most of all

via Dave via Tom Robbins' Still Life with Woodpecker:

Yes, and I love the trite mythos of the outlaw. I love the self-conscious romanticism of the outlaw. I love the black wardrobe of the outlaw. I love the fey smile of the outlaw. I love the tequila of the outlaw and the beans of the outlaw. I love the way respectable men sneer and say 'outlaw.' I love the way young women palpitate and say 'outlaw.' The outlaw boat sails against the flow, and I love it. Outlaws toilet where badgers toilet, and I love it. All outlaws are photogenic, and I love that. 'When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free': that's a graffito seen in Anacortes, and I love that. There are outlaw maps that lead to outlaw treasures, and I love those maps especially. Unwilling to wait for mankind to improve, the outlaw lives as if that day were here, and I love that most of all.

P.S. screen printing is awesome.

:D

LA Green Festival

THIS WEEKEND LA Green Festival

October 29-30 at the LA Convention Center: Line up of speakers & events around 'green living,' whatever that is! [sustainable economy, ecological balance, social justice, I guess.] Amy Goodman will be there and I love her.

The SF Green Festival is on November 12-13 at the SF Concourse Exhibition Center.

Salon on Wednesday

SALON Convergence in Diversity

November 30, 6:15PM at the David Brower Center in Downtown Berkeley

Rooted and Rising, hosted by the Earth Island Institute's New Leaders Initiative: a dialogue and 'solutions salon' on Convergence in Diversity: how to turn the food movement into a force for social transformation. RSVP here. It's free, let's go!

The prompt: There are many different groups working to address food issues. How can we bring this diversity of groups together to be effective and successful in our common endeavors?

I love

I LOVE

Farm and Garden 2011 from Weston on Vimeo.

Farm cats, fresh fruit pies, fork and spade, field flowers, felcos, friends.

Outside Boutiques

VIDEO CLIP via kitchenkwento.com

Interviewed by Adobo Nation, featuring Miss Aileen (I miss you!) at the Farm & Garden. Hits and connects: health, culture, and economy as related to sustainable food systems.

Some related thoughts:

Granola, quinoa, amaranth.

Kale, arugula, chard.

Bread, butter, milk.

All things Whole Foods, organic, local, fair trade, and fancy.

Deep down inside, I can't relate.

All things unfamiliar and irrelevant.

Granola, sweet. Quinoa, kwinoh-ah. Amaranth..

Kale, so green. Arugula, bitter. Chard, cooks mushy.

Bread, keep it in the freezer. Butter, all fat. Milk, soy.

Why is the face of whole, organic, local, and fair trade food represented only by particular 'hippy food' ingredients like kale? And why are quality and healthy foods displayed as boutique, luxury goods? It's not like buying a Lexus over a Honda, luxury over economy. The cheaper economy car can work well, whereas the cheaper basket of strawberries laced with methyl iodide cannot. Buying quality food is more like buying a running car over a broken car. In my cynical way, I think the image of quality food has been hi-jacked (intentionally or not) by fancy marketing teams and fancy neighborhoods. They use light green earthy colors matched with birch wood panels and endearing chalked letters on blackboard. I love it and hate it. They package and commoditize the shit out of quality food to make it something more than it is. The cute storefront, the style, the fresh and amazing gourmet product - love it. The feel-good rhetoric, like I'm supposed to get a pat on the back for going into a natural foods store and purchasing chocolate that isn't produced with cacao picked by the hands of desperate mothers. Hate it.

Quality food, healthy lifestyles, and sustainable cultures should not be tied up in boutique stores situated on cute San Francisco street corners. Obesity, heart disease, and economic instability will never be saved by the boutique alone. Or by kale and quinoa alone. The face and representation of quality food and culture need to be multi-faceted and produced by an array of cultures and communities to address the suffering of lifestyle-related diseases by our parents, siblings, children, and friends. Okay?

first day

MY FIRST DAY out of Santa Cruz (yesterday), and I find myself:

at the Landscape Horticulture Department at Merritt College

conversing on the role of cultural diversity in landscape design

getting connected to an apprentice alum

ditching a screening of 'Seeding the Future' to attend a series on sustainable food systems

in the same room as Alice Waters, Nikki Henderson, Michael Pollan, and Raj Patel

receiving an invitation to the 3rd Annual Food Collective Harvest Gala

having food and drink with my old agroecology lab mates

brainstorming ways to re-invest assets

feeling lucky with direction

Greenhorns

SCREENING Seeding the Future 10/18 in SF @ Internet Archive

Roundtable discussion/panel/potluck featuring young American farmers.

Graduation

I'm going to miss this place ^

MANIFESTO: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

A poem by Wendell Berry, selective chunks. It's something I don't intend to take word for word, but do intend to keep in my back pocket as I enter the nine to five.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won't compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie down in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn't go.

Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

Squash Pile

PILE of Squash

So many varieties. Of just squash! From the National Heirloom Expo.

Promagation

FLOWERS <3 them

Boutonnieres we made using little things from the garden. I think I could make these all day, everyday, never blink, and be happy.

Sometimes, when I try to make a mixed flower bouquet, I get to feeling a bit crazy and completely dissatisfied with the awkward lump of flower mess I have created. Choked in my hand, I look at it for way too long and wonder what's missing in its structure, texture, or color. Not knowing what to add or change, I tighten my grasp. Torture.

Thankfully, last week, my fellow Up Garden folks and I were graced with the pleasure of learning how to use flowers effectively from our talented apprentice friends, to make bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres. Good for business. And good for things like prom, which happens to be tomorrow. Farm Prom, in the Greenhouse; 'Promagation,' as in 'Propagation.' :D It comes down to a loose grip, starting with a good structure, filling in space adequately, and using complimentary colors with a diversity of textures. To finally make a complete, satisfying bouquet that's easy on the eyes, it is liberating.