This week we received two great tips to pass along. The first is an organization called realorganicproject.org. I was able to look up the organic farmers listed in our area and sadly found there aren’t any. Yet! I was really hopeful about this information because I’ve found it shockingly difficult to find organic produce in these parts. Even the adorable little market, so like our natural foods market in Murphys, rarely carries anything organic. Truth be told, even our adorable Murphys natural foods market is sliding in the direction of “local” rather than organic. I can understand that not shipping stuff all over the country is good for the environment, but I’ve never found it more desirable to ingest local pesticides than imported pesticides. I realize the thinking behind “local” is that it’s so expensive to get certified, people who don’t use pesticides can sell their produce as local. But that does depend on the honesty of everyone involved. Given the number of products that have “organic” on the label and aren’t, well….
I can’t tell whether it’s the good news or the bad news that the local Safeway carries more organic items than the farm store. However, more good news did arrive with the discovery of Country Aire Natural Foods just up the road in Port Angeles. Anybody remember what Whole Foods used to be like? When everything was organic? That’s what this is like. Rarely a bit of anything not organic and everything gorgeous. Bright, colorful—just what we want to grow.
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Speaking of what we want to grow, the little greenhouse will arrive next week. There’s a consult in to the native plants nursery lady for a location recommendation. We’re getting it from the same fellow who sells the glass buildings I’m so enamored with. He agreed to deliver it (all in one piece) at no extra charge, which sealed the deal for me. They can be ordered online, shipped from somewhere in the country several weeks in the future, needing to be assembled. Uh uh. Not me. It all seems so marvelously simple in the videos on Youtube, and then, as Jiyu Kennett pointed out, “With the ideal comes the actual.” What price sanity? |
The second tip is the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org) an organization with lots of great information on all sorts of products, issues, and research. If you’re wondering about a particular product, they seem an excellent resource.
Part of the reason I was excited to be up here even while other folks are still in Murphys is to get a sense of the climate in the fall, through the winter, and into the spring. I had spent enough time in Sequim to know what summers are like—hence the desire for us to be in this location—but not much time in the other seasons. As a native Californian, anywhere with seasons, severe cold, snow, and rain can be daunting. I’m grateful for this time because I’ve learned something I find fun. This Zen Monastery Peace Farm (good name?) has a very different climate from Sequim, at sea level, while we’re at close to two thousand feet. Big difference! It’s true that we all got snow in the giant freeze our beloved neighbors across the water in British Columbia sent us, though in downtown Sequim it was a few of days of white, some need for street clearing, and away we go; whereas up here it was “if the neighbor doesn’t come by and clear the driveway you’re not going anywhere” deep. Because of that and the fact that we’re always 4-5 degrees cooler than downtown, I figured the townies have the best weather. Turns out that’s not so. On several occasions I’ve left here in bright sunshine (40 outside and 70 in the house), and driven down into overcast gloom. Today the prediction was for cloudy skies all day, and I just took the picture below of Grandmother Mountain basking in bright blue skies. Plus, having more moisture than the lower elevations, everything here is greening up beautifully. Feeling fortunate!
So, just when I thought it was safe to start planning the plantings in the green house, I saw the article on peat. Oh, my. It’s easy to have compassion for all of us. There’s so much to know about so much that unless a person has a particular reason to go deep in a particular area, or just has lots of time and interest in amassing information on pretty much every topic, a person just isn’t going to know a lot of really important stuff. Like what’s happening to the planet because everybody has been taught to believe that peat is what one grows plants in. At the Monastery we didn’t use “store bought” compost so peat never came up in the conversation. Even if we had used compost from a store it’s doubtful peat would have come up in the conversation! I really appreciated the author of one article who encouraged folks to exercise caution and kindness in the transition from peat to not peat. Not knowing how to care for one’s plants and killing all of them along the learning curve is not what we’re going for. As awareness practitioners we can relate appreciatively. No “baby out with the bathwater” wholesale changes. Slow, gentle, careful, and attentive wins the day.
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My current favorite gardening/what the planet needs/be kind to our Mother Earth read is Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden. She’s the gardening person for the New York Times and did a wonderful article on the Brooklyn Bridge Park and its director of horticulture Rebecca McMackin. Ms. McMackin’s philosophy and its successful implementation is heartening and inspiring. And Ms. Roach’s approach to gardening is encouraging for those new to taking responsibility for earth, seeds, and plant people. Essentially the message is, “Do your best. The garden, like animals and children, will be forgiving of efforts made with love, care, kindness, and compassion—even when ill-conceived and poorly executed.” My kind of message! |
In gasshō,
ch