Every Third Bite

It's been a long time since I got inspired to write in my blog. But then today I read this article EPA Sued for Bee Colony Collapse Cover-Up and thought it was time to get back.
Certainly honey is the sun's energy as our nourishment. I was fascinated by the beekeepers in the video, and horrified about the news about this new pesticide that farmers have been mislead to use, while it is killing the major thing they need so their plants can be productive!

The video also mentions some of the things that large commericial pollinating beekeepers are doing which may also be causing a collapse.
Humans are sure stupic when it comes to managing nature!

Home grown tomatoes

Home grown tomatoes
Originally uploaded by bonbayel.

I promised I'd write about our home grown tomatoes.
Even before I moved here, a friend told me that one of the great things about living here in Southern California was that tomatoes become perenials. We've had tomato plants in pots that really did last a couple of years.

But nothing compares with our crop this year. We have just 2 plants, but this year they're large organic tomatoes planted in our new bed with their roots down in the soil which has been enriched with a year's compost.

We have tried to keep removing most of the extra shoots and I capped all the top shoots before we left for Maine, but being away just 2 weeks they've sprung out all over the place. The plants are way over the top of our garden wall, so the neighbor can enjoy the top shoots now, and whatever tomatoes go over the wall as well I guess.

Except for one that had started getting pink before we left, which we took with us to Maine, the tomatoes just started to become ripe after we got home. So far we've managed with one or two big ones a day, but they're catching up on us!

John keeps singing the song John Denver made popular, with this refrain:

Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes,
What'd life be without home grown tomatoes?
There's only two things that money can't buy:
True love - and home grown tomatoes.

You can hear it here sung by the composer himself, Guy Clarke.

Tonight we had mozarello cheese, basil, black olives and home grown tomatoes for dinner!
Someday soon there will be so many that we'll have an incredibly delicious gazpacho. Mmmm!

"A World That Stands as One"

I haven't written in my blog for a long time. We spent a couple of lovely weeks in Maine that I was going to write about, but then came home to many tasks that needed doing first. Then I was going to write about the incredible tomatoes in our garden (that comes next.)

But then this morning I watched with tears streaming down my face as Barack Obama addressed a wildly enthusiastic crowd in Berlin, a city I have visited many times from soon after the wall went up in 1963 to soon after it was torn down in 1993. John visited Berlin, too, in 2000 before coming to Denmark to ask me to marry him - and then I followed him home to the America that was about to become George Bush's parody of the country I love.

Barack spoke from the Tiergarten, where 40 years ago I fell in love with my first (Danish) husband - the father of my 2 children - in the year of change 1968. Back then the whole area was either vacant, bombed out spaces, or the glorious buildings of the new Germany, including the new Modern Art Museum and the new Philharmonic Hall, with a messy and ugly wall just across the street, dividing a great city.

Another time I came for an EU conference where people from the various countries were invited to get together to discuss our common future. Twice I was there as a Danish German teacher, once on an tour of the city's architectural history, and once on my way to Erfurt in what was then Eastern Germany, along with teachers from around the world. My last visit was in 1996 on a trip with my chorale, with a view of a very different city from the one of my first visit more than 30 years earlier!

Barack envisions a world getting together and tearing down all of those walls we have been building in this world - and he asks us all - Americans, Berliners, world citizens - to join him to accomplish this vision.

Barack Obama has presented a daunting platform for himself, for the United States, and for the world. If you haven't seen his speech, be sure to give yourself time to watch it here.

After supporting first John Edwards and then Hillary Clinton, and then knowing I would support Barack Obama, I think this speech is the turning point, where I have now caught the passion for my support!

Living under seige

The new kitchen
Originally uploaded by bonbayel.

We're sort of thinking about moving to something more environmentally sustainable than here (more about that in another post,) that doesn't have stairs (so we also can stay living there when our knees give out completely) and with more room

But to do that, we have to fix up the condo to remove the bumps and scratches of time, as well as repair larger items, like the light well in the kitchen, which now boasts CFL bulbs and white cabinets, which we understand is what sells these days (they used to be dark wood veneer, which is what the kitchen in the house we're looking at has...)

So everything is draped in plastic, and we've established an interim breakfast and lunch kitchen in the bedroom (sigh!) and we're pretty much living upstairs, except for occasional escapes outside!

I insisted that the painter select water-based paints, although I didn't go as far to pick the really "organic" paints that I would have if we were planning to stay there. The hard part for the painter was the base coat to prime the dark stained cabinets. Dunn & Edwars had the correct paint, since California is outlawing oil-based paints with their nasty VOC content (the part that smells for months after a paint job and gives you a headache) as of July 1, He said the paint store was selling the old stuff at higher prices. I bet there are some who are hoarding, because they don't believe the other's going to work!

At any rate, the smell isn't too bad. John, who grew up in North Carolina, says it reminds him of an old empty "tobacky barn!" No headaches, either, so that is at least pleasant!

Yes We Can

I don't usually write political messages here, but I just watched Hillary's speech for Obama, and was moved to tears that are still dribbling down my face.

This has been a very hard campaign, because Hillary's supporters also want everything that Barack Obama was supporting, just that one little thing more - that finally the glass ceiling would be broken, and the 50% of us who are women could see that we aren't being kept out of the White House.

The Week Magazine's cover shows the White House with a sign "No Girls Allowed," just like your brother's tree house, with one of their typical composite articles Clinton: Why her supporters are so angry, quoting journalists from many sources.

I don't think I am angry. We wanted too much. We wanted somehow that both would win, that neither would lose. We have always wanted an African American to become President as much as we wanted a woman to become President. Trouble is, they can't both be it at the same time, and they are both too strong personalities to share the role with Hillary as VP.

But listen to Hillary's speech. She lists all those things we wanted, and tells us to make sure Obama gets elected so that they can be carried out. And Hillary will be supporting him the whole way, as will I. I am sure that Hillary will have a role in this country's future that goes beyond being the Junior Senator from New York. She will work - with Obama -

• to make sure we all have health care.
  
• to turn around this ridiculous economy that is spending money of weapons that should be used to make sure that all Americans - everyone - has the opportunities to fulfill their dreams.
  
• to work toward a time when all of our energy is sustainable.
  
• to make sure that people all over can afford their food, through sustainable agriculture.
  
• to ensure that people don't have to fear having a home for their families, and a way to get to work, schools and whereever else they want to go.
  
• to work toward bringing our soldiers home, and making sure, as our thanks to them for participating in a war they were tricked into entering, that they have all the support they and their families need for a bright future with both education and health care for both the psychological and physical injuries they bring home with them.

Hillary needs our continued support right now to reduce her campaign debt.

And Obama will need all we can give of time, money and our words until we elect him as President of the United States in November, and the next eight years as well (unless he messes up, when we must always remember to tell him so!) Read here his words of thanks to Hillary:

Obviously, I am thrilled and honored to have Senator Clinton's support. But more than that, I honor her today for the valiant and historic campaign she has run. She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams. And she inspired millions with her strength, courage and unyielding commitment to the cause of working Americans. Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life, and I'm a better candidate for having had the privilege of competing with her in this campaign. No one knows better than Senator Clinton how desperately America and the American people need change, and I know she will continue to be in the forefront of that battle this fall and for years to come.

Hillary was competing against a very able candidate, but she has proved that we can break that glass ceiling! As she said in her speech:

There are already 18 million cracks in it!

As with any disappointment, it will take a few days to heal. We knew long ago it would end this way. And all along we said that both candidates were equally able. As a woman I knew early on that it wasn't this time that sexism would be erased in this country. Sexism has probably always existed, and is firmly entrenched in many religions and cultures in this world. Even in Denmark, which has many able women politicians, there are barriers for women (more in business than in politics, from my experience.) I hope my daughter manages to break those glass ceilings!

But we must remember Obama's cry, which has become Hillary's:

Yes we can!

Terracycle recycles wrappers!

In the latest edition of Sierra Magazine I just discovered a (transitional, in my opinion) solution to all these non-biodegradable candy wrappers. A new company called Terracycle has figured out a way to collect and reuse plastic bottles, juice wrappers and candy wrappers, working with the companies that package their products in them.
For example, here is how you can help recycle those Clif's Bar wrappers into a purse, as in the illustration from their website:

TerraCycle & Clif Bar Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade, Sponsored by Clif Bar™
Every year millions of non-recyclable energy bar wrappers end up in our landfills. TerraCycle and Clif Bar are working together to change that. As an eco-friendly innovator, TerraCycle is going to convert the used wrappers into unique accessories and other upcycled products.

Once you have signed up for the Wrapper Brigade, TerraCycle will mail out 4 prepaid collection bags to your address. Once a collection bag is filled with 200 wrappers please seal and drop off the filled bag at a UPS drop off location near you.

The Wrapper Brigade program will allow almost any individual and organization to save energy bar wrappers from taking up space in our nations landfills. Clif Bar will donate $.02 per energy bar wrapper you collect to the charity of your choice. If you don't have a charity currently in mind, you may choose from a list of existing charities! There are no signup fees whatsoever. To see if this program is right for you, click here for some FAQs.

However, I don't think this solves the candy wrapper problem entirely, and Clif's Bars shouldn't think it does.

• You have to have a market for these rather strange-looking products.
• The quota for collecting Clif's Bars wrappers for this month is already filled, so the next bunch will go back to landfills.
• This is a great marketing ploy for Clif's Bars - get school classes to collect Clif's Bars wrappers, for example, but the kids have to buy the bars first to get the wrappers!
• There is a tiny mention of this on the Clif Bar site, but no link, so people don't know how to contact Terracycle - or buy the purse.

But nevertheless, this is a brilliant way to do something with a problem that is very serious. Conceivably other candy companies (like Hershey's) could design a special wrapper product in conjunction with TerraCycle that they sell through their own website.

Congratulations Terracycle. May you be very successful in getting packaging out of nature and landfills!

Shopping Organically

I have received invitations to a new webshop, called ShopOrganic where you can get organic products, which is a very fine endeavor, since such products aren't always easy to find in your local supermarket.

However, I've got this bug about packaging, which I've mentioned in several blog entries. I noticed, for example, that they are selling liquid detergents in plastic bottles, rather than more environmentally friendly powders in recycled cardboard containers. So (of course) I wrote them a letter:

Hi ShopOrganic!
Congratulations on your new store. I hope it is successful, since it isn’t always easy to find the products I want in my local Safeway/Vons or other more “sustainable” shops that I have to drive to.
There is an issue that has been bothering me for a while, though, which I would appreciate your addressing, namely sustainable packaging. As I wrote in my blog candy-wrappers and Remembering waxed paper, there are a lot of more or less organic products packaged in decidedly non-biodegradable or recyclable wrappers.
I would appreciate being able to read on your site what products are packaged in, as well as bugging your suppliers about their packaging. If customers were aware of how unsustainable their packaging is, they would put pressure on suppliers by not buying the products, forcing them to find the right solution!
Of course liquids in plastic bottles can be just as problematic, since plastic is usually a petroleum product. But if companies could work out a reuse method, I’d be delighted! For that reason, for example, I buy only laundry products in recycled cardboard cartons, rather than carrying home a lot of just plain water in a plastic jug!

Here is their reply:

Hello Bonnie,
Thank you for your email.
We share your concern about the type and amount of packaging with a lot of products out there. Our plan is to have each product on our site indicate the type of packing and its recyclability (probably a recycle symbol indicating if it is recyclable much like other symbols we have, e.g. kosher, organic, etc). We will also be carry a number of bulk products in the near future; in other words, more product and less individual packing.
We have and will continue to discuss this issue with our suppliers as well.
Also, we use recycled and recyclable packing material, and try to use as little as possible to get our products to our customers in the most environmentally economical way.
Again, we appreciate your email and we are supportive. We will do what we can to help the planet.
Healthy regards,

Gerry
gerry@shopOrganic.com
shopOrganic.com - For The Greater Goods (SM)
520.792.0804 x204