Weblog Entry

Wait… Justin isn’t going to write Sunday blogs anymore!? Looks like someone will have to develop a new skill. Free-writing I think it’s called. No promises. Having the opportunity to lead a nutrition meeting this last Tuesday, I suppose we can start there. In preparing for the topic at hand, I realized my priorities around nutrition have changed in the last year or so. My amazing mom has been a registered nurse for most of her life has always wanted to combine what we eat with our long term health. So she got a nutrition certification, started monthly nutrition meetings at her home, and asked me to share at this month’s gathering. Or was it just an excuse to share food with good people? The fruit not falling far from the tree, I also have an interest in nutrition… But my past concentration on nutrient density, bioavailability, blah blah blah has slowly changed with my education, involvement with this market, and getting to know more farmers. I pick my weekly food items based on diversity, peak harvest season, color, taste, methods used to grow, and I might even be a little biased towards my favorite people growing it. My diet is more and more centered around what’s fresh and available, and what’s fresh and available is new almost every week of the year. It’s also interesting to think about our relationship with our growers in turn affecting our meals. If enough people express interest in a certain variety of produce that grows well here, we might see it being grown the next year! That is the beauty in small diverse farms, they typically throw in an experimental crop from year to year.

Anyway, the topic I chose for the nutrition gathering was “Stress and Food.” I went through the mechanics of short term stressors and long term stressors, how your body produces some powerful drugs/hormones, and how those hormones like cortisol can affect how your body assimilates food. I learned some interesting things while researching, but the in-short, the message was to come to the plate relaxed and with a clear head. When you do this, your body is able to more efficiently transport, store, and build more efficiently. A whole other topic is being aware of stressors (like driving in Atlanta, resenting your boss, or a sleepless night) and how you can create ways to dissipate the cortisol from your system.

That being said, I leave you with: Don’t be an Orthorexic. Because stressing out about eating healthy would be irony at it’s finest.

My current kitchen experiments: cold brewed chamomile tea (unsweet or honey sweetened), chilled chanterelle and watercress salad, lemongrass and nutmeg infused pickles

Oh! And if you are interested in growing food, there is a workshop for small and beginning farmers Tuesday August 18th 5pm in Clayton (Register by this Friday) See Flyer: https://goo.gl/BdGMdd

Market closes at 9pm Monday