damn dog

i was parallel parking in from of our apartment building this morning and a flipping dog ran right through my precious little garden plot. Hello lady running with your dog???? did you really just let your huge dog trample my sweet little sprouts!!!!!! i jumped out of the car and without thinking yelled..."Hey! your dog just ran through my plants!" she shrugged and said she got him out when she saw. and ran on. a little awareness please, like know where your dog is before he trots on top of my kale? come on.

i guess i am a little protective. but i am so excited about getting to see these vegetables grow. to know i tilled the dirt, planted the seeds, nurtured then, and can watch them sprout and creep slowly toward to the sun...bigger and bigger everyday. i am sorry, but that is just so cool. and i don't want some dog crushing my coolness. and then i remember my yoga. and i breathe. i let go. carrying that anger isn't healthy for me or any other living thing. so, i let it pass through. and i'll think about some sort of little fence around the plot. you know, so i don't have to work on that anger issue anymore! ha! that's it, just build little fences everywhere i don't want to feel anger creep in. oh, isn't life funny? cause we do that as humans, don't we? building our walls. protecting our ego. ok...a bit off topic. back to plants.

I finished my book about women in Afghanistan...intense, moving, brought me to a deep place of gratitude for where i live and the bountiful opportunities and wealth that i enjoy. and last night i started the Michael Pollan book i mentioned, In the Defense of Food. I enjoy his sense of humor. i really like that he is getting the word out about food, where it comes from...how much of our food is really "edible foodlike substances." and i would love to share just a few quotes from the first 10 pages.....enjoy!

"Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

"If you are concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication that it's not really food, and food is what you want to eat."

he proposes that we have in part become either addicted to crappy foodlike substances (think twinkies), or on the flip side...have an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating (orthorexia), minding only to professionals that tell us what nutrients are the best at any given time. and then the food science people and manufacturers make foodlike substances that have high amounts of that "good" nutrient. both ways, as you see....have us eating things that are not whole foods. so, eat food. untampered with food. simple. inherently nutritious. and if you are planting a seed (especially an organic, non-GMO seed) in the soil and nurturing its growth, havesting and eating it....you will be eating food. and i assume when you sit down to eat it, knowing all that went into it, it will be a celebration. a sense of accomplishment. satisfaction.

my suggestion for you, if you cannot do this with us this month....because of time or space restrictions (there are always container gardens!) start going weekly to a local farmer's market. visit a farm. get a box delivered to your home from a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture.) we get one from Full Circle Farms, and there i another great farm that our friend's own...Nature's Last Stand. it feels great to eat food grown and harvested locally, and it is so fresh. http://www.fullcirclefarm.com/ http://www.natureslaststand.net/

til next time...

melissa