The Free Radical

There’s a certain time of year when all worries and concerns over lack cease to have any basis in reality. This day, right now, is that time.

In amongst the old dried husks of days and seasons gone by there grows the sure promise of all needs met. Relax; all is provided… perhaps you just never knew it before.

(Ventura Highway by America from their 1972 album Homecoming)

Okay, I chose this song solely based upon the opening line. In case you haven’t guessed, this post is about grass. This album, by the way, was the very first piece of music I ever owned. My Dad bought me the cassette tape for my tenth birthday. It is still among my favourite albums of all time, and I consider it to be far superior to any of America’s greatest hits compilations.

So what’s so awesome about grass? A rational person considers the quality of his food according to the nutrients it contains. And that is precisely where grass excels!

There are more than 900 species of grass growing on this Earth… and none of them are poisonous. Have you ever considered that a healthy cow, weighing many hundreds of pounds, attains its bulk primarily from eating grass? Panda bears eat bamboo nearly exclusively; bamboo is a type of grass.

The nutritional profile of many grasses is exceptional. Wheat grass and barley greens have long been considered superfoods due to their ease of cultivation and their concentrated nutrients. It is especially in the early spring when the new shoots grow extremely rapidly that the nutrition peaks. For the next three weeks or so I can receive all of the nutrition I require by chewing on the fast-growing wild grasses along my trail. There is additionally a similar window of opportunity in the fall when the grasses engage another tremendous growth spurt and nutritive spike. So when all else appears a little sparse, hidden among the tall spent husks, the new shoots of wild grasses provide all that one’s hunger could realistically ask for.

I only chew it to extract the juices. The fibre in grass is largely indigestible by humans– having only one stomach and a healthy disdain for chewing our cud. Those precious green drops however will provide virtually everything needed.

Grass is prolific and well rooted. Its subtle abundance is persistent and tenacious. It tells us in no uncertain terms that our needs are covered… so don’t hesitate to pluck a sprig and engage your desire to be “chewing on a piece of grass, walking down the road…”