I knew my energy was getting blocked when I would go into Puget Sound Coop and feel steamy mad at the cost of groceries. No matter how nice the checker was at the register I always felt resentful for forking over a bundle of bills for a pitiful amount of food. My internal shout was "FOOD SHOULD NOT COST THIS MUCH!". I knew my energy started to flow when I read Barbara Kingsolver's book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and subsequently suggested to Craig that we should turn our whole lot (4500 sq. ft.) into organic food production. He immediately said, "Yes! I'll cut down the five trees in the front yard so we can farm it." Allot of energy, mostly Craig's energy, went into transforming the yard into garden beds, mini orchards and mushroom and berry growing patches, not to mention a building a chicken coop and a 1500 gallon rain catchment and irrigation system. We started the process in July of 2007 and by February of 2008, we had all our perennial trees, vines, bushes and spores planted as well as our early annual crops like sugar snaps peas, spring greens and potatoes. And, chickens too! Because our timing and soil health was on the mark, we have been eating and preserving an abundant and constant array of fruits and vegetables since last April. My energy goes into orchestrating the daily tasks of seeding and maintaining new crops as well as harvesting the plants at their prime. I made a commitment to myself to eat and preserve the fruit and vegetables when they were screaming with vitality because the forces of stagnation have delayed me in the past resulting in unused and ultimately unattractive food coming out of the garden. This is a very good discipline for me because I find that my energy flows really well when I am faced with a cornucopia of gorgeous food. As a result - my cooking is now inspired and Craig is profoundly appreciative of it; I find enormous satisfaction in every day chores; our chest freezer and cupboards are full and our garden is still churning out fall and winter crops. Craig and I feel more secure in these troubling economic times because we have invested our energy into soil: It's our gold.
How I continue to know that this is a good direction for us is that we are inspired to do more: more research, more water barrels, more growing areas, more food, more recipes. I know our energy is flowing because physical and emotional energy is available for an ever expanding list of tasks, no resistance, and every task brings some satisfaction. We constantly work on our garden and It feeds us, literally. I believe that the goal of just growing food for ourselves and the scale of our operation is what makes it successful for us. A focus on nourishment has brought me to the conclusion that quality food equals a quality life. Probably a simple, biological fact but one that has eluded me up until now.
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