the real healers in the health care crisis—appear more real than stress-induced depression epidemics and surgical missile strikes. The deep, green surgery that will truly heal our ailing world is at our feet, offered to our fingertips and palates. Emerald green Okinawan spinach has begun to trail in a dozen sunbursts over two rows of our small food plots, and an unidentified flying squash poses on the fence wire. Kneeling down in the “harvest yoga” posture, I lift my scissors, poised to clip long slender kale from their chest-high bamboo-like stalks. We are like sisters on the journey, kale and I. I ask and she gives. She asks and I give. An indescribable energy exchange occurs. By giving thanks, I receive nutrition and something more: the willingness to also clip any of my thoughts or actions which don’t belong in this new earth. Clip, clip, clip. The exhilaration of another nature-rich day on the Big Island reminds me of reading long ago in The Secret Life of Plants that when Kirlian photography captures the electromagnetic field of a tiny acorn, the aura radiating from the seed is in the shape of its future self, the larger oak tree. Today feels like an oak tree kind of day.
Six Months Later – The Master Gardener Returns
Kale, peppers, fennel, tomatoes, flowers and garden beds have somehow multiplied. We added a recycled cedar board bed for
a second crop of broccoli and tall yellow sunflower plants. We’re laying out cinder-block beds for the15 lavender sprouts Janelle just brought from Josanna’s Organics, free of coqui-frogs and full of vigor. Alyssum spreads in knee-high pincushions of honeysmelling pest control. Rows of sweet potato, turmeric, and green beans join rosemary and edible hibiscus in our food supply, while begonias, marigolds and bougainvillea add beauty. The lime-colored escarole is bitter, but Janelle says I can mix it up with ginger and soy sauce for a nutritious sauté’. Most fruit is alkalizing, even citrus, which also has an excess of fruit sugars. It needs to be balanced with bitter greens, for their grounding, cleansing effects, otherwise sugars will feed excess bacteria. She helps me install Italian heirloom lettuce, sorrel and sage. The lavender we can set aside to plant next week, knowing its happy scent and the teas made of Janelle’s lemon balm plant will help us relax, restore focus and improve memory. Her eyes light up like two supermoons when she sees our flowering nasturtium patch. “You have nasturtium. I want some seeds.” Golden and orange nasturtiums are life-long buddies. Pepperytasting and colorful, they are among the first seeds I have always planted around my kitchen gardens,
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MD FACEP Claudia Christman ician ys Board Certified Ph