Back to the Ground

Before I started farming, I used to write a weekly column about home gardening sprinkled with some tips about healthy eating. With more and more of you looking to grow home gardens and eat locally, I thought I'd revive some of those tips. Plus, I can now add new information that I've gleaned from colleagues or learned as I've been growing food full time for the past 7 years. Granted, I grow on a much larger scale than most of you will likely want to tackle. But many of the tips and some of the techniques, can be replicated in any size garden.

And with all of the talk these days about the importance of eating organic, fresh foods, well, it doesn’t get any more fresh than picked from your own back yard where you know for a fact what you used, and what you didn't use, in the garden. So if you want to eat healthy, fresh and organically this year, you should know that it doesn’t have to be expensive or cumbersome. 

Awhile back I shared a link to a blog by a mother who planned out how to budget for her family on a food stamp allowance and still eat an organic, healthy diet all week long.  Here is that link again. http://www.rebeccablood.net/thriftyo/2007/04/the_organic_thrifty_food_plan_1.html   I think a lot of it is still relevant. It all comes down to a little bit of planning and a little tweaking of our attitude regarding the way we think about eating and lifestyle priorities.  

I have had many conversations with folks about how hard they think it is to eat a healthy, home-cooked diet rich in vitamins and fresh foods.  I’ve been told I’m nuts or unrealistic. Well, I'm not perfect at it either, but I know it can be done. I keep reading about people who have done, or are doing it.

Plus, I hear all of the time people say that they are just too busy to cook. Too busy to shop. Well, you know what? I'm busy, too. I have 14 acres and lots of animals to take care of every day. Honestly, I don't always feel like cooking when I come in after a 12-14 hour day in the field - any more than a single parent does after pulling a double shift and dragging kids to several different soccer fields or home from day care centers. 

So, in order for all of us to do this better, we need to plan. I'll invite folks that I know to share cooking tips, including pre-making dishes for later in the week, and using leftovers so there's less waste, too. These can help keep the output of both money and time spent, more efficient.

I think part of the problem, too, is some folks today have lost touch with their roots when it comes to eating healthy diets of real food. And believing too much of the marketing they see in ads. Trust me, just because it's sold on the supermarket shelf, of any grocery store, doesn't mean it's all that great for you.

Most of us who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, ate much healthier, real foods when we were younger than many of today's kids do. And, I daresay, almost all of our grandparents ate mostly meals made from scratch, because most of the aisles filled with ready made meals found in today’s stores, didn’t exist 50 years ago. Come to think of it, as a kid, I could make it through our neighborhood grocery store in about 10 minutes walking up and down every single aisle. All 8 of them!

So what did they eat in the “old days”?  Simple – they ate real food.  And most, in the summer anyway, they grew a lot of it themselves. I remember my mom growing in our tiny little postage stamp, mostly concrete back yard. Corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peas, and who knows what else she grew back there.She planted a garden every summer in my mid-west home town next door to Chicago. 

It seems we have gotten used to popping “pseudo foods” into a microwave or driving through the fast food lane, or skipping meals altogether, because we keep our (or our kids'), schedules so full we don't have time to prepare and eat food at home the way it used to be done. 

Eating is not simply about stopping your stomach from growling or quenching a craving for fat or salt. It is meant to fuel your organs with vital nutrients so they can have a better chance at working properly. It's to really satisfy your hunger so you don’t over-eat. And, it can help restore any potential damage done, (you know, from when you had that streak of eating an entire box of sticky buns for breakfast and some kind of mystery food in a box for dinner), so you don’t become sickly. What’s the saying about food being our medicine? Or an ounce of prevention…. You get the idea.

One great cost-cutting way to get your daily dose of healthy, real food, is still by growing some of it like people used to do – right outside your back door - or front door, or both!  Even if you just start with container gardens for lack of space, there are many things you can grow at home that are pretty easy. 

What if we all learned to grow some of our own food like our parents and grandparents used to do, and passed that skill on to someone else?

There really isn’t that much to it on a small, home garden scale and it is very, very inexpensive, especially if you start from seeds and use your own soil and make a bit of compost at home. Even if you're on a super tight budget and receive assistance; did you know that you can use those funds to purchase plant starts and seeds for vegetables, fruits and edible herbs at places that accept SNAP? And what you traded one or two of those extra-curricular activities you hurry off to 3 or 4 times every week, usually at dinner time, became community gardening or joining a garden or cooking club?  Just food for thought.... Think of the gas money you could save, too!

Once the initial prep work is done on a new garden plot, there’s just a little bit of upkeep a few times a week, and you’ll be on your way to fresh salads, fresh steamed or raw veggies and other delicious foods.  As a side benefit, you’ll get some good exercise and fresh air, too.  It’s also a great hobby for kids to do with you, so they can see what vegetables look like as they're growing, and learn where they really come from – before they show up in cellophane wrapped containers in the store.  And hey, if you don't have any around, see about including a neighbor's kids. You can usually rent a kid pretty cheap for an hour or two.

 

Teach them that yes, we actually plant and dig French fries, out of the ground first. No, those nubby little packaged school lunch carrots don’t grow on trees - or usually that small. Peas can actually be eaten raw, they’re not hard to start with - those are frozen. I often hear many parents say they have never seen their kids eat so many vegetables before they started to help grow a family plot.  Kids can be a lot of fun in the garden. Plus, they don't usually mind picking bugs off of plants and that's one of the ways we control pests. I keep a few containers around for our CSA members' kids to catch grasshoppers and caterpillars to feed to the chickens. Most of them love it!

So, let’s get started this year! Next time I’ll visit with you about how to select a site for your garden, what you can do right now to start preparing the soil – and guess what, it doesn’t involve digging – and the fun part; seed and plant shopping! 

Until then, start thinking about 4 or 5 things you really like to eat and could possibly grow yourself! And....

Eat Your Food - Naturally!
Marie 

Frost Watch

Smoke, our Icelandic ewe, is glad someone finally turned off the heat.

A few weeks ago we were in the first frost “watch” mode of the season. That is, the local prognosticators were calling for an earlier than usual first killing frost that sent many folks scrambling. But it never came. At least, it never frosted here at the farm.

But with this new, much more severe sounding “polar vortex” forecasted recently, frost seemed more likely to happen and it seems everyone is calling it quits on summer crops. (Whatever happened to the much friendly phrase – “blue norther”?)

At first, they were calling for a light frost, something that would give us a temperature range of about 32°F down to 28°F. This temperature range affects the most tender of your summer garden such as beans, cucumbers, eggplants, melons, New Zealand spinach, okra, peppers, pumpkins, summer squash, corn, tomatoes, amaranth, and winter squash plants, although if the skins are hardened on the latter, a light frost won’t affect the fruit itself.

Other conditions must be present for a frost to set up on the plants when temps are hovering at 32°F, such as calm air and a clear night sky. This is also known as a “radiation frost”, and is generally what happens when we wake to “Jack Frost” on the pumpkins for the first time in the fall. Although, with the way the winds blew in with much colder temperatures, this event may well qualify as an advective frost, as occurs with a strong cold front.

A hard freeze occurs when temps are colder than 32°F for four or more hours, and temps get below 25°F. Not too many veggies appreciate these temps, although winter crops such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, onions, parsley, peas , (but you may lose the blooms), radishes, spinach, turnips, leeks, and sorrel, are often “sweetened” instead of damaged by them, and don’t usually require protection. Although I’ve been known to cover seedlings if they’ve not had a chance to harden off.

"Deep swings in the weather can take out plants that would ordinarily be hardy.  But then we never experience 40 degree temperature swings in North Texas, do we?"

Somewhere in-between these two lists are the crops that can usually take a light frost, but not the hard freeze and include artichokes/cardoon, beets, carrots, cauliflower, celery, Chinese cabbage, endive, lettuce, parsnips, peas, Swiss chard, escarole, arugula, bok choy, maché, and radicchio.

While the above lists are a good rule of thumb, and should be taken into consideration when planning your garden layout, I’ve seen exceptions to all of these rules at various points, on various plants. The more mature a plant, the higher off the ground it generally is, and the more susceptible to frost it will be due to losing contact with the ground heat. Deep swings in the weather can also take out plants that would ordinarily be hardy.  But then, we never experience 40 degree temperature swings in North Texas, do we?

Many factors can affect frost.

Sometimes, an area will escape a forecasted frost if it is somewhat protected by its micro-climate such as often exists in close knit, highly cemented, urban areas. The heat of the day is held in by the buildings, parking lots, and side walks.

That’s why many times a small backyard garden isn’t affected by a light, brief drop in temps, like one in a wide open space. Like this urban farm.

Although, if you have an inner urban property that exists at the bottom of a slope, or the top of one, you may experience a frost, while a neighbor on the side of the same slope, may not.

Experience over the years on a property is the best teacher for whether or not you’re likely to see damage based on a forecast – IF that forecast ends up correct. One extra push from a strong weather system, could mean an unprotected plant may not make it if temps end up dipping just 1 or 2 extra degrees.

It’s probably not too hard to cover most small back yard gardens, so if you want to try to preserve yours, you may as well be safe, rather than sorry, and cover it up. (More tips on how to do this, below.)

Time to Prepare

As seems par for the course, we had a few very nice days ahead of the predicted cold. I like to take advantage of those days to prepare. And we did just that here at the farm. Tugging on a 100’ x 15’ piece of frost cloth with 25 mph north winds can probably be equated to trying to struggle with the parachute of, say, the Jolly Green Giant during a Minnesota winter. Not fun.

And while it was still a bit windy while I was giving the farm intern his first experience with this winter weather drill, we were pinning frost cloth down in a brisk, easterly wind with the temps near 75°F, not 35°F. The wind chill is much more pleasant at the former.

Additionally, you’ll increase your soil’s heat holding capacity by about four times, if it’s well irrigated beforehand. That’s why you’ll hear me saying to be sure to “water in” your garden, before a frost. Cornell University says it can affect the air above the soil by 5 full degrees, which is a big deal when temps are hovering near freezing over your heavy laden, late fall tomato, basil or eggplant crop!

Some folks decide it’s just not worth the trouble to try to save summer crops and let them go by way of a natural season ending frost. But often, as had been the case the first few winters I was farming, the first predicted frost comes in early to mid November, the low temps last briefly, and there is little to no damage, followed by several weeks of mild weather.

We enjoyed summer squash well after Thanksgiving, tomatoes and summer squash at Christmas and didn’t have to cut all of our basil until around New Year’s. Lately, though, winter has been hitting earlier, and harder. Time will tell if the few hours of prep time will pay off.

To Cover or Not to Cover

By now, you’ve either decided to bother or not, and I’ve covered this topic a few times in the past, but it bears repeating. Frost cloth is designed to trap heat from the ground, under the blanket, not keep cold air from touching the plant.

It’s for this reason that unless you’re stringing lights inside the cloth to keep that palm tree warm, simply tying a sheet over the top of a tall plant is not likely to do much good. And I’m not entirely sure how well doing that works, I’ve never tried it.

Unless you’re able to keep soil heat radiating up inside that blanket to protect the plant, there’s a good chance you’re wasting your time making lollipops out of trees.   

You should never use plastic directly on a plant, without first protecting it with at least a cloth sheet. Plastic conducts the cold. A hoop over low growing plants is also helpful in protecting as a heavy frost can form on the surface of your frost cloth and burn the tips of leaves it’s touching.

So, in review;

1-Decide if the temps are going to dip below freezing long enough to damage, or just to chill the air enough for a hot cocoa. If you’re not sure, plan to protect plants based on predicted temps and above lists.

            Hard freeze range – 25°F or lower; 4+ hours below 32°F

            Light frost range – 32°F - 28°F, a bit warmer if dew points are right with calm winds and clear skies

2-Irrigate the garden soil, thoroughly. Moist soil holds in more heat than dry soil. (but don't forget to disconnect that hose when you're done!)

3-Foliar feed with a liquid seaweed, compost tea, regularly, but for sure before a frost. The higher the plant’s brix reading, (the more sugars present), the less likely plant cells will experience damage from the frost. Healthier gardens tend to fare better than stressed ones.

4-Harvest any tender fruits, such as ripening tomatoes, peppers, summer squash (and blossoms), even if you cover to try protecting the plant. Often the fruits themselves will not make it through if ripe or nearly ripe.

5-Cover the garden while the sun is still warming the soil in order to trap as much ground heat as possible. Use bricks, boards, sand bags or special frost cloth fabric pins to secure edges of cloth against the ground, closing gaps where air can leak in/out.

For the really adventurous, you can try to extend your growing season by a technique used by Eliot Coleman up in Maine where he gardens all year long. After you’ve covered with frost cloth, pull a layer of greenhouse plastic over top and secure the edges. This creates a deeper layer of protection, sometimes up to 3 zones worth of coverage, from a short blast of cold.

I tried it one year, almost by accident, and was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked.  

As I type, the temps are still in the mid 30’s, and the dew point was at 24°. I still don’t quite understand all of the meteorological factors involved in predicting frost, but it felt like frost was imminent earlier when I did my final walk for the evening.

And sometimes, a farmer’s intuition is all you need.

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Marie

PS- We hit our goal, even exceeding it by a bit, for our on-line fund raiser last weekend. Thank you to everyone who contributed, pitched in by sharing, tweeting, etc. Watch for future blog posts on lessons with the new loader. 

It's About Our Right to Eat

Andy isn't quite sure how to hold Sister's Daughter - his sister,
Peanut, looks on at a recent Market Day visit.

Balch Springs is a growing yet charming, country community. We have many benefits of urban suburbia, but I fear soon the city’s vibrant, farming, equine roots will be lost, along with our right to choose where and how we feed ourselves.

In reference to the proposed ordinance about poultry and livestock on the agenda Monday night at 7pm, Balch Springs City Hall on Hickory Tree, I will respectfully request the reconsideration of this overly restrictive government ordinance and simply ask the city to enforce with heavy fines the abuse or neglect of any animal; which is what I believe the spirit of the action was originally motivated by. Consult responsible farmers and ranchers for appropriate guidelines on acceptable standards and make them available to the citizens.

Do we really think outlawing the animal in our city will stop the practice of the illegal activity? And what will happen to the extra animals we outlaw? There are illegal dog fights and horse races, too, yet we don’t outlaw those animals. Do we? Where does it stop?

Outlawing live roosters anywhere in our city, limiting a family to 2 hens and forbidding a family from processing their own meat is a bit like telling someone where they can shop for groceries.

If one has chosen to raise and process their own food, and has appropriate space in which to do it, who is to say they shouldn't be allowed to do so? American homes were all “working farms” at one time before progress started outsourcing our food production to strangers. 2 hens are not productive enough for food purposes – especially without a rooster for breeding. Hens don’t lay eggs forever and if raising poultry for meat, they’d quickly run out of food.

Personally, livestock form an integral part of the majority of organic farms like mine; providing fertilizer and pest control for the farm that feeds them in return.

Recently, the old feeder-turned flower box also became a manger for some baby chicks.

Try THAT without a rooster!

Maintaining a closed flock of about 25 assorted hens - and roosters, otherwise my flock becomes extinct - I maintain a comfortable population where hens are bred on my farm by my own roosters. Educational and entertaining experiences await children, and adults from all over the metroplex who visit my farm. And I enjoy the all natural free range eggs, too.

Maintaining a closed flock under free range management helps control disease that may otherwise be introduced by bringing in new chickens – a common source of contamination. Likewise, it gives control over where sources of chickens come from, safe, disease free and all natural if so desired.

A nuisance? I beg to differ. A rooster crowing isn’t any more annoying to most than other normal sounds of a neighborhood we all have to hear. Traffic, helicopters, airplanes and sounds of construction in fact are more offensive yet we’ve had to tolerate these modern foreign noises in our quiet community. Sometimes you just will hear noise.

The late couple - "Whitey and Sister", relaxed for an afternoon nap together.

Sounds of roosters blend in nicely with shrieks of children playing, bullfrogs and chirping baby chicks and quacking ducks - which bring a sense of real life and peaceful times to any home.
Additionally, we’d be forcing out of practice American and Texas traditions of showing roosters or hens at the state fair, Stock Shows, 4H or FFA competitions if our children can’t keep birds at home here in our community. Many home school curriculum also incorporate raising animals.
Poultry help control pests such as cockroaches, fleas, grubs, and even mice, too, for anyone who raises them.

I wish they'd consider the majority of us who do not break the law by abusing or neglecting our animals, before making it a crime simply to own them.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Brrrrr!

A weather blast from the Arctic is NOT what our seedlings needed. We soaked them in seaweed water before planting and watered them in and covered them up with row cover - that is about all we can do - besides pray a lot - and wait till the weather breaks, apparently Thursday, and see what happens. I'll give them another round with seaweed water, then, too, and hope for the best.

The good news is that it is early enough that if we need to replant for winter crops we can. I'm looking into what is available the soonest from the certified organic grower we got the present starts from. However, we didn't get them all planted anyway so there are still a good number of most varieties we can replant this weekend to replace any we may lose.

On another note
I had a great conversation with another farmer today, (to line up some goodies for us this weekend), and it was interesting to hear her take on the weather this year. She said they'd had a difficult year themselves, and they've been farming for over 30 years so I'm sure they've seen their share of challenging weather. Too much rain in June drowned her tomatoes, the strong summer winds that seemed to never end this year drying everything out, the lack of rain this fall which made plowing up a new area all but impossible, now these early, long lasting freezes.

In fact, she said she heard on the news today that this is the coldest, deepest, Arctic Blast we've had the earliest in the year, since 1901! And, unfortunately, that is what has done in the season's squash and cucumbers I'm afraid. They seemed to hang in there for the few frosty nights we had early on, but between the freezes in November, I think I counted 3 of them at below 32, and now this long lasting freezing 20's, I'm afraid they are toast. Or mush actually. The plants are still alive, but I don't know yet if they'll reflower and continue to produce after this last blast. A little unheated hoop-house can only protect them so much. It's not like we put up green houses out here.

Anyway, another farmer I spoke to over the weekend said we sure picked a difficult year to start farming. She too noted plenty of difficulties, many echoed the ones Wendy cited. But, every year will have its challenges. That is part of farming and why it isn't for everyone.

Those who support a farming endeavor and those who do the farming are few and far between or else we'd have a lot more local farms around. And with this recent resurgence in the interest of eating more healthful foods, you could say that we are all pioneers of sorts as small farms are making a comeback.

It warmed my heart to hear the kind words of encouragement from these two seasoned farming women though. And although I realize that supporting a farm via community supported agriculture is not going to be for everyone, I think it is going to be rewarding for those who are able to endure the start ups and downs. Despite the slow start, the set backs and the challenges unseen yet, I am still excited about this project. The ways in which people who are part of it will benefit will be priceless.

Our working share members and volunteers have helped me and worked very hard to get this plot of land going, and to see their faces when we pulled 34 pounds of some of the best looking veggies we'd seen out of that ground last Saturday was worth its weight in gold! "We grew that!" Yep - and we'll grow a lot more as time goes on.

A lot about farming is timing - and, as my friend Wendy told me, you can do all the planning you want, but it doesn't always, or even usually, go the way you planned it. You have to be patient, flexible and understanding to rely on a farm for your livelihood and your food.

This fall we could have caught every drop of rain on time, planted in early August, as planned, and had a hail storm dump on us as the flowers bloomed on the plants - and we'd still have gotten very little for our work. It is a big risk to farm and to eat from a farm as opposed to a grocery store. But to me it is worth all of the work. And to many of you, it has been worth it, too. I'm glad to hear that because it has not progressed as well as any of us had hoped, I'm sure.

But you have to decide for yourself if the benefits outweigh the risks. And I know I'm not willing to make that decision after only a few seasons, much less the first one. I'm in this for the long haul for one thing because it is too important to give up on. Those of you who may know me personally know that I'm not a quitter. I'm determined to grow organic, healthy safe and local food for myself and my community and to spread the word about local farming, encouraging the next generation to follow.

I'll keep you all posted on this weekend's share pick up via email. But it looks like we'll have turnips, golf ball sized and perfect for cooking, turnip greens and some mixed greens, too. I will check with Judy to see if she can supply us all with eggs as well as keep trying to reach Harmony Harvest Farms, too. I only want to supply your shares with locally grown food, and that is why we are doing this - to support local agriculture.

We'll also be working in the field and taking advantage of the warm snap this weekend. We may move plastic to the newly planted lettuces and replant the things that didn't make the freeze we're enduring as I type this. We'll also try to get an early jump on potatoes this Jan. so we'll start preparing those beds soon, too. Even though early potatoes may not like whatever weather we get in February, oftentimes we can get them going early here in North Texas. We'll have a back up crop to go in later on, too. And onions will go in around Valentine's Day or so. We'll see what old man winter says about that.

As for soybeans, my friends tell me yes, we can grow them - I'll just be careful who supplies the seeds as we all know there are a lot of GMO soybeans out there. Ick.

Keep warm and please pray for mercy on those seedlings. A lot of folks worked a lot of hours to get them into the ground this weekend. I'd hate to think this early cold snap would do them in.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

From Sunny CA to Chilly Dallas

The winter season plants have started to arrive! Now they still have to get in the ground and grow, but I estimate some of them will start to be ready to harvest in late February/early March if winter is kind to our farm.

We have a great opportunity this weekend for you to get your hands in the dirt and help plant them, mulch and harvest from our fall crops, too. What a neat chance for children to see plants going in and then come back to harvest and eat what they planted months previously. And be sure to bring them by once in awhile to see the progress of growth, too, of course! Community Supported Agriculture is about the farm and the community - that is YOU! So please, always feel free to be a part of what is going on out here at the farm even if you are not a work share member.

One of our members is actually a co-worker of mine at my "day-job", Dave Shepard, and he was kind enough - not to mention very excited - to snap some pics of the arrival of the veggie plants. Surely they are shivering from our cold welcome - they were growing in CA until Monday! But, I'll harden them off gradually this week and we'll treat them with kid gloves till they go in the ground. Last night, in fact, some of them even got to spend the night in the dining room - talk about spoiled plants! Now, my dining room wasn't heated, but I think it was still warmer than being outside - even in the greenhouse. They are tiny but numerous and they'll cover a lot of ground once planted.

There is BROCCOLI-ARCADIA, BROCCOLI-PACKMAN , CABBAGE EMERALD CROSS, PAK CHOI JOI CHOI, PAK CHOI MEI QUIN CHO, CABBAGE RUBY PERFECTION , CAULIFLOWER SNOWBALL, CAULIFLOWER VERONICA , MESCLUM BLEND, RADICCHIO RED PRECO & SPINACH BLOOSDALE! Whew! The grower had a crop failure on the Brussels sprouts unfortunately. We'll try to get them another time.


Let me know what you would like for me to try to secure for spring growing - now is the time to think about that. If you want to do some growing at home, let me know as I'll be ordering 4" organic plant starts for the shop this spring. As Eden's CSA members I'll work out some kind of special discount for you.

And watch your email for a survey soon. I'll be putting one together and I hope you'll take a few moments to answer a few brief questions as to your relationship to Community Supported Agriculture and connection to this farm and local food in general. It will help me understand what your goals and objectives are for supporting the farm.

Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!




Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

A Little Common Sense

Regardless of any one's political persuasion, I think most everyone can agree that eating is a pretty important thing. After all - if we don't eat, we won't live very long, right? The simplest form of common sense. However, not everyone understands just how important, even critical, it is to eat healthy - and what exactly that means. I have a relative who is a living example of what poor diet looks like. How long can one sustain quality of life on sugar free this and that, diner food and microwave mystery meals? I'm hear to tell you, about 20 years. Then these fantastic and wonderful machines we live in begin to break down due to lack of nutrition.

I am in my last few months as the president of an organic garden club in Dallas, for those of you who may not know that. The DOGC is a group of wonderful people I was introduced to many years ago by the club president back then who was bringing in a group of local food producers to speak to the group on eating organic foods. She graciously invited me as a local organic garden supplies provider to join them. Now, you might think that organic gardeners would automatically eat that way, too. But, not all do and I attribute this to a variety of reasons, primarily I think is information - or misinformation. It is getting better I am happy to say. And that is evident of the snacks that are brought to our meetings. But let's look at one example of how we shop and maybe where some of America's priorities are a bit out of line.

Many of us in the garden club group may shop at boutique garden centers where the products are a bit more costly. But we do so in part to support local small businesses and to find the quality and selection of products we desire that support our hobby of gardening. Often this is not found in big box type places when it comes to plants and organic supplies. (Tho, I'm seeing the latter pop up in a few of them under names previously tied to miraculous products - ahem. I guess everyone wants in on the growing market of organic gardening.) And in other people's hobbies, they often pay a higher price for whatever gadget it is they need/want to have as well.

But where are we getting our food from? It is a common misconception that we must pay a high price tag at a boutique food store to find healthy, organic foods, though this is probably the easiest place to find an abundance of it - or is it? You may be surprised to find what is in your boutique grocery store isn't all organic, very local or without its hidden ingredients when it comes to processed "organic" foods.

We can grow some of the most healthy, nutritious food in our very own neighborhoods, in fact in our own yards, right next to the beautiful roses, cosmos, lavender and other most perfectly beautiful perennial gardens I've ever seen! And I think many of my fellow club members do raise the standard tomatoes and peppers, herbs and a few other select items at home and there is a growing interest to learn how to grow more. But last year we tried to get support of our group to maintain a local community garden plot up at Flag Pole Hill in central Dallas and found many people just honestly didn't have the time. And these are people who love to garden. I fear this is true of home gardens as well. I think we are all rushing so much, we've left out time to tend to an essential part of life. Which leads me to the answer of my previous question; we're buying our food from places all over the world or grabbing it on the run, thus contributing to our own demise and an endless cycle of nonsense. This is where local farms can and do help. We need more of them to really make a difference.

I'll get off my soap box, and let me say, I'm not a purist by far nor mean to be preachy or judging anyone either. Yes, I can be caught redhanded in the cheese fry basket at Snuffers from time to time. But, as Mr. Pollan suggests in the video I've linked below, a treat now and then is normal and perfectly fine. So long as we don't make it a regular ritual. And, I have my eyes opened every day at ways I can be doing things differently and better, too. But I do encourage you to watch the video of this author who was recently on a PBS show. I'm not sure this poor guy really wants to be secretary of anything, as has been suggested, but he does have a lot of good ideas that perhaps should at least be reviewed and considered. Maybe he can be on one of the committees anyway, to represent the eaters' side. We seem to have plenty of representatives of the large family farms and huge corporate farms. I think there needs to be some balance and see nothing wrong with that. We as a country could use a little balance in a lot of areas.

Small farms may not be very well represented on the Hill, but are learning ways to get started and support themselves with the likes of this CSA and more "direct to market" type selling - rather than getting the under priced wholesale values from the middle man. When government subsidizes farm prices to cheapen the cost of food to the wholesale purchasing agent - who pays for those subsidies anyway? Of course we know the answer. The cost is spread around among all who pay taxes. So food isn't really cheap, it is subsidized by everyone who pays taxes and profits those buying it cheaply and reselling it as higher priced processed food to the unsuspecting. In many cases it is nothing more than a box of chemicals with a few food products in the mix and a pretty picture on it. Hooray for the local farming and local eating movement! We can make a difference, right in our own neighborhoods and communities.

Watch the interview - it is actually in two parts so grab a cup of hot herbal tea and ponder over some of what is said. And be proud to know, Eden's Garden CSA members and CSA and local farm supporters everywhere, are already part of the solution!

I can't get the picture out of my head of very young little children who are grossly overweight and surely on thier way to health problems. I can't help but think the parents must surely not realize what kind of future they are setting their little loved ones up for. We all can do a little to help by teaching those around us of the importance of eating your veggies. And eating them grown locally, seems to be the most beneficial to everyone around us for many reasons.

Tell your kids' school you want to see healthy lunch programs. Tell your city council at local events where "free food" is passed out that it shouldn't be hot dogs or doughnuts but fruit or other healthy alternative. Bring a healthy covered dish to work for the potluck dinner and expose your peers to a tasty and healthful treat. If you don't know how to cook - go to one of the local organic or vegan diners that cater and splurge this one time for your co-workers. (Spiral Diner - all I can say is they really have a way with Vegan food, and I'm an omnivore.) Thanks for listening. See you soon on the farm. Things are growing in spite of the lack of sunshine and I may have a harvest week after next to share. I'll keep you posted.

Please keep fellow Eden's Garden CSA members' the Gordon family and the Walker family in your prayers as one family welcomes a very young son home from the hospital diagnosed diabetic and the other family sends an older young son off to Iraq.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11282008/watch.html



Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!