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.

Why Localize?

If the news of supply chain disruptions in the US due to cataclysms abroad, oil spills, molasses spills, economic peril for the greater part of the world's people and environmental degradation on a scale unprecedented in human history aren't enough to open our eyes to the need for localization I'm not sure what is. 

I have an idea though that what we need is not more gloom and doom prophecies. While we need to be aware of the dangers, what we really need is hope. We need to know that there are alternatives, that they are achievable and that they will produce positive abundant results. We need to know that while the task seems insurmountable and impossible to tackle on our own, we are NOT alone. There are many others like us out there passionate about doing their part to make this world a better place. We need to do our part too. Every day in big ways and small, we can make changes that will move this world on the road to a better future. 

I can do my part by setting a positive example and sharing my successes -and my failures- with you here.

Challenge number one: getting the family to support and participate in achieving my goals (more on that in a later post).

Success number one: preserving local food for winter use. It doesn't get any more local than this!

These jars of Salsa Verde were made from green tomatoes, green peppers, onions and cilantro all grown in our own garden and canned by my fabulous husband. Thanks sweetie! I'll be enjoying this tangy delight on everything from nachos, to enchiladas to salad for the next 6 months. (There are another 10 jars you don't see in this picture.)

We also scored these wonderful finds at Chase Farms in Wells, Maine. Chase farms is one of the oldest continuously operated family farms in the US. 50 pounds of Chippewa potatoes grown exclusively by Chase Farms and harvested with a horse-drawn digger. These will be a great addition to the root cellar. Potato and Leek soup in December will be a welcome treat.

And these beautiful squash along with Chases own humanely treated, vegetarian fed, all natural beef and local Maine Cheese. 

Our larder is filling up with dry beans, flour and other sundries from local farms, markets and our own garden.

What are the payoffs? Along with the culinary delights described above and the fabulous batch of chili my darling is cooking up at this moment with some of that gorgeous green sauce, are the sense of real deep satisfaction and self confidence garnered from being able to take care of one's self directly without relying on wages earned working for someone else to provide for our daily food. The connections and friendships made with local food suppliers and the knowledge that by purchasing the fruits of their labor we are helping them to meet needs such has clothing, shelter and energy. And what's more, by doing this we have reduced food miles, carbon emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels just a little bit while enjoying some of the freshest, healthiest food we've consumed in a long time. 

On Raisins and other "Necessities"

I'm not feeling all that well today. As a result I'm turning to comfort foods. It was Oatmeal for breakfast (with cinnamon and raisins), a little more of the same later on and then a slice of raisin toast for a snack mid afternoon. A theme is beginning to develop here.... I'm a raisin addict. I confess it wholeheartedly. I love their natural sweetness: in my cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, granola, in a muffin, or toast. How many more things can you eat them in?... Oh yes, bread pudding! The thing is, raisins are primarily produced in California. That's WAY outside my local area. What's a girl to do? (Scratches head and turns to her trusty computer.) After a few minutes of research I have the answer. Prunes! Prunes are just dehydrated plums and plums grow wild, literally wild, in New England. They are an indigenous plant! They are also cultivated widely here. I can probably purchase prunes from a local farm or at the very least grab myself a bushel of plums and dehydrate them myself. Once dried and chopped they will be just as sweet and delicious as my beloved raisins, and best of all they'll be local.

On a more serious note. For those of you who have been wondering about my earlier query regarding facial tissue (AKA T.P.) I was unable to locate a manufacturer in New England. But I did find one in New Jersey. If any of you local living enthusiasts have a stumper like this one, a good source of information is Thomas Register. 

So, I'd say that is local living challenge number one solved with an 80% success rate (New Jersey is just a little bit outside of New England). With regards to the raisins, well I give that solution an A+. Prunes are fabulous and the solution is totally local.

A Year of Living Seasonally and Locally in York County, Maine

The movement toward local sustainable living is catching on with concerned individuals across the globe. As climate change continues to threaten our future, more of us need to be asking ourselves the question, “what can I do NOW to avert the looming environmental, economic and social devastation that is inevitable if we don’t make a change?” In response to this question, I have decided to embark on the adventure of local living. I will make every attempt to source all of my personal and household needs from within my local area (80% of food, goods, and services to be produced and purchased from within 50 Miles, with the remaining 20% produced and purchased from within New England.) I believe that if I cannot locate what I need or the materials with which to make it from within that area, then I don’t really NEED it, and I can live without it. (We'll see.... And you'll read about it here. Anyone know a toilet paper manufacturer in New England?)

Living in the North East. I’ve picked a challenging time of year to embark on my experiment of living locally and seasonally. The equinox has just passed. Days are getting shorter and the bulk of the season’s harvest has already been brought in. Perhaps I should have timed this better, perhaps more planning now and starting in the spring would make things go more smoothly, but I’m eager to get started. The situation is desperate for our world. There is no time to wait. And, the harvest IS coming in. There are long cool evenings just perfectly suited to puttering in the kitchen, canning and storing up summer’s bounty. The Alpaca down the road have warm coats and I’m looking forward to getting myself a cuddly sweater and some yarn for knitting myself a nice toasty pair of socks or bedroom slippers.

Is your life filled with things purchased from big box stores, shopping malls and the internet, things that have not made your life richer or more satisfying? As I embark on this adventure in search of a life richer in experience and wealth of spirit, I invite you to join me. Together we can start a revolution that will set this world back on the right path. Stay tuned to this blog and to my website www.sustainableme.me to follow my journey and get valuable tips, information, inspiration and resources for helping you on yours.   I believe that as you travel this road, you will experience a greater sense of gratitude and connection with your environment. You will begin to have a greater appreciation for the simple pleasures of life; a warm sweater, hearty roasted root vegetables, a fresh salad, sun kissed strawberries, all in their own season.

As I step out onto the road, I look forward to meeting you just around the bend or over the next rise. I am filled with anticipation for the new discoveries we’ll make, the adventures we’ll have, the truths we’ll find, and the friends we’ll meet along the way.

Please share this post with the planet. The “One Earth Revolution” begins November 1, 2013. Visit http://www.sustainableme.me/one-earth-revolution.html for more information.