Goblin Song

 

Down along the river by the shady old slough

There's a hole in the ground where the water runs through.

It rushes down, down, like sand through a sieve

And it trickles through the cave 

Where the goblins live.

On a moonlight night there's an awesome sound

When the goblins creep and crawl

from their hole in the ground.

They stomp and they snarl, They hiss and they boo,

And they dance around the hole Where the water runs through.

Dance, dance, by threes and by twos,

You crusty old goblins in your pointy little shoes.

Dance, dance, till the sky turns blue,

And then tumble down the hole 

Where the water runs through.

So you'd better be careful if you're walking by the slough

When the fireflies glimmer and the moon does too.

A rustle in the bushes means the goblins are there,

And they'll pepper you with pine tar 

And tangle up your hair.

They'll grab you by the ear and make you listen to their moans,

And the noises coming out of them will rattle all your bones.

It's a terrible cacophony, a horrifying din

When from underneath the buckbrush 

The gnomes join in!

Dance, dance, by threes and by twos,

You crusty old goblins in your pointy little shoes.

Dance, dance, till the sky turns blue,

And then tumble down the hole 

where the water runs through.

Happy Halloween!

The Best Little Pickles You've Never Heard Of

 

Jar of freshly started pickles (right), and after 6 days of fermenting (left).

Not a melon or a cucumber, but something entirely different, Mexican gherkins are tiny, bite sized fruits that look like mini watermelons and taste like a lemony cucumber.  I got some seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and planted two vines, surrounding them with large tomato cages so they'd have something to scramble up on.

They took awhile to start producing, (the seedlings are very tiny) and they like warm weather, but once they got going, they produced huge amounts of  little, dangling fruit.  In fact, I had so many I decided to try pickling some, though I like them raw in salads and also in soup and stew, tossed in right before eating.  

I fermented them because it's so easy, and the beneficial bacteria produced during the fermentation process manufacture additional vitamins and enzymes (Mexican gherkins are already quite high in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals).  Plus fermented products add valuable probiotics to the diet.

After one delicious crunch of gherkin pickle, I was sold.  This is where they really shine!  Here's a simple recipe if you're lucky enough to find some fruits at a farmers' market, or grow your own.

Half fill a clean quart jar with rinsed gherkins, no peeling necessary,

Add a handful of spices of your choice.  I used garlic, fresh thyme and oregano.

Fill the jar up with gherkins, leaving 1 inch headspace on top.

Make a brine solution with 1 Tbs. non iodized salt (I like Himalayan pink salt) and 1 pint unchlorinated water.  Stir till the salt is dissolved, then pour over the gherkins till they are covered, but leaving that 1 inch headspace.

Cap the jar tightly and turn upside down, shaking gently to dislodge any air bubbles.

One last necessary step is to weight down the pickles so they stay under the brine, else they can mold on top.  Most sources say to stuff a zip lock bag filled with brine solution on top of the pickles to hold them under the brine.  But I don't like using plastic, so I invested in some ceramic discs made for this purpose that work beautifully.  You can also use a smaller jar that fits inside the fermentation jar.

Label the jar with the date and contents and put it on a saucer in a dark spot in your kitchen. 

The pickles will be ready in 1 - 2 weeks, depending on the air temperature and how tart you like them.  Start tasting after a week.  These delicious little pickles will keep in the fridge for many months, if they last that long!

Who Were The Wunks?

 One of my favorite poems from childhood was "The Raggedy Man" by James Whitcomb Riley.  I loved the whole thing, but the best part was the stanza that told how the Raggedy Man 

Knows 'bout Giunts an' Griffins an' Elves,

An' the Squidgicum-Squees 'at swallers the'rselves,

An' wight by the pump in our pasture-lot,

He showed me the hole 'at the Wunks is got,

'At lives 'way deep in the ground, an' can

Turn into me, er 'Lizabuth Ann!

Er Ma, er Pa, er The Raggedy Man!

Giunts, Griffuns and Elves were interesting enough, and the Squidgicum-Squees were even better.  But the Wunks!  If anything totally captivated me, it was these creepy, shivery, mysterious things that lived underground and could turn into me!  Did that mean I would become a Wunk and have to live in a hole?

Now that I'm grown, I have to wonder what was in James' mind when he created the Wunks.  Was it just a fanciful whim that made a good story?  Or did he ponder the deeper meanings people might attribute to these delightfully scary creatures?  Whichever the case, the Wunks evoke ideas instilled in us as small children.  Bad things come from down below.  When we die, we go down if we've been bad, up if we're good.  The devil lives underground and can sneak into us, making us behave badly. 

Where did this belief of evil living deep in the earth originate?  Hell, supposedly in the center of the earth, is mentioned in the Bible.  But similar ideas were around long before the Bible was written.  Greek Mythology has its realm of Hades, early Mesopotamian religion from the third century B.C.E. mentions a version of hell. Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism also speak of it.  

So what's really down there?  I've been on a long quest to explore this topic more thoroughly.  Modern science has very few facts to offer.  Here are some gleanings:  

In 1997, geophysicists reported that, at the center of the earth, there is a spinning crystalline structure the size of the moon, more than 1,491 miles across.  

In 2007, scientists discovered a giant mass of water as big as the Arctic Ocean, hundreds of miles beneath Eastern Asia.  

Life forms (bacteria, archaea and fungi) have been found up to 2 miles below the earth's surface.  No one knows if they exist at lower levels.  

The Russians tried to drill a deep "Mohole", a hole through the Mohorovic Discontinuity, which is the layer that separates the crust from the upper mantle.  The project was discontinued 19 years later, after drilling only 7.5 miles (they wanted to get to 10 miles).  But the data they collected disproved many long held assumptions by geologists, so more questions were raised than answered.  Even if the Russians had completed their hole, it would have examined only one four-hundredth of the distance to the center of the earth! 

This is all very interesting, but neither modern science, nor the Bible, nor ancient myths and legends satisfied my quest for deeper answers about the connection between evil and inner earth.  So I turned to spiritual science, as I usually do, because it so beautifully combines philosophy, art, science and religion, giving a much more comprehensive view.

Some years ago, I bought a book entitled "The Inner Life of the Earth, Exploring the Mysteries of Nature, Subnature and Supranature".  The book is a compilation of seven modern writers with expertise in science, art, gardening, alchemy, geomancy, Christian astrology, eurythmy, anthroposophy and probably many other fields.  It's a whale of a book.  I've read it through two or three times, and refer to it often when researching various topics.  Parts of it read like an epic fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, who, by the way, though a devout catholic who attended mass daily, was influenced by anthroposophy. 

The seven authors approach this vast and complex topic from different viewpoints, but they all have the same starting point: that humans, of divine origin, were placed on earth to develop free will and love.  And this is the reason for our dualistic world.  In order to be truly free, individuals must have choices.  Evil and good are intertwined in us and in our planet so that we can choose the path we want to take.  If our world were perfect, without evil and error, we would all think and act one way because there would be no choice.  The goal, of course, is perfection, but it must be won through long eons of development, trial and error and hard work.

The writers also agree that planet Earth is alive with countless spiritual beings, some of whom work against the Divine plan and try to lure humans away from truth and love.  And it's plain to see that humanity's struggle with good and evil is perfectly mirrored in the earth.  The subterranean spheres surge with powerful energies that can erupt and cause great destruction, just as our own subconscious can.  Evil grows in the dark.  The Wunks are down there, and they are in us.

Two powerful weapons against evil are knowledge and consciousness.  The more knowledge we gain, the less vulnerable we are to untruths, fear and superstitions.  Read, study, discuss, observe, ponder, ask questions.  Listen to differing opinions and seek out sources of knowledge other than the main stream.  Most of all keep an open mind.  We are all students; we are all teachers.  Practice being more and more conscious of your thoughts, feelings and actions.  Consciousness illumines the dark corners where Wunks hide.  

If you are a person who doesn't believe in higher powers; if you believe that when you die, you die, end of story, then maybe you don't feel the need to save ourselves and our planet.  After all, what would be the point?  But try as I may, I can't fathom how a force as powerful as love could possibly just happen from some random cells clumping together, forming a bit of grey matter and a beating heart.  Spirit transforms matter, not the other way around.  

Maybe you feel that God will wave His hand one day and wipe out all evil for us, so we don't need to concern ourselves.

I believe our future is entirely in our own hands.  No one can save us but us.  Will we pass the test?  I can't help but feel a sense of urgency when I look at the world around me in these troubled times.  Courage is needed, and faith.  Here is a quote from the book I mentioned:

"A wise person once said that if you looked from space onto the dark Earth, you would see spots of light shining where individuals inwardly strive to overcome and transform evil forces emanating from the Earth, and that as long as this striving continues in a few places, humanity would be allowed to go on.  When white magic triumphs, no more evil will remain on Earth." (David S. Mitchell)      

Zucchini Roll Ups: Hail to the Zucchini Fairies

 

During these last dog days of summer the zucchini fairies are extra busy, sprinkling fairy dust over the squash patch.  Overnight, like magic, baseball bat sized zucchinis appear!  Our chickens help take the burden off (they especially like the seeds), but still, the squashes keep coming.  The following recipe is a good way to use some of them up.  The original recipe is long gone, but I've made them enough times to pretty much ignore measuring, and they always come out just fine.

Ingredients:

5 or so largish zucchinis, enough for about 6 cups grated

1 onion

2 or 3 cloves garlic (more if you're a garlic head)

Cheddar cheese - around two cups grated

A goodly amount of fresh or dried oregano

1/2 tsp. toasted and ground cumin seeds

Your favorite salsa

5 large size whole wheat tortillas

Olive oil

Grate the zucchini, (a food processor works good), put it in a bowl and sprinkle about 1 tsp. salt on it, massaging it in with your hands.  Let sit for awhile to draw out some of the moisture, otherwise the roll ups will be soggy.

Meanwhile, chop the onion and garlic and grate your cheese.

Squeeze as much liquid out of the squash as you can.  Save it for another recipe if you like.

Put some olive oil in a heavy skillet, saute the onion and garlic a few minutes, then add the zucchini, oregano and cumin and cook until the zucchini is tender.

Put it back in the bowl, minus any liquid left in the skillet (you can also use this in other recipes). Mix in the grated cheese.

Lightly oil a cookie sheet.  Put a generous amount of filling on a tortilla and roll it up, tucking one end in.  Repeat with the other tortillas.

Smother with salsa.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Let cool a bit and enjoy.  

 

Silver Bells and Cockle Shells

 Mistress Mary grew some pretty cool things.  Not to eat, of course, but I like to think her garden was more of an inner one, despite some interpretations of the rhyme which are quite dark.

We all plant seeds.  Some of them get well tended, some are neglected or forgotten and wither away.  We all bear fruit, maybe bushels and bushels, maybe just a little.  But quality is more important than quantity.  Growing a garden is hard work.  Sometimes, despite every effort, we fail.  Or do we?  It's easy to think yourself a failure if you don't reach this or that goal, without realizing that the effort required to pursue a goal is far more important than attaining it.  Striving is what molds character.  Striving affects our soul life, making us stronger and wiser, and hopefully more compassionate towards others who struggle and seemingly fail.

Growing a productive garden is most of all dependent on the soil.  Fertile, humous-rich earth, teaming with microbes, fungi and earthworms is essential for raising healthy plants.  Likewise, proper diet and lifestyle are the foundation which gives us the will forces necessary to think clearly and to act.  Processed, sugary convenience foods, no matter how good they taste, rob us of energy and brain function.  Coupled with lack of exercise and poor sleep, we become apathetic and foggy, drained of will power.

Try an experiment.  For one week, eat only whole foods, preferably organically grown.  Fruits and vegetables, whole grains (think oatmeal, brown rice, millet, whole grain sourdough bread), legumes, nuts and seeds, olive oil, lean meats, eggs, dairy if you tolerate it from grass fed cows in the form of natural cheeses, unsalted butter and unsweetened yogurt with living, cultured bacteria.  If you simply must have something sweet, mix a little honey, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, maybe some peppermint leaves or grated orange or lemon rind, chopped nuts and a couple of cut up dates.  Let it harden in the frig awhile to make it chewy before you eat it.  Try something new!  Take a walk every day.  Make it your top priority.  Make your heart and lungs work a little.  After a week, see how you feel.   As added incentive, remember you are doing this not only for yourselves, but for the entire planet and for generations to come who depend on our choices, thoughts and actions.  

Some people have only the clothes on their backs and a cardboard box to sleep in.  Think of this!  The more privileged we are, the greater is our responsibility towards others less fortunate.  We're here to love and to serve.  If we fail at something despite our best efforts, we can be comforted knowing that at least we've become stronger and wiser in the process.  If we fail due to apathy or complacency or lack of effort, our garden will bear no fruit.

  

Pandora

 I'm writing this article after much soul searching and inner dialog.  Is it best to lie low during a raging debate, not adding fuel to the fire, letting others do the talking?  This is by far the easiest and safest path.  Or is it better to speak out, drawing attention to oneself and risking discord with acquaintances, friends and even family members?  Those who go against the mainstream usually face ridicule, scorn, anger, censorship, sometimes even loss of life.  But where would we be if no one ever voiced differing opinions?  I admire courageous people.  So I'm sharing my thoughts and feelings here, hoping they might cast a small flicker of light into a dark and stormy topic. 

I didn't take the Corona virus vaccine, nor do I intend to.  Whether to get vaccinated or not is a deeply personal issue, and I would never question another's choice.  But I feel compelled to share the reasoning behind my own decision, as I don't like being called a selfish, ignorant idiot, or worse, a murderer.

First and foremost, I know my own body better than anyone else.  I'm in charge of my own health.  My decisions are consistent with my chosen spiritual path, lifestyle and beliefs.  

I've spent my adult life studying herbal medicine and natural healing.  I have an arsenal of potent herb tinctures, some from my own herbs, and I know how to use them.  I have always used them and have great faith in their healing powers.

Second, we're being told to follow the science.  So I have been.  I've been watching old Jack Benny shows which include the commercials.  One ad stated that doctors recommend menthol cigarettes for college students because they soothe the throat.  Hmmm.  We were told that DDT was safe, and that opioids were not addictive.  We were led to believe that scientific methods of farming (chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and GMO crops, factory farms and feedlots) would save the world from hunger.  Hmmm.  Scientific facts change over time.  The same test can yield different results, depending on who funds the research and what the agenda of the researchers is.  And sometimes it takes five or more years to learn long term effects of a new drug or treatment.  I'm not ready to trust the unknown when history has proven science wrong time and again, and when many highly intelligent voices are raising concerns.  One of the most troubling issues in the vaccine debate to me is the total suppression of these voices.  I've listened to researchers, scientists, physicians, virologists and immunologists with impressive credentials who have much valuable input.  Why can there not be round table discussions with differing opinions?  Why are those who disagree with the establishment viciously attacked, suppressed, discredited and threatened?  How can people make intelligent decisions without hearing all sides?  Are we not supposed to think for ourselves?

Yes, I know, it's easier just to believe in the mainstream, get the shot and get on with your life.  But ignoring questions doesn't make them go away.  Our future depends on the choices we make every day.  I have no children in school, no elderly relatives living with me.  I stay home and am happy to do so.  I wear a mask and avoid crowds when I go out.  I'm not afraid of the virus.  I'm not afraid of death.  But I have concerns for children and the future of humanity.  How do repeated vaccinations and booster shots of this entirely new vaccine affect immune systems?  How do they affect the virus?  We're already seeing more and more breakthrough cases.  Does this mean there will be more infectious variants as it learns how to evade the vaccine, just as bacteria have developed immunity to antibiotics, insects to pesticides, weeds to herbicides?  Are we comfortable with the ever increasing need for stronger and stronger drugs, chemicals and poisons to try and keep ourselves "safe" in the short term, ignoring the terrible toll it is taking on us and our planet?

Finally, I wonder as I always do, why there is not a greater focus on the importance of  healthy lifestyle in preventing or minimizing disease.  We all must take responsibility for our own health.  This may or may not mean getting a vaccine, but it also means taking part in open discussions without name calling, making healthier, more informed decisions about what we eat and how we live, and treating our planet and each other with reverence befitting the precious miracle of life.  

Beauty and the Beast

 

I grow bitter melons.  And yes, they're bitter.  Quite.  The flowers belie this, being sweetly scented and abuzz with pollinators.

The fruits are fantastically beautiful or ugly, depending on your feelings about warts.  There are many varieties with different shapes and sizes, some pale green, some white, some a lovely jade green.  Heat stress or maturity turns them bright yellow and orange.

They are easy to grow, though the vines need something to climb on.  I use large homemade tomato cages staked with rebar to keep them from blowing over in the wind.  Bitter melons aren't bothered by pests or varmints, which is a huge plus.  Right now in my garden the groundhogs, raccoons and opossums are wreaking havoc on the winter squash and melons, the zucchini and cukes are succumbing to cucumber beetles and squash bugs, and I must cover my greens every night with row cover to foil the rabbits.  But the bitter melon stands tall and untouched.  Maybe I'm a fool for liking something even the varmints won't touch, but I feel smug every time I look at them.

I eat them because I can, which might seem a strange thing to say, but due to food intolerances, I've learned to eat many odd things out of necessity or boredom.  I also actually enjoy eating them.  In fact, they've become a summer staple in my kitchen.  They have a pleasing texture that holds up well in cooked dishes, unlike zucchini which turns mushy if overcooked.  They are colorful, easy to digest and high in nutrients and fiber, particularly soluble fiber which feeds our microbiota.  Bitter melon has twice the calcium of an equal weight of spinach and twice the beta-carotene of broccoli.  I like to simmer chopped bitter melon in a little water or broth with onions and herbs and maybe some peas or spaghetti squash to round out the flavors.

Bitter melon, endive, onions, peas, purple basil, fresh hibiscus blossoms, carrot ginger ferment.

In addition, bitter melons have some impressive medicinal properties.  They're very beneficial for the liver, as most bitter foods are.  They have anti-diabetic properties that help reduce blood sugar levels and regulate insulin, are anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and good for the skin.  I won't go into depth on this topic, but anyone who wants to learn more can easily do so by searching online.

Rarely seen  in grocery stores, bitter melons are a staple in parts of Asia and India. Bitter foods in general are widely appreciated in other cultures.  Italians love their zesty greens like radicchio, arugula, chicory and endive.  In Europe, bitter apertifs and after dinner tonics are popular.  Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine believe that flavors must be balanced for optimal health.

Scientists did a study at Italy's University of Pavia by giving overweight adults a bitters formula before meals.  After two months, the subjects reported reduced appetite and consumption, lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and smaller waistlines. Bitter foods make us feel full more quickly, in part because they affect the hormones that control appetite.  They also stimulate enzyme production which helps with indigestion, heartburn, bloating and stomach upset.

We all want the sweet things in life.  We want ease and comfort, a peaceful environment, happy relationships, good food and plenty of it - sweet, salty, fatty food that pleases our taste buds and gives us that satisfied feeling.  Overindulgence is an easy habit to fall into, and bitter foods can be of great service in preventing this.  If overeating is an issue for you, instead of another plateful of food, have a sip or two of a bitter tonic or tea.  I guarantee your appetite will take a step back and you'll feel more alive and awake.

This dual natured world asks us always to seek balance.  The light must have darkness; creation can't occur without destruction.  Life must have toil and strife so we grow stronger by overcoming our demons.  Beauty and the Beast needed each other to better themselves.  Sweetness is addictive, but becomes cloying in excess.   

A good exercise is to do something you don't like to do every day, something that brings positive results.  It builds the will forces and fosters self confidence and resilience in the face of hardship.  Eat something bitter!  Your body will love you for it, and who knows, you may find beauty in the beast.