Several Perspectives on Vilsack

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Dec 30, 2008 at 00:13:27 AM PST

Foodie Holiday Gifts

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Dec 08, 2008 at 21:12:23 PM PST

I have been buying stuff for my family members throughout the year, to give them to them at Christmas/Hanukkah. Decorative wine bottle stoppers, Christmas tree ornaments, satchels of lavender, artisan made soap... I've been accumulating them in my closet all year. Now I feel I'm just adding to the load of things my loved ones will some day leave behind...

...Maybe I'm just being morbid, but this sad experience of trying to resurrect my brother with his stuff and utterly failing has affected my view of the holiday season. Instead of buying people more stuff, here are some ideas I've come up with: donations/trees planted in their names, theatre or ballet tickets, art, massages, and food. I would add to the list soaps, lotions, and candles but only if the person will actually use them.

Sorry for my fixation with death but that's what happens when you lose your 23 year old brother and best friend suddenly, and all that is left of him is a room packed to the brim with 23 years worth of stuff. All of a sudden I'm realizing that the best gifts I can actually give my family are kindness, laughter, and love. All of the stuff we often feel obligated to buy just doesn't matter in the long run.

But if your family is like mine and people expect to receive something they can unwrap, Kerry suggests a 2009 calendar called Down To Earth: The Farmers of Columbia County. I would add to that another calendar to check out called Farm Hands: A Tribute to the Hands That Feed Us.

Another favorite gift of mine is food. The wonderful thing about local, sustainable food is that it tastes great so no one minds receiving it as a gift. Last year I gave my family a Family Farm Defenders Fair Trade Gift Box and they loved it. They went on and on about the cranberries so much that I think I'll send them some more this year. For those closer to the left coast, I'd also recommend Jackie's Jams (award-winning jams made from mostly organic fruit from local San Diego farmers), Petrou Foods olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or Spread's gourmet peanut and almond spreads.

Last but not least, this year all of my loved ones who live in an "edible" community are going to receive subscriptions to Edible Communities magazines. It's a family of magazines, each produced locally within the community it's about, telling the story of that area's agricultural and culinary traditions.

What's The NY Times' Problem With Locavores?

by: OrangeClouds115

Sun Aug 10, 2008 at 07:19:08 AM PDT

The New York Times giveth, and the New York Times taketh away. On the one hand, Nick Kristof's eloquent plea to treat our farm animals more humanely moved me to tears. On the other hand, I've barely got enough digits to count the noxious "let's not save the planet" columns that John Tierney, Stanley Fish, and Stephen J. Dubner have tossed off in recent weeks like rancid croutons.

John Tierney--the thinking man's John Stossel--delivers his trademark contrarian drivel with 10 Things to Scratch From Your Worry List, in which he gleefully skewers a whole herd of sustainable sacred cows: plastic bags, plastic water bottles, food miles, the Arctic meltdown, and so on.

She also brought up an article that pissed me off to no end, Do We Really Need a Few Billion Locavores? Well, there's only a very short time within the long history of life on earth that anyone was NOT a locavore. Clearly it worked pretty well when everyone on the planet at locally and seasonally. But the writer of the article made a bad yet expensive batch of homemade local ice cream and because his experience pissed him off, he thinks locavores are dumb. Well, buddy - just because you suck at making ice cream doesn't mean the rest of us can't do our part in fighting global warming and enjoy eating great food as we do it.

Way to go Kerry! Great reply to the New York Times. Now if only their grouchy writers will read it :)