Monday, June 25, 2007

Crap, no Whole Foods? Now what??

At the moment I'm deep into Michael Pollan's mind-blowing book "The Omnivore's Dilemna." I can't decide if everyone should read this book, or whether I wish I never had.

No, I take that back. I'm glad I read this book, if only because it's incredibly fascinating stuff. Who knew that corn is basically a freak of nature, that without human interference, would go extinct within a couple of years? Or that Whole Foods market, contrary to the rosy portrait they present of produce and meats from idyllic pastoral settings, is not much different than any other giant industrial supermarket? (I was particularly crushed at finding that "free-range" chicken doesn't mean at all what I thought it meant.)

The good news is that reading the book has really fired up my desire to get my little property to produce more food stuffs, at the same time with less pollution and waste. Today I started researching what CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) opportunities are available in this area. I might even volunteer to be a drop-off point for some local farms if I can get enough people interested. Localharvest.org has a lot of great resources already; just put in your zip code to find what's available in your area.

Also, I've rekindled my interest in chickens! My sister keeps trying to convince me that we can make our own from old plywood and some chicken wire, but I think she seriously overestimates our building skills. (See: a typical attempt at making something.)

2 comments:

MKM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MKM said...

lol, I wish we had gone raspberry picking at my neighbor's house across the street. Next door to them is a home made chicken coop that blends in with their yard very nicely and serves its purpose well (i.e. happy chickens).

Alternatively you can fly us out and I can have hubby build you a kick-ass designer coop.

You gotta take C-man to Disneyland though. ;-)