As we all know the supplement industry is run by greed and money almost to the same degree as the pharmaceutical industry (if that’s possible). I personally believe that we can get everything we need from our food, but at times we may not be able to afford to buy all organic or from farmers markets, we may not have the strength of will to break all our addictions to coffee, sugar, processed foods, chocolate, alcohol or whatever it may be. We may be working overtime trying to make ends meet and pay the bills and not have time to learn how to make bone stock, yogurt, kombucha, sauerkraut and everything else. So I do appreciate that at times it is necessary to use supplements. But be warned if you do so there is a whole lot of products out there that won’t do what they say, and are packaged brightly to tempt you to throw your money at them. I spent time working for a multi-level marketing company (EQUINOX) that sold herb and supplements for a very high price–I ended up totally bankrupt from that venture–this may be part of why I have nearly as much resistance to the supplement industry as I do to the pharmaceutical industry. I much prefer, as do most of us, to use herbal teas, cod liver oil, berries, sauerkraut and yogurt than popping a unknown pill.

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Published in Healthy Options December 2009.

Recipe for Wild and Raw Blackberry, Walnut Ice-cream.

All of us know the tale of Sleeping Beauty and how long, long ago she was enchanted by a Wicked Witch into a deep slumber lasting a thousand years. How the enchantment fell on the people around her and there grew up a thick brier (bramble) around the kingdom. In 2006 I discovered a book by Stephen Harrod Buhner, The Lost Language of Plants, around that same time I also read Derrick Jensen’s amazing book, A Language Older Than Words, both of these men spoke of a different educational system, and how to study this open and multi-dimensional school of nature to learn to understand and interact with it. I had become interested in these authors because of a biodynamic agriculture course I had taken at one of New Zealand’s oldest biodynamic farms, Hohepa Farm in Hawkes Bay.

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Written for Healthy Options magazine November 2009.

Considering that the movement towards sustainable living is picking up speed, no discussion of asparagus would be complete without mentioning Euell Gibbons and his original back to the Earth foraging book Stalking The Wild Asparagus (1962). Euell Gibbons learned how to forage from his mother and was able to support his family with those skills during the dust bowl era of the 1930s. When I first read his book it inspired me to take a course in identifying wild herbs at Wellpark College and soon I was walking the streets of Auckland, my eyes intently focused on the ground, trying to figure out what these plants were that I had never noticed before. One of the first ones that I put a name to was Shephard’s Purse, which has such unique heart-shaped leaves it is an easy one to pick out—suddenly I was seeing it everywhere. Since that day, my list of plants I can confidently identify has slowly but steadily grown. I enjoy this sort of collecting, the collecting of plant names, it is free, doesn’t take up space and organizes the jumble of images and information rumbling through my senses to my brain.

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Published in Far West Almanac, November 2009.

I recently attended a Food Justice Forum geared to generate a variety of solutions to the issues of getting nourishing food to the lowest income groups in the downtown Vancouver, BC area, while still paying the farmers a living wage. This is an issue that cities around the world have been working to overcome. Belo Horizonte in Brazil is one outstanding example that has established a Zero Hunger program by subsidizing local farmers to come into the city and sell their food at affordable prices. This is in contrast to Slow Food movements and farmers markets all over North America which have been criticized for being priced out of range for the average person.

One of the things mentioned at this forum was that food banks and other institutions are being used as tax write-offs for large corporations to dump their surplus of unhealthy highly processed food items that are often nearing or past expiration. Highly processed foods of these types are to blame for the epidemics of heart attacks, diabetes and obesity that are characteristic of developed countries. Up to this point I have avoided entering the health reform debate raging in the US of A, as I have been fortunate to escape from my previously uninsured status by fleeing to Canada (which still costs around $50 per month whereas in New Zealand basic health is completely covered). Nevertheless it is truly shocking that the US is so backward in this area, but there are many false underlying assumptions that sideline the debate before it even gets started. When looking at the issue from a holistic perspective and combining it with the food justice issue what has happened to the US health care system can be viewed realistically. From this perspective we can no longer waste energy discussing bandages or how to set up another centralized institution where all money gets tied up in red-tape and unnecessary executives, and we start talking about how we can prevent obesity in the first place so that we don’t also waste money on triple bypass surgery for twelve year olds.

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Written for Healthy Options magazine October 2009.

It is unusual to find a vegetable that not only removes DDT from soil, but reduces the likelihood of getting emphysema or lung cancer for smokers, expels tapeworms and other parasites and is a focus of community and entertainment during Halloween. Pumpkins and winter squash do all this and more. Not only is the flesh of the pumpkin delicious and nutritious, but also it’s seeds and blossoms, in fact, in some places even the leaves are added to soup. This useful fruit is often overlooked and has the ability to create healing in both the Earth and our bodies. Pumpkins and winter squash come to us from Central and South America and were rapidly accepted around the world when introduced by Spanish and Portuguese traders. They were originally grown for the seeds as original varieties didn’t have much flesh.

Winter squash consist of many species within the Cucurbita genus, all of them cross-breed readily. They are different than summer squash in that they have thick, protective skin and a cavity that holds the seeds. Some of the more well known varieties include Butternut, Hubbard, Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), Acorn, Spaghetti and Atlantic Giant. The ones with deeper orange color have particularly high levels of vitamin A in the form of beta carotene. Their thick skins are also particularly useful, allowing them to be stored for up to 6 months under the right conditions, without refrigeration. Pumpkins are also a good vegetable to buy if you are broke and can’t afford organic produce—conventionally mass-farmed winter squash use less pesticides or herbicides and are not on the hot-list of genetically modified organisms that have been injected into our food-web.

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Published in Far West Almanac, September 2009.

Perhaps I have been watching too much Al Jazeera, but that, along with the film Blue Gold: World Water Wars, has got me worrying about folks down in LA. I honestly still can’t believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger is really the governor of California—I keep wondering when I will wake up and find that I have somehow gotten stuck in a chapter from Robert A. Heinlein’s book Job: A Comedy of Justice. In a parallel universe this must be a big joke. It seems that Los Angeles in particular is at the forefront in showing the world how the United States of America handles our economic difficulties. I have recently rediscovered long lost friends from my high school days in Pasadena via facebook, and I wish I had more answers for establishing sustainable community under the difficult conditions of LA.

The summer has been hot and dry in Vancouver, BC and I have enjoyed the ritual of nightly excursions to water my little garden under the sky-train, which unfortunately recently got mowed. Hauling water under the constantly changing moon gives me time to think and I wonder how different it would be to be doing this in LA. The documentary Blue Gold also highlighted the issues around water that LA faces. We talk about sustainable living and eating locally until all they are is buzz words, and once again we find we are just frantically putting bandages onto something we know is built on a corrupt foundation.

To the extent that people separate themselves from nature, they spin out further and further from the center. At the same time, a centripetal effect asserts itself and the desire to return to nature arises. But if people merely become caught up in reacting moving to the left or to the right, depending on condition the result is only more activity. I believe that even “returning-to-nature” and anti-pollution activities, no matter how commendable, are not moving toward a genuine solution if they are carried out solely in reaction to the over-development of the present age.

Masanobu Fukuoka

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FOOD FIGHT was the message we got in our mailboxes as an invitation from Libby Davies and NDP Agriculture Critic, MP Alex Atamanenko to attend the Food Security Forum on July 9th, 2009 at St. Patrick Parish Hall, 2881 Main Street, Vancouver BC.

I was very glad to go and hear about this issue, I recently got residency so I can finally let my roots down into this rich Canadian soil, and get involved in my new community.

Alex Atamanenko is on a Food Security Tour to hear concerns and to look into the gaps in Canada’s food systems, he will put together a proposal for a long-term food security strategy to deal with climate change, global energy insecurity and the world economic crisis. The sooner we see more systems for this being put into place the better we will all be and the more hope our children have. If you have anything you would like to add to this report please go to his website and submit your comments.

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Food Security & Sustainability: For The Times Ahead by Harvest McCampbell, published by Bio Diverse Press in May 2008 arrived just in time.

This book is a level headed and comprehensive look at what is coming our way. Without fear-mongering and trying to get rich off of your fears, Harvest McCampbell provides a wealth of resources and practical steps that you can take to prepare for the transition that our world is gearing up for.

Harvest shares her vision of a Green World that her Grandmother passed down to her, and makes us consider how we would survive if we woke up one day in a world without asphalt or cars. In this book Harvest shares her answers to the question her Gram used to ask her when they were out in the woods gathering wild food and herbs.

“Maybe today, maybe when we get back to where we left the car, there will be no car, there will be no roads. Then what will we do Little One?”

In a few simple paragraphs, Harvest McCampbell filled my head with visions of the Green World her Gram spoke of and my heart with a secure feeling of hope. This book points to how we can each help each other to find our way through the mess we have made of things by working together with respect and confidence.

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Published in Healthy Options Magazine July 2009

Tucked away in my memory lies a happy scene which we probably all share: a patch of bright yellow and orange nasturtium flowers surrounded by their round dollar leaves. Squatting down you reach out and pick the long funnel off the back end of the flower and suck out the nectar, “Ummmm yummy,” you say as you reach out to pick another one and give it to your younger sibling (nephew, grandchild, daughter), “try that.” You watch the expression of happy surprise on the face of the child as they eagerly reach out and pick their own colorful nectar filled funnel. This simple act has occurred for generations around the globe ever since the colorful nasturtium flower was first brought back to Europe from their native habitat, the Andes. Very easy to grow and a wonderful companion plant for gardeners, the zesty Tropaeolum majus quickly circumnavigated the globe and can now be found in every country.

The multicolored flower we know as nasturtium is said to have gotten it’s name from the family Nasturtium which is a genus of the Brassicacea (cabbage) family. Watercress (Nasturtium officinale) is the edible plant of this family and contains the same mustard oil (Benzyl isothiocyanate), which causes the tangy taste in the nasturtium flower. The properties and therapeutic uses of these two plants are therefore very similar. One difference is that the bright colors of the flowers also contain the powerful antioxidant anthocyanin, which we have heard a lot about over the past couple years as a highly effective free radical scavenger and cancer preventer.

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Rose Hips on the Tree of Life written for Healthy Options Magazine June 2009

–Recipe for Rose Hip Soup–

Unlike people, roses probably do not consider themselves as having a purpose in life. But if a rose bush did have a mission, I expect its greatest sense of achievement would come from creating, not just a whole lot of beautiful flowers, but the grand array of round, red rose hips which come after them.

Elder Woman

When days are short and cold, most of us enjoy reading by a fire, legs tucked under a blanket, sipping hot rose hip tea to protect ourselves from unwanted viruses. Fortunately, the frantic Christmas shopping that consumes the shortest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, are not an issue in New Zealand, and we can take full advantage of this sacred time for going within and nourishing our roots. Winter is the traditional story-telling season, when the old folks share their wisdom with tales that allow the listener to gain various perspectives into their life experiences, as they process the year’s events.

My grandparents died when I was young so I missed their stories. But, I am fortunate to have a tangible way to connect with my Mormor (mother’s mother in Swedish) through her cookbooks, recipe clippings and the notes she added in the margins. One of the items I found scrawled on a scrap of paper was Nypon Soppa (Rose Hip Soup), which remains a Swedish favorite today. The preferred rose used is the dog rose (Rosa canina) but the rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa), which have large, flavorful hips, are also commonly used. These wild roses are packed with vitamin A, B3, E, D, C, K, lycopene, bioflavonoids, as well as the minerals calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, silica, magnesium and sodium. The dog rose hips have the highest amount of Vitamin C and bioflavonoids, and also contain proanthocyanidin glycosides which are antioxidants currently being tested for their effectiveness in assisting with cases of osteoporosis. Other uses for these happy red fruits include boosting the immune system, as a powerful painkiller and inflammatory, easing digestion and assisting the kidneys, circulatory system and heart.

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