Jessica's Blog — Nutrition

 This guest post written by my lovely friend and local nutritionist extraordinaire Cordelia McFadyen arrived in my mailbox at the perfect time. I had to get a new phone yesterday, so had spent the better part of my Saturday afternoon in a mega mall, consuming expensive products from the box store chain. By the time I got home, I'd felt that my soul had been sucked right out of me.  I can assure you, whenever I purchase locally made items direct from the creator, my soul feels nourished.  As the popularity of farmers' markets and craft shows rises, I'm...

How do you choose?  No, really. This isn’t a rhetorical question. I really do want to know how you choose which groceries to buy, what you’re going to eat, how to feed yourself and your family. I have found this an increasingly difficult task. Already pretty neurotic around food, I became fanatical about buying local, seasonal and ethically produced foods when we ran a small farm in Scotland for 7 years. Farming was a whole new ball game for me, and I quickly learned about the blood, sweat and tears that went into the production of a single zucchini or...

Some fifteen years ago, shortly after I had given birth to my second child, I was consumed with an overwhelming dose of fatigue and anxiety. I hot footed it to my local herbalist who gave me a tincture of Avena sativa - or, as most of us call it: oats - to sooth my weary soul and help me regain my emotional balance. That same child whose entrance into this world triggered my need for Avena sativa, has recently been prescribed the very same remedy for nerve-induced skin irritations. The mighty oat is known to sooth both the brain and...