Preserved: Bought more canning jars and lids

Reduced waste: have been saving all cans and jars for recycle/reuse. Composted tops of strawberries and radishes, coffee grinds, mystery items from bottom of crisper. Ate supper leftovers for lunch all week. Using paper waste to make new paper (fun to do with the 7 year old!), bought a bigger feeding pan for the chickens so they won’t scratch so much food into their yard.

Harvested: Half dozen little peas in pods, radishes, basil for tomato sauce

Prep and Storage: bought a pressure canner, discussed with hubby the merits of a larger pantry in the kitchen (I think I convinced him!)

Community food systems: I have been buying my milk, eggs and butter from a newly-opened health food market that sells locally produced dairy items.

Eat the food: Peas, radishes, basil

And I weeded a LOT!! My husband and I are enjoying this garden and the chickens so much (will that make them taste better later, I wonder?) We check every day to see what has come up!

Harvest – last of the asparagus, lamb’s quarters, lettuce, a few early carrots, bee balm, garlic scapes, mache seeds

Preserve – dehydrated strawberries

Reduce – nothing out of the ordinary, we compost, buy some things bulk, recycle

Prep – reading up on skills, Orlov’s recommendations, bought a water purifier

Community – talking to local land trust and others about transition, peak oil, resilient community

Eat – garlic scapes, lettuce, lamb’s quarters

We’ve had another shooting in Pensacola. It seems a certain mobile home park got behind on its water bill and so the more than 100 residents (who have been paying their rent all along – which supposedly includes utilities) had their water cut off. No water for over a week and the sewers were beginning to back up http://www.pnj.com/article/200906170045/NEWS01/906170336 . Well, a local church decided to help out. They came over with water, food, and giving hearts. In the midst of this community bonding, a 17-year old from a neighboring town showed up. He had a beef with one of the residents over a stolen wallet, so he shot him in the face. The victim has since died.

If that wasn’t bad enough, a few days later some deputies responded to a call for assistance with a young man who was having a seizure at this very same mobile home park. Somehow, someway, their K-9 dog got out of the sheriff’s car and attacked the patient’s mother, sending her to the hospital with multiple bite wounds. http://www.pnj.com/article/20090618/NEWS01/906180321&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL Police aren’t sure how the dog got out of the car, but suggest that the woman aggravated the situation by reacting inappropriately, “’It didn’t help that she was hysterical,’ Roy said.”

Bottom line is that if your water is cut off, your sewer is backing up, your neighbor is shot and killed during a church cook-out , your son is having a seizure, and you are being attacked by a police dog, by all means don’t get hysterical!

I am struck by how readily a trigger gets pulled. I am struck by the callousness of the water company and how readily they turned the water off. I am struck by how easily things can go awry when deputies overreact. I am struck by the ‘blame the victim’ attitude of law enforcement. I am struck by the one ray of light in this story – the church members who showed up to offer relief.

I am concerned about the number of guns in this country. I am concerned that hardship brings out the worst in some people. I am concerned that this story is only the beginning . . .

Actually, I just planted, weeded, repeat. Spring was cold, planting is late and I am behind. Cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, potatoes, squash, snap beans, radishes and lettuce for a mid-summer salad, even a 4′ by 4′ square of soup beans, and that’s without getting to the peppers and basil.

Still eating up the stuff in the freezer from last fall. Spring onions are coming on, and there is a continuous supply of green crunchy stuff. In fact, it is a challenge to intercept the kale, lettuce, and bok choi before it bolts.

As to saving the world, a topic of a recent post and an attitude embedded in the whole concept, I quit. I’m just sitting here on the western fringe of the continent, looking at the bay and breeding those beets. That’s what I can do. I can breed beets, leeks, kale, bok choi and chard for great flavor and tolerance of the casual abuse of backyard organic gardening. I can share seed and explain to anyone who will listen that the winter garden (actually the three seasons that aren’t summer) is where backyard gardeners really save money in this climate. I find that there is no point in trying to convince people who have never eaten a leek and aren’t sure what one looks like that frozen dinners from Costco are not a food group.

Shira in Bellingham, WA

Nice to know the old garden is still going strong and spreading through the neighborhood!

Today, L cut up some of the strawberries and threw them into our oatmeal for b’fast