So the release date for the new Portishead has finally drawing nigh. April 28th in the UK, April 29th in the states. I've heard about 3 tracks now on BBC Radio 1 and it's pretty great. Very big and gloomy. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years. I also hear Tricky and Martina Topley-Bird may be coming out with new stuff as well. Bristol back in the house? Maybe.
One of my favorite cookbook authors, Suvir Saran, waxes philosophical on the wonder of home grown eggs. They have some of the South American Araucana hens, which produce eggs in wonderful shades of blue and green. The deep brown ones are quite lovely as well. Who needs Easter Egg dye when nature creates such a wonderful spectrum of design and color naturally?
Over this past winter I've been reading a lot of books related to sustainable/organic farming and animal husbandry. One recent book I can highly recommend is The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman.
The book is chock full of dense, useable information, much of it applicable for even the backyard gardener with a small plot. Coleman focuses on the amount of land that can be readily maintained by a couple or small family, usually 5 acres or less. He is also a big proponent of using good hand tools and small garden tractors rather than buying a lot of specialized equipment that must be depreciated and cost capitalized before the farmer is making money off the equipment. In this sense, he would probably share a lot of views with Joel Salatin.
There are too many ideas to mention, so I'll just throw out a few highlights that really stuck with me.
- There is still a lot of innovation in small organic farming techniques in certain parts of Europe, where small farms still account for much of the local food supply. Coleman has visited a lot of farms in Europe and in the rest of the world and has lots of tidbits learned from those farmers. In addition, he points out a lot of resources anyone can use to keep up with the latest techniques from these farmers. Also, farming is still considered a high art here and the farmer is considered a professional, a technician, a highly educated person who takes his job seriously and really has to be good at a lot of things to succeed. Contrast that with many modern North American farmers, where government interference, the incompetence of the USDA, the encroachment of chemical companies hawking fertilizers and pesticides as best practice and the loss of a relationship between grower and consumer has left them downtrodden, lacking passion and vision and barely scraping by.
- Crop rotation is your friend. Coleman talks a lot about crop rotation and provides a lot of practical examples and schemes, lots of hints on what plants best follow other plants, the soil impact of various plants and so forth. This used to be standard operating procedure back in the day, but now on today's giant mono-crop farms this idea has been thrown away along with much other practical knowledge. Instead, the soil is treated as nothing more than a growing medium with no value of its own while a vicious cycle of pesticides and herbicides are required for growth. This leaves the soil more and more destitute of nutrients, while impacting the surrounding land and wildlife as well. Not to mention the food just isn't good for you. Instead, Coleman encourages the grower to think of the soil as the most valuable asset you have, one you need to nurture with plenty of organic material and educated care.
- Weak plants attract pests. This was a very interesting concept to me. Coleman says that once you get healthy soil with the right balance of pH, organic matter, minerals, etc. and your plants are healthy, pests tend to be less of a problem. Pests typically attack plants that are already on an unhealthy trend. I'm curious to see if experience bears this out some day. It makes sense though, as much of the rest of nature works that way as well. Coleman doesn't say this will completely end the pest problem, but it goes a long way. Part of the reason as well is due to healthy soil with all the good organisms, as well as a micro-culture in the way you grow that attracts birds and other natural predators to help you keep pests under control. One thing I'm still not clear on, what do you do while you get to this state with your soil and environment. Typically you don't start with the best soil (unless you buy a working organic farm potentially) and it takes at least several years to get to where you want to be.
All in all, I quite liked this book and it gave me a lot of food for thought. It will be one I'm sure I'll return to when the time comes that I actually can put some of these principles into practice. In the meantime, I'm going to try some of the suggestions in our small back porch growing area. One thing we noticed last year is we bought some "cured" manure and it made a huge difference in our plants. This year we also hope to use some of our worm compost and "worm tea", as well as experimenting with some soil amendments if we get a chance.
So I don't usually do these "tagged" things, but I kinda think this one is cool. I was tagged by Scott, he has a pretty obscure set of quotes up. Plus I'm curious if my movie geek friends will get some of these. I'm not sure if the point is to be obscure (something I tend to be without trying) or to pick a quote that is easily guessed. There are some of both here. It helps if you know my varied taste in movies and favorite directors. I'm not going to tag anyone else though, sorry. (Correct guesses I will put in italics)
By the way, here is the premise.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Look up 15 of your favorite films on IMDb. Take a quote from each. List them below. When someone guesses the quote correctly, cross it off the list. I trust you will not cheat (Google).
If you know one of these, put it in the comments and I'll update. I think after a week or so, I'll just put up the answers because some of these are kinda cool.
1. She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.
2. Sometimes it's interesting to see just how bad bad writing can be. This promised to go the limit.
3. I got the pool, she got the pool-man.
4. Hang on tightly, let go lightly.
5. Don't you think one of the charms of marriage is that it makes deception a necessity for both parties? May I ask why a beautiful woman who could have any man in this room wants to be married?
6. Not only did I enjoy that kiss last night, I was awed by its efficiency.
7. -- She sure is the "eat, drink and be merry" girl.
-- Yeah, she'll wind up fat, alcoholic and miserable.
8. My dear girl, there are some things that just aren't done, such as drinking Dom Perignon '53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That's just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs!
9. I think you do. There's another kind. Not high-minded, not pure, but alive. Now, that your tastes at this time should incline towards the juvenile is understandable; but for you to marry that boy would be a disaster. Because there's two kinds of women. There are two kinds of women and you, as we well know, are not the first kind. You, my dear, are a ***.
10. New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire.
11. -- Who are you?
-- Doesn't matter.
-- What do you want?
-- To kill you.
12. Should I bolt every time I get that feeling in my gut when I meet someone new? Well, I've been listening to my gut since I was 14 years old, and frankly speaking, I've come to the conclusion that my guts have *** for brains.
13. And to think that in some countries these dogs are eaten.
14. To eat good food is to be close to God.
15. Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Growing up in a Mennonite church, worship and singing meant acapella, 4 part (at least) harmony with no instruments. While I grew to love all sorts of instruments in music and even learned to play some, that experience shaped a love of vocal music in me that remains. There is nothing like a magnificent harmony of human voices in this world.
When the movie Cold Mountain came out a number of years ago, there were a lot of things I loved about it. But one unexpected thing was the use of Sacred Harp singing, something I hadn't exactly been exposed to before. It's a very old American music tradition based in the South which uses an old hymn book called "The Sacred Harp" which uses shaped notes. I was exposed to shape notes growing up, they used to use it to teach sight singing at my school. If you are familiar with the "Do Re Mi" approach, where each note of the scale has a name, it's similar with the addition of a shape to represent each interval in the scale.
Sacred Harp singing always starts with a "sing through" where the singers sing the name of the note first for their part (Do Do Do Re Mi Re Mi). It sounds rather other worldly, until you figure out what they are doing. If you've never been exposed to shape note singing, it probably still doesn't make sense. Combine that with a very joyful and boisterous singing style, not always exactly on pitch, with slides up and down to notes and the end result is quite electrifying. The tradition hasn't really died because there is enough interest that new people are taught in each generation and the singing carries on.
Anyway, there is now a documentary on this American folk art form made by a couple from Atlanta who got into Sacred Harp singing in college. It's actually produced by a couple of the guys from Third Day. The great songwriter Jim Lauderdale from Nashville narrates. It's been playing on some PBS stations, but looks like it might have come and gone before I noticed. You can buy the special edition 2 DVD set on the Awake My Soul website or through Amazon. I really need to check this out. You can also go to the web site to hear some examples.