It’s that time of year again. Starting last Friday, my yearly throat cold came a-haunting as it normally does with the shift from summer to fall. Usually I make small adjustments to my diet to eliminate “troublemakers” like dairy, but this year I went more on the offensive. I made my medicine. And it sure was good. First I created a nutrient rich chicken broth with lots of garlic, I used that to make a quinoa soup with all sorts of little amendments from the garden, garnished with a selection of greens and topped with some violets, just because. Throughout the day I made a point to make various herbal teas from fresh herbs around the garden: mint, sage, thyme. Occasionally I would throw small amounts of greens, like kale into these teas. Added some honey, and took my medicine. Needless to say, it was a pleasure to do so.

I would love to say that I was cured immediately by the bounty of my garden and my amazing skills of food preparation. But sadly, the symptoms reached their usual level of discomfort and I did get sicker through the weekend. Sunday night I was kept awake by an intense cough.

But.

Now, it could just be coincidence, a one-off event….but….my recovery was much quicker. By late Monday, the cough had pretty much disappeared. In the past, my yearly affliction would usually develop into a lingering cough and sore throat sometimes lasting as long as two weeks.

So sure, it’s purely anecdotal. But this whole year I have been making and taking my medicine and creating a diverse nutrient foundation for my body to draw on in order to operate fluidly and abundantly. Just like creating nutrient-rich living soil is the foundation for garden health, creating a nutrient-rich diet is a foundation for health in the body. And it is so much fun! Processed food has been dropping steadily out of my diet. Not because I am being disciplined, but simply because I don’t find flavored cardboard to be all that appealing anymore. My body has learned (remembered, really) that there is much more to be easily gained from munching on some leaves, than can be scavenged from the wasteland of processed food. In fact, grocery stores are starting to feel like fields of desolation and desperation: a circus of brightly lit packages hell bent on selling salt, sugar, cheap fat, and denuded carbohydrates to the bedazzled shoppers.

Ok, so I wax dramatic. I used to have a curious attraction to grocery stores. There was something meditative about going through the aisles, in looking at the organized arrangements of brightly colored produce, the vast array of foodstuffs. But lately I’ve started to feel like a monkey in a cage when I walk into the glaring arena of food consumerism. I can only eat what’s offered, and most of it is worthless, or at best marginally useful to my body.

I still don’t have a solution to the meat dilemma, but at least I can rely on the bustle of the farmer’s market and the chaos of my own garden to provide me with the fresh produce I need. The interaction with people, the touch of living plants and the smell of rich, healthy soil: these are good healing medicines as well. It is delightful, joyful medicine that I wish more people could experience. Hopefully I can begin to share it more with others, and they can get a glimmer of what they might be missing out on.

I loooooooove garlic, so even though I must wait for a while to harvest the cloves, I have been snipping leaves here and there and using them in everything from soups to sandwiches. The leaves are much more mild and have a, I don’t know, “greener” flavor to them. So, don’t hesitate to experiment and put your garlic to work early! Dang. I’m hungry now, I think I am going to make a bagel sandwich with cheese, garden lettuce, and stir fried mushrooms and garlic right after I post this.

blooming sage interplanted with garlic

garlic and blooming crimson clover. The clover is so beautiful, I decided to sacrifice nitrogen for flowers. A few months ago, I pulled up some clover and the white root nodules were prolific. Now that it is blooming the nodules have vanished. Is the nitrogen still present in the plant itself or has it been converted to something else for the blooms? Looks like I have some research to do.

Herb medley with garlic in the background. In the very back are a few nasturtiums. I’m sure they are plotting their take over of this space as I type. I might try to grow them vertically.