It’s spring, and everything in the Pacific Northwest is abloom. I’m thrilled, as I’m an avid gardener, and just last year, discovered the culinary pleasure of homegrown snow peas. Plump, sweet and crunchy, bugs could seem to care less about them, and my then seven-year old would make any excuse to go outside and devour his own body weight in green vegetables.
Yes, you read that right- a seven-year old eating green vegetables!
Gardening is not just a hobby. For those of you following the Peak Oil Crisis and the resulting Cuban diet, soon enough, gardening will be a means of survival. A very real scenario in the next forty years is that oil prices will make transportation of food economically unviable. Pressure on local farmers will outstrip supply, and only those who grow their own foods will have readily available access to fruits and vegetables. Meat will become scarce in urban areas, and dairy will become a luxury few can afford. We are already seeing nearly $5.00 for a gallon of milk, and the cost of gas, to transport that milk, is nearly the same.
In Italy, the term “risorgimento” refers to a re-birth or re-unification, now a way of life for most Italians. Roughly translated, they live on the same land with which they source the things they need to live. The first step is learning to live on less. Isn’t that what a diet is all about?
