image courtesy of Victor Bezrukov

Over the weekend, I finally got around to reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver’s book about her family’s quest to eat locally, growing most of their own food and eating with the seasons.

What a great read—I tell you, that woman can really write about a vegetable! I loved reading about the joys and pains of gardening, the hard work of preserving food, and the satisfaction of seeing dozens of mason jars sparkling like jewels in the pantry at the end of autumn. I’m more excited than ever to work on my own little garden here in the ‘hood in Pittsburgh.

Kingsolver also spends a good portion of her book describing what is wrong with the food system in America. These ills have been well covered in the last several years—see Food Inc., Fast Food Nation, and most of Michael Pollan’s work. Our agricultural system is rather insane, and we have a lot of work to do to make it rational and sustainable.

But in Kingsolver’s work, and in that of many other writers and activists, there is something that bothers me: a confusion between technology and how it is used. She spends a good amount of time cataloging the evils of genetically engineered food, specifically going after Monsanto and showing how their practices limit choices and profits for small farmers, driving many of them out of business.

I wonder, though—is genetic engineering inherently such a terrible thing? Or is the problem that Monsanto is an unethical and short-sighted company?

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This is a very silly video from Improv Everywhere, a group that does, well, improv everywhere. Though this piece isn’t exactly improvised ... Basically these people set up some cameras in a grocery store produce section in Queens, wrote a goofy song about fruit and peace, and performed it in the middle of the day for lots of confused and bemused customers.

What I love about this is how it breaks up normal expected everyday reality. Stuff like this puts a grin on our faces and interrupts our regularly scheduled programs. It causes, as author Jonathan Fields said in a recent post, “a momentary awakening to the utter lunacy of the patterns we’ve adopted. And, though it’s taken years to wear those patterns into existence, in a heartbeat, we become unusually open to the notion that we can choose to respond differently. To create a new pattern.”

Have a wonderful weekend! And if you decide to burst into song at the farmers’ market, let us know what happens ...

image by woodleywonderworks

Summer is coming up—my favorite time of year when gardening takes priority over being indoors. This past spring, I really wanted to start my seeds indoors early, but I was so busy with graduate classes, so I pushed aside seed planting. Gratefully though, I did do a seed germination test with my leftover seeds from years past. Actually, what pushed me to test my old seeds was that I had committed to write about it for this site. It’s interesting how that works, but since I shared my thoughts with other contributors here—Megan, Uli, Sarah, Stella and Rich—I was bound to deliver on it. In the future, I would like to cultivate my interests to a greater extent to where my motivation is large enough to propel me forward, and sharing with others enriches it, reinforces it, but is not dependent upon it.

After the germination tests, I did cull a lot of old seed.  I am really enjoying the clarity and sureness of knowing that all the seeds in my seed storage box are viable. That may sound silly, but it’s a bonus to see the link between effort and results, because in life, it’s not always so clear. For the first time, this spring I looked out at my garden, and realized that its beauty is not only because of the intrinsic beauty that is nature, but also a result of the effort and care of my parents and me. I was moved more by the realization that the garden shows the efforts we have invested in making it beautiful than everything that needs doing.

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image by moria

At the beginning of the year, I made a commitment to improve my physical well-being and strength through nutrition and exercise.

My goals were simple: I wanted to see how it felt to take excellent care of my body, and I wanted to find out what can emerge from going beyond what I thought I could do. How would eating super-nutritiously and pushing myself with exercise transform me? And can doing something I’ve never done before in one area of life bring about new possibilities in others?

Four and a half months in, I’m learning a ton through these changes.

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image by WTL photos

Early spring…an emergent time of year when plants wake from winter dormancy to soak up sunlight of longer days.  I walked around the house yesterday searching for signs of spring, finding perennial chives reaching up and up, bobby yellow primrose blooms peeking between downy leaves, and fleshy tulip shoots poking layered leaves through mulch.  I am excited for the spring bulbs especially.  I planted over 70 tulips and my Dad planted more than this in daffodils and crocuses.  When I purchased them last fall, they were on sale, so I got nearly twice as many as I had intended to plant.  I have visions of a sea of spring flowers, it’s almost time.

It’s also the time for checking all those leftover seed packets you may have stored, from last year’s garden. Better to check old seed than waste money buying new.  But are these seeds viable?  Some seeds last many years if stored properly.  Proper storage involves keeping seed dry and away from direct sunlight.  I have stored my seed in small Ziploc bags in the freezer, but now keep them in wine box on a shelf. Others store theirs in shoe boxes in a cool room.

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My favorite! Image by allie pasquier

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that one of my goals for the new year was to develop my physical strength, and to that end I would be following Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s Eat to Live plan for 6 weeks. Eat to Live is based on nutrient-dense food—the goal is to get almost all of the day’s calories from highly nutritious foods like green vegetables, fruits, beans and nuts.

Going into the 6 weeks, losing weight was one of my goals. But I also wanted to see how life would change in other ways—what else could come out of giving my body tons and tons of good stuff?

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This week on The Sunny Way, we’ve talked a lot about emotions and the motivations they can bring to our actions.

• Monday I wrote about meditation, and how it helps calm internal storms so that I can act out of intention rather than habit.
• Tuesday, Uli shared with us the fears and assumptions she is facing as Obama’s promises of hope and change become reality, but in not quite the exact way she had hoped.
• Wednesday, Victoria wrote about the amazing book My Side of the Mountain (which I have loved since I was a kid!), and how its main character Sam Gribley created a new life from discovery and invited others to share it with him.
• Yesterday, Sarah dove into anger and how it can powerfully motivate action but also become an obstacle if we allow ourselves to identify with it.

Today we’d like to share this video from Alice Waters, whose passion for beautiful food has sparked an entirely new way of eating in thousands and perhaps millions of people around the world. In this video, she shares how her actions were motivated not from anger or dissatisfaction, but from a simple desire to share something she loves. Her story inspires me to look into my actions and examine where they are coming from. Am I tearing down the old, or am I building the new? I contemplate this question often. Here’s what Waters has to say about it.

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I had the pleasure of reading My Side of the Mountain this past fall for an introductory science education class, and I fell in love with the world that Sam creates in the Catskill Mountains.

Sam Gribley, the thirteen year old hero, decides to run away from his cramped home in New York where he lives with eight siblings. He runs away to live a different life on land that his Great Grandfather Gribley owned in the Catskill Mountains 100 years prior.  Sam’s tenacity to make a life in the wilderness despite snickers and jests from adults is what is so attractive. Sam doesn’t let any bit of doubt or cynicism from others stop him. He figures out how to live off the land from prior knowledge, library research, from carefully observing animals and plants, and from friends along the way. 

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This video comes to us from EatTheView.org, a site dedicated to encouraging the Obama family to grow some food on the White House lawn. Director Roger Doiron documents the process of growing a garden in front of his own white house, interspersed with a bit of history of gardening in America. Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged the growing of victory gardens, and at their peak, home gardens provided 40% of the fruits and vegetables eaten by American households.

Growing food at the White House forms the last, symbolic point in Michael Pollan’s plan for rethinking our food system. And there’s no doubt that this system needs some serious rethinking—currently, food production and transportation contribute 1/3 of our country’s greenhouse emissions.

Check out the video below, and go to EatTheView.org to sign the petition urging the Obamas to use some of the White House’s extensive gardens for food production.

This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

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image by maluni

Stella’s pieces on how to live the good life outside the current spend/consume paradigm constitute an amazing resource. When creativity takes the place of credit, I find myself enjoying myself more, building deeper connections, and really thinking about what I’m doing. This is how a new world is made—by consciously deciding how we want to live and relate with each other. -ed.

I know a lot of articles about frugality suggest curbing socializing and entertainment and paint them as frivolous activities, but I see them as essentials. Just like a marriage, you can’t have a strong and lasting community if you don’t take care of it. In good times, a strong community is a joy, and in times of crisis, those relationships become critical. It’s worth it to devote time and effort to creating and nurturing community connections.

At the same time, we need to remember that entertaining doesn’t have to be nerve-wracking. Something that has struck me in the last few years is how much more formal entertaining seems to have gotten—it’s become synonymous with having a party or an event. We don’t just have a friend over for a cup of coffee at the kitchen table anymore. Even our kids have “play dates.”

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Victoria’s homegrown garlic

Most of us have noticed that the arena of locally grown food has been developing rapidly and attracting more and more people. These days, a straightforward vegetable garden is the tip of the iceberg. There are all different types of gardens; backyard, raised bed, rooftop, window boxes, community garden plots, urban farms, and school gardens.

There are the how local can you go types of challenges, like the ultra serious Dervaes 100 foot food challenge.  Even president-elect Barack Obama will have the opportunity to build an organic farm on the White House lawn through the WHO Farm project. I can’t wait for that day to happen!

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Composting in the garden

This is the third of three parts of Victoria’s interview with Sister Jeanne Clark of the Homecoming project and Sophia Garden. Read part one and part two.

VG: When did you decide to become a nun?

SJ: In 1958 at the age of twenty-one, I entered the convent. Before that I worked as a secretary in an advertising agency for three years.

VG: And you grew up on Long Island? Is that why you were saying you wanted to come home?

SJ: When I speak about “Coming Home” I’m really talking about coming home to Earth and the Universe. Actually when I first came into the understanding of myself as coming out of Earth and being so connected with Earth, I wanted to help others see this connection.

I wanted to do the work that I am doing now on the West Coast where I had spent five years. It was so beautiful there right near Seattle and in the midst of the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. I thought of the people there as much more progressive. And to me at the time Long Island seemed like a wasteland of consumerism. I didn’t want to stay here.

But my congregation of Dominican Sisters wanted me to stay as did my friends and the people with whom I had been meeting and envisioning living life sustainably on Long Island.

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The universe with sticks

This is the second of three parts of Victoria’s interview with Sister Jeanne Clark of the Homecoming project and Sophia Garden. Read part one.

SJ: It is a challenge. Things are changing. It’s all part of the evolution. We are becoming different people. We offer three children’s programs in the summer. A new group started today. The children learned about the story of the universe and how the universe came to be.

VG: Oh my, it’s so important that you are teaching children about the universe.

SJ: Yes. They find out where Earth came from and that we are part of Earth. The first thing many of the children do when they come to the garden is swat the bees and the ants. I tell them, “Oh wait a minute. We are outdoors now. This is where these creatures live. This is their home. The ants probably do a lot more work for Earth than we do. We leave them here; we don’t kill them.”

Then we teach them the Story of the Universe and how it came to be. They see how the humans enter late in the Story and how they are part of the WEB of life. So we are teaching people about Earth through Sophia Learning Center and providing certified organic food through Sophia Garden. These are the two projects of Homecoming.

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Sister Jeanne with children

Sophia Garden is a 1½ acre certified organic farm in Amityville, Long Island. It lies on land owned by the Dominican Sisters of Amityville. Towards the back of their property is the farm, a colorful, lively area of vegetables, flowers, tool and harvest sheds. In late 1996, the Sophia Garden was started on a section of the Dominican sisters’ land that was an orchard in years gone by. The farm produces organic vegetables within the CSA model of agriculture that joins suburban families with locally grown organic produce. In 2006, the farm was moved to a different area of the sisters’ property where it currently exists.

In our Sunny Way efforts to open up dialogue, and listen to varied perspectives, we thought that reaching out to religious communities could foster relationships to figure out how we’re going to create an inspiring, hopeful future where all of life, in all its variety is cherished and encouraged to thrive.

I interviewed Sr. Jeanne this past August in the garden. She spoke about her life, dreams, and works for social justice. I was so impressed by her courage and vision to start the Sophia Garden that I decided to volunteer there once per week. I am learning how to approach the time I spend there with absolute openness and humility. There’s so much to be curious about when I greet the garden’s plants, insects, and people with a truly open mind. It’s also fun and rewarding to see the vegetables thrive from my careful weeding.

Sr. Jeanne’s story unfolds beautifully in this interview. She has transformed her own search for community and home into a vibrantly accessible garden and learning program that suburban Long Islanders are rejoicing in.

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Home-preserved food conjures up strong feelings for me. When I was little my grandparents had a big garden, and my grandpa would bribe my brother and sister and I with promises of root beer floats at the A&W drive-in to get us to pick all the strawberries. I remember the thrill of hunting for flashes of bright red in the rows of green.

We’d eat our fill in handfuls and in shortcakes, then a little while later the strawberries would re-emerge as grandma’s beautiful preserves, rows and rows of mason jars glowing bright red-pink on the kitchen shelf. I didn’t properly appreciate this at the time, but now it’s one of my fondest memories, and I wish I had Grandma Dietz’s recipes.

The other day Victoria and I were discussing her upcoming story on preserving the bountiful harvest she’s had in her garden this year, and I told her how I couldn’t wait for plum trees and strawberry plants of my own so that I could try my hand at carrying on my grandparents’ legacy. This morning she thoughtfully sent me this video featuring June Taylor, an artisanal baker and jam and marmalade maker whose focus is on capturing the essence, flavor, and color of the fruit she’s working with.

I love June’s passion and respect for the fruit she’s working with. New preservers often ask her for precise recipes, but she says “there’s not certainties in food.” She judges when each batch’s readiness based on how it pours and how it feels.

Using fresh organic fruit and natural pectin from Meyer lemons, Judy and an assistant can produce about 150 jars a day. “I haven’t seen a way to scale this up without, in my terms, compromising the quality of the work,” she says.

Small producers of high-quality foods form the backbone of the decentralized, local, fresh food system that we need to build. And preserves can easily be made at home by anyone with a big pot, a few hours of time, and a lot of fruit on their hands. As Judy says, “Let’s remember, this is just preserved fruit, and there’s nothing stopping us but our imaginations.”

I’ll let you know when how my first round of preserving goes. In the meantime, enjoy this video, and let us know about your adventures in food preservation in the comments.

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