Lightning flashes, thunder rolls, the earth is shaken awake and plants miraculously revive with renewed life. Spring has sprung and farming is officially ON in Southwest Michigan, as our fallow fields will soon be seeded with new prospects. When it comes to farming, I am admittedly still a bit green (pun intended), but am doing my best to work my fields, rapt for another season of growth and progress.
Interestingly, I just purchased a Probiotic formula (“Pro” means Positive and “Biotic” means Life) of living microflora from a local health food store. Present in many live foods but destroyed by heat and processing, live probiotic cultures populate the intestinal tract where they play a positive role in digestive system health. 75% of the cells necessary for the immune system to function effectively are connected to the gastrointestinal tract, as proper digestion is essential for the body to absorb and utilize nutrients needed.
What in the world does this have to do getting down in the dirt with a rumbling, Hasqvarna rear roto tiller? Well, when I consulted with the stores wellness expert, she pointed out that the shop’s best formula – Garden of Life’s Primal Defense Ultra Ultimate Probiotic – contains 13 beneficial species, including Homeostatic Soil Organisms (B. subtilis) and S. boulardi. “Because we aren’t down in the soil anymore, because our hands and feet are no longer in the earth, these elements are distinctly missing from our makeup.” Healthy “living” soils make for food with better nutrient content. And by “living” we mean soils that are teeming with microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and microscopic roundworms called nematodes. Soil health then connects to everything up the food chain, from plant and insect health, all the way up to animal and human health. Health itself, therefore, truly begins in the soils in which our food is grown. The more ecologically we farm, the more direct nutrients we harvest.