It's still mostly winter...

So I'm staying in during the snow and reading...This came today, and it's fabulous!  
We are soooo ready to start spring!

An interesting journey

         This is not new, but I was thinking about eating as we planted the first of the seeds for the year.*  I remembered a series of photos about families around the world and the food they consume in a week .  The Time magazine article about this book shared some representative photos of the selection of foods each family made as well as the money they spent.  You can start here and take a look.  You might keep an eye on the presence, or absence, of fresh and/or "homegrown" foods.
        Can you picture what your family's food would look like?  Would you like to see more natural vegetables and fruits and fewer plastic bags and containers?  Consider planting a few veggies this year that you know you like...and that you've never tried before~
*beets, spinach, arugula, buttercruch, radishes, turnips, chard and cabbage (all tolerant of the 40 degree soil temperature)

Reading in the Rain

It's raining, so it's time to read!   I've got a couple of new good ones (new to me) on my desk. 

Container Gardening for Health has great tips on growing the 12 most impacted veggies.  The ones we love, but also the ones that get the most pest/herbicide buildup grown by industrial agriculture.  Get the book, find some dirt...and grow your own healthy veggies!
We are both cancer survivors but not quite food purists, figuring we are a bit old to have it help much.  We are, however, quite pushy about children's food.  Please, start the kids off right.


Easy Gardens for the South is really local.  Our own Harvey Cotton and the renowned

 Barbara Pleasant who spent many years around here offer up great tips and information on lots of plants.  "The Cultivator" really likes the information presentation.  He says it really is a useful book.  Buy one for yourself and see!

Books I Recommend

The Green 13 and other movements around Huntsville concerning "greeness" and "sustainability" are really making progress!  If you are interested in local food security like we are, you might want to read  Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food, The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating or Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)

Hardly a final list, of course, I'll have more as they occur to me...or you could chime in with your favorites and I'll add them in another post.

Happy Reading...and eating :)

GentleVoice