Fresh from the farm

Summer has truly arrived! I picked up our first share from our local CSA (community supported agriculture) on Tuesday. We got red leaf lettuce, radishes, fresh oregano, pepper crest, mizuna and leeks. Super easy to make some excellent salads this week. My husband was particularly pleased to come home from work (at the crack of 9pm) to find a lighter dinner on such a hot night.

Joining a CSA has not only pushed me to eating new vegetables (mizuna?) but also keeps food present in my mind on a weekly schedule. Sometimes it saves dinner. Sometimes it’s a bit of a chore. But I always appreciate the incredibly fresh, organic food on my table, grown by a neighbor and shared with my family.

The way CSAs work is that you purchase a share of that farmer’s harvest. Some CSAs will deliver, but our farmer brings his produce to one central spot. Members drop by on Tuesday evenings to pick up their share. It’s a nice way to meet like minded people, share recipes and meet your neighbors, all while supporting the local economy by keeping your food dollars in the area. For me, I am reconnecting with seasonal eating which makes strawberries and tomatoes taste that much more amazing after a winter of anticipation. (I can’t bring myself to bother with those pale pink things one finds in the grocery in February.) My sisters both belong to CSAs and their kids love it (except, the boys tell me, the onslaught of beets…)

Just Food is an organization in the metro area that provides administrative and organizational support for CSAs in the area. They are a great source of information. Sustainable Table, a project of GRACE has plenty of information and links. I’m sure you have at least one CSA near you, even if you live in an urban environment.

CSA is becoming a trendy thing. Many of those at our pick-up were hipsters; design types. I felt cool just being there. I’m guessing I’ll meet some new moms. Who knows – maybe before the season is finished in November, I’ll be a new mom-to-be!

Hypnobirthing

After the luck of getting tickets to see "The Business of Being Born," at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ricki Lake / Abby Epstein's documentary on birthing in America, my openness to birth related information has led me to really fascinating new ideas. The film brings to light the industrial style of pregnancy that most women in this country experience, unknowing of the alternatives. As has been widely reported, the film includes the homebirth of Ms. Lake's second child. She felt strongly after her first that she had "missed something" birthing in a hospital. She set out to learn as much as possible about midwives, doulas, homebirths, the history of obstetrics eventually training and becoming a doula herself. To me, the medical doctors in the film came off arrogant and in some cases inept, but totally unwilling to approach the mystical nature of child birth and the enormous influence the birth experience can make on humanity. That part of the experience seems to be lost in the fear based information given to women by the medical community once they become pregnant. When you have an opportunity to see the film, it is recommended for those with children, thinking of having children or simply the thoughtful individual.

While childbirth preparation classes are not really explored in the film, I have done a bit of reading on Lamaze versus Bradley, etc. I recently met a woman who is a hypnobirthing consultant. It is a method that empowers women and their partners for a gentle, meaningful birth. We are more and more leaning towards a homebirth as I read about women's experiences in our local hospitals and those facilities' "birthing centers." I will definitely be asking more about this method and finding a local practitioner once I'm pregnant. I am settling into the idea that I have all the power inside me to have a child in the comfort of my home. And, I'm open to learning new ways to move through the process consciously and with ease.