‘And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair’
~ Khalil Gibran

I love dirt! Bit whacky, but stay with me … like many kids I not only played in dirt, but got showered in it (not literally) and ate mud pies in the sandpit.  But one of my fondest memories is the smell of freshly turned ploughed earth at dusk on a still autumn evening.   One of my all time favourite smells.   And these days I love it for many more good reasons plus I eat it.  

Perhaps we’re all a bit like soil… 

The ecosystem within our soils provides a great analogy for our own inner ecosystems.  

1.  A healthy, rich soil nourished well with nutrients grows healthier, more robust plants.  When our digestive system (our soil) is well nourished, generally we are healthier and stronger as individuals.

2.  A strong, rich soil biology also strengthens plants against pest infestations.  It’s the same for us, when we have a strong inner biology we can withstand pathogens better, (unknowingly microbial infections can be a common cause of many digestive and immune issues).

It comes down to our microbiomes.  Microbiome has become a popular word these days and for good reason.  For anyone not familiar with the microbiome, simply, our microbiome are the microorganisms that live symbiotically in and on our body e.g. the skin, nasal pages, digestive system etc… The numbers of our microbiome far out number our human cells by 10x!  Which means, incredibly, we are more microorganism than we are human!    So it’s super important to realise we FEED not just ourselves but our bugs for optimum health.

3.  Similarly if we support the microbiome of the earth or soil it in turn will provide us with good nutrition and optimal health through the food we grow in it.

So very simplistically, could a lot of who we are and the state of our health come down to just 2 things?

1. the state of our soils and our digestives systems,
2. the state of our microbiome, our bugs?

Hence why fermented foods, prebiotics and probiotics play such an important role in our good health in todays world.  They are helping re-establish our bugs and to replenish our soils (our digestive systems) and who we are as individuals – literally.

 Here are 8 things we do & how we eat dirt (kind of) to keep our families connection with dirt as strong as we can & therefore a healthy microbiome;

1. we have a veggie garden with herbs and greens mostly.  Most days I use herbs or parsley or something from the garden to get that immediate dose of (microscopic) dirt
2. i take a diatamaceous earth powder and have used bentonite clay before (if you’re looking at this it’s very important to get a good quality brand of supplement)
3. we take a soil based probiotic from time to time
4. we definitely don’t use hand sanitisers (more on that in another newsletter)
5. We go barefoot as much as we can
6. we get outside as much as we can
7. we use essential oils (the essence of the plant) for cleaning
8. and… I have to admit our house doesn’t get cleaned as often as it should!

I’d also love to take us all camping a whole lot more!  The ultimate. 

 QUICK TIP:  Bugs are to be respected, not feared.  If you are worrying about all the bugs around at this time of year, worry instead, or put your mind to how you can get a few more of the good ones!  It might be as simple as starting with a good probiotic, making sauerkraut or planting a few herbs in the garden.

One more thing.  We are led to believe that yoghurt is a good source for our good bugs.  Unfortunately this is simply not the case. We need so much more good bacteria to help nourish our microbiome in our modern, sanitised environment. 

Love bugs and … get dirty!