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Coming Home to the Land:  From my last MJF newsletter....  |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 09 2008 : 10:32:36 AM
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Living out in the sticks keeps me grounded. My sanity seems to rely on open air, room to roam, and direct contact with the soil. Those of us out here in rural America are still rooted in the land, and I don't think there's much in life that's better for the body and soul. I guess that's why I took offense to an article I read recently purporting the “unhealthy truth about country living.” It claimed we country folk forfeit farm-raised eggs and garden veggies in favor of bottom-dollar bargains at the nearest convenience store. To borrow a phrase coined by urbanites, we live in a “food desert” because we aren't surrounded by super-sized grocery stores. According to the article, we're either too poor or too chintzy to seek out healthy food, so we pinch our pennies till the consequences of cheap eating catch up with us—and then we pay through the nose for last ditch health care.
Well, I say hold it right there. I admit that this element exists, but there's a lush green flip side to the rural food desert we're supposedly living in. I've seen it for myself. Nearly everybody I meet in my neck of the Ozarks grows a garden or knows someone who does. A lot of us are raising chickens with eggs to spare. We're growing fruit trees and berries with “you-pick” signs on our gates. We pass the knowledge of food preservation from one generation to the next. We forge farmer's markets where our own communities can buy local goods from real people—and for a fair price. And we also maintain a vital culture of hunting, fishing, and gathering by which many of us fill our freezers. These traditions get paved over and left so far behind in the big city that some people begin to turn on them, condemning the very foundations of our species' survival. Here in the country, we understand the potential of our backyards to feed us, and we're neighborly enough to share the bounty.
Viva la country girl!
Jen
Farmgirl Sisterhood Member #9
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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baycrkgrl
outthinking
9 Posts
Tami
Michigan
9 Posts |
Posted - May 16 2008 : 7:40:53 PM
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| you said it so right, isn't that the way we ALL are SUPPOSED to live?! sounds quite right and normal to me,i think whoever wrote that is so nature deprived they couldn't have been thinking clearly, about 10 years ago my kids and i lived in town for 5 months, i really thought i was gonna die, seriously! what is there to do? where do you grow your food? keep your livestock? how do you even breath? i'm sure that if i had not fought my way back to the real world in the country the city probably would have kicked me out eventually... |
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Libbie
outstepping
157 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
157 Posts |
Posted - May 17 2008 : 9:14:15 PM
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You know, it sounds really "normal," healthy and a wonderful way to live to me, too!
Jen - you really have a great way with words and ideas - keep 'em coming.
XOXO, Libbie
"Farmgirl Sister #10," and proud of it!!! |
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Coming Home to the Land: From my last MJF newsletter.... |
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From my last MJF newsletter....
