Comfort Foods for a Melancholy Spring

I must admit, I've had a melancholy spring. The last few weeks I've felt a little like this:



So, I started a new job. Good thing, right? Yes, of course, but the older I get the more I feel a sense of melancholy when there's some kind of change in my life.

Here's a few things that kept me going last month:



1) Kelsey, her new baby and the molasses, black pepper, crystalized ginger cookies she sells at her store, Roots. I love these cookies. I crave them almost everyday.



2) A plate of Calamari from Aqua restaurant in Corvallis. This stuff is amazing!



3) Vegan Cheesecake at Sweet Life in Eugene.This is the first cheesecake I've had in over 10 years. I'm allergic to cheese. It's actually made with tofutti. And it's yummy. Really!



4)The fact that even bakers in Eugene share my political persuasion. These are Obama cookies at Sweet Life. I'm sure some would like to be able to buy Obama for only $3.50.


I think I'll buy one for my Republican brother. What do you think Jim?

5) Feeding this sheepdog everyday for a week kept me going. This dog eats everything (my food scraps rotting in a compost pile, cat liter, moss, a dead varmit's leg over by the barn and last but not least Ruby (my cat's) poop.. yikes. I took care of this dog and add to that, a few dozen chickens and a cat. These were left in my care for a week while my neighbors were out of town.



6) Trips up to Portland kept me going. Specifically to 23rd ave, to this market where this cute cheesemonger works. Look at those bedroom eyes :)



Here's the outside of the Market:



Here's a meal I put together: Spanish sheep cheese, Idaho trout (to remind me of home) some thick crusted bread and some juicy grapes. I ate them on a patio table on a street corner. Yum. This might just be one of my most perfect lunches:



7) The Virgin Mary. I'm not Catholic, but she helped keep me going last month. Here's her on a gas station in Cottage Grove.



8) Honey from my friend Ethan, to help keep the spring allergies at bay. His honey smells like walking through a meadow in the spring.



9) My trip to Portland's farmer's market.

(morel mushrooms remind me of my hometown!)

Contemplating Wendell Berry while Kickin' up Kelp
Thoughts on Why Nature should come First and Consumption Last


(I love this photo (by John Blodgett) because it captures my love for the ocean and the wildlife I find there. This was taken in Maine.)

Yesterday, a friend and I spent the day in Newport, Oregon along the beach, walking amid kelp and seaweed covered rocks along the shoreline; around giant smelly piles of whip-like sea onions - bulbous on one end and slippery. We walked around patches of broken shells mixed with pieces of sea junk. The air was slightly misting and the ocean's voice was huge against mine as I wandered south along the beach, leaving watery tracks in the sand and exploring sea life (kelp, sensitive-to-the-touch anemones and young barnacles.)

In recent years I've noticed a disturbing increase in sea junk laying stranded along the shore. Some of the worst offenders yesterday were a sky-blue plastic jug covered in sea algae and the remains of a Styrofoam buoy that looked like the discarded chew-toy of a huge dog.

As I walked north, back to my car, I started to pick up junk and put things into my pockets: a plastic bottle here, bits of broken plastic parts there, lips of bottles-- it was my half-hearted attempt to clean-up the beach.

I wondered whether carrying out that chunk of orange and purple buoy (with the numeral 12 still on it) under my arm like a tired football, might someday make a difference in the life of some sea critter. One less piece of plastic or Styrofoam that could get caught in the windpipe of some lovely little seabird? A romantic notion that I can't prove, but at least, I thought, the coast looked cleaner.

Why all the junk? Who really needed it in the first place? And the thirsty soul who bought the plastic bottle I hauled off the beach, did they consider it might wind up as a permanent, ugly exile in one of God's last wild places... to outlast a sea creature?

What Would Wendell Berry Say?


Here I am meeting Wendell Berry in Salt Lake. He's such a down-to-earth guy.

A month ago, I met Wendell Berry in Salt Lake City, Utah. Berry is a farmer/poet and activist who lives and farms in Kentucky. Speaking before a large crowd at the Masonic Lodge near downtown, Berry shared what he called his "draft on a essay on the Economy." He called our current economy an "Anti-economy," and said we need to go back to an "authentic" version, one that puts nature first and consumption LAST. This motto of "consumption first" is specially guarded, as if it were one of the pillars we've build our democracy on; it's mantra:"stimulate, spend and create jobs."

But Berry calls for an economy based on renewable resources, where we return to the law of return: what is taken from the earth is replaced. Where the earth's fertility cycle is maintained (the soil is kept fertile.) He believes our current economy has confused its wants and needs and in the process, so have we.

"Our economy has confused real needs with products or economies that are marketable," said Berry, which he calls a "kind of fraud."


Wendell Berry speaks at the Masonic Lodge in Salt Lake City in March, 2008.


"We give nature a economic value....for its aesthetics, but without the recognition that we NEED nature to eat, drink, and breath. Our industrial systems grant her no recognition, honor or care," said Berry. "When everything has a price, then everything is disconnected and implicitly eligible to be ruined."

"There are some things that should be designated as priceless and that is fertile land, clean water and air and ecological health."

Back in Newport


Here's my friend Jen in downtown Newport, close to the bay.

Later that day, my friend and I wandered down to the pier east of downtown and walked along the docks looking for fish for sale. We stopped at a tugboat with a friendly brown lab dog and a lean old fisherman inside. We asked him whether he was selling fish yet. Lee was his name and he said fishes mainly Lingcod and Black Cod (the Black he sells to Japanese markets because American's don't like the fishy, oily taste.) Lee's been fishing in this bay since 1969 he said. He's seen a lot of changes and laments the losses in fish diversity and the lack of salmon. He didn't seem to resent the environmental restrictions like others may. Our conversation turned to salmon fishing, which has been shut down for years along the Oregon coast, due in part to the dwindling salmon runs from the Sacramento river in California. Last fall, researchers reported that the human sewage dump into the river had been negatively impacting the salmon.


Here's some other fisher folks in Newport... only they are just visiting. These friends of mine, Wendy and Nathan, own a commercial fishing operation in Alaska.

Lee talked about the forests in the hills above the bay: areas he called "commercial forests." He told us he believes some of the practices of the pulp tree industries that grow trees and cut 'em down for a quick profit are impacting the salmon. He's pretty sure that the herbicides they spray on the ground to keep anything else from growing (besides the profitable wood for pulp) has leached into the rivers and destroyed some the spawning ground for the salmon run.


Last year I took a backroad and discovered this commercial forest. Very bleak, felt a little like a secret dystopic society I had stumbled upon. Is this where I live?




I don't know what this black crap is that I found near this clear-cut area, but it was hard and didn't look eco-friendly.

Two weeks prior to our trip to Newport, the community gathered for the "Blessing of the Fleet," a celebration around the end of March to begin the fishing season. It's a tradition the town has has since the 1950's, where they ask for prayers to bless the ships for protection, an abundant fishing season and then dash bottles of champaigne against the ship brows. Around town, several pretty blue ribbons hung from warehouses and shops near the fishing dock. The ribbons each represented a family member of friend of a fisherman that had died in a fishing accident. (This was sponsored by the Newport Fishermen's Wives, a nonprofit org. ) When someone dies in a small town like Newport, everyone feels the ripples. The community has also felt the ripples of the Salmon ban and other regulations meant to protect fish and in the long-run, hopefully protect the beleagured fishing industry in Oregon.

These small communities, who are dependent on fishing economies have been crippled at times by poor environmental choices made by their neighbors (granted choices sometimes made by themselves). Though we're still trying to sort out who's to blaim for the loss in salmon and other sea life diversity that directly impacts the fisherman. It's obvious that in these situations, if WE as human beings had put "nature first" rather than the law of consumption, that we'd be in a much better place.

Back to Berry

Wendell Berry finished off his talk in Salt Lake City by saying he'd been listening to news about the government's plan to buoy our economy and he wishes the plan included people from forestry, farming and ecological fields.

"We live in a service economy that does not know how to serve."

Victory Garden 2.0 Has Arrived!!
CONGRATS ROGER DOIRON and everyone who helped with the Eat the View Campaign!



The Obama's are breaking ground to plant a garden on the White House Lawn! Due mostly, I believe, to the grassroots efforts of Doiron and his band of like-minded gardeners and activists at Kitchen Gardeners.org Yeah Baby! Read the White House Blog post about it!!




Here's the garden layout of what they plan to plant!!

TIME for OSU to name their purple tomato...Obamato tomato!! Thanks to the White House for listening to the people and planting a garden on the White House Lawn!!

Dear President Obama, We're All Ears for Ways to Change
This is my neighbor, Dolly the donkey, who I ran this idea past before I posted this. She liked it! So here goes. . .



But we need you to start the change in your own backyard (or front yard)!!
So, here's what I'm proposing -with help from a few people like this guy and help from the people with names on this petition Victory Gardens 2.0


This is Roger Doiron from Maine. He's a normal guy who loves to garden and he has a big idea to persuade you, President Obama, to turn the White House lawn into a garden. It's not a new idea, there have been gardens formerly on the White House lawn. In the 1940's Eleanor Roosevelt inspired millions of people to garden by turning up the soil on the White House lawn.

Why Should You Invest in Victory Garden 2.0??

Look at how the public clamors to look like and emulate presidential folks. Even I recall seeing Michelle in that affordable black and white dress on the
"The View," and then spying the same dress in the window of a shop in my town. I thought, 'I want one of those Michelle Obama dresses,' and I almost ran out and tried it on. According to news reports, I wasn't the only one: "women started pouring into the retail chain's stores, clamoring for the $148 dress designed by Donna Ricco," The WSJ reported. Your example is powerful, even in simple things like clothes...consider how much Research in Motion, the maker of the Blackberry has made in sales due to your plugs about their device. What could you have charged if you were a celebrity and not a public figure? "More than $25 million, marketing experts say, and maybe as much as $50 million," says Top Tech News.

So, no disputing the power of example here.... well, President and Mrs Obama, forget about fashionable clothes and electronic devices, show Americans that you believe in the power of self-reliance, which for many (even for those millions who have been laid off), can come through planting a home garden. Get your hands dirty by helping plant a garden on the White House lawn.

We the people, of the United State of America, are happy to help harvest our own food, instead of wait for handouts...

President Obama, this photo is from a strawberry farm in Oregon. Just think of how empowering it would feel to be able to put a sign like this on the White House lawn!! Telling people where to go... to harvest their own food, that is!



Building Community!

There's nothing better for building community that gardening together, sharing food, harvesting, thinning plants, weeding, digging and getting your hands in the soil!

Here's my neighbor's garden this summer, I spent a lot of time here helping her pull beans, thin beets, dig potatoes, and pick squash blossoms and tomatoes. I also did a lot of harvesting for meals. I developed a close relationship to this piece of land and also to the people who worked in this garden together.


A Hybridized Tomato Named After You!


Here's my friend Todd's daughter, her baby and his research project: the purple tomato!

As part of the deal, if you decide to plant a garden on the White House lawn, we'll get a botanist to breed a special "heirloom" tomato for you, a hybridized tom that could be named Obamato Tomato. Think of how many people would clamor to grow this tomato in their own yards. It could be something like this purple tomato at OSU they are trying to breed with higher levels of anthocyanin- the compound that makes blueberries and purple fruits, well, purple.

White House Compost!

You could ask the White House Kitchen to save all their (non-meat) food scraps and heave them into a big pile for composting.


White House compost, think of the market value on that stuff.... but you wouldn't sell it, you'd turn it into your soil.








Chickens for the Kids to Tend

You could get a cool-looking bunch of chickens and ask Sasha and Malia to help take care of them. The chickens could eat some of the food scraps and then lay beautiful eggs like these (eggs of all colors, not just white.... how inclusive!)



White House Biofuel!

You could even save all the fryer grease from all those White House parties that serve up deep-fried dishes... and turn it into biofuel- this fish shack in Newport does that:








Clean Energy! Bike to Get Around!!
President and Mrs Obama, you could bike around the White House to check on your garden and wear shirts like this while doing it. I can get you a few free shirts just like this: should I have them Fed Ex-ed??

Creation of Useful Government Jobs

You could create a handful of new purposeful government jobs unlike some of the ones now that just require workers to smile nicely while wearing outlandish accessories.



Here's some examples of kinds of jobs you might offer:

1) Secretary of Soil Science
2) Chief of Compost
3) Undersecretary Seed Saver
4) Officer of the Peas

Do it Because Aldo Would Applaud You

In closing, I'd like to quote a hero of mine.. Aldo Leopold.

"There is, as yet, no sense of pride in the husbandry of wild plants and animals, no sense of shame in the proprietorship of a sick landscape. We tilt windmills in belief of conservation in convention halls and editorial offices, but on the back forty we disclaim even owning a lance."

The White House lawn is sick land, please make it wild again with growing plants in an organic garden! You won't regret it!

Sincerely,
Citizen of the United States, resident of small-town Oregon
Jenie Skoy



Poster showing a cartoon from the Chicago Evening Post. . . Feed yourself. Be a soldier of the soil. . . Food will win the war. 1918 (source)

Mormon Girl Pub Hops in Portland

Yeah, that's me. Check it out on my site Foodlore Library: Sipping Soda and Irish Pub Hopping in Portland.

"Old World" Community
Sense of Community at Corvallis' Old World Deli



Today I've been missing the Old World Deli in Corvallis, Oregon. I miss the smell of brownies baking in the morning and hops brewing in the afternoon (Oregon Trail brewery is in the back). I miss Harold, my retired friend who rolled by with his walker everyday to meet up with his friends. I miss Ted playing his accordian in the morning, each song different, depending on his mood. The Growing Edge, the magazine where I worked, was located in an office space inside the Deli. Last month, our publisher decided to stop printing the mag and laid off the staff (though Growing Edge is still online, it's now a portal of gardening stories). I even miss my coworkers and their wacky senses of humor and how individual they all were (Mike, Alex, Jimmy). I miss the sense of community at the Deli.

Here's Jimmy, the "art" guy at the Growing Edge, a hilarious and big-hearted guy (unless you get on his bad side and then he'll chuck you out like a bouncer in a club).



Our office was behind the left window facing the Deli


More than a few times a day, I'd wander out of the office to fill-up with hot water for my tea, to say hi to Ted, the owner of the Deli, or Fae, Lisa or Laura.



Ted, Deli owner and Laura


Lisa, one of the "girls" who works at the Deli.


Sometimes I wandered out to flirt with my grey-haired retired friend Harold, who goes to the Deli every morning to meet up a group of his friends. They drink coffee and jabber about all kinds of things. Everyday they bring something in to show the others, it's like an informal show-and-tell.


Here's Harold stopping by my office to say hello!

The Old World Deli is more than a eatery in Corvallis, it's a community. On Wednesday night people convene to watch belly dancers (FYI to the ladies: there's lots of masculine energy at the Deli on Wed eve). After hours, the post officer workers (the post office is next door) hang out in the back still in their delivery suits with Dave from Oregon Trail brewery. On Tues or Wed, don't recall which, there's an artist group that meets with oil and watercolor paintings to critique each other's work. Kudos to Ted for creating a community... despite the recession, the Old World Deli is here to stay, though several other eateries in the area have gone out of business.


The photo below is the parting gift I gave to the Deli when I left....



This creature is a Ken doll sitting inside a wicker duck that had barbie doll legs. It was left by the former editor of Growing Edge, John Baur, who left his editor-ship to move to the caribeean and become a pirate (no kidding.) He's the guy who started Talk Like a Pirate Day. I inherited his job and this creature.

Little did I know that the Deli girls would soon part with my parting gift...

When the Growing Edge office closed, I gave the creature to the ladies at the Deli. Later when my boss, co-worker and I were eating at American Dream, this cute couple (who both work at the Deli) came by with my creature in their hands. I had to laugh!! They even gave it a name
Ken's Ark:


One of my fav. things about the Deli is the brewery in the back. And I don't even drink. But I learned a lot about the art of brewing.

Here's a photo of Wally, who owns sheep in the valley and during brewing time, he comes to pick up the spent barley to feed to his sheep.


Here's Dave, helping Wally load the buckets of spent barley.


Here's Dave holding some fresh hops in his hands. There's a trellace at the back of the Deli with a hops plant on it. They grow their own hops right on site!

Fan of Hotdogs? Think Twice my Friend

I never eat hotdogs. And this bizarre video showing how they make them is why!