"Daisy Chains and Milk Maids: An Open Letter to Michael Pollen"

I'm writing to recommend a scathingly insightful letter by Andy Griffin in critique of our food-writer in chief, Michael Pollen. I whole heartedly support this piece that comments on how Pollen continually fails to mention the backbone of our food system: farm workers.

Check it out here:

http://www.ladybugletter.com/?p=64 

Fire for Family

Every year my Grandmother hosts a Winter Solstice Celebration for her Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. She and the members of her community get together to light a bonfire, announce their wishes for the year, and share time in reflection as the shortest day of the year comes to an end. For the past couple of years, I've been able to lend to the ceremony by dancing with poi, small wicks on chains that I light on fire. It's one of my favorite ways I give back to my grandmother. I dance with fire for her and all of her friends, symbolically ushering out the dark and welcoming back the light. 

In Good Heart

I've shared with many about the movie that I've been working on for the past two years, but much of the work has been inexplicable. The making of  'In Good Heart: Soil and the Mystery of Fertility" has taken me across the globe to India, to the edenic farms of Wales, and to the polar glaciers of Norway. IGH will be a full length feature film all about soil and our interdependence with this mysterious underworld. The movie is not yet set to be released for another year now, but we've just launched our website, and I thought it fit to share. Please see the web address for more details. 

http://www.ingoodheart.com/ 

Ms Keds Oganic

For a few days, I thought I might be the new Keds organic model. Hand picked from a nation wide search of emerging green leaders in their twenties, last week I made it to the final round of cuts. The prize was to be 25,000 of donate-able money for the charity of my choice, and a lifetime supply of Keds organic shoes. Who could pass that up? I went back and forth about the possibility of representing a corporate green washing campaign, especially when my research availed that Keds are made in China by very young females. I contacted Global Exchange in San Francisco and coordinated with their labor specialist just in case I won. I was still dealing with the head trip of being able to donate money that was siphoned from wages in China back to organizations working on fair labor standards in China. One giant game of cat and mouse. However, Keds ended up choosing the other girl, the 25k isn't coming my way, and I'm excited that I don't have to get on a plane. 

The Edible Christmas Tree

I'm not entirely anti-Christmas tree. I love the ritual of going with the family to pick it out, I love the glowing light in the living room, and of course I love the smell. I just can't fathom spending sixty dollars on a dead tree that was shipped across the US to sit in my house for three weeks before it's thrown by the curb. 

About a week ago my boyfriend and I helped my parents wrestle their tree into their house. After the gargantuan tree was off the truck, up the two flights of stairs, and roped to the wall (we had one fall over at one point)- we stopped to admire its piny glory. At that moment Damian noticed the price tag- $120. To which he exclaimed "wow, that's five fruit trees." A week later, my newest Christmas tradition was born. The edible tree. This year I picked a citrus; valencia orange to be exact. I figure that by the time I'm 50 I'll have planted an orchard of Christmas trees. Sure I forgo the picking it out with the family and the lights are not as bright as the tree is small,  but least ways the smell is amazing. I have a Christmas tree that is blooming.