You are what you eat.

What are you eating? Do you imbibe that wonderful organic food, then slouch in front of mind-numbing TV or movies?  Is that food created so it can be shipped over a few weeks before it reaches it's ripeness?  Do you stay cocooned in air conditioning constantly?  Is the only water you touch chlorinated or bottled in plastic?  What kinds of chemicals do you cleanse yourself and your home with? How about the scents that you inhale, are they chemically created or natural?  Do you read things that inspire you or give you escape from reality?

Yes, I am definitely doing a few of those.  But I'm also going to a party of local entertainment, beer, and food.  It's LOCAL!  But if you're within 50 miles of it, you should come!  That's my circumference of local these days.

Exactly two weeks from today, a great party with live entertainment, selections of local beers, and chef-prepared foods that are grown locally...called the Plates and Pints.

If you live anywhere nearby, look up the directions to Pisgah Brewing Co, and drop by.  It's a fund raiser for the Black Mountain Tailgate Market...so $20 a ticket.  But you'd spend that easily for beer and dinner with entertainment anywhere.

And did I mention the silent auction?  Us Mudbuddy potters are contributing something that will also support the market.  I'll give you a hint soon!

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Berry harvest time

Berry picking is part of many of our summers these days, and we are fortunate that so many growers invite us to "pick your own".  The wonderful berries being harvested now provide precious deserts. .

It's strange how many folks look at our berry bowls at the Tailgate market, turning them over and seeing those nice drain holes in the bottoms, with little saucers for serving anywhere...and they ask what are these?  Well, we're very happy to enlighten people.

How many of the fruits and vegetables that you ate today were grown within walking distance of your home (say 10 miles)?  That's not even thinking about the meats you ate.   Now extend your circle of "locally grown" to include what could be transported without refrigeration...perhaps around 50 miles for fragile things, maybe more for things like cantaloupes or watermelons.

I admit I buy some of my groceries in packages from afar.

I grow a few things in containers in my yard.

But I'm really interested in reading blogs by people who garden seriously (vegetables) or farm!  These folks have some idea how to live close to the land, and I wish I were doing so myself.

We're planning a pot luck on Aug. 1 (wait for a blog about Lammas soon here).  I urge everyone to bring things locally grown to share our "first harvest." 

How about sharing a favorite recipe of something that's grown/harvested close to your home?  I'll look around and find something to share here soon!