We're ten years older, but wiser?

Ten years later, the country remembers the devastation it faced in 2001. Could it really be ten years from my geeky freshman self, sitting in french class while my instructor wept, the head master making the rumors materialize on the overhead speakers. There was an immediate need to know exactly where our families were, a pit lay on the bottom of our stomachs till we could hear their voices. Our hearts ached for everyone who suffered, directly and indirectly, from those calculated attacks. It was a punch in the stomach and we had the wind knocked out of us. All of us, the world. In our NYC suburb, we all knew someone whose life changed for the worse. Yet, it was almost masochistic the number of times the footage was replayed, it was shocking, heart wrenching, and the media set record viewings. We couldn't tear ourselves away. That was what extremism looks like, we thought, without perspective and a value for the sanctity of life. What rose up from the ash and debris was most shocking of all, in this polarized political environment in America, which we have accepted as reality - we united, like never before. Could we channel all that amazing patriotic and heroic post 9/11 energy and make some progress in washington? Instead, we went to war with a country that had nothing to do with those attacks, Bush's personal vendetta, his life's mission. And he exploited our broken hearts to pave the road to a senseless war in Iraq. Sanctity of life? Here in lies the parallels. But no matter who you talk to, God's on THEIR side. Everyone remembers that patriotism, but no one knows how it became so intangible. Because here we are, ten years later, far removed our sense of unity and togetherness, sitting on opposite sides of the lunch table, making inflammatory remarks, blocking any legislation that might stand to improve the quality of this life. This precious life. Let us not waste it.

beauty & bounty

Green bean, potato, tomato pesto salad - yum!

Raw desserts.... Apricot chew bars with pepitas & coconut

Raw thumbprint cookies made with sunflower seed butter, almonds, oats, dates and wild mustang grape jam

Goat cheese and tomato jam toasts

Almond cake with whipped cream and strawberries = A very happy birthday boy.

Brooklyn farmer's market!

farm lust!

This weekend, much to my delight, I discovered that my best girlfriends were also consumed with farm lust! We salivate at the idea of growing vegetables, making our own compost, milking goats and sitting down to a table of VERY local and beautiful food. The ability to truly understand and value where that meal came from. We are giddy at the idea of animals and soil, of planting seeds and picking fruit, of rolling pastures and lush overgrown gardens. Canning tomatoes, homemade jam, and fresh churned butter? I think it might be time for a cold shower...

Eat your heart out, Monsanto frankenseeds. My green zebras taste like sunshine.

Maybe its too much time in suburban waste land, of mindless consumerism and a feeling of - how much more out of touch could we really be? Maybe we are sick of our televisions telling us what to think, beauty magazines telling us that nothing in life is more important than size 2 mini skirts, or the realization that money really does make the world go round? But hey, I think we want off the merry-go-round. It's making us sick, and its melting the polar ice caps, and lets face it, our priorities are totally out of wack. Unique to our age group, we are also growing up part of the generation that asks the previous "What the f*** were you thinking?" And HOW DID WE GET HERE? And how will we ever get back to a simpler life, more connected to each other, the earth and the life we were granted? I can't say that everyone in my age group falls in line with this thinking, but I feel a movement stirring... in my bones... and I like it.

Fabulous trends like roof top gardens, seed exchanges, farmers markets, and a belief in the healing power of local organic produce is reason enough to keep us farm lusts optimistic. We want to escape the realities of modern life, the nuclear waste, the impending environmental catastrophe, the smoke stacks, the burried by products of oil refinement, and the stupid SUV's that take up two parking spots at the grocery store. We reject the obnoxious entitlement issues that manifest-destiny-esque mentality has given Americans, and our international bad rap its given us. We are getting fat, lazy and mindless, and if we don't do something now, we are going to materialize into a pixar movie where robots are left to clean up an uninhabitable planet, "wall-eeeeee!"

Farming is hard, you have to wake up really early, you get dirty and sometimes, even though you did everything you were supposed to -- your crop sucks and your tomatoes get blight! You have to milk twice a day, and you have to shovel shit. But, no other lifestyle can truly offer you first hand experiences in the circle of life. Where your animals mow your lawn with their teeth while fertilizing your soil, where the compost of your biodegradables nourishes your garden patch and makes your zucchini taste like gold. On a farm, everything moves in a circular motion as it should. In a modern consumer driven society, the only direction is forward at 100 mph and there are no rear view mirrors.

Local food production will save the world.