Hunting Season has opened...

Today's weather was not in our favor. The warm night last night didn't bode well for snapping a deer in the early morning light. So SP stayed in bed snug as a bug and the kids cooperated. Halloween must have truly tuckered them out because they ALL slept in. Once lunch was said and done and nap time was declared, SP went to gather me the last of the apples on the trees, returning triumphant and ready. It was his turn now. Time to go out and hunt. It's too bad he didn't get a deer because the poor guy was so cold when he got home. Let's hope for better luck next time. Our freezer really wants to know what deer looks like!

Halloween Candy

How many other countries celebrate Hallows Eve like we do? Last night as I walked the darkened streets of our small town last night, I saw littered amongst the leaves at my feet, colorful wrappers of eaten candy. I wonder how much litter does Halloween actually create? It wasn't until we got home and poured out the collective pillow case of candy that I realized the sheer volume of candy my three children had gathered. It wasn't all candy seeing that we did also brought home rings, pencils, play dough, bubbles, glow sticks and even fortune cookies. Yes, in our small town we trick or treat at the Chinese restaurant. As I sat and drank coffee this first Saturday of November, I tried to wrap my brain around what to do the mountains of candy on my table.

What am I going to do with it all?

Step one: Grab my daughter and have her help me sort it. I need to inform you however, that she was a ghost last night and has not had a shower yet. This means that all that white hair spray we drenched it with yesterday afternoon is not only still there, but it has also been slept on and not brushed once since. Consider yourself warned!

She got to the table and knew what to do."We're going to sort it!" was the first thing she said. Apparently Dad had told her about it already. She set right to work!


We vigorously sorted. The old Easter egg candy and anything unwrapped went in the garbage. I noticed certain things we had a run on this year, which to my dismay did not include Butterfingers. We made a bowl or all things suckable - from the smallest ones unsafe for the baby, to the gum filled Lollipops unsafe for the 10 year-old's braces. We sorted the family favorites into the plastic jack o'lantern. My daughter made her own little basket, gleefully filling it with all the chewy sticky stuff not allowed on braces. She tried to keep SP's tootsie rolls, but I put a stop to that.



The best piles we made were the piles for the freezer. The freezer you ask? Yes I am freezing candy and here are the reasons why:
1. Who wouldn't want a few Snickers in the freezer?
2. Broken Jolly Ranchers can be melted into windows for gingerbread houses.
3. M&Ms make great additions to any cookies!
4. Assuring that we always have the essential chocolate for s'mores.
5. To make sure that I can make more than rice crispy treats with all those candy corns!



But there was one special bag that was not meant for the freezer. We made it for SP.

SP spends a lot of time traipsing through the woods. It takes a lot of energy. What a better quick fix than a Snickers, or a Milky Way, or some malted milk balls? Of course I through in some Dots and Tootsie Rolls since he loves them. But the biggest reason I made this bag, was because hunting season opened today. The poor man needs something other than rifle cartridges for his hunting vest. Maybe that extra pack of peanut M&Ms I grabbed from the family stash will keep him from falling asleep under some tree while he waits. I hope the deer are drawn to the scent of Reese's peanut Butter cups or else that one Butterfingers I gave up for my beloved SP.

My kitchen counter

Those of you who know me well know how crazy it has been with my family of origin. I think this picture sums up how busy my days have been. There's the pumpkin seeds I roasted after the pumpkin carving. There's 2 jars of my apple creations. There;s the first scarf I ever knit, next to the bottle of glue that failed to adhere the pads in a Halloween mask. If you look closely, the left back ground shows H2's ghost costume for Halloween in progress. There's no glue over there but instead my glue gun. There's my new favorite book quietly calling me to go gather acorns. Clearly, there's a lot of projects in motion.

Happy Halloween everyone!
Welcome November!
Be safe - be happy!

Much love,

M

Roadkill

Roadkill
It's what's for supper.
It was delicious.
SP has always made me gourmet meals out of the birds he kills.
One male grouse enjoyed Tuesday afternoon until it met SP's work truck.
THUMP!
The grouse flushed from the side of the gravel road into his truck.
SP stopped to retrieve the gift - a deceased beautiful male grouse, his neck snapped from a head-on impact with a moving vehicle.

Tonight this tasty bird graced my dinner plate, along with the last of our wild rice and a brandy cream sauce. For more information, visit my other blog. Pictures and recipe to be posted in the near future.

My new favorite book...

We took this out from the library and I am in love.

I think my newest domestic project will begin with gathering acorns this week. I have never thought about making flour from acorns, but a local flour company has definitely been on my mind. I need to get in touch with a friend I saw at the Common Ground. She told me there was a flour company in Maine. All I can find is Buckwheat.

http://www.amazon.com/Acorn-Pancakes-Dandelion-Salad-Recipes/dp/0060215496

Apples

This the season of apples. This picture was taken at the beginning of October while apple picking in celebration of some dear friends' wedding. I feel rather accomplished when it comes to how much I have done with apples so far this fall. The apples in this picture were used to make an amazing batch of apple butter. It was so good I saved it for presents! These apples also made I made enough apples preserves that with enough luck it will power all the school lunches I need to until the strawberries are ready for harvest. I plan to do a much better job of making strawberry jam this year. I'm happy to know that I am also not finished with apples, as we will pick another round this weekend. The mechanical harvesting crew finished a week or so ago at a neighbors property. He told us they were done so we're going to see what picking is left for us scavengers! I look forward to making more butter this weekend. I am going to try dehydrating apples too. Once Halloween is over, maybe it is time to think about pies. An apple pie is right where I will start.
Mmmm... apples really make your house smell so wonderful!

The Last Beets and Broccoli

Autumn is turning to winter, and the the garden is just about finished. This is one of those pictures I have been meaning to get up on my blog because it is based on the food we have grown and now stored for the winter. One Saturday afternoon over a week ago, I went to the garden and pulled the past of the beets and clipped the broccoli for what just might have been the last time. The beets surprised me in color but yielded less than I anticipated, so I had to compensate with some store bought so that I could make roast beet salad (recipe and pictures on other blog). The broccoli is in the freezer. We added a bunch of meat from a good sale this weekend. I'm proud that our freezer looks the best it ever has!

Girdles and trees

We have been managing some trees on our property for over a year. The recent push on firewood logging came as a result of nature taking it's course a bit later than expected, or should I say hope. A long long time ago, far longer than initially intended, SP went out and girdled trees.

What's that I said? Put girdles on trees?

Yes and according the Arbor Day Foundation:

Girdling Kills Trees

Well as you will see, that's not always the case!

Here's SP and one of his girdles.

Girdles are a prescription of sorts... that's funny - prescription girdles - but this is a prescription for trees... trees that you want to make into firewood. The hope is that when the tree hits the ground, it has done so on it's own volition by the pull of gravity; it is dead and also dry.

Have you ever heard of a girdle that didn't work? Do you want to talk about failing girdles?

Well, our girdles didn't work so well. Some of these girdles are so old that they actually grew fungus.

These girdles worked as you can see the trunk parts had fallen off already. Some of them did just as they should, even though it did take an extra year or two...

In an ideal world the wood is dry. But in our world they act like the most tenacious weeds with a mind of their own. Not all of the trees have gone unwillingly. This is how you know a girdle didn't work - because it has leaves.




The time has come that these stubborn trees need to brought down against their will. Those logs are now decked in the sun, to be dried out the conventional way - via sunlight.

It's a coat rack!

NOT a hat rack!!!

Keep Maine Green

I've started an initiative of hiking with my kids, following a book, written by another local hockey Mom, detailing all the great family hikes in the area. We went on one last weekend that was perfect for my 4 year old to hike and for me to carry the baby in a pack. I want to accomplish all the easy hikes in the area before we move.

When we got to the top of this particular mountain, I saw broken glass everywhere, and upon closer inspection realized that these shards were fire remnants, repeated in various areas all over the peak. I warned the kids and other parents. I thought about the other people I had seen come up to this beautiful scenic overlook, and realized there were also those who walked up at night to light a camp fire. Upon closer inspection, there were signs posted everywhere.

I wonder what came first - the fire or the sign.

The fires still exist with the presence of the signs. Ho hum....

Chaps

This post needs a giant disclaimer - this is for the ladies! This post is about chaps.

Men (other than SP) and SP's mother need to read no further.

There is something about a man in chaps. This post was inspired by Ree, the Pioneer Woman who blogs about the foods and activities of her family on their cattle ranch. Ree, like I, has a thing about men in chaps. She often references chaps and even has an archive of her chap posts (http://thepioneerwoman.com/category/our_ranch/chaps). She needs to add the recent cattle round up posts, because that one was what really inspired these pictures! I have always thought, as those in my Moms group can attend, that SP is at his finest while in his chaps. Maybe after seeing this, you will agree that there is something about chaps.

Seriously, what is there not to love about this?

Or this?


I think he's doing this on purpose.


Here's my idea of side saddle.

Now...

to save the best for last...


how suggestive is this?



See!? There is something sexy about chaps, maybe even more so if they are blaze orange.

Yea that's my man! Here's to you SP, and thanks for the idea Ree!

Logging Tools

Tools used in during a small logging operation.

First, you need a chainsaw.

Then, you need some dead dinosaurs.

You need to put on the proper safety equipment

You will need to measure what you cut.

Then you will need to use this Peavey to roll logs around.

Then you need a vehicle agile enough to skid the logs through and out of the woods.

And once you get the logs up to the proper log yard, you will need this handy dandy pulp hook so you can pick up logs and fling them where you want them.

I love the pulp hook. It's my favorite, well beside the guy in the chaps!

Me first always!

I just took one of those Twilight zone trips to the super market with all the kids. I don't just mean Twilight Zone as in the creepy show of yesteryear, but also as in the time of the day when the sky is an unbelievable blue but the light has not yet left the sky. It always strikes me at that time of day that it could be morning or evening as it is such a misleading color. It reminds me of certain people whose facial expressions or motivations are uncertain. There are those people so lost in their own world no one exists out side of their own microcosm. I ran into this sort of person during my Twilight zone trip. As I navigated through the maze of aisles at the grocery store, there was an incredibly pushy patron who never looked above her own nose or cart to acknowledge those around her, always weaving around others as if they did not exist. This market cart joust continued all the way down to the bread and freezer aisles when I thought she had to be gone for good.

As I neared the check out aisles there she was, heading straight for me and the only thing in between us was the only open aisle. It was a Maine stand off. Being the person I am, with three kids hanging off my cart, I offered for her to go first since she had less items than I. To my surprise, she didn't even acknowledge my kindness and moved in for a complete kill of kindness. I took a deep breath and moved on taking my place behind her in line and putting my ten year old to work to empty the cart.

As I watched her leave the store I was happy to have moved on to bigger and better things. I recalled that yes it was a holiday evening, which brings in all cast and kinds of folks to our small town. Yes she must have been from out of town. When the car was loaded and kids strapped in I proceeded out of my space in the lot to head to the exit, when a Toyota from New York, backed out of a space in front of me, not looking, and proceeded to stop in its spot, taking over both lanes of traffic.

I saw through the wind shield that it was her, my selfish nemesis from the aisles, corking up traffic to put on her own seat belt. I thought I was in some twisted scene from Better Off Dead with instead a crabby lady chasing me. How many people really back out of a parking space, one of the greatest scenes of accidents, without a seat belt on only to stop and make everyone watch them don one? In her impulsive need to get in front of everyone possible, how could she possibly still be in my way when I had much more groceries and children to wrangle into their own car seats?

I was aghast and pointed her out to my to year old, helping him recall the sequence of events that led to this latest display of rudeness. I muttered under my breath, "Typical New Yorker" and then had to bail myself out of such a slanderous statement when my son asked why I meant that. On our drive towards the light in the center of town, I explained myself and what I had learned growing up in the tri-state area in the shadow of NYC and how our own move north was to get away from the selfish "me first always" kind of life I knew all too well. We did after all move north to start living the way life should be, the Maine state motto.

Approaching the light in town, I noticed a car following me all to close for my comfort, and this says a lot as SP can attest to. But under the florescent glare of street lights I could see that that licence plate was from the Empire State. Sure enough the paperboy was back but this time the pay back was mine. Instant karma had intervened and I drove those 2.9 miles home as slowly as possible.

The Next Farmer in Chief

Michael Pollan wrote an open letter to the next President, which was printed in the New York Times food section. Pollan, a contemporary hero for me as an author, has wowed me again. it is a lengthy read chock full of food for thought. I highly recommend reading this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html

Clean Energy Made Here

My husband has come up several times since I started blogging. I keep referring to him in that same anonymous way; my husband or at times dear husband, or simply DH. I have been trying to figure out a name for him, an anonymous term of endearing reference. On another blog I follow, The Pioneer woman, Ree refers to her DH as The Marlboro Man. I thought that maybe I could call my DH The Green Man, but he is only a vegetative deity in my eyes. I could have called him The Leprechaun, but as much of an Irish forest imp he is, miniature he is not. He is Frond my Fern, but I am happy that only a few know what that means. So I chose the most accurate and also shortest term of endearment: SP

Since there is so much more information to come, as so much of my sustainability involves him, here's a little introduction. Meet my husband SP.


SP is a forester, and has recently been seen as the logger for our 4 acre homestead.




SP is employed as a wetlands scientist, predominantly involved in the development of wind power in Maine. Here's a picture he took at work.


Because these installations are remote, he is in the field all the time and therefore is away from home for much of the week. It is hard to be home with three kids and no break, but I am comforted by knowing he is out there being the change - truly. These are some shoulders I am particularly proud of.

I can't wait to ride a tractor.

I was driving to town today (had to find a man about a notary) and passed a man on a tractor. He was serenely passing back and forth, swathing the fallen hay to dry another day before he can bail it. I can't wait to be that person on the tractor. I can't wait - really - because the farm is nearly with in reach. Well OK, the house isn't on the market yet but I know where we are heading! I look forward to controlling the fields and their eternal quest to return to forest, but also to know that I can feed and care for our future livestock. The thought that made me chuckle the most is how many women my age actually have their heart skip a beat when they think about haying?

Local and All natural Meat

I was a vegetarian for 15 years. As a baby, Mom wrote in my baby book that I would spit out meat any time she fed it to me. This continued for many, far too many, years until I declared myself a vegetarian in the 8th or 9th grade. The I met my dear husband (DH) love of my life - a hunter and fisher - and I had found my niche. Well, things are needing to be roped back in on the meat department for us, or else he needs to get off shore or else actually shoot a deer or moose and fill our freezer. Until then, I am trying to focus on the more local more natural choices in the carnivorous world. Most of my reasoning need to do this stems from the high cholesterol and risk of heart disease that DH has imprinted in his veins and genetic code. DH quickly read Michal Pollan's Omnivore dilemma cover to cover and cemented this new life choice for us.

Well, for tonight's meatballs (a crock pot recipe using frozen meatballs) I was so happy to find at our local Hannafords local and all natural frozen meatballs to use! Wolfe's Neck Farm raises Black Angus cows on a salt water farm on Casco Bay. Wolfe's Neck Farm is a historic 626 acre farm dedicated to sustainable agriculture, environmental education, and community well-being. I don't think I could think of a better place! The packaging goes on to say "Today that vision includes support of small-scale cooperative farming where animals are pasture fed as much as possible." As discussed by Pollan and others, grass fed beef is higher in natural Omega 3's than any other beef source, in fact factory farms contain little if any Omega's from their corn fed grain diets. This is clearly important to me and the health of my family. My favorite part is where it says, in bold letters, "Supporting a way of life - family farms." The way life should be - at least in my Utopian world view! That's where we're heading in life and I can't wait!

Interestingly enough, these meatballs were packaged for Pineland Farms Natural Meats of New Gloucester. So google I did and found that they are one of their community partners. It sounds like these guys are the go to's for this in my area. YEA! What a find!
http://wolfesneck.com/about_us/

Food that I have put up for this winter.

Ten + pints tomato sauce.
a small container tomato paste
1 bag dehydrated squash and zuccini chips.
6 quarts dill pickles
soon to be bread and butter pickles
Several quarts of corn.
Many pounds of chicken
A quart plus of broccoli
Flash frozen peppers - 4 packed pint bags.
Frozen chives
Frozen scallions



and I am curious how to save nasturtium, sheep sorrel, or mint, or other herbs outside

What is Tapioca?

And where does it come from?

It's involved in one of my next recipes.

Well it turns out that this stuff is the main component of the diet of those aboriginal tribes on Nightline I talked about in my "Stranger in a Strange Land".

But here is what my lovely Wikipedia says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapioca

Why did I let my daughter have thumbs?

And why did I teach her how to use scissors?

Better yet, why did I leave my scissors out?

No more important, is why did I leave my scissors out next to my knitting project ?

That was not just any knitting project.

It was the FIRST knitting project that I hadn't made a mistake on yet.....




Do you see where I am going here?



She cut the freaking yarn off and I have to start all over.

Maybe THAT what I get for making dinner from scratch (again) and being occupied by something other than her whereabouts.


Scarf number 387 here we come!

Stop junk mail

Thanks to Ecostilletor I found this nifty site. I wonder if it will work.

http://www.greendimes.com/

I hope it works! Though we do get far less than we did in Connecticut! I'm just sick of all the crap from credit card companies!

I have since seen this advertised as a banner on Yahoo. When I take a break from my recipe blog I will definitely register. Only yesterday my 10 year old son received a AAA life insurance card in the mail. Ugh!

Learning to knit!

Ah... the joys of learning something new! My mother in law just left and has spent the past two days teaching me to knit. I am learning a lot about letting go - starting something, getting somewhere, undoing it, and starting over. I am learning to relax and not get attached. This all started with the divine idea of making Christmas presents. Then I realized that as we move to a family farm, I can become involved in the fiber arts. So research I have. At my husbands bidding, I spent a day at the Fryeburg Fair investigating their Fiber barn. Oh me oh my how amazed was I! I learned so much and networked. I bought a drop spindle and some wool hoping to relearn a long lost skill from college. Did you know that angora is six times warmer than wool? Did you also know that Angora is not just a rabbit? The best part was learning that goats can be sheared for wool as well! Not only will I have milking goats but I will also have mohair goats and they can all live together in one happy herd! How perfect is that? The angora rabbits will make the perfect pet for the kids and where else would we want such a warm fiber than in Maine!

The pieces are all coming together and I can't be more excited. I wish the pieces of my knitting were all coming together, but this is the harder part. I can cast on like a pro. I prefer wooden sticks to the metal ones. I can knit, but somehow I keep adding stitches. How the heck am I doing that when I have never learned? Then there is the purling. They say it is so easy - then why is that the part I am consistently screwing up? Well this morning I have started and restarted three times so far. I am three rows in and it looks like I still have my intended 30 stitches. Wish me luck because it is getting colder out and I would really like to wear my new scarf!

Wild Foods- the perfect Freeganism

I received a delightful gift this weekend from our new friend Amos. He was outside playing with my children and approached me with a handful of greens as a wild contribution to lunch. I had no idea that all around my house was a tart green loaded with Vitamin C called Sheep Sorrel. I quickly browsed one of my wild foods books, but it wasn't in it. It's actually regarded as a noxious weed, but I think it makes the perfect addition to my daily cheese sandwich on rye bread! Well this lovely sorrel has both culinary and medicinal uses. So my research is, as soon as possible because all it takes is one frost and it's gone, how I can save it for the winter!

Stay at Homesteader

That's what I am! I'm so much more than a stay at home Mom!

Today, Sunday 9/28/08, on NPR's "In Tune by 10" Dar Williams referred to herself as a stay at homesteader.

On all accounts, this is the best explanation yet of what I am working at.

Stranger in a Strange Land

Do you ever get the sense that you tick to the beat of a different drum or that you will never really fit in with society?

Two nights ago I watched a Night Line special called "into the wild" where they found and documented lost tribes of the Amazon. It touched me so deeply that these kind simple people are being driven to the point of extinction because of the motivations of big business. I am talking about the literal destruction of entire civilizations - the genome left to 6 elderly members - because one government is in pursuit of greater ranching lands or trees to cut down. Other civilizations still thrive, but face the imminent threat of extinction if the Amazon river is dammed - the fishing will cease and the people will die. Period. These people want nothing to do with larger society. They want the freedom to live as they have for thousands upon thousands of years.

This really got me thinking about how different life would be if we lived in a way that was closer to the land, with less focus on money, and more focus on family community. I think back on how from colonial times to the early 1900's we still lived in an agrarian society, with respect for the small farmer and a greater connection to those around us. I reflect on how I have never been drawn towards big business and how infuriating the current Wall Street bail out feels to me. I've never felt the need to pursue money, make a lot of it, or gather possessions. I want to teach or grow or help. That's all I have ever wanted.

Last year I started volunteering again. It felt wonderful to help - to find a group that needed help. The thanks I received was touching but more so embarrassing or unnecessary. This is after all what I have always wanted to do. I am philanthropic by nature, I donate services, time or effort to support a charitable cause. My life goal is to promote good and improve the human quality of life while having no interest in the finances of it all. I have learned to give myself to others and help others in need. I care deeply for those around me, the earth, and everything on it. I have nothing but the best intentions.

This fall, the league I volunteer for has merged with a larger league. In the past month, I have felt the sense of joy I get from helping slip through my fingers. What once was a nice charitable organization is now becoming a big business. I have been misunderstood and then called out in emails inappropriately, when a simple phone called would have cleared up misunderstandings, and allowed for clarifying questions. I have missed meetings only to then been told what to do without any choice. I have asked for things to be done, and then had the president dismiss my requests and state the direct opposite to the rest of the board. I feel uncomfortable in the meetings, I don't feel like I am having fun anymore. I feel constricted, micro managed, misunderstood and disliked.

Now clearly, I can stop what I am doing, I can cease to help and have a bit more time to myself. But this brings me to a sense that I am a stranger in a strange land. I don't like big business. I don't like hierarchies. I don't like teaching in public schools. I don't believe in cookie cutter teaching, cookie cutter housing, for that matter cookie cutter presidents. I believe in individuality, compassion, and sensitivity.

I don't think there is anything wrong with this. I just feel alone, horribly alone at times. I feel sometimes like I am so different from the majority that I stand out like a sore thumb even though I look like just about everyone else. I want to find the right fit. I miss the sense of community I once had. I miss the school I used to teach in. I miss the school my eldest was raised in.

I cried myself to sleep last night. I cried because I feel so different at time, and so alone. I cried for worry that we as a species are moving in a horribly wrong direction. I cried for my husband who loves me for who I am, wouldn't change a thing, and agrees that he too feels like the odd man out at time. He's just got a thicker skin and can play the game. I'm just not interested in playing the game. I'd rather walk away and enjoy my peace and quiet on my small piece of earth and dream of a better day when we all care to live in a more sustainable way.

I am in search of a fit and a greater sense of community. I have a deep need in my heart to know that we as a nation, we as a people, are headed in the right direction. I need to figure out a way how to navigate through my fear, my anxiety, and my sense of dread. On a more imperative level, I feel the need to belong to something, outside of my family, that needs and wants my contribution. I don't want to feel like a stranger in a strange land anymore.

Slow food for our Celebration

Today is our 6th anniversary. We are going out to see Old Crow Medicine Show in Portland tonight. We are going with a few other couples and want to meet up for a bite to eat before hand. My dear husband decided to congregate at the old faithful Gritty's pub in the Old Port. I kind of gave him one of those funny looks that said, "Hey tard - what about my local food efforts?" So onto googling I went and low and behold, I am a Slow Food person after all. How did I once confuse this with the raw foods movement? How is local foods slow? I have so much to learn. here are some fun things I found, and some restaurant reviews to boot!

http://www.slowfoodusa.org

http://www.slowfoodportland.org/sfp/

Lazy Local Living?

While my food and product spreadsheet fills in and elongates, and the loose ends are noted,
I some times wonder if I am missing the intended premise of eating locally by searching out locally processed, manufactured, or distributed products which may in fact be made from ingredients that originate from a far distant place. It makes me think of what Michael Pollan went through to answer or resolve his dilemma as an omnivore.

Is eating locally more about raw or slow foods, or can I find everything I need to stock house and pantry from companies created, employed by, and using all New England residents and ingredients?

Am I creating lazy local living for my family?

Common Ground

http://www.mofga.org/TheFair/tabid/135/Default.aspx

The Common Ground Country Fair is the annual harvest celebration hosted by MOFGA (Maine Organic Growers and Farmers Association). It is a really wonderful experience that celebrates rural living and farming and recharges me annually. The Common Ground is help the weekend of or after the autumnal equinox (my anniversary).

It is more than a celebration of the harvest. It reveres the local farmers, growers and crafters, those that are so often invisible in the touch and go of daily life. We can know where are food comes from. We can also know where any product we use comes from.

Some of my essential questions right now could easily be answered this weekend. If it's not found locally, can we live without it? Can I heat my house without fossil fuels? Without putting myself into the poor house? (note to self, research geothermal houses on the market)

I always feel at CG like I am given a second chance and therefore encouraged that Maine is full of great, active, like minded people; something easily forgotten in my ebb and flow of daily life.

This year I sense a huge opportunity for making connections. I am looking forward to this year because I have not been in 2 years, but also I sense the connections I am about to make.I want to start a home based, locally centered agricultural and crafting business. The last time I was there I did not have that motivation.

I also will be moving soon, so maybe it is also time for me to make friends with some of the breeders and sellers of live fowl. I will have some of those soon and it excites me.

Michael Pollan and The Omnivore's Dilemma

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan has revolutionalized the way that I am raising my family. It is a natural history of four meals. My husband and I found in find in the book information that benefits not only my own desires to fine tune what we eat, but to possibly stave off the very diseases our genetics make us more prone to develop. I have been quoting this book with an online Mom's group I have been with since pregnant with our 2 year old son. It is an expose of modern day markets and how they have been pervasively altered by big businesses and their food products.

Here on my blog, I am sharing many of the quotes I have taken out of the book and the conversation it generated with these other Moms. it felt imperative to me to extend this educational book with some of our nations greatest food consumers - mothers. We are what we eat, and it is about time for us to take a look at what we really are buying at the super market and fast food chains. We need to try to know, where our food comes from, and what it is made of. I am astonished at how far reaching Frankenfoods have gone. Childhood obesity is becoming an epidemic and if I recall correctly diabetes is also reaching an all time high.

The very premise of Pollan's book is, "in response to the up rise of "carbophobia" as a result of Atkins etc. that the author describes as a violent change in a nations eating habits... "

"So violent a change in a culture's eating habits is surely a sign of a national eating disorder. Certainly it would never have happened in a culture in possession of deeply rooted traditions surrounding food and eating. But then, such a culture would not feel the need for it's most august legislative body to ever deliberate the nation's 'dietary goals' - or, for that matter, to wage political battle every few years over the precise design of an official government graphic called the 'food pyramid'. A country with a stable culture of food would not shell out millions for the quackery (or common sense) of a new diet book every January. It would not be susceptible to the pendulum swings of food scares or fads, to the apotheosis every few years of one newly discovered nutrient and the demonization of another. It would not be apt to confuse protein bars and food supplements with meals or breakfast bars and food supplements with meals or breakfast cereals with medicines. It probably would not eat a fifth of its meals in cars or feed fully a third of its children at a fast-food outlet every day. And it surely would not be nearly so fat. "

and later

"Another theme, or premise really, is that the way we eat represent our most profound engagement with the natural world. Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds. Agriculture has done more to reshape the natural world than anything else we humans do, both its landscapes and the composition of flora and fauna. Our eating also constitutes a relationship with dozens of other species - plants, animals, and fungi - with which we have co-evolved to the point where our fates are deeply entwined. Many of the species have evolved expressly to gratify our desires, in the intricate dance of domestication that has allowed us and them to prosper together as we could never have prospered apart. ... Eating puts us in touch with all that we share with other animals, and all that sets is apart. It defines us."


Corn has become the corner stone of America's industrialized food industry. Corn and all its by products are used to feed not only us but the livestock we eat - which is not what they are supposed to eat. It is a plant that has become ubiquitous in our diet. It's abundance is morphed into all things that we used to get naturally, and we now lack the benefits of the things corn has now taken the place of. Here is a list of all the corn byproducts in our food system. So without further ado, here's my newest installation from The Omnivore's Dilemma :

"The great edifice of variety and choice that is an American supermarket turns out to rest on a remarkably narrow biological foundation comprised of a ... single species: Zea Mays, the giant tropical grass most Americans know as corn.
Corn feeds the steer that becomes steak. Corn feeds the chicken and the pic, the turkey and the lamb, the catfish and the tilapia, and increasingly, even the salmon, a carnivore by nature that the fish farms are re-engineering to tolerate corn. The eggs are made of corn. The milk and cheese and yogurt, which once came from dairy cows that grazed on grass, now typically come from Holsteins that spend their working lived indoors tethered to machines, eating corn.
A chicken nugget for example, piles corn upon corn: what chicken it contains exists of corn...including the modified corn starch that glues it all together, the corn flour that coats it... the corn oil its fried in...Much less obviously is the leavenings and lecithin, the mono-, di-, and triglycerides, the attractive golden coloring, and even the citric acid that keeps the nuggets "fresh" can all be derived from corn.
Since the 1980's virtually all the sodas and most of the fruit drinks sold int he supermarket have been sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) - after water, corn sweetener is their principal ingredient. grab a beer for your beverage instead, and you'd still be drinking corn, in the form of alcohol fermented from glucose refined from corn. For modified or unmodified starch, for glucose syrup and maltodextrin, for crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid, for lecithin and dextrose, lactic acid and lysine, for maltose and HFCS, for MSG and polyols, for the caramel color and xantham gum, read: CORN. Corn is in the coffee whitener and Cheez whiz, the frozen yogurt and TV dinner, the canned fruit and ketchup and candies, the soups and snacks and cake mixes, the frosting and gravy and waffles, the syrups and hot sauces, the mayonnaise and mustard, the hot dogs and bologna, the margarine and shortening, the salad dressings and the relishes and even the vitamins.
There are some forty-five thousand items in the average American supermarket and more than a quarter of them contain corn.
...Compared to us, Mexicans today consume a far more varied diet... the animals they eat still feed on grass... much of their protein comes from legumes; and they still sweeten their beverages with cane sugar.
So, that's us - processed corn, walking. "

In the chapter about corn, the author goes to Iowa to learn about a farm and the family that has lived there for many generations. In the line of the degredation of the family farm and the BOOM of corn industry he learns more and more about the morph of the farms and industry...

p. 39

"Beginning in the fifties and sixties, the flood tide of cheap corn made it profitable to fatten cattle on feedlots instead of on grass, and to raise chickens in giant factories rather than in farmyards. Iowa livestock farmers couldn't compete with the factory-farmed animals their own cheap corn had helped spawn, so the chickens and cattle disappeared from the farm, and with them the pastures and hay fields and fences. In their place the farmers planted more of the one crop they could grow more of then anything else: corn. And whenever the price of corn slipped they planted a little more of it, to cover their expenses and stay even. By the 1980s the diversified family farm was history in Iowa, and corn was king. "




AND THIS is what we have all grown up on....

Maybe it really is time to take a look at what we are doing to our children, beginning with the food that they eat.

Recycling Crafts for the Kids!

I think I just discovered my rainy day curriculum for the year!
Some of these ideas would even make some great Christmas presents.
I talked to my husband the other day about making our gifts and supporting the local farmers and crafters ONLY this year! He's all on board.

For any other stay at home Moms out there, check out this site:
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/recycling-crafts/