Where did January go?! Like most of my New Year’s resolutions most years, my best intentions to write EVERY DAY have not come to fruition. But that’s ok I suppose, I haven’t really been doing anything super exciting to write about…last month. That is all changing as spring approaches and I plan my spring assault on the seed catalogs and think about constructing new beds, how I can sneak a couple more chickens into the coop, etc. etc.
Last weekend I watched the film “Julie and Julia” – if you haven’t seen it and you enjoy any of the following: food, Meryl Streep, Francophiles, eating, baking, writing and/or self-reflection…you should see this film. In the movie, Julie decides to create a blog centered around her efforts to cook her way through Julia Child’s “The Art of French Cooking”. I really loved her angst and efforts at putting herself out there…maybe one day I will even have readers like Julie does
So if I haven’t been working in the garden or writing, what have I been doing besides watching movies? Well, I have been working on an idea for a new organization centered on urban sustainability projects and environmental leadership…and I have even gone so far as to apply for a fellowship through an organization called Echoing Green and I am excited to say that I have made it to the semi-final round!
So this weekend I will be hard at work finishing my proposal for The Blossom Initiative…that is the name of my future kick-butt organization. Very very excited about the possibilities. Stay tuned!
I have a feeling 2010 is going to be full of grand adventures, starting with my spring gardening planning, which includes building 3 new raised beds and a more concerted effort to record when things sprout, weather conditions, etc. for future planning purposes. Hopefully we won’t get as much rain this year as the last, since many of my seeds drowned and rotted. Best wishes for a wonderful, self-sufficient New Year!
Yesterday I wandered around my hometown bookstore looking for something fun to read when I came across a new magazine all about urban farming. More and more people seem to be jumping on the bandwagon of sustainability. The good thing is this wagon has enough room to hold us all! Then, last night, gathered at a relative’s home for a family dinner, my little nephew Ned got to go out and collect eggs which he proudly displayed and then took home:
Ned shows off the eggs he collected
I got excited all over again and then felt guilty that over the past few months life has intruded on my best-laid plans for sharing my adventures with all 2 or 3 of you who are reading this. My resolution for the New Year is to gear back up in the yard, in my community and here on my blog to continue to save my own little corner of paradise. I promise not to leave you hanging this long again.
My garden at least hasn’t been completely fallow: here is a small harvest of lettuce, peppers and radishes from last week. And the broccoli is growing happily as well.
Yikes! It’s funny how quickly time passes…I think I need to add an “update blog” to-do item on my calendar so I don’t let time get away from me again.
So, what has been going on in the world of conservation lately? Not much, unfortunately. We have apparently once again decided to pass the buck on climate change. When is the environment going to stop taking a back seat to everything else? I know we have a lot of problems to deal with, but first and foremost we need to be able to breathe and drink water so we can stay alive to solve them.
A challenge: I dare you to give me a problem we are currently facing in the world and I will tell you why it is an environmental problem. Game on!
For the past few months I have really taken a close look at how I want to advance professionally. I mean, I know I love writing, I know I love environmentalism, I know that my future career endeavors will combine elements of both. But what I have been struggling with is whether or not I am ready to take the next big step in my career, which represents a large risk. It also represents the chance for great professional satisfaction. What do you think? Should I take a leap of faith despite the economy, despite the risk? HELP!
Last week I went home for lunch, fixed myself a tuna sandwich and turned on the TV to watch the previous night’s episode of The Daily Show, one of my all-time favorite shows. The interview for that episode was a young man named William Kamkwamba, who at age 14, built a wind generator from parts laying around his village in Malawi. Several things about this story are so extraordinary: 1. this kids was not even in school at the time. His parents didn’t have the money, so he went to the local library funded by some charitable organization. 2. He didn’t really speak or read English, so he learned how to build this windmill by looking at the diagrams. 3. He didn’t seem to think any of this was a big deal.
I can’t wait to get out and but the book. In the meantime, here is a link to his blog and the daily show clip.
Today I googled the words “environmental sustainability” and in .38 seconds, Google gave me 8,950,000 results. In the first page, I see entries on Wikipedia (of course), a funding opportunity from the National Science Foundation to support engineering research, something called the EcoEarth Portal and another site to end poverty by 2015.
Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about sustainability…
“Sustainability, is a broad sense, is the capacity to ensure.” As good of a definition as any, I suppose. Although the word endure in its current use seems to me to equate with “suffer through” and creating a sustainable world shouldn’t be something we all have to grit our teeth and endure. If that is the case, then I have a feeling that we won’t be getting there anytime soon, since we Americans are creatures of comfort and convenience.
It’s been a long day, so for a little comic relief I headed outside to visit with the chickens. Moby the dog always wants their snacks, even if he wouldn’t normally want to eat it. Usually the chickens are quicker than him, anyway! Oh, and that high pitched squeaking you hear is my “talking to the chickens” voice!
I like to eat. I do. Food is tasty and it fuels our bodies; eating food with friends is one big way in which we socialize. And I will be the first to admit that I don’t always make the healthiest food choices. Even though I know what it means to consumers, to farmers and to agricultural policy in our country, I still sometimes stop at McDonald’s and order French Fries. Our bodies are hard wired to crave fatty, salty foods with very few exceptions. But we have gotten out of control over the last several years.
Talking on the phone to my sister today, she complained to me about my niece’s choice for lunch at school on Friday: fried cheese sticks washed down with a slushie. FRIED.CHEESE.STICKS.AND.A.SHLUSHIE! What are these choices even doing on a middle school lunch room menu?!
There was an interesting editorial by my favorite author Michael Pollen in the Times a while back. He made the argument that reform of the health care industry will make large insurance companies start pushing for reform of the food industry. As our medical system moves from one of treatment to one of prevention, in order to save money, insurance companies will start lobbying for healthier food policy so that Americans won’t continue to get sick from our diets and cost health insurers their large profits. It was an interesting perspective that I hadn’t really considered until a few months ago- the perspective that what you eat affects me!
This truth hit home for me earlier this summer when I got a letter in my mail from my insurance company telling me that my rates were going up almost $60 per month. When I called to complain that I was an excellent bet for them (I have a high deductible so none of my preventive check-ups were covered), I don’t smoke, etc. they said that they based my premiums on the general health care costs of all residents in Alabama. And since a good portion of people in Alabama are fat and have obesity-related diseases like heart disease and diabetes, I got to share in their portion of health care costs. Needless to say, I was beyond pissed.
So, if health care reform has as a side benefit the smallest chance that we as a society will think twice before stuffing our faces with those greasy fries from McDonald’s, I am all for it.
Last week I turned 31. I am not particularly afraid of getting old- in fact, I hope to be so lucky. 31 isn’t exactly a milestone year anyway. Not like 40, or 30 or even 25 for that matter. I distinctly remember 25- I had myself a little quarter life crises that year. Don’t laugh, that really exists. It was the year I realized that, for better or worse, I was just like everyone else. I wasn’t going to find the cure for cancer or win the Olympic marathon (embarrassingly enough, both of these were things I had dreamed of accomplishing when a young child). I was normal. And after some self-reflection and a much-needed reality check, I was ok with that fact.
Most of us are pretty normal…average…part of the status quo, if you will. We go through life worried about mundane things like our bosses or our spouses or our bank accounts or our house needing to be painted. But at the very same time, we are also this “divine mingle- mangle of guts and stardust” (Frank Capra) and we all have the capacity to make the world a better place to live.
I really think that all we have to do to make the world better, safer, cleaner and healthier is the following:
1. Believe- truly believe – that we are special enough to make a positive impact in the world and that we can be a part of the solution instead of the problem
2. Don’t believe that we are so special that the laws of economics (finite resources and infinite wants) don’t apply to us.
It is my goal for my 31st year to keep these two things in mind as I go about my daily life- my divine mingle-mangle life of guts, stardust and houses needing paint.
ps The full quote from Frank Capra is as follows: “Friend, you are a divine mingle-mangle of guts and stardust. So hang in there! If doors opened for me, they can open for anyone.”
It’s been a very busy week in my world and I have to admit that I have not paid as much attention to the garden as I should have. Not getting home from work until at least 9pm 5 nights in a row will do that to a person. (Somewhat) luckily, it has rained every day here so I haven’t had to worry about my outside plants drying out. On the contrary, it has rained so much that I am afraid most of the seeds I planted last weekend in the outside beds have rotted and/or drowned. It remains to be seen whether I will have to replant. In the meantime something has been eating the leaves of my broccoli seedlings and my collards.
On the other end of the watering spectrum, my seedlings in the greenhouse seem to have suffered the opposite fate of my drowned green lettuce mix. Many of the tender plants just beginning to spring from the seed starting mix have suffered a painfully thirsty death due to my neglect. I’d say all in all my kill rate has been about 30% for the week. And I call myself a gardener! Once again, playing in the dirt is agony and ecstasy.
There is an incredible article in the September issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine that looks at our carbon footprint from a perspective that I have never considered.
Saul Griffith is a PhD.D from MIT and a recipient of the MacArthur Genius grant and he devised a way of quantifying the energy necessary to manufacture and produce the goods we use over the course of our lives…energy that cannot be recovered.
Essentially, what he says is that to buy products made from recycled materials (paper, those little coffee wrap things at Starbucks, etc.) is all well and good, but that the energy required to produce these items is still substantial, making our efforts to reduce our total energy consumption through the use of recycled products negligible at best.
Instead, what he proposes is an amazingly commonsensical approach to consumption as it relates to energy use: if you truly want to reduce our lifetime energy inputs and greenhouse gas emissions, we need to purchase products that last years and years.
He argues that our society is essentially one based on the non-durability of goods. We get a new dvd player every three years because they are relatively cheap and wear out quickly. Electronic devices like computers and cell phones are especially susceptible to this mentality…how many cell phones have you gone through in the last few years?
For Dr. Griffith, heirloom design is what could eventually reduce our carbon footprint. What does this mean? It means that the things we should be designing, manufacturing and consuming in the future should be so well-designed, so durable, so functional that we will pass on things as mundane as pens, watches and cell phones to our children and grandchildren.
It sounds like a radical concept, but it makes so much sense to me. Be sure to read the article…what are your thoughts on this- do you think it is possible to change our mindset of consumerism from one of disposability to one of longevity?
Phase 1 of my herb lady business is now in effect- I have planted 100 seeds and hope to see them germinate in the coming weeks. But many herbs can also be reproduced by taking cuttings, and today I took several cuttings that will hopefully grow into big strong plants in their own right. Anyone who is not familiar with plants may think this a complicated task, but it is actually simple enough that even I have a hard time screwing it up.
You start with your “parent plant”:
My herb area
Then take some cuttings from the plants you want to propagate, making sure there are at least 2 sets of leaves, cutting just below a leaf node. Try not to pick tough, woody stems. Pinch the leaves from the bottom node- this is the part of the plant you will stick in the soil, and what once grew leaves will now grow roots. You’ll also want to pinch off any lower leaves so they don’t touch the soil and rot. Also get rid of any flowers. You’ll be left with a somewhat pathetic specimen like this Basil below:
Pinch the leaves off at the bottom, this will be where the new roots grow
I like to dip the node that will go in the soil in a little rooting hormone to help it root faster, but you don’t necessarily have to do this. Plunk the little sucker in the soil (or seed starting mix, which is what I am using in the picture above), keep things moist and warm and pretty soon you will have baby herbs everywhere.
I am an optimistic and idealistic person by nature-even when things seem to be going badly, I am never down for long. I suppose this idealism and belief that we can make changes for the better are traits that come in handy working in the non-profit realm. After all, most of my days are spent in search of tiny victories, for that one second when I see the lightbulb of understanding go off in someone’s mind when it finally clicks and they realize how linked we are to the natural environment.
That being said, there are times when I just feel helpless and hopeless and wonder if I shouldn’t just give up and go to hell in a hand basket with everyone else. Seeing people litter is one sure-fire way to inspire this melancholy. We’ve been preaching anti-litter for over 30 years now and to see people use the ground like a garbage can when they ABSOLUTELY know better sends me into the pit of despair. We should know better by now!
So, I have been in this pit pretty much all weekend after hearing about the resignation of Van Jones from President Obama’s environmental advisory position. I’m angry at people like Glenn Beck who twist words until their original context is completely obscured and then use those words to fan the fears of uneducated people who are easy to prey on. And I’m mad at the President and his staff for kow-towing to this ignorance.
Van Jones is provocative, to be sure. He uses colorful language (like calling republicans assholes), he is an activist, he might make people uncomfortable, it’s true. But he has worked tirelessly and successfully to bring job skills, training opportunities and a chance at a life to countless youth who didn’t have the advantages of birth that I have been blessed with. Read more here about the organization he founded called Green For All.
I just can’t figure out how one person like Glenn Beck can make people believe that he represents the views of Americans. I can’t believe people would fall prey to his ridiculous rhetoric and baseless claims. There are obviously darker forces afoot and I hope that we as a nation are smart enough to recognize it. Otherwise we are lost.
I have a not so secret wish to be a farmer. I don’t have any grand romantic notions of the farming life…I know it is a hard life where you are at the mercy of everything and everyone…the weather, the consumer, the goverment, ag policy, Monsanto. All the same, I can’t think of anything more enjoyable than working in the dirt. There is something so magical about the concept of putting a dry little seed in the earth and getting back a watermelon or a pumpkin. What a concept! In my current urban setting, a full fledged farm is out of the question, but idea of growing for (a tiny) profit has always sounded fun.
Now, I think I might have my chance. There is a new open air market opening in a neighboring town that is looking for local vendors. The Windmill Market will have a wind generator, grey water system and demonstration gardens. Sounds like my kind of place. I went to the vendors meeting a few days ago and I think I might take the plunge.
What will I sell? Herbs. All herbs all the time. I am busy preparing my backyard greenhouse for herb propagation and I have to say I am really excited. I don’t really know what I am doing, but I figure I will learn as I go. Anyone have any advice or ther words of wisdom? How about a name? Every herb farmer has to have a name.
This morning I sprang out of bed with the best intentions of weeding the garden, but alas, it was pouring down rain, so I decided to take advantage and have a nice lazy morning. I was in the mood for pastries this morning, so I decided to make one of my favorite breakfasts- homemade tarts. For me, this recipe exemplifies the best of eating fresh- it is fast, simple and so yummy.
All you need:
Frozen pastry sheets ( I always keep a box in the freezer)
2 or three pears (cherries and apples work just as well, but I am partial to the grainy sweetness of pears)
Honey
Walnuts
To Make:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
After defrosting the pastry sheet, put it on a cookie sheet and make a little crust by folding over the edges on all sides
Slice the pears and place them on the pastry
Sprinke some walnuts on top
Drizzle honey over everything
Bake for about 20 minutes and voila! The yummiest pastry in the world.
Ready to eat!
P.S. Add some gorgonzola cheese to the mix and you have a great party appetizer.
