Zatera Ul

We recently signed up for a farm share. We are trying a different farm this time. Last year we didn’t get a farm share, and often had a hard time getting over to the farmer’s market, every Saturday. Buying the farm share automates this; fewer choices involved, we just pick up the box every week, so it is more likely to get done. There is also an element of challenge in learning about new foods, and how to cook and enjoy them.

Which reminds me of a book I just read: Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity , written by a guy who turned his habit of scribbling little cartoons on business cards into almost a livelihood. The book is very good, and you can see how playing within the constraints imposed by the physical properties of a business card has, ironically, been very freeing for him.

Every artistic medium has its own built-in constraints, and I’ve noticed that having too many choices left open can be rather paralyzing. Choosing whether or not to go to the farmer’s market was often draining for us. So now we have imposed the constraint of the farm share; whatever comes in the box each week is what we’re going to eat.*

The good thing about this constraint is that it is voluntary. I think the day is coming when we’re all going to get our produce by the box, whether we want it or not. The hippies are certainly being trained to eat their beets, turnips, and soy. Just wait until the government decides to impose a healthy diet “for our own good”. The farm share is a good way to practice cooking and eating simpler foods, before the other shoe drops on the economy.**

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*I received practically no art education in school. I particularly remember fifth grade, when there was a string of snow days that fell on the day of the week that the art teacher was scheduled to come to my class. As far as I can remember, that was the only year I ever had an art teacher at all, and my little half-cup of artistic talent certainly didn’t get nurtured. Later on, I gave myself permission to be an artist, and to craft a better life for myself and my family.

**We’re going to can some of the excess farm share produce; canning is another skill we are teaching ourselves, though I rather expect that home canning will be made illegal within my lifetime, “for our own safety”.