Food For Thought

I'm ecstatic that I am now able to build a very good salad from what I either grow or forage here. Except for those tomatoes. But that will be soon! Well, okay, and the feta cheese but I'm looking into that also. Anyway, the greens are from here! My lettuce, onions and foraged watercress that grows in abundance in all the local springs, including mine. I should have some carrots soon and I could add chard or broccoli if I so desired.

My medicinal herb garden is really getting cranked up. I want to add some more to this, as I do every year. In this photo you can see catnip, lemonbalm, mountain mint, echinacea, lavender and feverfew is over to the side, just out of the frame. You would also see bee balm but in a fit of cleaning I mistook the clump for early mountain mint and yanked it up! I'm a moron. Mountain mint is rampant here and must be controlled or it is very invasive. Fortunately, bee balm grows wild and I can find another clump. *Sigh*

Broccoli harvest continues. I have had some trouble with my cabbage though. After all that time of babying those damn things over the winter, they have now all gone to seed without making a head. I cooked the leaves anyway but I was not impressed. I have one row of very young ones that may still do; I hope so, but that is another lesson for me either way.

I also have a few young broccoli that are starting to come on well. I'm hoping that as my older ones die back these will start producing. The young cabbage are in the background, btw.

Raspberries are shooting up quite well now. I can't wait for these jewels! I added two more this past week so I have six plants now, I think. They all got a good dose of composted cow manure and wood ashes this spring as did the strawberries.
I haven't been particularly enthused about posting as of late. I guess I've been a little discouraged although not due to any of my great readers of course! I know ya'll that like to read here would read anything I wrote, for the most part. And I will continue to write. I guess it's just that lately I've become more acutely aware of how little most people really give a shit about their health and what is foisted upon them by conventional society. I mean, I know people that garden a lot and I know a few that raise chickens. I know a few that are members of environmental groups and who actively recycle and such and these are all great things but I don't know that I know any that try to bring the whole concept into play.
I just don't have much in common with most people. I don't have kids that take up the majority of my time. I don't really care about having any either, to tell the truth. I don't have a job I hate that takes up most of my time. I find the religion of most around here unproductive and apathetic. I don't watch television and can't carry on a conversation about the popular shows. This is a good thing in my book. I know there are many people who are trying to live more simply, healthfully and meaningfully but I don't seem to meet them often. I read their blogs! But they are far away. It has struck me more often than not that perhaps I'm more of a nut job than I previously thought. My family is so far removed from my lifestyle that we just really don't communicate anymore. I have actually had a couple of people get literally angry at me because I will not shop at Wal-Mart. It's very discouraging to me that such attitudes exist. It's discouraging to me that people smirk and make faces when I won't eat processed food or plain white bread. It's discouraging to me that people who claim to be Christians get all quiet and wander off when you suggest literal ways to give to the poor or help victims of catastrophes. They are very excited to talk about what God is going to do for them however.
So, I'm just down I guess. I'm no freakin' saint I guarantee, and I'm not claiming to be, but I will honestly try to back up my talk with action. I guess that is what I try to show with this blog. I fail a lot. I eat a Wendy's hamburger once in a while. I still don't make my own laundry soap! Aarghh! lol!! But it is not brain surgery to live a more simple, relaxed life where you actually pay attention to what is going on, rather than just 'busying' yourself through your time here. But I don't find a lot of people who even seem to care to try, yet they will readily complain about being bored all the time or burnt out from stress. I mean, what gives?? Have we addled our brains that much with prescription drugs and processed foods? Or have I got it all wrong? Is my lifestyle unrealistic?