“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place . . . I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
~ Elliott Erwitt


It’s become my favorite part of the week, this Saturday morning farmers market. The bustle of the bazaar engages all of my senses, filling me with inspiration: the sights, the smells, the sounds, and oh the PEOPLE!

My darlings, I want to share these images with you, so that they may inspire you as my market always inspires me. Let me know what you think – I’m considering a recurring series.

Do I stand out in the crowd?

These artichoke flowers look like dayglow ocean creatures.

Mmmmmm falafel.

NOM NOM

On the first Monday of every month, we take on a ‘mission’ – a shift or habit or inspiration – to work on together. There’s strength (and support) in numbers! On the last Thursday of the month, we reconvene to see how far we’ve come.

This month’s mission was all about eating. Specifically, making better choices towards a healthier, more sustainable food system. Each Monday, omnivores were challenged to go vegetarian, vegetarians were asked to eat vegan, and vegans (that’s me!) were becoming loca-vores. It sounded simple enough, but for me it wasn’t so easy, after all.

I checked in after the first week to go over some of my issues. At that point I decided to approach being a loca-vore more like I approached my month of RAW. See, with veg*nism, you either are or you aren’t. You either eat ‘X’ or you don’t, period. But eating RAW, and eating locally, can necessitate concessions. (I can get raw olive oil, but I can’t get local olive oil. I can get local tofu, but I can’t get raw tofu. Etc.) A Raw Foodist is one who eats over 80% raw foods, and when I was raw I maintained a 95+% raw diet. So I treated eating locally the same, and I’ve maintained a 95+% local diet each Monday since then.





Monday 17 August 2009

I started this day better prepared, having visited the co-op the day before, this time. What a difference a little foresight makes! Breakfast was a big bowl of watermelon and a glass of OJ. I had a midmorning snack of a nectarine (my fave!), and lunch was that incredible plate shown above. All from my garden, red and yellow tomatoes and Italian basil. I also had an entire plate of my mutant carrots – all of them! An afternoon snack was another bowl of watermelon and the last of the foraged blackberries.




Dinner was quite the feast! Homemade Indian stew (Aaloo Channa Masala?) with potatoes, local chickpeas (score!), onion, tomatoes, spinach, and garlic. I served this over farro and accompanied by my homemade garlic naan bread (local whole wheat flour, w00t!). It was divine.

Things I used that were NOT local: The OJ, which I poured and drank on early-morning autopilot before I even realized it, oil (cooking and olive), vinegar, 1 tsp sugar + 1 tsp yeast + 1 tbsp rice milk for the naan.







Monday 24 August 2009

I didn’t really eat meals, so much as constantly grazed all day. From morning through evening I ate 2 peaches, 3 apples, a foraged pear, and lots of local trail mix. Dinner was a veritable smorgasbord of Mediterranean goodness. I whipped up some homemade roasted garlic hummus with those local chickpeas, I oven roasted a zucchini (from my in-laws garden), I tossed up a little salad of garden cherry tomatoes and [in-laws garden] cucumber, served some sliced onion and raw spinach on the side, and finally, some more homemade bread – pita pockets this time. It was fantastic!

Things I used that were NOT local: olive oil, some lime juice and a scoop of tahini for the hummus, a bit of sugar and yeast for the pitas, and some cranberry juice (it’s medicinal, ya know?)





So, how did it go for all of you guys? Were you successful in your new dietary ambitions? What have you been eating?

Just a reminder that this coming Monday is still a part of August. I’ll be announcing the next Monday Mission so we don’t have to wait ’till the 7th, but I’ll also be finishing up this mission and eating all local. I hope you’ll join me next Monday and see this all the way through to completion. You guys are awesome!

Hello there! What a beautiful summer day for a neighborhood stroll. This morning I grabbed my two boydogs, my little point-n-shoot, and some tupperware. My mission: free food from my very own cityscape. That’s right, Urban Foraging – an underground gathering technique akin to dumpster diving or guerrilla gardening.

But let’s be clear: there’s a big difference between foraging, and theft. And sometimes the line can be difficult to discern. I would never intentionally steal, so here are my three criteria for appropriate Urban Foraging.


1) It’s Clearly Unwanted

This pear tree was dropping it’s fruit all over the sidewalk, so there’s no way the owners wanted them all. A sloppy sidewalk is a great indication of abandoned booty. If it’s rotting on the ground, it’s likely fair game from the tree.

There were plenty of pears just perfect for the picking, but I only took a few. Try not to get too greedy, and you won’t piss anybody off.

2) It’s Not Clearly On Property

This blackberry bramble overhangs an old fence, into a graveled alleyway. I’ve been walking by it for weeks, just watching those berries ripen and multiply. As far as I can tell, nobody’s been collecting them. So I took it upon myself.

Berry-stained finger tips! I took plenty of berries, but not enough to even make a real dent. I would never pick a berry bush dry, even if it was obviously abandoned. That’s just not the way I roll, and it’s not good mojo for a forager. Leave enough for others, and you won’t piss anybody off.

3) If You’re Unsure, Always Ask

This plum tree was planted in the curbside strip, a common location for fruit trees (that’s where my cherry tree lives). There were no plums on the ground and the surrounding plants were well manicured, so I didn’t pick these plums. If you come across a situation like this, try to catch the resident out in the yard, and just give a holler. You could even knock on the door. Just ask if you can pick a few fruits – chances are they’ll be happy to share. But don’t just take, okay? That’s a surefire way to piss somebody off.

Alright guys, them’s the basics! Have fun harvesting, and remember to use your head! Don’t break any laws, don’t do anything that seems like stealing, and don’t piss anybody off, ha!

For this month’s Monday Mission, we’re each challenging ourselves to take our dietary habits to the next level. That means on every Monday, omnivores will be going vegetarian, vegetarians will be dining vegan, and vegans like me will be eating within a 100-mile radius – going ‘locavore‘.

To be perfectly honest, this is more difficult an endeavor than I’d originally imagined. My neighborhood market and my co-op are awesome at labeling local options – the co-op even indicates where every item is from – and I swear I see that ‘Oregon’ sticker on a lot of what I buy. At least I thought I did! And living here, I have access to all sorts of amazing produce . . . apparently from California. Oh you, sunny southern neighbor, how you taunt me! So close, and yet just far enough away. I’ll admit it: I thought I was more of a locavore than I really am.

Not that it’s some impossible task. Once I got my bearings, I was able to put together a day of eating that’s essentially identical to any other day. It just cost a bit more (no dollar bags today) and took a little more time and foresight (wandering the co-op scanning for the ‘local’ label).

In the end, it was just like any other day. I ate mainly raw until dinner time, as I’m naturally  inclined to do. Breakfast was a tart green apple and a wild blackberry smoothie. I grazed all afternoon on fresh peaches, Bing cherries, and a lovely local trail mix from the co-op (dried persimmons, cherries, and apples, plus almonds, filberts, and pistachios). It’s been a long time since I’ve had a pistachio, mMmm.

Dinner was delicious, an awesome simple stir fry of organic tofu, red bell pepper, fresh string beans, yellow onion, a hot pepper from my own garden, and a bunch of broccoli from my neighbors’. This was all served over a bed of farro grain, which I’ve never cooked before (it was the only local grain available today!), and smothered in Thai peanut sauce from a small Portland company (they are fantastic and [mostly] vegan, you should order from them!). But were the peanuts grown locally? Who knows . . .

Those are the sorts of questions I wrestled with: exactly how far to take this. For example, my ‘wild blackberry’ smoothie also had apples and pears. It was made in Oregon, and this is definitely blackberry, apple, and pear country. But I’m not sure the fruit was sourced locally, just like I’m not sure the peanut sauce ingredients were grown here. I know that my cooking oil, as well as my soy sauce, are not local items. As well, I used a bit of lime juice to top off my stir fry – a decidedly UN-local lime left over from a weekend away. Does that mean I failed? Where is the balance?

As with anything, there’s danger in extremity. I’ll treat my locavore experience like I treated my month of RAW – with my own intuitive rules. I ate 95+% local today, and I think that’s quite an achievement. I really love this Mission, because it’s reminding me how much growing I’ve still got to do. I can always strive to improve this mark I make on the world, and this is a humbling, helpful little lesson.

So, tell me how it went for you. Was your meatless Monday a success? Did you make your first vegan feast? Or did it slip your mind altogether (no worries! who says you can’t do meatless Tuesdays?!!). Let me know how it’s going, guys!

On the first Monday of every month, we take on a ‘mission’ – a shift or habit or inspiration – to work on together. There’s strength (and support) in numbers! On the last Thursday of the month, we reconvene to see how far we’ve come.

#5

Have you guys heard about Meatless Mondays, the campaign revival that’s sweeping the globe? The movement has its roots back in WWI, with the government reminding people to ‘pitch in’ and ration. It was a massive, US-wide abstention that saved hundreds of tons of meat each week. And after a brief resurgence during WWII, the concept is now on the rise once more, this time under the banner of global impact and public health.

The idea is taking hold in the US, in Britain’s Meat Free Mondays, and in the Belgian city of Ghent’s Veggie Dag. This intercontinental effort promotes the decrease in meat consumption for both collective environmental health as well as individual medical health.

For an excellent discussion of the environmental impact associated with eating meat, please read this Washington Post article.

So if you’re an omnivore, why not give ‘meatless mondays’ a try? Or if you’re already vegetarian, why not up the ante with ‘vegan mondays’? And then if you’re already vegan like me, how about a challenge like ‘local-vore mondays’? I’ll be eating entirely within a 100-mile range, for the rest of the Mondays in August (4 more!).

So, my environmental enthusiasts, what do you think? Do you choose to accept this mission?

BONZAI!