Why Do Ditch Diggers Have Great Bodies?

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  I'm almost half way through digging and filling my garden with 13 cubic yards of black topsoil from Pine Island, NY. It's the best soil you can have, since it comes from the Arctic glaciers that melted a few million years ago. I've always prided myself to be quite strong from years of Muay Thai fighting and various sports, but let me tell you....digging dirt is tough stuff! After about 2 hours of filling a wheel barrel, taking it to its destination and digging out the soil (I'm too short for leveraging the wheel barrel to just dump the dirt into the elevated garden beds), I'm a done deal! I know when to stop before I think I'll overdo it. This is repetitive work and now I know why ditch diggers sing songs to the rhythym of their motions....I'm singing all those songs of the south the sisters of brutality taught us in Catholic parochial school (the things you remember while digging in the dirt!).

So, here's my tip: if you're digging dirt, filling a garden and think you're going to get it done in a day...just forget about it! Sing some songs, take your time, drink lots of water and tomorrow is another day. It might take me another 6 days to get the job done - any volunteers to help out there? Have a wonderful week; be safe, be healthy and be cool!

A Few Good Herbs Go A Long Way

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  The garden looks like Sing-Sing prison, but the results are becoming outstanding.  Some of the wonderful dishes I'm serving up this week with the herbs I've planted are:  buffalo mozzarella with fresh tomatoes, basil and balsamic vinegar...chicken salad with lemon thyme, dijon mustard, a touch of mayo and horseradish....fresh tomato basil florentine soup with home made tortellini....lapin moutarde with fresh sage in white wine, shallots and dijon mustard.  It's all healthy, organic, fresh and fabulous!  How's your garden doing so far?  Care to share recipes with us?  Write in and I'll post them.