IMG_2094
23 May

Parlour: Individually Wrapped

For years, the common trend in food science and retail has been “convenience.” Everybody is scrambling to make a product that lazy louts the country over can buy at ridiculous mark-ups and continue buying. It’s an ingenius system, as far as commercial viability goes. You dumb down consumers by shrouding the kitchen with an air of mystery, allow them to prioritize a TV program over cooking, tell them you’re improving their quality of life by buying commercials on that TV program and Bam! A profitable, self-sustaining business model.

…At the cost of Americans, good taste, and the environment.
In Defense of Ugly
03 May

In Defense of ‘Ugly’

It isn’t 1955 any more. I don’t stay at home ironing in chiffon and washing dishes with rubber gloves, thank heavens. But if we can uproot the dated, preposterous societal girdle that was mid-century sexism in the house, how are we frozen in time with what lies just outside of it? What purpose does a lawn of grass serve? As far as I can tell, standing on my front porch, all it does is turn brown, collect garbage, smell like dog feces and tarnish an otherwise pretty Capital Hill neighborhood. And yet these are the yards that are legal. The beautiful ones that are groomed and full of life are “unsuitable.”
IMG_1833
27 Apr

Garden In the City, Epidode 1

My first week of putting my eco-agricultural smarts to good use showed exactly how much I have left to learn before spring. A short winter ended months ahead of schedule, I ran afoul of the law, and my roommate’s dog took out his mineral deficiency on all of my hard work.
On the Farm; Week 2
25 Apr

On the Farm; Week 2

This Saturday morning, we volunteers at Clagett Farm did our best to get legitimate work done without being blown into the next county on a wind that could flash-freeze a cow. Because it’s almost time to set the Spring seeds in the ground, we busied ourselves with mixing soil and arranging seedlings… in the comfort of the greenhouse.
Hunger Games
22 Mar

Development and The Hunger Games; You Know You’re the Bad Guy, Right?

In short, we are the Capitol. We are the greedy few who manipulate those we exclude so that we are preposterously comfortable. And we recognize the landscape of the book because, in more ways than one, we’re living right on top of it. And rather than make ourselves uncomfortable with guilt and empathy, we put on our gilded blinders and talk instead about the book’s exhausted love-triangle, or the casting for the upcoming film adaptation.
labels[1]
22 Mar

Food Labels for Beginners

These food labels are actually immeasurably valuable to a mindful consumer. The single second of time spent scanning the outside of a product could mean the difference between buying something sustainable, organic, humane, fair trade… or buying the other stuff.
Farm Week 1
16 Mar

On The Farm; Week 1

The sun was entirely hidden by pale cloud cover, and the dirt was full of dormant bugs and spiders, desperate for warmth and fetal just an inch below the surface. I tried my hardest not to kill too many spiders, but when my digging and weeding woke black widows the size of quarters, I couldn’t help it; they got troweled.

back.jpg
15 Mar

The Parlour; Iowa and Animal Rights

This month in the Parlour, we’re talking about Iowa’s new law that might be serving “factory” farmers at the cost of Americans’ freedom of speech. Some argue that this new law is Iowa’s second attempt at restricting activists and concerned consumers from photographing or videotaping the sometimes gruesome cruelty found in large-scale livestock production. Others argue that if producers are abiding by state and federal regulations, they should not be subjected to radical, viral campaigns that serve organizations like PETA at the cost of the farmer.
Yogurt
14 Mar

Recipe; Yogurt

A half-gallon of fresh yogurt shouldn’t cost you more than $3.00. If you’re paying more than that, (and you probably are,) I have a recipe that you’ll love. It isn’t…
IMG_1955
14 Mar

Groundbreaking

I’m going to have faith that there are people out there who know something isn’t quite right about how they live. I’m going to assume that intelligent people everywhere will be looking for ways to improve themselves and better their surroundings. Rather than trying to ensnare unsuspecting victims by throwing organic, sustainably farmed hemp nets over their heads, I’ll just work hard to provide as much information and dialogue about the important issues as I possibly can… and hope that they’ll find us here when they come looking.
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