Salad for Dinner

So I just had a salad for dinner.  I am traveling, at an airport terminal with all sorts of yummy fast food temptations.  And I make a salad from the salad bar.  I am becoming one of those weird healthy people, and I like it.  The salad was amazing.  I had a scoop of tortellini with pesto sauce.  I had a few cubes of mozzarella.  There were craisins, sunflower seeds, kalmata olives, a hard boiled egg and a few slices of beets that I diced.  Every bite was like a different dish entirely.  Some bites were salty and nutty - lots of seeds and egg pieces.  Some were very sweet - I must have gotten some beets and craisins.  I felt like I was eating at least five different meals instead of just one continuous flavor (like say, a ham and swiss sandwich).  And yeah, maybe I'm being healthy, but I'm also have an awesomely tasty meal.  The only thing I'm missing is that heavy feeling in my stomach.

And I must give kudos to my latest fast.  You all know I love fasting, dear readers.  This year's fast was a fast from all breads, the entire taxonomy, inspired by this post on Slow Food USA.  I cheated a few times toward the end: once for Seder, and once for the closing of Doc's Little Gem Diner.  But overall, this fast taught me to get a little more creative with my every day meals.  No longer could I go to a sandwich or a wrap for a default, easy meal.  No more pizzas either.  (Nor anymore cookies, muffins, etc, etc).  I was forced to think.  I was broken out of my ruts.  And I think that particular fast gave me the courage, and habit, of not just going to the staples.  So today, when I'm in a hurry at an airport, surrounding by temptation... I circled the salad bar.

Yum!

On Syracuse Grows

Syracuse Grows.

This organization formed in spring of 2008. I wasn't around during the early early inception, but as I understand it, the impetus was to create an organization that could pool together all the resources of individual community gardens around the City of Syracuse, and have them speak with a unified voice to the Powers That Be. It's an awesome idea and the organization has gotten a lot of great things done in the past year and a half. Off the top of my head, we have helped start at least three new community gardens, with one garden donating all of its food to food kitchens and food pantries. Definitely inspiring in this day and age.

Now I am on the steering committee for this organization and I'm not quite sure how that happened. I think it's because I show up to all their meetings?

Joking aside, I am committed to Syracuse Grows because I believe in community gardens and urban agriculture. I am also involved because I want to make sure Syracuse Grows and Slow Food CNY work hand-in-glove. It would be so easy for our organizations to work at cross purposes and I think I would cry if that happened. To that end, we are doing a joint "Fall Harvest" potluck. Both of our organizations will be presenting about our success and accomplishments during this past growing season. October 18th people. Mark your calendars.

In some ways, Syracuse Grows has a foot up on Slow Food CNY. We've hired a strategic planning consultant (funded by a state grant) to help us define who we are and what we want to be. We just started this past week, but it's shaping up to be very, very interesting. And honestly, I may steal some ideas and cross pollinate them with Slow Food CNY. (Get it? Cross-pollinate??)

In all, this is a laid back, knowledgeable and fun organization. Not being the Chair or anything, I'm able to relax a bit more and go with the flow. I step up when there's something I'm interested in, but I don't feel like everything rests on my shoulders like it does for Slow Food CNY.

On Slow Food

A third posting about the my aspects of my life. See the full list here.

This time I am tackling my involvement with Slow Food USA. Last week, I started writing a posting about my role in food activism, but ran away screaming. Without a question, food activism is the most vibrant part of my life right now. It made it impossible to narrow down into one post. So I am just focusing on Slow Food USA right now. I'll post the others soon, and separately.

Slow Food USA is part of Slow Food International, a global movement that encourages and preserves indigenous food systems. Basically, it's about a combination of heritage breeds, supporting local farms, providing everyone with access to good and healthy food, and cooking for yourself. Their motto is that they promote "good, clean and fair" food.

In my opinion, that broader mission statement did not translate well to the USA. Slow Food USA became an organization of high society snobs. It was about expensive food. It was about prestige based on obscure breeds. It was about using words like "erudite" and "bouqet." Not that there is anything intrinsically wrong with that, (I am growing a pawpaw tree, after all)but it was not for me.

Then a little over a year ago, Slow Food USA started changing. They got their first national President who made it very clear that food is not "fair" if not everyone can afford it. Food is for everyone. Now that WAS for me. So, per urging of a few friends, I got a local chapter of Slow Food started: Slow Food CNY. Given that must of the legal framework is handled by Slow Food USA, this wasn't too difficult to do. Slow Food CNY is just a branch of the main organization (yes, I should know the legal term but I don't).

Anyway, somehow, because I organized it, I am now the Chair / President. On a day to day level, this means I have become some food information funnel. I pass and forward emails along like no one's business. I send out announcements. Honest, things are a little rough right now because I'm still trying to figure out who does what, and even figure out what needs to be done. However, I am confident it will all work out because I am not alone in this. I have an awesome and passionate board.

The Slow Food CNY chapter board was elected at the end of spring, just in time for summer vacation wackiness. It's been difficult for us all to sit down together, but now that summer is passed, I foresee awesomeness. Despite this whole "ships crossing thing" we have done awesome work. We just had a very successful eat-in in Elmwood Park, are in the middle of a national "Grow the Movement" drive, and we are planning a joint pot-luck with our sister organization Syracuse Grows.

I know there are still challenges ahead, but man! Who doesn't want to be in charge of an organization where almost every meeting inevitably turns into a potluck of tasty awesome food? That's right. Contain your drool, please. Go into the kitchen and make yourself a meal, or sign up to Slow Food USA and get involved with your local chapter. :-)

(Did I mention you can sign up for Slow Food USA on a purely "sliding scale" level for this month only?)

Finally - Imagine if I wrote about three other organizations in this post. You all would have killed me.

Fasting

(This is a copy of my post at the Slow Food CNY blog)

Fasting. While this is a blog about food, I want to post about the absence of food. If you think about it, the slowest food possible is the food that never reaches your mouth. ;-) While I am not Catholic, I personally find this time of year a good time to fast. The long of winter is (mostly) behind us, and spring is around the corner. Time to do some internal spring cleaning, I say.

Almost every year, I conduct a carbohydrate fast, or some variety thereof. This year I am trying to fast from wheat, refined sugars, and artificial sugars. The wheat is because I am curious if I have a slight allergy to wheat. The refined sugars are because I want to loose my winter weight. And the artificial sugars are on the list as more of a spiritual objection to the overly sweetened foods we have so readily available to us. I want to cut down on the sweetness. (Sorry, but I am not giving up honey this year.)

Does anyone else around here fast? Do you do it for spiritual reasons or health reasons? (Or both??)

Organic Vodka

I am not a huge fan of most alcohol. I can appreciate beer and wine, but in the end, they make me feel somewhat sick. I used to wonder if I am allergic to alcohol (like, more so than most). But then I realized hard liquor has never bothered me. I never get the spins. I never get a hangover. Just a very nice buzz.

Now with beer and wine, you have micro-brews and locally grown wine. But what's a foodie who likes hard liquor to do? Well, you go to Al's Wine and Whiskey Lounge. This place is awesome. It has plush leather sofas and a nice book-ish ambiance. It has amazingly professional bartenders who can have a long conversation with you about the different whiskeys they carry. It's also in Downtown Syracuse and doesn't have a dedicated parking lot, which I think is great.

Now, as with anything I like, it has a weird history. When I first came to Syracuse it was called Awful Al's. It was a cigar bar. As a non-smoker, I avoided the place like the plague. Then NY became non-smoking. For a while, it held out as a cigar bar and had an ever greater concentration of smokers. Ick. But something changed. I don't know how, why or when. They changed the name. And now, I love them. Here's why:
You got it. That menu says domestic, organic vodka. This is what I have been waiting for. Instead of just being foodie about my beer and wine, I can be a foodie about my hard liquor too! Let me also point out the third item down: Rye. Now that is rye vodka, but they also had rye whiskey (perhaps I was a little too buzzed to notice the difference when this picture was taken). Anyway, ever since I read the Slow Food USA post about rye whiskey, I've had a hankering for an authentic Manhattan. That night I had two. Awful Al's - you rule.

Sorry, I mean.... Al's Wine and Whiskey Lounge. ;-)

January Life Updates

So one of my running themes for this blog has been a reflection of what's going on with my life. At the last entry I was working on (1) wedding planning, (2) Slow Food, (3) Fraternity, (4) Housework and (5) Path. I had already dropped the ideas of a starting an independent business and reclaiming my love of music. Let's see where I'm at now:

1. Wedding Planning. This is moving. I am not working on it every day, like I had hoped, but am working on it weekly. I have a space reserved, and have reserved a caterer. We have talked to a photographer (and really want to go with her - we just need to finalize things). I think our next step is to plan out our wedding day. What will happen during what hour, and outline exactly how we want our ceremony to run. I also want to find someone to be our wedding forager.
2. Slow Food. This is off like a rocket. We've been in the local paper, have received a lot of attention and have around 60 people on our announcement list. At the last meeting, we divided up into committees, each with their own agenda. And we're one step away from official, legal affiliation. Tomorrow the advocacy group is meeting (a joint meeting with Syracuse Grows, another awesome local group) and we'll be talking about drafting a sustainable code for Syracuse (included urban livestock).
3. Fraternity. I am burnt out. I did a lot of work with the Colony in December and felt consistently misunderstood and attacked. I have better things to do with my time. I have stated to the fraternal powers that be that I wish to step back from my responsibilities with the Colony. However, I am committed to reaching out to the local chapter here in Syracuse. M and I have invited the guys over to our house on Sunday for a potluck as part of a monthly thing.
4. Housework. Good god, I have a new half-bath under the stairs! It still needs to be painted, but this past week, a lot of work has been done. We replaced the sink, toilet, lights, pipes and installed new shelves.
   
5. Path. I ran a one-shot with the revised Path during my Christmas break. People really liked it. There is still a lot more work to be done, but I am moving forward. I found a reason for dragons in my world. And I've been inspired by a couple of books I've been reading. I recently drew up the continents of Path too.
   

Life Updates

Slow Food is moving along nicely. I just have one more piece to fit together before sending out the chapter application. I also need to contact L about getting her web expertise which was so generous that I haven't even been able to respond to her offer. Lame of me, I know.

Wedding Planning is also moving along nicely. We have almost fleshed out our address list. Mike also came up with an awesome idea for our reception location. We received our "save-the-dates" and need to start distributing them. I just wonder if at this point, I should focus more on sending out the actual invitations. Hm.

Music is not moving. I realized that I may have to drop this entirely this year. I would like to go hang out at some jam sessions just to meet the people and take in the music. Unfortunately, I will not realistically be able to dedicate the time to learning a new instrument. On the plus side, I realize I should first learn guitar, that basic instrument, before moving on to more complex instruments, such as a mandolin.

Fraternity is unfortunately moving. I still have three fraternity commitments and one of them is taking up an unhealthy amount of my time. I am beginning to extricate myself from the responsibility of this task. However, this is a very important task and I will not just drop it. It will still take some substantial effort to responsibly pass this task on to another.

Path is slowly moving. Unlike music, which was also supposed to be a stress reliever, Path is actually functioning as a pleasant distraction. I've done more work to craft this work as my own original place and have fleshed out a one-shot adventure highlighting some of Path's unique features.

A business? Hah! I've been so busy with other things I haven't even contemplated it. This is one task that I definitely have put to bed for the time being. Thank goodness!

Natural Cycles

I went for a walk in Three Falls Woods today. It's a 175 acre wood that acts as a buffer between suburban subdivisions and a huge open-pit mine. My friend Z grew up on a house bordering the woods and took me around with M and H.

Now Z is one of the more amazing people I know. She is an environmentalist in a true sense of the word. Her job involves environmental activism. Her spirituality is both earth-based and rooted in political activism. Heck, she even lives cooperatively.

And driving into Manlius and looking around at the sub-division in which she grew up, I couldn't help but be surprised. In my experience, I've found that subdivisions created zombie people beholden to consumerism and cut off from the rhythms of the planet. How could my awesome activist friend be a subdivision monkey?

I found my answer at Three Falls Woods. Her property bordered onto the woods and she literally had a backyard of waterfalls and woods in which to grow up. The place was beautiful. The leaves were off the trees and there was a simple calm about the land. The air was fresh but not frozen. The geology was very... interactive. The path was uneven and people would stumble as a rock would jump out at them. Moss carpeted the exposed cool gray stones. And then we got to the waterfall basin. I could see where the ancient falls rushed into the hollow and smiled at the three little streams that remained, claiming the right of water to erode.

It was a great walk and it got me thinking about how our childhood homes shape us. I grew up on the tidal portion of the Hudson River near the ocean. I used to think all bodies of water had tides and that when my shore was at high tide, the opposite shore was at low tide! I would scamper among the exposed rocks looking for baby crabs or eels when the tide was out. I explored the wetlands and find forgotten trees and hidden streams. I wandered around neighboring woods and saw old stone farm walls, waterfalls and abandoned swiming basins. My brother and I both grew up in this environment. And while we turned out quite differently we both carry a strong environmental ethic. Z, growing up at the edge of Three Falls also grew up with a similar ethic.

This helps me understand why I find the whole Slow Food movement so important. Not everyone can have access to large amounts of greenspace in the way that Z and I did and see natural cycles unfold like that, but everyone can get involved with the natural cycles of food. If people have the space they can plant some edibles in their garden. At the very least one can still plant a fruit tree along the street, or have a window box of herbs. These cycles release anxiety in a stress-inducing modern world. (I know the studies are out there but I can't find a link - help, anyone?)

I was given a great gift by growing up with access to nature. My walk today remined me of it and helped me understand why Slow Food is so important to me.

Where goes the intention

As a follow up to my last post, I've been thinking about what it means to be successful at something. Confidence is one part yes, but I realize it's also about where I'm putting my energy. To get specific, right now I have a bunch of balls in the air. I usually do. Here they are:

1. Get a chapter of Slow Food USA started here in Syracuse. You can read more about that here.
   
2. Evolve Path. Path is the name I use for the world in my head. No, this isn't some crazy thing (I don't think....), but I use it for running my roleplaying campaigns and as the setting for my fantasy writing.
3. Fix up my house and yard.
   
4. Plan for my wedding. Yes, I'm getting married. Next August 8th.
5. Get in touch with my musical side. I recently reached out to initiate contact with some folk musicians in the area (Syracuse / Central New York has an amazing folk scene).
6. Start a small side business (see previous post). I've settled on the idea of being a designer for people's houses and landscape. My spin? I'd be doing it with an east/west fusion of principles. When all is said and done, I have some strong credentials to stand upon with this one: Masters of Landscape Architecture, Bachelors in Geology and Geography, and nearly ten years of experience with Feng Shui and eastern aesthetic principles.
7. Stay involved with my fraternity. Once a brother always a brother. My home chapter closed down this summer and I've spoken about working to organize my chapter's alumni and get something started again in Boston.
   

Phew. My point in all this is, confidence is good, but focus is better. Where goes the intention, goes the energy. My intention is scattered. Here is my resolution about these tasks / foci below:

1. Slow Food. Getting this chapter started is very important to me. I also believe it will help with my wedding, as I want the wedding to have a strong component of local food involved. This one get's the majority of my attention right now. I should do something about this daily.
   
2. Path. At it's core, this is make believe and I do realize that. It's a fun stress relief to contemplate on this one. This one get's some attention, mainly as a stress relief. Spend a few hours a week on this.
   
3. Home Improvement. It's getting into fall. Things are winding down. There are still some projects that I want to get done before spring, but again, this is not a high priority. This is also a stress relief (when things don't explode on me). Spend a few hours a week on this.
   
4. Wedding. This is my ceremony comitting myself to Mike for this life. Super important to me. This one get's the second largest part of my attention. Mike and I really need to finalize our guest list and talk to places about getting our reservations together.
   
5. Music. This is another creative outlet / stress relief. I realized I don't have the time to committ myself to anything serious right now. I am just going to join the local community choir to keep my chops warm until I have more free time. Spend a few hours a week on this.
   
6. Business. Yeah... Not going to happen until this Slow Food thing has a bit of its own momentum and my wedding is complete. Spend no time on this until next year.
   
7. Fraternity. Another "Yeah....." This one is also not going to happen. Honestly, I started my home chapter way back as an undergrad. It's time to let someone else carry the torch. I would be very excited to support someone in this, but it's not going to be me leading the charge. Spend no time on this until I see someone else taking a leadership role.
   

Phew again. It's good to sort all this out. Daily focus: Slow Food and the wedding. Weekly / Stress Relief: Music, Path and Home Improvement. See Ya Later: Business and Fraternity.