They may be the subject of many a horror film, but I love me an abandoned house. Put one in the middle of the Berkshires, add a barn and a neglected orchard planted in days of old, and you’ve got the perfect turf for late morning exploration and fruit foraging. Clover and I had an [...]
Archive for the ‘Community-Building’ Category
Peering into the Past and Zucchini Bread Takes a Baklava Cue
Posted in Community-Building, Cooking, tagged Amherst, baklava, Berkshares, Berkshires, Boston, chocolate zucchini bread, concord grapes, New Economics Institute, Northampton, orchards, urban exploration on August 24, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Summer at the Dacha and Earthship Love
Posted in Community-Building, Cooking, tagged Albany Free School, Dacha, DIY, Earthships, farmer's markets, Free Skool, homemade wine, intentional communities, Ithaca, Mexican pizza, natural building, organic gardening, permaculture, polenta on August 15, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I remembered today how very much I want to live in an Earthship. If you’ve never heard of these amazing experiments in eco-happy building, check out www.earthship.com, and prepare to be awed by how beautiful packed earth, tires and old wine bottles can really be… I’m still coming to you from Ithaca, New York, and [...]
Surfing Couches and Goat Cheese Poutine
Posted in Community-Building, Cooking on July 31, 2010 | 3 Comments »
A recent host stated that for the thrifty man or woman, couch-surfing is the newest incarnation of the bed and breakfast. I highly recommend any travelers, curious souls and fellow nomads check out the website – we’re talking over a million users and locations on almost every continent. Sometimes, you literally stay on someone’s couch, [...]
Tempermental Oxen, Burger King Baths and a Stone Fruit Galette
Posted in Community-Building, Cooking on July 20, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I’m pretty classy these days. Last night, I slept in a car behind a Burger King, and that lovely haven of frankenfood provided me with a hippie-style bath (wet washcloth, anyone?) and wash-up session this morning. Clover partook in breakfast and thus threw a few pennies to the evil empire, so when one of the [...]
Happy Kitchens and Bikes Not Bombs – Boston!
Posted in Community-Building, Cooking on July 8, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Hey there from Boston. After a quick trip to pick up our “touring” vehicle on Cape Cod, we arrived in Boston Tuesday afternoon, just in time to experience the continuing heat monster currently terrorizing the northeast. Dripping sweat, how I love thee and your toxin-removing abilities; I’m trying to find the positive points to these [...]
DIY Kombucha and the Vegan Pastry Wedding of Chocolate and Strawberry
Posted in Community-Building, Cooking on May 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A few years back, I read The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved by Sandor Katz. Much like Fast Food Nation, Diet for a Dead Planet and the documentary Food, Inc., the book reinforces the idea that we can affect positive changes on our communities and culture simply be changing-or at least reconsidering – our eating [...]
Gas Light On
Posted in Community-Building, Uncategorized on April 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Have you heard this one? Five environmental activists pull into an Exxon Mobile station. They know each other from various rallies and meetings, protests and potlucks. Between two cars, they sport twenty seven bumper stickers that Edward Abbey would have stamped with approval. Meeting on the outskirts of a national forest near the Tennessee border [...]
Operation Canada Part Deux: Fail
Posted in Commentary, Community-Building, tagged activism, blogging, border crossing, buying bulk, Canada, cathedrals, chamomile tea, Coop Touskie, cooperatives, family, freelance writing, homeland security, Ithaca, kefir, lemon bars, less packaging, Mont-Royal, Montreal, New York, organic markets, passports, real jobs, sustainability, Toronto on August 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The setting: the Canadian border, with dusk fast approaching. As the sun settles into a purple haze over the lake, two Americans attempt to cross back into Canada, having left to fill their tank with the cheap gas they are accustomed to. They are asked what they do for a living, where they live, and [...]
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