Revolution, food crisis, tailgating.....

There is a (not so) quiet revolution going on. It has actually been going on since the 1960's, although some of us baby-boomer's tried to cover it up with respectable(?) jobs and political and corporate ambitions. There have been hold-out's all along, people that were never satisfied with the 9-5, live for the weekend lifestyle, and even some that realized early on that greed never really accomplished much more than bitterness. Add to that small army of counter-cultural adherents an immigrant work force who have spent most of their lives eating whole foods, foods they grew themselves, and sooner or later there appears to be a movement going on. After a while some people with more influence than those that live under the radar start doing some research, and lo and behold, these researchers discovered what those under the radar folks knew all along. The Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health recently conducted a 2 1/2 year survey concluding that the cost-effectiveness of factory farming operations was an illusion, one that didn't take into account the hidden, down-the-road costs to public health, and the environment. Read it and weep, and try to start supporting local, family farmers, or better yet, start growing at least some of your own food yourselves. Even growing a few of your favorite herbs in a container on your apartment's patio is a step in the right direction.
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The food crisis has hit home. We bake all our bread around the Gray abode, a whole wheat/rye recipe I discovered in the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook, plus made from scratch pizza dough. A month or so ago I bought King Arthur all-purpose flour and bread flour for around $2.89 for a 5 lb. bag. Two days ago those same brands and weights had jumped to $4.65. After an appointment in Greensboro yesterday, Slate and I picked up a few things in Costco. I didn't ask an employee, or go through all the food aisles, but I failed to see any rice. Usually, in the area where there were formerly at least 3 pallets full of 25 lb. bags of rice, plus assorted other rices, there were none. I had heard they, and Sam's Club, were beginning to ration rice, due to the international shortage. I have read that as much as 40% of the world's population depends on rice for it's daily survival. I was clueless as to what a big part grains play in our diet until I started making bread, and trying to adhere to a Mediterranean diet. The Washington Post has an excellent series on the food crisis, which I discovered while reading one of my favorite food bloggers, Ed Bruske, the slow cook.
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In the practicing what we preach department, we are now working Monday evenings and Saturday mornings in the Seagrove Community Garden. Last night we planted okra, created some signage for different beds, and installed about half of the irrigation system. Pretty soon we will start harvesting some of the onions, thereby thinning them out as well, and hopefully some of the lettuces too. Last night a couple of us came prepared to do a little tailgating as well.

PING workshop.....

Last Saturday we held the first in a six-part series on faith-based community gardening in conjunction with PING, Covenant Community Garden, Heifer International, Anathoth Community Garden, and Come to the Table. Seven families joined our garden community that day, we received many visitors, and were assisted in building 3 raised beds. For more images, please check out the Seagrove Community Garden blog.

Festival, garden, bread.....

These pitchers were made as companion pieces for my communion sets. I still have a few more things to throw for my next 2 firings, but for the most part, I will be spending most of the next 3-4 days glazing and firing the pieces I bisque fired today. The annual Seagrove Pottery Festival (November 17-18) kinda sneaked up on me this year. In years past I have been ready for whatever event came my way, sometimes weeks in advance. This year I’m playing catch up.

The rain we had a couple of weeks ago really made a difference in our community garden. Today it was plowed up, and it will be disked and otherwise broken up some more over the next few days. After that we hope to build the raised beds, cover them with manure, blend it all together, then plant some type of cover crop. From this angle about 5 months from now, we hope to see some green stuff miraculously springing from the ground.

This bread was delicious with pot roast last night for supper, pretty tasty toasted this morning with homemade strawberry preserves, and still good tonight when used for French toast. Bread is a miracle too.

Beginnings.....

This photo is of our beautiful garden spot, a place where there will soon be a community garden, open to anyone in this neck of the woods who is willing to help us work it. It actually isn’t very beautiful now, but it once was, and will soon be again. It was a garden many years ago, the garden of a father, grandfather, and great grandfather to several of our church members. From what I hear it was prolific, so much so that he even provided some of the food for the local school. Right now it’s pretty much over grown, after several years of having lain fallow, even to the point that pecan tree volunteers are cropping up in the middle of it. It’s in desperate need of being bush hogged, then the land turned over, before we start building raised beds. Our idea is to build beds using lasagna composting ideas - a few layers of mulch and leaves, then manure, then newspaper, and continue this format until each bed is about 24" high. The idea is to create beds that have the look and feel of devil’s food cake, black, soft, and spongy, and unlike devil’s food cake, full of worms. I would go so far as to say that what we’re actually raising is worms, and they are building the beds. We’re just helping them along, in doing what God created them to do. We, on the other hand, were created to look after and feed each other, and to shine some of those "beams of love," as William Blake mentioned, hence the whole garden idea. Enough for today. I’ll post more photos and verbage as we progress.

Odds and ends.....

Although I haven’t posted recently, it hasn’t been because I haven't anything to say or have not been writing. On the contrary, there has been much going on, I’ve shot a few digital images, and have written a lot. It just hasn't made it from my PC to my blog. Slate chipped a front tooth last week, requiring a visit to the dentist’s office, the bonded section fell out, and now we have another appointment tomorrow. My Roma tomatoes are growing pretty fast, the basil looks good, and the peppers are coming along. We had a wonderful supper at church last night, and some of us discussed the idea of our community garden. Next Saturday we’re heading to Cedar Grove UMC’s community garden, and later that day Slate and I hope to meet up with a virtual friend who will be visiting Durham. I’ve been making pots and waiting on customers, and for the first time in several years, I’m totally out of large communion sets. I'm trying to rectify that. I’ve also begun an essay about a topic that I feel needs addressing, if for no other reason than to make clear to myself how I feel about a particular injustice. Except for making a couple of loaves of banana bread for Slate’s and my breakfasts, and enough pizza dough for 4 pies, I’ve pretty much stayed out of the kitchen the last few days. With one of the dough balls pictured below, I’m considering making a pie topped with mozzarella, thinly sliced pears, crumbled gorgonzola, walnuts, and maybe some chopped bacon. I missed that window of opportunity when the squash blossoms were usable, having no idea that they would wither away in a few hours. Bummer. I guess I need to do a little more research on how to safely store the blossoms for future use as they open up. That’s about it for now. It’s time to open the shop, water the garden, and make a few pots. Have a memorable Memorial day!