What's cookin'?

According to Punxsutawney Phil, we'll get an early Spring this year. As this is being written, the temperature is about the normal high for the third week in March around here. Plus, we're enjoying a rare episode of blue skies and sunshine. Temperatures for the rest of the upcoming week will be more seasonal, with highs in the mid 20's.

Now that we've attended to Groundhog Day, we'd be remiss not to mention that today's date: 02022020,  is a Palindrome Day in a number of date formats.

squirrels belong in trees, not houses

Photo by J. Harrington

Sans segue, we now note there was a fair amount of excitement around here last night. Somehow a squirrel, large red or small gray, got into the house and the dogs discovered the critter. Nip and tuck, back and forth, around and about the squirrel fled with the dogs in pursuit. Actually, I think the border collie crossbreed was trying to herd the critter and the yellow lab cross was chasing the border collie, but I'll never be able to prove that. I had left the deck walkout door open while I supervised the chase and eventually the dogs encouraged the critter to head outside. The rugs are a little the worse for wear, the dogs were breathing hard, and I think I heard the squirrel chortle "stupid dogs" as it leapt to freedom. Never a dull moment in this country living routine.

do we really need all the corn we grow?

Photo by J. Harrington

I've found yet another windmill at which to tilt: how does the average grocery shopper benefit by purchasing local and/or organic foods at a co-op, farmers market or through a community supported agriculture share? I'm not questioning whether there are benefits. I'm trying to document what they are, who enjoys them (consumer versus public benefits), who pays for them and how. Ideally, I'd like to work up a balance sheet and value proposition that lets us subsidize public benefits (with certifications and/or audits) with public dollars and make local and organic foods more cost competitive. Michael Pollans books, such as The Omnivores Dilemma and Cooked triggered my thinking about this and years of working on water quality that, do to federal Clean Water Act limitations, failed to include limits on agricultural runoff, have me wondering whose holding the short end of several sticks. I'm convinced that the system we currently have, which seems more supportive of an industrial agricultural model and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations is among the least desirable. How do we, as a society, rebalance things?

            Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

             by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won’t compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn’t go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

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