Women in the Woods

Purple Fungus!

Local versus Organic

There are many factors to consider when you have the choice between buying locally- or foreign- grown fruits and vegetables, dairy products and meats. Often enough, the choice is between a conventionally or "naturally" grown local product and organic imported from New Zealand, Africa, Thailand, or even California. I would say that buying from California is better than another country. The health benefits to life in general of buying organic greatly outweighs those of eating conventionally grown foods. But what happens when those organic foods are shipped between 2,000 and 4,000 miles just to get to your home? How many hands did that box pass through? And is the fruit's nutritional value as good as picking a conventionally grown fruit fresh off the vine?

You must also question what kinds of seeds are being used. Genetically modified seeds have unknown long-term effects, just like DDT when it first came out on the market. Although big corporations claimed it was perfectly safe then and showed videos of families being sprayed while having a picnic outdoors, the stuff has been BANNED from U.S. because of its high toxicity. What will we find about these "superfoods"? They are already invading genes of heirloom seeds and Jane Goodall's example in her book, Harvest for Hope, of pesticides being placed within every cell of a seed and then contaminating the food supply is absolutely harrowing. Despite what the five main companies who own most of the world's seeds through patents tell us, GM seeds have been proven, in standardized research (on animals-ugh!) to create lasting and biologically threatening damage. (Check out research by Dr. Arpad Pusztai.)

Then, we return to the question of local. What are the implications of giving our money to a corporate middle man who gets our food from a foreign place and then puts it in our grocery stores? First, the middle man and the grocery stores get most of the money; leaving the farmer with pennies per pound. Whether or not it is organic, buying locally ensures that your money stays local. Buying from a farmer within an hour radius allows you to connect on a personal level with the food you eat. By giving your money to a local farmer, you aid that farmer in achieving more sustainable farming practices because she or he is not trying to cut corners to make ends meet. Talk to farmers, give your opinions; but also listen. Help pull weeds. Pick some peas. You think you don't have time; but you do.

Going local

There are a lot of great berries around here-at pick your own farms and in the "wild". Although strawberry season is at its end, blueberries, raspberries, and black raspberries are ripening across the south of New Hampshire. Support local by going to pick-your-own berry farms. I'm more familiar with SW NH-New Ipswich, Greenfield, Milton, and many others boast their own berry farms. These farmers often offer other goods, as well, because no one wants to put all their eggs in one basket.

Strawberry/Raspberry Jam
4 cups mashed berries
2 t pectin
2 t calcium water
3/4 c honey or raw sugar


Start heating your big canning pot 1/2 to 2/3 full of water (depending if you want to use 1/2 or whole pint jars for 'ze jam). Place jars, lids, and rings in heating water, place on lid. Mix sweetener with pectin. Heat berries and calcium water on medium, stirring frequently. When it boils, add sweetener/pectin mix and stir for next 1-2 minutes, then take off heat. When canning water begins to boil, remove jars (with tongs) and fill with jam, leaving 1/4 inch at the top empty. Remove rims and lids from boiling water (magnetic pointer is awesome, but tongs work, too) and place on jars. Put jammed and tightly sealed jars into boiling water for five minutes. Remove and let cool.

What do you do with leftovers? Stick it in the fridge and eat it in the next week (although I doubt it will last that long.) Or mix and match with a new batch of jam. Have fun! Don't worry. It's hard to mess up jam...even if you do things in the wrong order, you'll still have a tasty, jam(-like) substance. :)

Ending our third week

The Summer Institute has created fast friends. The intense, yet open-minded learning environment has allowed most of us to come out of our shells (some sooner, some later) and speak more freely about our beliefs, to share a more intimate self. I believe a tight-knit group is valuable to exploring environmental education because we feel comfortable asking questions, getting ideas from one another, learning from the wide variety of people here.
Personally, because I have primarily worked one-on-one with students, I found it incredibly helpful to see the different ways teachers can present information in the facilitations. The variation in tools used was great-puzzles, discussion, power point, thoughtful questions, defining terms, art, quotations, ecofoot.org, and helping us to become more familiar with the local community. This knowledge was also taught from different perspectives-ecological, historical, social, and cultural, as well as in terms of a broader, global community and smaller, local communities.
In addition, I love that the readings in the packet were in many different writing styles and that additional poetry, short stories, and spiritual writings were woven into the assigned readings. These allowed me to pause and reflect in a different way from the critical "I have a paper to write" assessment I made of the other readings. They allowed my mind to wander.

What I learned this weekend...

Treat others as they ought to be; not as they are; and this world will be a much more hopeful place.

Leaf mold and poop hold many secrets

Although we are studying plant composition and abundance, we have the chance to observe some of the coolest creatures, including many little orange newts, frogs, toads, and garter snakes tucked away under the detritus and leaf mold. We also came upon many piles of moose poo from last fall (at least) along the human made trail between the development and the Barrington Headwaters land. So, they are using this as a corridor.

I also have a theory about orange animals, including orange cats and newts . They are a lot shy, but a little sassy, fairly resilient mixed with some good old stubborness. "My" cat, Bernard, and these orange newts slink off in the same way-not scurrying, but in a determined direction that they don't quite want you to know about. They are slow enough in their slinking to let you know with their orangeness that, "Hey, you disturbed me." I love the 'tude.