Green love

“Food issues” have been my soapbox for quite awhile now, and I’ve been inching my way into the realm of not just organic/natural foods but also of “traditional” food & eating as healthfully as possible. I honestly believe, and feel in my bones, that our current health problems are a direct result of the food that is made available to us. The industrial food industry…*shudder*. I won’t go there now. But my own health issues and reading about all of the problems led me to start reading and absorbing every bit of info I can about how to reverse the problem, how to heal myself (and family/friends who are interested), and how to create vibrant health in the midst of so many chronic health problems. Loving plants, I of course was drawn to herbalism (and to very soon start working distance courses with Susun Weed—damn the high price of oil, which prevents me from doing an apprenticeship with her, at least this year), organic gardening, and natural cooking, all of which dance together. What the food industry doesn’t get—well, one of the things—is that you cannot remove a particular constituent part of a foodstuff from the whole and still have it work the same. The magic is in how the parts work together in the whole. I think this quote that I found here sums it up perfectly:

[A plant speaks:] Do you think it possible to dissect a human being, render it down into constituent parts, feed them into a machine which measures such things and determine from that its ability to paint or create music? No? Then why do you think that once you have done this with my body you know everything about me?
Angelica, From Sacred Plant Medicine

The more I learn and discover on this journey, the more I want to know, and I know I’ll be learning the rest of my life. Now if only I could find a way to buy the little farm I want, and work from home, I’d be set. Heh. But until then…I’ll just do what I can. (Don’t worry, roomie, your yard hasn’t been completely uprooted. Yet. Bwahahah—ahem. Hey wait, can we have goats here?)

Made red clover infusion last night, and drank it this morning. Quite tasty! And considering the health benefits…well, that just makes it even more delicious. I’ll finish the batch later today or tomorrow morning, and then next up is nettle infusion, then oatstraw.

If it doesn’t rain (and it’s certainly threatening to), I plan to take a “weed walk” later on and see if I can get to know just what the weeds are around here and if any of them are edible/medicinal. There is a spot near my usual walk that has plenty of hearty plants growing wild, and at least one of them has to be a green ally just waiting to be discovered. Hopefully! (Here’s a secret: most Weeds Are Good, and packed with minerals & vitamins that our typical food is very much lacking. Well, lots of weeds are, and the key is knowing which ones. ;-) )

I am very excited to start a batch of Nettle Ale, but I realized that I don’t yet have the supplies I need, so they are on my list and I hope to get them in the next week or two. I want to have ale fermenting by the end of the month. :-)

Later on I’m making a huge pot of green lentil soup, full of veggies & herbs. I love, absolutely love, buying stuff in bulk from the local organic/natural store. Talk about price breaks! I think the ingredients for this soup will have cost me around $4-5 total (that’s for the dried beans & veggies, and I won’t even use all the veggies in this batch), and will be enough food for many meals. I plan to freeze half of it, just to get into the practice of making large amounts of food and freezing it so that I’ve got lots of stuff stockpiled away, for those days when I don’t feel like cooking. These simple skills are amazingly easy and smart, and were the normal way of things for generations before mine. It’s time to remember them. Mom, when you read this, try not to fall over in shock… ;-)