Marybeth's Jacket - A True Story

Wordsmithing is a very odd craft. When I write blog posts, or work on my book, it sometimes seems I have nothing to show for my effort. It's hard for me to feel satisfied looking at characters on a screen, or a sheet of paper. This year I have probably spent more time making things -- cooking, knitting, crocheting, sewing -- than I have writing. Writing empties me, and making things restores me. Does this mean I am not really a writer at heart?Last week I wrote every morning, wrestling two recalcitrant chapters into order. Now I have a pile of paper, not unlike the pile of paper I had the week before. In the afternoons, I cut, stitched and ironed fabric, restoring a friend's battered thrift store jacket. The story continues here.

I wanted to do this project because the jacket needed it, I needed real work (the kind that ends with something tangible) and Marybeth is one of those women who always serves the cake at the party and forgets to save a piece for herself. Thank you, Marybeth, for trusting me with your jacket and for being my friend.

gender and marketing FAIL

One of my long-standing pet peeves is lame gender marketing. Advertising can be feminist -- I learned last month that there is such a thing as feminist PR, too. But what to say about Dell's new site for women? How about "no thanks"? So I became their fan on Facebook just so I could give them hell for talking down to me.

What food should you buy organic?

Not everyone can afford -- or find -- organic fruits and vegetables. The Environmental Working Group has a guide (.pdf or iPhone app) to help you choose the safest produce for your family. The "dirty dozen" include some items -- carrots, kale, lettuce -- that are easy to grow, too!

http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

Icebox to zero; the cycle begins again

Early spring is an interesting time in my kitchen. The freezer is giving up the last of last year's harvest -- okra and pureed squash (not together, heavens no!). The garden is just beginning to produce (thinnings of lettuce and spinach). If it ever stops raining here in Maryland I will be adding some tomatoes, squash and eggplant to the mix. And, joy of joys, our local farmers markets are open again and brimming with tasty fresh veggies.

We are not complete locavores, but I do have a working philosophy. In the winter, we eat what we've frozen), augmented by non-local varieties: bananas, oranges, avocados. I do try to select fruits and vegetables which have traveled the shortest distance (Georgia, not Chili), and wish there was a little "train" sticker to show me which have come at least halfway by rail. But for things I can get locally in season, I wait. There really is something special about enjoying strawberries, corn and peaches during that brief time when they are really fresh and ripe. For now, butternut bisque and spring greens. Soon, strawberry rhubarb pie. Worth waiting for!