Conspiring with the World's Energy

This only-writing-to-you-once-a-week thing is starting to catch up with me--the backlog of things to tell you, that is! Do you realize I never even told you that I passed my two-year anniversary as a vegetarian? Back in March! My kids (who both decided to join me after we volunteered on Team Chicken to help take care of the coop at the Oakhurst Community Garden) have passed the one-year mark (my husband is a once-a-month bacon kind of guy).




(cue the chicken)







So, it's easy in our house. Eating out has gotten easier, too, although we don't eat out that much. And for anyone who cares, I may be the only vegetarian who didn't lose an ounce of weight through the process. The chocolate is a little bit of a problem :)





And speaking of cooking at home, here are a couple highlights from this week (with a special shout-out to Maggie because she loves seeing the pizzas!):















Here is the solar cooker at work (today I'm trying a quiche) (oh, and you can use a glass bowl over the pot instead of the plastic but I have to get that yet):


Yesterday, I put stuff in it before chaperoning my teenager at the semi-annual trip to the mall with her friends, and I came home to a delicious meal. I will admit that I kept peeking through the mall skylights to check the sun!


Speaking of the mall, the only bright spot I found yesterday was a company named Lush that makes all natural, vegan body care products. I was particularly excited about this little pot of perfume (I don't wear perfume, but this had a very faint smell of walking out of a forest carrying a bowl of oranges) specifically because of the marketing of it. It is being pitched to eco-commuters! Called Go Green, it is designed for those who don't feel so fresh after bike riding or riding a crowded train! I love, love, love that a company is giving thought to this, and look forward to more helpful aids for our changing lifestyle.






















What I don't love is this (which I found at Target):

















What I do love is this (which I received from Charlotte as the first CSA delivery of the year!)

















Talk about driving to pick up my CSA box reminds me to tell you how I feel about the Prius. I NEVER KNEW I COULD FEEL THIS WAY ABOUT A CAR! I am deeply in love. Honestly. I can't say enough good things. If the folks at Toyota are looking for a testimonial, send them my way!

As for my city (the newest city in the United States of America, just started this past December 1), so much good is happening. If you are interested, please tap in to my other blog, Sustainable Dunwoody. Our Sustainability Commission is a well-oiled machine already (or, should I say, well solar-powered!). The farmers market is up and running. And, oh, the big news I mentioned a few weeks ago but forgot to tell you! We have embarked on our 20-year Comprehensive Plan and each City Council member got to appoint one person to the steering committee. And guess what?! Yes! I got appointed! I'm in there talking and writing about best practices from other cities and countries, post-peak oil, local food security, multimodal transportation options, triple-bottom-line sustainability, demographic shifts, Smart Growth and Complete Streets and aging in place and greenspace and all the stuff that keeps my mind twirling while I mow the lawn!

The lawn! Oh, yes, the lawn. In fact, that's where I'm heading after I write this. I'm fighting it this year, folks. My head is fighting it. I am trying to remind myself that something good happens every single time I use that manual push reel mower (and it does!). I'm trying to get over this mental "I don't want to mow the lawn" barrier. Is this mowing thing sustainable long-term? I don't know. Lawn reduction is definitely the answer.

In the meantime, I do have other big lawn news for you. Alan of the Appalachian Trail, who is also the homeowner association president, arranged for a consolidated buying group for lawncare services for anyone in the neighborhood who wanted to participate, and in order to reduce costs and reduce environmental and safety impacts of constant lawn companies every single day in our 'hood. More than half the homeowners signed up. This means that these lawns will all be mowed on the same day. This means I may be able to WORK again without getting headaches from all the power tool noise! The bad news? Alan did try to find a company that offered eco-options but came up empty. And I believe most of these homeowners are on board with all the chemical treatments. We still clearly have a long way to go with that one . :(

On the other hand, my mailbox garden has daily visitors, usually of the short, diapered variety! The latest visitors are the luckiest yet. They get to reach down, grab the green stalk firmly, pull it up and walk off with their very own fat onion! I always turn the onion upside down so that the roots look like hair, and then I wiggle out the greens so they look like arms and say, "An octopus!" and then I watch the smile break across the faces like the way the sun rose across that deck when I took a ship from Brindisi, Italy to Corfu, Greece so many years ago after college (when I traipsed around ten countries of Europe with my friend Julie from Portland, Maine).

Speaking of traipsing around Europe, I have other big news. Well, it's not big news, really. It's more of an intention that I am putting out there in the world so that the world's energy can conspire in my favor. Ian of A Kitchen Garden in France is hosting the first global meetup of kitchen gardeners this September. Kate from Australia will be there, as will Roger from Maine (Roger, do you know Julie? Wouldn't that be a kick).

When I first heard about it, I thought, "Gosh, I'd love to do that," but then of course, I thought of how I can't afford it, the kids are in school and that is always a logistics juggling act, who am I to go traipsiing off to the South of France . . .

The South of France. Ian. Kate. Maggie. Roger. Lavender. Sunflowers. Cheese . . .

I tried putting it out of my head, but I found myself thinking things like, "I wonder what the weather is like in September in the South of France . . . I wonder if you can catch the high-speed train right there at the airport in Paris . . ."

So, finally, one day, nonchalantly, I said to my husband, "I was invited to the South of France."

And he said, immediately, "Go."

God love that man.

Yet the twelve-years-of-Catholic-school, granddaughter of immigrants, daughter of Depression-era parents, and current participant in a down economy person that I am needs to justify the thing. So I've decided that if I can get some paid writing assignments from the trip, I can do it as a business trip. I have a few fresh angles in mind and have already started pitching. I just need you to send out positive vibes for me. Okay?

And if I do decide to go, I can leave here on foot, walk up that hill, catch the bus to the train to the plane and somehow end up in the South of France.

Okay, full confession. I bought little airline-regulation three-ounce toiletry bottles yesterday at the mall. Hey, doesn't hurt to be positive, huh?

Now, what book should I read on the plane?!

(How did that work as a segue to the FoodShed Planet Summer Reading Pick of the Week?) As for the summer reading albatross I've somehow created for myself (not that I need to be persuaded to read; it's the reporting about it that's starting to feel forced), I'm simplifying this thing, folks. I'm going to do this in the sidebar, and I'm going to give Bakers Caps (1 to 4)--4 Bakers Caps is for something comparable to Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest. Plus, I'll give you one of my favorite lines from the book. Well, okay, I'll do the first one here:




Three Baker's Caps (yes, I know I need a cute graphic here)

This Common Ground: Seasons on an Organic Farm, by Scott Chaskey (farmer/poet!)

This book is mostly about a farm on the east end of Long Island (New York). Since I am originally from a town on Long Island (but 16 miles from New York City--an hour and a half away from this farm), I loved smelling the salt in the air as I read this (here in land-locked Atlanta). Here's a line that keeps knocking in my head like sneakers in a dryer (not that I do that!) It is supposedly about earthworms:

"We provide the living space. They arrive."

And so I leave you with this. For what in your life are you providing the living space? What are you conspiring with the world's energy to help arrive?

Conspiring with the World's Energy