Patriotism Be Knockin Atchya Door

~ Valley Center, CA ~

Helping Soldiers Trade Their Swords For Plows

photo credits - nytimes

Be you an Independent, a Democrat, a Republican or the Campaign Manager for Jon Stewart, our food - produce, meat and dairy, to be exact - where we get it, how it's produced, and the Farmers behind your next Salad, Burger, or late-nite Milk and Cookie snack, is a concern we can all pay attention to!

* Read on ! * 

 photo credits - nytimes

"...Sgt. Matt Holzmann, 33, a Marine at Camp Pendleton who spent seven months in Afganistan. He did counterinsurgency work and tried to introduce aquaponics, a self-replenishing agricultural system, to rural villages. 

His zeal for aquaponics led him to the farming class. "It's a national security issue," he said the other day outside a garage-turned-classroom filled with boxes of Dr. Earth Kelp Meal. "The more responsibly we use water and energy, the greater it is for our country..."

 photo credits: nytimes

- Mentioned in This Article:

* Archi's Acres
* Aquaponics (An Answer to Sustainable Farming)
* Earth Day
* Food Security
* Dr. Earth Kelp Meal (!?)

 photo credits - nytimes

Books to Inspire

~ Oakland, California & Tennessee ~

I'll be the fisrt to admit I'm a little slow on the uptake. I've been in a foreign land for two years, the after affects of which I fondly and aptly named the African Hangover. This means I know little about the latest pop culture, or CNN news, and get excited when I hear a song that is New to me. So I'll anxiously ask the nearest friend, "Have you heard this yet?!",  and then feel slightly crest fallen when I see their expression and await their reply as this person figures out how to tell me nicely, if not politely that the song has been out for over a year: "Uh, yeah...Must have come out when... er... you were... away."

So that means these two books were published when I was across a large ocean. And due to the game of catch up as a result of my own personal recession, one publication currently carries the hipster/trendy label even while human interest in agriculture precede us by thousands of years.

And Novella Carpenter (her last name prescribes her activities, I think) wrote 'The Education of an Urban Farmer'. A happy, but often sassy exploration of a woman's successful, but also sometimes frustrating efforts to grow her own vegetables, and foster her own animals - for the kill. The title implies the location: all her agrarian activities took place not only in a city setting, but in her backyard. Localvorians be pleased, Vegetarians proceed with caution. :)

     And before I had a chance to get my hands on this urban farming tale, I was lucky to be loaned yet another eye opener. Different prose, slightly different objectives, former New York City resident and policy maker, gone community Tennessee gardener and earth monger Sandor Ellix Katz offers concrete facts and impertinent doses of information with a soft and teaching kind of tone. I liked it. A lot. Especially all the fun antidotes about America's underground food movements, and the eclectic recipes that made me want to begin experimenting with cooking ideas at 2 in the morning - the hours I often found myself reading the pages.

 

This book, a bit more than Carpenter's, gave me a hefty gulp of energizing, and an antsy taste of activism. Make seed saving an act of Patriotism! Break the law by consuming raw milk! Participate in the trade and barter of unpasteurized cheese!

Yes, please. And Read on.

A Quiant Breath of Fresh Air

- San Fran, CA -
Little City Gardens

"Thoughts"