10 reasons I just signed up for FoodConnectAdelaide (an SCA)

I just signed our family up to Food Connect Adelaide, which is an CSA (community supported agriculture) enterprise. Here are 10 reasons I signed up for it:

1. I am tired of eating last year's apples, of cold storage oranges, and hydroponic carrots, all of which are tasteless.
2. I want to eat in season and to influence producers to give me what is in season.
3. Like Sally Mackinnon, I want my tomatoes to smell of scarlet.
4. I want to eat the heirloom varieties, the unusual, the rare, the threatened and endangered.
5. I want to eat in season to get more in tune with what the earth is best at producing in my area, rather than relying on other parts of the country.
6. I want to put more community into the food that I eat.
7. I want to be challenged to eat what is available, rather than being all arrogant and privileged about me dictating what is available. Or at least deluding myself into thinking that I have some influence.
8. I'm not that fabulous in the garden and this is a small step in that direction - to see what is in season and what I could plant and grow. I know beetroot works well, and silverbeet, for eg, and can branch out from there.
9. I want real food. Not so hung up on organic, but I want it with sunburn and blemishes and the occassional bug. I thing blemish-free fruit is actually kind of creepy, the scary-clown equivalent for food.
10. I want to pay a fair price to the farmers who provide me food.

FCA is still new so there aren't a lot of reviews. I'll try to remember to post pics! And review them on pick up.

Ambient intimacy

Hoyden About Town recently spoke on ambient intimacy and assistive devices. She said: "The internet is the virtual watercooler (or coffeehouse, or playgroup, or pub) for people like me, isolated due to disability. And I'm fed up with able-bodied folk slamming electronic community as a meaningless half-life. I'm sick of internet use being constructed as a signifier of a person as a pathetic loser worthy of mockery. And I'm over ignorant pundits reviling the rise in electronic community as The End of the World as We Know It, a one-way highway to the inevitable disengaged, apolitical fragmentation of society."

Disambiguity tells me that ambient intimacy is "about being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible". I do this. I am friends with people on a forum that is almost entirely US-based but I find a lot of support on there. I am also a member of forums on BubHub and Joyous Birth, and while I'm not a prolific poster there yet, I am doing a lot of reading for personal and professional reasons. I am also on Ravelry. These give me a community that I don't have access to in the real world or IRL (in real life) as it is referred to.

What makes these less "real" than the physical world? I tell people on these forums things that I wouldn't otherwise share with anyone other than my most intimate friends - but sometimes you want a community of people to respond to you. And that community is self-selecting, in that they have an inherent interest in you/what you're talking about. How am I to know whether my friend is interested in my school life, or my tooth ache, or how to deal with a situation with a work colleague, or how to talk to ManFriend about debt and plans for the future? I don't have that many tangible friends that are older and more experienced and forums give me access to those, so they are just as real as the person I can hug. And when the forums that I am part of are places where people will call me on my shit, or give me a point of view that I've not considered or would never have researched, I see them as more useful than my friends, who can sometimes want to save my feelings by not being honest.

Plastic bags - or "Why I may need an asbestos suit to post this"

I went food shopping yesterday and bought a lot of groceries as I also made-to-freeze 4 lasagnes, 3 quiches, 2 custard tarts and some jam tarts, as well as hosting a Hottest 100 Aussie Day bbq today. I purposefully took no reusable shopping bags with me because I wanted to stock up on plastic bags. I got some filthy looks from the checkout chic because of this so I feel like posting about my position on bags.

The average plastic bag is repurposed when you get home with it - you use it to line little bins around the house, to take lunch to work in, to put wet bathers in after the beach or pool, to pick up dog poo, and so on. What is going to happen to these parts of our life when bags are phased out?

• Take away the small bins and just use one large on in the kitchen, still lined with a plastic bag. Increase use of plastic bags as we won't reduce our volume of rubbish, but just concentrate it in one place.
• Get a bag of some description to take lunch to work in. Decrease frugality as these will wear out, and will need maintenance and cleaning, and may get lost / left behind.
• Wet items need coralling still, so more consumption to replace this use.
• Dog poo collection drops as people (who from my observation are RUDELY incapable of collecting their dog's turds anyway) reduce the amount of poo that is collected unless they are near a bin (which have been removed because they are terrorist threats) and aren't carrying a pooper scooper.
  

And so on. Plastic is a part of our life - and as a peak oil'ist, and a chemistry graduate, I know that our love affair with it will have to stop soon and it will be horrible and painful. But instead of advocating chucking out the Tupperware and stepping away from the ziplock bags, I'd love some of the trendy greenies out there to get a grip on what actually impacts on greenhouse gasses - and in Australia, for the most part, if you changed the food that you ate, you'd have a BIGGER impact on your footprint by sharehousing, giving up the car (or at least the 2nd one), walking or riding more, and eating locally and in season.

Giving up the plastic bag is simple and pathetic and ineffective and such a lovely case of greenwashing. If the reasons people were saying to ban plastic bags actually had anything to do with the impact that they have on marine life, then I'd be all ears and would bang that drum! But most people are completely unaware of the impact that these have, because the 6 pack plastic beer can holders have been phased out here in Australia and few people think it's a problem anymore.

And for that matter - what do you think the reusable bags are made out of? They are made out of plastics. If they're made from recycled plastic, then that's a lot of energy and water involved in recycling plastic into something else. The bags also have to be shipped from point A (you) to point B (depot) to point C (consolidation) to point D (export) to point E (recycling) to point F (packing) and back to you... which is a bigger impact on greenhouse gasses than just using more bags. And then consider that a plastic bag and a reusable bag hold around about half and twice the amount respectively, but the reusable bag weighs more than twice the others and is BIGGER, so transport costs are higher anyway!

Precisely how green are these things then? Not very, I think.

On the other hand, by removing plastic bags from every shop, you are perhaps forcing more people to think about their impact on the environment. In theory, anyway, as your average pleb is completely ignorant to peak oil, or the impact we are having on biodiversity or resilience in our environment. Removing bags isn't going to reduce consumption, but will increase the amount of $$ we are spending on appearing to be conscious of our impact.

• And as as aside, at The House of Bun, we have not had bags for 4 or so years, and sell reusable bags (the green ones rock as they are huge and have a reinforced bottom and are square based, whereas the red ones are like a beach bag / tote in construction) bags but still have people bitch about not having bags. We have boxes that are availbale to any customer to pack their purchases in, and still people bitch because they don't have a bag to put things in. But funnily enough, we do get a lot of people who are moving house and want to come to us to get free boxes to move in. I can remember doing that when I first moved house 10 years ago, and now no other store has a box coralle at the front of the store for boxes. Will we see a return to this?

Food ponderings

I live in the Amazing Adelaide, and within a few km of where I live, I have a Foodland, the Central Markets, and the Farmer's Markets. We shop for and eat fresh food most of the time (though of 21 meals a week, we eat out maybe 4 times a week? Monday night, Tuesday night, Saturday morning, and maybe a lunch), and prepackaged food is definitely a treat around here. I have mad cooking skillz (tm) and TheMan makes a mean sandwich and salad (two things which I hate to make but love to eat) and even my quasi-instant food is fabulous! I am a student and ManFriend works hard to support both of us, and so we don't eat spectacularly fancily or at the top end of the range - but we do eat well, and eat vegetables and vegetarian more often than not. We eat on a budget and it can be a bit dull by some measures, but we eat regularly and Identifiable Food.

But I'm currently watching Jamie's School Dinners and am kind of horrified.

Actually - I am freaking horrified. The kids on here eat crap, 5 days a week. (I say this as I'm heating up chips and fish fingers for the first time in abut 6 months, because I feel like it). But the school dinners (lunch) is actually the main meal of their day and many of them eat even more poorly at home. Many of them have no idea what vegetables are - as in, hold up a vegetable and they don't. know. WHAT. they are. No idea what an onion looks like, or what rhubarb or asparagus is.

Ok yes, I know that the video is completely edited to prove a point, and the ones that the kids got right probably weren't shown. But it is scary when you watch what the kids are eating every day.

Jamie fed his daughters leftover chicken and veges with cous cous (? I think) and pureed veges, and his daughters are aware of Food at a very young age, whereas the school children don't seem to have been exposed to foods, so I can see that as a simple pathway to exposing kids to food. Cookies are a sometimes food. So are chips, and sausages, and processed meat, and custard and lots more. But seriously, these kids eat this stuff every day. Their packed lunches are no different which is inicative of their parents not having an idea. Which is even scarier to me because it means it's a generational thing.

The fact that there is a Constipation Clinic at the local hospital made me feel a little queazy. The x-rays of intestines was gross because these are KIDS. It is HEARTBREAKING to think of parents having kids that are in this kind of situation, and to think of their pain and the lack of quality of life and their future...

"If you're hungry, you'll eat" probably won't work on these kids. But that's the apporach that worked when I was a kid because I wasn't GIVEN another option. I was just given food and that's what was for dinner. It wasn't dramatic and wasn't an issue - it was what my parents ate and that was fine. But back then, there wasn't the advertising that there is these days around crap food and fast food and instant food. That is a huge challenge to parents to get involved in

But the last thing I've noticed is that most of the people on this show don't like food. They don't love food in a tactile, get your hands in, slice that vegetable, massage that chicken, squeeze that tomato, sniff that herb. And I don't know how to teach that to people so my hat is off to Jamie for pursuing it.

And... done

Things that I'm done with:

• cleaning my own house for a while - I have a cleaner coming on Monday. I'm sad that I am doing this but the reality is that in just a few days, I'll have the use of just one arm and be recovering from surgery. Manfriend works fulltime and is completing a thesis and has a right to a life that doesn't involve working 5-6 days a week and spending the other 2 days slaving at home. I am a student and that is part of my "job" in our relationship - part of the year I study, part of the year I'm on placement, and part of the year I'm just working a few days a week and keeping house the rest. It is my fulltime job to balance these things, and I don't do all the housework by any stretch of the imagination, but with one dud shoulder for the past 3 months (well, 18 months but only diagnosed for the past 3), the housework just hasn't gotten done much. Hence I am getting a cleaner. In theory, Allianz will pay for it for a few weeks post-surgery as it a direct consequence of the accident that I am getting someone in to do this... but I'll see.
  
• studying. I've finished for the year! Two exams done! I get to shred things and file things away! Woohoo!!!! I am now halfway through my degree. Next year I'll do one 3rd year subject in 1st semester, and a 1st year and a 2nd year subject in 2nd semester, and then two 3rd year subjects in 2010. Got that? I'm confused just writing it. It means I won't do any practicum/placement until late next year but I can deal with that.
  
• blogging every day. Because NaBloPoMo is over. And I did it! Or so I say. I happen to like blogging and I have a lot more to say here. And I have a lot of time over the next 9 months to write stuff out. Not that many people are listening ;). I'm not going to do it through December as I have surgery in a few days, and I don't think I'll be up for it!
  

"Recognizing the central importance of listening and showing sincere compassion is the midwife's job. It can be challenging to be truly present all the time, but it is a quest we must all challenge ourselves to meet if we are drawn."

— Illysa Foster, CPM

A study to determine whether breech presentation at term is more common among women with at least one prior cesarean delivery showed a rate two times that for women who had had vaginal births. The study records of 84,688 women showed the relative risk of a breech presentation at term for women with a history of cesarean was 2.18, with no difference related to the number of cesareans. While a total of 2.46% of all women in the study had breech babies at term, 14.91% of those who had had a cesarean had a breech. The researchers took into account other factors, including gestational age, maternal age, parity, birth weight and oligohydramnios.

— Am J Obstet Gynecol, 13 Feb 2008 (10.1016/j.ajog.2007.11.009)

Have I told you lately how much I miss midwifery? I don't miss a lot of the minutea and crap that comes with it, but I do miss the women, and the births, and the antenatals care, and the breastfeeding help and the growing bellies. I need to make a board to remind me of this through the next looonnnggg period. You know - I could have a baby between now and when I go back to uni and births. That's a little sad and confronting. And so not on the cards.

from: Cambridge Midwives

Treasure map

Millionaire Mommy Next Door has written some interesting and inspiring stuff recently. I'm not saying that she has all the answers, or that I want to be like her, or that I want to be a millionaire even, but her post on how to increase your financial bliss came out of her ealier post how to create a treasure map for a rich life and got me thinking.

I am heading towards the big 3-0 and more serious stuff (heck, I just made tea and cake for morning tea with my sometime-to-be-husband Manfriend, and it made me think of my dad's routine!) and if I had $1m in the bank at the moment, the interest alone would keep me in good stead. I could go and do indy midwifery for a reasonable income but also at an accessible rate for those who need it, I could sleep til I woke up, and I could do what I wanted to do because I wanted to do it, rather than feeling like I Have To Do It.

MMND's suggestions for making a treasure map for your rich life (and she doesn't just mean money-rich - it's whatever makes you happy!) is like making an ideas board for a designer, or a planning board for a large event - it's not hard but it is challenging.

1. Grab something to stick it on to (cardboard, thin plywood), as well as scissors, glue and sticky tape, pens and textas etc.
2. Grab any magazines you have handy for this kind of project and flip through them, cutting out whatever catches your eye. This can be quotes or pictures or stories or ideas - anything that inspires you and gets you thinking, or makes you curious as to why it tickles your mind.
3. Attach #2 to #1 with bits of #1 - just like in primary school! I've not made a collage in *years* and this is going to be fun!
4. Add notes and ideas into the collage for things that you've not been able to find pictures for, or can't yet articulate.
5. Review it all and see if it sums up "happiness" for you. If it doesn't, change it!
   
6. Title it, date it and sign it (my idea, not hers actually).
7. Work out how many moneybucks you need to live this kind of life. MMND suggests being specific rather than accurate - but also to write it down!
8. Hang your collage on the wall where you'll see it every day.
   

Interestingly, MMND goes on in later blog posts to look at how to identify and prioritise your values so that you can live according to them as a key to finding happiness. I know that when I am conflicted about something that I am doing, it is most often because it clashes with what I want to be doing - not just in a "I'd rather be doing anything other than studying" (oh look! I'm blogging instead!) way, but also in a deep down, do not want, do not agree with doing this kind of way.

Go and read and be inspired :).

Names are such fascinating things!

I have friends in the USA, Canada, Europe, all states of Australia and in other places around the world. And I find it fascinating the names that are common in each spot. So here are 10 popular names in my circle of friends:

• Angela
  
• Emma
• Kate /Katie
• Rebecca
• Sarah

• Andrew
• Michael
• Alistair / Alasdair
• Nicholas
• Ian

And by popular I mean there are SO MANY people named these, the conversations go...

"So Andrew said",
"Wait - Andrew Mc, Andrew S, Andrew Sarah's Andrew, or the other Andrew?",
"Sarah's - J, not P"...

And names I want for my children:

• Persephone
• Taiven
• Indigo
• Saffron
• Dharia
• Grace
• Mathilde
• Paige
  

• Gaicimo
• Bexley
• Felix
• Xavier (why yes, I do seem to like my X names)
• Fabien
• Reuben
• Cade
• Bailey
• Finlay
  

I'd love to hear what other people can say, especially about the names that are common in their family or cirles!

Hair!

I once upon a time had very short hair (2005):



And then grew it out (2006-2008):




And now:


I'm tempted to do this:



Any thoughts?

Silent abuse - triggers, and a post in which I get rambly

Something different for today - a post about abuse. I've spent the past couple of months with a foam sling on my L arm when I'm at work, because I work at the House of Bun (a hardware store) and I have 1kg lifting restrictions on my arm, so I can't use it, but unless it's tied up, I tend to use it and it gets sore and I get really really grumpy.

By the way - Panadol Osteo is my best friend. Slow release paracetemol is the best for pain like I've got (joint pain) and I highly recommend that you talk to your GP about it if you have an ongoing issue. It reduces the overall amount of drugs that I'm taking and makes me less foul tempered and mouthed.

So anyway - the number of times people cracked jokes to me about my partner beating me and that's why I was in a sling. Why do people think that joking about domestic violence is amusing? There are lots of forms of overt abuse as well as a few that are "silent" - an article I came across recently about this really opened my eyes to the fact that a lot of what I went through as a child and teenager was this kind of abuse. It worries me a lot that I might fall into that cycle because I don't know how to deal otherwise with people. I'm very conscious of it now, especially in my close personal relationships, as I am worried about repeating the mistakes of the past, especially as I consider procreating.

On that line and in the vein of this is my blog and I can cry if I want to, I got contacted by my mother yesterday with her usual passive aggressive crap of "I have something for you let's meet up"... and this time, she also said that she had some things that she wanted to say to me and so maybe she'd email me. Now the quick among you will have noticed that she didn't say that she wanted to talk to me, or discuss things with me, or anything like that - she has some things to say to me. Unless they are very specific apologies for past wrongs, and a change in how she deals with a specific family member, then I am not the least bit interested in hearing what she has to say. Not the least bit interested in stirring up past hurts and incidents. Not the least bit interested in picking off scabs from wounds THAT HAVE HEALED in whatever fashion I have had to. And not the least bit interested in hearing her side of the story because I don't care whether there is a side to it other than my own. I just don't.

Skeletons and closets - that's a match made in heaven.

We are, generally speaking, a product of our past. We integrate things that have happened. We learn, and we move on. The moving on bit is REALLY important for our sanity, and for shaping who we are. Not who we were, or who we want to be in the future - but who we are right this freaking second. And given that I've been to two funerals in the past week and have had a crap day with my shoulder and physio, and am still not back at work, and am broke because of this, and am distressed enough without having to deal with 28 years of "things what made me Me", I politely messaged my mother with "thankyou but I don't need anything from you and don't think I want to hear what you have to say, so please don't email me".

And spent the next five minute crying. Just because I've made peace with not having my mother in my life doesn't mean that the pain of it goes away. It's taken me a LONG time to get to this point even, where I don't feel obliged to have anything to do with her - but I still feel that societal and probably primal requirement to have something to do with my dam. And knowing that she is not going to change, and that having her back in my life is just going to hurt and suck even more, makes me strong enough to send messages that make me want to throw up.

But being brave is not being terrified - it's about being terrified and still doing them. So I guess that makes me brave.

Christmas, wedding, surgery...

* Christmas may be interesting this year. Surgery is on 10/12 and I'll have 2 weeks of being unable to move my arm, so it'll still be a case of "help me get dressed please" by that stage. I've politely suggested to the family that I'm not up for traveling 2 hours to celebrate Christmas (as much as I do anyway, which is minimally) and will be having a quiet time at home.

* Wedding plans are on hold at the moment or are going on in so much that we are still talking about it when we get the chance. Money comes into it a lot, and I am waiting until I see my dad in December to pick his brains about the trip we want to make. Well, I want to make - it's hard to get ManFriend to make any moves on this, whereas I desperately need something other than school and my injuries to think about.

* Shoulder surgery is set for 1 month, 1 week and 1 day away. That's kind of poignant. And look I did what any good blogger would do and put up a ticker for it. I have exams x2 between now and then as well. I am wondering how to prepare for the recovery period. I'm a bad patient - I don't rest, I do too much, I fret about things that need doing but not by mem and I am going to struggle to feed and entertain myself for at least 2 weeks if not more. I found a great website on recovery from a broken leg but nothing similar for a shoulder; there are lots of similar things to take away!