Dinner
Hot drop biscuits with
Bolinas blackberry jam.
We ate all of them.
2 days ago
Free Rice
Sometimes I have the smallest problem becoming obsessed with games. Last year it was computer Scrabble and lately I clear my mind with four suits Spider solitaire at enigram solitaire.com. (No, I won't link it.)
But now I have a game that is smart and benefits people needing food, freerice.com. It's brilliant.
I found the site at Danielle's blog, Touch The Earth Farm, and have donated nearly 1,000 grains.... cross that out, nearly 2,000 grains of rice to the World Food Programme by playing. Thank you, Danielle.
Yesterday there were 150,137,840 grains of rice donated.
The game is self-explanatory. A word is presented and you choose the best definition from one of four presented. The words become increasingly more difficult. With each correct answer 20 grains of rice are donated to the WFP.
The rice is purchased from the advertising revenue generated by the site though I barely noticed the advertising.
I read the small print on the WFP link and when possible the rice is purchased locally to feed populations needing it, which we already know, has the added benefit of also benefiting the community. Although to be honest, at the point people are that hungry, where the food comes from is not my first thought.
Per the game site my vocab level is at a 38 so far. More donating is definitely necessary!
Tagged Again
I've been tagged again! First it was Chile and this time by my nearly a neighbor in the southbay Green Bean.
Thanks Green Bean!
The rules are:
(1) Link to the person that tagged you.
Done.
(2) Post the rules on your blog.
Done.
(3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
1. Food tastes better when eaten with my fingers.
2. I have a thing for little bowls.
3. Recipes were made to be ad-libbed.
4. Bread is better than chocolate.
5. I buy food because it's cute or pretty or has an orphan like quality.
6. None of my eating utensils match.
(4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
1. Alaska/Seattle Eat Local Northwest
2. Australia Gardeners Gastronomy
3. Portland, Oregon Old Dog New Tricks
6. North Hampton Sea Coast Eat Local
You people are next. (If you choose to be.) In any event it was fun visiting your blogs and knowing we are eating local everywhere!
(5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
Okay.
Grown At Home
I planted four pots of baby salad greens in November from starts I bought from a tall elf like man at the Marin Farmers' Market. I didn't think of it as gardening or even growing food. It was an experiment. I mean, food doesn't grow through the winter. There's no sun, too much rain. It's cold.
But I'm often frivolous and the grower looked lonely week after week in his unfolded chair and tables full of six packs of mixed greens, spinach, mizuna, arugula and tat soi displayed in perfect rows.
"They'll be fine," he told me as I packed a flat with nearly one of everything. "They're strong."
They haven't seen my yard, I thought. No cover for protection, the big dog and kids from next door with their noses in everything. The frost. The night animals. They'll never grow.
And I'm an optimist. And often wrong.
The damn things took off. I have done exactly nothing after they were planted. No water, no food, no anything.
Every few weeks I take their picture and stand on the back deck saying, you guys are beautiful. You are so beautiful. And then I eat them.
I've harvested a couple of colanders and added them to market mix, once for friends after I made them taste the different kinds. And the plants keep going.
Even though they have been complete troopers through the winter, the last week of sun has strengthened them up even more. It's as if they are in training for the Olympics. Which means there are more of them for dinner.
I had no idea eating at home could be so easy.
Yes We Can
I first heard about this Yes We Can music video by Will.I.Am from the only person I know who doesn't own a computer. Go figure.
And then I saw it on Green Bean's blog. She actually posted it on her sidebar which is not only cool but technically advanced in my elementary knowledge of blogs.
I've watched the video half a dozen times now and counting trying to figure why I'm so moved by it. Yes, it's sexy; it revs up, smoothes out, holds, crescendos. It makes my body sway, my blood heat up.
But it's more than that. The message allows for hope, gives permission for hope, encourages hope. It says, we deserve nothing less than hope and that whatever we want to accomplish, We Can.
And not just people of certain political persuasions but everyone.
My favorite line is, "We are not as divided as our politics would suggest."
This is a blog to promote eating locally as a vehicle to lessen our carbon bite on the environment but I could not resist posting this.
And now I'm going to go and eat a local carrot. Because I Can.
And so Can You!
2/18/08 More: The Eat Local Challenge blog has a terrific write up by Julie Cummins about this video, about hope, about eating local. Here's the link if you have a second.
Happy New Year! (DDELC Update)
Our local meals this week have not been worthy of the Chinese New Year. They've been fast food in the form of quick braised greens, brown rice and handfuls of almonds. One night we had scrambled eggs with the rice, another night a delicata squash with the kale. We've been eating bunches of carrots carried to work in wax paper bags, satsumas two at a time.
Hardly worth writing about except for the fact that we've managed to maintain real food as fast food when we need to.
The one trophy meal of the week was a pizza with potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, a mystery artisan cheese, hot Italian sausage and carmelized onions.
Tonight I was at a loss for dinner. There was cauliflower and arugula in the fridge. Some onions and a jar of yeast. At least that's all I could see.
"I can't eat anymore greens," the cute guy said. He had his head buried in his hands at the table.
We walked downtown to eat.
"Where do you think zucchini comes from this time of the year?" I asked at the first item on the menu.
The waiter walked up. "We'll have the pizza," the cute guy said taking the menu out of my hand. "And the arugula salad. We'll share."
"Arugula is local," I offered once we were alone again.
"I know," he replied. "And just for tonight everything else here is local too."
He's such a good sport I played along, although I can't stop wondering about where those poor zucchini must have come from.
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