Indoor Garden Treasure

I grew watching my mom grow gardens both outside and inside our home. However, I was far to busy drawing and playing video games to ever get my hands dirty. Unless it was a dreaded chore. Like pouring compost water on the garden, or covering the garden with raked leaves. For some reason my connection to growing things, nature and plants never really blossomed in the suburbs of Minneapolis. So then 2010 happened and I found myself in the very rural town of Unity, Maine. Far far from home. I was in a town surrounded by real farmers, many young organic farmers. Amazingly, I found myself behind the counter of a deli, staring at a whole new world in front of me. I was presented with a different way of life.

This deli, Cross Trax Deli, thanks to Monica Murphy the owner, was in fact the only deli in town, and happened to the backbone of the local farmers in the area. I met some amazing people in that place, and every day these people helped open my eyes to some very important things. I would always say that organic food is important to me, but I did not really understand who was growing it, or how it got to my plate. I always attended the Minneapolis Farmers Market and met the vendors, but did not understand what it took to get the food to that table each week. I always planned to grow a garden some day, but just figured i would do it someday in the future; because gardening was for middle aged people.

I was living my life from a very city centered perspective. Which, I guess, is understandable growing up right outside of a major city. However, things I said were important to me were only important to me in my mind, and not in my actions. It is like I, and an entire culture of pseudo hippies in Minneapolis, were faking it. In Unity Maine I met the kind of people every in Uptown Minneapolis tried to pretend to be. Punk farmers. People who didn't just say radical things, but did radical things.

I am grateful for this subculture of people for shopping at farmer's markets, and supporting organic and local products at their health food stores; it is very important. I was one of those people. It took moving to the other side of the country and to watch people dragging in bag after bag of carrots and kale, or dragging crate after crate of beets down into the cellar. I watched beaten and bruised farmers strolling in after sundown, filthy, just to pick up the compost slop buckets from the deli to feed to their pigs. Hard work, was actually hard work.

Then came the break up. Not long after my long term relationship with my girlfriend ended, I felt like the small town of farmers was too foreign for me to stick around. I was drawn to a bigger city. But things in my head changed. The common ground fair changed me, cross trax changed me, Unity changed me. I need to let my action speak louder than my words, and my words speak louder than the choir in my head. I can tell myself I am a good person tell the cows come home, but unless I get out and do something about it.... I am only good in my head. And that is a scary realization.

So, here is my very humble start to an indoor garden:





Arugula, Arugula, tomato, and basil. I plan to start a few pepper plants and maybe make a few more of each one. The arugula is already sprouting and I am very happy to have things growing under my care. I know it is a very small step, but it is an important step when it is a step I havnt taken in 28 years. So many excuses to not start an indoor garden, and my new outlook is to get rid of those excuses and turn them into results.

Oh, and just to prove that I am acting on this mind frame since moving to Portland here are a few video you will find me in, protesting for peace:





I'll probably repost these videos and talk a bit about my adventures in activism in Portland, Maine.

The Common Ground Fair in Maine

"If you’ve ever been to the Fair, you know — and if you haven’t been, anyone who has will tell you — it’s an event like no other, that brings together so many people from so many walks of life, all in the spirit of celebrating the rural and agricultural traditions of Maine."

The Common Ground Fair is an incredible experience. A lot of effort is put into focusing and highlighting organic farmers and gardeners from Maine. The fair ran from September 24-26th. I spent only 6 hours at this fair, and I learned a lot about organic farming and a lot about Maine. I was impressed with the way in which the fair was conducted and how committed this fair was to a cause beyond making money. The Common Ground fair was an eye opener.

The fair is put on by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners (MOFGA) which is conveniently located in the small town of Unity, Maine. Luckily for me, it is within walking distance of our apartment. If I was not working most of the weekend I would have gone all three days to volunteer or sign up for workshops, or listen to lectures from renowned farmers/gardeners from around the country. The entire week of MOFGA's Common Ground Fair transforms the tiny town of Unity into a frenzied overcrowded spectacle, as a hundred thousand people show up from all over the world to attend. People camp out in MOFGAs fields, relatives fly in to visit, nearly every Unity College student and towns person is at the fair working and people staying home are setting up garage sales or little booths to sell vegetables or crafts at the side of the street as the endless streams of cars start pouring in. The whole town gets involved.

Once you get to the fair you start a long walk, or take a tractor ride to one of the fair's two entrances. You can either sign up to volunteer, or pay a ten dollar entry fee and begin your exploration. Much like any fair, there are tents everywhere, tables, booths, displays, benches, signs, smells and posters. The Common Ground fair only sells locally grown food at vendors. Their booths must be related to local companies or products and must focus on farming/gardening and the state of Maine. There were a lot of animals, and also many demonstrations about all sorts of things. We saw a demonstration on saddling a carriage on two horses, and at the same time watched how to heard sheep. A few steps away they were showing you how to cut wool off a sheep (the sheep was not happy). At the next tent they were dying some sort of fabric. We walked be dozens of other interesting looking demonstrations of lecture that we did not stop for. Most people that are familiar with the fair plan out their weekend based on what they want to learn. Primitive skills like starting a fire, organic farming in small settings, saving seeds, optimizing yields, building your own cottage, and the list is endless.

My personal favorite booth for me was the beehive collective, which was displaying amazing posters that told intricate stories about some problem in the world. The posters were stunning, and the organization members were there explaining the meaning behind the newest poster; which was absolutely brilliant.

Only a few months ago, I was living in the mid west surrounded by huge fairs like the Renaissance Festival and the Minnesota State Fair. I have had experiences with huge fairs. While parking, large crowds, weather, expensive prices, bathrooms are all still problems that Common Ground has during its fair, there is a noticeable difference between the Common Ground Fair and what I normally think of as a 'fair'. The Common Ground fair puts its money where its mouth is and really holds to its guns about making the fair about organic farming and gardening. I did not feel like I was under pressure to buy products. I felt the food choices were respectable and not food that was going to kill me. I also felt that people working at booths were not there simply to make money, and seemed more concerned with supporting Maine. The general consensus from people I would talk to at the deli I am working at, was that the fair was a great places to spend your day learning about valuable skills and knowledge that was going to help them in the future. The one farming lecture we stopped at was fascinating and filled with so much good information it made me wish I had a garden to immediately put some of the ideas to use.

In the end, I was impressed and cannot wait for next year to go again. I met a guy who biked from Ithaca, New York to Unity, Maine (9 hours by car) just to volunteer at the fair and then he was going to bike home. He even slept in our backyard one night. Strange and wonderful things happen during the MOFGA week and I look forward to further embracing it next year.

Would you take a pill instead of eating?

I would rather take a pill for each meal, rather than suffer the inconvenience of eating.

In the last few years I have made a habit of asking people if they would consider taking a pill instead of eating food. A majority, probably about 90% are strongly against the idea of taking a pill for food.

Here is a list of reasons given as to why they would not give up eating food:
1. i like to eat
2. i like flavors/tastes of a certain food(s)
3. pill could be unsafe (i dont trust them)
4. i enjoy the social aspect of eating
5. i do not like change

These are all very good reasons to be against a pill meal plan (pmp), however there are certain things people seem to assume when imagining a PMP system. People often think by agreeing to a PMP they would never be able to eat food again, which would simply not be the case. Anyone developing a PMP system surely would not make it so the PMP consumer would have to commit to only pill the rest of his/her life. That would quite obviously scare away potential costumers, including myself. A PMP should make us less dependent, not more so.

Secondly, a lot of people seem to think the PMP would be designed not in our benefit, while I am imagining a PMP that would be very advanced and fit our lifestyles. One of the big benefits of a PMP would be customization and convenience. I imagine pill making device, it would like a microscope, you would blow in one end and it could calculate your dietary needs and pump out a pill. The device could work for each meal, or for an entire day, week, or months worth of meals. If you wanted to eat a normal dinner each day and have pills for lunch and breakfast you could program that into the pill maker.

People are quick to also assume that pills would be made with low grade old dried out ingredients that would not be of proper value for your system. However, I imagine that the pill maker would use only the best ingredients and make the most fresh/organic pills possible. The idea is to find exactly what our body needs to thrive, and have those things in our pills.

What I want to know is if you would ever consider a PMP in your life? If it was giving you the nutrients you need on a meal by meal basis, was available, affordable and convenient, and did not stop you from eating normal meals when you wanted; would you try it?

I would in a heartbeat. I would use all the time I saved to finish the piles of projects I've started in my lifetime.

Real Lemons Vs Store Lemons

During our awesome stay in Costa Mesa, California I had the priviledge of staying with Marilyn Scott Waters, and Ronn Waters. They made some amazing food, some which I will blog about in the future. One of the most fascinating things they showed me about their impressive garden (which featured tons of earbs, fruits and veggitables) was the different between store bought fruit and their homegrown fruit.

The picture above depicts a store bought lemon on the left, and a Water's homegrown lemon on the right. The lemon on the left is small, cute and perfect. The lemon on the right is large, slightly mishapen and a little faded looking. Upon eating these lemons you find that the store bought lemon also has a smaller skin and less seeds.

While the crisp lemon taste is very evident in the store bought lemon, there is a lingering aftertaste that does not exist in the homegrown version. Yes, the homegrown version is much harder to peel and contains less juice. The upside is the fact that they taste more fresh and do not have any aftertaste. The homegrown lemon is not overpowering, nor long lasting. Lemonade made with fresh homegrown lemons tastes a lot more light and refreshing than even store bought lemons.

The Water's had a tree glowing with huge lemons, and it was an amazing sight to see. Especially coming from Minneaplolis where every lemon looks the same and are probably altered to look and feel exactly like the lemon in our head.