Backyard Botanics@Miller Hill Farm

Yesterday Inga texted to tell me she was in trouble at school and the principal was really mad at her. I didn’t panic but my heart sunk thinking of her in principal Bottomly’s office, missing class. I texted back “what happened?” Fortunately she didn’t leave me worrying for long before declaring the text an April fools joke.

I won’t write much here tonight except to note that along with April fools the crocus came and went, the chives are up. It’s amazing how plants that are so tender can weather 17 degree nights like the ones we had this week.

The hellebore are blooming. They are absolutely gorgeous. The photo here is from the last week in March:

The garlic and rhubarb, likewise, have emerged and the peonies, hyacinth, and bergamot are just starting to reach up through last year’s fallen leaves. I can’t wait for the lilacs to bloom. AND we’ve been getting eggs for weeks. 4 today.

We stopped over at the local feed store and they had adorable chicks for sale. It was so tempting to bring some home; Jon remarked it is rather cruel of them to leave such irresistible chicks right by the door, impossible to pass by them without cooing and having to fight an urge to scoop one up.

Spring!

Last week I went to see Henri Balaguera, who is a doctor of functional medicine (he is also a traditional doctor of western internal medicine). It seems everyone I know has heard of functional medicine. Before this appointment, I hadn’t; I was there on a referral from my husband Jon, who knows Henri from the Lahey Clinic, where they work together.

Luckily, there were leaflets in the waiting room so that I could familiarize myself with what might happen after I entered Henri’s office.

Henri spent a few hours with me, talking first about my familial relationships before discussing my symptoms, which include an arthritic ankle, hypertension, back pain, and episodes of depression. What struck me was how much time Henri spent talking to me about my relationships and how they affect me. His intuition, together with an obviously genuine interest in helping me heal and a kind of wisdom I don’t often encounter made the appointment not just affecting… it was life changing.

So much so that I went there saying “I won’t be doing any crazy diet or changing what I eat. I eat a very healthy diet.”

And here I am changing what I eat. The reason for this is simple. Henri diagnosed me with dysbiosis and increased intestinal permeability. That translates to leaky gut syndrome. Not arthritis. It was like getting a new lease on life.

And he is confident that once I deal with my leaky gut my arthritis will cease to plague me. He also mentioned I had some work to do on my relationships and that my spirituality, which for so many years was a bigger part of my life, needs to take priority. He thinks my hypertension will benefit from this advice since my anxiety will decrease with a more accepting perspective on the things that people close to me do and have done.

Functional medicine is a kind of holistic medicine, so Henri was treating all of me. Not just my hypertension and my ankle, though he assures me both will benefit from a few adjustments to my habits and habits of mind.

So far, it’s been 5 days. I have given up coffee, wine, gluten, dairy, sugar, eggs … there has been a great deal of complaining and whining. Jon jokes that we are eating twigs. He has decided to do the diet with me and has not complained. I am doing all of the complaining for both of us.

A few days in, I have more energy, I feel lighter, and the pain in my back seems to have stopped. My ankle still bothers me and my blood pressure is still up. But it’s only day 5.

Today we picked up our first organic share (Upswing Farm, Pepperell, MA – they have a pickup in Holliston, God bless them). We got Bok Choy, lettuce, parsley, arugula, and spinach. I am psyched.

I fished out an old recipe for soy-orange glazed salmon that uses Bok Choy in the vegetable fried rice and cut some chive from our garden in lieu of the spring onions and away we go.

Meanwhile, out in the garden, the snap peas are emerging, the lettuce is growing, the asparagus is still coming in and the beets are up.

As if that wasn’t enough to celebrate, I hatched an idea for what to do with extra pot seeds I accidentally ordered. I can sell my extra plants! I’m not sure that’s entirely legal but I got more seeds than I meant to and what I am going to do with them? Seems sad to waste them and it’s not like I will really use all 12 plants. And being me of course they are germinated and growing. Hopefully I’ll find buyers. 🙂

And today was actually a tree planting day here. We lost a whole line of conifers during a microburst a couple of years ago and finally got around to picking out some replacements. It turns out our warmer winters have been challenging cold-loving trees that have traditionally done okay here – like the gorgeous Colorado spruce, for instance. So the awesome perennial people at Weston Nurseries (a nursery local to us) recommended an alternative – Frazier Fir – and we picked a traditional (read giant) rhododendron and male and female winterberry shrubs to feed the birds to complete the area. They arrived today and they look beautiful out in the west field. I am sure our neighbor is happy — while we like each other it’ll be nice to have our trees back.

Happy Tuesday everyone!