July 30, 2009
Is it okay to waste anything?
I could NOT BELIEVE my eyes when I saw this sign on a fryolator at an airport food court the other day.Yes, I was in the food court…. I was desperate for food because I’d been waiting on stand-by all day and couldn’t get on a flight. I will know better next time and fill my tote with real food whether I think I need it or not.
Anyway, what’s with this company endorsed policy to waste? And look at the sign. It’s almost enthusiastic in the way it looks and reads. It’s like the message is “Go ahead! PLEASE waste the fries! And, while you’re at it, why don’t you waste everything?” Sure there’s plenty of money and shareholders and industrial agriculture. There are people who are desperate for work and they’ll eat a 99-cent burger if they have to. I know I have and I’m not ashamed to say it. And, yes, I realize that the intent of this sign is to ensure food quality and safety. And that is a good thing.
I am not opposed to companies offering affordable food and making a profit. What I grow and eat is largely MY choice. What I’m opposed to is this public display of sanctioned unsustainability. According to Slow Food Nation, in this country we produce 1-1/2 times the amount of food each year than is consumed. In addition to this gross agroindustrialism, our children receive fast food and crap for lunch – the ONLY meal of the day for some children. This is so sad I am verging on tears.
I ran across an article today at Civil Eats which brought to my attention a campaign developed by Slow Food USA called Time For Lunch. This campaign is petitioning Congress to add one dollar per meal per day to the National School Lunch Program. Please sign this petition at your earliest opportunity. I also urge you to have a conviction about how this dollar should be spent. In my humblest opinion, this extra dollar should be spent creating edible schoolyards such as the kind that Alice Waters, Chef Ann Cooper and the Chez Panisse Foundation have built in Berkely and, now, New Orleans. It is NOT enough to feed more dollars to a crippled system such as the School Lunch Program!
And it is NOT “O.K. TO WASTE”.
Filed under Uncategorized
Tags: Slow Food, fastfood, fries, waste, Civil Eats, Time For Lunch, Alice Waters, Chef Ann Cooper, Chez Panisse, School Lunch Program, lunch, airports, agriculture, industrial agriculture, edible schoolyards, White House Garden
July 21, 2009
Beets ready for pickling
Last Saturday I was privileged to have a home canning class with Claudia Kuhns in Denver. I had watched my Grandmas putting up their fruits and veggies as a kid, but I never remembered the technicalities – I did, however, remember the art.
I’m the sort of person who needs to see and hear and feel this kind of thing in order to get it. I need to get the technicality of it. And further, I need to understand ALL aspects: the worship of the plant, the brilliance of saving it, and definitely the technique and the engineering involved. And finally, last but not least, I need to experience the gastronomy of it: the science of appreciating the plant and the palette. Let me see if I can share my canning album with you here. Otherwise, please find it on my Facebook page called ‘City Farmer’ and become a fan if you will http://www.facebook.com/editphoto.php?aid=140778&id=139796795040#/album.php?aid=140790&id=139796795040&ref=nf
And let me say more about home canning and your options: You don’t need to have grown the veggies and fruits yourself. Don’t be hesitant in the least about buying fresh, local organic food to can and preserve. We all need to support our local farms who work so hard to offer us fresh, organic foods. Be a purveyer! And furthermore, don’t you want to have fresh, organic foods that you’ve canned (with love) to feed to your family in the winter?
Our produce – tiny little delicious beets – was provided by Grant Family Farm. And the exquisite, flawless sweet cherries were grown with love and provided by Ela Family Farms. Thank you farmers!
Claudia’s and Irena’s Pickled Beet Brine
1 qt organic apple cider vinegar
1 qt + 1 cup water
1cup + 1/2 cup evaporated cane juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoon salt
Mix and modify to your taste. This would also be quite tasty with canned sweet potatoes and others. Experiment for more delight!
July 14, 2009
Rhonda's Balcony
This weekend I stayed over at my friend, Rhonda’s, place. My goal was to clean up her balcony and beautify it with some plants and flowers. Here’s a lovely pic of what we were able to do in a 4′ x 7′ space. The bougainvillia is destined to be hung to free up the lovely table, and then we have a pot full of sage, oregano and thyme. The Agapanthus in the background is simply in its element in the beautiful Chinese pot on a stand. It catches the drips from the air conditioning unit.
Small is possible and IS beautiful.
An Agapanthus in a beautiful Chinese-motif planter. Nothing could be more perfect!
July 4, 2009
'So Proud of My Children' statue from Chapungu exhibition
Today was my first day as an Ambassador for the Denver Botanic Gardens. Ellen, the Manager of Visitor Experiences, fortunately was waiting there for me and she gave me a grand tour. I am grateful to work for her. Right off we had a delightful experience. As we were touring the garden a small plane kept circling around with a banner that said, “I [heart] you Maggie. Will you marry me? Love, Ryan.”
Ellen and I kept on our tour and we found the by-now famous Maggie-and-Ryan in the South African Deck. Everyone was applauding. Ryan had staged the whole thing – brought a photographer along and got down on his knees, ring and all. Ellen said, “Well, did she say yes?” She did. I told them well, you’ve made my day!
Ellen let me stay after my shift so that I could take pictures and I had a fabulous time doing that. I have a long ways to go – bringing the taxonomy back from the depths of my memory. But I’m up for it. I’m in my element. See my pictures at “City Farmer” on Facebook.
July 3, 2009
- Beans and bricks at Tiri’s Garden
This is Tiri’s Garden and one of my first ventures back into the gardening community after working in the corporate world for some time. Right smack dab in the middle of downtown Denver, Colorado, Tiri’s was built on an empty slab where a building was torn down and a new building was not yet in the works. We volunteers from Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) work together with youth from Urban Peak shelter growing fruits, veggies and flowers to benefit the shelter.
The light rail runs along one side of the garden on California Street. The Hyatt Regency Denver faces the intersection at 15th Street and hotel guests watch us from their luxury suites. There’s not a day that goes by when our business neighbors and convention center visitors step into the garden and, stunned, ask what’s this all about?
It’s about community. It’s about local food. It’s about beans and bricks, and lettuce and love. It’s about one of those things that gives more than it takes: a garden.
The Tiri’s Garden Farmer’s Market will open July 12! Stop by on Wednesdays for food, music and a tour of the garden.
July 3, 2009
Today I’ve decided to change my life and change my blog. I’ll be sharing stories about urban homesteading, community gardens, city farming, edible schoolyards and more.
March 13, 2009
“However much it lacked in taste, I found it gave me freedom to roam at pleasure in search of flowers and other curiosities….” ~ Julia Archibald Holmes [from "The Magnificent Mountain Women" by Janet Robertson]
March 13, 2009
Got the first hour and a half completed in my office! Now is the time to keep the momemtum going!
I did have to do some shuffling which, as I’ve explained, was the catalyst for all this and is the arch nemesis of unjunking. I must accept that due to the state of disorganization there will be some shuffling. That’s okay. But THIS shuffling is different, I’ve decided. Any shuffling that goes on from here on out will be shuffled to it’s rightful (or approximate) location! No more shuffling boxes of clothes into the hall or living room just to get it out of my way in the office. No more shuffling things around in the office unless it furthers the goal (such as shuffling camping gear into the closet). Here’s what I accomplished:
- “Shuffled” big box of seasonal (and Harley) clothes from the office into the FAR corner of my bedroom, out of my way and pretty much out of sight. The next time I touch that box will be during the bedroom unjunking. After that, the ONLY reason I will touch those clothes will be to use them or LOSE THEM!
- Shuffled sewing/craft supplies into their permanent spot in the guest room/office closet. There are 2 containers: a small trunk and a plastic bin with no cover (big no no, plastic bins without covers are JUNK!). However I may dislike the fact that these containers are not getting unjunked right away, they are CONTAINED and I take comfort in that. The next time I touch them it will be to unjunk them (and pare down to one container). After that, the ONLY time I will ever touch them again will be to use them or lose them!
- Shuffled camping gear (also CONTAINED into 3 units) into its permanent spot in the office closet. I have a hard plastic Coleman cooler (it stores my lantern, cook burner unit, water jug and 2 traveling fishing poles w/reels and lures), a hard plastic storage bin with self-cover (stores lots of minutia, mostly cook stuff – definitely will be dejunked) and my back pack (which I’ve thrown basically everything else in). Camping clothes are in various locations – mostly my bedroom closet – but I’ve just gotten the idea to store them in the backpack once it gets dejunked. The next time I touch the camping gear will be to unjunk it. After that, the ONLY time I will touch it will be to use it or lose it!
- Filled up a donation bag: teeny, never-used lampshade (lamp that it came with got a fancier one), miniature souvenir cotton bale from Arizona (so cute, loved it but it’s junk), hand-woven bathroom-sized rug (it’s got holes but is still really beautiful, don’t need it), memory foam pillow in great condition (I like down pillows) and a white afghan that my mother croched. I loved the afghan to death but I just can’t get the dinginess out anymore (probably accidently used bleach on it). I’m passing it on for someone else to love. My mom even suggested that she make me a new one when she was here, so I know I have her blessings on this. The afghan was hard to part with so I think I’ll take a picture of it before I haul the bag out.
So, yeah, that took an hour and a half. Too much time in my opinion. But, again, it was so much more purposeful than before. I know that I have saved myself time in the long run. To be honest I was also sidetracked for a few minutes with the hanging up of some clothes in my bedroom (from the laundry tsunami event). You see, I am really trying to be vigilent about concentrating on one room at a time but, again, due to the circumstances, I have to make some exceptions and just be okay about it. And that, I think, is key to this project moving forward. I HAVE to accept the fact that I will get sidetracked sometimes and it HAS to be okay. Otherwise, my HSP mind will spin out of orbit.
There’s a gray area when you are unjunking. And that’s the area between the hyper-focused efforts and the ordinary efforts (like laundry and dishes, for example). In my ideal world I’d rather stay focused on one thing at a time. That’s my tunnel vision I suppose. It’s also VERY HSP in my opinion (important to note). I think you can be a Type A personality with tunnel vision and also NOT be HSP. That’s the successful Type A, I’m guessing. But if you’re Type A and you are also a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) then you are in for a surprise. These two attributes don’t really help each other – they are spectrally opposite IMO. Your Type A self wants to be doggedly determined and bulldozing. Your HSP self wants to smell the flowers and ponder the meaning of the souvenir mini-cotton bale. On the other hand BOTH types want to unjunk their lives. Type A’s want to unjunk so they can storm along without barriers. HSP’s want to unjunk so they can meditate and ponder without “noise” and undue stimulation.
Listen, this is important. If you are Type A + HSP and you are miserable in your surroundings, then write a comment and we will get through this together.
Next goal: after having cleared some space in my office I now have the opportunity to sort paperwork. As much as I dislike the idea of sorting as opposed to unjunking and organizing, I’m pretty sure that this is what I have to do. I’ll let you know.
I was aghast to find that yellow summer squash is 98 cents per pound at the grocery store today. Yellow summer squash? Nothing could be easier to grow! If you have the tiniest plot of land – or even a patio or balcony – you could purchase a pack of seeds for about a dollar and, depending upon how much you sow, reap HUNDREDS of pounds of squash this summer. Most of that 98 cents for the store-bought squash goes to gasoline, trucking and middle men. Do we really want to encourage this?
