Eating well and properly is one of the best things one can do for the body both mentally and physically. Food connects us as a species, a people… a family. It is in gathering around the bounty of food that family or neighbors so often connect…
It is in food naturally grown, and minimally prepared that the true benefits of nutrition can be found.
If you have a Farmer’s Market in your area, by all means avail yourself of this resource. The food will not necessarily be cheaper, but it will usually be fresher than any you can find in stores. And you get the chance to meet the people who grow your food. We all go shopping for an auto mechanic we like and trust, doctors, lawyers and accountants are other professionals we interview and use judgement as to whether we will utilize their services. And while those are all instances in which one would hope to have a harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship… how often does anyone think about who grew, handled cleaned and processed the food that will go into their own system?
An internal combustion engine needs three things to function… fuel, compression and spark. Our own systems, while monumentally more complex than anything man can design, is also an engine, and the fuel is the calories we take in daily. But food is more than just the calories consumed… you have such a wide range of minerals and nutrients that are in some foods… but not all. It is in a variety of good and healthy fruits and veggies that we obtain the maximum benefit.
And also, all too often supermarket aisles are stocked with exotics from around the world.. but what to do with that sugar cane? What do you do with a great big waxed yucca root? What’s the safest way to prepare a cactus pad? These questions can be answered at your local farmer’s market by the growers themselves. You can find out their philosophies on life and its relationship to growing your food… because life is just a transfer of energy… and every transfer requires the death of something…. to understand the entire relationship of the soil requires an understanding that nothing happens in a vacuum… every action has consequences… life is a changing patterns of chemical reactions and transfers on a sub-atomic level. Every teaspoon of fertilizer will either have a beneficial reaction with the bacteria and fungi in the soil.. or it will cause their death and the eventual sterility of the soil, reducing its own long-term fertility… and resulting in plants deficient on some level.
I found a blog that deals with the Farmer’s Markets in the Bay Area… we are referenced by the author. I encourage you to bookmark that blog… the author shows the various foods available in the market, and has explanations and recipes for them.