Food is one of the main reasons I began to garden. I wanted fresh herbs but didn't want to pay $5 for a wilted bundle of cilantro in the grocery store. I loved eating real, flavorful fresh veggies and fruit. Not the medium red, perfectly round orbs that fit someone's image of what a tomato should look like but didn't come anywhere close to the way it should taste.
In the past few years, I have also been working on living more deliberately. Eschewing things like big-screen TVs and the latest fashion trends, and concentrating instead on buying less stuff and spending more time with people who matter.
I have not yet crystallized my thoughts on how food buying fits into my feelings on how to live more responsibly, but I'm guessing that others are probably similarly confused by different issues. (Organic or Local? Frozen or Fresh?) If this topic interests you at all, this short article by Michael Pollen, originally published in the New York Times and reblogged on Kitchen Gardeners International, is definitely worth a few minutes of reading.
9 comments:
So excellent! Before I knew it, I was at the Washington Post reading about peas! Very fun and informative! (I want peas!...off to check the seed packets!)
Thanks for the usual terrific post!
(My apologies if this repeats...I seem to doing something wrong with this comment!)
gotta garden... peas? I missed the link to peas--I must go back! (And plant peas this year.) I know what you mean... before I knew it, I was at the end of the article!
So much stuff to think about. All I know for sure is that I will be planting more veggies and things that I can "put up" this year.
There's a longer but still very engaging article by Pollan in the NYTimes Sunday Magazine from about a month ago, 'Unhappy Meals'. It's still here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?ex=1172466000&en=d39e41be8a4feeb3&ei=5070
You might want to hurry, as they usually put these article behind their for-pay-only firewall after a few weeks.
Shorter version of Pollan: Eat food.
Thanks so much for the link, Craig. I skimmed it (as well as you can skim 12 pages) tonight just in case but will try to print it off at work tomorrow, too.
By the way, I was quite proud of myself today. Everything I ate was something "that my great-great-grandma would have recognized as food." Although admittedly she might have wondered at the wisdom of eating raw salmon and smoked eel, and probably had never seen an avocado. :)
These veggies look like candy!
I know what you mean about living more deliberately. I have been trying to take on that task. I think food fits right in with that. Food should taste good as well as be good for you.
If you have the time read his book The Omnivore's Dilemma. As it says on the dust jacket it will change the way you think about food. And probably make you more determined to grow more of your own.
Live simply - easier said than done!
Sylvana, thanks for stopping by. Those veggies tasted like candy, too... I ate very well that weekend. :)
John Curtain, you're so right. Isn't it amazing how much effort it takes to live simply? I had heard of Mr. Pollen before but haven't read any of his books. I'll have to look for The Omnivore's Dilemma next time I go to the bookstore.
This post reminds me of a t-shirt I saw in the 70's, it said: "Live simply that others may simply live." I have put myself on a "consumer diet" often over the years, and it feels good to go long stretches without buying anything except TRUE "essentials", as well as eating simply. Unfortunately, I get sucked back into "retail slavery" after awhile. You reminded me that it's worthwhile to keep trying.
Michael Pollan has sort of become the prophet of food awareness and his books are amazing. I met him at a writers conference last year and was not disappointed. He was friendly, down to earth, smart-- just as you want your heroes to be!
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