Soils and health...

On the weekend I went to a gardening workshop with a mate, organised by 'One Organic' it has reinspired me. That the future of food production is in smaller scale lots tended with intention and loving care, rather than large scale agronomy where the pressure of making a profit is applied. That the foods and medicines harvested reflect this input and approach. That there is a relationship between soil fertility and our health.

'Being a servant of the land instead of making the land a slave'.
 
An example of the interrelationship between the soil and our bodies, is the balance of microorganisms. The proportion of friendly to nasty in the soil is 85% to 15%, exactly the same as in the human digestive tract. However some folks nowadays come closer to the directly opposite figures of 15% friendly to 85% nasty. You can imagine why you might feel lack lustre in such circumstances and in the context of soil, why plants trying to grow in such conditions might be lacking in vitality. The answer is nourishing ingredients in both cases.

For soils, one answer is 'green manure', not unripe poo (although that too helps), but  a crop thats planted out, usually peas, legumes or beans, allowed to grow to a certain height, then cut down to fall back onto the soil and break down. Thus making available the nutrients gathered by the crop for what ever gets planted out next. Creating available nutrition and compost.

For humans one answer is to include living and fermented foods in the diet. Enzymes are living parts of our digestive processes (and the soils), we are born with them, but in finite amounts. Living fruit and veg, not overcooked, vine ripened, contain within the enzymes needed to digest them, hence reducing the use of a finite resource.

 The Findhorn community is an example of working with poor soils to cocreate abundant nature . They began as a small crew of people on low incomes living on the Scottish coast, who set about making a garden on sandy soils, with wild weather conditions. They became dedicated to working with both the spirits of the land and the plants, consulting them daily as to how to proceed. What to plant, where to plant it. How to nourish the land. The abundance and size of their harvests came to be recognised world wide.

So our vegie patch has been planted out with a mix of mung, black eyed and adzuki beans as an experiment in green manure and Ive pulled out my books on Findhorn to reread.  Inspired once more thanks to folk who believe in the magic of growing and preparing your own food as medicine.

Resources:
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The Findhorn Garden: Pioneering a New Vision of Man and Nature in Cooperation
by The Findhorn Community, Turnstone Books and Wildwood House Ltd, 1975