April’s Theme: Growth and Transition
Well, the clocks have been moved forwards, so spring is officially here! This is my favourite time of year; the lighter, brighter days and nights, new growth bursting through the earth, green leaves on the trees, and spring flowers gifting cheerful pops of colour everywhere you look.
Our theme for this month is Growth and Transition, a time to feel lighter after the long cold winter by activating our detoxification pathways with spring greens, sour, bitter foods and welcoming more colour into our lives. Nature, as always, has us covered; young nettles and dandelions, ground elder, yarrow, cleavers, and mighty wild garlic, the Spring queen in my eyes, carpeting the woodlands, intoxicating us with its heady garlicky aroma!
The garden is a wonderful space, a place to connect with nature, grow our own food, enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, birdsong and restorative peace and tranquillity. And this month we have the wonderful MT O’Donnell, the editor of Scotland Grows Online magazine, chatting to us on FB Live about her favourite plants and sharing her top tips for a productive and colourful garden and how to make the most of a small space, even if it's just a window box!
Personal growth is something we could all be focused on, getting out of our comfort zone, changing limiting beliefs, and finding new ways to cope with life's challenges. Our second guest this month is the lovely Jean Fenwick, Empowerment Coach who will be sharing her top tips to help us navigate our way through challenging situations and to build healthy habits that last.
On the food front, wild garlic is still very much in season so we will be making the most of it, in soups, ferments, salt, dehydrated, dips, pestos, sauces, marinades, salads and delicious pakora! Check out the Fermenting and recipe sections for loads of great ideas and the Forage and Grow page for health, nutritional information and how to safely identify it.
We couldn’t have a theme of Growth, without mentioning our good gut buddies! Consider the trillions of good microbes working tirelessly on our behalf, like our own internal ecosystem or gut garden, who all need a food source, time to rest, and the tools required to carry out their many jobs efficiently. No one wants a gut garden full of weeds or a boring wilderness dotted with a few hardy plants! We want a full, colourful, lush, vibrant, lovingly tended garden, delighting all the senses; that is what we get when we eat a diverse plant-based diet, introduce fermented foods and drinks into our lives, and eat the rainbow of colourful fruits and veggies. So no boring monocrop grass in our gut gardens!!
Exciting news this month is the launch of our range of plant and fermenty-themed t-shirts, tote bags and sweatshirts! They are all sustainable, made from organic cotton with zero plastic wrapping and made to order so there’s never any waste- ticking all the boxes for fun fashion that makes us smile, and reinforces the importance of plants and ferments for optimum health! Check out all the designs here or by clicking shop on the website's home page! There’s free shipping this weekend so it’s a great time to get one! I loved them all so bought one of each design, I hope you love them too!!
Happy spring everyone!!
In good health,
Janice
xx
My ‘In a world full of soda, be a kombucha’ t-shirt was perfect for my kombucha workshop! So soft and comfy too!
