Tuesday Nov 04, 2008
A few weeks back I was listening to my local NPR station KUT and got to hear Fresh
Air, something I don't usually get to hear as I'm working
when it's on here. I happened to catch Michael Pollan talking
about his
"Farmer in Chief" open letter to the next U.S. president.
It was an interesting discussion, so went to check it out on
line. Pollan ties our food system to cheap oil, global warming
and national security and suggests rethinking the way we grow,
sell and even define food to something more sustainable. He
also suggests turning about a third of the White House lawn into
a small farm, about 5 acres. Interestingly the CSA from which
we're getting our vegetables for the next several weeks has
about 4 acres in cultivation.
I thought the article was good "food for thought" :).
Monday Oct 27, 2008
Last night we went to a "meet the farmer" and potluck event at
the community supported agriculture (CSA) farm we joined for the
fall harvest season. The farm is Hands of the Earth, not too
far from the Austin airport. Our boys were impressed by the
planes going by overhead. Having grown up near the
Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, I can tell them it's not always so
much fun.
The farm is pretty small, probably around 10 acres, and I think
they said about 4 were cultivated. We had a tour from a long
time member and after dinner another tour from Marisol, the
farmer. She was obviously really into it, and most excited by
the carrots that were growing in about 5 rows at one end of the
farm. Nice to see the person growing your food getting really
into it.
The potluck was interesting and fun, as they usually are. My
wife Karen brought some chili she made that day using beef from
our grass-fed beef (cattle?) CSA. She got some compliments, and
I agreed, it was quite good. There were lots of other good
dishes, a great blueberry pie, wine, beer, etc.
Karen thought we were a bit out of place with this crowd, which
mostly seemed younger and more urban. Some had kids, but many
couples did not, or didn't bring any kids. But really, the
thing that brought us there was a love of good vegetables,
right?
There were also lots of dogs at this event, and Nick and Sam
loved it! They particularly liked this male gigantic lab
cross. He was the biggest lab I'd ever seen, more the size of a
heavy Great Dane. Funny thing, his mother was also there, and
she was a lab-sized black lab or lab cross. There were lots of
other dogs, and they were all pretty well behaved, which was
nice. There was a little terrier that was zipping around the
fields having a great time!
This is our second time with a CSA. We joined a CSA in the
spring, and while it started out okay, that farm didn't
communicate very well. After the season was over, we signed up
for another half share, and didn't get any of it, despite
repeated attempts at communicating with that farm. We're hoping
this goes better, and I have a pretty good feeling about it
after this potluck.
We start getting our vegetables on Wednesday at the Triangle
farmer's market in Austin. Since Sun is at least part of the
way there, I'll be picking up the veggies. I'm looking forward
to it.
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