A Great Market Day!

I thoroughly enjoy visiting the Wintertime Farmer's Market in the Hope Artiste Village every Saturday morning. Today I picked up a lot of exciting items and got my knife sharpened too!

You can get your knife sharpened while you shop by Poor Boy Sharpening!

Locally and naturally grown onions, cilantro, carrots, and scallions.

St. John's Wort Tincture from Farmacy Herbs

I have been dealing with a back injury for the past 10 months. Its not debilitating, but it is frustrating and makes certain tasks difficult, such as gardening and bicycling, two of my favorite things! But on a more positive note, I have recently begun seeing a new chiropractor, Dr. Tom at Northeast Chiropractic in Providence. He was finally able to tell me what is wrong with my back and is working with me to correct it. Combined with physical therapy visits, my back is feeling better already and I finally feel as though I am making true healing progress.

In addition to the exercises and adjustments necessary for recovery, I am also eating foods and herbal preparations that contain nutrients essential to spinal health. Every day I drink a tea blend of tonic herbs that provide me with vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that focus on the nervous system (a class of herbs known as adaptogens). I make all different tea blends, but almost always include oatstraw, tulsi, nettles, and alfalfa. Nettles and oatstraw in particular are great sources of silica, making them great for bone and joint health. They all contain a wide range of vitamins and minerals; alfalfa alone provides vitamin A, B1 (Thiamine), B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin), B5 (Panothenic Acid), B6 (Pyridoxine), B12 (methylcobalamin), C (ascorbic acid), D, E, and K. As far as minerals, it contains calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, selenium, and zinc. (more information on alfalfa here).

I recently came across a very informative podcast on herbs and back pain with Jim McDonald. He describes herbs that can be beneficial for different types of back pain. In terms of nerve related issues, he highly recommends St. John's Wort. My injury involves a sort of pinching pain that leads me to believe it is nerve related, but my intuition also tells me so. St. John's Wort is different from other plants in that its beneficial constituents can only be extracted using the fresh plant. It grows in New England, but not this time of year, so I knew that I had to find the herb in tincture form (preserved in alcohol, tinctures last forever and make constituents available that are not water soluble). Fortunately, I was able to get a bottle from Farmacy herbs.

Fresh Scup from The Local Catch

I have also been eating a lot of seafood! Seafood contains omega-3 fatty acids that are essential components of many organs, but especially critical in nervous system health. B vitamins and selenium are other important nutrients provided by seafood. Today I purchased some Scup! A whole fish as you can see from the picture. Scup is a local species that is often considered a "trash fish". There is nothing wrong with these fish, they just aren't a traditional part of the local seafood market. This species was one of the varieties that graced plates at the recent Trash Fish Dinner. I picked up this one fresh from The Local Catch at the farmer's market.

Okay, time to cook some fish! I have never prepared a whole fish before...wish me luck!