This week, I was processing some of the pumpkin beginning to look a little tired in the upstairs closet into curried apple pumpkin soup, staring down nearly the last of my sweet potatoes, grown in this chilly summer, and figuring how to honour the last of the last head of my purple cabbage. For the latter, I made a salad of (peeled, sliced) Cortland apples, and thinly sliced purple cabbage, and then a last blaze of colour to accent the purple and white: a mandarin orange sesame dressing (this not homemade). A quarter head remains, after a stir-fry and szechuan peanut sauce rescued some leftover spaghetti from oblivion.
I’ve cut down considerably on my consumption of out-of-region foods, but it was interesting when I stopped completely last winter, and discovered where we as a region were hurting: the fat. Now, fat has gotten such a beating in some quarters. Or, it’s been held up, along with protein, in some of the weirdest (in my view) rationales for dieting. But now, happily, most people are taking a more balanced approach to fat. We need some of this stuff. We don't need ultra-processed industrial forms of this stuff.
The kicker was, in this region, as far as I knew, there was very little going on in the way of processing of the type of oils that most of us take for granted as we salad-prepare, bake, fry etc. [There is a bit more going on, as far as efforts to get oil processing happening: check out Speerville Mill website at http://www.speervilleflourmill.ca/, and also
http://www.organicagcentre.ca/Docs/Foxmill_Seed_Oils_cbc.pdf. ]
So, when I ran out of sunflower oil and olive oil, and couldn’t source anything locally, I did what my ancestors did: rendered lard, on the woodstove, obtained from hogs raised locally.
Now, funnily enough, I didn’t gain any weight, I lost weight during this period. But I wouldn’t recommend that everyone start rendering lard because I think that unless one is working very hard physically, every day, these saturated fats are clearly not the best of news for a body. Still, they appeared to be better for me than the transfats I had previously been thoughtlessly consuming in all the processed foods....processed foods that went the way of olive oil and orange juice and all else, when I began to eat locally. So while the first thing to go from the pantry shelves, so to speak, was the fat—to be replaced for several months by a diet of butter and/or lard—the funny thing was, at the same time what also went was most of the extra fat on my body.
What can we live without?
What can we not live without?
As I began to crave and do without bananas, olive oil, and the like, I began to compile for myself an “Exclusions” list. Of course, this would be different depending on where one was on the planet...but somehow, I don’t imagine folks in the Caribbean pining over blueberries the way we do over the wonderful tropical fruits that they have, and that we love to see in the winter...
WHAT I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT (Exclusions list of my local diet)
Fair Trade and organic if at all possible (and so far it’s possible)
tahini, or sesame seeds
olive oil
bananas
almonds and other nuts & seeds (some are sourced within Canada, but not regionally)
a bottle of lime juice
a bottle of lemon juice
peanut and almond or other nut butters
coffee and cocoa; chocolate
tea (I grow some herbal types, but there is a local fair trade co-op for these; yay!)
my local co-op’s brand pastas
Thus far, this winter, I’ve bought few of the above items, and not purchased an avocado or mango. But I broke down and bought organic coconut, and I’m close to the breaking point for avocado, as I ponder using up locally produced salsa and the peppers I and others grew here, which would be lovely in nachos....so these things fall into the category of what I do not wish to do without.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Dear Mr. President
First a word of congratulation--Mr. President, it is so good to have you and your team at the helm of the United States at this most difficult time.
Second, a word of welcome: you're coming to Canada, my adopted country, though happily these days one can hold dual citizenship and that is the case with me. I live a life so many from Appalachia live, Mr. President, and have lived, historically, where my roots are deep in those Allegheny Hills, but I've gone elsewhere and in my case found a wonderful living and life here in Atlantic Canada, specifically Nova Scotia: a place, ironically enough, I first heard about in childhood through that song by Carly Simon, "You're So Vain"--in which there is of course that line "...flew your Lear Jet up to Nova Scotia, to see the total eclipse of the sun"...Nova Scotia, indeed, Atlantic Canada is quite different from Ottawa--one might say there is at times a bit of a tension filled relationship between the two--but I hope that while you're in Canada, that perhaps you could fly by here, and come visit a place that is, like Appalachia, making do and doing without, and while suffering under the current global economic stresses, is nonetheless a place to know and understand if one wants to get to the heart of the matter of healing le corps economique....
For small-scale solutions will help us to rebuild an economy in North America, indeed, globally, if we abide by a few basic principles. I'll send a letter or email, when I've time, between all the tasks of my daily life, which will outline those basics. But for now, I say congratulations, welcome to Canada which has national health care and SOME farmers (because of supply management) who aren't struggling quite so much, and, here in this region, in some places, some real attention paid to re-localising the food supply such that real, and sustainable economic growth is occurring. It's not flashy or big: just effective and long-term.
Mr. President, prior to your getting to the White House, there were eight years of shoddy bookkeeping, large-scale fiscal irresponsibility, out and out wealth creation by the already-wealthy in their bonuses and privatisation policies of greed, their security companies and warmaking. It cannot, as you know, be fixed overnight. But I agree with your aim to provide some "stimulus" to the economy, through the only means left--the power inherent in the U.S. government. But as you work to do the work that thank the stars you are able to do, consider: a stimulus is needed to get the body going. But administered too frequently, too randomly, too indiscriminately, or too often, and a stimulus becomes a series of shock treatments from which the body economic will not recover...
Second, a word of welcome: you're coming to Canada, my adopted country, though happily these days one can hold dual citizenship and that is the case with me. I live a life so many from Appalachia live, Mr. President, and have lived, historically, where my roots are deep in those Allegheny Hills, but I've gone elsewhere and in my case found a wonderful living and life here in Atlantic Canada, specifically Nova Scotia: a place, ironically enough, I first heard about in childhood through that song by Carly Simon, "You're So Vain"--in which there is of course that line "...flew your Lear Jet up to Nova Scotia, to see the total eclipse of the sun"...Nova Scotia, indeed, Atlantic Canada is quite different from Ottawa--one might say there is at times a bit of a tension filled relationship between the two--but I hope that while you're in Canada, that perhaps you could fly by here, and come visit a place that is, like Appalachia, making do and doing without, and while suffering under the current global economic stresses, is nonetheless a place to know and understand if one wants to get to the heart of the matter of healing le corps economique....
For small-scale solutions will help us to rebuild an economy in North America, indeed, globally, if we abide by a few basic principles. I'll send a letter or email, when I've time, between all the tasks of my daily life, which will outline those basics. But for now, I say congratulations, welcome to Canada which has national health care and SOME farmers (because of supply management) who aren't struggling quite so much, and, here in this region, in some places, some real attention paid to re-localising the food supply such that real, and sustainable economic growth is occurring. It's not flashy or big: just effective and long-term.
Mr. President, prior to your getting to the White House, there were eight years of shoddy bookkeeping, large-scale fiscal irresponsibility, out and out wealth creation by the already-wealthy in their bonuses and privatisation policies of greed, their security companies and warmaking. It cannot, as you know, be fixed overnight. But I agree with your aim to provide some "stimulus" to the economy, through the only means left--the power inherent in the U.S. government. But as you work to do the work that thank the stars you are able to do, consider: a stimulus is needed to get the body going. But administered too frequently, too randomly, too indiscriminately, or too often, and a stimulus becomes a series of shock treatments from which the body economic will not recover...
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Provisioning and Protectionism
My father loved farming. After his death I learned how torn he was about leaving the farm, and going on to university. But could a living be made as a farmer? He was, as you can see from this picture, a member of the Future Farmers of America at his high school, in the 1940s. In the late 1970s, I was the first female member of that same high school's FFA.
Though he worked with agriculture, in some ways the education Dad got at this time--and the one that I, in some fashion, rejected, ultimately, by becoming a poet-- was an education that helped along the consumer economy (teaching farmers how "produce, more and more" without paying attention to the external costs of that over-mechanization, over-fertilization, and all else)...the consumer economy we're now desperately trying to heal ourselves of....
In West Virginia there are a handful of folks trying to re-orient the food system. But the mid-Atlantic state, like elsewhere in the nation, is going to face an uphill battle doing so, now that fuel prices have plummeted. It’s going to be difficult to get people to re-think a food system that went national in another time period, another period of low fuel prices.
If I had the opportunity to speak with the new President of the United States, I would tell him to re-think the fear-mongering about protectionism that has been accompanying his valiant efforts to heal the ailing economy. I would tell him that protecting one’s national interests is not necessarily a bad thing.
Too, I’d tell him that not all Canadians are in favour of “free trade” – because it’s not free and it’s not fair, in most instances. And, although it helps a few businesses here and there who have learned to do well across a border, by and large it helps those at the top of the economic "heap," not the majority of us here just trying to get by. That's not to say to throw all international agreements out the window; but....we need to recognize each nation's, each locality's need to feed and otherwise provide for itself, to create a healthier whole nation and planet.
We in Canada are a part of a resource economy, and if we focused on provisioning ourselves first, in all dimensions (primary, secondary, tertiary), and then went outside of our borders to do some business, we would survive the current storms. We might be labeled protectionist but we would, if we focused region by region, build in the end a healthier economy, one less prone to the kinds of catastrophic fluctuations we’ve been seeing in the last six months. By the same token, it should be recognized that the Americans are going to do what is in the best interest of their country (and so they should). And so, if we look after re-orienting the Canadian economy, and making it more self sufficient instead of hoping that the Americans don’t enact a domestic procurement policy, then we as Canadians would be better off in the short term and the long term, regardless of what the Americans do.
There is an irony to the fact that I fought against NAFTA, and yet I owe my being in Canada to its skilled labour provisions....a story for another day...
This morning’s CBC radio news report out of Halifax was astounding—interviewing shoppers at a local mall, it appeared the majority of people don’t pay any attention to where what they’re buying comes from, or bother to make the effort to buy locally or Canadian! I am within walking/biking distance of an abattoir that offers locally processed meats, those animals grown locally as well. There are farmers in my village, and a mom and pop business just up the road that sells the catch from Arichat. I think, with gratitude, of the true wealth they are creating by their efforts. But more needs to be done to support them.
When I did my little 96 k way experiment and, after a modest Christmas shop (still all local foods) stopped buying—meaning that, other than butter and milk or what’s called half-n-half or “blend” I pretty much stopped going to the store—all of a sudden I realized what was right by my doorstep, practically. And I didn’t wonder, either, about what was in the package that I’d purchased: I knew. And I knew that, if I was unhappy with the quality or if something was not quite right, I knew exactly where to go to deal with it....not to a bunch of UPC codes on a website, frantic about food safety. No, I have been eating well, and healthily, and deliciously. A fact for which I remain grateful...
The local food realities, such as they are and such as they could be developed, could also be incorporated into a regional food system, which would have, of course, consequences for big-scale agri-business in Florida or California. But this in fact might be a bit-more-do-able, in terms of keeping costs down and lessening the impacts of truck transportation on roads, the climate, our wallets....if less food, and only those items that some Northerners cannot live without (mangoes! almonds!) which will not grow but in these places....And, next time, I’ll be putting up my “Exclusions” list...my own personal list of what I figured I couldn’t live without (completely) which meant thinking long and hard about the fair trade and organic options from “away”....
Though he worked with agriculture, in some ways the education Dad got at this time--and the one that I, in some fashion, rejected, ultimately, by becoming a poet-- was an education that helped along the consumer economy (teaching farmers how "produce, more and more" without paying attention to the external costs of that over-mechanization, over-fertilization, and all else)...the consumer economy we're now desperately trying to heal ourselves of....In West Virginia there are a handful of folks trying to re-orient the food system. But the mid-Atlantic state, like elsewhere in the nation, is going to face an uphill battle doing so, now that fuel prices have plummeted. It’s going to be difficult to get people to re-think a food system that went national in another time period, another period of low fuel prices.
If I had the opportunity to speak with the new President of the United States, I would tell him to re-think the fear-mongering about protectionism that has been accompanying his valiant efforts to heal the ailing economy. I would tell him that protecting one’s national interests is not necessarily a bad thing.
Too, I’d tell him that not all Canadians are in favour of “free trade” – because it’s not free and it’s not fair, in most instances. And, although it helps a few businesses here and there who have learned to do well across a border, by and large it helps those at the top of the economic "heap," not the majority of us here just trying to get by. That's not to say to throw all international agreements out the window; but....we need to recognize each nation's, each locality's need to feed and otherwise provide for itself, to create a healthier whole nation and planet.
We in Canada are a part of a resource economy, and if we focused on provisioning ourselves first, in all dimensions (primary, secondary, tertiary), and then went outside of our borders to do some business, we would survive the current storms. We might be labeled protectionist but we would, if we focused region by region, build in the end a healthier economy, one less prone to the kinds of catastrophic fluctuations we’ve been seeing in the last six months. By the same token, it should be recognized that the Americans are going to do what is in the best interest of their country (and so they should). And so, if we look after re-orienting the Canadian economy, and making it more self sufficient instead of hoping that the Americans don’t enact a domestic procurement policy, then we as Canadians would be better off in the short term and the long term, regardless of what the Americans do.
There is an irony to the fact that I fought against NAFTA, and yet I owe my being in Canada to its skilled labour provisions....a story for another day...
This morning’s CBC radio news report out of Halifax was astounding—interviewing shoppers at a local mall, it appeared the majority of people don’t pay any attention to where what they’re buying comes from, or bother to make the effort to buy locally or Canadian! I am within walking/biking distance of an abattoir that offers locally processed meats, those animals grown locally as well. There are farmers in my village, and a mom and pop business just up the road that sells the catch from Arichat. I think, with gratitude, of the true wealth they are creating by their efforts. But more needs to be done to support them.
When I did my little 96 k way experiment and, after a modest Christmas shop (still all local foods) stopped buying—meaning that, other than butter and milk or what’s called half-n-half or “blend” I pretty much stopped going to the store—all of a sudden I realized what was right by my doorstep, practically. And I didn’t wonder, either, about what was in the package that I’d purchased: I knew. And I knew that, if I was unhappy with the quality or if something was not quite right, I knew exactly where to go to deal with it....not to a bunch of UPC codes on a website, frantic about food safety. No, I have been eating well, and healthily, and deliciously. A fact for which I remain grateful...
The local food realities, such as they are and such as they could be developed, could also be incorporated into a regional food system, which would have, of course, consequences for big-scale agri-business in Florida or California. But this in fact might be a bit-more-do-able, in terms of keeping costs down and lessening the impacts of truck transportation on roads, the climate, our wallets....if less food, and only those items that some Northerners cannot live without (mangoes! almonds!) which will not grow but in these places....And, next time, I’ll be putting up my “Exclusions” list...my own personal list of what I figured I couldn’t live without (completely) which meant thinking long and hard about the fair trade and organic options from “away”....
Provisioning...and Eating Seasonally
Part of the challenge to consumers is finding foods and other goods produced within a reasonable distance of their homes and workplaces. In a word: provisioning. We all know the middle-class North American chant: I’m too busy, I don’t have time, and thus the excuse to ‘just grab something’When I lived for a year back in West Virginia, away from Atlantic Canada where seasonality and provisioning is expressed in “fiddleheads!” (spring) “strawberry season!”(mid-summer) “blueberries!” (late summer), etc. etc., I had to figure out how to provision for the kind of eating I was used to doing: seasonal, lots of fresh vegetables in summer and fall, lots of frozen and canned in the winter and early spring (until the fiddleheads were announced, the rhubarb was ready, the first greens emerged...)
It was then that I realized how good I had it in Atlantic Canada. But I’m curious to know how many people out there are provisioning in this way...eating seasonally, putting foods aside for winter. Judging by the size of the crowds in the big store parking lots, sometimes I think people think it’s too hard to do this kind of shopping. And, naturally, the big stores know this, and that’s why the super-chains have managed to thrive. But think: how many people are getting a decent job out of the super stores? And would those people be happier doing something else if those big stores got scaled down, and part of their current business went to more local and small scale producers?
In the past, I have raised poultry and lamb, and before the nightmare of 2007 was involved with an operation that was dairy and beef oriented, with some grain and forage production. I’ve tried the Community Shared (or Supported) Agriculture system of selling subscriptions to folks who then get a share of the garden produce, and as a kid on the farm that you see here, my father raised corn on leased ground (as well as did custom work) and we had a little bit of everything, although, because of the steepness of this hill farm, it was always more about livestock and forage than market crops...i.e., cattle, sheep, hogs, broilers, layers. My grandfather, his father, had raised strawberries, eggs, had tried going commercial with both poultry and horticulture, I believe, but for a number of reasons he did not make much of a go of it. Topography and distance to markets was part of the problem, as was the cheap food policy that had begun to change eating habits in the 1950s and ‘60s; this had begun to make it impossible for smaller farmers to compete, price-wise, with what food was coming out of the South, California, and the Midwest. My father got into agriculture, as did I, in sort of a backhand fashion, through the university....but that’s another story, for another day. I had to post again this old instant photo of the farm, again, the year my grandfather bought it.....
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