At the moment my garden beds are under a layer of snow that is quickly turning to slush. The debris of last years plantings are hidden and the weeds that grow all year long have vanished from sight. February is coming on quickly and this is the month to clean out the garden to make way for new plantings in March.
I've got my work cut out for me. Two years of applying bandages instead of really getting in there and doing the surgery has taken its toll. I've got quite a bit of transplanting to do because a good portion of the garden now is shaded by a selection of lovely plants. Old world damask roses grow tall. Valerian has reseeded itself liberally throughout the garden. My three golden bloom butterfly bushes have become ten foot monsters. And don't even talk to me about Cecil Bruner climbing roses!
If I look on the bright side, everything loves to grow in this garden. The soil is rich, there is water - why would a weed or rose want to do anything but flourish? There are five apple trees, two cherry trees, a pear tree and an asian pear tree that put out bumper crops each year.
But I want space -with sunlight - for my vegetables to grow. My pumpkins and squash, peas and pole beans. Lettuce, spinach, carrots and beets. Luscious tomatoes. All of these vegetables are sitting on my shelf as small hard shelled power plants dreaming of putting forth those first green shoots.
I can see what I want the garden to look like and I wonder if I have the energy to accomplish all that I see that needs doing. I wonder what I can do without ending up on a heating pad and pain killers. Gardening is not a family hobby so delegating isn't an option. And yet, the vision remains as it always does. And like other years, I've just started in, slowly working my way through the gardens until I realized that what needed doing is done. Well, gardening work is never 'done' - the cycle continues into summer and then harvest and then putting the garden to bed for the winter. Oh boy. But I know what those sugar snap peas taste like right off the vine and what I do now will make this garden flourish all the more a few months down the road.
I'd better pace myself.
1.29.2008
1.27.2008
Omnivore's Dilemma
I really had no idea when I started reading this book that the middle section was going to parallel so many of the things I've been writing about. The author actually goes and visits Petaluma Poultry in search of 'Rosie'. He visits Earthbound Farms to track the spring mix of pre-washed baby greens. He talks to the marketing consultants of Whole Foods. He asks the questions so much more eloquently than I about whether or not 'organic' principles can hold up to big business supermarket principles.
Anyway - I've been quite tickled to sit here reading his book this afternoon - vicariously enjoying his ability as a journalist to go search out the faces and land behind the food.
I have continued the search in my own corner of the world - looking for a true NW free range chicken. I thought I found it in Draper Valley's Ranger chicken - but the answers become vague when asked how much time the chickens spend dining au naturale. Also of interest: Booth Creek Management, parent company to Rosie/Rocky Chickens just bought the Ranger chicken operation. I'm not sure what that means - other than it's information and reveals another big corporation behind what I thought was a smaller NW business. Ranger chicken, apparently is known for it's high quality product - even if the 'free range' designation does NOT mean that the chickens spend time out in the pasture. Oh, the need to juggle and balance the facts...
There is a new movement afoot - "pastured poultry." These are chickens that are kept primarily outdoors, moved from pasture to pasture like a rotating crop. Certain farms in our area do specialize in these supposedly tastier birds - Skagit Valley Ranch and Seabreeze Farms. Both of these farms show up at the local Farmer's Markets in the U-district and Ballard pretty much all year round. You can also order bulk - 1/2 a pasture raised cow; whole chickens, pigs. I'm not quite ready to buy in bulk but I will be going into Seattle next Saturday to check out these products. I want to see for myself if I can taste the difference. I want to see if I feel different eating a chicken that ran around in the grass versus a chicken that spent seven weeks in a feedlot before being slaughtered. (7 weeks?? That's why Rosie chickens are smaller, by the way).
At the moment, my cat and I are listening to the coyotes in the backyard. Their call is so sharp and high, the yipping continuous now for about ten minutes. My cat's tail is still slightly poofed but I've learned to love these creatures and their plaintive cries. (At least that's what it sounds like.) The moment of connection with these night hunters prowling my land feels almost sacred. It touches something within. Recognition of the predator and a cycle of life that is absent from my own life as a creature of the land. It is certainly absent in my plastic wrapped meat purchases.
Thoughts for another day -
Anyway - I've been quite tickled to sit here reading his book this afternoon - vicariously enjoying his ability as a journalist to go search out the faces and land behind the food.
I have continued the search in my own corner of the world - looking for a true NW free range chicken. I thought I found it in Draper Valley's Ranger chicken - but the answers become vague when asked how much time the chickens spend dining au naturale. Also of interest: Booth Creek Management, parent company to Rosie/Rocky Chickens just bought the Ranger chicken operation. I'm not sure what that means - other than it's information and reveals another big corporation behind what I thought was a smaller NW business. Ranger chicken, apparently is known for it's high quality product - even if the 'free range' designation does NOT mean that the chickens spend time out in the pasture. Oh, the need to juggle and balance the facts...
There is a new movement afoot - "pastured poultry." These are chickens that are kept primarily outdoors, moved from pasture to pasture like a rotating crop. Certain farms in our area do specialize in these supposedly tastier birds - Skagit Valley Ranch and Seabreeze Farms. Both of these farms show up at the local Farmer's Markets in the U-district and Ballard pretty much all year round. You can also order bulk - 1/2 a pasture raised cow; whole chickens, pigs. I'm not quite ready to buy in bulk but I will be going into Seattle next Saturday to check out these products. I want to see for myself if I can taste the difference. I want to see if I feel different eating a chicken that ran around in the grass versus a chicken that spent seven weeks in a feedlot before being slaughtered. (7 weeks?? That's why Rosie chickens are smaller, by the way).
At the moment, my cat and I are listening to the coyotes in the backyard. Their call is so sharp and high, the yipping continuous now for about ten minutes. My cat's tail is still slightly poofed but I've learned to love these creatures and their plaintive cries. (At least that's what it sounds like.) The moment of connection with these night hunters prowling my land feels almost sacred. It touches something within. Recognition of the predator and a cycle of life that is absent from my own life as a creature of the land. It is certainly absent in my plastic wrapped meat purchases.
Thoughts for another day -
I am what I eat
I am what I eat eats.
I've thought about the connection in vague terms - that what meat and poultry I eat was also fed a particular diet that might effect me. That's why I buy organic, right? To avoid all the antibiotics and hormones that potentially show up in the meat. What I hadn't done was think about a cow like I would a carrot growing in my garden. I make a point of creating a loamy soil rich in nutrients before I plant seeds because it certainly has a bearing on flavor. Try growing vegetables in bad soil. It isn't very satisfying. But back to the beef. I want to share some insights from Michael Pollen that I found fascinating:
"We've come to think of 'corn-fed' as some kind of old-fashioned virtue, which it may well be when you're referring to Midwestern children, but feeding large quantities of corn to cows for the greater part of their lives is a practice neither particularly old nor virtuous. Its chief advantage is that cows fed corn, a compact source of caloric energy, get fat quickly; their flesh also marbles well, giving it a taste and texture American consumers have come to like. Yet this corn-fed meat is demonstrably less healthy for us, since it contains more saturated fat and less omega-3 fatty acids than the meat of animals fed grass. A growing body of research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with corn-fed beef. In the same way cows are ill adapted to eating corn (the author shows how cows are actually made ill by eating corn - and backs this up with research), humans in turn my be poorly adapted to eating cows that eat corn."
"The health of these animals (feedlot cattle) is inextricably linked to our own by that web of relationships. The unnaturally rich diet of corn that undermines a steer's health fattens his flesh in a way that undermines the health of the humans who will eat it. The antibiotics these animals consume with their corn at this very moment are selecting, in their gut and wherever else in the environment they end up, for new strains of resistant bacteria that will someday infect us and withstand the drugs we depend on to treat that infection. We inhabit the same microbial ecosystem as the animals we eat, and whatever happens in it also happen in us."
-excepts taken from Michael Pollen's Omnivore's dilemma, Chapter 4
I'm not sharing this in an effort to stop anyone from eating beef. I have just found it fascinating to see what really goes into the industry of keeping my markets stocked with such lovely cuts of beef. It is an industry in the true sense of the word - industrial factory farming of a product that consumers want. It wasn't that long ago that a steer would not be slaughtered until he was around three years of age. Today that age has slipped down to fourteen months and much of this is due to the diet and genetic selection for cattle that fatten quicker. Pollen is quite matter of fact about the way in which disease and ill health is part of the feedlot process. Unlike chickens, cows are not meant to eat grain - their digestive system isn't geared to it and they get all sorts of problems because of it. Luckily, they can only subsist so long - about fourteen months.
Alright, so what's the point of making my stomach queasy? The main reason I shared those quotes was the way in which this author keeps coming back to our relationship with the food we eat. The food chain, the natural order that evolution and diversity has given us - a unique homeostatic state that recognizes how we truly are in relationship with the food that comes into our homes. It opens up a set of complex questions regarding some of the major illnesses affecting humanity - diabetes, obesity, cancer not to mention outbreaks of e. coli and resistant strains of staph. I wonder what happens to my immune system not only by what I purposefully ingest - but what about the environment? All those fertilizers and hormones that wash down stream into our water supply. What about the algae blooms in our lakes and in the Gulf of Mexico that they've traced back to the agricultural industry?
I'm a point of connection somewhere in this picture. If I truly believe that I have a relationship with the natural world - if I believe that I am a biological creature that needs to harness the natural world for my own subsistence - then these realities are rather horrifying to support. None of these practices are what I would label sustainable for the planet. The lack of balance is appalling to me and I wonder how choices can be made that so clearly will leave my children's world damaged.
I don't think I'll be ordering steak in a restaurant any time soon.
I've thought about the connection in vague terms - that what meat and poultry I eat was also fed a particular diet that might effect me. That's why I buy organic, right? To avoid all the antibiotics and hormones that potentially show up in the meat. What I hadn't done was think about a cow like I would a carrot growing in my garden. I make a point of creating a loamy soil rich in nutrients before I plant seeds because it certainly has a bearing on flavor. Try growing vegetables in bad soil. It isn't very satisfying. But back to the beef. I want to share some insights from Michael Pollen that I found fascinating:
"We've come to think of 'corn-fed' as some kind of old-fashioned virtue, which it may well be when you're referring to Midwestern children, but feeding large quantities of corn to cows for the greater part of their lives is a practice neither particularly old nor virtuous. Its chief advantage is that cows fed corn, a compact source of caloric energy, get fat quickly; their flesh also marbles well, giving it a taste and texture American consumers have come to like. Yet this corn-fed meat is demonstrably less healthy for us, since it contains more saturated fat and less omega-3 fatty acids than the meat of animals fed grass. A growing body of research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with corn-fed beef. In the same way cows are ill adapted to eating corn (the author shows how cows are actually made ill by eating corn - and backs this up with research), humans in turn my be poorly adapted to eating cows that eat corn."
"The health of these animals (feedlot cattle) is inextricably linked to our own by that web of relationships. The unnaturally rich diet of corn that undermines a steer's health fattens his flesh in a way that undermines the health of the humans who will eat it. The antibiotics these animals consume with their corn at this very moment are selecting, in their gut and wherever else in the environment they end up, for new strains of resistant bacteria that will someday infect us and withstand the drugs we depend on to treat that infection. We inhabit the same microbial ecosystem as the animals we eat, and whatever happens in it also happen in us."
-excepts taken from Michael Pollen's Omnivore's dilemma, Chapter 4
I'm not sharing this in an effort to stop anyone from eating beef. I have just found it fascinating to see what really goes into the industry of keeping my markets stocked with such lovely cuts of beef. It is an industry in the true sense of the word - industrial factory farming of a product that consumers want. It wasn't that long ago that a steer would not be slaughtered until he was around three years of age. Today that age has slipped down to fourteen months and much of this is due to the diet and genetic selection for cattle that fatten quicker. Pollen is quite matter of fact about the way in which disease and ill health is part of the feedlot process. Unlike chickens, cows are not meant to eat grain - their digestive system isn't geared to it and they get all sorts of problems because of it. Luckily, they can only subsist so long - about fourteen months.
Alright, so what's the point of making my stomach queasy? The main reason I shared those quotes was the way in which this author keeps coming back to our relationship with the food we eat. The food chain, the natural order that evolution and diversity has given us - a unique homeostatic state that recognizes how we truly are in relationship with the food that comes into our homes. It opens up a set of complex questions regarding some of the major illnesses affecting humanity - diabetes, obesity, cancer not to mention outbreaks of e. coli and resistant strains of staph. I wonder what happens to my immune system not only by what I purposefully ingest - but what about the environment? All those fertilizers and hormones that wash down stream into our water supply. What about the algae blooms in our lakes and in the Gulf of Mexico that they've traced back to the agricultural industry?
I'm a point of connection somewhere in this picture. If I truly believe that I have a relationship with the natural world - if I believe that I am a biological creature that needs to harness the natural world for my own subsistence - then these realities are rather horrifying to support. None of these practices are what I would label sustainable for the planet. The lack of balance is appalling to me and I wonder how choices can be made that so clearly will leave my children's world damaged.
I don't think I'll be ordering steak in a restaurant any time soon.
1.26.2008
CSA's...from Mexico?
One of the first ways I decided to try and live more sustainably was to join a CSA last December. CSA stand for Community Supported Agriculture, if you've somehow not heard of this term. Local Harvest has a listing of all the CSA's in Washington state with links to the farm's websites. I chose Full Circle Farm because they were close (down in Duvall) and did a drop off about two miles from my house. They are fully organic and have a great program that not only allows me to pick the box size but allows me to do my pick up every other week.
The weekend before my box comes in, I get an email that allows me to go in to the member section of the website and change out any box contents that I don't want. Oh, there is also a way to have up to five permanent exemptions from the box which in my household meant yams and sweet potatoes of any variety. (I love them, but my husband has bad, bad memories of them).
The first box came right before the holidays and it was beautiful. There were items that I had not cooked before (kale) and a lovely mixture of root vegetables, onions, spinach, apples and pears. I remember thinking what a wonderful treat this was and felt somewhat smug when I went down to Whole Foods and didn't need to buy any produce.
Prior to my second box arriving, I was busy and scanned the list of box contents with an eye more towards what I - or my family - would not eat at all. It was a quick peek and then off I went for a weekend without access to a computer. When the box arrived I opened it, wondering what was coming this time (naturally I had forgotten) and felt a small moment of shock. Mangoes? Avocados? Tomatoes? I looked at the label on the tomatoes - grown in Mexico? The green onions were from California and the mango was from somewhere even farther south. THIS was supporting my local CSA???
I felt somewhat betrayed, frankly and went back onto Full Circle's website to see where they claim their produce is grown. Well, they do mention small organic farms in California. I didn't see any mention of Mexico or Central America. Sitting back, I wondered about those little organic tomatoes grown in Mexico - and then I went and tasted them.
There are two issues that I am well aware of - having grown many of my own vegetables over the years -that haunt the business of agriculture: taste and transportation. Those tomatoes were tasteless. They could have been made of cardboard. And yet, they were red and firm; looking like a breath of summer pleasure. A tomato can be grown organic but if the variety that is grown is produced because it has a longer shelf life - guess what suffers? These are the hybridized, genetically modified plants that line the supermarket shelves. Okay, they haven't been sprayed with pesticides or chemical fertilizers but there is a reason why we in the northwest don't grow tomatoes in the winter: we can't. The other issue is the fossil fuel used to transport all these little organic goodies up the coast - 1500+ miles - to Full Circle Farm and then to my drop off point. This hardly feels like I'm supporting a small farm in Snoqualimie Valley - I'm supporting those big refrigerated trucks on I-5. Me, the woman who drives a hybrid and burns biodiesal.
Once again, I get to make a choice. I can choose just how far I want to take my desire to live more sustainably. Do I want to eat avocados and tomatoes in the winter? Actually, I want to hedge that question and say yes to the tomatoes - but in sauces and grown in pacific northwest hot houses. Maybe this coming summer will find me canning tomato sauce in the kitchen. (Anyone want to help? ) And so, this week, when my box contents got to be chosen, I specifically traded out any item that I knew was not grown in the northwest. No kiwis for me. And if I'm not sure about an item, I am going to query the CSA and find out exactly where the item came from. I am also going to finish out my 10 box plan with Full Circle just in time for the Farmer's Markets to begin picking up in April and May.
The weekend before my box comes in, I get an email that allows me to go in to the member section of the website and change out any box contents that I don't want. Oh, there is also a way to have up to five permanent exemptions from the box which in my household meant yams and sweet potatoes of any variety. (I love them, but my husband has bad, bad memories of them).
The first box came right before the holidays and it was beautiful. There were items that I had not cooked before (kale) and a lovely mixture of root vegetables, onions, spinach, apples and pears. I remember thinking what a wonderful treat this was and felt somewhat smug when I went down to Whole Foods and didn't need to buy any produce.
Prior to my second box arriving, I was busy and scanned the list of box contents with an eye more towards what I - or my family - would not eat at all. It was a quick peek and then off I went for a weekend without access to a computer. When the box arrived I opened it, wondering what was coming this time (naturally I had forgotten) and felt a small moment of shock. Mangoes? Avocados? Tomatoes? I looked at the label on the tomatoes - grown in Mexico? The green onions were from California and the mango was from somewhere even farther south. THIS was supporting my local CSA???
I felt somewhat betrayed, frankly and went back onto Full Circle's website to see where they claim their produce is grown. Well, they do mention small organic farms in California. I didn't see any mention of Mexico or Central America. Sitting back, I wondered about those little organic tomatoes grown in Mexico - and then I went and tasted them.
There are two issues that I am well aware of - having grown many of my own vegetables over the years -that haunt the business of agriculture: taste and transportation. Those tomatoes were tasteless. They could have been made of cardboard. And yet, they were red and firm; looking like a breath of summer pleasure. A tomato can be grown organic but if the variety that is grown is produced because it has a longer shelf life - guess what suffers? These are the hybridized, genetically modified plants that line the supermarket shelves. Okay, they haven't been sprayed with pesticides or chemical fertilizers but there is a reason why we in the northwest don't grow tomatoes in the winter: we can't. The other issue is the fossil fuel used to transport all these little organic goodies up the coast - 1500+ miles - to Full Circle Farm and then to my drop off point. This hardly feels like I'm supporting a small farm in Snoqualimie Valley - I'm supporting those big refrigerated trucks on I-5. Me, the woman who drives a hybrid and burns biodiesal.
Once again, I get to make a choice. I can choose just how far I want to take my desire to live more sustainably. Do I want to eat avocados and tomatoes in the winter? Actually, I want to hedge that question and say yes to the tomatoes - but in sauces and grown in pacific northwest hot houses. Maybe this coming summer will find me canning tomato sauce in the kitchen. (Anyone want to help? ) And so, this week, when my box contents got to be chosen, I specifically traded out any item that I knew was not grown in the northwest. No kiwis for me. And if I'm not sure about an item, I am going to query the CSA and find out exactly where the item came from. I am also going to finish out my 10 box plan with Full Circle just in time for the Farmer's Markets to begin picking up in April and May.
1.24.2008
Where to start?
In the supermarket, naturally.
After spending a Saturday morning shopping at Whole Foods and really reading labels, I came home with fewer groceries then usual. I also came home with a list of products to research. Just standing in the egg section alone was discouraging. I only found one brand of truly free range, organic eggs. At least that was what the crate said. The dairy shelves are full of choices - Horizon milk, Organic Valley, Stoneyfield Farm yogurt and even some fresh milk that was neither organic or hormone free. Some milk is pasteurized and others ultra-pasteurized. Straus Dairy products come from California. Horizon products come from shadowy mega feedlots that have stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Stoneyfield....whoa...New Hampshire? So, Organic Valley remains my top choice. And if I buy it in the gallon jugs - it isn't ultra pasteurized.
I didn't know what ultra-pasteurized (UP) was until I read about it in Ricki Carroll's Home Cheese Making.
To quote: "UP milk is heated to 191 degrees for at least one second, which destroys all organisms in the milk. It also gives milk a slightly cooked taste, like that of evaporated milk. The purpose of UP treatment is to give the product greater shelf life. UP milk will last at least 28 days (which certainly helps when you are transporting it across the country). UP milk is less then ideal...the protein structure is damaged and the enzymes destroyed. You may as well drink water."
Well. Wikipedia says something along the same lines without the comments on taste. UP is also labelled as UHT (Ultra-high temperature processing). The infamous on-line encyclopedia does mention that this seems to be used primarily to extend shelf life.
What's funny - or sad, depending on your view of things - is that I'd almost be afraid to drink raw milk. Think about all those pathogens - salmonella poisoning here I come. I have to shake my head at that strange fear - how did it get placed there? Where did I learn to be afraid of milk from the source?
Perhaps it is a multi-hued answer that crosses from marketing, disease outbreaks and ends up in the reality of a huge pink udder squirting milk into a suctioned pipe. I have liked my milk appearing magically in the supermarkets of my world. And even so - I have also tasted milk a day fresh from the farm and found it to be something unlike anything I could ever buy in the markets today. Hell, I don't even drink milk any more - why? It's fairly tasteless compared to a big glass of water. I just look at it as extra calories and a source of nebulous calcium that I can get in other ways. I've discovered tasty dairy products, but yummy milk alludes me.
The good news is that according to the Cornucopia Institute (a watchdog organization for organic agriculture) most of my favorite dairy companies are rated quite high. They've ranked the dairies across the country and my three top favorites: Organic Valley, Straus and Stoneyfield all do quite well. See the Dairy Ranking for yourself.
Perhaps I'll continue the search for a local source of organic milk that is truly fresh - not transported along the interstate to my market's dairy case. For now, I'll keep wandering the market and see what else I find.
After spending a Saturday morning shopping at Whole Foods and really reading labels, I came home with fewer groceries then usual. I also came home with a list of products to research. Just standing in the egg section alone was discouraging. I only found one brand of truly free range, organic eggs. At least that was what the crate said. The dairy shelves are full of choices - Horizon milk, Organic Valley, Stoneyfield Farm yogurt and even some fresh milk that was neither organic or hormone free. Some milk is pasteurized and others ultra-pasteurized. Straus Dairy products come from California. Horizon products come from shadowy mega feedlots that have stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Stoneyfield....whoa...New Hampshire? So, Organic Valley remains my top choice. And if I buy it in the gallon jugs - it isn't ultra pasteurized.
I didn't know what ultra-pasteurized (UP) was until I read about it in Ricki Carroll's Home Cheese Making.
To quote: "UP milk is heated to 191 degrees for at least one second, which destroys all organisms in the milk. It also gives milk a slightly cooked taste, like that of evaporated milk. The purpose of UP treatment is to give the product greater shelf life. UP milk will last at least 28 days (which certainly helps when you are transporting it across the country). UP milk is less then ideal...the protein structure is damaged and the enzymes destroyed. You may as well drink water."
Well. Wikipedia says something along the same lines without the comments on taste. UP is also labelled as UHT (Ultra-high temperature processing). The infamous on-line encyclopedia does mention that this seems to be used primarily to extend shelf life.
What's funny - or sad, depending on your view of things - is that I'd almost be afraid to drink raw milk. Think about all those pathogens - salmonella poisoning here I come. I have to shake my head at that strange fear - how did it get placed there? Where did I learn to be afraid of milk from the source?
Perhaps it is a multi-hued answer that crosses from marketing, disease outbreaks and ends up in the reality of a huge pink udder squirting milk into a suctioned pipe. I have liked my milk appearing magically in the supermarkets of my world. And even so - I have also tasted milk a day fresh from the farm and found it to be something unlike anything I could ever buy in the markets today. Hell, I don't even drink milk any more - why? It's fairly tasteless compared to a big glass of water. I just look at it as extra calories and a source of nebulous calcium that I can get in other ways. I've discovered tasty dairy products, but yummy milk alludes me.
The good news is that according to the Cornucopia Institute (a watchdog organization for organic agriculture) most of my favorite dairy companies are rated quite high. They've ranked the dairies across the country and my three top favorites: Organic Valley, Straus and Stoneyfield all do quite well. See the Dairy Ranking for yourself.
Perhaps I'll continue the search for a local source of organic milk that is truly fresh - not transported along the interstate to my market's dairy case. For now, I'll keep wandering the market and see what else I find.
Northwest Suburban mom seeks sustainability
This may not be a news flash - especially to anyone who read Michael Pollen's Omnivore Dilemma - but I am beginning a journey into a more intentional relationship with mother earth. This is not the very front end of this particular trip for me. I've been awestruck by gaia's majesty since I was a little kid. My family - for more generations then I can count, has worked and lived by the land. Even my parents, white collar professionals, bought a small tractor and grew vegetables, poultry and apple trees. I have always known the difference between a store bought tomato and one that I pulled directly off the vine to pop in my mouth.
I think the last time I was in a fast food restaurant was four years ago and only because I was traveling and literally nothing else was open. I also was sick within an hour. Like a vegetarian who hasn't had meat in years and suddenly finds themselves eating it - the results aren't pretty because the body rebels against that which it simply no longer has tolerance for. As a family, we've been buying organic for over the past ten years and one of my primary hobbies has been raising what vegetables I could for the table. We recycle, drive a hybrid vehicle and burn biodiesal in our boat.
It wasn't until the last couple of years that I started to wonder about sustainability and deep ecology. Doing all of the things above are a great beginning. Unfortunately, as with so many realities in this world, each choice has more choices associated with it. Simply choosing to eat organic is no longer a rally cry for green living. Not with corporate America quickly coming into the market with their own version of what organic looks like. The loops holes are many, the proverbial bottom line being money and suddenly what seemed so simple once again becomes complicated and confusing.
And so here I sit with questions that effect me on the most fundamental level: what am I putting into my body? What is my carbon footprint? Do I really want to buy tasteless organic tomatoes from Mexico in January?
Who do I want to be in this world?
I stand in my local Whole Foods market and have always seen the massive abundance of choices put before me as a buyer of organic products. As I ask questions, that abundance is becoming tarnished by a disquieting concern for where all of this comes from. How far did it travel and just what kind of farm were those dairy cows raised on?
This blog is about my exploration into what I want my relationship with the world (gaia) to be. Gaia comes from the greek words Ge (γη) = Earth, and *aia = grandmother. She is also a greek goddess. The Gaia hypothesis in ecology basically states that the living and non living parts of the earth are a complex, integral system that is deeply connected as a whole. For me, Gaia represents a living world with which I interact and can effect. Even one small human being can cause ripples that can change the world. I honor the grandmother earth and plan to explore more fully how I can support her splendor.
I expect you'll find posts about gardening and cooking as well as my own forays into the politics of agriculture. I hope that if you have insight to share on anything that I am writing you will share it and point me in directions of new learning.
Welcome
I think the last time I was in a fast food restaurant was four years ago and only because I was traveling and literally nothing else was open. I also was sick within an hour. Like a vegetarian who hasn't had meat in years and suddenly finds themselves eating it - the results aren't pretty because the body rebels against that which it simply no longer has tolerance for. As a family, we've been buying organic for over the past ten years and one of my primary hobbies has been raising what vegetables I could for the table. We recycle, drive a hybrid vehicle and burn biodiesal in our boat.
It wasn't until the last couple of years that I started to wonder about sustainability and deep ecology. Doing all of the things above are a great beginning. Unfortunately, as with so many realities in this world, each choice has more choices associated with it. Simply choosing to eat organic is no longer a rally cry for green living. Not with corporate America quickly coming into the market with their own version of what organic looks like. The loops holes are many, the proverbial bottom line being money and suddenly what seemed so simple once again becomes complicated and confusing.
And so here I sit with questions that effect me on the most fundamental level: what am I putting into my body? What is my carbon footprint? Do I really want to buy tasteless organic tomatoes from Mexico in January?
Who do I want to be in this world?
I stand in my local Whole Foods market and have always seen the massive abundance of choices put before me as a buyer of organic products. As I ask questions, that abundance is becoming tarnished by a disquieting concern for where all of this comes from. How far did it travel and just what kind of farm were those dairy cows raised on?
This blog is about my exploration into what I want my relationship with the world (gaia) to be. Gaia comes from the greek words Ge (γη) = Earth, and *aia = grandmother. She is also a greek goddess. The Gaia hypothesis in ecology basically states that the living and non living parts of the earth are a complex, integral system that is deeply connected as a whole. For me, Gaia represents a living world with which I interact and can effect. Even one small human being can cause ripples that can change the world. I honor the grandmother earth and plan to explore more fully how I can support her splendor.
I expect you'll find posts about gardening and cooking as well as my own forays into the politics of agriculture. I hope that if you have insight to share on anything that I am writing you will share it and point me in directions of new learning.
Welcome
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