"Graaaaaaains!" says Eric the Zombie.
What?!
Confused? Well, let me clear it up for you a little. I'm currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (BTW, really good book.) as part of Green Bean's reading challenge. I just read this out loud to Eric:
Among other obstacles, these [small] farmers have to contend with a national press that is quick to pronounce them dead. Diversified food-producing farms on the outskirts of cities are actually the fastest-growing sector of U.S. agriculture. The small farm is at the moment very busy thinking its way out of a box, working like mad to protect the goodness and food security of a largely ungrateful nation.Graaaaaaains! was his response.
-- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle pg. 114
Yes, this is why I keep him around. I keep him in tomatoes and beautiful children and he keeps me in stitches (And clean laundry and dishes and dinner. You should get one of these!).
It is true, though. There's a boom going on (at least around here) with new small farms. There are bunches of "kids"(Read: twenty-somethings) starting farms in our area. I swear I'm older than most of them and if the "kids" can do it...so can I!
Although I do admit to being seriously handicapped by the addition of nursing 7.5 month olds and the lack of a fully functioning brain. Even so, it's the right thing to do. I like good food, I love to grow plants and as food gets more and more expensive it just makes sense to grow more of your own, if you can. However, it is also good work. Work with meaning.
We're saving the Earth, one shovelful of compost at a time.
4 comments:
And I applaud what you're doing. Can I say it one more time...I want a garden!
Loved. that. book!
It's funny, we are heading back from whence we came with more and more people either growing their own food and meat or sourcing it locally because of health concerns and rising oil costs. We raised our own meat for years and now just do vegetables and lamb but we source our beef and pork frequently from a farmer whose animals we can actually see on a regular basis.
Thanks everyone!
Windyridge: you're absolutely correct. Lots of folks are working on swinging backwards on the pendulum. It will be interesting to see just how far we go, this time. I'm hoping my biz partner and I can raise some chickens. If we're too late this year, there's always next year. I go through a LOT of eggs and it would be really nice to have our own personal source of protein. I, too, have picked up 1/4 of a cow from a "local". Well, a ranch still in CO. The meat is FABULOUS. Homesteading...it's the future!
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