Fruit for you – Wally Richards
Home grown fruit, grown naturally (without chemicals) with all the minerals and elements added to the growing medium, have very high nutritional values plus health giving properties.
When you combine that with your own naturally grown vegetables and these two form a good part of your food chain then your health will be better for it.
Growing your own fruit and vegetables is one thing for good health, another is in how and when you consume the produce.
Raw fruit (any type) should always be eaten when your stomach is empty as raw fruit spends little time in the stomach when it is empty. In fact between 20 to 30 minutes after eating raw fruit it has passed through to your intestines where all the powerful goodness is absorbed into your body.
I am currently reading a book called, Fit For Life by Harvey & Marilyn Diamond and if you are interested in health including really loosing excess weight then I highly recommend you to obtain and read a copy.
One of the prime aspects of the book is, It’s not what we eat, its how and when we eat it.
For instance if you are serious about losing weight all you need to do for a start is to only eat raw fruit or drink pure fruit juices/vegetable juices in the morning from awaking till noon.
Raw fruit has a very high water content and it takes very little energy to absorb all the goodness.
This natural high water content flushes out toxins (fat) from your body giving you more energy for the day ahead than you would normally have. Try this for 10 days and see what difference it makes to you.
I emphasize RAW because cooked, canned or otherwise processed fruit has to spend hours in the stomach and requires a lot of energy to break it down.
We are creatures of habit (unfortunately) and having a cooked breakfast, or cereals, toast etc require a lot of energy to digest and are likely to add body weight instead of reducing it.
As this article is about gardening I can’t go into a lot of detail about what to eat and when other than to say you should do some research yourself such as putting into Google the words, Food Combinations.
Fruit and vegetables grown naturally in your own back yard, picked fresh and eaten raw (where possible) are the best medicine your body will ever receive.
Alternative to this is organically grown fruit and vegetables that you can purchase and as a final back stop conventionally (chemically) grown produce from your Supermarket of Vegetable shop.
The later will have chemicals your own produce will not have, unless you are silly enough to use them.
It is difficult to grow a lot of fruit for all year round consumption, unless you have a lot of land, but even so, with a small amount of land you can grow a few fruit trees, fruiting bushes and plants.
For instance most of you grow tomatoes and they are a fruit just like tree grown fruit. So are cucumbers.
Both tomatoes and cucumbers are best eaten raw for optimum value.
Even if you have no gardening area to grow any fruiting plants, you can still grow some using containers of a suitable size for that type.
There are fruiting plants that will give you produce in the first season such as strawberries, melons, tomatoes and cucumbers. Normally produce from berry bushes, tamarillos and feijoa Unique in the first or second season. Other fruits including citrus usually are 3 or more years before a reasonable harvest can be expected. Which means the sooner you start the sooner you will have a reasonable supply of your own fruit, which will only become better as the years roll on.
I have grown several different types of fruit trees in 100 litre containers (200 litre drums cut in half) and they produce a nice crop for me each year once they reach a more mature state.
The mix I use in containers is purchased compost with chicken manure added along with a little vermicast (worm casts from my worm farm, a few handfuls of clean top soil is the alternative)
I also add to this Bio Boost, OrganiBOR, Ocean Solids and Rok Solid for additional food and all the possible minerals and elements. You can also use any other animal manures, sheep pellets, blood & bone etc.
Each year you can add or water in any other natural foods.
There are several advantages in container grown fruiting plants; you can move them around to suit seasons and personal choice; you can take them with you if you shift house; they do not become too big as would the same, if grown in open ground; drainage problems are solved in wet situations; there is little waste; pests and diseases are easier to control.
Disadvantages are; having to root prune every 2-3 years; giving them adequate water in the summer months and they are heavy to move about in a large container.
Strawberries are easy to grow in a trough using the same mix as suggest above with the addition of some untreated saw dust and two weekly sprays with Mycorrcin.
Raspberries and similar berries are best grown in a 45 to 50 litre container which is a great advantage as they are confined to the container and cant run through a garden causing a problem.
There are a number of thorn-less types available which is even better for handling.
Evergreen fruiting plants are available most of the year round, deciduous become available in winter and it is a good idea to place an order now with your local garden centre as many varieties sell out quickly.
The ideal health solution would be a 70 to 80% diet of your own home grown fruit and vegetables, eaten raw or juiced. If you cant grow all that is required then supplement with purchased produce.
A note on watering at this time of the year with weather patterns changing and cooling, do not water plants till they do need a drink. Give them a small drink and don’t drown them. When you have a nice hot sunny day then give the plants a good drink.
Over watering in cool and cold weather it a certain way to loose plants.
Problems ring me at 0800 466464 (Palmerston North 3570606)
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