In the sunny blue day that was, I practically hopped and skipped to Valentines Park in pursuit of my hometown's first ever Farmer's Market. Being totally prepared, I had a backpack with me to stuff all the locally-grown veggies I was going to buy into.
I should have known something was up when the park seemed a little quiet - no throbbing mass of shoppers .. instead I saw a paltry three stalls and none of them were selling fruit or veg! One was selling hot sausages (not very useful if you're not a pork sausage eater). One was selling bread that came from 30 miles away and the other stall was selling nuts and olives and the seller couldn't tell me anything about how they were grown/ were they organic etc. It was an affront to my soul!! Especially as I'd been in touch with the organisers asking if they wanted any voluntary help (my excuse for befriending local people in the green-foodie scene) and they said they had it all wrapped up. I was totally shellshocked!!! After the wonderful Farmer's Markets of California where street parties happen around the selling and the store holders can tell you all about their farm and their produce and there are veggies aplenty - this was insane !!!!!!!!!!!
I still feel very cut off from food here and am counting the days until I get my organic box delivery. Tomorrow, I may hit the forest in the quest for some local blackberries. Haven't picked them in my hometown area since I was a kid!
I want to find my tribe on my doorstep and I'm not quite sure where to look ...
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Summer wrap up
So .. I'm sitting in London and wondering whether the impetus will be the same to write about everything in past tense. However, for the sake of chronicling the last few weeks of my trip, I'll type away ..
After I left the island, I spent a rainy two days in Vancouver and a sunnier weekend in Toronto catching up with friends I'd not seen in many years. Verdict: it felt like a few weeks since the last get-together, not 8-10 years and everyone was doing great.
Then, I had around 12 hours of overground travel to New Jersey and found myself in the coccooned walls of suburbia. It was a somewhat hard transition to make as my freewheeling, independent, crunchy-granola self had little room to stretch and breathe. Suddenly, I was living in a place where without a car there was not much to do apart from stroll around the hotel parking lot - and the waste I saw in the hotel was quite a shock: cleaning staff who'd run a dishwasher with one item in it, clean towels every day, disposable everything. It was also the first time all summer I was away from folks who grew the food I was eating or had a strong relationship to local/ organic food. So, there was a yearning to return to the wholesome life.
Anyway, my reason for being in NJ was a very nice one - my brother's wedding. I was totally excited in the morning - the waitress in the hotel caught me doing a barefooted twirl in the corridor! The party and ceremony were lovely and I look forward to reliving it all on dvd - the food was yummy-licious and the speeches were warm, funny, poignant and from the heart. What more can one ask for!
So, now I'm back and around 80 per cent unpacked. The final act of unpacking means it's over, finito. What can I put my teeth into now? Where do I want to focus my energies? Can I live life at the level I want to from this little spot of ground I'm at now? What shifted for me over the summer???
I've decided that I will carry on blogging when I have things of environmental interest to add. I want to be local (a big permaculture principle) and see what's on my turf while I'm geographically here. I want to get my hands in the earth again. I want my practical learning to continue. I want to take some time to be an activist about the things I care about, whether that's writing letters, signing petitions, sending charity money to the causes that whisper and shout to me. I want my own life to be sustainable. I want a relationship with the land, the weather, my community, my food. I want to grow herbs, to live consciously, to read the Omnivore's Dilemna, to go to the Hazon food conference in December, to learn.. learn .. learn ... to be a SLOW food groupie, to one day grow my own veggies. To have another amazing West Coast experience soon. I have faith it will all happen. Watch this space !
After I left the island, I spent a rainy two days in Vancouver and a sunnier weekend in Toronto catching up with friends I'd not seen in many years. Verdict: it felt like a few weeks since the last get-together, not 8-10 years and everyone was doing great.
Then, I had around 12 hours of overground travel to New Jersey and found myself in the coccooned walls of suburbia. It was a somewhat hard transition to make as my freewheeling, independent, crunchy-granola self had little room to stretch and breathe. Suddenly, I was living in a place where without a car there was not much to do apart from stroll around the hotel parking lot - and the waste I saw in the hotel was quite a shock: cleaning staff who'd run a dishwasher with one item in it, clean towels every day, disposable everything. It was also the first time all summer I was away from folks who grew the food I was eating or had a strong relationship to local/ organic food. So, there was a yearning to return to the wholesome life.
Anyway, my reason for being in NJ was a very nice one - my brother's wedding. I was totally excited in the morning - the waitress in the hotel caught me doing a barefooted twirl in the corridor! The party and ceremony were lovely and I look forward to reliving it all on dvd - the food was yummy-licious and the speeches were warm, funny, poignant and from the heart. What more can one ask for!
So, now I'm back and around 80 per cent unpacked. The final act of unpacking means it's over, finito. What can I put my teeth into now? Where do I want to focus my energies? Can I live life at the level I want to from this little spot of ground I'm at now? What shifted for me over the summer???
I've decided that I will carry on blogging when I have things of environmental interest to add. I want to be local (a big permaculture principle) and see what's on my turf while I'm geographically here. I want to get my hands in the earth again. I want my practical learning to continue. I want to take some time to be an activist about the things I care about, whether that's writing letters, signing petitions, sending charity money to the causes that whisper and shout to me. I want my own life to be sustainable. I want a relationship with the land, the weather, my community, my food. I want to grow herbs, to live consciously, to read the Omnivore's Dilemna, to go to the Hazon food conference in December, to learn.. learn .. learn ... to be a SLOW food groupie, to one day grow my own veggies. To have another amazing West Coast experience soon. I have faith it will all happen. Watch this space !
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