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77. Seasonal Eating
Episode 77 • 11th August 2025 • Creative Spiritual Journey • Judy Cooley and Ghia Cooley
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Speaker:

Hooray, GIA here.

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I'm this week's host of the Creative

Spiritual Journey podcast where Judy and I

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talk about those things that bring us joy.

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For me, I find joy by connecting

with nature, connecting with Jesus

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Christ and our heavenly parents.

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Seasonal living, and all the bits of magic

and wonder I come across while navigating

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this remarkable journey we call life.

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I love this earth.

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Do you?

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I think it's so beautiful.

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I love the sky and the stars.

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I love to walk barefoot on the sand.

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I love to run my hands through

the rich soil of my garden.

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The first time I learned that the

celestial kingdom would be here

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on this earth, I got so excited.

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It seriously made me even

more motivated to get there.

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I want to live on this earth for all

eternity, the thought of it being

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celestial, that gets me really excited.

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I think it will be like

living in the Garden of Eden.

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There won't be any weeds, no

invasive non-native plants.

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I don't know.

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It's just my dream come true.

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I know we have scriptures that

say the earth is going to be

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a giant crystal or something.

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That part has given me pause in the

past because truth be told, I like dirt,

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but I just have to remind myself who

created the earth the way it is right

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now, and if he's going to make it

even better, I'm willing to trust him.

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I am telling you all this because

I want to explain how, for me,

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connecting with nature is a powerful

way to connect with my God, to connect

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with Jesus Christ, the Creator.

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And I believe that eating close to

the earth, meaning foods that aren't

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processed or only minimally processed,

connect me to the earth and to my savior.

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This connection with the

earth, with nature is why.

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A couple of weeks ago I started a series

of podcasts about the word of wisdom.

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The first podcast came out on May

th,:

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Wisdom of Listening to Your Mother.

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Please listen to that podcast if

you want an overview of this topic.

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The second one came out on July 14th,

:

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My goal in this series is to talk

about the dos of the word of wisdom,

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the dos as in what God wants us to eat

versus the don'ts, which are things God

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doesn't want us to eat or otherwise est.

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As members of the Church of

Jesus Christ, we are all mostly

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familiar with the don'ts.

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What I want to do is dive into

what I see as the dos, what

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I believe I should be eating.

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You may have different ideas,

and I think that's great.

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I am only sharing what I find beneficial

for me in hopes that it may help someone

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who was searching for their own answers.

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So take this for what you will.

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These are only my thoughts, and I

reserve the right to change my thoughts

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tomorrow if I learn something new.

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So in my reading of the word

of wisdom, I find four dos.

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Number one, eat wholesome herbs.

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Number two, eat seasonally

with prudence and Thanksgiving.

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Number three, eat meat sparingly.

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And number four.

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Eat grains.

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Today I want to dive into

number two, eating seasonally.

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My original plan was to cover

eating seasonally with Prudence and

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Thanksgiving all in one podcast.

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Turns out I have too much to say about

eating seasonally all by itself, so I am

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going to leave the eating with Prudence

and Thanksgiving for a podcast of its own.

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So let me start by reading

doctrine and covenants.

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Chapter 89 verse 11.

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It says, every herb in the season

thereof and every fruit in the

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season thereof, all these to be

used with prudence and thanksgiving.

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What does this mean exactly

in the season thereof?

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To me, this is the hardest of all

the dues of the word of wisdom to

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pin down and the hardest for me to

live given my current lifestyle.

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But more about that in a minute.

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First, let me talk about the

easy part, and that is the why.

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Why should we eat seasonally?

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This part totally makes sense to me.

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Our physical bodies have evolved

and adapted to life on this earth.

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It makes sense that we would be the

healthiest if we eat according to

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the seasons, according to the times

when certain foods are available.

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Let me explain how this

was brought home for me.

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Several years ago, I decided

to participate in an online

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detox with a renowned herbalist.

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during his overview,

he said, not to worry.

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There would be plenty of food.

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No one would go hungry.

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It wasn't until I had paid for the

course as well as the required herbs at

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no small expense that I realized I had

just signed up to eat Kitchery, an Indian

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style dish made with lentils and rice.

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For seven weeks, yep.

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You heard me Rice and

lentils for seven weeks.

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He didn't lie.

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There was plenty of food because

we could eat as much kitchery as we

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wanted, but here's what's interesting.

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Okay.

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Over the course of the seven weeks, the

outlined plan was to detox a different

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organ system each week, and along with

the kit tree, which was basically an

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easy to digest filler, we were to take

various herbs as well as specific fruits

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and vegetables depending on which organ

system we were detoxing that week.

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For example, we ate different

fruits and vegetables depending on

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if we were focused on the liver or

the kidney or the large intestine.

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While going through this process, it

dawned on me that if I ate seasonally, it

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would be like I was on a year long detox.

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Did you hear that?

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If I ate seasonally, I would never

have to do a kitie cleanse again.

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I would be in a natural,

constant state of detox.

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Okay.

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Now it doesn't work out perfectly

and some foods double up

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for different organ systems.

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But let me give you an example.

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Arugula butter, lettuce, mustard,

greens, and spinach are all good

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for digestion and the blood.

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And I usually think of

greens as a spring food.

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Cucumber, parsley, asparagus are

all good for the kidneys, and

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these are more mid-summer foods.

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The cabbage family, including

broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels

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sprouts are foods that are ready

to harvest in the fall and are used

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for a deep detox of the whole body.

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Beets, carrots, turnips and

rutabaga are good for the liver.

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These are plants we store

to eat for the winter.

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And then the cycle starts again.

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Isn't that cool?

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I totally think so.

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And I have come to believe in the

health benefits of eating seasonally.

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It's almost like God planned it that way.

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Hmm.

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What a surprise.

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Now, even before I did this detox, I

was thinking about eating seasonally,

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and one summer I decided I would

only eat foods as they showed

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up at the local farmer's market.

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Oh my.

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I thought tomatoes would never show up.

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Nowadays, they're always

in the grocery store.

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We can get them anytime we want.

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So for most of us, we have no idea

which foods are in season when.

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This is an area where South Africa has

an advantage over the United States.

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They do have grocery stores that

stock produce, but I saw fruits and

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vegetable stands all over the country

selling whatever was in season.

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While I was there, it was mostly these

large green avocados and oranges.

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but at other times, I have heard Judy talk

about the delicious mangoes, and I didn't

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see a single mango while I was there.

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You know why?

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Because they weren't in season When

I started this eating seasonal

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journey, I had no idea that lettuce

is one of the first vegetables

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to come up at the end of winter.

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News to me, lettuce is

a cold weather plant.

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I am embarrassed to say I had no idea.

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If you feel like me and don't know

your seasonal foods, I will put a link

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in the show notes to a website called

Seasonal Food Guide that lets you put

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in your location and the time of year

and it will tell you what's in season.

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Sorry, my friends in South Africa.

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This only works for the United States.

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But if I pull it up right now, I can

see that in early August for Utah,

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there are pages of fruits and vegetables

in season, including tomatoes.

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But what about January?

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What's in season near me

during the heart of winter?

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Let's see.

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Hmm.

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There's only one page and

it lists horse radish.

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One of Judy's favorites, just kidding.

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Leaks.

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Onions, sprouts, Jerusalem

artichokes and something I have

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never heard of called Salsify.

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It is defined as a slender woody root

said to be similar in flavor to oysters.

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Wow.

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Who knew?

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I'm not sure what to think about that.

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But moving forward, let's

look at January in California.

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Here I am back to pages of

fruits and vegetables, It lists

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avocados, beets, broccoli,

Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots,

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cauliflower, and the list goes on.

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Though I will point out that there

are no tomatoes, tomatoes aren't in

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season in January, even in California.

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So what's the deal?

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Do we have to move to California

to eat for the winter?

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I will tell you honestly

that I don't know.

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How do you eat seasonally when your

choices are horse radish and Salsify?

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Well, for a while I belong to one

of those food co-ops that brings

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you a box of whatever's in season,

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And the delivery driver told me

that it's the company's policy

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that anything they could pick and

deliver within a 24 hour period was

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considered local and thus in season.

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So that's one way to look at it.

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You could drive to California from Utah

in less than 24 hours, so that works.

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Another way to look at eating seasonally

is by eating traditional foods.

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What did the pioneers eat?

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Think of foods that store

well, Apples, cabbage, root,

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vegetables, beans, and grains.

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Okay, that sounds good, but what

about all the fruits and veggies

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the pioneers would've canned

to have on hand for the winter?

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peaches, beets, string

beans, pickles, and tomatoes.

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Are we allowed to eat

those during the winter?

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And if so, what difference does this

whole eating seasonal thing really make?

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Uh, you can see there

are no clear answers.

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As of right now, I may

change my mind later.

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I am going with the

traditional food option.

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I do can my own tomatoes and eat

them year round, but I don't buy

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them fresh from the grocery store

unless it's late summer or fall.

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Now, don't let the fact that I canned

my own tomatoes discourage you.

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I could just as easily

buy them from the store.

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I just happened to be in a

location and a time of life where

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this works for me, so I do it.

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Okay.

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Another way I have chosen to eat more

seasonally is by giving up eating

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salads during the winter, opting

instead for storable vegetables like

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cabbage beets and other root vegetables.

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My easy go-to is to chop kind of

small a variety of root vegetables

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like turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, and

roast them in oil with salt and pepper,

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and then I eat them with mustard.

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For me, that was a good way to get used

to vegetables that I wasn't used to.

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Okay, so my last seasonal tip I will share

is that instead of having a green drink

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for breakfast, as I do most of the year,

I drop this from my diet during the winter

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months and eat oatmeal with a variety of

seeds and nuts and sweetened with apples.

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So my number two of the word of wisdom

eat seasonally isn't as clear cut as I

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would like, and as I have said, in my

opinion, it's the hardest of all the

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dues to implement or even figure out.

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But to be honest, the more I have tried

to apply seasonality as a whole to my

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life, the more I have loved it, the

rhythms, and the cycles are awesome.

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Could the magic of living and eating

seasonally be one of those hidden

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treasures mentioned in the word of wisdom?

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I can't say for sure,

but I have come to think.

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It just might be.

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Judy, and I know your time is precious

and that you have many choices.

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We love that you have chosen to

walk with us for a few minutes as

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we navigate this journey of life.

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If you like this podcast, will you take

the time right now to share it with a

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friend, share it somewhere on social

media, or leave us a five star rating.

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if you are on Apple Podcast,

will you leave us a review?

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Your efforts will help this podcast

grow and it will let Judy and I know

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that you like our show and will give

us the motivation to keep going.

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Thank you in advance for your help.

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And let me end with this famous quote

from Ecclesiastes to everything.

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There is a season and a time

to every purpose under heaven.

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Namaste.

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