Every now and then, I discover a special book I want to share with you—so special that it deserves a solo appearance on Green Reads (where I usually feature 3-4 books).
Since retirement my husband and I have been traveling a lot and often find tge food in restaurants extremely unhealthy. And it's everywhere we go. I've taken to pack lunch and dinner. Americans need to wake up. We're on so many medications because we eat horrible food.
I want to find this book. It's a timely topic because environment has impacted past generations and cultures food supply. I'm curious if that is discussed too. Thanks for telling us about it.
Check the library first, Penny. I'm hearing from several people that their libraries are already holding it. What I like about this book: the multi-cultural perspective. All of us, every human, have to eat.
You mention that Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote the foreword to this book. She was recently named as the 2024 recipient of the Stone Award for Literary Achievement at Oregon State University, and will be giving a talk in May, for which they are already selling tickets. I guess I should go ahead and get it on my calendar.
I am trying to remember the specifics of a fiction book I read in the last year or so -- found it, The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson. In one part of the novel, Native American women sew seeds into the hems of their clothing when they are being forcibly relocated. People do their best to carry their traditional foods wherever they may roam.
Oh Great topic for all of us to discuss! Earth to Tables Legacies sounds absolutely full of what I want to hear about. Getting people to wake-up on the whole topic of growing our food! I will definitely be asking for it at my local library and checking out the website!
Sandy's side note:
20 + years ago a dear friend who was a wonderful fiber artist moved to a small town in northern California. She had to take on some kind of job to pay the bills and thus became a lunch cashier for the local elementary school. In addition to being an artist, the woman (a Texan!) was a terrific organic gardener. Disappointed in what she saw being served up to the kids, she asked if she might grow a 'salad garden' at the school to supply it with fresh greens and tomatoes. Her pay would be being allowed to harvest from the garden for her own needs. Long story short, this school garden was a tremendous success. The kids and their parents all got into it and raised money for tools and a small greenhouse. Sadly, the 'powers that be' came along a few years later and proclaimed the school garden to be 'a hippie's dream' that they were not willing to support on school property. They implied that the school was not there to teach kids how to become farm laborers. - big sigh
I truly wish all schools would allow for a garden. Even if only to let kids experience the wonder of watching a garden grow.
Our community has gone the other way on school gardens. 15 years ago a few of the local schools had them, but the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition made school gardens one of the goals, and now all the schools in town have at least some gardens where students can learn about growing food.
Love hearing this, Patricia! I bet the local farmers and the people at Nichol's Garden Nursery had something to do with this success. Love the loyalty to non GMO and organic/heirloom seeds down your way!
I do think times are changing for everyone, so perhaps this may be more viable in more places. But it's usually the political situation that's the bottom line here. Lucky you, to live in an hospitable place. Here in Central TX, not so much. Of course, if it's football . . .
Such a sad outcome for a wonderful hands-on program, Sandy! I wonder if times have changed enough (from 20+ years ago) to make that project more welcome now. Clearly, we're about to be confronted with an increasingly challenging climate crisis that will affect our food sources. The more we can do locally, and the more people we can engage, the better. I hope this book makes it into every library! Thanks for recommending it to yours!
Happy to tell you that the book is available on Libby and my library as an eBook! It is ready on my cell NOW! 🥰
.....Sad to say, politics will have a lot to do with whether public gardens and the like are allowed to happen. We will have to fight to have any sane strategies for using public lands or even our private yards in populated areas. When the developers and zoning come in, they don't want any vegetable gardens in 'their' front yards. IMHO these are people who have not eaten a vegetable without protest, for most of their lives! These are the What Climate Change? people. UGH! ... Still, we persist! 😉
Good to hear about Libby! I'm sure you'll find it interesting. And yes, it's politics (that is, power investments at all levels) that create the barriers to productive change everywhere on the planet. 😪😪😪
Nov 10, 2023·edited Nov 10, 2023Liked by Susan Wittig Albert
So true! We wouldn't want the IRS to have enough agents to actually assess and collect the unpaid taxes that those super wealthy people owe. Certainly not level the burden that they in very real ways are creating for our planet and its people. Well, some of us would like to do just that! And enjoy our fresh fruit and veggies while we are at it! Those boys (and they mostly are 'boys who never grew up' - not men) they are suckers in every sense of that word. We don't need them anymore than we need slugs in our gardens. (Ask me what I think sometime. LOL) 😂
If only there were ducks big enough to take on the suckers I was talking about out! LOL (Come to think about it that orange guy kind of looks like a slug.)
Now here's the low-down on getting down to business with slugs. It will take one year. Every morning you go out with a plastic bag and a 2nd plastic bag or plastic glove over one hand. You pick up every slug you see and put them in the bag. I tossed the bag in the garbage, but they can also be buried. After the first few weeks when you are nabbing 30+ a day, it will soon enough takes less than 5 minutes to find any slugs at all. But you have to stay with this for a full year. Next year surprise! No slugs!!! No kidding. From then on out, should any slugs show up, they are dispatched pronto! Honestly this works even here in the PNW where there are more slugs than one can imagine on an acre of field surrounded by woods. As I have to go out every morning to feed the birds, I found it easy enough to do this little task then, too. And I am so glad that I did.
Both the book and website look incredible! This is a topic near and dear to me: for the last 25 years, I have been supporting and promoting important changes to our food systems. Our current system does more harm than good and it is not sustainable. I have written multiple articles on the importance and benefits of developing local food economies. This is such an important issue. Thanks for the recommendatio, Susan.
Sue, it IS important--and will become even more so as climate change alters the way we use the planet. Please post your website here, and/or links to some of your work. Are you a Substacker?
This morning I took a look at the used side of a piece of paper I was about to use the clean back side of. It was a page out of a 2005 article about surviving the collapse of our fossil-fuel-based economy/civilization. It might have been John Michael Greer's work. The page I had in my hand made a strong case for mastering basic skills that are not dependent on modern technology. Basic carpentry, growing and preparing food, making fire, making clothing, getting around by human power. The writer argued that people possessing such skills are more likely to stay alive if our civilization falls apart, because their skills make them valuable in themselves, more valuable than people with money or weapons. That was one of the reasons we moved to Oregon, did things like learn herbal medicine, collect books about basic skills, and develop people networks.
Makes sense. I read quite a lot of homesteading literature (still have many volumes of Firefox) when we homesteaded here in 1987, and still follow many of those practices. Most of what's available in print now is recycled from those earlier works. Sounds like you and I have had similar experiences, Patricia.
I just closed my website. I am in the process of re-defining my writing path and am currently reading and editing all of my articles for publication on a Substack. Most of my articles were published in the now-defunct print journal Herbal Quarterly, local print mags, or membership websites. Here's a link to one of my first articles on the benefits of local food economy: https://www.greenlivingpdx.com/ten-reasons-to-buy-from-local-growers/
I miss the Herb Quarterly! They began supporting my herbal mysteries in the mid-1990s and I've been very grateful. I still meet people who read about the books in that magazine. I like your article! Thx for quoting Wendell Berry: “Eating is an agricultural act.” Very true. Also, now especially, a political act.
Glad to hear that you'll be here on Substack. Some kindred souls here.
Since retirement my husband and I have been traveling a lot and often find tge food in restaurants extremely unhealthy. And it's everywhere we go. I've taken to pack lunch and dinner. Americans need to wake up. We're on so many medications because we eat horrible food.
Agree, Michelle! Huge issues here--what's needed is a complete overhaul in our ideas about food.
I want to find this book. It's a timely topic because environment has impacted past generations and cultures food supply. I'm curious if that is discussed too. Thanks for telling us about it.
Check the library first, Penny. I'm hearing from several people that their libraries are already holding it. What I like about this book: the multi-cultural perspective. All of us, every human, have to eat.
You mention that Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote the foreword to this book. She was recently named as the 2024 recipient of the Stone Award for Literary Achievement at Oregon State University, and will be giving a talk in May, for which they are already selling tickets. I guess I should go ahead and get it on my calendar.
I am trying to remember the specifics of a fiction book I read in the last year or so -- found it, The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson. In one part of the novel, Native American women sew seeds into the hems of their clothing when they are being forcibly relocated. People do their best to carry their traditional foods wherever they may roam.
And not just foods, but herbs and flowers as well. Here's an example: https://susanalbert.com/the-tale-of-the-priscilla-hollyhock/
You can read Robin Kimmerer's lovely introduction here: https://read.amazon.com/sample/B0B9FP857Z?f=1&r=e6943a12&sid=134-3513296-6435218&rid=&cid=A3734S7RAY2KDF&clientId=kfw&l=en_US&asin=B0B9FP857Z&revisionId=e6943a12&format=1&depth=1 If this link doesn't work, go here and order the Kindle sample, then read it online or in your kindle app. https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Tables-Legacies-Conversations-Generations-ebook/dp/B0B9FP857Z/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
Oh Great topic for all of us to discuss! Earth to Tables Legacies sounds absolutely full of what I want to hear about. Getting people to wake-up on the whole topic of growing our food! I will definitely be asking for it at my local library and checking out the website!
Sandy's side note:
20 + years ago a dear friend who was a wonderful fiber artist moved to a small town in northern California. She had to take on some kind of job to pay the bills and thus became a lunch cashier for the local elementary school. In addition to being an artist, the woman (a Texan!) was a terrific organic gardener. Disappointed in what she saw being served up to the kids, she asked if she might grow a 'salad garden' at the school to supply it with fresh greens and tomatoes. Her pay would be being allowed to harvest from the garden for her own needs. Long story short, this school garden was a tremendous success. The kids and their parents all got into it and raised money for tools and a small greenhouse. Sadly, the 'powers that be' came along a few years later and proclaimed the school garden to be 'a hippie's dream' that they were not willing to support on school property. They implied that the school was not there to teach kids how to become farm laborers. - big sigh
I truly wish all schools would allow for a garden. Even if only to let kids experience the wonder of watching a garden grow.
Our community has gone the other way on school gardens. 15 years ago a few of the local schools had them, but the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition made school gardens one of the goals, and now all the schools in town have at least some gardens where students can learn about growing food.
Love hearing this, Patricia! I bet the local farmers and the people at Nichol's Garden Nursery had something to do with this success. Love the loyalty to non GMO and organic/heirloom seeds down your way!
Love the plug for one of the local seed producers!
I do think times are changing for everyone, so perhaps this may be more viable in more places. But it's usually the political situation that's the bottom line here. Lucky you, to live in an hospitable place. Here in Central TX, not so much. Of course, if it's football . . .
Such a sad outcome for a wonderful hands-on program, Sandy! I wonder if times have changed enough (from 20+ years ago) to make that project more welcome now. Clearly, we're about to be confronted with an increasingly challenging climate crisis that will affect our food sources. The more we can do locally, and the more people we can engage, the better. I hope this book makes it into every library! Thanks for recommending it to yours!
Happy to tell you that the book is available on Libby and my library as an eBook! It is ready on my cell NOW! 🥰
.....Sad to say, politics will have a lot to do with whether public gardens and the like are allowed to happen. We will have to fight to have any sane strategies for using public lands or even our private yards in populated areas. When the developers and zoning come in, they don't want any vegetable gardens in 'their' front yards. IMHO these are people who have not eaten a vegetable without protest, for most of their lives! These are the What Climate Change? people. UGH! ... Still, we persist! 😉
Good to hear about Libby! I'm sure you'll find it interesting. And yes, it's politics (that is, power investments at all levels) that create the barriers to productive change everywhere on the planet. 😪😪😪
So true! We wouldn't want the IRS to have enough agents to actually assess and collect the unpaid taxes that those super wealthy people owe. Certainly not level the burden that they in very real ways are creating for our planet and its people. Well, some of us would like to do just that! And enjoy our fresh fruit and veggies while we are at it! Those boys (and they mostly are 'boys who never grew up' - not men) they are suckers in every sense of that word. We don't need them anymore than we need slugs in our gardens. (Ask me what I think sometime. LOL) 😂
Glad you're not shy! 😃
Slugs? You need ducks!
If only there were ducks big enough to take on the suckers I was talking about out! LOL (Come to think about it that orange guy kind of looks like a slug.)
Now here's the low-down on getting down to business with slugs. It will take one year. Every morning you go out with a plastic bag and a 2nd plastic bag or plastic glove over one hand. You pick up every slug you see and put them in the bag. I tossed the bag in the garbage, but they can also be buried. After the first few weeks when you are nabbing 30+ a day, it will soon enough takes less than 5 minutes to find any slugs at all. But you have to stay with this for a full year. Next year surprise! No slugs!!! No kidding. From then on out, should any slugs show up, they are dispatched pronto! Honestly this works even here in the PNW where there are more slugs than one can imagine on an acre of field surrounded by woods. As I have to go out every morning to feed the birds, I found it easy enough to do this little task then, too. And I am so glad that I did.
Both the book and website look incredible! This is a topic near and dear to me: for the last 25 years, I have been supporting and promoting important changes to our food systems. Our current system does more harm than good and it is not sustainable. I have written multiple articles on the importance and benefits of developing local food economies. This is such an important issue. Thanks for the recommendatio, Susan.
Sue, it IS important--and will become even more so as climate change alters the way we use the planet. Please post your website here, and/or links to some of your work. Are you a Substacker?
This morning I took a look at the used side of a piece of paper I was about to use the clean back side of. It was a page out of a 2005 article about surviving the collapse of our fossil-fuel-based economy/civilization. It might have been John Michael Greer's work. The page I had in my hand made a strong case for mastering basic skills that are not dependent on modern technology. Basic carpentry, growing and preparing food, making fire, making clothing, getting around by human power. The writer argued that people possessing such skills are more likely to stay alive if our civilization falls apart, because their skills make them valuable in themselves, more valuable than people with money or weapons. That was one of the reasons we moved to Oregon, did things like learn herbal medicine, collect books about basic skills, and develop people networks.
Makes sense. I read quite a lot of homesteading literature (still have many volumes of Firefox) when we homesteaded here in 1987, and still follow many of those practices. Most of what's available in print now is recycled from those earlier works. Sounds like you and I have had similar experiences, Patricia.
You started sooner....
I just closed my website. I am in the process of re-defining my writing path and am currently reading and editing all of my articles for publication on a Substack. Most of my articles were published in the now-defunct print journal Herbal Quarterly, local print mags, or membership websites. Here's a link to one of my first articles on the benefits of local food economy: https://www.greenlivingpdx.com/ten-reasons-to-buy-from-local-growers/
I miss the Herb Quarterly! They began supporting my herbal mysteries in the mid-1990s and I've been very grateful. I still meet people who read about the books in that magazine. I like your article! Thx for quoting Wendell Berry: “Eating is an agricultural act.” Very true. Also, now especially, a political act.
Glad to hear that you'll be here on Substack. Some kindred souls here.
Thanks for the tip. I will check this out.