Today I was able to confirm that you can, in fact, get blueberries in this area.  My friend DV and I (along with some of our progeny) drove to Maiden Rock Wisconsin to Rush River Produce.  It’s a picturesque little farm with around 12,000 blueberry bushes!  I took home 11lbs of blueberries.  I hope it will be enough to last through the winter. 

Speaking of lasting through the winter,  DV, LG and I make roughly 30 quarts of pesto.  I think that will definately last through the colder months.  We had a great time and enjoyed talking about all the different ways to use pesto.  The very next evening JS helped me can 10 jars of dilly beans and then I trimmed and froze around 12 quarts of beans this morning.  I also made a basil cheesecake.  I haven’t tried it yet, but it smelled really good while it was baking.   I am trying to solar dry some basil as well.  I’ll keep you posted on how that works.  I think it will be a several day process and don’t know if I should bring it in tonight and then put it out again in the morning or not.  Oh well . . .

Because the shredder was out and I had carrots, I decided to make a salad.  I shredded about a pound of them.  The salad is made with balsamic and white wine vinegars, garlic and olive oil.  I also added some dried cranberries for color.   I’m pretty sure it will last for several days and serve as a nice side dish to anything I make.

I recently put up a clothes line in my back yard.  It was my attempt to use less electricity; you know reduce my carbon footprint.  I’ve realized that there is more that one benefit to having a clothes line.  I’m not just saving the environment – I’m making myself smarter.  I have to think ahead, use the weather indicators and plan more if I want to use my clothes lines poles.  No more can I remember at 8pm that I want my favorite shirt for something in the morning.  That’s just poor planning.

Maybe it will help me plan my food and meals better too.  I need to think about what’s for dinner – not tonight, but 2-3 nights from now.  I think our grandparents were much better at this.  Is this an example of delayed gratification?  OMG – could it be that I’m learning about something like that when I come from one of the most self centered and selfish generations ever.  Egad?

So, further your education and save the world – put up a clothesline.

My life seems to be undergoing some sort of transition.  I find that I have much more interest and more initiative that just a few years ago.  Probably the biggest reason for this is that my children are now 13 and 10 and much more self sufficient.  But there may be other reasons as well.  I think I found a new direction and a new purpose for my energy and get so motivated and excited when I think about the work to be done.  I also get positive feedback when I do what I love – it’s a win-win.

Anyway, I was thinking about my new adventures and wanted to share it with some old friends.  But where were they?  It appeared that I’d left them behind.  I got really sad.  You see, I didn’t intend to leave them there, it just happened.  What we had in common several years ago still exists, but it’s the newer (and most likely, in their opinion, most alternative) adventures that are moving us apart.   I still see these old friends, but not as often.  We’re all very busy.   When we do get together though, I often feel a little prickly and impatient.  When they talk about pedicures and new shoes (and I like pedicures and new shoes) I feel a little bored.  When I talk about putting up my new clothes line and digging up my backyard for a garden, they think I’m crazy.  Are we too far apart to come back together again?  Probably, but I’ll continue on my new adventure and remember all those friends fondly and hope that we can see each other sometime.

 (Lyle Lovett, The last of the family reserve)

We’re all gonna be here forever.  Sometimes it feels like it.  But then reality hits and I realize that life is short and if you want to make an impact on the world in any way, you’d better get started.  What do you want to leave behind?  How do you want to be remembered?

Do I want to just live my life or do I really want to make a difference?  When I really think about it, I know that it will be hard work and that I may be criticized for my choices, but I want to leave something behind.  I don’t think that I can just BE.  I have to DO.  Well, what I Do doesn’t have to be something really important, but maybe it will be something that shows how I lived and what I did with what life offered me.   I know for sure that I don’t want to leave behind a planet that is nearing destruction without acknowledging my part in it.  My generation and my parent’s generation are responsible for the condition of the planet.  I don’t want that to be my legacy.  It’s getting harder and harder for cynics to deny that the planet is warming and that this trend has been increasing every year.

There a strong possibility that no one will be interested in some rants by a woman in 2009, but maybe just maybe, they may appear profound, pertinent or wise.  Maybe they can change the life of just one person.  Think about Anne Frank, she didn’t write her in her journals to publish a book, nor was she thinking about becoming famous.  But her writing has impacted generations of people.  Now, I’m pretty sure that what I write won’t make as big an impact as Anne Frank’s diary, but it may give someone 50 years in the future a sense of what an average 48 year old woman was thinking back in the “olden” days. 

If that seems a little pretentious, remember that if all this writing really sucks and appear as silly rants, I won’t be there to hear the snickering.  I’ll be dead. 

So what are you waiting for  . . . .?

Greg Smith presented us with some great information about burn barrels and just how toxic it is when garbage is burned.  I believe that the group agreed that this was something that we would like to be involved with.  We can write letters to our legislators and ask that they enforce something that has been illegal in Minnesota since 1969!  I know of one Eco Family member who would be great at helping us write letters, making sure we included all the important information, as well as letting us know to whom we should write.  She can help us with this even though she’s not very good at freezing strawberries.  You know who you are!!

Green beans, summer squash, zucchini and basil are available from Featherstone Farms.  If anyone knows of other sources, please let the group know.  I’ve purchased 25 lbs of green beans, but may get some basil too.  I’d like to make pesto to use this fall.   I like to think about Greg Brown’s song Canned Goods, it helps keep me inspired to work hard for a little taste of summer in the dead of winter.

Greg mentioned that she has a great recipe for Dilly Green Beans that she would be willing to share.  I’m so excited to try canning again.  My strawberry jam turned out just great.

I also wanted to let you all know that I called Mary Graziano to get a copy of her local food guide.  Maybe we can think about whether Eco Families would like to create a local food guide for Winona.  We have some many great local sources for foods. 

Near the end of the meeting I told the group about the project Bluff Country Coop wanted me to work on.  I would really like some feedback on this project.  I’ll write more about it in another post.  Please let me know if it’s something the group would like to discuss.  I’ve been invited to the next board meeting.  It’s on August 3rd at 6pm in Wiscoy Valley.  Check out my post on “source labeling at my coop”.

Have a great day!

Well, I think knowledge sucks.

My family and I try to be good and socially responsible consumers, but sometimes it gets really tough to make good and aware decisions.  Every day it seems I learn about another corporation involved with child labor lawsuits, or a company that continues animal testing, or one that is an environmental disaster waiting to happen.

I was talking with a friend the other day.  He said that his wife didn’t want to know anything about the meat she eats.  He said that if she knew more about where it comes from or how it was raised, she wouldn’t want to eat it.  She didn’t even like to handle raw meat and wanted it covered in bread crumbs or coating so she wouldn’t have to see it.   At first I thought “my goodness, how could anyone want to live like that?”   Then when I learned that our own coop sells Back to Nature foods (a division of Kraft Foods) and that Burt’s Bees was acquired by The Clorox Corporation in 2007, I wished for bread crumbs.

If you go to the Kraft Foods website, they sure look like a socially aware, environmentally responsible corporation that feeds and employs people around the world.  They look good, like a company you can trust. Not only do they tell you about all the good they do for the environment, they suggest a dinner plan and will give you a coupon to use when you shop for the ingredients.  Gosh, how could I go wrong?  

But did you know that according to the Better World Shopping Guide, Kraft Foods is #2 on Multinational Monitor’s list of the 10 Worst (Corporations) on the planet!  That’s just below Exxon-Mobil and just above Wal-Mart.   They are the target of 2 major boycotts, a global climate change laggard, and have received a “Greenwash Award” for public deception.  They are also involved in a document deletion cover-up.  They’ve spent over $100 million on lobbyists, making them the #1 contributor to lobbyists in Washington.  Why? Do you realize that’s enough money to provide safe, clean drinking water for several small countries!

Maybe Burt’s Bees is an environmentally aware company and maybe they don’t test on animals, but if I buy Burt’s Bees chapstick, I am supporting The Clorox Corporation and their current business practices.  They’re also on Multinational Monitor’s “10 Worst Corporations List” and are a major producer of dioxin.

I am aware that there are many sources for information about corporations and their practices.  Right now I’m using the Better World Shopping Guide. It may not have every bit of information on a company, but I have to ask myself, what is Better World’s agenda?  What’s their motivation to provide information to consumers on hundreds of companies?  I think they suggest to consumers that knowledge is power.  On the other hand, what is the agenda of Kraft Foods or The Clorox Corporation?  They want to sell you more products.  It is clever marketing wizardry when they tell you “who says you can’t hurry love” when you cook your family Velveeta shells and cheese.  And they just hope Dorothy won’t look at “the man behind the curtain.”

What are my responsibilities now that I know more about these corporations?  What do I do with this information?  One option is to just stop buying Back to Nature crackers and Burt’s Bees chapstick (my absolute favorite, by the way).  Would Clorox feel the sting when I stop buying my semi-annual tube of chapstick?  Do they care if I don’t want them to test on animals or pollute our environment?  Probably not.  If they think they’re keeping us all happy (Fat, Dumb and Ugly*, too), will corporations have an incentive to help create a better and safer world for us and our children?

What can our own small coop do?  Do I insist that they stop carrying all products owned by Kraft?  Do I even know all of the products owned by Kraft?  If they stop carrying all of these products, will the coop now look like a pre-revolutionary Russian grocery store?  Would that drive non-member shoppers over to the new organic section of HyVee? 

I was whining to a friend awhile ago about how small my sphere of influence was and she gave me some great advice.  She agreed with me and told me that I probably wouldn’t be able to make an impact.  I thought, boy, some friend.  Then she said “Start a stampede.”   Now what the heck does that mean?  Then I realized a stampede starts when one animal sees something that scares them or that makes them want to get away.  When that ONE animal starts moving ALL other animals follow. 

Knowledge is power.   But when you “know”, what kind of responsibility do you have to do the right thing? Knowledge sucks!  Can’t I just coat it all in bread crumbs?    

I don’t know all the right answers yet.  Sometimes I don’t know if I’ve even asked all the right questions.  But I do know that I have to do something.  I have to start a stampede; a stampede of consumers that are willing to ask hard questions,  make hard choices (good bye Burt’s Bees peppermint chapstick) and work for the right answers.

Will you join me?

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”

H. G. Wells, in 1920

*Fat, Dumb and Ugly, Peter Strupp c. 2004

I may be becoming a go-to source for information.  I got an email from a friend the other day asking me about baby carrots.  He heard that they are dipped in chlorine after they are cut to keep them fresh.

That is a fact in many cases – in fact!  Chlorine is a dioxin and dioxin’s are a known cancer causing agent and is proven to be a factor in the depletion of the ozone layer.  Do you need to know more?

We stopped eating baby carrots awhile ago.  They were slimy.  I thought they were disgusting.  Anyway, think about the number of places that serve baby carrots – schools, daycares, restaurants.   There are many parents that give them to their kids just to get them to eat vegetables.  Kids should eat vegetables, but probably not baby carrots. 

I really want kids to see what a carrot like it looks when it comes from the garden.  Too many kids forget that vegetables start with dirt on them when they come from a garden and may be crooked.  My friend Rae showed me a picture of a carrot from her mother’s garden that looked exactly like a man from the waist down.  Sometimes nature really has an awesome sense of humor.  Maybe dirt should be considered a new health food.  Gee, now that I’ve put that out there, it scares me a little.  You never now what the food industry is going to be pushing next.  Now, that doesn’t mean that we should pile dirt on a salad, but exposure to more dust and dirt actually make kids healthier.  It tests and reinforces their body’s natural defenses and makes them stronger. 

Some of my favorite memories are when my cousins and I would snack in my grandma’s garden.  We would eat carrots with the tops (What’s up Doc?), peas, green beans, tomatoes and rhubarb.  We never washed any of it before we ate it.  We just wiped it with our hands and munched away.  Now this is a time that I want to quote Maggie Modjeski with some liberties – it was good enough for (us) kids.  That’s a legacy we should continue.