Wildflower Stew

We’ve all heard the doomsday scenarios for what happens when you reach “Peak Oil” which is a term for the time when world oil production reaches it’s all time peak and begins to decline forever. In one country this has happened already. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and it’s subsidies to the Cuban economy, oil imports were cut by more than half and food by 80 percent.

A brief rundown on Cuba and how it got to be this way: Cuba in the 1950s had been run by the military dictator, Batista, who wanted to make the most out of Havana’s reputation for race tracks, night clubs and casinos. The Cuban rich were getting richer off the deal but the poor, as usual, were just getting poorer so there was a revolution led by the Castro brothers and Che Guevara.

The new regime tended more toward the communist style of governing and in 1960 established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. After the disasterous Bay of Pigs invasion and the almost catastrophic Cuban Missile Crisis, the US began an embargo against Cuba that left that nation in serious need of food and basic necessities.

The Cuban people were mobilized and worked hard and their survival was mostly due to their own efforts during this time. They invested heavily in growing sugar cane for export using fossil fuels obtained from the Soviets. Then in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and their economic subsidies to Cuba of $6 billion/year vanished overnight. Not long after that the US added to the embargo by prohibiting trading, travel and family remittances to Cuba. This eliminated 70% of Cuba’s food and medicine imports. The Cubans now refer to this time as “The Special Period.” The average Cuban lost 20 lbs. during this special period.

In a new documentary, Power of Community, Cubans share how they survived the transition from a highly fossil fuel dependent, mechanized, agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. Today, half of all the food consumed in the city of Havana is grown in within the city limits of Havana. Cuba is the only country that has faced what all of us are going to have to deal with eventually - a massive reduction in our use of fossil fuels. This is a surprising and inspiring story. See the 2 minute trailer below and then go to their website http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php for screening and ordering information.

It was gone! Just the raw wound of a recently amputated tree left where once a whole microcosm had lived. I had celebrated the birth of this little tree, rising up from the roots of the old one at the end of a long sad winter, when one morning I looked out the little window in my urban apartment bedroom and saw the hopeful green shoots reaching up for the light.

I watched as it shot up to over 6 feet, as birds and insects came, as it filled out and shook its leaves in the wind and the rain and gladdened my eyes.

This morning - gone. Clear cut. No more.

I suppose it was getting in the way of the alley traffic, interfering with commerce, so to speak. But no one asked me! I feel like I’ve been robbed. Who took my tree!?

When I moved to Austin a year ago, this place was bone dry, deep into a years-long drought. The crispy brown weeds fried under the relentless sun of hundred degree days clear through September into October. It didn’t really start cooling down until late November. Winter was mild, and wet. Then the spring came, and the rains. And it rained and it rained . . . and it rained.

This is now officially the most rain that has ever fallen for this time of year here - ever. The high temperature each day is in the 80s, sometimes only the 70s. Needless to say, there’s been lots of flooding. Last year’s crispy brown weeds are 6 foot tall small trees now. Lawn mowers are useless. The ground is mucky, the vegetation jungle-thick, the snakes are coming up from the flooded creek bottoms and roaming the neighborhoods terrorizing dogs and the parents of small children.

Is this the same place? Just one state over, in New Mexico, the drought persists. No rain. There is flooding in the Midwest, too, and England is experiencing more rain than ever, which is an awful thought. It’s like Seattle getting extra rain. What does this mean?

Global warming doesn’t translate neatly into higher temperatures and that’s it. The earth is a dynamic interaction of many forces and when one thing changes, it all shifts. Climate chaos would be a better term. It’s more like - we’ve upset the balance and now there’s hell to pay.

If nothing else, these extreme weather events should get people’s attention on the fact that we have a serious problem and we need to do something about it. It has to go beyond disaster relief into future disaster prevention. The healing begins at whatever point is accessible to you. Today.

I would like to make a couple of suggestions that almost anyone can do, wherever you are, to begin to help heal the planet. Personally, I think it is important to physically touch the earth and touch the plants that grow the food we eat. I believe this helps to realign our energy with the life force that sustains us. However you feel about that, we all have to eat and all of us eat food that comes from the earth. This is a good place to start.

Picking an apple right off the tree and eating it is a different act than picking it from a grocery store bin and taking it home and eating it. Most children these days don’t know what the plant or tree that gives them food looks like. You can make a big difference in a child’s life by helping them grow plants that give them food or taking them to a pick-your-own farm or to your neighbor’s garden. You can find local farms and CSAs by going to Local Harvest http://www.localharvest.org/

Another easy thing you can do to prevent future disasters and help heal the planet is to look at what you have inside your own house. Indoor air pollution from cleaning products is real and it’s serious. There are studies that show that chemicals found in cleaners interfere with the development of neurological, endocrine and immune systems in children, trigger asthma (duh), cause changes in sexual behavior, decrease fertility, cause menstrual changes, changes in the onset of puberty, cancers of reproductive organs, miscarriages, and premature births. I kid you not. We have enough to deal with outside without doing ourselves in when we come home.

Air fresheners are some of the worst offenders. They have fragrances carried by phthalates which aggravate asthma and are linked to reproductive harm and they also contain such lovely VOCs as benzene and formaldehyde. All that just to make the air smell artificially “fresh”? A good article with a list of cleaners containing dangerous chemicals was published recently in Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/24/2740/

One thing I noticed when I got rid of my toxic cleaning products was the money I didn’t spend on them any more. I began using unscented dish soap and hot water to clean glass, borax in place of powdered cleansers, hydrogen peroxide instead of bleach, and baking soda in hotwater to clean just about anything. If you want a scent put a few drops of your favorite essential oil in the water as you clean. Now my house is clean, sanitary and non-polluting - to me or the environment.

The chemicals in laundry detergents can be found in 70% of North American streams according to the US Geological Survey. Those chemicals are killing the fish. I like to eat fish. I use non-polluting laundry detergent. I use about half the recommended amount and add borax, which is very inexpensive, to it. I don’t have to kill fish to get my clothes clean. And I don’t have to give my grandson an asthma attack to get the bathroom clean. For more information on safe cleaning alternatives go to

http://www.womenandenvironment.org/

In the search for safe, sane ways to control bugs of all kinds that I didn’t want in my house or my yard or my garden, I’ve discovered and tried and heard about a lot of alternatives.   Since this is the season here’s a quick rundown.

Some things are quick, some things take longer, some require an adjustment in lifestyle. There is nothing faster than “just nuke ‘em,” but there is nothing more disasterous for our bodies and our planet. Becoming conscious of our interaction with the natural world - on the microcosm level of ants and aphids - can be just as much a meditation on living in harmony with all living beings as saving a whale.

Becoming aware of our own actions in relation to the insect world is first. For example, if you don’t want mosquitos around you, don’t leave inviting habitats for them to breed in. Empty out standing pools of water and if you can’t empty something, pour a little cooking oil in it. No kidding. We used to do this in the stock tanks on the ranch where I grew up. Just a half a cup in a big stock tank would make the water oily enough the mosquitos couldn’t breed and it didn’t hurt the animals at all. Keep grass and weeds mowed and use natural repellants like eucalyptus on your skin. Avon’s “Skin So Soft” is a great mosquito repellent for some strange reason if you don’t want to smell like camphor candles (which work, too, if you can stand them).

One of the toughest things to deal with where I live in Texas is fire ants. Persistence is the key. Pouring hot soapy water down the hole is the best method I know of. You might have to do it more than once. They tend to vacate that mound only to pop up a few yards away but eventually you can get rid of them. Never let them get out of control. They can be vicious. The poisons don’t work much better than the hot water from what I’ve seen. They’re just dangerous and expensive.

Vigilance is important in dealing with wasps and hornets, also. Knocking the nests down as soon as you find one and destroying it by burning or burying it is the best way to control them. Just use a long pole, be quick on your feet and don’t get stung. It’s way better to get to the nests while they are small.

The best one-on-one bug killer I know is hair spray (non-aerosol). It glues their breathing holes together and they croak on the spot. Works on roaches, ants, wasps, flies, anything that can fly into your space. This is not a practical approach for a garden but it’s sure handy around the house.

Garlic is a good all purpose insect repellant. It will even keep mosquitos off most people (eat it or rub it on your skin - either way works). Cayenne pepper works in the garden for a lot of pests. The most important thing is to find what works for you, in your location, with the bugs that populate your area.

The safest and most effective weed killers, in my experience are spraying vinegar mixed with water and direct applications of salt, plain old table salt. It works great.

Here are some good sources that I have turned to for advice:

The Natural Gardener has lots of stuff about gardening in central Texas but it also has good tips that would work anywhere with sections like Critter Deterrent Techniques and Recipes, Lawn Problems Guide, Recipe to Kill Poison Ivy and Soap and Pepper Spray Recipes. It also has a good section on how to beat grasshoppers at their game, how to tell the caterpillar of beautiful butterflies from those that just eat up your plants and how to outfox the pernicious squash borer. A wealth of good information!

If you are seriously into causing maximum bug deaths by natural means you’ve got to check out the Dirt Doctor. He has an very informative website and a lively forum.

The product sold by Safe Solutions is an enzyme formula which not only controls insects but also bacteria, mold and viruses. I have not used this product myself but I have heard from others that it is very effective, especially for household use.
Beyond Pesticides is a national coalition against the misuse of pesticides. The site includes a database with a very complete list of all pesticides and the health and environmental effects, regulatory status, supporting information and key studies. It’s very professional and very scarey. The home page has a daily news blog, alerts and actions and a quick pest problem solving service. Also there’s a section on what to do in case of emergencies.
 

Herp Care Collection is a small, straight-forward site that was put together for people who keep snakes, iguanas and such for pets. It has a very complete list of other websites with safe pesticide information and has some excellent remedies.
 

I subscribe to the Pesticide Action Network newsletter which is an update on pesticides, health and alternatives. The website includes a pesticide database, a pest advisor and lots of helpful hints including some very creative ways of getting rid of ants.
 

The collaborative on health and the environment has a database that provides links between chemical contaminants and approximately 180 human diseases or conditions.
 

If lawns are your thing, Safe Lawns is the place to go for a beautiful, non toxic yard. 
 

And here’s some great news: The Connecticut Senate voted overwhelmingly to ban (yes - ban!) pesticides on lawns in all K-8 schools. Good for them and good for the children they are protecting!

  Groundbreaking (more like rock breaking) at Global Seed Diversity Trust vault being dug into a mountainside near the village of Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The vault will hold seed samples of nearly every food crop in the world to protect the agricultural heritage of humankind.
 Longyearbyen is in the Svalbard islands which lie a thousand kilometres north of mainland Norway. The airport there is the northernmost point in the world with scheduled flights and it is totally dark four months a year. 
 Permafrost and the thick rock of the mountainside will keep the seeds safely frozen even without electricity. The vault’s construction will be funded and managed by the Norwegian government as a service to the world community.

In this country Seeds of Change has been  cultivating and disseminating open-pollinated, organically grown, heirloom and traditional vegetable, flower and herb seeds on their farm near Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1989.

From their website: “Even though we are a company that grows and sells seeds as our business, we encourage everyone to learn the art of seed saving. Of the many facets involved with growing, nurturing and gathering plants, the raising and collecting of seeds for future generations is a reverent act.” And they walk their talk by devoting this section of their website to showing you how to do it.

I would also like to add that today I had my faith in the future reinvigorated by looking at the Pachamama Alliance website. Take a few minutes to watch this video if you haven’t seen it yet. You won’t be sorry you did.
 

 Mother’s Day began in the days following the Civil War. Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870, as a call for peace and disarmament.

Inspired by Sharon Mehdi’s children’s picture book, The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering, a group of women in Ohio has issued a call for women all over the world to stand silently for 5 minutes at 1 p.m. local time on May 13, 2007 — to save the world. The story and a short video are available at www.standingwomen.org.

Where will you stand?

I was living about 80 miles up the coast from LA during the second Rodney King trial, the one when there was no riot. It was pretty amazing.

 Before the trial gun sales were over the top. There were more guns than people in LA someone said. Everything shut down. Major concerts and sports events were cancelled. People left town in droves and the ones who stayed stocked up on supplies and hunkered down.

Community leaders and preachers were on the air 24/7 beseeching their fellow human beings to chill. It was fierce, this constant bombardment of voices begging, pleading, reasoning with people, desperately praying for peace.

LA was a powderkeg. Everybody knew, one spark and it was all up in flames.

The verdict came, a mixed bag. You could have heard a pin drop. The clock ticked, another minute passed and another. An hour passed. No shots fired. We looked about very carefully, afraid to move or even breathe very deeply.

Another hour. And then the night passed and in the morning - nothing. Peace. No violent things had happened at all. In fact, it had been one of the quietest nights in LA in years.

And there was a collective sigh and renewed hope. We can choose peace if we stop and think about it.

I was very sad to see what happened in LA this past week. I just don’t see why people can’t walk down the street and express themselves without a riot squad showing up.

It isn’t just LA, it’s Virginia Tech, the disaster in Iraq and not being able to let your child play outside in your own yard, on your own block, without fear.

 We can choose peace. I have seen whole cities do it, whole countries. I have seen wars stopped and presidents impeached. It won’t be easy but if we really want it we can do it.

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(graphic from http://vonnegut.com/ )

We’re going to miss you.

“What has allowed so many [psychopathic personalities] to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! F— habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!”

Kurt Vonnegut
November 11, 1922 — April 11, 2007

There are some wonderful things happening in cities these days. Here are a few that have caught my eye lately.

The parking meter activists are a group with lots of imagination: http://www.streetsareforpeople.org/ These Toronto street activists created a community garden out of an old car and parked it on a downtown street. The Toronto police had it towed at one point but at last report it had gotten bailed out and is back on the street. Hopefully with crops intact. They also have parking meter parties. They put money in the meter and then use the space for something more civilized than parking a car. Here’s one example:

In Chicago there is an organization for Chicagoans who want to do more about the environment and social justice called Beyond Today: http://beyondtoday.org/

 They offer workshops and support services for native gardening, organic gardening and community gardens. They also address river issues, help people set up green roofs, rain barrels and rain gardens and permeable paving stones (that was a new one for me - what a great idea). They are also organizing bicycling groups and giving solar workshops. There is so much a community can do to make a difference and these people in Chicago are going for it.

Here in Austin, you can find your fresh organic vegetables growing in the city. Boggy Creek Farm www.boggycreekfarm.com is an urban organic farm where the owners grow vegetables and flowers on their five acres. This is picture of their strawberry field:

Green Gate Farms is a small family farm that grows heritage and heirloom vegetables. You can buy from their stand, pick your own or join their CSA. You can even request which vegetable you would like for them to grow for you. They are located 8 miles from downtown Austin.

You can find your local farmer’s markets, organic farmers and CSAs (community supported agriculture) by going to http://localharvest.org and putting in your zip code. 

What’s going on in your town?