About

I am a Registered Dietetic Technician, Health Counselor and Gardener.  I graduated from Integrative Nutrition in 2009 as a certified Health Counselor with the American Association of Drugless Practitioners and in 2010 from Suffolk County Community College with an Associate in Applied Science in Dietetics. I am a member of the American Dietetics Association and received my registration from the Commission on Dietetics Registration. As a DTR I have the ability to screen, assess and educate patients in various disease states as well as use standardized language and PEZ (problem, etiology, signs and symptoms) for the Nutrition Care Process.

For the last 19 years I have worked as a gardener helping to create beautiful English Gardens on the east end of Long Island, New York where I have lived for 23 years. With the support of my family I entered college part time in the nutrition program when I was in my late 30’s and fell in love with learning and considered pursing a degree in sociology or psychology. I received my Associate in Liberal Arts in 2004 but my passion for nutrition never wavered and I returned to the nutrition program in 2006 and received my degree in dietetics in 2010. In 2009 I attended Integrative Nutrition, www.integrativenutrition.com,  looking for alternatives to my own health issues. I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease of my thyroid six months after my second child was born at the age of 28 and chronic fatigue shortly thereafter. I also suffered from migraines. I was a terrible eater as a child and didn’t learn to love my veggies until I was an adult. My palate had grown to love the foods I thought I hated as a child even though I had never tasted them. There is no doubt in my mind that my poor eating as a child is related to my health issues as an adult. We know that when children help to grow their food they will eat it.

As a Food and Nutrition Practitioner and a gardener I am passionate about learning how to grow my own organic food and in the process helping others do the same.
I believe that food is medicine and one of the most important issues of our day is where does our food come from and how has it been produced.

I am now 50 years old and still love being outdoors and having my hands in the dirt and I don’t think that will every change. While I still love flowers my focus has turned to learning about growing food. I attended an organic class, at “ The Nature Lyceum” www.thenaturelycemu.org on growing organic foods and Cornell Co-operative Extension spring gardening classes.  The extent of growing my own food has been limited to barrels of herbs and some select vegetables like tomatoes and peppers.   This past summer I started my first vegetable garden and it was a learning experience. The deer were a huge problem and ate all my string beans and pepper plants as well as decimated my two hosta beds. In the 23 years that I have lived on the East End of Long Island I was off their radar until just recently. My butternut squash plants were attached by vine borers; a bug I identified in a book I highly recommend called “Good Bug, Bad Bug” by Jessica Walliser. You can only imagine my excitement when I was able to find the bug in that book and now I know what to do for next year. Bottom line is that the health of the plants is dependent on the health of the soil. Healthy soil makes healthy plants and healthy plants make healthy people.  I hope you will join me as I discover the art of growing food. Maria