In our backyard are an avocado tree, several coconut trees, two papaya trees, a grapefruit tree, and three mango trees. The largest mango tree is right outside my office window, where Rob has created a beautiful garden that is shaded by this tree.
We planted a tiny shoot of this tree right after we moved here 12 years ago. It’s a Hatcher mango tree, and around here, for people who know their mangos, Hatchers are the sweetest, most succulent, biggest and plumpest mangos. Slice a Hatcher in half, and the color is a visual feast, a gorgeous shade of gold. One of these mangos constitutes a meal. Click here for a list of mineral and vitamins that a mango contains. It’s impressive.
Last summer, in July, we started picking the crop off the Hatcher tree. We had so many mangos that we gave away a lot of them, ate several a day, then peeled, sliced, and froze the leftovers. Ever since, we’ve used the frozen mangos for smoothies. This year, there’s something off about the mangos – not in taste but in harvest time. That mango in the photo could probably have grown and ripened for a couple more weeks, but was blown off the tree during a thunderstorm. For this time of year, it’s way too huge.
I don’t know if it’s attributable to changes in climate, soil, intensity of sunlight, or something else, but this accelerated growth is not business as usual. I’m not complaining, but this has me wondering if nature is fine tuning herself in some way, compensating for changes in climate and for catastrophic events.
Today, for instance, I went shopping. At the fish counter, Sal, the gray-haired guy who really knows his fish, said they’d just gotten in some fantastic tuna for a good price and he was thinking of me and here I was. “Atlantic tuna,” he says. “From Costa Rica.”
“Farmed?”
“Nope. Wild. Just got an email this morning from headquarters that we’re no longer carrying any fish from the Pacific. It’s all infused with radiation from the Fukushima nuke disaster. So if you eat out and order tuna, ask where it’s from.”
Well, I know where my mangos come from. And my avocados. And the veggies Rob grows in the garden. So maybe it’s time to become a real vegetarian and eliminate even fish from my diet. I haven’t eaten beef or pork since 1992, when we listened to Diet for a New America as we drove across the Hopi reservation. In fact, I had my last hamburger right before we started listening to that tape.
After listening to that tape, Rob and I spent several years eating mostly vegetarian meals interspersed with occasional meals of fish. Then my dad moved in with us and asked if we could, please, have chicken and turkey once in a awhile. I don’t miss steak. I don’t miss pork. I didn’t miss chicken during those years we ate just fish. But I would miss tuna, I would miss salmon. Then again, radioactive fish don’t appeal to me in the least.
I wonder if I can survive on just mangos, papaya, grapefruit, avocados, and whatever we grow in the garden. Maybe toss in some sprouted bread. And peanuts, especially almonds. One year, we had a couple of nice cantaloupes, a small crop of cauliflower, and about 4 strawberries which the critters ate. Green peppers do well here, but can I grow potatoes? Radishes? Apples? Probably not. OK, so hit the green markets for those items. Or hey, how about a community garden? There’s a huge swathe of vacant land in our neighborhood that would be perfect for that.
I sense something new is underway here, all because of that big, beautiful mango and this troubling revelation about Pacific fish.
I am a scrubber! 😉
There are three extremely deep, extremely COLD fresh water lakes in the North GA mountains where my husband and his family are from. The fish up there is clean; the water is checked by the health dept in a nearby city and is consistently pure in spite of contaminated rain, etc. They also have several “fish farms’ there that have pure water to raise the fish. We eat fish there. I don’t like seafood, it doesn’t like me, so I stick to freshwater fish from water that I feel secure is safe. If I intuit it isn’t I pass. But never eat shellfish and never will. Just the coldwater fresh fish whose habitats are frequently and accurately tested. And always scrub the veggies, no matter from what farm or market they originate. Even organic veggies use manure, which has E-coli,. They just avoid artificial pesticides, etc. So always SCRUB!
Oh yes, I didn’t say anything about the lack of news over the radiation in the Pacific. Messed up isn’t it? I actually just bought some fish too from the Pacific. Swordfish. Darn it!!! Even if the news mentioned it, I tell you, I wonder how much of a difference it would make. Japan is wayyyyyy over there people think. It would be downplayed and people would eat it and will continue to do so and years from now they will wonder why they are stricken with this or that. They would chalk it up to bad genes or something stupid, never ever thinking to consider it may just have been cause by the food they have been eating all along. And that is what the powers that be are hoping for. Scary and yet hopeful more people will begin to question and empower themselves.
Our fish guy warned us that when we eat out and order fish, ask where it’s from. That’s how big a deal this is.
Great idea! I love smoothies and mangos as you know don’t grow well here! I saw this idea somewhere that every community is a local food opportunity just waiting to happen if we all grew food instead of lawns. Imagine that. It would be an answer to climate change, a health crisis and a worsening economy. And right there on your block could be the smoothie / MacGregor book store! Nice reading your posts. Have a great night.
Hi Rob and Trish! Wow, this post is timely for me too. This Spring I was determined to plant my first garden. I found a local farmer out my way who is an organic farmer and supplies some of the Whole Foods around us. He is twice a week at a farmers market near where I live so I bought many seedlings from him and planned my own organic, polyculture garden. I have planted a ton of herbs like dill, fennel, garlic, oregano, basil, cilantro, tarragon, parsley, mint/my peppers: green, red and orange and of coarse jalapeno and thai peppers/eggplant, broccoli, many different tomatoes varieties/green and yellow zucchini/cucumbers/strawberries/sweet potatoes/shallots and green onions and pumpkins for Halloween!
Everyone here has said the same things I have been thinking about too. Something just gave way back in April for me with suddenly becoming very concerned about my food. I was standing in the grocery aisle looking around at everyone’s carts as I waited for the checkout line to dwindle down when I had this crazy kind of what the hell are we doing to ourselves moment. Spying on the carts of others and seeing them filled with soda and blue dye this and artificial that, junk food and processed stuff. I wanted to yell out wait you have a better choice! I have been buying organically for over a year now but I was still eating meat. It bothered me but I like chicken and I felt a tad bit better about them being free range, no antibiotics or hormones and such. Until April. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I began watching the documentaries like Food Inc. and Food Matters and that pretty much sealed the deal for me. Humane issues are of course high on my list but even higher are my own health issues and my family’s. I wouldn’t say I am totally a vegetarian as fish is something I eat but I agree with you I miss tuna as well. Fukushima fish however is not on my list of must eat. It is scary especially since so many people are unaware of the potential risk and honestly even if they were it is strange how unwilling some are to making a change with their food, thinking it doesn’t effect them much.
The past few months I have been learning alot about GMOs and it really upsets me! Where is the labeling! Makes you think. So I stick to the organic which I have been doing. My kids eat well and much different than many of the kids on the block as they are the least likely to be cooling off this summer by enjoying a red dye #40 popsicle. But they have alternative, healthy, real fruit popsicles instead, which I know taste better yet to my surprise some of the other kids don’t like them. Tastes too much like fruit. It is conditioning.
For me I don’t miss eating meat and I am surprised it was so simple of a change over. Like a flipped switch. I feel better and I intuitively have a strong sense of knowing what is right for my body and what isn’t. I mean I always knew that eating doughnuts versus fruit wasn’t a good choice, but now as I take a little bit of chicken or beef I instantly know, no, to me it doesn’t agree with me anymore. It is a little strange and unexpected. As for my garden, it is funny. As I planted and my family helped I told them to be happy, and to have only thoughts of gratitude over how a small seed or seedling can be planted in the Earth and bring you nourishment. Of course they looked at me like I was kookie and immediately left me to go play and read the paper. So I was content to work on it alone and put positive energy into the garden whilst hopefully evoking the Findhorn nature spirits. 😉
Now just over a month later things have become jurassic! I am quite proud of my first time garden and was thinking that maybe it was just all that positive energy fueling my plants. I was trying to ignore the very real fact that the last few weeks of May chemtrails were very, very heavy over my skies. It upset me too. But ever since then not much of anything. Hoping it stays that way because there isn’t much one can do over that. Enjoy your mangos!
Wow, that’s quite a crop! I’m coming to your house for meals!
I was startled with the fish guy told me this about Pacific fish. It should be on the news. It should be something the government tells people. But, of course, that would destroy Pacific businesses and that’s a no-no.
It doesn’t matter if people get sick or die from consuming this fish; what matters if that the businesses continue to sell it.
Findhorn: maybe all of us with our little gardens are headed for a Findhorn crop. Our mangos are now so profuse and huge that I’m thinking we should open an organic smoothie shop!
Good to hear from you, Cole.
Monsanto Chemical Company is a human-murdering machine. It creates the sugar-substitute ASPARTAME, which is deadly and which is in more than 200,000 products now on the market that are consumed by people, including sodas, gum, candies, bakery pastries, ice creams, yogurts, puddings, gelatins, on and on and on. Asparatme is comprised of three chemicals: methanol, (wood alcohol), formic acid, (the poison produced by fire ants), and formaldehyde, (the substance used to paralyze and preserve tissue). At 80degrees, the substances that are listed on the labels of the foods, etc., are transposed into these three toxins. Think about the transportation of sodas such as Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, etc etc etc from factory to store. They all undergo that temperature change, as does each food that is ingested into the body. (Normal body temp is 98.6) Monsanto originally was approved by the FDA to release Aspartame as a prescription drug for gastric ulcers. But the side effects were so horrendous that it was taken off the shelves. Then almost immediately, the FDA approved Monsanto releasing it, with NO changes in its composition, as a food additive!!!!! Aspartame is a neuro-toxin and a full-body toxin, and is responsible for a plethera of illnesses that has been proven time and time again. I am part of a class-action lawsuit against Monsanto Chemical Company due to permanent ailments I’ve sustained as a direct result of consuming their artificial sweetener. (When tested, the level of formadehyde in my blood was sufficient to kill a very large animal. I am fortunate to have survived but the damage is irreversable.) I urge everyone to google ASPARTAME TOXIN and be afraid. Be very afraid. It is NOT a conspiracy. It’s facts that just keep piling up, yet the FDA continues to allow this deadly poison to be consumed in ever-increasing quantities, and is even in children’s prescription medications. If the label on ANYTHING says “sugar-free”, read it and make sure the sugar substitute is NOT Aspartame! Would love to know who REALLY
is the CEO and controlling staff of Monsanto Chemical Company. They are murderers. I do not make that accusation lightly and am not guilty of slander or libel. The truth is out there for anyone to see and understand.
For me, it’s been more than forty years since I ate any red meat. It started because of high cholesterol, but it soon became a lifestyle. I have my first garden this year, because our apartment complex started a community garden. I am thrilled to see the fruits of my labors coming up! It’s very satisfying. I eat fish, but because of the fears of radiation from Japan, I’m limiting my amounts and started taking fish oil instead. We all do what we can to make ourselves as healthy as possible.
I didn’t know about the big humongous plants growing in Florida, Trish. It is worrisome to me, not knowing why, but I expect we will know soon, whether we want to or not.
This is all so interesting. I have realized that I have lost a desire to eat pork, lamb (which I used to love), and steak. I eat chicken, yogurts, nuts, salads, eggs etc.
I did not make a conscious decision to stop eating these things, I’ve just lost all desire for them. I find it interesting that my daughters are feeling the same.
That IS interesting. Maybe our bodies let us know?
I’ve just finished reading “The Little Food Book (Fragile Earth) ”
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Food-Book-Fragile-Earth/dp/1932857036/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340064128&sr=8-1&keywords=the+little+food+book
and it is dynamite.
It covers a lot of things about modern food production,and is a real eye-opener.
It also covers your above sentiments.
I also read “Diet for a New America” years ago and went vegetarian for a good 8 months,but almost killed myself from soy overdose.
I had soy milk,soy breakfast cereals,tofu,soy cheese…I was just about living off soy,but it was stopping the nutrients in my stomach being absorbed into the blood stream,and causing severe vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
The skin was literally peeling off my face and it was as dry as anything,and really itchy.
I got off the soy products,and slowly built my health back up again…but I now eat moderate amounts of meat,but no pork…and I’ve been avoiding fish and seaweed since Fukishima,too.
I admire vegetarians,but it is not something my life can handle at present.
And besides,how many animals can live on a vegetarian diet?
Not many.It’s a cruel world unfortunately 🙁
We can only try our best to live as humanly as possible,without causing undue suffering to living things.
I’ll look for the book! Interesting about your experience with so much soy…I don’t eat much of it these days, compared to what we used to consume.
There was this study done in Australia, on the the findings of giant animal species that today we take as being common or small. Like ducks big as dogs and kangaroos that towered over humans. What was foundwas that all these fossils had been around when the magnetic aspects of the earth were different than today.
Any how here is a link on magnetic readings of the USA and if you want your area. I will try to find that research on magnectic studies on prehistoric animals and plants.
magnetic USA
be well
Laurence
thanks for the link!
Rob and Trish,
What i came up with is some research , cited in a paper from the U of AZ, stating that there was correlation to large animal sizes and an increase of magnetic field strength, like 80% more than now.
But if the Southern Atlantic Magnetic Anomoly is pointing to a lessening of the magnetic field and points to the so called pole flip, how come the larger fruit?
My theory is that we are now experiencing much more solar flares and their sizes are much larger. Therefore, the magnetic field variations we have seen, The aurora borealis events this year, show we are getting much more magnetic fluxes from the sun and less from internal earth plate activities.
Just my thoughts on this.
Be well
Laurence
You may be right about the frequency and size of the solar flares. Would that account for the larger fruit??
I noticed a huge amount of chem trails here in Portland when I arrived – and they have continued every day. Much more than what I see in the Reno/Tahoe area of Nevada. I started to wonder why… and I think it has something to do with all of the organic farming in this area. Maui has tried to ban all flights over their island because the organic produce is no longer “organic.” Something is really wrong, but it’s hard to understand all of the pieces of the puzzle. I’ve heard that Monsanto is working on seeds that are resistant to aluminum so they will have the only seeds that will survive after all the spraying of aluminum and barium salts. We’ve quit buying any fish from the Pacific, as well. I think it behooves everyone to stock some things for a rainy day and learn to grow their own produce. Times, they are a-changing.
Havde you seen that documentary on Monsanto? I’ll have to find the title. We watched it awhile back. Really an eye opener!
I don’t think so, but I’ve read plenty. Scary, scary company!
I’d love to grow those type of fruits and a coconut tree – but there again we can grow potatoes! Horses for courses. We don’t grow any foodstuffs but our son has raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, cabbages, rhubarb, potatoes and so on. All seems to be growing okay though we have had a dreadful June weather wise – so much rain with flooding in places. It does concern me about what we eat and possible contamination.
Sounds like your son’s garden is flourishing!
Growing things are out of sync here, too, Guys. (Northeast coastal FL) Hastings, west of us, is one of the potato and cabbage capitals of the world, not just the U.S. There’s a large produce market out there, (Hastings is pure country, farms and farmland as far as the eye can see), and we drive out there often for the fresh produce. The potatoes came in early, as had the cabbage, said the woman who owns the market, and both are growing HUGE. She said she’s never seen the potatoes or cabbage this big. Most of the produce is outside the tin-roofed market shed, and the sizes of virtually everything is staggering. Small green beans and small yellow squash are the most tender and sweet, but this year, they’re just too big, and are out of season. One good thing: Hastings grows a special type of potato that is far better than Idaho for baking. This year, the Hastings pototoes are a meal just by themselves. They’re enormous, and fortunately, the taste is delicious. But the taste has been affected in some of the other veggies due to their exceptional and unprecedented size. They grew like this in Findhorn and supposedly were fantastic, but that isn’t the case here. Something certainly seems to be happening besides the erratic weather patterns everywhere!
BYW, I’ve not eaten beef or ham since 9-20-1986, due to a dream I had. Not even a small bite. Chicken and turkey on occasion, and fish. Now will probably eliminate fish. Hate to go totally vegan, but with the atmospheric water contaminants, it’s scary!
Wish it were all like Findhorn!