Jesus' Bread Recipe

Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:35, 50-51). Wheat, when it dies, brings forth life (John 12:24). Jesus gave us the bread recipe, though not the measurements.

Take some wheat (Matt 3:12). Throw out any tares (Matt 13:25). Add oil (Matt 25:3; Mark 6:13). Add water (John 3:5). Add salt that is pure (3 Nephi 12:13; Luke 14:34). Add leavening (Luke 13:21; 1 Cor 5:6).

There are hidden meanings here, pieces of a puzzle. Separately, they don't mean as much, but put them together and bake them in the fiery furnace of affliction or in the refiner's fire and you come out with a finished product, if you will. One worth saving. One worth partaking of in the household of God just as food becomes one with us when we partake of it, thus becoming one with the Gods - thus we can all share the Mind of God and be one.

Thoughts and Questions About Adam and Eve and the Garden in Eden

I listened to Moses, chapters 1-7 a couple of times, and listened to the story of the creation and Adam and Eve getting kicked out several times because it's part of the endowment.

And I realized something. Adam didn't trust Eve. He was afraid she'd mess up, so he embellished the truth. He enlarged it. He made a "buffer zone". Exaggeration? Yes. Lie? I think so.

See, God told Adam not to partake of the fruit, but He didn't say anything to Eve. It was up to Adam to do that.

Adam told Eve that the fruit would kill her if she so much as touched it. It sounds like he wanted to scare her into obedience. Adam set the stage for the fall, even though he blamed Eve for it.

So when the serpent told Eve, "You shall not surely die," he could have been referring to touching it (in that way we have of responding only to part of what a person says without bothering to specify that that's what we're doing).

If Eve saw the serpent walking around on the fruit, or holding it, she could see for herself that her husband had not told her the truth. Why, then, should she believe the rest of what he told her? The serpent was not dead and it was touching the fruit. Obviously, touching the fruit was no big deal.

Had Adam told Eve the truth, when she saw the serpent handling the fruit, she may have resisted more, knowing that handling the fruit and eating it were two different things. If Eve were a stupid woman, tending to blind obedience, she would have still refused - but she was an intelligent woman who could think for herself, thus Adam's lie backfired.

After Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit, he blamed her and justified himself (you said she was supposed to remain with me) even though it was his own words that set the stage for eating the fruit.

This raises the issue of "what is sin?". Adam wasn't kicked out for embellishing the truth (technically, lying). Nor was he kicked out for not trusting his wife's intelligence and behavior. He was kicked out for eating something he wasn't prepared to eat.

Perhaps God never commanded, "Don't embellish the truth." Perhaps He never commanded, "Trust your wife's intelligence." It sounds like He only gave one commandment.

But I don't think they were kicked out for disobeying God. I think they were kicked out because the fruit they ate changed their bodies in such a way that they could die and could think of things they'd never thought of before. It was a fruit that was reserved for when they were ready to move out of the garden.

Which brings up another thought. Were Adam and Eve caged into the garden? Were they forbidden to ever leave? Did they ever go outside just to see what it was like? Like boy scouts, did God intend for them to go on short jaunts and camping trips to get used to the outside, so that when the time came for them to eat the fruit they would have less of a culture shock?

Were animals killing and eating each other outside of the garden? When did animals begin killing and eating other animals? Was it before the flood or after? Was it after people began killing them?

How normal and uneventful was all of this? We tend to think “magic”. Perhaps it was not.

Were there poisonous plants in the garden? They were told to eat “clean” herbs. Since the only other plants mentioned are trees, I would suspect that all other plants fell under the category of “herbs”. Perhaps unclean herbs simply meant poisonous plants. Perhaps we need to rethink the story we have been told of a pure couple, without fault, without defect who could not be poisoned by anything but a certain tree.

I would suspect that the unclean plants could not impart knowledge. Was the tree even a real tree with real fruit? If not, what was it? If the tree of life represents the love of God, and seeing the Gods, what would the opposite represent? If it was not literal, why this story and the embellishment by Adam? I cannot comprehend it being anything other than a literal tree, even though (for us) it represents beginning to sin.

Notice that God said to Adam, “I told you not to eat,” but to Eve, he said, “What did you do?” And God did not give the serpent a chance to answer for itself.

God said to Adam, “Because you listened to man over God,” (remember their name was man - Moses 2:27). To the serpent, “Because you did this.” To Eve, there was no, “Because you . . . .”

What would have happened if Adam had not taken the fruit? What if he had waited until God showed up again, then told Him there was a problem and asked God to solve it because he still wanted to stay with Eve? What if God had then given Adam permission to eat the fruit? What if God was not two men, but a man and a woman (husband and wife)? What if Jehovah was not involved until after the fall? What if we have no clue what the Godhead really entails?

Why does Jehovah (who we are told is the God of the Old Testament) refer to Jesus as “mine only begotten”? Enoch was talking to the Lord God. Enoch calls to the Lord and asks Him when He will come again on the earth and says, you've commanded me to ask in the name of your Only Begotten.” God is Man of Holiness and the son is Son of Man in the language of Adam.

In the Book of Mormon, it is explained that Jesus/Jehovah is both the father and the son - the father because of the spirit (His premortal self, I would suppose) and the son because of the flesh (his earthly self). He wasn't His complete self in mortality because He, like us, had a veil of forgetfulness drawn over His mind. I suppose that is why He considered His mortal (relatively speaking) self as separate from His Eternal self. But I seriously doubt He was His own father. I think the father (Jehovah's father) was the literal father, since He had a body and could impart the necessary genetic material. If spirits could father children, I'm sure the devils would have spawned many.

Anyway, back to the subject. Did Adam and Eve have tools in the garden? They were gardeners, after all. Did they have a house to live in? Did they have brushes for their hair? Did they have soap to wash their hair and bodies? Surely they'd get dirty working in the garden. Was Adam's hair as long as Eve's? Did Adam have a beard before they left the garden? Why do nearly all of the pictures show Adam with short hair and no beard even after they left the garden? Why was he bound by the hairstyles we think appropriate? Where was the razor and scissors? When did Adam and Eve learn to read and write? Did they have needles? If not, how did they sew fig leaves together? Did the fig leaves just cover their genitals like the pictures portray, or did they cover their chests and backs (like a tunic)? Why do we assume that they were only concerned about their crotches? If they had previously been clothed in light, would not the lack of light have included their whole bodies?

Anyway, back to the thing I was originally thinking, and wondering about.

There was no sin, but

Adam did not trust Eve

He feared she'd eat the fruit

He embellished the commandment

He (unknowingly) set the stage for the fall

So

We are to return to the paradisaical realm eventually.

Perhaps we misunderstand what “without sin” and “perfection” really is. Perhaps one can be without sin, but not perfect. In the Millennium we are considered without sin (or at least the children who grow up there), and some people resent those children and claim they will not exist because they won't have the trials and choices we have now. But it looks to me like they will have choices to make. They will still make mistakes and do things that are not perfect, and they will learn from their mistakes I expect. Perhaps the reason people will live so long is because they cannot learn all they need to learn in a short time, if it is in a gentle way. We learn harshly, but we don't have a 600 to 980 year life span in which to learn life's lessons.

Which brings me to another thought I had. Adam and Eve were created in day 6, during the 6^th thousand years, as we count them. On the sabbath (7^thday), while God was resting, they ate the fruit. That means they were less than two days old when they fell (or 2,000 years as we count time). I used to think they could have been in the garden for eons or for days, until I realized they ate the fruit while God was away, resting from His labors.

How did the devil tempt the serpent? Did the animals freely wander in and out of the garden? The devil and his angels were cast into the earth, but the scriptures seem to hint that he was not allowed into the garden, therefor he sent one of his agents (spies) into the garden to do his work for him. Did the serpent intend to work for the devil? What reward did the devil offer? I thought animals were immune from listening to the devil. Why can't we talk to animals and have them talk to us like they did in the garden? Will this be changed back in the Millennium? If Adam and Eve didn't wear clothing in the garden, will we not wear clothing in the Millennium, since it is a reversion back to the garden? Will animal sacrifice be made after Jesus comes but before the peace covers the earth? What will turn our minds to Christ since no animals will be killed in the Millennium? Will it be an ⅛ of a crust of bread and a few drops of water? Will it be a meal of whole bread and homemade red wine? Will it be the fact that we see Him often?

Anyway, those were some thoughts and questions I had as a result of listening to the audio book of Moses yesterday.

Pain in Childbirth?

Scripturally speaking, is there a warrant for believing pain in childbirth is inevitable? "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" and "in sorrow shalt thou eat [the food of the ground] all the days of thy life" [Genesis 3:16-17]. So, if it means women birth in agony, it follows that men should be in agony every time they take a bite of food and try to swallow it. Let's look at assorted versions of this scripture:

From the LDS King James Version:

16 Unto the ^awoman he said, I will greatly ^bmultiply thy ^csorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth ^dchildren; and thy desire shall be to thy ^ehusband, and he shall rule over thee. 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy ^awife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: ^bcursed is the ground for thy sake; in ^csorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Take note of the footnote: It is Adam's footnote that says "sorrow" could also be translated "travail" or "pain".

Footnote 16c - HEB increase thy discomfort and thy size (i.e., in the condition and process of pregnancy)

Footnote 17c HEB travail, pain

- - -

Genesis 3:16-17 on lds.org has no footnote for Eve's "sorrow" and the footnote for Adam's "sorrow" is - HEB travail, pain

- - -

The Pearl of Great Price, which should be the best for LDS students to go by, says the following:

Moses 4:22-23:

22 Unto the woman, I, the Lord God, said: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In ^asorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy ^bhusband, and he shall rule over thee. 23 And unto Adam, I, the Lord God, said: Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the fruit of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying—Thou shalt not eat of it, ^acursed shall be the ground for thy sake; in ^bsorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

The footnotes for "sorrow" only refer one to Genesis and to the Topical Guide.

- - -

Apostolic Bible Polyglot w/Strong's Numbers:

(Gen 3:16) And^G2532 to the^G3588 woman^G1135 he said,^G2036 In multiplying^G4129 I will multiply^{G4129 G3588} your distresses,^{G3077 G1473} and^{G2532 G3588} your moanings.^{G4726 G1473} In^G1722 distresses^G3077 you will bear^G5088 children,^G5043 and^G2532 to^{G4314 G3588} your husband^{G435 G1473 G3588} your submission,^{G654.1 G1473} and^G2532 he^G1473 will dominate you.^{G1473 G2961}

(Gen 3:17) And to ^{G3588 G1161} Adam^G* he said,^G2036 Because^G3754 you hearkened to^G191 the^G3588 voice^{G5456 G3588} of your wife,^{G1135 G1473} and^G2532 ate^G2068 from^G575 the^G3588 tree^G3586 of which^G3739 I gave charge^G1781 to you, saying ,^G1473 This^G3778 alone^G3441 you are not^G3361 to eat^G2068 from^G575 it --^G1473 and you ate;^G2068 accursed^G1944 is the^G3588 land^G1093 among^{G1722 G3588} your works;^{G2041 G1473} in^G1722 distresses^G3077 you will eat^G2068 it^G1473 all^G3956 the^G3588 days^{G2250 G3588} of your life.^{G2222 G1473}

G3077 Distresses – lupè loo'-pay – Apparently a primary word; sadness: -grief, grievous, + grudgingly, heaviness, sorrow. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Same meaning for both Adam and Eve.

- - -

Brenton's English Septuagint:

Gen 3:17 And to the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pains and thy groanings; in pain thou shalt bring forth children, and thy submission shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Gen 3:18 And to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and eaten of the tree concerning which I charged thee of it only not to eat--of that thou hast eaten, cursed is the ground in thy labours, in pain shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

- - -

Geneva Bible 1587:

Gen 3:16 Vnto the woman he said, I will greatly increase thy sorowes, and thy conceptions. In sorowe shalt thou bring foorth children, and thy desire shalbe subiect to thine husbande, and he shall rule ouer thee.

Gen 3:17 Also to Adam he said, Because thou hast obeyed the voyce of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, (whereof I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eate of it) cursed is the earth for thy sake: in sorowe shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life.

- - -

King James Version 1611:

Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorowe and thy conception. In sorow thou shalt bring forth children: and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and hee shall rule ouer thee.

Gen 3:17 And vnto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened vnto the voyce of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commaunded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eate of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorow shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life.

There are newer versions. I tried to find what I thought would be closest to the original. Some newer ones say the word for Adam (sorrow) and the word for Eve (sorrow) are different; however, I believe that was changed because of the human culture's belief that childbearing should be much more painful than eating.

Question: What would our culture be like if someone had decided a few thousand years ago that it was the eating that would be painful and the childbirth that would be joyful?

Gardening

I doubt it's cold enough around here to grow cherries. I want to grow cherries. And apples. Granny smith apples make the best fresh juice.

I could fill a whole page or three with a list of the food and herbs I'd like to grow. Okay, maybe not a blog page. They're pretty long.

I can't find my list, so let's see if I can remember some of the plants I would like to have.

Elberta peaches  

green cherries

dark red cherries

yellow cherries with a blush (all of these are sweet cherries)

red apples

yellow apples (yellow delicious)

green apples (granny smith)

green plums

dark red/purple plums

plums

pears

mulberry

pawpaw

raisin tree

banana

apricot

pecan (round paper shell)

almonds

hickory

chestnut

hazelnut

(a couple of kinds of nut trees I can't remember, that aren't your average run-of-the-mill nut in the west)

black currants

red currants

gooseberry

red raspberry

black raspberry

yellow raspberry

blueberry

blackberry

loganberry

strawberry

I'm sure I have forgotten several berries, as well as several fruit trees

a night-blooming garden
a water garden (only water plants)

a flower garden made completely of edible flowers

herbs such as comfrey
mint (peppermint, spearmint, catmint, pineapple mint, etc.)
yarrow
feverfew
thymeherbs
rosemary
sage
St. John's wort (it's beautiful – I had some before, never used them but loved to look at them)
catnip
echinacea
wormwood
garlic
chives, soapwort, etc.

assorted greens to eat (chard, arugula, etc.)

melons (large variety)

corn

green beans

tomatoes (large variety)

potatoes (large variety)

squash (including pumpkins)

beets

Jerusalem artichokes

artichokes

carrots

peas (edible pods)

legumes

wheat

oats

rye

and so forth.

Life and Things

It's just after 11 a.m. AZ time, and it's only 69*F. A week ago, at this time, it was usually 104*F. That's the thing about this area. There isn't much in-between. Next week, it could be in the hundreds again.

This morning, I went into the chicken pen and gave the chickens some food, then I took their water bottle out to re-fill it. When I came back with the water, the rooster attacked me. Well, as much as a chicken can. He pecked me near the ankle, twice.

I don't know if he was mad (angry) at me because I stopped letting them out, or if he's old enough now to be aggressive. In any case, I decided he'd be better off in a stew pot or a frying pan. We could use the food, anyway. Fresh ground homemade bread is great, and I like beans, but a little meat added would be good.

I was letting the chickens out in the hopes they would keep the weed growth down. I didn't notice much change in the weeds, but I did notice a change on our front porch. It's a huge porch. I'd guess it's about ten feet by thirty, covered with a severely leaky roof. Our washing machine is there. I was having to wend my way through chicken poop. It washed off with the hose, but the chicken coop isn't tiny, especially for only four chickens - so, finally, back they went - 24/7. So, perhaps, Mister Macho didn't like it.

I was supposed to have four hens and zero roosters. Still, I understand that deciding the sex of a newly hatched chicken isn't too easy. I wanted eggs that were not fertilized. That way, I'd know I wasn't eating a baby. I adapted, when the rooster turned out to be a he instead of a she. I visualized babies running around next year. Now, I've reverted to my original plan.

Toni’s Apotheosis, Nonpareil, Paragon Way, Means, and Path of Consuming and Dining

Okay, I could have labeled that more creatively, more artistically: Toni’s Ideal Tao of Eating. Toni’s Apotheosis, Nonpareil, Paragon, Perfect way, means, path of eating, consuming, dining. Some of those are good, but I still think the computer’s thesaurus lacks a little creativity in some areas. Okay, I am changing the title from “The Ideal Diet” [booorrrriiinnnngggg] to Toni’s Apotheosis, Nonpareil, Paragon way, means, and path of consuming and dining. Done!

Actually, just before I began writing, I was looking at Maggie Pureland’s Soap Nuts. I wanted to make them and use them for laundry, skin and so forth. But, even before that, I was thinking about making a way of eating. Everyone and her/his dog has a book out on the correct way to eat, so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon in my own little corner of the world. I had been reading something I had printed out that had prophets and apostles’ words on the Word of Wisdom. Lately, I had begun to be swayed by people claiming one should eat meat year round. They roundly and soundly degraded and demeaned vegetarians. I didn’t think that was very nice. After all, in the Millennium we will all be vegetarians, even the animals.

So, anyway, here goes: the first line, part, step (seriously, that thesaurus has got to be replaced by something better - I thought of “part” and “line” to replace “step” and don’t like any of them but the thesaurus on this computer was no help at all - my brain comes up with more than it does most of the time!) — Anyway, the first thing or item to put down is the necessity that one must only eat what one grows. If one does this then one knows when something is “in season” and one will also know it has not been tampered with/poisoned/refined and so forth. The second thing is to use organic fertilizers and nutrition such as grass, leaves, manure - preferably from trusted sources. Sand soil is preferable to clay soil because it is easier for certain plants, such as fruit trees, to adapt to and nutrition needs to be added to both types.

Never, ever, ever use store-bought top soil, potting soil, or dirt. Seriously, I have had so many problems with these. Okay, one time I bought dirt from CMC hardware and had no problems but the potting soil nearly always attracts white flies/fruit flies/gnats or else the eggs are already in the stuff and the “top soil” needed to be added to dirt. If you don’t, it kills your plants and you’ve got to add at least 50% dirt. Well, hello? If I had dirt, I wouldn’t need to buy it. We just have clay in the present living space and it needs to be wet to dig it, plus it is filled with tumbleweed seeds . . . way bad news.

So, I guess the first real step is to live where you have real dirt or sand. Only have rock or clay where your house sits, not where you want to grow stuff unless you have a rototiller that will mix organic matter in with the clay to dilute it. I don’t know if that would work for trees, though, since their roots go down below the tilled level and I, personally, don’t want to drown my trees in clay that stays wet and does not have the air pockets that sand does.

Second step is to choose what you want to grow and plan the landscape. Remember to group plants together that have similar tastes. For example, put plants that like a lot of water in one area and, in a different area, those that only need to be watered once a month, even in deserts (and will die if watered more often – some only need a little water, yet love it when you give them tons of it). Plants that like shade should be together, unless a sun-loving plant can shade a shade-loving plant. Some plants will kill others or stifle their fruiting. Other plants love to be together. Some, like tomatoes and potatoes are so closely related that they attract the same pests. By the way, tomatoes should be planted among peppermint. The peppermint is invasive but harmless and hides the tomatoes from tomato worms. Remember that some plants like acid soil and some like alkali. Some plants take away nutrients from the soil, big-time and some add nutrients (beans, peas, legumes, clovers). Some plants cross and you may not want that. Some plants will cross and it won’t matter if you don’t plan on saving the seeds.

I would have berry vines and bushes. Blackberry, blueberry (if I could - it likes acid soil), strawberry, red raspberry, “black” raspberry, and yellow raspberry. Grapes, but not slip-guts (concord types) – most seedless and some seeded. Gooseberry, black currants and red currants, and probably some kinds I’m not thinking about right now. Banana, citrus, fig, olive – all in green houses. (Okay, olives are trees).

Fruit trees. I’d recommend assorted paw paws, apple, peach (definitely elberta), some pear, plum, mulberry (away to keep the mess from places I don’t want it), apricot (dwarf, so I could thin them – thinning makes the remaining apricots larger — not thinning them can make them tiny, indeed).

Nut trees such as butternut, almond, pecan, black walnut, English walnut, chestnut (the tastiest kind I could find), filbert/hazelnut, and perhaps another kind or two that is rarely seen.

Of course, I’d have my edible flower garden and my herb gardens (some of which are trees).

Then the annuals and greens. Greens: chard, kale, loose leaf spinach, etc. Annuals: tomatoes, potatoes, squashes, cucumbers, melons, corn, beans, peas, radishes, onions, garlic. Asparagus is a biennial. I’m not sure about artichokes. They’d need a green house in this present climate I’m in, I expect. Carrots, cabbage, perhaps broccoli and cauliflower. Watercress. That would be in my water garden. An edible-water-plant garden separate from the non-food one.

So, anyway, once all that is decided, the ground is prepared and the plants inserted. I’d recommend plastic or a heavy mulch to keep the weeds out/down especially around here in tumbleweed heaven and I’d recommend cement or stone sidewalks to connect from garden to garden. I’ve given up watering some plants because of the physical pain of trying to get past tumbleweeds. Tumbleweeds grow fast, the seeds are invisible, and they have thousands of “prickers” on each stem. Not to mention the fact that they, apparently, carry a “blight” that torments and destroys tomatoes. The wind blows it on tomatoes. I have discovered that if I plant tomatoes on the east side of a house, they don’t get the blight. That’s because the wind comes from the southwest around here.

So, now you’ve got your garden. The plants are coming up. The food is becoming ready. What now? This is where I really fall short: eating the harvest. I don’t seem to be smart enough or energetic enough or something enough to pick the produce right when ready. Corn can be picked and eaten immediately. In our society, it is common to steam it for a few minutes but if it is young/green enough, eating it raw is fine and probably more healthy.

Most vegetables can be steamed, cultured, or eaten raw. I would only eat radishes and watercress raw - and possibly tomatoes, ideally, anyway. I understand that cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and some other greens need to be lightly steamed or fermented to properly digest.

We must also remember grains. I think an acre of assorted grains would be nice. I have no idea how much would be needed for a family of four (for example), yet I’m sure I read it once. I would want to grow hard red winter wheat, hard white wheat, pastry/soft white wheat, oats, rye, sesame (okay, technically it isn’t a grain), popcorn, perhaps kamut, quinoa, and millet. Amaranth might be nice. Obviously, not an acre of each of these and, I’m wondering, would hard white wheat be considered natural enough for our purposes (health, independence, survival)?

Pure, good water straight from the earth. I suppose, ideally, it would have minerals in it from plant sources (organic). Plus a solar distiller would be good for cleansing toxins from the system, as well as using for teas/infusions, colemas, and other things one would want distilled water for.

A few chickens for eggs might be a good idea. I’m not really sure where eggs, honey, and milk products fit in. The Word of Wisdom doesn’t mention any of those products. I’m thinking that, since milk is a baby food, it would be all right to take while healing as long as it was raw from healthy, preferably grass-fed, cows and fermenting it would be even better (yogurt, kefir, etc.). But, once one was healthy, there shouldn’t be a need for it any longer. Honey is a super-concentrated food for a species pretty far removed from us. It probably should not be used, though it is good as a topical anti-biotic. Eggs. Hmm. Chickens lay eggs even if they will never turn into babies, so I’m not sure about this one. If they only laid eggs that had been fertilized, I’d say they fall into the category of meat (eat sparingly and only in times of cold or hunger). If you have hens and a rooster, how do you know which eggs are fertilized and which aren’t?

Fish are animals but they are not often included in the “meat” group. I, personally, think they should be eaten, not too much. After all, they are living beings, too. But so are plants, so it could get really sticky here if you followed that line of thinking. But plants just might be fine with being eaten. I know that if I don’t harvest my mint, feverfew, fennel, sage, thyme, etc. in the fall/autumn the sticks will just stay there all winter and the new plants will come up from the roots. Lilacs also like to be cut. If the flowers aren’t cut, they turn to seeds and don’t give out blossoms the next year. The ideal thing to do for them, I think, is to cut most of the blossoms off and leave a few if you think the plant wants seeds.

If wild harvesting (wild crafting) or taking cuttings (flowers, leaves, stems, roots) from your own herbs, I would make sure I did not take so much that I weakened or killed the plant. It is sharing and really needs to be allowed to stay alive. In the fall, I would cut all the tops off the herbs that come up from the roots the next spring.

Seriously, I would think twice about cooking all of my food. I think we don’t need to cook much. I like the way Dr. Christopher advises to cook grain: put some in a good thermos, poor boiling water on it, put on the lid, leave for 8 or so hours. My friend, Jeremy, showed me how he read to cook veggies. Pour boiling water over the cut/grated veggies and they’re done.