Garlic Braids

Look at what I made. My proud little creations. The garlic was grown at the spectacular farm of Blue Moon Produce, where I was an intern this past summer. Garlic is such a magical plant.

A White House Garden

The Obama family will have a garden in the South Lawn at the White House. This news puts a big grin on my face from ear to ear. Finally, our leadership is setting an example for the American people that is healthy and nurturing.

Happy Spring everyone!

p.s. The story was ranked number 1 and 2 on the nytimes.com "most popular e-mailed" list on March 20, 2009.

Today in the New York Times, readers are asked to share their experiences with composting kitchen waste in the urban environment of NYC. There are some ideas on the logistics of composting in a city and what to do with it once the food waste has become nutritious garden food. Link to main article.

Olympia, WA now has organics and yard waste collection for city of Olympia customers. The website also provides information on backyard composting and general information on garbage and recycling.

Plastic bags are the bane of my existence, and I recently found another blogger who shares my conviction. And like the author of Living Plastic Free I also am confused at the sight of shoppers filling their eco-conscious canvas bags with plastic produce bags. This is a phenomenon that is near and dear to me because for the last year I’ve been working with other volunteers to reduce the consumption of plastic produce bags at the Olympia Food Co-op. So far our campaign has focused on education (signage throughout the Stores) and providing alternatives (canvas produce bags, and baskets). In 2009 we will be working on a proposal to implement a charge for each new plastic bag that each customer uses. We are hoping that the charge influences people enough to reduce their consumption of plastic bags.

Fortunately, there is a lot of support from Coop members for what we are doing. Strangely though, there is hesitation and resistance to charge for plastic produce bags. First of all, a charge would recoup the cost of the plastic bags, since they are extremely costly for the Olympia Food Coop to provide. Secondly, as we all know they are a strain on the environment, being made of a non-renewable resource, and they will never go back into the earth as an organic nutrient. And like other plastics, these bags photodegrade; breaking into smaller and smaller pieces, and when in water, the bits of plastic absorb toxins which are in turn are ingested by tiny marine creatures, which are eaten by larger and larger creatures.

Plastic bags may seem innocuous to us because we do not see their impacts here in Olympia, but they are an unnecessary, short-sighted, mis-guided convenience. Sadly, plastic bags have become so prevalent in our daily lives that they have invaded even the most sacred of Olympia’s places, the Farmers’ Market.

Olympia has a great Farmers’ Market. It runs most of the year and many growers participate in growing and providing fresh, local, and toxin-free food. The market is a cornerstone of the Olympia community; it brings us together, connects us to the people that grow our food and the earth in which our food grows.

That’s right...the produce you buy at the market is grown in the soil of the earth; for 3 months or so, soaking up the life of the earth, along with the rain and sun. All the vegetables are tended and cared for by our neighbors, the growers. Then with their hands, the vegetables are harvested and brought to the market. They are put on display with the dirt still in the crevices and folds, like memories lingering of their previous life.

Red, orange, white, brown, green, yellow, leafy, and bulbous

You make your choice of some carrots, a pepper, a few potatoes…

Your instinct is to reach for a plastic bag.
This time, do something different; say no to plastic.
Let the vegetable touch, skin to skin.
Imagine all the colors of nature mixed together without the sheen of plastic.
In reality the bags are truly unnecessary.
You will wash all of it when you get home anyway.

Despite the seeming insignificance of using one plastic bag, by not using any at the Farmer’s Market we are moving one step towards becoming the change we all want to see in the world. It’s time to start from scratch and reconsider the actions of our daily lives and see where we can transform ourselves from consumers to conservers. And to borrow the inspiring words of President-elect Barack Obama…

YES WE CAN!

What's with all the trash along the I-5 corridor between Olympia and Seattle? Where does it all come from? I'm guessing the soda bottles and fast food bags come from the cars and trucks, chucked out the window by uncaring people that have no respect for their surroundings and others. Some of it looks like the plastic wrap used to wrap the cargo on big semi-trailers. Does anyone know for sure?

I do know that the state of Washington pays over $2 million annually to dispose of the trash picked up along the state highways by volunteers and prison inmates. Check out Department of Transportation's website for more details. I'm assuming a significant percent of the litter is disposable packaging designed to contain our convenience food and then be thrown away without a second thought. Why are we using state resources to pick up trash that is associated with products that are unnecessary to begin with and even unhealthy?

I live in Olympia, WA, close to the downtown core. My partner, Larry and I chose the location for its walk-able proximity to all the services in and around the downtown Olympia. We can walk wherever we need to go and walking enables us to see our neighborhood close-up and at a more human pace. We can take in the expansive orange sunsets and smell the blossoms on the trees in spring time without the frame of an automobile at 30 miles per hour. Being close to the ground and having the opportunity to look around, not only reveals pleasant surprises but also the litter scattered in the bushes and along the edges of the sidewalks.

It’s easy to complain about the visual effects when we see litter on our walks around town; we ponder the reasons why it’s there in a seemingly conscious and progressive town like Olympia. Last week, Larry was walking errands when he decided that solely complaining wasn’t going to get the trash picked up. So this past Sunday, we brought a big cardboard box (for the recyclables) and trash bags down to the area between 7th and 8th on Jefferson Street and picked up trash. In an hour we filled 3 bags with all sorts of garbage - black plastic grocery bags, bottles, empty cans of the commercialized caffeinated sugar water, cigarette boxes, paper coffee cups, shoes, and lots of random plastic packaging.

This type of community service isn’t for everyone, but I think it’s a good example that doing something about the problem can be just as effortless as complaining about it. Trash is my passion, so for me to spend an hour cleaning up Olympia is how I can participate in my community. What’s your passion?

Photos by Larry: his website and blog