Brussel Sprouts

Today I went to the gardening fair put on by the Master Gardeners at Bunker Hills Activity Center.  For registering and coming we each got a free hyacinth in a little pot, blue or pink.  I chose blue and held it close to me all morning.  I love the smell of hyacinths.  Our first speaker was Dr. Vince Fritz from the University of Minnesota.  He said the U of M is a unique place because it has both an agricultural and a medical department.  They are studying nutragenomics, nutracuticals and phytonutrients.  Some of this stuff was over my head but basically they're studying the ways plants can ward off cancer (chemopreventatives). They studied cabbage for example.  When cabbage is stressed (by a worm, a virus, growing too close together, or not getting enough water) the plant increases a chemical.  This chemical was fed to mice who had been exposed to nicotine.  Most of the mice had cancer tumors in the lung.  The mice who were fed the cabbage with the most of that chemical got fewer tumors than all the other mice including the mice who ate cabbage that was not stressed.  Red cabbage had more than twice that cancer preventing chemical than green cabbage.  The vegetable with the most chemopreventative chemicals, even more than red cabbage and broccoli, was brussel sprouts.  Hence the name of his talk, "Take Two Brussel Sprouts and Call Me In The Morning."  My next class was building a terrarium.  We each got a big glass covered container, pea gravel, charcoal. sphagnum moss, soil, 3 plants of varying height, and a variety of other items to catch the eye such as marbles, moss, larger rocks or more gravel.  Mine turned out really well.  Our last session was on growing perennials in a cold climate and that about put me to sleep.  As I was checking out the displays and vendors a woman said, "Hello there Sue."  The way she pronounced my name!  This was my lispy friend and water aerobics instructor from about 20 years ago.  I was super excited to see her.  She pronounces my name in a special way that makes it sound more interesting.  We had a great time catching up.  I told her that certain songs bring me back to the pool and my body starts moving in time to the music involuntarily.  I really like it when I meet people from my past and we're immediately on the same friendly footing that we were a long time ago.  I had a great morning at the gardening fair.  Afterwards I worked out at the club, stopped to buy groceries, bought a bag of brussel sprouts and ate 3 on the ride home.  (They're not that good raw).