Week two on The Stairway to Intestinal Heaven (aka the Good Gut Challenge) and going without sugar and refined carbohydrates has sent my senses to a new level of awareness – I can’t think straight yet I’ve never seen things more clearly.. Withdrawal has revealed a kind of seventh sense that instantly evaluates the sugar content of any particular food stuff. Hunter-like I’m in a constant state of readiness to pounce on any source of fructose that should be unlucky enough to come near our fruit bowl. The other day as I gorged my way through a large bag of home-grown nectarines, serotonin surged rewarding primeval parts of my brain and I knew exactly why they named this diet after cave-people.
The picking of nectarines coincided with a harvest from our garden plot. Our kitchen table groaned (or maybe sighed) under the weight of zucchini, basil, tomatoes, apples and sweet corn – like a still life, like a cornucopia. Did you know we have a cornucopia depicted on our state’s Coat of Arms – a woman in a toga is holding it quite casually while a kangaroo levitates above her possibly making off with her crown. There’s another toga clad woman in it holding an olive branch and everybody seems generally relaxed and comfortable despite the missing head piece.But I digress, right now it is a time when produce seems plentiful, something that was confirmed when a picture of Flower Steve in Honey Lane Garden came through the CERES email on Friday (that’s him below). You could, digress again, go see those sun flowers in person next Saturday when the CERES Grocery (formerly known as CERES Organic Market) rises phoenix-like from renovations, reopening with live music, a free barbecue (think biodynamic sausages and surely a veggie option) and all your grocery shopping needs covered (it starts at 9am).The Grocery is where Fair Food all began and if you’ve never been it sits on a hill overlooking the Honey Lane market garden. There are toy Tonka trucks and an olive tree for kids to climb, chooks over the fence, craft stalls, coffee, a home grown produce swap table and generally a vibe of goodwill to all beings.Oh and did I mention in the original story it’s actually a goat’s horn that holds the cornucopia and it’s bottomless….or endless….self-filling?
If you’re on your own Unglut Your Gut journey let us know how you’ve gone about it and how you’re feeling now. We’ll give our favourite story a Generous Cook’s Box – email us at info@ceresfairfood.org.au.
