Here are a list of veggies and their benefits. I found this in a book called Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong.
1. Artichokes: The leaves contain essential compounds that benefit the liver, cardiovascular system, and digestive tract. Leaf extracts help treat indigestion and IBS. Artichokes also stops cholesterol from being produced in the body and prevents the oxidation of ‘bad’ cholesterol.
2. Celery Seeds: They help with gout, anxiety, and arthritis, and can be used as an anti-inflammatory. Also, if you take a lot of painkillers, it can protect against the gastric damage caused by them. You can make celery seed tea by crushing up the seeds, pouring it into boiling water, and straining.
3.Chili/Cayenne Pepper: The spice causes increased circulation which will desensitize pain. It also protects against gastrointestinal infection and can reduce the risk of food poisoning.
4.Cucumbers: Cukes act as a gentle diuretic and are good for intestinal health. So you can poop! They are also used in a lot of lotions and beauty products.
5.Garlic: Other than giving you some rank breath, garlic helps combat colds, the flu, and bronchitis. It also reduces nasal congestion and improves heart health. A diet rich in garlic can also reduce the risk for cancer.
Farming Tip:
If you are not familiar with CSAs, I’m going to explain them. It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You sign up, pay a fee, and once a week (usually) you get a bag full of vegetables. It is a way to support local agriculture, eat season veggies, and avoid yucky pesticides that are on the vegetables that you buy at the supermarket. Everyone should look into it.
CSA's are also great because you never know what you're going to get. At the CSA in Syracuse I usually would receive one vegetable that I wasn't familiar with (my parents aren't hippies, ok...) and it was always exciting to learn about it and then make a dish with this new discovery. Some of my highlights were dumpling squash, parsnips, and white carrots.
ReplyDelete