Ominivore's Möbius strip

“A charge leveled against organic agriculture is that it is more philosophy than science. There’s some truth to this indictment, if that is what it is, though why organic farmers should feel defensive about it is itself a mystery, a relic, perhaps, of our fetishism of science as the only credible tool with which to approach nature.”

Michael Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma, p. 150

In the Omnivore’s Dilemma Pollan makes clear the cost of privileging science over perspective. Almost to say that the way we see the problem is the problem and that Non-Organic systematic standardization has taken the place of Organic living organism complexity. Mastering nature has taken the place of living in nature. Ultimately the shift needed to repair our agriculture is one of perspective first and then science.

I spent the day reading Pollan and terms like interdependence, complexity, feedback loops and organisms. One particular term Pollan gets from Joel Salatin is Holon. From the Greek term holos meaning whole and the suffix on as in proton–an entity that from one perspective is a self contained whole and from another perspective is a dependent part (such as a body organ). Of course Pollan gives us a history of the word and helps us to understand Salatin’s use. What a nice way to help understand that permaculture is so much more than science–yes it is important to understand how animals are hardwired but just as important to understand individual animals are not static. The holon works with other holons but also inside other holons, or better yet as a Möbius strip of inside and outside at the same time, depending on perspective. You have ecology, farm, species, individual, and parts all working independently yet inseparable in non-hierarchical ways.

One last quote from Pollan, p.212:

Industrial Processes follow a clear, linear, hierarchical logic that is fairly easy to put into words, probably because words follow a similar logic: First this then that; put this in here then out comes this. But the relationship between cows and chickens on this farm (leaving aside the other creatures and relationships there) takes the form of a loop rather than a line, and that makes it hard to know where to start, or how to distinguish between causes and effects, subjects and objects.

And that loop maybe one of a feedback Möbius strip...

Organic Gardening

Founded in 1940 by JI Rodale a health food fanatic from New York City Lower East Side, the magazine devoted its pages to agricultural methods and health benefits in growing food without synthetic chemicals...
Organic Gardening and Farming struggled along in obscurity until 1969 when an ecstatic review in the Whole Earth Catalog brought it to the attention of hippies trying to grow vegetables without patronizing the military–industrial complex. "If I were a dictator determined to control the national press," the Whole Earth corespondent wrote, "Organic Gardening would be the first publication I'd squash, because it is the most subversive. I believe that organic gardeners are in the forefront of serious effort to save the world by changing man's orientation to it, to move away from the collective, centrist superindustrial state, toward a simpler, realer one to one relationship with the earth itself."

Michael Pollan's, The Omnivore's Dilemma, p. 142

I have been visiting gardens this week–checking up on all the vegetables I have planted with my clients. While I have been driving around with JT, my assistant, I have been paging through Michael Pollan's Work... Maybe it is because I am excited to have just signed a contract with Rodale/Prevention Magazine for recipes, or maybe its because I am always thinking about how and why my projects are connected but this above quote stuck as I checked gardens and thought about feeding others.

The Rodale story is something to checkout. Currently the publisher of The Inconvenient Truth and Men's Health– who knew that it all started from J. I. Rodale living in tenement housing in the lower east side trying to make a better life for himself and others–similar to what Will Allen, of Growing Power, is doing in Milwaukee...

Play

Frances, the librarian at Scott Montgomery Elementary, had lunch with us yesterday. She shared with us an amazing list of projects: Veggie gardens for each grade, community compost and us getting to spend Fridays with the preschoolers in the Pumpkin Patch…

After we finished business, Martin Lane and Frances began discussing BOOKS! The Invention of Hugo Cabaret, Everything by Roald Dahl and Coraline … Martin Lane has never read Coraline and was not interested in the Movie when it came out. Frances thought ML would Love it…

This morning after a run and watering the pumpkins I came back to a copy of Coraline waiting for ML on our front stoop. What a kind gesture from a librarian taking time on her second day of school…

We spent the morning taking turns reading chapters from Coraline. We had plans but they got pushed back. This morning was a morning of play and what that meant was reading to each other.

Studies declare that what is missing from children’s lives is free play. The concern is that all play is scripted either by a computer or rules of a game or even adult supervision. My concern is that as soon is there is language involved or even a scheduled time then the so-called Free Play becomes part of the arrangement… So we look to play as part of the arrangement, a sort of slackening of rigidity and in this we find the ability to get done what we need to and enjoy the play that spontaneously shows up on our front door step…

Water Melon Pudding

For this weekend's home restaurants I wanted to do a small watermelon course after cheese and before dessert. I did two experiments with agar agar the seaweed that acts as a thickener but I was not happy with either of my attempts. Watermelon and agar agar do not go well together, I think their textures maybe too similar... John reminded me of a watermelon pudding I used to make–based on an old Sicilian recipe.

For the dinners I served an Asian spoon full of the pudding with a slice of fresh watermelon. I was pleased with the combination of the silky pudding and the fresh crunchy watermelon. Some recipes call for the addition of vanilla, anise, rosewater, jasmine or cinnamon. Often it is served topped with whipped cream. I might make another batch this week infused with fresh jasmine flowers from my garden.

The recipe calls for cornstarch an ingredient that I had banned from my kitchen for a few years for no legitimate reason. Recently I discovered an organic cornstarch that I used for this recipe.

1 1/2 pounds watermelon seeds and rind removed cut into chunks
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup organic cornstarch

Puree watermelon in blender until smooth

In a non-reactive sauce pan combine sugar and cornstarch, slowly wisk in pureed watermelon. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, reduce heat slightly and continue cooking, stirring constantly until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes

Pass the watermelon mixture through a fine sieve, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely chilled.

Becoming Amateur

As the summer comes to a close ML and I have been on a food movie binge. I think it may have been in direct response to our disappointment with Julie and Julia, but for whatever reason it has been inspiring to revisit films like The Big Night, Babette's Feast and Eat, Drink, Man, Woman.

What is interesting for me watching these movies (and what sets them apart from J and J) is that all three deal in one way or another with the aftermath (or the impending aftermath in The Big Night) of a career as a successful professional chef. Instead of the usual making of a success or rise to success, these movies deal in the living after the success. Begging the question of what is success seems to be at the heart of these movies.

Babette moving through the frame to feed the infirmed or Master Chu making lunch boxes for school girls–­both of these chefs have moved from a place of professionalism to a becoming amateur. Babette claims at the high point of Babette’s Feast, “An artist is never poor”, Martin Lane looks at me and says “good line”… I think, “YES!”

What is striking in Eat, Drink, Man, Woman on a second visit, besides the humor (the film is really dry and funny), is how gorgeous, luscious, voluptuous Master Chu’s food comes across when he cooks for his daughters, in their home. The same dumplings, fish, greens come across almost as unappetizing when being portrayed in the large restaurant he is affiliated with after his semi-retirement. Maybe it is because of all the handmade apparatuses he uses in his home and juxtaposed all the shiny stainless steel in the restaurant, the food comes across as cold. The fact that Master Chu goes outside to light a smoker, just to get the ham right at home, portrays a level of love for what he does, for who he is, that could never come across in a professional kitchen. He cooks for his girls now, not the big wigs.

The word amateur comes from French, Italian and based in Latin as an offshoot of the word for lover and to love. We see this in Babette’s Feast when we watch Babette work the stoves. It starts when she returns from the shore having retrieved ingredients from France, a turtle, a cage of live quails… at this point Babette’s walk is different, her rhythm, her stride equals pure confidence. She is about to prepare a Feast she is paying for from lottery winnings and in which she has asked the guest to attend as a favor–­How exciting to watch this film again… However the true portrayal of amateur, love of a practice is, as her guests are worshiping their spiritual Father they are repeating maxims over and over again to deny their bodies, their senses while eating Babette's food. The tension portrays a pleasure that is born out of necessity.

Watching it again it struck me, I use to think that the General (non-puritan) was at this feast to sort of make it all worthwhile for Babette, for he knew her former career and successes–A sort of I need a witness of my past to make me what I need to be for my new crowd, but watching again I realize the General is only there for us, the movie goer, to fill in the back story as a professional… the puritans don’t need him and neither does Babette… This is a becoming amateur cook with pure amateur eaters and it is a wonderful thing to watch.

I will leave The Big Night for another post, for it may have nothing to do with becoming amateur. Babette's Feast and Eat Drink, Man, Woman were two very important movies for me as I was becoming a professional chef and now as I am becoming an amateur…

Dinner August 22, 2009

There are thousands of pages written about repetition–the impossibility of any repetition being the Same. One only has to spend time trying to throw wadded up paper balls into a trash can to discover that repetition has nothing to do with repeating the same. For my repetitive act does not always result with the paper in the can and quite often as this folly is played out the focus will change from the trash can to another target. If one can stay in the active motion of repetition, one begins to understand the small deviations that ripple out into larger effects. Even if one where to perfect the toss and actually repeat it as the same, Time would always turn the observing of this action into the difference between the time before and the time after...

What repetition does amount to when set into motion and accumulated is a practice. And when acknowledged as such offers us the ability to slightly adjust, tiny movements of equilibrium and deviation that shy away from expressed goals, understand the enjoyment in the nudging of a practice along with its structure...

Tonight we cooked the menu that we cooked the night before–a repetition in much the manner mentioned above. When we had Rupperts Restaurant we would say the menu changed every night but in fact often the menu changed only slightly as the dishes themselves were never the same. Always a nudging in the direction of whatever variables where presented us AND what we felt was the best possible outcome for us and our guests... "It takes years to perfect a dish" and I can honestly say that we have never approached cooking this way. Maybe because we felt as though we never had set goals of rigid expectations when it came to cooking. We did perfect certain moves or processes that contributed to dishes and always tried to see where we could go with them–never wanting to become static, understanding the goal of perfect is antithetical to perfection. Things are what the are, always in motion and isn't that wonderful?

Chefs will cook a dish a thousand times and no matter how hard they try it is never truly the same, for them or their observers, and this is what I find exhilarating about cooking... I guess its also why opening a big production restaurant in Las Vegas or any where else has never appealed to me... We had a blast in our Laboratory tonight and want to thank our guests for braving such a soaking wet night in the middle of August...

Again:

Dinner August 22, 2009

Passing
Lima Bean Puree on Spoon
Braised Cucumber
Salmon Cake on Beet Chip

Thyme Lemon Vodka Martini

Seated

Curried White Peach and Red Lentil Soup
Sliced Potato Bread

Chardonnay Borgogne Domaine de Montmeix 2006

Raw Mushroom Marinated in Lemon and Chive with Pea Shoots
Stone Baked Onion Bread

(Dom. des Roy) Touraine ROUGE "Les Linottes" 2008

Baby Chicken Gumbo, Calaloo, Okra, Tomato, Black Barley
Salty Baguette
Hot Sauce on the Side

(Puffeney) Arbois Rouge Vielles Vignes 2004

Panache D’Aramits, Cracker and Kale Sprouts with Walnut Oil

Watermelon Pudding with Fresh Local Watermelon Slice

Cremant de Loire

Honey Cake, with Frozen Honey and Vanilla with Raw Fig, Dried Fig and
Warm Fig Compote

Fennel Seed Shortbread, Oatmeal Chocolate Cashew Drops, Mint Cake with Mint Icing

Playlist for a rainy August night began with the melancholy contemporary cowboy poet Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and moved toward the Hammond B3 jazz/soul of John Patton to the quick tempo of Oscar Peterson playing Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, then Mingus, some Sun Ra and finishing with another melancholy cowboy–Townes Van Zandt... Some Cassandra, Ella, Willie, Miles, Brubeck and Etta sprinkled in along the way...

Hard Life, Master And Everyone, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Three Questions, Master And Everyone, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Lessons From What's Poor, Master And Everyone, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Maundering, Master And Everyone, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Master And Everyone, Master And Everyone, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise?, Master And Everyone, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
The Way, Master And Everyone, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Rich Wife Full Of Happiness, Ease Down The Road, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Grand Dark Feeling Of Emptiness, Ease Down The Road, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
A King At Night, Ease Down The Road, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
May It Always Be, Ease Down The Road, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Tupelo Honey, Blue Light 'Til Dawn, Cassandra Wilson
Ev'ry Time We Say Good-Bye, The Cole Porter Songbook (Disc 1), Ella Fitzgerald
Cantaloupe Island, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
The Sermon, Blue Note Years- Vol 3 Organ & Soul (Disc 1), Jimmy Smith
Prayer Meetin', Prayer Meetin' [Bonus Tracks], Jimmy Smith
Let 'Em Roll, Blue Note Years- Vol 3 Organ & Soul (Disc 1), John Patton
Memphis, Memphis To New York Spirit, John Patton
The Mandingo, Memphis To New York Spirit, John Patton
Bloodyun, Memphis To New York Spirit, John Patton
Steno, Memphis To New York Spirit, John Patton
Man From Tanganyika, Memphis To New York Spirit, John Patton
Cissy Strut, Memphis To New York Spirit, John Patton
Dragon Slayer, Memphis To New York Spirit, John Patton
Something's Coming, West Side Story, Oscar Peterson Trio
Somewhere, West Side Story, Oscar Peterson Trio
Jet Song, West Side Story, Oscar Peterson Trio
Tonight, West Side Story, Oscar Peterson Trio
Maria, West Side Story, Oscar Peterson Trio
I Feel Pretty, West Side Story, Oscar Peterson Trio
Noddin' Ya Head Blues, THREE OF FOUR SHADES OF BLUES, Charles Mingus
The Bat Cave, Batman and Robin, Sun Ra and the Blues Project
Batman and Robin Swing, Batman and Robin, Sun Ra and the Blues Project
Batmobile Wheels, Batman and Robin, Sun Ra and the Blues Project
Take Five, Time Out, The Dave Brubeck Quartet
So What, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
In A Sentimental Mood, Duke Ellington & John Coltrane, Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
'Round Midnight, Thelonious Himself, Thelonious Monk
Stardust, West Coast Jazz Box, Dave Brubeck Quartet
Stardust, Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton, Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton
Stardust, One Hell of A Ride, Willie Nelson
If I Needed You, Be Here To Love Me, Townes Van Zandt
Don't You Take It Too Bad, Be Here To Love Me, Townes Van Zandt
To Live's To Fly, Be Here To Love Me, Townes Van Zandt
Time After Time, Traveling Miles, Cassandra Wilson
Don't Explain, Mystery Lady: Songs Of Billie Holiday, Etta James

Dinner August 21, 2009

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's Physiology of Taste begins with twenty APHORISMS OF THE PROFESSOR... Pithy sayings like: "To invite a person to your house is to take charge of his happiness as long as he be beneath your roof." Martin Lane and I read them to each other as we bathed, relaxed and anticipated cooking for a group tonight in our home... Here are the first five and the menu from tonight below...more tomorrow–we have another party we are excited about!

I. The universe would be nothing were it not for life and all that lives must be fed.

II. Animals feed; man eats. The man of mind alone knows how to eat.

III. The destiny of nations depends on the manner in which they are fed.

IV. Tell me what kind of food you eat, and I will tell you what kind of man you are.

V. The Creator, when he obliges man to eat, invites him to do so by appetite, and rewards him by pleasure.

Dinner August 21, 2009

Passing
Lima Bean Puree on Spoon
Braised Cucumber
Salmon Cake on Beet Chip

Thyme Lemon Vodka Martini

Seated

Curried White Peach and Red Lentil Soup
Potato Bread

Chardonnay Borgogne Domaine de Montmeix 2006

Raw Mushroom Marinated in Lemon and Chive with Pursulane
Grilled Herb Bread

(Dom. des Roy) Touraine ROUGE "Les Linottes" 2008

Baby Chicken Gumbo, Calaloo, Okra, Tomato, Black Barley
Salty Baguette
Hot Sauce on the Side

(Puffeney) Arbois Rouge Vielles Vignes 2004

Panache D’Aramits, Cracker

Watermelon Pudding

Cremant de Loire

Honey Cake, with Frozen Honey and Vanilla with Raw Fig, Dried Fig and
Fig Compote

Fennel Seed Shortbread, Oatmeal Chocolate Cashew Drops, Mint Cake

Last Days of Summer

We are sitting around the kitchen table... some cooking for us tonight and prepping for two Home Restaurants... Tired from a week of planting... Excited about a weekend of cooking...Our banter is raw and silly...we have been punning "the Sunnyside of the Street" to privledge The Shady side... Trying to learn Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First"... chatting about Whole Foods–something just does not feel good about going there to me... John's Mom asks what took so long and dares us to try the WFM on River Road, "it's just hateful!"... Martin Lane expresses anxiety about the coming fifth grade... John exclaims this has been the best summer ever and I suggest moving some where and dropping out of society... Ultimately for many reasons we are sad that summer is ending... more photos from Jackie...

Scott Montgomery Elementary

Tuesday was the hottest day of the year...Which really was not so bad since we have had an amazing summer weather-wise... However we chose this day to dig up a patch of land at The Scott Montgomery Elementary School to plant PUMPKINS! The Mayor's Conservation Crew came and helped out. Jackie Maisonneuve is documenting us for her Senior Thesis and shared these images...

Planting Pumpkins, Picking Figs... Photos by Jacqueline Maisonneuve

Photos by Jacqueline Maisonneuve

Frozen Coconut Dessert

I am excited to see coconut, one of my favorite foods available these days. In the ice cream aisle at Whole Foods (which I am currently boycotting) there are now several frozen desserts that use coconut as a base. At one of our favorite (kinda) quick food stops, Java Green you can get a whole chilled young coconut, a young coconut meat salad or a raw "milk shake" that is primarily made of coconut.

Recently I have developed a new frozen dessert that seems to be great on its own or with other flavors incorporated. I enjoy it as much or more than any other ice cream that I have ever had. It is light and fresh but still creamy, it seems to not mute other flavors the way that ice cream sometimes can. The only problem is that I have no idea what to call it–coconut ice cream is already taken and coconut sorbet seems like an understatement! At the last home restaurant I made a ginger flavored frozen coconut dessert that I served with a fresh fig tart.

This is my basic recipe that I freeze in an ice cream maker. You can infuse any flavor by steeping it in some of the coconut milk or folding in a fresh fruit puree.

Frozen Coconut 1 cup young coconut water 1 cup young coconut meat 3 cups coconut milk 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut butter 1/2 cup agave nectar 1 teaspoon himalyan salt

Combine all the ingredients in a high speed blender.  Adjust sweetness to your liking. Chill and freeze in an ice cream maker.

feeding through the foliage

When I go to the farmers market I always try to talk to the farmers. Often I ask questions about gardening/farming and am usually surprised by the answer. I always learn something new. The great thing about gardening/farming is that there are so many ways to go about a task. Problem solving would be to rigid a designation for farming. If Problem Solving is the constant state then we should try to look at things not in terms of problems and solutions but in terms of riding a wave of constant change. Problem solving evokes notions of something wrong that needs to be rectified. Growing live organisms should always result in multiple problematizations in which we are nudged into new places (evolution). That is to say problems are good if they are our constant state. We should acknowledge that we truly do not want to rid ourselves of the problem of lets say, pests. Solutions only disrupt our ecology. Solutions are for the twentieth century and non-organic, standardized, large-scale farming.

This last trip to the Bloomingdale Farmers Market I began talking about leeks and spacing with one of the farmers, the difference between mechanized farming and hand harvesting leeks. We began to talk about piling mounds to keep sunlight off the bottom of the leeks to a keep them away from the photosynthesis that turns them green. That turned to a conversation about misting leafs and feeding plants seaweed and kelp through foliage.

Although I have done this in the past it reminded me that this was just what was needed for a particular situation in our garden. Recently we planted seeds for about 80 pumpkin plants that we are planning to transplant to Scott Montgomery Middle School this week. Initially the plants popped out of the soil looking very strong. About a week ago we noticed they were looking a bit weak. The conversation with the farmer made me realize that the pumpkin seedlings had used up all of the nutrients in the tiny pots that we had planted them in to act as their temporary homes.

We went home and generously sprayed the foliage with a mixture of a seaweed and kelp concentrate and water. Within a couple of hours the plants were standing up straighter. Within 48 hours new growth appeared and it looks like they are back on track. While spraying the pumpkins we also sprayed the tomatoes, okra and other vegetable plants in our garden, everything looks significantly happier than it did a few days ago despite the heat of the last couple of days.

When the seaweed and kelp mixture is sprayed on the plant the minerals and nutrients are absorbed by the leaves and go into the plant directly. This is a much more immediate and direct method of feeding the leaves and plant than through the soil where only some of the nutrients are absorbed and it takes time to get to the whole plant. This is not to say that you should omit feeding the roots of the plant but, that a mixture of the two types of feeding is ideal. I have also read that seaweed and kelp helps plants resist disease and mildew.

Planting Pumpkins

Frances is the librarian at Scott Montgomery Elementary. We met with her last week to discuss planting an educational edible garden. When we met Frances it was one of those hot summer days that shot us back to childhood­–particularly because if it was this hot it had to be summer–no school. We are walking through a schoolyard where construction crews are digging up the black top to replace and implant a new playground. Frances had met the mayor at a CCCA meeting a few weeks prior and walked right up to him, after some encouragement, and unselfishly asked for a playground.

The feeling of potential of something about to happen seems to be Frances' constant state. When you meet her you imagine the feeling of beginning school again, that first day when anything can happen. The librarian telling you that you can take any book out you want. The child sees the book and the librarian sees the child with the excitement of a new read/reader both a story to unfold.

We are standing in the middle of the library. Tables and chairs are stacked about. Nothing is in its place–everything is in its place. It is the summer it’s smoking hot outside. We are in an elementary school library with no children, except for Frances’ eight-year boy who is not feeling well and is glued to Henson’s Labyrinth playing on a screen. The librarian’s son silences us as we excitedly make plans for gardens, compost and food–this all makes sense. We plan a garden in hushed tones–a conspiracy to plant a pumpkin patch begins.

This garden had been in the works for weeks now. We planted pumpkin seedlings a few weeks ago, before we had a plan–hoping to find a home for them. At the time of planting we knew we had a short window, in that the seeds have 75 days to germination and cannot wait to be planted in the ground if we want pumpkins by October 31st.

Frances wrote a couple days ago that she contacted the Mayor’s Conservation Corps and they are scheduled to dig with us on Tuesday. Francine also has Home Depot dropping Bags of humus and topsoil over the fence on Monday.

If Frances gets stuff done, its because you don’t have to cross a threshold to volunteer; nothing is complicated or heavy. It's very simple, these kids need to develop relationship skills and Frances realizes that this happens through interaction outside of the system. She sets up readings for boys, readings for girls and reading groups for adults.

A garden is like a book in that after turning over the soil and adding dark rich nutrients there is this wonderful place of potential, a something about to unfold that can only be uncertainty unless planted or read.

We are standing in front of the school measuring where the pumpkins will go. We ask one final time “are you sure this is ok” as if to say, “this is exactly what we have been looking to do” Frances' response is “my principal says just as long as we don’t create any extra work”. There will be work but the beautiful thing about Frances is nothing is extraneous; everything makes sense. Its all a matter of perspective and that perspective is pragmatic optimism.

Living Food

Visiting Eco-Friendly Foods earlier this week will probably result in several blog posts..here is another.

After visiting Eco-Friendly Foods and speaking at length with Bev Eggleston, we began to talk about what exactly a food movement means. When pressed on the question of whether corporations could reproduce what he is doing and thereby co-opt certain practices, similar to the way ‘Organic’ has been rendered a useless tag; Bev makes it very clear that his practice is so singular, so particular to the area, time, animal, and farms serviced (even the weather of a particular day), that it would be impossible for corporations to co-opt. Even if ‘Acme Meat Processing’ were to try to emulate Bev, they would immediately find it cost prohibitive. The reason why is: Eco-Friendly Foods is a hands on approach, malleable in its ability to adapt to the instantaneous swerves that are inherent in running small organizations. Eco-Friendly Foods is a Living self-organizing organism, and we mean literally Living. The value of Living that Bev, and others like him, put on their practice, their entire eco-system for that matter, is what puts these practices at odds with big business. The Living of food and the Living of the eater do not need to succumb to the collateral damage of bottom lines.

What is at stake are ‘practices’ and to allow these practices to exist for reasons other than, but not in opposition to money. Bev, or any other Artist concerned with the practice of Living organisms, are not interested in bending concerning factors to their will but act in concert with the understanding that every organism has a self-organizing tendency. Bev’s job is to bring about the best possible outcomes while trying to stay in business. To privilege vivacity should not oppose a practice of supplying food. Life is the open and unexpected demands and desires of organisms not straddled or bent to rigid concepts transcending from higher forces.

Living practices may be opposed to setting hard and fast goals that refuse singular practices. For example when asked if all the farms that Bev services are permaculture, Bev says, “I have old timers who have no idea what that means. But we KNOW these animals we pick up are as healthy and far better than most out there.” In other words small farmers who have passed along practices for generations are acting in a symbiotic relationship with their micro eco systems and to demand they practice a form of permaculture would be ridiculous. To send down regulated guidelines may leave behind practices that have helped us think action up to this point. Standardization would be counter effective within the growth of a food movement.

What we can learn from Bev, is a diagnostic approach that deals in differentials, analysis and sense particular in an operation. To copy his operation would be to lose the very concept on which this immanent, grassroots organization sprung. That is to say, to take the practices and impose them elsewhere would be quixotic. However this is not to say that Bev’s perspective, his overarching philosophy of particular singularities leading us, should not be explored and developed everywhere there are discussions of food practices. What is at stake is that the perspective of evolution allows room for growth, adaptation and to impose a revolution is a violent action that inherently leads to the question of: what next?

This evolution needs to take place in the financial markets first. Michael Pollan encourages us to vote with our forks. But as we have seen with the botched economy and stimulus this may not be enough. What is needed is investment in singular practices not in opposition to technology (for Bev’s plant is technologically advanced), but in concert with best practices. Eco-Friendly Foods has everything in place except the infrastructure and the human power to expand to where they need to be. Bev has established a market for what he does, he needs investors. Investors that privilege the pioneer aspects of what Bev has established.

Living is a process of the now, acknowledging a past that can never be present and speculating a future that will never exist. Living helps us think necessity, how to avoid avarice and the ability to handle the turbulence that make up a Life. Financial markets are controlled; corporations are mandated to follow bottom lines. Freeing Financial Markets may be our most important challenge within a so-called food movement. In the meantime Bev will be at the Dupont Farmers Market this Sunday.

Fig Chutney

Today was busy after being out of town for the day yesterday. In addition to a few wedding meetings, a garden that we worked on and lots of back and forth phone calls and emails about a variety of projects there were two days worth of figs to pick. Today that meant lots of figs, John, Martin-Lane and I were all on ladders collecting the ripe fruit. We have been eating figs, made a large batch of fig compote, sharing figs and this evening we all made a batch of fig chutney.
We are enjoying this years large harvest more than ever.

Todays Fig Chutney

Brown Turkey and Celeste Figs, stems cut off and cut in half
Onions sliced
Fresh Ginger grated (lots of it)
Red wine vinegar
Cinnamon
Pinch of Clove
Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
Salt

Slowly cook over a low heat stirring regularly until the mixture is thick. Adjust the seasonings. Serve hot or cold as a condiment to vegetables, bread, cheese, meat, poultry...

I just put nearly 8 quarts on fig chutney away!