The Local Eating Trend...

There has been a trend in the last few years when it comes to eating.  It is called Local Eating, or eating locally.  The idea is for individuals to choose to eat foods which are in season and grown within a short distance from where they live.

The problem I've always had with this concept is that the people I've heard about who have chosen to eat like this live in areas where there is always something in season.  If this is the case where you live, wonderful!  It is a great way to do your part for the environment and to be responsible for the world around you.  But my question has always been, "What happens if you live on the Canadian prairies and nothing is in season for 9 months of the year?"  I feel like telling the warmer-climate hippies to bite their tongues because obviously they are blind to what winter means for us.

I wasn't even thinking about this question, though, when I discovered that, while growing up, my family really did eat mostly local produce year round!  I had no idea that my mom was so "ahead of the times"!  (I bet Mom didn't either, did you Mom?)  I was shocked to see that it can work, even in the dead of a Saskatchewan winter.  Here's how we did it:

My mom would always have a garden.  In it she would plant cucumbers, potatoes, peas, corn, carrots, onions, tomatoes, peppers, beans (sometimes?), cabbage, and lettuce (am I forgetting anything?).  I also remember having kohlrabi one year, as well as squash.  Rhubarb and raspberries were also grown every year.  These vegetables would basically feed our family all winter.  My mom would spend all summer tending to the garden, planting, hilling, fencing, weeding, picking, etc. 

Once the garden was stripped of all its vegetables, the job wasn't done.  Vegetables don't feed a family all winter without a little help.  Potatoes, carrots and onions were put into storage in a cold room to be used throughout the winter.  Peas and corn were frozen.  Tomatoes were made into sauce and canned.  Cucumbers were made into both relish and pickles.  And, of course, much of the produce was eaten fresh, as that's when it always tastes best!


It's true, I didn't grow up with a variety of vegetables.  We didn't have salads year-round, and our vegetable side dishes were often peas or corn.  But it was a balanced diet nonetheless, and we were all healthy and happy.  And we were helping the environment more than I ever realized... 

Thanks, Mom, for all your hard work in the garden every summer.  Sorry I didn't help out more than you made me!  I do hope to have a big garden one day and provide for my family the way you provided for us.  Thank-you!

Monterey and the Coast

Friday and Saturday of last week were spent on the beautiful coast of California.  Nathan's parents have been down since Wednesday, so we enjoyed the coast with them.  On Friday morning, we drove down to Monterey Bay.  We spent a couple hours in the Monterey Aquarium, which was quite fascinating and VERY impressive.  I'm not normally much of a "fish person" but I must admit, it was quite remarkable.  My favorite part, though, was when Nathan and I just sat and watched the sea otters play.  They really liked to show off for the people watching and it was great fun to see!

These are some of the waves that we saw crashing on the coast at Monterey.  

They were the largest I'd ever seen in my life...I think they were about 12-13 feet high.

The next day we spend the majority of the day just driving down the coast.   It was so very beautiful, but since getting pregnant, I have been much more prone to car-sickness.  The roads were up-and-down and very curvy through the coastal mountains.  The waves were crashing on the rocks way down beside us, but I could hardly look out the window to enjoy it!  Oh well.  I'm really glad we went because it's something I've wanted to see since we moved down here. 

This picture is the "Lone Cypress" in/near Monterey.  It is over 250 years old.

Sunday we went to church together and spent the afternoon napping and reading and making beer butt chicken (see Nathan's blog HERE).  Overall it was a wonderful Easter weekend.  He is RISEN!!!

Blossom Trail

Where we are attending school, we are in the middle of orchard/vineyard country.  It is absolutely beautiful, especially this time of year.  All the blossoms are out!  They actually have this "blossom trail" marked out on local highways so you can have a good tour of a variety of trees and blossoms.  To drive around the whole thing it probably takes about an hour to an hour and a half.  We took a drive through part of blossom trail while my parents were out and boy was it beautiful.  Here are some pictures we took so you can all enjoy it too as most of you wait out the rest of winter up in Canada...though from the looks of it, we chose a poor winter to be away.  The weather up north this year has been looking exceptionally mild.  Good for you guys :D

 

 

Beauty.

 

Yes, I do still get the camera out every once in a while.  Especially when I see things like this blooming right outside our apartment block.  I believe it's an Iris?  Correct me if I'm wrong.  There are a few more buds just waiting to burst into full bloom too.  I love this time of year in California!  Flowers are blooming and many of the trees that lost their leaves for winter are already turning visibly green.  It's absolutely beautiful.  Doesn't compare to hoar frost, but it'll do.

Tree Roots.

Trees have roots.  Some trees have deep, strong roots.  Other trees have short, shallow, weak roots.  Do you know what makes that difference?  It's how the tree is being watered.

In some places there are underground springs that the trees receive their nourishment from.  The roots have to reach further and further down in order to find what they need to survive.  And as a result, they are strongly rooted and produce fruit, even when there has been no rain for a while.

On the other hand, in some places there is no ground water, so the trees are nourished from above.  Sprinklers or rainfall provides the tree with water so the roots have no need to grow down deep.  They just stay on the surface and take what is given to them.  They don't dig deep, through clay and rocks and soil to find nourishment.  And as a result, these trees stop producing fruit and begin to wilt as soon as the sprinkler fails to provide and the heavens remain dry.

What type of tree are you?  Do you wilt as soon as the drought appears?  Or do dry times just cause you to reach down further and further until you find water again?

"He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." 

Jeremiah 17:8

Noise...

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray.

He spent time in silence.

He went away from other people and distractions and spent time with His Father.

I know that I benefit from withdrawing, and it's not just because I'm an introvert.

I know that my relationship with God grows through time spent in silence and solitude.

So why do I constantly fill my life with noise and distractions?

I used to find such life through wandering out into open fields and forests full of trees.

I would often plunk myself down in lonely places and spend hours, sometimes, just praying and listening and, mostly, being still.

Since moving to the heart of a busy city, I have found it hard to withdraw. 

Where do you go when everywhere you go there are buildings and noises and people? 

Where is the stillness when you can never count on being alone from one minute to the next?

It's hard for me to live in a city. 

Where do people meet with God here?

It's not like the prairies...

I can't just wander out and be alone in nature with God.

And the spare bedroom is just not the same.

Yosemite

Nathan and I went out to Yosemite with a couple of friends on Friday.  It was good, except for these roads driving in:

Winding roads along the side of the mountain + extreme elevation changes = sick me.
*sigh* I bought some motion sickness drugs when we got where we were going and took some before we left to come back.  I think they helped...I didn't get sick on the way back at least!

It was beautiful though:

Do you see the waterfall in the background?  Here's a better shot of it:

Apparently the waterfalls are at their fullest in a couple months when the spring runoff happens.  Makes sense.

We saw some other waterfalls too...they were beautiful as well.  Nathan is an amazing nature photographer.  I will admit, though, I was not always as patient as I should have been when he would park with the camera for 10-15 minutes in one spot...

Then again, he would get shots like this:

And I wouldn't.

We also climbed on some rocks right up to a waterfall:

I like climbing on rocks.  I think my low center of gravity and balance really help me.  In this picture I have something in each of my hands, so I had to catch myself with my other foot.  It worked.  I didn't fall once.  So I guess that book that I mentioned a while ago where I was warned about my lifespan being shorter because I am short doesn't apply to death due to rock-climbing (or any balance-related activity).  Take that, tall people.

Here is a picture of me and Nathan:

Looking pretty good for almost 5 years of marriage, eh?

This is one of the shots that we were climbing on the rocks to get:

Oh yeah, and we saw snow:

It was very grainy snow, not at all like the soft fluffy snow that you get on the prairies.  Here it was just packed ice.  It made me sad that this is all the snow some kids get to experience in their lives. 

And last but not least, something completely unrelated to our Yosemite trip:

 

This is my latest creation that is going to my Etsy site.  I couldn't get the colors to look true to themselves in the photo (boo on artificial lighting), but hopefully you can picture a real brown and a cute pink, cause that's how it really is.  I'll have to get a better picture next time it's sunny outside, but that might be a while.  It's supposed to be rainy at least until the weekend.

Going Green

I'm going to share some more of our winter with you in picture form.  I was just outside taking pictures so you can all be assured that I took these pictures TODAY.  It's just so beautiful.  Don't take this as bragging...just think of it as a nice taste of spring in the midst of cold, Canadian winter days. : )

 Some cool leaves that remind me of Paraguay every time I walk by them

April showers bring May flowers...unless you're in California.  Then it's December showers bringing January flowers.

A shot of the admin building with the palm trees that I thought would amaze me in the middle of winter.  Little did I know that they would become commonplace and I would simply forget that it is the middle of winter!

 

A little "hidden" playground that is all fenced and hedged in...so fun!

The trees are showing signs of all the seasons.  We have trees that are still green as ever, some that are beautifully red and yellow, some that are completely bare, and yet others that are already budding!

 

 Our little friend, Mr. Squirrel.  I'm pretty sure he has a name that someone in the court gave him.  But I can't seem to remember.  All the squirrels have been scurrying around since September preparing for winter.  Hmm...remind me again when "winter" is due to arrive?

 

Fall Retreat

This past weekend was the annual fall retreat for our school. It was out in the mountains, about a 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive from here. It was a beautiful drive, that is, if you could actually take your eyes off the road. I had my eyes glued to the narrow winding road in a desperate attempt to not get sick. I am such a prairie girl when it comes to mountain roads. But once we were up at the camp, I enjoyed the trees, mountains, and silence.

My favorite part of the weekend was when I hiked up to "Inspiration Point". It's about a 10 minute hike up from the camp to a lookout where you can see mountains all the way around you.

I went up there Sunday morning while everyone else was having breakfast. I was the only one up there, so I spent an hour taking some pictures and just sitting there soaking it all in. I sang a bit and prayed a bit and left so very re-charged. Being in nature and silence (without sirens and tires squealing and bass and general traffic noise) is something that I love and need. If only driving through the mountains to get there wasn't such an ordeal!

The cabins were quite a shock, though. I knew that I shouldn't have been expecting much, but I don't remember the last time I could see daylight through the walls of the place I was going to sleep. It wasn't a question of if there were mice and spiders in our room...it was how many mice and spiders there were. Neither Nathan nor I wanted to sleep across the room from each other, so we ended up sleeping together on one of the twin beds. I can't say that we'd ever done that before. But it actually worked well, and we both got a decent night's sleep!

Oh, and there were lizards all over the rocks while I was up at the point. When I sat still for a few minutes, they came out all around me and were sunning themselves on the rocks. So cool.