02/10/2022
It is so good to feel the change of seasons upon us and spring starting to arrive! From a Chinese medical perspective, the movement from winter to spring comes with shouting and springing forth. As our oldest classic, Inner Classic, explains: “The supernatural forces of spring create wind in Heaven and wood upon the Earth. Within the body they create the liver and the tendons; they create the green color...and give the voice the ability to make the shouting sound...they create the eyes, the sour flavor, and the emotion anger.”
Using this thought as a spring board, this is the season our appetite should be decreasing so that we can cleanse our liver and rid the body of the excesses. As we observe the animals eating the grass in nature, we are choosing and munching on greens and grasses, too, and eating as lightly as possible in order to let the body “spring clean.”
This brings me to the food I wanted to mention: the daikon radish. I am extremely grateful that a capable local gardener offered me a radish from her garden. I was coming to my office later in the morning, and she said, “No problem, I’ll leave it on your door handle.” Well, as the saying goes, “Only in Dolan Springs!” : ) When I came in, I found the radish greens demolished and there had been two radishes -- one was totally gone except for the tip and the other 2/3 eaten up -- by, you guessed it, our local meandering cows. So they got some spring tonic, we had a good laugh, and she replaced my radish with another. Hey, I had no idea a radish could be so big!” And crunchy and tender! I cooked the greens and enjoyed a few at a time and I am still working on the radish! According to Chinese medicine, it is a great help for spring cleaning: it cools and detoxifies the liver, especially for excessive meat consumption. And it helps cleanse both the lungs and intestinal tract of mucus and phlegm. An easy way to use daikon radish is to grate about 1/4 cup on your plate when you eat meat. You can also make pickles out of it as our childhood friends who have Japanese ancestry did. So thank you, my gardener friend, for the treat of a big yummy daikon radish from your garden -- and for helping me get started on my own “spring cleaning!”
