Better Health Bonus

My own photo

I'd like to paint a picture for you. As I do, I think your own imagination may begin to fill in wonderful, inspiring details. 

In my RIBA Block Model each home has its own greenhouse in the backyard, and each block has a community area in its center.

First, imagine your greenhouse full of fresh, vibrant, vegetable and herb plants amidst trees and vines bearing luscious fruits. You'd have a garden and outdoor fruit trees as well, which everyone in your family would take part in tending. Maybe you've known a neighbor who gardened. If so, I'm sure you recall how much they enjoyed sharing and felt they could not possibly eat all those tomatoes themselves. Picture every house on the block harvesting and sharing their bounty so generously. Perhaps along trails, near playground equipment and beneath trees in the community area you would set up complimentary fruit and vegetable carts.

Photo courtesy of Outside Inn http://outsideinn.com/blog/outside-inn-veggie-cart-2.htm/

We naturally take pride in something requiring so much patience, love and care, as do our children. How good it would feel to place baskets of ripe, red, strawberries out for everyone to share. How fun it would be to exchange gardening tips with neighbors and friends when they ask how you grew such big leafy kale. How reassuring it would be to know healthy snacks were always easily found by your children even while out playing in the neighborhood. Perhaps you think I'm being a bit fanciful or idealistic, but am I? Something magical takes place in such a growth-focused environment...

My own photo

Detoxification is a natural by-product of gardening. No one likes to waste food. Can you really see yourself buying all those processed packaged snack foods full of GMOs, chemicals and preservatives when you'd have baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables you grew yourself getting riper by the hour? Of course not. As you eat more fresh fruit, greens and vegetables, you desire processed food less and less and crave more of nature's bounty. Along with your tastes, your body begins to change and run more efficiently. You have more energy, think more clearly, feel happier and more appreciative of the little things in life. People's true colors begin to shine through as their stressed and exhausted caffeine, chemical and sugar dependent alter-egos fall away. I'm not talking fairy tales, I'm talking fact. When you eat living foods in their natural form in abundance, you feel closer to your Creator, closer to nature and closer to each other. An undeniable transformation occurs and suddenly everyone is getting along better than ever. Yes, even the kids.

My own photo

Taking care of one another feels good and right. So does watching your food grow from a seed, and witnessing your children take pride in their work and the nurturing of their bodies as well as those of of the people around them. Watching your children share and become generous people is one of the most rewarding things in life. Their ever-growing love of living foods can also bring a tear to your eye. I know one little girl who barely gave carrots a thought until the day she tasted some she'd grown herself. "I love carrots! These are the best carrots I've ever tasted!" She couldn't share them fast enough. Everyone just had to experience her carrots.

My own photo

I strongly encourage you to share all the images, sights and sounds I've forgotten here. Perhaps your vision has honey bees in raspberry bushes and music lessons beneath a tree in the community area at dusk... do tell.

Photo courtesy of Fablefarm.org http://fablefarm.org/summer-vegetable-CSA-shares