When we do go out, there is not much discussion about where.  Without question we prefer chefs who buy from local organic farms, but there is a particular ingredient in food that we hunt for when we dine out, and its presence alone defines whether we will come again: Love.

Love makes the digestion process easier; the food simply feels better in my body- a more harmonious incorporation.  Love ensures that when the meal is through, I leave in a physical and emotional state superior to arriving.  It is subtle, yet profound and something I do not commonly find, even at the finest farm to table restaurants in the city.

Billy Allin of Cakes and Ale has mastered this art, whether he knows it or not.  My experience with Allin’s food (which is a lot; it’s really the choice for us 4/5 times when we do eat out),  is exquisite food with an accessible presence.  It always is presented beautifully, tastes divine, and just after we’ve eaten is when I noticeably feel better- emotionally, spirits lifted, truly in-joy-in the food.  Post- meal is the litmus test for food quality.  After most restaurants, I feel heavy, sluggish, ugh, ick, whoa……. lots of ways in addition to full.   But rarely better than when I came in.

Interestingly, Allin has recently partnered with another primo chef who has mastered the art of love in the food, too- the lunch or ‘Bakery’ chef at Cakes, David Sweeney.  Eating a David Sweeney meal is best done as an exercise in awareness, when you can truly focus on the elegance of presentation and the literal presence of the food– the energy the food gives off.  I can feel the vibration of the food just having arrived at my table- before I eat.  And I feel its affects on my body.  It is graceful, easy and light.

Through 10 years of yoga  and Geomancy, I have literally made my body a receptor for different qualities of energy, something in which we are all able and all do to varying degrees, conscious or not.  My husband is with me here- a yogi of 18 years, teaches at Ashtanga Yoga Atlanta.  We are people who love to discover the subtle in the mundane.  It’s partly why we grow our own food– it’s richer and more delightful to eat that way.  We LOVE to find love in the food!  And it’s a special treat to dine out and find love.   Thanks to Billy and David for doing what you do!

Join Kyla Zaro-Moore for an herb walk in Atlanta’s Edgewood neighborhood on Friday, April 27, from 5-7pm, to find out the answer to all these questions and more.

We are surrounded by toxins.  That is undeniable.  And as we become more aware, we want to detoxify our lives and our earth so that it is a healthier place for us all to be.  Couple A takes this so seriously that they have moved to rid all 10 acres of their in-town residence to be a completely synthetic chemical-free lot.  So that when they discover the neighbors will be tearing down a house, they dont want their grass clippings in their compost for fear of toxic residue that makes it into their organic garden down the line.  So that pine straw, when discovered to (possibly) contain pre-emergent chemicals, must be immediately removed from where it was applied and exiled from the propoerty….

Let’s follow the exiled pine straw…. to the landfill.  Or at best (or maybe worst) to the nearby county ‘green’ waste recycling center.  In the landfill it leaches to nearby residences who cant afford to live in Atlanta’s most affluent neighborhoods.  In the massive compost pile it gets transported to garden projects all over town who cant afford the expensive stuff.   Are you seeing my point yet?

Is this organic movement about wrapping ourselves in the most expensive, organic, protective gear possible so that our precious selves are chemical free?  Or is it about rolling up our sleeves and jumping in to help detoxify and re-energize (with the good stuff) our incredible planet, selves and all?

Im not saying that I have this mastered.  I am pointing a finger because the example is so glaring.  But i turn the finger inward, towards myself, to see how I may be living a reflection of this pervasive tendency that has gotten us in such a hot mess:  SELF VS OTHER.

Topic for future post: why we shouldnt resent the uber-wealthy, but understand they are taking on some heavy karma, or responsibility, with amassed wealth.  How the uber-rich are often presented with opportunity that can take a pervasive societal norm to the extreme– from which we all can learn.  And how to help each other to step away from that karma, moving on…..

For post after that:  why amassing as much wealth as possible is the mis-directed American dream.  And doing our piece to re-define the divine global vision we are all inventing anew….. which i believe lies in loving the rich, simple abundance of the earth’s bounty.

Stewardship (maintenance) program for organic garden help. Need help planting your fall garden? Jordan and Mark are hard workers with Permaculture certificates and knowledge about organic gardening. They are available on a regular basis or on-demand for weeding, mulching, harvesting or troubleshooting pest problems or other issues. They work with me to make recommendations best suited to the long term health of your garden.  Rate is $60/ hr for a team of two with a two hour minimum.

Biodynamic Preparation sprays support overall health, vitality and disease resistance of your garden, as well as improve the nutrition content of your food.  Read about Biodynamics here.  We are offering an annual contract, which includes the materials (preparations), stirring/activating and applying the preparation to your whole property.  6-10 applications per year, $500 flat rate.

I designed a rain garden for a local community garden and they had good success installing it themselves.  We used a swale/rain garden concept where water was routed from the road via a swale into a series of ephemeral ponds that encouraged infiltration and let the excess flow into the forest towards a stream in a slower fashion.   They used rocks placed at random within the swale to stabilize soil and disperse water and planted various native plants.  See quick video image of the raingarden at Dunwoody Community Garden at Brook Run.

Now i find myself trying to relate that little anecdote to this blog post… and I find it doesnt really relate to anything except perhaps the good mood we find ourselves in during summer.  Summertime is easier, in some ways.  The Ayurvedic mantra for summer is Celebration!   And I certainly feel like celebrating the abundance of the continual harvest, with full belly and kitchen full of fragrant, gorgeous, tasty produce.

This week I’ve made sour dill pickles with garlic, chili pepper and grape leaves for crispness.   Well, they are being made; they’ll take a week or two to ferment in the gallon glass jar we packed them into.  We (with my husband) made 10, half quart jars of fig preserves out of a single harvest from both of our fig trees one morning (it’s been a great year for figs with well-timed rain).  We ‘pt up’ eggplant and roasted red pepper in olive oil for the winter and I’ve started a batch of live ginger beer.  And we just had a simple but fabulous dinner of home made pesto on rice bread topped with heirloom tomatoes at their finest hour. Yum

Ive never really been a foodie.  In fact, its common for me to get annoyed at the hunger tinging in my belly- meaning i have to break from the day’s activities to feed myself (the acute irony of an organic gardener’s life).  But with the incredible abundance of produce that comes from our small home garden with relatively little effort on our part, it’s hard not to be appreciative of the prosperity!  Tasty stuff like eden gem muskmelons (try to find that in a store!), all kinds of tomatoes we make into the Most flavorful sauces.  Todd for lunch chopped some zucchini and eggplant, mixed it with some of our garlic and tomatoes and boiled it all down in a pot with some olive oil.  It was Delicious. He remarked on really good food being about basic, wholesome ingredients.  If you grow your tomatoes well- organically from heirloom seed with good soil- you’ll have a good meal.  Simple ingredients, simple to cook, fabulous on the palette.

And that most of these good meals are coming from 20 steps from our back door is the most rewarding part.  We supplement, sure- we still buy our grains and oils and some spices, but each year we find ourselves making more meals that are 95 -100% purely grown in our little slice of backyard heaven.  It is the true feeling of abundance….. can you see my little buns dancing?!

I find Biodynamics really hard to write about, explain… even understand in specific terms.  But I love to practice it.  I love to stir and I love the way the garden- any garden- feels after I spray the preps.  It  just works.  Biodynamics works to increase general garden health, to improve the soil – this I’ve experienced- and it is Highly resource-efficient.  So we like it.  And we like the philosophy a lot, but we dont know how to effectively write about it yet, so:  Here’s how we made a Bd compost pile at Sugar Creek Garden.  I hope it encourages you to explore bd in your own garden!

The challenge is translating Biodynamics in all its rich-wonderfulness to an urban environment without compromising its wholeness beyond function.  That’s what our little group Urban Biodynamics, guided by Jim Jensen here in Decatur (Atlanta) GA is working to do.

1.  Compile your materials.  Manure is critical.  The most life-force comes from the living.  Animals= astral force.  We used goat-manure because it’s very local. Cow manure is the best.  Because it’s scraped from the goat pen, the manure is mixed with quite a bit of hay.  Need a balance of carbon like veggie scraps or ‘brown’ materials like straw or leaves, wood chips.  We used a lot of raw kitchen scraps from a pile that was 1/2 way done, eggshells too.  We used granite sand and some existing dirt from the site.

2. Build it up, baby- layer cake.  Of all the different ingredients- each layer about 2-4 in thick.  Keep the pile moist as you go- add water if you must (non-chlorinated!).  When the pile is 1/2 way done, add the compost preps, except only 1/2 of the Valerian mixture (#507) goes now, the only one not in granule ‘dirt-like’ form.  It’s a liquid that stirred in water.  We are imbuing the energy of prep 507 into the water by stirring in a special manner for 10 minutes.  Stirring is a wonderful experience.

3. The Biodynamic Compost Preps.  JPI has a brief description of each prep that goes into the pile #502-507.   As far as I know, the numbers dont mean anything but the herbal preparations are Very meaningful, very potent in what could be considered homeopathic doses.  Josephine Porter Institute is promoting widespread use of Biodynamics without compromising it’s quality, (says me).  They are an excellent resource for info as well as preps, if you dont make your own- and you probably won’t in the beginning unless you are a larger-scale, established farm.  I buy mine from Bio-Ag Resources in Kentucky.

4. When 1/2 the pile is built up and the preps are in, layer the rest of the pile.  Jim likes the manure to be nearest to the center, so the astrality which tends to scatter is contained within the pile.  He also likes the manure near the preps.  We layer backwards,  in the opposite direction we built the first 1/2.  Begin with leaves, then granite sand, wood ash, lettuce plants, hay/manure- preps- hay/manure- partially decomposed veggies, dirt, granite sand, ash, leaves.   You get the idea.  Its not an exact science, more of a feel you get for it. And dont forget to add your water if the pile is feeling dry.

5. Finish with a fine spray of the rest of the activated (stirred) 507 and a nice ‘skin’ as Jim likes to say.  A layer of leaves or carbon is good.

I’m trying to demonstrate to my sister- of a very different life path- the value of growing your own food.  Money talks, so I take that route.  I mention the luxurious, material things Im affording in my life that I enjoy…. planning an upcoming trip to Hawaii, a bunch of Jurlique biodynamic facial products, a new car (a guilty, necessary- yes- pleasure) our lovely home……  But how can you afford that?  I know how much you make as a small business owner (married to a self-employed yoga teacher) and that does not compute.  Todd and I did some basic figuring and we think we average saving several hundred dollars a month via our edible landscape- and that does not include double that amount of produce we give to friends.  That is significant to us.  Rosalind Creasy’s numbers figure $1000 a year can be saved from 100sf of vegetable garden.  So our 1/3 acre filling fast with veggies, fruits and medicine is on its way to matching my salary…. well, almost.  The point is:

Your edible landscape saves you money and increases your quality of life, manyfold.  Period.

I didnt yet address quality of life.  I cant.  Not while typing.  Come over!  We can walk in the garden together and let’s harvest a variety of tomato or lettuce you’ve never tasted (not available at any store), or blackberries right off the vine.   We can make an entire meal from produce we harvested that day!  How about roasted rosemary-garlic potatoes topped with goat cheese (Todd’s goat co-op) and paprika (yep- we make that too), and fried eggs paired with beet-carrot sauerkraut we made.  Feeling hungry?  There’s absolutely nothing that compares to the joyous mouth-watering satisfaction of eating a meal you grew and prepared yourself- and nothing that can describe it except the experience……  It fosters a sense of HOME:  well-being and nourishment; that warm home-fire is brewing.  It fosters love.  And gratitude in a big way.  And the material things that bring pleasure that dont cost much money- making my own rosewater to splash on my face when it’s hot.  I mentioned the food. (It’s worth a mention again.)  Gorgeous flowers that bring life to my bedside stand, from the garden.  Fragrances- lemon balm, lavender, mint, lemon balm!  Nasturtium, Creeping charlie (i know, it’s a “weed”)…… thyme!  Thyme flowers are in bloom now- fragrance and beauty!   I could go on…… but its really only the experience a garden can provide:  a simplicity that breeds real contentment and allows for a few luxuries to keep us a little lighter perhaps, a little less serious and more enjoyable…..