I have writer's block, senioritis and various other academic ailments. The dreary day doesn't help much at all. All I really want to do is sit on the ground and work on my braided rug, or watch the sprouts grow in the little sprout-growing contraption that my mom gave to me. For those of you who haven't seen my rug, here's the latest portrait of my "baby". She grows slowly but surely. Right now, she's nearly 7 feet long and 5 feet wide, and that's probably about where she'll stop.
I have to plug away at some reading, reports, and an executive summary that is frustrating my non-business minded brain. I'd rather just do something, not talk about doing it! At least I get to go to the Joshua Farm this afternoon :) The plethora of little seedlings is always a huge boost to my spirits. Well, I ought to get back to that executive summary...
My dear mother brought me a bag of fresh lettuce and some spring onions today, and I had a delicious salad for lunch. What a blessing! My fridge is still full of jars from the bounty of last year's harvest, but there begins to be a small influx of new spring delicacies.
I thought it might be fun to give you a quick peek into my fridge.
I also opened the lid of my grab-and-go food for the week: cooked bulgur with peas and pesto :) A fun and easy spin on tabouleh salad!
I hear two voices- one telling me that I ought to be accomplishing things for God, that I should be striving very hard to care for the poor and oppressed. And so I pursue that. I am working to improve food access in underserved communities. And so I take classes, read lots of dietetics journal articles, talk with friends, attend workshops, and apply to graduate school for nutrition.
And then I'm hit with this thought-provoking quote by Henry Nouwen about the importance of the ministry of presence, "My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn't be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes and hugs that you do not simply like them, but you truly love them."
I pray that God will continue to give me grace and understanding to know how to integrate action with the ability to simply "be".
PS. Have you ever heard of a "Veggie Mobile"? This is my current project of action.
So, just to give you a heads up, I am going to begin posting some information from my current independent study course.
I have not blogged for a few weeks, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking.
It just means that I've been thinking too much, and didn't know how to express it.
As a basic intro to what is to come, I'm going to give you 3 definitions that you might find helpful, for "Food Security", "Food Deserts", and "Urban Agriculture".
These aren't just terms created for no reason. These are actual realities, and I am in the process of learning about them, and considering how to implement change.
Food security is defined by Boyle and Holben as “access by all people at all times to sufficient food for an active and healthy life” (Boyle & Holben, 2006). “Sufficient food” can be further clarified by pointing out that nutritionally adequate and safe foods are readily available, and can be acquired in socially acceptable ways. Food insecurity is in contrast with food security, and entails limited ability to acquire nutritionally adequate and safe foods in a socially acceptable way.Individuals with food insecurity may also present with hunger or without hunger. Hunger is “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by a recurrent or involuntary lack of food, which can lead to malnutrition over time”.While food insecurity with hunger is prevalent in many societies, in the United States, it is more common to find food insecurity without hunger.Here, individuals are concerned about having enough resources to purchase food and cannot afford to eat balanced meals.They tend to purchase calorie dense foods with little nutritional value, often times resulting malnourishment presenting in overweight and obesity.
Food deserts are described by Thomas Christian, in the department of Economics in Georgia State University, as poorer neighborhoods where “food options are often limited to fast food restaurants, convenience stores, or grocery stores more poorly stocked- both in quantity and quality- than suburban groceries”. These areas are characterized by a lack of opportunities to purchase adequate nutrition, often leading to the insecurity-obesity paradox.
Urban agriculture, is well defined by Charles W. Lesher, Jr. in his literature review on Urban Agriculture: Differing Phenomena in Differing Regions of the World. He defines it as “any processes that produce traditional subsistence, nutritional or commercially profitable food or other grown or raised products, removed from rural domains, and instead cultivate them in special intensive conditions within the urban context or in its surrounding buffer, peri-urban, regions”. In order to appreciate the extent of this phenomenon, it is interesting to note that according to the website of the Alternative Farming Systems Information Center of the USDA National Agricultural Library, around 15 percent of the world's food supply is now grown in urban areas.
Sources:
Boyle, M. A., & Holben, D. H. (2006). Community Nutrition in Action: An Entrepreneurial Approach (4th ed.). USA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Christian, Thomas J. 'Grocery Store Access and the Food Insecurity–Obesity Paradox', Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 5:3, 360 - 369
Lesher, Charles W. ‘Urban Agriculture: Differing Phenomena in Differing Regions of the World’. Accessed 15 Feb 2011.
Alternative Farming Systems Information Center Website:
Instead of a locating a kitchen garden outside, why not place it in the kitchen? This "Bright Lights" Swiss chard with parsley dancing around it graces the southern window of our little apartment.Not only does the pot add beauty to our apartment, it is practical and adds some leafy greens to our meals every once in a while. To make a quick lunch, I put 1/3 cup of couscous in a bowl, poured in 2/3 cup of hot beef broth, and allowed it to sit for 5 minutes. Then I threw in a couple of whole frozen tomatoes, and a handful of those frozen beans. Finally, I chopped up a few stems of swiss chard and parsley to add a splash of color and a bit of delicious flavor.
A little ingenuity + consistent watering = sprigs of delight.
It's not that hard really. Just don't buy them. I use rags to clean in the kitchen and bathroom. Cut up old t-shirts or other cloth for times when you want to use something disposable. These little scraps of fabric also make great tissues- they're softer on your nose than toilet paper! Just a little thrift-tip from a busy schoolgirl :)
Cheap, healthy, full of fiber... Beans. I love them- any shape, any size. They don't have much flavor of their own, lending themselves to lots of delightful creativity. You can buy them in a can, but canned beans have a lot of extra sodium. Plus, it's more economical to cook them yourself. And dried beans are beautiful sitting in jars around the kitchen. For the sake of convenience, I cook a pot at one time, and then drain them and spread on a cookie tray in the freezer. Slip them into a ziploc bag, and you can grab a handful and heat them up anytime!
Basic Sketch of How to Cook Beans:
1. Place beans in a pot with plenty of water and allow to soak overnight. 2. Drain and pour in new water. 3. Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes or until soft.
There are lots of variations, methods that include adding baking soda to reduce the deleterious side-effects of beans (which do tend to decline as your body becomes used to eating more fiber!), as well as changing the water more often, adding spices, etc, but this is a quick and simple way to get the job done.
To make a quick refried bean dip, I grabbed a handful of beans, a bit of beef broth, and lots of delicious spices- including cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder. A clove of garlic from my garden added some additional depth to the flavor. I even threw in a few roasted peppers that I had frozen when I had an abundance from my CSA share for a bit of extra color and nutrients.
These were placed in a small pan, and heated slowly for an hour or so while I worked on homework.
Total active time required for this process? Probably 35 minutes... about the same time that it would take for me to go to the nearest grocery store for a can of refried beans. Plus- these are far more economical, low sodium, and delicious! Good cooking doesn't require a lot of time- just a bit of planning :)
