Putting it together

Sometimes it takes awhile for things to crystallize in one's mind. For decades, I've loved cooking and eating, sitting at the table with friends and family, and, whenever possible, using fresh foods from the farmers markets. I've always felt this was outside of the arena of social or political activism. That the nourishment, aesthetic, and creaturely comfort that came with this pursuit of good food was confined to my private life, my homelife, and not really applicable or relevant to the larger world. But times change; things evolve. Lately, like so many others, I've become aware of the larger implications of my habits on my local communities, New York City and the Berkshires. So in the last year or so, I've been asking myself questions regarding the possible unexpected impact of my shopping/toting/cooking/water drinking/disposing routines. And I've been reading: The Omnivore's Dilemma, of course, was the starting point, the springboard to new information and insight about agriculture and food production. As I become more informed, my habits either change or deepen. My family stopped drinking water from plastic bottles over a year ago; I carry my own bags to the market; stuff like that. Yet, it still, somehow, feels disconnected -- small potatoes in the larger world of global famine and climate change. But, increasingly, it's becoming clear that this behavior does, in its own way, build upon itself and I'm finding myself on a journey of learning and activity and awareness that I never could have foreseen when I baked my first banana bread thirty eight years ago. This blog is an attempt to record the progression of that journey through food and community, large and small.