Monday, January 9, 2012

Foraging!

(That's a pix of what tempts Claire into the stream--watercress!)

Found this description of a woman foraging in colonial America in a novel I'm reading (An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. This series of Gabaldon novels make wonderful reading, by the way. I love the Claire and Jamie books. :) Claire is an herbalist and a doctor (and a time traveler).

Excerpt

Spring had sprung, and the creek was rising. Swelled by melting snow and fed by hundreds of tiny waterfalls that trickled and leapt down the mountain's face, it roared past by feet, exuberant with spray. I could feel cold on my face, and knew that I'd be wet to the knees within minutes, but it didn't matter. The fresh green arrowhead and pickerweed rimmed the banks, some plants dragged out of the soil by the rising water and whirled downstream, more hanging on by their roots for dear life, leaves trailing in the racing wash. Dark mats of cress swirled under the water, close by the sheltering banks. And fresh green plants were what I wanted.

My gathering basket was half full of fiddleheads and ramp shoots. A nice big lot of tender new cress, crisp and cold from the stream, would top off the winter's vitamin C deficiency very well. I took off my shoes and stockings, and after a moment's hesitation, took off my gown and shawl as well and hung them over a tree branch. The air was chilly in the shade of the silver birches that overhung the creek here, and I shivered a bit but ignored the cold, kirtling up my shift before wading into the stream.

That cold was harder to ignore. I gasped, and nearly dropped the basket, but found my footing among the slippery rocks and made my way toward the nearest mat of tempting dark green. Within seconds, my legs were numb, and I'd lost any sense of cold in the enthusiasm of forager's frenzy and salad hunger.

End excerpt

Oh, gads. I know JUST what that feels like! Foraging frenzy! It's so true. And here's I've got to wait two months (at least). Sigh.

Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

HM

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Statin Drugs Linked to 300+ Adverse Health Problems

Good grief. And then there's this article discussing how statin drugs--you know, those cholesterol lowering miracles--are basically poisoning people. Americans really have to wise up. If they do not, or refuse to pay attention, they are bound to end up sick and diseased if not outright dead.

The importance of good nutrition and good basic health habits (you know the drill--exercise, good diet, sunshine, cheerfullness and positive thoughts) are increasingly important in this poor country where what's called food ISN'T and what's called "medicine" isn't either.

Seems like these megacorporations are out to kill you, with the help of the government in the form of the USDA and FDA to boot.

I better stop for today. These two blog posts are making me ill. Time for this one to head out into the glorious sunshine and take a walk through the woods and fields, or at least down one of our dusty ol' roads!

Take care, everyone, and be sure to eat REAL FOOD. Oh--and don't take statin drugs.

HM

Cheeseburger Remains the Same After a Whole Year??




Urf! You will want to think twice about eating a fast food cheeseburger after reading this! What a horror story this is. I recall reading somewhere about researchers leaving a small bowl of margarine out on a windowsill for a couple of years. You'd have thought that something--flies or other bugs, bacteria, mold--would have eaten or dissolved the margarine, but you'd be wrong. After two years, the stuff was still sitting there, as fine (and as plastic) as when the researchers put it there.

What IS this stuff they're selling as food? As the blogger asks--What should we call this stuff they sell as food, which ain't food? I love her idea--"plastic chew toys for humans." Because whatever else the stuff is, it ain't food!

This is the kind of thing you need to keep in mind when you're out and about and feeling tempted by the fast food chains. Oh you can buy and eat the stuff, but it isn't food, it isn't remotely nourishing and it is contributing to ill health and eventually death.

YUCK!

Note, I haven't done this myself, so I don't know if this story is true or not. But somehow I don't doubt it....

HM