Thursday, April 8, 2010
Removing the Chocolate Fog
This celebration of spring and the rewarding of good children with eggs after the lent fast have been changed by the commercialism in the United States. We are now overwhelmed with junk food and a candy hording frenzy. I set out on my mission to reward my children for good behavior as did the German immigrates in the early 1700’s that brought this tradition to our fair land.
Only to be bombarded with plastic eggs and grasses (which will never biodegrade) aisles and aisles of processes artificially flavored non-food items that sell for $8.00 a pound in plastic packaging that not only kills the planet but poisons my children. I actually walked down the aisles its colors call to you, its sparkle, its subliminal message, BUY ME BUY ME but I walked on. I actually wondered through the store thinking what, what shall I buy? How will I make this a special day when all others are out at Easter egg hunts and stuffing there chubby faces with artificially flavored non-food items. My children will walk with their little heads hung low wishing they had a different Mom! The guilt was almost too much.
Then it came to me all at once. The joy I could see on my children’s faces wiped the chocolate colored fog from my eyes. I headed outside to the green house and picked out flats of beautiful colorful flowers, little watering cans, child sized garden shovels, bubble wands and extra bubble mixture, kites and string, jump ropes and sunglasses, music CD’s and hopped out the door akin with the Osterhase. (The original Easter bunny)
Easter Sunday was a day full of family. We planted flowers in front of the beautiful stonewall that my husband had just built, we put music on and danced around the yard as we all waved our bubble wands and laughed until we ran out of bubble juice, we pulled out the jump ropes and jumped until our wonderful Easter dinner was ready, home raised ham, yams, potatoes and corn put up from last summer and a small portion of winter carrots we still had left. Everything on our table was raised on our farm there was no artificial, chemically induced or machine formed food to be found. After dinner we pulled out our bicycles and gave them a little spin around trying out the new bike trailer with my three year old laughing and calling Go faster Mom go faster!!!
All that worrying that my children would feel as if they missed out on something was replaced at the end of the day when my youngest son said Mom, this was my best day ever.
Only to be bombarded with plastic eggs and grasses (which will never biodegrade) aisles and aisles of processes artificially flavored non-food items that sell for $8.00 a pound in plastic packaging that not only kills the planet but poisons my children. I actually walked down the aisles its colors call to you, its sparkle, its subliminal message, BUY ME BUY ME but I walked on. I actually wondered through the store thinking what, what shall I buy? How will I make this a special day when all others are out at Easter egg hunts and stuffing there chubby faces with artificially flavored non-food items. My children will walk with their little heads hung low wishing they had a different Mom! The guilt was almost too much.
Then it came to me all at once. The joy I could see on my children’s faces wiped the chocolate colored fog from my eyes. I headed outside to the green house and picked out flats of beautiful colorful flowers, little watering cans, child sized garden shovels, bubble wands and extra bubble mixture, kites and string, jump ropes and sunglasses, music CD’s and hopped out the door akin with the Osterhase. (The original Easter bunny)
Easter Sunday was a day full of family. We planted flowers in front of the beautiful stonewall that my husband had just built, we put music on and danced around the yard as we all waved our bubble wands and laughed until we ran out of bubble juice, we pulled out the jump ropes and jumped until our wonderful Easter dinner was ready, home raised ham, yams, potatoes and corn put up from last summer and a small portion of winter carrots we still had left. Everything on our table was raised on our farm there was no artificial, chemically induced or machine formed food to be found. After dinner we pulled out our bicycles and gave them a little spin around trying out the new bike trailer with my three year old laughing and calling Go faster Mom go faster!!!
All that worrying that my children would feel as if they missed out on something was replaced at the end of the day when my youngest son said Mom, this was my best day ever.
Labels: Buy Local, Green living, profood, sustainable food
Friday, September 25, 2009
H.R. 3818 The Keeping of Swine in Tewksbury
The Town of Tewksbury, Mass is trying to change local oversight allowing them to regulate the agriculture in their community. The question, “Is this Pandora’s box?” Because Home Rule petitions almost always pass the Agriculture community believes this will set precedence. H.R. 3818 as written would put this farm and others like it out of business. The town has acknowledged there is no wrong doing and they are following “best practices” but still proceeded with the petition. Will H.R. 3818 change farming forever or will the reality of local food save us all?
Labels: Buy Local, government, Green living
Friday, May 22, 2009
EAT YOUR MEAT!!
There is a movement under foot. One that brings wonder to my mind. It comes in the form of Youtube, books and the gym. I received a call from my sister the other day asking about the beef we raise and if it is "all natural". I will tell you she is a "health freak" I mean that in the best of ways. For years has lived on nuts, berries and granola. When I have offered her meat she gages! I respect her commitment to personal health. Her husbands exercise program is off the charts. You would think his perfect six pack had to be painted on! So to call and ask me about buying a large quantity of beef was cause for pause to say the least. I asked why the interest? Why the sudden change? Her answer was "Paleo". I said Paleo? What is that? What she describe was our everyday diet minus the bread and dairy. The hunter gathers of 2million years ago did not have processed foods, gardens, cows to milk. They ate what they hunted or found growing in nature. HMMMM??? I just can't see you guys with bow and arrow out in the woods (living in the suburbs. LOL) getting dinner. Let alone if you did catch something bleeding it, skinning it, cutting it apart and serving it for dinner! Well, she replied, as close to that as one can get these days. I would have offered to take them hunting just because it would have been the million dollar winner on America's Funniest Home Videos!!!! But alas the season is over. Being that I had picked on her enough I moved on. I told her about our grass fed, pasture raised beef, pigs, chickens and around Thanksgiving Turkeys. That she was welcome to get any veggies she needs from our garden and if she had something special that I could grow for her to let me know as planting is going on now. All I ask is that she tell her Paleo friends where they could find the good stuff.
The next day I received a email with this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCFZoqmKf5M this video alone has received over 33000 views! and this is only one of two videos this person has put up on youtube. There are books, seminars, forums and chat rooms all devoted to Paleo. The truth is as farmers (of course not dairy or grains) should seek out these markets and offer our goods as the match is perfect.
Try some of these forums and links:
The next day I received a email with this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCFZoqmKf5M this video alone has received over 33000 views! and this is only one of two videos this person has put up on youtube. There are books, seminars, forums and chat rooms all devoted to Paleo. The truth is as farmers (of course not dairy or grains) should seek out these markets and offer our goods as the match is perfect.
Try some of these forums and links:
- http://www.cavemanforum.com/
http://www.thepaleodiet.com/
http://www.thenutritionreporter.com/stone_age_diet.html
Labels: Buy Local, Green living, Paleo
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sustainable Living
If this was your last meal what would you order?
Fillet Mignon? Salmon, oysters? Eggplant Parmesan (my favorite).
What if the fillet was tough and dry with no salad, no fresh greens or potato. Would it still be your favorite meal?
Like the cycle of a tree and the way it cleans the air the National Arbor Day Foundation(1) has been asking us for years to plant a tree but we never do. Even though if we had no trees we would cease to exist. Which brings me to land stewardship. The Wikipedia definition of Stewardship “Every person has a responsibility to look after the planet both for themselves and for the future generations. Acting irresponsibly could cause damage such as pollution, the destruction of cultural heritage, etc." (2)
If people can’t even plant a tree or stop using Styrofoam(3) cups how can we possible convince them of the importance of land stewardship. That without land, plants, trees, fresh clean water we will cease to exist. It’s the mentality of “someone else will take care of it“ that is self defeating. As if there is a magic elf that comes along and cleans the water, cares for the plants and freshens the air in some way. Land stewardship comes in many forms from the family farmer(4), the land preservation trusts to the boy who raises money for the Audubon Society to save the natural habitat of birds and the old women who picks up trash on her daily walk. They all have the same goal to preserve the earth for future generations.
Stop and think for just one moment what your summer vacation would be like with no trees, no birds, no rolling fields or beautiful mountains, streams to fish or lakes to swim in. If so many people enjoy the use of our natural surroundings than why is the care, STEWARDSHIP, task taken up by so few. These few are given the smallest of resources, the least recognition and the least of rewards for our society but the burden is great.
(1)http://www.arborday.org/
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewardship
(3)http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2933
(4)http://farmfresh.org/
Fillet Mignon? Salmon, oysters? Eggplant Parmesan (my favorite).
What if the fillet was tough and dry with no salad, no fresh greens or potato. Would it still be your favorite meal?
Like the cycle of a tree and the way it cleans the air the National Arbor Day Foundation(1) has been asking us for years to plant a tree but we never do. Even though if we had no trees we would cease to exist. Which brings me to land stewardship. The Wikipedia definition of Stewardship “Every person has a responsibility to look after the planet both for themselves and for the future generations. Acting irresponsibly could cause damage such as pollution, the destruction of cultural heritage, etc." (2)
If people can’t even plant a tree or stop using Styrofoam(3) cups how can we possible convince them of the importance of land stewardship. That without land, plants, trees, fresh clean water we will cease to exist. It’s the mentality of “someone else will take care of it“ that is self defeating. As if there is a magic elf that comes along and cleans the water, cares for the plants and freshens the air in some way. Land stewardship comes in many forms from the family farmer(4), the land preservation trusts to the boy who raises money for the Audubon Society to save the natural habitat of birds and the old women who picks up trash on her daily walk. They all have the same goal to preserve the earth for future generations.
Stop and think for just one moment what your summer vacation would be like with no trees, no birds, no rolling fields or beautiful mountains, streams to fish or lakes to swim in. If so many people enjoy the use of our natural surroundings than why is the care, STEWARDSHIP, task taken up by so few. These few are given the smallest of resources, the least recognition and the least of rewards for our society but the burden is great.
(1)http://www.arborday.org/
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewardship
(3)http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2933
(4)http://farmfresh.org/
Labels: Buy Local, Green living
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Clicks that count
Spring is here and in New England people are starting to till their gardens, plan the plot of vegetables and plant early seeds. I too have begun this process but every year as I plant the garden I can't help but think that as the season goes on and all the squash and tomatoes come in that I always have too many and give them to neighbors who do not have gardens. I think about the hungry children in the City and I wish I could give the food to them. I wonder how I can help. The internet gives us resources that years ago were untinkable. Today with just a few clicks of the mouse we can fee a hungry person in our community or around the world. So this year I will plant extra knowing that when I do I have found a food pantry and they will provide for the people who are not able (for now) to provide for themselves. Check out this link. http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 When you check your email each day take a moment to click. It will make you feel good!
If you do have extra food that you would like to donate, the Feed America website can help you find a food pantry in your area. http://feedingamerica.org/default.aspx
Labels: Buy Local, homeless shelter
Thursday, April 2, 2009
THEMS FIGHTEN' WORDS
Recently I came across an advertisement for nutri/system weight loss food plan. This in itself is not especially interesting. The ad caught my eye because is said “buy locally.” here in southern New England our agricultural roots run deep and the Buy Fresh Buy Local chapter here has worked hard to bring this to our community. Hundreds of hours have been spent to spread the word, logo artwork, sign placement, advertising, websites yet this franchise feels that it has the right to place the phrase “Buy Local” in their ad! I realize that others have ridden on the shirt tails of catch phrases before but this one felt personal.
They do not use the entire catch phrase just enough to get you to look. If you are not completely on board with the Buy Fresh Buy Local program you may be swayed into the comfort that this too is part of that program. To say that they are local is speaking in half truths. Yes there is a local person who owns this franchise. Yes that local owner would profit from your dollars.
Buy Fresh Buy Local is a program that Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership began in 2007 to encourage the community to buy things that are grown and made right here in our own community. To lessen our carbon foot print by buying items that are not shipped halfway around the world. To straighten our agricultural community and by doing so strengthen our community as a whole.
I can not see that buying a prepackaged artificially flavored chemically laden product that is trucked here from who knows where is in the true spirit of the buy local campaigned. When I see a Buy Local sign I hope it is my neighbors will have grown these vegetables in their back yard and sold to me as they have just picked it from the garden. The eggs we buy have never been processed they have been washed by hand and gently placed in a recycled egg crate. The vegetables if not grown by my family have been grown by someone I know by name. All of our meat is raised by a family farmer and brought to the local slaughter house, YES I SAID SLAUGHTER HOUSE, that is where animals are taken before they are the steak on your table. Wrapped and brought home to our freezer. Farms make jams, jellies and sauces and freeze enough vegetable to feed themselves through into the next growing season the rest is sold. Farmers sell the same food they feed their own families and it is raised or grown right here in Southern New England. This is Buy Fresh Buy Local. Please enjoy the fruits of your local farmers labor!!! If some franchise wants to convince people in order to lose weight you need to eat cardboard food.
I challenge them, I invite them all to the local CSA!!!! www.farmfresh.org or http://www.foodroutes.org/ You can work the field for an hour anytime you want to burn calories and that part is free!!!! Join the CSA and at the end of the day bring home a box of the freshest, tastiest food your hands helped cultivate. As you prepare this beautiful bounty the aroma will fill the air and as the plate is place before you on the table you will know how it was grown. Where it was grown . With each bit you can savor the fact that you are saving the local economy, open spaces, food safety and that you filled your lungs with fresh country air and your soul will have soaked up the beauty of the open landscape getting it from a farm. Take pleasure in the time spent with your family preparing and enjoying a meal. For those evenings when you are too tired or too busy to cook look up www.farmfresh.org for a local restaurant the participates in the buy local program and keep them on speed dial.
If you already bought one of those cardboard dinners toss it in the fireplace and enjoy some quiet time watching those chemicals glow!!
They do not use the entire catch phrase just enough to get you to look. If you are not completely on board with the Buy Fresh Buy Local program you may be swayed into the comfort that this too is part of that program. To say that they are local is speaking in half truths. Yes there is a local person who owns this franchise. Yes that local owner would profit from your dollars.
Buy Fresh Buy Local is a program that Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership began in 2007 to encourage the community to buy things that are grown and made right here in our own community. To lessen our carbon foot print by buying items that are not shipped halfway around the world. To straighten our agricultural community and by doing so strengthen our community as a whole.
I can not see that buying a prepackaged artificially flavored chemically laden product that is trucked here from who knows where is in the true spirit of the buy local campaigned. When I see a Buy Local sign I hope it is my neighbors will have grown these vegetables in their back yard and sold to me as they have just picked it from the garden. The eggs we buy have never been processed they have been washed by hand and gently placed in a recycled egg crate. The vegetables if not grown by my family have been grown by someone I know by name. All of our meat is raised by a family farmer and brought to the local slaughter house, YES I SAID SLAUGHTER HOUSE, that is where animals are taken before they are the steak on your table. Wrapped and brought home to our freezer. Farms make jams, jellies and sauces and freeze enough vegetable to feed themselves through into the next growing season the rest is sold. Farmers sell the same food they feed their own families and it is raised or grown right here in Southern New England. This is Buy Fresh Buy Local. Please enjoy the fruits of your local farmers labor!!! If some franchise wants to convince people in order to lose weight you need to eat cardboard food.
I challenge them, I invite them all to the local CSA!!!! www.farmfresh.org or http://www.foodroutes.org/ You can work the field for an hour anytime you want to burn calories and that part is free!!!! Join the CSA and at the end of the day bring home a box of the freshest, tastiest food your hands helped cultivate. As you prepare this beautiful bounty the aroma will fill the air and as the plate is place before you on the table you will know how it was grown. Where it was grown . With each bit you can savor the fact that you are saving the local economy, open spaces, food safety and that you filled your lungs with fresh country air and your soul will have soaked up the beauty of the open landscape getting it from a farm. Take pleasure in the time spent with your family preparing and enjoying a meal. For those evenings when you are too tired or too busy to cook look up www.farmfresh.org for a local restaurant the participates in the buy local program and keep them on speed dial.
If you already bought one of those cardboard dinners toss it in the fireplace and enjoy some quiet time watching those chemicals glow!!
Labels: Buy Local, Green living, profood, sustainable food
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Does where you buy you food make a difference?
“3 Green events to help shrink your footprint” a collaboration of 9 environmental groups.
Gina Purtell of Mass Audubon’s Allen’s Pond Wildlife Sanctuary states, “Back in the summer of 2007 there was a realization that the environmental groups would do better to know about each other’s scheduled events then to compete for the same audience. A few of us Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, Lloyd Center for the Environment, Coalition for Buzzards Bay, Trustees of the Reservation, and Westport River Watershed Alliance met to sort it all out. It was a perfect opportunity to see where we could support each other. That launched a discussion on how we could reach a broader audience. We batted around a few ideas that evolved into the Shrink Your Footprint series.”
The first in the series entitled “Eat Green”. Participants came to find out how to buy local in the dead of New England winters. There are no farmers markets to speak of and all the green leafy vegetables have long passed.
Andy Pollock of Silverbrook Farms, Dartmouth reminded participants “A farm has more to offer then just summertime vegetables. It is a way of life, a spiritual journey of peace and understanding. A way to bring our families closer together at the dinner table. If we want to see our ecosystem thrive then we must encourage our community to preserve local agriculture. Buying local all year round is possible, jams, jelly, breads, cheese, milk, meats, herbs and so much more are available.” Pollock continues, “ We need to stop thinking about quick and easy and start thinking about how much better our bodies feel when we eat quality.”
Whether it is family health or wanting to save the local watersheds, natural resources, or the whole planet is what brought people here, sometimes starting small in your own backyard is best. Nanci and Bob Carroll owners of Bayside Restaurant, Westport were the first Massachusetts restaurant to be certified green in 2001 by the Green Restaurant Association. They have been making green choices ever since. Package that could stand up to the job but be biodegradable not just recyclable and paper products and disposable utensils are corn based, biodegradable. Right now they can not buy everything locally but are always on the look out for more. Bayside buys meat from Maine, eggs from a farm down the road, breads are baked local and right now Bob says, “about half of what is served is local“. Carol suggests. “People ask questions when they go to a restaurant . Where do they get their meat? Are the fish wild or farmed? Do they buy local? Do they use recycled products? If you are not satisfied with the answers take your business somewhere that does care about buying local and our environment. Asked the owners of your favorite restaurant to buy local and when they do spread the word.”
Family farms produce our food. Thou farmers often wonder, Will there still be any farms in ten years? Are we so busy with everyday life that we poison our drinking water and live stock without concern. Do we not realize what we are doing to our bodies and our planet? When we shop are we shopping with health in mind or are we just looking for the cheapest price. We need to consider how and where our food is raised? How far it traveled to get to our plates. Paul Schmid of River Rock Farm, Westport , came fully charged. People need to know that they can buy their beef, poultry, lamb, pork, and wild caught fish right here in their own community. They don’t need to worry about antibiotics, growth hormones or chemical additives. The farms here, right now, are raising grass fed, free range meats. Mr. Schmid offered up ten different farms within ten miles of the zoo that could supply every participants family with quality meats. These family farmers want you
Gina Purtell of Mass Audubon’s Allen’s Pond Wildlife Sanctuary states, “Back in the summer of 2007 there was a realization that the environmental groups would do better to know about each other’s scheduled events then to compete for the same audience. A few of us Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, Lloyd Center for the Environment, Coalition for Buzzards Bay, Trustees of the Reservation, and Westport River Watershed Alliance met to sort it all out. It was a perfect opportunity to see where we could support each other. That launched a discussion on how we could reach a broader audience. We batted around a few ideas that evolved into the Shrink Your Footprint series.”
The first in the series entitled “Eat Green”. Participants came to find out how to buy local in the dead of New England winters. There are no farmers markets to speak of and all the green leafy vegetables have long passed.
Andy Pollock of Silverbrook Farms, Dartmouth reminded participants “A farm has more to offer then just summertime vegetables. It is a way of life, a spiritual journey of peace and understanding. A way to bring our families closer together at the dinner table. If we want to see our ecosystem thrive then we must encourage our community to preserve local agriculture. Buying local all year round is possible, jams, jelly, breads, cheese, milk, meats, herbs and so much more are available.” Pollock continues, “ We need to stop thinking about quick and easy and start thinking about how much better our bodies feel when we eat quality.”
Whether it is family health or wanting to save the local watersheds, natural resources, or the whole planet is what brought people here, sometimes starting small in your own backyard is best. Nanci and Bob Carroll owners of Bayside Restaurant, Westport were the first Massachusetts restaurant to be certified green in 2001 by the Green Restaurant Association. They have been making green choices ever since. Package that could stand up to the job but be biodegradable not just recyclable and paper products and disposable utensils are corn based, biodegradable. Right now they can not buy everything locally but are always on the look out for more. Bayside buys meat from Maine, eggs from a farm down the road, breads are baked local and right now Bob says, “about half of what is served is local“. Carol suggests. “People ask questions when they go to a restaurant . Where do they get their meat? Are the fish wild or farmed? Do they buy local? Do they use recycled products? If you are not satisfied with the answers take your business somewhere that does care about buying local and our environment. Asked the owners of your favorite restaurant to buy local and when they do spread the word.”
Family farms produce our food. Thou farmers often wonder, Will there still be any farms in ten years? Are we so busy with everyday life that we poison our drinking water and live stock without concern. Do we not realize what we are doing to our bodies and our planet? When we shop are we shopping with health in mind or are we just looking for the cheapest price. We need to consider how and where our food is raised? How far it traveled to get to our plates. Paul Schmid of River Rock Farm, Westport , came fully charged. People need to know that they can buy their beef, poultry, lamb, pork, and wild caught fish right here in their own community. They don’t need to worry about antibiotics, growth hormones or chemical additives. The farms here, right now, are raising grass fed, free range meats. Mr. Schmid offered up ten different farms within ten miles of the zoo that could supply every participants family with quality meats. These family farmers want you