reading in bed is part of Sena and Aiyana's daily morning routine. i love that they want to do that. they'll read for hours if i let them. they're really into the "american girl" series right now.

we had a little rain this afternoon, which i am very grateful for. the sky was beautiful, with all kinds of clouds, some very dark, others shining bright, and we got a rainbow too! it made everything look so fresh, with the bright colors of spring, the yellows and greens even more vivid after the rain. our farm looked beautiful, and it made me so happy just to be here.

one of the chicken coops

 our little field (with rainbow just visible in the background)

 our house (with rainbow just off the tip of the roof)

 the newly cleared orchard area (we got some trees already, and ed's starting to graft this week...)

peace

old chicken coop

sena and aiyana found one of our old chicken coops on the far side of the field, and have been happily playing there over the past few days. they put hay down on the floor, and brought in big stones for table and chairs. they decorated with dandelions and other wild flowers they found around the field. they made it really pretty and cosy in there, and have been spending most of their time in this new play area. it makes me so happy to see how they enjoy these beautiful, simple things that life has to offer.

other than that, the weather has been strange. there's a "red flag" fire warning in effect right now for our area. usually we have spring rains, but not this year. it continues to be very dry, and windy.
i pray and send healing thoughts to our planet.

peace

i've been so busy, i haven't had a chance to use the internet to write in a while...
it's been really warm over the past 2 weeks, and the plants went crazy. they grew so much and so fast - spinach, lettuces, radishes, etc.- and we've been harvesting and selling at our farm. then last night, the temperature got down in the low 20's. quite a change. i was really worried about the plants getting damaged, being so much larger than they normally are at this time of year, but we covered everything and they all seem to be fine. now if we only got some rain... it's been so dry, for too long. we barely had any snow this winter, and very little precipitation, and the soil is so dry...
we've been irrigating, but i don't know for how long the well will be able to sustain it. so i'm hoping for rain.

been listening to cohen's new album whenever i have a chance to be alone in the house, which is usually when i'm cooking lunch or washing dishes. can’t listen to any other music lately, only what truly reaches me, like him.

“o solitude of longing

where love has been confined

come healing of the body

come healing of the mind”

from “come healing”

 
peace

Happy Birthday Roxi!

today is my sister's birthday, and it was a beautiful, sunny day, quite a gift, quite fitting.

my sister is the most selfless person i know, and i am amazed that we're sisters. i struggle with selfishness and a whole bunch of other things, so i don't know how she got to be this way, but we are all better off for it.
i feel very lucky also that we're so close to each other, physically and otherwise. she really helps us a lot all year long, canning, cooking, making bread, yoghurt, cheese, jam, etc., and just generally feeding us especially when things get too busy and i can't pull it all together.

so a very happy birthday to you, Roxi, probably the most faithful reader of this blog (well, other than my mom, i guess)!

kitties

our new kitties are really sweet. right now they're still in the house, as we have to keep them in for 4 weeks to get them used to their new home. after that they'll be outdoor cats. in the meantime, we're enjoying their playfulness and friendliness. Mindnight has been very shy, but now he's more used to them and started to play with the babies. the mama cat, LT, is mostly doing her own thing, which i appreciate very much.

these are the two babies, Snowflake and Cookie. they're really nutty and cute, and they play together all the time. Snowflake is giving Cookie a bath here.

.

snowflake found this basket and loved playing with it

a nap by the window

peace

our own maple syrup

sweet and delicious. very exciting to have made our own. we got a little over 1 qt so far, but that's ok considering that the sap needs to boil down 40 to 1 ratio to get the syrup. we're not really set up for it either, so we've been boiling on top of the woodstove and some on the electric stove. but it's been fun, and we're still going.

oh, and our CSA is full, which is very, very exciting!

peace

homeschooling and maple syrup

aiyana looking up words in the dictionary

 and working on her math

 ed setting up buckets and tubing by the maple tree

 sap is already coming through

setting up more taps

tasting the sap as it comes out of the tree

did another sweat lodge yesterday, and again, it felt really good. aiyana came too this time, and she went in the lodge with me the entire time. sena and ed stayed outside. at one point, it started snowing hard, and hale was coming down, and the wind was blowing fierce. inside the lodge is was hot and steamy, peaceful and protected. it felt so good to be in there like that, listening to the voices of the wind outside. after the lodge was over, it felt invigorating to come out into the cold, and as i rummaged around in the darkness, looking for my clothes and boots and all my belongings, i just could not stop laughing. i just felt so free and light and good. today i'm still feeling really good, and i do believe that sweating like that is very beneficial for my health, getting rid of toxins, not to mention clearing the mind. i'm also glad that aiayana was in there with me. it was a special thing to share. i held her little hand most of the time, not because she was afraid, but because i wanted us to feel close.

other that that, the last week and a half has been really busy. lots of changes and new additions. we cleared another 1.5 acres of our land, which was all brushy and tangled with bittersweet vines. we're going to put down a covercrop in the next couple of weeks, and then the plan is to put in an orchard. it's a long term plan, but one that is very exciting. we're thinking of a variety of fruit trees and bushes, as well as some nuts. we hired ed's cousin and his crew for clearing the land, and they did a grood job.

we also got more animals: 3 new cats, for rodent control, and 25 baby chicks, which are now in the house under a heating lamp, but will be going outside with the rest of the flock in a few weeks.

the CSA is just over 90% full. i already started soil blocks in the greenhouse, for onions, and some brassicas and they're germinating. our new unheated greenhouse already has spinach, lettuces, radishes, carrots, beets, and greens growing in the ground, which is incredible (i planted on february 2nd). what a winter!
this coming week, we're going to try to plant more vegetables outside, since the ground is not really frozen.

we've been doing some maple syrup as well, just for fun with the kids. we won't get much, just something for our family.
that's about it for an update.

peace

our CSA is doing well. we've been getting applications every day, and they're still coming.last night a woman stopped by to drop off her application, and she was so kind, thanking us for farming the way we do, and just being very appreciative of our efforts in general. that feels really good. farming doens't pay very much, but to know that what we do means so much to some people is quite a payment in itself.

earlier this week i went to visit Erica from Hurricane Farm. we spent a really nice couple of hours together, having tea and talking about farm life, with all its challenges, but also its beauty. erica showed me around her farm, and her animals. it was really good to be talking to someone who's experiencing so much of what i am. she is also a mother of 2 young children, and a full-time farmer. we were talking about how there's always so much to do: outside, inside, with the kids, the house, cooking, cleaning, etc. it really felt good to be undwerstood that way, and when i left i felt truly refreshed, and also, inspired to keep doing what i'm doing. it's always funny to me how i can complain so much about the intensity of my life, yet love it at the same time. i don't want to do anything else. i think it's all because of the land. at least for me it is. once you develop a relationship with the land, an intimate, daily relationship, you're hooked. you'll put up with hardships and disappointments, because the land, besides challenging you, can also sooth you and heal you and give you a sense of connection like almost nothing else can. it's very much like having children.

peace

my friend posted a nice little write-up on joining a CSA. she moved south of here over a year ago, and joined a CSA near her new home. she speaks from experience, and gives useful tips for anyone who's thinking of joining a CSA. here is her posting.

food prices

i've been planning to write something on food pricing, specifically on small farm vs. supermarket differences. but my sister emailed me this little piece which says what i wanted to very nicely. the farmer quoted here has had similar experiences and is addressing the price issue from a similar point of view. this is an excerpt from a larger article, which you can find in its entirety here. 

Why Is Sustainably-Produced Food Priced Higher?

"Every week during the growing season, my husband and I cart our family’s grassfed meats to market. We sell pork chops for $11 a pound; ground beef goes for $7.50.

Every week, we meet someone who tells us the prices are too high.

In fact, at those prices, the average net income for our family members has maxed out at $10 per hour. But part of our job is to hold our chins up and accept weekly admonishment for our inability to produce food as cheaply as it can be found in the grocery store.

The truth is, food in the grocery store is not cheap. We pay for it in advance with our tax dollars, which support farm subsidies that go to support an ecologically problematic industrialized food system. We pay for it with the lives of our soldiers and with the unfathomable military expenditures that support our national reliance on fossil fuels, upon which the industrial farming model is completely dependent. The prices only look cheap because we are paying for them someplace else: through our taxes, and via the destruction of our soil, water, and natural resources through irresponsible farming practices.

The viability of a small farm is dependent not just on garnering a living wage, but on our ability to steward our land in a way that allows it to stay healthy and productive into the future. Industrial food production, in contrast, currently depends on farm subsidies—and on a license to deplete soils and pollute water for immediate profit with no regard for what happens tomorrow. This is our nation’s cheap food policy: Make the food in the grocery store as inexpensive as possible, so that we can justify lower working wages for Americans.

With policies like this, we are losing our farmers; we are also poisoning our public with toxic food. Between 1999 and 2006, the CDC estimated that 45% of American adults were suffering from chronic illness. You can’t tell me that has no connection to the food supply."

 

sweat lodge

Sena, Ed and I went to our first sweat lodge last Sunday. It was a beautiful, intimate ceremony, held in the Lakota tradition, and led by an amazing family we have recently become friends with. This is what my experience was like:

Earth, Air, Water, Fire.

Power,

Humility,

Authenticity.

Total darkness,

Intense heat,

Water on red hot stones,

Steam.

Total darkness,

Like a womb.

Deafening drumbeat.

Sacred chanting

Thanksgiving

Prayer.

Sweat

Running down my body

In rivers.

Air so hot,

Burning my nostrils.

Lying my body against the Earth

For strength,

And cool relief.

Feeling the soil,

Rich, dark and moist

Against my skin.

Feeling my heart beat wildly

With the deafening drum,

The only sound I hear

So all encompassing

Like silence.

Relishing the feeling

Of laying on the ground

Black earth against my arm, my neck, my face

Direct, intimate contact

Like a lover

Just where I need to be.

Let go of everything,

Without even trying

Only the drum.

After the fourth door,

Came out into the sunshine and cool air

Of a winter day

Feeling clear, light

And happy,

Like a child.

a link

here's a nice article written about us

chickens

we moved our chickens into the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago, after we harvested all the carrots and lettuces we had in there. we wanted them to be able to get some fresh greens at this time of year. aiyana is our chicken manager and expert echicken catcher. here she is in the process of bringing them into the greenhouse. the chickens love it in there, of course: protected, warm, and fresh greens available. the only problem was that we moved two flocks, which are normally in two separate coops, and as soon as they were free to mingle, they started to fight with each other. the two rosters foughts, and the hens fought too. soon enough though, they established new territories, each flock hanging to one corner of the greenhouse, and it was settled.

here's what the greenhouse looked like 10 days after the chicken had been in there. all that green matter was gone. they scratched the soil nice and loose, and fertilized it for us too. soon they'll be moved to new ground.

 here they are pecking through some compost i brought them

this is "Prince", one of our roosters. sena and aiyana are in charge of collecting eggs daily, and so they know the chickens really well, and give them names. Prince is quite a character. he would not let the other rooster approach any of the ladies from his coop when the two flocks were free to mix together.

 aiyana the animal lover

Midnight, our rodent patrol is being quite lazy at this time of year. i don't know how many rodents he's getting, but i think he could be getting more. i see the damage they're doing out there in the spinach, so i know there are lots of them. we'll have to stop pampering him so much i guess. but he did win us all over, so it's hard to be very strict with him.

we did get some snow last week, although i still feel like winter hasn't really come yet. it's been so warm, it's quite unsettling.

peace

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

she's in the Dominican Republic for her birthday, and I hope that she's having a good one!

I was making a fire today, using up some old newspaper to start it. As I crinkled the paper, my eyes fell on an article describing a Brooklyn couple, who found out, within one week, that both the man and the woman have advanced cancer. For her it was breast, and for him, colon. They are young, in their 30’s and have a little girl to take care of. We hear cases like these too often: young people with serious or even life threatening conditions (although this case is unusual in that both were hit at the same time), and I don’t think we should just accept this as normal, and attribute it to bad luck.

Last week I was in at a doctor’s office for a yearly wellness exam; I looked around me in the sitting room, and everyone but one person was obese and looked unwell. The phrase “obese and malnourished” came to mind.

I am convinced that the food we eat is making us sick; I am also convinced that the food we eat can be a critical step towards our well-being. As you know, I have been deeply involved studying and practicing farming and nutrition over the past years, and I need to say this: Before you take medication for whatever’s bothering you, look at the food you eat. The food most people eat is dead, degenerated, irradiated, synthetic food that’s making them sick. If anyone finds themselves not well, I want to beg them to look at their diet, as a means of getting well again. Maybe not only diet, maybe you have to do medications too depending on what’s going on, but at least make diet as important a part of your journey to getting better as the medication. Eventually, maybe you can even ditch the medication and stay well and radiant through good diet and life habits alone.

It’s been said so many times, but it’s true, so I say it again. We need to really acknowledge the fact that we can pay to get good quality, nutritious food, or we can pay the hospital and the pharmaceutical industry. But to expect to be healthy and well while eating the cheap, degenerated food that we’ve been eating, is almost to expect a miracle.

Since I know a little bit of how food is grown, and what goes into food production, I am very critical when it comes to the food I buy for my family. I pretty much stay away from all processed foods, because that’s where you get all kinds of preservatives and nasty additives that we should not be ingesting. I try to buy food that’s as close to its natural state as possible. Like buying a real apple instead of apple-flavored whatever. And I try to cook starting with raw ingredients, like real vegetables, instead of pre-processed ones, such as purchased soup bases, or boullion cubes.

When I buy milk for my family, I get raw milk, because I know the guy the milk comes from and I trust his practices. If I were to buy yogurt (I don’t bc my sister makes it for us), I’d check the label and buy the one that has the fewest ingredients, just plain whole organic yogurt, made from RBGH free milk with beneficial bacterial cultures. And so on. I am constantly scanning our grocery list to see what we can do better on. Like, instead of buying granola, why not make our own, and that way we know for sure what goes into it. I want to minimize what we buy and maximize what we grow ourselves, but I realize that this is not feasible for most people. So in that case, it’s back to doing the research and finding sources that you trust, like a farmer near you, or a health food store that carries products with integrity. The point is that when you start going down the path of really questioning and acting on the knowledge that what you eat is absolutely critical to your health, to how you feel, how you look, and so on, then things start to change and new avenues will open up that you may not know about right now.

Peace

ed and i went to another soil health conference yesterday. heard lots about what we already knew, but some interesting new things too: stuff about how different minerals react with each other in the soil based on their physical and chemical properties (Ca, K, and S for example); also some new info on covercrops that we will apply in the field this coming season. always good to learn something new you can do.

we did a soil test this fall, and the results came back showing quite an improvement in organic matter and many nutrients, since last year. some nutrients we still have to work on, but overall we're in good shape. the exciting news is also that we'll have to add a lot less compost and amendments this year, which means money savings, and more importantly less backbreaking work for ed hauling compost to the field.

we finally finished putting together our 2012 CSA information package, and i just emailed it to everyone in our CSA and on our waiting list. it feels good to get it out finally; we've been receiving calls and emails about the CSA, and i have been quite anxious to get the info out. so now it's done, and we also updated our website with some new pics, and new info and links, so check it out if you'd like: shundahaifarm.com. there are a couple of things that still need to be fixed, but overall it works and has the info we wanted on there.

now that all this is out of the way, we can start focusing on our 2012 planting plan and seed order. that's always exciting.

i've been sick over the past week, with cold-like symptoms, and other weirder symptoms, such as a paiful ankle i could not walk on, and some general leg pain. i got tested for lyme and other tick-borne diseases, and it's not that; i'm getting better now, so my naturopath thinks it may have been some kind of weird flu virus. i'm just glad that it didn't happen during the season when i have to be out in the field and need to use my ankle.

speaking of health, i have been staying away from gluten and yeast since august, since i had an allergy test done where i showed sensitivity to them. then, over christmas, i ate everything because it was too hard not to when i'm visiting and eating at other people's houses. i have to say that i definitely noticed a difference in how i feel. my stomach did not feel good every time i had gluten or yeast. nothing major, but enough to notice a difference. also, i wonder if this cold and leg stuff i got was not maybe precipitated in some way by the sudden change in diet. well, anyway, i'm staying off gluten and yeast again, mainly bc i'm not interested in foods containing them anyway, and also bc i want to keep experimenting and see how i feel.

peace 

2 Christmas Eve pics

taken at ed's parents' house in manchester. sena and aiyana brought their books and read to grandma and great grampa before the guests arrived.

 aiyana reading to ed and great grampa (gramps).

gramps turned 89 this past weekend (Happy Birthday to him) and he astonished all the people at his little party by attempting a headstand. sena was demonstrating her headstands, and he wanted to try it too... he even managed to get his legs up in the air while standing on his head. i don't know any other 89-year-olds who have have tried that!!!

visiting buca and bucu in montreal

julia, sena and aiyana reading before bed

family pic

 pajama concert

 breakfast

 hanging at a cafe on mont-royal. we overdid it on the croissants, but they really were good....

buca with sena and aiyana

inside

i always feel so internally focused at this time of year! i noticed that it keeps coming back, this feeling, year after year in january. it's kind of cool, because maybe i'm getting more connected to the seasons, and the greater cycles; but it's always a bit scary too. it's hard to describe, just this feeling of wanting to sink way way inside of myself, wanting to let go of everything that happened before, of everything that i wish to happen in the future, and just rest in this sheltered place inside of myself. i picture myself like an animal hibernating deep underground. it' scary because i don't feel motivated to do anything. not a depressed kind of feeling, but more like just wanting to sit wrapped up in my shawl in front of the fire, by myself, in silence. i find that i always have to go through this before i can start dreaming and making plans for the future again. it's partly about clearing the old year, the old stuff out and making space for what is yet to come.

it's hard to be in this state, however, with a family that has their own rythms and needs, and a life that includes more than myself. i'm grateful for all that is in my life, i really am, but yet i realize that this unstructured time i'm speaking of is also important and hard to come by. fortunately, today ed and the girls went to the pequot museum in RI, and i did get my time. i sat by the stove, covered in my shawl, with my books and journal. i mostly stared at the fire and let myself just be. of course all kinds of thoughts kept coming, as far as what needs to be done, in the field, in the house, etc., but i didn't get too hung up on them. i felt a lot like crying, which was good. when i finally got up to make myself some lunch, i noticed that the sun had come out and was streaming through the windows. that felt very hopeful.

i tried to think a little about my life and what i want. this year i'm turning 40, and people are reminding me that it's a big one. i could not come up with anything i want. i am blessed, and i am grateful. my external circumstances leave nothing to be desired. i love my family, we have a good relationship, and i love the land and our farming. these are the things that feel my everyday existance. any troubles i have come from my internal state and responses. from anxiety built up over things that need to get done, or taken care of, etc. it's just a matter of learning to deal with life in a more constructive way. like doing one thing as a time, which i mentioned before. sounds easy, but takes a lifetime.

back to my birthday, my good friend suggested having a bash. but i can't get into it. when i think about it honestly, i just want something really simple and authentic. i think i'd really like to go and sit by the ocean, at the spot we found last summer in RI. that would be lovely.
peace

happy new year, health and prosperity!

it finally feels like winter outside. the air is crisp and clear and very cold. i love it. we have no snow yet; the sky has been blue and sunny, and very clear at night. the stars sparkle briliantly.

i spent today mostly in the house, which i'm not used to, mostly in front of the computer, which i'm really not used to anymore. i don't like how i feel when i spend my day staring at the screen, but i think it's for good use. i'm putting together a recipe book for the CSA. i'm going through every vegetable we grow, describing it and writing my favorite recipes featuring that vegetable. i think this will be useful to our CSA members. many people don 't know what to do with kale, chard, celeriac, etc. this should give some ideas. also, i'm including info on when the crop is available during the season, so that people can plan on making their pesto in july, not in november, when the crop is done.

yesterday we had a very nice visit from ernie, from blue slope. we buy our compost from him, but we were surprised and quite honored when he called and asked if he and his wife sandy could come and visit our farm. ernie must be in his 80's, and as far as i can tell, he's been farming his whole life. he farms a few hundred acres, and has animals too. ed and i took him and sandy for a tour of our fields and greenhouses; there's not much to see at this time, mostly covercrops, straw, and a few greens and carrots in the greenhouses and under the hoop tunnels. even so, they asked lots of questions, and were very generous in their words of praise and encouragement. it's amazing that they took the time to visit a little farm like ours, but we really enjoyed being with them. i always like being around older farmers; i could go on and on asking them all kinds of questions about how they do things, what they learned over the years, etc. i also find that every farmer has a fascinating story to tell, since farming is such an exciting pursuit by definition.

after i finish the recipe book, i have a long list of other things to do: ordering seeds, ordering soil amendments, putting out the 2012 CSA document, making next season's fertility and planting plan, updating our farm's website,etc. there's a lot more to the list, but i'm starting to get anxious. i get really anxious when i think that in february we have to start planting again. i'm not quite ready for that. it feels like last season hasn't really ended, we're still picking up things in the field and have crops to take care of.

but all we can do is do our best, one thing at a time. when i remember that i don't feel anxious. when i remember it, i can enjoy these beautiful, simple winter days, with the biting cold outside and the fire burning in the stove all day long.

peace

sena's first piano concert

it took place last weekend, and she played jingle bells. she did very well, and in contrast to aiyana, she wasn't nervous at all, but rather quite confident and relaxed. sena's the kind of person that practices every day without anyone asking her to. she works on her stuff, and when she knows it, she knows it. i guess that's why she was so calm about the concert.

here she is before the concert, looking over her piece

and on the stage, playing

at home

been spending more time indoors lately. it's nice and cozy...

sena spends hours every day reading. she reads to herself, and she reads to aiyana. sometimes i have to tell her to stop, i'm afraid her eyes will get too tired from it...the book she's reading in this picture is one of the dilo series; it's a wonderful series about a dolphin. i highly recommend it to kids and theis families, but it's really hard to find. we ordered it directly from the author in england.

aiyana is always a little nutty; here she is licking almond butter and jam off a butter knife at breakfast.

sena and her good friend clara knitting together. sena made me a beautiful headband, i love it. both she and clara made their own scarves, which they're wearing in this picture.

aiyana and midnight snuggling on the couch. when mid is not in the house, he's out hunting. often, we spend time watching him hunt by the big maple tree in front. there are a lot of squirrels, and he loves to stalk and chase them. he is amazing, truly beautiful, the way he moves when he stalks. he's a good friend.

peace

NEVF conference

ed and i went to the new england vegetable and fruit growers conference last week. it was in new hampshire, and we went for 2 days. i attended the vegetable sessions, while ed focused on fruit. it was a good conference, and i learned a lot. i got some very pertinent info about potatoes, tomatoes, peas, salad greens, about winter storage of veges, and other things. i plan to try some of the things i heard about in the field next season. it's always exciting to find something new you can do to better your production. this one man was talking about his potato yields, which are very impressive, 25 to 1 compared to ours which are only about 5 to 1 (and most other growers i know). so i learned a few things that i can do different next season, that hopefully will better things. i was also very excited to find two new seeders that we may buy. i do most of the seeding on our farm, and most crops do well with the earthway seeder we currently have. but some crops, like carrots, beets and lettuces, could use some improvement, since our current seeder seeds too densely. if we found something better it could save us a lot of time thinning.

there were also some inspiring things at the conference. one farmer who's been growing for over 20 yrs and has a successful CSA and business in general, urged all of us not to sell ourselves too cheap. there's always so much pressure from consumers and the market place to sell food cheaply, that it can feel overwhelming, and farmers can easily give in. but this man said that what we have to sell is food grown for its nutritional value and quality, not for shelf life, like the supermarket food. he said that we should feel proud of what we have to sell and not be ashamed to ask a fair price for it. this was not new to me, but it felt very affirming to hear it, so it was encouraging.

another interesting thing, which both ed and i learned but did not expect to, had to do with "organic". you know that i don't think all that much about organic, and i always caution people not to blindly trust the label. but hearing actual growers speak about their practices, really made it clear that there's little difference between conventional and organic. in particular, they both use chemicals to address weed and insect problems, and in that they espouse the same philosophy, which is to treat the problem, instead of addressing the cause. i was in several sessions, where basically they were saying: if you're conventional and you have cabbage moth, you spray this, this and this, and if you're organic, you spray these other equivalent chemicals. the two classes of chemicals are more alike than different, as far as i'm concerned; they both hurt other life forms indiscriminantely (beneficial insets like bumble bees and honey bees for ex). it was very sad that not one seminar spoke about one can do to encourage beneficial insects as a means of dealing with pests,  or propose alternative options.

hearing about organic fruits in particular was scary, as far as how much and how often they are sprayed. ed was trying to find out if there's any way to grow fruit trees without spraying, but he wasn't able to get any answers for that.
we're planning to plant fruit trees next year, and we're not going to spray, just as we don't spray our vegetables. there must be another way. people have been growing apples for hundreds of years, and these chemicals have not always been around.

as long as we don't produce all of our food, and still have to buy at the store, unless i can speak to the farmer directly, i will have to choose organic over conventional. the only reason i have left for doing that with my current knowledge is that in the US at least, if you buy organic you're guaranteed that it's not GM (Genetically Modified); whereas when you buy conventional you just don't know because labeling is not required. GM is not something i want to support or eat, so i am grateful that the organic label can at least guarantee that, if nothing more...

so, after the conference i made myself a list of books to read, more info to look up, and actions to take in the field next year. i'm very excited about all of it, and am looking forward to learning more...

peace

love this picture

my sister took this one

her original post of it is here

aiyana's firts solo concert

aiyana had her first solo guitar concert last saturday. she played twinkle twinkle little star plus 2 variations. she did really well, but was very nervous. just before her turn came to play, she turned to me and whispered "mama, i am worried". she was so honest, it was really sweet, and i told her not to worry, and held her until her turn came. when she started playing she was hyper focused, and didn't really relax the entire time (her solo was about 10 minutes long), but she was happy at the end of the performance.

here she is playing accompanied by her teacher

peace

NYC

sena, aiyana and i were really looking forward to our NYC trip but it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. i guess we had the timing all wrong. the city was really busy, overwhelmingly so, to the point where it was very hard to walk down the streets. i was nervous that if i let go of the girls' hands, i might lose them in the crowd.

we started the day in central park, and that was the best part of it all. it was sunny and cool, and the park was not too crowded. we got to see the statue of Balto, the sleigh dog, which is what sena and aiyana were looking fwd to since we read the story of how he saved the town of Nome, Alaska in 1925, by bringing them diphtheria medicine. we walked the whole length of the park, then had lunch in a nice lebanese place, and then headed for the natural history museum. the museum was very busy, and we got tired of the crowds quickly. it was hard to see anything. but we did manage to see a model of a blue whale, which was exciting. we did a lot of walking around in the museum, from exhibit to exhibit, then we took the subway to rockefeller center, where the bus to CT was supposed to pick us up a few hours later. we were pretty tired by this point and hungry, and sena suggested that we find a bookstore and just relax there for a while. we did find the bookstore, but relax we didn't, because as i said, everywhere we walked was just packed with people, and you could not find a place to sit or anything that would allow us to relax. even the coffee stores were packed, with no seating. we had a real hard time finding a place to eat, and when we did, it was awful, some of the worst food i've had in a long time. we had to go to the bathroom, and could not find one that was not filthy. finally we found a place, waited in line for 20 min and went. so that's pretty much how it went.

we still had a good time, just because we were together, the three of us, and that's always special.
i guess we won't be going to that area of Manhattan any time around Christmas in the future.
it felt really good to come back home.
some pics from the day:

central park

lunch was hummus and falafel

elms in central park

a colorful feast

some pics of our field and veges taken in october and november this year

one of our carrot patches - the carrot tops are so beautiful. i read that a long time ago they used to be prised as decoration for ladies' dresses and hats. maybe i'll start wearing my carrots.

 radishes and hakurei (or salad) turnips

kabochas, butternut squashes, eggplants, hakurei turnips, carrots, beets, radishes and cabbages at the second to last CSA pickup

beets and carrots

 cabbages, radishes, hakurei turnips, carrots and beets

covercrop (rye, peas, and vetch) getting established in october, in the patch where the winter squashes were just harvested

 my pickled beets

peace

i felt i had to write this

been reading jared diamond's "collapse". if i had to recommend one book this year, it would have to be this one.it's fascinating - he goes over different of societies, present and past, all of which collapsed, but some of which managed to recover. i'm not done reading yet, but so far a major theme that emerges in every case is soil health. in one way or another, the societies he discusses, including the maya, easter islanders, anasazi, icelanders, etc. over-taxed their environmental resources, and their soils in particular. of course, once the soil is depleted, the capacity to grow food is diminished or gone, people go hungry, and societies collapse. i am oversimplifying - there are other factors, like internal and external conflict, weather events, etc. but in some way or another they all tie in to our fundamental need to feed ourselves.
this book brings up an underlying anxiety i've had for sometime. ever since i've been intimately involved with food production, i realized that, to put it bluntly, people in places with high population densities like cities, who are fully dependent on long distance food production networks, are going to be screwed if anything should impede the functioning of that system. i'm worried about my friends and family in montreal and other cities in the world. their food is being trucked in from who knows where, and what will happen when oil prices go up? or in case of a weather event like the hurricane and snow storm we had here in CT just a few months ago?

i don't mean to panic anyone. but i do feel that i need to say something about this, because maybe i can see it more clearly now that i am so closely involved with farming. i read enough books and heard enough accounts from farmers to know that a soil that is abused will cease to function; and the way most people's food is grown at present is using methods that abuse the soil. the only way an abused soil will keep producing is with ever increasing amounts of oil-based synthetic chemicals. it's always back to oil. GM (Genetically Modified) methods are also being used in producing our food. do your own research on that. i think it's a scam, a very dangerous one. it's banned in europe.

i do have a suggestion. and that is to try to identify and then support your own local, sustainable, networks of food production. in montreal, in particular, i know there's lots of farmland just outside the city. why not shift some of the food production there instead of trucking it in from florida, california, argentina, etc. it's the only thing that makes sense to me, and if i lived in the city i would certainly do that for my own security, if not for any other reason. also, i think it's very important that whoever produces your food be held accountable for their production methods. that's where the sustainable part comes in. because if you're buying from your local farmer, but they're abusing their land, or environment, then you're back to being part of the problem. what does sustainable mean? well, it's a research project to answer that question. at a minimum, i'd say that if the farmer has to put down lots of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides every year, that's not sustainable. that's being oil-dependence. and don't assume that organic is necessarily better. it may be in some ways, but some of the things that organic farmers put down to control pests are no better than conventional, and may actually be worse for the environment. i know that this seems like a lot, but just to ask your farmer or whoever you buy from about their production methods, and to let them know that that's important to you, is a big step. it gives them the message that how they produce their food is important.

to me, right now, sustainable is about soil health, ie you're not mining, or depleting the soil at a greater rate than it can regenerate itself (and to do that is quite an achievement). also, sustainable means that the farmer gets paid a fair wage (which is not what you're used to in the supermarket system), so that they can continue doing what they're doing. but that's a different discussion.


i hope this is worth something to you.
peace