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Those early girls, they get me every time.
Those sweet young firmed-skinned beauties, blushing with the deepest blood-red fluids
that issue forth from their skin.
Punctuating and protecting a burst of seed and flavors that take me to the early taste of spring entranced with hints of late summer.
Their tasty tentacles embrace my culinary imagination.
Continue reading “An Ode, an Ask and a Recipe for The Early Girl Dry Farmed Tomato”
My profession and personal life have been interwoven and influenced by Albert Lusk over the decades. He was driven by his passion for organic agriculture and founded Albert’s Organics in 1980 when Whole Foods had one location.
I was working at Community Foods, a Natural Food Store in Santa Cruz, in the early 1980s. When Albert began delivering organic produce from Southern CA, our store expanded its organic offerings.
He came to be a friend and a mentor, sometimes a competitor, and he married my good friend, Claris Ritter.
Over time his company became the largest certified organic wholesale distributor of organically grown fresh produce in the United States. It was purchased by United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) in 1998. A few years later, UNFI purchased my company, Source Organic. I became part of the Albert’s Organic family and carried on his legacy there.
Albert retired and moved to Costa Rica. He was fond of hiking to a wild waterfall in Braulio Carillo National Park.
In late September, he went missing with his car as the only clue to his whereabouts near this densely forested region.
While the search is not over, the story of this organic pioneer can be heard from the many produce veterans who helped him build a nationwide organic produce network.
Continue reading “Albert Lusk: My Friend and Pioneer in the Organic Produce World”
If you are one of the many people suffering from and feeling the effects of our changing climate, like me, it’s time to get engaged.
The West Coast is still burning, with over 7 million acres charred so far.
My eyes water from the smoke and the displaced people—the lost wildlife and ecosystems. Zombie fires are erupting in the Arctic regions.
Sea levels are rising, and some believe that the dramatic changes in the Arctic suggest climate change could return Earth to Pliocene conditions of 3 million years ago. They say Florida and California’s Central Valley would be underwater, and it would be too hot to grow corn and wheat in the Midwest and Great Plains.
This year’s Atlantic hurricane season is on a record pace with 23 named storms through September. With two more months of hurricane season ahead, I fear we will suffer more flooding and damage.
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has laid it out pretty clearly: “The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.”
With a world gone mad with political and social upheaval, what can a person do to engage in mitigating the cause of these extreme events?
Continue reading “How to Engage in Mitigating Climate Change Before It’s Too Late”
I am a fantastic sleeper. My husband says he could conduct a marching band through our bedroom, and I would not awaken.
I dream vividly and can sleep soundly for 8-10 hours if the sun would just let me.
Most of us spend a prodigious amount of time in our bed. If I sleep for 8 hours a day, that means I will sleep for 229,961 hours in my lifetime or basically one-third of my entire life.
If you add when I’m awake relaxing with my hubby or reading the news, it can add more hours every day on this vital piece of furniture.
If the average American lies around for an additional four hours, research shows they can spend 36 years in bed throughout their lifetime – that’s nearly half of their life!
This got me to thinking… should I be considering what I am sleeping on?
Continue reading “What’s in Your Bed? Don’t Judge a Bed by Its Covers”
As I write, the entire west is burning up in historic conflagrations. According to Meteorologist Daniel Swain, “Around 3.5 million acres have burned so far in California in 2020. That’s around 3.5% of the entire land area of the state and is approaching *double* the previous record for the greatest acreage burned during a single year.”
The air is laced with smoke and ash; the orange sun some days does not come forth. The darkness shrouds me, and the air places a heavy weight on my chest.
The earth is sending us a message in this holy darkness—flames sown by our sturdy two-legged species; we have ingenious brains but hold no reverence for the future.
We act like animals in fights for survival as we subjugate her with overconsumption. Burning fossil fuels, destroying ancient forests for cheap hamburgers, farming with chemicals that add to global emissions.
I believe it need not be so and that we can begin to make a difference.
Continue reading “This Holy Darkness Is a Call for Food Policy Change”