A month ago I was at a gathering of neighbors where we were talking about what the Grande Ronde Valley was like before the wetlands were drained and diked. My friend Bobby kept talking about “water attention.” I thought about “water attention” for weeks, and asked him to explain this new concept to me. He […]
This is part 2 in my writing about reducing plastic. Part 1 explains what we’re doing on the farm. This post talks about reducing plastics in our lives. In the last few blog posts, I have talked about my family’s coastal road trip and visit to the amazing Monterey Bay Aquarium. What really struck me […]
January 1st 2020, the state of Oregon banned the ubiquitous single-use “t-shirt” bag at grocery and retail stores. I heard a limited amount of grumbling before the law went into effect, but mostly, I have been watching how this new law is quickly changing habits. Shoppers and store employees seem more adaptable and amenable than […]
Today I am grateful for the contributions that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggle of freedom riders, freedom fighters, and freedom “foot soldiers” for a more just society for everybody in America. Today I am thinking about the connections of food and agriculture with Dr. King’s work on civil rights and poverty. Today […]
Every December my family and I “get outta Dodge” for a few weeks. It is the only month we all have time off at the same time–from the farm, work, and school. We are often drawn to the ocean because we live so far from it in northeast Oregon. In the last few years, we […]
