“Le jardin est le pharmacien du pauvre” - proverbe allemand
“The garden is the pharmacist of the poor” - German proverb
Gardening, like music has been my salvation a few times in my life. When I was diagnosed with a compound form of NHL (Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma) in 2013 I was teaching full time and moving to a new home. It was a stressful and exhausting time- but I was experiencing an even deeper level of exhaustion than I had ever experienced before. In the midst of my diagnosis and first round of treatment I began to dream of a garden. It represented wholeness, healing, and comfort to me.
I began small with some railroad ties that were already in the yard of our new home. Friends of mine from the Erie Playhouse came and weeded the garden for me whenever I had to go to the hospital. It became a community effort that healed my wounded spirit.
Over the next few years as my battle continued the garden kept changing and growing. My daughter Bekah drew a beautiful design and we ended up with 25 8x4 garden boxes - all inside a beautiful fence with 3 gates. It had a hammock, a chicken house, a picnic area…heavenly.
Every meal I would go out to the garden and see what inspiration I could find. The process was a delight from start to finish. All that fresh produce…(sigh). The greens inspired what became known as “breakfast salad” that contained both fresh and cooked veg with an egg or two on top. The tomatillos were prolific and turned into some YUMMY salsa. The herbs just got thrown into everything. Did I mention the fresh cut flowers?
Even if you don’t grow the food yourself, you can imagine how someone labored over it. Let the food you eat be more than “garbage in garbage out”. Think of how it grew with sun, wind and rain. Shift toward a new mindset about whole foods and let them change and heal you from the inside out- body, mind and spirit.
Food is medicine
Food is pleasure
Food is transformative
Join me this summer for My Happy Healthy Yummy Cookup on location in Findley Lake, NY! Come learn how to make this healthy cooking and eating thing work for you and your family
