Thanks to David Newland, of Roots Music Canada, for contributing this post.
With the celebration of springtime fully upon us, many folks are taking this time to count their blessings.
For me, two of the most important ones are food, and music. Both are nourishment: food for the body, music for the soul.
On weekend mornings, I love to head to my local farmer’s market whenever my schedule allows. I take a set amount of money out of the bank, grab my canvas shopping bags and a good strong coffee, and saunter off to browse through the wares.
What I’m looking for, I’ve realized, is not so much the basic sustenance my body needs – I could get that anywhere, and cheaply. The reason I go to the market is that I am seeking nourishment beyond nutrition.
Food that’s locally grown, for example, is important to me. So is being able to have a conversation with the person who produced it. So is knowing as much as I can about what goes into the food, the practices used to grow or raise it, the philosophy of the vendor, and so on.
At my local market, there’s more than food. There are crafts, there are activities for the kids, there’s nature, community, art, and education. Oh – and there’s a girl who plays the fiddle. Throw her a couple of bucks and she stops to thank you. When she’s not there, it feels like something is missing.
And that makes sense. Music and food, these these two basic blessings, share so much in common. Both are easily found – most people reading this post have more food, and more music, than they need. Yet both are frequently found in a form so watered down, the higher value has been lost. You can buy mass-produced music, just as you can buy mass-produced food, and it will perhaps fill your basic entertainment needs.
But the equivalent of a community market is where they both belong.
Mass production is to music as factory farming is to food. Perhaps a necessity, certainly a reality of ordinary life – but not the only way to experience this bounty.
It’s another thing entirely to enjoy music being played live in a decent environment, to shake hands with the artist, to hear your own concerns expressed, to feel your values have been respected, to appreciate the work that goes into making it, and to feel you are working with the artist – just as you might work with a farmer – in partnership around this great sustaining nourishment of the soul.
Music and food, mindfully made, are a natural pair.
Add family and friends and you have all the blessings of a perfect spring holiday weekend.
Here’s hoping you enjoy yours in happiness and health, in body and in spirit.
A few years old but great insights from this Ted Talk.
Ever just stood in the produce section of a supermarket, an array of brightly coloured super-sized fruits glistening before you, and just being stumped about what to do?
On a recent visit to the suburbs to see my boyfriend, I went to a supermarket to buy some coffee. While there, I decided to pick up some fruit for a fresh post-coffee snack. Now this supermarket is rather pricey & high end, not my bf’s regular stop, but I don’t mind it because it’s smaller and less mega-conglomeraty than its counterpart down the road.
Being a fancy store, it has a huge selection of imported and exotic fruits. But liking the idea of keeping it simple, I walked down the apple aisle, past rows of shiny red, green and yellow baseball-sized fruit.
How did they get that big? Chemical fertilizers.
Why is their skin so perfect? Pesticides.
Why are they so shiny? Wax.
No way is that going to “refresh” me after a coffee.
But lo! At the end of the aisle, there was a small organic section… with normal looking Gala apples. Hooray! The sticker on the apples even had the right organic code number (any produce sticker with a number beginning in “9” means it is certified organic). Then I saw the country of origin written in small letters beneath. Argentina.
Mmmm. Hesitation. Now I have nothing against Argentina. I love Buenos Aires. One of my best friends is from there. But does my right to avoid ingesting certain chemicals override my right to expect a piece of fruit to travel 8945 km (5558 miles) and two hemispheres, burning fossil fuels and spewing carbon dioxides along the way?
What’s more important, me or the environment? If you have asked yourself the same question, you may have already found yourself standing in the produce section of a supermarket stumped about what to do.
What’s more important, my internal environment or my external environment? Me, or the world?
Is this the choice we have to make now? As familiar as it’s become, I was face to face with the “local” vs. “organic” debate. And I know where I stand on this issue, but still, it gets me every time. And of course, there’s no ultimate right or wrong. Showers are no better than baths, just different. Local vs. organic is a huge debate and I will not try to cover it here. But I do believe that it is an individual’s right to chose what is right for themselves. And I do think that it is an issue that demands proper consideration and discussion. And maybe a few minutes reflection in the produce section.
You or the environment?
On this day, since I couldn’t have both, I shied away from organic and went with a nice bag of “Canada fancy” regular-sized golden delicious from Ontario. I mean, come on, apples? They’re so Canadian! They rival the maple and could well be on our flag. This is one fruit we can certainly eat local.
So, what is LocalFoody and why did we start it?
It all started when we were on vacation last winter. Nothing like sitting by the pool miles away from the closest Internet connection to create time and space to do some reading. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” by Michael Pollan was at the top of my reading list, and it really changed the way I think about food.
From the description of the Industrial Food System, to big Organic, to Joel Salatin’s amazing Polyface Farms, I found myself driven to find out more about the local food movement and the hundred mile diet. But we were offline in Mexico. I resolved to do some online research when we got home, and find “that site” that would allow me to find good, local, organic food producers and distributors.
Well much to my surprise, I didn’t find “that site”. There was a long list of great sites that talk about Organic and local food, even a really solid directory site (LocalHarvest), but nothing that uses the power of geolocation and social networks to create a great simple-to-use web experience around finding good food.
They say that people come up with the best ideas in order to scratch their own itch. LocalFoody is our attempt to solve our own problem – a quick and easy way to find good food near us. We’re working hard, and hope the end result is useful to you, too.
