I am in the midst of another Grandma Challenge that I have not had a chance to write about until now.  I am challenging myself to learn how to “put up” food for the winter.  This is one of those “big” challenges I mentioned in my post about slowing down. 

Although I am a fan of healthy, unprocessed food you would not have found me in my kitchen “putting up” food last summer.  Putting up food is something my grandparents used to do.  Putting up food is something my mother used to do.  I never thought I would find myself doing it with any seriousness.  

I need to learn to never say never. 

When I asked my grandparents about canning, they pretty much unanimously replied, “We canned everything!”  

I know this to be true because I can recall the homemade canned goods in my Grandma and Grandpa Pickies’ root cellar.  The cellar doubled as a tornado shelter.  I have a handful of vivid memories that involve running to the cellar for protection from potentially inclement weather.  After a few minutes of excited conversation and speculation about the possiblity of a tornado headed our way, there was nothing much left to do but count the rows and rows of canned food. 

Most of the food my grandparents’ canned or stored came from their own gardens or other local sources.  Interestingly, my Grandpa Pickies told me when he was a child his family did not put up much food by way of canning because their “oil stove” did not get hot enough to bring water to the right temperature for food preservation.  Of course I had to ask, “Well, then what did you eat during the winter months?”  He recalled lots of potatoes, oatmeal, milk and some eggs.  I am sure he ate other things but his point was that eating became very simple during the winter months. 

This Grandma Challenge is definitely going to challenge me but not in the way you may expect.

I am totally sold on the idea of eating more seasonally.  In fact, I am pretty sure it is better for me and better for the environment for a number of reasons that I hope to write about in the future.  However, as you may have noticed from my last post, I am learning that eating seasonally requires some work.  Okay, I am learning that it requires a lot of work.  I feel myself balking against it and embracing it at the same time.

I like to think of myself as a modern woman and this is where I balk.  I feel hesitant to admit this but for a long time I have measured my level of modernity by my level of domestic responsibilities.  It is a crude but simple thought process that got lodged in my subconscious somewhere along the way - fewer domestic responsibilities equals a more modern woman.  And to be even more vulnerable, I will admit I have seen the day I could get back to work outside of my home as the day of my liberation.  Needless to say, I haven’t been looking for ways to increase my level of domestic responsibilities.

Eating seasonally scares me because I feel my attitude shifting.  I am beginning to connect to the fabric of my home in a whole new way.  I am beginning to understand that what I bring into and allow to flow out of my home has tremendous implications both locally and globally.  My friend Megan, who is currently living in Nigeria, recently wrote the following comment in response to my post, The Sacredness of Sushi:

“I am really digging Pepsi Lite out here. The problem enters the picture due to the fact that Pepsi Lite is only produced in a plastic bottle. The “rubbish” existing as far as the eye can see in Nigeria is heart-wrenching. They have not developed any sort of recycling system yet so the plastic bottles, containers, and bags litter creation everywhere. Good-bye Pepsi Lite, hello glass Coca Cola if I really need a “mineral,” as we call it here.”

I live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.  I think a great deal of the garbage that is floating around the world is because of my disposable lifestyle being exported to places like Nigeria.  Like Megan said, Nigeria has not yet developed a system whereby they can manage the impacts of disposable products like we can in America.  I am not so sure we actually manage it all that well either.  Up to this point in my life, I have just tossed anything and everything in the trash and been grateful that it somehow magically disappears with the weekly trash pickup.

Suddenly, I want nothing more than to spend a day learning how to “put up” my own food because the more I get my hands on my food, the more I feel differently about my disposable lifestyle. 

I want to encourage the exportation of a culture of sustainability.  I want to support the export of products and systems that genuinely improve the lives of others, not clog their landscapes with pollution.  My friend Megan’s Nigerian neighbors can probably teach me a thing or two about sustainability.  I want to learn from them before their culture is completely overrun by my disposable lifestyle. 

This project is forcing me to examine a lot of my core values.  I am beginning to understand how my everyday, ordinary life fits into a bigger picture.  I know I can continue to have my career goals, but I need to rethink where they fit in the context of my commitment to issues of sustainability and simplicity.  I feel privileged to be on this journey.

What do you think?  Did your grandparents eat seasonally?  Do you want to eat seasonally?  Does the work of it intimidate you?  Do you think it would make your time and choices look different?  Does it make you feel overwhelmed?

I have been meaning to write about my reasons for wanting to learn to live more sustainably and simply.  I have not done it because my reasons seem to keep shifting and changing as I learn new things.  However, one reason I know I want to learn to live this way is I think it is better for me.  This is important because the changes I am making are more likely to stick if they benefit me as well the environment, my local community and the global community.  This reality makes me feel selfish but I think it is human nature (or maybe it is just my nature).  Either way, I thought it would be helpful to write out a list of the benefits I am experiencing as I learn to eat more seasonally and “put up” food like my grandparents used to do.

• The other day I shared a homemade zucchini quiche with my neighbor and she brought me a bouquet of beautiful flowers from her own garden.
• I traded a loaf of homemade zucchini bread for a loaf of homemade banana bread with another neighbor.
• I have spent a lot of extra time with a dear friend I have known since childhood as she teaches me everything she knows about canning and preserving food
• I love eating homemade strawberry jam!
• I am having fun traipsing around my Grandpa Pickies’ beautiful garden, getting my feet dirty in the rich, black soil and soaking up the sunshine.
• I am learning some great gardening tips from my Grandpa thanks to his years and years of gardening.
• My kids have spent time mucking around in the creek at my Grandpa’s house that I played in as a kid.
• It felt like Christmas in August when I brought home two, huge, grain-sized bags of corn and shared it with all of my neighbors.
• I am getting some great exercise picking my own fruits and vegetables.  It is not a cardiovascular workout but I am doing a lot of heavy lifting, bending, sweating and moving.
• I know where my food comes from and how it has been cultivated when I pick it off the bush or vine myself.
• I have a growing appreciation for each and every bite of my food - especially when I eat something from my own little garden.
• I am saving money by buying large amounts of seasonal vegetables and putting them away for winter eating.
• I think homemade pesto, made with basil straight from the garden, is like eating a little piece of heaven.
• We are trying lots of new vegetables such as patty pan squash, kohlrabi and carrots the color of purple, red and yellow.
• I am getting to know local farmers.  The other day a farmer, named Jerry, saved a whole flat of strawberries for me at the Farmer’s Market.
• I can’t wait to eat green beans, corn, basil, blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes and zucchini in the winter.
• Last but not least, I think I have stumbled across a great way to experience a non-traditional form of meditation. 

The following video captures four minutes of six hours I recently spent ”putting up” green beans, blueberries, strawberries and basil.  Warning: Turn the sound down on your computer.  I am an amateur videographer and I did not realize the fan I had running would sound so loud in the video!

For most of the evening I heard nothing but the sound of water boiling on the stove, the plink, plink of my knife hitting the edge of the bowl as I cut the stem off each green bean and my fan (softly) humming as it cooled my hot kitchen.  The thoughts racing around in my head eventually slowed and I found myself lost in the task of washing, prepping and freezing.  Green Bean Meditation.  After a long, hard week, I usually just want a few minutes of peace and quiet.  I think I have discovered one way to get more of it as I learn to “put up” my own food.

As part of my two week break from blogging, I spent three days at a monastery called, St. Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan.  There is almost no quieter place on earth than spending time in the company of monks.

It was just what I needed.

From the moment I arrived until the minute I left, I found myself pondering one thing - the fact that my life has grown too noisy (again).  I knew very little about the blogging world prior to starting my own and while this has been a deeply satisfying journey, it does not fit well into the other parts of my life.

And so it is with a true sense of sadness that I have decided to close down My Grandma Was Green. 

I have struggled with this decision because on the surface it seems my reason is as simple as my life has grown too busy and full.  And in the American culture where a full schedule is praised, personal busyness hardly seems a reason to step away from something.  However, I have discovered that busyness can be and often has been a source of disconnectedness and pain in my life.  Consequently, busyness hardly lends itself to creating a more sustainable and simple lifestyle.

I never took time to define the word sustainability while writing my blog but I think I have started to form a working definition for my own life.  I believe living sustainably means taking only that which I need to live a meaningful, generous and connected life. 

In order to do this I need to be diligent in learning how to distinguish between wants and needs - no small feat in a culture that is saturated with advertising aimed at turning every single thing into a need!  I realize my definition is somewhat ambiguous because the words meaningful, generous and connected can be defined in a variety of ways.  However, when I view sustainability in this context, it puts me on a path of wanting to take less and give more.  It breaks down the walls of my everyday, ordinary life and forces me to consider the well-being of others in each decision I make.

I seem to have a passion for “s” words such as simplicity and slowness.  I am now committed to moving forward in my journey with another “s” word to pursue - sustainability.  Each of these words is connected in so many ways but the tie that binds them together for me is relationships.  I believe I can pursue deeper and more meaningful relationships with self, God, my family, friends, neighbors, community and the world if I commit myself to simplicity, slowness and also sustainability. 

Therefore, I am going to persist with the changes I have made and I will continue to make more changes in the future.  Only now I will have to record my journey in the old-fashioned way - in the pages of my journal, through conversations with friends and family and in the quiet moments of my days.

I am not sure which part of this short journey has been the most important - recommitting myself to a slower pace, my growing awareness of important changes I need to make toward a more sustainable lifestyle, or reconnecting with my grandparents and my own history.  I guess each one is important in its own way.

If you are interested in learning from and connecting to your grandparents or any older person who is significant to you and/or learning about sustainability by looking to the past, I would encourage you to make use of the extensive questionnaire developed by Virginia Allee called, A Family History Questionnaire.  It proved to be an invaluable resource in asking my grandparents to share their story.  I trust you will find the same.

Thank you for all of your support in this endeavor.  I have learned a lot and will continue to be inspired by the stories I have read and by those individuals who are making great changes through the blogging world.

Goodbye for now,
April