It’s not just that organic milk is over 8 dollars a gallon here (the gas is even more expensive, but we are used to that) it’s that we had a hard time finding organic milk last week. Five stores later we found one measly liter. I don’t know if it was some sort of French strike that lead to the lack of organic milk or that I live too far in the countryside or that the heavy stream of tourists dried up our supply.
Normally, I feel like we are sitting pretty making our own sodas, vinegar, even beer. And with our CSA basket each week we have bridged the gap to our farms where we buy directly chicken and beef. I can’t deny it any longer nor shake that feeling. I know that fear has reached even me in this time. That pre-depression era fear that is all around. If not, why am I enthusiastically taking photos and identifying and recording each and every tree, bush, shrub, flower that we could possibly eat in my neighborhood?
Returning to my house with a bundle of sage and a clipping of a fruit vine that I rooted into my garden, I shake my head at the beautiful ornamental flowers, “why didn’t I plant more edible ones?” I think. That is changing now. Watermelons, calendula, tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplants, green beans, peas and Indian corn are growing up around me this summer as well as my annuals of thyme and rosemary.
My freezer is getting heavy again like a pregnant woman bulging. I added three liters of menudo today after we both ate two bowls for lunch, I made enough for a Cinco de Mayo mariachi band. I save all the scraps of vegetables in the fridge for Chinese stirfrys, additions to Indian dahls, eggroll ingredients, you name it. We are not wasting it. The rest goes into the freezer in a catchall for future soups.
But I need to take it a step further. We looked at a ruin of a house that had no electric and no water (it had an empty well and cistern). My husband said NO emphatically, but it made me think what if we had to live like that. I look out the window and see my neighbor’s rain catcher and think we need to all start thinking about the future and find solutions, not fear. We are running on zero power right now except the fridge and the freezer and this laptop which is about to be turned off. Benji is bbqing dinner (I put a copper pan full of spinach to defrost on there too) and then we will eat by the sunset and go to bed. Power off. Almost. In our sink is the washing up water from lunch. We will reuse it. What if we only had a gallon of water per day? Or less. If I challenge us more, maybe we will find acceptable solutions.
14 Comments:
I am feeling the need to plan ahead and stockpile food and medicine. My youngest child is a Type 1 diabetic. She has recently started getting two vials of insulin a month and we only use one. I am now building up a reserve, but it must be refrigerated and we are in south Texas. That is my biggest challenge for now - how to manage that if electricity is off.
lisa, I heard that you can make your own refrigeration with salt, they have have been doing it for hundreds of years even in the desert. might be interesting to learn how. I also have stock piled some medicine and also have been learning a lot more about herbal remedies and how to make them.
Lisa, be careful to consistently use up the oldest insulins first and keep a close eye on your child's blood sugar. Unfortunately, insulin has a very short shelf life, even refrigerated! My husband is a Type 1 and we've experienced the insulin becoming much less effective to nearly ineffective within a short period of time- much shorter than it would seem and the date on the bottle was still current. Maybe if we had a subzero, the insulin would fare better.
We have known a long time that we would be goners if some major catastrophe occurred. Food, water, fuel, natural remedies and all the know-how in the world won't keep us going once our meds are gone. (I have asthma.) We are adults without children; I can't imagine having to worry about and provide for a child's well-being in horrible circumstances.
It seems many of us share these concerns. My 94 year old grandmother thinks we could see another Great Depression but worries that many people today would fare even worse because we've gone so fare from the days when people had at least a degree of self sufficiency.
I wrote a bit about this in my monthly newsletter that I sent out last night. If anyone reading this is interested, the link is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teawithdee
I plan to continue to cover this topic in future issues. In the meantime I will be getting some baby chicks later this week (I'm down to just one hen) and planting a vegetable garden.
Please excuse the typo above. That should have been "gone so FAR" not "fare".
Riana, I love how you find new solutions to things. My only hope for you and your family is that you find ways to make more changes out of love and joy and never out of fear -- it is so easy to succumb to the hoarding, fearsome mentality. You talk a lot about the love and the amazing things that your slow year has brought you...that has always been the most inspiring part of your blog, for me. Maybe not the backpain, though :) I hope more love carries you forward, and not just fear of the what-ifs. I think love makes us just as creative as fear can.
Our lifestyle has changed so drastically that we are losing so much culturally and socially. There almost needs to be a viral social movement because policies (especially here in the U.S.) aren't going to change without huge consumer pressure and so many consumers aren't trying to make the choices you are and that I'm trying to do, too.
Parts of France have held onto their provincial roots and there are things to be shared with the rest of us on how-tos....
Please open your comments to non-Google/bloggers.
Cheers from MotherPie.
deanna, i joined your newsletter and look forward to reading your writing.
aslant-- you are 100% correct. i am very surprised that the fear machine extends its arms all the way to here (where i dont watch the news or tv.) you are right that the answer is "love." that is the answer to all of it.
through this slow year, i am finding my roots and falling back in love with mother nature and she is showing me the way. if we show love on one level it will resonate through out our lives and into everyone elses since we are all connected.
hi lovely mother pie, i love your comments but i was getting hoards of spam from people trying to sell stuff through comments on my blog. i got another one today that i have to go and delete. its open to non google,you can use aol, yahoo, etc, but no more anonymous. i didnt want people to hide behind the anon handle since we are all being so open here.
love and peace everyone,
riana
Just curious... is the organic milk you get raw or pasteurized?
Can you find a farmer who would sell you organic milk directly from the farm? Do they have CSAs for milk and meat in France?
cheese slave- its pasteurized unfortunately. my RAW source is not selling theirs any longer. I have checked all over the place no one seems to have it near us.
we are lucky to have a CSA for veggies around here in the sticks. I found the organic beef place myself (its a small private operation, no website, its her home phone number when you call to order). she said she doesnt sell the milk nor does she know of anyone that does. i would have to move to normandy where there are lots of milking cows.
We have only one raw milk farm around here, Riana. Luckily, we met them when they were first starting out, so we have a steady supply, but can't easily increase our weekly standing order. However, they currently serve 35 customers and have a waiting list of over 80! Oregon law allows a maximum of three cows per farm, so they can't grow any more. It's shameful that it is so hard to obtain healthy, raw milk, but one can buy soda at any local store.
I think the raw milk laws will change in America. Not right away but I think they will be overturned in time. I think there's a big movement brewing -- people are going to fight for the right to healthy food.
Yesterday I found this great blog for the PNW that has a list of local cheese and raw milk suppliers for OR, WA and ID which we will be visiting in July. We will get our milk and cheese from them and do some farm visits too.
Lisa, we will be coming to Portland for a day or two to see you and Angelina!
I don't want to act on fear either or let it seep into my bones. I feel it out there- lots of dread and panic and fear.
I do love having flowers for cutting and bringing into the house but I've found that lots of medicinal flowers are pretty and roses (if you get the kind that produce hips) have medicinal and nutritional properties that are quite valuable so if one thinks it out, one can have a garden that produces medicine, food, food for beneficial insects, fruit, and also pretty vases of cut flowers to make festive displays without anything growing purely "ornamentally".
The idea of going to bed when it gets dark out to save electricity is intriguing to me. I wonder if we can reset our clocks to accommodate that more natural schedule? Philip is a night owl and although I'm tuckered out by 8pm, I often stay up very late for no good reason at all. I prefer morning anyway. Perhaps when I get back I will experiment.
Then I will be just like my hens. I will probably have to drink hops tea to help me get to sleep earlier.
Lots to think on, as usual.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR TRIP!!! When are you coming again?
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