370 Grow Your Own Immunity Boosting Foods

The healthiest food you can eat is the food you grow yourself! In this episode, we speak with Dr. Laura Varich from FreshPhysician.com about the vital role of nutrition in supporting immunity, especially during the winter months. We explore the balance of immunity rather than just boosting it. And we discuss the correlation between diet and chronic diseases. Dr. Varich highlights the benefits of a plant-centered diet and compares germ theory with terrain theory. We also emphasize the immune-boosting properties of specific foods like turmeric and the health advantages of gardening. Lastly, we share resources from her website for actionable insights on living a healthier lifestyle.

Previous episodes, show notes, links, product information, and transcripts at the home site for Garden Basics with Farmer Fred, GardenBasics.net. Transcripts and episode chapters also available at Buzzsprout

Pictured: Immunity Boosting (and Inflammation-Reducing) Homegrown Onions and Garlic

Links:
Smart Pots https://smartpots.com/fred/
Dave Wilson Nursery https://www.davewilson.com/home-garden/

Website: FreshPhysician.com (Dr. Laura Varich)

Turmeric Growing info (U. of VT)

All About Yacon (UCANR)

How to Grow Yacon

The Dietary Inflammatory Index

All About Farmer Fred:
GardenBasics.net

“Beyond the Garden Basics” Newsletter

Farmer Fred website: 
http://farmerfred.com

The Farmer Fred Rant! Blog
http://farmerfredrant.blogspot.com

Facebook:  "Get Growing with Farmer Fred" 

Instagram: farmerfredhoffman
https://www.instagram.com/farmerfredhoffman/

Blue Sky: @farmerfred.bsky.social

Farmer Fred Garden Minute Videos on YouTube
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases from possible links mentioned here.

Got a garden question? 

• Leave an audio question without making a phone call via Speakpipe, at https://www.speakpipe.com/gardenbasics

• Call or text us the question: 916-292-8964. 

• Fill out the contact box at GardenBasics.net

• E-mail: fred@farmerfred.com 

Thank you for listening, subscribing and commenting on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and the Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter.

Chapters

• 3:01 Grow Your Own Immunity-Boosting Foods, Pt. 1
• 22:40 Smart Pots!
• 24:59 Grow Your Own Immunity-Boosting Foods, Pt. 2
• 35:26 Dave Wilson Nursery
• 36:46 Grow Your Own Immunity-Boosting Foods, Pt. 3

Transcript

370 TRANSCRIPT FINAL Immunity-Boosting Foods

Farmer Fred    

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original, lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. It's made in the USA. Visit smartpots.com/fred for more information and a special discount. That’s smartpots.com/fred

Farmer Fred 

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener, or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot.

In this episode, we dive into the critical topic of immunity, especially as we approach the winter months when cold and flu viruses are on the rise. Joining me is Dr. Laura Varich from FreshPhysician.com, who shares her expertise on how our lifestyle choices, particularly nutrition, play a pivotal role in our overall health and our ability to fend off illnesses. 

Dr. Varich highlights that over 60% of the population is now dealing with chronic diseases, a stark contrast to historical statistics. We discuss how factors like diet, lifestyle, and environmental influences contribute significantly to this rise. With insights from research conducted during the COVID pandemic, she underscores the importance of a plant-centered diet, revealing that individuals who consumed more fruits and vegetables experienced dramatically lower rates of severe COVID illness. This aligns with the adage that our best defense is the nutritional power found in our home gardens.

We also discuss specific foods that bolster our immune defenses, including those rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. Dr. Varich shares how incorporating foods like turmeric—a spice shown to possess remarkable health benefits—can enhance our immune responses.

Moreover, gardening itself emerges as a powerful tool for enhancing our health. The physical activity of gardening, combined with the exposure to sunlight, contributes to vitamin D synthesis, which is crucial for immune function. We delve into the benefits of being immersed in nature, emphasizing practices like "forest bathing" that highlight the healing power of scents and the mental clarity brought about by simply being outdoors.

Throughout our discussion, we stress the importance of viewing food as a holistic system. Whole foods contain various compounds that work synergistically to promote health, which cannot be replicated in supplemental form. Dr. Varich reminds us that adopting healthy habits requires a shift in mindset towards enjoying and incorporating nutrient-dense foods into our diets.

We’re podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory. It’s the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery.  Let’s go!

GROW YOUR OWN IMMUNITY-BOOSTING FOODS  Pt. 1

Farmer Fred

As we head into Winter, we are faced with the threat of an onslaught of viruses. There's cold viruses and flu viruses and who knows what else is down the pike. Another pandemic? Who knows? So how about we arm ourselves, especially us gardeners, with information that you need to prevent or lessen the symptoms of the next flu, cold, or pandemic? Providing us answers is our friend, Dr. Laura Varich, of FreshPhysician.com. It's a timely newsletter on growing your health and your personal responsibility to make that happen. Fortunately, as gardeners, we have a yard full of the best food in the world because the healthiest food you can eat is the food you grow yourself, as I'm very fond of saying. And Dr. Varich, a pleasure to have you with us again. And yeah, boosting immunity. How does one go about fighting off somebody else's cold viruses, for example?

Dr. Laura Varich

 Hi, Fred. So great to be back with you again. And I love this topic. It's so timely right now. Something we need to really be thinking about. And we learned so much from the COVID pandemic, really about how to best take care of our health, what things were really working, what things weren't really working. So, yeah, there's a lot to be thinking about right now. And boosting our immunity is an interesting concept. I think some of the experts would say we don't want to really call it boosting immunity. We want to call it kind of balancing immunity because if our immunity is not great, if it's kind of a little bit too low, we can get more infections and we can even get cancer. If our immunity is sort of revved up a little bit too much, it doesn't turn off correctly, we can end up with auto-immune diseases, we can end up with allergies. So really, we want to get that immune system of ours in good balance. And we know we saw with the pandemic, if our body is in good shape, in good health, we can really fight off these diseases and have a much lower incidence of getting a severe infection or dying from something like COVID. So it's really, really critical for us.

Farmer Fred

A lot of this information we're talking about is in your latest newsletter, which people can subscribe to for free when they visit freshphysician.com. If you want more information about what we're talking about, go check that out. And you point out in the newsletter that 60% of us have a chronic disease. What is a chronic disease?

Dr. Laura Varich

We're talking about all those diseases we see around us all the time, right? We see it as we get older, heart disease and diabetes and Alzheimer's disease and auto-immune diseases and hypertension. You know, the list goes on and on. Really, all of those diseases, including cancer, those are the chronic diseases we're talking about. But they're really not the normal state of humans. We have gone from a 90-year time span from having about a 7% incidence, meaning 7% of the population had chronic disease, to now having over 60% of us having a chronic disease. So a lot more of us have chronic diseases now. And we know that a lot of that is related to what we're eating and what our lifestyle is like and our environment. I just want people to know that it doesn't have to be that way. That is not  the normal state for us to have those chronic diseases.

Farmer Fred

We had a lot of research done about what was happening to us back during COVID. Researchers found out a lot. And boy, oh boy, fruits and vegetables were a big part of people staying healthy.

Dr. Laura Varich

Yeah, absolutely. Can I take you on a little historical tour for a minute? Yeah. So I thought it was interesting in all my research about kind of immunity and then what happened with COVID was back in the, it was really in the 1800s, we had a couple of different theories on how to defeat things like viruses, right? So we had the theory, which we operate under today, that was put forth by Louis Pasteur. Of course, we know his name, right, from pasteurization and sort of the father of vaccination. He really posited the germ theory, which basically said that it is up to the medical establishment, the pharmaceutical companies, to keep us safe from viruses. So we're going to vaccinate. We're going to make antibiotics and other medicines. We're going to mask. We're going to distance. We're going to sanitize things.  And that's exactly what we saw during COVID. There was another theory at the time, though, called the terrain theory, and this was put forth by Antoine Béchamp. I don't know if I'm saying that right. But both of them were together in France at the same time. They were contemporaries.

[4:43]And he really, but Béchamp really thought that it was more about our lifestyle, our own personal health factors that were important, right? It was the personal health that we had underlying that could make our body inhospitable to these viruses. So we had to keep ourselves healthy. So he didn't win out in this battle. And I don't know why we thought we had to have one or the other theory, but Pasteur's theory won out. But what we discovered with COVID was that really Béchamp  was so right. We saw that with COVID. if people had these underlying chronic diseases, they were much more likely to get sick. For example, with COVID, they were more likely to just in general get symptoms of the disease. Because sometimes you get a virus and you don't even know you had it, your body fights off so fast, right? So if your body's in really good shape, really good health, you just fight that virus off. People that had a chronic disease were shedding the virus for 40% longer, meaning they were making everybody else around them sick for much, much longer, right? They were able to shed the virus and pass that disease on. They were 50% more likely to have severe disease and four times more likely to die from COVID, having an underlying chronic disease. And we saw this, didn't we? If we had people that we knew that were pretty sick to start with, a lot of them, unfortunately, did not survive this pandemic. So we know that Béchamp  was right. We need to also be taking care of our health.

Farmer Fred

As I was fond of saying way back when, and I still am fond of saying, shut your mouth and move your feet, which basically says eat right and exercise.

Gardening provides the exercise. We can get more into that a little bit later. But also, there are foods that are better for our immune system that you can be growing in your own yard, aren't there?

Dr. Laura Varich

Yes, absolutely. Well, for sure, we saw with COVID that as you can imagine, fruits and vegetables, like our mothers told us, eat your fruits and vegetables, right? Fruits and vegetables were key. People who ate more fruits and vegetables and even nuts were as much as 86% less likely to get COVID. People who ate more plant-centered diets were 73% lower odds of ending up with moderate to severe disease. That's like being hospitalized or dying from it, right? So much less infection and much less risk of dying from the disease. That's amazing. So just plant foods in general, are really, really good for us. But we know that there are certain ones, a lot of these, we can grow in our own garden. Foods that have a high fiber. Those are legumes and whole grains. A really interesting fiber food containing food is our inulin-containing foods. And I think, Fred, I'm sure you grow some of these. We've talked before about yacon. It's a root, right? Sunchokes, garlic, onions, and then a lot of the sulfur-containing foods, which are the cruciferous vegetables, and that also includes onion and garlic. Greens, of course, good for everything. Lots of spices. Turmeric, we need to definitely need to talk about because it is really a special one. Ginger and cinnamon, as well as mushrooms. So all of those foods are really, really good for boosting immunity. The research has shown us.

Farmer Fred

And as doctors have been saying for years too, vitamin C rich foods like citrus and berries.

Dr. Laura Varich

Absolutely. Yeah. Vitamin C really is helpful. Yes. It's an antioxidant. And so it really helps our immune system.

Farmer Fred

Well, I'm sure there are people who are listening to this who are saying, well, why do I have to grow these foods? Why can't I just pop a pill that contains fiber or inulin or vitamin C?

Dr. Laura Varich

Oh, what a good question, Fred, because isn't a pill so easy, right? Well, I think your listeners know  a lot about health and about the good nutrition that comes from a whole food. But really, when we eat a whole food, we're getting a whole bunch of this all together. And we know that the ingredients within our foods are all acting sort of synergistically. They're acting together for our health. So we can't reproduce that in any kind of a pill form. When we extract things, we're taking a small part away. Research shows over and over again that they're not as beneficial. For example, if we're talking about turmeric, if you have some turmeric that's, you know, powdered turmeric, or you have a fresh turmeric root, and you use that in your recipes. The benefits of that are enormous for our immune system, for knocking down inflammation. But we know that if you extract out one of the ingredients that we think is responsible for those actions, which is called curcumin, If you take that out and put it into a capsule, it doesn't have the same effect. It doesn't work as well at all. So it's a bunch of these things in our foods that actually already work together. Our bodies have been living with this food for as long as we've been on this earth and know how to use it as a food. We don't really know how to use it as a little extracted component.

Farmer Fred

[9:36]When you wrote this column in your newsletter, I immediately went to my go-to vegetable growing expert, Master Gardener Gail Pothour. And I asked her, have you ever grown turmeric? And she answered, “No, I haven't grown it, but I have a lot of literature on it. But I am prescribed by my doctor to take the turmeric in a pill form or in a spice form in order to control my inflammation (for arthritis)”. And I go, yeah, that's probably very true. Inflammation is responsible for so many diseases.

Dr. Laura Varich

Yes, absolutely. When we talk about chronic disease, we are basically talking about chronic inflammation. Really, all of them, the underlying problem is the same. And you might have, by your genetics, a propensity to a certain disease type, like maybe more predisposed to diabetes or heart disease or something. But really, the underlying problem is the chronic inflammation that's going on. So, yeah, turmeric is really one of the top foods for preventing inflammation, therefore preventing chronic disease. And therefore, when our body is fighting off chronic disease, it can't fight off the infections that come by. And that's the problem. So, in the same way, we are actually boosting our immunity up just by lowering that inflammation.

Farmer Fred

I immediately conducted a search for turmeric. And I found it at the local grocery store. I say, “well, that was convenient.” So I bought a piece. It's not cheap. That's for sure. It was like a little three inch long piece was like $9.99. But figure, “well, what the heck? It's going to grow me a lot more. So let's try it.” And sure enough, I planted it and I'm waiting for it to sprout. And I see that that is one of the warnings about growing turmeric from the University of Vermont Cooperative Extension that has a great article about growing turmeric indoors. But especially if you live in a warmer climate, you can grow it outdoors. It's hardy in USDA zones 8 through 10. (Plant it 2-4 inches deep with the bud facing upwards). You have to be patient for it to sprout. It takes about three to eight weeks for sprouts to appear. And then when they do sprout, then you just move the pot to a sunny spot near a window and maybe if necessary, supplement it with a grow light. Or if you live in a nice, mild climate, a sunny climate, give it full sun outdoors. And it gets to be a pretty big plant. It's three to four feet tall and wide, and they recommend planting it in at least a 12-inch pot. And a pot that's 12 inches by 12 inches is sometimes referred to in the horticultural industry as perhaps a five-gallon container. But don't do a four-inch pot with turmeric. You do want a pretty good-sized pot, five-gallon container to grow it in. And when the foliage begins to fade after about eight to 10 months, when the plant has yellowed and dried out, you can harvest it. You simply dig up the entire plant, brush the soil away from the rhizomes, cut the stalk off, and maybe save a piece or two of those rhizomes to replant and do it all over again. What can you do with fresh turmeric?

Dr. Laura Varich

One thing I want to say is we have it here in Florida in our grocery stores, and it doesn't cost near that much. I'm not sure why it was so costly for you. Maybe it's the season or something. But yeah, you can find those rhizomes. They kind of look a little like, well, they don't really like ginger, but that's sort of a- It's related. Yeah, they're related to each other. And what you can do with them is you can, like you did, take one, you can maybe cut it if you want to, put it in a pot or in the garden and grow some and maybe take another one and you can just pop it into your freezer. And then when you want to use it, you can just grate some of it off into whatever you're making. And that's the way I would recommend using it. But it's just as good to use powdered, you know, turmeric too. It probably has lost a little bit of the beneficial components, but that's okay. I mean, it's still really, really amazing. Most of the research done on turmeric is with the powdered type. So it's really has a lot of benefits. So how do you use it? What a great question. We know that turmeric is a spice that is used a lot in, say,

In the sort of Southeast Asia and in India. So if you look at recipes, a lot of recipes from there, a lot of the curry dishes are based on turmeric. That's why they have that beautiful yellow color to them. And they always, in the recipes, it's interesting because it's always got some black pepper with it. And it turns out that if you put black pepper with your turmeric, you increase the bioavailability, so the availability of your body to use it, by something like 2,000%.

So whenever you're going to have some turmeric, put a little grind of black pepper in with it. It doesn't take much. You really increase the availability for your body and the ability to use it. So you can use it in recipes like that. I actually like to do things like put it into my smoothie in the morning because then I know I get it in every day. It's really recommended about a quarter teaspoon a day. So you can definitely get that in your smoothie, a little grind of black pepper. It sounds kind of weird, but you don't really taste it in there. Oh, another way is that I like to get it into my diet is by making, I make a little jar of coffee spices that I put into my coffee every morning. And that has a whole bunch of these really good immune boosting spices like turmeric. And it has cinnamon and ginger and cloves and cardamom and list goes on and on. And make a little jar of those and then just sprinkle some in your coffee every morning. You get yourself a little boost to start the day.

Farmer Fred

As you pointed out, you only need about a quarter teaspoon a day. It is because there are warnings about turmeric, especially if you have gallstones. You want to check with your doctor if you have any sort of medical issues. You don't want to take large amounts of turmeric in supplement form for long periods of time because it could cause stomach upset and in extreme cases, ulcers. And people, as I mentioned, who have gallstones or obstruction of the bile passages should talk to their doctor first.

Dr. Laura Varich

That sounds like good advice. And you know, it's always good advice to just not overdo things. Do them in moderation, right? A quarter teaspoon a day, and this is a food, so we know it's very safe. But anything that we're going to do where we're going to do it in excess is probably not a good idea. So yeah, I'm totally in agreement with that.

Farmer Fred

What does it taste like fresh?

Dr. Laura Varich

That's a very good question how to describe it oh it's i just don't think i can even describe it. You're gonna have to try it out, okay? Because it's a fairly strong flavor so for a lot of people it's not one of those things where you could just put it on anything you're making and you won't notice that. You will. iI’s a pretty strong flavor but it is a delicious flavor and it goes with a lot of those really warming spices for the winter. Yeah, I think I would rather have it fresh than in powdered form.

Farmer Fred

Because as you mentioned, there's got to be a lot more nutritional value or just better value for your body in a fresh form than it is in a processed form.

Dr. Laura Varich

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that's true. Again, the research studies are all on the ground and dried turmeric, but you can only imagine that getting the one fresh from the root is going to be even better. So maybe you need even less.

Farmer Fred

There are a lot of recipes online for using turmeric, including adding grated or thinly sliced fresh turmeric to soups, stews, curries, vegetable dishes. Use it in egg dishes like scrambled eggs, omelets or egg salads. You mentioned coffee. Well, there's also turmeric tea by simmering grated turmeric with water and adding either honey, cinnamon or black pepper, as you mentioned. And as you do, you can add it to smoothies or milkshakes. You can use it in marinades for chicken, fish, or vegetables. You can sprinkle fresh turmeric into batters for breads and pancakes. You can add thinly sliced or chopped fresh turmeric to green salads. You can whisk it fresh into salad dressings or vinaigrettes. You can even make butter out of it, too. So there's a lot of uses for it.

Dr. Laura Varich

Wow, I just got some new ideas. Great.

Farmer Fred

[17:52]So, yes, and it's not hard to grow. It's basically plop it in (a large container, about two to four inches deep). If you want the exact directions, we'll have a link in today's show notes about growing turmeric indoors and how to plant it and how deep to plant it, how to care for it. There isn't that much care for it and just basically stand back, let it grow, be patient with it. And when it starts dying back in the fall, that's when you harvest all those roots or tubers (rhizomes) and start all over again if you want.

Dr. Laura Varich

Exactly. Yeah. I would really recommend everybody try to get some turmeric in your diet. Try it out. And, you know, even if at first you think, well, that's kind of a strong taste, our taste buds change pretty quickly. Just kind of keep adding a little bit here and there. We do know there's an index, I don't know if you've ever heard of it, called the Dietary Inflaminatory Index. So, they looked at the research on all kinds of foods and food ingredients. And what they found was the most anti-inflammatory food in the whole index is turmeric. It is the one. So if we can get some more of that in, it's going to be great. And I was just remembering for viruses in particular, that turmeric is very antiviral. We know with COVID that it actually blocks the virus from getting into our cells. Viruses have to use our own cells and our own machinery to replicate themselves. And if they can't get in, they can't replicate. They can't make more of themselves. And so that's a great way to keep the infection down. And we saw that with COVID, people who were eating turmeric had a 77% decrease in mortality related to their COVID infections during that time. So really, really good one to get in this winter season.

SMART POTS!

Farmer Fred

I’ve been using the Smart Pot Compost Sak for a few years now, and it is coming in very handy for amending or protecting the garden soil year round.

I like to amend my planting beds before putting in any of the seasonal crops or improving the bed before I plant, anytime. One of those ingredients that gets worked into the soil in my raised beds is compost.

And, making up the bottom half of my Smart Pot Compost Sak right now is some of the richest-looking fine compost I’ve ever seen, made from last fall’s oak leaf collection. Yep, it’s beautiful leaf mold. The design of the Compost Sak, with a little help from Mother Nature, turned those shredded leaves into beautiful, ready to use compost. And I use some of the existing leaves that haven’t broken down near the top of the Compost Sak as a few inches of mulch, year round. 

The Smart Pot Compost Sak is a large, 100-gallon fabric bag that is lightweight yet extremely durable and lasts for years, and can hold 12 cubic feet of pure compost. This rugged fabric is entirely porous, containing many micropores that allow for air circulation and drainage. The fitted cover is a flexible plastic top designed to increase heat and help manage moisture in the mix, accelerating the composting process.

Smart Pots are proudly made 100% in the USA. Smart Pots are available at independent garden centers and select Ace and True Value hardware stores nationwide. You can find the location nearest you at their website, smart pots dot com slash Fred, where you can get 10 percent off your Smart Pot order by using the coupon code, fred. f-r-e-d, at checkout from the Smart Pot Store.

Visit smartpots.com slash fred for more information about the complete line of Smart pots lightweight, colorful, award winning fabric containers as well as the Smart Pot  Compost Sak. Smart Pots - the original, award winning fabric container. Go to smart pots dot com slash fred.

GROW YOUR OWN IMMUNITY-BOOSTING FOODS  Pt. 2

Farmer Fred

[19:35]You mentioned at the start of this about growing Yacon. And maybe you ought to spend a few minutes talking about Yacon, Y-A-C-O-N. It's native to South America, but it grows much like the turmeric. You grow it from a root and let it grow and you harvest it, but... These roots, you can munch on it. The taste has been described as sort of like watermelon, but a bit firmer. It's a sweetness from a sugar we don't digest. So the roots are low in calories. They use it as a healthful sweetener. But imagine the health effects of Yacon. And you've been doing a little bit of research on Yacon, haven't you?

Dr. Laura Varich

Well, I got really excited because I didn't realize that, again, this is one of those inulin-containing foods. It's one of the foods that one of the types of fiber that our microbiome likes the most. It's really, really a great food for our microbiome for making our gut bacteria healthier. So yeah, I had somebody in one of my classes come up and tell me that we could grow yacon root here in Florida. And I think you can also, you're in a zone in California where you certainly can grow it too. But yeah, it sounds like it's absolutely delicious eaten fresh or cooked. And, you know, it's interesting because I have been using it. I've been buying online Yakon syrup and I put that in my coffee in the morning. So it's a sweetener made, you know, from the root, which is, I guess, must be pretty sweet. So anyway, I've been looking into it because I really want to plant some in my garden this year. But I think it's a lot like it's related it to the sunchoke, right? It's in the sunflower family, I think, or at least related. 

(Note: Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) is in the Asteraceae family, along with sunflowers, terrasols (sunchokes), daisies, lettuce and chicory. Unlike most of them, it is quite frost-tender, yet like many of them, the underground parts are improved by a light frost aboveground.

Farmer Fred

I believe it is, yes. And you propagate the rhizomes in the winter when the plants are dormant or in early spring. And usually nurseries will get those in at that time. So around March or so, if you have a favorite seed catalog or plant catalog that you like to use and order online, I know Raintree nursery, or One Green World. And I think I sent a link to you with another nursery (Peaceful Valley Farm Supply) that carries it come March, is when you can find those rhizomes for Yacon.

Dr. Laura Varich

Yeah, I'm excited to try that out. Okay, so that's what I'll do. In the spring, I'll be putting some of those in. And they're supposed to have some kind of pretty small, nice, pretty small yellow flowers on them. Sounds like it might be attractive. I think they get big though, right?

Farmer Fred

Well, as a matter of fact, as we were just talking, another Master Gardener here in Sacramento County, Quentyn Young, who we've had on this program, who loves to grow, exotic plants, exotic edibles. I asked him about growing Yacon, and he just responded by saying, “yes, I'm growing it, but I need to transplant it into something bigger.” And he sent along a picture, and this is a huge plant. He's got it growing in a half barrel, and so he needs to get it into something bigger. It's got big leaves. And it looks to be, I'd say, probably about five feet tall and five feet wide. It's doing very well. It's very green. It's very pretty. However, he says it's probably not as aggressive as a Jerusalem artichoke. He hasn't harvested any tubers yet. And that's because you harvest them a little later in the winter. He says, “anecdotally, I think our zone (USDA Zone 9) may not allow them to develop as well as they should, but I haven't done a lot of research yet.” 

So right now you’re in USDA zone 10, which is a very tropical USDA zone. We are in nine. So it might be borderline here. I guess it really depends upon the weather. I think it's worth a try in USDA zone nine to grow Yacon. And yeah, it's a very healthy looking plant that Q has here, of that Yacon. So that might be something worth trying.

Dr. Laura Varich

I think so. Why not?

Farmer Fred

So we're talking about all the foods that you can grow that can help your immune system, many of which you can grow in your own garden. But I hinted before about, there's a lot of immunity boosting prospects just working in the garden. And at your website, freshphysician.com, you talk about “why garden?” And you point out that, hey, it's diet, and it's exercise. It's good for you.

Dr. Laura Varich

Exactly. When we get outside and work in our garden, like you said, that's the healthiest food that you could have is the stuff you just picked out of your garden. No doubt about it. Also, we know if we're talking about immunity, we've learned some things too. There's been some increased research in this area. But one thing is we know is vitamin D, right? Vitamin D comes from the sun. When our skin is in the sun, we get vitamin D. It is really one of the most important of our vitamins and minerals for boosting our immunity. So we do need to get some sunshine on our skin and getting outside is a great way to do that. But some new research is super exciting. And I think you may have heard about this too, but there's been studies on just the act of getting outside and sort of being immersed in nature. And this is particularly about the smells around you. There's something called forest bathing, which they do in Japan, it's a common practice in Japan.

So this is getting out into a forest and just kind of breathing the air. It's not going for a hike or something like that, but getting out and just kind of being in the forest around the smells that are there. And what they've shown with recent research that was kind of interesting is… let me step back for a minute. When we eat plant foods, we are actually borrowing their immune system. The nutrients that we're getting from the food are part of the plant's immune system.

And it's the same thing, actually, when we're inhaling scents from the trees around us. So certain scents from those trees, some of the essential oils, when we breathe those in, those are actually part of the tree's defense. And we are, again, borrowing it from them. So we know that if we get out and we do this forest bathing, we just are outside among the trees and we're breathing in some of that great air, it boosts our immunity. We have a decrease in cortisol levels, that stress levels that decrease our immunity when cortisol is high. And we also get an increase in some of the cells that fight off viruses. They're called natural killer cells. And these effects can last 30 days just from getting out in the forest one time and breathing those scents. So yeah, I would say, you know, gardeners kind of have it all. We've got fresh food at our disposal. We're getting exercise. We're in the sun. And I would say get all your senses involved. Take a whiff of those great smelling herbs that you've got in your garden.

Farmer Fred

I love plants that are a show for the nose. And I am always planting those aromatic plants to put on their show at different seasons. So basically, year round, there's something that is just heaven to my nose. I love the Brugmansia plant for its, I guess you could describe it, as a tobacco-like aroma, but it's not as heavy as…well, it's not cigarette smoke. But it's a rather pleasant aroma. If you grow Nicotiana, you know what I'm talking about. Well, Brugmansia (variety is ‘Charles Grimaldi’) is much the same way except on a massive level because this shrub gets to be eight to 10 feet tall, with these wonderful, pendulous, yellow flowers that hang from it. And the scent comes alive as the sun is going down. So late afternoon, early evening, it's wonderful. Another plant that's a show for the nose that I really like and I put  this plant next to a doorway is the Magnolia figo, formerly known as Michaelia figo, also known as the banana shrub. Now, we're not talking about growing bananas. It's a banana scent that the flowers have on the Magnolia figo. And it is just wonderful. And it is putting on a show in April. And they're small flowers. You can barely see them, but you can notice the aroma downwind from yards and yards away. And people are always walking by the front yard going, “what is that aroma? It's wonderful.” Well, it's right next to you.

It's the Michaelia figo, also known as the Magnolia figo, also known as the banana shrub. So those are two of my favorite shows for the nose. And you're right. It's all a matter of immersing all your senses. When I was having a discussion about forest bathing with someone, and I mentioned that riding the American River Bike Trail, which is a 32-mile-long trail that goes along the American River from Folsom all the way down to Discovery Park (near downtown Sacramento), there is no car traffic around. It's like you're in a forest. You're in a riparian area with the American River, and native and introduced species of trees around you. And it's just wonderful. And I said, well, that's forest bathing. And they said, “it's only forest bathing if you get off your bike. And really, immerse yourself in the plants.” So I've started to take more breaks now when I'm riding in the forest.

Dr. Laura Varich

Yeah, I agree. I think anytime you can just sort of stop, and stop and smell the roses, right? Yeah. I think all of us have that sense when we are outside in nature and when we're breathing in some of those wonderful scents that it's calming to us and that it's healthy for us. We feel better. And it's actually true. We see that in our body, that we're decreasing stress levels and we're increasing some really healthy processes. So pretty amazing stuff. And I'm sure we're just going to keep learning more. And did you have, was there a book that you had said you are reading on this topic?

Farmer Fred

It just came out this past week. It's by Kathy Willis. She's a scientist, and this whole book is about why seeing, smelling, hearing, and touching plants is good for our health. The name of the book is “Good Nature”. Kathy Willis is based in England. I'm hoping to get her on this program to talk more about that book. It's a wonderfully written book. It's an easy-flowing book, too, very conversational. And she has come across many scientific studies that show the benefits of being among the sights and the sounds and the smells of nature.

Dr. Laura Varich

I love that. Wouldn't that be great if you could get her on the show? I'm sure you can. That's exciting.

Farmer Fred

It would just be a big time difference. That's all, since she's in England.

Dr. Laura Varich

Yeah.

DAVE WILSON NURSERY

Farmer Fred

The weather may not be perfect for outdoor gardening, but now’s the time to plan the what and the where of you want to plant for the future. To help you along, it pays to visit your favorite independently owned nursery on a regular basis throughout the fall and winter, just to see what’s new. And coming soon to that nursery near you is Dave Wilson Nursery’s excellent lineup of Farmers Market Favorites of great tasting, healthy, fruit and nut varieties. They’ll be already potted up and ready to be planted. 

And we’re also talking about a great selection of antioxidant-rich fruits such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, Goji berries, Grapes, kiwi, mulberries, gooseberries, figs and pomegranates.

Wholesale grower Dave Wilson Nursery has probably the best lineup of great tasting fruit and nut trees of any grower in the U.S. Find out more at their website, DaveWilson dot com. While you’re there, check out all the videos they have on how to plant and grow all their delicious varieties of fruit and nut trees. Plus, at dave wilson dot com, you can find the nursery nearest you that carries Dave Wilson plants. Your harvest to better health begins at Dave Wilson dot Com. 

GROW YOUR OWN IMMUNITY-BOOSTING FOODS  Pt. 3

Farmer Fred

So tell us about your newsletter, Fresh Physician.

Dr. Laura Varich

Oh, well, my newsletter that I put out is, it's really just aimed to give people useful information from whatever the latest research is so that we can make sure that we are, as we talked about earlier, fortifying our own terrain, right? We're making our own body healthier by taking  part in that. So it's really about any kind of lifestyle changes that we might have, particularly about nutrition. And I really aim to give people things to do in that newsletter, some actionable items. So things that you can apply to your life now to make your body healthier.

Farmer Fred

And you mentioned earlier that you learned about Yacon from somebody in one of your classes, and you can find out more about Dr. Laura Varich's speaking schedule at freshphysician.com, which I imagine is a lot of wellness talks.

Dr. Laura Varich

Right. Exactly. I do talk at multiple different centers here in Central Florida, mostly, but I do them around the country, but mostly here, you know, really on all kinds of wellness topics. It might be something like diabetes, or it might be something like, you know, how to better store your fruits and vegetables. So we kind of run the gamut of all kinds of topics just related to how to how to get healthier.

Farmer Fred

And also to use that healthy food, you have a whole section on recipes at fresh physician.com.

Dr. Laura Varich

 Yes, I have a lot of recipes there. And they're really aimed at taking delicious recipes. I love food. So taking things that I think are delicious, and just making sure that those recipes are healthy. So the focus is going to be on using lower amounts of sodium, low in saturated fat, which we know is one of the most inflammatory things in our diet. So low in saturated fat, low in sodium and high in a bunch of those plant nutrients. So lots of herbs and spices in those recipes. So yeah, check them out.

Farmer Fred

You mentioned in your bio that's at freshphysician.com that one of your favorite sayings to your children at mealtime is, “come on, we want to health you up”. And they would roll their eyes because your mom and, you know, they had other ideas. But how did that work out?

Dr. Laura Varich

It worked out pretty, pretty well. I think even if you have to, with your kids, sneak in some healthy food, like they're not loving the broccoli or something,  you chop it up and sneak it into things. Because really, it's just about getting them used to those flavors. And then with time,  when they are exposed to that flavor again later, maybe as a whole piece of broccoli, they're not going to balk at it, they're actually going to have some receptors that are going to be used to that flavor and are going to learn to like that flavor. So yeah, it worked out really well for me in that both my girls are pretty health conscious. They both eat very healthfully. I'd say they're probably both maybe in the sort of somewhere between vegetarian, pescatarian category, but they eat lots and lots of fruits and vegetables. So I'm happy about that.

Farmer Fred

There you go. I start off my morning every day with a high fiber cereal topped with a cup of fresh blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. So if you start the day off right, there's a good chance you'll continue through the day.

Dr. Laura Varich

Exactly. And it gives you all that energy you need for the day, too. And I really do think that if you can get a bunch of that nutrition in first thing in the morning, that that's probably one of the best things that you can do for your body.

Farmer Fred

Check out a lot more at the  free newsletter at freshphysician.com. Dr. Laura Varich has been our guest. We found out more about lowering the inflammation of your body so it can better resist all those viruses that travel around the country in the wintertime, the cold and flu viruses and whatever else may be coming our way. Dr. Laura Varich, thank you so much for your time today.

Dr. Laura Varich

My thanks to you, Fred. I really, really appreciate talking with you.

Farmer Fred

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred comes out every Friday and it's brought to you by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. Garden Basics is available wherever podcasts are handed out. For more information about the podcast, as well as an accurate transcript of the podcast, visit our website, gardenbasics.net. And thank you so much for listening and your support.