Why is it that we always seem to separate our foods? Do we like the organization? Or is it the familiarity of that division? Think about a meal. The traditional meal is a “square” meal, as they say, separated into categories: a meat, a starch, a vegetable, etc. “The American Way of Life” teaches us that for Sunday dinner, we sit around a table, pass our plates, and eat that square meal for obligation’s sake.
But why don’t we have more emotion—some excitement—in our meals? Rid our plates of separation and bring in something mixed, scrambled, and stirred—those one-of-kind, no recipe needed, exotic foods that when asked about the recipe, you can honestly say: “No, I can’t give it to you, it’s only in my head.”
I made banana bread a few days ago. I had a couple very brown bananas and because I can never throw anything out to waste, I decided to make use of them. Banana bread is one of my favorite things to bake; there is something so delightful about turning fruit into bread. (And then when I eat it, I can pass it off as a fruit and not just bread—because I know there are in fact real bananas in it!)
One of the wonderful things about banana bread is that each recipe I find is different and there are so many different ingredients to mix into it: chocolate chips, raisins, coconut, poppy seeds…I have even put coffee in it (thank you Molly Katzan!). And this time, I added peanut butter. It made such perfect sense: I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches—so why not just combine all three in one!
Lesson of the day: Combine the flavors! Choose something you love and add it to something else you love. The chance that you will love the result is high. Use what you have and be creative! Don’t be afraid to take the chance to discover something new and unexpectedly beautiful.
28 May 2010
21 May 2010
Marketable Farming: Advocating the locally grown
This weekend, my roommate and I ventured out to the local farmers’ market and spent the morning soaking in the warm sun, the colors and smells of fresh produce and the friendly smiling faces of the local crowd. It does not take long in a great market to forget any reason to go into the overwhelming and falsely shiny grocery store ever again. Enjoying a morning out, and experiencing the friendly demeanor of both the vendors and customers is enough to put a smile on your face for the rest of the day.
While the large box grocery stores are selling more and more organic food, it does not beat the freshness of recently harvested produce. Despite the lack of the official certification seal, verifying that the food has been monitored and is safe, which is necessary to overcome the anonymity today’s grocery stores maintain; the farmers are right there to tell you anything you want to know about their product. The atmosphere of the market opens the dialogue between the producer and consumer that is impossible to match in a store.
Farmers’ markets allow a former farm girl turned city dweller, like myself, to access the local food of the region (albeit, nothing can beat walking out to the back field to grab a fresh tomato.) Normally, however, I am accustomed to standing on the other side of the table—for a vendor it is almost as important to spread awareness and information about the product, as it is to make a sale.
The local food movement has become more popular with the passing days as more people want to find out more and have the assurance by word of mouth that their food is healthy. Buying locally supports the small business over the corporate companies and contributes to the community development, both economically and socially.
While I think the markets still seem to be a niche for the select group of the locals, as the area expand and the crowds grow, something seems to be catching on. I don’t want to say that we are regressing back to the weekend market days and seasonal foods; but rather we should think of it as progressing towards a healthier relationship with understanding and appreciation for our Sunday dinners.
While the large box grocery stores are selling more and more organic food, it does not beat the freshness of recently harvested produce. Despite the lack of the official certification seal, verifying that the food has been monitored and is safe, which is necessary to overcome the anonymity today’s grocery stores maintain; the farmers are right there to tell you anything you want to know about their product. The atmosphere of the market opens the dialogue between the producer and consumer that is impossible to match in a store.
Farmers’ markets allow a former farm girl turned city dweller, like myself, to access the local food of the region (albeit, nothing can beat walking out to the back field to grab a fresh tomato.) Normally, however, I am accustomed to standing on the other side of the table—for a vendor it is almost as important to spread awareness and information about the product, as it is to make a sale.
The local food movement has become more popular with the passing days as more people want to find out more and have the assurance by word of mouth that their food is healthy. Buying locally supports the small business over the corporate companies and contributes to the community development, both economically and socially.
While I think the markets still seem to be a niche for the select group of the locals, as the area expand and the crowds grow, something seems to be catching on. I don’t want to say that we are regressing back to the weekend market days and seasonal foods; but rather we should think of it as progressing towards a healthier relationship with understanding and appreciation for our Sunday dinners.
18 May 2010
Buzz Words: Walking the Talk
Green, Sustainable, Locally Grown, Organic.... These words are popping up everywhere, and don't get me wrong—I am a totally on board with this. But, I can't help to feel that I these words are overused and becoming too commonly placed in everyday conversation to the point that sometimes we don't even know what they stand for anymore. Everyone seems to have their own description or idea concerning the recent growth of these terms. Using the buzz words can sometimes come off as pretentious or even worse lose the weight of their meaning. It is important in conversation to not forget the significance of them, but to continue to use them in order to promote a common language.
I tend to look at environmentally consciousness as something that is unique to each individual. It again, comes down to questioning the impact of our actions and understanding how those decisions affect others. The first rule of ecology teaches us that everything is interconnected; therefore, whatever aspect or sector we find ourselves drifting towards is connected to the others. The beautiful thing about this movement in time is that we can all choose something that is close to us and invest our efforts into that aspect of our lives—whether it is energy, agriculture, transportation, conservation or whatever else you can dream up. By combining our efforts and passions, we can all make a difference collectively.
The most important part of this movement is that we need to make sure that we are all walking the walk, as they say, and not just talking about it. Talking is important—it leads to the sharing of ideas and the changing of minds. This is where the buzz words enter the conversation, agreeing upon a common language promotes consensus in the movement. Once we can do that, however, we need to start living up to our big ideas and to make the changes we talk about.
I tend to look at environmentally consciousness as something that is unique to each individual. It again, comes down to questioning the impact of our actions and understanding how those decisions affect others. The first rule of ecology teaches us that everything is interconnected; therefore, whatever aspect or sector we find ourselves drifting towards is connected to the others. The beautiful thing about this movement in time is that we can all choose something that is close to us and invest our efforts into that aspect of our lives—whether it is energy, agriculture, transportation, conservation or whatever else you can dream up. By combining our efforts and passions, we can all make a difference collectively.
The most important part of this movement is that we need to make sure that we are all walking the walk, as they say, and not just talking about it. Talking is important—it leads to the sharing of ideas and the changing of minds. This is where the buzz words enter the conversation, agreeing upon a common language promotes consensus in the movement. Once we can do that, however, we need to start living up to our big ideas and to make the changes we talk about.
04 May 2010
Something Uplifting
I know that I can be kind of a downer...So I think it is time for motivational story time. (P.S. I am not making this up and/or exaggerating anything--this really did happen.)
Last year I was repelling down waterfalls in the Mexican jungle with the Club Alpino from UDLAP. Since there were a limited number of ropes to repel, we went one at a time and waited for the rest of the group. On the first route, I was one of the first to go, so I had a while to wait.
One of the people I was with was my great friend, Lili, a self-proclaimed environmentalist, vegetarian, yoga-loving Australian...you get the picture. Anyways, we were sitting by a stream, resting and commenting on the beautiful day. A little ways down there were some big boulders with trash on top, left from previous hikers. Well, Lili climbed up there (which was was more challenging than it sounds), put as many empty bottles and trash as she could fit in a plasic bag, and then tied that to her backpack.
When she climbed back down I just rolled my eyes. "Come on Lili, seriously? Did you really just climb up there to get a few bottles? You're gonna hike for the rest of the day with a plastic bag full of bottles hanging off your back? Plus, there is trash still up there, its not like those bottles made much of a difference anyways."
Well, she looked at me and said, "Yeah I am going to, because if another person comes along and does the same thing, and then another person...eventually they will all be gone and it was be beautiful again"
At the time, I said she had too much faith in humanity.
Now that I look back, I realize she's brilliant. We can't necessarily rely on someone else to make a change--we have climb up and do our small part that we are able to do. However, we can't NOT assume that someone else won't do the same thing. We are all in this together and we can make it happen together as well. That's what it's all about--a collaborative movement. We have to have more faith in humanity, but we also have to have faith in ourselves.
And, I did begin to change my own attitude, in other words, I learned my lesson. A few months later, I was walking along the Oaxacan coast with another friend of ours, Mirte, and I started to collect the trash as we came across it. Then I turned to Mirte and said, "Lili would be so proud of us."
Last year I was repelling down waterfalls in the Mexican jungle with the Club Alpino from UDLAP. Since there were a limited number of ropes to repel, we went one at a time and waited for the rest of the group. On the first route, I was one of the first to go, so I had a while to wait.
One of the people I was with was my great friend, Lili, a self-proclaimed environmentalist, vegetarian, yoga-loving Australian...you get the picture. Anyways, we were sitting by a stream, resting and commenting on the beautiful day. A little ways down there were some big boulders with trash on top, left from previous hikers. Well, Lili climbed up there (which was was more challenging than it sounds), put as many empty bottles and trash as she could fit in a plasic bag, and then tied that to her backpack.
When she climbed back down I just rolled my eyes. "Come on Lili, seriously? Did you really just climb up there to get a few bottles? You're gonna hike for the rest of the day with a plastic bag full of bottles hanging off your back? Plus, there is trash still up there, its not like those bottles made much of a difference anyways."
Well, she looked at me and said, "Yeah I am going to, because if another person comes along and does the same thing, and then another person...eventually they will all be gone and it was be beautiful again"
At the time, I said she had too much faith in humanity.
Now that I look back, I realize she's brilliant. We can't necessarily rely on someone else to make a change--we have climb up and do our small part that we are able to do. However, we can't NOT assume that someone else won't do the same thing. We are all in this together and we can make it happen together as well. That's what it's all about--a collaborative movement. We have to have more faith in humanity, but we also have to have faith in ourselves.
And, I did begin to change my own attitude, in other words, I learned my lesson. A few months later, I was walking along the Oaxacan coast with another friend of ours, Mirte, and I started to collect the trash as we came across it. Then I turned to Mirte and said, "Lili would be so proud of us."
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