I recently served as the beet thinner and harvester at a community garden where I volunteer. Some of our harvest goes to a local food pantry, while the helpers take home a share of fresh-from-the-garden goodness.

The other night, my husband and I went to the movie theater, which I can’t remember the last time we went to see a movie. The most popular snack at the movie theater is, of course, buttered popcorn. As we were munching on the popcorn, the idea for this column struck me: the popcorn plant! The technical name is popcorn cassia, but it is called the popcorn plant for short. The extraordinary characteristic of the plant is that if you rub the leaves, you will smell buttered popcorn! I was first introduced to this plant several years ago when my mom was convinced at a garden center that she needed one for a container garden. I will never forget her excitement having me rub the leaves and smell the aroma.

After nearly 20 years of parish ministry, I entered the world of health care, which, I learned, abounds in acronyms. My first clue was in chaplaincy training, known as “CPE” (Clinical Pastoral Education), the required education for most hospital and hospice chaplains. CNA, SoB (Shortness of Breath), PRN, HoH (Hard of Hearing), and a myriad of other acronyms are now part of my own vernacular. QoL (Quality of Life) is the ‘big’ one in hospice, sometimes called “comfort care.” When quantity of life becomes diminished, it’s all about quality.

On Friday, July 18, the town of Munich hosted its annual Ribfest, complete with a flyball tournament, rib judging, black out bingo, a car show on Main Street, and a raffle drawing benefiting the Munich Fire Department. AutoDrive provided live music and delighted the crowd as they enjoyed the afternoon's festivities.

I wonder what the other grocery shoppers were thinking as I parked my cart and intently studied food packages the other day. I pulled my phone from my purse and browsed the Internet, looking for information from food companies to learn about the ingredients. I am regularly cooking for someone with celiac disease, and that means we need to bypass any ingredients with gluten. The packages that say “gluten free” on the front or back of the box or bottle make it easy.

When I was in college, I enjoyed country music a lot. In the late 1980s, Tanya Tucker had a No. 1 single titled, “Strong Enough to Bend.” The song relates strength to flexibility, with the analogy of a strong tree and a strong relationship. Both the partners in the relationship and the tree need to be strong enough to bend during difficult times.

Committing to a healthy diet is a noble endeavor. A healthy diet can reduce risk for a number of conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure and various cardiovascular diseases.

“We used to eat sherbet out of toilet paper tubes,” someone commented on social media recently. I chuckled at the memory.

Do you know what the two most common tomato problems are? Many gardeners assume that diseases or insects cause the most common problems. However, after a dozen years working for North Dakota State University Extension, that has not been my experience. Year after year, the most common tomato problems are herbicide damage and blossom end rot.

Orthopedic medicine is truly a team sport; we have the opportunity to collaborate with nonsurgical professionals, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, athletic trainers, among others, to deliver comprehensive musculoskeletal care. While there are proven surgical options to help our patients where indicated, in many cases, patients are able to achieve pain relief and improved function with nonsurgical treatment options. Much of orthopedic surgical training is appropriately dedicated to the planning and execution of surgery, but it is also important to understand and recognize patients who present with conditions readily addressed without surgery and the accompanying risks of invasive procedures. It is also important to advocate the idea of prevention.