KETTLE'S ON: FEEDING THE HUNGRY STRANGER

(Downed 250-year-old live oak tree, Texas State Capitol Grounds, Austin)

While the rest of the country is having unseasonably cool weather, here in Texas we're breaking daily heat records (101 in Austin yesterday). This is after a week of horrific storms that smashed windows in the dome of the capitol building here, tore up trees all over this tree-filled city, and left 39,000 Austinites without power for a few days. It isn't enough to say "global warning" with a wry grin and turn up the AC (if you have AC). The real impact the shift in weather patterns is having, will increasingly continue to have, is on farmers. Those who provide food for the rest of us, and, especially, those billions around the globe who subsist solely from what they can grow. Interrupt that cycle, and they starve to death.

It isn't going to be enough for us to pay more at the store for our food, either, although that is a change which has been long overdue. The increased costs are not necessarily going to organic or family farms, for one thing. For another, U.S. governmental subsidies are still keeping the cost of certain Big Ag crops artificially low and destroying a "free market" internationally. Removing those subsidies will, we think, restore some international equilibrium, remove corporate interest in certain crops at the expense of others who are far healthier for us (junk food depends on the subsidized crops), and with the return of real competition, increase crop diversity and rescue of strains headed for market extinction but whose use to us could be potentially life-saving.

Beyond that, we need to return to our foreign policy the simple comprehension that starvation or living on the edge is what creates most war and violence. Especially violence against women and children. If you call yourself a feminist, you must actively support programs which will remove women and children from the categories of "commodity" or "expendable" in times of scarce resources. In terms of numbers affected, it's far more important than other so-called gender issues.

So, support your local non-corporate food production and distribution networks, but also keep pressure on your elected officials to help us feed the world. Our national image has been covered with feces by the actions of the current government. We have a shot at cleaning it off and redeeming ourselves (the real path to ending terrorism).


And, to give you a farmer's perspective, here's an excerpt from this week's newsletter from Boggy Creek's, Austin's beloved urban organic farm which sits in a working class, people of color neighborhood, providing enduring sustenance to our community in multiple ways. Read the words of farm owner Carol Ann Sayle and marvel at her perspective.

In general, five or six trees down is nothing, considering that damage to our crops from the one-minute golf-ball-size hail storm was minimal. I had awakened, like many citizens, at just past midnight to the pow-pow-pow sounds of big hail, and, flashlight in hand (for there was no power), I ran to the back door, opened it, then pressed it closed against the 65 mph winds, and counted the seconds in my mind as the hail pummeled the back yard. One minute, and one minute only. And I could hear myself think.

One minute. The crops would survive that. It was no tornado. If it was, the sound of it would have been deafening. I know. I remember 11.15.2001 -- a sound so huge that it was hard to hear the prayers in my head. A wind more than fifty percent greater than this one. An F-1 tornado. (A sprained ankle.)

This night, it was all ok. We were blessed.

The largest fig tree, in the front orchard (a sudden hole in a shoe's sole) was not ok. The next day, I ran my hand over one of its many large limbs, mourning it, thanking it for its gifts over the years. The trunk, gigantic by any fig tree standards, lay splayed open, severed in half, cut asunder to the ground. A thousand little figs still looked perky on the branches that fanned out around the tree like a prostrate Garden of Eden, but they would be limp by the time we cut up the tree and hauled the tragic bounty to the curb.

David brought his chain saw and even after cutting up a couple of other trees, we still had the energy to take care of this one, for, almost always, a Texas storm is followed the next day by weather that makes you glad to be alive. A day so bright, so crystal clear, that the devastation looks almost abnormal. How could it have been?

Farmers are not exempt from feeling sorry for themselves. We are human. It's the nature of humanity. We gripe, we moan, we count off failed crops. And then we realize, tomorrow will be beautiful and worth starting over, trying it again, living for the next season, the next crop. What we went through wasn't so bad after all.

Considering dire conditions. Considering real tragedy....

(First of the green beans and cucumbers at Boggy Creek)

Note: This week Boggy Creek's market tables will offer: Just-dug New Red and White Potatoes; Cucumbers (2 great-tasting varieties); Green Beans; Summer Squash (7 varieties! -- Costata Romanesco Zucchini, Elite Zucchini, Raven Zucchini, Flying Saucer, SunRay Yellow, Zephyr, & Sunburst Scallop); Fresh Beets; Table Gold Acorn Squash; Delicata Squash; Spring Onions (white); Bulk Red Onions; Heirloom Garlic; Salads (Baby Lettuces, Baby Chards for braising or salad, Chicory Salad, Baby Arugula); Dandelion Greens; Culinary Herbs & Chives; Brussels Greens; Bunch Arugula; French Sorrel; and Sun Flower and Zinnia Bouquets... Tomatoes: 10 days or sooner! (A few reds are trickling in now....) Early June for Sweet Corn!

Local Dairies' (Pure Luck, Wateroak and Thunderheart Bison, Loncito's Lamb); Fresh Eggs (BCF Hen House Eggs & Louis Young's free-range eggs); Local Miles of Chocolate; Aunt Penny's organic cotton t-shirts and tote bags, small organic cotton produce bags, plus the farm books (Eating in Season: Recipes from BCF and Stories from the Hen House).

(Aunt Penny out for a spring stroll among the dianthus at Boggy Creek) Farms)

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READERS' LINKS

Readers of this blog tend to share their sources and links, as they are a well-read and curious bunch. To their frustration, links don't always come out correctly in the comments box. Therefore, I've gone back, checked them all out, and turned them into HTML to be shared here. Keep 'em coming in, folks. I'll do this regularly as need arises.

Regarding Class and Classism, Kat shares an article by Michael Young, the man who coined the term "meritocracy", first used in his book The Rise of the Meritocracy in 1958. The article, Down With Meritocracy, appears in the 29 June 2001 issue of The Guardian with a tagline "The man who coined the word four decades ago wishes Tony Blair would stop using it".

Surrounded by an exhibition of her life's work, and greeted by three hundred guests and old friends, the photographer enjoys Alice Austen Day in Richmondtown, October 9, 1951. (Photo by Yale Joel, Time-Life Picture Agency, © Time Inc.)
Regarding Alice Austen, the ground-breaking woman-identifed photographer of a century ago, Liza links us to the website maintained by those who run the Alice Austen House, Clear Comfort, a National Historical Landmark on Staten Island, NY, including herstory of Alice Austen, the photographer, her life and work

(Untitled, 1979, by JEB -- a clue as to what African-American dykes actually looked like in the late 70s, instead of Clarice)
Regarding another photography pioneer, JEB (Joan E. Biren) whose slideshow in 1978 also paid tribute to Alice Austen, there's a great interview with her by Carol Ann Douglas in Off Our Backs, January 1998. In this interview, JEB says "The reason that I became a photographer was to make lesbians visible. I became a photographer to photograph lesbians and make those images accessible to other lesbians. At the time that I became a photographer, in 1971, there weren't images that were authentic, that reflected who I was, that I had ever seen. I had never seen a picture of a lesbian like myself.

"There was nothing. Nothing is not an exaggeration in this.

"Part of my work was to go back into history and uncover those earlier images, which existed but were not accessible.

"I've done a lot of photohistory as well. One of the ways that I supported myself early on was to travel around the country with slide shows that talked about the history of lesbian photography and to share those images with communities of lesbians in way that was accessible and affordable. It didn't require a lot of money, like publishing a book. That was wonderful work, to be able to travel around and feed this available hunger that people had to see themselves. It was nice to be the bearer of those pictures.

"It was my life's work to make more and varied and true images of who we are and how we live our lives. To me, the words "lesbian" and photographer go together very easily."

(Furies office in basement of 219 llth St. SE, Washington, DC circa 1972, mailing out the newspaper, l. to rt. Ginny Berson, Susan Baker, Coletta Reid [standing], Rita Mae Brown, and Lee Schwing. Photo taken by JEB, copyright hers.)

JEB co-founded (along with others, including Rita Mae Brown and Charlotte Bunch) The Furies, a shortlived but extremely influential lesbian separatist collective that flourished in 1971 and 1972. She published many of her early images in the collective's newspaper, The Furies. She is the author of two groundbreaking volumes of photography: Eye To Eye: Portraits of Lesbians (1979), the pioneering photographic book that made lesbian existence visible as never before, Making a Way: Lesbians Out Front (1987), a vigorous affirmation of lesbian lives that portrays 125 women. You can also check out her page at the American Lesbian Photography website.

Regarding Captain Oates of the Scott South Pole Expedition and Antarctic exploration in general, little gator shares several sources. The first is Scott of the Antarctic - 1868 to 1912, a website with extensive background, history, photos and links. Within this is found the information that Oates' famous last comment, "I am just going outside and I may be some time", is a remark they generally used to excuse themselves from the tent for toileting purposes.

(Scott's Expedition at the South Pole, January 18, 1912 L to R: Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Edgar Evans, Robert Scott, Lawrence Oates)

Finding the Bodies at the website Antarctic Heroes entry for 12 November 1912, I'm going to copy in this entry in full because of an extremely interesting line that is all but tossed away at the end:

"Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his men had been expected back at their base camp in March 1912. When they failed to return for the winter, his men knew they must be dead. On 29 October, Dr Edward Atkinson, the expedition leader in Scott's absence, headed south with a twelve-man search party.
On 12 November, barely ten miles from One Ton Depot, they found a tent, partially covered with snow. They set up camp and dug out the tent. Then each of the men went inside to view the bodies, so there would be no dispute over what they had found.
The only Norwegian on the Terra Nova expedition, Tryggve Gran, later recalled what they saw:
‘I stayed outside... as a Norwegian it was not my place. The others undid the tent flaps and went inside. Wilson was lying quite peacefully, his feet towards the entrance... Bowers, the other direction. Wilson had died peacefully... Scott was between them, half sitting up, one hand reached out to Wilson. Then I heard a noise... like a pistol shot... I was told this was Scott's arm breaking as they raised it to take away the journals strapped under his arm. Scott had died dreadfully... his face contorted with frostbite.'

"After recovering the party's papers and geological samples, and some small personal items, Atkinson collapsed the tent on the bodies and built a cairn over the spot. Further south, they found Oates' sleeping bag, but not his body. "

Emphasis on the above line is mine. If he was "just going outside" as reported by Scott, either to take a dump or inobtrusively leaving to give them permission to leave him behind, what's with his taking his sleeping bag along? My suspicions are now raised, and I immediately think of Roland Huntsford's controversial theory that Scott hounded Oates out of the tent.

The third recommended link is more traditional Scott hero-worship by Dr. Donald Stevens in British Heroism They Would Rather We Forgot.

(Machu Picchu -- Incas gave potatoes to the world)

I myself researched a few links for those of you interested in why buy brown eggs, why eat different colored potatoes, and the question of monoculture in our agricultural base. First is a good New York Times article about potatoes from 1995 by Florence Fabricant, So You Thought a Potato Must Be From Idaho or L. I..

Another source is Which Came First - Brown Eggs or the White by Tammy Dobbs. Through her I found the exhaustive chart The ICYouSee
Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart, "An Alphabetical List of More than 60 Chicken Breeds With Comparative Information".


A Q&A about egg color elsewhere states: "Here in the United States, almost all the eggs sold are white. You've probably seen brown eggs now and again, perhaps at your local grocery store or more likely at the food co-op or the farmer's market, but mostly you've seen white. You may have even wondered why this is and what the differences are. I have an answer or two.

What are the differences?
The color of the shell. That's it. Nutritionally, there is no difference between chicken eggs from different colored shells. Once they shell is cracked and the egg is in the mixing bowl or the frying pan there is no difference.
Argument from me about this statement: White chickens are easier to raise in cages and therefore are more cost effective and convenient for the commercial chicken farmer. The chickens that lay brown eggs are larger and eat more, and thus are more likely to be free-range rather than raised in cages. The chicken-raisers I know, as well as my own palate, tells me there is a big difference in taste between the two, and if there is a noticeable difference in taste, I have trouble believing there is no difference in nutrition.

What determines the shell color?
The color of the shell is determined by the breed of the chicken. Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpingtons lay brown eggs. Blue Andalusian eggs are white, and Araucanas lay eggs that are green.

Why does my local supermarket only have white eggs?
Most eggs that make their way to market come from corporate agriculture. And the corporations have found that the most efficient egg-laying breed is the White Leghorn. And the White Leghorn lays, you guessed it, a white egg. That's why you'll sometimes see folks who are backers of biodiversity tell you to buy brown eggs. A brown egg did not come from a White Leghorn, but from some other breed. And often eggs from free range chickens or organic eggs are brown because the farmers who raise animals this way often are also interested in breed diversity.


Lastly, if you want a GREAT weekly read wherever you live by a right-on organic farmer, sign up to receive the free e-mail of Carol Ann Sayle's "News of the Farm" from Austin's own award-winning Boggy Creek Farm. Tell her Maggie sent ya.

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