Consumer Culture on Public Radio

I hope everyone has had a chance to hear some of the series about American consumerism on NPR. It started last week and will continue through the end of this week. Topics include a town in the midwest that is attempting to become energy self-sufficient, where our garbage and recycling go, consumer debt, greed as a disease, and many others.

American Public Media Sustainability Be sure to check the archives for stories from a few days ago.

News from PA Dairy

The past two days I've been hearing that the state is requiring some milk producers to cease labeling their milk as free of hormones. I don't really have time to research it this week. Does anyone who is better informed than me want to fill us in on what's going on?

The news bites I heard were on WITF 89.5 fm.

Native Landscaping

I just thought I'd post a couple resources as I've been researching landscaping with native plants. Everyone knows what a waste of time, energy, space, and resources the typical American yard is, and they are generally pretty boring to look at. I've become tired of trying to maintain my yard, so I'm researching how I can landscape with native plants that will need little maintenance and no watering once they are established.

Here are a few resources that I've run across:
Landscaping with Native Plants in Pennsylvania -- Perfect place to start! I've been cross-referencing their lists with "National Audubon Society, Field Guide to North American Wildflowers"

There are also links to a few other places on the DCNR website.

I also found these videos on Treehugger.com with similar ideas about making better use of space:
Edible Estates
Urban Homestead

Since what we're talking about is really a part of the whole concept of permaculture here is a great video series about permaculture featuring Bill Mollison (who is credited with originating the idea of permaculture):
The Permaculture Concept is a series of videos. I'm only linking to the first one, but I think there are 6 parts total.

New Discoveries

Last Saturday I went to Carlisle to find the Old Pomfret Farmers' Market. Instead I found a street street festival. There were a few farmers selling produce on the square, and I ran into Thom Marti, owner of Broad Valley Orchard - one of the very few orchards in the region that is certified natural (organic - just not USDA certified, which might be even better considering the way this administration has been trying to tinker with the organic standards).

Be sure to check out Thom's website (linked above). Lots of info there. The farm is about 15 miles north of Gettysburg, and from what Thom told me on Saturday the pick-up point for the CSA is at a Lutheran Church in Gettysburg. The amazing coincidence is that this CSA is one that I helped start about 8 years ago. I stepped out after I found myself in over my head without enough gardening experience to provide the food that we needed. I was overjoyed to hear that Thom took over the CSA and that it appears to be thriving.

I ran across a vendor at the fair who makes wooden toys. So I bought this grasshopper for our son. The vendor was "Sew 'n Saw, quality handcrafted items made from wood and fabric" Julie and Tom Pasker 125 Jeanel Ci, Lititz, PA 17543. 717-626-2797. sewnsaw@dejazzd.com

I finally stopped at Appalachian Whole Foods Market on the corner of High St. and Pitt St. in downtown Carlisle. Map of 100 W High St Carlisle, PA 17013-2924, US It's a corner grocery store that carries a wide range or organic and natural foods, body products, and health supplements.

They carry Big Sky Bread which appears to be baked in York, but is a national franchise. The wheat is grown in Montana, and all of the ingredients are simple -- no preservatives, no corn syrup, nothing that you can't pronounce easily. So it's not 100% local but it's a lot better than many of our alternatives. I bought a loaf of whole wheat multi-grain bread that was incredible. One of the best breads I've had in the U.S., and I have a loaf of French peasant bread in the freezer waiting for just the right meal to accompany it. I'll definitely be back for the bread.

They also have some dairy products from Trickling Springs Creamery which I've written about before. For those of you catching up, it's a great local dairy that has local organic dairy products.Apparently there's also a learning center there at Appalachian Whole Foods. There was really too much to try to absorb in one short visit, so I'll get more info next time I go

If anyone has more info on Appalachian Whole Foods or Big Sky Bread Company please post a comment.

While I'm writing about bread, I thought I'd mention the Gettysburg Baking Company. They have two locations in Gettysburg and Biglerville. I've heard good reports, but I've never been there myself. Again if anyone has been there, post a comment.

Other than my adventure in Carlisle, I've been busy putting food up for winter. In addition to the usual squash and root crops, I've been taking advantage of this unseasonably warm fall weather to get in more tomatoes. I freeze some whole for sauces and soups in the winter. I just put them in a big container in the freezer and then grab some whenever I want. I've also been drying some tomatoes and storing them in canning jars. In anticipation of getting a heavy frost someday, I've also been picking some green tomatoes to ripen indoors. I wrap them in newspaper and lay them on a sheet of newspaper on the cool basement floor. They will gradually ripen, hopefully not all at once. I've also been freezing sweet peppers. We also got some organic free-range chickens through our CSA from Village Acres Farm in Mifflintown, PA.

And I have one question for Finnegans Wake (who posted a comment earlier); have I run into another James Joyce fan? I've never had the courage to attempt "Finnegans Wake" but I love "Ulysses."

Where does our food come from?

I was pleasantly surprised last week when an old friend e-mailed to let me know that he had been reading the blog. Matt has been living in Idaho for a number of years now and writes on topics related to the outdoors and, of course, local food. Here are two of the pieces he e-mailed me.

They are both short editorials.
Look behind the label offers a brief introduction to the array of "eco-labels" we encounter at the supermarket and how one can begin to make some sense of them.

Where's the beef from? asks the fundamental question of the local food movement.

Both pieces relate to this basic idea of connection. I wonder if this local food movement is a reaction against the increasing disconnect and isolation in our culture. The illustrations of our individual isolation in our everyday lives abound: the solitary commute to work, cubicles at work, Moms and Dads who rarely see each other because they are on different shifts at work, kids running to a dozen different activities, automated check-out lanes at the store, on-line shopping, and hours spent in front of our electronic distractions (computers, television, video games, movies...). What could be more basic to life than air, food, and water? Is it possible that food provides a sense of connection that we may not even be conscious of? Connection to the farmer who grows the food. Connection to the people we meet at the farm or market. Connection to the plants, animals, and land that provide our food.

"There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.
Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech...
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."
-- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

If you have never read "A Sand County Almanac," it is one of the seminal works in wilderness literature. Along with Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Muir, Aldo Leopold was one of the first European-Americans to clearly articulate an environmental ethic. I use the label European-American, because there were many Native Americans who had been speaking out against our careless use and destruction of the natural world for some time.

Stock Up for Winter

A few weeks ago I made a post and referenced two articles on Mother Earth News about eating with the seasons and storing foods for the winter. Here's a little update on what we've been doing to put some food up for winter.

First, we've been eating all of the fresh produce we can so that we do not dip into our winter stores. That means right now we're still eating a lot of salad greens, tomatoes, summer squash/zucchini, eggplant, and peppers. Even though we have potatoes, winter squash, and kohlrabi we're saving those for later.

Aside from our CSA, I've been supplementing our produce with stops at another local farmer's stand on Rt 11, just North of Chambersburg (near Green Village if you know where that is).Map of 2891 Philadelphia Ave Chambersburg, PA 17201-7904, US The address is actually for McDonald's which is across the road, but it'll get you there. They have a very nice selection -- not organic, but still local. Their farm is near Path Valley. I've been stopping every week and buying butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, and apples.

I also stopped today at Shatzer's fruit stand on Rt 30 West (between Chambersburg and St. Thomas). I posted a map to their location in a post a month or two ago. Their apples are a little cheaper and better quality I think. While they are not organic, they also do not spray indiscriminately. Today they had several varieties of apples, pears, winter squash, pumpkins, cider, apple butter, honey, and a few other things I've forgotten.

Most produce needs cool temperatures for storage. Exact temperature requirements vary as do requirements for humidity, but it's not rocket science. See those articles I referenced for more info. If I get time, I'll post a little more later about storage ideas since most people don't have root cellars anymore.

What Does Democracy Look Like?

What does democracy look like? This is what we chanted as 100,000 of us marched toward the Capitol Building on September 15. Democracy looks like 100,000 people coming together holding signs ranging from "Impeach Bush", "End the War Now", to "Free the Jena 6" and the ever present, yet pithy slogan "How did our oil get under their soil?"

We were led by the Iraq veterans against the war and joined by groups as varied as Christian Clergy Against the War, college activists, Buddhist monks and young mothers holding anti-war signs while pushing their babies in strollers. I followed a young man who held the United States flag high and let the writing on his tee-shirt do the talking. The words painted on his shirt were: "Just because I'm a patriot doesn't ever mean you have the right to silence me." I tend to like Camus' version,"I would like to love my country and love justice at the same time." I thought of all the times I've been silent while my rights or the rights of someone less fortunate were taken away. Do you know that if we are all silent when these things happen that means we are complicit in the wrong doing?

I want to cite a few things that really motivated me and got me on my feet and involved in this march.

1. The Bush Administration issued an executive order authorizing military commissions to secretly try and execute civilians.
2. Foreign citizens have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay without charge or the right to counsel.
3. False evidence was used that Iraq sought yellowcake uranium from Niger to justify attacking Iraq.
4. We were all deceived about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
5. Our government launched a war of aggression against Iraq, resulting in the deaths of 5000 Americans and an estimated 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians. These civilians have been referred to a "collateral" or "collateral damage." That implies that our government regards their lives as expendable or that these people simply got in the way. What humanitarian can sit by and swallow this callous rhetoric? Don't you ever ask yourself who the terrorists really are?
6. The Iraqi prisoners were tortured at Abu Ghraib, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
7. The Bush/Cheney administration has been involved with openly, brazenly wiretapping telephone conversations of American citizens without a court warrant.

I'm going to add one more because it is so big and speaks to the existing caste system in America. Here it is: 8) Our government failed to rescue and recover thousands of American citizens after Hurricane Katrina. Last April, when the United States submitted a report to the United Nation's International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Hurricane Katrina was omitted. The State Department mentioned Katrina nowhere in its report nor the racial disparities that turned the disaster into a humanitarian crisis.

Can you see why I am marching? Early warning signs of facism cannot be ignored either. If you sense that our government has a great disdain for human rights, the mass media is feeding you the "party line" and you know that there is a great disdain for intellectuals and the arts, then write, march, share your opinions. We are marching. Siyahamba.

--Susan Mull, writing from the peace march in Washington D.C.

Susan Mull is a teacher, writer, and human rights activist living in Quarryville, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Mull has attended international conferences on AIDS/HIV, most recently in Toronto. She has participated in forums on women living with HIV in Philadelphia. She also travels with Disaster Response teams to rebuild homes following natural disasters.

for more info and pictures from the march go to:http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8663