Publisher's Synopsis
'Living well from our garden - Mediterranean style' will be of interest to anyone interested in developing a healthier lifestyle for themselves and their family, while becoming becoming more self sufficient and saving money in doing so. The book describes the evolution of my garden in Spain over twenty five years helped by my wife Clodagh to enable total wellness. Total wellness from our garden includes spiritual and mental well being, sustained good physical health, gastronomic satisfaction and economic well being. The book examines what is good eating following a Mediterranean diet and the way in which we gradually became almost 100% self sufficient in ecological produce - we need to buy cheese, cured ham and wine. The driving force of our efforts have been three fold. Firstly I retired in 1993 following two cancer operations and the surgeon suggesting that I would live a better and longer life if I agreed to have no chemo and radiotherapy but retire early to my then holiday home to live on a healthy Mediterranean diet in a peaceful mountain village which was then self sufficient and exporting vegetables fruit meats olive oil etc. This I did but within ten years much of the local agriculture was being abandoned and what was left was chemical driven and not ecological. Now in 2013 95% is abandoned! So the second driving force was to grow our own ecological produce and become self sufficient. Thirdly we wanted to avoid going down the route of vitamin and mineral supplements so we focussed on growing those things that had significant vitamin and mineral and fibre contents and recognised wellness benefits. What we grew and why is described. Fourthly foodstuffs and eating out was becoming expensive and we knew our money would dwindle over the years. I am now 76 years old and fit. The book also includes a novel self analysis of how well you source prepare and eat your food to determine whether you are a dedicated fast food addict or moving towards being a 21st century style gastronome concerned about the quality of what the family eats. 'Living well from our garden' is a milestone case history and handbook for garden design and healthy living and is a natural follow on from our books 'Your Garden in Spain', 'Growing Healthy Fruit in Spain', 'Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain' and 'Apartment Gardening Mediterranean Style'.
