Anatomy of Pain….Food, Animals & Us

Anatomy of Pain….. You know, it’s all in the body

So yesterday I finally relented and listened to my body – I had a feeling I needed some of my Rebel Remedy for a couple of days to help me shift this whateveritwas that was coming up for me….so I took some and then went about my day….

Of course it worked, I felt better and life goes on. What came up was really interesting though, and gave me a few more insights into why I feel so strongly about the way we go about living our lives and growing our own food as much as possible.

I have been on about food, nutrition, eating, diet, cooking and all things to do with the stuff we put into our bodies for such a long time. I have spent years as a vegetarian, a vegan (healing from cancer) and now – well I don’t have an exact name for the way we eat, except we….

Eat Like Pagans! LOL

So what came up for me from my body was ‘pain’, hurt and discomfort. Yet somehow I knew it wasn’t all mine, it was something that was rising up from my bones….for days (weeks?) I hurt physically, not a huge amount, just enough to be uncomfortable.

But I had been putting it down to the workouts I have been doing. You know the kind of aches that come along with moving muscles, joints and bones and pushing yourself a little harder then usual? It sort of feels good for awhile, but it also should settle down as your body adjusts to the new movements.

Well, by Sunday morning I was just aching. My ankles, knees, shoulders, and back all sort of hurt and I had to get to the bottom of it once and for all. So I poured up some of my Rebel Remedy tincture (I make this for trauma, inner pain, shock and acute stress) and sipped this in water…

Of course then I went on with my day and kind of forgot about things because I was feeling more like myself! But this morning once I got up and went to start my workout I remembered what I was feeling yesterday, because I was feeling so much better.

I realized some of this ‘pain’ I had taken on was from meat…animal flesh I had eaten over a lifetime until a few years ago when I decided to do something quite different. At the time my only option was to stop eating meat altogether in order to clean out my body and to detox.

To be honest I never fully realized until this past week that some of the stuff I have been releasing and detoxing are emotional trauma suffered by the animals (food, meat, milk, cheese) during their lives and certainly on their way to their deaths. 

I just assumed it was more of my own stuff from when I was bullied….it was so familiar to me. Which then led me to wonder if the animals themselves perceive being pushed, poked, dragged and proded to their deaths as being bullied? Or maybe it’s also how they might ‘feel’ being kept in an enclosed confined space with hundreds (thousands?) of other animals in a battery farm operation…..

How can I be so very certain about some of these facts on how food animals are raised and treated? I worked for many years as a Food Hygiene Inspector – I was the one who carried out ante and post mortem inspection of food animals. In cold barns, abattoirs, meat lockers and kill floors – I saw it all.

I was also the one who threatened to pull licenses and shut down the plant for any notion of cruelty or bullying. And I was the one who could calmly walk an injured, old or frightened animal down the chute to the kill floor without the need for an electric prod or any harm done. 

After all these animals were giving up their lives to be our food….Just from an understanding of what was to come, a little gentleness - this animal was not going to be ill handled on my watch.

Needless to say over the years I have spent quite a large portion of my life meat free. But, once I was in a position to raise, grow and manage my own food animals, this is what we do for our own needs.

And our own consciousness.  

The only meat I eat now is what I can raise myself, it’s only a limited amount, so when the meat runs out we are vegetarians for the rest of the year! However, I know each animal is treated (loved!) well, fed organically, interacted with, has space to roam and enjoy their time with us just being animals.

All animals which are destined for food on our tables, should be treated with respect through every stage of their existence and not bullied or mishandled in any way. This improves the quality of the meat and the quality of our lives equally. 

Do unto others…..

So….all of this has been coming up for me because I took my remedy for trauma and shock. Perhaps now I will expand its’ uses and benefits to cover bullying as well. 

April

West Cork - the centre of the Food Universe

A few of my favourite things….

I remember not so very long ago when I spent nearly a decade sugar, wheat, dairy, wheat, meat and fish free. My how times have changed since I started the fasting, raising my own food and healing my gut properly.

Now, everything we can raise, make, cook, create, grow and catch ourselves is on the menu and since I love this time of the year so much there are so many goodies to choose from….LOL

This year I wanted to share a few of my favourite things with you, of course, it just goes to show, they all happen to be food! But, good foods are often simple things that become decadent once a little bit of this and a little dash of that, is added.

It’s kind of like magic – kitchen alchemy. Especially this time of year, there are so many wonderful tastes, food memories and seasonal offerings to be had. Perhaps we are quite spoilt living here in West Cork too, because this is kind of like the centre of the food Universe!

So now, where was I? Oh yes, my 3 treats of the season so far this year would have to be – Fig & Port Chutney, Brandy & Vanilla Butter and my Gourmet Seaweed Sea Salt blend (each of these are available at my Rebel Foods market stall in very limited quantities). 

Funny how two of those include a little bit of alcohol, but never mind it’s a seasonal thing!

For the Fig & Port Chutney, I slow cooked (food should be handled very gently) figs, apples, red onions, spices and demerara sugar, then added port at the last hour of cooking. This ensures that richness of flavour – can’t wait to try it on our Christmas goose (and turkey, duck, sandwiches, Gubbeen cheese….LOL).

Next my favourite seasonal delight has to be Brandy and Vanilla Butter. This is really a little bit (ok, a lot) my own take on an ancient Victorian recipe. Of course, I am using my own organic vanilla infused Jim Beam that has been aging, just waiting for this season….

Brandy butter is something special, often reserved for Christmas day pudding, it can be heated and poured over the warm pud like a sauce or better yet, a steaming hot pudding and cold brandy butter melting over top can’t be compared to anything else. 

We also love it with a cheese selection and with smoked salmon or other smoked fish. Come to think of it, smoked cheese sandwiches with brandy butter has a nice sound too….hmmm.

Lastly, I have changed my Seaweed & Sea Salt recipe for the holiday season – adding sesame seeds to this unique medley of gorgeous sea salts from around the world. I love salt, it’s healing properties and ability to turn ordinary food into an art form.

My Gourmet Seaweed Sea Salt blend has West Cork sea salt along with French, Himalayan and other Atlantic sea salts. When combined with the seaweeds and infused with thyme – the flavour is exquisite. 

So much to look forward to this holiday season – it’s all in the food! 

April

Magic of Christmas….comes in a jar! 

Spiral of Life - Energy Transformation from Field to Fork

This being the start of a 10 day fast it’s a perfect time to reflect back on some of our activities and observations about our lives as far as our food is concerned. I can always measure our journey by what we are eating, growing or cooking.

Today we are working on some honey from one of our hives… I love the smell in the house when honey is being processed. Of course our form of working with honey is very simple – for the most part, we don’t do much of anything!

What we like is honey on the comb or cut comb honey. This is the honey you can gently squeeze out of the comb or eat the entire thing really. There is a little bit of wax and lots of honey – all of it with health and healing properties.

Mostly we don’t take much honey from our bees – just enough to use for medicinal purposes and a little in my baking. It certainly would not be something I would spread on my toast (other then the first day with new honey) it is too precious for that.

This past week I also cooked a leg of lamb – it was one that needed to be used up, something that was bought from a shop awhile ago. What I wanted to mention about it is that it was bland – the day before we had enjoyed some of our own meat raised here and it did not compare.

First of all, it wasn’t organic, it was also likely raised and then not handled as gently as we would our own animals. But, I do think what they are fed likely makes a bigger difference then we all realize.

Fortunately here in Ireland, most lamb and grazing animals are on the land and eating grass. However, those intended for market are often finished on grains which are mostly genetically modified these days (corn and soy are GM in the regular feeds).

This gave me something to think about – and I was not overly impressed with the meat itself. I was thinking mostly in terms of the flavour – perhaps we are so accustomed to stronger flavoured fowl and game meats now. Or maybe I just need to get a lamb of my own and raise it to see if it tastes better or different to me.

Some other things I have noticed with my cooking and baking is how much of our meals are now our own. At Easter we sat down to a meal with the following items made or grown by us - turkey, pickled gherkins, pickled beetroot, cranberry apple sauce, sage stuffing, green salad, hot fruit juice.

Everything, except for items like rice and some of the vegetables (which we are not able to grow yet) were from our own hands. It was nice to look around the table and see how far we’ve come with our food.

Even if you have to buy in some of the raw ingredients – you are still making something terrific for yourself and your family when you raise, grow and cook your own food.

I can see how my focus shifted sometime ago from removing any processed foods (they have been long gone) to seeing how much we are able to grow on our own. Then tasting the difference in the herbs, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, vegetables from our own hands – has become a pleasure.

It is such a wonderful feeling to put energy out into the raw ingredients and then to have it all come back full circle – transformed into healthy, nutritious meals for your family.

The spiral of life is dynamic and alive….

April 

Honey comb waiting to be pressed

Investing in Your Health - Through Your Food

Our health has a life long purpose – it’s meant to sustain us throughout the years, changes and challenges of walking towards our own individual destinies. Without it, we cannot do much of either of these – at least not as well as we should do.

One of the most important things I have learned over these years spent researching, reading, dreaming up new recipes, cooking and eating food – is that good quality, wholesome nutrition is an investment into my own health.

It is also an outlay of energy into my family’s well-being, future and immediate health not to mention growing healthy children. When you are eating properly, your body functions better, your thinking is clearer and you are simply better able to cope with life’s stresses.

So what do I mean when I say ‘invest’ in our food? Well, for us this has come to mean several things. First of all we maintain a garden of some sort – right now we have herbs, a few greens, sprouting broccoli, soon Brussels sprouts that we are eating, but lots of others things are growing.

We spend time and energy in the garden taking care of it, expanding it, finding the plants we would like to have as well as buying organic seeds where possible. This is a project – it may take a few seasons, years and revolutions around the sun to see the benefits we hope to have.

Then there are our animals – we wanted to stop buying eggs, milk and meat from the shops – knowing if we could provide these for ourselves, they would taste better, as well as give us the immediate peace of mind knowing the animals were well treated, gently raised and organic.

This is also a project for our children who are very much involved in every aspect of the garden, rearing animals (collecting eggs, milking a goat, planting seeds).

I also buy in bulk where possible – raw ingredients are brought in and then made into the foods we would like to eat. We make our own nut butters, mayonnaise, mustards, pickles, jams, chutneys, breads, cakes, cookies, treats and each meal we eat.

Each of these activities are investments in time, energy and careful consideration of our needs, desires, tastes – and other then the actual set up of an organized system….it’s not as much work as you might think.

Actually when your body works more efficiently because you are eating your own far superior food – you have more energy for everything else in your life – and to do it right.

Think about it – with all the adulterated food on the market these days (meat, honey, fish etc.) why worry about someone else investing in making your meals – make them yourself.

April

Happy Food - Raising Your Own

Late last night I walked up from the barn, cold, a little wet, tired and came into the house shedding layers of wellies, coats and jumpers as I went. Then sat down while I waited for the kettle to boil and realized something important – I was so happy. 

I love animals and always have – right now in our house we have a turtle, canaries (one is sitting on an egg), a dog, a cat and some fish. Sometimes I don’t know who they are all for – us (the parents) or the kids.

We all get some much pleasure from caring for them, interacting with them and spending our days together. Of course there is the work aspect of it too – but it has become part of my usual morning routine – water, feed, clean everyone one in the house and then, go out to the barn.

The little barn has become an extension of our home and our table. The animals there are different from the house pets in that some of them are for food, others for breeding however, all are living beings and treated accordingly.

The stories told at the end of the day when we are all together again (dad is home) usually come from the antics of the barnyard or what the cat was up to at some point in the day (today he had a large spider cornered – well you know the rest).

One of our greatest pleasures has been the turkeys – of all things! I have raised turkeys before, but not ever with such an awareness of their lives, watching them, interacting with them and listening to their happy little cheeps. 

We laugh nearly every day at these large birds as the mingle with the goats, ducks and humans down in the yard.  Like the time a turkey decided he was a duck and stepped into the duck pool while the ducks were frantically scrambling to get out. 

He just stood there with his long legs in the middle of the pool looking around – at all the fuss from the ducks. Was he thinking – so this is what the water bath is all about? 

Yesterday I was showing the children videos online of turkeys being humanely slaughtered – just so that when our time comes for turkey dinner they are not overly shocked. They didn't seem at all phased by it but we have talked about this part of the life cycle since day one.

Of course I worked for several years as a Food Hygiene Inspector and have seen more than my share of animals going to slaughter. As well as days spent standing in cold water, working in smelly barns and otherwise keeping watch over food animals, inside and out.

The nicest part of all of this rearing animals for our own food is we know what they eat, we know they are loved and cared for – and that they will make wonderful food for our table when the time comes. 

April

Garden Party 

Got To Eat Your Greens

One of the best things about summer eating is the abundance of fresh greens - they are in virtually every corner of the farmers markets (I love Skibbereen market) and usually picked fresh that morning. There is no excuse, especially not during these few summer months to not eat enough green vegetables.

Then, there is one other simple fact here - these are basically just weeds and will grow nearly anywhere, in anything. I have pots of them outside my door - rocket, mizuna, cress and stir-fry mixtures along with select herbs I would use frequently such as dill, coriander and basil. 

Rocket leaves

Mixed Salad Leaves in Pots

In my garden I have a cold frame (easily made from old windows) that is also growing a few other often needed kitchen goodies such as leeks, swiss chard, beet leaf, peas, and more stir-fry greens. Even in my herb garden (also protected) there are spring onions, Welsh onion, wild rocket, cress and chicory - all edibles for a quick stir-fry or salad. 

One of the large cold frames 

These greens and herbs will be more protected as the months change and we should get an extended growing season for the vegetables inside their little shelters. They are also easy to maintain being basically only a raised bed with a border around it, slugs have been minimal (we have plugged the gaps) and right now they do not need to be covered.

But, this is not all that I wanted to say about greens and fresh vegetables, oh I could go on! Because this is important, the one thing that my body always craved even when I wasn't really listening back in the days of my mis-spent youth and non-health, was something green, fresh and picked from the ground.

The amount of vitamins and minerals in these little leaves is astounding, we simply cannot go without them for long and expect to maintain even minimal levels of gut health and general maintenance function. Even the dogs and cat (and all other creatures I am sure) eat their greens and can be seen munching away on blades of grass and even my rocket. 

Today, take some steps (if you haven't already) to get seeds, and a pot or a patch of ground and get growing - in a very few days you will be eating your own little leaves that will repair, re-build and replenish your system while tasting great at the same time.

This is so easy to do, it is shocking that we are not all brilliantly healthy from eating mountains of green leaves and vegetables. If you get tired of salad or don't really like them cold, throw any green leaves in with other vegetables and do a little stir-fry a couple times a week. 

Mixed greens and purple cabbage stir-fry

Your body will thank you for all of the green energy!

April

More greens growing behind the cold frame

Herbs for Cooking & Healing

Herbs are one of my favorite foods and of course the only medicine I choose to use for myself and my family. I grow most of my own medicinal as well as kitchen herbs here in my garden in West Cork. Thankfully they are very hardy (basically weeds!) and can take the rain and lack of sunshine better then then the rest of us. 

If you are not yet using an abundance of herbs for your cooking, you don't know what you are missing, they are perhaps the most valuable source of vitamins and minerals from the earth. Herbs contain some of the highest amounts of vitamin C (rose hips), iron (parsley, sea vegetables, raspberry leaf etc) and most other nutrients that we need on a daily basis. There is always a good reason to include herbs in your cooking, tea and salads.

Growing herbs for your food and cooking is also quite easy, especially the more common ones such as thyme, rosemary, basil, sage, coriander, parsley and many others. If you don't have a garden, no problem, they will grow in pots in a sheltered location - ready for use, for a good few months of the year.

This time of year (harvest or Lughnasadh in Ireland) is when I start to gather my herbs and dry them for teas and use in the coming winter months. They are easily dried hanging in small bunches or even spread out on newspaper near a dry warm fire. Often I do both - mostly because it is so wet these days - I hang the herbs to dry for 24 hours and then spread them out to finish drying near the fire or other source of heat.

Herbs drying on a rack

Once dry (make sure they are thoroughly dried) they can be crumbled or placed into jars and paper bags to keep for later use. I have a good few that I would use for colds, coughs and general winter bugs throughout the year to keep us all healthy. However, many of these herbs are also fabulous in the kitchen meals...

Using herbs in cooking, salads and as part of larger meals is something that many of us have forgotten and moved away from, to our own detriment. Herbs adjust, heal, uplift, re-balance and otherwise work with the body intelligence as the best doctor humans will ever know and still manage to taste great!

When adding herbs to your cooking more is often better, the taste and added flavour is outstanding. While there is a herb or two for nearly every dish we tend to skimp when using them fresh from the garden.

The best practice is to use far more then just a taste - for example, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley is nice, however try adding 1 or 2 cups of this herb right from the garden to any pot of soup or stew - the transformation is magical! The flavours mix and mingle with the other foods leaving you with a meal that is refreshing and alive with sensation.

One of my favorite salads is something that is made up from the garden - fresh picked herbs such as basil, parsley, spring onion, mint, rocket, cress, chives - chopped up into a green salad, tossed with oil and balsamic vinegar then sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese. Imagine the flavour and the goodness in that bowl!!

I will have to get a picture the next time I make it (perhaps tomorrow for the harvest festival)

Back soon,

April

Borage tea and drying borage from the garden - flowers can be used in salads fresh, or leaves in tea for heart health and courage!