food, farming, and redefining 'down to earth'

fifteen minutes starting 9:20a.m.

there's a lot to think about out there, and a lot to get m'f-ing depressed about, too. there was a storm last night, and as my co-workers and i were watching through our 41st floor windows the brown clouds that rushed across the hudson, i commented that maybe the world was ending and this is all our pollution coming to get us. exaggeration, to be sure, but in the last two years the weather has changed. things are more extreme. maybe the world IS ending.

one thing i'd like to change personally is how much food we waste. we buy about $40 worth of vegetables from the veggie stand each week, and they sit in the fridge. we eat a good deal of veggies, too. i bring three ribs of celery and a crown of broccoli to work each day. veggies are at least half of what we eat for dinner. but i think we're so out of the loop of seasons and cycles that we eat based on mood rather than based on what's there. this morning there was no chili left and i didn't feel like having tuna again (plus someone of my weight isn't supposed to have more than 6oz of tuna more than once every 9 days - mercury issues). i was going to give up and buy some lunch at work, but you know what? we have a TON of food in the house! in the end erin helped me to put together some rice and beans, and i cut up some cauliflower to go with my broccoli. poof! lunch! all it took was to put aside what i FELT like eating and go with what was available.

the idea of instant gratification of any whim we have is mind-boggling. you want some ice cream? go to the store and get some. same with coffee, grown thousands of miles away. same with strawberries, not always in season but always available at the store because they ship them in from places where they ARE in season. i'm very excited about both our garden and being part of the csa this year because those things will hopefully start to bring us back down to earth, so to speak. we'll HAVE to eat what is available. i'll feel horribly guilty if i let a bunch of tomatoes and peppers rot on the plants because i didn't FEEL like eating them just then. i read an article about the people who run the golden earthworm farm that our csa food comes from. it said that matt had been a chef and thus runs his farm thinking not only like a farmer, but with a mind for how the plants will be served at table. i think this is a MAJOR benefit for those of us involved in this csa. one friend of ours said they had been involved in urban farm food delivery something or other previously, but they had to quit because they didn't know what to do with all the damn kale they received. if the farmer is a chef, he knows that a person/family can only eat so much damn kale! lol. plus they grow heirloom varieties of veggies. i am interested to see what that means exactly (i know what it means intellectually, but to see and feel and taste them is a different story entirely).

so i'll raise my glass of tap water in a spirit of returning to roots and re-joining the cycle. bon santé!

fifteen minutes is up.