did you know Jesus ate organic food?

I have a lot of pent up rage directed at the way our country approaches food.

So I've decided to start writing about why I eat the way that I do, in the hopes that it will at least shed some light on why I made the decision to change my food system.  Because I also have a lot of pent up rage directed at the people that make fun of me for eating differently.

I don't understand why our society has gotten to the point that people are deemed weird or silly or stupid for wanting to eat food that is good for them - and good for the planet.  I do understand that Americans are busy people and that fast food, up front, seems to cost less and save time. But eating food that will ultimately make your life harder, slower, more expensive (b/c of rising health care costs), and shorter doesn't seem to be all that great. 

My dad and sister joked at dinner tonight that they couldn't tell the difference in flavor between the eggs in breakfast sandwiches from a stand at the Winter Market and the conventional eggs they buy at Kroger and eat at home.  The flavor isn't my motivation - it is an amazing benefit to having sworn off most conventional foods, but it isn't the point.

The point, is that our modern food system is destroying us.

The way conventional eggs are produced is not natural. The way conventional chickens are brought from the dirt to our tables/cars/laps is not natural.

It is horrifying.

I watched Food, Inc one afternoon while I was still working as a nanny. The kids were napping and I had a knitting project to work on. I don't know how anyone could witness that information and ever look at their food in the same way.

I'm not one of those people that believe veganism or vegetarianism is the way to save the planet/end world hunger/be healthy. I'm allergic to all legumes, so most traditional sources of protein for vegans and vegetarians are off limits to me. I can't eat beans, soy, or peanut butter. No soy = no tofu, no tvp, no veggie corn dogs or imitation sausage.

I buy local for a lot of reasons. I absolutely love cooking dinner and realizing that the beef came from my favorite farmer lady, the potatoes came from the cute boy in plaid flannel, and the tomatoes were home canned out of a friend's garden.

I like knowing that the bacon I eat for breakfast came from a farm that let animals live in the way animals were put on this earth to live. They are allowed the diet that is natural to them - not to put too religious a slant on it - but the diet that God designed them to survive and thrive on. The diet that makes their food nutritious to humans. Grass fed beef doesn't taste good because it has less fat in it than conventional. It tastes good because that cow ate what it was naturally designed to eat.

I was raised in the church, taught that we were to be good stewards of the earth. And despite whatever other issues I may have with theology, this makes sense to me:

We are care-takers. "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till and keep it," Genesis 2:15. The Hebrew words shamar and abad, usually translated as "till and keep" in this verse, could be just as accurately translated as "serve and preserve." The word shamar is also used in Numbers 6:24: "The Lord bless you and keep you." God desires that we treat the creation in the same way that God treats us. (from an awesome site about the Bible and the environment)

I like to jokingly point out that Jesus ate organic food. Non organic food didn't really exist until the twentieth century, when the great advances of technology made antibiotics and toxic chemical pesticides and fertilizers possible. Cows have been around a lot longer than scientists and chemicals. So have pigs and chickens and apple trees and carrots and farmers. 

Go read anything Michael Pollan has written. Watch Jamie Oliver's TED Talk. Visit a local market and talk to a farmer.  Drink water instead of diet soda, because the artificial sweetners DO CRAZY THINGS TO PEOPLE. Look up the statistics about this generation of kids - the first generation who will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents because of diet related, totally preventable health conditions.

End rant.

~RLM

playing catch up

I'm still paying for this site and not using it. And one of those things need to change.

So, I'm going to give blogging one last shot. And if I can't keep up with it, this site will be going away by the end of the year.

July, August, September, and October were crazy busy. Mostly full of good things but some crazy job related stress, too. The summer program I worked at ended at the beginning of August. So I spent a month working at the Butler campus bookstore. Then I started temping full time at a fancy schmancy law firm on the 27th floor of a highrise downtown. But that ended this week, so I'm doing short term temp jobs and praying that something else works out.

For the first time in months, I have very little on the horizon. I have no concerts to look forward to, no trips planned (aside from a short day in Chicago next Friday, with the UIndy art department), and no idea what I'll be doing work-wise.

I ended up with a dream line-up of summer concerts, almost entirely un-planned. Bon Iver was a very last minute decision - I got the last ticket and went alone after work one day. A co-worker was going with friends and convinced me it would be worth it - and it was. Totally mind blowing.

Then two weeks later, the Decemberists had to cancel their show, which led to the Head and the Heart frantically planning a last minute show at my favorite new place in Indy, the Earth House. It might have been the highlight of my summer, simply b/c I was less than 10 feet away from them the whole time.

And then madre went with me to the Avett Brothers show at White River. Those tickets were bought so incredibly early this year that I almost forgot about them. And then it was 32 degrees outside that night, so we nearly froze at an outdoor show. But they played so much old and awesome stuff that it was worth it.

I've been canning one small batch each weekend, putting food back in hopes that we can rely even less on the big-box stores this year. Jars upon jars of fire roasted tomatoes and sauce, apple butter and jams, and a small batch of pickles. Lots of chicken stock and soups in the freezer. 

And I'm nearly finished with the body of a bulky-weight winter sweater in my favorite shade of quince and co. Winter is supposed to be horrible this year, so the woolens will be put to good use.

And hopefully the blogging will keep up, and I'll be back with some new favorite recipes and finished objects soon.

~RLM

like a voice longs for a melody

The last two weeks of new-summer-job have been utter insanity. The AC at home broke when it was 96 degrees outside, a kid tried to throw a chair at me, I got food poisoning, didn't sleep for four days, and spent 5 hours on Friday with 2000+ students at Conseco Fieldhouse.

The only thing getting me through the week was Friday night and my tickets to see The Civil Wars at the Earth House. And they made all of the crazy exhaustion totally and completely worth it.

I've been looking forward to this show for months. I bought the tickets so long ago it felt like July would never get here. Running on caffeine fumes, no sleep, and incredibly sore feet, I showed up to the Earth House really early and drank a cup of Earl Grey while I waited in line. Sonia came to meet me later, and I'd scored an awesome spot right at the front of the stage. 

I was spoiled by all the shows I got to see living in Raleigh all those years. And I've missed these tiny concerts, where you're crammed into a room with just a few hundred other people only a few feet from the performers.

Seriously amazing stuff.

~RLM

loulouthi

When Anna Maria Horner started talking about the inspiration for her latest fabric line, I knew it was going to be fabulous. And that I would need at least one piece of awesome-ness to make something pretty.

Because anything inspired by flowers and Greece was meant to be mine.

So I pinched a few pennies and ordered just enough Loulouthi to make a fabulous summer skirt. And it reminds me so perfectly of those favorite places and beautiful flowers.

~RLM

weekend

Indianapolis turns into crazy-people-city on 500 weekend so I tend to hide in my house until everyone calms down.

Now that the Winter Farmer's market is over, I'm driving to the Broad Ripple market every other weekend to stock up on meat and eggs from my new favorite place in Indiana: Schacht Farm. They are the nicest people, producing the most amazing pork products I've ever eaten (the chicken and beef are awesome, too), so it is well worth the long drive across the city.  I love being out early on Saturday mornings because Indy is so quiet and empty, seems like no one but the market people are out and about.

This weekend, there was amazing blueberry ice cream (from Lick Ice Cream) that tastes like frozen blueberry cheesecake. There were the first strawberries of the season (b/c the backyard plants are just now blooming and won't fruit for another few weeks). There was bacon and bratwurst, raw milk cheddar cheese, and a fresh scone for breakfast.

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon putting in cages for all the tomatoes and planting pickling cucumbers, summer squash, and the first set of string beans. All that's left are the lima beans and an extra set of carrots, beets, beans, and radishes.

Sunday was full of house cleaning and cooking for the week, and knitting on my Coleus shawl in between.

Fresh bread for breakfast toast (the bread machine is awesome for making dough), beef burritos for the freezer, and a small batch of one-bowl cupcakes. Just because.

And today I'm headed to Dad's house to grill out for the holiday. They were even awesome enough to get all the stuff from the co-op, since I'm not eating factory farmed meat anymore.

Hope everyone else is enjoying their long weekend!

~RLM