Tag: food

Tips For Growing Raw Cannabis In The Vegetable Garden

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As cannabis legalization slowly spreads around the world, more people are taking advantage of being able to grow small amounts of medicinal or personal recreational marijuana in their private gardens.

Growing cannabis in your backyard garden is a special thing. For the past several years I have been growing my own small amounts of medical cannabis outside in the vegetable garden during summer season. Learning as I grow this unique plant has been fascinating and challenging as something that I do to take charge of my health needs.

I grow cannabis with the intention of eating leaves off of them all season and then harvesting a portion of the buds during the end of the plant’s life. Yes, I eat my plants.

While you can find thousands of hot tips about growing cannabis, I have created for you a simplified a short list of things I do to successfully grow and eat off my plants until harvest time.

  1. Plant herbs and low growing root vegetables along borders and throughout the garden that will detract pests and feed nutrients to the soil.
  2. Let the soil dry slightly between waterings. This promotes stronger root growth as they reach out seeking water when the soil gets dry enough. Stick a moisture reader in the dirt to monitor how much water is needed. Watch the leaves, when they droop they may need a drink and when they are reaching up for the sky they are likely full enough.
  3. Feed your garden once or twice a month with probiotic organic teas to feed nutrients to the soil and roots. I make teas with powdered kelp, bokashi, cannabis leaves, flowers, molasses, etc…natural ingredients. Because I am eating my plants, they are never grown with the use of pesticides or chemicals.
  4. Defoliate around the new moon when the plant’s growth is concentrated on the roots. Take leaves near the bottom to increase airflow and the big water leaves creating shade. Taking off about 25% of the leaves off increases nutrient flow to forming flower buds without stunting the plants growth. Note that the biggest reason that you are defoliating is so that you can eat the leaves! Get them processed and stored in the fridge right away for fresh consumption.
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Organic compost tea.

5. Look at your plants everyday. I’ve been told this by more than one cannabis grower and while it seems overly simplistic, I would say that it is one of the most important tips for maintaining a healthy garden. Talking to your plants while you are spotting for pests, broken limbs, and problems as early as possible really allows for quick action to keep the growing season fruitful. On the other hand, part of the beauty of growing outdoors is that mother nature will look after your plants if you ever really have to leave them for a day or two.

Before you go out there and start planting Kush in with the broccoli, make sure that you are up on the local marijuana laws in your area. If you find out that you are not able to grow cannabis plants in your garden, the next step is to contact your legislators and ask them to support cannabis legalization and homegrown in your area. www.norml.org

Before we know it, with a little more work, gardening cannabis with vegetables will be normal.

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach who trains people with scoliosis and chronic illness how they can improve sleep, gut health, immunity, and brain function to live full and hurt less.  To book a consult with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com  

Becoming An American Immigrant In 2017

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File Oct 19, 11 32 46 AM

This week I proudly became an American citizen. They told me at my oath ceremony that it is my right to pursue happiness and that is what I plan to do. Up until now I haven’t talked much about the fact that I am an immigrant. I’ve lived in the US for twelve years and while I may have only moved across the Canadian border it has been a major shift in my world.

When I first moved here George Bush was president and performing shock and awe in the middle east. Moving to a place where you see a military presence everywhere including overhead from a place where you rarely see military is a really crazy feeling. Mildly unnerving at first, but you do somewhat get used to it. Same with the number of guns that people have either in their house or on them at all times, they take the right to bear arms very seriously here and that was a major culture shock for a Canadian farm girl that had never held a gun until she moved to America.

Moving from a country that provides health care to everybody to a country where people regularly go bankrupt and lose everything because they get sick and cannot afford the costs of their medical bills- that makes me uncomfortable on every level. I don’t dare get sick here even if I have insurance and am certainly proactive in making healthy choices to prevent anything worse than the chronic conditions I already have that they can’t cure.

I started reading food labels here and noticed that the ingredient lists are different. There seems to be a lot more ingredients and additives in the food.  Since moving here I either become acutely aware of or actually developed sensitivities to gluten and dairy. I don’t dare eat things with gluten and dairy anymore. On the bonus side, food is way less expensive than in Canada.

Obesity is a real thing here. One of my first times going to a county fair, I experienced my own kind of shock and awe witnessing the excessive amount and size of the food they were serving and the size of the people eating that food. Before moving here I had been working in a health bubble of sorts as the Fitness Manager of two women’s only clubs in Vancouver, BC personal training, teaching classes, and running boot camps on the beaches. Seeing such blatant obesity and obvious imbalance was a major culture shock to me. I adjusted by personal training outdoors, out of my garage studio, and improving my home cooking skills to avoid the ridiculous portions of low quality or low nutrient food served everywhere.

What is next for me now that I am a citizen of the country I’m living in? Why not start with free speech? I have a lot to say and this blog is one of the ways that I plan to practice that right. I want to spread wellness, self-health awareness, and positivity on a much larger scale.

I want to share the holistic options available to other people like myself who are seeking natural ways to manage long term health issues. One of these options that I have been using for my chronic pain, muscle spasms, and migraines is medical cannabis. Instead of taking multiple pharmaceutical pills I have one  non-toxic medicine I have a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, sleep aid, anti-anxiety and antidepressant. One unique way that I use this plant is eating it like a vegetable. I juice the fresh leaves or put them in my smoothies. I can’t wait to share this stuff with you!

I also am a huge fan of hemp. When I was learning about the nutritional and medicinal benefits of cannabis leaves I learned about eating hemp that doesn’t contain THC. This plant has the perfect ratio of omega 3, 6, and 9 for the human body. Plus it provides easily digestible protein and fiber. I have a lot of healthy recipes and ideas to share with you. You may have already noticed that every recipe I post has hemp in it, that is intentional. Check out this Blueberry Hemp Cake

I am a healthy food advocate. I started volunteering for a local food organization that feeds those in need with the less perfect but perfectly edible food that doesn’t end up in the grocery stores. They have a number of programs that help feed hungry children in the community, and that is really important to me. I would love to make it possible for every child in this country to have access to healthy food even if their parents cannot provide. That is my American dream.

Oh, and one more thing. When I told people that I had applied for my citizenship most of them asked me why. The simple answer…President Donald Trump. Not being able to vote in the last election really bothered me and I vowed to be a voter in the next one. I feel connected to this country and although it is certainly not perfect, its optimistic ideals move me.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.