooner than the wait from winter to spring (so grateful for this!),
- more wild foods and flowers will be popping out of the ground daily, and
- my body is in sync with nature!
Wild leeks are nature's medicine. (Who am I kidding? All wild plants are nature's medicine!) They have similar healing qualities of garlic: immune boosting, good for blood pressure, a blood and spring tonic, cold and flu remedy, and the leaf and bulb juice is good for ear aches and infections.
Wild foods are the gifts that our bodies need after a long cold winter. They provide green food, vitamin C (and so many more vitamins and minerals), stimulation of the liver to open and cleanse the heaviness of winter out of our digestive tract and ultimately our body cells, and vital life force energy to up our internal level of vibrancy.
Soon to look for:
Violet leaves and flowers
Violets are rich in vitamin C, a much needed vitamin after a long winter. Vitamin C helps in the spring detox and the upward movement of life force energy. Violets are rich in enzymes, chlorophyll, vitamin A, carotenes, rutin (helps maintain blood vessel strength and integrity), and many more nutrients.
Young Nettles
Nettles are, by far, my favorite plant (and I love all the plants!). It is one herb I would add to every herbal healing blend for its nutritive properties. Nettles nourishes each and every body cell, helps to build strong bones, nourishes the glandular system, aid the reproductive tract (pms, migraines, prostate, libido builder), great for allergies and asthma, and just about any and every ailment I can think of. This is because of nettles high nutritional value; when the body is nourished the body heals!
Young Dandelion
Um, Um Yum... dandelion greens and think liver. Dandelion is a bitter tonic for the liver helping with digestion and helping with the spring cleanse out of winter heaviness in our cells and life force energy. Dandelion is very high in nutrients (again, good for cellular health and build bones), is a mild laxative, and is good for skin conditions to name but a few of dandelion's virtues. Spring brings us this flower and the leaves to eat at just the time our body needs it. Nature is so wise!
Sorrels: Sheep and Wood sorrels
Sorrels are from the genus Oxalis. Oxalis means "sour" and is named due to its high oxalic acid content. Oxalic acid is considered "toxic" when consumed in large quantities because oxalic inhibits the absorption of calcium. Oxalic acid is not considered a problem when consumed moderately and with a varied diet. Many domesticated vegetables, including spinach and broccoli, also contain oxalic. People who are challenged by gout, rheumatism, and gallbladder and kidney stones should avoid it.
Sorrel is rich in vitamin C (the sour and vitamin C again contributes to the spring cleanse of winter's stagnation in the body). Traditionally it has been used to treat scurvy, fevers, urinary infections, mouth sores, nausea, and sore throats.
If you have never been one to grass your front lawn or the fields and woods near your home... I encourage you to find a good guide book with pictures, descriptions, and healing information and get foraging.
Remember the forager's ethical principle: take only what you need and make certain to leave plenty of plants so they can reproduce and repopulate the area you are wild harvesting from. If you take all the plants you are creating a micro-extinction in that area.
Chewing for Weight Loss
I have written about the virtues of chewing on a few occasions. Every day I see health issues that could benefit from better chewing, so...
I feel compelled to write about chewing again because your whole body's health depends on the quality of food you eat AND that very food getting to your each and every body cell. Chewing is a foundational habit of good health.
Chewing properly:
- unlocks the nutrients in the whole food you feed yourself with so those nutrients can feed your body cells which
- makes for vibrant healthy body cells (this is a front line defense against disease of all manners)
- creates a healthy digestive tract
- feeds healthy gut microbes which in turn keep your immune and nervous systems healthy (really, your whole body healthy)
- prevents constipation
- prevents gastro-intestinal ill health symptoms
- and so many more whole health effects!
Chewing for Whole Cellular Health
Eating begins with the simple act of chewing which leads to smooth digestion and greater absorption and assimilation of nutrients by initiating the release of digestive enzymes that break down food. The better chewed your food, the better your body can absorb and use the food’s nutrition. This means healthier better nourished body cells.
The chewing action sends messages between the mouth, brain, and stomach alerting your digestive tract that food is coming. This helps to jump start the whole digestive tract for smoother functioning by starting your digestive juices rolling!
Have you ever chewed a piece of gum only to find your stomach churning and growling within 20 minutes? Your chewing of gum is telling your tummy that something is coming. In the case of chewing gum, nothing is actually headed down to the stomach. You have started the digestive process but not given your digestive tract food to work on.
Carbohydrate digestion begins in the mouth with chewing. Chewing converts whole grains, fruits and veggies, and other complex carbohydrates into satisfying whole food sugars. Whole foods must be mixed with saliva and chewed until they become liquid to release their full nutritional value.
In addition, the more whole carbohydrate foods are chewed, the sweeter they become. This, in of itself, helps to naturally satisfy the “sweet tooth” and end sugar cravings.
Better carbohydrate digestion, from efficient chewing, helps to end that bloated feeling after a meal. Bloat can be carbohydrates that are not digesting well from inadequate chewing and the resultant lack of mixing with salivary enzymes. You literally stop digestion in its tracts from poor chewing habits, making the stomach and small intestine work harder than nature intended.
Chewing breaks apart proteins and fats making the oils, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and all nutrients available for maximum absorption. Because digestion becomes so efficient when you chew your food thoroughly, your body will begin to feel wonderfully light.
Chewing food well takes your mouth and senses through the whole range of flavors in foods. This mindfulness practice, while eating, ensures that your senses experience sweet, salty, bitter, pungent, sour, astringent, and spicy. By chewing and experiencing these tastes, your body is satisfied with less food. No cravings later! (When your blender chews the food for you, you miss this taste sensation experience.)
Try this experiment: Eat a carrot. Chew it poorly (or what is normal chewing for you), leaving good size chunks in your mouth and swallow them. Aim for the size of sunflower or pumpkin seed chunks and swallow. What do you think you will find in your solid waste? You've got it, those very same chunks of carrots, virtually unchanged.
Chew another piece, slowly and taking your time, until the piece of carrot resembles smooth pudding in your mouth. No chunks will be found in your solid waste and your body will be able to absorb all the nutrients from the carrot. Chunks in your solid waste are food wasted; no nutrients can be pulled from the interior of solid chunks of food. Your digestive tract only pulls what it can from the surface area of these food chunks. When food is like “pudding” when swallowed, the food’s surface area is immense and available for digestion and absorption of nutrients.
“Drink your solids, chew your liquids.” An intelligent saying Dr. John Christopher, Naturopath, repeated over and over in the classes I took in Natural Healing and Herbal Medicine. When the solid food you swallow is in liquid form from chewing, your body can absorb all the nutrients in that food. (Whole food eating is expensive. Chew well to get your $$$ worth!) This ensures healthy cell regeneration and deposits into your nutritional banks (not withdrawals and degenerative cells!). This is a foundational practice for good nutrition and whole health.
When consuming liquids, chew them thoroughly also, so you are doing a fine job mixing those salivary enzymes with all the food that passes slowly through your mouth.
Chewing helps you lose weight!
When you slow down and thoroughly chew your food, you create a consciousness around what you are eating and your body’s satiation response (feeling physically satisfied). Chewing food well means your body can digest it better (break it down into usable nutrients) and absorb it better into your blood stream. This means that your each and every body cell will be delivered plenty of whole food nutrition. Your body will not be begging you for more food all the time if your cells are well nourished. Much of the time our hunger is not for more quantities of food and calories but it is a cry from our body for better nutrition, more nutrients at the cellular level. Slowing down to chew food into pudding like consistency (or chewing already liquid foods very well before swallowing) delivers more nutrients to the cells, squelches your body’s begging for food, prevents over eating calories every day, and ultimately supports your body in losing excess weight.
Chew well… life depends on this!
How to Chew Properly
•To get into the habit of chewing correctly, try counting the chews in each bite. It helps if you put your fork down between bites.
•Chew every mouthful of food at least 30 times each, until the food becomes liquid. Chew a minimum of 50 times if what you are eating is a really solid food (raw carrot).
•Chewing preps the digestive organs telling them food is coming. Better digestion is the result as the organs get prepped to release the necessary digestive enzymes.
•Chewing breaks down food and makes it easier on the stomach and small intestine to digest and prepare the nutrients for your beautiful body cells.
•Saliva assists in the digestion of carbohydrates, makes the food more alkaline, and creates less gas.
If under pressure at meals: take deep breaths before you begin your meal, chew, and let the simple act of chewing relax you. Taking the time to chew will help you to enjoy the whole spectrum of tastes and aromas that make up the meal. Taking the time to chew will increase cellular health as the nutrients are more available to your body cells!
Slowing down and taking the time to chew is actually a stress reduction exercise. It is a mindfulness exercise, the yoga of eating, around your food.
Good Meal Prep and Eating Suggestions
•Wash up.
•Create quiet spaces and peace for eating, turn off the “screens”.
•Use candle light to create peace and relaxation.
•Sit up with good posture.
•Say a prayer thanking the local farmers for their hard work, the earth that grew your food, your higher power, whoever cooked your meal, and your family and friends who dine with you. The simple act of gratitude slows and calms the body, mind, and soul.
•Put your utensil down when chewing.
•Relax, breathe, and experience the textures and flavors.
•Eat in a relaxed setting: not the car, your desk at work, standing at the kitchen counter, or while on the run.
•Say thanks after you eat as well.
•Create post meal conversation instead of bolting to the “next” activity
•Go for a walk, sit on the porch just listening, create a post meal relaxation experience
Enjoy every meal for the gift of life that it truly is, Paula
Weight Loss with Chai Tea
My Yummy, Warm, Soothing, Morning Chai
Ah, caught your attention didn't I? I have discovered that when an article has information about weight loss it, that article:
Flies around the internet at break-neck speed and
Gets more reads than almost any other topics I write about.
Wait! Just one second there, don't you go clicking "delete!" I am a woman of my word and I DO promise to deliver on my weight loss information but I am wrapping it in a package with so much more. I want to sing the praises of Chai tea:
the health benefits of the spices and the black tea, (herbs and spices are so medicinal!)
the calming ritual of making and enjoying it (sharing it with loved ones too; like how about a Valentine's Chai Party with Girl Friends?! Guy Friends too! Share the Chai Love!), and
the thermogenic and weight loss benefits of sipping a bit of Heaven.
So how does Chai tea help with weight loss?
1. Herbs and spices can help boost your metabolism.
Black pepper increases your body’s metabolism and burns unwanted fats, including the fat on your belly. Black pepper stimulates blood and lymphatic circulation. Better fluid movement in the body creates better nourishment, better oxygenation, and better waste removal from body cells. This all stacks up to better metabolism and weight loss benefits. Black pepper contains a substance called piperine which blocks the formation of new fat cells.
Black tea has caffeine like compounds that stimulate metabolism. A healthy weight loss plan includes eating a 100% whole food diet and moving your body. Adding black tea can help keep your metabolism humming along at a healthy rate. (No, black tea will not help you burn the extra calories when indulging in high calorie foods. Whole food eating for weight loss is the answer. And, black tea's caffeine like properties are easier on the body than coffee. Coffee, in excess and over the long haul of life, tends to burn out the adrenal glands from over-stimulating them. Black tea has 1/2 the caffeine punch of a typical cup of coffee, unless you long brew - steep your tea bag or loose tea. Black (and green) tea has the balancing ingredient called l-theanine, an amino acid which promotes GABA uptake in the brain and is thus calming and helps to counter epinephrine surges. L-theanine also increases Dopamine. Thus, one can enjoy a nice combination of both focus and calm from tea. Tea is not as hard on the adrenals as coffee.)
Cinnamon (real Ceylon cinnamon, not cassia bark) increases your body's circulation of fluids. See black pepper above. Cinnamon contains compounds called polyphenols and the mineral chromium. Both of these compounds help improve how your body uses insulin in turn regulating blood glucose. Cinnamon has been shown to increase glucose metabolism by about 20 times, which would significantly improve your ability to regulate blood sugar.
Cardamom is another thermogenic herb that helps boost your metabolism and may boost your body's ability to burn fat.
Ginger is a warming spice that has anti-inflammatory properties. Ginger may have thermogenic properties that help boost your metabolism, as well as an appetite-suppressant effect. See ginger for its potential role in your weight management goals.
Nutmeg is a good digestive aid. When we properly digest food we better use the nutrients in the food. When body cells are better fed, better nourished, we do not crave food in unhealthy ways.
Some Chai recipes include turmeric as a spice to add to the mix. Curcumin, turmeric's most active ingredient, reduces the formation of fat tissue. Turmeric suppresses the blood vessels needed to form new fat tissue (it is an anti-inflammatory herb and excess fat formation is an inflammatory response) and therefore may help prevent fat build-up. Curcumin use, from turmeric, results in improvements in insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and other inflammatory symptoms associated with obesity and metabolic disorders.
Cayenne. Ok, this is not a regular chai spice. It just happens to be in the honey I gently sweeten my chai tea with. Cayenne is another thermogenic herb. Capsaicin is the compound that gives cayenne peppers their heat. Cayenne may help fight obesity by decreasing a person's calorie intake, lowers blood fat levels, and helps to shrink existing fat tissue.
2. Regular consumption of chai spices stimulates digestive and pancreatic enzymes.
See nutmeg above. Good digestion is key to obesity prevention, reduction, and healing.
3. There is also improved oxygen uptake and fat breakdown with chai spices.
This has to do with better circulation throughout your whole body, better digestion, and the stimulation to all body cells from improved circulatory effects.
Healing Suggestion: Herbs and spices of the thermogenic nature work best in the context of a whole food eating and whole health living plan. Herbs cannot help shed excess weight within the context of an unhealthy diet that is comprised of calorie dense and nutrient poor manufactured foods.
Making Chai Tea
Black tea of the organic nature, spicy / raw honey, chai spices, peppercorns, local / raw goat's milk.
First, I gather my chai ingredients:
black tea (sometimes I use loose black tea)
cayenne and ginger raw honey
a spice blend of cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon (I keep this pre-mixed in my cupboard)
I recently added star anise and cloves (use 1/4 cup each spice EXCEPT the nutmeg and cloves, 1 heaping tbsp of nutmeg, slightly less than 1 tbsp cloves)
black pepper corns in the mortar waiting to be ground
raw, local goat's milk
missing in the picture is the organic vanilla extract
Making the tea:
Bring 1 cup water to boil and turn off heat.
Add black tea, cover, and steep for 3 to 5 minutes. Yes, time this.
Remove black tea from how water.
Add 1 tsp. of chai spice mix.
Cover and steep 2 to 3 minutes.
Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup full fat milk from well raised and well fed lactating animals.
Cover pot and re-warm gently on low heat for a minute or so. Do not walk away or you will over heat and scorch the milk.
Grind the black pepper so you are not tempted to walk away to get that load of wash started.
Pour tea into tea mug.
Add a bit of vanilla.
Add ground pepper.
Add 1/2 tsp. or so of local, raw honey.
Stir, sip, enjoy, and relax!
Chai Tea and Me!
Are you looking at all the steps and saying... I don't have time for this Paula? Can't I just use one of those Keurig cups of chai tea? Sure go ahead but the above results are so much tastier. And the process becomes a meditative ritual. Think Asian Tea Rituals... sacred time.
Compare the taste a cup of Keurig coffee to a cup that you fresh grind the coffee beans and brew in a time honored fashion. There is no comparison.
Fast and easy is, well, fast and easy.
But taste is so much more! Would you prefer instant mashed potatoes or homemade mashed potatoes from local, organic potatoes cooked with the skins still on, mashed to perfection with plenty of butter from grass-fed cows, and a splattering of full-fat local raised, raw milk. Your choice! I am very clear on which one I would choose!
Share your thoughts. It is good to hear other's voices, thoughts, ideas...
Examining Fertility
No, no, this article has nothing to do with sex, reproductive issues, and human fertility (well, not human egg and sperm fertility, per se).
Fertile fields at Birdsfoot Farm, Canton, NY
What are these two farmers sitting and squatting on?
Come on, guess....
It is soil. Fertile soil makes the world go round. Dirt is one of the earth's most precious resources, period.
How so you ask?
Read on my friend!
Fertile soil grows food that is intact, whole. I am always talking about how important it is to eat a 100% whole food diet. That whole food diet starts in whole soil; soil that is rich in nutrients and life, loamy, and fertile.
The fertility of the soil is the fertility of your body... and not just your reproductive fertility. Your body cells reproduce every day. Cellular health in reproducing vibrant, new cells is dependent on what feeds the parent cell. Read on for some soil and cell enhancing wisdom.
Soil is one of the foundations of all food, life, on this earth.
Healthy Soil = Healthy Food!
Soil + Sun + Water (and a seed or two!) = Food / Life!
Gratitude to: http://www.lappolis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Sun-Soil-Water.jpg
When we pay attention to soil, maybe that plot of garden where we grow herbs or veggies, we see a microcosm that is teeming with life. Healthy soil is a living, breathing, dynamic organism: sand, silt, clay, air, water, minerals and organic matter crawling with earthworms, moles, grubs, centipedes, millipedes, snails, slugs, beetles, ants, fungi, insect larvae, bacteria, mushrooms, and many other organisms and micro-organisms. The sum of the whole, all parts working in synergy, is a well-orchestrated symphony. Nature is truly poetry in motion and that very poetry is what contributes to the heath and wholesomeness of the food you eat.
Your food is only as healthy as the soil it grows in. Your animal based foods? Only as healthy as the soil supporting the plants that the animals are free-range grazing on.
Farmers who understand and live / work in harmony with this soil symphony are amazing people contributing to your whole health.
I have always loved dirt: playing in it, smelling it (dirt in your yard smells different than dirt in the woods...), smelling dirt after a warm summer rain. You know... when you go outside and all you smell is that damp, musky, wet dirt smell? That is a smell that always makes me smile.
Learn more about the dirt that grows your food.
Know your soil.
Know your farmer.
How does your farmer(s) interact with the soil they grow food in and on? Do they compost, rotate crops and animal in the fields, use cover crops to feed the soil... what are the soil nourishing habits your farmer uses to grow your food?
Rich soil, teeming with life and inorganic matter, grows food rich in vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, and anti-oxidants. Get into your dirt. Study the dirt that supports your health and life! Find a farmer who makes soil care a top priority. (Consumer demand for good farmers, real farmers, will create better food, better soil, and a better world!) Thank your farmer for caring for the soil.
Please, share your dirt loving stories below!
Looking for some interesting reading on Dirt? This is one of my favorite books. I read it when it first was published and it is a book I keep in my "loved" book collection.
The below kid's book on dirt was one of my favorites to read to my kids. Not sure they were so enamored with the life in our soil but I was!
