a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Category: Reflections

Out of the Garden Today – June 18, 2014

In his Parasites, Killing Their Host – The Food Industry’s Solution to Obesity article yesterday, New York Time’s op-ed writer, Mark Bittman describes how food corporations are killing their customers by producing highly processed food that is causing the obesity and diabetes epidemic.

Aware that finding solutions to this epidemic is important, some of these food corporations want to re-engineer their food and work with communities to solve the epidemic. Of course, much of this new food is highly processed and as far from real food as the many of the products that line supermarket shelves today.

A more long term solution is to enable everyone to have easy access to real food, fresh out of the garden like I have every day. When you have real food this sumptuous, settling for something that comes out of can or box doesn’t cross your mind. Even picking up produce picked a day or two or a week ago loses it’s appeal. Nothing compares to eating raspberries off the vine or munching on peas that you’ve just picked. Everyone should be able to do this.

Organizations like Seattle Urban Farm Company and Urban Harvest show that this is possible. You can grow a lot of food in the city. And the more people eat real food, fresh out of the garden, the more they will demand it.

June 18, 2014
In the Woods Today

Recent rains have made the woods cool and damp. The smell of decomposing leaves, twigs, and branches on the forest floor is so fresh. Any day is a good day for a walk through the woods. It takes just a few steps out of the house to be in the woods. It’s easy to take such luxury for granted.

Many years ago, I lived in a desert country for a time. The mountains and valleys were barren. Not a speck of green to the horizon and beyond. I’d close my eyes and dream of green. I met a local person who saw photographs of lush, green mountains of distant countries, and he told me that he thought the photographs weren’t real. Only knowing desert mountains, he thought that someone had painted the green on the photographs. It wasn’t until he traveled and saw the forested mountains for himself that he realized there are places in the world that are so green.

Stepping out of the woods, I see that the blueberries are forming. This is how blueberries look like before they turn blue. Another month and they will be as blue as the sky.

June 17, 2014
Olympia Farmers Market
On a drive home from Vancouver, WA, we stopped in Olympia for a break and visited the Olympia Farmers Market. It wasn’t our intention to go to the Olympia Farmers Market, but when we drove to the bottom of Capitol Way, the main street of Olympia, we discovered the market and had to explore it.

The Olympia Farmers Market is the second largest farmers market in Washington State. From April through October it is open Thursday through Sunday. November through December it is open Saturday and Sunday.

It is housed in a large, wooden building, and has vendors selling produce (really great produce), meat, dairy, condiments, homemade crafts, nurseries, fresh flowers, artisans and restaurants. It’s amazing that a small town like Olympia has such an outstanding farmers market. In 2016 it will be forty years old.

With all the fresh produce we grow, I don’t need to buy vegetables, but I did get some plump kohlrabi which were very sweet and delicious. I also picked up a variety of unusual beans to plant for late summer picking. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, markets such as these will be the norm everywhere.
June 12, 2014
After a Morning Shower

The Stewartia 夏椿 is opening its flowers this dewy morning. This is a tree that is beautiful year round. In the fall, the leaves are a dazzling red. In the winter, the silvery bark stands out.

The Styrax (Snowbell) エゴノキ is also opening up its fragrant flowers.

And the Iris are always spectacular, especially covered with drops of rain. It’s a great morning to do chores like scooping duckweed out of the pond for the chickens, planting beans and corn, weeding, and just being outdoors.

June 10, 2014
On the Board Today – June 3, 2014

This time of year there is an endless supply of fresh greens to eat. I’m not even sure what the first green is. I found it growing amid the garlic. Besides the mystery green, there are dill and onion scapes, kale and mustard blossoms, oregano and sage and lovage, and finally garlic scapes, the first of the season.

Recently I read, in disbelief mind you, that some consider cooking and eating such a nuisance, that they have developed a powder you mix with water to make a liquid meal so you don’t have to fuss with getting food and cooking. According to their website, solvent.me, creator Robert Rhinehart and team developed Soylent after recognizing the disproportionate amount of time and money they spent creating nutritionally complete meals. Their catchphrase is what if you never had to worry about food again? Hmm, now wouldn’t that be a boring life.

I’ve never considered the amount of time I spend growing, gathering and preparing food a chore. Going out into the vegetable beds to see what is good to eat is pure pleasure. Watching apple blossoms turn into buds turn into small green fruit turn into ripe red apples is living.

Gathering food, preparing meals, and eating are so much fun, I can’t imagine subsiding on quick, liquid meals. To each their own I guess.

June 3, 2014