A fellow Echowoodian, Ruben, and I are on a trip to the west coast for ten days. Seven months ago, I would never have guessed that I would be coming back to California via airplane, but here I am. We have a wedding to attend in Eureka and some visiting to do in Sacramento and the SF Bay Area.
It is not entirely clear what my next step will be, but Ruben and I have teamed up so my next step will be ours and vice versa. In Sacramento, we will be meeting with a landowner and potential business partner. He has the land and we have the will and the know-how to turn it into something vital and productive. Not to mention that UC Davis is close and has kick-ass programs for all things agricultural, although I will have to wait for tuition to go back down if it ever does.
For now, I am in Ashland, Oregon with Ruben to visit his mother. Ashland a cute college town in the southern part of Oregon. The downtown is laid out in the traditional manner with street-side parking and busy sidewalks abutting storefronts, but feels formed to the landscape in an organic manner. Creeks run through the town and there are several walkways down along the creek wedged between bridges and small businesses. A natural lithium spring bubbles up via a fountain in the center of Downtown. The sulfuric taste is off-putting at the tip of your tongue, but feels good in the back of your throat. Here, the cornerstone of the mainstream medical schizophrenia treatment comes out of a public fountain. Lithium also may be used to treat other forms of mental illness including depression, bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s. All that humans need to heal themselves exists right before our eyes, grows from the ground, falls from the sky and bubbles from the earth. Duh.
Ruben’s mother is Hilary Jacobson, author of Mother Food, a book compiling many years of research on galactagogues– foods and herbs that increase lactation. Her interests range also into general health and nutrition. I discovered a book in the house called Eating Alive: Prevention Through Good Digestion by Jonn Mateson N.D., published in 1987. Reading it, I recall the four basic functions of plant health that Bob Cannard taught… umm, well, I can only remember one right now, and that’s digestion. It does not matter how many healthy foods you eat, infusions you drink or supplements you take, if your body cannot digest the contents you do not benefit one bit.
I am learning for the first time the basics of human digestive anatomy. Why? I’m almost 25 years old. Why was I not taught these very basic facts of being a human? Sure, in school I learned that we all have an esophagus, a stomach, a duodenum, intestines etc., but the functions and roles of these organs were outlined at best, not to mention the problems that can occur if health and nutrition is poor.
When you think of it, aside from breathing, the digestive system is the part of the human body that has the most relations with external material in the environment. It is the most open system and therefore the most susceptible to the beginnings and exacerbation of disease. It is also ground zero for the treatment of disease. Duh.
I sit now in an Ashland cafe called Evo’s. The people are insanely friendly and happy. The cafe employees chat with the customers and joke with the mailman. The sign on the window says either “Home” or “Gone Foraging”. I can bike places! I borrowed Hilary’s ‘cycle and rode here in no time. Several organic and natural markets speckle the town. Access. Never have I realized just how important access is and how important it is to me to be able to ride my bike around town and find and eat good food. There is a striking lack of access in Texas. Although, I do believe that where there’s a will, there’s a way. Thirty miles from Echowood is the Producer’s Market and a weekly farmer’s market. I’m sure there are more farmer’s markets in the surrounding towns. Jackie, the owner of the Bastrop Producer’s Market, orders bulk foods from a grocer’s catalog each month. With organization, access can be gained. Unfortunately, I do not control the resources with which access can be taken advantage of at Echowood.
