Re-inspired by people who make it look easy...

In previous entries, I have alluded to the fact that there are people out there in the world already 'living with less' seemingly effortlessly... and not feeling the overwhelming urge to bang a drum and blog about it.  In other words, they are quietly changing the world day-by-day just by being THEM.  This past weekend, I was fortunate to re-connect with friends who fall into this category...

My 'perfect weekend' took place in Kelowna, BC and was hosted by my amazing friends Tess and Loic.  It was actually more of a five-day saga, with stops in Canmore, AB both on the way there and back to pick up/drop off my friend and sister-from-another-mister Jody.  So, yeah, poor Loic had more than his share of estrogen-energy to deal with over the three days that we were together. 

Tess and Loic never disappoint in terms of planning really fun activities for their guests and this last visit was no exception.  Our weekend was filled with 'MareBare-Friendly' activities such as:

• Hike/photo session up Knox Mountain (Tess is in her 8th month of pregnancy and Jody is a photographer)
• Amazing vegetarian meals cooked both in-house and out... (Lemony Lentil Soup, Warm Lentil Salad, Kale Salad, authentic Indian food, Greek Potatoes, etc.)  Since returning home, my house has been turned into a 'Tess-kitchen' (get it? Test Kitchen? Okay, bad one, but too bad... you should be expecting bad jokes/puns from me by now!)
• TWO, (yes two) live music shows... one at the Streaming Cafe (coolest idea ever and I am officially busy every Saturday night from now until the end of time). The artist last Saturday was Dominique Fraissard... an artist who truly speaks to the language of my soul. And I am not even exaggerating... the man reduced me to a puddle of tears with his music. So talented, so humble, so REAL. Awesome.
  
• A visit to the Urban Harvest Saturday market... local, organic produce sold from a hole-in-the-wall shop in North Kelowna.  Despite the remote, out-of-the-way location, people were lining up inside.  It would appear that we as humans ARE figuring out that food is our main source of life energy and that community, consciousness, ethics and quality are (and should be) a huge part of what we put into our bodies.

 

• A lovely day spent in the afternoon sun dedicated to art and conversation.  Tess, Loic and their friend Michelle were kind enough to introduce me to printing as an extremely interesting medium for making art.  I think that I am hooked.  I will post updates as I become more involved in this art form.
• Just the fact that it was spring in the Okanagan (and we still have several feet of snow at home) was enough to make my heart sing...

And so, it is with heartfelt gratitude that I end this post and return to figuring-out how I can bring some of this motivation/inspiration into my daily life... Thank you to everyone who shared their time and energy with me this past weekend... you are all true sources of light in my life!

MareBare xoxo

A lot of randomness...

What do you mean it's March 10th!?  I am really not sure where the past two weeks went, but I do know that my 'timewarp' began with a visit to a Psychic/Healer a few weekends ago...  Since then, I have been so busy processing what went on there that I almost forgot completely about my blog!

Alas, my 'bliss' is starting to slightly wear off (although I maintain that I am forever changed from the experience), and it is time once again to talk about 'earthly' matters.

1. Earth Hour

To me, Earth Hour is a cool reason to sit by candlelight, chat with your friends, eat great snacks and oh, SAVE THE PLANET!  I know it sounds dramatic, but by simply bringing the fact that the planet needs some healing into our consciousness we are indeed beginning to do just that!  So get together some friends and celebrate this great planet (and our HOME)!!!

2. Another depressingly sobering list

I am a big fan of lists... here is one that I came across today thanks to Verge Permaculture...

7 Foods So Unsafe Even Farmers Won't Eat Them:

• Canned Tomatoes - Reason: extra-high BPA content
• Corn-Fed Beef - Reason: Cows aren't even supposed to eat corn - duh! Oh, and by making them do so substantially reduces the nutritional content.
• Microwave Popcorn - Reason: PFOA in the bag... doesn't sound too good does it?  Well, it isn't!
• Potatoes - Reason: LOADED with chemicals.
• Farmed Salmon - Reason: PCB's, DDT and yes, even more chemicals.
• Milk with Artifical Hormones - we've talked about this before...
• Apples - Again, we've talked about this before.

One more little 'Marebare' fact: I have been making the transformation into full-on vegetarianism... Hurrah!  I feel FANTASTIC!  Oh, and in case you were wondering, my husband is less than thrilled.

Thank you SOOOOO much to the three special ladies who played the 'name the plant' game - I love the names that you came up with and my plants do too!

How's that for some randomness squashed together into one post?!

Here's to Spring!
Marebare :)

Schizophrenic Shopper

Recently, I have been putting Chephren in a dayhome for a few hours a week just so I could get a few things done.  You know, quality 'me' time: grocery shopping, going to the bank/post office, etc.  HA!  Actually, I have been able to sneak in a few yoga classes here and there as well. 

Anyway, on one of these occasions, I took the opportunity to 'enjoy' some child-free grocery shopping.  Thinking that I was about to enjoy a 'relaxing' shopping experience, you can imagine my surprise when I left the store 45 minutes later with my heart racing and in a puddle of my own sweat.  Upon returning home and unpacking the groceries, I finally determined the reason why...

Here is a pic of a few of the 'pantry goods' that I brought home, see if you can guess what my frustration might be:

Ok, it is probably not that obvious unless you are thinking the way that I am thinking (which is highly unlikely), but about half of the products in my cart were organic or 'natural' and the other half weren't.  You might wonder, how in the heck did I prioritize when to buy organic and when not to... the truth is, I didn't.  In other words, other than the clean fifteen and dirty dozen theory (which I follow as closely as possible), I really don't have a 'system' for buying my groceries. 

Well, I guess that is not entirely true.  I am pretty strict on our meat purchases, which we get entirely from local farms.  If I can't buy it locally than I ensure that I buy it organically.  This one is a no-brainer to me.  Some other items that I insist on buying organically and/or locally include:

• coffee (fair trade)
• honey (it is harvested from our land - cool!)
• eggs
• things that my son eats a lot of: yogurt, cereal, pasta dinners, raisins

Other than that, I really tend to be hit or miss, some days I buy organically and some days not.  I was all about buying my dairy products organically until I found out from a very good source that we have legislation in Alberta that prevents dairy farmers from giving milk-producing cows any antibiotics or hormones.  This made me feel much better about the dairy situation and has helped me save some dinero on all things cows milk. 

Feedback, comments?  What system (if any) do you guys use?  Am I destined to forever be a 'schizophrenic' shopper?  Help!

Happy February by the way, it couldn't have come soon enough for this hurtin' Albertan!

Marebare

Times are a changin'

Alright, so I haven't been writing much lately... and no, it is certainly not because I have fallen off the wagon... quite the opposite in fact.  The truth is, I am in the process of re-evaluating my values (yes, again) thanks in part to a certain journalist named Michael Pollan.  I think that I have mentioned his name before when I wrote about the movie Food Inc.  Anyway, Pollan has written two extremely thorough books about the industrialization of our food chain here in the West (and increasingly, the rest of the world as well).  The two books: The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food are both amazing reads and I highly recommend reading both of them.  Upon making this recommendation to others, I have had a lot of people say, "Oh no, I don't think that I want to know about the horrible things in our food because I really feel like I can't do anything about it."  To this I fervently answer: "This isn't true any longer, in other words, WE ARE NO LONGER AT THE MERCY OF THE BIG CORPORATIONS!!!  In fact, we do have other options, so find out about them and take advantage of them!"

As I have alluded to in earlier posts, 'living with less' has become about so much more than simply saving money (although that has certainly been a side benefit).  Increasingly, this project has resulted in more of a lifestyle change for myself and my family than anything else.  What I am saying is, I now hold the belief that certain things (like my family's health and the well being of our planet and the organisms that sustain it) are much more important than saving a dollar here or a dollar there.  As a result, I have entirely changed the way that I think about food, cook/prepare/serve food, and shop for food.  For me (thanks to Mr. Pollan), I have a few basic tenets that I am trying to live by that I will share here:

1. Priority #1: Buy local (and organic if possible) (or better yet, grow as much of your own food as you can!)

For fresh fruits/vegetables, this is certainly a challenge for us Canadians who choose to live in such a Northern climate where the growing season is so darned short.  But, summer is upon us and there are some good choices out there.

• For local and pastured meat, check out this link: http://www.eatwild.com/ to find a farm near you that sells this superior product (it is amazing how many farms that I was unaware of in Alberta, and this way, you can buy right from the farmer and even visit the animals if you want, talk about taking out the middle man!)
• Go to the farmer's market in your area.  These types of local markets have more than doubled in recent years and it can sure be a fun outing for you and your family on the weekend.
• Start a garden, or if you don't have much room, start a container garden.  You can grow all that you need for salads in containers for example and you can then enjoy fresh salads all year round!  It really isn't as hard as it sounds!

Priority #2: Buy organic whenever possible

• This is also a tricky one for us Canadians because our food has to travel so darned far to get here that organics often can't make the trek (because they aren't covered in preserving chemicals)
• Also, I do realize that organic produce does cost more, so if you have to be discerning, here is a list that I found on-line to help you make the choice a little easier:

The Dirty Dozen: contain from between 47-67 chemicals PER SERVING!

1. Celery

2. Peaches

3. Strawberries

4. Apples

5. Blueberries

6. Nectarines

7. Peppers

8. Spinach, Kale, Greens

9. Cherries

10. Potatoes

11. Grapes

12. Lettuce

The Clean Fifteen:

1. Onions

2. Avocados

3. Corn

4. Pineapples

5. Mangoes

6. Peas

7. Asparagus

8. Kiwi

9. Cabbage

10. Eggplant

11. Cantaloupe

12. Watermelon

13. Grapefruit

14. Sweet potatoes

15. Sweet onions

Priority #3: Avoid any/all processed foods as much as possible!

Pollan has some great tips on how to avoid these crazy 'food science' products:

• Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food (love this one!)
• Shop the outsides of your supermarket and stay out of the middle
• Read the label: if there are more than five ingredients and you can't pronounce one(or more) of them, PUT IT BACK!

If all else fails, just remember Mr. Pollan's tag-line from 'In Defense of Food': EAT FOOD, NOT TOO MUCH, MOSTLY PLANTS!

Happy Eating!

Cheers,

Marebare

The above images are not mine, but taken from the web, to view the source of the image(s) please click on the picture to be taken to the image's homepage.  Thanks.