Shortening the journey from producer to consumer
Why you should grow your own food or buy directly from someone who does
Issue #27
Hello to all my beautiful robins chirping at the first light of the sun,
Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I throw all my thoughts into the void. Thanks for joining me once again!
Becoming part of your local food web
I am grateful that we live in a time of rich global commerce, where I can walk down a grocery store's aisles and indulge in guava paste from Brazil, jasmine rice from Thailand, and pineapples from Hawaii. But I am here to advocate for our local food webs.
The height of the summer is the perfect time to work on closing that gap between the producer and the consumer. The earth is bursting with food so eat what is grown closest to your front door rather than hauled in from across the world via freight. Eating local has never been cheaper or easier than it is now, especially if you live in an agricultural community.
Here are four easy ways to connect to your local food system this summer:
Shop at a farmer’s market or farm stand
No longer are farmer’s markets just for rich, white yuppies. To get that cheap local produce, I’d avoid those weekly markets that feature stands selling $10 loaves of sourdough and $30 beeswax candles. The farmer’s markets I’m talking about are those local food stands on the side of the road with plywood signs spray painted with words like “PEACHES AND CREAM” or “LOCAL BERRIES” or “FRESH EGGS.” Pull over and grab some of their grub.
I have nothing against buying some homemade jellies and fresh produce from your local weekly market, I live to peruse markets! If you’re in BC you can find a directory of all the different markets here. In Chilliwack alone, we have three different weekly markets. Even more markets aren’t officially registered with BC Farmer’s Market, but they’re still out there, like Yarrow Farmers Market and Agassiz Farmers Market. A quick Google search will tell you everything you need to know. Low-income households can participate in the Nutrition Coupon Program where you can register to receive $27 per week in coupons for up to 16 weeks.
Avoid buying produce from those big-name stores as much as possible and opt for smaller, locally-owned stores instead. While these stores have less selection, they are usually always significantly cheaper. My go-to for produce is SKT, Fruitcana, or Kin’s.
Get a CSA share
It’s like a weekly subscription box but for fresh, locally-grown produce. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs are a way to directly support a local farmer while getting the freshest produce possible at a low price point. This is my first year with a share in a CSA and I love it. I pick up a box of fresh produce every week from Abundance Acre Family Farm in Chilliwack, and I’ve been eating the tastiest beets, cilantro, kale, cabbage, and whatever else they’ve grown that week. Find a local CSA near you with this map made by Farm Folk City Folk.
Grow your food
This is my second season of patiently sowing seeds, watering them daily, and watching their life force burst through the dirt and transform into food. It’s exhilarating and worth pissing off your landlord over. If you’ve never grown food before and don’t even know where to start, here is what you’re going to do:
Pick up some pots (90% of my pots were acquired from the side of the road).
Pick up a bag of potting soil (Just get a cheap bag from Walmart).
Get your hands on some seeds (there are usually seed swaps in a lot of communities in the Spring where you can get free seeds, but I’ve even seen seeds at the dollar store before, or just ask a friend you know who gardens, I’m sure they’ve got more seeds than they know what to do with).
Plant the seeds in the dirt.
Water them daily and watch them grow.
It really is that easy.
Yes, if you gave me your time and attention I could go into the soil nutrients and fertilizer and growing zones and mulching and compost and slugs and worms and crop rotation and companion planting, but don’t overwhelm yourself with all that at first. Don’t think about it too much. Just put seeds in the dirt in a spot that gets a good six hours of sunlight per day and watch them grow!
Here are some of the easiest, most satisfyingly quick plants you can grow from seed:
Any leafy green - lettuce, kale, swiss chard, bok choy, spinach, etc.
Radish
Peas
Carrots
Bush Beans
Harvest/Forage food in your neighborhood
This one may require the most work on this list because you need to know how to identify the right plants and find trusty locations to forage them. But if you want to tap into your inner forest fairy this summer and go foraging for berries and mushrooms in the woods, be my guest!
Here are some local foods I’ve foraged with ease:
Blackberries (no doubt you know a spot with massive, overgrown blackberry bushes, hit up these bushes come August for a tasty treat).
Salmonberries (these are usually ripe in early summer and you can find them in forested areas. They look like light pink raspberries).
Huckleberries (those little red berries growing on those bushy, low-growing trees in the forest, usually ripe in July/August).
Oyster Mushrooms (these were the first mushrooms I learned how to forage, you can find them growing on trees after a nice rainfall in the Spring or Fall).
Dandelions (all parts of this common weed are edible - the leaves, flower, and root).
You can get deep into it and forage for all sorts of plants like fiddleheads, nettle, morels, rose hips, and so much more. Get a guide for your local area, I use Plants of Coastal British Columbia and get learning!
We’re in a heat wave, baby! The garden is thriving! Let me show you:
The bed on the right has tomato and pepper seedlings I got free from my work.
The middle bed has an abundance of Swiss chard grown from seed, some cauliflower seedlings I took from work, and some baby fennel fronds.
The left bed has three kinds of kale, carrots, bush beans, and nasturtiums.
The pots in front of the beds are filled with marigolds.
ITS CORN! I planted some corn just a week ago and these babies have popped up already!
My first Nasturtium blooms, a healthy spray of delphiniums and pincushions, my first bush beans, and a flowering bee balm.
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. If you like historical fiction, greek mythology, war epics, and gay romance, this is the book for you. It is a new take on Homer’s Illiad, but I wouldn’t know this because I never read any Greek classics. And it’s nothing like the movie Troy featuring Brad Pitt in his prime, there isn’t even a mention of the famed Trojan horse. But there is a centaur who lives in a cave made of pink quartz, so that was cool.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. Psychological thrillers are the opposite of my jam, so I have no idea how this book ended up on my “to-read” list, but I’m glad it did. If you like mysteries, unexplained crimes, and uncovering suppressed childhood trauma, this may be the book for you.
A weekend at home — I know this seems like the opposite of a joy, but after spending a couple of weekends away from home and preparing to have another four weekends away, it was nice to have a couple of days to relax, run errands, and do some stuff around the house that has been sitting on my to-do list for weeks.
A backyard — I am forever grateful for constant access to the magical land we’ve created in our backyard. We can grow vegetables, host BBQs, read a book in our hammock, and play fetch with Dozer, it elevates apartment living to a huge degree.
Winning a piece of art at SNAG in the Valley’s booth at Jam in Jubilee — I won this beautiful watercolor painting by Jay Rettich. I had no idea what painting I would get when I wrote my name on the silent auction sheet, as the attraction of this booth is that artists create the piece of art that is auctioned off during the event itself. It turned out to be perfect and just my vibe.
Thanks to an abundance of leafy greens from my CSA box and garden, I’ve been living off of salad.
Here are a few of the dressings I’ve made that have been absolutely wonderful:
Strawberry Vinaigrette:
Blend until smooth: 1 cup strawberries, 2 tbsp Dijon mustard, 3 tbsp red wine vinegar, ⅓ cup olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour this mixture into a jar and mix in ½ of a finely minced red onion. Eat right away or store in the fridge for up to a week.
Creamy Almond:
Soak ½ cup almonds in boiled water for one hour at least. Blend soaked almonds, ½ cup coconut milk, ¼ cup water, 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 2 tbsp agave or maple syrup, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper. Blend on high for two whole minutes to get a beautifully creamy dressing.
As I slowly start developing and writing for my other newsletter, Wildflora Tarot, I’m going to phase out tarot pulls in this newsletter. But I can’t help but add an Oracle pull this week because I got another deck by Kim Krans off Facebook Marketplace this past week called Alchemy.
Pneuma/Breath
Inspiration, Presence, Life Force
“There is no more direct way to practice Alchemy than to study Pneuma. We all have access to the mystical phenomenon known as the breath. Gracing us with the fit of existence upon the physical plane. If Alchemy, as is suggested in this book, is the merging of physical and mystical, then this card serves as our ever-reliant bridge. It is the magic, within us, the expanding and generating life force that animates our life. This card may appear simple, but it is not. No matter how advanced you are in studying the breath, if you heed the message of this card, you will find it has more to teach. Bow to it at this very moment and you will discover the Work revitalizes itself. New space open. Pneuma is your lifelong alchemical ally, stating its love with every inhale and exhale.”
Thanks for reading What Am I Doing With My Life. Here are some fun ways you can learn more about me and what I do, as well as support this little side hustle of mine:
Reply to this email to let me know what gave you joy this week!
Become a free or paid subscriber to never miss a thing!
Please comment, save, and share this newsletter so more people can read these words!
Feel free to follow me on my personal Instagram, @andrea_multihyphenate, or my podcast Instagram, @whatamidoingwithmylife.podcast to keep up with all my latest antics and happenings. You can reach out to me via these channels through a DM or comment, I’d be happy to hear from you!
Find out more about me and my communications work through my website, where you’ll find my photography portfolio, samples of my writing, and ways we can collaborate.
Thanks again for reading and I look forward to hearing from you!
I am honored to have written this newsletter and experienced all the joys within these words on S’ólh Téméxw, the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Stō:lo Coast Salish peoples.