Healing And Hydroponic

The New York Times Dining section had two very interesting and diverse articles yesterday. One was on the healing powers of certain foods while the other was on hydroponic farming. Actually the first is sort of dependent on the second one, because it's all the leafy green stuff that can help a body. Any green, whether it be spinach or even lettuce, if grown hydroponically , can have a few more benefits than ones coming from the land.

The first article written by Jeff Gordinier tells the story of chef Seamus Mullen who was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis in his late thirties. The disease literally crippled him, leaving him in agony most of the time. For anybody this is bad news but for a chef even worse. Luckily he improved his diet which led to his new cookbook. Entitled "Seamus Mullen's Hero Food : How Cooking Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better ", it shows how certain foods can help with inflammatory disease s and boost the body's immune system. Some of the best foods for a person are olive oil, almonds and leafy green vegetables. Mr. Mullen uses these already in his Spanish tapas restaurant Boqueria.

No doubt hydroponically grown greens are also good for you. That was the other article, written by Glenn Collins, another long time Dining contributor. Hydroponic lettuce has received a bad rap over the last few years. Not so anymore. It's actually become more flavorful. This is due to new techniques in this dirt free farming. There's more technological sophistication where there are even weather stations installed to help with the sun and temperature conditions . This helps crops thrive without the usual worries about drought or too much rain. The ambiance is perfect in creating flavorful and tender leaves.

Leafy greens can help us. Just ask Seamus Mullen who greatly benefited from them. Even better are the hydroponically grown ones. They're not only good for us but good tasting thanks to modern, soil free farming methods.