Inside the Mind of Mark...

So, it has been a few years since I have last blogged. I am not sure why I ever stopped, but I did. Lately I have been posting my environmental, political, and food thoughts on twitter, but all that gives me is 140 characters. So here I go...

Haiti

Lots have been said in the last week about Haiti. I have heard soo much about the countries past, the current situation, and the road blocks. It is really sad to see the current status of the country, the pain of so many people that have lost soo much! So much that I cannot even come close to understanding. My mind drifts to what we can do to help pull Haiti out of this disaster and to a sustainable place. The big need after people receiving food and medical attention is rebuilding the infrastructure: roads and housing. I look at how we can train individuals to re-start their environment. So much of Haiti has been laid bare due to deforestation. Why not begin large scale efforts to bring back the vegetation that is native to the land. The other big issue to help the land is to begin large scale composting to refresh the soil with the nutrients that it once had and to then begin planting produce to help feed the people of Haiti. Now I could go on further, but I will spare everyone from that. I know that so many people have lost what little they had and are in a most difficult position, but I feel that organizations need to help enable the people of Haiti to rebuild the country themselves. They don't need more debt, they don't need handouts in a year from now. What they need is housing, food, and jobs. The problem has been the destruction of the environment in Haiti which has in turn taken away their food and jobs. We need to enable the people to restore these things.

Food

Many things lately have centered around food in my life. Leah and I started a raw milk share and we just watched the movie "Food Matters". What I can say we have found is that our current system of human health and how we treat our body is really screwed up. We as individuals as Leah and I have found have to take the way we eat into our own hands. We can't listen to what the culture claims as healthy... we can't look at food labels and simply count fat and calories. We have to dig deeper. We need to find local natural alternatives to the way we eat. We need to change our eating habits and we need to no longer look to the drug industry to find cures. Chemicals do not cure our body, natural fruits and vegetables help our bodies to not get sick in the first place. So many times we pasteurize and clean our food, but what we end up doing is removing nutrients and destroy the enzyme structure of what makes the foods good for our body. How do we safely intake foods if they are not pasteurized? Well, buy straight from a trusted local farmer. Get in a CSA for local milk, produce, and meat. The great resource we have in our area are the Amish. No better spot to get organic products because they use no artificial chemicals on anything. They do it the natural way. I could go on and on and on, but I need to go make dinner. What's for dinner? Well, broccoli cheddar soup of course!

Take Care Everyone

where to get started if you want to eat organic and/ or local.

Firstly would love comments on ANY good additional info on this topic!

This is how the convo usually goes like:

You work for a CSA? what is that? how do I get involved with one? where can I get: milk, cheese, veggies, pasta, flour, ect?

CSA is a Community Shared Agriculture a great link explaining what that means and why their great:

http://www.prairielandcsa.org/whatisacsa.html

A great Link that we have found for all sorts of CSA is:

http://www.localharvest.org

We have found a number of CSA near us on this very web page! LISTEN UP this is the mother of all web pages for CSA.

here I hope to give someone a great local Jackson resource and to be added to:

MEAT

I work for a great CSA, and as far as I know one of a kinda for Michigan.

An Organic/ natural Meat CSA!!! so crazy I know. You can also purchase quarter/half or whole beef/ pork/ or lamb.

She is located in Manchester (25 min away from Jackson) where you can pick up or in Ann Arbor on delivery days.

http://oldpinefarm.biz/

You want a great contact with local and organic products its her! She makes available eggs, and chicken for share holders along with periodically local fish, cheese (and raw cheese) also we do buffalo, emu, duck and turkeys.

Something to be noted is some veggie CSA sell chicken and eggs to their share holders

VEGGIES

Mark and I use Two Creeks Organic who also do eggs, chickens, and other poultry periodically.

Also in Manchester they do delivery once a week in Ann Arbor at Zingermans at the farmers Market, which is wonderful because you can purchase additional produce and local items there too.

http://www.twocreeksorganics.com/home

Another Veggie share whom I haven't tried but is very successful is Tantre Farms, I mention them, because I believe they might offer raw milk as a part of being a share holder. That might be rumor though.

http://www.tantrefarm.com/

FLOUR/ PASTA/ EVERYTHING DRY GOODS!

Country Life Natural Foods. Period that its. We have ordered organic whole wheat pasta, flour, Quinoa and rice

http://www.clnf.org/

The beauty of this is that its Cheaper than any store for a lot of items. but yes there is fine print on this one you either have to order like $400 (or more) in product or ORDER with OTHER PEOPLE!!!

The Person who we do ordering with Mary Lynne Miller in Jackson. You can contact me and I will give you her email address (since I probably shouldn't put it up without permission)

MILK

no good answer for this, we just joined up with a raw milk CSA share through Amish, if you are looking for answers on this you can also ask me for contact info.

Thats all for now!

EGGS
A lot of CSA will provide you with them or sell them on the side. Ask around their might be a farm that sells them cheaply near you.
We have found on Blackman rd/ country farm (which is north Jackson) we buy local organic eggs for $2. If you go down country farm road you will see signs for Brown Eggs along the road. Its a little stand in someones driveway, but we love it and its great.

CHEESE
Grassfieds Cheese
We have ordered Gouda and a few other cheeses from here. They are mailed delivered (they are near Grand Rapids area). Grassfields will not disappoint, we order around 90 dollors worth(we got a half wheel or 6.5 pounds of Gouda along with several other types for that much) to make it cheaper by group ordering or selling it away afterwords. They sells other food items, so check out web page. They sell specifally Raw Milk Cheese, there are other cheese farms that just sell artisans local cheese, such as; gray stone creamery, and grassy meadow.


http://www.grassfieldscheese.com/cheese.html

typing with gimp finger

new year, new life, new skin.

this week, lets just say i burned my eyes out from looking at numbers for WAAYYY to long. Accounts how do you deal?

but it reminded me of how much and how far i come. now most the time i have more work than i can take. I have to limit my work week or I end up at 70 hours with out my permission.

seriously a bit over a year ago i was sitting at home developing an ulcer, and looking at my phone for work every 5 min.

what holds for this year, good or bad. I don't know. I have been thinking a lot about expectations. We expect life will be increasingly good, increasingly profitable, increasingly beneficial to ourselves and less painful. Being with people in hospice has taught me about life. Life ends, just as it began, it has joy and sorrow. But being american, being human, being flesh we tend to not understand pain, or suffering. Over and over I here: we are not meant to live like this? why do i hurt so bad? read Job. read any bible story.

We don't imagine ourselves paralyzed, in unimaginable pain and unable to do for ourselves.

The world is broken, we are broken, we sin. Sin is dangerous, it spreads over time, causing hunger, pain, broken hearts, war, and murder.

Beyond that though- the problem lay in where you find joy. Everything, everything will fail you in this world. your country, your community, your neighbors, your friends, your technology (as I yell at the computer), your family, yourself. Your joy CANNOT be based in those things, because when it fails, what do you stand on? Joy form Christ, from the perfect, in Him you can enjoy, endure and have hope in all things. To rejoice in Christ, what he has done will never go away, never fail.

When you grow old and life youth fades, friends disappear, your body turns on you, your money cannot put things back together; put your joy and life in Christ.

I have seen what happens to a persons heart who doesn't understand these things.

So for better or worse I will follow.

"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is ABLE to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if NOT, be it known to you, O king, that we will NOT serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” Daniel 3: 16-18