Cucumbers are in the season. At least in my backyard garden, I can enjoy plenty of small pickling cucumbers and also long English type of cucumbers.
There are so many reasons to fall in love with this guy: preparation of salad or cucumber juice takes practically no time. Adding cucumber to salads and cold soups, gives them so much more freshness and flavor. I come originally from Latvia, which is a place where everybody has a garden or at least some balcony or backyard plants. Cucumber time in Latvia is associated with snacking on quick pickles, one hour pickles and tonnes of fresh garden salads. I have implemented this delicious summer snack in my Canadian summer.
My artistic side cannot stop adoring the shape of leaves, blooms and fruit, they are so attractive! I have painted and drawn them numerous times.
I am not sure whether the grocery store vegetables will do the same because of shipping and storage, but fresh ones from the garden can do a lot to improve our health. I personally simply love the flavor, the look and the taste of these easy to grow vegetables. All they need is watering fairly rich soil and some string to travel up.
I can tell from my own experience: having about one cucumber with dill and green onions a day stabilized my very moody blood glucose levels. It became so stable that I was really surprised, I’m not sure what I will do in the winter, but it works excellently for now, especially because I love eating them.
I will briefly remind that cucumbers:
refresh your breath, cure gums, destroy bad bacteria in the mouth;
facilitate digestion and metabolism, kill bad bacteria in the gut, cure constipation;
carry out toxins present in the body due to very specific substances they contain;
stabilize blood glucose levels, especially when consumed with dill;
stabilize blood pressure, especially with dill, because dill is a very well known blood pressure reducing herb;
when using cucumbers for longer term, they prevent cancer due to lariciresinol, pinoresinol, and secoisolariciresinol that cucumbers contain;
reduce bad cholesterol due to sterols they contain;
flavor will calm you and put in a better mood, this is scientifically tested and found to be working;
cucumbers are an ideal product for weight loss: very few calories and lots of good stuff!
refresh skin, decrease swelling under eyes;
cure sunburnt skin;
help with hangover.
We could continue and continue.
Cucumbers are inexpensive and when in season, always available from farmers market and our own garden.
So, I picked some along with plenty of dills and blossoming dill and dill stems:
For inspiration some Latvian recipes from series: I have very little time and money
5 minute cucumber salad
Cut cucumber in medium thin slices. Small cucumbers and any cucumbers must be peeled (if needed, because sometimes they have thick skin) always from the light end; this prevents from getting the whole vegetable bitter. In dry weather, small cucumbers can become bitter if they lack water.
Chop generous amount of fresh dill and green onion.
Dress with either: sour cream plus small bit of mustard or some mild vigar (very little); mix of mayonnaise and whipping cream, like I do; olive oil plus mild vinegar. Lemon or lime don’t go well with cucumber. Add salt and pepper. Salt is added on cucumbers directly before serving, otherwise they release too much juice and water.
Dill goes so well with cucumber and has similar properties: regulates blood pressure and blood glucose levels
1 hour quick pickles
Choose a plastic or glass dish with tight lid.
Combine 2 teaspoons honey or sugar; 1.5 tablespoons vinegar; 0.5 teaspoons salt, freshly ground pepper, 2-3 cloves of garlic, cut in smaller pieces on 1 long cucumber or 2 small ones, mix
Cut cucumber in slices, they don’t need to be very thin, add plenty of chopped dill and finely chopped green onion. Close with lid. Shake well for about 30 seconds. Leave in room temperature for about 20 minutes, place in fridge until the meal time. 20 minutes is already enough. Serve. I know how people are afraid of vinegar, but small amounts of it go well with lots of recipes. It’s needed for pickling purposes.
Next day mild pickles
Pour water in a pot. Amount depends on how many jars you make.
Bring to boil. Meanwhile wash small pickling cucumbers. Cut off both ends. Stuff in a jar blossoming dill/dill stems, 2-3 cloves of garlic per 1 l jar; add some whole pepper, place cucumbers tightly. Cherry and black currant leaves work well, too. Use just 1-2 on each jar. Pour over boiling water. If desired, add some spoon of vinegar, but that is not necessary if you don’t like vinegar. It simply facilitates faster pickling process. Put on lid, leave in room temperature for quicker results, place in fridge to use after 2 days.
When left in room temperature, these pickles are ready after 12-15 hours, sometimes even faster. The smaller vegetables, the faster they get pickled. They absorb neither much sugar, nor salt. If you add very little, there won’t be any decent taste. We have very many varieties of this type of cucumber recipes in Latvia, I just described the absolutely simplest and quickest.
I love all of these, and I put new quick pickles in some jar every second day. After I’m done with quick pickles, I will put in some cucumbers for winter. Winter pickling recipe is obviously different. If you are worried about any ingredients, I’d say, don’t be silly and, secondly, replace vinegar with some strong sour substance.
It has been hot and very hot recently, we had a heat warning in place, and I believe we are all aware how important it is to keep ourselves hydrated. People use all kinds of liquids to quench their thirst. However, using soft drinks, beer, milk shakes, especially the very sweet ones, will make us thirstier than we were.
Water is the most essential substance of the body, and therefore, it needs to remain within a healthy range in order to keep our body functioning properly. Our body has many signals, we just have to listen to these signals and replace the lost amount of water when we feel thirsty. However, that will depend, as well. Diabetics will feel thirsty always when the blood sugar is too high, that is a body signal to alarm that glucose rates are running high.
How much?
Moderate use of water is good for everybody, but the type of water is definitely a very private choice. People tend to follow all kinds of strange advices; there are many wrong ones on the internet, as well. Briefly saying, one has to know his own condition and use any substance responsibly, whether that is sugar, salt, water, juice or alcoholic beverages.
I would think that people who already have too much weight are staying away from sweetened drinks and especially in hot weather because their body already functions in a stress mode. We have to pay attention to heart palpitations, dizziness, fatigue, headache and similar symptoms; therefore carrying a bottle of water with us is a good idea for anybody, but especially for people with some disorders.
Water is simple
Water has a very simple chemical composition and therefore is absorbed fast: the first portion already after 5 minutes, the main part within 15 minutes, but a complete absorption is achieved after approximately 1.5 hours. Our body uses pure water, and that explains why normal amounts of it decrease the feeling of thirst. However, we should always use water in moderate amounts. Our kidneys can only process a certain amount of fluids and water within an hour, when we are exceeding about half a liter in hour we are asking for trouble.
Moderate use
Testing brain response to drinking water, scientists found that our brain has a positive response and creates a feeling of satisfaction only during the moment when we are quenching our thirst. Pressuring oneself to use more water than advisable (woman a bit over 2.5 liters and men about 3.5 liters during 24 hour period in conditions when activity level and sweat production is fairly high) makes no sense (I am not referring to people who do sports). Our kidneys will have to work in extreme stress conditions and when the amount noticeably exceeds the amount our kidneys are able to process we will experience a situation when the electrolyte (salt and mineral) content in the blood is severely diluted, resulting in extremely low sodium levels in the blood. This condition is called hyponatremia. The outcome can be fatal. One should never ever participate in any drinking competitions, even when it is something as innocent as water. If this person stays alive, kidney failure is inevitable.
Low sodium
Many conditions including congestive heart failure, liver and kidney failure, pneumonia and drinking abnormal amounts of water in a short period of time are commonly associated with a low sodium concentration in the blood. Therefore, be aware of how much of water is healthy for your personal health condition. Too much is never good, as we know keeping everything in balance never harms.
Will people who prefer just soft drinks fall in love with water? You could certainly try serving it as fruit water and slightly fruit-flavored water. Kids especially love the multicolored fruit slices in their cups and glasses. It looks festive and attractive. I personally never use any sweeteners with fruit water or similar water based drinks.
Color and freshness
Citrus fruits add so much freshness and flavor to these simple drinks that it is impossible not to try some. We can use different ice: freeze tea or diluted juice, place a mint leaf before pouring in water for freezing. I have taken very many pictures, I will continue with one more post how we can teach children to love water and how such a great habit makes our life easy.
I prepared ice, mineral water and water and sliced some orange, lemons, limes and cucumber. I have mint and lemon balm in my backyard, so I got some leaves, as well.
Such water looks great and is delicious and refreshing
There are always things one can add to enjoy such simple natural drink
Pleasure to look at, pleasure to try
Lots of freshness
I combined cucumber slices with lime, also adding a small bit of lime juice and some mint and lemon balm leaves here and there. There was no sweetness, but this water was extremely refreshing. The newest research tells us cucumber flavor alone is calming and makes us feeling more pleasant.
Lemons, limes and oranges are simply fresh; I think this is always the brain reaction towards citrus flavors.
There are millions of options and combinations, and all of them are good!
I would like to suggest implementing a few rewarding activities in our daily routine.
We can certainly find happiness within ourselves, but since we are also very social creatures, our happiness, feeling of fulfillment, pride, love, satisfaction with life and desire to embrace life as is, will quite often depend on relationships, appreciation of other people and interactions with them whether in a small family circle, in a larger social group or even global context. Therefore, we need a strong support. A strong something to hold on, or somebody who is always up to the challenge, who we can always rely on, who we can trust completely.
There is a person who we can always count on. This person is us. It can be extremely hard to make somebody else feel happy and satisfied with the current life settings if the situation is far from brilliant. However, it is practically always possible to make ourselves satisfied with life.
In order to avoid disappointments, I’d say we should
rely on ourselves whenever possible;
ask for support and advice people who we trust when we feel lost, and
always treat the situation realistically and appropriately. problems don’t solve themselves, we do.
Plenty of people suffer from pain, severe disorders, stress, nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, mental disorders, obesity, diabetes, liver or kidney diseases, cardiac and vascular illnesses, post-disease traumas and simply fear from life once they have experienced an unpleasant treatment from somebody, bad situations and accidents or loss of and detachment from people who they cared about.
That is painful, devastating and overwhelming; and although, we tell ourselves to forget and live our life as if nothing ever happened, it takes time and huge effort to either start everything from new, or correct whatever we are able to correct, change and adjust.
After a very bad accident about 2 decades ago, I can hardly recall any single day when there was no pain. It can be extremely bad or just irritating, but pain is always with me; my nasty companion, never leaving me alone. Multiple surgeries and long treatments were the reason I got into complications. Quite honestly, it’s not a pleasure, even though nobody would notice any visible changes in me. It is tough because I am on a strict schedule which doesn’t allow for any deviations. So, what do I do?
I love life even with all its troubles, with all its restrictions and limitations. There are many. However, I choose not to focus on limitations, but my abilities, talents and rewarding things.
I am writing in my other blog how art can be an extremely useful tool for maximizing our potential and doing something valuable which brings a lot of satisfaction and fulfillment in our life. There are many people who attend my classes, I would not have met them without my love to art and teaching.
Many people do gardening, love flowers, plants and nature, and that is fantastic!
Gardening can mean many different things: gardening for profit, gardening to provide oneself or family with clean and nutrition-rich produce, gardening for fun and as a hobby and gardening as therapeutic horticulture. You probably have not heard that much about the latter before, but this means using your garden, balcony, backyard or any natural space for growing plants, vegetables, herbs, flowers and similar, and doing this all mainly for therapeutic purposes. “Hortus” means “garden” in Latin, and that’s why we call it horticulture (cultivation of a garden). Horticulture has extremely long history and it deals with multiple food growing, exploring and enriching, and non-food aspects, including psychology, design and even treatments.
One does not have to be a scientist to see how many beneficial effects gardening has on the person who loves it.
How could gardening for therapeutic purposes help somebody who is not a gardener and doesn’t want to be one, but would love to still enjoy being out in the nature?
Beautiful and delicious
We are spending enormous time indoors: in buildings and in vehicles nowadays. That is a huge part of our life. We have lost the connection with natural processes and we have forgotten that nature has and always has had a cure for everything. The truth is, we simply walked away from it being sure that chemicals will replace anything we need and technology will make our life a dream. That did not quite happen, and the easy life came at a very high price: epidemic numbers of incurable and difficult-to-cure diseases, damaged DNA and inherited conditions from which children suffer and will keep suffering as adults all life.
Most people have forgotten or have never known how that feels: to touch the soil.
Well, they should try that because the Earth has incredible powers, and it can do both: cleansing and re-energizing. Therefore, people who would benefit most from growing something or participating in outdoor gardening activities are first of all small children, kids, adolescents, elderly and sick people or those who suffer from mental conditions.
Contact with soil, plants and flowers can be not only of huge aesthetic value, but it also contributes to everything we so badly want emotionally and physically: get rid of stress, sleep well without pills, become more confident, happy and satisfied with life by watching the growing and life cycle in the garden.
Here is what clinical research has found:therapeutic horticulture can help with
reduction of pain and stress, improvement of attention and focusing ability, decrease in agitation and anxiety, improvement of the quality of life;
gaining new skills and regaining the lost ones, improvement of memory, sense of responsibility and social interaction and many more depending on the person who needs some relief.
My beautiful garden: there is always only good news
How does the therapeutic horticulture work for me?
I do it mostly for pleasure and I simply must have a garden. I have always had one and have made numerous new gardens anywhere I lived, always from scratch. I take care about my flowers, plants and herbs every day and every moment when I can afford to be outdoors.
If I cannot walk or something else is wrong on that day, I can sit there and simply adore all shapes, colors and the natural perfection. The morning dew or afternoon heat, the mystic colors through foliage at sunset, the first berries or tomatoes: that is a source of endless calm, happiness and satisfaction. Being out in the garden re-energizes, takes away pain and cheers me up even in the worst days. I am drawing and painting my garden, flowers and vegetables, and garden becomes my art and inspiration. Well, it is an integral part of my life. It can replace so many things which I cannot do, attend or go to. I will return to this theme some time again because it is essential for me to share with others how much such simple activity can give us.
Or did you have to work hard and go through lots of struggles instead?
I believe, everybody has seen these and similar ads: eat whatever you want, don’t even exercise, and lose weight. Just take our pill so that everything happens effortlessly.
Effortlessly is the keyword for everything. People, who want to make money using these empty promises, are quite successful.
Try our dating site and see how you find the right husband or wife right away, we do everything for you so that you just enjoy this person and are thankful for the rest of your life. To us.
Try our new outfit and see how effortlessly you get a new job because you make such a fantastic impression at the job interview.
Try our product and see how effortlessly you become the healthiest person ever, just one spoon a day, and you are like new and absolutely free of any digestive problems.
Use our cream and make your wrinkles and age spots disappear within one week. You will look just like her who’s undergone some 10 plastic surgeries and has daily beauty procedures in the most expensive clinic with the most expensive doctors.
Buy our book: positive thinking and positive attitude and see how your life improves within a few days. You are rich, healthy and happy. Problems disappear, and your mind is bright, focused, and sharp. Every day is a happy one, and nothing bad can happen to you. Effortlessly, just write down these sentences or repeat them in the morning and before you go to bed.
So, we could continue endlessly because all what one has to do is think positively and repeat affirmations and everything happens. They get the dream job, or even better, – don’t have to work at all. I saw on Facebook, one had to share a picture with piles of banknotes, and it said underneath: money flows to me effortlessly, and that was promised to become true. That sounds like a line from a criminal fairy tale. In reality, there is no such a thing as money flows to somebody effortlessly.
The next thing is usually health: repeat or write on a paper whatever times this positive affirmation and you will be surprised how no headache bothers you, you never get colds, heartburn, digestive disorders, anxiety, diabetes disappears, cancer resolves from itself and heart attack or stroke will never threaten you. It’s very simple: just be positive and pain will completely go away. Depression will turn into uplifting energy. Broken bones will heal and age related dementia is just a joke which may affect people who are not positive enough.
In the same simple way one can change the relationship, make bad marriage good just being positive about it, get hundreds of new admirers and therefore have no problem with choosing a spouse.
Here it finally is: somebody has discovered the secret of success in any area of our life. They know it, and you don’t. You definitely have to learn about that.
While there is a true connection between our thoughts, the way Universe acts and reacts to them, nothing happens effortlessly, but we cannot deny the factor of being at the right place in the right time.
That’s why positive thinking is attracting so many people. It is said it solves everything: from health problems to financial disasters and debts, from mental disorders to marriage solutions and personal improvement.
First of all, life is life, bad things happen to very nice and good people, too, and the biggest part of humans or almost everybody (whether they admit that or not) is unhappy or unsuccessful in some area of their life and time to time. Nobody can be absolutely happy every single moment, and anything we do can potentially have wrong or bad outcome, as well.
Secondly, when things go wrong or health gives us hard times, most people often look for causes in themselves and in their own actions, and after that they blame other people and life, government and their destiny. Bad diagnosis is mind-blowing and devastating, and we are ready to do everything to cure ourselves. That is how one initially feels: completely lost, desperate and helpless. Because we all instinctively hope that nothing bad can happen to us personally. When such book about positive thinking comes along or happens to be in our sight, that’s like something minor to buy it, possibly read it and possibly try to be positive when we are absolutely desperate, in pain and suffering. Maybe we should choose a better path to let the Universe know what we want.
The huge number of terminally sick, badly sick and suffering people proves that pure happiness approach does not really work. If it was so simple: why are there so many sick people who suffer from incurable or partially curable diseases? I am very sure many of them are aware of positive thinking and have tried it. We are actually overcoming our fear from the future not because we are positive we will survive, but because we have many protective mechanisms built in us and physical and mental strength to cope with such issues. That is called willpower and desire to live.
The huge number of homeless and jobless people also proves that there is no real connection between being positive and having everything one needs: safe home, well-paying job and enough of good, nutritious food. Everybody has positive attitude and positive expectations when they go to apply for a job, when they try to save money for a house. Yet, positive thinking won’t prevent us from global financial crisis which can destroy all savings and put us out on a street. How bad is that because we are positive, but people who have all the money might be not? Otherwise, they could just simply help us out. meaning, most people of this planet need help, especially financial because money solves numerous issues.
Although, millions of people have tried the positive attitude challenge and still do, that hasn’t had any impact on the decrease of diseases, that has had no impact on the global economy and that has had no effect on each and every family’s wellbeing.
Lots of people live or at least try to live believing that everything is fine and if they feel something is wrong, they blame themselves for not being positive enough.
Positive, negative and neutral thinking are simply distinctive ways of perceiving the reality, therefore, there is no reason to put emphasis on one of them. It is obvious that we must have a positive outlook when starting or doing something (otherwise: why to bother?), but this positivism has to be based on realistic evaluation of facts, and therefore, realistic optimism is much more valuable than plain positivism. We review our chances, we evaluate our goals and chances, and we realistically approach every problem.
Realistic approach also includes a healthy criticism. Well, that might seem to be too much down to earth, but I could list hundreds of examples when realistic optimism causes no disappointment, but overly positive expectations do, and that happens every time when there was absolutely no reason to hope for a good outcome.
Lots of people believe that they are entitled to everything, and to have this everything shouldn’t take them any efforts.
There is no scientifically proven correlation between positive thinking and perfect health, longer life, better income or better personal relationships. I could insert a long list of psychologists who proved how delusional positivism and obsession with seeing no downside in anything can have the adverse effect: from more severe depression and anxiety cases to people who got scammed out their life savings or got betrayed in other ways. I will not insert this list because I want to describe my personal observations and experiences. However, if you google “the negative effects of positive thinking”, very many articles listing psychological research will come up. That means, positive thinking does not constitute “a cause and effect” correlation because people who are already healthy, people who have no financial problems or are naturally inclined to explain everything from the trust and belief position (are born as a psychologically easy-going type) will definitely be more positive and maybe even less cautious than people who struggle with pain, are terminally ill, have broken marriage, don’t have a job, or home, have broken relationships, etc.
However, there is a strong scientifically proven correlation between willpower, personal integrity and perseverance and better health, better jobs resulting in better income and more successful relationships. Willpower is not the same as positive thinking. Willpower is neither positive, nor negative. It shows that the person has the strength to withstand whatever comes along and to stick to their plan. Willpower also allows implementing our intentions regardless of obstacles, and quite often that is all what matters.
Under the never-ending pressure to pretend and to show how positive and well we are, we do not want to admit any bad things anymore because that might be understood as a weakness, as a personal failure. We feel obligated to be positive and to show off our “everything is excellent” side. Nobody has cancelled troubles, diseases, disasters, failures, broken promises and broken hearts. That is life. The bad sides of our life have to be assessed and dealt with accordingly: black doesn’t become white if we think so. We have to paint it white and do this with internal strength from the position of our personal belief and willpower, without pretending, without lying to ourselves.
When somebody is seriously sick, they need a treatment. If one has tooth ache, they have to go to the dentist. When husband is cheating or beating up the wife, this wife has to divorce him. When small kid is rude, we have to react to it. When our house is dirty, we have to clean it: roll up the sleeves and get down to it which is not really exciting or entertaining.
Talking and thinking does not always help or do the job. We have to act instead of expecting a miracle. It is dangerous to expect we will have everything we feel entitled to without putting any efforts into it. That refers to absolutely any area of our life: being fit and good-looking, having a great relationship or long-lasting marriage, having financial stability, good job and improved global climate.
Neither this world, nor life is perfect. Humans have imperfections, too. It is good to strive for self-improvement, but this is not done only by thinking and attitude. The attitude should be realistically optimistic, but the main part is a positive action, or an action to implement all our positive intentions. It is not enough to think: I am beautiful, smart and healthy, while spending the entire time staring at phone or laptop screen on a coach and eating junk food. Is it?
In my experience, positive thinking gives results only if it is based on assessment of reality and it is followed by an action in the right direction. I am for realistic optimism.
Besides, one website offered free happiness training. Cool or what? Free. Free happiness for everybody. I told before, type in Dalai Lama’s quote about how man surprised him most because of not living neither in presence, nor future and dying as if he never lived, and this site will come up, but maybe don’t do that because Olga, a fellow blogger was embarrassed to receive messages every day, although, she didn’t sign up for anything on that site. This is just how terrible they are: you want a free happiness and they make you suffer for that.
Midsummer or Summer Solstice is celebrated in quite a few countries, nations and places; however, I don’t know any other place than Latvia where people love so much the Midsummer night which is called „Līgo”. This is practically not translatable; it comes from ancient times and is used after every line of Latvian midsummer folk-songs. The closest interpretation might be “sway” or “swing”, just like plants or trees are swaying in a light wind. There are plenty of folk-songs, and these songs have come to us through very many centuries, they have originated some 1500 years ago and given verbally from generation to generation. No powers, natural disasters or governing rules could make these songs and the Midsummer celebration extinct, even though, many tried to prohibit Latvians to celebrate “Līgo”, especially Germans and Russians, and especially after the WWII during the communist times.
Latvia is such a tiny country, but the spiritual and intellectual side of life is a big deal over there. Latvians are a nation of singers; they were overcoming all troubles and all disasters cheering themselves up with such folk-songs. I will attach a link which shows one adapted “Līgo” song performed by Latvian choirs during the Song Festival which takes place every 4 years.
Magic rituals, superstitions, simply traditions and solstice magic: everything is carried out and present during the night of June 23. It is supposed to be the shortest night, although, we know June 21 or June 22 are the shortest nights.
We have special foods to enjoy: special cheese with caraway seeds, beer, special small pies and similar treats.
I managed to make my Midsummer cheese this year, as well. That is definitely my most favorite cheese of all of them. It is difficult to make it using Canadian products because they are not quite the same as in Latvia. However, the taste is excellent, I tried some slices already.
This night is celebrated outdoors with bonfires, dancing and singing. This year I’m not going to Sidrabene where Canadian Latvians have Midsummer Festival, it is not the same anyway. “Līgo” belongs to Latvia, we can imitate it, we can try, but it still is very different from the original celebration in Latvia.
The nice thing is being able to wear a flower wreath: women wear wreaths from any flowers, grasses or leaves, men usually wear large wreaths made of oak leaves.
Latvians have names’ days and celebrate them even more than birthdays. June 23 is the day when Jānis has his name’s day. Jānis (we say this not with an English “J”, but like in “young”, just with long “a”). Many Latvian men are given the name “Jānis”. It said 58,400 men will celebrate their name’s day this year, meaning, they all have name “Jānis” and wear the big oak leaf wreath. “Jānis” in Latvian mythology was supposed to be the God’s son, who rides around during this night and blesses fields, meadows, forests and homes. He brings fertility, abundance and good luck.
The Midsummer cheese, Midsummer wreath and Midsummer bonfire are all meant to honor the Sun and to celebrate its victory over night. Nights are very short around this time in Latvia, there are only few darker hours between 12 and 3 pm, and afterwards the light returns.
Young and not that young couples are going to look for the blossom of a fern. Ferns according to the Latvian mythology are blossoming only during this night, only in rare places, and not everybody can find or see these blossoms. The folk-song says: all flowers were blossoming; only the fern did not. It was blossoming on the Midsummer night with golden blooms.
Midsummer is the moment of full blooming when the beauty becomes so obvious that it is impossible not to notice it, when love is so close that it becomes touchable. It is a time of fertility in the nature and among humans. It is a time when the human becomes part of nature again, forgets about civilization, its rules, limitations and restrictions. The Midsummer night is wild in its purest form.
Just like thousands of years ago, a clear and loud “Līgo!” goes up to the sky, echoes in lakes, rivers, hills, and forests, fields and meadows respond with an echo, too. This is believed to be the most magic night when everything is possible and everything can come true.
The reality of today is as follows: we have forgotten why we have to eat, instead we are getting obsessed with what, when, how, how much, where to eat. There are many millions of diets and food recommendations, no surprise we get easily lost.
Why don’t the wonder diets work? Why aren’t we all physically and mentally fit and living very long, peaceful, enjoyable life? Based on so much research and findings, it’s about time we should be getting to the point when every single person, who follows suggestions about what to eat and what to avoid, should be getting extremely healthy and free of diseases and health related problems. In fact, the health situation is becoming worse and worse, and we never thought cancer would be present in newborns, yet it is, and in multiple hard to cure and very rare forms.
It is very logical to conclude, that something does not add up and something must be profoundly wrong.
The first reason why many diets don’t work is that they may be suited to the person/persons who tried them, and they are completely useless or even harmful for you, me or whoever else. How so? Just like our DNA is absolutely unique, everything else about a particular person is absolutely unique. While all humans have lots of similarities, they also have plenty of distinctions. Our DNA is much older than our personal age or the age of our closest relatives. It has the knowledge of things we have no idea about.
Therefore, the main principle in choosing our food should be using such products which suit our health condition, age, lifestyle and activity level, any existing physical or mental problems and is as natural as possible. It should be also easy enough to find, get and prepare. That’s theoretically, but practically we should follow more our own feelings, listen to our body, make conclusions and correct our previous mistakes. That means, not everything which is good for some celebrity is good for you or me. That also means that not everybody should or can be a vegetarian, vegan or use any other restrictive food choices, unless clinically indicated. Clinically indicated as in: tests are done, and the condition has been confirmed. That means not to base the exclusion of an important food group and nutrient on somebody else’s assumption that they feel better using that particular type of diet.
Balance and moderation is what nature teaches us. Balance in everything, because it is so easy to overdo with things which are deemed good and excellent.
The second principle which applies to food, and especially nowadays: we should always choose everything in its most natural form: plants as plants, vegetables as vegetables, grains as grains, etc. The less unchanged something is, the better.
What do the grocery stores offer? Many processed foods, packaged foods, products with something added, something taken off. Lots of as if improved products: with different flavors, in different colors. Any grocery store has obviously vegetables and fruits. However, I would like to ask: how rich in nutrients are your vegetables and fruit at the closest supermarket? I am talking about Ontario with its long winter, cold spring and fall. Place like Wal-Mart? They’re always busy. The answer is: very little. These vegetables can even look good, they might have some flavor and smell attractively, but if they have traveled for thousands of kilometers and then have spent quite a while in storage and sorting departments, it is very unlikely they have the same amounts of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants as the freshly picked ones.
The most over-used food labels include: fresh, natural and organic.
By a short definition, natural is present in or produced by nature, and it could no way contain additives, chemicals, sweeteners, flavorants, taste enhancing substances, added vitamins or any substances which were not present in this product when found in a natural environment. Organic food in the context of regulations is food produced in a way that complies with organic standards set by national governments and international organizations. These standards greatly vary. There are very distinctive approaches for labelling, handling and processing products in order they were described as organic. Therefore, organic might cost a lot more, but it does not necessarily mean it is free of pesticides, chemicals or other harmful substances. Basically, organic food is food which is grown and processed in accordance with standards in that particular country or region, and the company which is putting it out on the market, has the certificate.
What do we choose?
Whether organic or not: the freshest, the most natural and the least processed. I suppose, if we could, we would grow every single vegetable in our backyard. The quality of some products is so low in Canada, that I have been seriously thinking about baking my own bread.
The attached pictures are from the local farmer’s market. Well, it is a better choice than supermarket, but there is no guarantee you are getting all nutrients you think you are. I will continue in some other post. Thanks for reading! Please share your thoughts!
It took me a while: I was planning to write this life school blog for some 2 years, and I finally got written and published the first post of my new blog. I hope you’ll like it! I hope you enjoy all posts and all my observations, stories, poems and life lessons which I have experienced during many decades living in Europe, Latvia, as well as later in Ontario, Canada.
I was just cropping photos and thinking: it was such a blessing to grow up without any internet and without any mobile devices. I suppose, childhood is the perfect time to learn about our surroundings and nature. That is a great time to find out what each herb, grass and flower can do for us, how they can help and what they can cure. I had a grandmother who taught me everything she knew about plants, flowers and herbs when I was about 5-6 years old. We moved to a small town afterwards, we had a garden, just like everybody in Latvia did, but meadows and forests belong to my early childhood.
I also remember when I arrived in Canada, I saw lots of lawns, every house had it, and most backyards were lawns, too. That was when I thought: what a waste of land and soil! I think, it’s wrong to kill all dandelions, white and red clover, other small blossoming weeds, even nettles, because bees desperately need them. The flawless lawn is boring. If every house had flowers and blossoming weeds, we would not need to worry about losing bees. secondly, every plant and herb helps maintaining or improving our health.
It is, thankfully, summer, and summer means planting, weeding, growing and watering plants. I am very happy to have a huge backyard this time. I haven‘t turned it entirely in a garden yet, but if we stay here long enough, I probably will. We rent, and that means moving often and starting a new garden again.
Here are the main reasons why even very busy people should grow some herbs and some basic vegetables in their backyard. It’s not about money and financial gains because starting up a small garden is not that cheap. It is about the huge health benefits. That also means that kids learn nature directly and take part in growing their own meals.
We obviously can buy everything at the grocery store and farmers market. The latter is a better choice because of a shorter shelf life. However, the soil has been depleted so terribly during the last decades that vegetables and fruits we are consuming at the present moment have only 30% of the mineral, vitamin and nutrition content compared to what they had in 70-s. When we add to this processing time, packaging time, time of transportation and sitting on a shelf, we cannot even dream that this fruit or vegetable compares to some extent with the vegetable or fruit which we picked in the backyard or garden.
There are plants which grow themselves. As soon as we have put them in the ground, they’ll only require watering and a few – also minimum amount of a fertilizer.
I love strawberries because they grow wildly and require attention only two times a year: in the fall when we need to detach the new shoots, and in early spring when we should sort out the entire strawberry field or bed. After that, they just bloom and grow, and all one has to do is pick them when red. Isn’t that fantastic? Secondly, you get twice as many plants in the next year, 4 times more in the third year, and so until your backyard is a strawberry field. Just kidding, but still, it’s an easy plant to grow in mild climate.
The simple or Italian parsley
Lemon balm: so beautiful, so good for us, especially for people who suffer from high blood pressure and anxiety or similar disorders
The other plants which grow absolutely effortlessly are herbs: basil, dill, parsley, mint, sage, rosemary, lemon balm and thyme. They have extreme contents of healthy stuff inside, yet, they don’t require practically any work. Dill can be sown every month as a sub-plant for other taller plants. It is a really friendly neighbor to cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, radish and similar. Dill grows very fast, and just 1 teaspoon of chopped dill with any salads, soups or potatoes, etc. provides us with a large dose of live!!! vitamin C. I will review in other posts all possible uses of dill, parsley, lemon balm and other backyard plants.
The insanely healthy plant: dill for every condition
There is still time to plant and sow many summer herbs and vegetables. Radish and lettuce are ready in a very short time, so eat and put new seeds in the soil.
Crisp and red: eat right away
The biggest advantage of growing herbs and vegetables is that we really can be sure how clean they are and what we have used when growing them. Only tomatoes and cucumbers will need a bit of fertilizer (2 times a season is enough), everything else grows practically on its own.
Flowers: endless source of pleasure
More flowers
More strawberries, these are the first ones this year
I have strawberries in pots and everywhere else, we used them for sketching
Enjoy the pictures from my backyard! I appreciate your comments!
Inese Poga Life School 