Garden Girl

My blackberries are starting to bloom!

Tags: gardengirl

To combat the skyrocketing price of flour, several Massachusetts bakeries have taken on a project that’s part Little Red Hen, part World War II Victory Garden. The bakeries are recruiting their customers to till up their lawns and gardens and plant wheat.

Bakeries Urge Customers to Plant Wheat : NPR

This is one of the more horrifying things I’ve read in a while. A truly devastating new disease that appears to be on the rise may well be linked to GM food crops. You can read more at the link just below, but be warned, it’s not for the faint of heart:

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=599

I found this story thru the blog of one of my favorite local soap makers:

http://awildsoapbar.blogspot.com/

and it just re affirms my desire to know where my food comes from and to know that it is produced by people and by means I trust.
Far from it being too expensive to produce food the old fashioned way, localizing food can create jobs and help protect the health of our children. It seems to me like it is far too expensive in terms of both real prosperity and quality of life to do anything else.

Let me point out that the delicious pizza I had last night, made with local organic asparagus tips, onions and tomatoes as well as semi local raw cheese and organic flour, tomato sauce and olive oil was not only yummy, it was cheaper than a pizza I could’ve ordered delivered from any of my local pizza joints!

april108fruit_trees_fig1

Originally uploaded by TheHerbGirl

The fig is downright verdant.

Originally uploaded by TheHerbGirl

We have lift off on all the trees but the peach, who I’m hoping is just a slow starter.

Well, why not?
I’ve been thinking about this for a few days before I even saw this wonderful post from Zanthan Gardens:

http://www.zanthan.com/gardens/gardenlog/?p=2340

My budget is very tight this year (buying a trailer & moving, contractors, and even a few fruit trees & a berry patch have wiped my spending money clean out).
And I’d like to concentrate what gardening budget I will have again in some months on food production in my not yet set up raised beds.
Even if that weren’t true, why not weeds?
A weed is more often than not just a useful plant that happens to be where we’d like to have some other kind of plant.
But with my scant knowledge of permaculture, I lean toward wanting native bio diversity built on disturbing the soil as little as possible. I’d rather take the slow route of building my soil up with good organic compost, nematodes & encouraging local fauna to utilize my plot.
I’m not opposed to native prairie grass & flowers and even dandelions in my back yard since they bring bees & other beneficial bugs that are good for my garden, ‘tho I’ll happily yank them out when they start intruding on my food producers.
Actually I’m more distressed by those non native invasives: Bermuda & St. Augustine grass.

So seriously: why not weeds?

& speaking of food gardening, Gristmill blog posted a critique of Bruce Sterling’s critical view of slow food as elitist. It’s well worth reading:

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/3/29/84737/8211

Far from being an elitist, I see myself as supporting my food producing neighbors and making it more possible for people to have access to healthy real food at an affordable price. The cost of tomatoes at your local farm market is probably less than you might think. The cost to you of tax subsidies to big Ag. and health care needs of a society poisoned by the bad nutrition that big Ag. fosters is enormous.

Having said that, there’s also the intangible benefits of slow food. It’s pleasing to all the senses, not just taste. It encourages us to meet and talk with our neighbors. I’m eagerly awaiting the opening of the Pflugerville Farmers Market in a month!

After all– even the most ethically committed of us is likely balancing some need of expediency with their efforts at sustainability (the computer I’m writing this on runs on wind generated energy, but its made of parts generated currently by mining & manufacturing in decidedly eco unfriendly ways. My veggies are local & seasonal, but my grains are not. Strictly speaking, I’m more of an ethicurean than a locavorian.)
Do what you can.
Don’t beat yourself up over what you aren’t doing yet.
Remember to enjoy what you have and to share it.
Look for ways to do more but don’t mistake asceticism for ethics or effort for moral superiority.

I read quite a few of the bloggers & journalists who write on issues of sustainability, climate destabilization and energy.
I’m happy to see a zeitgeist building as these issues are starting to permeate into the mass consciousness. A few years ago ( heck even a year ago), it was easier to dismiss these writers as fringe eco-maniacs with chicken little complexes, even when the body of scientific research had been supporting what they were saying for years.

As the number of people gathering & disseminating information online about the ecological challenges we’re facing grows, I’ve noted a trend in the writings that makes me very happy. That trend is one I think of as writing in a spirit of pragmatic optimism.
Some of the first bloggers I became aware of and started to read regularly had grim facts to report & an even grimmer forecast for human civilization. These folks certainly were not & are not talking out of their hats. Many of them have been gathering data & investigating issues like peak oil, arctic melting, soil depletion, and the problems of monoculture farming for years and I would imagine it’s beyond hard in the face of daily new reports of increasing peril and mis information spreading, apathy & greed on the part of governments and industries, not to take a pessimistic view.

But here’s what I strongly believe:

We don’t have the luxury of pessimism.
We have no time to spend energy in “I told you so” judgmental recriminations & a self righteous schadenfreude.
Nor is it going to help us to take a survivalist attitude of “the smart & strong who saw this coming & prepared will make it just fine”.
Even if that were true, which I doubt.
Those attitudes may feed the ego when times are tough, but they won’t feed our bodies.
To feed our bodies (and our spirits), we are going to need knowledge and skills and local networks sharing them.

If we preach gloom, doom and the elitism of those who have already started on creating greater self sufficiency, we may put people off the path of self empowerment that will not just serve them well, but help them serve others well too.

It can be scary to confront change, especially when we’ve been socialized into a very dangerous passivity that eats at our confidence.
I think what people may need most now is encouragement to take a few baby steps like going car free or joining a victory gardening community and growing just a little of their own food, because if they take these small steps successfully, they will feel empowered to take more steps and to help others take action.

Pragmatic optimism is about building a real momentum for change, which beats being smug while others end up feeling helpless all to heck.

The fig tree is pushing forth nubbins.

We’ll see more journalists & writers living low impact experiments & writing about their adventures. I’m all for anything that generates memes that convince Americans that living more sustainably ≠ fate worse than death.

I just discovered Doug Fine & his blog for his new book:

Farewell, My Suburu

& he’s my new hero. See videe here:

Doug in action (”oh, hello goats”)