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Copyright © 2010 Eighty Percent Raw, LLC
BIO
Ela Harrison Gordon is a Classical scholar, linguist and poet who has chosen to devote her life to healing and spiritual growth. She has worked as a raw food chef, beekeeper and farmer as well asa translator, writer and editor. Of English and Israeli heritage and raised in London, she has lived inthe USA since 2000 and has explored cultivated and wild land whilst living in California,
Hawaii and now Alaska.She regards her body's intolerance of grains and most modern foods, as well as her journey back
from near-death from anorexia, as blessings that have led her to a greater reverence for the body and its place in our
spiritual development, a more holistic understanding of health, and a deep interest in nutrition both of person and of planet. These blessings first led her to raw foods in 2003, and she is excited to share the breadth of what she has learned from pursuing the lifestyle in a variety of climates whilst integrating with local customs and growth patterns.
ARTICLE ARCHIVE
Explaining our Origins and Telling Stories At first glance, the task of identifying the human ancestral diet is like that of identifying a child's father. You make your best guess, you believe the most plausible story, you tell the story yourself.
Peanuts - they're not a nut and, like money, they don't grow on trees. Native to the Americas, they were introduced to North America from Africa via the slave trade. Metaphorical expressions like 'working for peanuts' and 'the peanut gallery' attest to their long and venerable history as a cheap
Why Cleanse Your Liver in the Springtime? - It seems that everyone is talking about liver cleansing at the moment. Of course, the concept of 'spring cleaning' is firmly ensconced in our consciousness and language. But why cleanse the liver in particular?
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Viktoras Kulvinskas is known as the 'Father of Raw Foods.' He has touched millions of people, over more than
September 2010 Mid-Month Supplemental Article
Some Specifics on Brassicas/Crucifers and Wild Foods Shout-out
Since I'd been talking so much about brassicas, I thought it might be helpful to make a checklist of familiar vegetables - and seeds, weeds and flowers - that are members of the family.
Aside from all the family members that are grown as important 'crops,' there are many common edible weeds that are brassicas. More and more now, people are coming to recognize the importance of wild foods (which is what weeds are, essentially): they are excellent at extracting nutrients even in poor conditions; they thrive even where they're not wanted. Given all the excellent protective properties of brassicas that I presented in my article this month, as well as some of the potential drawbacks around their 'goitrogenic' aspect, I might suggest that we turn to the weeds in addition to the common 'crops.' Most familiar brassicas are different cultivars of a single species! Wild foods will offer some greater genetic diversity, which seems intuitively to be a good thing. Weeds/wild foods tend to be intense, concentrated, powerful, herbal - and thus sufficient in smaller quantities. Is it too much to hope for that taking in smaller quantities of wild brassicas might provide concentrated doses of the protective antioxidants and phytonutrients without the potential for thyroid interference posed by taking in large quantities?
I'll mention some weeds/wild brassicas to watch out for in a moment. It's interesting to notice that we eat every part of the plant, if you parcel it out between different members of the family.
Brassica Roots:
- daikon
- horseradish
- maca
- radish
- rutabaga
- turnip
- wasabi
Brassica Stems
- kohlrabi
Brassica Leaves
- arugula
- bok choy
- brussels sprouts
- cabbages (all kinds)
- collard greens
- garden cress
- kai lan (Chinese broccoli)
- kale
- komatsuna
- mustard greens
- mizuna
- napa cabbage
- tat soi
- turnip greens
- watercress
Brassica Flowers
- broccoflower
- broccoli
- cauliflower
- rapini
- romanesco
Brassica Seeds
- canola (rapeseed)
- mustard seeds
Brassica weeds are ubiquitous - some are 'escaped' versions of cultivated varieties, and so you'll find all kinds of wild mustards, with their pretty yellow flowers; wild radish, wild turnip… When I worked in a community garden in Berkeley, I was so excited, one time, to identify a wild radish by munching on its flowers and discovering that they tasted just like radishes! Not many people shared my enthusiasm and I got some strange looks…
The distinctive seed pouches of brassicas are heart-shaped on the common weed 'shepherd's purse,' which can be tinctured for an herbal remedy for stopping bleeding.
Flowering plants including alyssum, candytuft, queen of the night, silver dollar plant and wallflowers, are also in the brassica family, and some of them have medicinal applications too - as do many of the vegetable members of the family.
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Up here in Alaska, August is full-on harvest time for gardeners. With our cool climate and short growing season, we do especially well with cole crops...
