A Big Bowl of Satan

Last night I came home in a funky mood. Not funky in a george clinton/james brown kinda way...funky in a little dark raincloud dumping on my head way.

First I found out there is admin problems with my University of Hawaii application. Namely they can't find my transcripts which they had a mere month ago.

Than I went to my math class (i'm taking a "math for educators" prerequisite) at the community college only to discover halfway through the class that I need to go to math therapy. I had a panic that my years of fumbling in math might have left me unable to be the kinda teacher that all my future mini Stephen Hawkings will require to flourish.

Than I drove home grumpily pondering what I was going to make for dinner. To my surprise when I walked into the tree house, the kitchen was lit up and my mister was in there busily hovering over a wok teaming with veggies, cilantro and seitan.

Seitan (also known as buddha's food) is essentially gluten. But tasty, tasty gluten. I'm actually not quite sure how to pronounce it so I spent dinner marveling at how "delicious is satan" and "i'm really impressed by the versatility of satan."

But that big warm bowl of "satan" was the happy bomb that exploded on my otherwise grey tinged day.

Imbolc

I'm putting together a personal Imbolc celebration for this Saturday. Imbolc is one of the four principal Celtic holidays and celebrates waxing light…i.e the coming of spring and ties in concepts of healing, sacred fire and inspiration. I'm not overly New Age but enjoy connecting with events that tie visibly into natural periods of the Earth.

My 2008 horoscope includes the following advice and outlooks:

Retrain yourself to look for what is good as opposed to what is lacking in your efforts.

When you start worrying, get out in nature to restore order.

Draw up timelines, set attainable goals and reward yourself generously.

Pick your battles.

Go back to being lovers.

Fertility is amplified.

Consider taking up a musical instrument.

My personal Imbolc time will be to continue to let go of some of my residual 2007 sadness, celebrate creativity and stop fretting. I am secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) a control freak. I'd like to welcome surprises more.

Driving: Kauai Style

Driving through Kauai's east side requires some patience, good music, and ability not to rear end every rental mustang that tries to drive down the shoulder in order to cut into the interminable traffic further down the road.

Thus was the case yesterday as I drove up to Kilauea to pick up my first box of Kauai Farmers Co-op veggies. It was well worth the 45min car ride as I got to listen to Mason Jennings and smile over and over at the line "ain't no rust on the happiness bus" that never fails to make me wiggle my bootie.

I also got to discover there is a veggie in the world that is called tatsai, as far as I can decipher it's a type of brassica, essentially green, leafy and likely able to create health in my body. I love the Christmas morning feel of not knowing what's in the veggie box!

Traffic also reminded me of being in fifth grade when I desperately wanted to be a drummer in the high school band. This meant that I was given an entry level percussion instrument known as the xylophone which I had to lug the mile each day from my bus stop to my house. My brother would walk alongside me quite sympathetically and we would daydream about being picked up by a fluffy cloud that would transport us wherever we needed to go. His would serve lemonade and mine would serve rice crispy treats.

I'd still like one of those clouds...

P.S I know it sounds crazy to even have to mention this, but if you feel like spraying pesticides next to elementary schools is a bad idea, you might want to check this out.

We are now a proud CSA family

Nick and I have joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program through the Kauai Farmers Co-op. I pick up my first box of locally grown, organic green love tomorrow evening.

If you live on Kauai and want to get involved email: kauaifarmerscoop@yahoo.com

Benefits of joining a local CSA near you:
1. Provides an easy budget for produce for a set number of weeks a year (or year round if you live with a continuous growing season)

2. Allows for a common-pricing system where producers and consumers discuss and democratically agree to pricing based on the acceptance of the budget

3. Creates a ‘shared risk and reward’ agreement, i.e. you eat what the farmers grow even with the vagaries of seasonal growing. Plus, it's fun to look in your box each week and say things like "ooooh kale" or "ok, so what exactly do I do with tumeric again?"

At the end of the day the result is that you do not pay for x pounds or kilograms of produce, but rather support the budget of the whole farm and receive weekly what is seasonally ripe. This approach eliminates the marketing risks and costs for the farmer in terms of time and peoplepower. It allows farmers to focus on quality care of soils, crops, animals, co-workers—and on serving the customers. There is little to no loss (i.e. waste) in this system, since the producers know in advance who they are growing for and how much to grow, etc.

So take that monocrops!