Weaving a Web of Community: Local Art, Food and More

Today was the first annual Berwick Arts Association Red Saturday Art Show. More than 20 artists came together in a donated space to provide the community with the opportunity to purchase locally made goods in the form of fine art objects and to support local artists. Several artists donated works and Hubby and I volunteered to run a raffle table to benefit the association. As we manned the raffle table and visited the tables of the various artists we were able to rekindle old friendships, and begin new acquaintances that we hope will develop into future friendships. 

Throughout the day we were amazed by the number of conversations that came around to buy local, local food movements, sustainability and permaculture. We made several new contacts with individuals and groups who are working in this area. It looks like we will be assisting in the planning of some upcoming local food events. We also were able to meet with some folks about  moving forward with an idea for setting up an hour exchange here in the Berwicks and I had one truly inspiring conversation with a young lady about a vision I have for a local needs and skills assessment. It was refreshing and inspiring because of the light and enthusiasm that I could see coming into her eyes as I described my idea. It was so nice to speak with someone who has the youth, enthusiasm and vision to see were we can really go with this type of project. The people I spoke with today  were able to see a future where we have localized our economies and reduced our impact on the planet to a level that is sustainable for the long term.

After the show we retired to the home of a friend who lives just down the street from the building where the show was being held. Ms. T was hosting a pot luck and duck roast featuring a duck that she had recently raised and named Chester. As you can imagine the conversations around local food and sustainability continued in full swing at such a gathering. Everyone was thankful for Chester's sacrifice and also for the delicious Latvian potato tarts that Ms. T made. As we were driving home, I was impressed by just how quickly the day had flown and how what we had really be doing all day was weaving a web of community that we hope will grow closer and more tightly knit as the days go by. 

With Deepest Thanks

Today our family enjoyed a blessed time of sharing, visiting with friends and partaking of a bountiful feast. We have so many things to be thankful for that we could hardly enumerate them all here. But I will take a few moments to give thanks and credit to the local Maine farmers who made this fabulous feast possible. 

Thanks to Spruce Creek Farm for the juicy delicious bird

In keeping with our desire to live and eat locally, our Thanksgiving feast was supplied by our local farmers and grocers. Here is a roll call of the great folks who helped to make this wonderful meal possible.  Thanks to Gaia for the brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes from our own garden, to Chase's Farm for the creamy mashed potatoes, to Wolf Pine Farm for even more sweet potatoes, and onions and squash, to Nature's Way Market for the little extra's that wrap up the feast including the cranberries from Ricker Hill Orchards. 

And for desert: Apple, Mince and Pumpkin pies. With thanks to Misty Brook Farm for the flour that made our delightful pie crusts, to Chase Farm for the pumpkin and to the Guptill family of Hackmatack Playhouse for the apples. After dessert everyone took a break from eating to visit friends, play some games and then it was back for a second helping.  As we wind down our day we just want to say Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. 

Father enjoying some Dilly Beans
that Hubby put up earlier from the wax
beans and dill we grew in our garden

Well fed and resting

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

I've been making cranberry sauce for over 20 years but this is my first time canning it

This cranberry sauce is easy and delicious. Hubby says it's the best he's had in almost 50 years of Thanksgivings (though I'm sure he really can't remember the first few all that well). I made an extra large batch this year and canned some to share and to bring back that lively taste of fall when we are deep in winter. I used 5 bags of cranberries! The cranberries we got from Nature's Way Market were local berries from Ricker Hill Orchards in Turner, Maine.

Here is my quick and easy recipe for cranberry sauce:

1 12 oz. bag of cranberries

1 cup of sugar

zest of 1/2 of 1 orange - finely chopped. 

juice of one orange

put it all in a small saucepan on medium low and heat stirring frequently to prevent scorching until most of the cranberries have popped. Allow to cool. Sauce will thicken as it cools. 

Tip: be sure to be very careful when removing the zest from the orange. You want to get only the zest. Try not to take any of the white pith with it. The pith can be very bitter. 

That is all there is to it! So easy yet so tasty. Enjoy it with your Thanksgiving dinner for sure, but it also makes a great accompaniment to a sandwich in place of chips. Or, use it to garnish your vanilla ice cream. Use your imagination. Have fun with it.

Until next time. Taste lively!

Just Enrolled in Maine Green Power

Just a quick post this morning. I just enrolled in Maine Green Power. 

It's one of those little steps. By supporting the development of local green power and reducing our own energy use, we are trying to do our bit to be part of the solution. Eventually I would like to take our place totally off grid. In fact I think that moving in the direction of a distributed grid system is the way we really need to go (more on this later.)

It's Here! And Just in Time for Thanksgiving.

Here I go, taking pictures of my food again. I've become a repeat offender. You'll have to come to expect this from me I think. Couldn't help myself. All that beautiful, fresh, healthy food in my CSA share from Wolf Pine Farm inspired me. I expect it will also inspire some great meals and some healthy conversation. 

I'm going to try to document where and how far all this luscious food goes. I'll share just the highlights with you in a future post. More food pics anticipated, likely involving our Thanksgiving feast. 

I have a feeling it will be more of a true Thanksgiving this year than it has been in some time. We always pause to give thanks for the blessings of the year, but somehow you FEEL it so much more when you are really close to the source of the food that you are eating as you ponder those blessings. While the fabulous foods pictured above will certainly participate in the feast, much of the bounty will be things that we have already harvested and preserved from our own land. Does anyone have an emoticon for "feeling thankful"?

Until next time. Eat Lightly...

Great Grand-Dad's Granny Square Afghan

It's Friday night after a long week at the office. I'm exhausted, really need to be working on the website, but just haven't got the energy for reading through pages of links and trying to make attractive and navigable pages with all the new information I've been compiling. I'll get those updates out to you just as soon as I can, but right now I'm curled up on my second hand sofa (which I got nearly brand new for about 25% of retail - very lucky find) wrapped up in an old afghan that my great grandfather crocheted back in the 1960's or it might have been the 50's. In either case, it was before I was born.  Have you ever seen one of these?

It is simply gorgeous and snuggly. And it gets me to thinking again about reusing and repairing things. This particular afghan that I'm snuggled up in was severely neglected and thread bare when I was a child. My mother rescued it and redid the stitching between the squares. When I bought my grandparents house, many years later,  Ma gave me the afghan. I've been in the house for 12 years now and here I am, still warming myself in the same old afghan. I've taken a few stitches to it myself over time.  I truly treasure it, even though my great grandfather is only a collection of stories to me. I have no memories of the man himself. Still, knowing this little blanket was made by loving hands and used and repaired by 4 generations of my family is a testament to the lasting quality of such things and to the fact that when cared for things don't have to be disposable. 

Let's add a 4th R: Repair!

So a girl gets herself a pair of the most fabulous little black boots. 

image from http://emmalinabeauty.blogspot.com/2012/08/paying-homage-to-topshop-boots.html

(This girl is not a shoe junkie.) And she wares them almost every day. Well, they're fashionable and versatile. They go with just about everything and before you know it that little hard plastic cap on the heel is just shot. It's worn right through! I wish I had a picture to show you, but you'll just have to imagine it. There is the shoe with the black plastic all worn and ragged and this strange white plastic honeycomb showing through. Now I got these fabulous boots second hand, which is already reuse right? And so they wore out and I tossed them (well actually I think Hubby may have squirreled them away and partsed them out for the leather). But then this morning, as I was getting ready for work, I realized I didn't have any sturdy little black boots with chunky little heels that wouldn't make me feel like I was walking around on stilts all day like the ones I was wearing.  I suddenly thought, "gosh I wish I had those fabulous little black boots!" This thought was immediately followed by, "I probably could have repaired them." Which was followed by, "You know, we really need to add "repair" to that great list of: reduce, reuse, recycle."

I think that often times the excuse for new acquisitions is that something we currently own has become less efficient in its operation due to wear and tear or has become non-functional due to same or to mistreatment. Often these over-loved and utilized objects could be restored and or repaired for a fraction of the input of resources and money that replacing them would cost. So the next time you have some object that is worn down but not quite out - just grab your trusty electronic device and Google away to find great how to tips and videos on how to repair it or, if you prefer, search for local repair persons and support a local business. Perhaps you will learn some new skills, find a new interest or meet a new friend. They are all good things and you will be helping the environment and the local economy to boot. (No pun intended, no really....) It's a win, win, win!

As for this girl, I guess it's off to the thrift store to find me another pair of fabulous second hand boots. And the next time I'm feeling a bit down-at-the heel I'll just take my own advice and get a little knowledge on how to spruce up those tired old clod hoppers and get them ready for dancing again. 

Until next time, dance lightly...

Why I Will Soon be Making My Own Pet Food

So why on earth would I make my own pet food? I want to reduce my reliance on outside inputs and my impact on the planet. I think the time and effort required to make food for my pets will be well worth it. Making my own pet food would allow me to utilize certain kitchen scraps which are currently going to waste because they are not good candidates for composting in a cold compost pile. It would also allow me to control what is going into my pets' food, which is important to me. I don't like the idea of my cat eating ground up baby chicks that were tossed live into a grinder simply because they were the wrong sex, or filler provided by GMO corn meal.  And who knows what's in the poor pup's food? When you come right down to it, it would reduce the overall footprint of my pets' diet by reducing production and transportation inputs and it would reduce demand for a product whose manufacturing methods and ingredients I find reprehensible. So yes, I will probably start making my own pet food very soon. I will keep you posted and will share photos and recipes!

They are certainly worth it!

Building Community and Local Food Networks

I truly believe that, given the chance, most people would prefer to eat fruits and vegetables that grew in their neighborhood or at least their own town or state, as opposed to produce that was trucked in from somewhere half way across the country or around the world. There is a lot of great local food out there, but how do you find it? Frequently produce in stores may only say product of USA. You may not know if it was grown in Maine or California. You can start with your grocer. Tell them that it is important to you to know where your food comes from. Ask them to clearly indicate where produce is from. It doesn't have to be difficult for them and they will likely see their sales increase. 

Here's an example. This evening on my way home from a Meetup event (more on that later) I stopped at my local grocer in South Berwick. Hubby pointed out to me that there was a little placard clipped to the front of one of the displays. It was the size of a name tag and was simply hand printed "Locally Grown" and then had the name of the farm and the town in which it was located. This was brilliant and I certainly would have bought a couple of bags of those cranberries if I hadn't already stocked the larder with my needed supply for Thanksgiving. But now as I'm sitting here thinking about it.... Why not pick up a couple more bags on the way home tomorrow and I can can a big batch of cranberry sauce and have enough to last all winter. It is truly lovely as a relish and its bright color and tangy bite definitely brighten the cold dark months. 

Nature's Way Market also has a sign posted over the cash register that reminds us "we are what we eat". 

There is another in the deli that identifies the various local vendors and where they are from. I'm sure that you can recognize the shape of the great state of Maine on several of these placards. Nature's Way is located in the south west corner of the state just across the border from Rollingsford, NH, so you'll see a few New Hampshire outlines there as well. I think this is a great way to let folks know where their food is coming from. These are simply printed on a standard office printer and slipped into inexpensive sheet protectors before being hung on the wall. I've also noticed a couple of restaurants and another small market in the area taking up the practice. 

Another great source of local food would be local farm stands. Many of them are open from Memorial Day through Halloween selling everything from seedlings to pumpkins and corn stocks. A few even hold out through Christmas and offer trees, wreaths and other natural and local decorations. Local farmers markets and CSA's and co-ops are also great sources of local foods. Most of these are pretty traditional, but there are some less common sources, some that take advantage of the age of social media in order to bring local foodies together. 

And now we've come back to  the meetup group that I mentioned earlier. This evening the Seacoast Permaculture Meetup had its annual swap and share. Members all got together and brought their excess. 

Just a very small selection of the wonderful assortment of foods to share.

For this late fall meetup we focused on preserved foods and other items that could be stored over the winter; canned foods, dried foods, root vegetables and the like. It works roughly like this: There are times when your garden suddenly, for no apparent reason, produces six bushels of green peppers and your entire freezer is full of froze green pepper strips, or you canned half a dozen more jars of salsa than you can ever possibly get through before the tomatoes are in full swing again next year. So you've got all these peppers and salsa, but no pears, or apples, or grain or dried beans. You bring your peppers and salsa and any other items you have that you know is just more than your family is going to consume over the next 3 months and pray for someone to bring the sweet fruits and other things you are looking for. All the stuff is laid out on big tables and everyone takes turns explaining what they brought and then we barter with other members to trade for the stuff we would like to bring home. Hubby and I brought several jars of salsa, both green and red, some herbal vinegar, a large canning jar of apples and some green tomato relish. We scored some hand made tea tree soap, fresh pears, canned peaches, pesto, mustard seed, chives, black walnuts..... I think there might have been a couple more items as well. We had a great time sharing ideas with like minded people and met some new folks as well. We learned, laughed and share healthy food. No-one spent a penny and everyone left happy. All in all a great experience and a good way to get your hands on some rocking local food. 

If there isn't a Meetup like this in your area, start one. Go to the Meetups website and you're on your way.  You could also use this tool to set up a neighborhood or area food shed project. We are only limited by the scope of our imagination. Until next time, enjoy your local food search adventures. 

Local Arts and Crafts in North Berwick Maine

The town of North Berwick, Maine is a hive of art and craft activity this weekend. This was our entertainment of the day, local art and craft fair hopping. We took a break from putting away our summer tools and mulching and I picked up some delicious smelling hand made soap. The fun continues through the weekend. So if you are in the neighborhood of North Berwick tomorrow (Nov 17),  you can work your way through town starting at the Open Studio of artists Kim Bernard & Christos Calivas.

Then it's on to Varney Crossing Nursing Home 47 Elm Street for the Holiday Craft Fair. 

A short trip downtown to 41 Main Street and you will find a pair of treasures as Lori takes up the space  next to Annie and Meme's for her annual craft fair. 

Be sure to stop in at Annie and Meme's for great vintage items at fabulous prices. 

Now it's back out to Wells Street (ME 9 East). Just at the edge of town you will come to a big gray barn that once each year houses the fantastic work of 9 Women and Their Goods. They will be happy to greet you with warm smiles and snacks and a dazzling array of crafts and art works.

I'm certain you'll enjoy yourself and feel good picking up a few Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers that will be the joy of their recipients and your purchase will support a local artist. Keep the local economy going! 

Best Permaculture & Homesteading Books: The Ultimate Reading List for Sustainable Living

Totally off topic, but I love the way this little garden looks as it is beginning to go to sleep.

This list was originally shared by Permaculture Media Blog. I give them full credit and I think the best way to share it is to give you the link directly to The Ultimate Reading List on their blog. I can tell you that I personally own several of these books, have checked several others out of the library and have just added several more to my own personal reading list and wish list. If you are a sustainability junkie, a localizer or a permaculture activist, you will be like a kid in a candy store when you get to this blog. They promise "The best free sustainable living & educational media on the web. Over 2000 videos, eBooks, podcasts and documentaries". I've already checked out a few of the links. I can tell already that the knowledge sponge in me is going to be very busy over the next few day soaking up on this new information, but I will still make time to search the local shops for great local foods and I'll continue to share my finds here with you. 

Also watch for a new "Local Recipe of the Day" page that I hope to get up and running very soon. Feel free to share a recipe. Please be sure to tell us where you live and where you get your great local produce. Please focus on recipes that feature your local, in season goods and provide links to the suppliers wherever possible. I would love to be able to build a matrix of great local suppliers that users can navigate by state and locality. Photos are also welcome and encouraged. We want folks to see just how delicious these beautiful recipes are going to taste. 

So, you have your assignments. My assignment is to get the recipes page up and running and ready for your submissions and to update the website with all the great new links I've dug up this week. 

Until next time. Walk lightly.

A New Look at an Old Saw

We've all heard the phrase "reduce, reuse, recycle". It has been posted on billboards, recycling bins and bumper stickers. We instantly recognize the symbol of three bent arrows forming a triangle as indicating that a material is recyclable or that the designated container is a receptacle for recyclable materials. This symbol has become a ubiquitous tool of the recycling movement. But how often do we really think about the phrase, the entire phrase? It doesn't start with the word recycle and there is a very good reason for that. Because recycling, while it is good and helps to reduce the need for mining new feed stocks from the planet, is still an energy intensive process that does require additional inputs of finite resources. 

Reuse comes before recycle because by reusing and repurposing items we are keeping them out of the waste stream. We are conserving resources required at the front end of the production cycle by reducing the need for new goods and also putting off the need for using resources at the end of the item's useful life when it is recycled.  By repairing an item or passing it on to someone else, or by repurposing it into another useful or beautiful object we are reducing our impact on the planet. For some items this may be only a fractional amount, but add up all those fractions for all those items and you are starting to have a noticeable impact.

Reduce heads the list. I'm not just talking about packaging here folks, while that is important. I've heard stories of people going to the department store and buying a new TV, taking it out of the package, leaving the packaging at the store and telling the management that they are insulted by the excess packaging. But did they ever consider not buying the new TV? It's very likely that they have a perfectly functional TV at home, maybe even more than one. What is this one for? Perhaps the picture quality is marginally better? Perhaps it is a bit larger. Perhaps they are getting a new 32 inch TV for the family room so they can put the 27 inch in the kid's room. But did they stop to think that maybe the children don't need a TV in their room? That maybe if they had fewer TVs they could spend less time at work and more time with their family? In the 1950's the average American family lived in a house only 1/2 to 2/3rds the size of today's homes. They might have one television. They did not have cell phones and iPads and all the other things that we seem to think are necessary. Yet studies show that people where happier then than they are now. Do you wonder why? I think it's time we all stop to ask ourselves that question. 

An older phrase along the same line was "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without". There was a different motivation behind this phrase, but they do share a similar goal. The goal of both is to teach us to conserve the finite resources of our planet and to do so first and foremost by reducing out level of consumption.

What is success?

We live in a world of rampant consumerism where doing the right thing, be it ethical treatment of other people, animals or the environment are weighed against their impact on economic growth and return on investment. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't we be asking ourselves "what will be the impact of my economic activity on my fellow human beings and the planet we all call home?" How did we come to this place where it is OK to tear the earth open and leave her bleeding all so that people are provided  with cheap power, and someone's pockets are lined a bit in the bargain? How did it become normal to poison and deplete soil and water in order to produce excesses of corn, beef, pork and soybeans? All of them, by the way, foods that have been linked to cancer and obesity. 

I believe one of the fundamental problems is that over time we have developed a deeply flawed definition of success. Today success is measured by how much you have; how much stuff, how much influence and of course... how much money you have to buy it all. 

If we could redefine success, perhaps we would stand a chance of coming to some agreement on issues such as climate change, fair and equitable distribution of the worlds resources, alternative energy and a host of other issues that plague our people and our planet. What might that definition look like? I think Ralph Waldo Emerson had a pretty good idea. This is how he defined success:

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To give of one's self; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - This is to have succeeded.

I couldn't have said it better myself. So I will say no more (for now).

Revolution Day 10 and Major Website Overhaul

My latest adventure in local living was signing up for a CSA Share. My first. I signed up with Wolf Pine Farm in Alfred, Maine. I chose this CSA because they consolidate products with several other Maine farms to produce a share with a great variety of veggies and other farm produce. If you aren't ready to start growing your own veg, or if you don't have the time, space or skill set yet to produce all the veg you need, consider taking part in a CSA. This helps to support local farms and puts fresh healthy food on your table. 

The chickens got into the neighbor's yard and I spent a cold half hour rounding them up and getting them corralled in the back yard away from the property line. Hubby spent most of the day installing new insulated garage doors. Once we add insulation to the ceiling over the top floor and take care of a few cosmetic issues we'll be ready to but those great recycled banquet tables in and get down to a real king sized potluck with friends and neighbors. That's one great way to do local entertainment!

Other than that not a lot to report today saving a major overhaul on the website Sustainable Me. I added many new links and gave the site a new fresher look and flow. Check out Places We Shop and Today's New Links. You'll find new links to permaculture principles and more. 

I hope you like the new updates. Keep coming back as I have a lot of new content ready to post in the next few days. And stay tuned here for more adventures in local living. 

Oh for home made bread...

This morning I enjoyed 2 tiny little eggs courtesy of the friendly girls out back. You can see those little cream colored eggs in the photo below. I wish I had a photo of the gorgeous yolks, but my camera was not handy and I didn't want them to get overdone. They were bright orange! Along with my eggs I had a cup of locally roasted coffee from the coffee roaster just a short trip down the road from our place. The aroma! And some toast. This was the one disappointment in my morning. The toast was made from some store bought bread that we had in the freezer. We had to clean out the freezer to make room for all the stuff from our garden and the wonderful turkey from Spruce Creek Farm. The whole time I was eating my breakfast I kept thinking about the delicious home made bread that Hubby made last week with the organic wheat flour from Misty Brook Farm. It was a sensory experience for eyes, nose and mouth. The store bought bread was rather bland and crumby and I pined for that homemade bread.

Some days, as we are out working around, Hubby says, tongue-in-cheek, "Let's have a farm, he said. It'll be fun....." the monologue continues. The point of the monologue being that it's a bit of work this farming business. But I can tell you that the sense of satisfaction that you feel when you see your plants growing and thriving and your property being improved, and when you sit down to a meal of delicious food that you have grown and prepared yourself it is well worth every bit of labor you put in. And the work itself gives more satisfaction than almost any other kind of labor.

There are sacrifices to be made to live locally and sustainably, but I think that once you have adapted, you wont think of them as sacrifices so much, or you just wont think of them. You'll be too busy enjoying the fruits of your labor.

"What is local?" or "I Haven't Started Making My Own Pet Food... Yet"

So just exactly what is local anyway? Is it the distance you can drive and return home on one tank or on one gallon of gas? Is it how far you can travel by bicycle or on foot comfortably? Does it mean within your own town, or within a specific radius of miles? I think you see where I'm going with this. It can be a complicated equation. And I'll throw another variable at you. Does it have to be the same for everything you are sourcing? 

I'll be completely honest with you. I haven't started making my own pet food..... yet, nor am I buying  it from someone who does at prices rivaling a New York strip steak. But I have stopped buying it from the grocery store and started to buy it from my local family owned feed store. At least that way I know that profits on the purchase will stay in my community. So my pet food purchase is advancing one of my localization goals. It is improving the health of my local economy. But economic health is not the only goal of localization. I personally think that too much focus on the economy is the cause of many environmental, social and humanitarian crises around  the world. 

So I'll get to the point.. In considering what is local I want to think about how far it has traveled, if it was produced ethically (meaning humans and animals were not harmed or exploited in its production), and if it was produced in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner. I'll look first in my own town and neighboring communities, next I'll try to keep it within my own state or region if possible and if I can 't find it there I will see if I can find a reasonable substitute (like substituting prunes for raisins). Before I go much farther afield I'll ask myself if I can do without it. I'm betting that in most cases I can find a reasonable substitute or do without, but there may be some times that I need to go a bit further. At each step it is important to remember to look for products that are ethically and environmentally produced. 

One example of a real challenging product is coffee. Since there is no coffee grown in the continental US, what does one do if they just can't seem to give up their coffee habit?  I've found a pretty good substitute for coffee that is made with a mixture of herbs and spices, but some folks don't have my taste for it and sometime I want a real cup of coffee myself. I'm fortunate in that we have a coffee roaster here in town. So you find yourself the nearest coffee roaster that roasts organic free trade coffee and you drink a bit less of it, because it does cost more than the other stuff and because, after all, you are trying to reduce your carbon footprint. You sit back and enjoy your locally roasted, organic, free trade coffee and you are happy because you made a decision not based purely on how much it cost YOU, RIGHT NOW but on what it will cost the planet and its current and future inhabitants if you don't stop to think before you spend. You sip and you smile. You did good.

No I haven't started making my own pet food yet but, at some point, I probably will, once I work out my own food storage plan and can make a little room in the freezer. I hear you asking, "why would you do that?" Well, I'll tell you... in another post :-) 

My pet. He's definitely cute enough to deserve home-made pet food

Day 5: Local Photo Shoot

Well folks, it has been another very long day. 9 hours at the office and an hour of commuting followed by dinner and housework and yet more apple peeling. I'm exhausted. No energy for a lengthy post tonight, but I will share with you some photos of our recent activities that haven't made it onto the blog yet. I hope you will find them in turns amusing and inspiring. So, without further ado, on with the photo shoot!

I only wish you could smell this! These spices came home yesterday whole from the bulk bin at the local health food store.

Hubby ground them up this evening and made them into a most delicious chai which I am drinking even as I type this. 

The inside of the nutmeg. I thought it was just gorgeous on top of smelling heavenly

Step One: spiced apple and pumpkin wine 

Nora nibbling on some greens in the garden while we were putting it to bed and planting the winter rye. She snacked on her fair share of seed as well. Gladys and Mama Cass got in on the action as well

We don't begrudge them their few treats, as they provide us with these delicious eggs.

Just one of many dozen's of apples we peeled. The pies and sauces we'll enjoy this winter will be ample reward.

A happy apple. Yes it has a few spots but it has never been exposed to pesticides or chemical fertilizers, that makes it happy and makes me happy too.

After looking at these photos, I bet you can see why I said yesterday that my general happiness level has improved already. Well that's it for my photo shoot.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll be able to get up that post on "what is local" that I've been promising myself and you that I would get in here. 

Local Arts and Entertainment

When we ask ourselves that age old question, what shall we do tonight, how many of us answer with the predictable "dinner at -insert your favorite chain restaurant here- and a movie at the nearest megaplex cinema"?  It's not that these restaurants are bad, it's just that as it is a chain or franchise you know that a large portion of the profits from your meal are being shipped directly out of your community to corporate share holders. You don't know where the ingredients in your meal came from or what their environmental impact is.  When you eat at a local mom-and-pop type restaurant your dollars stay in the community and continue to circulate in the community making it more vibrant and economically stable. You can also get a pretty good idea of if the owners support local farmers and if they select natural wholesome ingredients. 

The same goes for that movie at the megaplex. Once again your dollars are being shipped out of your community, but you probably haven't stopped to think about the impact you could have if you supported the arts locally by attending a local art show, local stage production or took in a second run movie at the refurbished theater in the next town. These businesses need our support if they are to survive and thrive. Unfortunately, so many of them have already gone by the way-side. Every time we loose one of these local businesses we loose a bit of our freedom of choice.  

One of the driving concepts behind One Earth Revolution is to get us all thinking and once we've started thinking to remind us that we have choices. We have choices in everything we do, in every purchase that we make and every service that we pay for. These choices, once made, have far reaching impacts on our lives, the lives of our children, our communities and our planet.  We don't all have to follow the same set of guidelines but we should all be thinking about what are the guidelines that direct our decisions, and we should stop and refer to them before making blind purchases without stopping to think about their overall impact. 

Since I've started this experiment, I stop to think about every purchase I make and after I've made my purchase, if I decide to purchase, I am very satisfied with the result. I can honestly say, that already, in just four days, I've seen an overall improvement in my general happiness level. So that I can answer the question posed by this great piece I picked up at a local art show. I know the direction I'm going and I'm certain it's a good one!

Lucky in Where I Live

When it comes to living locally, it doesn't get much better than this little corner of southern Maine. I've been impressed by just how lucky I am since I woke this morning. We have local goat's milk soap and even a factory that makes all-natural toiletries less then 30 miles from our home. We have one of the greatest little breakfast restaurants that serves the freshest gourmet breakfast at prices comparable to the big franchised places and we have great neighbors. Today just for crossing the street and asking we were blessed with the opportunity to pick our own apples for free. They are some of the sweetest most delicious apples I have ever tasted and they are completely organic. 

Here is my darling husband picking apples.

Here are those beautiful apples

And  here they are being prepared for a tasty pie that will be served at our fabulous banquet table. Actually there are two. The first obtained from the local Habitat for Humanity store (proceeds from sales go to support the work of HFH), the second came from the free-cycle shop at our local transfer station. They are a matched set! 

Yes we are truly fortunate in where we live. The great thing is that we can all be this lucky. It takes some effort and some time, but the rewards are more than worth the work and the sacrifice. The steps you take will vary depending on where you live, but the end result will be the same. You will never feel more fulfilled than when you are able to provide for the needs of yourself  and your family right in your own back yard and your community without spending a great deal of money and while meeting interesting new people, making new friends, reconnecting with old friends, and learning new skills. 

This has honestly been one of the most wonderful and blessed weekends I have spent in a long time. I'm looking forward to the new discoveries this coming week holds in store. 

Revolution Day 2: Bit of a Ramble

It is a beautiful day and I am happy to be alive and living local. Last evening we had some wonderful friends and neighbors over for dinner and enjoyed just sharing food and conversation. There are some big plans afoot in our town, things you don't read about in the newspapers, if there are still any newspapers in your area. It was good to learn about the things that we should be concerned about as a community and about opportunities to get involved and help our community evolve. Some interesting topics that came up that I will explore further in another post: How do you define what's Local? What criteria do you use when evaluating products to determine if they align with your principals? What resources  do we have as a group that we can mobilize to benefit our entire community. It was a great evening and the food was fabulous. I think I'm becoming one of those people...You know who I mean. Because I just can't resist....

sharing this picture of the glorious roasted squash and vegetables that one of our guests brought to share. It was fabulous! And today has been just as amazing. We started out by dropping by the popup art show put together by the Berwick Art Association and picked up a wonderful piece of art by local artist Erin Duquette. It was then on to Spruce Creek Farm in Eliot to pick up our locally farm raised turkey for our Thanksgiving feast. A stop at King Tut's Apple Cider Mill on the way home netted us some fresh cider and Macoun apples for the mince pie. 

A tasty lunch of leftovers from last-night's feast rounded off the afternoon and now it's out to the garden to finish putting it to bed for the winter. Then I plan to settle down for the evening, put on my toasty warm alpaca slippers crochet with wool from the friendly alpaca down the road and do something creative or just finish that pair of socks I started last week. 

Tomorrow I think there will be apple picking and turning the rest of those beautiful left-over veggies and rabbit into a pot-pie for dinner. Life truly doesn't get any better than this. 

Nobody Plays Croquet Anymore!

One Earth Revolution: Day 1 - This was NOT the subject I intended to write about today, but the thought suddenly popped into my head as I was on my third read of Bill McKibben's Deep Economy. Yes, I really am that passionate about this stuff. The subject of social isolation has been much on my mind of late. I've been thinking about how little time folks spend with their family and neighbors these days.  I have known some of my neighbors for most of my life and others are family, yet I generally only see them in passing. We don't drop in on each other and share coffee or tea and cookies. That wasn't so rare when I was a child and was even more common in my parent's day.  As a society we have become, as McKibben terms it, hyper-individualists.

There are several causes of this hyper-individualism, one of them is the break down of the extended family which began with the industrial revolution and seems to have  reached its peak at the turn of the 21st century. This break down has been inspired by a society that treats people as cogs in the industrial machine and teaches that it is most efficient to be mobile and follow the jobs. Add to that commuting to those jobs! On top of this we have television and other personal entertainment devices. In his book Bowling Alone (2000), Robert Putnam attributes 25% of the breakdown in American civic life to technologies that have "privatized entertainment." I personally think the percentage might be higher. 

So what does all this individualism get us? According to researchers we are more likely to become sick and depressed. That doesn't seem like a great trade off to me. Trade the companionship of family and friends and the stability of a strong local community for a head cold, heart disease, dementia and depression. 

What's the solution? Build strong social networks. Get involved in your community. Volunteer. Shop locally. Studies show that we engage in many more conversations and interactions when we shop at farmer's markets than when we shop at big box grocery stores. And well... play croquet. It is a great game that allows for plenty of social interaction. 

Everyone's situation is different, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you are one of the millions of Americans who just isn't finding life very fulfilling, you might want to have a look at where you are living it. Are you spending a lot of time at work or commuting to work and then spending most of the rest of your time feeling drained and falling back on the habit of sitting in front of the TV until it's time to go to bed before waking up to do it all over again? Perhaps you want to move your living into the space between those two. Move the job a little closer to home. Save some energy for other pursuits. Unplug the TV and get out in the yard, into your neighborhood, into your community. You will find your sense of well-being and your wellness improves. I'm preaching to myself here as much as to anyone. I can be a bit of a hermit and I've spent more than my share of time in front of TV or computer, seen my social networks dwindle and my waistline increase. I'm hoping that this intensive experiment in localization is going to help me turn that around.

I hope you will stay with me on this journey and that we will all make many new discoveries about our selves, our friends, our communities and our world.