This Agrarian Wife
In our life together my wife and I are earnestly striving, however haltingly and bumbling, to make life choices and engender habits that I would call "agrarian," following Ellen Davis' definition:
"Agrarianism is a way of thinking and ordering life in community that is based on the health of the land and of living creatures." - Scripture, Culture and Agriculture
Others may wish to call this "going green" or being environmentally sensitive, but I think that the goal is more sophisticated and holistic than the mere avoidance of harm to the natural order we inhabit. Rather, I hope we are reaching for the kind of creaturely disposition that exhibits both humility before God and wise stewardship/dominion among all other created things.
I have tended to be the more outspoken cheerleader of the two of us, but my wife certainly put me to shame this week. A couple of days ago she studied our More-with-Less cookbook more carefully and quickly set about making a number of staples from relatively raw materials. I came home from an evening meeting to find she had experimented with making our very own corn chips and "wheat thins" from scratch and she had also mixed together a hearty and tasty cereal (her most successful result). Yesterday she made some delicious balled honey snacks and tonight she experimented with homemade granola bars.
If we get these recipes down pat, they will certainly be a help to the pocketbook. But they will also lessen our dependence on questionably-nutritious processed foods, the majority of which are grown by environmentally and socially destructive agribusinesses. Not to mention that we would cut out some of our domestic waste because we would no longer be getting cereal, granola bars, etc, in plastic and paperboard packaging.
I guess it's time for me to step up my work on the garden. Spring's almost here anyways.
"Agrarianism is a way of thinking and ordering life in community that is based on the health of the land and of living creatures." - Scripture, Culture and Agriculture
Others may wish to call this "going green" or being environmentally sensitive, but I think that the goal is more sophisticated and holistic than the mere avoidance of harm to the natural order we inhabit. Rather, I hope we are reaching for the kind of creaturely disposition that exhibits both humility before God and wise stewardship/dominion among all other created things.
I have tended to be the more outspoken cheerleader of the two of us, but my wife certainly put me to shame this week. A couple of days ago she studied our More-with-Less cookbook more carefully and quickly set about making a number of staples from relatively raw materials. I came home from an evening meeting to find she had experimented with making our very own corn chips and "wheat thins" from scratch and she had also mixed together a hearty and tasty cereal (her most successful result). Yesterday she made some delicious balled honey snacks and tonight she experimented with homemade granola bars.
If we get these recipes down pat, they will certainly be a help to the pocketbook. But they will also lessen our dependence on questionably-nutritious processed foods, the majority of which are grown by environmentally and socially destructive agribusinesses. Not to mention that we would cut out some of our domestic waste because we would no longer be getting cereal, granola bars, etc, in plastic and paperboard packaging.
I guess it's time for me to step up my work on the garden. Spring's almost here anyways.
Labels: Agrariana
Despite our differences on Balkan politics, this is a good post. Here is one problem I might hve with gardening: my backyard is almost 100% shaded (there are moments of sunlight in the afternoon). Any possibility of remedying this?
Posted by
Jacob |
Saturday, March 07, 2009 9:33:00 AM
There are scads of crops that grow in the shade. In fact, a many of them require shade. I can't think of any recommendations off of the top of my head, but a quick internet search should pull you up a list of plants that thrive in the shade.
Plants don't need direct sunlight to absorb it, just like you don't need direct sunlight to get a suntan.
Also, you could consider trimming some branches back (unless you're a renter — landlords tend to resent having their trees messed with), if you want to take an obvious route.
Posted by
Vershal |
Sunday, March 08, 2009 7:27:00 PM
Most of your traditional vegetables - the kind that one expects to see in a typical household garden - won't do well in the shade. You could cut down a couple of trees and harvest them for firewood or inoculate the logs for mushrooms, then plant your tomatoes and such...
...or, as Vershal suggested, you would need to think outside the box a bit. Lettuce, for example, is a cool-weather crop, but you could get it to work in the middle of the hot summer under shade. A lot of herbs are shade-tolerant, too. You could also try perennial vining plants or an orchard of short fruiting trees.
Posted by
Chris Schelin |
Monday, March 09, 2009 7:31:00 AM
So which one is the good cereal recipe? (Or what is the trick?)
Posted by
Christina |
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 11:39:00 AM
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