Is Food Really Medicine?
Bonus: Permaculture tips with the Hot Pants Farming Club
Editor’s Note: This is my first article in a while because I’ve been slammed with new writing and editing work. If only I could get paid for my farmgirl work. Please consider supporting my efforts by buying me a coffee (links appear later).
I’ve heard the phrase “food is medicine,” and “you are what you eat,” in various contexts from when I was a young child. People usually said it with the intonation one would utter similar quips like “laughter is the best medicine,” or “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” for example.
I never took them in the fully literal sense, but I did think there was probably some literal truth in the one about laughter — even before I had the ability to articulate what I sensed. To me, they were (mostly) something parents, grandparents, scary aunts and uncles preached to little kids, just to have something to say.
In fact, countless generations have uttered those phrases and many others for so long, they’ve lost their original power. When these sayings originated (I’ve no idea when, but deep in the way back) the cultures that used them most likely believed them to literally be true. I haven’t tested out the one about old dogs and tricks, but I imagine it’s likely more true for humans than dogs.
Many new epiphanies have come into focus over the past several years. Things I believed for many years and even taught my beautiful children were exposed as lies. And not just typical lies, but deceptions crafted as a means of great personal gain for the deceivers and also (horrifyingly) with the added benefit of directly harming the deceived.
DS (my husband) has always told me that God has provided a cure for every single thing that ails us in this world. I figured that might be true, but didn’t ponder too deeply on the merits, or lack thereof, this statement may hold.
I’ve always been a very fit, competitive athlete and have done my best to eat healthily. That’s it right? That’s what people mean when they say food is medicine. When I discovered the truth of that statement, it perhaps stung a bit more than had I not known part of the truth, but failed to look any deeper by my own grievous fault. Ouch!
Now I know unequivocally, food is medicine. I laughed and laughed when I realized how long I lived in servitude to the lie. That medicinal laughter attenuated the sting of my almost willful ignorance.
Let food be thy medicine
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ~ Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine. Even thousands of years ago, this great thinker and others knew the importance of prioritizing food of the right kinds, at the right times. and in the right portions. Eating food in this balanced way can prevent disease, reduce symptoms, or even reverse a disease state in many cases.
I imagine we have lost vast amounts of knowledge related to the power of proper diet in our lives. The pharma-industrial leviathan purposely and deliberately kept discoveries of vital, healing compounds derived from the plants of the earth.
We began growing almost all of our produce and herbs each season way back in 2010. Back then, of course, I was still living under the tyranny of a deep and clever lie. Despite that, growing food and herbs to enjoy in a seasonal manner, as God always intended, has been one of our greatest joys as a family. It’s even more exciting now that we’ve been learning about growing and making our own healing salves, syrups, tinctures, and many other helpful products.
Incidentally, my favorite go-to Substack to learn about the medicinal uses of a wide variety of plants, trees, and herbs is authored by this guy:
I’m not one to harbor bitterness about most anything, but I am a bit miffed (still) about living so long under such tyranny disguised as compassion for our health and wellbeing. On a positive note, we get the last laugh, for we who are wakened now know what ‘they’ are about and it cannot stand any longer.
Today’s permaculture tip from the Hot Pants Farming Club
First, the Hot Pants Farming Club isn’t what you might think. You need the back story:
The sweet, baby animal loving, indulgent DS does all of the heavy labor, building, and things that require math (I can math, but why when he’s here to do it?). Without even discussing it, early morning chores naturally became my responsibility. After all, in addition to growing food, herbs, and so many other things, we also have nine chickens. We now have four more chicks in the brooder and four ducks. Baby goats coming soon!
Anyway, it’s early when I have to do everything (still darkish) and he’s still in bed. No one can see me (that I’m aware of), so I usually just go out there in a nightie, small workout shorts, one of his giant t-shirts, or whatever. I put on a pair of his boots that Daisy, our very bratty girl dog chewed on a little bit, so I don’t get my trainers or other boots all mucked up.
Inevitably, he comes outside to make fun supervise as I finish up all the required tasks. He started saying we had a Hot Pants Farming Club due to my questionable farming attire and even made up a little song about it (eyeroll).
Anyway, that’s the story behind the Hot Pants Farming Club. It’s a semi-private club, so you probably will not see any pictures of me in the morning attire that earned the name. But…I might post one of DS in hot pants, if I can get one!
On Gluck Farms, we use permaculture and regenerative farming methods. Hot tip: in permaculture almost nothing has only one purpose. See the pic below. I hope the image can help you understand what I’m trying to say in my clunky way.
For many seasons and prior to learning about permaculture, we (by ‘we’, I mean DS) installed shade fabric along the top of this 12x12 foot bed to protect whatever plants we’re growing there. Why? Because the Texas heat and humidity brutalizes most plants, even those that supposedly do well with ‘full and direct sunlight’. Autumn and winter are the only moderate respite.
Permaculture changed all that.
The purple snow peas visible at the image bottom will climb upwards of seven feet. They’re big enough now to begin their journey upwards, so DS will be using twine to create a structured network for their little tendrils to grasp. I know it doesn’t look like it at this point, but these pea vines will create a green shade wall that will serve to filter out the worst of the sun’s heat.
In this bed they’re planted in the four corners and the top and bottom sides. I’ve planted them around the perimeter of nearly all of the 15, or so other beds as well. They’ll serve the noble dual purpose of providing just enough shade and an abundance of delicious purple snow peas for our family. I planted about 35 of them in total!
I’ll update periodically to show you how our wall of peas is faring. We grow so many different food crops and herbs, it’s a bit much to list them all in this already lengthy post, but I’ll share more about our growing and animal husbandry adventures in future articles.
Question: Do you grow your own food, herbs, or other plants? If you have questions about where to start, let me know and I’ll do my best to help!
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