An Ode to Soil

Everything that we eat was grown. Even the most refined, "artificial" ingredients are made of plants, or animals that ate plants. So in a very real, biological way, we owe our lives to the soil. Earth. Dirt. Something many of us are grossed out by, is the reason are all alive. We wash ourselves clean of it, trying to keep this material out of our homes, but if you have ever grown a carrot and then eaten it, you know that this substance is anything but dirty.

Soil provides everything that plants need to grow, and the very minerals that we seek in our veggies are directly absorbed from the soil. Soil is alive with microbes that fend off parasites and make nutrients bioavailable. Soil holds water and keeps vital roots supported. Soil is the magical substance that brings life to seeds and allows the earth to grow!

When we eat food and absorb the nutrients, we take on the materials that we ate and those ingredients become our body. And since plants engage in a very similar process getting their food from the soil, we become the dirt. Our bodies are literally made of the soil that our food was grown in.

So next time you wash your hands after gardening, sweep your floors or scrub the dirt stains from your toddlers jeans, take a moment to appreciate the life giving force that we walk upon everyday.