A Place Like This......

Sweetie Pie Cans

It's Saturday. Crystal clear blue beautiful sky. A melodic voice singing with a guitar. The smell of freshly roasted coffee. Yes, it's clearly spring because it's time for the Farmer's Market!!!!!

 
Nothing is better than speaking with a friend over gorgeous tomatoes.

Why are these people waiting in line?

It's the bread line. There are now a couple of bakers at the farmer's market. It use to sell out 10 minutes after opening. Now it takes a little longer but I love fresh bread. I came home with bread and bagels.

It's also good to see all of the vendors again. Winter was very long this year and I really missed everybody. A new friend is Jenny, here with her lovely daughter.

In our attempts to reduce our footprint we have been trying to eat local. It got very hard towards the end of winter. There wasn't a lot of variety. It was so good to see the berries,vegetables, and plants all coming back to the farmer's market. The average fruit travels 1200 miles. By eating local, we can definitely feel the earth's bounty via the seasons, cut down our energy footprint by not consuming petrol, and providing a source of income for our local farmer's. What's growing locally in your area now?

Sweetie Pie Cans

In our efforts to recycle and reuse, I was greatly inspired by Jenny's idea to put her garden cuttings in tin cans to transport them. There is nothing better than sharing my blooming garden with friends but what to put it in? I came home and dug a few cans out of the recycling bins and made some clippings to take to some friends. I transported them in a crate and they were greatly received.

 

The Rhythm of the Garden

Inbetween the rain drops and the cold weather, we're preparing our garden for planting. there is something so hopeful in this project. It is the reconnection with the earth and the hope that spring will be here very soon.

While growing up, my family had a huge garden, almost verging on a farm. A couple of years after I was married and living in Pennsylvania, I remember digging up the entire backyard to put in a begetable garden like the one in my childhood memeory. Wow, what a lot of work! Weeding, handwatering, ....weeding,weeding, and yet more weeding. All of these efforts produced very little yield. To say I was discouraged was an understatement.

 

It was around this time that I met this lovely French woman who introduced me to the term potager or kitchen garden. Kitchen gardens are often times in raised beds or in enclosed garden spaces. She really was more like my gardening angel. We took fieldtrips to the Rodale tests gardens. We made compost, I learned what to plant when and when to plant what. That year I had a great harvest and have been kitchen gardening ever since.

This is in Versaille France. Thank god I don't have to weed that.

Every year I go through my favorite seed catalogs including seeds of change, an organic seed company and I plan my garden. And then the moment arrives when I re-enter the garden. There is a moment when I distinctly feel the rhythm of the garden starting again. It is my annual marker that it's to reawaken.

  
 


 

Meet What You Eat: The Old Mill

Our one small change this month is to meet our food sources. It can be really vexing to know where to start but it seems that the easiest place is by reading the food labels of the things we eat. A great and humorous guide to all of this is Michael Pollan's "Food Rules", one of which is "If a third grader can't pronounce it, you shouldn't be eating it."

We have cleaned our pantry,which was pretty clean to begin with, and introduced the kids to our local market which sells only organic food and much of it local.

Though we have taken many food journeys over the last two weeks, the one that is sticking out for me now is bread baking. About a year ago I purchased a book called,"5 Minute Bread". Mimi really wanted to give this a try and for the most part we have been baking our bread. There is something about freshly baked bread which makes it disappear quickly. At times I haven't been able to keep up with the demand.

 I usually use King Arthur unbleached flour but while we were at "The Market" I noticed that there was a local choice, and that is stoned ground flour from "The Old Mill".

In the early 1800's, a water-powered gristmill on the banks of the Little Pigeon River became one of the main hubs of activity in the small mountain community of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. In those days, the mill faithfully produced the meals and flours that were crucial for the day-to-day existence of the Smokies' early settlers. In fact, The Old Mill even furnished electricity for the town until 1935.

One of The Old Mill's most distinctive features is the giant water wheel that harnesses the flow of the Little Pigeon River. Inside the structure, an antiquated yet reliable system of shafts, belts, and pulleys still gets the job done, working to turn the 4600-pound stones and grain elevators.

Weighing one ton each, the massive flint granite stones, called French Buhrs, are only the second set ever used in The Old Mill's 175-year history. When they're in action, the stones convert grain into about 1000 pounds of product each day, six days a week. Resident millers then hand-fill, weigh and tie each bag of stone ground grain.

With the "5 Minute" Bread book we are really able to have quick and good homemade bread without the extreme daily labor.  It is so simple that anyone in this house is able to mix up a batch of dough for the next day. This one small change has brought us not only great bread but many happy moments in the kitchen together.

One Small Change: Meet What You Eat

It's time for One Small Change. Every month until Earth Day my family will be making One Small Change that will have a positive impact on the planet. Last month I started bringing my very own bags to the grocery store. This has become a habit which has had a positive effect because I no longer have the dreaded hanging bags on my kitchen cupboards. This week I'll be sewing bags for my children so they can leave them in their cars to use when they go to the store.

I had planned something totally different for this month's small change and then friday night happened. Something so out of the ordinary that I knew I had to jump on and stay for the ride. Friday it started snowing. Little brother went to spend the night at a friends, dad was working late with surgeries,and that left my 17 year old Mimi and I alone. In our solitude emerged and incredible game of Yahtzee and the most incredible conversation. Mimi, it seems, is very inspired by her college Biology teacher. Last week they watched the movie Food Inc and the rose colored glasses came off of Mimi who asked me this question, "Mom, do you know where the food we eat comes from ?" "Yes Mimi , I do." Don't just say "Yes" mom. "Most people are eating plastic, anti-biotics, genetically engineered food etc. Mom don't just say "Yes". Really answer the question, "Do you know where our food comes from?" and again I answered "Yes, Mimi, I do."

After this simple answer the interrogation lamp came out and I was grilled about our dairy,eggs, meat, poultry, vegetables,fruits, jams, peanut butter, grain, and then it hit me that I assumed our children knew that we eat sustainable and local. I thought the huge garden would have been a significant clue. The pantry stocked with jams,jellies,pickles of all varieties, the freezer stocked with tomatoes and blueberries would have been a dead give away but I guess that alluded her. I put my shock at her not knowing where our food came from under the table and completely embraced her moment of discovery as if I had never done all of those above mentioned things.I'm trying to see it from her side and rediscover why I love living this way.

 It's the way I was raised. We didn't have any grand discussions about it we just lived and ate local. My husband was also raised that way in Lebanon, so when our daughter started asking these questions it was such a shock to discover that she didn't know. Can you tell I'm in shock? She has never questioned where her food came from and how we eat consciously local. Mimi is having a bit of a paradigm shift and that's when I realized this month's small change is going to be to introduce my children to their food source.

I invite you friends to come along with my family and I as we meet the people that consciously make our food, the places we buy or exchange it , and the choice to pass on the idea of conscious sustainable living to my little family. This month's small change is "Meet what you Eat."

If you know your food you are more likely to eat food that has been raised ethically and uses less resources such as water. There are many other reasons as well which I will take one at a time as we journey into our food source.Over the weekend I went through my book stacks and pulled out the Michael Pollan books "The Omnivore's Dilemma, "In Defense of Food" and "Food Rules". Michael has a new Young Reader's edition out of Omnivore's Dilemma . So Mimi is off with her arm load of books.  More later.......carrot anyone?