Seeds Planted and feeling the food connection

Happy Friday everyone!

The weekend is upon us..wahoo! I'm actually pretty stoked because although I have to work at 6:30AM Saturday and Sunday, I'm off at 1pm so basically I have the whole day (at least that's what I'm telling myself:) Do you have any wonderful plans for the weekend? Tonight Ryan is going to a party with his school buddies so I'm going to chill and rebound and read and write! Why am I not going to the parrtaay? Well let's just say that the girls in the group aren't the friendliest and so at the last party I had to hang out with Ryan and I felt like a third wheel...uugh. So, I'm saving myself the boredom and the frustration of not being able to leave as its 30 minutes out of town. I'm actually excited because then I can have "me" time and do whatever I want. I know it sounds geeky but I'm actually working on my application for Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine. They aren't taking in apps until August but because its a naturopathic school I need to pull all the stops with the autobiography, reference letters,
application forms, and transcripts...all you scholars know the deal. The more time I have to get ready, the more confident I am. I don't want to be preparing this all last minute, I know it would be sloppy and that's not a good first impression. I am also going to be upgrading my organic chemistry(yuck, I know) and I'm going to be studying The Language of Medicine which was recommended to me by a Boucher staff member. I was lucky to find this book practically brand new on craigslist. It's going to help me learn a lot of the terminology and it will give me a good review of the body systems as well. I cannot tell you how excited I am to start this new journey. I know its going to be hard, I know its going to take up a lot of my time, and I know my social life may not exist but I want this..BAD. I want to bring the natural medicine world to center stage and show people that your body is an amazing healing system if only you would allow it:) I have BIG plans for my career and I am so ready to learn all I can learn. I am very lucky that my province just passed legislation that allows prescribing rights to ND's. Now, you are probably thinking this goes against everything the profession stands for yet there are times when natural remedies are not enough and this way they don't have to go to an MD to get a prescription. Just try going to your MD after telling them you need a certain antibiotic because "my ND said so". It usually doesn't go smoothly, at least in my experience. The next step is to have diagnostic equipment in ND offices so they basically can be your primary physician. I will be campaigning for this legislation when it comes up. Other plans involve going to third world countries where I can provide basic medical care and some natural therapies. Do you some big career dreams?

Onto some exciting garden news...the seeds are planted! Wahoo! They are taking up the whole window area which is south facing so they get lots of sun. I saw Kelli already had some of her seeds come up:) Don't worry I'll let you know when the first sprout appears.
I love growing my own food. Last year we were living in a basement suite and so we didn't have any green space for ourselves. Yet that didn't stop me, I got all my pots together and I had quite the little garden with tomatoes, beans, kale, herbs, and salad mix. It was awesome and I loved just going outside to pick fresh herbs or grab some kale. Sorry, I wasn't into the blogging thing last year so I didn't take any picts. Yes, it does take some time but the end result is so worth it. For instance, I bought some organic seeds for $3 and each package has 300 seeds. I maybe planted 20 seeds out of this which took me 5 minutes. Then all I have to do is water and wait. Once they have grown enough I will plant them in my garden. This will take a couple of hours. Then all you have to do is water and pull a few weeds out. PS maybe you can even eat those weeds? The end result is food that will keep producing through to the fall. Local, organic, cheap, and nutritionally superior food at your doorstep. Even if you just grow some herbs, give it a try!

I put labels on every row for my watering purposes. Yet, I made a big boo-boo after I made all the labels and lined then up with each row... then I moved the trays from my table to the window and I totally forgot to keep track of which end was which so around half of my labels are guesses...lol. Oh well, I like surprises!

If you want some good resources check your local library as I bet they have tons of books on all types of gardening. For some online resources check out these sites:

• You Grow Girl
• Organic Gardening
• HGTV
• almanac.com

I finally got to watching some of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and I really think it is an amazing show. I love how he handles himself in the most hostile and stressful of situations and how great he is with the kids. He is out there making a difference and I think he deserves a huge round of applause for sounding his voice. He doesn't serve strictly vegetarian fare but the fact that he served a 7-vegetable pasta sauce for lunch was a huge step UP from that disgusting pizza that was served for BREAKFAST and lunch...ugh! I was shocked a bunch of times, I shook my head a lot ( Alice and the radio host...grr), and my heart ached for so many of the people on the show. The thing is its not just this small town in the USA who needs people like Jamie, its the entire world! So, I hope that the show inspires people around the world to drive by that fast food joint and make a salad and a stir-fry instead. I know this is not the best of the best but its a step in the right direction and that's what is needed. One step at a time and we can make huge change to the way we all eat. That's how I became the eater I am today..step by step! One thing I think is so, so true is that we've lost that vital connection with food. So many people think food comes from a window in a drive-thru and is eaten in a car, so many people think putting a frozen pizza in the oven for 15 minutes is actually cooking, and so many people think food from a box is normal. For me, cooking has really connected me to food, given me a huge confidence boost, and has helped heal my fear of food. I see beautiful greens and veggies and I know that farmer had to work hard to make them grow successfully. I volunteered at a CSA farm last spring and holy it takes a lot of work to grow organically but it feels so right to be out in the field sowing, weeding, planting etc. I think if more people took one extra minute to look at the box, bag, or bottle and ask themselves if this is something grandma would eat (as Michael Pollan asks), there would be a lot more veggies and other healthier choices being made. Not everyone is going to eat organic..at least not right away..but once they get on the bandwagon of cooking their own food, its only natural that their research will lead them it this direction. I also think if you can grow some of your own food you should do it. It's the ultimate experience when it comes to learning about your food and how it comes about. I think even growing sprouts provides this experience! So, what are you going to grow this summer? Do you feel connected to your food?

I wanted to let you know about another connected area in my life..animal rescue. I read on Andria's site called Veg is Sexy(who was told by Nelly) that The Animal Rescue Site needs help getting donations (AKA clicks) on their site to help feed rescued animals. It doesn't cost you a penny and all you need to do is click on the button that says "click here to give" and that's it. So head on over to The Animal Rescue site and help feed some rescued animals today:)

It's organizations like this one and all the many other animal rescue organizations that are out there that provide for those who cannot speak for themselves. When we adopted Nemo I learned that he had been in the shelter since May of 2009 (we adopted him in March of 2o10). Nearly a year he was fed and cared for by people who simply wanted to do some good:)



Have a wonderful weekend everyone....PS I just made some Superfood Bon Bons...divine!