The Rhythm of the Year with Hanka Zemanová – January

January is a time for germination, ideal for slowly weaving dreams. It’s good to save your strength, and not to embark on any big projects or plans just yet. The whole of nature is resting, and we are part of it. The winter programme affects everything in nature and in our bodies. Energy is drawn into the Earth and deep into our inner tissues. • How do quality broths strengthen and nourish us in winter, and why is chicken broth called “Jewish penicillin”? • What are the local winter superfoods when nothing is growing in the garden or in the fields? • How can the long winter darkness, plentiful sleep, warm salt bags and the colourless winter landscape heal us? Hanka Zemanová She graduated from a faculty of education, but instead of teaching children at school, she teaches people how to eat more healthily and naturally. She has written four bestselling books: The Bio-Cookbook, The Bio-ABC and The New Bio-Cookbook, which have sold almost 80,000 copies. In 2021, she completed her most beautiful and comprehensive book to date, Rhythm of the Year. Hanka was involved in the creation of Pro-BioLiga (now Lovime.bio) and Biopekárna Zemanka. She likes the saying, “Although the father of the disease is unknown, the mother is always the diet,” and therefore considers honest food to be the easiest way to reduce the “chemical cocktail” in the body and in nature. She shows that organic is not a fad or an unnecessary luxury, but an increasing necessity—for the soil, groundwater, biodiversity and for our resilience and immunity. Hanka comes from Prague, but has lived in the countryside near Sedlčany since 2006. She is the mother of two daughters, Natálka and Eliška.