Recently someone reminded me about broccoli, brussel sprouts, lemons, tomato concentrate mixed with meditation and yoga practice. OK ..how do we make all this taste good? Not hard if you want to. The CSIRO has tons of research on food and how to make it healthy eg do not cook it. The Japanese had it right.
Oh yes ..organic produce. Problem? Yes!!! Organic certification allows a number of pesticides and chemicals and none of these have been tested in regards to cancer. I know .. I grew grapes for wine and we met organic rules but still used a large number of chemicals which had BIG warnings on the labels about contact with these chemicals. I wore masks and large special gloves and had big carbon filters on the tractor cabin air intakes.
Answer: grow your own ...how in the city?
The fresher the food the more the natural anti oxidants are preserved. It is these chemicals that wipe up the free radicals that are believed to cause damage to the cells' DNA and lead to abnormal growth ie cancer. Cooking also increases chemicals in food which stop the anti oxidants from working.
I grew my own herbs and vegetables but I had a farm. I could pick them out of the garden as needed ..FRESH and I did not need to use chemicals on those, just a close eye for bugs which you needed to pick off by hand or spray with innocuous stuff like pepper infused water etc etc.
I am suprised at how many people in the city live in houses, have gardens and do not grow even herbs. They buy them in greengrocers. Ok, so you are restricted to what is in season but the variety is enormous and the taste is out of this world. JUST BUY A POT AND SOME SOIL.
PS: rocket grows like a weed - it self seeds and easily takes over the garden. You can grow it in long narrow pots if you have a balcony with sun. Raspberries grow by themselves and taste nothing, absolutely nothing like the rubbish in the shops. I did not even like raspberries till a neighbour gave me a plant and grew them myself. The list is endless.
A beautiful garden to me is an edible and productive garden that moves with the seasons. We've been prepping the vegie patch in our new rental... in July we will acquire two chooks, which cut by about a third the amount of waste thrown out of the kitchen, and give back the best tasting eggs. Bunnings have two great things for the smaller urban outdoor areas - corrugated iron growing tubs in various sizes - fill half way with bigger rocks then top half with soil/hay with added bonus no bending to tend the patch; and small plastic greenhouses. All of this costs, but over a year it becomes far cheaper and tastier than shopping. Joady.
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