Genuine Saturday

The day started at 10am. Any Saturday where I actually untangle myself from the cozy blankets and greet the day before noon is almost rare, to say the least. Josh left for a gallery meeting downtown around 9am and I woke up completely on my own at 9:45. I padded down the stairs, poured myself as black a cup of coffee I could find, and sat down with my partially glazed eyes to browse through email. A friend of mine sent a mass invitation to pick blueberries and then head to the lake in the afternoon. I thought the idea was glorious. Thus, I surmised my strategy for the day. The goal was to meet Josh downtown before he started heading home after his meeting. First, we needed to head to market and pick up ingredients for both pickling and a couple days worth of food. Second, we would head to the blueberry farm about 15 miles west and pick these clusters of berries until our mouths were stained blue. And third, we would find our way to the most beautiful lake in Michigan, a retreat with no motor boats allowed. So I made my piles of needed materials and supplies for blueberry picking, farmer's market, and the lake. After some strategic backpack packing, I pedaled away on my bicycle, reaching downtown sweaty faced and alive before it was even noon.

We were able to pick up more pickling cucumbers, swiss chard, peaches, eggs, scallions, new potatoes, shallots, dill, and cherries. We packed these in coolers and, as planned, headed to the blueberry farm. We picked blueberries until our stomaches screamed of fullness and we forfeited our battle with the mosquitos. You can see from the pictures that this was very serious business. Then we wound our way through a few little curious Michigan towns, eventually finding the much needed respite of the lake. The water was unusually choppy, the small beach a bit full of people, but it was oh so refreshing.





We made it home and in bed for a nap at 6:45pm. I guess the "early" morning had me slightly worn out. We didn't rise from our evening nap until 9:15. At that point, we had to shift into high gear in order to finish the list of tasks for the day. We wanted to harvest swiss chard from our garden to make a Chard Gratin, make a homemade pesto with basil from the garden, eat dinner, and make these pickles that I've been obsessed with fermenting. And we did it. All of it.

The chard recipe is from Alice Waters cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, but I was made aware of it on the great food blog The Wednesday Chef. She has the recipe outlined on her blog, so if you want to try it you'll find it there.



The dish was simple to make and a perfect use of many ingredients that needed to be used in our kitchen. We were able to use bread that was a couple days old and dry, milk that was set to expire, and chard from the garden that was patchworked from bugs feasting on it's leaves. This dish will jive with any Sunday brunch or early afternoon meal. I can't wait to heat it up again for our Sunday lunch.

Cucurbitaceae

My hiatus from blogging was a result of feeling lost in time.

And then I became inspired by the cucumber plant, lounging on our porch, hastily growing by the day. It's squash like personality had me wondering if it was possibly related to the squash. Low and behold, they are in the same family: Cucurbitaceae. We don't have summer squash this year unfortunately, and actually lack the playground of veggies I was hoping for this summer. But we do have lots of herbs and this fancy pants cucumber. I've listed in my squished brain a few goals that I hope to complete by the beginning of September. I'll share more later, but at the top of the list is making pickles. Dill ones, actually. So Saturday I will be off to market to search out fresh dill and maybe a few more cucumbers. I didn't realize that I might need more than one plant to actually have a significant portion of salty, crunchy, savory pickles.

There are a few books that I have on hand to guide me on this pickle making adventure. The most promising of them is Wild Fermentation, The Taste of Country Cooking, and Preserving Summer's Bounty. I'm so excited to try my hand at this antique art of fermentation! Keep tuned...

And a few other plants...



Goblin flower, echinacea, and sneezeweed.



Joe Pye Weed

Bek and Sarah go to Colorado

Rebekah and I sped off to Colorado for a quick post-graduation trip. We drove through the Oklahoma pan handle, skimmed through the New Mexico Northeast corner, and headed on through to Buena Vista, a Colorado valley surrounded by massive heights of 14er mountains. We stayed at Liar's Lodge, a bed and breakfast that faces Mt. Harvard and Mt. Yale. We had a little porch off of our room, our bed facing Sleeping Indian mountain.



The next day, after a scrumptious and somewhat ludicrous breakfast of orange almond french toast, we hiked with heavy lungs to the top of the sleeping indian.









Soon after the hike we headed north to Denver and went to a Rockies/ Cardinals game where we partook in Coors Light and rooted for the underdog.









Colorado was great, but a bit too short. Maybe next time we'll try a longer stint in Spain. Or Greece.

Beka is a Doctor

She might not want to admit it, but we all know: Rebekah is now a certified, bonafide, genuine Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Here are some photos of the weekend in Stillwater, Oklahoma.






Sarah, Rebekah, Momma Heinz


Keri, Geni, Beka, Tisha


Mom, Jeannie, Sarah


Geni & Rebekah


Keri, Geni, Tisha, Beka


Rebekah, Josh, Sarah






Sarah, Uncle Kent, Josh, Dad, Grandma, Aunt Dana, Mom, Rebekah

Belated Juicing Update

Okay, so things got a little hairy last week. We did juice, and we did fast, but I won't lie: the fasting lasted 24 hours. The juicing, however, lives on!

Monday was a day off of work for me, so we started the fasting the night prior at 7pm, knowing that we would have the time then to start juicing immediately in the morning and throughout the day with little interruption. That morning was actually a tad bit frantic as I rushed about town, my stomach proclaiming its resent, collecting a myriad of fruits and veggies. My heart beat strange and insecure as I bought oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, greens, cucumbers, etc. I tend to avoid non-local, non-seasonal, non-organic produce and this shopping venture shamed me slightly. But the juicing mission had begun and I hadn't yet had my juice breakfast! I had to bite the bullet and heave products from California, Mexico, and Argentina in my ever expanding cart, ignoring the moral cues that taunted me.



My good friend Michelle had agreed to be in on this juicing extravaganza and was going to supply the juicer. So with fruits and veggies in tow, and my obnoxious receipt in hand, I called her to let her know that I was on my way over. Three times I called her, but to no avail. Her sleepy head would not budge. So I decided that Josh and I were on our own with this one. Next to the store whose heat bill I probably just paid for with my hefty bill was a KMart. Uh oh. Talk about moral obligations. I haven't been in a KMart or Wal-Mart for 3 years. But I was having the inner turmoil of my conscience and my stomach. And not surprisingly, my stomach won out. I bought a juicer that was made in China.



When I got home, Josh and I juiced. Watching Josh with that first glass, his nose recoiling in contempt of taste, had me worried. Had our three person fast become me alone? But Josh kept with it, religiously squinting his eyes and shaking his head as he downed the multiple concoctions and combinations of all his not-so favorite foods.



You'd think that all the calories we consumed throughout the day would have us full and satisfied. But it seemed that this juice created new empty voids throughout our system. We were starving to the point of moodiness and a threatening lack of motivation for the remaining tasks of the day. At some point I called Michelle to whine and she somehow rationalized with me that we should go eat Thai food and be happy that we made it 24 hours. So that's what we did. It was phenomenal. Ah, the art of cooked vegetables in coconut milk, particularly on a day where your mind is consumed with thoughts of food (or lack thereof).

The rest of the week gradually became less fast-like, but still reminiscent of our new juicing knowledge. Tuesday was primarily juice but also unjuiced fruits and veggies, Wednesday we had brown rice, and then on and on...

I'm so happy to have a juicer, even if it is from China, and so happy to have experimented with a bunch of recipes. Here are a few of our favorite combos:

Apples (6 of them), Beet (one large), Limes (two juiced separately)

Carrots, apples, beet, parsley

Carrot, cucumber, celery, spinach

Carrot, apple, orange, ginger

Pineapple, carrot, orange, watermelon, cranberry (pre-bought juice)

Pineapple, grapefruit, parsley, spinach, watermelon, beet greens

There are multiple thoughts that spun from this one single day of fasting/week of juicing. Hopefully those thoughts don't dissipate before I have a chance to write them. But in the meantime, I can definitely recommend juicing! If not for how good it feels, for the change in complexion it can bring. Friends were shocked at my healthy color this week. I think I turned orange from all the beta carotene.

A Week of Juicing

This is exciting! I think I'm going to try doing a fast. But not a hardcore, Jesus on the mountain, water only fast. I'm going for a highly nutritious and full of enzymes juice fast. Last week thoughts of fasting traipsed through my brain, and oddly enough then synchronized with some reading and a couple of quotes that landed on my desktop.

I'm not one to share things before they happen, the reality being that they often don't happen. I hate to be held accountable for personal things, not to mention that things are always more feasible when you've had a day off and feel more like yourself. So it's questionable whether or not this fast will last as planned. But I wanted to blog it, thinking that maybe some of you non-pregnant, non-nursing friends of mine would be interested in joining.

Throughout the week I'll include recipes that taste and feel good. So if you're in, get a juicer and get ready! Tomorrow is all juice.
Plan for day 1: carrot, ginger, beet, parsley, cabbage, apple, celery, cucumber, kale (in different combos)

March 31st, The Day of Cesar Chavez

"If you're outraged at conditions, then you can't possibly be free or happy until you devote all your time to changing them and do nothing but that," he said. "But you can't change anything if you want to hold onto a good job, a good way of life and avoid sacrifice."

Today, in eight states, is a day that is spent in remembrance of Cesar Chavez. California even shuts down their libraries. Cesar Chavez is a farmworker rights activist that died in 1993. He fought for Labor Unions, worker rights, and the rights of workers to not be exposed to pesticides. No, pesticides aren't good when we eat them, but they are even worse when you are directly exposed to them, i.e. a farm worker. Working on farms is hard enough when you can breath, but I can't imagine what it would be like in a murky fuzz of chemical spray similar to what they poured on our "enemy" in the Vietnam War.

Without healthy soil, we can not be healthy people. Plainly speaking, without people, healthy or unhealthy, maybe the earth would exist in a more balanced way. But until that happens, I'm going to fight tooth and nail to be a healthy citizen. Even if this means sacrifice. But think of the sacrifices we ask of (primarily immigrant) farmworkers every single day... wow.

"Cesar Chavez, who insisted that those who labor in the earth were entitled to share fairly in the rewards of their toil, would never be forgotten."

VIVA LA CAUSA
Long live our cause

In Defense of Food

I just finished reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Much of the book is devoted to the somewhat controversial discussion of "nutritionism." He aims to educate readers on eating food that is real, prepared from whole and original food stuffs. In other words, if it's wrapped in plastic and has more than five ingredients, any of which you don't recognize or can't pronounce, peel your hungry little nubs of fingers away. It's not to be reckoned with due to their false impersonations. They are more than likely only imitations of that thing we call food and rely upon for our survival.

I enjoyed the more applicable part of his book that came in the third and final section. I often struggle with validating the amount of money I spend on our household food. But Pollan makes the point:
"Is it just a coincidence that as the portion of our income spent on food has declined, spending on health care has soared? In 1960 Americans spent 17.5 percent of their income on food and 5.2 percent of national income on health care. Since then, those numbers have flipped: Spending on food has fallen to 9.9 percent, while spending on health care has climbed to 16 percent of national income. I have to think that by spending a little more on healthier food we could reduce the amount we have to spend on health care."

So now's the time, spring in tow, to research and find a local CSA- Community Supported Agriculture- where you can buy a share and in return gain a diverse and delicious assortment of fruits and vegetables. And maybe this is even the year that you plant a few herbs or a couple varieties of tomatoes!

Interviewing Josh

I was feeling a little somber. What better way to feel cheer than to interview your partner, getting into his thoughts when he otherwise is slightly inaccessible with an opposing schedule? The interview questions I copied from a blog online quite awhile ago. Me and my poor organizational tendencies lost the site address. Can I be sued for such slander? Well, here goes:



What inspires you?
Art & artists, mountains, the desert, the dalai lama, the love and support of my wife (ahhh...)

Happiness is....
Peace, close family, feeling productive in mind and body

Browsing often...
Tools and equipment

Wishing for...
Stability, the right studio, future commissions, not to mention an air compressor, slip roller, V bandsaw, portable wire feeder, and a trailer.

Listening to...
A lot of NPR

Escaping with...
Sarah on a spiritually good day, alcohol on a bad!

Morning....
discipline, habit, ritual, coffee, going out for or Sarah's breakfasts.

Noon...
Bustin' it out... working

Night...
Computer browsing, a little beer, nighttime reading.

What are you looking forward to?
Finishing this project and the gallery show with it.



The future is...
Hope and anxiety, freedom and a trap, a plan and the ephemeral unexpected, what I want to be, risks to find joy, family, art, exploration, food, community, metal and clay, earth and wind, and maybe horses. Definitely breakfast.

The past is...
every demon and every joy. Who I am, who we are, a collection of phenomonological experience that makes present consciousness. This is Josh's study for the gallery show coming through.

Today...

I want to return to here:



Here, I can think and not feel watched. Here, all I know from the world is what I've learned before, and what I learn in the present exists only because of that present I'm experiencing.

I'm so tired. The New York Times slideshows today included Tuberculosis hospitals in South Africa, and Tibetan riots being beat out by Nepali police. On the radio is Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska speaking on political strategies and Iraqi policies. My brain is so sad, my body so obliterated by journalistic bombs. My trust has been confiscated by the government.



There has to be some form of outcry. And I suppose this is it, my outcry for the 4,000 dead, the five years at war. I wait for the time when I do more, whatever that is, whatever it is that is not just me trying to be obscure and cling to my daily rituals. Because right now I am paralyzed by these real life moments, realizations that there is so much more to do than stay safely in my cove.