What is this thinning veil?

Death.
All that is on my mind at this time of year is death. The grounds lie fallow.  It is getting colder and darker and all that I can think about is death.

I thought that I might try to keep a little life in the garden growing by making a covering of wire and plastic to shelter a tiny little seeds. . . just warm enough for lettuce, a makeshift greenhouse. In fact I did try to get a last crop of lettuce in the raised bed where I had dug out all the potatoes.  I finally had a blank canvass and I made neat little rows of red leaf and slow bolt heirloom lettuce. I saw some tiny sprouts, but a frost must  have hit or maybe it was a squirrel. Still, there lies only dirt- no lettuce.  The seeds dug into the ground died, but they did not return as plants.

So I look out upon my urban farm and all I see is death.

Symbolically, death represents a change. A change from this to that. . from a world I do know to a world I do not know. Change is neither good or bad on the surface. Change is the one constant in life you can be sure of. . as the song goes.

Yet, I miss the little green shoots. And this year, I think I really could use a little winter crop.  Just little green shoots of hope that signal there is still a chance, still opportunity for something, anything living. Alive.

After the Harvest. . .

by Melissa Jeter aka HUF

Finally, I got outside and and turned the dirt over.   As I took my pitchfork and pierced the ground, I thought about how I was creating a clean slate from which to plant again.
The stalks of corn were still holding on to the soil. I pulled and dug into the dirt until finally there was a sweet release.

I pulled out the tomato plants and threw the vegetation on the compost pile. As I pulled and dug into the ground, I looked at the dying brown leaves and red, rotting tomatoes still hanging on the vine.  Looking at this, I wondered if this death also inspired the fall holidays like Samhein and in turn Halloween.  It may not be the case, but the last of the vegetables put me in a mood of mourning death.

The raised beds are desolate and I miss going outside in the heat and picking a juicy tomato or herb that I could eat with mixed greens. However, I am grateful for what I was able to put away. Those frozen mashed potatoes will taste ever so good when I thaw a few.

Of course, I have a personal policy of refraining from thawing what I put away until or on Thanksgiving. I have such a great feeling of satisfaction when I look in my freezer or the cabinets.




I have a theory that all the really fun and empowering parts of home cooking and food preparation have been taken out of modern cooking. To see the seed planted in the dirt come alive and bear fruit is spectacular. I value the process of the fruit getting to my table. I value the hours spent digging in the soil on hot summer days. By my hands, I have been able to put some food on my plate. I enjoy this. I enjoy shopping for food, but I appreciate participating more actively in preparing food. I don't consider myself a cook, but a kitchen artist.




I find myself looking at my full freezer and cabinets feeling satisfied. The last of the potatoes have been harvested and all the green tomatoes have either been canned or eaten. Yet, I mourn the lush life that thrived in the now empty raised beds.  It rains cold and I am really emotionally ill-prepared for what comes next. Though, I know what I need to do.

Just give me a few more weeks to enjoy the green grass and reminisce, because what comes after the harvest. . . .

What did she do with all those potatoes?

by Melissa Jeter aka HUF

The potato harvest was fantastic! Now, I know you are wondering what I did with all those potatoes.  Well, after thoroughly washing them I made mashed potatoes of course. Here's a heuristic recipe: Cut up your potatoes and boil them in water. When they are soft, meaning test the softness of the potatoes with a fork. If the potato falls apart easily, t hen it is time to drain off the water and mash.  I use the following in my mash potatoes, balsamic vinegar, a milk (I use almond milk, but you can use cow mil or soy milk or any other kind of milk that floats your boat), garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Once again, this is a heuristic, so use these ingredients at amounts that taste good to you.

Now once, I cooked up all those mashed potatoes, I  froze them for later.  I scooped them out on an oiled pan and put the pan in the freezer. Once frozen, I put them in a bag that I can vacuum seal

The next dish I tried was potato salad.  I'm not a potato salad kind of farmer, so I thought I would try a new recipe.  Well, I just didn't like it at all. I used a low fat, vegan dressing, mustard and garlic powders, and a little salt.  Here's what it looks like.   However, I still don't like potato salad. 

Someone help me! Give me a recipe I can use.

Is it entitlement, the fruits of my labor, and/or something more?

If you planted it, don’t you deserve it? Aren’t you entitled to the vegetables your garden?



I plant a seed, so I deserve the fruits of that seed? Right?

Watch this video below- the story of the Little Red Hen

http://youtu.be/5QSsqls-R3o



According to the video with the little Red Hen, the answer is yes. There is a process that must happen before you get that bread, fruit or vegetable from a seed. Some of that seed's growth is due to your efforts and some of it feels like mystery or the science of horticulture and agriculture.

 You know that voice that says I deserve this because of that.

I guess we all have a sense of entitlement. However, I hope that I can work in harmony with the seed and the ecology in a way that will allow this seed to become a plant and bare fruit. And then there is the necessary weeding.

The Little Red Hen eats the bread herself when everyone declined her offer to help plant the seed.
Do I deserve the fruit if I've planted the seed?  Am I entitled to the fruit if I have nurtured the plant, given it heat, protected it from predators, housed it, bought the seeds from the seed savers exchange?

What do I deserve? That question implies so much judgement. If I think there are only two possible answers yes or no, then there is judgement and shame. Guilt applies to wrong doing.

And I can be guilty.

I can be responsible and I think nature is more complex than simplistic either this or that and causal thinking.


As for the shame, well. . .shame indicates there is something wrong with you. Guilt indicates that you did something wrong. One you can change, the other you cannot. Guilt, I can do something about. Shame on the other hand asks some existential questions about my being.  . .  At best shame is a path to a dark night of the soul, at worst. . .well let's just say I'd rather be response able and alive. I refuse to considder ther alternative.  



What path did I take? What relationships nurture the growth of the seed? How much is there that is too tiny to see that is occurring that sparks the life in the seed?


I am living with this question, because I have a lot of feelings about this. I don't have an answer. For all that science can tell us about the soil, the seed, the ecology, that seed still grows -in it's own time. I'm still amazed by that. What the answer is matters. Yet, how the answers come about matter too.


So maybe what you deserve is a question that can be reframed in terms of how. What is the process involved in getting from seed to plant to fruit? The little Red Hen plants the seed, waters the seed, and the wheat grows.  The other animals decline to help. Do those animals deserve to have any bread when the wheat has been harvested and made into bread? How can these animals expect that they can eat up the bread after all of the Little Red Hen's work? This is a question of heart-a question of contemplation.

My fellow community gardeners garden with the intention to give food away to people. Those people have not been asked to be a part of the process.  The food is given as a gift.  However, food does not just drop out of the sky- to paraphrase Erie Sauder, founder of Sauder Village. There is work that must be done to get that food to the plate. And most people have no idea how the food on their plate gets there or how much work is involved to get it to their mouths.


There is a dignity derived from this process of getting food from garden to plate. There is a sense of helplessness that comes from the lack of ability to provide for one's self. This sense of helplessness and dignity are represented in all the diy movements and back to the earth movements and hobby farming as well as urban farming.  These movements also indicate a sense of guilt associated with declining to be response able about the food we eat. People in these movements discover what it really takes to put food in their mouths and begin to have a better appreciation of the food in the grocery store.  Even more, people, begin to ask questions about how the seed was planted. People begin to realize that the process really matters. The process determines the quality in the food. 

Perhaps, the story of the Little Red Hen presents a challenge to us to be more responsible about what we know about how food gets to our plate.  I'd like to think that the other animals who decline to help in planting a seed as guilty and response able. It's not to late to figure it out.

What's right about being normal?

Melissa Jeter aka HUF

An important element of Hip Urban farming addresses the issues of recycling, self-sufficiency, and gratitude. Hip urban farming is a creatively maladjusted way or abnormal way of living. But normal in our society is overrated in my opinion anyway.

What’s normal in our society is to go out and buy a bunch of stuff for cheap.  After reading the book by the same name written by Ruppel Ellen, my conclusion is that we are a bunch of duped saps for yielding to brand names over quality merchandise as well as believing that the price tag is an objective reality. Conventionally, people growing things in their garden will go to a big box store for the low prices and buy pots, dirt, weed killer, fertilizer and even more.  I must say in all honesty that I too act in these conventional ways. But I fight it too.

Here’s how I fight convention:

1. Recycled pop bottles as planters;

2. Accept gifts of pots from friends who no longer need them;

3.Use pop bottles to water and feed the veggie plants

4. Compost for fertilizer

5. Use vinegar in the cracks of the cement sidewalks to get rid of weeds

6. read, read, read more books about how to use elbow grease instead of cash to get rid of pests and weeds  

Eat more dirt is a good one!

7. Make stuff: reuse re-purpose recycle

8. Use creative skills or learn a new skill

7. Brain storm all the different ways you can make a plastic bag into something useful- like knitting strips from paper bags together to reduce them to a bag

8. So much more. . .

So why fight convention? Why not just accept the choices that are available and be the same as everybody and everything else?  

Because it’s not HIP! That’s why!

To me to be hip is to step to the beat of your own drum and my drum beats to the rhythm of recycling, reusing, re-purposing, mending, and spending in ways that are of value to me.

Who has time to do that? Ah HUF, now you’re just making up stuff to do?


I disagree. The fact of the matter is that people always find time to do what is important to them. I do what I value. I find that sometimes, people really lack an understanding of what is important to them. To get understanding of your values requires introspection and quieting the mind to really get to know yourself. In a world, where a person is constantly moving, the focus is on everything and everyone outside yourself. Consequently we know more about the latest movie star than we know about ourselves.  People are more likely to think about their happiness in comparison to the life of some movie star than look at what is important to each unique individual self.

news flash***** Life is not a competition!!!!*******news flash

I choose to know more about me and what gives my life meaning. It is important to me, because this is my life and honestly, that I am aware I have this life and that’s it.

Besides this reason, there are also more characteristics that apply. One characteristic is that  great feeling I get from being competent. There is a great feeling that I get when I have created something from what seems to be nothing. And there are a host of other people who feel the same as exemplified through the DIY movement and young people who knit and sew. Go to websites such as  instructables, craftster, or raverly.

Even more to the point, aren’t you reading this blog?

Autonomy is another characteristic that applies. If I can create something based upon what I think is important, then I feel less dependent and helpless in the face of conventional standards.  For example with tomatoes I grow from my garden, I can make tomato sauce, ketchup, or just stewed tomatoes. What’s hip about making these tomato-based products is that I can make them to taste how I want them to taste. As my grandmother used to tell me in the kitchen, make it the way you like to taste it.

And  I like my ketchup sour and spicy. . . I’m still working on the flavor for tomato sauce, though.

So perhaps, these characteristics sound valid to you, but still you challenge...

Well HUF, not everyone has a house with a yard.
And I would answer Good point! This brings me to the next characteristic..  

Means.  You don’t have to have a house with your own yard.  Participate in a community garden, learn window farming, join a CSA.  For years, I lived in an apartment, dreaming about gardening. I had several plants in the windows and a growing basil plant.  I even did a little composting under the sink in my kitchen, too.

Well, I dried out food scraps and put them in a  pot of dirt under to sink. and watered it so it could decompose. . no it didn’t smell. . . well only like burnt food. . . no, there were no bugs  Geesh! It wasn’t a vermicomposter.


Motive is another characteristic. People are all motivated in different ways.  I am usually intrinsically motivated.
That means that the carrot or stick approach usually causes me to be suspicious or resentful of the person trying to “motivate” me.

I’m a self-starter, an amateur, and I am willing to learn more about gardening, share information and collaborate with more people  in order to have a better garden. I garden, because it connects me to the outdoors and also family lore. I’m a bit idealistic and I dream of being able to supplement my store bought food with the veggies grown from my garden. If I ever have enough of anything, then I can share it.  In the community garden in which I participate, anything grown that the gardeners don’t use goes to feed local residents, through shelters and foodbanks. I don’t get paid money to do this and neither do my fellow community gardeners.

Is it so odd to see people who are intrinsically motivated?

Lastly, opportunity is a characteristic. With gardening, I get the opportunity to share my harvest as well as my thoughts and feelings.  I have a serious hobby to talk about with people who are similarly interested or curious about it.Working with other gardeners, I have the opportunity to learn and work together to learn to be better gardeners. And then we share the fruits of our labor with people who need and want food. It is a collaboration of gardening that helps to make our community better. If there is competition amongst us, it is a competition to be better individually growing food, so that we can as a group better provide food for ourselves and others.


So, hip urban farming is a creatively maladjusted way of living; it's abnormal.  But what's so right about being normal? For me, making a life that includes elements of recycling, self-sufficiency, and gratitude. . . well you know that's hip!

Hip urban farming! Hip!


Sources of Inspiration:

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. New York: Penguin, 2010.

Shell, Ellen Ruppel. Cheap: the High Cost of Discount Culture. New York: Penguin, 2009..

Beckwith, Michael Bernard. Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul's Potential. New York: Atria /Beyond Words, 2008.

Belanger, Jerome D. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-sufficient Living. New York, NY: Alpha, 2009. Print.

Bridgewater, Alan, and Gill Bridgewater. The Self-sufficiency Handbook: a Complete Guide to Greener Living. New York, NY: Skyhorse Pub., 2007. Print

What tools can't you live without?

There are some tools that I can't live without when it's time to preserve the harvest. Here's my listing =>>>

See this photo?  Somebody remind me what it's called.



Watch this. . . 


Did you see that?  I'm giddy with excitement!

Oh yeah, I don't think the conventional farmer would say that either. It's just way too hip.

And if I put them through this gadget one more time, look at the result

 


Ok so there's that gadget, Then there's the food mill. . .



After that there's the vacuum sealer. Enough said, if I begin to talk about the vacuum sealer, you will think this is an infomercial. Let's just say I love it and leave it at that.

A canner is nice too. I just do tomato sauce, salsa and acidic items.  I suggest you go to your local state extension office for information on canning.  There's nothing like it, if you've never done it. 

Try it!


Next, is the freezer.
Don't think that a small household can't use a big freezer.  The goal is to fill that baby up with the harvest!

So then there are knives.  You must have some knives. I like knives in the kitchen. Invest in a good set and keep them sharp!

My grandmother always admonished that there is nothing more dangerous than a kitchen knife that isn't sharp.


There's also the food processor. Get a good one. You'll use it!

These are the items I can't live without at harvest time.

And just  for your information, I don't consider this cooking or food preparation.  These are the tools of an artist! 

Hip Urban Farmer. . . Artist!

What tools can't you live without?

What'd she say?

There are several things that you won't hear a conventional farmer say.

Ooo, potatoes come out of the ground. . . 




If I don't stop digging for potatoes soon, I'm never gonna make it to the gym; 



I'm sorry I don't think I'll make your son's birthday party, because I'm still digging for potatoes;






You say you'd like me to go to the beach with you? Sorry, I'm digging potatoes out of the ground;



What! Take a break!  How can I take a break when all these potatoes need to be preserved;




I'll never get to the shoe repair shop in time if I don't finish cooking these potatoes;












I'm gonna have one helluva blog after all this digging ad preserving of potatoes. . 

You won't hear the conventional farmer say these things, because. . well you know. . . this is hip. .