Respecting our Mother

It's Earth Month, and the April showers have arrived to start greening everything up

I spent a good part of the last three days cleaning up the yard and getting the garden beds ready for planting.

Now, it's time to wait and watch the daffodils and tulips rise from the ground to greet the sunshine.

Last night, we attending the opening film of the new Endangered Earth series at JCC.  The evening opened with a screening of Deb Lanni's original short film, Embrace, a beautiful montage of  the diversity of life forms sharing our Earth.  This was followed by the debut of student filmmaker Cody Delong's original documentary, The Leavers: Creating Community in Chautauqua County. The film is an exploration of the many individuals and organizations who, through individual actions, are building a sustainable community in Chautauqua County. I found this especially fun to watch because Tom worked with Cody on this film (and was named as "producer") and inevitably ended up "in the movies" himself. 

Finally, there was a screening of Overview, a short film exploring the perspective of astronauts who  have seen the Earth from space and have experienced the "overview effect."  The experience is one that enables a transformative perception of the planet and all who live here as travelers aboard a single spaceship in the greater universe.The film also features insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for humanity as a whole, and especially its relevance to how we meet the tremendous challenges facing our planet at this time.

Next week's film will be Carbon Nation, Wednesday the 17th at 7pm . in the Carnahan Theatre.

The series will continue with Waterlife on Monday, April 22, and Fresh on May 2.

Last night, we slept with the window open. What a treat.

* * * * *

I've been thinking about our own transformation (always a work in progress) since our deliberate decision to "downsize," move to a smaller house in a smaller town, embrace all things local, and reduce our destructive impact on the earth. It's not always easy swimming against the tide. But I think we're making good progress.

*We've shut off a lot of the propaganda that incessantly urges us to consume like there's no tomorrow. No more corporate news, or essentially, noise. One of the best pieces of advice I can give anyone is TURN OFF YOUR TV. Tune into the real things around you instead.

*Our attention to recycling (especially since the BPU started accepting boxboard this year) has reduced our garbage to generally one kitchen size bag per week.  With more diligent efforts at composting, we can reduce that even further.

*We have dramatically changed the way we eat, with the emphasis on whole foods, plant-based, and local.  We started out with a pretty good supermarket here (Wegman's), since they carry a good selection of organic and even local foods. But since we joined the Furniture City Foods buying club last year, we've been able to tap into even more regional and organic resources. My mantra is BUY INGREDIENTS, NOT PRODUCTS. Processed foods tend to be fattening and toxic.  "Fast food" now means "grab an apple or orange."  We pack a cooler for road trips instead of subjecting ourselves to the offerings at turnpike service plazas.

*Our vegetable garden gets bigger each year. We've done a little bit of food preserving (canning applesauce from our trees, freezing berries, excess zucchini and chopped tomatoes, dehydrating apple slices and experimenting with other things), Tom is taking the Master Food Preserver course from the Cornell Cooperative Extension later this month, and then we'll be set for squirreling away much more of our own food for the winter. He'll also be instructing other people who are interested in doing this.

*We went from two cars to one quite a while ago, and Tom walks or bikes to work, sometimes taking the bus.  Yes, there is public transportation in Jamestown, greatly under-utilized, but part of Tom's job as sustainability coordinator at a mainly commuter college is to find ways to incentivize people to drive less. The easiest way to do this is to put four people in one car instead of four people in four cars. It's an idea we're also promoting for getting people to church and other events. An advantage to small city living is that we all live in closer proximity to one another. And we don't have to be lone cowboys. It's okay to do things with friends!

*We are thrift shoppers. When we need something, we try to find it secondhand. We use our libraries for reading material, and I am an avid "recycler" of books -- buying from thrift stores and then donating them back when I'm finished with them.

It's a learning experience and a challenge to wean yourself away from the destructive craziness that we grew up thinking of as "normal" -- that all the resources in the world were there for the taking and he who dies with the most stuff wins.  It's encouraging that some of our young people, who haven't yet been totally indoctrinated into conformity and complacency, seem to instinctively grasp how crazy it all is.  Hopefully, they will figure out how much better life can be with fewer encumbrances and more cooperation.

One way or another, the future will be different.

Ahem...welcome SPRING, I said!

Winter is tenacious this year.  Spring is waiting in the wings, but somebody's gotta grab the hook and yank the Icicle King off the stage. We are so beyond bored with this act.

Indoors,  I have some lovely forsythia branches (thanks to a friend) that have been forced into bloom.

 

^^And these girls stopped by for lunch the other day.

The Easter Bunny also paid us an early visit, via UPS.  Apparently, when you get old enough, things reverse and your kids start giving you candy. (Thanks, Brendan and Jenny!) We'll have to hurry and eat it to get it out of the house so we can get back to our healthy diet. 

Welcome Spring!

Punxsutawney Phil is being vilified.  Well played, Mother Nature.  Very funny.

I refuse to let a little thing like waking up to 14 degrees on the second day of SPRING get me down.

I'll admit I stayed home last night rather than driving to Randolph for the Cattaraugus-Chautauqua 4 Clean Water meeting, because when you're under a lake effect snow warning, it's hard to know where and when those bands of snow will hit. You can suddenly find yourself driving blind in a whiteout.

The snow warning has now been extended into tomorrow, so even though the sun is shining at the moment, we can likely expect to get dumped on again several times over the next 24 hours. That's just the way these things roll.

I do plan to attend this evening's presentation at the Prendergast Library on Fracking: Impacts on Environmental, Health, and Society. I hope to see a good turnout there, because this information is so important for people in our area to have.  We need knowledge on our side to have even a fighting chance of avoiding the devastation our neighbors "south of the border" in Pennsylvania have seen. People must be aware that there are better ways to meet our energy needs, and create jobs!  The event starts at 7 pm, so please plan to be there.

Today is the last day to see  the "Andy Warhol: Acquisitions and Jamestown Nexus" exhibition at the Weeks Gallery at JCC. Hours are from 11 am - 5 pm, and admission is FREE.

Tomorrow and Saturday, the Ironmen will be back on the ice at the JSB Arena (with only two more scheduled home games after this, next weekend).  Currently in second place in their division, the Ironmen are shooting for a first round bye in the playoffs. Support our local hockey team!

Sylvia, a comedy about a street-smart dog, concludes this weekend at JCC's Scharmann Theatre with performances on Friday and Saturday evening and a Sunday matinee.  Tickets are $10 and dog lovers will not want to miss this.

If you like classical music, the Jamestown Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Prendergast will be hosting a Music Salon with guitar soloist James Piorkowski on Sunday at 7pm. Admission is free, although donations to help cover costs are gratefully accepted.

Daytime events: The GROW Jamestown Garden Fair will be held on Saturday downtown at the Renaissance Center from 10 am- 2 pm and will include vendors, workshops, and prizes. Think Spring! It's coming! Admission is free and downtown parking is free on weekends.  

Meanwhile, at the Audubon Center, it's "Eggstravaganza" (learn about all sorts of eggs, birds to insects) from 11 am - 3 pm.  (also Saturday) Cost is $7 ($5 for members).  You might want to take along your snowshoes or skinny skis and enjoy the nature trails while you're there.

It's also Maple Weekend in New York, and the sap is running!  In Chautauqua County, there are three producers that will be holding "open house" for visitors on Saturday and Sunday: Big Tree Maple in Lakewood, Clear Creek Farm in Mayville, and Fairbanks Maple in Forestville. Click on this link for details and directions.

Get out and do something! get your blood moving! We have options here, people!

Things to do on a cold March weekend

It's snowy and freezing out there again this morning. What to do, what to do?

Well, fortification with good strong coffee is always the first step.  And local eggs scrambled with sauteed mushrooms and greens was the next step.

I know, I know, I'm flirting with danger of becoming the "Food in Jamestown" blog. But eating is something all of us have to do every day, and having fun with your food makes it even better.

Yesterday morning I attended an interesting meeting sponsored by the Southern Tier West Regional Planning & Development Board, the regional planning entity serving Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Allegany Counties. They have received a USDA Rural Business Opportunity Grant to assess various capacities related to the aggregation and distribution of food and food products produced within the three counties. The grant was awarded to retain an expert food system consultant to provide a 3rd party analysis of supply and demand factors, with special focus on the development of new markets for local and regional products.

This consultant is  Anthony Flaccavento of Abingdon, VA, who  is a commercial organic farmer and planned and launched one of the nation’s first local food aggregation and distribution enterprises: Appalachian Harvest. This effort, labeled as one of the first contemporary models of food hub facilities, became the model for food hub facilities that is now trending nationally. He is an interesting and knowledgeable guy! 

Yesterday he was in Jamestown to gather information from local food producers, community stakeholders, planners, and food system advocates.    I was there as a coordinator of a food buying club as well as my interest in and advocacy for all things local. 

It will be interesting to see the report this summer. My amateur takeaway was that there is a very big piece of the puzzle missing here -- the aggregator -- which I hope can be solved at some point in the not too distant future. Meanwhile, it was made apparent that there is much we can and should be doing on a smaller scale right now here in Jamestown to ramp up our farmers market, to improve access (parking!) for customers and make the whole thing more worthwhile for farmers to participate in.

There is also much more that needs to be done in the way of educating people about the benefits of local food. Because most people still do their shopping at the grocery store.

To be continued.

Next week I'll be attending a meeting of the Food Security Taskforce (the east side of Jamestown is an official "food desert," but last summer's brief trial of a farmers market on that side of town was a big FAIL, so it's back to the drawing board), a meeting of the newly-formed Cattaraugus-Chautauqua 4 Clean Water anti-fracking group, a Critical Discussions presentation at Prendergast Library on Fracking --Impacts on Environment, Health, and Society, the GROW Jamestown Garden Fair at the Renaissance Center on Saturday 10AM - 2PM, and a little dinner with some members of our church.  

But, today...

New Leash on Life animal rescue is holding an adoption event at the Lakewood Tractor Supply. If you've been thinking about getting a puppy, or an older dog, you might want to head out there 9AM - 2PM and meet these people, and get some wonderful warm wet puppy kisses!

Chautauqua Suites is holding another Indoor Yard Sale today. Admission $1, it's not out in the cold, and you never know what you might find!

If I decide to put down the coffee and get out from under my blanket, you might even see me there! 

Fun with food

I meant to post an update last week, but with all the other things going on -- my attention to the food buying club, yoga, weaving, reading, and especially the additional time in the kitchen chopping vegetables -- it just didn't happen.

So, March roared in like a lion, right on schedule, resulting in the predictable crankiness about the staying power of winter. Right now it's thawing before it freezes again -- if you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes. I did see an Amish farmer out in his field with his horses and plow over the weekend -- a sure sign of spring!

We've gotten through two weeks of the diet change, with very little slippage.  The goal is not to be perfect ( there's going to be a little chocolate here and there, count on it), but we're enjoying our healthier food choices rather than feeling constricted by them. We're actually eating a much larger variety of foods than before.  Salads have become much more interesting with the addition of nuts and seeds and sprouts. More fruit in the house means more fruit flies. Hey, the more the merrier!

I'll be overseeing my second distribution for the food buying club this week, and so far so good. It was fun meeting some of the other members for the first time, and getting new ideas about what to order in the future.  I took a big leap and added some tofu to my order this time. I've never been a big tofu fan, but I have to admit that the recipes I've tried from Dr. Fuhrman's book have been delicious, so I'm willing to try the tofu ones, just because.  In order to like certain foods (kale, for instance), you have to give them several tries and learn the best ways to prepare them.   I like having fun with my food.

Usually not THIS much fun, though:

















But if you feel inspired, go for it!

New Discoveries

It took me long enough, but I finally discovered that there is a church in Jamestown that has a fish fry every Friday during Lent. St. John's Church, at 270 Newton Ave., has been doing this for 16 years. Tom and I enjoyed going out for a good fish fry when we lived in Cleveland, and it's one of the things we've missed since moving here.

This brings me to a recurring problem we are always running into as we adjust from a metropolitan environment to a "small town in the middle of nowhere" environment: communication is different here. And some of our habits are hard to change.

There are no local TV stations. There are local radio stations. But my radio is usually set to NPR, and around here, the public radio station is out of Buffalo and the "local" news is Buffalo-centric. However, in the past year, I've become acquainted with Jason Sample of WRFA, the local low power "radio for the arts," and I do hear about lots of things via his Facebook postings. So, I guess this is a case of "whom you know."

The local daily newspaper leaves a lot to be desired, and I don't regularly scan the weeklies. I miss the Chautauqua Word, the indie paper that I loved, but it fell by the wayside after losing Steve Lafreniere as editor. 

There is no single website that serves as a "go-to" place for all things happening local. In fact, irritatingly enough, most websites here do not get updated in a timely manner and cannot be relied upon for correct information if you want it in a hurry.  In Cleveland, there was a regular collection of local blogs I could scan daily for important information. Not so much here. So, for people like me who have come to rely on being plugged into the information highway via the internet, a clunky and time-consuming process of surfing is required. And the result: "I find out about a lot of things I would have liked doing only after they happen."  Wish I had a quarter for every time I've heard somebody say this.

Anyway, now that I've discovered the fish fry, I'd like to go to one, but our new diet may pre-empt it. My interest in nutrition and health, and my friend Bonnie, have led me to Dr. Joel Fuhrman and EAT TO LIVE, a high-nutrient, high-fiber (mainly) plant-based way of eating that is touted as an answer to the obesity epidemic and remedy for other lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. We've been trending veggie in our food choices for quite a while anyway, and I'm old enough and heavy enough to be motivated by a chance to throw away my blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering medications.  The bonus in this book is some great recipes for combining veggies in new and delicious ways!  I was always a sucker for new recipes.

After the first few days...it's great. I find myself spending a LOT of time in the kitchen right now...chopping veggies. There are frequent trips to the store for MORE GREENS, and the nightly soaking of the dried beans.  My food processor, seldom used until now, has become my new BFF. Eating involves a lot more CHEWING and savoring.  And this is the really cool part (and it doesn't necessarily happen this fast for everybody): I'm not having any cravings for the things that have always tended to bring me down: sweets, ice cream, mac and cheese (with white pasta).  I'm loving the new variety.  I'll let you know how it's going later. After all, this is Week 1, and the novelty hasn't worn off. But these foods MAKE SENSE. And I feel good.

Finally, without reasonable segue, a word about our local hockey team, the Ironmen.  I confess that we haven't been to any of the games. Tom and I rarely go out in the evening, but I hear lots of complaining about "nothing to do" in Jamestown, which is just wrong, and probably actually means, "I'm not getting laid." Whatever.  We have this minor league team that's WINNING, and an opportunity to watch some future stars of the NFL in action, tickets are reasonably priced, and yet they're having trouble filling up the seats in the arena.  What is wrong with this picture? There's still time to catch a game or two this season: they're playing on the road now, but will be back in town for the last two weekends in March.  So, gather up your friends and make it an outing. Do something different for a change.

We're going up to SUNY Fredonia this afternoon to hear Dr. Anthony Ingraffea from Cornell present some actual facts about fracking. Meanwhile comes the news that the Chinese Petrochemical Corp. is buying a 50% share of Chesapeake Energy assets. Any questions about who will benefit from the destruction of our environment?

Waiting for Spring

What I've learned about rug weaving so far: I'm still not ready for prime time. In fact, I'm not even actually weaving the rug yet. I am still correcting mistakes I made in threading the loom. Loom weaving is not for sissies.

We're having another cold snap here -- 7 degrees this morning. Tom has the day off for President's Day, and is out in the back yard in his tent, testing the performance of his really, really cold weather camping gear. Seriously.

I may go shopping  (!) today, just to see if I can find myself a new pair of boots on sale.

It seems like this winter is going by much faster than last winter. Maybe we're just busier now than we were last winter. I've started plotting out my garden (on paper). Square foot gardening worked well for me last summer,  and I'm going to stick with it.  Hanging strawberries might be fun to try, too.   Community gardens will be expanding this year as well, with the new project at JCC ready to go.

I've been added as a coordinator for the Furniture City Foods buying club, and I'm going to be exploring ways of using communication and customer service to improve the ordering process for members. As much as we love Wegman's, it feels really good to be tapped into a distribution system for locally and regionally sourced foods. There's peace of mind in knowing where your food comes from and how it is produced. Unless you don't mind poisoning yourself and your family, of course.

Speaking of which, we became aware last week of two sites across the lake in Ellery where fracking permits will be issued when the statewide moratorium is lifted. This is alarmingly close to one of the wells which provide the water for the city of Jamestown.  Reading through the comments on pro-fracking sites online, it is apparent that people are woefully ignorant of what fracking will mean for our area. This is NOT the same kind of well drilling that has been happening since 1947. This is a process that will industrialize what are now quiet rural areas and bring in an incredible amount of truck traffic, noise, and of course deadly pollution.  It is important for people to learn the facts.  There will be two opportunities next week when Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, shale oil expert from Cornell, presents facts at SUNY Fredonia and at the Cornell Extension Facilities in Portland. Do yourselves a favor and give him a listen.