Citizen Beta

I haven’t had the energy to post all the old cityscape images to Flikr yet so they are still huge…

someday, someday…

I have been thinking about food a lot lately. Not just because I like to eat, which I do, but because over the past couple years I have become concerned with the kind of food I eat and where it comes from. Don’t worry, I am not going to preach at ya! This is just to say that I have read two books lately that have really given me a lot to think about and confirmed for me what I have been thinking all along.

First I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I loved that this book was really a collaboration with her whole family. I loved that she spoke so wistfully about asparagus. I love that she included yummy recipes and the truth about slaughtering your own animals and the difficulties of eating healthy in America. Next I read Michael Pollan’s latest In Defense of Food. Now, I think I would’ve preferred to read this one first because Kingsolver’s book seems to be, in many ways, Pollan’s ideas in practice. But, it was still a really thought-provoking read. I didn’t like it as much as the two other books (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Botany of Desire) I have read by him but it was short and to the point and packed with good and useful and interesting information about how Americans eat and how we can, quite easily really, eat better.

Related to all of this was our decision to get chickens and to finally join our CSA (community supported agriculture). The chickens are about good, fresh, organic eggs and also raising animals that, unlike dogs and cats, we cannot cuddle with but we still benefit from. We give then a good, peaceful life in our yard and they give us eggs and poop for the garden. Our five chicks have grown so big in the past few weeks and as of last night live outside (still in the brooder but out of the garage!). I am growing suspicious however, that one, if not two, are roosters. One rooster we can deal with. Two? Nope. The girls are already invested in the chickens, too. They like to check on them, watch them and feed them. It is a family project I am really proud of and I know we will learn a lot. I have read a bunch of chicken books and am addicted to this website and forum.

When we planted our garden this year we put in fewer tomato plants (I’m not a huge fan) and more pepper plants (yum!). We also put in broccoli which we eat a lot of, but too late and so it is not doing anything. I also planted two kinds of beans because they are good to eat and fun to pick and easy to grow. We tried to simplify the garden and really think about what we will actually eat. Both my mom and D’s parents have huge productive gardens every year so we end up with spinach and squash and cucumbers and things we don’t grow ourselves. We also end up with lots of local peaches. To complete our own garden we have lots of herbs, which we use faster than they grow: oregano, thyme, basil and rosemary. And, I cannot forget the silverskin garlic I have growing on the kitchen windowsill.

In an effort to reduce what I get at the grocery and compliment the healthy foods I am growing myself I join the local CSA on a four week trial basis. I opted to get the box every other week to start out with: I am not much of a cook so need to get up to speed with some new recipes and make sure that we eat the food fast enough (although chickens love scraps!). This week we got: 2 mangoes, 3 avocados, head of bibb lettuce, bunch of arugala, blueberries, strawberries, 4 yellow onions, green beans, broccoli, two cucumbers…am I forgetting anything? It was a lot of food! Of course not all of this was local but some was and all of it was regional (although our food region is pretty large because we live in the blasted desert). All was organic. Next, I had to cook.

Tuesday night I was suffering from a cold and it was a million degrees and our swamp cooler was broken so I wanted something cool to eat. I made cucumber soup which I liked and A ate. D ate but didn’t really like and L wouldn’t even touch it. I also made this green bean dip from the Kingsolver books which I thought was super yummy and again, A liked and D ate but didn’t like and A pretty much went hungry that night. Last night I made some pasta with veggies from the box (green beans and broc) and herbs from the garden. I also grilled the trout that L and I caught at her preschool summer camp fishing trip yesterday. We had a big salad with the lettuce, arugala and avocado. Besides the pasta in the pasta salad all was (essentially) local, all was fresh and organic. Nothing besides the pasta was processed. It was delicious and comforting and just the type of meal I am aiming for.

I am not sure what we will have for dinner tonight…maybe leftovers, maybe even a big box of processed mac and cheese. I am just happy to be on a path of mindful eating and happy to have chicks to feed and plants to tend and books (books!!) about chickens and gardens and food to keep my busy on these long light summer nights.

Anyone want to share a favorite heat-of-the-summer recipe? It is close to 100 every day here lately and we need some refreshing new dishes to try!

It really is!  97 degrees today and the same expected all week.  And lordy lordy, it is only June.

How is it where you are?

So here are the lovely ladies I have referred to a couple of times. They are keeping us quite busy but are entertaining as hell. I am also busy with a couple reviews, an article and teaching two summer classes. More on chickens, books and summertime soon.

A recent Bookreporter review: The Outcast  by Sadie Jones.  I liked this book a lot. 

Also an interview with Holly Lisle and a review of her first book for young readers I did for Teenreads.com 

I always enjoy doing author interviews and I think Lisle’s responses were interesting and thoughtful.  The book was fun, too!

Okay, I have changed the design once again…but now the non-Flickr images are all janked up.

But, this one below is my first Cityscape on Flickr so at least something is working.

Still playing with all this…

I am going to be buying a book or two soon, hopefully used and, as always, am looking for recommendations. What has blown your mind lately?

I am actually right in the middle of a huge stack of books for summer reviews. But, sometimes when I have a lot of “assigned” reading I crave books of my choosing. I have read some good ones recently and will post when they are published. Only this one is out right now and not everyone’s cup of tea, I am sure.

As for non-reviewed books I just finished Pamela Norris’s The Story of Eve* which was good but a bit unfocused. I was hoping for more of an academic discussion of Eve but this was more more concerned with Eve’s manifestations in literature and the visual arts though Norris does spend some time exploring her role in the history of the Christian church. Generally, I liked this book quite a bit even though the end dragged a bit and I think she was really reaching in some of her literary examples.

My mom lent me The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates which I really liked as well. Oates is sort-of hit or miss for me. Some of her more precise and focused novels I have enjoyed (We Were the Mulvaney’s but not The Falls) though I like some of her odd stuff, too, like Foxfire and some of the early short stories. This one was really readable (I think that says a lot for an Oates book) and the story interesting. It follows one woman who knows little about her family’s background and only of their struggles as immigrants in what they perceive to be (and often is) a hostile America. Hostility and fear are the two big emotions in this book and trauma and violence and sadness follow this woman, even after she fashions a new identity for herself to protect her son. But, she remains an outsider always and Oates captures that well. There is a lot going on in this novel and the author touches on some of it very lightly, leaving the reader to do some of the heavy work. A good, and often strange, story overall.

I am working on A.S. Byatt’s Possession right now, but people, I don’t know that I can finish this one.

A business note: I am not keeping this particular design for the blog but am still looking around at other ones that I think will work better. Bear with me. Today I am going to play around on Flickr and see if I can get some cityscape images up on my photostream…If I can I will also post a photo of the special girls who have come to live us!