What I've been doing with my time

(1) Working. Somehow I committed myself to a lot of writing projects this month.

(2) Eating too much pie (see previous post). I've gained a couple of pounds, which is not a crisis of global proportions or anything, but nevertheless I'm not happy about it because I know it's my own silly fault. Luckily, this morning I got up and just couldn't look at pie anymore. I chucked the rest of it in the deep freeze. Then I made a bowl of Red Mule English Porridge and sliced a fresh peach onto it. It's time for Remedial Nutrition 101.

(3) Remodeling one of the rooms that was already finished. Obviously I am insane, right? Well, last year's post-hurricane storms had caused a leak that damaged the wallpaper in the living room. The s.o. fixed the leak, but there was a whole portion of the wallpaper that went curly. And since this most recent batch of prospective buyers appears to be all prospect and no buy, we finally came to the conclusion that perhaps red wallpaper is too challenging for the general populace after all. So beige it is! I have finished stripping the walls, making a few repairs, and caulking the corners. Now I just have to paint.

(4) Reading. Rozanne sent me this book, which I gather many of the other Eat Local people have already read. And rightly so! I just finished the book last night and was truly inspired by it.
The book does have flaws. For one thing, it's a bit self-conscious and grandiose, as though for an entire year Nabhan was thinking, "Okay, this is for the book...what big important thing can I do and what deep philosophical meaning can I wring out of it?"
For another, Nabhan's philosophy seems skewed to me. As Rozanne noted, he's all too willing to drive for hours to find, say, a special kind of squash. And there's a whole chapter where he's on a river-rafting trip and rightfully bemoans the fact that so many invasive plants have taken root. But he's a purist and he declines to eat them, favoring native plants instead. My feeling is, if there's an invasive plant around, pull the sucker up and eat it! You're doing the environment a favor.
But despite these flaws, I got a lot out of the book. It was so vivid and alive that I could almost smell and taste all the beautiful indigenous foods it described. And Nabhan's conclusions are the same ones I have come to: that after this Eat Local Challenge is done, I will carry its goals and lessons with me for years to come.