What We Need Is Here

Help make "Locals' Food Market" happen - and some great local things in someone else's locale

 Not Gainesville

Forgive me, for I have traveled; it has been one month since my last trip... This time I accompanied John on a speaking gig to Duluth, Minnesota. I told myself that the half-empty plane was going anyway, that a bus trip would have taken four days (and three times the money), that I could eat and sleep for practically free - and that I really needed some time alone with my husband. I know my carbon footprint doesn't care about these excuses. But I also know this freedom (and sometimes need) to travel is going to be relatively short-lived.

So I went ahead and loved it anyway. Years ago I visited a different part of Minnesota, but this was even better because it was FALL. High 30s at night, 60s during the day, and some lovely color. Best of all, my friend from Minnesota sent me some dining suggestions for our extra day there: the Vanilla Bean Cafe in Two Harbors for one-of-a-kind omelets and traditional Swedish pancakes (lots of Northern Europeans in MN) and the Angry Trout in Grand Marais which wowed us with their local-ness - from tables made by local carpenters with local wood, to local potter-made plates, to delicious local food. She also suggested some wonderful hikes up the north shore toward Ontario (we crossed the border for fun, although it's not so much fun these days... after John said he worked for a "human rights organization" we were asked if we were planning on protesting anything while we were there. (What is there to protest in Canada?) I was surprised how Minnesotan this part of Minnesota continues to look - lots of mom and pop stores, restaurants, and motels. Being from Florida, I kept expecting a shoreline of lakeview-blocking condos to spring up around the next bend, or a Super-Walmart to have overtaken a small town or two up the road. It never happened. From Duluth to Ontario, it was just lovely Minnesota-ness. 

Again, I'm reminded of how precious our places are, in their particularity. The tomatoes tasted different at the Angry Trout, and we have nothing like wild rice here in Gainesville. But we have a bounty of our own good things and I'm so glad the tide seems to be turning in our ability to appreciate them and make the most of them. This week, our household joined a local endeavor: Locals' Food Market, Inc., - the beginnings of a local foods co-op here in Gainesville.  You should too! They have a great mission:

To help grow a community-based food system through the establishment of a cooperatively-owned retail storefront. We can provide a dependable market for our local producers and increase the availability of homegrown goods to our community's citizens.

Sounds good, doesn't it?  You can download more info and application materials here:

Mission and Vision Statement: Download notes_missionvision_locals.docx

Membership Info: Download package_membership_locals.pdf

Application: Download application_membership_locals.pdf

Southern Accent

   

Gene Williams, speaker of North Florida English par excellence

The other day I heard someone describe our Regional Southern Accent as "ignorant-sounding.” It’s not the first time this has been said for sure, and as a seventh generation North Floridian, I’m offended. I  know (and am related to) a number of smart folks with southern accents.  But I don’t really have one anymore, and I seem to be one of many in my generation who've lost it. 

Some blame the steady decline of regional accents on TV – which fits my timeline pretty well. I probably grew up sounding more like Jan Brady (the one my age) than like my mother. The British, experiencing the same issues with their version of the language, refer to the bland "standard" as "BBC English.” 

In my case, I also remember school having a role. Learning phonics created a rift for me in first grade between the way I said things and the way they were to be spelled.  I clearly remember my teacher addressing the way I tried to "sound out" the word dog which I pronounced more like dawlg. Cain't for can't was another issue. 

But I have to admit to some prejudice too.  My family moved to South Florida when I was nine, a place at that time populated with transplants from the Northeast – many from the New York/New Jersey area.  I remember being embarrassed by my mother saying “spigot" instead of faucet, and "fixin to" in place of "about to," or referring to something as (oh my) "wompy-jawed" when it was crooked - not to mention the typical vowel shifts and drawl...  I just wanted to be like everybody else.

That's a shame, and I'm sorry. Because almost everybody else in my generation wanted to be like everybody else too, we're quickly losing a way of speaking that ties us historically to not only our mothers and grandmothers, but to the long-ago Europeans and Africans who first settled these parts. PBS had a wonderful series on this years ago (which is still available at the library). 

Now, I wish I could regain my accent.  I'll try, at least, to appreciate those sounds and their speakers as the treasures they are.  I'll make a point of using "wompy-jawed" when the possibility arises. I'll keep swooning over Gene Williams when he describes his family’s business on the public service announcements on Channel 5.  And I'll tell the next smarty-pants, bland-hungry speaker of English Lite who insults my people to go . . . watch the Brady Bunch.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

. . . blockin’ up the scenery, breakin’ my mind (Five Man Electric Band, c. 1970)…

What is wrong with us?  I always feel a little embarrassed driving along I-75 north of here.  Such beautiful north Florida landscape – pine trees, rolling hills, wildflowers, and BILLBOARDS EVERYWHERE.  Seems a shame this is the first view folks get of Florida. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s half-naked women advertising Café Risque or a giant lawyer-face suggesting you give him a call in case you’re in an accident, it’s a blight.  And apparently it’s big business too.

For the second time in the last few months, Clear Channel, owner of many billboards (among other things), has got its chainsaw out. First  it was four oak trees along the 600 block of 13^th Street, now its cabbage palms along the rail-trail off Waldo Road near 8^th Avenue.  The Gainesville Sun had a good editorial  on the whole thing last week. 

It’s wrong that a city can’t have a say in deciding what its citizens want to look at.  And a bigger shame that our goofball state representatives keep earning their good old boy reputations by selling themselves to their buddies in the sign business.  I’d write letters telling businesses who advertise on these mega-signs that we’re boycotting them, but I can’t find any billboard advertisers we support anyway.  Are these signs really profitable?  Must be, but I don’t get it. 

GOOD SOUP

We’ve done five “cafes” at the house so far this semester and I’ve just about gone through my best soup recipes!  Need to try out some more… It is gratifying to see how much a bunch of committed omnivores enjoy the vegetarian soup. The number of folks eating has grown each week (averaging about 75 now) and there's rarely any left in the bowls.  

It is a challenge this time of year to find enough local ingredients, but we’re working on it.  Onions and green peppers in the black bean soup, sweet potatoes in the lentils, onions and zucchini in the chili, all kinds of market vegetable in the “simple soup”and in the vegetable gumbo from Thursday: onions, green peppers, okra, and butter beans.  Quite a few non-local ingredients, too, esp. canned tomatoes.  We’ll keep trying to raise the ratio of local to distant veggies.

Here’s a recipe for the gumbo.  Some called it their “favorite” so far.

VEGETABLE GUMBO

1 onion

3 cloves

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 green pepper, diced

2 cups diced tomatoes

4 cups vegetable stock

1 cup cooked butter beans or limas

2 cup fresh, frozen, or canned corn

1 ½ cups sliced okra

¼ tsp. allspice

½ cup cooked rice

Chop onion and sauté with cloves in oil until onions are soft. Remove cloves. Add green pepper and stir over medium heat for several minutes; then stir in the tomatoes. Bring the mixture to a boil, turn down the heat and let simmer 15 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring soup to a boil again, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add rice. Makes 8 cups.

Wendell Berry for President

Seriously. He's only two years older than John McCain... And a life full of thinking and farming has got to be healthier than all that politicking.  Plus, although as an organic farmer he's surely shoveled his share of ... manure, it can't be anything close to the amount piling up around the election campaign.

A few "sound bites" from a recent interview in The Sun (but go read the whole thing!):

"Greed is a part of human nature, and greed is the root cause of these [environmental] disasters. Once you have greed and the means of exploitation, the high-toned rationalizations — in other words, the excuses — follow as a matter of course. A real culture functions to limit greed. Our culture functions to increase it, because, we are repeatedly told, it’s profitable to do so, though the majority of the profits go to only a few people."

"...I’m not going to subscribe to anybody’s excuse for coldblooded killing. There’s no such thing as a “just” war anymore, if there ever was. You can’t defend bombing children and innocent people. It isn’t right to teach people how to torture and kill each other. Wars never end, really. The Crusades aren’t quite over yet. Our Civil War certainly isn’t over yet. I don’t think we can afford this kind of behavior anymore. Nobody’s talking about the ecological damage of war."

"I did make up my mind at some time that instead of trying to serve my purposes by rhetorical artifice or personal attacks, I would try to make as much sense as I could. If your cause doesn’t make sense, why defend it?"

Can you imagine having a president who thinks like this?  Me either.

But one can dream...  And maybe give Obama a try.

It's Coming!

 

And I am so grateful for the little signs and symptoms of impending Fall.  I once planted a sycamore tree just so I would have something to give me hope when I looked out the mildew-spotted window in September. 

Sycamores are a godsend this time of year. One of the last to sprout new spring leaves, they're also the first to start letting them go in the autumn. They're natives - and one of the recommended shade trees for Florida (which God knows we also need in September). 

In addition to the bronzing sycamore, I came across a row of river birches planted along one of the streets near our house that showed a little color.

And then this lovely tree, which I couldn't identify. 

Okay, it's not New England. But it's something.  And during these last clingy days of summer, I need something.

Whoa Nellie!

August blew by as quickly as July did, with another trip to Colorado to check in on my parents, visits from adult children Anna (NYC) and Joe (on his way to Paris for a year!), then the re-opening of the CW House.  No time to think really, much less record anything!  

But the good news is that even in the midddle of this chaos, living in community is a very good way to stay faithful to the local/simple eating plan.  For one thing, we’ve got additional brains planning menus and additional legs going to the farmers’ market.  And there is something good – and motivating - about being accountable to others who have the same commitments. 

We are, more and more, feeling inspired by what’s in season in planning our meals – the small community ones as well as the large ones for guests.  For the last three cafes we’ve served three different soups: Lentil Soup with the plentiful local sweet potatoes, Black Bean Soup with mango-tomato salsa (see below), and Simple Soup (thank you Zen Habits!) We used all market veggies in the latter: yellow squash, zucchini, red, green and orange bell peppers, cabbage, and onions.  Due to the generosity of a local farmer who donated some extra eggs (thank you Cydney!); we also served deviled eggs on the side, along with homemade bread (challah bread during the first egg-ful week). And muscadines of course.  They’ve been healthy and satisfying meals for all of us.

So, busy as we are with the new schedule and the craziness of getting used to it, it was a good month.  Now, hopefully, onto settling in - and down a bit.  

Mango Salsa

One diced mango

One cup sweet cherry tomatoes, quartered

One diced cucumber

One jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

Salt

Juice of ½ lemon

A little cilantro

 

Mix together, et voila!  Delicious.  Can also be made with peaches if you do'n't have mangoes in your region.