Anita: 0:00

Hey there, sunshine, welcome to the Power On Plants podcast. We're your host, Jarrod and Anita Roussel, and we're absolutely head over heels for whole plant foods and helping you navigate this incredible plant based journey. That's because our lives have been completely changed by plant based goodness. We used to struggle every day with excess pounds and low energy, vascular disease, joint pain and lack of sleep, just to name a few, and even though we're medical professionals, we still weren't getting practical answers that actually worked. So we dug into the research, we started living what we learned, and now we both have our lives back, and that's what we want for you, too.

Anita: 0:39

The truth is, you can do this, and it's not hard. You just need a way that will bring real and lasting change, and that path. It has to be simple and enjoyable, and it's got to be delicious too. So are you ready to live your life to the fullest? Then you're in the right place, because living without limits that's what Power On Plants is all about. So pull up your chair, grab a matcha latte and let's get started.

Anita: 1:07

Well, hello there, Sunshine. Welcome to the Power On Plants podcast. If this is your first time, we love having you as a member of the Power On Plants family. We want you to know that we are here for you, to support you on your plant based journey, because we love nothing more than helping busy women to learn the quick, delicious way to eat more whole plant foods that's actually enjoyable, so you can feel great each day, optimize your energy and fully live your calling. That's what Jarrod and I are all about, and today we want to share with you something that we found that we are absolutely loving. It's in our backyard, it's changed in our lives and it's a great way to get more veggies and herbs into your life.

Jarrod: 1:51

Now, here at Power On Plants, we like to get our hands dirty. Now usually that means getting your hands in a bowl of salad and mixing it up maybe mixing up a dough for a little bit of flat bread, or just whatever the case may be, But today we're talking about literally getting our hands dirty. So what Anita is talking about, our newest passion here, is our vertical garden.

Anita: 2:16

Yeah, now I want you to know. We have tried gardening in many shapes and sizes, so I don't want you to tune us out just because we're talking about gardening. Let me tell you I press fast forward many a time on a podcast because I'm thinking I'm not a gardener. I'm not going to do this. Let me tell you, if we can do this, you can do this. We've tried straight in the ground planting. We've tried container gardening. We've tried raised beds. Jarrod years ago, when we first got married at our first house, i don't know how much time he spent making these beautiful raised beds and it just did not go away.

Jarrod: 2:50

It didn't work. Part of the problem was I didn't have an irrigation system built in, but even with that it still was just very challenging. Thankfully we had a big backyard, because these beds took a lot of space, a lot of effort.

Anita: 3:03

It was beautiful.

Anita: 3:03

I put a little fence around it, it was just so much work and you know we're busy women, we don't have time for that. Jared's a busy guy. he didn't have time for that to keep it all watered and maintained. This system that we have in our backyard now is reasonable. We're getting an incredible yield into our kitchen, going out every day and just picking stuff, popping it into our mouth, popping it into our salads and our dishes. This is one of the ways that you know you're getting it straight, fresh from the plant. You're getting prime, optimal nutrition straight on your plate. It doesn't get any healthier than picking it straight off the plant and eating it, and the flavor It's amazing.

Jarrod: 3:41

It's just like you said doesn't get any easier, doesn't get any better. And we've talked about how trying to get it as fresh as possible from the time that it's picked is the absolute best.

Anita: 3:49

And there's no way after something shipped across the ocean for however long that took, and then it gets put in a fridge somewhere and then it gets sent across the United States in a if you're listening from the United, States it gets sent across your country wherever you are in a 18-wheeler Like how in the world.

Jarrod: 4:06

Sometimes it's flown, though Sometimes it comes from a different hemisphere.

Anita: 4:09

Right. So how is it fresh? It's not going to be as fresh. That's why we love the farmer's market. We love the farmer's. Now, all you can do is go to your grocery store and get it. Do not worry about that, just get these foods.

Jarrod: 4:21

however, you can Do what you can do.

Anita: 4:22

Exactly.

Jarrod: 4:23

And we love our farmer's markets because there's a lot of things that you can get there that you may not be able to get any other way And that's going to be far fresher.

Anita: 4:31

Let me tell you, become your farmer's friend. We have a family here who comes to our farmer's market And I've gotten to know one of the women. I love her so much. Delia, if you're listening, I love you. Seriously, she is so awesome She sees me coming. She knows what I want to know. I ask her what's yours? Because they have stuff there that they get other places, But her thing she grows with. Because I've talked to her right, I got to know her.

Jarrod: 4:54

You made a relationship there.

Anita: 4:56

And I ask her do you use any products on it? Is it all organic or do you use some pesticides or what type of fertilizers? And I just got to know her. They want to share what they're doing with you. She said no, no, no, i don't use anything on my things. Now, these things over here, these things, sometimes I'll have things that are from other farms and I can't guarantee you that they're organic because I didn't grow them. But I grew these, i know they are, i didn't put anything on them. She'll see me coming and she'll start just grabbing stuff, because now she knows what I like and she'll say oh, you want these, oh, these are great. Here are my fresh peas And here's the okra, which, by the way, the okra is coming in. Y'all. Get you some fresh okra at the farmer's market. We need to talk about the farmer's market soon again.

Jarrod: 5:35

I think so That would be a good topic.

Anita: 5:37

Yeah, it's just so amazing. You want to be able to get these things right out your back door, though It doesn't get any better than that.

Jarrod: 5:43

Well, before we go on to that, because we're going to talk about that one you made a point with Delia that she is not using products on a lot of her plants, but she is not certified organic Because it can be very expensive to do that. However, they're still using the same principle. So get to know the farmers there, talk to them, ask them.

Anita: 6:02

And they'll tell you they might not have the USDA organic because they're a small farm and they can afford that, but they will tell you and sometimes you can even go and visit the farm with your kids. It makes a wonderful field trip. They can learn. I mean, we even had a farmer in Jacksonville, simon. He was awesome when we lived in Jacksonville, florida, at other side of Florida than we are now, but we loved going out to see Simon.

Anita: 6:24

The kids looked forward to it. He'd walk them down his rows. You know the beds of the different plants. This is sorrel. We let it grow wild in between to help keep this away Or that grows better with the sorrel in between. So we you know, and he would teach them and pick the sorrel and try it. It's so good, you can make a drink out of it. And just, they learned so much. Sometimes he would pull a carrot here, you can try this, it's so good. And so they just learned a lot. They got to see where their food comes from and learn some about growing it there, and so now they're thrilled about growing stuff. I mean they're taking vegetables that we bought at the supermarket, they're rooting it and they're growing it like we've got a huge daikon radish in our vertical garden right now that one of our sons grew from a sprouting seed that we have And it's just not hard to do and it gets them interested in just the freshest foods available because they actually grew it.

Jarrod: 7:13

And our other son will take some onions and potatoes that maybe they look like they're getting a little bit I don't know soft, wrinkly or starting to sprout, and plant them. He's taken one onion and it sprouted into a few more.

Anita: 7:27

And so they love this, so they clip the green. Hey mom, you need some green onions for what you're making tonight, and they're clipping their green onions. They grew off the onion that was kind of on its way out, and it's wonderful.

Jarrod: 7:36

I didn't realize that of regular onions you can eat those greens. It's not just the little green onion shoots but the other regular yellow or sweet onion, you can eat those too, and it's really I say, the gift that keeps on giving, because if you clip it it'll grow more greens.

Anita: 7:51

Whereas if you eat the root.

Anita: 7:53

It's one and done, it's kind of gone, and that's the other thing I love about our vertical garden that we have right now because it's right outside our back door, we can watch it every day. It's got its own watering system built in that makes it so easy to water the plants. Now we still go around the outside edge with the little watering can and water it just to make sure it gets all out there, but there's a centralized core that goes all the way down to the different levels and will water them as they get bigger and the roots spread, and it really has worked amazingly well It has.

Jarrod: 8:25

There are multiple systems out there, so this is not the only one, but we've researched different ones, and This one is just fantastic.

Anita: 8:33

It's a step above.

Jarrod: 8:34

For that reason, because each level gets watered evenly, the minerals don't leech down from the top to the bottom. It's also portable, so should we need to move it, we can take the levels apart and transport it elsewhere if we need to.

Anita: 8:47

I feel like they thought of everything, though.

Jarrod: 8:48

They're really good.

Anita: 8:50

I love for things to look pretty. I'm just saying so. You've got different colors You can choose from. They've got a neutral that blends in with everything. They've got green. If you you're placing it back where you've got a lot of green things like bushes, and it just blends in and It's beautiful. They've got a new one that they came out for Father's Day this year. Oh, Glacier blue, it's blue, and so guys might like that you know pretty color actually right.

Anita: 9:13

And then they have have different systems where you can put wheels on the bottom to move it around, but we have this system where it'll actually rotate for you, so you can just give it a little spin and each side can evenly get sunshine on different days And it's just worked so well that things are thriving. Everything's thriving in this garden. We love it.

Jarrod: 9:33

You could rotate it a quarter turn each day or maybe a half turn, but it allows you to maybe access it. See that with this system You can get multiple plants in a two by two square foot space. I know, there are a lot of other vertical gardening systems that are about like that. But you may think, hey, i live in an apartment somewhat of an urban type setting, so I don't really have space for garden. Oh, yes, you do.

Anita: 9:57

Yeah, or maybe you're in a suburban area but you're renting. So let's say you're renting a nice home But you don't want to go get when you can't really go digging up their yard right, because it's not your yard, you don't own it, but it's yours while you're living there and you want to use it and maximize the space. So you might just have a little slab of concrete out back. It will fit right on that slab. You know you could set it out there so easily and get a great yield of produce. Ours is growing kale and the kale just keeps coming. Will clip it off and it grows more. The radish You can eat the radish greens. I mean we're putting these radish greens in our salad and they just keep growing more and more greens as the radish is growing And we just keep clipping off the greens and putting them in our salad and this daikon radish Which our oldest son is growing, has actually grown so long It's coming up out of the soil.

Jarrod: 10:44

Yeah, we're gonna have to harvest this and then just put a new one in there. Yeah it's just way too big, but that's how well it's growing.

Anita: 10:51

It's amazing. I mean, we have eggplant out there, japanese eggplant. They're the long, slender eggplant. They are growing beautifully. We have all kinds of herbs. We have oregano, time basil. I mean these are powerhouses that fight bacteria and Infection viruses. You've got something going on in your body and you need to fight inflammation or fight infection. Get you some herbs, one in your backyard. If you don't even want to do the vertical, do a container garden with just the herbs and it is amazing how much Delicious flavor you're gonna get in your food.

Anita: 11:23

It's unbelievable. But I just take them for medicinal purposes and I'll just pick a little handful and I'll just chew my basil or eat Semiragano. They're hot and spicy, but I'm telling you it'll cure what else yet? They're amazing powerhouses of nutrition. And it's right outside my back door. It just doesn't get any easier than that. Our collard greens are going wild.

Jarrod: 11:45

All our greens. We have kale, i think you mentioned. we also have Swiss shard the shards gorgeous, oh my goodness leaves as big as my head and I am not kidding. And they're beautiful and Anita loves to use them for wraps. I was gonna say your hand salad and salads.

Anita: 12:03

I love that. But you just take it and fill up that leaf, you wash it and it's beautiful and that's either red or yellow. We have both colors and so the stem is ready yellow. So when you get that color, that vibrant color, that dark, leafy green, well, first of all, go back and listen to our episode that we just did on weight loss. If you're trying to lose weight and you're gonna learn the benefit of thylakoids, you gotta hear about that. You want to get your dark green leafies, okay darker the green, the better.

Anita: 12:32

Absolutely so. Yes, i love taking these big leaves, filling it with all my favorite veggies. I might even put some tofu in there. I like tofu raw or cooked. I'm eating more raw these days.

Anita: 12:43

Many of you already know about that. I've been sharing a little about that. You cannot go wrong with raw foods, but I don't eat it plain. I don't like taste of plain tofu, so I put a little sauce on it and get a sauce on there. You can eat it raw, you can eat it baked with the sauce, but you're not gonna eat a raw chicken breast. I hope you never are gonna do that. I prefer you not to eat a cooked one either, because I know now what I know. Okay, i just got to throw this in there. This is not what we're talking about right now, but did you know that bladder infections the UTIs urinary tract infections that women get a lot of it comes from bacteria that you eat off of the chicken that you're eating? If I had known that years ago, when I used to get UTIs all the time, that could have been a game changer for me. So I'm just throwing that out there. If you have an issue with urinary tract infections, this can be one of the big sources.

Jarrod: 13:30

Now you may say but wait, i cooked mine. It's not coming from the cooked chicken, it's coming from when you handle it. And when you get exposed to it on your hands, it's exposed on your skin, it just travels. It travels around you, it just does. So you do get exposed.

Anita: 13:47

Absolutely So. you don't want to get these things that are making you sick. if you want to be well, because your actions have to line up with your intentions, if you want to end up at a certain place, you've got a car analogy, don't you? Well, no, i was going to say no, no, although I can see why you're saying that No.

Jarrod: 14:06

I was going to say. And actions have consequences too.

Anita: 14:09

Yes, absolutely So. If you want to end up in a certain place, you have that destination. You have a place you intend to land in your life. You want to live a calling. Maybe you want to chase your kids around, your grandchildren around. You want to live to old age, to see them grow up, to plant seeds into their life for the future. You want to travel with them and make memories. You have a business that you want to create, or you already have a business, but you just don't feel good enough to make it all that. You know it can be. God's placed these desires on your heart. You want to feel your absolute best with the way you do that and start getting away from those foods that are causing these things as you learn.

Anita: 14:45

Hey, you know I have a lot of UTIs in my life, probably getting it from the chicken. Didn't realize that. So I'm going to start eating less and less chicken. Until I'm not eating chicken anymore, i'm going to replace that with tofu. Yeah, i think I don't like tofu, but I'm going to try some new recipes and open up the possibilities for replacing that.

Anita: 15:04

Okay, so we've kind of gone on and aside here. I do this all the time because there's so much I want you to know. That's why it's so great to be inside the membership, because you can ask these questions and we share so much information, but right here and now, i love sharing this with you on the podcast. I want you to know these things too and not miss out, because these are game changers. When you start putting these things into practice, getting those things out that are harming you, putting the things back in that heal you like the greens. Most people don't get enough leafy greens or herbs and spices in their life, and they are not only game changers when it comes to flavor. Your taste buds are going to change when you eat more of these things.

Anita: 15:43

You are going to lose weight a lot quicker when you eat greens with every meal, when you learn how to set up your plate and what proportions to eat foods so that you can lose weight best, and what food combos are best for losing weight and which ones might hinder you. There's all kinds of things. For that I'm actually writing a course on weight loss right now. You won't believe the information that's out there that you have never heard before about weight loss, but greens are key. So if you want to lose weight, starting in greens with every meal. Yes, that includes breakfast. Find something savory that you like or somebody eat your greens that you can get them in every day. Even if, i mean, i have a friend who's like you know, the only way I'm going to get it is getting it in a smoothie. So I just pack the smoothie full, then get it in the smoothie, get it. You know what? the best way to eat greens is Get it in the way you're going to eat it. How are you gonna eat it?

Jarrod: 16:30

Literally, Whatever you like best.

Anita: 16:32

Whatever you like, however, you're gonna get them. You find those things and you get those into your life. And that is what makes such a big difference is getting these greens in, because they heal your blood vessels, they decrease blood pressure, they help you lose weight, they help to prevent cancer, they help to reverse disease. I could go on and on about greens. They're going to clean out your insides. You will never have to worry about having clean insides anymore. I promise you it will change everything. If you start bulking up and getting your leafy greens, your energy will skyrocket when you start eating leafy greens. This you know. Sometimes people start eating vegan and they don't just eat the good whole foods, they eat junk foods. You're not gonna feel better eating vegan junk foods. You're not gonna feel better not getting the whole plant foods. And sometimes they come in and they like sweets, so all they eat is fruit. You need the greens.

Jarrod: 17:26

You need the cruciferous, you need the balance.

Anita: 17:29

You've got to have that if you wanna start feeling better And listen. Sometimes you may not like what we say on this podcast, but I'm telling you. We care about you and we are gonna tell you like it is, because these are the things that we wish that people had told us years ago. When I was at my worst, when I was so sick, I didn't even have the energy to climb up one flight of stairs to tuck my children into bed at night. And let me tell you, it was heartbreaking to know that we were about to go to China to pick up our daughter. We were adopting her from China. I wanted to hold her in my arms and I was crying, asking people to pray with me so that I would get relief from the joint pain I was having. It was so severe. If I had just known what to cut out and what to add in, it could have been gone within weeks.

Jarrod: 18:13

Much faster than it did. We're thankful that it did, but it would have happened a lot faster.

Anita: 18:17

I would stand in the shower trying to wash my hair and thinking people are standing right now washing their hair and they're not thinking about the pressure they put with their fingers to wash their hair, the pain in their elbows or their shoulders or their fingers.

Jarrod: 18:33

It's just a process that they do and they don't think about it, they're just doing it automatically.

Anita: 18:36

You just do it Like there are people that actually live that way, and that was the state I was in. I was coming to the place where I thought, you know, i didn't appreciate what I had when I had it, and now I'm getting sick. It wasn't that I was older, it wasn't a genetic problem. The problem was the food. It's the food Nine times out of 10. That is the key foundation you've got to get right. Yes, we work on mindset, we have a step-by-step process that we walk people through inside our programs, but you've got to get the foods right. It is a foundational key because it affects your sleep, it affects your stress levels, it affects your relationships, it affects the life you can live. And so, listen, this thing that we're talking about today can make it so much easier for you to get these delicious leafy greens into your life. And what else are we growing in there? I mean, what have I left out? I mean, there's so much We're growing some.

Anita: 19:31

You can grow tomatoes in it. probably You can.

Jarrod: 19:34

We have ours in pots, but you can.

Anita: 19:36

We wanted to put the cages around it, but they have devices that you can put around it to actually grow things. They have a couple different ways to be able to stake it.

Jarrod: 19:43

They've thought of everything. They have a screen you can put over it to help keep bugs off of it. They have a solid I say solid, it's a clear plastic cover so it acts kind of like a greenhouse. It has the base that rotates. We've mentioned before. You can put wheels on them. I've seen where people, if they live in a colder climate and they want to get an early start to their veggies or produce, whatever they're growing, they'll put it in the garage at night and then roll it out in the daytime and extend their growing season by a month or two on either end of the summer. I mean all different kinds of things. It's got an automated watering system that they've just added. I mean all kinds of stuff. I'm sure I'm forgetting something because it's so numerous.

Anita: 20:21

You'll want to go and look at it because you don't want to miss out on this. I'm telling you, if I'd known how simple it was and how enjoyable it was, we would have done this years ago. I had never heard of it. They provided us with a coupon to give you $10 off on your purchase. If you go to the link below and the show notes will have it there for you, you can click it at any time whenever you're listening to this podcast and get your $10 off, and sometimes they run sales like right now.

Anita: 20:46

There's a Fourth of July sale coming up as well. I don't know if it's already started yet I know it's coming up?

Jarrod: 20:51

I haven't seen it. I know they just did a recent Father's Day sale, but that's $10 off of a $75 purchase or higher. Right, and so you- you can do shipping if you buy $150.

Anita: 21:03

Oh yeah, that's fantastic too, because you know the shipping's not cheap. They're big. I mean, they're not huge, but to ship It's not like shipping a book, right?

Jarrod: 21:11

I mean it's not super, super heavy. But no.

Anita: 21:12

So if you can get free shipping, that's the way to go.

Jarrod: 21:14

So you get free shipping and it's made here in the USA. It's made in Eastern Tennessee. It's BPA-free plastic. They warranty the plastic for five years. They also warranty the color And I have seen people show systems where they've had it outside in the sun 24-7 for three years. bought on you and put them side by side could not tell a difference.

Anita: 21:35

Oh yeah, these. This brand is not big, These are made to last, yeah. Very very high quality Right, and we have been so impressed with it y'all If you know that if we were not impressed, we wouldn't even be talking about it. Y'all wouldn't even know we were going anything out back. I think I have shared a photo or a video on Instagram. You did. Okay, so you can go check out our Instagram and see that I can share it again as well, but it's just so much fun It is.

Jarrod: 22:00

It's just a lot of fun.

Anita: 22:01

And I feel like we're really getting a great return and yield for the money that we put into it as well, And you know we all like saving money around here.

Jarrod: 22:09

And this is a system that we'll have for years. So there's an initial investment, but when you march it out over time, you know that I am growing this. I know what's in it. It's high quality. It's fresh fresh as fresh can be. There have been times I've gone out there and cut a radish leaf and maybe some kale. Put it right in my salad. Take some of the fresh herbs Again, put it right in my salad. Right. That moment Doesn't get any fresher than that.

Anita: 22:33

Oh, it's awesome. If I want to make a wrap, i just go pull a collard leaf or a kale leaf We've got a lot of kale going back there Or I want some to put in my smoothie. Or I want to make a sandwich and just pile it up with veg. We love doing sandwiches and wraps and things like that, so you just can't go wrong with this. Y'all have got to go check it out. They are an amazing company. We've been thrilled with the customer service and just with the product itself. It is such a game changer and so much fun, especially if you have children even if you don't, but if you have children, just having them For great kids Oh yeah, absolutely.

Anita: 23:08

Get them involved from early on. Let them see it and touch where their food's coming from and watch it grow over time. You can use it for so many different lessons. They can learn where their food comes from, how to grow it, how to enjoy it. It's absolutely freshest at its peak. Show them some new recipes. It makes them more interested when they help you in the process of choosing your recipes, of picking out the produce, and if they pick it from your backyard, all the better.

Jarrod: 23:37

You know exactly where it came from and there are no chemicals in the soil there. I can't stress enough that this system can go anywhere. You can put it on a balcony of an apartment complex because, like I said, it only takes up two by two square feet of space. It's actually a little bit smaller than that, but you need a little more space for the plants to grow. Yeah, so we've got ours. We've got a little concrete landing off of our patio, so we have it situated there.

Jarrod: 24:00

Put it on a balcony, you can put it on a deck If you're worried about. Well, what about water running off onto my deck? I don't like that. There is a little exit spout on the bottom, the stand where you can put a hose that diverts the water away, so there's no standing water on there.

Anita: 24:15

They seriously did think of everything. They thought of everything. It's a great system. We highly recommend it. Don't forget to grab your coupon. down below You can just click the link. It'll take you right over. It'll pull up the coupon. You don't even have to enter a coupon code. No.

Jarrod: 24:29

There's no codes or anything. When you go to the website and the company is green stock, you click the link and it'll just say hi, welcome to our website. Jared has a gift for you. And then you just put in your name and email address and $10 off.

Anita: 24:43

Yeah, choose what you want and you're good to go. If you pick up one or you're already using a green stock, be sure to send me an email at Anita at Power On Plants or, better yet, take a picture when you get it planted up.

Anita: 24:56

Tag us on Instagram so we can celebrate you. That would be so much fun. We love getting to know you all. We love getting your emails. Y'all are doing amazing. I mean. You write us all the time and I love getting to know you, writing you back, hearing your journey, how you're healing your body. Just from the things that we're teaching here, It's amazing to me how simple it can be when you guys just take one thing and put it into practice. Several of our listeners have said to me I just love this podcast because you make it so practical, You make it so simple. I listen in and I think, well, I could do that, And that's exactly how we want you to feel. We know that when we hear that we're doing what we want to do, We're on the right track.

Anita: 25:43

We went into medicine not to hand out a bunch of pills. Again, it's not that Jared and I are against pills If y'all have listened long enough, you know but they're so overused and we care about you And we want you to actually know that you can not only prevent disease. You can reverse the most common diseases of our time because most of them are lifestyle related. So, no matter what you're going through today, i want you to have hope and know that most every disease, even stage four, many, many times, can be reversed. There is hope, and go and look at it. Check out through the link below in the description of this podcast. Click on it. You'll get your $10 off coupon. Check out the green stock. I think you're going to love it. Sunshine, we have loved hanging out with you today. Have a fantastic week and we look forward to seeing you again next time on Power on Plants.