Kim is the award winning author of Amen to the Garden: Dandelions to Dinner an ORGANIC GARDEN GIRL® cookbook. Km is a home chef, master organic gardener, photographer, artist, and Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach with a specialized certification in advanced gut health, hormone health, and emotional eating issues. Kim brings her zest for natural living to help others create inspiring dishes like those in her two-time award winning cookbook - always incorporating wild edibles and vegetables growing in her garden and yard. Kim can be found on Instagram @organicgardengirl and online at organicgardengirl.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/healthy-alternatives-with-dr-janet-hull--5836098/support.
Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/healthy-alternatives-with-dr-janet-hull--5836098/support.
Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.
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(00:11):
Welcome to the Healthy Alternatives Radio TVShow with doctor Janet Hull, bringing unsensored
alternative health topics and special guests revealingthe truth about natural health and nature's remedies.
After curing herself from a near deathexperience caused by aspertaine poisoning, Doctor
Hull became one of the world's mostrenowned artificial sweetener experts, combining her expertise
(00:35):
in an environmental toxicology with natural healingand hellistic nutrition. Doctor Hull is a
best selling author and expert in findingthe root causes of modern diseases using hair
analysis. Join doctor Hull in discoveringwhat may be at the root of your
health concerns, and remember that thereare always Healthy Alternatives. For more information
(00:57):
on doctor Janet Hull and the HealthyAlternatives Radio TV show, visit Healthy Alternatives
Radio TV, dot com and nowhere is the host of Healthy Alternatives,
Doctor Janet Hull. Welcome to thisedition of Healthy Alternatives. Today, we're
(01:22):
going to be talking about the waron food. I think just about every
one of us has experienced going tothe market or the grocery store and paying
almost double for our food. AndI believe that many of us are seeing
(01:42):
empty shelves in the stores, andnow we're talking about culling chickens and beef.
Ireland has a proposal has not passedyet, but has a proposal to
where they want to call over thenet three years over two hundred thousand cattle
(02:05):
cows. Why is all of thishappening and what can we do about it?
Well, today I have a healthyalternative for the war on food,
and that is how to make yourhome your garden. And our guest today
is author Kim Thompson who's written thebook a beautiful book called I'm In to
(02:30):
the Garden Dandelions to Dinner. Ithas some of the most beautiful photographs of
her garden and of the meals thatshe has prepared from her garden. And
we want to talk to her todayabout how you get started, how she
got started in doing this, whatit really takes, how you can get
(02:54):
through the challenges, and how youcan begin to implement growing your own food
so that at least can cut downthat grocery bill. Kim, Welcome to
Healthy Alternatives. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.
Thanks for inviting me. I absolutelylove your work. I love your book
(03:19):
I love all of the work thatyou put into your book. And I've
got to tell you, I'm nota very good gardener. I'm better with
animals, but I'm learning and itis a challenge, and so I need
people like you who are on theground, boots on the ground doing it.
(03:40):
You have done it, you're succeedingat it, and I need to
know how you can guide people throughbeginning this. How did you get started
in I get started just, youknow, because I love to cook.
I grew up around food and myfamily always my mom and dad always gardened,
my grandparents gardened, and it's justsomething that was natural to me.
(04:04):
And of course when I went offto colleges, when I realized that the
food just doesn't compare, and ofcourse when I got married and raised my
kids, it just started small,very small, and then it just increased
year after year because I didn't knowwhat I was doing. I mean,
I just planted the seeds. Ididn't waited for it to grow, and
(04:27):
you know, something's got eaten,and you just tried again next year,
and it's just trialing there. Sowhen you were growing up, and I
think I can I can agree withyou and join you. My mother was
a master master chef. I can'twell, when you say master chef these
days you mean a professional one.But she was a gourmet cook and everything
(04:50):
was fresh, and she made useat our vegetables, and she introduced the
full spectrum of foods, you know, the ish and the beef and the
chicken. And of course growing up, we only had turkey back in those
days for Thanksgiving. It wasn't availablein the stores except for that season.
(05:12):
But I'm I'm like you. Iagree. I had the great upbringing to
where we had good family meals andyou did too. That that is key.
I mean, I just think andthat's what we passed on to our
children is just to show them,you know, how it's done, or
you know, just how this iswhere it comes from. It was just
natural. It wasn't I wasn't doinganything to create something new. It was
(05:36):
just this is how it's done.This is how you grow a tomato,
Go pick some parsley for dinner.You know, same thing that my mom
would do. Send me out,go grab a tomato, go you know,
cut some deal. Whatever it was. But the dan Gians was you
know, from the Italian side ofthe family, where my dad would his
(05:57):
mom would send him out to theyard to pick dan alliance so she could
cook them up for dinner. Soyou learned your recipes from your family and
your grandmother and mothers or did youcome up with them yourself? Most of
them in the book I came upwith myself. The origin of the book
(06:18):
was something that I always wanted towrite. But of course I have major
influences on both sides of my family, from my mom's German English side and
my dad's Italian side, and bothsides of the family, you know,
German English side big massive gardeners andthe Italian side gardeners, but also the
(06:41):
massive food you know. I mean, it wasn't just meatballs, it was
real cutlet, it was peccata,you know, there was a whole Schmoorgis
board. And the thing is isthat family was always together, good point
grading things, you know. Soit was always birthdays and cousins. Were
they graduations and when I wanted I'vealways wanted to write the book, but
(07:04):
my original thought was to do abook on traditions of food and family,
but it didn't I didn't start outwith that because of Instagram, which my
daughter got me on in twenty twelve, because that's what I always did,
was take pictures of my food andthe garden. And she was like,
you gotta do this, and soshe showed me and I did that.
(07:26):
And then over a few years friendsthat followed me were like, you've got
to write a book. You've gotto write a book. And a lot
of the things that they were seeingwhen the stuff I was just making from
the garden. You know, Iwould showcase some special foods for days,
like chicken parmisan or you know,things like that, but for the most
(07:47):
part, you know, bring stuffin from the garden and whip it up,
and the juicing and the smoothies andall of that stuff is you know,
throw a handful of the dandelions inthere. It just evolved that way.
So I couldn't start out with thetraditions book because they wanted the recipes
they were seeing good point. Yeah, So that's how it started, you
(08:13):
know, and it came to youknow, when I was an empty nester
in twenty sixteen. It was justthe saddest time of my life, no
kids home, and I finally hadthe time to, you know, put
some effort into writing the book.I had no idea what I was doing.
I just I just started, well, let's circle back here, because
(08:35):
you said something really interesting, andthat was when you were pitching the book.
They were just looking for something mainstream, a little bit more traditional and
not a healthy alternative to recipes.Is that right? Well, they just
you know, I would post asmoothie that I had on a rock while
I was out in the garden,and then it was, oh, wow,
(08:56):
I love that, you know,I love that. Or I'd show
a birth they dinner plate and ohI love that. And so it's just
from there, and it really spurredme to create more things from the garden,
for sure, because you know,you grow all this food and if
you don't plan or prep it,it'll go to waste, and you don't
(09:16):
want to do that. So Iover the years, and this is many
years of doing this, it getsbigger. There's certain things that you've got
to have. And the best partabout gardening is all the stuff that comes
back that you don't even have todo you plan it once, it just
regenerates every season. So is thatwhat they call heirloom plants? No,
(09:39):
airloom plants are those that are overone hundred years old heirloom seeds that haven't
been hybridized, and you know,those are the seeds that we're losing through
generations. But fortunately, but likeI have certain crops that come back.
I mean, you know, forexample, dandelions, let's just start with
(10:01):
that. They are out in everybody'syards and it's one of the most medicinal
plants on the planet. I mean, think about how potent the properties are.
It grows through cement. You know, this is a sign that shows
you how strong this plant is.The roots go down so deep, so
(10:22):
it helps your garden at air rates, gives room for the worms to come
up. But another one that Ilove and I can't live without is plantain,
and it's it's another weed that peoplewant to eradicate. But if I
was to say one thing for peopleto grow in their gardens, it would
be plantaine because it could save yourlife if you if you got bit by
(10:43):
a bee, stung by a bee, it could save your life. Is
tell us how yeah, show usthat it's a plantaine leaf and you can
buy it by these five veins inthe back. This is broad leaf.
There's narrow leaf, which is justa narrower leaf. But it's the same
same stuff. If you're in thegarden and you get bit by something,
(11:09):
you basically can just chew it upand pat it on and it will take
away the stink, takes toxins out. Ten minutes, it'll be gone.
Did you just stumble on that informationor did you go out and start researching
all of these things that you're findingin your yard. No, I didn't
stumble on it, for sure.I studied a lot, took a lot
(11:31):
of classes and a lot of herbalclasses, and I just really came to
love learning about the special properties andall these plants. And when I realized
that, wow, this stuff isgrowing in my yard. I didn't even
plant it. It just you know, it was there. It's like many
other weeds that are really beneficial foryou. And we can go into that
(11:54):
another time. But it's through learning. But now it's natural. And that's
the thing. When you do thingsyear after year, you just it's autopilot,
you know, Like I know,if I get stung, I can
pat this on there and it'll befine. If you get a rash,
same thing. So that I loveabout you know that people can learn uses
(12:18):
from it. It's not just there. You know, Mother Nature didn't just
put it there for no reason.Well, I know that there's books written
on herbal remedies, you know,and and to how to use them for
medicinal purposes. But maybe that's thetheme for a next book. Maybe you
should go through what you just commonlyfind in the garden, like a dandelion
(12:41):
or a plantain, and how youcan use it and benefit from it healthwise.
Do because I think people are notaware of the medicinal right quantities of
a lot of what we consider weeds, and that weeds are actually plants and
nutrients that you can eat. Whenwe return, I want to go into
(13:03):
the sculpting of your garden, andso when we get back, I want
you to tell us how you convertedyour backyard into your home grocery store.
So we'll be back after this break. Alrighty, welcome back to Healthy Alternatives.
Our guest today is Kim Thompson,an award winning author of her book
(13:28):
I'm Into the Garden Dandelions to Dinner, and you can find Kim. Kim's
website is Organic garden Girl is thatOrganic garden girl dot com and she posts
all kinds of beautiful pictures and shekeeps you up to date on what she's
(13:48):
doing with her latest harvest from thegarden Kim. People start off thinking,
Okay, I'm gonna do this.I'm gonna do this. How do I
do this? They've got a backyardfull of grass, They've got a wooden
fence that might be falling down,a patio that gets beat by the sun.
How did you take your backyard andconvert it into your home grocery store?
(14:16):
Through many years? Definitely, it'sit's been added onto every year.
But start with a small plot,Start with just a container. You don't
even have to dig in the dirt. You can get a container, you
can grow some herbs and just findthe sunny spot in your yard and that
(14:39):
would be the place to start.You can you don't even have to dig
in the dirt this year. Ifyou don't have time, put some containers
over there, put some seeds inthere, and just watch them grow every
year. What do you put inthe containers? I love container gardening as
well. I have there's the maingarden and then there's just spots all over
the yard that I grow stuff.But I do have containers everywhere because I
(15:03):
just find it easier to dig in, plant, you know, amend the
soil every year. It's just youcan put anything in there. And the
way I garden is just the wayI just go out and I visualize or
oh I want to put this here. I have these seedlings here, Oh
that'll go good. I just mixeverything together. There's no plan, it's
(15:24):
just all and you know intuitive,there's so many things you could follow on
YouTube as far as science, andI'll just do what you love to do.
Get out there and have fun,don't you know, try and follow
some plan because my yard to thenext yard is different, you know from
my neighbor's yard. It's different.The weather's different where you are from where
(15:48):
I am, so I can't readwhat other people are doing. And you
know think, oh wow, I'mgonna try that. It's gonna work.
Gardening is you know, it's agamball. Armors know this. You know
you have to wait on the weather. You have to you know, hope
and pray you get some good rainand and just hope that you don't have
(16:10):
bugs that wipe out one whole thing, which is why you never want to
plant a whole section of tomatoes.You know, you want to spread them
out and you know, put flowersin between everything. Especially today it's necessary
for the pollinators get them in betweeneverything. And it's just if you have
fun and you go out and youjust start small with a couple of seeds,
(16:33):
you're going to be Wow, thisis amazing, and then next year
you'll have plans and things. Wow, I'd like to try this. Grow
what you love to eat. Ifyou love parsley, plant it and just
go from there. You know,those little herbs and those plastic packs can
go up to six dollars and youget two stems. You know, you
(16:55):
can grow, grow one seed orparsley in a packet and you're set because
it will re seed every year.Every other year it'll see and then you
collect your own seeds. So it'sjust well, you mentioned a really good
point about everybody lives in a differentarea of the country. Like we're down
here in South Texas to where wehave maybe two weeks of winter, and
(17:22):
you're up in the northern latitudes towhere you have what three months of Yeah,
we have a good it depends,it changes, you know, but
we really pretty much have a mildwinter, you know, it don't We
don't get snowstorms because other years wecan get some snowstorms, but for a
lot of the things, you know, suburbs can live through the winter,
(17:44):
but it's it's milder. But youknow, I can't. I have citrus
plants, but I have to bringthem in. You know, it's not
Florida. I can't leave the citrusout. They have to come in.
So you will bring some stuff inand then continue harvesting through a old winter.
Well, over the past I wouldsay six seven years, I've had
(18:07):
a greenhouse, and I've been throughmultiple because they don't last and have to
break them down, and that's goodto know. Well, I just can't
stand to see my peppers die.You know. Peppers are so especially hot
peppers, they're so slow growing thatsometimes in October and early November they're just
flowering and I just you know thatfirst frost is going to be coming,
(18:30):
and you're you're panicking, like,oh my gosh, we'll get all these
peppers. So I dig them up, I put them into the greenhouse,
you know, and then a lotof my containers have plants that just go
into the greenhouse. So that's anotherpart that's evolved, is doing that.
And then with my youngest home.He's gotten into hydroponics, and that's another
(18:51):
whole ball game. Yeah, butI did when I ask you about hydroponics
because see, to me, inmy opinion, there shouldn't be starvation anywhere
in the world. If you livedin the middle of the Sahara Desert,
you could do hydroponic gardening. Yeah, and you're recycling the water and you
(19:12):
can grow fish tolapia. Right,And so why aren't we promoting it more?
Why aren't we doing things like thismore? That's a huge question.
I don't wish. I don't know, because back in the day when my
kids were in preschool in elementary school, that was my favorite times to volunteer
(19:34):
and go in class and learn aboutdifferent things with the kids and you know,
we meet peanut butter. But that'sjust you can't do that today.
But you know, even like yousaid, in the Sahara Desert, you
know, if people want to startgrowing things and they don't even have a
yard, you can grow sprouts andyou don't even need sun to do that.
(19:57):
You know, oftentimes growing sprouts andjars, broccoli sprouts. You know,
you can buy the salad sprouts andyou can do that right in your
kitchen. And the other thing Ilove to do that everyone can do is
grow food from the food that youbuy. Sounds oh good point. Yeah,
(20:17):
when you buy salary at the grocerystore, if you cut the end
off, you put it in water, you wait till some roots sprout,
and then you plant it out inthe dirt. The kids love that project
and scallions to this day. Istill if I have to buy scallions off,
cut the ends off, stick themin water, let the roots get
really long, and then I'll plantthem and then you've got continual scallions.
(20:41):
You know, so little things well, and you know these like you say,
these are little things, but they'rehuge to people that haven't thought about
it, or maybe they're so busythat when they get home all they need
to do is just crash and gettheir kids to help. But you know,
you brought up a good point alittle bit ago about how your youngest
(21:03):
son is involved. He helps youbecause he works the greenhouse with the hydroponics,
which I do want to talk abouta little bit later. Very lucky.
But you know, this is areally good point to make. If
families they both work, they allwork, the kids work, whatever whatever
(21:23):
age the kids are when they comeback home together at a point in time
to where they're preparing a meal fordinner. Hopefully we can encourage more home
cooking than eating out. But ifthey could teach their kids to take a
piece of salery, watch those rootsgrow, and then go outside on the
patio and put it in a pot, water it and nurse it. This
(21:45):
is something that could be done athome that goot and kids love it.
And if nobody shows them and theyjust eat out all the time, how
are they ever gonna know? Youknow, I just what was natural natural
to us growing up isn't quite naturalanymore. Yeah, it's just kids love
(22:07):
to learn. And so if youstart with your kids, and even in
the kitchen too, you know,my kids were scrubbing vegetables and doing things
all along. You know, itis kind of even me growing up.
My sister and I would be like, no, you clean the mushrooms,
I'll clean the spinach. You know, you didn't have box let us back
then, so you had to washyour stuff. But you know, the
(22:30):
kids always want to help. AndI find that doing things as you know
a family, they really enjoy that. It makes them feel good. And
when they see something grow, itpropels them to want to learn more too,
so that's another bonus. Well,you know, I wanted to ask
you when your kids were growing up, did you have them in the kitchen
(22:52):
with you? Were you were youteaching them how to cook and how to
cut and prepare and then clean up. Yes? Absolutely, Yes, My
daughter was sitting on the counter atsix months eating raw garlic while I cooked.
So they all it's hard to cook. And are they good cooks today?
(23:15):
Yes, every single one? Yea. So do they cook more?
Because you know, the new movementagain, I think you're gonna save money
with the war on food by noteating out all the time and cooking at
home more. It's so expensive toeat out, and you know, and
(23:36):
they do have I mean, withthis order and delivery, it's so easy
to do. And even I fallinto that trap. I mean, i
could be out in the garden allday and I'm wiped out and I could
have a huge bowl of greens thatare in water, ready to clean.
But if you know, if I'mexhausted, take out is what it is.
But it is it's really expensive,so you sort of you know,
(23:56):
you have to plan ahead use whatevertime you have to sort of do that.
But my daughter loves to cook.My son's love to cook. I
think they're lacking time too, youknow, because they're very busy. So
I think for anyone, planning isyou know. And I'm not one of
these big food preppers like you seeon YouTube where they've got their glass jars
(24:19):
and things like that. That's notthe way I do it. I mean,
I just would wash the lettuce inthe morning it's ready for dinner,
because if it's not, there's nottime to do it, you know.
So I can't eat the same thingfive days in a row. So that
type of food prep isn't for me. But you know, just you know,
vegetables cleaned. That's a good point. This is true. From garden
(24:41):
to plate, you know, whichis a buzzword that people are using now.
Go from garden to plate. Youknow, you want your purest organic
you know, fruits and vegetables andfoods. But this truly is. And
back in the olden days, theyused to go to market. They had
the local markets, meat markets separatefrom the from the vegetable markets, but
(25:03):
they in the bakeries. People usedto go if not daily at least every
other day to buy their fresh foodsto go prepare their meals. And that's
what you're doing. And it comes, you know, every year. It's
just different. And if I getthese greens, I'll you know, if
I don't eat them for dinner becauseI'm not you know, I'm not a
(25:26):
mega salad creator like my daughter was, or is what I do. Put
a handful of greens in my smoothies. So you know, if I don't
use them for dinner, they're goingto be in a smoothie or they're going
to be juiced. You know,they don't go to waste. Um.
You know. The herbs same thing. You know, there's just simple things
you can do with all these herbsthat not only are going to help you,
(25:49):
but in the event someone couldn't getto the doctor, they're they're so
medicinal for you. Like this isan example of what I do with this
is just this is a small jarto show you there's time the herb time
in here and today I put ina little mint and time is anti viral
awesome. So you can soak this, you can make a tea. But
(26:11):
if you just do that and keepit in your refrigerator and have us have
a glass of that throughout the daybecause people don't like playing water well.
When we get back, we're goingto talk about this in more detail because
I want people to understand that theyare going to be healthier when they do
their home gardening. So we'll returnafter this break to talk about how it
(26:33):
affects your health. Welcome back toHealthy Alternatives with Kim Thompson, author of
I'm Into the Garden, Dandelions toDinner, and Kim as another side to
her as well, or an additionalside, not another side, it's just
all part of one thing. You'rea certified health coach, so you not
(26:56):
only grow these incredible foods, butyou also know their health benefits and you
actually can coach people on making atransition from something that you mentioned in the
last segment that I want to gointo the services now that deliver food to
(27:18):
your door, or the drive throughsthat all of these young kids want to
go to, and the fast foodsthey want to eat. You can help
people make the transition on growing thesehealthy, nutritious foods in their garden.
And in your cookbook you explain youactually give the recipes and you explain to
(27:41):
people how you can use dandelions.For example, Yes, I'm particular to
dandelions, but you know how everybodyreads though detax into spring, and you
know there's certain things you do certainseasons. Well spring is liver time,
and that's a time to detax.Well, dandelion just happens to grow abundantly
(28:04):
in springtime. So it's it's justnature's way of saying, you know,
eat these. This is a perfecttime. You know, you clean your
house out. You've been you know, pulled up all winter, and now
it's time to do something good foryourself. So it is a bitter plant,
which is why it's so good forthe liver and the kidneys to cleanse.
(28:29):
But it's also a natural diuretic,which not many people know. And
you know, of course, Ihave many family members with high blood pressure
and I honestly get it on occasion, and it's a what do they put
you on as a natural diuretic whileyou can just eat dandelions, because the
bonus of that is that it doesn'tdeplete your potassium, which is the biggest
(28:53):
problem with that. So when youlearn little things, you know, once
you learn little things about the herbs, growing in your garden. You have
it for a lifetime, you know, so it's not something that you know.
I'm no expert on everything at all. I know what's growing in my
yard and I know what it doesbecause I you know, year after year.
(29:15):
But for example, this year,I'm learning about poke weed, which
is a very poisonous plant which growsrampant in Virginia, but it is actually
one of the most beneficial plants thatyou can have. And I realized when
I was reading the other day that, oh my gosh, this was growing
(29:37):
in the yard. Last year,I ripped it all out. I didn't
know what the berries were. Ithought, where did this come from?
And so this year I'm like,bring it on. I'm gonna try to
do something with this. That's howyou learn because you'll see things, look
them up and just check and seewhat properties are. But you know,
it's like rosemary, for example,if you grill, use it. Grill
(30:00):
and you're grilling some steak, sprinklesome rosemary on there because it counteracts the
carcinogens from grilling. So just littlethings that you can learn and utilize these
herbs for because if you don't usethem, you don't really know, and
of course if you know the flavors, you'll have your favorites that you want
to use. And you know,rosemary is also good for hair and memory.
(30:25):
That's one of the new things that'scoming out over the past several years
is they're finding that rosemary is reallybeneficial for your brain, and so that's
another good one. But you know, it's a continual learning curve, you
know, for everyone, and asyou as each year goes on, you'll
(30:45):
you'll want to learn more just becauseit's so inspiring. Well, you know,
if you look at your evolution andwhat you have done, you started
off beginning with a few pots anda few above ground, you know,
garden contain and then you went backto school to get certified in health coaching
(31:07):
and health and nutrition and behavioral coaching, so you you combined how it affects
the body mentally and physically, andthen you began learning more and more about
the different types of herbs and vegetablesand fruits and their health benefits. So
you kind of came full circle withall of this to now you wrote the
(31:33):
book, and this is what isin the book, so that when people
get your book, then they canget the benefit of all of everything that
you've learned again by boots on theground and educate. Yes, I love
that, and you know, Ihope people will check some things out just
(31:55):
you know, there's just things thatI think people will do on their own
for what they need. Wise,you know, everyone has their own specific
ailments and whatnot. You know,we've all got inflammation. One of the
things I love to do is ifI see ginger or trameric on sale,
I'll buy as much as I canbuy, and then I'll juice it up
(32:16):
with some oranges, put it incube trays, and then when I make
a smoothie, I can pop acouple of cubes in there. And so
I do that with a lot ofthings. You know, you can do
that with you know, like mintin springtime is just beautiful. As it
goes on throughout the season, it'llget you know, the bugs will get
(32:37):
on there it all. So inthe beginning of spring you just clip it
all. You can blend it withsome coconut oil, or you can just
blend it with water. Add thatto your smoothies, or you can add
it to dishes you cook with pestosand all that sort of thing. You'll
find a ton of those in thebook, because you can make a pesto
or a chimney churry sauce out ofany greens in your yard. Just mix
(32:58):
them up, use what you have. Well, I tell you what you're
inspiring me. And I'm not thebest cook. My mom would run us
out of the kitchen because you know, we got to clean up and we
got to cut the onions and allthe stuff. She didn't want to do.
But I'm definitely. But one ofthe points that you made I think
(33:22):
is really important, and that's thatyou learn what works in your area the
best, and then what it isthat you like to eat. I think
that's one of the best, someof the best advice I've heard. Grow
what it is that you're interested ineating, and for the most part,
that's a tomato or something salady.Yeah, but you do yeah, yeah,
(33:51):
Now, with all of all ofyour peppers and things like that,
you had mentioned that you that youwere freezing your ginger. Um do you
if you have an over an abundanceof like squash or zucchini or cucumbers,
what do you do with the overabundance? Um? Well, I definitely give
stuff to neighbors, and I'll juiceit and freeze it. But zucchini I
(34:15):
like to shred it, and youcan freeze it in packs like that with
a vacuum sealer, so you canadd it to soups, you can stir
fry it, you can make muffins, you can do whatever you make with
it. And what I'm really consideringthis year is a freeze dryer, but
I don't that's a goal. That'sa goal, So I really do want
(34:38):
to try that because I do havea dehydrator and you can dehydrate it.
I've dehydrated zucchini and made flour fromit, so you can do that,
you know, kind of like coconutflour and almond flower. You can do
that with zucchini. You can makezucchini flower. But hiers, I really
don't have a stash of those becauseI just juice them, you know,
(35:00):
I'll just juice the whole cucumber andthat's what I'll drink. It's just very
hydrating and day, yeah, wellthat's good. And then that that brings
me to another point. When you'rein the garden and you're hot and you're
dizzy, which happens because you justyou don't drink enough. You know,
you can make your own electrolytes simple. You don't have to, you know,
(35:22):
buy these packets of stuff with youknow, sugars and whatever ingredients are
in there. All you need isa big glass of water with a you
know, dash of honey and ahalf teaspoon of sea salt or redmon real
salt, Timolayan salt, and you'vegot your own electrolyte. Do you put
anything else in that, well,you can put lemon, and you can
(35:43):
put anything in there, you know, but the basics is the honey and
the salt. Well, and youjust do that to taste. Well,
in thirty two ounces of water,I would do a teaspoon of salt or
half teaspoon if you're just starting out, because it will be salty tasting a
little bit. But you know,when you're sweating in the garden, you
(36:04):
know you need sweet, you needsalt, You need those sugars, and
you need those minerals from this.You know, you need the sodium.
So yeah, you can do itto taste. You know, if you're
only going to do an eight ounceflask, just put a quarter teaspoon of
salt in there and a drizzle ofhoney and stir it up. It adds
some lemon juice, some mint whatever. I am telling you, you are
(36:28):
just full of the best idea.But one thing that you had written about
is that you you like to studythe other cultures. And see, I
do too. My undergraduate degree atUT was in international geography, and I
think studying other cultures is so important. And again we are not doing that
(36:50):
educationally enough today. I'll tell mehow studying other cultures is hopped with your
your profession. Well, I justthink that it brings, you know,
brings people together. You know,it's nice to know about other cultures.
We should learn about other cultures.You know, we're all one on this
planet, you know, and there'sso much to learn, you know that
(37:12):
we're not even going to be ableto get in a lifetime. Yeah,
So I just I think that whenyou travel and you you see something or
you know that you like, youcome home and you learn about it.
And for me and my family specifically, if we liked food or you know,
wow, that was amazing, we'dcome home and we would learn about
(37:35):
it. You know, when thekids is slowing up. The minute summer
rolled around, it was a tripto the library and we would come home
with about forty books. Yeah,that was the beginning of summer for us
was books. So I do loveand when I started delving more into the
Asian foods because of gluten intolerances inthe family. I mean, I have
(38:00):
to grow calfer lime leaves. Ihave lemongrass growing all these certain this is
a Kaffer lime leaf O double butyou know that. I wish you could
smell it because it's incredible um.But how dark it is you could just
see the nu transcend. There's anew one too, and it's so soft
(38:21):
and it's just I've actually got acouple that plant. But the thing is
is you can cook with that ifyou make a non plot is fish sauce.
And then there's an Asian soup thatuses coconut milk with mushrooms and this
keeffra lime leaves and just flavors incredible. I can send you some. Oh,
(38:44):
I'll pick ye up on that.Yes, How how do people find
these? Do they do they orderthem online? Best? Or do they
go this is from my tree?My lime tree. Um is probably twoy
ten so I've had it since twothous was intent and I have several other
line and citrus trees, but youknow this is in Florida, right right,
(39:07):
you have to bringing free lemons ayear, and I'm happy you know,
when we return from this next lastbreak, we're going to get some
good advice from you on how afamily can get started. What are some
of the first steps that you wouldrecommend people doing. And again we've talked
(39:30):
a lot about the benefits long termfor doing something like this, but serious,
how to get serious about it,how to stick with it. And
we want everybody to be able toget to organic garden Girl. So we'll
return here after this break and we'regoing to talk about home gardening for everybody.
(39:54):
Well, Welcome back to Healthy Alternativeswith author Kim Thompson. I'm into
the garden, Kim. I've knownyou a long time and I've read your
book over and over and I've useda lot of your recipes still do,
and I am so inspired about theconnection that you've made with not only helping
(40:22):
people save money with the rising pricesin the grocery store, getting their family
collected again, to work together tomake meals and to grow food. But
I think what you're doing is helpingpeople start a lifestyle change with home gardening
(40:42):
and matching that up, marrying thatwith your nutritional certification and your health coaching.
You have so much to offer peoplethat are wanting to do this.
So I'm going to ask you whatwould your advice be if someone came to
you and said, how do Iget started? Well, first of all,
(41:06):
thank you, because you know,like I said, I'm no expert.
I think you are. But ifsomebody came to me, and that's
what I you know with the healthcoaching is that you know, I'm not
about telling people to stop doing whatthey're doing. It's about incorporating something good
for them, you know, evenif it's just a glass of water before
(41:28):
they want their soda, you know, things like that. Just incorporating something
that, over time is going tomake you feel better and on your own,
the bad things will weed out ontheir own. But if I was
to get somebody started on gardening,I would just say, plant something easy,
you know, and don't go crazythe first year, you know,
(41:50):
don't you gotta have tomatoes, peppers, this and that. Pick one or
two things and just start with thatand then you'll realize, Wow, I'd
like to try this next year.And one of the easiest things that I
think to grow is potatoes. Soit really potatoes if you love potatoes.
And this year is the first yearthat I've ever bought a seed potato.
(42:12):
But I have been growing potatoes sincemy youngest was born and he will be
twenty five the end of the month, So this is the first year I've
ever bought a seed potato. Usuallyyou just use potato, and they have
to be organic because conventional ones willnot grow. But once they start to
get the eyes on them, allyou have to You don't even have to
put it in the dirt, putit on top of the dirt in the
(42:35):
container and cover it with a bunchof straw or mulch, and then just
water it and just watch it grow, and then you've got potatoes. I
mean, I used to just plantevery March because most of the Irish just
plant on Saint Patrick's Day, theyplant their potatoes, and I would do
that no matter what the weather was. And now I just if I've got
(42:58):
potatoes growing, they just go inthe yard. You know. In fact,
in all of my beds that Ijust put together this summer, they're
all they've all got volunteer potatoes comingup in every single one of them that
I never even planted, so alittle fun. They make it through the
winter. They make it through thewinter, well they get thrown in the
compost if one is you know,come out and then you see how the
(43:21):
potato is green. You don't wantto eat that, so it'll get thrown
in the compost. And then thecompost gets tossed and turned and added to
your soil. So they're coming upeverywhere. So that's really an easy thing
to start to grow if you lovepeas. And you can do this with
kids because they're so fast. Youknow, you don't want to say grow
up, you know Carolina reaper pepperbecause that can take six weeks to germinate.
(43:45):
You want kids to see results,so give them some beans. You
know Johnny and the bean stock,is that what it was? There's a
reason for that, Jack Jack beanstock. Yeah, so he was Johnny's
brother. So yes, start withsomething that you want to you know that
you think about what you eat alot or you love a lot? You
(44:06):
know what herb do you like thatyou could grow? And you know what,
I'll give some of your viewers someseeds first five viewers to email me,
I will send them three different seedsof their choice, and your email
address is Organic garden Girl three atgmail dot com. Okay, organic garden
Girl three at gmail dot three.Then number three at gmail dot com,
(44:30):
and I will send you seeds ofyour choice if I have them, which
I probably do. Yeah, Okay, two questions I wanted to ask.
One is a regional question and theother one is, well, we'll start
with this one. If someone livesin an apartment or a condominium and they
(44:52):
only have a balcony, how dothey get started there? Okay. When
I first lived in my apartment,I had herbs growing on the window sill
inside, so it's it's definitely youcan do it. And I would move
it from window to window wherever thesun was. But just same thing.
(45:13):
You could get a container, andnowadays you can get these self watering containers
that I really love because you canfill it up and then really you don't
have to water it but once aweek and it will, you know,
if you work all day, it'llyou know, you don't have to worry
about it drying out while you're gone. And they come. I think they're
called earth boxes yeah, the rectangularthey're called earth box. You could look
(45:37):
them up and they come and youcan plant several things in there. You
could do a couple of different herbs, and you could do a tomato and
a pepper plant all in one container. Okay, Okay, but a small
just get a small pot. Justget a small pot. Go buy it
at the garden store. Buy onethat's already started. If you don't have
time to plant and wait for seeds, go buy one and just start taking
(45:59):
care of it. Okay. Andthen my second question is living in different
parts of the country. Um,let's say you live in Arizona and about
the only thing that's growing out thereis a big old cactus. What do
you do? Yeah, well,that's true, we do. We do
(46:20):
hate the cactus. Do you doyou try to go look for a small
greenhouse to get started? Do youstart with like a tower garden with us
hydroponic potum? What would you suggest? You could definitely do that. There
are ways, And I have acouple of followers that I also follow that
(46:40):
live in Arizona, and a lotof times it comes down to what you
put on top of your soil sothat when you water it, it can
stay. You know, it doesn'tevaporate, so you're going to want to
cover things, even your containers witha heavy mulch and that way when you
water, it's going to keep inthat moisture longer than it would if you
(47:00):
didn't do that. Hydroponics, Yeah, I think it's great, and you
know, we used to just doit during the winter so that we could.
You know, last year was tomatoes. They they grew over three quarters
of the greenhouse. This year ispeppers and they're doing the same thing.
But we're not taking it down anymorebecause we like to grow the greens year
(47:22):
round and especially in winter. Youknow, it's so nice to have.
But in Arizona it's it's like,you know, it's a tough thing out
there. It's a different story forthem versus people who get a ton of
rain, like in the Pacific Northwestwhere my sister is. You know,
sometimes it's like you get so muchrain in early spring that it can be
(47:45):
detrimental to some of your plants.But that's why just starting small, don't
you know, and don't make ita project. Just have fun with it,
you know, just say kids,hey, we're gonna do this,
or on your own. It's it'sfun and start small and then you'll see
what works and you'll make your ownmental notes, and then next year you'll
want to try something else and you'llknow what's good for your area. That's
(48:08):
the thing, you know, startout your area, don't you know?
Like I added citrus just because Iwanted to try it and I loved it.
But it's it's hard work to keepcitrus here because you know the pest
and it's just not something that grows. I just love you can use the
(48:29):
lemon leaves are great for skin issues, so you can dry them for teas,
you know. So a lot ofthings have a use, whether or
not you get a lemon on there, you know. So do they go
to your website and do they buyim into the garden to learn all of
these neat little tips, Yes,and then and the thing is saving money,
(48:51):
and it is saving money because youknow you will get things that grow
year after year. They drop theirown seed or that's one of my favorite
thing to do, and I've beendoing it over the past couple of days.
It's collecting seeds from things that havestayed in the ground, like mustard
greens, some kale which always getseaten up by you know, the cabbage
(49:13):
moths and stuff. So I don'teven bother some are to grow kale,
but I'll leave it there and thenit'll go to see for me get more
seeds and you can save money hereand there. That adds up. That
is a good point to just leaveit there and let it go to seed.
Yeah, what do you do?Okay, this is all organic gardening.
And so you said that you wouldnot clump all of your tomatoes or
(49:38):
all your plants together, you'd spreadthem out. Do you do that to
try to do natural pest control orwhat do you do for pest control?
Well? I do get pests,and one of my biggest one is the
cucumber beetle squash squash and then thesquash buying borders. And actually yesterday I
went out and I put electrical tapearound around the stocks of my squashes so
(50:02):
that the squash fine boor can't getin there to begin with, because once
it gets in there, you know, you'll come out one day and your
whole plant is just drooped and you'relike, what happened? What happened?
You know? And that's the thingwith gardener. You never know what's going
to happen. I mean, it'srout to wrap electrical ta I just did.
(50:24):
I just did because I thought they'renot getting through this, you know,
and so it doesn't work. SoI do that year after year,
but I have not been able theI tried vacuuming up the cucumber beetles,
and they're too fast. I mean, they see you coming. I'm I'm
telling you, they see you.You look down, they'll see you.
(50:45):
They're under the plant. You can'tfind them. M So I tried vacuuming
them one year, and now whenI see them, I just you know,
I clap them and get rid ofthem. Or aphids just you know.
Uh, here's an example of leavingthe balls too. You know,
they gotta eat. You know.The garden is all working together. So
(51:05):
I have an amazing rushing kale plantthat's gone to seed from last year,
and one of the stocks is loadedwith the seed pods which look like this.
This is a seed pod. Ohcool. So it grows off the
plant. But if I opened it, it's not dried out yet. But
if I did, all these littlebumps are seeds in there. So that's
(51:27):
the pods on the kale. Thisis a radish pod, a radish seed
pod. Oh wow, on radish. So this has gone to seed.
And this is not dried yet either. But the kale plant has a bunch
of them coming off. But onebunch of them is covered in apids,
like I mean literally covered, andif you cut that off, they're gonna
(51:53):
just go to the other one.So I just leave that there, let
them on ch have some fun onthat one, and then it doesn't much.
The other ones smart, you know, and through the years you'll learn
what plants, you know, likenasturtiums are are an afid collector. They
will draw them to that plant,so you can plant them in between your
(52:14):
vegetables. Is it a wives taleto spray with soapy water? And that's
gonna be my last question because we'realmost out of time. Oh my gosh,
we could go two hours. Iknow, I don't know. I
think I use soap only one time, but I had it combined with some
cayenne pepper and it sort of killedmy plants. But I don't think it's
(52:36):
an old wives tale. I justthink you have to stick with it.
You have to wipe down the leavesand just really make sure that you do
it over and over again. Butyou know, some Kim, this has
just been thank you awesome, andI want everybody to go to Organic garden
Girl dot com and to buy iminto the garden dandelions to dinner. And
(52:59):
I had so many other questions askyou. We're going to do this another
time. Thank you so much forjoining us today and we will see you
next week where we're going to talkabout detoxification and how that's so important for
your first step to wellness. Thankyou for joining us today. So I
(53:29):
was watching the XO TV channel lastnight when I was abducted by aliens and
they kept repeating to me over andover again. Simultv dot com, simultv
dot com. What's simultv dot com. That's what I asked them. They
had it written on the side oftheir UFO. How do you spell that
UFO? No, I mean simultvdot com, SI multv dot com,
simultv dot com. Right, yes, I am ultv dot com. Interesting
(53:52):
that you were abducted by aliens andas simultv dot com UFO last night.
Oh yeah, yeah, now thatyou mentioned it, I remember now last
night I was awake and from adeep sleep. My great grandmother was standing
there. She said, she comefrom the hereafter to tell me about simultv
dot Com. She even't spelled outfor me. Yes, I am ultv
dot com, sunny Boy. Yes, I am ultv dot Com. Yes,
(54:12):
I am ultv dot com sunny Boy. Wow. Yeah, guys,
you'll never guess what my psychic gurujust told me. Yes I am ultv
dot com exactly. Are you guyspsychic too? Of course we all know
about simultv dot com. Yes,I am ultv dot com.
Welcome to the Healthy Alternatives Radio TVShow with doctor Janet Hull, bringing unsensored
alternative health topics and special guests revealingthe truth about natural health and nature's remedies.
After curing herself from a near deathexperience caused by aspertaine poisoning, Doctor
Hull became one of the world's mostrenowned artificial sweetener experts, combining her expertise
(00:35):
in an environmental toxicology with natural healingand hellistic nutrition. Doctor Hull is a
best selling author and expert in findingthe root causes of modern diseases using hair
analysis. Join doctor Hull in discoveringwhat may be at the root of your
health concerns, and remember that thereare always Healthy Alternatives. For more information
(00:57):
on doctor Janet Hull and the HealthyAlternatives Radio TV show, visit Healthy Alternatives
Radio TV, dot com and nowhere is the host of Healthy Alternatives,
Doctor Janet Hull. Welcome to thisedition of Healthy Alternatives. Today, we're
(01:22):
going to be talking about the waron food. I think just about every
one of us has experienced going tothe market or the grocery store and paying
almost double for our food. AndI believe that many of us are seeing
(01:42):
empty shelves in the stores, andnow we're talking about culling chickens and beef.
Ireland has a proposal has not passedyet, but has a proposal to
where they want to call over thenet three years over two hundred thousand cattle
(02:05):
cows. Why is all of thishappening and what can we do about it?
Well, today I have a healthyalternative for the war on food,
and that is how to make yourhome your garden. And our guest today
is author Kim Thompson who's written thebook a beautiful book called I'm In to
(02:30):
the Garden Dandelions to Dinner. Ithas some of the most beautiful photographs of
her garden and of the meals thatshe has prepared from her garden. And
we want to talk to her todayabout how you get started, how she
got started in doing this, whatit really takes, how you can get
(02:54):
through the challenges, and how youcan begin to implement growing your own food
so that at least can cut downthat grocery bill. Kim, Welcome to
Healthy Alternatives. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.
Thanks for inviting me. I absolutelylove your work. I love your book
(03:19):
I love all of the work thatyou put into your book. And I've
got to tell you, I'm nota very good gardener. I'm better with
animals, but I'm learning and itis a challenge, and so I need
people like you who are on theground, boots on the ground doing it.
(03:40):
You have done it, you're succeedingat it, and I need to
know how you can guide people throughbeginning this. How did you get started
in I get started just, youknow, because I love to cook.
I grew up around food and myfamily always my mom and dad always gardened,
my grandparents gardened, and it's justsomething that was natural to me.
(04:04):
And of course when I went offto colleges, when I realized that the
food just doesn't compare, and ofcourse when I got married and raised my
kids, it just started small,very small, and then it just increased
year after year because I didn't knowwhat I was doing. I mean,
I just planted the seeds. Ididn't waited for it to grow, and
(04:27):
you know, something's got eaten,and you just tried again next year,
and it's just trialing there. Sowhen you were growing up, and I
think I can I can agree withyou and join you. My mother was
a master master chef. I can'twell, when you say master chef these
days you mean a professional one.But she was a gourmet cook and everything
(04:50):
was fresh, and she made useat our vegetables, and she introduced the
full spectrum of foods, you know, the ish and the beef and the
chicken. And of course growing up, we only had turkey back in those
days for Thanksgiving. It wasn't availablein the stores except for that season.
(05:12):
But I'm I'm like you. Iagree. I had the great upbringing to
where we had good family meals andyou did too. That that is key.
I mean, I just think andthat's what we passed on to our
children is just to show them,you know, how it's done, or
you know, just how this iswhere it comes from. It was just
natural. It wasn't I wasn't doinganything to create something new. It was
(05:36):
just this is how it's done.This is how you grow a tomato,
Go pick some parsley for dinner.You know, same thing that my mom
would do. Send me out,go grab a tomato, go you know,
cut some deal. Whatever it was. But the dan Gians was you
know, from the Italian side ofthe family, where my dad would his
(05:57):
mom would send him out to theyard to pick dan alliance so she could
cook them up for dinner. Soyou learned your recipes from your family and
your grandmother and mothers or did youcome up with them yourself? Most of
them in the book I came upwith myself. The origin of the book
(06:18):
was something that I always wanted towrite. But of course I have major
influences on both sides of my family, from my mom's German English side and
my dad's Italian side, and bothsides of the family, you know,
German English side big massive gardeners andthe Italian side gardeners, but also the
(06:41):
massive food you know. I mean, it wasn't just meatballs, it was
real cutlet, it was peccata,you know, there was a whole Schmoorgis
board. And the thing is isthat family was always together, good point
grading things, you know. Soit was always birthdays and cousins. Were
they graduations and when I wanted I'vealways wanted to write the book, but
(07:04):
my original thought was to do abook on traditions of food and family,
but it didn't I didn't start outwith that because of Instagram, which my
daughter got me on in twenty twelve, because that's what I always did,
was take pictures of my food andthe garden. And she was like,
you gotta do this, and soshe showed me and I did that.
(07:26):
And then over a few years friendsthat followed me were like, you've got
to write a book. You've gotto write a book. And a lot
of the things that they were seeingwhen the stuff I was just making from
the garden. You know, Iwould showcase some special foods for days,
like chicken parmisan or you know,things like that, but for the most
(07:47):
part, you know, bring stuffin from the garden and whip it up,
and the juicing and the smoothies andall of that stuff is you know,
throw a handful of the dandelions inthere. It just evolved that way.
So I couldn't start out with thetraditions book because they wanted the recipes
they were seeing good point. Yeah, So that's how it started, you
(08:13):
know, and it came to youknow, when I was an empty nester
in twenty sixteen. It was justthe saddest time of my life, no
kids home, and I finally hadthe time to, you know, put
some effort into writing the book.I had no idea what I was doing.
I just I just started, well, let's circle back here, because
(08:35):
you said something really interesting, andthat was when you were pitching the book.
They were just looking for something mainstream, a little bit more traditional and
not a healthy alternative to recipes.Is that right? Well, they just
you know, I would post asmoothie that I had on a rock while
I was out in the garden,and then it was, oh, wow,
(08:56):
I love that, you know,I love that. Or I'd show
a birth they dinner plate and ohI love that. And so it's just
from there, and it really spurredme to create more things from the garden,
for sure, because you know,you grow all this food and if
you don't plan or prep it,it'll go to waste, and you don't
(09:16):
want to do that. So Iover the years, and this is many
years of doing this, it getsbigger. There's certain things that you've got
to have. And the best partabout gardening is all the stuff that comes
back that you don't even have todo you plan it once, it just
regenerates every season. So is thatwhat they call heirloom plants? No,
(09:39):
airloom plants are those that are overone hundred years old heirloom seeds that haven't
been hybridized, and you know,those are the seeds that we're losing through
generations. But fortunately, but likeI have certain crops that come back.
I mean, you know, forexample, dandelions, let's just start with
(10:01):
that. They are out in everybody'syards and it's one of the most medicinal
plants on the planet. I mean, think about how potent the properties are.
It grows through cement. You know, this is a sign that shows
you how strong this plant is.The roots go down so deep, so
(10:22):
it helps your garden at air rates, gives room for the worms to come
up. But another one that Ilove and I can't live without is plantain,
and it's it's another weed that peoplewant to eradicate. But if I
was to say one thing for peopleto grow in their gardens, it would
be plantaine because it could save yourlife if you if you got bit by
(10:43):
a bee, stung by a bee, it could save your life. Is
tell us how yeah, show usthat it's a plantaine leaf and you can
buy it by these five veins inthe back. This is broad leaf.
There's narrow leaf, which is justa narrower leaf. But it's the same
same stuff. If you're in thegarden and you get bit by something,
(11:09):
you basically can just chew it upand pat it on and it will take
away the stink, takes toxins out. Ten minutes, it'll be gone.
Did you just stumble on that informationor did you go out and start researching
all of these things that you're findingin your yard. No, I didn't
stumble on it, for sure.I studied a lot, took a lot
(11:31):
of classes and a lot of herbalclasses, and I just really came to
love learning about the special properties andall these plants. And when I realized
that, wow, this stuff isgrowing in my yard. I didn't even
plant it. It just you know, it was there. It's like many
other weeds that are really beneficial foryou. And we can go into that
(11:54):
another time. But it's through learning. But now it's natural. And that's
the thing. When you do thingsyear after year, you just it's autopilot,
you know, Like I know,if I get stung, I can
pat this on there and it'll befine. If you get a rash,
same thing. So that I loveabout you know that people can learn uses
(12:18):
from it. It's not just there. You know, Mother Nature didn't just
put it there for no reason.Well, I know that there's books written
on herbal remedies, you know,and and to how to use them for
medicinal purposes. But maybe that's thetheme for a next book. Maybe you
should go through what you just commonlyfind in the garden, like a dandelion
(12:41):
or a plantain, and how youcan use it and benefit from it healthwise.
Do because I think people are notaware of the medicinal right quantities of
a lot of what we consider weeds, and that weeds are actually plants and
nutrients that you can eat. Whenwe return, I want to go into
(13:03):
the sculpting of your garden, andso when we get back, I want
you to tell us how you convertedyour backyard into your home grocery store.
So we'll be back after this break. Alrighty, welcome back to Healthy Alternatives.
Our guest today is Kim Thompson,an award winning author of her book
(13:28):
I'm Into the Garden Dandelions to Dinner, and you can find Kim. Kim's
website is Organic garden Girl is thatOrganic garden girl dot com and she posts
all kinds of beautiful pictures and shekeeps you up to date on what she's
(13:48):
doing with her latest harvest from thegarden Kim. People start off thinking,
Okay, I'm gonna do this.I'm gonna do this. How do I
do this? They've got a backyardfull of grass, They've got a wooden
fence that might be falling down,a patio that gets beat by the sun.
How did you take your backyard andconvert it into your home grocery store?
(14:16):
Through many years? Definitely, it'sit's been added onto every year.
But start with a small plot,Start with just a container. You don't
even have to dig in the dirt. You can get a container, you
can grow some herbs and just findthe sunny spot in your yard and that
(14:39):
would be the place to start.You can you don't even have to dig
in the dirt this year. Ifyou don't have time, put some containers
over there, put some seeds inthere, and just watch them grow every
year. What do you put inthe containers? I love container gardening as
well. I have there's the maingarden and then there's just spots all over
the yard that I grow stuff.But I do have containers everywhere because I
(15:03):
just find it easier to dig in, plant, you know, amend the
soil every year. It's just youcan put anything in there. And the
way I garden is just the wayI just go out and I visualize or
oh I want to put this here. I have these seedlings here, Oh
that'll go good. I just mixeverything together. There's no plan, it's
(15:24):
just all and you know intuitive,there's so many things you could follow on
YouTube as far as science, andI'll just do what you love to do.
Get out there and have fun,don't you know, try and follow
some plan because my yard to thenext yard is different, you know from
my neighbor's yard. It's different.The weather's different where you are from where
(15:48):
I am, so I can't readwhat other people are doing. And you
know think, oh wow, I'mgonna try that. It's gonna work.
Gardening is you know, it's agamball. Armors know this. You know
you have to wait on the weather. You have to you know, hope
and pray you get some good rainand and just hope that you don't have
(16:10):
bugs that wipe out one whole thing, which is why you never want to
plant a whole section of tomatoes.You know, you want to spread them
out and you know, put flowersin between everything. Especially today it's necessary
for the pollinators get them in betweeneverything. And it's just if you have
fun and you go out and youjust start small with a couple of seeds,
(16:33):
you're going to be Wow, thisis amazing, and then next year
you'll have plans and things. Wow, I'd like to try this. Grow
what you love to eat. Ifyou love parsley, plant it and just
go from there. You know,those little herbs and those plastic packs can
go up to six dollars and youget two stems. You know, you
(16:55):
can grow, grow one seed orparsley in a packet and you're set because
it will re seed every year.Every other year it'll see and then you
collect your own seeds. So it'sjust well, you mentioned a really good
point about everybody lives in a differentarea of the country. Like we're down
here in South Texas to where wehave maybe two weeks of winter, and
(17:22):
you're up in the northern latitudes towhere you have what three months of Yeah,
we have a good it depends,it changes, you know, but
we really pretty much have a mildwinter, you know, it don't We
don't get snowstorms because other years wecan get some snowstorms, but for a
lot of the things, you know, suburbs can live through the winter,
(17:44):
but it's it's milder. But youknow, I can't. I have citrus
plants, but I have to bringthem in. You know, it's not
Florida. I can't leave the citrusout. They have to come in.
So you will bring some stuff inand then continue harvesting through a old winter.
Well, over the past I wouldsay six seven years, I've had
(18:07):
a greenhouse, and I've been throughmultiple because they don't last and have to
break them down, and that's goodto know. Well, I just can't
stand to see my peppers die.You know. Peppers are so especially hot
peppers, they're so slow growing thatsometimes in October and early November they're just
flowering and I just you know thatfirst frost is going to be coming,
(18:30):
and you're you're panicking, like,oh my gosh, we'll get all these
peppers. So I dig them up, I put them into the greenhouse,
you know, and then a lotof my containers have plants that just go
into the greenhouse. So that's anotherpart that's evolved, is doing that.
And then with my youngest home.He's gotten into hydroponics, and that's another
(18:51):
whole ball game. Yeah, butI did when I ask you about hydroponics
because see, to me, inmy opinion, there shouldn't be starvation anywhere
in the world. If you livedin the middle of the Sahara Desert,
you could do hydroponic gardening. Yeah, and you're recycling the water and you
(19:12):
can grow fish tolapia. Right,And so why aren't we promoting it more?
Why aren't we doing things like thismore? That's a huge question.
I don't wish. I don't know, because back in the day when my
kids were in preschool in elementary school, that was my favorite times to volunteer
(19:34):
and go in class and learn aboutdifferent things with the kids and you know,
we meet peanut butter. But that'sjust you can't do that today.
But you know, even like yousaid, in the Sahara Desert, you
know, if people want to startgrowing things and they don't even have a
yard, you can grow sprouts andyou don't even need sun to do that.
(19:57):
You know, oftentimes growing sprouts andjars, broccoli sprouts. You know,
you can buy the salad sprouts andyou can do that right in your
kitchen. And the other thing Ilove to do that everyone can do is
grow food from the food that youbuy. Sounds oh good point. Yeah,
(20:17):
when you buy salary at the grocerystore, if you cut the end
off, you put it in water, you wait till some roots sprout,
and then you plant it out inthe dirt. The kids love that project
and scallions to this day. Istill if I have to buy scallions off,
cut the ends off, stick themin water, let the roots get
really long, and then I'll plantthem and then you've got continual scallions.
(20:41):
You know, so little things well, and you know these like you say,
these are little things, but they'rehuge to people that haven't thought about
it, or maybe they're so busythat when they get home all they need
to do is just crash and gettheir kids to help. But you know,
you brought up a good point alittle bit ago about how your youngest
(21:03):
son is involved. He helps youbecause he works the greenhouse with the hydroponics,
which I do want to talk abouta little bit later. Very lucky.
But you know, this is areally good point to make. If
families they both work, they allwork, the kids work, whatever whatever
(21:23):
age the kids are when they comeback home together at a point in time
to where they're preparing a meal fordinner. Hopefully we can encourage more home
cooking than eating out. But ifthey could teach their kids to take a
piece of salery, watch those rootsgrow, and then go outside on the
patio and put it in a pot, water it and nurse it. This
(21:45):
is something that could be done athome that goot and kids love it.
And if nobody shows them and theyjust eat out all the time, how
are they ever gonna know? Youknow, I just what was natural natural
to us growing up isn't quite naturalanymore. Yeah, it's just kids love
(22:07):
to learn. And so if youstart with your kids, and even in
the kitchen too, you know,my kids were scrubbing vegetables and doing things
all along. You know, itis kind of even me growing up.
My sister and I would be like, no, you clean the mushrooms,
I'll clean the spinach. You know, you didn't have box let us back
then, so you had to washyour stuff. But you know, the
(22:30):
kids always want to help. AndI find that doing things as you know
a family, they really enjoy that. It makes them feel good. And
when they see something grow, itpropels them to want to learn more too,
so that's another bonus. Well,you know, I wanted to ask
you when your kids were growing up, did you have them in the kitchen
(22:52):
with you? Were you were youteaching them how to cook and how to
cut and prepare and then clean up. Yes? Absolutely, Yes, My
daughter was sitting on the counter atsix months eating raw garlic while I cooked.
So they all it's hard to cook. And are they good cooks today?
(23:15):
Yes, every single one? Yea. So do they cook more?
Because you know, the new movementagain, I think you're gonna save money
with the war on food by noteating out all the time and cooking at
home more. It's so expensive toeat out, and you know, and
(23:36):
they do have I mean, withthis order and delivery, it's so easy
to do. And even I fallinto that trap. I mean, i
could be out in the garden allday and I'm wiped out and I could
have a huge bowl of greens thatare in water, ready to clean.
But if you know, if I'mexhausted, take out is what it is.
But it is it's really expensive,so you sort of you know,
(23:56):
you have to plan ahead use whatevertime you have to sort of do that.
But my daughter loves to cook.My son's love to cook. I
think they're lacking time too, youknow, because they're very busy. So
I think for anyone, planning isyou know. And I'm not one of
these big food preppers like you seeon YouTube where they've got their glass jars
(24:19):
and things like that. That's notthe way I do it. I mean,
I just would wash the lettuce inthe morning it's ready for dinner,
because if it's not, there's nottime to do it, you know.
So I can't eat the same thingfive days in a row. So that
type of food prep isn't for me. But you know, just you know,
vegetables cleaned. That's a good point. This is true. From garden
(24:41):
to plate, you know, whichis a buzzword that people are using now.
Go from garden to plate. Youknow, you want your purest organic
you know, fruits and vegetables andfoods. But this truly is. And
back in the olden days, theyused to go to market. They had
the local markets, meat markets separatefrom the from the vegetable markets, but
(25:03):
they in the bakeries. People usedto go if not daily at least every
other day to buy their fresh foodsto go prepare their meals. And that's
what you're doing. And it comes, you know, every year. It's
just different. And if I getthese greens, I'll you know, if
I don't eat them for dinner becauseI'm not you know, I'm not a
(25:26):
mega salad creator like my daughter was, or is what I do. Put
a handful of greens in my smoothies. So you know, if I don't
use them for dinner, they're goingto be in a smoothie or they're going
to be juiced. You know,they don't go to waste. Um.
You know. The herbs same thing. You know, there's just simple things
you can do with all these herbsthat not only are going to help you,
(25:49):
but in the event someone couldn't getto the doctor, they're they're so
medicinal for you. Like this isan example of what I do with this
is just this is a small jarto show you there's time the herb time
in here and today I put ina little mint and time is anti viral
awesome. So you can soak this, you can make a tea. But
(26:11):
if you just do that and keepit in your refrigerator and have us have
a glass of that throughout the daybecause people don't like playing water well.
When we get back, we're goingto talk about this in more detail because
I want people to understand that theyare going to be healthier when they do
their home gardening. So we'll returnafter this break to talk about how it
(26:33):
affects your health. Welcome back toHealthy Alternatives with Kim Thompson, author of
I'm Into the Garden, Dandelions toDinner, and Kim as another side to
her as well, or an additionalside, not another side, it's just
all part of one thing. You'rea certified health coach, so you not
(26:56):
only grow these incredible foods, butyou also know their health benefits and you
actually can coach people on making atransition from something that you mentioned in the
last segment that I want to gointo the services now that deliver food to
(27:18):
your door, or the drive throughsthat all of these young kids want to
go to, and the fast foodsthey want to eat. You can help
people make the transition on growing thesehealthy, nutritious foods in their garden.
And in your cookbook you explain youactually give the recipes and you explain to
(27:41):
people how you can use dandelions.For example, Yes, I'm particular to
dandelions, but you know how everybodyreads though detax into spring, and you
know there's certain things you do certainseasons. Well spring is liver time,
and that's a time to detax.Well, dandelion just happens to grow abundantly
(28:04):
in springtime. So it's it's justnature's way of saying, you know,
eat these. This is a perfecttime. You know, you clean your
house out. You've been you know, pulled up all winter, and now
it's time to do something good foryourself. So it is a bitter plant,
which is why it's so good forthe liver and the kidneys to cleanse.
(28:29):
But it's also a natural diuretic,which not many people know. And
you know, of course, Ihave many family members with high blood pressure
and I honestly get it on occasion, and it's a what do they put
you on as a natural diuretic whileyou can just eat dandelions, because the
bonus of that is that it doesn'tdeplete your potassium, which is the biggest
(28:53):
problem with that. So when youlearn little things, you know, once
you learn little things about the herbs, growing in your garden. You have
it for a lifetime, you know, so it's not something that you know.
I'm no expert on everything at all. I know what's growing in my
yard and I know what it doesbecause I you know, year after year.
(29:15):
But for example, this year,I'm learning about poke weed, which
is a very poisonous plant which growsrampant in Virginia, but it is actually
one of the most beneficial plants thatyou can have. And I realized when
I was reading the other day that, oh my gosh, this was growing
(29:37):
in the yard. Last year,I ripped it all out. I didn't
know what the berries were. Ithought, where did this come from?
And so this year I'm like,bring it on. I'm gonna try to
do something with this. That's howyou learn because you'll see things, look
them up and just check and seewhat properties are. But you know,
it's like rosemary, for example,if you grill, use it. Grill
(30:00):
and you're grilling some steak, sprinklesome rosemary on there because it counteracts the
carcinogens from grilling. So just littlethings that you can learn and utilize these
herbs for because if you don't usethem, you don't really know, and
of course if you know the flavors, you'll have your favorites that you want
to use. And you know,rosemary is also good for hair and memory.
(30:25):
That's one of the new things that'scoming out over the past several years
is they're finding that rosemary is reallybeneficial for your brain, and so that's
another good one. But you know, it's a continual learning curve, you
know, for everyone, and asyou as each year goes on, you'll
(30:45):
you'll want to learn more just becauseit's so inspiring. Well, you know,
if you look at your evolution andwhat you have done, you started
off beginning with a few pots anda few above ground, you know,
garden contain and then you went backto school to get certified in health coaching
(31:07):
and health and nutrition and behavioral coaching, so you you combined how it affects
the body mentally and physically, andthen you began learning more and more about
the different types of herbs and vegetablesand fruits and their health benefits. So
you kind of came full circle withall of this to now you wrote the
(31:33):
book, and this is what isin the book, so that when people
get your book, then they canget the benefit of all of everything that
you've learned again by boots on theground and educate. Yes, I love
that, and you know, Ihope people will check some things out just
(31:55):
you know, there's just things thatI think people will do on their own
for what they need. Wise,you know, everyone has their own specific
ailments and whatnot. You know,we've all got inflammation. One of the
things I love to do is ifI see ginger or trameric on sale,
I'll buy as much as I canbuy, and then I'll juice it up
(32:16):
with some oranges, put it incube trays, and then when I make
a smoothie, I can pop acouple of cubes in there. And so
I do that with a lot ofthings. You know, you can do
that with you know, like mintin springtime is just beautiful. As it
goes on throughout the season, it'llget you know, the bugs will get
(32:37):
on there it all. So inthe beginning of spring you just clip it
all. You can blend it withsome coconut oil, or you can just
blend it with water. Add thatto your smoothies, or you can add
it to dishes you cook with pestosand all that sort of thing. You'll
find a ton of those in thebook, because you can make a pesto
or a chimney churry sauce out ofany greens in your yard. Just mix
(32:58):
them up, use what you have. Well, I tell you what you're
inspiring me. And I'm not thebest cook. My mom would run us
out of the kitchen because you know, we got to clean up and we
got to cut the onions and allthe stuff. She didn't want to do.
But I'm definitely. But one ofthe points that you made I think
(33:22):
is really important, and that's thatyou learn what works in your area the
best, and then what it isthat you like to eat. I think
that's one of the best, someof the best advice I've heard. Grow
what it is that you're interested ineating, and for the most part,
that's a tomato or something salady.Yeah, but you do yeah, yeah,
(33:51):
Now, with all of all ofyour peppers and things like that,
you had mentioned that you that youwere freezing your ginger. Um do you
if you have an over an abundanceof like squash or zucchini or cucumbers,
what do you do with the overabundance? Um? Well, I definitely give
stuff to neighbors, and I'll juiceit and freeze it. But zucchini I
(34:15):
like to shred it, and youcan freeze it in packs like that with
a vacuum sealer, so you canadd it to soups, you can stir
fry it, you can make muffins, you can do whatever you make with
it. And what I'm really consideringthis year is a freeze dryer, but
I don't that's a goal. That'sa goal, So I really do want
(34:38):
to try that because I do havea dehydrator and you can dehydrate it.
I've dehydrated zucchini and made flour fromit, so you can do that,
you know, kind of like coconutflour and almond flower. You can do
that with zucchini. You can makezucchini flower. But hiers, I really
don't have a stash of those becauseI just juice them, you know,
(35:00):
I'll just juice the whole cucumber andthat's what I'll drink. It's just very
hydrating and day, yeah, wellthat's good. And then that that brings
me to another point. When you'rein the garden and you're hot and you're
dizzy, which happens because you justyou don't drink enough. You know,
you can make your own electrolytes simple. You don't have to, you know,
(35:22):
buy these packets of stuff with youknow, sugars and whatever ingredients are
in there. All you need isa big glass of water with a you
know, dash of honey and ahalf teaspoon of sea salt or redmon real
salt, Timolayan salt, and you'vegot your own electrolyte. Do you put
anything else in that, well,you can put lemon, and you can
(35:43):
put anything in there, you know, but the basics is the honey and
the salt. Well, and youjust do that to taste. Well,
in thirty two ounces of water,I would do a teaspoon of salt or
half teaspoon if you're just starting out, because it will be salty tasting a
little bit. But you know,when you're sweating in the garden, you
(36:04):
know you need sweet, you needsalt, You need those sugars, and
you need those minerals from this.You know, you need the sodium.
So yeah, you can do itto taste. You know, if you're
only going to do an eight ounceflask, just put a quarter teaspoon of
salt in there and a drizzle ofhoney and stir it up. It adds
some lemon juice, some mint whatever. I am telling you, you are
(36:28):
just full of the best idea.But one thing that you had written about
is that you you like to studythe other cultures. And see, I
do too. My undergraduate degree atUT was in international geography, and I
think studying other cultures is so important. And again we are not doing that
(36:50):
educationally enough today. I'll tell mehow studying other cultures is hopped with your
your profession. Well, I justthink that it brings, you know,
brings people together. You know,it's nice to know about other cultures.
We should learn about other cultures.You know, we're all one on this
planet, you know, and there'sso much to learn, you know that
(37:12):
we're not even going to be ableto get in a lifetime. Yeah,
So I just I think that whenyou travel and you you see something or
you know that you like, youcome home and you learn about it.
And for me and my family specifically, if we liked food or you know,
wow, that was amazing, we'dcome home and we would learn about
(37:35):
it. You know, when thekids is slowing up. The minute summer
rolled around, it was a tripto the library and we would come home
with about forty books. Yeah,that was the beginning of summer for us
was books. So I do loveand when I started delving more into the
Asian foods because of gluten intolerances inthe family. I mean, I have
(38:00):
to grow calfer lime leaves. Ihave lemongrass growing all these certain this is
a Kaffer lime leaf O double butyou know that. I wish you could
smell it because it's incredible um.But how dark it is you could just
see the nu transcend. There's anew one too, and it's so soft
(38:21):
and it's just I've actually got acouple that plant. But the thing is
is you can cook with that ifyou make a non plot is fish sauce.
And then there's an Asian soup thatuses coconut milk with mushrooms and this
keeffra lime leaves and just flavors incredible. I can send you some. Oh,
(38:44):
I'll pick ye up on that.Yes, How how do people find
these? Do they do they orderthem online? Best? Or do they
go this is from my tree?My lime tree. Um is probably twoy
ten so I've had it since twothous was intent and I have several other
line and citrus trees, but youknow this is in Florida, right right,
(39:07):
you have to bringing free lemons ayear, and I'm happy you know,
when we return from this next lastbreak, we're going to get some
good advice from you on how afamily can get started. What are some
of the first steps that you wouldrecommend people doing. And again we've talked
(39:30):
a lot about the benefits long termfor doing something like this, but serious,
how to get serious about it,how to stick with it. And
we want everybody to be able toget to organic garden Girl. So we'll
return here after this break and we'regoing to talk about home gardening for everybody.
(39:54):
Well, Welcome back to Healthy Alternativeswith author Kim Thompson. I'm into
the garden, Kim. I've knownyou a long time and I've read your
book over and over and I've useda lot of your recipes still do,
and I am so inspired about theconnection that you've made with not only helping
(40:22):
people save money with the rising pricesin the grocery store, getting their family
collected again, to work together tomake meals and to grow food. But
I think what you're doing is helpingpeople start a lifestyle change with home gardening
(40:42):
and matching that up, marrying thatwith your nutritional certification and your health coaching.
You have so much to offer peoplethat are wanting to do this.
So I'm going to ask you whatwould your advice be if someone came to
you and said, how do Iget started? Well, first of all,
(41:06):
thank you, because you know,like I said, I'm no expert.
I think you are. But ifsomebody came to me, and that's
what I you know with the healthcoaching is that you know, I'm not
about telling people to stop doing whatthey're doing. It's about incorporating something good
for them, you know, evenif it's just a glass of water before
(41:28):
they want their soda, you know, things like that. Just incorporating something
that, over time is going tomake you feel better and on your own,
the bad things will weed out ontheir own. But if I was
to get somebody started on gardening,I would just say, plant something easy,
you know, and don't go crazythe first year, you know,
(41:50):
don't you gotta have tomatoes, peppers, this and that. Pick one or
two things and just start with thatand then you'll realize, Wow, I'd
like to try this next year.And one of the easiest things that I
think to grow is potatoes. Soit really potatoes if you love potatoes.
And this year is the first yearthat I've ever bought a seed potato.
(42:12):
But I have been growing potatoes sincemy youngest was born and he will be
twenty five the end of the month, So this is the first year I've
ever bought a seed potato. Usuallyyou just use potato, and they have
to be organic because conventional ones willnot grow. But once they start to
get the eyes on them, allyou have to You don't even have to
put it in the dirt, putit on top of the dirt in the
(42:35):
container and cover it with a bunchof straw or mulch, and then just
water it and just watch it grow, and then you've got potatoes. I
mean, I used to just plantevery March because most of the Irish just
plant on Saint Patrick's Day, theyplant their potatoes, and I would do
that no matter what the weather was. And now I just if I've got
(42:58):
potatoes growing, they just go inthe yard. You know. In fact,
in all of my beds that Ijust put together this summer, they're
all they've all got volunteer potatoes comingup in every single one of them that
I never even planted, so alittle fun. They make it through the
winter. They make it through thewinter, well they get thrown in the
compost if one is you know,come out and then you see how the
(43:21):
potato is green. You don't wantto eat that, so it'll get thrown
in the compost. And then thecompost gets tossed and turned and added to
your soil. So they're coming upeverywhere. So that's really an easy thing
to start to grow if you lovepeas. And you can do this with
kids because they're so fast. Youknow, you don't want to say grow
up, you know Carolina reaper pepperbecause that can take six weeks to germinate.
(43:45):
You want kids to see results,so give them some beans. You
know Johnny and the bean stock,is that what it was? There's a
reason for that, Jack Jack beanstock. Yeah, so he was Johnny's
brother. So yes, start withsomething that you want to you know that
you think about what you eat alot or you love a lot? You
(44:06):
know what herb do you like thatyou could grow? And you know what,
I'll give some of your viewers someseeds first five viewers to email me,
I will send them three different seedsof their choice, and your email
address is Organic garden Girl three atgmail dot com. Okay, organic garden
Girl three at gmail dot three.Then number three at gmail dot com,
(44:30):
and I will send you seeds ofyour choice if I have them, which
I probably do. Yeah, Okay, two questions I wanted to ask.
One is a regional question and theother one is, well, we'll start
with this one. If someone livesin an apartment or a condominium and they
(44:52):
only have a balcony, how dothey get started there? Okay. When
I first lived in my apartment,I had herbs growing on the window sill
inside, so it's it's definitely youcan do it. And I would move
it from window to window wherever thesun was. But just same thing.
(45:13):
You could get a container, andnowadays you can get these self watering containers
that I really love because you canfill it up and then really you don't
have to water it but once aweek and it will, you know,
if you work all day, it'llyou know, you don't have to worry
about it drying out while you're gone. And they come. I think they're
called earth boxes yeah, the rectangularthey're called earth box. You could look
(45:37):
them up and they come and youcan plant several things in there. You
could do a couple of different herbs, and you could do a tomato and
a pepper plant all in one container. Okay, Okay, but a small
just get a small pot. Justget a small pot. Go buy it
at the garden store. Buy onethat's already started. If you don't have
time to plant and wait for seeds, go buy one and just start taking
(45:59):
care of it. Okay. Andthen my second question is living in different
parts of the country. Um,let's say you live in Arizona and about
the only thing that's growing out thereis a big old cactus. What do
you do? Yeah, well,that's true, we do. We do
(46:20):
hate the cactus. Do you doyou try to go look for a small
greenhouse to get started? Do youstart with like a tower garden with us
hydroponic potum? What would you suggest? You could definitely do that. There
are ways, And I have acouple of followers that I also follow that
(46:40):
live in Arizona, and a lotof times it comes down to what you
put on top of your soil sothat when you water it, it can
stay. You know, it doesn'tevaporate, so you're going to want to
cover things, even your containers witha heavy mulch and that way when you
water, it's going to keep inthat moisture longer than it would if you
(47:00):
didn't do that. Hydroponics, Yeah, I think it's great, and you
know, we used to just doit during the winter so that we could.
You know, last year was tomatoes. They they grew over three quarters
of the greenhouse. This year ispeppers and they're doing the same thing.
But we're not taking it down anymorebecause we like to grow the greens year
(47:22):
round and especially in winter. Youknow, it's so nice to have.
But in Arizona it's it's like,you know, it's a tough thing out
there. It's a different story forthem versus people who get a ton of
rain, like in the Pacific Northwestwhere my sister is. You know,
sometimes it's like you get so muchrain in early spring that it can be
(47:45):
detrimental to some of your plants.But that's why just starting small, don't
you know, and don't make ita project. Just have fun with it,
you know, just say kids,hey, we're gonna do this,
or on your own. It's it'sfun and start small and then you'll see
what works and you'll make your ownmental notes, and then next year you'll
want to try something else and you'llknow what's good for your area. That's
(48:08):
the thing, you know, startout your area, don't you know?
Like I added citrus just because Iwanted to try it and I loved it.
But it's it's hard work to keepcitrus here because you know the pest
and it's just not something that grows. I just love you can use the
(48:29):
lemon leaves are great for skin issues, so you can dry them for teas,
you know. So a lot ofthings have a use, whether or
not you get a lemon on there, you know. So do they go
to your website and do they buyim into the garden to learn all of
these neat little tips, Yes,and then and the thing is saving money,
(48:51):
and it is saving money because youknow you will get things that grow
year after year. They drop theirown seed or that's one of my favorite
thing to do, and I've beendoing it over the past couple of days.
It's collecting seeds from things that havestayed in the ground, like mustard
greens, some kale which always getseaten up by you know, the cabbage
(49:13):
moths and stuff. So I don'teven bother some are to grow kale,
but I'll leave it there and thenit'll go to see for me get more
seeds and you can save money hereand there. That adds up. That
is a good point to just leaveit there and let it go to seed.
Yeah, what do you do?Okay, this is all organic gardening.
And so you said that you wouldnot clump all of your tomatoes or
(49:38):
all your plants together, you'd spreadthem out. Do you do that to
try to do natural pest control orwhat do you do for pest control?
Well? I do get pests,and one of my biggest one is the
cucumber beetle squash squash and then thesquash buying borders. And actually yesterday I
went out and I put electrical tapearound around the stocks of my squashes so
(50:02):
that the squash fine boor can't getin there to begin with, because once
it gets in there, you know, you'll come out one day and your
whole plant is just drooped and you'relike, what happened? What happened?
You know? And that's the thingwith gardener. You never know what's going
to happen. I mean, it'srout to wrap electrical ta I just did.
(50:24):
I just did because I thought they'renot getting through this, you know,
and so it doesn't work. SoI do that year after year,
but I have not been able theI tried vacuuming up the cucumber beetles,
and they're too fast. I mean, they see you coming. I'm I'm
telling you, they see you.You look down, they'll see you.
(50:45):
They're under the plant. You can'tfind them. M So I tried vacuuming
them one year, and now whenI see them, I just you know,
I clap them and get rid ofthem. Or aphids just you know.
Uh, here's an example of leavingthe balls too. You know,
they gotta eat. You know.The garden is all working together. So
(51:05):
I have an amazing rushing kale plantthat's gone to seed from last year,
and one of the stocks is loadedwith the seed pods which look like this.
This is a seed pod. Ohcool. So it grows off the
plant. But if I opened it, it's not dried out yet. But
if I did, all these littlebumps are seeds in there. So that's
(51:27):
the pods on the kale. Thisis a radish pod, a radish seed
pod. Oh wow, on radish. So this has gone to seed.
And this is not dried yet either. But the kale plant has a bunch
of them coming off. But onebunch of them is covered in apids,
like I mean literally covered, andif you cut that off, they're gonna
(51:53):
just go to the other one.So I just leave that there, let
them on ch have some fun onthat one, and then it doesn't much.
The other ones smart, you know, and through the years you'll learn
what plants, you know, likenasturtiums are are an afid collector. They
will draw them to that plant,so you can plant them in between your
(52:14):
vegetables. Is it a wives taleto spray with soapy water? And that's
gonna be my last question because we'realmost out of time. Oh my gosh,
we could go two hours. Iknow, I don't know. I
think I use soap only one time, but I had it combined with some
cayenne pepper and it sort of killedmy plants. But I don't think it's
(52:36):
an old wives tale. I justthink you have to stick with it.
You have to wipe down the leavesand just really make sure that you do
it over and over again. Butyou know, some Kim, this has
just been thank you awesome, andI want everybody to go to Organic garden
Girl dot com and to buy iminto the garden dandelions to dinner. And
(52:59):
I had so many other questions askyou. We're going to do this another
time. Thank you so much forjoining us today and we will see you
next week where we're going to talkabout detoxification and how that's so important for
your first step to wellness. Thankyou for joining us today. So I
(53:29):
was watching the XO TV channel lastnight when I was abducted by aliens and
they kept repeating to me over andover again. Simultv dot com, simultv
dot com. What's simultv dot com. That's what I asked them. They
had it written on the side oftheir UFO. How do you spell that
UFO? No, I mean simultvdot com, SI multv dot com,
simultv dot com. Right, yes, I am ultv dot com. Interesting
(53:52):
that you were abducted by aliens andas simultv dot com UFO last night.
Oh yeah, yeah, now thatyou mentioned it, I remember now last
night I was awake and from adeep sleep. My great grandmother was standing
there. She said, she comefrom the hereafter to tell me about simultv
dot Com. She even't spelled outfor me. Yes, I am ultv
dot com, sunny Boy. Yes, I am ultv dot Com. Yes,
(54:12):
I am ultv dot com sunny Boy. Wow. Yeah, guys,
you'll never guess what my psychic gurujust told me. Yes I am ultv
dot com exactly. Are you guyspsychic too? Of course we all know
about simultv dot com. Yes,I am ultv dot com.
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