Farm Boxes

One of the many changes that have come about during this time is the creation of farm boxes. Delivered to your door or available for pick up at a location near you, these boxes contain produce from local farms, reducing their carbon footprint and providing us with fresh picked produce. Opening your box, you feel like a kid on Christmas morning. You have no idea what’s inside, and you are super excited. For me, the scents alone lure me into the box.

I think what is most appealing for me, and I hope others, is trying new produce you don’t normally cook with. These boxes are like a culinary adventure, leading you to your cookbooks or your own imagination to create something delicious. While the term “farm to table” has been thrown around a lot, this truly is the definition of that. Picked fresh in the morning, delivered to you and on your table all in the same day. Along with produce, there are jams, flowers, and herbs included or whatever is available that day.

I love the tradition of farm fresh seasonal produce, locally grown and gathered that day. I picture my grandmother in England gathering her food for the day and heading home to prepare dinner. I have truly become her, gathering my food each day fresh. The farm box idea is just what we all need right now. I am hoping being home has made everyone appreciate meals with their family more and the value of fresh produce.

As we move forward, I treasure moments like this that take us back to simpler times. Time spent at home has made me appreciate things we often take for granted, like going to the grocery store and finding what you need. As we all pivot to accept these changing times and create new ways to survive that are also environmental, sustainable and healthy for ourselves, these farm boxes are a welcome addition.

Gardening is Good for the Soul

In the last few months since we have all been home, I have spent time in my garden every day. Sometimes working hard: trimming, dead heading, planting and fertilizing. Other times I walk around appreciating the beauty of nature.

I could not have asked for a more perfect moment in my garden to be home for. Everyday new plants are sprouting leaves and blooms. I love watching my plants grow. Each year the garden gets more established and rewards my hard work.

I come from a long line of British gardening women, and I treasure and carry on the torch proudly. I remember my grandmother arriving in the US, and the first thing she did was plant yellow rose bushes at our home. They are still there some 45 years later. My mom would garden every Sunday. It was her ritual. I tend to wander out in the garden on any given day and can get lost in it for hours. It is so fulfilling, calming and zen. I don’t know what I would do without one and don’t ever want to find out.

If you don’t have your own garden, there are various community gardens. You can take a small plot and create and grow what you love. Whether it’s produce or cut flowers, your life will be enriched by the experience.

When things get back to normal, visiting gardens in whatever part of the world you are in is a great way to enjoy the day as well as see a variety of plants and get ideas for your own garden. I have taken so many ideas from all over and sometimes have to stop myself from growing everything I like as I only have so much space and want it to look nice and not like a small plant store.

Landscape design is something I have always relied on a landscaper’s help with. I have been lucky to work with two amazing women who have really shaped the structure and bones of my garden. From there you can add in what you want, but a good base design is helpful. I grow a lot of herbs, citrus and cut flowers. I don’t have enough sunlight in my garden to grow the produce I would like to, but I have an amazing farmers market I go to every week for that.

There is always room for a plant inside or some herbs on a kitchen windowsill if you don’t have a garden. We all need some nourishment right now and connection to nature. For me, my garden feeds my soul and keeps me inspired and creating daily.

Being at Home

As we take to our homes at this time and slow things down a bit, I am hoping personally to read, journal, cook, meditate, take long walks with my dog and think about life, love and the endless pursuit of happiness. We are all responsible for our own happiness and how we create and include that in our lives is a thoughtful process.

With our forced isolations, now is a good time to reset. Take a step back and think through your life. Is it all going too fast? Do you have a feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction with your life? Is your family healthy and happy? Most importantly, are you the person you set out to be? Our daily existence and tasks can be overwhelming and there is little time to ponder these questions. So I am taking this time, as I hope others are as well, to recharge and refocus on who I am.

I am most grateful for having a passion in my life and being able to pursue it and share it with others. This time at home has made me feel energized to give back and be a positive influence to others. I have always had a strong need to accomplish something meaningful in my life and now is the turning point. How can I create something that will live beyond me and either help others or for a moment make them see the beauty I see in the natural world through my photographs? This is my mission and this is who I am.

I love taking care of people, so cooking was a natural pursuit. While it came out of a not so great time in my life, I am a big believer in something good coming out of something bad. So during these times, I am focusing on the good. There is still much to be happy about even in the worst of times if we search our souls hard enough. Be thoughtful, be kind, take care of one another, and just love the life you have.

The Dirt

Life in the garden begins with the dirt. It is the base, full of good ingredients, that will generate healthy growth. Just as humans need supplements and healthy food, so do the plants, trees, produce, or herbs in your garden. I have learned a lot in my travels to farms, and the most valuable thing I learned is if your dirt is not enriched, your plants will not be either.

This time of year is when we put the garden to rest. We trim and cut back and regenerate the soil in preparation for a bountiful spring. It is a time to wipe away failures from last year in the garden and begin again. Nature always gives you a second chance, and I for one take it. I trim back hard and lay my beds with the best compost achieved through biodynamic, organic processes. Then I wait for new growth to appear and that lush moment we all dream of as gardeners, known as spring.

I am always rewarded for the winters rest I give my garden. My plants and citrus trees especially have responded well to my new knowledge of supplementing my soil. This year I am trying two different kinds of compost. I think they will both be great as I greatly respect the farms they came from. Compost is helpful in keeping your plants disease resistant as well. Last year my roses did not do well almost right away. I did not compost well and I know they suffered for it.

The more we nurture and feed in life, the better the results. I am a life long nurturer. Not only in my garden but with my friends and family. I have a passion for taking care of things. I also have a passion for knowledge and doing what I do as best I can. I have always loved gardening, possibly due to my English roots, but I never really took the time to learn the proper way to keep it going. So now I know. I recommend a harsh cut back of your garden this time of year and sourcing a biodynamic farm or organic farm near you that makes a good compost for winterizing your garden. It will make all the difference throughout the year. Continue with appropriate fertilizers and if you must spray, use a safe organic brand. I have pets so I am super careful to not have anything toxic in my garden.

If you are in the Los Angeles area, I recommend Apricot Lane Farms or One Gun Ranch for your compost.

Holidays

Every year the holidays are an opportunity to create new memories. As always, I try to make them festive and fun for my family. My seasonal decorating style has evolved over the years in parallel to the stages of my life. Now that my daughters are grown and my parents are no longer with us, I have paired down my style to reflect my current state. This year I purchased a fresh tree and decorated it simply with white lights and not with ornaments like I have done in the past. It is simple and elegant and was a stress free experience.

My theme this year is to keep it simple, fun and relaxing. I have taken a break from work and am letting things slow down so we can all relax and enjoy some new memories. I will be cooking and taking care of my little family and loved ones as we celebrate the season. As always we will remember those who are not with us and share some stories so they will not be forgotten.

While emotions can run high this time of year as well as end of the year stress, I am hoping to counteract that with good food, loving support and an inner calmness. Disconnecting from my phone and social media for a while has helped me as well as some quiet time spent reading, learning and considering what will be next year, is never wasted time. I am feeling excited and grateful for my life and all the people in it. This is what comes from spending some time reflecting and slowing down. While others around me are going at Mach speed, I try to be the port in the storm. The steady one who, at least for the moment, has it together.

With a plan in place for the holidays to be the nurturing one, I wish that this holiday season’s memories will reflect my love for my family and friends. Happy Holidays to you all and a Happy New Year! Cheers to 2020.

Journaling

I recently posted about the benefits of journaling and organizing your thoughts. In our fast paced world it seems almost counterintuitive to step away from the frenzy and sit down to write or simply be with yourself. Journaling, like meditating, is often misunderstood as something we don’t have time for, when in actuality both allow us to function more efficiently.

Gathering your thoughts and putting them down on paper can help to organize your goals. It can even sort out something that is worrisome and needs to be dealt with that is distracting us from more important items. Our minds are overstimulated by contemporary culture, and while that can be appealing and exciting, it also can wear us down. Our thoughts get so jumbled in our heads that we can’t focus or accomplish what we want because we are just running from task to task with no purpose. Stepping off the carousel and reflecting on all that is passing through your life and focusing on what you want to do with that is crucial.

I like to put pencil to paper and randomly let my mind roll and write down the things that pop up. I use a nice drawing pencil on the off chance that I just want to do a drawing and let my mind meditate on one task. Oftentimes a theme or something specific will be prevalent in my thoughts, and that is the moment I begin to analyze. I like to break it down and create a structure to help me understand what it is that I need to do. Feelings of discontent are not fun; journaling and sitting with my thoughts has really helped me move forward in a more clear way.

Life is full of decisions, sliding door moments, and opportunity. What we choose to do with all that, sets the tone for how we live. We are all capable, given the reflective moments, of having a fulfilling life. It is when we don’t take the time to be quiet in our minds that life gets messy. A clean mind is a healthy mind. Exercise it and exercise your right to self-care and the ability to move through life at your own pace.

Vegetable Blooms

With the change of season comes the lovely addition of vegetable blooms. In the past two years, I have religiously gone to the farmers market at least once a week if not twice. My knowledge of the seasonality of produce has grown along with the discovery of new varieties. An unexpected pleasure was the appearance of vegetable blooms. I had never seen nor heard of these before, but I am completely addicted to their gentle beauty.

Wispy and delicate, vegetable blooms appear after the vegetable has grown and the plant has gone to seed. In the age of not wasting and being more sustainable, vegetable blooms are being used in floral arrangements as well as included in recipes as they are edible. Reminiscent of a walk in nature where one would gather wild flowers, these blooms remind me of being in the country and a slower life.

I am so inspired to create with all the varieties available; radish, broccoli, kale and arugula are a few. Bunched together or on their own, they are a whimsical arrangement in any room. They can be sophisticated or simple and natural. Used in a recipe, they bring a touch of lightness and fancifulness. I have plucked the flowers from the stems and placed them on soups, salads, and dishes as a garnish and styling element. Their simple beauty does not overwhelm and becomes a silent partner to enhance whatever you are creating.

Waste not, want not, my mother always said. Having grown up in the depression era in England, where food was scarce and fresh produce was a treat, the idea of throwing anything out was unheard of. Typically most farmers are concerned with the produce and will often, if not always, toss the plant in favor of growing the next crop. I am so pleased to see this new generation of local growers allowing their plants to bloom and using all aspects of it. I knew I found something unique and valuable when I saw these begin to appear at the farmers markets.

The Future of Food

The future of food has become a crucial topic for debate and action. Every aspect of food, from how we grow it to what we do with it, is becoming more complex daily. A recent exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London addresses many of these issues and the need for a new dialogue. Food dominates our cultures, celebrates our successes and, in our social media age, can even define our identities. The future of food is something that impacts everyone and needs to be redefined for our modern society.

In the Food: Bigger than the Plate exhibition at the V&A, art and demonstrations invite us to look at food in a new and sometimes surprising way. The image above is from the exhibit and shows how you can use coffee grounds to make useful daily items. In another experiment, the cafe at the museum hung bags of used coffee grounds in a dark room to grow oyster mushrooms that would then be served at the restaurant. The idea of repurposing our food and not wasting is a more sustainable, modern approach we need to put into action. This exhibit could not be more timely, and I highly commend the V&A for curating this exhibition.

In this thought provoking show, you are guided through art, video, and live demonstrations showing ideas and possibilities for the future of food. Artists are choosing food as a subject they can not only create with but make an impact as well. From composting to farming to trading to cooking and finally to eating, food impacts all of our lives. As the global challenges involving food continue to grow, we need to think carefully about how what we eat is produced and how we can maintain a healthy, nourishing, and fair source of supply for all.

Sharing meals with family and friends or colleagues is one of life’s great pleasures. It not only nourishes our minds but improves our physical health. This exhibition asks compelling questions and presents possible alternatives to reshaping our attitude towards food sustainability and readapting our consumption to protect and preserve our environment.