Love And Turnips

There were some beautiful pink baby turnips today at the green market where I buy produce. I usually buy whatever is in the discounted bags and boxes that they have because those prices are always really inexpensive, but the bunch of turnips was so huge, it was easily at least as good as or even a better deal than a bag or a box, and I didn’t see anything in any of the bags or boxes that I wanted except for apples and plums. I needed vegetables and fruit – I was out of everything except for dried fruit and I’d eaten my last carrot for lunch. The past few weeks have been really busy – too busy maybe, because I developed laryngitis, something that doesn’t happen to me often. In the past few years I haven’t gotten sick much if any at all, so this laryngitis was a surprise, but understandable because it is going around and someone in my office had it and that means there may have been other people around me who had it too. Put that together with lots of nights of not getting enough sleep and a very stressful environment for the past 8 months, and you have a recipe for physical break down.

I had planned this week as a vacation week, and it was almost as if my body just decided to collapse as soon as it knew it would be getting a rest. Toward the end of last week I had started to feel like I was fighting off a cold or something and I’d started drinking the health and wellness tea I make. It’s a combination of Echinacea, goldenseal – both roots and leaves - and something I discovered when I was in London once maybe ten years ago or more when I got sick and was run down and wasn’t getting any sleep. I’d walked into an apothecary shop and bought something called “knot weed” in drops that you put under your tongue several times a day. When I got back home again, I asked at an herbal remedy store and they’d never heard of it, but the nice woman who ran the store looked it up for me and found out that it was good for strengthening the immune system and helping with respiratory problems. Echinacea and goldenseal are old standbys for me from a tea I used to buy already made in bags, and adding the knot weed works wonders. I’m remembering as I write this that I usually add mint when I make the tea at night which I haven’t been doing this time. In the morning I’ll add something called Sorrel, a West Indian and Asian herb that is loaded with vitamin C and iron. It tends to wake me up and give me energy, so I wait until the morning for that and drink the tea with mint instead at night. This time around I’ve forgotten to add the mint, so I’ll have to remember that next time.

When I looked up the pink turnips, I found some fun facts that showed me just how much the Lord is providing even for my vegetables to be the perfect ones at the perfect time. Turnips and turnip greens are very high in vitamin C, something I need to help build up my run down body, and I also read that the turnip is thought by the Celts to mean love. I had remembered that in the story about Rapunzel, there is a version when her mother eats turnip greens and turnips I think, and ends up stealing them from someone’s garden who then tells her that the child she will have belongs to them now. That’s why Rapunzel gets locked up in the tower, all because of a craving for turnips and turnip greens. The ones that I bought today were really beautiful – I never understood why anyone would have a longing for them until I saw and ate them today. When I brought them up to the counter to buy them, the woman told me that they had just been picked last night. They were so fresh that I said, “They’re gorgeous,” and they were – the palest pink with the greenest of greens, and when I cooked them they were just perfect. The bunch was so big that I’ll have them for the rest of the week at least, so I’ll be surrounded by love and health all week long.

In Proverbs 15:17 we read, “Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fatted calf with hatred.” That is from the New International Version, and Young’s Literal Translation has this, “Better is an allowance of green herbs and love there, than a fatted ox, and hatred with it.” I actually had a very large serving of vegetables, and I had some salmon and brown rice with it. The combination of the bright leafy greens and the palest pink baby turnips with the pink salmon and rice that turns oatmeal colored when it’s cooked was one of the most beautiful meals I’ve made in a long time. Put that together with the fact that it tasted divinely and that I know I was surrounded by the provision and love of God, and it was indeed a better meal than some I’ve had that were far more sophisticated.

I was thinking about some people I’ve known today, from my past before I was born again and my present. Throughout the years I’ve known people who have been simple and lovely, and I’ve known others who have brought contention and strife. I’ve had meals and made meals that used all kinds of special ingredients, and I’ve enjoyed some very high brow restaurant experiences. I’ve had dinners at people’s houses and apartments and have made many myself. I love good food and trying new things, but I’m not a food snob in the least. A simple meal of vegetables all by themselves is something that I’ve done on occasion if whatever vegetables I find are fresh and good. I eat meat and know how to make all kinds of fancy roasts, but sometimes the simplest things make the most memorable meals. The key is how the environment around you feels, and it can be perfectly lovely if the only added dish is love.

I’m looking forward to my week of turnips and turnip greens and the different meals I’ll be making. I have time this week to do things I don’t always have time to do, so I may even make something that is a bit more complicated. I love to cook and I enjoy taking that time when I have it, but the one thing I know is that no matter what I make, as long as there’s love in my home it will taste delicious. Years ago a man I met told me that his grandmother used to always say, “Where there’s garlic, there’s love.” I cook with a lot of garlic – it went into my turnips tonight – but I’ve come to know that even with garlic I still need God, or else something will be missing that can’t be replaced.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan