My Bandwagon

To be so skinny, it may seem contrary that Sarah and I seem to obsess so much over food. She's a chef, I garden to ensure wonderful produce, but the bottom line for both of us is more over our concern for great health and abundant energy, even after a tough year, we're trying to come out on top. We both consume a lot of food, yet it is always good food, high fiber, low fat, nutritious and delicious.

My own mama is the same way, she's had a compost heap and a garden all my life, I remember both sides of their parents, all my Southern grandparents, growing food also. Sarah, like both my grandmothers and my great granny Miller, is such a capable cook. I cook, but not so joyfully as all of them. I'd rather be outside working.

When Yolie was a very young teen, she'd allow me to work outside all day Saturdays, before Daniel was old enough to hog the day for Little League, the Biggers would tend to the house, hanging out with each other, and Yolie would bring me cheese enchilladas with Vidalia onions outside, I'd sit on the ground, chow down, and proclaim them to be the best I ever had, my mouth is watering now in remembrance of them.

This morning I read a great article on local foods, quoting one of my hero's Joan Dye Gussow, whose book, This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader, made such an impression on me a couple of years ago.

Sarah has eaten locally, organically, and mindfully all her life because I raised her that way. My other kids came out of the foster care system, raised on white bread and kool aid, seeming to crave refined sugar, yet years later leaving home, eating crappily only to notice in their own health, how much better they felt eating "Mom's Way," drinking lots of water, no meat and thinking about fat grams and protein counts. Sarah just finished reading The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation

Organizations such as Locavores fascinate me, I don't have to agree with any left leaning politics, duh I am such a Republican, but if we don't all jump on our planet's side, it's going to tip over, and spill us out into nothingness.

How 'bout this guy and his opinion on rampant consumerism, he who once helped fuel that passion, now understanding the emptiness of it? I LOVE reading and hearing about people on a mission.

Life is too short to be wrapped up in Britney Spears, American Idol or even my favorite, Desperate Housewives...y'all we gotta eat, gotta feed the planet, and take care of the earth for our children and our grandchildren. I owe it to Alyssa, Ray, CJ, Tommy, Blanca, Baby Yolie, Mauri, Courtney, Alexander, Isaac, Heidi, Gianni and the four that are also on their way into our family. I've spent decades teaching good nutrition to my kids, a love of food production, and I want to continue that into the next generation.