Growing Your Own Food as Activism, Pineapple Fried Rice, and Moon Gardening

See the film ‘Food Chains’ and check out the Campaign for Fair Food online at ciw-online.org for practical information and ideas for activism

An epic weekend. On Saturday, my husband and I put in the entire vegetable garden, and built an irrigation system, all by the appropriate moon phase (approaching new moon). Planted now are heirloom tomatoes (Russian Black and Cherokee Purple), plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, watermelon, cucumber, squash, bush beans, orange peppers, green peppers, potatoes, Thai hot pepper, more greens, and new parsleys. We lightly pruned the peach and apple trees. I planted one beefsteak tomato and two Roma tomatoes right outside the kitchen window. It all begins now.

We planted the day after the full moon, which is the right time to put young food plants into the ground. Now, with gravitational forces pushing down into the Earth, young root systems will burrow into the soil and get themselves secured. The weather looks like it will cooperate. It’s going to rise into the 80s this week, and rain will be intermittent. The hot sun will help the seedlings get a good start. The rain will cool them.

I also created an amazing recipe for pineapple fried rice. Using lots of fresh, sweet pineapple cut into chunks, I blended cooked brown rice and very lightly sautéed (in toasted sesame oil) onions and carrots (keep them crunchy), garlic, and our garden basil, parsley, and arugula. The rice is creamy, the veggies are crunchy, the garlic and toasted sesame seed oil are aromatic, the arugula is spicy, and the pineapple is sweet. This is a vegan dish that could convert any diehard carnivore.

Here’s my homemade pineapple fried rice. There’s a little bit left. We pretty much hogged it.

We’re rooting some bunches of fresh spearmint that a friend pulled from his garden and gave us. We have a wood line next to our house, where the rooted mint will go. There’s no such thing as too much mint in summer, but I keep it away from the food garden. Mint spreads its rhizomes and takes over any garden plot. At the wood line, it can do whatever it pleases. Fresh mint sun tea? Yes, please!

We also took our little boat out to the beach, and it was lots of fun. But we’re both pretty badly sunburned today. I’m not complaining.

We also watched a very good documentary called Food Chains, which I urge you to see. The film exposes the poverty and exploitation of migrant farm workers in the U.S.; a system of human rights violations that treats farm workers as if they were not human beings, where woman are sexually harassed and assaulted, and where families with both parents working full time live below the poverty level.

Why should you see this film? We in this country are the best fed people in the world, and we have no idea that we’re connected to this system whenever we buy fresh fruits and vegetables at the market.

Growing our own food is activism. By reducing our dependency on market fruits and vegetables, my husband and I are disconnecting from the system, at least for 6 months of the year. But come winter, we will buy some of our produce at the market. The Campaign for Fair Food has made some strides for farm workers, but much more is needed. Check out the Campaign for Fair Food online at ciw-online.org for practical information and ideas for activism.

Live in peace.