(whoops – I wrote this and then realized I had skipped Step Six!  I’ll do that one next, but in the meantime . . .)

I really wish that this step read something like this:

I am thrilled to announce that eating seafood is super sustainable, and we can all go stuff our bellies with shrimp and oysters while toasting the beautiful bountiful ocean!

Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Sadly, that’s not the truth.  This is really hard for me – I grew up on the Atlantic coast my whole life.  I breathed salt air, ate seafood like it would never end, and loved it.  When I came home from being away at school, the dish I asked my mom to make was shrimp.

But.

To say it briefly, I’ll paraphrase from the November 2006 issue of Science – If current trends continue, the oceans will be essentially barren, with no chance of recovery, by 2048.  (That’s only 38 years folks!)

I’ve known, in a vague way, that things were not going well in the ocean for years.  As a teenage, I volunteered with my dad to spend a week on a tiny island off the coast off Georgia, walking the beach all night long to monitor and protect the endangered sea turtles who came there to lay their eggs.  I knew about mercury in tuna, and as much as I love tuna sushi, I cut back, and haven’t touched it since I got pregnant over three years ago.  Since moving to the inland Pioneer Valley, seafood has not been a big part of my diet, but it was still an occasional treat.  Sushi, smoked salmon, oysters on the half shell.

Then, I started learning more about what it really meant to eat seafood today.  I learned that a lot of “fishing” in the deep ocean is done with underwater bulldozers, that crush coral reefs, grab a bunch of sealife in their maws, and use only a fraction of what they catch.  Last February (while visiting family in Louisiana and chowing down on seafood, ironically), I read the article “All You Can Eat” by Jim Carrier in Orion (one of my favorite reads).  A few disturbing tidbits from that article:

“In the gold-rush days . . . shrimpers killed ten pounds of sea life for every pound of harvested shrimp—waste that reached one billion pounds a year in the Gulf. Once called “trash,” now called “by-catch,” this sea life included sea turtles driven to the brink of extinction, and juvenile red snapper, a good eating fish. Under environmental regulations requiring escape hatches in nets, the by-catch-to-shrimp ratio has been reduced to four-to-one . . .”

Most of the seafood, particularly shrimp, now sold in the US is imported, and comes from seafood “farms.”

“A shrimp farm is a saltwater feedlot. There can be as many as 170,000 shrimp larvae in a 1-acre pond that is 1 to 2 meters deep. So-called intensive ponds can yield 6,000 to 18,000 pounds of shrimp in that acre in 3 to 6 months. . .Because of this density, the waste they swim in, and their susceptibility to disease, most farmed shrimp are treated with antibiotics, only some of them legal in the U.S. A wide array of poisons is used to kill unwanted sea life and cleanse ponds for reuse, creating what Public Citizen calls a “chemical cocktail.” In random sampling of imported shrimp, health officials in the U.S., Japan, and the European Union have found chloramphenicol, a dangerous antibiotic banned in food.”

Out of all that imported seafood, “The Food and Drug Administration, responsible for imported food safety, samples less than 1 percent of the 1 billion pounds.”

What I’m saying here is that not only is our seafood addiction destroying the oceans (which are critical for healthy life of the entire planet), but the seafood we’re eating so much of is toxic. It’s a little hard to really wrap our minds around this, when we’re constantly being told about all those good omega-3s in salmon, and how lean and great fish is for us.  Fish 50 years ago that wasn’t drenched in heavy metals and raised in chemical soup, maybe.  Fish now?  No thank you.  Hence, Step 7: Eat Less Seafood.

Edited on Feb 22 to add: A reader sent in a link to this documentary, coming out in June: http://endoftheline.com/

This week, I’m grateful for the restorative powers of a calm day at home.

I’m grateful for this yoga sequence, which rescued me from serious back pain.

Grateful for this quote from Ella, as we were on our way to a grain meeting: “. . . and I’m going to talk about emmer!”

Grateful for this reminder from Kyce, on letting go of guilt and starting anew.

Grateful for my kind, sweet family.

Grateful for this family, too – these animals we steward, who remind us of the important rhythms of the day – the movement of the warming winter sun, hay, water, and more hay.  Grateful for these sweet sheep who love Ella, come to her to sniff and nuzzle her, while she giggles in delight.

Wishing you moments of gratitude in your days.

the cat came back!

Today, I was grumpy.  Sometimes, I see myself as if from far away, making myself grumpier but somehow unable to stop.  Today was like that.  Ella couldn’t sleep, so I found myself up with her too late, grouchy, trying not to think about all the things I “need” to do.

One of these items was, “Tell friends and family that the cat disappeared, and figure out how to explain it to Ella when she notices.”  We live in an area with a lot of predators, and with many cats in the past, as soon as they’re out for a single night, they never come back.  We do our best to keep them in, but with two dogs going in and out, it’s tricky.  Our current cat, Little Boy, has been absolutely determined to go out at night.  He will sit by the door and howl like a wolf, even though he’s come back a few times all scratched up.  He has even opened the front door somehow and escaped!

So, when he didn’t come back two days ago, we thought the worst.  Gone.  Hopeless.

Grace is talking this week about finding awe in our days, which is such a wonderful reminder.  Tonight, this was my moment of feeling suddenly, utterly blessed – I was up too late with my daughter, cranky, and then I heard a familiar meowing at the front door.  I practically leapt up out of my chair, opened the door, and there was Little Boy, hungry but healthy!  Alive! Returned from his “cadventure” as Ella says.

Everyone’s asleep now but me, and I am trying to remember to be grateful, to keep my eyes (and ears) open for what is here in front of me.

Oh, Monday.  The most maligned day.  At our house, I have been thinking a lot about the rhythm of our day and week.  In December and January, the fledgling rhythm I had started last fall crumbled under the weight of the grain processing and distribution, and then our trip . . . but now, I am determined to get things back in shape.  I’ve thought for a while that a rhythm or schedule might be nice, but it seemed constraining, boring.  Not the sort of thing that wild entrepreneurial types are into, right?

At the same time, I found myself drawn to the idea, and especially once Ella was no longer a baby, the idea kept coming up again and again, both for her sake and mine!  Reading books like Mrs. Dunwoody’s Excellent Instructions for Homekeeping (hilarious and also useful!) sold me on the idea of setting up household tasks for different days of the week (i.e. Monday is Laundry Day here), and books like Heaven on Earth and The Seven O’Clock Bedtime made me think about how truly the pattern of our day, and knowing what is coming, can make a big difference.  So, back to the rhythm we (hopefully) go.

Which brings us back to Monday.  Monday is laundry day (or, rather, start laundry day – with line-drying in the winter it takes a few days), but it is also the day I sit down to write out menus for the week.  I look at what meat is in the freezer, what vegetables are in our “root cellar”, in the freezer, or on the shelf canned, and what we have for cheese/dairy products.  Then I gather a few trusty cookbooks, and I write out a list of recipes that I’ll make in the week ahead.  I don’t assign days to them, although I know some families do this with a lot of success.  I find that knowing which recipes I’ll be making, what I’ll be doing with that celeriac that really needs to get used up, and writing it down so that I can free up just a wee bit of brain space, is a huge relief.  Makes the week that much smoother.

So, I thought I’d start sharing our Monday menu list.  Just a list of recipe ideas, in no particular order. (I’ve included which cookbooks they’re coming from – I tend to use recipes as a jumping-off point and improvise based on what we’ve got.  Some of these don’t have cookbooks listed, because they’re family favorites that I make without a recipe)  May they bring you inspiration, and a glimpse of what cooking from the deep winter local kitchen looks like.

Week of February 15:

* Roasted Beets with Oat Groats (Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass)

* Masa-Harina Beef Casserole (Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass)

* Roasted Root Veggies (beets, parsnips, turnips, celeriac, potatoes – diced, roasted in the oven with butter, salted.  yum)

*Roast Leg of Lamb with Roasted Potatoes and Garlic

* Roasted Turkey

*Farro Risotto with Butternut Squash and Toasted Nuts (Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass)

* Lentil Spinach Soup (The Greens Cookbook by Deborah Madison)

* Potatoes and Mushrooms Baked in Cream (The Greens Cookbook by Deborah Madison)

* Aigo Bouido (Chez Panisse Vegetables, by Alice Waters)

* Spanish Chickpea Soup (Chez Panisse Vegetables, by Alice Waters)

Bon Appetit everyone!

Hope you’re enjoying the weekend, folks.  Here, I’m trying to get over a serious case of the crankies (seems to be making the rounds at our house – hmmm.)

We are . . .

sending out some love to family and friends (and you too – Happy Valentine’s Day!)

Loving this book, which arrived from the library just in time!

Trying to remind myself that the utter chaos in our home is part of a cleansing, which will make it (soon) cleaner, simpler, more beautiful.

Loving every moment we get to do some of this:

So glad to be out in the world playing

and bringing some of the world inside with us

Eating some of this for dinner (super yummy).

And trying, really I am, to finish this sweater before the winter is over and it doesn’t even fit her!

Oh yes, and resting.  Right.  Resting.

This week, I’m grateful for

my two favorite farmers starting seeds.

Last week’s Greenfield Winter Farmer’s Market, and Winter Swap, where Ben got tons of goodies, including this handsome yarn, so I can make his very own World’s Warmest Hat.

A chance to get our hands deep in some fiber, making a birthday present for a friend who’s almost two!

The chance, no matter how rotten a day we’ve had, to start again the next day.

Happy weekend, everyone.

This week, our gorgeous seed rack from Seed Savers Exchange arrived at Wheatberry, which means that spring really is almost here!  We are just a little bit excited.  Ok, a lot (Ben started out first flat of onions today!)

Seeds, glorious heirloom seeds.  Many of these varieties are ones we’ll be using at our farm, too, and we’ve been hustling to get our sunroom (i.e seed-starting space) cleaned up and ready (since it’s been a total wreck all winter!).

I was looking through some photos from last spring, and that got me even more excited.  It seems hard to believe, but already I really notice the light returning and feeling warm.  Soon the sap will be running, we’ll be boiling down our maple syrup, and then, we’ll be seeing the bare earth again, and the green fall-planted grains!  A few teasers from last spring (I just can’t help myself) . . .

And just because it’s too sweet not too add:

Hello folks – wanted to share some links to some of our wonderful CSA members, many of whom have blogs where they’ll be posting recipes and photos of the delicious meals they make with their shares!

Leslie Cerier – local cookbook author and chef, holds cooking classes, and has many whole grain recipes in her book Going Wild in the Kitchen.  Check out her new blog at http://july22.wordpress.com/

Elspeth Hay – writer and radio show host on Cape Cod.  She interviewed me when she came to pick up her share, and you can listen to the interview here after Thursday.  Also, check out her blog Diary of a Locavore.

Jennifer Hartley – who recently made some amazingly looking local flour Tagliatelle, at her blog Scintillating Speck.

Amy Cotler – local cookbook author of The Locavore Way, and founder of Berkshire Grown, can be found at her Recipe Blog.

Darry and Kristi, the good folks at Boston Locavores.

If you’re a member with a blog where you’re sharing your local grain meals, and I left you off this list by accident – send me an email and let me know.  I’ll be creating a sidebar category for CSA member-blogs, so we can all keep an eye on all the delicious goodness!  And of course, we’ll continue to post lots of recipes right here.

Bon Appetit everyone!

With the help of my friend Jen and these two cutie pies, I entered the world of felting this week.  I’ve been gathering some wool sweaters at the thrift store with this purpose in mind, and I was finally ready to begin!  We took the sweaters, some dish soap, two sweet toddlers and put them all in a hot bath together.  Ella and Lily definately got a kick out of being in the bath with all the wool, and stomped and splashed away.  Afterwards, I put the sweaters into the dryer (I think I’ll just line-dry them next time, since this was the second time all year I’ve used the dryer and it felt weird, plus I don’t think it was necessary).

When I first heard about felt, I thought it was nuts.  Shrink wool?  On purpose?

Consider me converted.  With $1 sweaters from the thrift store, some of which had holes or stains and weren’t great for wearing anymore (and one of Ben’s which had already accidentally been partially felted -sorry sweetie!), I was able to get over my inherent reaction to “wasting” wool.  The felt is so soft, super warm, and really fun to work with.  One of the best parts is that you don’t have to enclose seams, since there’s no fear of it unraveling.  Woo hoo!  Felting, and then sewing with the felt, is sort of like instant knitting.  Ok, not that I’m going to stop knitting, but it’s fun to get the quickness of sewing and the yumminess of wool.

Since I can’t convince Ella to wear socks in our house, resulting in mighty icy toes, my first project was these slippers, from Betz White’s Sewing Green.  She chose the colors, and this project was super easy and fast.  It was done, start to finish, in under an hour.  Ella has worn them non-stop, and I love their elf-ness.  I want some!

I was thinking about making her some felt mittens, too, since I’m trying to capitalize on her sudden ease in the outdoor winter world, but cold hands and feet have been bringing us inside after half an hour.  Then today, I lost one of her mittens, so it was settled.  To the cutting table (yay for my new big table in my new room!), and these sweet little mittens were born.  I just traced her mitten, with about a 1/2 in seam allowance all around, sewed the outline, flipped them, and sewed on the cuff.  I did the cuff seam on the outside, since I thought a seam right on her wrist might be irritating.  For the cuff, I used some felt that was stretchy, from a ribbed part of the red sweater.

Next up . . . a heart garland, inspired by Kyrie.

Now that I’m addicted, can you recommend any good felting books or projects?

In the nuttiness of this past week, I didn’t get a chance yet to post about my February pledge for the One Small Change Project.  (By the way, if you haven’t checked out the site, there is a lot of really amazing inspiration to be found by the over 200 participants!)

In January, I wanted to get cracking on some insulated curtains and draft snakes – and I did it!  I made two curtains (starting with the draftiest, north-facing windows in our most used rooms, kitchen and living room), and two draft snakes for the other living room windows, plus two almost-finished snakes for our bedroom.  I made the curtains with the outer layer of a thick, upholstery-weight fabric, wool quilt batting inside, and a pretty quilting-weight fabric for the inside (the side that faces the room). I have more to sew, for sure, but a good start.

(yeah, we really do need more insulation – this lazy Susan in our kitchen doubles as a root cellar!)

And now . . . February!  Goodbye to the grocery store. I actually hope to keep this going the whole year (and beyond!), but let’s start with a month.  I haven’t been to the store since we came home from Montreal in January.

First, why avoid the grocery store? There’s always the driving, which we obsessively try to avoid, other than our drive to work and back home (and that kills us – if you know of an affordable 30 acre farm biking distance to Wheatberry let me know!)  There’s the industrial food chain, which is our life’s work to avoid, and while our local coops do carry some local veggies, 90% of what’s inside comes from the factory system.

Also, lately, I had noticed a disturbing behavior developing with Ella in the store.  She was becoming obssessed with buying stuff.  Ack!  You may recall that we are not too keen on stuff. Walking through the grocery store with Ella, she was suddenly aware that everything there could, in theory, be purchased by us.  And she wanted it.  I was finding myself buying things I really didn’t want to buy (say, a juice box with a plastic straw wrapped in another plastic liner), because it was better than the candy bar she really wanted.  Ugh.  I was also finding myself buying things I didn’t really want or need.  Stores are, after all, set up to inspire these behaviors in us, and they do a good job.

Plus, now that we have locally grown grains, we actually don’t need anything from the store!

How are we doing it?  We have a winter (root vegetable) CSA share, we have a pantry bursting with our grain & bean CSA share, our local meat CSA, a pantry still heartily stocked with food we preserved from the summer (yay!  I am still humbled and amazed that we were able to do this), and we get milk and eggs from local farms.  What am I missing here?  We bring home supplies like baking soda, baking powder, vinegar, and recycled toilet paper from our bakery (although now I’m really contemplating the family cloth, thanks to Suzy).  We try to make our own vinegar, make or buy locally made soap, and we don’t really drink wine or beer except on very rare occasions.

I have certainly been tempted a few times already to go to the coop, to get some item that would be tasty (ice cream),  just to get out of the house, or to get something that seems like it would make dinner “easier.”  So far, I’ve resisted temptation, and each time, I’ve been relieved that I did.  Here’s wishing you luck with your own small changes in your lives!

Added on Feb 8:

I just wanted to say that I in no way mean this to seem as an attack on coops.  We love our local coop – we are, actually, dues-paying members.  If I didn’t have the option of ordering various goods bulk through the bakery, I would go the route of some of the families we know, who place bulk orders through the coop (a wonderful service they provide) every month or so.  It is the addictive nature of buying from stores that I am trying to break away from, and the purchasing of goods from the industrial system.