Bristol County Daily News

This celebration of spring and the rewarding of good children with eggs after the lent fast have been changed by the commercialism in the United States. We are now overwhelmed with junk food and a candy hording frenzy. I set out on my mission to reward my children for good behavior as did the German immigrates in the early 1700’s that brought this tradition to our fair land.
Only to be bombarded with plastic eggs and grasses (which will never biodegrade) aisles and aisles of processes artificially flavored non-food items that sell for $8.00 a pound in plastic packaging that not only kills the planet but poisons my children. I actually walked down the aisles its colors call to you, its sparkle, its subliminal message, BUY ME BUY ME but I walked on. I actually wondered through the store thinking what, what shall I buy? How will I make this a special day when all others are out at Easter egg hunts and stuffing there chubby faces with artificially flavored non-food items. My children will walk with their little heads hung low wishing they had a different Mom! The guilt was almost too much.
Then it came to me all at once. The joy I could see on my children’s faces wiped the chocolate colored fog from my eyes. I headed outside to the green house and picked out flats of beautiful colorful flowers, little watering cans, child sized garden shovels, bubble wands and extra bubble mixture, kites and string, jump ropes and sunglasses, music CD’s and hopped out the door akin with the Osterhase. (The original Easter bunny)
Easter Sunday was a day full of family. We planted flowers in front of the beautiful stonewall that my husband had just built, we put music on and danced around the yard as we all waved our bubble wands and laughed until we ran out of bubble juice, we pulled out the jump ropes and jumped until our wonderful Easter dinner was ready, home raised ham, yams, potatoes and corn put up from last summer and a small portion of winter carrots we still had left. Everything on our table was raised on our farm there was no artificial, chemically induced or machine formed food to be found. After dinner we pulled out our bicycles and gave them a little spin around trying out the new bike trailer with my three year old laughing and calling Go faster Mom go faster!!!
All that worrying that my children would feel as if they missed out on something was replaced at the end of the day when my youngest son said Mom, this was my best day ever.

Labels: Buy Local, Green living, profood, sustainable food

I do not post this to upset the apple cart but only to spread the word and keep people safe.

Of the millions of pounds of beef processed each year contamination does happen even with those that are very careful. Things go wrong in processing plants. If you are from the New England area please read the attached link on the recall.

The Town of Tewksbury, Mass is trying to change local oversight allowing them to regulate the agriculture in their community. The question, “Is this Pandora’s box?” Because Home Rule petitions almost always pass the Agriculture community believes this will set precedence. H.R. 3818 as written would put this farm and others like it out of business. The town has acknowledged there is no wrong doing and they are following “best practices” but still proceeded with the petition. Will H.R. 3818 change farming forever or will the reality of local food save us all?

Labels: Buy Local, government, Green living

There is a movement under foot. One that brings wonder to my mind. It comes in the form of Youtube, books and the gym. I received a call from my sister the other day asking about the beef we raise and if it is "all natural". I will tell you she is a "health freak" I mean that in the best of ways. For years has lived on nuts, berries and granola. When I have offered her meat she gages! I respect her commitment to personal health. Her husbands exercise program is off the charts. You would think his perfect six pack had to be painted on! So to call and ask me about buying a large quantity of beef was cause for pause to say the least. I asked why the interest? Why the sudden change? Her answer was "Paleo". I said Paleo? What is that? What she describe was our everyday diet minus the bread and dairy. The hunter gathers of 2million years ago did not have processed foods, gardens, cows to milk. They ate what they hunted or found growing in nature. HMMMM??? I just can't see you guys with bow and arrow out in the woods (living in the suburbs. LOL) getting dinner. Let alone if you did catch something bleeding it, skinning it, cutting it apart and serving it for dinner! Well, she replied, as close to that as one can get these days. I would have offered to take them hunting just because it would have been the million dollar winner on America's Funniest Home Videos!!!! But alas the season is over. Being that I had picked on her enough I moved on. I told her about our grass fed, pasture raised beef, pigs, chickens and around Thanksgiving Turkeys. That she was welcome to get any veggies she needs from our garden and if she had something special that I could grow for her to let me know as planting is going on now. All I ask is that she tell her Paleo friends where they could find the good stuff.

The next day I received a email with this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCFZoqmKf5M this video alone has received over 33000 views! and this is only one of two videos this person has put up on youtube. There are books, seminars, forums and chat rooms all devoted to Paleo. The truth is as farmers (of course not dairy or grains) should seek out these markets and offer our goods as the match is perfect.

Try some of these forums and links:

• http://www.cavemanforum.com/
  
  http://www.thepaleodiet.com/
  
  http://www.thenutritionreporter.com/stone_age_diet.html
  
  

Labels: Buy Local, Green living, Paleo

If this was your last meal what would you order?

Fillet Mignon? Salmon, oysters? Eggplant Parmesan (my favorite).
What if the fillet was tough and dry with no salad, no fresh greens or potato. Would it still be your favorite meal?

Like the cycle of a tree and the way it cleans the air the National Arbor Day Foundation(1) has been asking us for years to plant a tree but we never do. Even though if we had no trees we would cease to exist. Which brings me to land stewardship. The Wikipedia definition of Stewardship “Every person has a responsibility to look after the planet both for themselves and for the future generations. Acting irresponsibly could cause damage such as pollution, the destruction of cultural heritage, etc." (2)

If people can’t even plant a tree or stop using Styrofoam(3) cups how can we possible convince them of the importance of land stewardship. That without land, plants, trees, fresh clean water we will cease to exist. It’s the mentality of “someone else will take care of it“ that is self defeating. As if there is a magic elf that comes along and cleans the water, cares for the plants and freshens the air in some way. Land stewardship comes in many forms from the family farmer(4), the land preservation trusts to the boy who raises money for the Audubon Society to save the natural habitat of birds and the old women who picks up trash on her daily walk. They all have the same goal to preserve the earth for future generations.

Stop and think for just one moment what your summer vacation would be like with no trees, no birds, no rolling fields or beautiful mountains, streams to fish or lakes to swim in. If so many people enjoy the use of our natural surroundings than why is the care, STEWARDSHIP, task taken up by so few. These few are given the smallest of resources, the least recognition and the least of rewards for our society but the burden is great.



(1)http://www.arborday.org/
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewardship
(3)http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2933
(4)http://farmfresh.org/

Labels: Buy Local, Green living

Fear can feed us the wrong food. Look what is happening in Egypt! The government slaughtered over 300,000 pigs just to be sure the swine flu was not being spread. The pig farmers are now at a loss as to how to support their families and resume their livelihoods. (full story: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT_SWINE_FLU?SITE=NCWIN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT )

Swine Flu or sometimes called North American Flu is a combination of four viruses. One endemic to humans, two endemic to swine and one endemic to avian.

• The question is, how did these four viruses mutate to become the “Swine Flu” and what are we doing to prevent its spread?
  Other species such as pigs also get influenza which can be passed on to a human by direct contact. But it is rarely passed from human to human without direct contact with the pig. In the case of Swine Flu the viruses have mutated and combined with human flu virus. This is now being passed just like every other flu virus. Coughing, sneezing etc. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=99575
• 
  If they have an anti-viral shot why can’t we all just get one to prevent the illness?
  Antiviral medicine Tamiflu and Relenza are not a vaccine. They will not prevent you from getting Swine Flu. Those with strong immune systems may not even require medication if they contract Swine Flu. The CDC is working towards a vaccine but the process is very time consuming. http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/04/27/glaxo-roche-start-to-map-swine-flu-game-plans/
  
  If I got a flu shot this year am I protected?
  No. Unfortunately the flu shot does not protect against Swine flu as the strain is different.

Here are some statistics about deaths in the world to put things in perspective!

• According to the CDC 36,000 Americans die on average per YEAR from complications of Flu. Most are the elderly or very young
  
• According to bread.org 16,000 children die every DAY from starvation. About 15 million a year.
  http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html
  
• In 2006, according to the CDC, 13,470 people in the United States died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes.
  http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Impaired_Driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html
• To date 403 Americans have become ill from Swine Flu (North American Flu) and ONE has died.
  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/27/us/20090427-flu-update-graphic.html

Knowing that one person has died sounds so small but if that one person was my child one is too many. It is important to protect ourselves from getting sick. At the same time not becoming overwhelmed by all the media attention. We do not know what the full impact of swine flu. It has only just begun in North America, keeping in mind that flu season here is ending. The place we need to watch is the Southern hemisphere where flu season is just beginning.

Labels: Green living, swine flu

When I first moved to the country I had visions of running through the fields dancing and laughing. But now I am to afraid to dance in the field. I look at the fields and I think Lyme disease. Everyday, not just in the summer, everyday I make sure that I check for ticks. We live with these small creatures so I have come to terms with it. I use a sticky lint roller on clothes when we come in and arms and legs if they are bare. I treat our dogs year round for fleas and ticks. I launder all the clothing at the end of the day to be sure there are no ticks left behind.

Then I read an article in Organic Gardening that 90 percent of ticks survived the laundry cycle. I was shocked! But if laundry is put in the dryer on high heat for 60 minutes it puts and end to the ticks http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071006083356.htm

I think what do I do now??? I hang dry all my laundry as I believe I have an obligation to reduce my carbon foot print. I do three loads of laundry every day and to run the dryer would cost about $30 a month on top of my increased carbon foot print.

The effects of lyme disease are awful. Check out http://www.lyme.org/ but at the same time using large amounts of pesticides and increasing my carbon foot print is awful too. Permethrin which is used to kill ticks is good or bad depending on where you get your information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin or http://www.safe2use.com/poisons-pesticides/pesticides/permethrin/cox-report/cox.htm
There is no cure for Lyme Disease only prevention and maintenance.

• Check out these links for more information.
  Where did it all start? http://www.lyme.org/otherdis/ld_history.html
  What are we doing about lyme disease. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/Lymedisease.html
  How did it get so wide spread. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/ld_transmission.htm
  Will global warming increase its spread? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090426182944.htm

Labels: Green living, lyme