The One-Straw Revolution - Multiworld India

them, the taste was completely different, and we determined that the"wild" vegetables possessed a richer flavor.I told the reporter that when vegetables are grown in a prepared fieldusing chemical fertilizer, nitrogen, phosphorus and potash are supplied.But when vegetables are grown with natural ground cover in soilnaturally rich in organic matter, they get a more balanced diet ofnutrients. A great variety of weeds and grasses means that a variety ofessential nutrients and micronutrients are available to the vegetables.Plants which grow in such balanced soil have a more subtle flavor.Edible herbs and wild vegetables, plants growing on the mountainand in the meadow, are very high in nutritional value and are also usefulas medicine. Food and medicine are not two different things: they are thefront and back of one body. Chemically grown vegetables may be eatenfor food, but they cannot be used as medicine.When you gather and eat the seven herbs of spring, [Watercress,shepherd's purse, wild turnip, cottonweed, chickweed, wild radish, andbee nettle] your spirit becomes gentle. And when you eat bracken shoots,osmund and shepherd's purse, you become calm. To calm restless,impatient feelings, shepherd's purse is the best of all. They say that ifchildren eat shepherd's purse, willow buds or insects living in trees, thiswill cure violent crying tantrums, and in the old days children were oftenmade to eat them. Daikon (Japanese radish) has for its ancestor the plantcalled nazuna (shepherd's purse), and this word nazuna is related to theword nagomu, which means to be softened. Daikon is the "herb thatsoftens one's disposition."Among wild foods insects are often overlooked.100