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.
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
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck... Dalai Lama
Eat fish, it is full of Omega 3s. Don’t eat fish it is full of mercury. Eat fish, it is good for your heart. Don’t eat fish, we are ruining the marine eco-system. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! By the time I figure this out I could starve to death.
Until recently, most people considered the ocean to be a salt-water womb providing a never-ending source of food. But now we are learning otherwise. Industrialized-fishing, non-sustainable fish-farming practices and polluted waterways have rendered many species extinct (or nearly so) and left many others chock full of mercury and PCBs. Bad for the environment. Bad for you.
What’s a Conscious Foodie to do?
Organizations such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which was created by the World Wildlife Fund, are working to certify fisheries that are sustainable and to have a labeling system (much like the “Organic” labeling for produce) that will identify these practices. They've got a way to go, but they are on the right track. Check out their site for more in-depth information.
And in the meantime, here is a link to a list that categorizes fish that as Safe, Sometimes Safe, and Best To Avoid. This list provides some good guidelines for choosing fish that is good for the body--and for the environment.
Salmon is one of those fish that appears in all three columns of the list. The safest salmon is Alaskan, wild caught, and as you can imagine, the variety with the highest price tag…often upwards of $25 lb. Salmon to eat “occasionally” would be from CA, OR, WA or other wild caught varieties. Don't even think about eating farmed salmon, or salmon from the Great Lakes.
Salmon happens to be a favorite in my house. Given what I've learned, however, it mostly shows up as a companion rather than in a starring role these days. But if I’m going to splurge on the best possible salmon, here’s how I’ll prepare it:
First, an hour or so in a marinade of:
Then, I preheat the grill on high and lower it to medium just before putting the fish on. I like to grill salmon skin-side down first and let the skin “stick” to the grill… after the first side is cooked through I use a spatula to separate the “meat” from the skin and then flip it back onto the skin thus protecting the delicate flesh from direct heat and keeping it from flaking apart.
Served with some steamed green beans from the garden...mmmmmm.
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.
First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win... Mahatma Ghandi
In the science section of Tuesday’s NY Times, Abigail Zuger, MD wrote a review of two new books that look at opposite sides of the medical treatment equation. In short, one book encourages preventative tests, screenings and treatments while the other maintains a certain skepticism about over-treatment and (what I would term) fear-based medicine.
This dichotomy is something that I deal with a lot in practice and often acts as the litmus test for how people approach their health care choices.
Health is a multi-dimensional concept that has little to do with how well a person scores in diagnostic testing. Yet our current medical mandate does little to facilitate actual health individually, globally or economically.
There are a few things that have to be determined in order to set up a cogent thesis about this. First, there needs to be a good definition of “health” and what it means to be healthy. And second (this is the part that is most difficult to explain) is the need to see health from a wider perspective and to understand how our standard model—which operates on the idea of being sick, not well—is not sustainable and is working against us in terms of our states of health and well-being.
I recognize that it is impossible to deeply explore these complex concepts in one post, so I’ll settle for planting some seeds in hopes that meaningful conversation will take place and further learning will ensue. As such, I leave you with more questions than answers…and encourage you to post your comments.
So…what is health?
I like to think that
health is freedom. It is a state of being where one is not focused on
discomfort or illness but rather has the capacity—both mentally and
physically—to lead a meaningful life with energy to create, to work and to
engage in community.
But given that we are human, and are ultimately going to die, how do we deal with the inevitable bumps in the road?
Can a person be "healthy" if they have cancer? Auto-immune disease? Bi-polar disorder? AIDS?
Can health be attained—and sustained—by simply re-thinking the paradigm of how we live? And how we utilize our medical resources?
Would it be easier to be healthy if we had a society that put as much energy into understanding body, mind and spirit as it did in watching television, playing video games and shopping?
What if we got to the point where the industrial food lobbies didn’t have carte blanche to mis-educate the public with bogus claims about the "safety" of genetically modified, irradiated and chemically concocted foods?
Are some of the ways that we currently treat illness more dangerous than the diseases themselves?
Is it possible that the exponentially increasing occurrences of diseases such as cancer, asthma, autism, allergies and depression are a backlash to the last few generations who have been over-vaccinated, over-medicated and weaned on a diet of chemicals and preservatives?
Is it possible that medical tests are sometimes done with a nod toward avoiding possible malpractice suits?
Is it probable that when a doctor has only 15 minutes with a patient it is nearly impossible to get a comprehensive understanding of the situation and as such, (expensive) testing is sometimes used to complete the job?
In the same vein, is the over use of pharmaceuticals a way to “do something” when no other options are available to the practitioner? (When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail...)
If our medical “authorities” were trained to give care in a more holistic way (i.e. the way that a family doctor operated fifty years ago), would they have more to offer than simple medicinal suppression of symptoms?
How can we do all this when our ailing economy is dependent on broken systems like health insurance, pharmaceuticals, big-box stores, subsidized farming, etc.?
Is radical change possible for the average American?
There you have it folks. I can hear the wheels spinning and the ideas beginning to percolate. And I hope that forward-thinking people—which you must be if you’ve read through to the bottom of this post—will continue to give their energy and ideas to bring our world to a healthier and more sustainable place.
Be the change you want to see in the world…. Mahatma Ghandi
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