why two languages/pouquoi deux langues

Mais, pouquoi French, le pays?

Because je suis canadienne, even if I speak and write la langue so poorly, and we do have two official languages. Sometimes it’s not possible to express what needs to be expressed in English (or French, but it’s what I’m choosing as a fall-back). Too, I like the arrangement of le pays, as those unilinguals who only speak English will say in their heads “pays” and that economic free association gets me to where I want part of this blog to go to, the matters linking the land and food with economy (economy in all senses of the word).


Why food/farm/frugal?


It begins with the land.

The expanse and immediacy of what is beneath us as the planet comes into view, becomes most real, when we open our mouths and take in nourishment in the form of food. We can deny that relationship – in fact, in the days before Michael Pollan, the Slow Food movement and the wondering about (and making fun of) such industrialized food fare as orange breakfast drink crystals or bricks of processed cheese food (and HEY! I like these things, but don’t want to get sued for mentioning them by brand name) most of us had a pretty strained and strange relationship with food. But that is changing. And, the economy, globally, is changing (how’s that for understatement). And farming is, in some respects, changing or has changed. And they’re linked, in some pretty important ways, although I’ve not seen much in the way of discussion about the connections. This is what I’m hoping to get to, in the winter weeks to come...though, as I say this, I know that although I said “last harvest” of spinach, that bed of green is still persisting in the 60 km winds we’re having, along with 15 degrees C rainy weather again today....the Bay of Fundy was an angry red, and...trust me: that mud can be a calm red, too.

And I should get to posting some recipes, though—for now—I will start with a couple of little frugal tips. Eventually, I’ll put them all together, but too much information at one time can be overwhelming...

Kitchen:

Save the wrappers that butter comes in (or margerine, if you’re vegan) in the fridge. When you need to grease pans for cakes/cookies, etc., you can use these and use that last bit of fat for the purpose before discarding/burning/recycling (depends on what they’re made of...sigh...)

Bath & Kitchen:

Avoid those liquid soaps that have any kind of antibiotic substance or detergent based. Make your own by saving a dispenser (I buy the recyclable Kiss-My-Face organic olive oil based moisturizers, and then re-use the pump dispenser for this purpose), then taking any little bits of leftover soap, chop/put into little pieces into the dispenser container, then adding hot (not boiling) water and shaking. Washing hands with soap, when used with plenty of hot water, is the best way to fight infections in the winter, or so the experts tell us...but doing battle with bacteria with antibiotic is just upping the ante, in my view, for superbugs and excessively dry skin, that in turn facilitates attack of the microbes......keeping to good old-fashioned soap, which is doing its job by getting the bad bacteria down the drain and off your hands, is in my humble opinion the way to go (and though my historical research is in the area of home remedies and all else, let me put a disclaimer here: I’m just offering opinions and saying what works for me...my Ph.D. in history doesn’t qualify me to do aught else!!!
until next time,
Deborah