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Hot dogs and sausages are foods we are often told to avoid. The scraps of meat, organs, and fat of animals are ground, spiced, and formed into sausages and dogs.
But what if we looked at these meat options from a different perspective?
Traditionally, people used all of the animal:
muscle meat
organs (eaten whole or ground into sausage)
make bone broth for soup and then grind the bones into powder to fertilize the fields
use the hides for tanning leather, etc.
Self Healing has been an important part of who I am and what / how I live and teach since I was a very young adult. And, quite frankly, I intuitively knew this growing up. I was the kid asking Mom to buy me the "brown bread" not the fluffy white, Millbrook bread. Remember that stuff?!
Nursing school was a HUGE wake up call that what our system of medicine actually does is generally not about healing the body. Modern Western Medicine covers up a person's ill health symptoms with medications.
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Grow, Buy, & Eat organic veggies
Non-GMO a must. Look into heritage varieties.
Gently cook so veggies still have vibrant color and crisp texture. Yes, gone are the days of mushy, washed out colored veggies.
Grow your own? Keep your soil organically, bio-dynamically healthy. Skip the Miracle Gro® and other non-whole gardening additives. Whole foods & whole food vitamins feed your body’s “soil” best. Only feed the Earth’s soil with whole fertilizers, compost, etc.
Pull a carrot. Wipe the obvious dirt off. Eat without washing if your soil is chemical free / toxin free. Soil microbes (think probiotics) are in the soil.
Vibrant Soil = Vibrant Food = Vibrant Body Cells = Vibrant Whole Health
Prep veggies just before you are going to eat them or cook them. This preserves nutrients.
Steaming or light simmering veggies (remember, NO mush)? Use as little water as possible to retain nutrients in the food. Drain the cooking / steaming water into a mug, let cool, & drink. No more pouring nutrients down the drain. Don’t want to drink it? Save it for your house plant watering. Their soil needs nutrition too.
Clockwise from top: Dandelion greens, Wild Violet, White Pine, Wild Leek shoots.
It is April 23rd (Happy Earth Day yesterday!) and I am patiently awaiting Dandelion greens, Wild Violet leaves & flowers, and Wild Leeks (heading out, soon, to see if they are popped up enough to dig). It has been a long winter and a hard won Spring for us Waaaay Northern New Yorkers. Today is day 3 of sunshine and no snow floating down. The ground is finally bare save for a few pockets of the "white stuff" here and there on the northern sides of trees, hills, etc.
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When the weather drops below 45, I move to the porch: bright, cheery, & open window for fresh air. Below zero, bright sunny days, are still Yoga pleasant on the porch.
4+ years ago I wrote an article titled Why I Love Yoga and Other Thoughts on Whole Food, Whole Health Healing. I have shared, many times, the ways in which Yoga benefits healing body, mind, and spirit. Type Yoga into the search bar, over there to the right, and you will find Yoga posts on weight loss, healing, body benefits, stress... you name it. I recommend it. Yoga that is.
Yoga is a self healing retreat every time you step onto the mat and everytime you step out into your world living life from a space of deep interconnectedness that Yoga spins and weaves for you; that you spin and weave for yourself.
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I can't proclaim the brilliant idea for this cake came from me. I confess, I eat nettles in every way possible, even blending up raw in a morning green drink (yes, all green plants come from my lawn). When Debbie Miller of Earth Rythm Wellness in Ogdensburg, NY shared the recipe with me... I think the whole North Country knows I am a Nettle Queen, I thought "Why Not?" We make carrot cakes, beet cakes, zucchini cakes and breads; nettle cake sounds like a splendid idea to me.
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