April 2009 Archives

Things looked good on the opening day of the market at Cathedral Square in Mobile. There were plenty of vendors, a decent selection of produce, new things to buy and look at, and a buzz of people, even at 7:30am.

Available for purchase: citrus (kumquat and lemon), corn, greens (collard and turnip), okra, onions, peaches, peas (sweet, snow, and sugar snap), potatoes, radishes, strawberries, summer squash (yellow), tomatoes, pecans, eggs, fresh goat cheese, honey, seafood, baked goods, jellies/preserves, pasta, cut flowers, plants, handmade soap, candles, other handcrafts.

Of interest: Retriever Soapworks, maker of handcrafted goat milk soaps, is now offering a goat milk based, mildly scented lotion. Henrietta's Dairy plans to be at the market each week selling their fresh goat milk cheeses (available in plain and several flavors), and eggs. Their cheese is also available at Martha Rutledge Catering at 4507 Old Shell Road in Mobile. The meat vendor was not at the market today, but should be next week. They will be selling beef.

As you can see from the photo, I bought a variety of produce, eggs and cheese, soap, and cookies, as well as some flowers that didn't make it into the picture. The citrus, I was surprised to learn, is Meyer lemon, which develops into this orange color if left on the tree. At three for a dollar I was happy to try them out.

As a bonus, we were able to harvest another pint of dewberries from the yard today.

At Salon, a journalist answers the question When shopping for food, did I have to choose between my budget and my beliefs? It's part of their ongoing series "Pinched," about life during a recession.

Like me, you may have read the article in the April 10 edition of the Press-Register titled "Gardeners trading aesthetics for food," which included information about a series of classes being offered by the Mobile County office of the Alabama Cooperative Extension. The article addressed the increased interest in home food production and edible landscaping sparked by the current recession, and included a list of topics to be covered by the Extension classes. (Incidentally, I think the title of the article is a little misleading, since edible plants can often be quite beautiful, and some are commonly used in landscape settings.)

If, like me, you called to find out more information about the classes, you will have found out that they've been canceled for this year because of lack of up-front interest (i.e. people calling to register in advance). They did receive a number of calls after the fact, however, and plan to offer the series again next year. They will take your name and address and put you on a mailing list of people to be contacted when they have information about the next series. They can also send you informational brochures about topics of interest to you, for example, raising chickens.

If you're disappointed and still wishing for some gardening classes to take this year, you may be interested in a few from their current series on "Horticulture Education: Intelligent Plant Management." As I understand it they still have space available in all but their original August program (that one is on plant propagation and greenhouses, and has already filled); however, they have added another propagation class on August 25. The cost is $20 per person.

April 30: Edible Landscape: Fruits

May 28: Edible Landscape: Vegetables

MORE INFORMATION

WHEN: 6pm, monthly (see schedule for dates and topics)
WHERE: Jon Archer Agricultural Center, 1070 Schillinger Road North
COST: $20
CONTACT: 574-8445 to pre-register (required) and for a complete schedule of classes

ADDITIONALLY

The following two classes only are free; advance registration is also required for these:

May 14: Hurricanes and Trees: Are Your Trees Ready?

July 16: Landscape Design: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

See last year's post for a still-worthy list of Earth Day actions.

My top recommendation is still to contact your legislators (and editorial pages) to let them know about your support for environmentally-friendly policies.

Unfortunately, I've found that dealing with cancer does limit my energy and ability to keep up with political action and personal conservation goals. For example, I had planned to add canning to my list of eat local goals, but if that happens at all this year it'll be on a small scale. Our garden is scaled back to a minimum.

Still, here are some things I'd like to see:

A real national conservation movement. I know the Obama administration wants to provide incentives for people to weatherproof their homes, for example, but I'm talking about putting some serious money into publicizing conservation. Let's have national campaigns to drive less, turn out the lights in businesses after hours, keep the thermostats of public buildings at reasonable temperatures, eliminate unnecessary water use, eat less meat, etc., as well as issuing guidelines for energy conservation at home.

More funding for public transportation. Buses running once an hour (as they do in Mobile, when they run on time) are not a legitimate public transportation system. This is not a reliable and practical way for people to get around.

Community gardens in every city, and conversion of any unused space to green space of some sort. A garden isn't that hard to knock down if someone wants to build on the site later, so that land won't lose value, and having a garden for even a year is better than having nothing at all.

Have a national conversation about changing our consumption habits and restructuring our economy.

For myself & my family, I'd like to:

• reduce driving to a minimum (there's still way too much driving going on)
• reduce waste (mostly from packaging)
• make more Earth-friendly clothing choices (I already try to buy only organic cotton for the few things I buy myself, but my growing girl goes through a lot more clothes each year than I do)
• continue edible landscaping and reduce lawn space
• minimize energy & resource use
• eat more meatless meals (we already eat a few meatless meals a week, and go light on meat in the meals where we do have it, but we have room to do more)

And just for kicks, here are a few Earth Day posts from elsewhere on the web:

See the end of this Slow Food Blog post to "[read] more about the connection between climate change and food".

Culinate draws our attention to a low-carbon diet calculator that allows you to calculate the footprint of your meal.

A thoughtful review of Mark Bittman's Food Matters, another in the list of recent "eat less meat and more vegetables and grains and save the planet" books, this one by a popular cookbook writer, columnist, and food celebrity.

Also from Culinate, links to tips for Climate-friendly food.

Finally, this was posted months ago on the DotEarth blog: reader suggestions for addressing climate change that journalist Andrew Revkin forwarded to the then-forming Obama administration.

The spring & summer farmers market at Cathedral Square will open this weekend. The Market in the Park, at the Mobile Museum of Art, will not open until late May.

WHERE & WHEN

Market on the Square
Cathedral Square in downtown Mobile
Saturdays, 7:30am - 11:00am
April 25 - July 25

PRODUCTS

Seasonally available produce such as tomatoes, potatoes, sweet corn, melons, berries, peppers, honey, seafood; flowers, plants; baked goods; and crafts. Live music on most days. NEW this year: a meat vendor.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

These markets are producer-only markets, meaning that the vendors must personally grow or produce the items that they sell. Resale of items purchased by the vendor is not allowed.

The city is planning an art market once a month to accompany the food market; additionally, look for dancing classes and possibly cooking demos.

The markets participate in the state's Farmers Market Nutrition Programs, which distribute coupons to low-income senior citizens, women, and children. Visit the program web site for more information and eligibility requirements. NEW this year: vouchers for seniors will be applicable to honey.

Web site: City of Mobile Neighborhood and Community Services

See the comments for an explanation of the title.

Today we harvested close to a pint of blackberries from the volunteer canes growing in our yard. As a friend recently commented in regards to her own yard, at least there's an upside to not being vigilant about the weeds. These came from a patch that didn't even exist last year, and the ones that were doing well last year have been crowded out by vines. I feel like if I were trying to cultivate them they wouldn't be doing as well as they are on their own. We sat on the deck and ate a few succulent berries, and my daughter had more for dessert. I'm thinking about putting the rest of them into scones. Or maybe just yogurt.

I keep wanting to get tomatillos to put in the garden, but I haven't looked diligently for any plants. When I grew them in Indiana they thrived in hot weather and produced more fruit than I could use. I figure they might do well here.

My second chemotherapy treatment was last week. The immediate aftermath was much worse than the first time, but I'm feeling better more quickly. I did lose a lot of my hair after the first treatment, and shaved the rest.

A freeze is predicted for the early morning hours Wednesday for areas north of I-10. You will want to cover tender plants, unless you know your microclimate very well! Temperatures in our yard are typically a bit warmer than predicted but I'm covering cold-sensitive things just in case.

Via the OCA, Climate Change Comes to Your Backyard, an article about the forthcoming revision in the USDA's plant hardiness zone maps. I wonder what if any changes there will be in our area?

The Organic Consumers Association reposted an interview Pollan did with Yale's Environment 360 in June 2008. It's the same familiar Pollan, but still fascinating and inspiring stuff. For example,

The writer Wendell Berry was right a long time ago when he said the environmental crisis is a crisis of character. It's really about how we live. The thought that we can swap out the fuel we're putting in our cars to ethanol, and swap out the electricity to nuclear and everything else can stay the same, I think, is really a pipe dream. We're going to have to change, and the beginning of knowing how to change is learning how to provide for yourself a little bit more.I'm not dismissing the need for public action at all. It's important in that individual action is not going to be enough to solve the problem.

And later,

I don't see myself as a writer of food and the environment. I see myself as a kind of nature writer who likes writing about the messy places where the human world and the natural world intersect. I'm much less interested in wilderness, where most American writers interested in nature writing go to think about nature, than I am in gardens and houses and diets. All these places where we can't just look at nature and admire it, or deplore what's happening to it, but we really have to engage, we have to change.

My writing all starts in the garden. My experience was entering the garden with a head full of Thoreau and Emerson, and finding those ideas, as beautiful as they are, do not prepare you for when the woodchuck comes and mows down your little crop of seedlings. That approach to nature counsels passive spectatorship, and argues implicitly that the woodchuck has as much right to your broccoli as you do, because it's wild. So I, perforce, had to learn how to think about nature in a way that was a little different.