Community Supported Agriculture

Alright, if my urban sister can find a CSA in Brooklyn, I can find one here. Pinckney's Produce is a community-supported agriculture (CSA) that is part of Thompson Family Farms out near Lake Marion, about 45 minutes inland from Charleston. Yummy veggies, here I come! I had to promise my boyfriend I would help keep up with the cooking so that no food goes to waste. He is better about cooking with whatever is in the fridge. I am better with recipes and can be unimaginative when faced with random vegetables.

First up, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, green onions, lettuce, strawberries, and turnips. Time to bust out the cookbooks...

Spring Season: April - July - Fall Season: September - November

Produce

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

Apr.

May

Jun.

Jul.

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

Beans

Beets

Broccoli

Butter Beans

Cabbage

Cantalopes

Carrots

Cauliflower

Cucumbers

Egg Plant

Green Onions

Lettuce

Mixed Leafy Greens

Okra

Green Peanuts

Peas

Radishes

Rutabaga

Yellow Squash

Strawberries

Sweet Corn

Tomatoes

Turnips

Watermelons

Zucchini Squash

First Slow Food, Now Slow Money

I admit it; I am intrigued. I hope they have this book Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money at the library. It sounds like the application of the slow food concept to financial investment. I ran across this book by researching social responsible investing this evening. For retirement planning, I have purchased some socially responsible mutual funds, but primarily I've focused on funds that will invest in anything. Given the economic craziness that has happened in the last couple of years, maybe it is time for me to revisit these things that I have always thought valuable.

And in thinking about this, I have remembered that I have already been participating in local economies by signing a commitment to a 10% shift via Lowcountry Local First. This is where you try to shift 10% of your outflowing dollars from out-of-town to local businesses. That could mean moving your money to a community bank. Or buying food at the farmer's market, instead of from Chile and Peru. Or supporting local businesses over multinational corporations. I admit, I am not always successful here, but it is worth trying.

I realize that the marketplace out there is a lot bigger and more complex that the economy here in Charleston. This type of local economics might be futile. But it seems a worthy experiment.

Side note: Turns out, Woody Tasch, the author of this book is going to be at a local-level economic conference here in Charleston next month. And Lowcountry Local First is helping people become sustainable farming apprentices. There are so many amazing things happening out there in the world!

Broadway Explains Wall Street?

From This American Life on NPR - Broadway sings about some of the things that have been rotten on Wall Street.

Bet Against The American Dream from Planet Money on Vimeo.

Homemade Laundry Soap

A few weeks ago, I went ahead and made my own laundry soap. After a few loads, I can say it has been working very well and makes for a softer fabric than just the commercial detergent.

Here's the recipe:

Grate up a bar of my homemade soap

For every 2 cups of grated homemade soap, add one cup of baking soda.

In the future, I may try adding Borax and/or washing powder to increase its ability to get out stains.

I've been using 2 tablespoons per load, which seems to work pretty well. I didn't realize that filling the scoop to the line for commercial detergent may be overdoing it.

The baking soda works as a fabric softener, so now my clothes are softer than before. And they don't have a chemical smell. Yay!

Foggy Morning on the Marsh

On foggy mornings, you can't see land on the other side of the marsh. But you can see things that are invisible to you on sunny mornings.


I attempted looking for the spider to figure out who is making this web. I couldn't find it on the spider web. However, a quick Internet search shows it may be Grammonota trivittata, a sheet-web builder.

A Spring Paddle

I took my kayak out on Easter Sunday from my house to Charleston Harbor. It was a great day to be on the water - weak tides, moderate wind, and a lot of sunshine. I saw an osprey carrying a fish and listened to marsh wrens singing.

It is a little funny to meander by people's backyards - watching people clean their boats, swing in hammocks, and sit on screen porches.

Where is Teddy Roosevelt When You Need Him?

This book 13 Bankers by Simon Johnson, a MIT professor, looks quite interesting. I have been looking for a current read on the financial crisis. And he can hold his own against Stephen Colbert. That is no small feat.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Simon Johnson
www.colbertnation.com
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The Warning

Now that Greenspan's name is mud, it is interesting to look back at how the current fiscal mess could have been prevented. What makes me sad and angry is realizing this is just going to occur again.

PBS Frontline has an excellent episode on how the U.S. government was warned unregulated derivatives would create problems down the line. Whether you agree unregulated derivatives were the ultimate cause of the financial crisis is another thing, but this episode highlights where the power really is in Washington and how it can be abused. At this point, who is president and in Congress is basically irrelevant to our fiscal policy. That means we the people have no voice in our financial future.

Update: Check out what bloggers are thinking about Brooksley Born's questioning of Greenspan during last week's Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearing.

A clip is below.

FRONTLINE | "The Warning": Sneak Peek 1 | PBS
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