The Wishing Well: February 2011

Friday, February 18

The following is excerpted from

The Biodynamic Food & Cookbook by Wendy Cook

"The potato and tomato have really supplanted much of the grain eating traditions of Europe and the West. It was agriculturalist and pharmacist Antoine-Auguste Parmentier who turned the tide of French public opinion, which before the French Revolution had trusted nothing but grain. After this, millions of Europeans abandoned tradition to take up potato nutrition at roughly the same time. Rudolph Steiner has some very interesting things to say about the potato, stating that the introduction of the potato in Europe had a dramatic effect on people's intellectual faculties:

Potatoes at a certain time began to play a particular role in western development. If you compare the increasing use of the potato with the curve of the development of intelligence, you will find that in comparison with today, people in the pre-potato era grasped things less quickly and readily, but what they grasped they really knew. Their nature was more conservative, profound and reflective. After the introduction of the potato, people became quicker in taking up ideas, but what they take up is not retained and does not sink in very deeply.

The potato makes great demands on the digestion. Very small, almost homeopathic doses find their way into the brain, but these tiny quantities are very potent, they spur on the forces of abstract intelligence. (Rudolph Steiner, Nutrition and Stimulants)

Dr. Rudolph Hauschka, in his book Nutrition, adds, 'We have described how carbohydrate foods are used chiefly to nourish the middle portion of the brain. This is the area that supports creative, artistic and imaginative thinking. If the middle brain is made to serve digestive functions as it has to do after a meal of potatoes, it cannot perform its proper functions and the forebrain has to substitute for it.'"

Give your immune system a boost with this succulent soup recipe from Wendy Cook, published in her new book, The Biodynamic Food & Cookbook

Dartmoor Mushroom Soup by Wendy E. Cook

yields approx. 3 pints

14 oz sliced wild or organic mushrooms

8 oz onion diced small

4 oz diced potato

4 oz white part of leeks, finely sliced

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 1/2 pints well-flavored stock

1 tsp herbes de Provence

4 fl. oz sherry

1 tsp dijon mustard

1/4 pint single cream (half and half)

2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

2 oz butter, for sauteing

2 tbsp olive oil, for sauteing

Method:

1. In a large saucepan melt 1 oz butter and 1 tbsp olive oil and saute onions till translucent. Add celery, leeks, and potato. Add herbes de Provence and a little sprinkling of salt. Then add stock and let the vegetables cook until tender.

2. Meanwhile in a large frying pan melt the rest of the butter, add the olive oil and saute the mushrooms and garlic with a little salt and pepper. (Reserve a few mushroom slices for garnish.) Add sherry and cook another 3-5 minutes.

3. Combine mushrooms and the rest of the vegetables. Add 1 tsp Dijon mustard. Then whiz in a blender. Add the cream and gently reheat. Adjust seasoning. Serve garnished with chopped parsley, the reserved mushroom slices and garlic croutons, if you like.

Don't miss Kim Jon Payne's Simplicity Parenting Workshop, Friday, March 25, from 6:30 - 9:30 at the Vosloh Forum, Pasadena City College. Tickets are ten dollars and can be purchased through a link on the PWS website.

His inspiring book, Simplicity Parenting, is available at the Wishing Well.