Winter's coming!

A little flock of American tree sparrows finally arrived under the bird feeders yesterday, and there is ice on the pond this morning. I guess that makes it pretty official that winter is on its way. I also had my first episode yesterday of fingers getting too cold when outside, even with gloves on! So it is time to find and get all the assorted winter gear to the front of the closets.

We are not yet done with the garlic planting as the fields have just been too wet. We keep waiting for the intermittent rain to stop (a neighbor's rain gauge is currently sitting at 21.5 inches since August 1) but now we just have to get them into the ground. We have ~3,000 more to go plus all of the assorted small cloves that we hold back from the seed stock to plant as 'green garlic', which will be harvested at the end of April/early May, clove and green leaves together and used just like a 'green onion'. Hmmm, yum, yum, yum, the first fresh garlic of the year. :-) We have sold all of this to local chefs the last two years, but next year we'll reserve some of the special green garlic for our Garlic CSA members, too, so they can know the joys of the most delicate of garlic taste in a vegetable!

My husband will be out planting today, sloshing through the set paths if necessary, but I am speaking to the Michigan Dietetic Educators about the "School to Farm Program" that I spearheaded for the Hunger & Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group (www.hendpg.org) of the American Dietetic Association (www.eatright.org). The goal of this new program is to facilitate the rapidly growing interest among the dietetic students and interns regarding sustainable food and agriculture systems by providing them places to have volunteer experiences on farms owned by ADA members (there aren't many, but I am not the only one!).

This should be a fun and interesting day! It was time-consuming but enjoyable to put together a powerpoint presentation (even though I should have been planting garlic!).

I don't know if I will have time to make another post before Thanksgiving. We are traveling to spend the day with special friends. So I want to leave you all with a lovely food blessing that a friend sent me yesterday.

With gratitude and reverence for all life, 

we savor food mindful of all that has contributed to it.   

    We commit ourselves to a more equitable sharing of the earth’s bounty.

            - From UUA Statement of Conscience: Ethical Eating, Food & Environmental Justice

I have posted in the past that Thanksgiving Day is my day in the year that I "mark" as a cancer anniversary since I have had too many cancer diagnoses, treatments, procedures, etc to know which one to count as 'the' one.

May Thanksgiving Day for all of you be a joyful day filled with great food, great company, and deep gratitude for the abundance in our life.

"Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row"

Diana Dyer, MS, RD