ONCE UPON A TIME

“We’ve had thunderstorms every day for two weeks now,” I told my mother over the phone.

“They’ve had the same thing in Milan.  Your aunt told me that they have caused a lot of damage,” my mother said.

“It’s global warming,” I said

“Yes,” she agreed. “Once we ate apples and pears in winter, peaches and grapes in summer.  Now there is everything all the time.  The fruit is picked under ripe and by the time you bring it home it goes from not being ripe to over ripe and it tastes of nothing.”

“Mamma, do you remember when we used to go with Nonna to pick the vegetables that grew just outside Paceco?”

“Yes,” she said. “Once upon a time we would walk to the edge of the town and fill a bag or two with wild asparagus, gira, qualeddu, senapa  (dark green leafy vegetables that used to grow wild on the western coast of Sicily) but that was a long time ago, now houses have grown there instead.”

 

  This conversation with my mother a couple of weeks ago, brought back memories of my childhood and adolescent years when walnuts and Christmas time came together and plums and apricots heralded the end of another long school year and tasted all the better for it. 

  But that was indeed a long time ago, and I had forgotten that there is such a thing as food geography and seasonality, so used have I become to finding everything a recipe calls for at the local supermarket.  But growing up in Italy I never knew for instance, that avocados existed.  In fact the first time I ate an avocado was at a French Bistro in London when I was twenty-two years old.  And loved it!  Now I eat Avocados all the time.  And my children didn’t have to wait until they were twenty-two to have their first one.  And talking of Avocados makes me wonder about this mad scheme of mine about eating local food.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, I am also talking about turning my lawn into a vegetable plot!

  Really, I do wonder about myself sometime.  What I know about food is that I love to cook and eat lots of it.  And then I wear it.  But maybe one of the reasons why so many of us wear our food these days, is exactly because we are eating the wrong food at the wrong time and in the wrong places.  Not to mention of course all the “stuff” that’s in our food these days, like sugar for instance – And here is what I found out about sugar in Ayurvedic Nutrition, A GUIDE TO CONSCIOUS EATING

[…]Intolerance to sugar is very common and manifests as chronic tiredness, depression, mood swings, behavioral and learning disorders, poor concentration, intestinal disturbances, and headaches.  People often crave and become addicted to the foods to which they are intolerant.  This often happens with sugar.  Processed sugar affects our health in other ways […] it lacks significant nutritional value.  It is a source of energy but lacks any vitamins or minerals.  In fact, to digest and utilize white sugar, the body must use up its own vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, especially potassium, magnesium, calcium and B vitamins.  This can lead to nutrient deficiencies when large amounts of processed sugar are consumed.  Significant consumption of processed sugar is associated with the development of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

[…]Most people consume far more processed sugar than the body can use for energy.  In America, an average of 130 pounds of processed sugar is consumed per year per person.  This translates to 1/3 of a pound of processed sugars a day per person.  Many times consumers are unaware of the large amounts of processed sugars hidden in packaged foods.

 

  And so you see, when I learn things like this I realize that although I started on this journey to reduce my family carbon foot print, the benefits that follow eating simple, unprocessed locally grown meals go further than reducing gas consumption.   As we go forward on this path, we will discover the far-reaching impact that eating non-seasonal, non-local food has on life on the planet.

Before I go,I wanted to add something to my last entry about bottled water. 

Avoid drinking from very thin plastic bottles, as the plastic contains carcinogenic substances that can contaminate the water.

Did you know that by shaking it the water in container becomes oxygenated and undergoes cellular restructuring and more easily oxygenates blood and lymph while energizing the cells?  Cool!

 Esmeralda

Please email me at : esmeralda.newplot@gmail.com