Hi Kids!

It's like Christmas in my Inbox -- I'm opening more and more blog requests and people are actually following up == we have 76 people on the blog now, and 15 open invitations; there are 112 people in ERW, and because the blog has a 100 person limit, at some point, we will be opening Blog #2.

The passive American consumer, sitting down to a meal of pre-prepared or fast food, confronts a platter covered with inert, anonymous substances that have been processed, dyed, breaded, sauced, gravied, ground, pulped, strained, blended, prettified, and sanitized beyond resemblance to any part of any creature that ever lived. The products of nature and agriculture have been made, to all appearances, the products of industry. Both eater and eaten are thus in exile from biological reality. And the result is a kind of solitude, unprecedented in human experience, in which the eater may think of eating as, first, a purely commercial transaction between him and a supplier and then as a purely appetitive transaction between him and his food.

That passage makes me feel a little sad.

Here's a link to some photos that Ian Wood told me about that relate to what Berry is saying here. We know these food products came from the land at some point, but...what has happened in between? These photos depict the actual product versus the ad photo.

And Berry says,

Whenever possible, deal directly with a local farmer, gardener, or orchardist. All the reasons listed for the previous suggestion apply here. In addition, by such dealing you eliminate the whole pack of merchants, transporters, processors, packagers, and advertisers who thrive at the expense of both producers and consumers.

So here's a list of the Farmer's Markets in the Los Angeles/Orange County area. Field trip! Just teasing -- I can't swing that, but I could meet you at the Saturday Farmer's Market in Cerritos or Downey...that might be fun. If there was enough interest, I could even drive a district van...I still have that Class B license from my golf coach days, so with the proper permission slips, I could meet a bunch of kids at Mayfair on a Saturday morning and we could go hit these markets.

Cerritos: Park Plaza and Towne Center drives, near the Performing Arts Center, 8 a.m. to noon. (EBT) www.Harborareafarmersmarkets.org (866) 466-3834.

Downey: Second Street between New St. and La Reina Ave. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. http://www.downeyca.org

Berry is a poet, with a poet's eye and sensibility. I am downright moved by many passages in this essay:

Eating with the fullest pleasure—pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance—is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.

Anyway...I am at a different point in my life than you are...I have the time, the resources and the interest to pursue "the comely arts." When I was in college and in my 20s, I was just trying to figure out how to live an independent life and go to school...I didn't even think about food. And when Maddy was a baby? I was busy with being a mom, working full time and going to school. We ate well, but I didn't really think about the source of our food.

I've always tried to eat low on the food chain...I look at everything and try to imagine it in its natural state. If I can get a clear picture in my mind, then I'm good to go. And of course, there are exceptions, like Starburst and York Peppermint Patties. :P