Requested References and a Week to Go

a fall day at the psu farmers market

On Sunday I got to speak to the great group with NW Veg. You know the group. They put on the amazing Veg Fest every year. I was kind of nervous because I figured I would be chatting with the choir. However, it was just another indication of how we all have so much to keep learning from one another. So thanks to an amazing group for another learning moment. Here is the list of resources I promised you... and a few extras. And if any of you have a favorite, please share as well.

The Books I had with me include:
Cook Food: a manualfesto for easy, healthy, local eating by Lisa Jervis.
Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-consumer World by Kelly Coyne & Erik Knutzen (they have a blog called Root Simple really the only blog I follow with regularity)
The Natural Kitchen: Your Guide to the Sustainable Food Revolution by Deborah Eden Tull (this is part of the process self-reliance series and I am always awakened by this little dense gem of a book)
Manifestos On The Future of Food & Seed edited by Vandana Shiva (so really once I mention Vandana's name that should be enough, but I am going to add. I think I actually read this way before I started this journey. It has inspired me, encouraged me, and stays as a reminder of where the heart of my passions lie.
Making Stuff & Doing Things: a collection of DIY  guides to doing just about everything by Kyle Bravo (it's title says it all really)

My super secret weapon is a buying guide I picked up so many years ago when I first started cooking on my own with foods of my choice and was learning the virtues of bulk food. I think I paid 50 cents for it 13 years ago at (get ready for it) Wild Oats. Its called World Tastes: Wild Oats' Guide to Buying & Preparing Bulk Foods. It breaks down into grains, beans, rice flour, pasta, nuts & seeds, sea vegetables, mixes, baking essentials, liquids, and dried fruits. I may be going off on this a little too much, but really this is a tool that can last one all their lives. It gives you all the tips and tricks you need to prepare and become friends with bulk foods. Because face it, if you are always having to turn to flip through different shit to remember if you like to power soak and for how long for which bean... your relationship with bulk beans is going to be a strenuous one. Or how much water do I add to that premix dried soup? Its in there! and it has not gone out of style. Well out of design style.... maybe, but the foods have not changed that much. I would love to create something like this for the co-op.

Some others that I dig

Please Don't Feed The Bears! (a vegan cookbook)by Abjorn Intonsus
Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz (you can also find this in zine form via microcosm)

Movies:
Bag It
Fat Sick and Nearly Dead
Queen of the Sun

I know there are more, but I can't think of them right now.

the coops favorite feline friend

True motivation comes from having passing conversations, or spontaneous long chats. Then there is the sharing of food. That is the best.

I'm entering this last week, and it may be the toughest one. People have offered tastes of their food, and I have to say no because something in it came from a package. They get that look people get when they really want to share something with you, and realize it isn't going to happen. And I respond with "Well, in a week I can". And that sounds so weird and arbitrary to me, though I know its not. Then I muse with myself on what I will "allow" in my life, my body, "my" kitchen [I live in a collective of 5 other people so when I say "my" kitchen I mean the part I'm using when I am in it].

So until that moment 2 weeks from now when someone offers to share something with me, I  honestly don't know how I will answer. For now, I am preparing the celebration gathering... un-packaged brunch! Its my favorite meal, and I can't wait!