Food in Boston

So much for weekly updates! Oh well.

In skimming Sharon’s latest update, I’m reminded that there’s a specific format to this genre; here goes using it.

Planted something: not exactly, though we did transplant some squashes from the hill where they all germinated to the one where none did.

Harvested something: lettuce, radishes, mustard greens, basil & varied herbs. One snap pea went directly into my mouth — the plants are finally growing more vigorously, but haven’t managed to produce so much.

Preserved something: I don’t think putting stuff in the fridge counts here.

Ate the food: all the stuff we picked! Pretty easy at this point.

Waste not/Managing Food Reserves: finally remembered to pull one of the 5 gallon water containers out that I’d filled 6 months ago. Still tasted fine.

Want Not/Prep and Storage: installed cucumber trellis from leftover fencing & bamboo stakes.

Build Community Food Systems: drafted a schedule for Board and committee staffing at the rest of the year’s in-store tabling and member dinners at Harvest (felt a little like solving the Travelling Salesman problem). Started looking into what the Transition Network is doing, and pondering how that might look in Boston — there are some interested folks in various parts of the state, but not so much here yet.

Boston’s most outspoken grocer is back with an up-to-the-minute take on our food system, which can be found both in the regular Lionette’s email newsletter and on the front page of the Lionette’s Market site. Preceded by a general market update that includes an excellent guide to the various cuts of meat they stock, with an eye towards grilling.

One of my favorite passages:

We feel that somehow and someway nature will have to compromise with us. Such absurd and futile notions that carbon offsets will appease the climate gods are similar to ‘uncivilized’ people of the past who made sacrifices to the rain gods. The ever burning climate will not ignore the carbon emitted from fresh figs flown into Boston because you recycle. Mutated e-coli and Salmonella do not understand your argument that recovering the economy takes precedent to a safe food supply, nor do they care about unemployment rates. Obesity and Diabetes do not comprehend the injustices of a class based economic system.

Amen!

• Helped friends install a raised bed in their front yard. We used stones that had been piled in the back yard to define the space — no lumber needed! I’m also encouraging them to try planting in sheet mulch, rather than buying a bunch of soil. To that end, recommended Gaia’s Garden for more on sheet mulch, and generally being an awesome resource.
• Picked up a used copy of Taylor’s Master Guide to Landscaping (recommended in GG). Far from permaculture in its outlook — one passage talks about grass as being way easier to keep up than plantings — but there looks to be plenty of use.
• Asked some pros about my knotweed mulch project. Loose consensus: as long as the knotweed bits are root free, it’s not totally crazy.
• Weeded the garden, mounded some soil around those corn plants that are growing the best, added some more knotweed leaf mulch.
• Tabled on behalf of the Board at the JP Harvest Co-op for Member Appreciation Day. Signed up at least one new member, and had some good conversations with long-time members.
• Last and definitely not least: picked some strawberries at The Food Project’s Lincoln farm, turned them into some fabulous dessert.

starts in a few minutes! http://www.radioboston.org/

With your permission, I will get a little introspective for a minute. In case you’ve wondered what the hell happened to the once-regular posts here on FiB, well, a few things have changed for me since I first posted here, almost three years ago:

1. I was elected to a two-year term on the Harvest Co-op Board of Directors in November ‘07. This has been an honor, a tremendous education in the retail side of our food system, and a more than a few hours of work, which are thus no longer available to spend writing for this blog. Also, since the Board has a policy of only speaking with one voice on Harvest-related matters, blogging about Harvest or retail generally is tricky.
2. In February of ‘08, I was hired as the IT Manager at The Food Project. Longtime readers know that TFP had been one of my favorite subjects due to the many roles the organization plays in the Boston-area local food scene. It’s a fantastic job, and it’s a job — I find myself wanting to wrestle with non-TFP stuff in my off hours.
3. Permaculture. I took a Permaculture Design Course last fall, and have since been engaged in design and early stages of implementation for some friends in their new yard.

That should explain a bit about where my FiB energy has gone. It’s taken me a while to come to terms with that, but I think it’s inescapable by now. Going forwards, then, what to reasonably expect from FiB?

• Independence Days: I really like this notion from Sharon Astyk about the value of publicly testifying to what you’re doing in the name of local food. To start: this week, in addition to my day job (which conveniently has to do with our food system), I watered & weeded my community garden plot, harvested some lettuce and mustard greens, started a little experiment using knotweed stems & leaves as mulch, and prepared for & participated in a co-op board meeting.
• Reposts & links to events have been a staple here, and I’m happy to continue those. If you’ve got something you’d like to see here on FiB, please pass it my way. I’ll also aim to keep a short list of my favorite Boston-area food system bloggers active in the blogroll over on the right.
• Who knows, maybe occasionally some more substantial stuff…

Finally, those of you who actually visit the website rather than read in a feed reader may notice that I changed the theme to something a little cleaner & easier to read. It’s the old-school default WordPress theme, which I hope is so old that it might be back in fashion again.