Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Bits of Tid

I have a cold, but even worse, ECG has pneumonia. Our house is a den of pestilence and infection right now. Don't worry, you can't catch diseases through the internet; I promise.

Rather than flesh out the post I've been working on sporadically through this illness, I'll instead post a few snippets that have captured my attention and imagination lately. Here goes.

1) Yes, we're in an economic crisis, but I think there is a business out there that needs starting and would be successful in many urban areas of the world: veggie garden consultancies. I've heard people toss this idea around quite a bit, some mention that they'd like to start businesses along these lines, but I haven't seen many actually happen. I know a lot of people who would pay to have food growing on their property or at least learn how to grow food on their property. Somebody out there, some entrepreneurial organic veggie-loving soul, please actually do this. I promise to write about it if you do. If you're already doing it, let me know how it is working for you.

2) There is proof that students listen to me about more than just English. College students are demanding and receiving farmers' markets on their campuses.

3) As I've written about before, seed saving is a necessity (albeit a beautiful, fascinating one) in our system of modern agriculture. Seed Ambassadors have created a free zine on the subject, one that is informative, beautiful, easy to use, and did I say it already?, free!

4) I want to give major props to Patrick and the team working to put together Altadena's future co-op. This will work. This will get off the ground. This will make real change in our community.

Bear with ECG and me as we recuperate. We will. And when we do, I'll finally be able to finish that post that has been bouncing around in my head for the last week or so. In the meantime, I hope I've shared some food for thought. I'd love to hear your responses.

Happy day, friends.

7 comments:

GS said...

Hope you both feel better soon :)

Am with you on the veggie gardening lessons. I have a client in Australia who has been thinking about doing that.

At least the school garden concept is creeping its way around the world!

Anonymous said...

Oh my, feel better! i was just felled by that and I'm still not fully recovered. Drink lots of tea and read wonderful books. I hope you're both feeling better very soon.

Anonymous said...

Oh god, I'll say hi to your horse. I think the veg consultant was a good idea, but in this climate (financially speaking0, people are more likely to try it themselves.

I'll check out the seed zine.

Anonymous said...

Hope you're feeling better!

Thanks for posting that link re: farmer's markets on college campuses. I've passed that along to a few people at my local university and it's been drawing immediate and enthusiastic attention. It's great to see...

Dea Anne said...

Feel better soon. Thanks for the great links. According to craigslist, it looks like a few people in and around Atlanta are trying the veggie garden consulting thing.

Christina said...

AOF: Thanks for your kind words.

Ann: We're on the upswing. On top of our combined illnesses, we had my uncle living with us this past week because my aunt had heart surgery and the hospital is much nearer our home than his. Life has been very, very full, a little too much so.

Altadenahiker: CeeCee isn't my horse (she's the school's), but I'm sure she'd love the hello. I missed riding again on Friday because the shit keeps hitting the fan. I just wish I could get the fan to spin slower.

Sue: I'm glad you found it helpful. Thanks for your well wishes.

Dea Anne: Thanks for you kind words. Craigslist is a good lead.

Anonymous said...

As just a point of info...I helped lay the groundwork for a Farmer's Market on our campus in 2006 and its running strong for its third year now at Loyola Marymount, before anybody gives USC any congratulations. They got the idea from us.