One thing leads to another, which leads to potatoes
Written by Anne Hawley on April 13, 2008 – 10:07 pm -Back in January when inspiration from a little feng shui book by Karen Kingston prompted me to clear out my house a bit, I had an idea that there might be some outcomes beyond household tidiness.
What I absolutely didn’t foresee was that one of them would be me growing my own potatoes.
Clearing the stash of paper bags on top of my fridge led to my taking reusable bags to the store
- which led to quickly running out of bags for garbage and recyling
- which led to changing my garbage and recycling system
- which led to some food-waste disposal problems that I still haven’t quite solved.
Conquering half of the clutter-hoards in my house let me see the clutter in my financal affairs
- which led to a refinance of my mortgage
- which led to a stricter budget
- which led to taking my lunch to work every day
- which led to more cooking at home
- which led to even more food-waste disposal problems that I still haven’t quite solved
Clearing up my finances cleared my mind enough to look at the clutter in my diet
- which led to a complete analysis of what I eat
- which led to a significant reduction in calories
- which led to some great reading about food and politics
- which led to Politicook!
- which led to an article about composting
- which led to me deciding to compost my kitchen waste.
And reading about composting drew my eye to the next article, about growing potatoes in containers
- which led to me buying some organic seed Yukon Gold potatoes and a container today.
Rolled-up container thing, potting soil, seed potatoes ready to go.
It ain’t gorgeous, but There Will Be Spuds.
Waiting for eyes to sprout.
Posted in Diaries, Gardening, Urban Gardening |
8 Comments
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Hi Anne, one thing leads to another, it seems.
I take my lunch to work too. We’re about to dig a little patch on the field next to our house for potatoes. I haven’t been this excited in ages!
I’ve only just learned that 2008 is the International Year of the Potato.
I understand from friends in the UK that the American view of potatoes is depressingly narrow, whereas across the Atlantic, people have a choice of a vast and nuanced range of potato varieties, both waxy and floury.
What kind(s) will you be planting?
I’m not sure as yet. Ms AAF has more of an idea that I do. I’d like the kind that would make a perfect baking potato, with thick skin.
I started on this whole decluttering/downsizing venture almost immediately after I bailed on my PhD. I’d always been fairly temperate, at least in comparison to many people, but a funding glitch in 1998-1999 quite nearly sent me to the poor house, and I ended up having garage sales every weekend to pay the bills til it got straightened out.
But I really started in on it in 2002 when I officially left grad school, and I can testify it’s a much more satisfying and productive way to live your life. Even better, it never gets boring. There is so much to learn and it is so completely contradictory to The American Way that it really does effect a total change of heart and mind — and body.
I see a frugal series in our future … hm.
In any case, glad I checked in before I left for work this morning!
Frugality will become the by word, in the not too distant future. We the bloggers have a headstart, I hope people will come to their senses, consume less and conserve more.
I started from the phrase “Imagine an empty room” and very quickly discovered what a subversive, revolutionary idea that is. “Clear a shelf, change the world” is another phrase I’ve been using when talking to friends about decluttering.
On the continuum of voluntary decluttering, your story falls a little closer to the “house burned down, lost everything” end than to the “I decided to clean out my wardrobe” end, doesn’t it?
Yet still, it was voluntary, and that’s remarkable. You made a choice that many (most, nearly all) other people wouldn’t make in order to stay solvent. It sounds like you had a period of radical change in your life, and that you embraced it.
Love the frugal series idea! I’d love to see something focused not just on pinching pennies, but on simplification. Somewhere, in some language, there’s a word that means the amazing personal expansion that takes place when we contract our physical footprint in the world. And if there isn’t, there should be.
It’s definitely a process. I never realized how “American” my head is until I started this. And it may be years later, but it’s ongoing. Believe me.
It’s forced me to face that our thoughts and enculturation really *do* shape our world(s) because, even now, I’m like a junk magnet. I try, I try, I try and I have progressed amazingly far - but yoikes!
I’ll start ruminating on a simplicity-decluttering series. BTW, have you seen the clutter survivors website? Now there’s some motivation! But it also points directly to how deep a sickness it really is. Correlates nicely (in my mind, at least) with our national epidemic of obesity and similar.
One step at a time …
Eat more chocolate! Hee hee, saying that cause I’m about to post a chocolate treat!