Perfect Tomatoes

Gardening has been a new experience this year. For one thing, there have been no aphids to speak of!
Very early, in May I think, I saw a few aphids on the broccoli plants and worried that it would be a very bad year for aphids if I saw them already in May. I looked up some organic remedies and made a concoction with garlic, hot pepper and a little dish soap. I sprayed once. The bugs went away. Not only the aphids, but also the worms that enjoy making the leaves of the chard look spidery, thin and not very attractive to eat. I thought the bugs went away due to the awesome spray I had made until I had breakfast with a friend who has been organic gardening for twenty or more years. He remarked that there were no aphids this year. Maybe it was too hot too fast for the aphids and other common pests to adapt. I will try to find out, but for now I will rejoice that I have had broccoli without aphids and chard that actually looks like something I want to eat for the last two months.

I have also had perfect tomatoes: no spots or blemishes of any kind, no irregular shapes, just perfectly red round tomatoes. Last year I read that it is best to eat tomatoes that have been preserved in glass jars since there is evidence that the coating on the inside of the cans may leech into the tomatoes - even those that are labeled as organic. In the past I used to buy a case or two of organic canned tomatoes in the fall that I would use over the winter months before tomatoes were in season again. I never bothered to can my own tomatoes since my garden produced just enough to eat fresh throughout the season. But this year, with all the sun and no bugs or tomato blight as I have had in the past, I have plenty of lovely tomatoes to can for winter use.

I always feel happy when I look at the jars of canned food cooling in the kitchen. It satisfies some primitive need to stock up for the winter but the tomatoes were so lovely to look at it was hard to cut them up and cook them down! Nonetheless, I have a four newly preserved quarts of tomatoes and a picture of my perfect tomatoes to remember them by.

The long unusually hot summer is beginning to wind down and my husband and I are starting to think about what we want to plant for the fall but the weather really has been so unusual this year that we are not sure how to plan for the next. It is important to continue working at producing our own local food and so we will. My husband continues to dry herbs for tinctures and is getting a new drying rack ready to try his hand at sun drying tomatoes. This year at least we will have an abundance since there was still enough water for the plants.

In the next day or two the forecast is calling for the first heavy rain since March, and that is very very odd for the Pacific Northwest. I am not unhappy as I am okay with rain and besides my vacation days are coming to an end and the grandchildren have started back to school as well. Maybe next year will be a little more normal or maybe this is the new normal. However it turns out I will remember  this summer as a time of drought, smoke, fire -- and my first perfect tomatoes.  
 

Becoming Native

Last evening my husband and I attended the Sharing Our Responsibilities Totem Pole Blessing.
 Xwe’chi’eXen is what the Lummi People call their sacred landscape, but it is also the area for the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal which, if built, would become North America's largest coal export site. According to their website, the Kwel hoy’ Totem Pole journey,  September 15-29, 2013, started in the Powder River Basin and will follow the coal train route through Indian Country, up to Xwe’chi’eXen. Please read all about this journey on the totempolejourney.com website.

Listening to the Lummi and other Tribal speakers caused me to stop and reflect on what it is that makes one person a native of the land and another an intruder. My ancestors came from many different places. Unlike someone who can claim connection to some one country or clan or tribe, I am a little bit of many things. My father claimed to be full blooded Italian but his parents, my paternal grandparents, did not claim to be of the same descent! My grandmother came from northern Italy around Genoa and she was a blue eyed blond. My grandfather, who died before I was born, came from Palermo and he was dark skinned with black hair and brown eyes. They did not speak the same language or practice the same religion. And that is just one side of the family.

My maternal grandparents were even more mixed. There is one line traceable from early American settlements back to England, while other lines go back to Germany or Ireland, and still others are simply unknown. My father's family came here to find a better life. Some were persecuted for religious reasons and others for economic ones. Part of my mother's family moved to the northwest from the south after the civil war. Others arrived with waves of immigrants.

I was born and raised in Oregon. I consider myself to be a native Oregonian. But when I listen to the Lummi or other American First Nation People, I recognize that my roots are very shallow- but still, there is no other place that I can refer to as my homeland.

A number of people I know have taken journeys to visit the lands of their ancestors, going to Sweden or Germany or Italy. I have never had any longing to visit Europe. I don't know why, but I do know that the place where I live feels more like my homeland than any other place I can think of. When I listen to people talk about the Columbia River Bio-Region or about Cascadia, I feel a connection that is deeper than any connection that my ancestors might have had to a place somewhere far across the ocean.  The mountains, the fir trees, the ocean, the rivers and even the rains speak to me. I like the weather cool with a soft mist in the morning or evening. 

Last night as I listened to Jewell James, the master carver who spoke at the Totem Pole Blessing Ceremony, I felt with him a connection to this place that Tribal People consider their sacred homeland. I felt the urgent need to protect this place from the greed of corporate desires. I was relieved to hear that in the treaties that were written with the US government, Tribal people wrote in the need to protect the water and the land. I am hoping along with all who gathered that the treaties can be a force to protect our land and water from more abuse.

The story is told among the Tribal People regarding the gifts of first foods from the Creator. These gifts were water, salmon, huckleberries and roots. As a way to show thanks and to assure their survival, the people were told by the Creator to care for these gifts. When they were forced to enter into treaties, the leaders of the people refused to sign without the protections they needed written in for these gifts that meant life to them. In our day the treaties are threatened yet again and with them the gifts that represent life for all people and creatures of this part of the world.

I think that just maybe, the best chance of protecting Cascadia from coal trains, and export terminals and other environmental disasters will be to join the Tribal People of the region, allowing them to lead, and listening to their voices.

I believe that maybe, if a person lives in one place long enough and allows the spirit of the land to touch them by being open to the native stories, people, creatures, plants, and water ways, then that person can become native enough to say "this is my homeland too."

Along with other Natives I choose to protect this place, Cascadia, my homeland.  Thank you Lummi Nation for taking the lead.

                             Picture from totempolejourney.com.
                             (I found myself and my husband in this picture.)

Red Sky in the Morning

I woke up early last Saturday to let the chickens out and everywhere there was a soft red glow.
The sun rising in the East was red.
In the afternoon it was still red though not as intense. The color of the air was smokey with a soft red cast.
The wind blowing in from the east brought the smoke from the wild fires with it. Of course! Everything is connected. Just because we don't live by an active fire doesn't mean we won't be affected.

Some years ago when people were just becoming aware that cigarette smoke was really bad restaurants and some bars began to offer a smoking area. Although it was a step in the right direction, the smoke could not be corralled so easily... it just drifted right into the non-smoking areas which were never cordoned off with a wall or anything that could actually prevent the smoke from traveling. It was a reminder that everything is connected - though there were people who chose to believe otherwise, arguing that their personal freedom was being infringed upon. Their right to smoke was a right they believed trumped the right of others to breathe clean air.

Smoking is no longer common in the circles that I belong to. Smokers have to hide their habit and because so many places are off limits to smoking, most people who still indulge have cut down the amount significantly. This is not only good for their health but also for the health of those who live with them, or work near them and for all who care about them as well. It is too bad that society has not been able to move the people who pollute the air to change as well. Instead, tons of harmful gases are released into the atmosphere hour after hour, day after day without stop, in spite of the clear damage to the air we breathe and the life of the planet we inhabit.

I can only imagine that key players in the fossil fuel and animal agriculture industries believe that they will personally be able to avoid the foul air and changing climate. Perhaps they believe that with enough money they can build for themselves and those they love an impenetrable fortress. Maybe there are a few pristine places left in the world but they will not last unless humans change the way they do business, transport themselves and consume natural resources. Is it not becoming more and more clear that everything is connected? Those who still believe they can live independently should look more closely at the world around them- get out into the woods, watch a sunset, breathe deeply, and recognize that there is no action without reaction. What we do matters.
  

 Red Sky in the twilight, a lovely good night.

               Red Sky in the morning, Earth sends a warning        

 

Road Trip

We traveled by car down the I-84 from Portland Oregon to Boise Idaho. It is a familiar route that we take at least every other year in order to visit family.
This year was a little different.
Traveling down the highway next to the Columbia River is always awe inspiring. The gorge is magnificent with the water echoing the intense blue of the sky in summer months. This year the blue sky was replaced with a white haze from the smoldering fires that have been consuming the grass lands and forests of Washington and Oregon.
As we headed east one of the sights I look forward to is the first view of the wind turbines, like graceful ballerinas executing arabesques on the windy mountain tops. This year we could see the posts rising into the whiteness but the spinning arms were nearly invisible due to smoke.
As we turned south following the Interstate 84 toward La Grande the smoke from the Canyon Fire was billowing behind the hills. As we approached Baker City we could see the scorched and blackened acres where fire had so recently raced across the land. There were a few places where the fire had clearly jumped over the highway, leaving a black shadow behind. We saw what seemed to be a giant red and white helicopter with a water barrel hanging beneath it coming in for a landing at the Baker City airport before we turned with the highway heading east toward the state border.
The sunset was amazing, beautiful with its colorful rays shooting through the smoke but also terrible because its color reflected the terror of the fires that were consuming the land.
Nearly a million acres have been touched by fire in the northwest. First the Central Oregon fire and now the Central Washington fire have been declared top priority in the United States. The Governors of both states have pleaded for reinforcements for the firefighters diligently fighting to save homes and forests as well. There have been deaths - trained firefighters whose lives and careers have ended with these fires. New Zealand and Australian firefighters are on their way to assist and still more people are needed. The Governor of Washington has called for volunteers who can provide support. The Governor of Oregon has called up the National Guard. Today President Obama declared an emergency.
This has been the hottest year on record so far. The month of July surpassed the last hottest July in 1998 by 0.8 degrees. That is a very significant amount for weather watchers.
No camp fires can be lit in any campgrounds in Washington. The fire danger is too high.
Next week some of the family is going camping in western Washington. Maybe they think if they don't go now there might not be another chance.
The climate is changing. The rain and snow are shifting away from this part of the world.
I wonder if people are thinking about what has caused the change? Should they continue to deny what is happening?
Can we change before it is too late?

Smoke billowing behind the hills

Blackened grassland

Sunset through fire and smoke

   

Viva La Comida!

Just back from a road trip to Boise Idaho to visit family. It was a good visit and everyone was in good spirits if not completely good health.
This was our first road trip along this route as vegans. Until this past January, we still ate dairy so finding food on the trip was not as much of an issue. But once we left the Willamette Valley as non meat and dairy eating persons, a new food adventure began.
We ate at home just before we left and since we generally plan for two meals a day plus a snack or two, it was not until we reached Baker City that we had to think seriously about food.
We pulled into a Mexican Restaurant and took a look at the menu. Everything had either meat, cheese or eggs - and often all three. On the side menu there were separate listings for rice, beans, guacamole and other items. We asked the waitress if the beans were made with or without lard, and she went to ask the cook. The refried beans were cooked with lard but they had whole beans that were not so we ordered sides of rice, beans and guacamole to go with the chips and salsa served at the table. It was a good nourishing dinner even it there were fewer vegetables than we are used to at home.
The next day in Boise we went out with family for our first meal of the day. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant. We looked carefully at the regular menu and were prepared to order sides of rice, beans and guacamole when we saw a second specials menu that offered the newly popular "bowls." One of the bowls featured rice, beans, assorted vegetables, cheese and salsa. We asked if they could hold the cheese and we were ready to eat. The bowls were very yummy.
For dinner that evening our hostess graciously prepared a vegan meal she had discovered on the forksoverknives.org website. Having never prepared a vegan meal she was nonetheless happy to experiment. And prepared a delicious meal of tortilla casserole and potato salad with an avacado dressing.
As a hostess gift, we had brought a basket full of foods from our garden: tomatoes, beans, basil, sweet green peppers, a jalapeno and a handful of ground cherries too. (It is always fun to bring foods that people have never heard of before, like ground cherries pictured below, which are very good to eat and contain an abundance of Niacin, and vitamins A and C.)       
The next day we got up late and had to leave before eating. By the time we reached Ontario Oregon we were ready to stop at the first cafe we could find. It turned out to be a Mexican Restaurant but it was all Tex-Mex style which meant there were no vegetarian beans ... or vegetarian anything let alone vegan. So we politely left after asking where another cafe might be found. We were directed next door which turned out to be another Mexican Restaurant which gratefully did have lard free beans which we ate with chips, salsa, guacamole and rice of course.
It was not until hours later when we arrived in Hood River that we began to look for another restaurant. After walking along the main street and looking at menus that seemed to feature meat with meat or cheese with more meat, I spied some young people who looked like they might be locals and asked them if they could direct us to a place where we could find some non meat-dairy food. Lucky for us they knew how to send us to the heights of Hood River where there was, just as they thought, a Thai Restaurant where we ordered some very nice sauteed vegetables, rice, and spring rolls without pork (although it cost $2 more to substitute the pork with tofu).
We are very grateful that Mexican food is so versatile- and so readily available. We are also grateful that the young people of Hood River were wise enough regarding food to direct us to a place where we could actually eat. I think young people are getting the picture about food, health, animals and climate.
I recently read that Portland was the number one city in the world for being able to comfortably eat an "alternative diet." Portland was followed by Denver followed by London then Paris and I forget the rest. But number one was pretty surprising. I hope and pray all the time that my fellow countrymen and women are becoming more educated regarding the negative effects of meat and dairy on their own health, the health of the planet, the animals and all who work in the industry, but alas. I live mostly in a food awareness bubble. I guess that means it is all the more important to keep trying to help people to learn what they need to know in order to make healthier choices. The food industry giants along with advertisers are clearly not at all concerned.  
Food connects us to Creation, keeps us alive, and when we eat right it helps us to maintain our own health while assisting other creatures in having a good life too.
VIVA LA COMIDA!

                                           Ground Cherries. Very good to eat.

Theft

It was a hard day.
In a hurry, a colleague stashed some personal property out of sight and went on break.
His things were gone when he returned.
Anger. Frustration. Sadness.

You can't trust anyone.
Why didn't he take the time to lock his things up?
Why would someone do this to him?

We work where there are many addicted, mentally ill and very poor people. Protocol is that we keep personal items locked away, but still, it all seems unfair. Everyone works so hard to be generous and compassionate and then this - theft. 

When I got home our white chicken, Jackie, was out in the street pecking around while her sister hen, a bossy Plymouth named April was ravaging the streetside garden. The kohlrabi was stripped of leaves, one of the broccoli plants was down and the vines of the acorn plant were bent and chewed.
Anger. Frustration. Sadness.

I give them the whole yard to run in and still they want what is mine.
I should have put netting up higher so there was no chance that a hen could get in.
The garden was looking so lush and now it seems haggard.

It takes work to allow the hens to have a quality life where they can safely roam around while still maintaining areas where vegetables can grow unharmed. I know I have to keep the gardens fenced. I love to garden but I enjoy my chickens too, and now this - theft.

I am convinced that some things happen simply as reminders of why vigilance is necessary in the first place, lest we get lazy and forget we are here to help the vulnerable and innocent because they sometimes don't make good decisions on their own.


 

Energized

Today I am feeling quite energized. I have this vision of a partnership between distributors of healthy food and the dining hall that my church operates.
There have been some amazing breakthroughs in understanding how food not only heals but maintains health when consumed in an appropriate amount and with a variety of mostly plant based foods.
The documentary Forks Over Knives and the wonderful website forksoverknives.com offer plenty of basic information regarding eating foods that are healthy while providing recipes to help people to transition away from reliance on meat and dairy and quick foods to plant based real foods. But beyond the basics, the newest studies regarding the relationship between healthy gut bacteria and mental health are really fascinating. Who would have thought that feelings do originate in the gut? Without healthy gut bacteria a person can not only feel physically out of sorts, they can suffer depression, anger, anxiety, and schizophrenia. With age, dementia can also be experienced. 
If the way we eat can affect our moods and overall mental health, then certainly it follows that people who are struggling with such problems should be provided with the best foods to build up a healthy gut. This would mean that incarcerated, institutionalized and vulnerable people who rely on food banks and soup kitchens should all be receiving great food rather than cast off food that no one else wants- that is, if we are interested in healing rather than punishment or maintenance.
I can't count the number of times I have heard someone say: "They should be grateful for what they get" when speaking about the poor or those who are otherwise being fed by others. It is an excuse for not providing food that people would be happy to serve in their own homes. Along with this sad attitude, there are people and businesses that donate foods to food banks or soup kitchens that are many months over their expiration date, vegetables that are more than 50% spoiled, or even canned or frozen food that has been on the shelf for years! During the Mad Cow scare there were several people who called at my church and wanted to donate their frozen beef for fear that it was not good to eat. That feels so wrong. Sure, hungry people can and do eat anything to stop their hunger, but when it is possible to give them good food, why don't we?
I have decided that I am going to pursue my vision, reaching out to suppliers and those who care about health. I really believe that in the end, a society will be measured by the way it treats its most vulnerable people, and that includes pregnant women needing food assistance, school children, low income families using food stamps and food pantries, all of the incarcerated, institutionalized people, and those who come day after day to eat in church halls and public facilities.
When I serve people, I want to serve them well- at home or wherever food is offered.

What did I eat today?

When people discover that my husband and I do not eat any meat or dairy they often ask what do you eat? First a confession, we have chickens and we do eat their eggs. They are yard chickens,  free to roam around our fenced property -- although I do try hard to keep them out of the gardens. The six  hens eat whatever they can scratch up along with leftovers from our plates, and organic corn and food pellets whenever they want them. Having made my disclaimer, I thought I would offer some ideas for menus without meat and dairy.

My husband and I are both over 65 so we don't use as much energy as younger people or those who do physical labor might. Please take your own energy needs into account!

Breakfast is generally a scramble using two eggs, one for each of us, except during the dark winter months when there might be only one egg to add, or no eggs at all. We NEVER purchase eggs. If the hens aren't laying, we aren't eating eggs. Once in a while we might add leftover tofu or tempeh instead.
Into the morning scramble goes leftover vegetables from dinners the previous nights. We might begin with chopping up some onion, garlic, or celery and then in the summer adding fresh sliced eggplant and green pepper from the garden, a handful of sesame seeds to up the nutrition, and then some left over mushrooms, beans, squash, or greens, and a bit of basil - either flower buds when they are fresh or dried buds or fresh leaves in the off seasons. Just before scrambling in any eggs if they are available, some leftover rice, quinoa, buckwheat or polenta is added. When the eggs are done we sit down to eat the scramble with a cup of tea. We eat the same whenever we are at home together year round.

Lunch time is not formal unless I am working and then I will look for soup or salad since I do not eat breakfast foods except at home. We both work but I work away from home 4-5 days a week. Our routine is based on that assumption. At home for snack/ lunch I usually have a handful of nuts - almonds, hazelnuts and either walnuts or sunflower seeds. I may also have a handful of crackers, gluten free as my husband is Celiac and I am sensitive. A piece of fruit if it is available rounds out the snack/lunch for me along with a cup of tea or coffee.  Holds me over fine until dinner which my husband and I always eat together even it is means eating after 9 PM when I get home.

Dinner time menus vary with the seasons. Tonight we will enjoy freshly made walnut basil pesto on rice noodles. There will be a side of fresh tomatoes with lettuce, some fresh green beans from the garden and nice glass of watered wine. I always water my wine... I like it better actually, the wine goes farther and I am not affected by the alcohol. (I generally have a pint glass of ice cold water filled two thirds full. To this I add just under a quarter cup of wine.- really its very refreshing!) 

On other nights dinner might be homemade falafals with tahini sauce, a side of hummus, wild rice,  salad and steamed greens. We eat a lot of kale and chard from the garden, and buy spinach and collards throughout the year. We also grow beets and carrots and enjoy adding them in to whatever we are having. We often enjoy a root vegetable medley: a potato or two, sunchokes, a carrot and a few small beets steamed together with garlic salt and olive oil lightly drizzled over the top.  Ground cherries, figs and berries are lovely for desert or snacks in season, and so are applesauce and rhubarb sauces made from our garden produce.

Another favorite for dinner is tempeh which we heat in olive oil or steam on top of rice and flavor with tamari. My husband also makes nut spreads, referred to by some plant eaters as 'nut cheeses'. These are quick and easy to put together. We always have a wide variety of dried beans and lentils on hand year round. Red beans, Kidney beans, white beans, black eyed peas, and the like all take just a while to cook when we remember to soak them the night before! Beans, grain, and greens seasoned with garlic oil are staples during the winter time. And of course, winter squash is lovely when available and soup on a cold evening is welcome and easy to put together.

The variety of vegetables and fruits that grace our table during the year are quite delicious. We don't worry about having lots of any one thing, remembering that soups and casseroles and hash are all ways that leftovers and small amounts can be used to make something quite tasty with a variety of nutrients as well -- all without any meat or dairy.

So that is all for now. Lucky for me I just ate! I hope you are up to experimenting with new tastes and animal free meals.  

Some things really are better.

102 degrees, about 25 degrees above my ideal temperature.
It was a good day anyway. We took several of our grandchildren to cool off down at the river - the Willamette River. I grew up in Portland and we never went down to the Willamette River to cool off. I raised my children in the same area and never took them down to the River either although I know that as they became teenagers they did venture down to the river with friends. My family did not have a tradition of playing in the water of the Willamette so I did not even think about the fact that my children were growing up within walking distance and I never took them there.
When I was a child my parents took us to the Sandy River or to the Columbia by Rooster Rock. There were a few times when we went to a picnic site near the Clackamas but it was rare if we got in the water because the Clackamas River was deemed "too cold and too unstable" because of dams up river. This was just the way I was brought up to think about the rivers.
It is really perplexing considering how much my children and grandchildren enjoy the rivers today - unless of course, I stop to think about how polluted the Willamette River was in the time when my children were growing up. No one went there unless they were too poor to go anywhere else. Being in the Willamette was just not something one did or even thought about. Even when I was a child the river was considered more of a working river with its steam plants and industries nearby than it was a river for people to enjoy.
But things have changed. The River is clean and it is a place to enjoy and protect. Portland's Big Pipe sewer project took 20 years to complete creating many impatient people as the project slowly progressed through neighborhoods and along major pipe routes where streets and sewers had to be dug up and replaced. But it was finished, and the project very successfully stopped sewage overflow into the river during heavy rainstorms.
Once, about 20 years ago I remember a particularly heavy Portland rain that overfilled the sewers and caused water to geyser up out of the street sewers in the areas of inner southeast Portland close to the river. In fact, in the church where I worked there was water coming up out of the basement toilets... disgusting. But today the Big Pipe Project has ended such events leaving the tellers of such stories to be questioned for our ability to really remember... yes! those are true events. I even kept waders in my office in case I had to help bail out the basement!    
Today the Willamette River is filled with happy leisure time river people in boats, kayaks and canoes, swimming, wake boarding and just floating along. We humans are mostly water in our physical makeup and the need for clean water and access to the river ways is fundamental to who we are.
I am grateful for all who put their energy into cleaning up the Willamette, to the Columbia River Keepers who keep an eye on the Big River and all who keep the waterways in mind as they work to keep the river clean for the future. We don't need to go backward with coal or oil terminals. Some things really are better. Let's rejoice in good progress - but maintain our vigilance.