Your Good Health - Naturally! Grow Your Own!
There is nothing better than tucking into a meal made up of things you have grown yourself. I learnt this last year, when we decided to grow as much as we could on a patch of land we were loaned. With friends we also put up a polytunnel, to extend the range of what we might grow.
With blind enthusiasm and some advice from gardening friends and relatives we planted carrots, onions, potatoes, beetroot, parsnips, runner beans, mange tout, sweetcorn, leeks and courgettes in the veg patch, and salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, aubergine, peppers and chillies in the polytunnel. What a joy it was to tuck into the fruits of our labours a few short months later! The food really does taste different, fresher and more vibrant somehow, but it was not just the eating of it but the growing of it that was a revelation.
Our project took us outside in March, preparing the patch of ground, and putting new plastic over the polytunnel. The feel of watery sunshine warming our backs as we worked was the first sign that this was going to be an enjoyable project. The aching muscles afterwards were not so pleasant, but did demonstrate that real physical exercise can be found in the garden.
As the weather warmed and the muscles got stronger, we discovered there were many facets to the enjoyment we were finding.
There was the anticipation of waiting for seeds to germinate. The patience learned waiting for things to move at nature’s pace, which we found was rather slower that we would have liked at first, but raced away from us at midsummer, when the warmth of the sunshine and the occasional rain meant we struggled to pick things fast enough! There was the stillness we found. When weeding between the rows of beetroot, I would pause and realise that there was real peace and quiet around me, except for the singing of the birds which, when you stop to listen is stunningly varied and beautiful. There was a sense of slowing down and appreciating the miracle of new growth, a meditative stillness in sticking at the task of weeding with nothing else in mind until it is complete. There was the excitement as the first tomatoes finally turned red, and so began the challenge to find ways to use them as they came by the trugful for the rest of the summer! Note for next year - we don’t really need to plant 6 varieties!
We began to feel fitter and stronger as we spent a few hours each weekend tending the plants. We looked forward to the half hour of watering in peace and quiet on summer evenings, and got real satisfaction in seeing the garden grow from a muddy patch to every different shade of green, with not a patch of bare earth to be seen.
So, why am I extolling the virtues of vegetable gardening in this way? Well hopefully it is obvious. It involves all the things necessary to maintain good health. Exercise, fresh air, sunshine, a little discipline (to get started on the weeding!), and wonderful nutritious food to eat at the season progresses. The first new potatoes, the fresh mange tout, and the revelation that is homegrown sweetcorn! Juicing carrots and beetroot you have grown yourself adds a whole new level to the virtuous feeling of detoxing, and it really does taste so good!
Add to that the pleasure of growing some sweetpeas in with the runner beans, some nasturtiums and calendula at the end of the rows, and some beautiful poppies marking the edges of the plot, and you start to get the picture of just how much I have come to love my veg patch!
Maybe you have thought about growing some veg or flowers and not got round to it yet…well, all I can say is go for it! Get together with a friend if possible, as that takes off some of the pressure of daily watering in high summer, and gives you someone to tackle the heavier tasks with, but do go and find a patch to work on. I have seen Tablehurst are advertising allotments, and there may be some available through the parish council. But if you can’t manage a plot, try a pot! Start with some tomatoes on a windowsill or by the back door, and I am certain you will be hooked!
Your Good Health Naturally - Dealing with toxins
by Catherine Smith - 11:34 on 12 June 2015
Your Good Health Naturally - Dealing with toxins…
Toxicity is a word that is often used when referring to reasons for feeling unwell, when no particular cause can be identified. But what does that really mean? And what can be done about it?
Firstly, when you consider what we ate 200 years ago, we consumed a pretty clean diet. Meat, vegetables and grains were the staples of our diets right up until the second world war, when the advent of new technologies heralded the beginnings of a chemical revolution. Synthetic pesticides, herbicides and preservatives were used regularly from this time and continue to be used today. These inevitably find their way into our food, and although they are deemed to be safe, it cannot be denied that they are not a natural part of our diet.
One must also consider the vast array of chemicals that we encounter in daily life, in cosmetics, medicines, vaccines, cleaning products, furniture and carpet treatments, to name a few. Individually these products are tested as safe, but no one has yet tested the cumulative effect of all these things, and one has to wonder if the accumulation of so many foreign substances might be a step too far?
I am always keen to celebrate the wonders of the human body. It truly is a miraculous piece of engineering, and it does have an extraordinary ability to adapt and cope with challenge.
The liver and kidneys are the filtration system of the body, filtering all that we consume so that we can absorb the goodness and expel the waste products and toxins that build up as a result of normal body processes. But until just a couple of generations ago, our bodies were not asked to filter out manmade chemicals in the way they are now. It is a challenge that for most people, the body meets quietly and efficiently, but for some, the extra effort required is too much, and many people have developed illness and low energy levels as a result. In particular, problems such as headaches, fatigue, allergies, eczema and joint pain are all signs that the body is under pressure.
Chronic ill health is more of a problem now than ever before, but the upsurge in popularity of super healthy diets and cooking suggests people are looking to food for help with their health in a new way. Everywhere in the press recently there have been articles about people suffering from debilitating health problems who have transformed their health by eating a completely natural diet. The results are often dramatic, and certainly makes one think!
Changing a family’s diet in this way is no small undertaking, but even taking small steps can help. Increasing whole foods such as fruit, vegetables and cereals is a good start. Cooking from scratch is another way to dramatically reduce intake of chemicals, as we don’t tend to add anything synthetic when we cook ourselves! And where possible, switching to organic produce is a good plan. We are lucky in this area to have producers of organic food on our doorstep, and although it can be more expensive in the supermarket to switch, buying from local producers is not as expensive as one might think.
So what about other things we can do to support the body while we make changes? Some people find taking supplements helpful to give different body systems a boost, such as milk thistle to help the liver. Others may wish to do a dietary cleanse, perhaps with juicing, or a diet detox programme.
In my area of homeopathy, there are many remedies that can help the body maximise it’s ability to cope with toxins and a build up of toxicity. The remedies often offer relief from symptoms of all kinds, while gradually helping to restore balance and health to the system as a whole.
Whatever the state of your health, don’t ever think that it is not worth making changes. Even small changes can help in the long run, and committing to living as cleanly as possible can reap real rewards over time.
NB. All suggestions and advice given are for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of a health professional if you have concerns about your health.
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