Children Play With Earth

My ongoing quest to enjoy a more local & sustainable lifestyle continues, albeit in fits and starts. Here are a few updates...

The quest to exempt small farms from huge licencing fees and facilities will be a long, ugly battle, unfortunately. Mr. Casson had his meeting in Tallahassee bumped back a week, and then learned all about how laws are combined, seemingly to confuse and delay all parties involved. Ultimately, so far it seems that "we, the people" want to be protected more than we want freedom of choice. If you feel otherwise, please let your representatives know. At present, local farms can provide food "for animal consumption only" unless they build & maintain large, expensive processing facilities. If you've visited a local farm, and your kids' cafeteria, you know Fido's getting the better deal!

Speaking of visiting farms, my family will be enjoying an upcoming Saturday at Green Acres Farm in Walnut Hill, Florida. I'm really looking forward to showing my kids happy, healthy animals on a working farm. When I was growing up in rural Maine, farms like this were common; now I have to seek one out just to show my kids a real chicken. No worries, though - I'll share our day trip with you here.

My family has started our own little farm. We planted herbs in containers (we're in military housing, so no "real" gardens allowed). In addition to the herb seedlings, we also planted the seeds of several other herbs. Out of curiosity, we planted both organic and regular commercial seeds of both thyme and chives. It will be interesting to see if there's any difference in the seeds, since the organic seeds were literally twice the price. Everything was planted in organic soil in water-retaining pots. Water shortages are a huge problem here in Florida (usually, not at the moment), so I thought the pots would be an important part of our sustainable garden. Although the pots are plastic, they're reusable and recyclable.

Now that the first herbs and flowers are in, the kids are clamoring for a vegetable garden. I've been considering the Earthbox for a while (again, we need a container garden), but I can't find a local dealer. Josh Mandel has generously posted detailed, step-by-step instructions to make your own container garden here. It still looks like a lot of plastic to me, and I'm not sure my homeowners' association will allow them. If I were the crafty type, maybe I could make oilcloth skirts for them or something, but alas, I'm not. I'm also still toying with the idea of an Aerogarden. The thing that really attracts me to that particular gadget is that I really want to try hydroponics someday. At present, I'm hindered by my housing restrictions, my brown thumbs, and very limited knowledge on the subject. However, what I do know about hydroponic gardening is that it can be done organically, it uses less water than conventional gardening, it provides superior produce, and, done right, it actually improves the environment. How could I not be tempted by that?

In the meantime, I'm loving the dirt under my kids tiny fingernails. I love that they already talk to their little seedlings, coaxing and encouraging them to grow. I love that my kids love their veggies. I love that they get plenty of fresh air and exercise, sunshine and play, and of course, dirt.

"Dig your hands in the dirt, Children play with Earth" ~ Arrested Development

Florida Food Freedom Act - Act Now!

The Florida Food Freedom Act would allow local farms to sell their produce and products directly to us without requiring them to build an expensive "processing" facility, as is currently required. Please read the following description of the bill, as provided by the good people at Green Acres Farm in Walnut Hill, Florida. Hopefully, you will be moved to contact your state legislators and let them know you WANT the option to support local farms, to buy natural produce and products directly from the hands who raise them.

There is a Bill in the Florida Senate, Bill S1900- Florida Food Freedom Act. The purpose of this bill is to exempt small farms, who sell directly to consumers, from some current regulation requirements that are cost prohibitive. Currently to sell any "processed food" (washed eggs, cracked pecans, honey...) in the state of Florida a farmer has to build a facility that meets the Florida Department of Consumer Services- Minimum Construction Requirements. My estimation to build such a facility is about $25,000. That's a hell of a lot of eggs. This bill exempts farmers selling directly to the consumer from this requirement as well as some of the other permit fees currently required. By enacting this bill we will be opening up the availability of locally produced food to Florida Consumers as well as strengthening the stability of Florida's economy. When you buy food from a chain store, much of that money leaves the state, going to the producers in other states and countries as well as going to the chain owners. As we constantly shipping that money out of our community, we are constantly faced with the question of how we can get others to spend their money in our community. This sets up a continually stress economic situation. When you buy locally produced foods and other products, the money you spend continues to circulate in your community thus adding stability to your local economy. This bill effectively reinstates some of our rights by allowing small farmers to once again produce and sell within their own community, begins to strengthen our local economy while encouraging more environmentally sound commerce by reducing the amount of fuel involved to get food to consumers and does all that without requiring the government to spend a dime of taxpayer money. Please don't let this slip through the cracks.

For more information on this Bill and Green Acres Farm, check out their page on Facebook. Your support is greatly appreciated! Farms like Green Acres provide a healthy, sustainable food source that benefit our families, our communities and the environment.

The Good, The Bad and The Yummy

I've fluffed off a bit over the holidays, I admit, but I've also had some successes and forward progress.

Christmas dinner centered around a modest 4.5 lb rib roast. Even though I didn't shop for it until Christmas Eve, Publix had a selection of their "Greenwise" beef roasts available, and at $35, quite reasonably priced. $7+ per pound? Reasonable? Absolutely. Their Greenwise beef met all the standards I was hoping for (except being local, which it may have been, but I couldn't tell), and was excellent beef. I'm ashamed to say I've spent far more on holiday roasts in the past, and this year's dinner left me with a clear conscience. Here's what Publix says about their Greenwise beef, so you know what I mean by that:

Publix GreenWise Market USDA Choice Beef

You can feel good about eating tender, flavorful Publix GreenWise Market Beef. Completely natural, with no artificial additives or preservatives, this beef comes from cattle raised humanely on a 100% vegetarian diet, never receiving any antibiotics or hormones. We "source verify" all of our Publix GreenWise Market Beef, keeping close track of the cattle all the way from birth, validating all feeding, handling, and living conditions, and ensuring that our strict standards are always maintained. Which means that you always get the very best quality, naturally delicious beef.

In addition to the beef, we had Yorkshire Pudding, which I made from scratch, sweet peas with no additives or preservatives or anything, and, um, I forget what else. To be honest, in our house Christmas dinner is all about the Yorkshire Pudding. The roast is really a means to that end, since you need good beef drippings to make it. All in all, it was a fairly natural meal, full of things that could have been found on Dickensian tables.

While I was shopping for the feast on Christmas Eve, our new Royal Berkey water filtration system arrived. I set it up, but had a hard time priming the optional fluoride filters. In fact, 3 days and many gallons of contaminated water later, we took the damn things off and are just using the regular black filters. I have an email into Berkey customer service and will update everyone when I hear back from them. Last night, however, 2 drops of water leaked onto my brand new iPod screen and etched the surface. I still have to wonder what's in my water. Just this morning I heard that ECUA (the local water company) is addressing the toxic chemicals in the water supply not by removing them, but by suing DuPont, whom they blame for the elevated levels of PTFE and other contaminants. DuPont may or may not be to blame, but as the public water provider, ECUA is most certainly responsible for providing safe drinking water immediately, with or without DuPont's bank account. When they get their greedy little paws on that, they can replace my iPod for a start.

Finally, on a happier note, I found (was shown, really) a wonderful source of farm fresh eggs today. I got 3 dozen and I can't wait to use them. Growing up, we always had a collection of cardboard egg cartons on the top of the fridge. Periodically we would go over to the Vento's and get some fresh eggs. That's where eggs came from - my best friend's family chickens. The only time we saw white eggs was when my mother would buy a dozen specifically to dye for Easter. My kids were tired after playing all day and didn't put up with my praises of eggs from "Happy Chickens" for long, and my husband simply thinks I'm a freak for driving any further than the supermarket for eggs, but I'm happy. And the chickens are happy. Of all the things I want to change about our family lifestyle, this is the first one that allows me to feel like I'm truly able to provide my family with the quality of life I took for granted as a kid. Other changes will be harder if not impossible to duplicate perfectly, but this one is settled. I'm a content and grateful Mother tonight for the generosity of a friend who introduced me to this (highly guarded, sorry) source.

Until next time, Happy New Year!

Superganic Farms

It's been less than a week since I decided to go local & sustainable in the coming year, yet everyone has been so helpful that I've already had my first farm adventure. Since I'm a lazy slug, spoiled by convenience foods from megamarts, I'm exhausted. I feel like I grew the stuff myself, only without the sense of accomplishment. I'll give the brief rundown here, and perhaps elaborate specific points in the future.

Today I visited Superganic Farms. It's not so much a farm as a small plot of raised beds. Farmer Bill has been practicing biodynamic farming at the plot I visited today and at a second, larger farm for 25 years. The place is a bit hard to find, and kind of a mess - if you don't have a clue how composting and collecting rain water and other sustainable farming works. I grew up in the 70s in rural Maine, so I recognized the seeming disorder as part of the farming process. In case I hadn't, Farmer Bill was more than happy to give me the grand tour and discuss the inner workings of his farm in great detail. He's obviously deeply passionate about his produce and process, and it shows in the herbs and veggies he grows. They're freakin' beautiful. I can't even pronounce kohlrabi, but I bought some because it was so gorgeous. I also bought some kale, and a rutabaga. The leeks weren't ready yet, so he threw in some scallions for free to tide me over. I hand-selected all my produce, and he cut it out of the ground for me and washed it in rainwater. Final cost for my 3 lb rutabaga, my 2 lb kohlrabi with all its gorgeous greens, a large head of kale and my scallions: $ 9.40. All organic, local, and beautiful.

I roasted the rutabaga tonight with the scallions, some garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper. Although I'd never served it before, all 3 pounds were gone by the end of dinner, which is obviously a ringing endorsement. I trimmed the greens off the kohlrabi and, I confess, threw them out. I know they can be prepared like mustard greens, but, well, I'm a Yankee. I don't know how to cook greens and I'm already pushing the envelope this week with all this fresh produce. So sadly, the greens and scallion tops are already gone. The kale took a while to clean. I let it soak in ice water during dinner, then cleaned and trimmed all the leaves individually. The kale in particular came with lots of extra, um, protein, in the form of 2 spiders and 3 caterpillars, so I was extra-cautious washing it. My husband, annoyed at being asked to take yet another bug outdoors, said, "This is what happens when you get organic!", but I pointed out that even if we bought organic at the megamart it would have been power washed. These bugs were natural predators of the bugs that would have eaten our lovely produce, and thanks to them, we have these fantastic vegetables. So nah. The man didn't complain when he was eating, I noticed.

So my first adventure was a good one. Thanks to my dear friend J for helping me find the place and showing me the ropes! Yes, I had to get up earlier than usual on a Saturday. Yes, Farmer Bill was very social and talkative, so I spent more time shopping than usual. Yes, my produce took more work to prepare than usual. However, it is local, organic, sustainable, and beautiful. My children raved about their vegetables, and can't wait to eat more. The quality and quantity of the produce I bought blew the organics at the area grocery stores or health food stores out of the water, and at half the cost, if that. I trust Farmer Bill to let me know what's in season, so I'm giving my family an ever-changing variety of vegetables at the peak of their nutrition and flavor. Will I do this every night? No, I'm pretty sure I won't. It's a lot of work. But if I do this 3 or 4 nights a week, think how much better off my family and the environment will be.

Click here for a segment Channel 3 News did on Bill and organic produce.