by | | Curated Content
October 16th 2024
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WellBeing Magazine
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Keep your gardening spirit alive this winter! Learn to grow fresh greens in creative ways, even using your car’s warmth.
It’s chilly, which is short for: “I am wearing five layers of clothing each time I go out into the garden”. I’m also suffering from “gardener’s withdrawal”
Our garden has decent numbers of winter lettuce, perennial leeks, spinach, silver beet, lemons, native limes and much more, all ready to be picked and eaten. But I want to grow something, not just pick it.
Luckily, there is an easy way to grow your greens, or reds, even in winter. All you need is daylight (or a grow light that will give the right light for plants to grow), a baking tray, good compost or potting mix, water, seaweed-based fertiliser or home-made compost water.
First things fi rst, choose what you’d like to grow (and eat). I like non-hearting lettuce, especially the curly red ones and the green-leafed ones that look like rabbit ears. Also celery, spinach, silver beet, basil, snow peas, watercress and any of the many Chinese greens such as bok choi or Chinese celery. Look at the back of the seed packet to see which ones are labelled “suitable for cold climates”. You might also like to try pea seeds, not for a crop of peas, but to eat their crunchy tops.
Hunt down an old baking dish or similar container; don’t put holes in the base, as you usually would — you don’t want these to leak. Fill with potting mix, then sprinkle on the seeds about three times as thickly as recommended. Ruffle the top to cover the seeds lightly, then water well — the moisture should penetrate just to the base or slightly above it, but not puddle there.
All you need now is light, plus either:
- A table on a frost-free sunny patio, the kind that feels like a concrete desert during summer.
- A table by a sunny window — at least six hours of direct sunlight a day, preferably in a room that’s kept warm during the day.
A bench with a grow light, expensive but a good investment if you want fresh greens (or even tomatoes) through winter.
Your car. I’m serious. Car parks are hot, absorbing and radiate heat. Every morning, pick up your mini garden, drive it to work and, assuming you park in sunlight, place the garden on the dashboard, shut the doors and wait for the car to heat up during the day. At the end of the day, take your mini garden indoors. If you don’t have a car, or if you park underground, ask a friend who does have a car in a parking lot most days if they will let you use some of the unwanted stored heat to grow veg. In summer, I use this method to dry slices of fruit, placed on oiled wire so they don’t stick to the wire and stain the dashboard. In a week or two, I have dried peach or apricot slices.
The other wonderful winter veg to grow now is onions. If you haven’t eaten homegrown onions, you won’t know how sweet and fl avourful they can be. Buy onion seedlings, rather than onion seed for a faster result. Grow them in the garden for nice, fat onion bulbs. If you are going to grow them to pick and grow again, plant spring onion.
Pick your winter veg as soon as they look worth eating and use scissors to limit damage to the plant. They won’t be planted deeply so can be easily uprooted. Water often and well and keep doing it.
Lettuce can be grown large enough for a tossed salad, with some celery tops for fl avour. You won’t get celery stems, but you will get wonderfully tender celery tops, not stringy at all, with pale green immature leaves that are far more delicious than the big tough mature plants.
Once spring is in full bloom, most of your “cut and come again” will go to seed. The lettuce may even turn bitter. There’s not much you can do about this, except keep your potted garden cooler as the season warms up. The spring onions will last for years, though. Plant them out in the garden, or into a bigger permanent pot, and keep snipping them, feeding them and enjoying them. The white bases can be sautéed like onions, the green can be fi nely chopped to add to lettuce or tabouli salads and much more.
Of course, you can also put concrete tubs on your sunny patio and hang baskets full of veg next to a north-facing, sunny wall. But if you want to keep the kids amused and show them that you really can grow the food we eat anywhere, do try the “garden in a car”.
Article featured in WellBeing Magazine 212
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Grow a salad in your car
by | | Curated Content
October 9th 2024
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WellBeing Magazine
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Addressing dysbiosis is a key strategy in integrative veterinary medicine. Microbiome support is part of treatment for gastrointestinal diseases, skin allergies, immune-mediated diseases, ear infections, recurring urinary tract infections, behavioural problems, liver diseases, metabolic disorders and cancer. So, what is dysbiosis?
Dysbiosis refers to changes in the diversity of the microbiome. It may also mean an increase in pathogenic species. A leading cause of gastrointestinal dysbiosis is treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics. Other causes include gut disorders, diet, medications, chemotherapy and stress.
Our understanding of the structure and function of the microbiome is evolving. To keep it simple, I like the following definition: The microbiota refers to the complex ecosystem of microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa) within the gastrointestinal tract (ie: who is there). The microbiome refers to their extensive gene content (ie: what they do).
A robust microbiome is important in defense against pathogens, immune modulation, metabolism and providing vitamins and nutrients. It digests complex carbohydrates and provides short-chain fatty acids to nourish intestinal cells. It regulates the motility of the gut and reduces infl ammation.
Dysbiosis is linked to chronic enteropathies and can be both the cause and consequence of diarrhoea. It contributes to immune system dysfunction, atopic dermatitis, genitourinary tract infections, mental illness and respiratory disease.
Benefi cial microbes have important functions — Clostridium hiranonis converts primary bile acids into secondary bile acids. These have a role in suppressing pathogens such as Clostridia perfringens and E. coli.
How do we address dysbiosis? It’s not as simple as giving probiotics. Probiotics don’t colonise the gastrointestinal tract. They may, in combination with prebiotics, encourage a healthier microbiome. Specific individual probiotic species can be used, or multispectral products, containing high concentrations of beneficial species. The yeast probiotic Sacromycetes boularrdii is given to pets treated with broadspectrum antibiotics, to mitigate dysbiosis and reduce gastrointestinal side effects.
Specific prebiotic supplements, or foods, encourage beneficial microbes. A clean, raw or lightly cooked diet, higher protein and lower carbohydrates, encourages Clostridium hiranonis. Prebiotic foods such as globe artichoke, asparagus and fennel bulb can be added. Foods high in fibre such as cooked orange vegetables encourage a diverse healthy microbiota.
Omega-3 essential fatty acids can be considered a microbiome superfood. In people, they can reduce pathogenic species and increase benefi cial species, and can help reverse dysbiosis after gastrointestinal disease. Animal studies show that Omega-3s help maintain gut wall integrity and immunity when combined with the gut microbiota. They also influence the gut-brain axis through their effects on the microbiota.
If our dysbiosis strategy isn’t working, we can consider a fecal microbiome transplant (FMT). We give a stool sample from a healthy dog (or cat) “donor” to our patient, via rectal transplantation. A healthy “donor” would be a young but fully grown healthy dog or cat that has never had antibiotics. They must have no behavioural problems, because of the impact of the biome on behaviour — also no history of allergies or gut problems.
Ideally, our donor eats a whole-food diet. Their stool is checked for pathogens and assessed for dysbiosis. All of this increases the chance of a successful transplant.
Our patient is prepped by stopping some medications, as well as probiotics and digestive enzymes. The success of FMT is increased if we disrupt the biofi lm. This is the matrix produced by pathogenic species, offering them protection against antibiotics, and perpetuating inflammation. Biofi lm inhibits the retention of our benefi cial microbes. Biofi lm “disruptors” include ginger, berberines, N acetyl-cystine and ozone. The enema itself is relatively non-invasive and doesn’t require sedation.
FMT is not for every patient with dysbiosis, but it is another useful integrative tool we’ve added to our growing toolbox.
References available on request
Article featured in WellBeing Magazine 112
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Treating dysbiosis in dogs & cats
by | | Curated Content
December 3rd 2024
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Wellness Mama Blog | Simple Answers for Healthier Families
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Who knew cauliflower was such a versatile vegetable? When prepared the right way mashed cauliflower has a similar texture to regular mashed potatoes with a sweet, buttery taste. Add a little garlic and garnish with green onions and they taste even better! I happen to love potatoes, but most of us are getting way too […]
Continue reading Creamy Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes With Garlic…
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https://wellnessmama.com/recipes/mashed-cauliflower/
