Cleansing and healing for 2024
It’s a fresh new year, a clean slate and everything is possible. Many people, myself included, want to rid our systems of the toxins accumulated from a year and a yearend overdose of unhealthy eating and stress.
Many of us have ongoing stressful situations that took a momentary pause for the holidays. Sooner than soon we will have to face these monsters again. That’s the nature of life.
But nature itself provides the best natural remedies to calm frazzled nerves, brighten up a sad day and help regain our peace, our perspective and our direction. Nature produces every green and growing thing that brings loveliness to our landscape. Sometimes all we need to do is pay attention.
The negative vibes in your system begin to melt away as the walking itself brings an energy even light cardiovascular activity provides.
Even on a shabby street you will find plants on windowsills or any available space; that’s optimism in a shade of green growing off cans, even cracks in the pavement. Plants are resilient, sending out stalks and leaves despite pollution, neglect and lack of space.
So how to take advantage of nature’s gifts to the weary and those in need of inspiration?
Get out and walk, and pause to appreciate what grows along the way.
I have different walking groups. I had one with cousins and friends during the lockdown, and these days I have friends with whom I walk around the barangay when we need to clear our heads and still our minds.
As we walk up and down the streets admiring trees, hedges and gardens, we talk our hearts out about everything under the sun, every planet spinning in our universe, every earthquake that rocks our world.
The combination of walking, talking and taking in green and growing things is a powerful way to restore your sense of perspective, even if you are ambling along aimlessly. There are always new places to come across, and you will vow to return.
The negative vibes in your system begin to melt away as the walking itself brings an energy even light cardiovascular activity provides. It’s not your imagination either because the increased blood circulation helps your body rid itself of toxins.
If you need more green therapy you can visit gardens specifically designed to be therapeutic, like the arboretum at Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo.
Pinto’s founder, Dr. Joven Cuanang, explained to me, “The vision mission of Pinto is to promote art, culture and ecology. The Pinto arboretum addresses the ecology part of our focus. It was developed together with the contemporary art museum to be a rescue center for endangered Philippine trees and plants in response to the decimation of the diversity and richness of our resources.
He continues, “By doing so, it becomes a humble effort to educate people from everywhere. We now have 600 species of trees, not counting the ferns and mosses which abound in our country and are growing well in this microclimate.”
I love the Pinto arboretum for its quietness even when there are many visitors at this IG-worthy museum. Here there is the music created by the bamboo trees, and pitcher plants growing nonchalantly out of walls. Begonias take root on moss-covered rocks. Every green detail is worthy of your attention.
“Equally important for visitors is to appreciate the healing power of nature. I know this from experience,” Dr. Cuanang concludes. “The science is now defined for its value in mental health. We hope to continue collecting more indigenous species. Art and nature heal.”
Fellow STAR columnist Chit Juan takes small groups on tours around Echo Farm in Amadeo, Cavite. Book a date and bring friends with whom you can bond while you walk around this vast farm with very cool breezes. That chilly air is not obstructed by anything.
Then, since you’re already near Tagaytay, you can enjoy a meal at any number of environment-friendly restaurants that focus on farm-to-table meals. My current favorite is The Fatted Calf, but Sonya’s Garden with its flower-lined paths is also irresistible.
Don’t forget, whether you’re heading south to Batangas and Tagaytay, east to Antipolo or north to the mountains, the trip alone affords you views of passing fields and trees—more green than you usually get in the city. Put down the gadget and look out the window! That’s already an escape.
What if you can’t escape out of town just now?
Step out of your room and take a spin around your garden if you’re lucky enough to have one. I actually don’t have a proper garden, meaning areas with soil where roots can stretch down deeply.
But what we did was line our driveways with so many potted plants and our walls with clinging vines and creeping greens so that what is just a driveway looks lush and jungle-like.
We planted an avocado seed outside the house, allowed an is-is and a eugenia to grow unchecked beside it. Now all three are trees that shade our home, host feathered friends that fill our mornings with birdsong and provide yummy fruit.
What if your place is too small for a garden? Try an exotic plant.
We went to visit the latest art exhibit at Super Duper on 11th Jamboree and discovered that artist co-founder Alfred Tababa, who makes paintings of porcelain with exquisite details, grows equally exquisite pitcher plants. These come with the pitchers in varying sizes and shapes, all gorgeous and reasonably priced.
We bought one for ourselves and another for the wife of a cousin, who definitely has a green thumb. If Alfred is around he will explain to you how to care for these, which he grows exposed to the elements to make them more hardy. Good news! It’s been weeks and ours is still alive.
If there’s one attitude and habit I formed last year that my family is grateful for, it’s this: the more stressed we find ourselves, the healthier we must eat, and when we start to feel sick, the fresher, greener, and leafier the food must be.
When we were at Haight’s Place, one of the two flower farms in Atok that is open to the public, I spied one of their farmers with a load of newly harvested radishes. Abandoning my two daughters to carry on their picture-taking among the beautiful flower beds, I walked to the vegetable fields and the farmer harvested what we call Baguio petchay in front of me. I was invited to gather the carrot “rejects,” meaning imperfectly shaped, in the field next to it. I paid P20 per kilo for seven kilos of cabbage, two kilos of radish and nothing for the deformed, perfectly delicious carrots.
On the way back to Manila we stopped by a roadside stall right before the entrance to the TPLEX. There I bought a sack of newly harvested corn, humongous ube, mangoes, tomatoes, sibuyas Tagalog and ginger, all for the princely sum of P500.
Back home I wasted no time preparing these and Baguio veggies for dinner.
To make this beet and orange salad, cut off the stem end from beets but don’t peel them. Set them on a baking tray, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with olive oil. Roast at 400F for about 30 minutes until tender. This will depend on the size of the beets and their freshness. Peel and slice the beets and combine with sliced Sagada oranges (or use other sweet oranges). For the dressing whisk together 1 tbsp. raspberry (or other vinegar), 3 tbsps. oil, 1 tbsp. honey and salt and pepper. Drizzle over the beets and oranges and sprinkle with crumbled kesong puti (or use goat cheese) and walnuts.
Combine freshly cooked corn, onions, tomatoes and basil. Dress with just olive oil, salt and pepper. I also made a salad of julienned Baguio petchay, carrots and radish dressed with sesame oil, Kikkoman and a little brown sugar for balance.
To make a roasted vegetable salad, cut broccoli, cauliflower and carrots into bite-size pieces. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 400F until they caramelize, turning them halfway through the cooking time. Top with crumbled kesong puti.