Welcome to Nourishing Works. I was born and raised in Eastern Europe in a small country called Moldova, which used to be part of the Soviet Union. I have happy memories of my childhood – loved and protected by my parents and grandparents, their love was expressed in many ways, but especially through food. My jewish ancestors cooked their food from scratch, nothing went to waste, every part of the animal and plant were lovingly prepared and served at the family table.

My mum loves telling this story about her grandmother making five meal courses from one chicken: bone broth, stuffed chicken neck, meat jelly, chicken liver pate and chicken mince patties – oh and schmaltz (chicken fat) with crackling! I grew up on lovingly prepared, seasonal, locally grown foods. In the Soviet Union, we had no processed foods in stores, no variety of brands, no advertising, and the food shortages were real. Yet people were creative and industrious with their food growing, making and preserving. Our small kitchens in the hearts of our tiny apartments were places for everyone to gather, share stories and eat.

When we immigrated to New Zealand in the late 80s, we couldn’t believe the abundance and variety of foods in the supermarkets. My mum was crying on our first visit to a food store while walking through the animal food aisles – New Zealand pets were fed better than people in the Soviet Union. Little did we know that all these processed foods were making humans and animals sick.

In the last few years, living through my personal health challenges, as well as chronic diseases in my family – I became increasingly disillusioned with conventional medical care but learnt a great deal about my own body and how our environment (including what we eat) influences every aspect of our health.