All over Europe: Garden Sorrel

Yesterday, I made the choice to buy most of my food organic. I may have to make some exceptions since organic food supply is not so easy to come by, but I'm not sure about that just yet.

In any case, yesterday, I bought a green that looked familiar, but it is most definitely new to my taste buds. I looked up the Hungarian translation to see what it is in English = garden sorrel?! Um, OK. I never heard of that. So I looked it up, and here is what I found: A Botanical Website

Some interesting info on that site about the plant itself and cultivation. Makes me really wish I had land and a garden!

Anyways, it's not just this sorrel that has me pumped. I also got some tomatoes yesterday that were the best I have ever had. I'm loving the organic food, and I didn't realize just how much of a difference it would make.

So, as for the garden sorrel, it's remarkably sweet and tart at the same time, and I found it to digest well. At the above gardening site, I found the following intriguing info:

Of the two kinds of Sorrel cultivated for use as vegetables or salads, Rumex acetosa, the Garden Sorrel, is an indigenous English plant, common, too in the greater part of Europe, in almost all soils and situations. It grows abundantly in meadows, a slender plant about 2 feet high, with juicy stems and leaves, and whorled spikes of reddish-green flowers, which give colour, during the months of June and July, to the grassy spots in which it grows.

It is generally found in pastures where the soil contains iron.

I wonder if it is not grown in the US because "we" have the same small number of plants produced on large scales, and so few remaining small farms? Or if it is because the lack of organic farming has left the soil without enough iron? In any case, I will be happy to eat this for awhile!

Budapest, Hungary: Vitamins are locked up here.

Between living in Boston and Martha's Vineyard, visiting Brazil, visiting family here in Hungary, I thought it might be funny to start a blog called "Where is Éva?" that is all about my travels and getting settled in to different places and cultures.

Today, I went to a raw food potluck. I was the only "all raw" person there. At least they have one of those here! Buuuut, there were only three of us! The last potluck had about 15 people, so this was surprising for me. We talked about how many people here are unhealthy and how crazy others seem to think raw food is.

We talked about vitamins and probiotics. I don't take supplements, but I do like to have some probiotics and fermented food to keep the intestinal flora active in my stomach. When I was in the USA, I had no problem finding these things. Here? Vitamins are locked up! Seriously. I was in a pharmacy the other day because my pinkie toe was so bruised it turned purple. I thought maybe I should tape it up or something. They suggested a cream, and I noticed the cream and Vitamin C were both in the locked case.

Crazy.

The women I met with today were asking me about where I got my probiotics. I still have some from the USA. They sighed, suggesting it might not be so easy to find them here. This started a whole conversation about the vitamin situation.

Since I don't supplement and don't really find supplements necessary, I shrug my shoulders at this. But it reminds me how easy some things are in the USA. I guess! (Not being unpatriotic here, just not decided if supplements maybe SHOULD be at the recommendation of a pharmacist now that I'm thinking of this...)