At 11:30 I was notified that today at 1:30 was the last, last chance to submit a grant application to the community small grants, urban agriculture program. So what did I do? Wrote three grant applications for possible fall workshops/projects in under an hour. To be fair, Brian provided the text for most of one of them, but still – I’m feeling pretty impressed with myself at the moment.
Now I’m casting around for free canning jars, in hopes that if I get the grant to do the “Canning for Community” workshop, I can do it on the eco-cheap and get most of my supplies secondhand – purchasing the fruits from the valley in bulk (and inexpensively). Fortuitously, I did just buy a second canner with a bunch of jars last weekend at a garage sale, so I am in good shape in terms of equipment.
I’ve never done a canning workshop before, though I’ve been putting my own food by for more than a decade now. Sometime around when I moved to Vancouver it was something I decided to teach myself to do, and since then my larder has always been stocked (sometimes over-stocked) with preserves of all kinds. Mostly just canned tomatoes, fruit and a bit of jam/fruit syrup – always the apple chutney – and last year we did salsa and pie filling and dessert sauce as well (Brian was a keen learner!) The one thing I haven’t done much of is pickling, owing to one crappy batch of pickles about nine years ago. This year I’ve decided it’s time to master the dill pickle and I’ve got those on my shopping list for our trip to Keremeos in mid-August.
Besides pickles, I’m also thinking this year – cherry chutney and/or cherry jam, applesauce and canned tomatoes for sure. Some type of funky salsa (so handy to have on hand for parties), and I don’t know what else but it will come to me when I’m looking at fruit and veggies (or Brian will be inspired to make something totally different). I don’t like to do too much jam because we just don’t use it that much and I’ve still got *jars* of it left from two years ago – I find chutney is a much more versatile condiment and goes lovely on rice dishes, with bbq, as a relish with cheese, with curry, etc. I would also love to do some green tomato salsa this year if the opportunity presents itself (ie: cheap tomatillos).
In any case, it would be awesome to get a grant to do some community-learning, but I also know that there’s folks out there who would like to learn even if I don’t. Perhaps some of us could get together, rent the kitchen at Kiwassa House for an afternoon and purchase some stuff in bulk? You can let me know via FB or email if you’re at all interested. It’ll be a busy fall, but if I organize it around a day I am already planning to can, it might just work!
Oh, and one other thing if you’re a canner. Please do contribute to the Vancouver Museum canning exhibit this summer before August 26th. I just think this is so unbelievably cool, I want that to be one full wall of preserves!
Following a long foray into fiction to the exclusion of anything else, I’ve had a spate of non-fiction come into my life this month – thanks to the Vancouver Public Library online ordering system which spit several books out to me just as my union/work schedule was getting quiet. This is the first of three I am reviewing this week. The other two (both) by Rebecca Solnit will come tomorrow.
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
There are a number of quotes peppering the bookjacket that impress upon the reader the need to read this book, which made me wary at first. I have grown a bit tired of the “you have to read this” work on climate change, peak oil, and environmental collapse in general – particularly after coming out of some fairly radical environmental work. I’m pretty sure I know all the stats and I worry that reading more of them will just trigger me in ways that are stressful rather than energizing. But I picked up Eaarth anyway – and was compulsed to read it to the very end.
McKibben makes a forceful argument that the world we grew up in exists no longer, that climate change and resource depletion have combined in ways that are *right now* altering everything about our existence, even if we don’t realize it quite yet. This changed planet is so different from our old one that it needs a new name – hence the title Eaarth. His statistics and anecdotes are well-researched and hard-hitting – I found myself both incredulous and outraged for the first two chapters of the book as McKibben unrolls proof after proof of the planet’s changing ecosystems, the refusal of government decision-makers to take the crisis seriously, and what this potentially means to the future of human and animal life. But at the same time he doesn’t shut the door on the possibility of change, or the possibility of survival on the planet.
A friend of mine described hearing McKibben on the radio talking about the book and his organization 350.org as “presenting the most humane and compassionate argument I have heard on this subject” – which is the way he writes this very hard reality. In Eaarth, the ways in which we might change our approach to each other and our global habits are outlined in ways that seem practical – almost do-able. If only we can convince communities to act together to bring change on the macro level. If only we can work in our neighbourhoods to bring change right now on the micro level. It means a global commitment to bringing carban dioxide emissions down below 350 ppm and staying there. I means a local commitment to equality, community, and valuing life in everything that we do. It means more bicycles and less cars. It means more solar and community gardens. It also means ensuring that the message gets up through the chain that the people won’t support governments who don’t support life any longer. Which is all a tall order, but as McKibben argues, an essential one if life is to continue on the new planet Eaarth.
Even McKibben isn’t sure if it’s all too little, too late which is one of the things I appreciate most about his writing. He has the same doubts many of us have about our ability to do the things we need in order that to survive. But at the same time he understands the need for positive hope in examining the communities that are already working towards the change required for survival. Getting off the grid, producing more food right at the doorstep, developing networks of community support. There is a growing movement of this sort in North America and Europe – and there are growing movements of pressure in less-developed nations on the industrial world to change now, or else. Which is the small candle we need to hold to our future prospects.
I can’t recommend this book enough, for the importance of its argument and clarity of vision. For its compassion, and its hope. At first I was going to say – activists everywhere need to read this – but I think this is a book for everyone who wants to know where things stand and where they could end up if we don’t work together. If we don’t evolve towards a kinder, smaller, world.
In case you were wondering, yes. We are still getting married at the end of September though until this last two weeks we have done almost nothing about it. Really, it’s a wedding in two parts, with the most planning needed for the smallest (official) ceremony with the family – so what else do we need to do besides book a place and get an officiator?
Well, of course there’s rings and dresses and wine and food planning and – oh yeah – the marriage license…. which we’ve got on a long list of details we have to check off. Oh, plus we have to choose/write vows that aren’t cheesy or religious or embarassing.
But at least I’ve now got two of my biggest stresses over with – the dress (last weekend), and the rings (ordered yesterday). Because some of you have asked, and because I’m feeling showy – here are pictures of the rings and the dress (thank-you Internet). Now we just have to buy wine, the marriage licence and finish up the vows. Oh, and food for the after ceremony bit. At least it’s a small wedding!
3/4 length, I have gold sandals and a taupe wrap to go with this.
My wedding band - silver and gold.
Brian's wedding band. Silver with a gold spinner.
I’ve noticed recently that notifications haven’t been going out to subscribers which I thought was the result of a wordpress upgrade and my failure to backup some aspect of my old folders. Turns out, it was a database error which only got worse until everything was fully corrupted. Yesterday someone in my collective restored everything, and I noticed last night when I was fooling around with an older post that my post-notifications are working once again!
The post I was fooling around with was an old book review post because I’ve finally decided to take a small step towards monetizing my blogs with the Amazon Associates program. I’m coming clean here so that you know when you purchase a book via one of my Amazon links on this site, I get a credit towards book purchases. That doesn’t mean I’m going to do more book reviews than I already do, or recommend things I normally wouldn’t, but I the links in my reviews and articles will go back to Amazon if you are interested in purchasing the books I talk about. I’m not expecting to get rich by this or anything, but it would be nice to support some of my terrible reading habit through my blogs if at all possible!
Tags: amazon
I’ve been a little off track lately, something about a holiday always knocks the drive right out of me – you know? Hard to get back on the workhorse and all that. Difficult to drag myself to work on such beautiful days when I’d much rather be at the beach or in the woods. Anywhere but the city.
But in another way that off-trackness is good because it’s helping me evaluate what exactly I want to be doing these days. Or at least, what I don’t want to be doing. So we’ll see if it’s just another one of my mercurial knee-jerk moments, or if I really will go ahead and do something different with my life. Only time and opportunity will tell. (Nicely cryptic, eh?)
One thing I do know is that I’ve got talents and skills and I need to be more confident about that rather than talking myself out of every possibility that comes my way. The other thing I know is that I’m feeling a little bit used (or underused) in some quarters these days and I’d rather be putting my energies elsewhere than always waiting for others to make their move.
I’m feeling itchy, I guess. As happy as I am in some areas of my life (home, realtionship, garden, community) my work front just isn’t cutting it at the moment.
Tags: work
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