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Are There Enough Greens in Our Stores?
By Victoria Boutenko
Millions of years of co-existence on the same planet has
resulted in plants, people, and animals developing a strong
symbiotic connection. Plants do not mind if people and animals
eat their fruits because such practice benefits the plant
by spreading its seeds and thus promoting future generations.
In fact plants are “interested” in someone eating their fruit,
but only when it is ripe. The ultimate goal of all plants
is the continuation of their species and providing adequate
living conditions for them. That is why most of the fruit
in the world has a round shape, so that it could roll away
and start a new life. For the very same reason plants have
learned to make their fruit colorful, palatable, fragrant,
and nutritious to ensure that its consumers not only eat one
fruit but continue to return for more. This strategy works
very well and all fruit gets eaten. Have you ever noticed
how thoroughly birds clean cherry trees or how squirrels keep
working on an oak tree until there are no more acorns left?
What happens next? The “eaters” digest their food and have
bowel movements far away from the mother plant and the seeds
are covered with nice “organic fertilizer.” The seeds get
a perfect start. Inside the fruit, the seeds are wisely protected
from being digested with hardy shells and inhibitors. Note
that the plant keeps its fruit extremely un-tasteful, colorless,
and without attractive fragrance all the way until the seeds
are ripe, so that nobody wastes them before the seeds have
matured.
The following example illustrates how much the continuation
of their species means to plants. In a recent study in Russia,
biologists discovered that “When a tree is foreseeing its
death, the tree gathers its entire energy and deposits this
energy into producing seeds for the very last time. For example,
an oak tree broken by the storm or a cedar tree with its bark
removed from its trunk, in a farewell effort before they die
forever, give their record crops of acorns or nuts.”[1]
In contrast with the previous example, when a plant is genetically
altered, it does not produce seeds on purpose. Such a plant
makes itself infertile to prevent future unhealthy generations.
Seedless watermelons are usually odorless and tasteless, because
an upset plant has no motivation to make its fruits sweet,
fragrant, or attractive in any other way. I am sure that it
is not healthy to eat seedless plants, because their entire
chemistry, electromagnetic charge, and who knows what else
has been altered. In my own life, I prefer to pay double for
an organic seeded watermelon or tomato.
Do plants “want” us to eat their trunk and roots? Nope. Without
roots, plants would instantly die. That is why the roots are
hidden in the ground. The sweetness in roots is meant for
specific beneficial microorganisms in the soil that are fed
off of tiny rootlets. The trunk is also vital for the life
of the plant and is purposely covered with hard and bitter
bark. And what about the greens? Here, plants demonstrate
their perfect ability to develop symbiosis with different
creatures. Plants “allow” humans and animals to eat ALL of
their fruits, but only PART of their leaves, because plants
need to have leaves for their own use - which is manufacturing
chlorophyll. However, plants depend on moving creatures for
many different reasons, like pollination, fertilizing the
soil, and hanging around to help eat the ripe fruit. For this
reason, plants accumulate a lot of highly nutritious elements
in their leaves, but mix these nourishing ingredients with
either bitterness or very small amounts of alkaloids (poisons).
That is how animals are forced to rotate their menu and that
is why all wild animals are browsers. They eat a small amount
of one thing, then move on to many other plants during the
course of the day. The body is capable of easily detoxifying
small amounts of a great many things, but it is much more
difficult for the human system to get rid of a large amount
of one type of poison. This is why it is crucial for us to
learn to rotate the greens in our diet. Chimpanzees also rotate
the green plants they eat. They go through approximately 117
different plants in one year.[2] We humans need to learn to
alternate our variety of greens as much as possible instead
of eating only iceberg lettuce, spinach and romaine. Unfortunately,
I was able to locate only about 40 types of various greens,
including edible weeds that are available in my state of Oregon.
I hope that our farmers will learn to grow a larger variety
of green leafy vegetables to increase our green sources. The
greens available in grocery stores were mostly bred from the
dandelion and mustard families. Despite their names and appearances,
cultivated greens have similar nutritional content. To meet
our nutritional needs, it is essential that we learn to include
greens from a number of totally different plant families into
our daily diets.
After several months of drinking green smoothies I got very
tired of using kale and spinach. It was at that time that
I first embraced weeds. I appreciate that weeds presented
me with a practically unlimited variety of greens. This summer
I discovered heavenly scrumptious and nutritious “new” foods
such as: pumpkin leaves, grape leaves, chicory greens, young
and tender borage leaves and flowers, tightly curled fists
of young ferns, clover leaves and flowers, plantain, sorrel,
and even lemon grass. Next year I plan to fill my garden a
large variety of weeds.
The following is a list of greens that my family has been
rotating in our diet during the last year.
Greens:
- Arugula
- Asparagus
- Beet greens (tops)
- Bok choy
- Broccoli
- Carrot tops
- Celery
- Chard
- Collard greens
- Endive
- Escarole
- Fresee
- Grape leaves
- Kale (3 types)
- Mitsuna
- Mustard greens
- Pumpkin leaves
- Radicchio
- Radish tops
- Rhubarb
- Romaine lettuce green and red leaf (no Iceberg or light
colored leaf)
- Spinach
Weeds:
- Borage leaves and flowers
- Chicory greens and flowers
- Chickweed
- Clover
- Dandelion (greens and flowers)
- Fiddlehead ferns
- Lambsquarters
- Malva
- Miner’s lettuce
- Plantain
- Purslane
- Sorrel
- Stinging nettles
Herbs:
- Aloe Vera
- Baby dill
- Basil
- Cilantro
- Fennel
- Mint
- Parsley (2 types)
- Peppermint leaves
- Spearmint
Sprouts:
- Alfalfa
- Broccoli
- Clover
- Fenugreek
- Radish
- Sunflower
Wild edibles often contain more vitamins and minerals than
commercially marketed plants. Weeds have not been “spoiled”
with farmers’ care in contrast to the “good” plants of the
garden. In order to survive in spite of constant weeding,
pulling, and spraying, weeds had to develop strong survival
properties. For example, in order to stay alive without being
watered, most weeds have developed unbelievably long roots.
Alfalfa’s roots grow up to 20 feet long reaching for the most
fertile layers of the soil. As a result, all wild plants possess
more nutrients than commercially grown plants. I feel so silly
now when I remember how I used to always pull out the “nasty”
lambsquarters from my garden to let my “precious” iceberg
lettuce grow.
The best way to learn which weeds are edible is to sign up
for an herb walk with an experienced guide in your local area.
This way you can learn to recognize particular edible plants
by actually touching, smelling, and tasting them so that you
can gather your “wild produce” on your own. Also, there are
lots of articles and photos of edible weeds on the Internet.
You may also find many books that help identify edible plants
in your area. Please maintain caution when picking wild plants
to avoid poisoning. There are usually only a couple of poisonous
plants in one region, make sure you can identify them well.
For the sake of variety, I include several kinds of sprouts
in my diet, but never more than a handful and only one or
two times a week. Approximately from the third to the sixth
day of their life, sprouts contain higher levels of alkaloids,
as a means of protection from animals nipping them off and
killing them.[3] That doesn’t mean that sprouts are poisonous
or dangerous, but only that we cannot live on sprouts alone.
Most sprouts are rich in B-vitamins and have a hundred times
more nutrients than a fully developed plant because sprouts
need more nutrition for their fast growing period.
Once in a while I read in the news or receive an e-mail about
kale or spinach or parsley or any other green having a toxic
ingredient and therefore being dangerous for human consumption.
This is all true but not to such a degree as to exclude any
particular green from our diet. Let us learn to increase the
variety of greens in our diet and to constantly rotate them
for better nutritional results.
There are several other ways in which plants protect themselves
from being destroyed. Some plants have thorns instead of alkaloids
and one type of acacia tree in Africa is inhabited by colonies
of very aggressive ants with a painful sting.
Thorny plants, like cactuses and stinging nettles, do not
contain any alkaloids, which makes them a valuable addition
to our diet. Of course, we need to first figure out how to
eat them. I have often successfully added stinging nettles
to my green smoothies by harvesting them while wearing gloves.
It is September now, and there is an abundance of incredible
wild greens everywhere. I encourage you to take full advantage
of them now keeping in mind that we have another long kale-spinach
winter ahead of us.
If you would like to learn more about rotating greens, you
may read my up-coming new book, Green
For Life.
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[1] Soloukhin, Vladimir. Razryv Trava. In Russian. Moscow:
Molodaya Gvardia, 2001.
[2] Goodall, Jane. The Chimpanzees of Gombe. Massachusetts:
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1986.
[3] Baker Elizabeth. Unbelievably Easy Sprouting! Washington:
Poulsbo, 2000.
Raw and Living Food Articles and Links to Articles:
On Site Articles:
Raw Health
Fruits, Roots, Stems, Greens, Flowers, and Nuts
Growing Food
Lifestyle
Off Site Articles:
Raw Health
Fasting and Cleanses
Growing Food
Misc.
Free Books Online:
- Soil and
Health Library - This is a specialist library about holistic agriculture,
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this library are out of print. Many are quite hard to find. Here are a few
by Shelton:
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