Organiclinker Talk writer profiles - Suzette
We asked one of our regular contributers Suzette to tell us a bit more about herself, and here it is….
My interest in ‘organics’ was really a natural development of a lifelong preoccupation with nutrition and health.
From the age of about 10 years old I made endless notes on vitamins and minerals, from a succession of books borrowed mostly from the local library , which I visited practically every day. I was prompted largely by vanity at that time I think, and I soaked up the tips from Gayelord Hauser’s book ‘ Look Younger, Live Longer.’ He was one of the first ‘gurus to the stars’ and urged by him, I plagued my mother for more fruit at a time when the benefits of Vitamin C didn’t loom so large in the British housewife’s psyche. (Bear in mind we are talking here about the 1950’s!)
During adolescence I conceived an irrational dislike of doctors and hospitals and decided I was going to keep fit - prevention being preferable to cure. I worked my way through all the fashionable exercises, especially the Canadian Air Force Exercise Program and even forced down brussels sprouts. I swallowed brewer’s yeast, (Gayelord again, good for the hair!) and acquired a taste for the first commercially produced yoghourt.
When marriage and children came along and pennies were scarce, it seemed a good idea to grow vegetables to save money. Then came my revelationary moment when I was given a copy of Lawrence Hill’s ‘Grow Your own Fruit and Vegetables,’ which was bulging with information on not just ‘how to grow runner beans, but also with tables of statistics on nutrient contents of fruit and veg and information on pesticides, chemicals etc. I never looked back. I built a compost heap - badly at first - and grew all our vegetables, even using artifical light when it was too dark to see the seedlings. Many a time a child was heard to wail from the door “ Mummy, are you ever coming in?”
However, despite the wailing, I think it paid off. Uniquely amongst their friends and fellows I think, my four children grew up antibiotic free, unheard of in an era when these medicines were dished out on demand for the slightest sniffle. My approach was always to strengthen the immune system and let them fight off the germs naturally. They are all alive to tell the tale! Now approaching my 60th year, I have not been to a doctor for help since I was 22, apart from the necessary business of having babies!
Dear old Lawrence Hills was a founder member of the Henry Doubleday Research Organisation. I joined this group in the 1980’s and have found them a mine of information and support, and now that they have a web site help is available at the click of a mouse. The Soil Association also receives my support, because of the tremendous work they do in fighting the corner of those of us who don’t want GM food or crops grown in depleted, artificially fertilised ground - enter Lady Eve Balfour’s very scarce book “The Living Soil,” and the writings of Rudolf Steiner.
In the 1990’s I studied for a diploma in holistic aromatherapy at the Tisserand Institute. I was struck by the similarity in the structure of the skin and the structure of healthy soil and how they both rely on the right ‘nutrients’ to function at their optimum. The skin is in our first line of defence against bacterial infection - keep the ph balance right and all is well. The soil is no different; if the ph is out of kilter plants do not thrive, fruit and vegetables are weak and sickly, and we in our turn suffer.
So now I think I see how everything is interconnected. I look at the melting glaciers, the atmospheric pollution, declining wildlife species and believe, beyond any shadow of doubt, that living an ‘organic,’ environmentally friendly lifestyle is probably the most constructive action that any of us can take to hold back the tide. Unlike Canute, I believe we can make a difference.
Suzette is a partner in www.sharpsbooks.co.uk an OrganicLinker sponsor. Look out for more great contributions to our group blog.
