Let Me be Your Zero Hero

When my kids’ were a bit younger, on the 100th day of school, the Zero Hero appeared and celebrated with bags of 100 things; Cheerios, pretzels, goldfish crackers – you get the picture. Today, however is my 100th blog post. I recognize that it’s peanuts compared to some of you uber-productive bloggers who churn out multiple posts per day but given that my goal was 50 – 150 posts per year, I’m on track.

Zero Hero Sneaking a Popsicle

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Blooming Tuesday

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay (more…)

Paletas

One of the greatest benefits of eating seasonally is that foods begin to speak of the seasons themselves. I only need to hear the words rhubarb crisp or see a photo and I’m instantly cast into mid-July. Peaches, berries, and sweet corn do something similar to me. But here in the desert where it’s so brutally hot, it’s hard to contemplate a dish that will require us firing up the oven. Conversely, there’s nothing so welcome as a cool refreshment.

Paletas de Pepino - okay the sticks are a little off-center!

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Ever Eat a Pine Tree?

As it goes, “many parts are edible.” Those were words designed to sell Post Grape Nuts cereal years ago. They also catapulted natural diet enthusiast Euell Gibbons to stardom.

Eating a Pine Tree

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Musical Message from Missoula, Montana

My friend, Bill McDorman is a seed saver. He and his wife, Belle Starr are the Executive and Deputy Directors of the Native Seeds Search, a wonderful organization dedicated to saving, distributing and documenting the adapted and diverse varieties of agricultural seeds of the American Southwest and northwest Mexico. I promise a future post about their incredibly important work but today I want to show you a fun video that Bill shared on facebook. (more…)

The Way to a Man’s Heart

My friend confided in me that her husband will never leave her for another woman. Rather, she might lose him to a good Osso Bucco. I’m certain that you’ve heard the old adage, that the stomach is the pathway to a man’s heart but over the last few years there is growing evidence that the true path to the heart is through one’s teeth.

Showing the Pearly Whites

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Tumbling the Pyramid

I actually expected to see it happen last year. With Michelle Obama’s focus on childhood obesity, I knew it we were in for a revision. Online the USDA claimed a planned update in 2010. Then I got word from a wonderful blog, The Table of Promise, the new American eating plan had been unveiled.

food_pyramid.JPG (more…)

Agrigirl Meets Agri-ecologist

It’s a good thing that seats are preassigned on United Airlines. If they weren’t, I might’ve arm-wrestled to keep the seat next to me open on the red-eye flight from Lima, Péru to Houston, TX. I had visions of stretching out across that empty seat in order to rest and relax and contemplate the magnificent journey that I’d just taken.

Machu Picchu in the Early Morning

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Waste Not, Want Not

The elaborate meaning is that if we don’t waste anything, then we won’t want anything. I’m not certain if it’s  true but it’s definitely a saying that was common in my home as a child. It came from my depression era grandmother who in her farm upbringing learned to use more parts of a chicken that I wish to acknowledge. And we know this is true of other cultures such as the Chinese and the Native Americans.

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Getting Back on the Turnip Truck

I have no idea where the phrase, “didn’t just fall off the turnip turnip truck” originates. In fact, if you talk with my 93 year old grandmother, she’ll tell you that the milk truck was actually more hazardous. Evan Morris believes it is an example of a catch phrase based upon urban-rural rivalry.

3 lb Turnip in my CSA (egg for scale)

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