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Resolve to eat local foods, cultivate intellect, relish beauty
By Jim Chatfield
Special to the Beacon Journal
Published on Saturday, Jan 03, 2009
A New Year of Plants to come. The majesty of oaks. Further losses of ashes. The tiny blue and yellow winking flowers of forget-me-nots come warm weather. The shaggy cinnamon bark of river birch highlighted right now. What of this new year? what will be different? Here are a few of my resolutions.
1. Eat more local foods. The oil prices earlier this year fueled increased interest in local foods. It began to seem more and more unrealistic to ship foods from California and overseas, especially when fresh produce was in season locally. As we are reminded every day, economics is a strange and imprecise science, but with gas at $4 a gallon, could it really be sustainable? From many aspects and for many foods, it was not. Of course, fuel costs are down now — we have short memories — but it shall spiral upward again.
With this game-changer, the argument for locally grown food strengthens: for economic, environmental, taste, aesthetic and even community connection reasons. This movement will grow. I
suspect that farmers markets, backyard gardens, value-added small farms and orchards all will increase in the coming years. I resolve to relearn the daily joys of fresh berries, asparagus, tomatoes and corn in season, and replace some convenience with taste and nutrition.
Winter is the hardest time for us in temperate states such as Ohio to increase our local eating (locavore) habits, but start preparing for buying and eating what is fresh each day, the old-fashioned European way. Winter is a good time to prepare for at least a small evolution in your buying, cooking and eating habits. Use this time to read about a fascinating experiment in locavore eating by checking out Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (with Steven Hopp and Camille Kingsolver).
2. Promote scientific literacy. First of all, as Voltaire would say, I must ''cultivate my own garden.'' My scientific literacy could use some tuning, especially when it comes to physics — I never did understand how to think mathematically — and what is torque and angular momentum, anyway? But one thing I do know is that we need to do a better job of everything, from respecting the scientific method to making clear-headed observations. We shortchange ourselves when we over-politicize science.
Politics and science are interwoven, of course, and developing policies of how to best implement the best science is truly complex. But when we actually have commentators who claim to be reasonable say that the cherries bloom the same day in Washington, D.C., every year, proving that global warming is a hoax, we are in a world of trouble.
Look for yourself. Over the years, they are blooming earlier, just as the crab apples at Secrest Arboretum in Wooster are blooming earlier, all because the heat units accumulated for the year, which trigger flowering, are greater. It is warming, it is related to man's activities and carbon dioxide levels, and we now need to use the best science and the best politics and policies to determine how to proceed.
Here is Barbara Kingsolver, again from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in this case discussing evolutionary biology:
''Disease pathogens and their crop hosts, like all other predators and prey, are in a constant evolutionary dance with each other, changing and improving without cease as one develops a slight edge over its opponent, only to have the opponent respond to this challenge by developing its own edge. Evolutionary ecologists call this the Red Queen principle (named in 1973 by Leigh Van Halen) after the Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass, who observed to Alice: 'In this place, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place.'
''Both predator and prey must constantly change or go extinct. Thus the rabbit and fox both get faster over the generations, as their successful offspring pass on more genes for speediness. Humans develop new and stronger medicines against our bacterial predators, while the bacteria continue to evolve antibiotic-resistant strains of themselves. (The people who don't believe in evolution, incidentally, are just as susceptible as the rest of us to this observable occurrence of evolution. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.)''
We don't vote about or get to choose which reality of nature we prefer. Ignorance of the majesty of how nature works will get us nowhere fast. Up with learning!
3. Remember to be happy. Let us all resolve in this new year to live more in the moment, to more fully utilize not only our sense, but also our senses. Helen Keller said it all:
''I wondered how it was possible, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing of note. I who cannot see find hundreds of things: the delicate symmetry of a leaf, the smooth skin of a silver birch, the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you will be stricken blind. . . . Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you would never taste or smell again. Make the most of each sense.''
And before you know it, winter shall pass, and spring will arrive. To warm this winter day, from Lilja Rogers: ''First the howling winds awoke us/Then the rains came down to soak us/Now before the mind can focus/Crocus.''
Jim Chatfield is a horticultural educator with Ohio State University Extension. If you have questions about caring for your garden, write: Plant Lovers' Almanac, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640. Include your phone number.
A New Year of Plants to come. The majesty of oaks. Further losses of ashes. The tiny blue and yellow winking flowers of forget-me-nots come warm weather. The shaggy cinnamon bark of river birch highlighted right now. What of this new year? what will be different? Here are a few of my resolutions.
Get the full article here.
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