By Clodagh and Dick Handscombe Practical gardeners and authors

One is frequently reading about new ideas for detoxing the body. That is cleaning the body of unnecessary chemicals which have been consumed or produced within the body by chemical reactions between unnatural polluting chemicals that might have been consumed as surface or absorbed chemicals on fruit and vegetables and in meats that have not been produced ecologically, or as unnatural additives to colour sweeten and flavour food and fill medications where the active ingredients are a relatively low percentage.

Luckily there are EU regulations that limit the amount of pollutants and in most cases tests show that product pollution is below these levels. But there is obviously still a concern as the EU reduces those levels on a regular basis and plans to do so over the next ten years while major increases in the production of eco insecticides, fungicides and herbicides etc are produced and tested. Luckily for the gardeners there are already natural products available if you ask your local garden centre, horticultural shop and some agricultural cooperatives. Interestingly Neudorff have made nothing but eco products for agriculture and gardens since the 1850’s!

But first ask yourself ‘Do I really need to spray as much?
Supermarkets these days demand that there is not a single blemish in products which is unnatural. An orange or lemon with a few marks on the skin is perfectly edible and if not sprayed or painted in a packing station is free of pollutants. We remember staying with friends in Andalusia when down there giving a talk to a local gardening club. There Spanish neighbour called by with by Valencia standards a bag of smallish very marked by hail and bruising by branches in high winds oranges. They would have never made it to a local store let alone an export packing station but having stayed on the trees more than a month after they would have been picked commercially they were fully ripe and swollen with sweet vitamin C filed juice.

So in your own gardens limit the extent of chemical pollutants consumed by the family by:
• Clearing the garden shed of them and replacing by eco products.
• Only spray when you really have to and then limit the extent of spraying.
• Accept the odd fruit with a maggot – it was normal in even purchased apples when young.
• Growing more vegetables and fruit and doing so ecologically as discussed during the past three weeks. Then by using vegetables daily in salads or steamed, or fresh or juiced fruit you will be detoxing on a continuous versus crisis basis especially if growing produce with the highest levels of vitamins trace minerals and natural antioxidants such as globe artichokes, beetroot, broccoli, carrots, garlic, parsley, peas, onions, red lettuces, Swiss chard, shitake mushrooms, squash and tomatoes. For those planning to grow vegetables for the first time on apartment terraces, balconies and windowsills a table on page 171 of ‘Apartment Gardening Mediterranean Style’ indicated the actual content of vitamins minerals fibres and antioxidants in this bakers dozen of healthy vegetables.
• Making a few litres of Kombucha each week. This is a detoxing drink that extracts the beneficial ingredients of red and green teas with the help of a natural floating fungus. Look it up on the internet for more information. With a healthy garden full of herbs we flavour each bottle with beneficial herbs to add interesting flavours and an extra kick. Most importantly it’s part of our micro less than an A4 sheet of paper gardening that takes up little space in the kitchen alongside our seed sprouter that is on as the choice of leaf vegetables in the garden is always limited at the end of summer until the first autumn crops are large enough to eat.

Sorry as usual space has run out but we hope what we have already said makes sense to our readers.

Clodagh and Dick’s books

Clodagh and Dick have now lived and gardened in various parts of Spain for 25 years. There books are packed with useful information with vivid illustrations that are the gardening bibles for many expats and English speaking Spaniards whether experienced or beginner gardeners. You will find ‘Your Garden in Spain, ‘Growing Healthy Fruit in Spain’ , ‘Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain’ and the latest one ‘Apartment Gardening Mediterranean Style’ in high street and internet bookshops. www.santanabooks.com have an autumn offer for the first three. You can always keep the one you don’t already have an use the other two as beneficial birthday or Christmas presents.

© Clodagh and Dick Handscombe www.gardeninginspain.com 0ctober 2010.