Farm Kitchen Chronicles: Immunity Soup
Taking care of yourself this fall
As we have been finishing the harvest outside and storing our garden’s produce of potatoes, winter radishes, and carrots, I am attempting to do what I was taught in herb school: slow down with the fall. Just as we store produce in a root cellar, it is time to pull back and store energy in ourselves, pull back from the activity of summer and begin the season of rest.
When you are farming, it is more obvious: most of the summer crops, like herbs and fruits, are dead, decomposing on the soil, and most of the cold-weather plants are on their last legs. You have to slow down a little, because there just isn’t as much to do. Fall is the season of letting go, accepting change. When we don’t let go and accept change, grief and sadness will follow.
It is now important to transition your diet, as well, to warming foods: soups and stews, warm meals, and warm drinks. Start to limit raw salads and raw juices. As I mentioned on Monday, fall is the season of the lungs. Herbalist Lesley Tierra says, in her book Healing with the Herbs of Life, that during fall, if lungs are weak, or if you indulge in cooling summer foods, alcohol, sugar, or overactivity, then “excessive mucus (will build) in the lungs, impairing their breathing function. Asthma, bronchitis, allergies and other lung ailments also result and often kick up in this time of the year.“
It is therefore the perfect time for this immunity soup recipe, loaded with lung-healing and immune-boosting herbs, like garlic, black pepper and ginger.