Learn about one of the most powerful plants to heal musculoskeletal issues........
Hello Beautiful Beings,
Such an incredible week of summer weather we have had. I trust you full enjoyed the beauty that we were blessed with over the long weekend. What a gift!
No doubt many of you were out digging in your gardens and tending your flower beds. I’ll bet a number of you were assessing the Solomon’s Seal growing there and wondering if perhaps it might need a little thinning out as it is starting to encroach on other perennials. If you find yourself in that situation, read on. This week we explore the incredible healing gifts of this beautiful and powerful medicine. So many people suffer from musculoskeletal aches and pains and would very much benefit from this plant. Share the gift of this plant with others. If you have extra, dig it up and pass it along to other gardeners and those with musculoskeletal aches and pains and share the healing knowledge of this plant. You can find my post on Solomon’s Seal HERE.
Food has been pretty simple in my kitchen this week. I am still enjoying fresh wild greens. I harvested the young leaves of the “invasive” edible weed - creeping bellflower for the first time this past week (Campanula rapunculoides) and found them quite adaptable with their mild flavour. They are best eaten cooked. I blanched them and added them to the Socco recipe I shared with you a few months back and served it with a Cilantro Sauce and it was awesome… my friends loved it! While a bit challenging to identify this time of year as its not yet blooming - unless of course you know where your patch of it proliferates :) Here is a photo of it in bloom.
The local seasonal vegetables are starting to reappear at farmer’s markets and in CSA boxes - and a lot of it is salad greens. This is the time of year to enjoy the wide range of beautiful lettuce before the summer temperatures get too hot for happy lettuce. We are full on into salad season. These days, if its not some variation on asparagus or wild greens, my meals often feature fresh garden lettuce. While salads are awesome, sometimes life is busy and finding a “fast food” fix is where its at. My favourite this week has been juicy leaves of tender romaine as a wrap carrying whatever leftovers (or hardboiled eggs) I might have hanging around in my fridge. What makes it is the sauce or dressing!!! If you want some ideas for healthy sauces and salad dressings, check out my post HERE. Keep in mind that the most important thing about salad dressing is using high quality fats and oils. Store bought dressings contain poor quality fats and oils. Poor quality fats and oils promote inflammation, stress the liver and lymphatic systems and disrupt the microbiome. For a refresher on fats and oils, see my post HERE. While eating lots of veg is great for our health, the addition of fats and oils to those veg is what allows us to absorb the nutrients from these foods most efficiently. AND…. fats and oils make things taste great. Fat carries flavour. Use high quality fats and oils!
That’s it for this week. So glad to have you join me. I appreciate your presence and the commitment you are making to your health and wellbeing and that of your family by showing up here in this space together. May it inspire joy and connection in the beauty that surrounds us, holds us and nourishes us. May this nourishment spill out into all areas of our lives.
Much love to you all and see you next week 💜 Jacinta
Solomon's Seal
Solomon’s Seal is in bloom. Such a beautiful plant with its trail of elegant white flowers along the stem. A shade loving perennial, its medicinal uses are significant and have been largely under appreciated. Many people would benefit from access to this plant and it is not readily available on the commercial market. It’s an important plant to start gro…
Food as Medicine: Fats and Oils
You can access a recording of this post here Fat makes food TASTE good. Fat carries flavour. Fat creates a feeling of satiety from eating a meal. It creates a sense of fullness. It balances our blood sugar and keep us feeling satisfied longer. Fat increases the uptake of nutrients from the plant foods we are eating them with. Did you know that we absorb…
Recipes for Sauces and Dressings
Homemade Sauces and Dressings are a great way to get more fat and flavour into your meals. They are also a great way to make vegetables taste DELICIOUS…… so that you eat more of them. A flavourful sauce can easily transform a ho-hum meal into an AMAZING one 🙌🏼