What a great day at the Brooklyn Food Conference. I met so many fab folks and was inspired by how many people in my city are dedicated to having a clean, accessible and sustainable food supply.
Many of my Natural Gourmet Institute colleagues were on hand too... here's a link to their blog, Blanched and Shocked, and Elliott Prag's post about the conference.
Well, except for the rapist.
One of the things that make it possible for me to live in the city is getting out of the city. Here in Philadelphia, I am able to do that without actually leaving. The Fairmont Park system is a huge network of trees, trails and water nestled inside the City of Brotherly Love, and over the years, I have spent countless hours enjoying the quiet solitude of this magical place.
I can recall being nine months pregnant with Number Two, hiking up and down snowy trails with Number One in a backpack and our dog Lucy (who was petrified of heights after a 20 foot nosedive off an icy cliff in that same park) gingerly following behind. Later that Spring, with Number One still in the backpack and Number Two safely ensconced in a front sling, we spent hours, rain or shine, watching the fiddleheads transforming into ferns in the underbrush and quietly hoping the nine-point buck would visit us once again.
Aside from the fact that Number One got frost nip on his cheek that winter, and I had to remove a deer tic from Number Two before he was a month old, the woods were our safe haven from the noise of the city.
Fast-forward a dozen years and you’ll still find me traipsing through the woods, although now that I’m unencumbered by little people, I’m logging in a lot more miles running trails and (with impressive battle scars on my elbows and knees thanks to surprise interactions with roots, rocks and slippery terrain) loving the fact that I can get my exercise, meditation and dose of the wilderness all in one handy package, just blocks from my doorstep.
Except…
for the rapist lurking in the woods who recently attacked a woman along the very route that I run. Over the last five or so years, he has violated a handful of women throughout the park and in one even more horrific incident, committed murder.
After a too-short hiatus, he resurfaced a few weeks ago on the two-year anniversary of his last attack. At 6:30 on a busy Tuesday evening, he grabbed a woman runner out of her car, put a gun to her back, dragged her into the woods and raped her.
Now what?
I really don’t like
making decisions based on fear. But I really don’t want to be stupid either. So
I have stopped running alone except during the busiest of weekend afternoons.
And even then, accompanied by my 96 lb. black lab/German shepherd body guard, Jake, I
am hyper-aware of my surroundings and staying only on the most well traveled
trails…because I am afraid, which makes me really, really, really mad.
Fear and anger. Fear and anger. Fear and anger.
Oh, how very zen of me.
Yup. How very zen.
Well, what did I expect? This is life. And life is fraught with things that rock our worlds and move us into places of discomfort and into feelings that we’d rather not feel. And the “zen” part about it comes from staying with the feelings and observing them rather than judging or pushing them away.
Because
when we stay present in the discomfort and allow ourselves to just be with the feelings, we give ourselves the
opportunity to grow.
This is what happens in meditation… when we sit in meditation we are inevitably faced with emotions that we’d rather not have. Or we become aware of parts of ourselves that we’d rather not see. But if instead of suppressing those thoughts or feelings we simply allow them to arise without judgment, acknowledge them for what they are, and then let them go, we move one step closer to awakening.
And we realize that very often, the ugly parts of life are our greatest teachers. The people who irritate us most are our gurus. And the emotions that most freak us out are the ones with which we ought to get intimate.
What I love about My Woods is that I could run for hours and see few, if any people. I could forget that I was in the sixth largest city in the United States and just groove to the sound of the wind in the trees and the waterfall in the distance.
But what I love about My Community is that people are forming meet-up groups to walk, run or bike together. And what I love about My Life is that I have a best girlfriend who loves to run in the woods as much as I do—AND who laughs at all (OK, most) of my jokes.
Yet I am still afraid. And I am still angry.
But I’m not alone. And that’s super cool.
So for now, I’m allowing myself to feel the fear and the anger while I work on letting it dissolve. And in addition to exercising my body, I am working on exercising compassion—for the victims of these terrible incidents, for our community, for myself and (on a good day) for the perpetrator.
(And, by the way, here’s a link to a previous post that offers more insight on fear and also includes a handy-dandy breathing exercise…)
I think I'm constantly in a state of adjustment...Patti Smith
Adjusting. Working. Adapting. Working.
It’s been a wild ride these last two months… completely off the blog radar as well4good took center stage. But it’s been well worth it.
First off, our new site, www.well4good.com is up. Second, we’ve had three really successful workshops (see photos) that are a combination of yoga, meditation, cooking and education all based on a theme. In February we launched the series with “Heart Centered Living,” in March, “Women’s Wellness” and in April, “Spring Detox.”
Our workshops have been a blast—not to mention completely full, with a wait list—and two more are on the calendar (“Mothering Ourselves” and “Body Beautiful”) before we take a summer break and I head off to cook at Farm and Wilderness Camp in Vermont (more about that later). And please visit the well4good site for info on the upcoming workshops and classes.
Because these workshops are based on the well4good philosophy of sustainable lifestyle practices (when we do what’s really, truly right for ourselves, it will naturally be good for our family, our community, our society and the planet) we move beyond the self-help model to engage in a deeper exploration of the larger impact and implications of our choices. We work together to find realistic and practical solutions to help us live intentionally—and of course—with beauty, grace and flavor.
Sara Lomax-Reese (my partner in well4good) and I are also teaching a two-part class through the Mount Airy Learning Tree on May 12th and May 19th that takes and in-depth look at holistic health and the choices that we face as we navigate this ever-evolving paradigm. I warmly invite readers in the Philadelphia area to join us for these lively, interactive classes.
It is exciting and energizing to see the level of interest surrounding our work. We have received incredible support from leaders in our city government (a special thanks to Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and State Representative Dwight Evans) and have been honored to submit proposals for community outreach projects that offer an opportunity to bring tangible relief to some of our most under-served communities.
We are even being featured on a TV program (New Visions, on WPVI Channel 6 in Philadelphia this Saturday, May 2nd at 7:30 pm.)
It really is a dream come true.
And as all of these things take shape, I find myself energized by the work and motivated to move forward. I also find myself in a state of perpetual adjustment. I’m working harder (yet hopefully smarter) than ever and am doing everything I can to employ the principles of w4g so that I can personally stay well4good as the business unfolds: taking care of myself by eating well, exercising, meditating and spending quality time with friends and family… and most importantly, enjoying the ride.
Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral... Frank Lloyd Wright
When you think of Philadelphia, you might think of cheese steaks, soft pretzels, Ben Franklin or The Liberty Bell... but not necessarily farms and chickens. Yet Philly is full of surprises.
Tucked away on the Northwestern perimeter of the City of Brotherly Love is a protected enclave that holds multiple-acre properties that make you think you are in rural New York, Vermont, or in the Pyrenees for that matter. I am grateful that my dear friends Pat and John have decided to turn their three acre homestead into a locavore's paradise.
Anyone who has read my posts on lemon ice cream, meringues or frittata knows that I am addicted to these local eggs that have thick, creamy yolks the color of the autumn sunset... but the bar has just been raised.
Last Friday I was lucky enough to acquire some of Pat and John's chickens that had been organically, locally, humanely, beautifully and deliciously raised in poultry paradise. Their mobile coop gave them continuous access to the best of everything a chicken needs.
These well-proportioned city girls had meaty legs, ample breasts and supple skin. I brought half a dozen of them home and only then admitted that my freezer (already jammed full of pesto, tomato sauce, soup and pancakes) could no more accommodate 48 pounds of pullet than my new jeans.
What's a girl to do? Thanks to the miracle of Craig's List, my dream of a recycled basement fridge was realized in less than 24 hours and the ladies had a chilly new abode. On Sunday afternoon, while the winds whipped outside my city home and Numbers One and Two helped to decorate the holiday tree, the most delicious chicken we've ever eaten roasted in the oven...
I thinly sliced an organic orange and speckled each round with thyme from my garden... I then carefully arranged the orange slices under the skin before rubbing the whole bird inside and out with butter. A few splashes of white wine and some sea salt... mmmmmmm.... served with roasted-then-mashed sweet potatoes and a green salad. Perfect.
Leftover meat was shredded and sauteed with onions, peppers and pinto beans to become a filling for corn tortillas on Monday... simply add basmati rice, fresh guacamole and steamed broccoli for an absolute feast.
To the illuminated man or woman, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same… The Bhagavad Gita
Ornamental gardening is good, but edible landscaping is that much better. And when it comes to sustainability, efficient use of green-space is of absolute importance.
When we bought our house two and a half years ago, the property next door was sold around the same time. Our new neighbors inherited a yard that was a tangle of overgrown and barely identifiable plants that they were anxious to get rid of--and we were grateful to acquire.
At that time, we were dealing with the aftermath of having had our main sewer line and storm drains replaced, a project that entailed the digging of an eight-foot deep mote around the entire perimeter of our home. After tearing up the driveway, the front walkway, all of the grass and a c
ouple of trees, we were left with a brown, muddy mess.
So we planted everything that people gave us and over the course of three growing seasons have amassed an eclectic assortment of perennial flowers, bushes and um, weeds.
It’s been comical to see how some of the mystery plants have grown. For example, I have an artemisia that looks like the abominable snowman--at this point I’m sure I could easily divide it into seventy-two separate plants. It sits next to—and clashes awfully with—a big clump of yellow coreopsis. If that’s not incentive to rearrange, I don’t know what is!
So as I contemplate this next phase of my garden plan, I am of course, thinking about how to make it more sustainable. I’ve been fascinated by the concept of “edible landscaping” but frankly, I’ve seen some ugly front yard vegetable gardens in my day. My abominable artemisia aside, the aesthetics of the entry to my home are very important to me…
This past weekend I attended a great lecture on Edible Landscaping at the Wyck, a national historic house and garden located about a mile from my house. My friend Nicole Juday is the horticulturalist at the Wyck and she does an incredible job of nurturing the oldest continuously farmed piece of land in the City of Philadelphia.
The lecture was given by Phil Forsyth owner of an ecological/edible landscape business in Philadelphia. Phil also heads up the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP), a non-profit endeavor working to turn vacant urban lots into permaculture oases of Edible Forest Gardening. Phil brought this concept to the center stage on the National Mall in Washington, DC as a part of the US Botanic Garden's One Planet annual display program.
I’ve seen the fruits of Phil’s labor (literally) as he designed and planted a garden-scape for my neighbors. It’s really quite beautiful. The photos shown here are of their recently planted pear and fig trees.
I was surprised and delighted to learn about all of the fruits that will grow in my climate zone.
In Philadelphia, it is possible to grow apples, pears, apricots, peaches, plums, cherries, persimmons and more. And berry bushes, such as blackberries, raspberries and blueberries are among the many that are also suitable for our climate. When asked about the marauding squirrels who have been known to pick clean a tree full of fruit overnight in an urban garden, Phil replied, "If you’re the only buffet on the block, you’re in trouble, but if everyone plants some fruit trees, there will be plenty to go around." I dig that logic.
In the lecture, Phil explained the concept of Permaculture of which I had heard but really didn’t understand. Quoting from the explanation in The Permaculture Activist magazine: Permaculture is a holistic system of design, based on direct observation of nature, learning from traditional knowledge, and the findings of modern science.
The description goes on to talk about the larger goals of restructuring society from a top-down method of thinking (imagine about our industrialized food supply) to a bottom-up action that reinstates control of natural resources (food, water, shelter, means of livelihood) to ordinary people in their communities.
Given what is happening in the world right now--such as the excruciating crisis in our financial institutions--it appears that folks will do well to reconnect to the world that sustains us.
Personally, I find comfort in the tangible aspects of day-to-day life. When I am in my garden, the Wall Street debacle and the chaos of the upcoming election fall way into the background and the hum of the bees and the warmth of the soil takes over.
This weekend I plan to harvest the last of the summer crops from our backyard vegetable garden and to make room for the next wave of fall plantings of spinach, lettuces, onions and garlic.
I am looking forward to adding some dwarf fruit and nut trees to my garden and to using the concepts behind permaculture design to add more depth, dimension and variety to my sustainable landscape.
A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch… James Beard
Here we are, flying headlong into The Crazy Season, when school meetings, work commitments, music lessons, homework, soccer games, and dirty socks are springing up like mushrooms under my weed-block after a good rain.
The number of things that needs to be remembered on a daily basis is taxing my peri-menopausal brain to the point where visible smoke is beginning to wisp out of my ears.
This morning, we left the house with no less than two adults, two children, one 90 lb (smelly) dog, one double bass, three lunches, an art portfolio, two backpacks, a bag of running gear, a work bag with computer and files, a messenger bag full of photos, and a tea cup in waiting.
It was one of those multi-stop mornings that included dropping off The Husband at a Philly Car Share pod to grab an hourly car for meetings in NYC. Then, off to the Waldorf School of Philadelphia only to realize that Number Two left his bow and rosin on the dining room table resulting in an unplanned loop to retrieve the missing items while en-route to my office where I was 9 minutes late for a phone consult that actually was rescheduled for 1:00pm. (Pant, pant.)
Fortunately, that left me with an extra 45 minutes to breathe, recalibrate the pace, and to try to stop thinking about fruit tarts.
Fruit tarts with pears and maple sugar. Fruit tarts with peaches, plums, cherries and lavender honey. Fruit tarts with blueberries and rosemary. Reminders of lazy summer evenings filled with beautiful friends, music, laughter and fruit tarts.
No, I won’t think about those at all.
My obsession with fruit tarts started innocently enough with a platter of gorgeous Seckel pears that would rapidly pass from centerpiece to fruit-fly lunch if not eaten…. Mark Bittman’s Free-Form Fruit Tart recipe provided the perfect palette for my pears and the framework for the many delicious summer deserts that would follow.
It was easy to “organicize” (my new favorite word) the tart shell with raw-milk-butter, organic, unbleached flour, and eggs from a friend’s free-ranging backyard chickens. The filling proved a different matter altogether.
I happen to be one of those food snobs who is willing to search—and pay a premium—for high quality, fresh, clean food—but dangit, more often than not this summer, I just could not find seasonal, organic fruit that was from anywhere remotely near my part of the country.
I trolled the food co-op, the farmer’s markets and even Whole Foods Market in search of local, seasonal, organic fruit, but very often had a hard time finding it. And given that many summer fruits score high on the top pesticide-laden fruits and veggies list (peaches are #1, apples #2, nectarines, strawberries and cherries come in at 5,6 and 7) this is no place to “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” and eat it anyway.
Not good. Not good at all.
In a fit of Tart Desperation, I did some research and settled on the next best thing to locally grown, organic fruit: Integrated Pest Management, or IPM fruits from Kaufman’s Fruit Farm in Bird-in-Hand, PA.
IPM crops are not organic but are tended as judiciously as is possible with the intention to use natural predators, planting patterns and good ol’ fashioned decision making as an alternative to mass spraying. Yes, there are pesticides used occasionally, but (hopefully) only as a last resort.
The resulting tarts were worth the search and sharing them with friends and family a treat unto itself.
Here are a few of the fillings I used (see the recipe link above for the quick and easy tart dough recipe):
Pear Spice: About 2 cups of thinly sliced pears sprinkled with juice of 1 organic lemon and tossed with about 2 tablespoons grade “b” or “c” maple syrup. Top with a mixture of 2 tablespoons maple sugar mixed with 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Blueberry: 2 cups blueberries tossed with 3 tablespoons light brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary, topped with 2 tablespoons melted butter. (I'll bet this would be delish with some kind of fancy liquer mixed in!)
Peach, Plum, Cherry, Blueberry: Toss fruit with 3 tablespoons lavender infused butter (heat 2 tablespoons organic unsalted butter until just bubbling, add a few sprigs of fresh lavender and let sit for 10-15 minutes) use the “soaked lavender” as a paintbrush to butter the crust, Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons honey.
I served the tarts topped with either home-made maple ice cream or fresh whipped cream with a splash of organic vanilla and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
As Fall settles in and the newness of the busy schedule becomes more routine, I'll look forward to making a few more of these, instead of just dreaming of them...
Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius--and a lot of courage--to move in the opposite direction... Albert Einstein
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived... Henry David Thoreau
I am sort of tickled about the rising price of gas.
No, I don’t have a stake in the oil business—in fact, I unfortunately drive a big car (to accommodate a 90 lb. dog and a son who plays the double bass).
The reason I am excited about the price of gas is that it is getting Americans to stop driving and start thinking. It’s forcing us into a Lifestyle Revolution…and I like that!
All of the sudden people are walking—Actually Walking! And riding bicycles. And carpooling. Cities are scrambling to add more busses and trains to accommodate increased ridership. It’s a Green Bonanza!
But personal transportation is just the beginning. You see, Cheap Oil and Cheap Food have been secret bedfellows for the last few decades. We’ve gotten comfy shipping lettuce from California to New York and importing apples from Chile and New Zealand. We’ve even gotten used to buying milk from an industrialized dairy twelve states away when there is a local farm in the next county.
Industrialized food is not just a carbon footprint issue: It’s about e-coli, mad cow, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics. Did you know that more than 70% of all antibiotics produced are used in American industrialized meat production? Can you say, “antibiotic resistant bacteria?” (I’ve got a seriously cool post coming out in the next few days about this, so stay tuned…)
Buying direct from farmers supports the local economy, the environment and, most importantly: Your Body.
If you are interested in reading more about eating locally, here are two books I really enjoyed... Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver is a real gem. Kingsolver’s writing is, as usual, alive and delicious, and this book chronicles her family’s year of eating only food that was grown by them or on neighboring farms. Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, was written by a couple in the Pacific Northwest who ate only foods grown within a 100 mile radius of their home.
While subsisting forever on foods that only grow in your metaphorical backyard (which likely excludes olive oil, coffee and dark chocolate) could be a bit of a buzz-kill, buying locally when it comes to dairy, meat and eggs—and especially in-season produce—is a no-brainer.
So in the summer, when produce is growing rampant, and delicious tomatoes, sweet corn and herbs are plentiful, it’s easy to be a Locavore. Here’s a recipe from the NY Times food section a few years back. I’ve adapted it by changing the cheeses and using all organic ingredients. It’s one of those dishes that I find myself fantasizing about in the middle of winter…
The Locavore’s Best Summer Pasta. Ever. Served with a salad from my garden.
Roasted Tomatoes:
Assembly:
Roast Tomatoes: Heat oven to 275 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut tomatoes into slices about 3/4 inch thick. Lay slices on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and sugar. Bake 15 minutes and reduce heat to 200 degrees. Continue baking, turning half-way through, until tomatoes are shrunken and chewy but not crisp, 4-6 hours.
To assemble the pasta: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook until al dente. Meanwhile, chop roasted tomatoes very finely until almost a paste. Place in a large serving bowl and add garlic, butter and olive oil. When pasta is cooked, drain well and add to the bowl while still hot. Toss well.
Slice the corn from the cobs. Add corn, fresh tomatoes, and cheese to the pasta. Toss well. Add herbs and toss again.
Serve along with a salad of whatever is the freshest and most delicious stuff you can find. Here I’ve got some leaf lettuce from my garden along with the first full-sized cuke of the summer and a handful of lightly steamed purple beans. I also had a small bunch of broccoli in the fridge so I steamed that up and added some shredded purple cabbage.
For salad dressing, I made my usual vinaigrette with chopped shallots, Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar and olive oil. Shake it all up in a little jar and it keeps in the fridge for about a week.
People say I’m
extravagant because I want to be surrounded by beauty. But tell me, who wants
to be surrounded by garbage? ...Imelda Marcos
(This is the third of four in the series on Homeopathy as: Complementary, Alternative, Green and Sustainable Medicine. Check out: Alternative Universe and A Nice Complement, Indeed to read the earlier posts)
As we as a nation embark on the Ultimate Quest For Greeness, medicine shines as a beacon of golden opportunity for change—but the potential lies buried under mountains of medical waste, oceans of pharmaceutical byproducts and an attitude of inertia.
Single-use gloves, syringes, soiled dressings, tissue samples, medical devices and radioactive materials illustrate how (for obvious reasons) safety must often supersede ecology in this attempt to diagnose and treat the ills of our Western society.
But we’ve got a huge problem in that we are creating more waste than we can effectively deal with. The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that affluent countries like America produce upwards of 6 kg per person, per year of medical waste. With a current population of 304,537,292, that gives us at least 1,827,223,752 kg of medical waste each year.
And it’s not just about volume. Much of this stuff is super dangerous. About 20% of the waste is considered hazardous (meaning: infectious, toxic or radioactive) and, again according to the WHO, we are a long way away from being able to safely deal with it all.
The same goes for the
pharmaceutical industry. Alarming information about drug residue in our water
supply is no joke. The latest statistics show something like 80% of our water
harboring traces of pharmaceutical medications. (Check out this site for a really good look at the problem) Although we are told (ahem) that the
traces are not enough to do actual harm, do you really want to be taking a bath
in a cocktail of Viagra, Advil, Vioxx and Prozac?
I am by no means an expert on how hospitals and drug companies can minimize waste, but there are some obvious things that we, the Regular People, can do to facilitate change.
The biggest step that we can make is to take charge of our personal wellbeing. This includes how we eat, how we move our bodies, how we engage in relationships and how we choose to utilize healthcare.
I hate to get preachy here, but I think that many of us use the medical system as a crutch—and we are encouraged to do so. If you really want to get fired up, read this article from Tuesday’s NY Times regarding the recommendation that overweight eight year olds be given Statin drugs to lower cholesterol; give me a break!
I believe that first steps absolutely, positively need to be built around lifestyle modification and personal responsibility—with medicinal treatments being used only after all other avenues have been exhausted (obviously, critical and emergent needs are in a completely different category).
Safe and effective
alternative therapies such as Homeopathy, when properly utilized, can provide
a positive support mechanism to bring the body to a better level of health and
vitality—without bringing harm to the environment.
As a modality, Homeopathy is about as Green as Green gets.
First off, it doesn’t require a lot of diagnostic testing, equipment or expensive machinery. In fact, if need be, remedies can be prepared in a completely low-tech, manual process.
Homeopathic remedies are made from simple substances that, for the most part, come from the plant, animal and mineral kingdoms. For example, in the plant kingdom, there are remedies made from chamomile, nutmeg, onion and wild rice; in the animal kingdom, there are remedies from crushed bees, snake venom and dolphin milk; from the mineral kingdom, potassium, phosphorus, calcium carbonate and plain ol’ salt.
And because of the unique method of preparation used in (FDA regulated and approved) homeopathic pharmacies, only tiny amounts of any substance are ever necessary to produce high-quality remedies. This means that we are never stripping the earth of resources or harming animals in the process.
Being Green, when it comes to medicine, is about a lot more than waste reduction…
Green is the color you get when you blend a conscious attitude about your own personal health with an open eye on the bigger picture. And that is something that each and every one of us can—and should do.
Don't think about it as having to go cold turkey on the ways you currently live your life. Don't even think about it as being difficult or expensive or scary. Instead, think of it as being an Eco-Logical way to take charge of your own health and wellness. Right Now.
No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he
comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow... Lin Yutang
I am a traveling homebody—no matter where I go, I inevitably fall into a comfortable rhythm to make myself feel at home…while far away from home.
This week, as I have been working and visiting in Los Angeles, I was happy to settle into a routine that included daily breakfasts at Urth Caffe in Santa Monica, a restaurant that features local, organic food that is prepared with beauty, flavor and a side of ethics. (Rumor has it that they are also known for treating their employees very, very well.)
Anyway, they serve the most incredible lattes made from the organic, fair trade, chemical-free coffees and teas that they import and sell under their own brand. This was the first time I had a “tea latte” (prepared with steamed milk just like a coffee latte) and it was absolutely divine.
Here are photos of two of my favorite breakfasts…one sweet and the other savory: “bread pudding” made from a cinnamon brioche and topped with caramelized banana, and a Mexican omelet with fresh salsa and a side of local baby greens.
Delicious delights
that served as a lovely and healthful start to the day.
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