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Got something to say? Email me at fastweedpuller at gmail dot com.Wisdom from the sage
Wendell Berry:
"We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it."
--from an essay in "The Long-Legged House""The word agriculture, after all, does not mean "agriscience," much less "agribusiness." It means "cultivation of land." And cultivation is at the root of the sense both of culture and of cult. The ideas of tillage and worship are thus joined in culture. And these words all come from an Indo-European root meaning both "to revolve" and "to dwell." To live, to survive on the earth, to care for the soil, and to worship, all are bound at the root to the idea of a cycle. It is only by understanding the cultural complexity and largeness of the concept of agriculture that we can see the threatening diminishments implied by the term "agribusiness."
"Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating."
--both the above are from essays in "The Art of the Commonplace: Agrarian Essays"Is this so hard to believe?
"An atheist is just somebody who feels about Yahweh the way any decent Christian feels about Thor, or Ba'al, or The Golden Calf. As has been said before, we are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further," Richard Dawkins, 2002.
The archives! Plenty of opining since 2006.
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Search Results for: school snack
On school snack: salsa
Last night, two of my friends and I jostled for space in my small kitchen and made salsa for our children’s school’s snack program. In the foreground are six quart-sized bags of tomatillo salsa concentrate: they need another quart of … Continue reading
Posted in school garden
On school gardens
That’s me pushing the wheelbarrow We’ve been busy lately, leaving me too busy to do much blogging! The school’s garden is up and running. This Thursday we had our first “Weed and Feed” event, which is simply a dinner picnic/gardening … Continue reading
Posted in school garden
On eating live foods
Bangbang: making her spice mix for the table. That knife looks closer than it is…her hand is about 4″ above it, have no fear I have never been particularly trendy, or guru-worshiping. It goes without saying then that I’ve never … Continue reading
Posted in fermentation, soapbox
Food preservation season has begun
Daikon radish pickles: RECIPE NOW IN COMMENTS Yes, it is that time of year again: big pots of boiling water on the stove, zero counterspace available due to all the green and fruity produce coming in the door. Interestingly, however, … Continue reading
Posted in school garden, soapbox
On personal transformations
And sometimes growing a lot of food happens easily with an active compost pile (all the butternuts you see above are from the pile) If you had told me 25 years ago that making food for a lot of people … Continue reading
Posted in soapbox
On being heat wimps
I have to remember that warm weather has an upside The mercury in the non-greenhouse thermometer reached 86 degrees F. yesterday. You’d think it hit 106 the way we were carrying on around here. I will readily, easily admit I … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized, weather
Dark Days challenge, week one
To start off this challenge with a big bang, how about a local dinner for 50? Granted, this dinner was in the works long before I signed up for the Challenge. As some of you may know, I am very … Continue reading
Posted in Eat Local Challenge, school garden
On being wrapped up
Some of the 150 pounds are dehydrated, some in salsa, some in jam, but most are still frozen for future snacks Passion is a curious thing. Its pursuit, on occasion, excludes all other things, and this can be a problem. … Continue reading
Posted in school garden, soapbox
On being food renegades
The U.S.D.A. in its infinite wisdom pays farmers to NOT produce food. To keep the prices high, the consolidation of growers of (let’s give a relevant example) sour cherries all stick their fingers to the wind and decide how MUCH … Continue reading
Posted in food, politics, school garden, sweat
On reruns
On track to beat the 3.25 pound monster I grew two years ago? Perhaps! I am going to be completely boring and unimaginative and give you guys a reread of one of my favorite posts. I’m a bit tired today: … Continue reading
Posted in soapbox
On breakfast
Waffles in the toaster this morning Breakfast remains much more of a grab-and-go meal than any other in most households, ours included. Unfortunately, this mostly means grab-and-go crappy food, or (horrors!) no food at all…all for a few more minutes … Continue reading
Posted in food
This really should just be a garden blog…
Not edible, but pretty …but I seem to have other food-related interests, though, especially during the non-food-growing winter months. Could it be I simply have more time on my hands? Anyway, I thought I would share some “food activist” things … Continue reading
fast grow the weeds 