Wanted: Housekeeper

When I read the paper or watch a news program concerning environmental issues, I sometimes become depressed.  The problems we face - global warming, air and water pollution, hunger, over-population and the energy crunch seem never-ending and unsolvable.

I'm just one person.  You are just one person.  Even if we band together to solve these problems, there are so many more out there that it almost seems hopeless.  Yet, that's what we have to do.  We have to clean "our house" room by room.

Different things matter most to each person.  Take two people who both  like the great outdoors: One of them enjoys hiking and wants to preserve the nature trails by making them off limits to traffic.  The other person enjoys fishing. He wants to be able to use a vehicle in order to bring his boat to the water.

Both of them want to enjoy the same area, but they have different views as to how it should be used.  Because they both enjoy nature, they probably have more in common than they think.  It may be just this one issue they disagree upon. They will have to compromise in order for both of them to get what they want.

The unfortunate fact is that neither of them will probably even realize that this is something they need work on together until something goes wrong.  This is human nature. Until a paper company moves in and begins cutting trees, they will view each other as foes.  And, of course, by that time it may be too late to form a united opposition. 

Once the bigger problem is recognized by all, they will waste time arguing over the cause, who is to blame, who should take responsibility for fixing it, and how it should be addressed. They will form a committee to study the problem, discuss the findings and propose regulations.  Meanwhile, the paper company is steadily chopping trees. 

If only they had recognized their common interests from the first, instead of focusing on their disagreement over one little issue.  As allies, they could have worked together and drawn up a plan to protect that area of wilderness that they both love. Together they could have formed a strong, organized unit capable of taking on any challenge.

This is why we have "renegade" groups such as Greenpeace and PETA.  People get tired of waiting for the regulations to be set in place and/or enforced, and so they take matters into their own hands.

Yet, even just one person can make a difference if it is the RIGHT person!  For example:  Rachel Carson, who wrote Silent Spring back in 1962, realized that the use of pesticides (DDT) was causing the death of non-pest insects and being passed along the food-chain to birds and other animals and also contaminating our water supply.  She carefully documented the evidence and published a book about it.  People in government, industry and even academia told her that she (a non-scientist) could not possibly know what she was talking about!

But, the facts were real and she put them out there for all to see.  Because of her, DDT was banned. It is possible to change things.  You just can't allow yourself to give up or be discouraged by others.  You have to be like the turtle...steadily plodding toward the finish line.  You can't be distracted from your goal.

This morning, my house is a disaster! If I look at it as a whole, I am daunted by the amount of housework I have to do.  The clutter, the laundry, the yardwork are overwhelming!

I'll begin to tackle it room by room, and by suppertime, it will be under control.  Not perfect, you understand, but I will at least be able to imagine again that perfection is attainable.

BOOKS AVAILABLE AT OUR LIBRARY
One with Ninevah: politics, consumption, and the human future   by Ehrlich, Paul R.

Wild solutions: how biodiversity is money in the bank    by Beattie, Andrew J.   

The third chimpanzee: the evolution and future of the human animal Diamond,  Jared M.   

Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed by Diamond, Jared M.    

Something New Under the Sun by McNeill, J. R. 

Silent Spring by Carson, Rachel 

The gentle subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent spring, and the rise of the environmental movement    by Lytle, Mark H.

Writings and Drawings by Audubon, John James  

Field notes from a catastrophe: man, nature, and climate change   by Kolbert, Elizabeth  

Rewilding the World: dispatches from the conservation revolution  Caroline Frasier       

The Wilder Life

I just finished reading The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. This author traced the pioneer path the Ingalls family took from the Big Woods of Wisconsin to the plains of Kansas as described in the “Little House” book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Just like me, Wendy McClure read and loved the stories as a child. I, like most readers, identified with the spirited “Laura”.

I admired the way the Ingalls family lived so cleanly with nature. They bravely traveled across the grassy plains in a covered wagon seeking to make a home for themselves somewhere “out west.” They were self-sufficient. Because there were no big trees to build a cabin from on the prairie, Pa built a sod house in the banks of a river, Ma cooked wonderful meals from whatever Pa was able to hunt or she was able to plant. The little girls sewed nine-patch quilts from clothing scraps and played with corncob dolls. The family was close and loving and happy. It was easy to imagine yourself to be inside the book.



Storybook Sod House



 

 


A Real Sod House

The life of the pioneer was “green” because that’s the way people lived back then. All the labor-saving devices the modern world uses weren’t invented yet! They recycled because of necessity. Worn clothing was used to make quilts and “organic” food was grown because there were no pesticides. All livestock were “free-range”. It sounds glorious! 

Little House on the Prairie



Real cabin on the prairie



Ms. McClure thought so too. We have to remember, however, that the Little House books were fiction!  Yes, there was a real Laura Ingalls and she wrote the stories about her family, but they are akin to Norman Rockwell paintings – the gritty realities have been sanitized. In Laura’s real life there was disease [Mary became blind] and death [A baby boy died] due to poor medical care. There was pestilence [grasshoppers] and drought that caused crop failure and starvation [The Long Winter]. We tend to forget those parts.

Sod House

As an adult, I have done some of the things Laura did, but because I wanted to–not because it was a necessity. No matter how much I have gardened, or canned, or cooked or sewed I don’t think I’ve ever been as obsessed about it as Mrs. McClure, who bought a churn and made her own butter. I began to notice her mania early on before she herself recognized it.

churning milk into butter

For throughout her journeys into “Laura’s World” I got the sense that she was searching for something much bigger than insight into Laura. Something was missing from her life and she didn’t know what it was. Like many people, she felt a sadness that could not be named. She thinks she wants to find “Laura”, but it is herself that is lost. She is disconnected from her own life.

Norman Rockwell

She has yet to learn that until you make peace with who you really are, not who you WANT to be, you’ll never be content with what you have or the life you are leading. There is only one journey–going inside yourself. You have to discover yourself first. She has not discovered that there is something inside each of us from which we can extract everything we need to live joyously and abundantly.

If you are unhappy about killing animals for food, then become vegetarian. If you are concerned about chemicals in your food, grow your own. If you are dismayed by waste, then re-cycle. Prices too high? Go without or seek an alternative solution. The only things that are necessary for your life are those that make you happy.

Please listen to Jane!

While reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, I wanted to be a pioneer too. So did Wendy McClure. Neither of us has really ever outgrown that wish. A part of me has often thought that, when I retire, I’ll “go pioneer”. I’ll wear long cotton skirts (with flip-flops), quit wearing make-up and stop dying my hair. I’ll let it grow long again and plait it. I’ll expand my vegetable garden, drink herbal tea and bake bread. I’ll sew. I’ll read more (if that’s possible).

But, another part of me is sensible enough to know that it’s really the SIMPLICITY that I am longing for. And nothing is ever really as simple as you think it is. I already do some of those things and it hasn’t actually made my life any easier. I’ve had fun. I’ve learned a lot. It’s been interesting. But it might be “simpler” to keep my hair cut short, buy my veggies at a farmer’s market and my bread from the bakery.

I’m willing to let go of that life I originally dreamed, so that I can have the life that is waiting for me. Whatever it turns out to be, I’m sure it will be a wilder life than I can imagine right now. I know that because it will be my own story – not Laura’s. And I can live with that.

Life’s Organizational Chart

Most people are familiar with organizational charts. They are diagrams that show the structure of an organization. They illustrate the relationships between the parts that make up the whole. If you tried to make one for planet Earth, you would quickly discover that it would not be a hierarchical chart. That would require a single entity to be at the top and everything else to be subordinate to it.

Oh? You think that humans are at the top? Well, if we were charting the one organism with the power for the most destruction to the planet, then yes. Yes, that would definitely be us! However, if we were charting the one group upon which all other groups depend for their existence, then that would not be us. It would be plants.

Plants, with their ability to change sunlight into food, are the PRODUCERS. All green plants turn carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen, using the light energy trapped in chlorophyll. This is called photosynthesis. So plants make the oxygen that we need in order to breathe. I’d say that should make them number one.

Animals (including us) survive by eating plants, or other animals that eat plants, or other animals that eat animals who eat plants. [Our food sources all go back to a plant eventually.] Animals are the CONSUMERS. Producers don’t need consumers, but consumers sure as hell need producers. That ought to make animals number two.

Now we come to an often overlooked group, the DECOMPOSERS. They consume dead plants and dead animals. This is important to be sure, but they wouldn’t exist without the other two groups. I suppose this puts them in third place.

In nature, the varieties and quantities of plants in any one particular area determine the group of consumers and producers. Removing any one species from the community threatens the survival of the whole. This is why we can’t really number the three groups according to importance. Everything is intertwined.

There is wise saying attributed to Chief Seattle of the Squamish Native American tribe that states this perfectly. “The Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is only a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

Iron Eyes Cody

A connection also exists between the size of the food resources and the species population. In other words, the small food sources must be the most productive and the most plentiful. The food consumers must be smaller in number. (Think of Plankton versus Whales.)

Microscopic view of Green Algae

Each summer, when the ocean’s water warms up, tiny plants and algae called plankton bloom. They in turn feed tiny animals called zooplankton (krill and other small crustaceans). Fish, shellfish and whales feed on these. Seabirds and seals eat the fish and shellfish. Polar bears eat the seals. The timing of this harvest of plankton is programmed into the reproductive cycles of these animals.


So, you can see that any disruption of this cycle of plankton production – such as global warming - can have devastating effects upon the rest of the planet’s species. Each living thing, no matter where it fits in the food chain, fills a place. Each has a job to do.


Lastly, in one community, no two creatures can fill the same position. You can’t have two consumers needing the same food source. One of them is going to die because there will not be enough to go around. (Think of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon.)

Our Ancestor

You can’t have an over abundance of plants without enough animals to consume them either.

When there are too many plants in an ecosystem competing for the same resources, the superior competitors do not always win because herbivores may only eat one plant. If there is no one higher up on the food chain to prey upon them, that population will increase and will eat the preferred plant to extinction. When that happens they will, of course , die and the inferior plant will thrive.


Do you recognize humanity's fate in that last paragraph? What with the diversity of our natural food crops being replaced by genetically designed foods, our increasing dependence upon fewer and fewer food sources,  and the overpopulating of the planet, can we last much longer as a species without making changes?

Bill Bryson, author of A Walk in the Woods says this about Mankind. “We have been chosen…by fate or providence, or whatever you wish to call it. As far as we can tell, we are the best there is. We may be all there is! It’s an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe’s supreme achievement …and its worst nightmare simultaneously.”
Amen.

Books of Interest

The Food of a Younger Land  by Mark Kurlansky

Earth: A visitor's guide to the human race  by Jon Steward

On Thin Ice:The Changing World of the Polar Bear  by Richard Ellis

With speed and violence : why scientists fear tipping points in climate change  by Fred Pearce

Designer Genes: A new era in the evolution of man by Steven S. Potter

What Darwin Never Knew  DVD Videorecording

  

Not Green Enough? Don't Panic!

There is a problem with trying to live "a simple life" - it's alot of work!  There was a time (20 years ago) when I was motivated to be totally self-sustaining.  I had the energy back then, you see.

With the purchase of our "farmette", my husband was eager to use his carpentry skills. He built a grape arbor and planted apple trees.  He bought a tractor and plowed up pasture.  I planted a big garden.  I canned.  I baked bread.  With the arrival of our daughter, I hauled out the sewing machine.  I crocheted.  I embroidered.  I painted.

My husband and I went to auctions and bought furniture that he then re-finished.  We made jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins we grew ourselves.  My daughter picked strawberries and hid in the corn.  We planted cotton, okra, gourds and peanuts for fun.  I grew beautiful zinnias.

I envisioned a future with chickens in the yard (like our neighbors) and goats to milk.  I wanted to learn how to make cheese.  I wanted to make wine from our grapes.  I wanted a loom to make my own cloth.  I NEEDED A VALIUM!

I don't regret any of the work because it brought us so much joy.  But, I had to stop. It simply became too hard to do all that and continue to hold down a 40 hour per week job at the same time.  There weren't enough hours in a day to do everything that such "self-sufficiency" required and still be able to participate in the outside world.  We live and learn. (Well, at least we live!) Sometimes you have to step back to get perspective.

I've gradually come to understand that I don't have to live so intensely.  I don't have to try to cram it all in.  There will be things I miss, but there will also be other things I will discover (now that I have the time). As Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy said, "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."    I can breathe now.  I don't have to exhale through clenched teeth anymore.

We all want a simple life. We are all on a journey to figure out our existence and make the right choices. It's alot of work. We humans, are rare creatures, who having the power to learn from each other, are strangely reluctant to do so.  Everything is harder than it looks and takes longer than we thought it would.  And sometimes, it doesn't turn out the way we expected it to.

We shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes.  Because, fearful or not, we will.  That doesn't mean we should stop trying.  We should always try.

Adam's has a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

Books in our library that will help you become self-sufficient
Keeping Chickens by Jeremy Hobson
Wines from a small garden: Planting to bottling  by James Page-Roberts
Cheesemaking by Rita Ash
Living with goats: Everything you need to know to raise your own backyard herd by Margaret Hathaway
The River Cottage Bread Handbook by Daniel Stevens
The Farm Tractor by Ralph Sanders
Spinning, dying and weaving: Self sufficiency by Penny Walsh
Back to Basics by Abigail Gehring
Flea Market Furniture Makeovers by Mickey Baskett
Grow Your Own Vegetables by Carol Klein

Make cheese at Home

Cows Cause Global Warming?

When I started this “green” blog it was supposed to be about how we can all pitch in to make small changes in our lives that (over time) will help to make it a better world for everyone. It has always been my assumption that though one person just can’t do it all, that everyone working together can.


It’s true that not everyone is able to carry the load equally or in the same way, but each of us can surely contribute something for the good of the whole. Each person has ideas and talents to offer. And now is the time to do so. We need to step up.

We are living in a time when the negligence with which the human race has always treated the Earth has been revealed. We are beginning to see the consequences this indifference has caused. Global warming is real. Pollution is real. The Energy Crisis is real.

Who caused all this? We did. That’s real too.

What’s the solution to these problems? Unfortunately, there isn’t one. That is to say, there isn’t just one solution – just as there isn’t just one cause for the problems we need to solve.

While there is no written manual for us to follow (because if there was we wouldn’t be in this fix to begin with), we can take the steps needed to solve these issues just as we do when trying to correct any other problem we encounter.

I believe that if we start with the goal and work backwards toward what we already know, and then break each part that isn’t working into a smaller piece, we can figure it out.

The Energy Crisis
Use alternative energy sources. Sunlight, wind and water are never going to run out and they are safe.

OIL                        COAL                       NUCLEAR

S ociety of              S ociety for              K ey

P etroleum              M ore                       A tomic

I ndustry                 O xygen                    B benefits

L iquid                    K illing                      O f

L eaks                     E nergy                    O bliterating

                                                                M ankind

Solar Energy

Wind Farms

Water Power

                                                                                                              

Pollution
Enforce the existing pollution laws and make them even tougher.



This can't be good.

Global Warming
Drive Less  (Walk, bike, carpool, use mass transit.)
Plant a tree  (A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.)

Blame It On Cows

It took some time for us to mess things up to this point. It didn’t happen overnight! And neither will the recovery. We all know what to do. How we do it doesn’t really matter. It just needs to happen.

Recycled Valentines

Valentine’s Day originated as a Roman festival called Lupercalia which celebrated fertility. Symbolizing the deity Faunus, protector of crops and herds; young men clad in goatskins would run around the city slapping people for good luck.


Later, Pope Gelasius II changed this pagan holiday into a Christian feast day honoring St. Valentine in 496. St. Valentine was a priest who was put to death by Emperor Claudius II for performing marriages for Roman soldiers in secret. Claudius forbid marriage as he thought bachelors made better soldiers.

Valentine’s Day was linked to romance in the 14th century when Chaucer composed a poem in honor of the engagement of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia called “The Parliament of Fowls”, in which he compared their engagement to the rural English belief that lovebirds choose their mates on February 14th.

In the 1800’s, gift-giving on that day transformed into exchanging hand-made cards.

Which brings me to this post! Below are some examples of home-made cards and gifts to exchange this year using recycled material. Thanks to http://www.purlbee.com/ and http://www.marthastewart.com/ for these great ideas.



 

                                                                    Crocheted Valentine

Crocheted Valentine Card

Valentine Pins

                                                                    Sewn Paper Valentines      

Fabric Valentine Cards

                                                                     Valentine Potholders

FROM OUR SHELVES
 Roses are Red, Violets are Blue.  Read, Return, Repeat. Please Do.

Eco Books: Inventive projects from the recycling bin  by Taylor Terry

Kilobyte Couture:geek, chick jewelry to make from easy-to-find computer components by Forks, Brittany

Mixed Mania: Recipes for delicious mixed-media creations by Crane, Debbi

Garden of Life

Everyone knows the story of Noah’s Ark. When flood threatened mankind, God appointed Noah as his steward. Noah was instructed to build a place of refuge and gather together two of each species (male and female) in order to prevent their extinction.

Today high energy demands and commercial development are driving us to cut down our rain forests,pollute our waterways, encroach upon our wetlands and destroy our coral reefs. We pave over fertile farmland to build shopping malls while people go hungry. Mountain tops are blown off in order to mine the ore; leaving the landscape barren. Toxic wastes are buried in the ground to poison our water supply. Mankind is changing the very climate of the Earth with our CO2 emissions.

Like Noah, we have to act quickly to save ourselves. The only problem is that this time WE are the flood!

Humans are part of Earth’s complex web of life. We evolved here along with all the other animals and plants. We were tailored to fit upon this Earth. It made us what we are. Everything here is connected in ways we don’t even fully understand. If we don’t take care of our home, what will become of us? And what will that say about us?

The stewardship of the Earth is our responsibility. Perhaps, like Noah, we need to be given a set of instructions to follow. Author Thomas L. Friedman gives us a formula in his book “Hot, flat and crowded: Why we need a green revolution-and how it can renew America.” It is this:

REEFIGDCPEERPC < TTCOBCOG

Deciphered below it simply means:

“A Renewable Energy Ecosystem, For Innovating, Generating and Deploying Clean Power, Energy Efficiency, Resource Productivity and Conservation LESS The True Cost Of Burning Coal, Oil and Gas.”

The true cost of fossil fuels is not just what we see at the pump! The cost for using them also includes the pollution they generate, assessing the climate changes they cause, and the energy wars they bring about.

Many recent extinctions are clearly related to human activities which change or damage habitats. Although death is unavoidable and (I suppose) that all species will die eventually; I just hope that when it's mankind's turn to go, it’s not because we were stupid.

Back in 1972, there was a science fiction film called “Silent Running” that made a big impression on me. Set in a dreary future where all plant life on Earth is dying, specimens have been preserved on a giant, floating greenhouse in outer space manned by astronauts. When the crew gets orders from Earth to destroy the greenhouse and return home, Bruce Dern (father of Laura Dern who starred in Jurassic Park - another story involving extinct species) goes nuts and kills the other crew members and hijacks the ship, thereby saving Earth’s plants for posterity.

I’m hoping that we will never have a need for this type of modern-day Noah.

The only way to change our "race toward destruction" is for the world’s governments to work together to set in place policies that draw the lines that are needed. We have to protect certain areas of the Earth from exploitation. We have to provide economic opportunities for people to keep them from harming the environment. We have to have investors for long-term projects to discover and promote alternatives to the destructive ways we currently operate. We have to have good local governments to enforce these changes. We have to educate people to act in their own best interests.

Some say that worrying about your mortality is a sign that you are insecure about your life’s value and worth. That may be true. Then again, living in denial doesn’t change the truth either.

BLOG LIST

Visualize Whirled Peas
Treehugger
No Impact Man
The Future is Green
Organiblog
Little Blog in the Big Woods
Life Less Plastic
It's the Environment Stupid
Ardous Blog

M7ZGJ6UT79V4

Green Gifts

Before you go out and buy that present....

If you are thinking of giving a gift to a person who enjoys gardening or someone who loves to cook, why not consider a donation in their name to The Dinner Garden a non-profit group whose goal is for people to establish food security for their families by planting their own food to eat and also sell for income. End Hunger. "The solution is in your own backyard." Give light and people will find their own way.

Do you know someone who loves jewelry? Bead for Life fights poverty in Uganda by teaching women skills they can use to start their own business. You can buy their products from the website or make a donation to the program. He who obtains has little, he who scatters has much.

Do you love animals or do you have a pet at home? Donate to your local SPCA. Norfolk  or Virginia Beach Seek joy in what you give, not in what you get.

Do you like people and love to give parties? Why not give a gift of love to Architecture for Humanity which supports a network of architects, designers and building professionals to lend their talents to communities where their services are most needed and can least be afforded. You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.

Here in Tidewater there are many of us who spend a lot of time in and on the water. The Ocean Foundation  is fighting to repopulate the ecosystems of the Gulf Coast - a region recovering from the recent British Petroleum oil spill. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.

Do you have children or grandchildren? Replace a stuffed toy you would normally purchase with a donation to The World Wildlife Fund Symbolically adopt a panda, tiger, polar bear or humpback whale for $50.00 and they will send you a stuffed animal, a photo, adoption certificate and information about the animal. Teach your children that it is impossible to love without giving.

This season especially, please remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

The Swinging Pendulum

This morning as I was pouring milk into my second cup of sugared coffee (having just finished a breakfast of bacon and eggs).  I sat down and reached around my husband's newspaper for the strawberry jelly to spread on my buttered biscuit, when I realized (with a guilty pang) that sitting in my refrigerator were 4 cups of YOGURT, a bowl of leftover FRUIT SALAD, and that I had GRANOLA cereal in the cupboard!

After all the reading (and preaching) I've done lately about the importance of eating fresh, whole foods I still can't seem to break my inclination to reach for the stuff that tastes good, but isn't necessarily good for you.

I suppose I could blame it on my upbringing, but I did later live a very healthy, natural foods type of life for many years.  So,  I do know better - and I know I CAN do better.  I just don't anymore and I guess it's laziness.

I was raised by an educated mother who enjoyed her career and hated cooking .  Her meal plans were determined by what was quickest.  This was in a time before prepackaged meals, so weekday suppers usually meant  boiled potatoes, a can of corn and  fried Spam doused with ketchup.

On weekends, when she had more time, she might (over)cook a roast or put on a pot of beans.  I don't remember many salads, unless you count her shredded carrots in Jello concoction.  We ate sliced tomatoes, but I don't think I ever tasted a cucumber that wasn't in pickle form.  Fruits were limited to apples, oranges and bananas.

My sister and I ate lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches washed down with Kool-Aid.  Our parents lived on coffee and cigarettes.

In later years, when my parents finally retired, they bought my Grandmother's old farm house and property, planted a garden and raised chickens.  My Mother would call me and proudly say, "We're eating like poor folks!" Meaning, of course, that she had gone back to her roots and was once again eating sweet potatoes, turnip greens and black-eyed peas she had grown herself and was cooking cornbread and drinking iced tea.

But, it was too late for my sister and I, who were raised on Fruit Loops, frozen fish sticks and Tang.

However, in that statement of hers, I finally got a flash of insight.  My mother grew up in a large family during the depression.  They depended upon their garden to eat.  They canned what they grew and baked their own bread by necessity.  So success -to her generation- was having a career that gave you enough money to buy your food from a store.  You didn't have to nurse your babies! You worked and, therefore, could afford to buy canned formula that caretakers could feed your child in a bottle.

Those bottle-fed babies (my generation) grew up to become "hippies".  We rejected our parents way of life and went back to the land.  (Well, for awhile anyway.) We identified with our grandparents.

Our children, tired of living on bean sprouts and tofu, swung the other way.  They craved Happy Meals and rejoiced in grandparents (our parents) who bought them Slurpees and served Pop Tarts for breakfast and Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs in a can for lunch.

Their children (our grandchildren) - those now in high school and college - have tipped back towards us.  They are the vegetarians.




It all depends on your point of view. 



In between all these generations are lots of confused people!  How else can you explain the simultaneous popularity of Starbucks with its unnatural, flavored coffees and Sushi - the ultimate fresh food?  There has to be a happy medium out there somewhere.

Maybe I'll just put a dab of Cool Whip on that fruit salad.
-----------------
Please Read:

Twinkie, deconstructed: my journey to discover how the ingredients found in processed foods are grown, mined (yes, mined), and manipulated into what America eats  by Ettlinger, Steve

Dr. Earl Mindell's Unsafe at any meal: how to avoid hidden toxins in your food  by Mindell, Earl

Fast food nation : the dark side of the all-American meal by Schlosser, Eric.

The paleo solution: the original human diet  by Wolf, Robb

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Manna Mania

With the approaching Thanksgiving holiday, which often seems to be celebrated by gluttony and over-indulgence, it may now be appropriate to talk about food and the politics of food.

Manna was the name of the food God sent to the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert. It fell from Heaven upon the ground as small white grains resembling coriander seeds. It tasted like honey.

Some are still searching for a perfect food source to feed us all. With the increasing world population, it sometimes seems we need another phenomenon like manna. For awhile, TVP (textured vegetable protein) was the “miracle” scientists held up to the light.

I’m suspicious of any “food” that has to be processed, disguised and then mixed with other foods in order to be palatable.

TVP is made from proteins that are EXTRACTED from soybeans, cotton seeds, wheat and oats. It is pressed into various shapes (flakes, chunks, strips) and sizes. It looks like dog kibble! A similar taste comparison for meat eaters would be baked chicken versus chicken McNuggets, for vegetarians it would be a fresh ear of roasted corn versus a can of niblets.

Vegetarians, who are concerned about cruelty to animals, or humans eating certain species to the point of extinction, may be quick to endorse this product. However, there are a few things they should know about TVP.

• TVP is not a complete protein. You can’t use it as a substitute for the complete protein you would get from eating animal foods (meats, fish, poultry, cheese, eggs, yogurt, and milk) that contain all 9 essential amino acids. Proteins derived from plant foods (beans, rice, grains, and vegetables) are incomplete. Incomplete proteins have to be combined in meals to make a complete protein (for example by combining rice and beans). TVP is incomplete.

• TVP lacks isoflavones (which are in other soy products such as tofu, miso, and tempeh). Isoflavones are the whole reason for the health benefits in eating soy.

• TVP is not organic. Under organic production, use of pesticides (including insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides) on plants is prohibited. Livestock must be raised with regular access to pasture and without use of antibiotics or growth hormones. Neither animals nor produce can be genetically modified.

• TVP has one of the highest percentages of contamination by pesticides of any food that is eaten. We may as well be lotus-eaters like those in Greek mythology, who ate the narcotic plant and ceased to care about anything or anyone.

To find out how much protein you need daily, divide your body weight in pounds by 2.2 (which gives you your weight in kilograms) and then multiply that number by 0.8 - then check the charts below to discover the amount of protein in each food.

Animal Sources of Protein           Serving Size           Protein (in grams)

Meat/Poultry/Fish                       3 oz.                      21

Cottage cheese                         ½ cup                     14

Milk                                          1 cup                        8

Yogurt                                      1 cup                         8

Cheese                                      1 oz.                         7

Egg                                           1 whole                     6

Egg white only                           1                               3

Plant sources of Protein             Serving Size             Protein (in grams)

Tofu, raw, firm                          3 oz.                        13

Legumes: (Black beans,

Kidney beans, Chickpeas, etc.) ½ cup                        7 – 8

Peanut butter                            2 T.                            8

Nuts                                         1 oz.                           5

Bread                                       1 oz. (1 slice)              3

Cereal                                      1 oz.                            3

Vegetables                ½ cup cooked or 1 cup raw         3

Pasta or rice                             ½ cup                           3

Just as you don’t need a Nicoderm patch to quit smoking, there is no reason that you ever need to eat TVP if you decide to abstain from eating flesh. It's not hard to satisfy your protein needs, as long as you eat a variety of foods.

Another food source that scientists hope is akin to biblical Manna is green algae. Algae are simple photosynthetic plants that live in water, most often known as plankton. You think you would never eat seaweed? Chances are you already have! Algae has found its way into many commercial products. There are four algae products: Agar (found in Hostess Fruit Pies), Alginic acit (found in Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup and Sunny Delight Orange Juice), Carrageenan (found in Johnston’s Pumpkin Pie and Baby Ruth Candy Bars) and Diatomaceous Earth (found in Sensodyne Tooth Paste and most swimming pool filter powders.) Pond scum? Yummy!





Alginic acit

 


Carrageenan

 


Diatomaceous Earth

 


Agar

 
People are going to keep looking for that one perfect food source, but I don’t think they are going to find it. Our hope in the ability to feed future mankind lies in our politics, not our science.

The Earth COULD certainly provide us with the variety and quantity of plants and animals needed to feed us all. And, people SHOULD certainly be able to figure out how to distribute this bounty evenly.

Now, if we just WOULD.

Otherwise, the alternative is “Soylent Green”.


Books About Politics of Food:
The Third Freedom by McGovern, George S.

The crazy makers : how the food industry is destroying our brains and harming our children by Simontacchi, Carol N.

The hundred-year lie : how food and medicine are destroying your health by Fitzgerald, Randall

Food politics : how the food industry influences nutrition and health by Nestle, Marion

The Maker's Diet by Rubin, Jordan

Relapse

The crunchy part of the year has begun. You know, when everything is smushed together into

"halloweenthanksgivingchristmasnewyears"?

From October until the start of the new year, my life is just too busy.  I'm always trying to squeeze extras into my routine and inevitably other things are neglected. (Such as blog posting!) So, let me play some catch up.

I've posted pictures below of my "recycled" clothing experiment.  The skirt that was too long was shortened and a ruffle added to the bottom with the excess material, along with a matching ribbon trim.

skirt

sweater

 I crocheted red cap sleeves on the sleeveless brown sweater and also made a little flower pin with some of the skirt material.

 







blouse



The blouse that was too low cut has been made modest by the addition of some pink crocheted lace stretched across the neckline. 

"plarn" (plastic yarn) bag

I thought I'd also show a picture of the finished "plarn" bag from several posts ago.





 

I have not gotten around to the aprons yet (though they would have been the simplest project) because I had to make two Halloween costumes first and I ran out of gas. The Halloween outfits both had aprons though!



Halloween Dress 2



Halloween Dress 1



The purple apron was made from an old shirt I had and the white one was made from a pillowcase.  I took two bridesmaid's dresses I bought at a thrift store and reconstructed them using lace and netting I had at home.



  

There has been enough "recycling" going on here that I really should speak of something else for awhile.  But, no matter how hard I try to think of something else,  recycling seems to be dominating my life right now both at home and at work.

At work, we have several projects going on and some that we recently finished that involve the re-use of materials.  We have put up new display shelving for our paperbacks that came from a book shop and our wooden cupboards came from a department store that went out of business.  Our old revolving bookracks have been given to another branch library for re-use.





cupboards on red wall  and display tables



paperbacks





We are in the process of building a "coffee shop area" in the library that will have vending machines, tables and chairs, wooden floor, beautiful lighting and piped in music! While new to us, this is a re-cyled concept stolen from  Barnes and Noble that we hope to copy successfully.

future coffee shop area

The "Big Shift" project (where every non-fiction book at Central is re-shelved and every shelf has been adjusted) is almost complete.  Now instead of the Dewey numbers running horizontally across the aisles, they flow down each column as they should - making books so much easier for patrons to locate.

reshelved non-fiction

The GD Moving Crew can truthfully say they have physically touched each book in the collection at least once (and sometimes twice).  Word up....the Chilton Auto books are really heavy!

At home, I cooked a big ham with pineapple for supper on Sunday - then recycled it into sandwiches the rest of the week.  Ugh! I'm even reading a book called "Juliet" by Anne Fortier which is a updated, recycled plot from Shakespear's "Romeo and Juliet".  Earlier this week I watched the old musical "West Side Story" - which is [guess what?] another re-telling of  "Romeo and Juliet". Seriously, I just now realized that!

OMG! Have I finally reached the age where there truly is nothing new under the sun?

Maybe not. Recently, my daughter made me listen to this song she liked by someone called "Shaggy".  It was set to a Jamaican beat, but the lyrics and tune were basically stolen from the old Juice Newton song (who BTW stole it from Nina Simone!) called "Don't Call Me Angel".  Well, okay there was one little difference - instead of singing "just touch my cheek before you leave me", he sang "closer than my peeps you are to me".  Hopefully, this is one song that won't be played in the coffee shop area. (Sigh)

Slowly turn away. 

I won't beg you to stay. 

(Maybe the sun's light will be dim and it won't matter anyhow.)