Living Local - Beneficial Soil Bacteria

Today I was taking some homemade cheese out of the fridge (making Lasagne!) and noticed a bit of reddish mold had started to grow on it…..of course my mind immediately went to – I wonder what kind of mold that is? Would it make a nice rind on a cheese and how would I cultivate it!!!!

To be honest I have caught myself thinking like this over and over lately in all kinds of situations and realized that is fairly close to the mindset I would have had when I was growing up.

I don’t know about you, but if there was mold on cheese in my house….well, it was cut off and the rest was eaten. Then, there was a relative or two who would also eat the mold….but that’s another post!

Likewise, if there was a bit of mold growth on the jam…it might be stirred in as much as scooped out….most food was generally fresh and eaten fairly quickly, however, nothing went to waste, under any circumstances.

Milk that had gone 'off' was used in breads, baking and given to animals as feed. Wilting vegetables were used in soups and stews. Old, stale bread went into puddings, toast and bread crumbs. 

Our bodies should be able to tolerate low levels of naturally occurring organisms that grow in, around and on our food. But, one thing that must be pointed out here is these days most food is so far removed from ‘normal’ the organisms we might find on it are in themselves a disaster.

When we go to a modern day supermarket to get our carrots….they are all neatly lined up in a bin looking nearly identical to each other, as clean as a whistle with nothing to distinguish them from any other carrot. The same goes for pretty well all other vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and fresh produce.

Sterilized food. There is nothing living in there and the vegetables themselves are lacking in nutrients mostly because they are depleted of these beneficial organisms every step (from soil, water and lack of direct sunlight) along the way of this mass production.

This is why I spend my time in the garden, wild foraging and shopping in local farmers markets – my body requires real, living food in order to function at optimum levels. Not to mention just for basic health and survival.

One of the things I love about market shopping….we get as much as we possibly can from our local markets and of course, I am equally participating in this local community endeavor – is the lack of packaging, the variety and the life to be found there.

Our food is meant to be alive inside and out….which includes healthy, normal soil bacteria. Start getting your fruit, veg and some of your foods at your local farmers market….you will notice a difference in your digestion and your social interaction!

April

Sauted chanterelles with garlic & onions.....wild foraging in West Cork!

Nature - An Endless Buffet is Summer

These last couple of days were spent fasting….after all the rich food on the weekend, I needed the break and a little breather from eating! Not to say that food has been far from my mind however.

I have carried on with my yogurt making (after so many years of not eating it!) I now have a jar in the house each week. And I am loving it. Perhaps I am just very late getting into the many health benefits of eating yogurt but…

Some of which are - it's easier to digest, it is know to promote energy production, is a natural anti-inflammatory, contains selenium, helps in the absorption of minerals....and it tastes good. 

The one thing I do know is that nothing compares to making your own yogurt and especially the stuff made from raw goat’s milk. This is seriously good food. I can sense it ‘changing’ my internal workings (gut health) after I eat it.

And, I must say, I love experimenting with it even more. In a way it’s a bit like the cheese making – only with yogurt there is less to do. However, today I did let some of my yogurt thicken into curds and whey and then I strained out the whey…

Of course I ended up with the nicest creamed goat’s cheese I have ever eaten, which was even nicer after I stirred in some fresh thyme from the garden and a little sea salt. It was a nice way to break my fast.

Besides my new adventures into making yogurt, I have also been playing around with my Butterfly Juice – adding in different flavours to see what we like and to create some new and different tastes.

Over the weekend I made my juices using the same basic ingredients of nettles and dandelions but also leftover juice from cooked mixed berries, some juice from carmelised apples and cinnamon and banana.

It was the most delicious juice weekend we have had so far – everyone loved it and there was still the same energy buzz from the concentrated nettles that we get with my regular Butterfly Juice.

Ah…nature – an endless buffet is summer! 

April

Goats in the field

Wild Harvest - Wild Nutrition

I am in the middle of my holiday weekend – foraging for all our vegetables and I have noticed something quite interesting already….I just wanted to write this down as I am feeling/going through it (if you know what I mean!).

Some of you might be able to relate to this – or perhaps even all of you, so here goes…you know how after you eat a meal (even a big, satisfying one) and then you just want something sweet to go along with that?

Sometimes that need to have something sweet to top things off, so to speak, can drive you crazy – it did me. And it wasn’t necessarily something big…just a date or a fig (I have long since given up sugar and chocolate) but the ‘need’ to have it was there.

Well…I have noticed this before, but thought it was merely a coincidence but now I am certain it is not; When I eat a meal with lots of wild harvested vegetables such as today…the cravings for something sweet vanish.

It was a few hours later after my breakfast, of our own goose eggs, our own cheese, with our own milk, wild harvested nettle, dandelion and wild garlic – all made into a lovely omlette – that I realized I craved nothing….

For hours and hours afterwards I felt pleasantly ‘satisfied’ is the only word I can use here. And it was a marked difference to how I normally feel after eating any meal. Actually I did not even think about food for a few hours (and that in itself is strange for me!).

Of course, I have been mulling this over in my mind to see what my intuition would say about it and relate how I am feeling to my body, my digestion and the food I have been eating. There are quite a few interesting threads to follow here and I plan on looking at them all. But in the meantime....

This might have something to do with the amount of nutrients (would be very high) contained in the wild harvested vegetables….perhaps throughout the many generations of cultivation we have not done ourselves any favours with regards to retaining the plants as nature intended….

It has certainly given me food for thought and my weekend is not over yet! LOL

To keep some of the spring wild garlic for longer periods of time...I gathered about 500g of wild garlic, washed and chopped it into a food processor. Then added in about 500ml olive oil and 1 tablespoon sea salt. This was blended for a few minutes to mix thoroughly and then poured into sterilized Kilner jars.

I topped up each jar with a layer of oil and am hoping to use it over the coming months for just about everything! LOL

April

Wild Garlic in olive oil - ready for the winter months...

Elemental Forces - Grasping the Nettle

I am still on a bit of a nettle, dandelion, young shoots and leaves diet here since I finished my last fast. I can’t seem to get enough of them and have found ways to include some of these delectable weeds in nearly every dish this week.

For everyone in the house and beyond – even the barn animals are getting lots in their feeds….

Tonight we just finished a meal of bean burgers – with (you guessed it) sautéd nettles and dandelion mixed into the blend. There were delicious! Of course anywhere you might use spinach or greens you can use nettles which taste even better.

Then, because I had fresh nettles this morning and did not want them to wilt I made a big pot of soup for tomorrow as well – Mung Bean Nettle Soup with pumpkins and carrots. It smells and looks lovely and I can’t wait to try it…

We even started off this morning with a jug of fresh Nettle & Dandelion juice – we refer to it here as Butterfly Juice, as opposed to Goose Juice (both of which contain my Energy Medicine Remedy) – some of the names of the juices I make for the market…..

So – right now I am taking stock of how I feel physically, mentally, energetically, after getting nettles and so many fresh greens into me over the past few days – I would have to describe the feeling as grounded yet lifted up.

If that makes any sense?

Or perhaps my body is giving me more of an indication of a rise in some elemental forces deep inside of my tissues and cells. My energy field has changed – I am stronger both inside and out and my outlook is better.

Life marches on.

April