Some Rants :D

This summer I made lots of canning: tomato sauce, chutneys, jellies, jams and pickles, so I'm done for winter

Monday was a sumptuous Autumn’s day; I took my bike and a huge wicker basket and went to the nearby forest to forage for nuts. After few days of constant rain, the sun shone through the leaves and branches, and a pair of doves, perched in an old dead oak tree, cooed beautifully. I hunted around for nuts and rewarded I was. I filled my basket with huge walnuts, some still in their green shells and complemented myself for getting first before the squirrels. I then spread my mat under a tree, opened my coffee flask and filled my cup with a hot coffee. I also cracked some nuts and ate them; they were the most flavourful and tasty nuts I’ve ever had. I lay down on my mat and looked into the blue sky through the leaves and contemplated on my life when I was running around like a headless chicken in the name of achievements, career and the rest.

One of the melons I grew this summer in my little farm

It shocks me when I see people going on this trend or that in the name of this or that, like becoming a vegetarian or whatever in the name of animal rights or preserving the planet. People need not to stop eating this or that to live a conscious and ethical and green living; all they need is to eat local, seasonal and organic produce from local growers and producers because what is the point of eating an organic tomato flown all the way from south Africa! Also, let us not forget that when we stop eating certain types of food, like meat, we need to make up for the loss of minerals and vitamins by taking supplements. Have anyone wondered about how much waste these supplements-making factories generate! The waste of packaging and transporting is beyond belief, as for the exploitation of lands and forests by most of these manufacturing companies is beyond words. Despicable is the word I can think of right now. As for these giant supermarkets, such as Whole Foods, which provide all the fancy organic and super expensive foods it is a long sad story. They are corrupt and they only care about their profit; they are exploiting farmers in poor countries and taking part in deforestation of forests in Indonesia and South America. I see lots of “these weird people who are on a certain diets” smitten by Whole Foods and et al and I feel so disgusted at their hypocritical behaviour: Do not they know that Whole Foods have signed a contract with Monsanto! That they are happily in bed together. (If you have no clue who/what Monsanto is, here is a blurb: Monsanto is a truly evil company that is destroying the food chain and ruining indigenous farmers. They've even bankrupted family farms by claiming patents on pollen, when their pollen infects a local farm. Pollen? Yes, I'm not kidding. No one can afford to fight them properly in courts. They also manufacture Round-Up, a weed killer that causes cancer and birth defects. There is so much bad going on with this company, and they're causing hundreds of thousands of deaths. They are even helping the deforestation efforts in the Rainforest.) If this is still not enough for your curious self, then just google it and please do not forget, while you are still at it, to watch Food Inc, the film) What I want to say is that one doesn’t have to implement drastic changes, like mine, to live a green and ethical and sane life; just eat local, seasonal and as organic as possible produce from local producers, that is all ( and of course recycling is so important too). You would help these small farms and businesses and the same time, you will be feeding yourself and family healthy food. How cool is that! Anyway, more need to be said about this but not now.