FFT

...and it is clear to anyone who looks carefully at any crowd that we are wasting our bodies exactly as we are wasting our land. Our bodies are fat, weak, joyless, sickly, ugly, the virtual prey of the manufacturers of medicine and cosmetics. Our bodies have become marginal; they are growing useless like our "marginal" land because we have less and less use for them. After the games and idle flourishes of modern youth, we use them only as shipping cartons to transport our brains and our few employable muscles back and forth to work.
As for our spirits, they seem more and more to comfort themselves by buying things. No longer in need of the exalted drama of grief and joy, they feed now on little shocks of greed, scandal, and violence. For many of the churchly, the life of the spirit is reduced to a dull preoccupation with getting to Heaven. At best, the world is no more than an embarrassment and a trial to the spirit, which is otherwise radically separated from it. The true lover of God must not be burdened with any care or respect for His works. While the body goes about its business of destroying the earth, the soul is supposed to lie back and wait for Sunday, keeping itself free of earthly contaminants. While the body exploits other bodies, the soul stands aloof, free from sin, crying to the gawking by-standers: "I am not enjoying it!" As far as this sort of "religion" is concerned, the body is no more than the lusterless container of the soul, a mere "package," that will nevertheless light up in eternity, forever cool and shiny as a neon cross. This separation of the soul from the body and from the world is no disease of the fringe, no aberration, but a fracture that runs through the mentality of institutional religion like a geologic fault. And this rift in the mentality of religion continues to characterize the modern mind, no matter how secular or worldly it becomes.

-Wendell Berry, of course

No Listeria for me, thank you very much...

As I was eating breakfast this morning (at a leisurely pace, as there is no work to run to today, PTL), I was listening to the radio and the widening circle of processed food products that are being recalled by Maple Leaf Foods.
I thought to myself, boy, I've totally dodged that bullet, in looking at my breakfast. I'm going to use it as an illustration as to why eating 'close to the source' gives you a fighting chance that you won't end up with some crazy, weird disease, just from trying to nourish yourself.
I had an egg omelette on a bagel. The bagel was toasted, from frozen, from the dozen that I picked up in Montreal last time I was there. From the small, though famous, bagel store in Montreal; not from some huge conglomerate of unknown bakers and packagers. The eggs were from Harlan, possibly the most famous egg-man in all of Ontario. The garlic, from Alan and Wendy, some of the few Ontario garlic producers left in the province. The peppers were from Ontario, but I bought them from Fiesta Farms, so I don't actually know who grew them. The tomatoes: from my balcony, courtesy of Colette's seeds and my compost. And that was breakfast; pretty much all of it could be traced back to actual names and places. If I should happen to get sick, I'd know who to contact, or whose produce it was. The disturbing stat that in one piece of baloney could be the parts and pieces of up to ONE THOUSAND different animals from God-knows-where is enough to make you want to vomit anyways...

Cultivating richness

I've been out of town for the past week, working, yes, but mainly spending time with farmers and hearing their stories. I am constantly amazed by the dedication and hope behind the people who are busy trying to keep us fed.
Since nothing else particularly has happened to me since my last post (I've pretty much worked every day since then), I figured I'd profile my farmer that makes my oats and my flour. I think I may profile some of my farmers here and there. It has been said that we are so busy having our own accountants, lawyers, dentists and mechanics, that we don't stop to consider that perhaps we should have our own farmers.
This farmer is a young guy, who has surprisingly gone into farming. This is surprising in that many young people are choosing not to do farming, whether for status issues or financial issues, and those who do often can't afford to start, or sustain a farming career. So, with his family's blessing, he has gone to produce some fine heritage wheat, and completely organic grains. In addition, they taste wonderful!
I am really hoping he can sustain a lifelong career with this. He is developing a good reputation for his organic practices, and fine product.

Disabling mosquitos

So, some days at work, it verges on miraculous that I can get through the day without being very skeptical about the general intelligence level of society.
A young lady was brought, nay, carried, by her boyfriend into the clinic. Our staff was quite alarmed: Did she break her leg? Had she passed out?
In fact, she had a mosquito bite on her foot. Yes, one mosquito bite. On the top of her foot.
She then proceeded to demand something for the bite so that it would go away instantly, as it was quite itchy, causing her great grief, and thus must be eliminated.
So I gave her some cream to help relieve some of the itch. On my way out the door, she then asked for a note to excuse her from work for a few days, as she wouldn't be able to stand at work because of her mosquito bite (obviously; since she needed her over-whipped boyfriend to carry her from the car to the bedside because of her one mosquito bite). I looked at her incredulously and asked her, "You mean to tell me, you believe you can't go to work because you have a mosquito bite on your foot?", to which she answered in the affirmative.
Then I kicked her out of the office. Well, more accurately, her boyfriend carried her out of the office and back to the car, as this princess wouldn't walk on her foot.
One stupid mosquito bite. This, my friends, is where our tax money is going to. I am not entirely sure if I am more astonished by her attitude, or his clear whipped-ness.

Why Canada won't win (much) at the Olympics

Of course I have to say something about the Olympics here. I'm noticing that America and China are smashing everybody else in terms of the medal count. Canada has, to this point, no medals. Nada. Even Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are out-medalling Canada.
I think there are good reasons for this. I think when one looks first at the two leaders, it becomes apparently clear that the big obstacle is culture. Not raw talent, not necessarily resources or support for athletes, but culture.
America has always had a culture of 'hitching up your britches', of overcoming great, and seemingly insurmountable obstacles to finally 'make it', the American dream of becoming somebody, if you only have enough gumption and hunger in your belly to do so. If you're weak, too bad; you just won't be allowed to play on the team. When you listen to the American athletes talk, they talk about wanting medals, about hungering for them. So they go out and do just that. I think part of their culture, of living the American dream, helps drive that need to succeed.
China, on the other hand, clearly has a huge part of face playing into their success. I'm sure there's a lot of governmental pressure on these athletes to perform to expectation (which appears to this point to be perfection), but I think a lot of national honour, familial and personal honour play into their performances as well. The strong desire to bring honour to one's country and family is a huge drive for Asians to do well.
Canada, on the other hand, is a different story. We're too self-satisfied, too accustomed to being taken care of (by our strong social system), too little fire in our bellies to do better, having too much of an attitude of "everyone should play and participate" rather than seeking out the talented and actually focussing on them. We're too interested in our own ethnic/religious/etc communities and individual lives, and not too concerned about the greater good for the nation. Listen to our athletes speak, and they talk of how glad they are just to be there and to participate in the Olympics. Nobody ever talks about wanting medals, or of being the 'best'. It seems too arrogant, too, I don't know, American in feeling. Hence, why we don't have the drive to win. The few that do have that hunger (witness the men's 8 rowing team, but then again, they'll probably medal) are rare.
Sigh. The media will likely bellyache after the Games about how few medals we won, how so many of our athletes we expected to win didn't, how we need to fund athletes better, but I think, until we change our attitude, our chronic deficit of medals will just continue...

My kingdom for a root cellar!

I think I need to seriously harken what some friends suggested to me a few weeks ago; I may need a chest freezer. Where the heck would I put it, you ask? That's an awesome question. The second awesomest question would be: what the heck do I need one for?
I've been realizing, as I've been prepping summer produce and foodstuffs for the winter, that my freezer is not actually large enough for all of this food. I've got fish from Lake Huron, berries from Niagara, beef from King City and bacon from Prince Edward County all vying for space in my freezer. Add to this my bagels from Montreal, and other goodies picked up in Quebec, and now I can't fit anything more in there! Let alone my regular standbys of frozen squash and salmon! What am I going to do?

Quebec I

OK, I'm actually back from a short jaunt in the city that is celebrating it's 400th birthday, but it was a lovely time (barring the fact that I despise driving long distances)! It is such a lovely city, one could even argue more so than Montreal (gasp! Sacrilege says the peanut gallery!).
Some things that struck me: considerably fewer people were smoking than I would have expected, considering it was Quebec. Also, I envy people who live in the capital, and they live ridiculously close to farmers and their produce, and they have an awesome farmer's market (not that we ourselves don't, but, you know...) with fish from the Gaspesie! How exciting! Furthermore I visited J.A. Moison's Epicerie, and it was, by far, the most beautiful store I've ever been to; I think it can be attested to that I walked around with my jaw dropped open the whole time I was in the store...
In all, most of my trip revolved around food and their producers. Geez, a real agrotourist....